Thursday, August 27, 2009

Later, Snap and Pop fired their booking agent

Jack Kirby Week
Kirby Krackle! AKA Kirby Dots, Kirby Crackle, and also MIND-BLOWING AWESOMEOSITY, DUDE!. Those gathered and dense black dots of sheer cosmic power that accompany Mister Fantastic revving up an interdimensional transport, or Darkseid's countless minions firing point blank into the heart of New Genesis's sun, or that time Ben Grimm had a triple-layer sandwich with chili peppers, jalapeno jack cheese, and spicy mustard.

Or, as I like to put it:
Out in the vast reaches of cold, silent space there were some big black dots. Not little tiny connect-the-dots, filled with a boring horse jumping over a hedge or a bunny chomping on a carrot, nor yet big round polka-dots covering the smelly overalls of a circus clown: these dots were Kirby Krackle, and that means power.


I could spend ten or twelve column miles discussing Kirby Krackle, but as Matt Murdock once opined, "Seeing is believing!"

Now, just because it has the word KRACKLE (or, to be more precise, KKRRAAACKLE!!, doesn't mean it's Kirby Krackle:

New Gods #7


Oh, but you'll know it when you see it:


New Gods #7


...and there ain't nothing subtle or quiet about it!:

Jack Kirby panels from New Gods #9


So, there you go. Kirby Krackle. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together. And it looks freakin' cool!

Jack Kirby splash page from FF Annual #5


Why not list, or post a link to, one of your favorite examples of Kirby Krackle in the comments? (Members of the rock band called Kirby Krackle are not eligible.)


1 comment:

Isaac said...

I dig the dots in my pal Ben Towle's Kirby-style cosmic ukulele, but that's not real and authentic Kirby Krackle.

Howsabout a little cosmic crazy from the pages of Devil Dinosaur?