I was taking a break from an acrylic painting that I was working on for my Intro to art class, and I casually scrolled down my Facebook feed. Now, once and a while, I'll come across this photo that a fellow Facebook friend, and comics writer L Zane Pinnock posted. The Photo was a picture of Jack Kirby.
This very Photo right here.
As I stared at the photo, I couldn't help but write a little quip as I attempted to share the photo. But then, my marvel comic, mini historian senses started tingling and I had to write this long status about all of the contributors of Marvel Comics during their early stages to popularity before they were the household name that they have become. To the average, casual comics fan, or movie viewer, they might think that Stan Lee was the only creator of most of these Marvel characters, and that's understandable due to their lack of knowledge of the particular genre, or medium that they read, watch or play. As a kid, I was always receiving comics ( which aside from watching Dragon Ball Z), comics pushed me to draw. I was so fascinated by the expressive and uniquely stylized imagery that was showcased in a comic book. I mean my first Marvel Comic was the late 90's X-men arc " Powerless" and my first DC comics was Batman Adventures ( spin off from the 90's Bruce Timm/ Paul Dini/ Alan Burnett cartoon series) and Justice League of America. My first Graphic Novel was The Essential Wolverine Volume 3 ( which was written primarily by Larry Hama, illustrated by Marc Silvestri, Andy Kubert, Dave Hoover Mark Pacella, Dwayne Turner and Mark Texiera among a few others). Whenever I read a comic, especially the Wolverine Essentials book, I was always reading every section of the book. In terms of DC, I remember reading old back issues of Marv Wolfman and George Perez's run on New Teen Titans. Aside from the art, I remember it being distinct due to the character Jericho, who was a mute character using sign language. I gravitated towards that because at the time not only because I'm a C.O.D.A ( Child of deaf Adult), but because I never saw sign language or anything associated to deaf characters being portrayed in a superhero book before. In addition, I had a few late 90's early 2000's Wizard Magazine, that gave insight on comic book projects and comic book based tv shows and movies long before the internet (which was in its infancy) would cover. I distinctly remember owning the X-Men 2000's wolverine edition cover from Wizard.. any who... Whether it was the opening title, the rights section, the writer, illustrator/penciller, inker , letterer, etc, I was reading and memorizing each thing. I was studying the way these guys drew and applied it to my own art, which helped me get a good start at the age of 4-6 years old. Especially when I was excited for the first X-Men movie ( 2000) directed by Bryan Singer. I remember freaking out as a kid due to always watching the 90's X-men: the animated series that brought alot of classic story lines from various runs up until that point to life.
Now you're wondering, " Anthony? what does this have to do with this photo?" i'll try my best to keep this cohesively connected to the center of this blog. When I was in elementary school ( i believe in the third and 4th grade) I was 9-10 years old, I remember finding this book published by Dorling Kindersley Readers : Creating The X-Men How ComicBooks Come to Life. That was one of the first books I ever read where i found out about Jack Kirby and Chris Claremont. I was obviously a huge X-men and Wolverine fan when I was a kid ( which I still am). Later on I would learn more from Peter Sanderson's X-men: The Ultimate Guide " updated edition 2003". over time I would get my hands on How to Draw the Marvel Way and The Marvel Comics Vault ( 2006 edition) and DC Comics Vault ( 2008 edition). Over time I learned that Stan Lee wasn't the only one who made all the classic, modern mythological heroes. It made me really look into the guys who made these characters come to life in the same fashion that we know of today. This impacted me because it showed me that at that time of the 30's, 40's, 50's 60's and 70's, there was these bunch of guys who were breaking the mold and making stuff that revolutionized storytelling, the arts and science in a way that hadn't been fully appreciated until decades later.
In a age with all of these new found fan's, its nice to try to introduce them to the other creators that made the face of comics, ( especially Marvel ) what it is today. In these current times, very few ever really try to learn what's behind the curtain to see who are the many orchestrators of what we've grown to love and have been inspired by. Like all things that carry significance to history, and culture, it's always important to inform people of those that deserve to be commemorated and not forgotten from history. Which is why I reacted to that photo of The legendary Jack Kirby the way I did ( or usually do). I mean jeez! The guy created Darkside and The New Gods for DC Comics, which would inspire Jim Starlin years later to create Thanos for Marvel.
Now i'll end this post with the post that I wrote on Facebook, which i then transplanted onto my blog:
Jack King Kirby ( co creator of Captain America, Fantastic Four, Black Panther, Hulk, the Inhumans, The Eternals, Daredevil, IronMan [co created with Don Heck , Larry Lieber and Stan] ,the Avengers, the first run of X-men characters). Without him, or Steve Ditko ( co creator of Spider-Man and Dr Strange), or Gene Colan ( co creator of the Falcon [with lee] , Blade [with Marv Wolfman]) , Neal Adams, or John Romita Sr ( co creator of Wolverine) , or Jim Steranko, or the Buscema brothers, Len Wein ( co creator of Wolverine), Chris Claremont ( main creator of most of the x-men characters that we all know today) ,Dave Cockrum ( night crawler, colossus and storm) , marvel comics, let alone comics in the 60's would have never grown to what they are now.
