motherbox: An 88th Birthday Edition of....

Today would be the 88th birthday of the comic book artist who set and continues to set the standard for all comic book art. Jack Kirby co-created Captain America in 1940, the Fantastic Four in 1961, created the New Gods in 1971, the Eternals in 1975, and a host of other characters and classic stories in the years during and after. Anything comic books aspire to, Jack did it first.

Among those who influenced my own imagination and taste, Jack is right up there with Tolkien, Charles Williams, Alan Dean Foster, Moebius, George Lucas, etc. etc. He is one of the most important popular artists of the 20th century. Michael Chabon's award winning (deservedly so) novel, The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, is based in part on Jack; if you've enjoyed the film versions of Fantastic Four, The Hulk, or the X-Men Jack helped create them, too.

Jack Kirby was the Cecil B. DeMille or Steven Spielberg of comic books; always pushing the medium to see where it could go -- always seeing what new ideas and concepts he could incorporate into what the world saw as funnybooks. His stories were grand-scale epics with casts of thousands that swept across millions of years of time and millions of light years of space. He is utterly unique in comics; many have tried to overtake his legacy -- a few have honored it, but none have equalled it. (Do, however, check out my brief article on Tom Scioli and Godland, below).

I would invite you to explore the links (including the new Jack Kirby Museum link) under his name at the right. In honor of his birthday, here are a few examples of the explosive style and restlessly inventive imagination of the King that made me a fan for life 30 years ago: (click on the image for a larger version). Sorry I cant get the images below to line up, but they still work. Peace.

And thanks for the reminder, Ratty.