24 Hours with Jack Kirby: Hour 9

A well-intentioned but somewhat-clueless interview ("nibble at the edges of the entertainment world"?!?) with Jack Kirby on Entertainment Tonight (October 28, 1982). But still, it's wonderful to see Kirby draw, and talk about his work. And dig Catherine Mann's Eighties hair!

24 Hours with Jack Kirby: Hour 8

"The Winter Soldier" (James "Bucky" Barnes) wanders the Manhattan of 1973 in Captain America v.5 #11 (November 2005), script by Ed Brubaker, pencils by Steve Epting, inks by Mike Perkins, colors by Frank G. D'Armata, letters by Randy Gentile

Say, who's that wanderin' around behind Bucky, huh?


It's Stan 'n' Jack!

24 Hours with Jack Kirby: Hour 7

An uncredited guest appearance by Jack Kirby as a police sketch artist in The Incredible Hulk episode "No Escape" (March 30, 1979)

(Say, it's only Hour 7...why not spend the rest of the day with Jack Kirby?)

24 Hours with Jack Kirby: Hour 6

"The Mighty Sore" (tee hee) meets his makers in a story from What The--?! #5 (July 1989), script by Peter B. Gillis, pencils by Whilce Portacio, inks by Al Milgrom, colors by Gregory Wright, letters by Joe Rosen

24 Hours with Jack Kirby: Hour 5

The Marvel Bullpen is amazed at Iron Man's rocket skates in Iron Man #85 (April 1976), co-plotted by Len Wein, co-plotted and scripted by Roger Slifer, breakdowns by Herb Trimpe, finishes, inks, and colors by Marie Severin, letters by Irving Watanabe

Say, who's this?:

24 Hours with Jack Kirby: Hour 4

Wearing hats #66 and 67 from The Five Thousand Hats of Jack Kirby, Jack (L) and Stan (R) are turned away by Nick Fury from the wedding of Reed Richards and Susan Storm, in Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Vince Colletta, letters by Artie Simek

24 Hours with Jack Kirby: Hour 3

Jacob Kurtzberg (aka Jack Kirby) meets Captain America in a page from Captain America: The Legend (September 1996), script by Mark Waid, pencils by Dan Jurgens, inks by Jerry Ordway, colors by John Kalisz, letters by Jim Novak
(Click picture to King-size)

24 Hours with Jack Kirby: Hour 2

Self-portrait by Jack Kirby from The New Gods (Deluxe Edition) #6 (November 1984)

24 Hours with Jack Kirby: Hour 1

Jack Kirby (R) and Stan Lee (L) in their first pictured appearance in the modern Marvel Universe, on the cover of Fantastic Four #10 (January 1963), art by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers
(Click image to see the whole cover)

Their appearance in the comic concerns Doctor Doom strongarming Stan 'n' Jack to betraying the FF:



(You can read all about it at your local library in this post about appearances by the Marvel Bullpen in Fantastic Four comics!)

Happy Birthday, Jack Kirby!

Join me in toasting The King of Comics on his ninety-second birthday! If you were still here with us, Jack, I'd bake you a cake.


Double-page spread from Mister Miracle #8 (June 1972), script and pencils by Jack Kirby, inks and letters by Mike Royer
(Click on any image to King-size!)

What am I sayin'? Of course you're still here...when every day I open a comic book and see your work, you'll never leave us.


Double-page spread from The New Gods (Deluxe Edition) #6 (November 1984), script and pencils by Jack Kirby, inks and letters by Mike Royer, colors by Anthony Tollin

All hail to the King! Happy Birthday, Jack!


Double-page pin-up spread from Fantastic Four Annual #5 (November 1967), script by Stan Lee (?), pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Sinnott

And, lest we forget:



'Nuff said.

Later, Snap and Pop fired their booking agent

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:



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



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



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



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.)

