Why Kirby Rocks, or, Deep Thoughts from a Shallow Mind (Mine, Not Jack's)

[Cei-U!]

Re-reading Jack Kirby's Eternals got me thinking (always a dangerous thing).

One of the things I’ve always loved about Jack’s work is its sense of spontaneity, the feeling that the story was happening in front of our eyes. You never knew what was waiting around the corner in a Kirby story. There was never a feeling of calculation to his storytelling, yet he was indisputably a master of his medium. That spontaneity was a constant throughout his career. It was definitely a major factor in the early success of Marvel.*

I think today’s super-hero comics could stand a little spontaneity. In an era where stories are, at best, meticulously constructed a la Alan Moore and, at worst, wretchedly padded in the name of “writing for the trade,” where obsessing over continuity and accomodating the latest editorial fad are more important than exercising the imagination, an artist/writer/team who seems to be making it up as he/she goes would be a breath of fresh air.

Or is that just me?

Cei-U!
I summon the spirit of Jack Handey!

*Not that Kirby stands alone in that regard. Lots of comics greats, including Walt Kelly and Robert Crumb, have the same vibe.

[icctrombone]

I agree with you about the value of spontaneous storytelling. Kirby certainly had a lot of energy in his stories. Not just Eternals but New gods , Forever People Etc. Erik larsen does this also in the pages of Savage Dragon.

[Kirk G]

I must agree... but I also have felt the same way about the Next Men saga that John Byrne wrote.... I NEVER knew where the story was going...and felt that the heroes didn't either.... I was always tumbling into the next issue... especially with the big wrap-up surprise resolution in issue #30. (Don't spoil it, please!) To read the series and see it end with a bang is really worth the month....tpb or otherwise!

[berk]

Obviously, I agree with Cei-U as well. One of the dtriking things about Kirby's work is how it's outside the usual pattern. And I think one of the most important reasons later writers who have worked with Kirby's creations have generally failed is that they've missed this very basic point; they've tried to force his creations into a mold that just doesn't fit, and usually end up distorting Kirby's characters and concepts in the effort to make them fit anyway.

[Gingold]

I love the spontaneity of Jack's work too- but it works because Kirby was such a master of the medium that a reader instinctively trusts his storytelling abilities and allows the King to lead him wherever the story may go. There are plenty of creators these days who are obviously making things up as they go, but it doesn't come off as fresh or spontaneous, it just looks like they don't know what they're doing.

[Shellhead]

Do any of you feel that Grant Morrison is doing a decent job with Kirby's characters and style in the Seven Soldiers maxi-series?

[Halloween Jill]

Of course, Jack didn't write scripts generally. He wrote the copy into the panels as he went along. How many other comics people do that? Not that I'd advocate it as a good working method--it just worked for Kirby. But I think generally he would sit down and 'see' the whole issue in advance, which a lot of people can't do without a lot of careful flat-planning and forethought.

I'd be curious to know if Ditko works similarly on his solo stuff, but I guess he'd never answer questions of that kind.

[berk]

Shellhead said:
Do any of you feel that Grant Morrison is doing a decent job with Kirby's characters and style in the Seven Soldiers maxi-series? I don't really know much about the Guardian, but in Seven Soldiers theres's a panel where Morrison's Guardian spins his scooter down into the underground into a bunch of weird subway pirates in which I think Morrison is deliberately imitating Kirby's writing style in the captions. He did a very good job of emulating Kirby's style without falling into a cheap parody. I'll have to wait & see how he handles Klarion, and especially the Mister Miracle book. I have grave doubts about the latter, just because all the Fourth World characters have been so badly misrepresented by DC over the years since Kirby left. But I'm trying to keep an open mind about it.

[Reptisaurus!]

Re-reading Jack Kirby's Eternals got me thinking (always a dangerous thing).

One of the things I’ve always loved about Jack’s work is its sense of spontaneity, the feeling that the story was happening in front of our eyes. You never knew what was waiting around the corner in a Kirby story. There was never a feeling of calculation to his storytelling, yet he was indisputably a master of his medium. That spontaneity was a constant throughout his career. It was definitely a major factor in the early success of Marvel.

That's one of the reasons that I like comics In General, and why I like comics as a medium better'n film and literature. The ultra-tight deadlines in the factory-style production systems give Good comics a sense of "Writing (and drawing, and coloring) off the top of yer head." Comics have, IMO, come the closest of any static narrative medium to capturing the experience of spontaneous art. Good comics, at least good studio comics, feel kinda like going to a concert. There's a posibility of the (metaphorical) band screwing up, but if they hit all the right notes it can be a completely unique experience.

An' Kirby, of course, is unique among comic writers. Not just the sheer number of ideas, (I think Gardner Fox 'n Barks have him tied) but the grandeur and majesty that he gives them... While at the same time still making his work feel "live."

[MilkManX]

I love Kirby.

The sense of urgentcy in the art and the writing just has you hooked. Sure he wasnt the best scribe but it worked well for his own tales(New Gods,Cap America,Eternals).

Sometimes though as Mark Evanier has pointed out he would get carried away with one idea and forget to go back to another.

Still though for my money Kirby is the best there ever was.

[InfoBroker]

Last night, someone in the Len Wein chatroom mentioned the Seven Soldiers mini-series and with MilkManX waking up this thread (thanks MMX), I would be interested in hearing other people's opinions on SS. No spoilers on the story plots, but analysis of the writing mechanics, the handling of the characters (most especially Witch Boy and Spawn of Frankenstein and the uniqueness of the series itself would be welcome.


-jb the collecting dead body parts ib-

[MilkManX]

The only Seven Soldiers book I have been reading is the Mister Miracle.

So far I like what Grant Morrison has done. It almost feels Kirby but not. Its a little more psychological and now with the end of issue #3 we get the feeling the Fourth World is about to explode in the DC Universe again.

[berk]

I remember reading an interview with Steve Englehart in which he said that one of the things he found challenging about writing a miniseries was that he couldn't follow his preferred method of allowing the story free rein to take on a life of its own, as he could in an ongoing series, and following it in whatever direction it seemed to need to take.