24 thoughts on “Happy Birthday, Jack”

  9. Sweeter than a boot to the noggin. This pretty much requires me to play some Freedom Force after dinner; it’s as close as you can get to playing one of Kirby’s comics. Well done, Mr. Sims.

  12. Damn Straight. In a perfect world, there would be an afterlife, and Jack Kirby would be its ruler.

  13. Yea, verily!

    (Oh, and KIRBY ROM would have been too much for THIS world to handle SUCH is the awesomeness of both.)

    I met “THE KING” once (1989? 1990?).

    I had a table in the “artists alley” at a con (I was a comics “pro” at the time. Writing and drawing for some small, crappy indie companies), signing copies of the comics I worked on and selling art requests, and he was walking by with Roz, his wife (who you could tell was there to “protect” him from tiring himself out by spending too much time with the fans – such was his approachability and friendliness).

    I got out from my booth, shook his hand, and gave him a color illustration of Captain America, thanking him for EVERYTHING he had done.

    He seemed genuinely touched by the love of the fans and promised to send me an autograph (his hands were really bad by then).
    Sadly, the autograph never came but I understood, and was just happy that my crappy drawing was somewhere in the back of his closet.

    I met Stan Lee the same day (he gave me a portfolio review).
    Of the two, Kirby seemed much more like a guy I’d like to spend time with.

    Sadly, as a kid getting into reading comics I didn’t “get” his work.
    I could FEEL the power of it, but I didn’t “get” it.
    His early work seemed too sketchy, and the zig-zag line stuff was just too odd for a young kid such as myself, whose interests at the time was “new guy” John Byrne and then later, Michael Golden.

    Later, as I grew with the medium, I realized that HE. WAS. THE. MEDIUM.

    Now, the thought of a KIRBY drawn ROM comic makes my head asplode with pleasure.

    HAIL TO THE KING, BABY!

    ~P~
    P-TOR

  14. And only one day after MY birthday — the tribute to The King was definitely a great belated birthday present for me, for my own selfish reasons.
    Thanks Chris!

  15. I really wish the King had lived long enough to see just how revered he is these days…I mean, I know he wasn’t chopped liver by the time he died, but the Fourth World Omnibus is exactly the kind of thing that he had been hoping to see (and that he had predicted would someday exist) since he worked on that project, it’s too bad he never got that validation.

    If it’s not too shameless to plug, I’m going over the Omnibus issue-by-issue at my blog in a feature I call “Fourth World Fridays”: http://prankster36.livejournal.com/

  16. Hail to the King.

    I too was one of those people who as a younger fan just didn’t get Kirby, and didn’t understand why he was so revered as an artist. Older and wiser, though, I started checking out Kirby’s work after enjoying the Fourth World characters in the DCAU, and THEN I got it. Such amazing art, more ideas per panel than some modern trade paperbacks have, and oh goodness, no one wrote dialog like Kirby. I bought the Eternals omnibus last year and there were so many amazing lines just in the Eternals Annual…”I SALUTE YOU, DEADLY MICROBE!” “Here is STEEL for your gut!” Wow.

    Kirby was, is, and shall always be the man. Glad I finally realized it.

  17. Happy Birthday to one of the most creative storyteller of our times. Thank you for the stories Mr. Kirby.

  18. Jack was indeed great, but not just as a creator of individual comic books and, basically the “comic book.” I read today that he actually was a member of the Third Army Infantry, and arrived in France 10 days after D-Day. The Third Army was under Patton, partipated in the Battle of the Bulge, and I can only imagine from reading his war comics, and even his big battle scenes in general, that he was drawing on personal experience. The coolest thing, though – is the Third Army insignia. Check it out.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Third_Army

    Anyway – thanks for Captain America, Scott Free, Kamandi and all the rest Jack.

  21. Mr. Kirby, wherever you are, I am unleashing every birthday wish my mind can think of!! Can you take it?!

  22. I recently bought the first Fourth World Omnibus, and await the second. It’s got the usual problems of old comics (terrible dialogue, especially), but it’s a lot of fun. The ideas that he came up with, whether by himself or with Simon and Lee, are immortal, and provided me with many happy hours.

    Happy birthday, Mr. Kirby.

  24. Dear Mr. Sims,
    What a two-fisted way to celebrate the King’s birthday. And darn, you’ve beaten me to it. The same panels! Aaargh!