Jack Kirbys Argo-Artworks
Buzzfeed hat Scans von Jack Kirbys Artworks, die er für den Fake-SciFi-Film „Lord Of Light“ anfertigte, den sich die CIA für die Geiselbefreiung im Iran ausgedacht hatte, worüber Wired vor sechs Jahren eine Story schrieb, die letztes Jahr wiederum von Ben Afflek mit dem sehr tollen „Argo“ verfilmt wurde, worüber Wired-Redakteur Nicholas Thompson jetzt nochmal beim New Yorker geschrieben hat.
Argo was the name Tony [Mendez] gave to a script that was in turnaround and sitting in a pile at [makeup artist John] Chambers’ house. That script was called Lord of Light and had been adapted from a successful Roger Zelazny science-fantasy novel of the same name. A small-time self-starting dreamer who called himself a ‘producer’ — isn’t that how it always starts? — named Barry Geller had optioned Zelazny’s book himself and raised money to get the project started.
He hired Jack Kirby to do concept art and Chambers to make the alien masks. But the whole project fell apart when Geller staged a press conference in Aurora, Colorado, where he announced his intention to film Lord of Light there, and then use the sets to create a theme park, called Science Fiction Land.
The Lost Jack Kirby Sketches For The (Real) “Argo” Film Project
Jack Kirby Fashion
Zur australischen Fashion Week haben die Designer von Romance Was Born ein paar Marvel-Klamotten geschneidert. Der Infotext zu den Fotos und die – wie formuliere ich das jetzt am besten? – exaltiert-affektierte Doofheit, die darin mitschwingt, hat mich grade ein bisschen amüsiert. Sowas kommt dabei heraus, wenn sich Fashiondings an Kirby Dots versuchen.
Collared shirtdresses and graphic tights put a contending stand for male heroes of Marvel namely Spiderman, Hulk and Avenger, and in return present a powerful and caped female crusader.
The silhouette is simple: structured shoulders, straight-cut dresses and high hemlines, but the sharp tailored peplums brought the ensemble to life. A mash up of psychedelic prints, sequined fabrics and beaded patchwork ticked all boxes for spring 2012 trends. The femme fatale vibe continued through the superhero palette: bright pinks, yellow, purple and green, it was a kaleidoscopic party of colours.
Kapow! Comic book couture at Romance was Born (via The Beat)
The Collages of Jack Kirby
Imprint hat ein ziemlich fantastisches Posting über die Collagen-Arbeiten von Jack Kirby in frühen Marvel Comics und die setzen sie gleichzeitig in Kontext mit den Collagen anderer Künstler, deren eigentliches Fachgebiet ebenfalls eher nicht für Collagentechnik bekannt war (Louis Armstrong, William Burroughs, Picasso). Großartig, Must-Read für Comic-Nerds!
Beginning in 1964 with the Fantastic Four, Kirby created collages to convey fanciful scenes of cosmic dimensions. These early comic collages were used to further the storytelling and appear to be created concurrently. However, according to former assistant and Kirby biographer Mark Evanier, by the 1970s Kirby would often create collages from his collection of photographic magazines such as National Geographic and Life, whenever the mood struck him, and make good use of them at a later date. Considering that he was one of the fastest artists in comics, and worked upward of 70 to 80 hours a week at the drawing board during this period, why would Kirby slow himself down to create a collage, which no doubt was more time consuming? Scissors, exacto knife, and rubber cement were no match for the lightening speed of his hand. It is yet additional evidence of Kirby’s unbridled creativity and imagination, as well as the compulsive need to create at all costs, spending time composing these collages in what little spare time he had.
When Frank Zappa met Jack Kirby
Jeff Newelt von Royal Flush hat einen großartigen Artikel über sein Treffen mit Ahmet, Sohn von Frank Zappa, der ihm ein paar Anekdoten über die Freundschaft seines Vaters mit niemand anderem als Comic-Gott Jack Kirby erzählte. Wusstet Ihr, dass George Lucas Frank Zappa gefragt hatte, ob er die Musik für Star Wars schreiben wollte und dass Darth Vader ein RipOff von Doc Doom war? Ich auch nicht.
“One of the most significant moments in my life is when my dad said, ‘meet Jack, he’s the guy who created all those superheroes you love.’ That blew my little mind. I thought it was awesome and weird that my dad had this friendship with this guy. It was like meeting like a real magician!” […]
Jack gave me this Silver Surfer book. I didn’t know what to make of this silver dude on a surfboard; it didn’t make any sense but, he was super cool. This was around the time Empire came out and was HUGE [1981 –ed.], and I remember Jack confided in Frank that he felt like the stories he created helped shape the Star Wars saga, that he saw direct parallels between his characters and the movie’s story arcs.” […]
“He told my dad stuff like, ‘Darth Vader was Doctor Doom and the Force is the Source’ and that George Lucas ripped him off. Now this you may not know, and I was only a kid, but I remember learning at the dinner table that my dad was asked to write the music for Star Wars; he turned it down, he said he wasn’t interested. That would’ve been really strange, the lives of us Star Wars fans woulda taken a different turn and that whole score woulda sounded like Tatooine Cantina music.”
Step inside the Fourth World as we relive that one magical day when… FRANK ZAPPA met JACK KIRBY! (via Laughing Squid)
Jack Kirbys lost Artworks
Die New York Times hat einen schönen Artikel inklusiver kleiner Bildergalerie über das Spätwerk von Comic-Legende Jack Kirby, der in den 80ern hunderte von Artworks für eine Spielzeug-Firma zeichnete, die nie in die geplanten Toys und Cartoons umgesetzt und nun wiederentdeckt wurden.
His style made Mr. Kirby a sought-after talent at DC Comics, now a piece of the Time Warner empire, and at Marvel Comics, a recent acquisition of the Walt Disney Company. At Marvel in particular he played a crucial role in creating superheroes like the Fantastic Four, the Hulk and the X-Men — work that is now at the center of a property dispute between the heirs of Mr. Kirby, who died in 1994, and Marvel and Disney.
Those same signature design elements are also vividly on display in hundreds of illustrations for never-produced cartoon shows and toy lines that Mr. Kirby created in the 1980s for the animation studio Ruby-Spears Productions — work that thus far does not belong to any of the media conglomerates and that has been seen by few people.
New York Times: Jack Kirby’s Heroes in Waiting, Slideshow: Jack Kirby’s Characters (via MeFi)
Doku: Jack Kirby – King of Comics
Eine wunderbare, mit einer Viertelstunde angenehm kurze Dokumentation über Jack Kirby, dem zeichnerischen Schöpfer von Captain America, Fantastic Four, Thor, Hulk oder den X-Men, und das ist nur ein kleiner Ausschnitt aus seiner Arbeit.
For almost a decade, Kirby provided Marvel’s house style, co-creating with Stan Lee many of the Marvel characters and designing their visual motifs. At Lee’s request, he often provided new-to-Marvel artists “breakdown” layouts , over which they would pencil in order to become acquainted with the Marvel look. As artist Gil Kane described Kirby’s influence:
„Everybody recognized Jack’s contribution to comics generally and to Marvel specifically, in the same way they recognize that God created the heavens and the Earth… it wasn’t merely that Jack conceived most of the characters that are being done, but more than that – Jack’s point of view and philosophy of drawing became the governing philosophy of the entire publishing company and, beyond the publishing company, of the entire field.“ (Wikipedia)
Die Dokumentation in zwei Teilen nach dem Klick, hier noch ein paar seiner Cover für Marvel Monster (via Superpunch).
Gib mir den Rest, Baby…