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 239: Jack Kirby Week, Day 5

Panel from Fantastic Four #6 (September 1962), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Dick Ayers

The Kirby Triple

Tonight, let's talk a little more specifically about Jack's art—to be precise, his composition. As a little stuffed bull who's tried his hoof at drawing his own (stick figure) comics, setting up a dynamic and vibrant comic book page is harder than I thought. You've got to keep the reader's eye flowing forward; you've got to draw the attention to the elements of art and word balloons in the correct order, you've got to pace the action in a superhero action comic so there's a roller-coaster thrill, especially if there's a mini-cliffhanger in the final panel of a page that makes you turn it so fast you might rip it. (Whoops, did it again!)

I wanna take a very brief and certainly uncomprehensive look at one of my favorites of comic book visual tricks that Kirby used. He didn't invent the thing, of course, but hey, it's Jack Kirby Week, so I'm gonna call it, at least for the purposes of this post

The Jack Kirby Triple!

No, that's not a super-duper cheeseburger or a three-scoop ice cream sundae. (Mmmmm, ice cream sundae!) It's what I call...well, let me start by showing you the usual format of a Jack Kirby comics page for much of his Silver Age career: a relatively simple two by three grid:



Nothing too visually challenging there in that six-panel page, now, is there? Years later, artists like Keith Giffin and Dave Gibbons would explain that's the way they became the Brady Bunch champion the nine-panel grid page, but for Kirby, a general six-panel page was basic, simple, and...dare we say...primal enough for most of his needs. Oh yes, sometimes he'd alter that layout with a single long panel as one layer of the three, or even expand an entire panel to take up two levels...



And then you might get a four-panel page, and, if you were good, one of those wonderful Kirby mid-comic splash pages. (If you were saintly, it might be a mind-blowing Jack Kirby photomontage!):



But if you behaved yourself and walked the dog and took out the trash and picked up your socks from under the bed, good ol' Unca Jack might give you a Kirby Triple: a single row of three panels that bring a cinematic air to your four-color comic book:

So! Let's look at some Kirby Triples, shall we? And let me kick off here just by saying I'm no great art critic or visual expert, and I can't give you specific historic detail or analyses of evolution of art style, influences and visual dynamism...

I just think Kirby triples are really cool.

Here's a simple but powerful Kirby Triple from the early Marvel Age of Incredible Hulk #3:


(By the way, you can click on all the Kirby Triples to blow 'em up real good on their Bully-Flickr page, so's you can examine 'em in all their big-Kirby glory. Who sez this isn't the Age of Mighty Bovine Visual Generosity?)

I like that early Marvel superhero example because it does something on the static, printed page that you usually need a moving picture to portray: specific and sequential action, movement in time without movement in space as our beleaguered pal Bruce B. Hulks out so early in his career it's still relatively new to him. Note how Kirby expands the crouching figure of Banner into the huge, hulking figure of the...um, of the Hulk in several ways: by making the character grow bigger and more muscular (green and more colorful, too), by making the figure stand up straighter in each subsequent panel, and by decreasing the amount of space given to each caption so the panel itself seems to grow. This last also draws the eye forward in a dynamic upwards and to-the-right arrow. Don't forget the last panel in violent, colorful yellow instead of placid sky-blue, which pops the Hulk's panel out from the others: aside from a probably coloring error in panel two where Banner's bare elbow appears yellow, this is the first time these two colors appear in the three-panel sequence. Pretty cool, huh?

Here's the reverse of that transformation from Hulk #4:


This Kirby Triple doesn't play as many visual tricks to move the transformation along as the first, but note that as Hulk changes to Banner, the background fades from red to orange in intensity. (That's almost probably Stan Goldberg at work here rather than Jack, but it's a nice effect, right?) The three panel succession showing us the passing of time demonstrates how the Hulk reverts gradually to Banner, especially with that spooky middle panel of the pink skin gradually overtaking the green.

I like this three-panel from the same issue a lot:


Mongu's dramatic entrance through an spaceship portal is stretched out in time as we not only see him emerging further in each successive panel, but the progression draws out his declaration. It allows the letters to be bigger and bolder and to give it that grand villainous pause between words that accompanies the arrival of a Marvel Age nogoodnik. Seriously, would it be half as dramatic if it were paced like this?



Or even this?



No. No, it would not. And that's why I'm not writing comic books.

