When I was six or seven years old – too young to work in my dad's grocery store, but old enough to sit on the lower rim of the magazine rack, annoying customers reaching for copies of Newsweek or Sports Illustrated – I discovered Jack Kirby.
I didn't know who Kirby was, but I loved looking at the artwork in Fantastic Four, Captain America and other Kirby-drawn Marvel Comics titles. In those days (at least where I grew up), DC titles like Batman, Superman and Justice League of America were downright wimpy. Everyone knew that Marvel had the best comics and nobody drew them like Kirby, with cosmic characters leaping off the pages, explosive battle scenes, dazzling energy bolts and a whole showcase of seemingly unbeatable villains born of pure evil. But when you're a kid, you don't think about the men and women behind the comics.
Mark Evanier's new biography/art book Kirby: King of Comics gives Kirby his due, not in a comprehensive biography (only about 50,000 words), but rather a condensed tribute filled with some of Kirby's best work, published and unpublished. Longtime Kirby fans already know most of the story – Jack's Lower East Side upbringing, his slavish devotion to his craft, his awful contracts, his endless battles with editors and publishers would couldn't understand his work and the legions of adoring fans who did.
Perhaps Kirby's major battle was with longtime partner Stan Lee, the creative genius behind Marvel Comics. Just how much of that genius was usurped from Kirby? And what was the real story behind Kirby's leaving Marvel and signing on with competitor DC Comics in the early 70s? It's all here.
The only problem with the Kirby comics was in finishing them: you always wanted more. That's really the only weakness I found with Kirby: King of Comics. I would have liked a more comprehensive Kirby biography along with more of his artwork, especially from his amazingly productive Marvel years in the mid-60s. But with many of Kirby's books seeing reprints in new, affordable editions, Evanier's book doesn't leave much room for complaint.
Oversized art book, 219 pages
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