Jack Kirby was a major participant in creating the Marvel universe. But more than that, Kirby created a whole method of storytelling within comics. He was extremely influential, very prolific, and had an overwhelming imagination. Unfortunately, he was also a humble guy that didn’t believe in self promotion. Unlike Stan Lee.
So who gets billed today with creating the Marvel universe?
This subject has been covered elsewhere and in greater detail by much more professional men than I. Volumes and volumes have been written about both men, and the history of comics and their creators is much better covered in that material. That’s not the purpose of this blog. My purpose has to remain within my own, historically colored, perspective.
The webcomic strip XKCD recently had a strip that encapsulates my whole concern here. We’re going to forget! If we’re not careful, we’ll forget. I have no idea why, but that scares me to pieces! Even right now, because of the Marvel movies and other things, everyone knows who Stan Lee is. The non-comic people in my life always ask me about or mention Stan Lee. None of them have ever heard of Jack Kirby. Which is wrong. And I guess that’s why it scares me. A deep need to set right that which is wrong.
But there’s no correcting that. There's a chance that Jack Kirby will end up a forgotten note in American History. As far as popular culture is concerned, Stan Lee created the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Avengers, Spider-Man and many great Marvel characters. People like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko will slowly fade into the realm of footnotes.
Another webcomic I read, PVP, had an excellent blog post dealing with the fact that the characters portrayed in current-day Marvel are far from the ones that Kirby created in the 1960’s. They’ve been updated and re-updated to the point to be almost unrecognizable.
I started recognizing different artistic styles very early on. I read and re-read and poured over the comics I had until I had memorized every panel. Marvel comics ‘felt’ different to me from DC. I did and still do prefer DC, but that doesn’t mean I hate Marvel. Far from it. But when I picked up something drawn by Jack Kirby, I knew I was looking at a Marvel book. What I was seeing was mostly reprints of old Fantastic Four and Captain America stuff, but I didn’t know that then. And Kirby had been working for DC by the time my comic-love brainwashing had really set in, but I didn’t know that either. In fact, I had a Kirby-drawn issue of Kamandi that I stored with my Marvel comics because the style of drawing had me convinced that it wasn’t from DC.
My personal favorite artist is Dick Dillin. But that’s firmly rooted in nostalgia and upbringing. Dick Dillin was THE Justice League artist of the1970’s, and that was that.
My appreciation for Kirby artwork grew over the years. He made the Fantastic Four come alive. I had other FF stories drawn by other artists of the seventies. In fact, my first introduction to George Perez artwork was in a Fantastic Four comic that ended up being one of my all-time favorites. But still, it’s like watching them on TV when you first saw the same characters on the movie screen.
Will Jack Kirby be remembered? There’s a magazine devoted to him put out by the great people at TwoMorrows and many books and articles have been written about him. But the eleven-year-old kid of Lorie’s best friend knows all about Stan Lee because he pops up in the movies. She’s never heard of Jack Kirby.
There’s something else that's bothering me…
We all ache to be remembered after we’re gone; to achieve some element of immortality. Here it is 46 years after Kirby brought the Fantastic Four to their greatest moments and 18 years after his death, and our culture has started to forget him. If people can’t remember the game changing genius that was Jack Kirby, well then what hope do the rest of us have?
Thanks,
DCD
I'll remember you, Chuck.
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