This three-panel progression, also in Hulk #4, approximates a move camera bolted to the bottom of a spacecraft: the landing gear remains unmoving, but the background grows fast and dramatically as the craft zooms in for to land—note that you can "see" how fast the ship is moving if you realize the buildings in panel two are the same as those in panel one...just a lot closer.


By the mid-1960s in Fantastic Four, Jack was using what I call the Kirby Triple for a wider range of dramatic effect. Here's a nice progression from FF #38 that shows an unknown threat approaching the Baxter Building. Kirby keeps it mysterious by having our heroes not looking out the window or at a television screen, but at a radar display showing how fast, how big this UFO gets in such a short period of time.



And from the same issue, Jack Explains It All To Us™: the art of a complicated battle maneuver made crystal clear through a three-panel progression that puts the...oh dear...puts the spring back in Ben Grimm's step:


That last is actually a very nice alternative to the usual technique of having Reed or Ben narrate a complicated series of steps of how they're going to fight. Kirby shows and tells in action rather than words...all in three simple panels.

But here's my favorite way (in FF #39) that Kirby uses a three-panel layer. I like to call it...The Kirby Zoom!:


Picture a movie camera slowly pushing in on Doom during that monologue, tightening the camera on his metallic maw and filling the screen with Victor-Visage...now that's powerful! Kirby adds more blacks to the panels as Vic progresses from confused to threatening, and Stan Goldberg helps out by upping the ante with a lovely blood-red background (and yellow word balloon) in the final panel. Believe me, if this happened to you in real life, you'd jump back!

Here's another great Kirby Zoom that's also an issue cliffhanger (FF #41)...


Whoa mama! Straight up so close into the face of bad-brain-addled Ben Grimm that we can see up his nostrils! And it's not a very pretty sight! How can you tell this is Evil Ben Grimm? Simple...look how those baby blues have changed into fiery orange! That's a Thing on the edge, pal!

Here's the same cliffhanger effect applied to Uatu at the end of FF #49:


And I'm very fond of this Kirby Triple from the grand conclusion of the Galactus Trilogy, as Johnny returns from his hyper-galactic trip, for once bringing not one of those native girls he met on the beach but the Ultimate Nullifier:


Johnny's getting closer to us...not vice versa...in that sequence, at amazing speed and with unbelievable energy. Hey, check it out...Kirby Krackle! That's how you know it's powerful!

Let's skip ahead now to the 1970s: Kirby has moved on with equal dynamism to DC Comics, where he's building the foundations of his grand opera in four colors, the crazy likes of which will never be approximated again (sorry, Grant Morrison!): The Fourth World saga. By this point Kirby's built the art of a huge, big-ass splash page fulla action, energy, and weird alien technology to previously-unseen heights, so you get a lot of full pages like this (Forever People #6) boom-tubing out at you from the pages of DC Comics:


But Kirby's still using Kirby Triples to immediate and action-packed effect. Here, in Mister Miracle #1, now you see him, now you don't, as Oberon locks Scott Free in the outhouse and prepares to roast him alive with a flamethrower. In the words of Adam Savage: don't try this trick at home!


...and here's a Kirby Zoom from the same issue, with all the elements of zipping in close for all the Sly Stallone Over the Top 2099 mechanical glove arm-wrestlin' action:


Here in New Gods #10, a Kirby Triple shows how a Mother Box smoothes and erases those ugly wrinkles and lines, taking years off your immortal life! Maybe they oughta call it Mother Botox!


I think this one, from Mister Miracle #5, is the most beautiful of the Fourth World Kirby Triples: the transformation of Big Barda from heavy-metal bikinied housewife to whalin' warrior woman. It's a transformation worthy of Lynda Carter spinning around to become Wonder Woman, and you can see the sequence in your mind's eyes, filling in the blanks between the panels as her battle gear appears in place, girding (girdling?) Barda for the Big Fight.


Even by the mid-1980s, when Jack had gone back to Marvel and back to DC again to finish off his Fourth World saga in New Gods Deluxe #6 (and later, in The Hunger Dogs), he still hasn't forgotten the power of a nicely executed Kirby Triple:


Immediately before that, Jack's return to Marvel in the mid-1970s was often much more populated with bigger, larger panels in his work, often filled to the brim with dramatic close-ups of characters eyes: sort of the third panel of a Kirby Zoom without the buildup. Here's a typical example from Black Panther #5, one of several billion from Kirby during this period.


