• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Question about Kirby at DC
0

99 posts in this topic

4 hours ago, Ken Aldred said:

Kirby's style was of its time

That's my point Ken. He was very much of his time, defining it in many ways even.

But that same art today? How many would dismiss it as puerile? Would it generate the same reverence?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, F For Fake said:

Same. We were just talking about this in another thread, but as much as I adore his 60's Marvel run, and Golden Age Caps, and even his romance books, there is something so off the wall about his 70's stuff. New Gods is the pinnacle, to me. It's pure, untethered imagination, and he was drawing with such power and confidence. Fully in his prime. The second-run of Marvel books, like Eternals, Devil Dino, 2001, Machine Man, etc may not have the weight of the DC stuff, or be as pioneering as the 60's stuff, but they're unquestionably jam-packed with crazy ideas and lots of vitality. His brain just never stopped, and his fingers, for the most part, managed to keep up with it, at least up through that run. The 80's stuff is admittedly not so hot, though I do have a fondness for it. But 70's Kirby is where it's at. It's bananas.

This. Very well put indeed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

That's my point Ken. He was very much of his time, defining it in many ways even.

But that same art today? How many would dismiss it as puerile? Would it generate the same reverence?

 

It's interesting, to me, his stuff is beautiful. It excited my eyes and my brain. But it took me a lot of time to get there.

I started reading comics in the post-Adams, post-Golden 1980's, when Art Adams was blowing up, just before the advent of Silvestri, McFarlane, Lee, etc. That is what comics looked like to me. Kirby's art was WEIRD. It was UGLY. I just didn't get it.

Years later, I was 19 or 20, working at a comic shop, and an older guy who worked there started showing me Kirby FF's, and one day it was like a switch flipped in my brain. I GOT IT. It all clicked. Now we're 25 or so years moved on, and he's one of my favorite creators in any media or all time. He's the godhead.

When I show Kirby to my non-fan friends, folks who don't read comics at all, most of them also just don't get it. They think it's "ugly", "blocky", "over-exaggerated". And I get that, because when I was a kid, that's where I was at. 

So, to give a long-winded answer to your question, I think he would be met with resistance, because we are so far removed from where he started, from so much of the graphic language that he actually created, that his work seems almost alien. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, F For Fake said:

It's interesting, to me, his stuff is beautiful. It excited my eyes and my brain. But it took me a lot of time to get there.

I started reading comics in the post-Adams, post-Golden 1980's, when Art Adams was blowing up, just before the advent of Silvestri, McFarlane, Lee, etc. That is what comics looked like to me. Kirby's art was WEIRD. It was UGLY. I just didn't get it.

Years later, I was 19 or 20, working at a comic shop, and an older guy who worked there started showing me Kirby FF's, and one day it was like a switch flipped in my brain. I GOT IT. It all clicked. Now we're 25 or so years moved on, and he's one of my favorite creators in any media or all time. He's the godhead.

When I show Kirby to my non-fan friends, folks who don't read comics at all, most of them also just don't get it. They think it's "ugly", "blocky", "over-exaggerated". And I get that, because when I was a kid, that's where I was at. 

So, to give a long-winded answer to your question, I think he would be met with resistance, because we are so far removed from where he started, from so much of the graphic language that he actually created, that his work seems almost alien. 

Thats what happened to me too-a switch flipped.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, kav said:

Thats what happened to me too-a switch flipped.

It was like having Kirby Krackle explode in my brain!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

If Kirby had never existed and, say, took over today's Thor title as a new up and coming artist, what do you think people would think? Genius or the new Liefeld?

Kirby's style has often been referred to as 'Bigfoot'.

Another reason that he would never be compared to Liefeld in this situation. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Ken Aldred said:

Kirby's style has often been referred to as 'Bigfoot'.

Another reason that he would never be compared to Liefeld in this situation. 

Bigfoot vs Nofoot

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just to be clear, I think prime Kirby is brilliant. Of it's age, and brilliant. In the same way that old comics are brilliant. Charming and brilliant. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My favorite Kirby has to be his work on Thor-just magnificent.  Stan did the scripting but he was the one coming up with characters like The Recorder, Tana Nile, Ego etc.  Not even vince colletta could destroy his work.  Coletta demolished curt swan but kirby was just too good to destroy effectively.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Chaykin Stevens said:

Kirby did 15 issues of Jimmy Olsen: #133-139 & 141-148.

Right my mistake I was counting the covers in cover browser and forgot they have missing issues.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, kav said:

Flippa Dippa???  WTH.  We're supposed to believe this guy always walks around in scuba outfil WITH FLIPPERS just in case there's an underwater emergency????

Flippa Dippa was said to be based on a character named Foxtrot, played by Cleavon Little in a 1967 off-Broadway play called Scuba Duba.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Chaykin Stevens said:

Flippa Dippa was said to be based on a character named Foxtrot, played by Cleavon Little in a 1967 off-Broadway play called Scuba Duba.

Dear Lord

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, kav said:

Thats what happened to me too-a switch flipped.

Don't mistake morning wood for artistic stimulation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, lizards2 said:

Don't mistake morning wood for artistic stimulation.

I cant think of a snappy comeback-

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/28/2019 at 12:11 AM, kav said:

When Kirby came to DC he said 'give me your lowest selling book' so they gave him Jimmy Olsen.

I don't think Jimmy Olsen was DC's lowest seller.  It says in American Comic Book Chronicles: the 70s that it had monthly sales of 333,000, and that Kirby took it because it was reportedly the only DC title that had no regular creative team.

link

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
0