In addition to Bill Everett( the sub mariner) , and Joe Simon ( creator of Captain America), who created the marvel characters that the world has come to love since the 1930's. I had alot of Marvel and DC encyclopedia's when i was a kid, ( thanks to my mother who would surprise me with them) especially the marvel stuff. So i always looked to those books because of the rich and colorful history that was contained, with copies of old scripts and notes and illustrations / memorabilia. but aside from Stan Lee, these guys made Marvel Comics what it was from the start.
Soon after, guys like John Byrne , George Perez, Frank Miller, Barry Windsorsmith, John Romita Jr, Marc Silvestri, Joe Quesada, Mark Bagley, Alex Ross, Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Joe Maudria, Chris Bachalo, Micheal Turner, Jim Starlin ( creator of Thanos, Drax, Gamora) Bill Mantelo /Keith Giffen ( creators of Rocket Raccoon) ,and many other artists and writers would propel Marvel Comic's art wise.
Guys like Peter David ( known for his work on various runs on X Factor and most notably key stories like Grey Hulk in his incredible hulk run), Larry Hama ( I grew up with his Wolverine run of the early to mid 90's), Mark Millar ( The Ultimates with artist Bryan Hitch, Civil War with Steve Mcniven) ,Grant Morrison ( New X-men with Frank Quietly) , Joss Whedon ( Astonishing X-men with John Cassidy) and a whole plethora Brian Bendis ( Critical to most of the Avengers based stuff of the early 2000's from Avengers Disassembled, Secret War 2004, House of M, Secret Invasion, heroic age, Avengers vs X-men, in addition to the whole entire Ultimate Spider-man comic book series) , Craig Kyle, Chris Yost, Rick Remainder ( Uncanny X-force, Uncanny Avengers) , Jonathan Hickman ( Fantastic Four, Future Foundation, Avengers, New Avengers, Secret Wars 2015) and a whole plethora told psychological and complex stories of the individual and their role in society on an emotional, social, psychological, spiritual, physical and philosophical level in ways that not many other writers and filmmakers could ever portray nor exhibit. The stories tackled racism, religion, politics, gender, pop culture and abstract concepts that couldn't just be verbalized on a simple page. Film is now starting to catch up with directors that grew up, know, and care for the material that helped them get a better idea of the world around them and how best to interact and tackle such problems in their own lives.
Directors and screenwriters like Sam Raimi (Spider-Man 2002, Spider-Man 2), Matthew Vaughn (X-men First Class), were examples of taking the core concepts and playing around with them. But Directors such as Jon Favreau( IronMan), Joss Whedon ( The Avengers, Avengers: age of Ultron), James Gunn ( Guardians of the Galaxy), Joe and Anthony Russo ( Captain America: Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers Infinity War Pt.1 and PT.2) showcase what it means to fully embrace the content and adapt it. To fully realize it to its maximum potential in the same way that long time readers, and fans who remember growing up reading and watching their stories unfolding into a reality is sometimes hard to believe. To wrap this random post up, ( most likely i'll post this on my blog) To finally see spread pages, splash pages, and huge sprawling action scenes, character interactions, and characters that you recognize come right off the page exactly like the way the way you remember wouldn't have happened without the influence and inspiration of the said artists mentioned. Stan Lee is the figurehead, and spokesperson for sure, but the backbones of Marvel Comics was definitely held up by The likes of Those mentioned. Especially Jack " King" Kirby. as a aspiring Illustrator, I always go back to Kirbys work and never get tired of seeing it. Long Live the King. I'll be posting this on my blog now.
There.
I'd also Like to briefly mention, and I've mentioned this before in a previous blog: May the legendary comic book writer/novelist/ illustrator/storyboard artists Darwyn Cooke Rest In Piece. Darwyn Cooke worked as a storyboard animator for DC Comics and Warner Brothers Batman : The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series, along with the intro animation to Batman Beyond. He's worked on DC Comic's titles such as the Batman : Ego, Catwoman, WIll Eisner's : The Spirit and others. Darwyn Cooke was most prominently known for his work on the classic Justice League: New Frontier, which focused on the silver and golden age of comics, embracing the styles of the fleischer Superman cartoons/ Jack Kirby/ Curt Swan silver age styles of their time. He contributed alot to comics history and the genre/medium as a whole. Condolences to his family and fans.