But as can be seen in this Falcon-a-howlin' sequence from Captain America #200, Jack hadn't abandoned the Kirby Triple or the Kirby Zoom. Put some heart into it, Sam!


So: in short, a quick and very incomplete tour of Kirby Triples, as seen through the awe-filled eyes of a little stuffed bull. Like I said, I don't claim to bring any particular expertise or even a point to this post other than to say "Whoa, cool!. But consider this: Marvel really missed out on a fantastic opportunity. They should have give Kirby free reign over one of their 1970s books with orders to go wild and turn it into the craziest, zaniest Marvel comic of the post-dead-Gwen Stacy era. The only caveat they oughta have given Jack Kirby: every page must have a Kirby Triple on it.

What, d'ya think, should they have titled that comic book? Why, can't you guess?

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 238: Jack Kirby Week, Day 4

Panel from Fantastic Four #50 (May 1966), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Sinnott, letters by Sam Rosen

Let's go shoppin' and buy some head toppin'...at The 5,000 Hats of Jack Kirby!

You're traveling through another dimension...a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A dimension where the eternal winds of time and space chill you to the bone...because on this uncanny journey, you've forgotten to bring your hat. But look...there's a shop up ahead! Next stop...

The 5,000 Hats of Jack Kirby!

Within this shop, you'll find all your haberdashery needs, whether you're headed to the Negative Zone or Apokolips, riding in your Whiz Wagon or in your flying bathtub. Or even traveling by mischievous frog statue! Yes, that's right, The 5,000 Hats of Jack Kirby has headgear for every man, woman, child and Skrull, all larger than life and at affordable prices. Ask about our "Granny Goodness Installment Plan"...five bucks down now, and fifty-five years in the Terror Orphanage. (So don't forget to mail in your monthly check, suckers!)

Why, at The 5,000 Hats of Jack Kirby, you can find any hat style for any hat occasion! Heading to a hat party? Yours will be the grandest of all! Check it out the main floor of 5KHoJK: there's everything from Grand Pooh-Bah Hyper-Horn Helmets (left) to your everyday modern and modest felt fedora (right, miniature monocled mobster not included):

777, 778

Here, Lob-Starr the Devourer and Little Tony Hypersoprano are modeling only two of the wide, wide range of the 5,000 Hats of Jack Kirby. Don't have your monocle in yourself? Click the pic to flick it bik...er, I mean big. Quick!

Also, for some reason, 5KHoJK has a stuffed alligator in a big fishbowl on the ceiling. Those wacky decorators!

Feel free to wander through the many rooms and floors of The 5,000 Hats of Jack Kirby: you'll find a head-topping for whatever you're shopping. (And that's a Good Hats Promise from the Good People at 5KHoJK!) Let's take a look at them now, shall we? (Otherwise the point of this post will be entirely wasted.)

# 2,915, 2,916

If you're the stoic, stalwart, 1950s type who smokes a pipe and drives around for a job, you may prefer our classic slouch fedoras in many shades ranging from grey to brown, with dark grey and light brown in between. Private investigators, cops, and tough guys swear by 'em, but they never swear at 'em!

#1,487

But hey, if you wanted a regular human hat, you'd just head down to Sears, wouldn't you? It's in their stock of the obscure and the unusual that The 5,000 Hats of Jack Kirby really excels. Here's a rare example of a Fourth World Fourth-Dimensional Brain-Bowler, which receives over 1,300 cable HD stations, allows you to see in 3D, and instantly colorizes old black-and-white motion pictures for you! Why, you needn't even look at Superman when you're talking to him—not when you're catching up on old episodes of The Rockford Files! In this episode: Jim's old war buddy is involved in a shady deal.

#453

Cultural clashes no longer need be a worry when you've got the right topper on your noggin! No longer embarrass yourself at the Japanese Embassy's reception for Akira Kurasowa, Takeshi Kaga and Puffy AmiYumi: now you can arrive in style not only in the new Oldsmobile Cutlass '88, but also in authentic and appropriate style with a samurai sombrero perched on your western head! And remember, that fish ain't cooked for a reason!

