Kirby designs Julius Caesar

The Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center recently posted The King's designs from a theater production of Julius Caesar.

In 1969, Sheldon Feldner contacted Marvel Comics, asking if one of Marvel's artists would be interested in designing costumes for a production of William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar by the University Theatre Company at Santa Cruz at the newly-built Cowell College of the University of California at Santa Cruz.

As luck would have it, the Kirby family had recently moved to California, and Stan Lee recommended that Feldner contact Jack Kirby.

The article showcases several examples of Kirby's designs plus more history of the Cowell College play, color photos of the actors in Kirby-designed costumes, and even a .pdf of a piece from a Santa Cruz area newspaper Sunday supplement.

All in all a very interesting overview of Kirby history that I was previously unaware.

(Thanks to Scott Edelman)

New Gods reviewed in NYT

It's too bad Kirby didn't live long enough to see his epic Fourth World reviewed in The New York Times.

It’s hard to know what a teenager would make of this. But Kirby was writing just as much for himself. He was 53 when he undertook the Fourth World, and a veteran of World War II. But as Evanier points out, and as is evident throughout this book, Kirby was deeply inspired by the young generation that was renouncing war around him. His understanding of the youth movement was perhaps idiosyncratic (in Kirby’s world, the “Hairies” built their perfect society in a giant missile carrier they called “The Mountain of Judgment”). But they too were forging a new world; and the pleasure he clearly took in their efforts seems to have balanced the bouts of Orion-like rage. In one moment, Highfather of New Genesis turns to one of the young boys in his care. “Esak,” he asks, “what is it that makes the very young — so very wise?”

“Tee hee!!” Esak replies. “It’s our defense, Highfather — against the very old!!”

This is probably the only passage in the English language containing the words “tee hee” that has actually moved me.

Continued...

Shameless Plug

My review of Kirby: King of Comics appears in today's Austin Chronicle.

From the age of 17 to his death in 1994, at the age of 76, artist Jack Kirby devoted his life to creating an influential pop-culture iconography for the 20th century. His many accomplishments included creating or co-creating Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Hulk, and the romance comic. His concepts fuel the backgrounds for both the Marvel and DC comic-book universes. Kirby's works permeate nearly every fantastical creation of the last 40 years, from prose novels to the biggest Hollywood blockbuster.

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Kirby: King of Comics

I'd been looking forward to Kirby: King of Comics since I first heard about it a couple of months ago. I saw it over at Bookstop the other day. Most of the copies were in shrinkwrap but one was open. I don't think I'll be buying this, after all. The first sign of trouble was that it was oversized, at $40 perfect for a coffee table book. And from my thumb through standing in the aisle, that's in large part what it is, Kirby's art and the book design overshadowing Evanier's writing. I guess my disappointment stems not so much from what Kirby: King of Comics is as from the fact that it's not what I'd hoped and thought it would be: a mainstream but scholarly biography of Kirby's life. 

He's been dead over ten years and it's certainly time for such a dominant figure of comics and pop culture to get the biography he deserves, more in line with David Michaelis' Schulz and Peanuts from last year. Or Gabler's Walt Disney. Just think about what a Kirby biographer would get to play with, even in pop culture beyond comics:  the history of American animation from Kirby working as an inbetweener at the Fleisher Studios on Popeye cartoons in the 30s to his design work for television animation in the 70s. And in fine art, his work was "appropriated" by Roy Lichtenstein in the 1960s. The man grew up in a world that no longer exists, New York's Lower East Side, pretty much a real Bowery Boy, and he fought in World War II. Not to mention that his life pretty much is the history of the American comic book industry. To me, he screams out for a writer (don't laugh) capable of the depth Robert Caro has shown in his three volume LBJ biography. Funny enough, I still think Mark Evanier--who has always shown such an impressive grasp of comics history in his blogging and other writing---might be the person to tell such a big story; he worked with Kirby, and he himself has spent years in the industry, but I just don't think he had the space to do it here. 

Of course with all that said, I was just thumbing through it standing in the aisle so maybe I'm dead wrong. 

Jack Kirby in New York Times

Editorial Observer

Jack Kirby, a Comic Book Genius, Is Finally Remembered

By BRENT STAPLES

Published: August 26, 2007

The fear of being forgotten after death is endemic in the creative arts. In the case of the iconic comic book artist Jack Kirby, it happened while he was still alive. By the 1960s, Mr. Kirby had already revolutionized the comic book business more than once. Working as principal artist and in-house genius for Marvel, he created a voice and an aesthetic unmatched by any other company.

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Ten years ago, I would not have imagined this type of editorial in any major newspaper, never mind one as prestigious and influential as the The New York Times. On that front, things have certainly changed for the better.

And a Kirby sidenote, be sure to check out the Jack Kirby Museum and especially the awesome online Kirby art gallery!