- How are you doin', you wonderful nerds?
Exactly 100 years ago, on August 28th 1917,
a comic book legend was born.
Jack F(bleep)king Kirby.
Or Jack King Kirby for short.
Not only did this god-tear artist help create
iconic superheroes like Captain America,
Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, Thor,
Iron Man, (sighs) I could go on, and I will.
The X-men, Inhumans, Black panther,
Ant Man, Nick Fury, Magneto, Doctor Doom,
and that just barely scratches the surface
of his work at Marvel,
which is certainly not the only
comics publisher he worked for,
but today I wanna focus less on what he created
and instead talk about how he created.
How did Jack Kirby create his
dynamic and energetic art style?
(lightning zapping) (liquid bubbling)
(fire exploding) (electronic music)
Jack Kirby's artistic style is easily recognizable.
Many elements make his work stand out,
from the Kirby Krackle,
a.k.a. the Kirby Dots of Fractal Energy,
to the way that he would forego human anatomy
for the sake of a dramatic pose.
At the heart of it all was Kirby's ability
to infuse nearly every panel with dynamic action
that made superheroes actually feel super.
Quote: What Kirby brought to the comic book page
was an opera of line and mass.
The stories didn't matter,
so much drama did his anger bring to the figures
bursting out of the panels,
the bodies hurtling through space
as fists and feet drove into them,
the faces contorted in passion,
the camera angles swinging wildly,
and the panels stretched and bent
by the needs of the action.
End quote.
Kirby drew a world in motion.
I think we take that for granted nowadays,
but there was a time when artists and inventors
were fascinated with capturing movement in a static image.
Some tried to showcase movement
through a series of pictures,
but others wanted to showcase action in a single frame.
Eventually this idea fell into the lap of comics creators.
Sure, artists could demonstrate motion
by having successive frames inch a particular movement
forward in time like frames of a movie,
but wouldn't it be much more efficient
to show entire acts of dynamic motion
in the span of a single image?
Thus, motion lines were born.
While sloppy at first,
brilliant artists like Jack Kirby
transformed and stylized this concept,
imbuing what were once simple lines
with force and speed that seemed
as though it could crack the earth in two.
To dissect just one comic in Jack Kirby's endless catalog,
let's take a look at Journey into Mystery, Number 83,
featuring the very first appearance of Thor,
in a story titled Thor the Mighty
and the Stone Men from Saturn.
When one is introducing a new character,
there is no more important issue
to nail than their first one,
and from the opening splash page,
Jack Kirby not only instantly
provides some energetic imagery,
but he also gives the audience a wealth of information
about the hero and his alter ego.
There's no doubt that Thor takes center stage.
He's in a dramatic pose with his trusty hammer, Mjolnir,
radiating with energy and angled towards the readers.
Just under that, in two very tiny panels,
is Donald Blake drawn small and dull by comparison.
In fact, every time we see Donald Blake in this story,
he's never portrayed interestingly.
Even when he's the only character in the panel,
he's small and typically in the background.
It's only once he finds the mystical cane
that transforms him into Thor
that Donald starts getting more closeups
and a little bit more action.
Then, with a burst of energy containing
enough power to last three entire panels,
Donald Blake becomes The Might Thor.
Thor starts to display much more dynamic movement,
but his full power hasn't yet been realized.
Thor's body language merely echoes
Donald Blake's from pages earlier,
but as he starts to discover his power,
we get one incredible page.
Thor starts to test his hammer's abilities,
first by throwing it into the air and having it return,
simple nondestructive action.
But the next few panels show him raising the bar
by hurling Mjolnir at a tree and splitting it
right down the middle with a large, energetic crash.
Kirby is building up the momentum.
In the final three panels of this page,
Thor learns of his ability to create and command storms,
ending in this powerful image.
Thor went from here to here
in the span of one page
as Kirby kept building upon the comic's energy.
As the final battle of the comic approaches,
Thor swings his hammer around and flies
towards the action so rapidly that Kirby,
unable to capture the Asgardian warrior's speed,
can only render him as a blur soaring through the air.
He leaps into the literal middle of the fight,
swinging his weapon with enough force
to tear apart his enemies.
Kirby doesn't let up the action for a moment,
utilizing camera angles that make the reader
feel in the midst of the battle, fighting alongside Thor.
Jack Kirby's use of dramatic camera angles
is something you might have noticed throughout this story.
In contrast, you can look at a story
like Action Comics Number One by Siegel and Shuster
and see this classic Superman scene.
Yeah, there's some good movement here,
but for the most part it feels like
we're simply looking at the action from afar
through a static, boring camera angle.
Kirby's method was decidedly personal.
He aimed to make the reader feel
like they were involved in the action,
not just passively observing it.
His angles featured characters and objects
almost popping off of the page towards the reader,
and when Kirby does pull the audience out of the action,
it's to showcase a grand perspective.
Take this panel near the end of the comic
where Thor stands victorious,
as the entire armada of alien ships leaves earth.
Even though this shot is looking
straight at Thor from a distance,
like those Superman panels from earlier,
this image still feels more exciting and triumphant.
Thor's flowing cape and hair,
coupled with the fleeing vehicles,
help fill the scene with an abundance of movement.
Thor defeats the monsters
and transforms back into Donald Blake,
once again depicted as small and weak,
contrasted against Marvel's colorful,
hammer-wielding hero.
This is simply one of Jack Kirby's stories,
and it's probably not even his best example to use,
but hopefully you can appreciate how much energy
and excitement the King put into every line.
Jack Kirby's artwork may have been sketched in lead,
but his legacy and influence
on the comic's art form are drawn in ink.
What do you guys think?
What makes Kirby's art so energetic and impactful?
What's your favorite story or character
that Kirby helped bring to life?
Let me know in the comments.
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