#3,329

Goin' to war? Sure, we all are! Nullify your noggin from knocks and...and... (flipping through my thesaurus) ...nodules with one of Jack's Mighty Morphin' War Helmets! It'll keep your bonnet cool and dry while all about you is big crushing destructo-wheels of death and despair. (Offer not valid in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Apokolips.)

#1,574

And sometimes you just need an understated, comfortable cap to lounge about the house in.

#1,291

Got an ugly mug? No problem! Just slip on one of Jack's "Handsome Helmets" to keep your bushy eyebrows and scowling look or derision and anger hidden from Francine, your blind date that your pal Lightray set you up with. Even in the most brightly lit Appleby's, she'll never realize your gaze holds the hatred of one thousand burning suns! And be sure to buy her an appetizer, ya cheapskate!

#16

And Jack's doesn't only stock hats for men, oh no no no no no. Nooooooo. (No.) Step into our ladies' department, where our trained and highly feminine staff will adorn with the latest Paris fashions—anything from an Easter bonnet to a hat for a Grand National day outing to a regal vibranium and adamantium full-face tiara suitable for your declaration of death upon the accursed but finally captured Black Panther, who will never again escape your clutches and within minutes will be suffering the torments of one thousand...guards, guards, seize him! SEIZE HIM!

#2,470, 2,471

Everybody hates secret Santa parties, right? Especially when you draw the names of Stella in the typing pool, or Ernie Knutley from accounts, or the Grand Vizier and his assistant, the Slightly-Less-Than-Grand-Vizier. Don't risk being thrown to the fire-toads again this year: get 'em some Fine Jack Hats with Vizierin' Visors! You'll probably get their thanks, and maybe only ten minutes in a cage with the Star-Gorilla!

#4,649

For your motoring enthusiasts, why not a retro '50s helmet with chrome and fins? Plus, it comes with a year's supply of Turtle Wax! It's the perfect chapeau for all Jeremy Clarkson fans, and indeed, for Jeremy Clarkson. And on that bombshell, let's move on to another hat!

#182, 183, 184, 185

Everybody knows Jack Kirby co-created the X-Men, so it's a natural that his unparalleled hat shop stocks all variety of toppers for our original children of the atom! Here's special X-Hat models, from left to right, Hank "The Beast" McCoy, Scott "Slim" "Cyclops On the Day He Forgot to Wear His Ruby Quartz Glasses, Without Which His Ultra-Destructive Optic Beams Are Uncontrollable and Surely Threaten Everything and Everyone Around Him" Summers, Jean "No, I Won't Blow Up This Planet, Why Are You Asking?" Grey, and, um...well, there's Wilford Brimley.

#2,507, 1,443, 1,962

Kicky French berets! Fashionable mummy head-wraps! A hat we like to call "The Frank Sinatra"! The 5,000 Hats of Jack Kirby has got 'em all, for everybody! (Except that bald guy. He is not allowed to have a hat. Jack's rules. I don't make 'em, I just enforce 'em.)

#1,119, 1,120

If you're lookin' for a hat with a Spartan sword on the top, or a skull-fitting cap with built-in eyebrows, why are you shopping anywhere else than Jack's?!?!?

#4,444, 4,445, 4,446, 4,447, 4,448

L-R: The Invisible Girl, Mr. Fantastic, The Thing, The Human Torch, and...I dunno, Willie Lumpkin aptly demonstrate Jack's fine creations for new costumes for the Fantastic Four. Excelsior, true believers!

#962

Yes, it's The 5,000 Hats of Jack Kirby, where our freidnly and knowledgeable staff will suggest and offer just the right hat for you...even if you have an oddly-shaped or granite head!





That's The 5,000 Hats of Jack Kirby, exit 22, behind the Home Depot in Exeter! Remember, every Jack's is owned and operated by Jack Kirby himself, who wants to bring you the finest hat your pieces of eight, Republic credits, cubits, galleons, sickles, and knuts, Zeni and Monopoly money can buy! If it ain't a good hat, it ain't worth Jack! And always remember our motto:

#5,001

5,001? Wow, that means...hey, the new shipments are in!