Loved hearing you gush about this awesome artist. You may think you won’t come close to creating an epic equal to his, but “once in their lifetime every artist feels the hand of god and creates something that comes alive” - Vincent Price, House of Wax. You’ve already created works that’ll inspire countless others! 🤘
Thank you!! I’m very proud of my work, but I don’t think it’s putting myself down too much to say the Jack Kirby, who created Captain America, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Thor, New Gods, Etc is perhaps on a different level. Haha
I find it interesting to contrast the modern trend of self employed artists, with comics that are a multiple person process not just in like the plot vs the art, but within the art process itself, and then the process of making those comics with renaissance artists. It used to be that master artists would take apprentices, and the apprentices would add the background detail, or the patters on something, or whatever busy work, after the master painter had done the main subject of whatever painting, to ease the workload on the master while getting personal hands on experience. They weren't a on person project, they were sort of assembly lined together, so that if one person had a varying art style from whatever was deemed standard, it would alter the overall impression of the piece from the first artists vision, as is the case with comics.
Though I love Kirby's compositions and large scenes, I can't stand his figure work. But I focused entirely on figure work in art school, and I'm real picky about that.
I have a MFA degree, and taught figure drawing at the university level, and likewise dedicated to drawing anatomically correct figures. I don't know how Kirby does it, but his figures work. His compositions are amazing for the time he had to put them together, and the creativity is unreal. No, he is no Michelangelo or even a Burne Hogarth, but Kirby is the Picasso of the comic book world and his street genius is undeniable.
Love Jack Kirby so much!! Can you talk about panels in comics? Jack Kirby has amazing spreads and I always love to talk about comics that really utilize panels for effect over time... build up to amazing spreads for a big impact.
JACK KIRBY IS called the KING OF COMICS for a very good reason, HE IS! To this day there is NO ONE and I do mean NO ONE that can draw RAW POWER the way Kirby could! He is still the ABSOLUTE MASTER when it comes to COMIC BOOK ART! He is also the reason why I became a cartoonist!
i once read this webcomic called aquapuunk, and there was this warr oriented race of like, sentient golem ish things? Their design was kindof reminiscent of J Kirby's robot drawings.
Loved this. I'm working on my first full-length graphic novel right now and your thoughts about reading comics slowly were mad inspiring. I frequently wonder if all the little background details I add and tiny bits of continuity only I would notice actually matter at all, but that's exactly what Kirby did, isn't it? He treated damn near every panel like it was an individual piece of art to be pored over, and his work is all the better for it. Making comics is hard, but every bit of effort is worth it. Thanks for reminding me of that!
This is all true, but also remember that Kirby was a writer and penciler. Other folks did the inking, coloring, lettering, and other stuff. So you might have a different algebra to run on your own production schedule. Kirby would really bring it on the spreads and spash pages, but he wouldn't over embellish everything. Make sure you are working sustainably in a healthy way! Cheers!!
Man the Eternals was so bad. It had such cool idea and a nice plot twist and it chose to muck it up right at the end on several ways. Love your art as always.
The two are so disconnected that I don’t really think it’s insulting. Haha! Luckily, they still have a ton of his work up on Marvel Unlimited and it’s easy to find in reprints, so we can get the real deal when we want to!!
