Print this pageEighteenth in a series of posts, each one analyzing a single panel from a Jack Kirby-drawn comic book.
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I only own one original piece of Jack Kirby art [inked by Mike Royer] and it is page 19 from Devil Dinosaur #4 (July 1978), a short-lived Marvel Comic series about the first human boy and his pet dinosaur. Alas, neither of the lead characters are featured on this page but, even when Kirby was writing a transitional scene, he couldn’t help but flex hyperbole.
This panel in particular engrosses me. I dig the way Kirby graphically presents the clash of transition. The organisms of the old in conflict with the technology of the new while commenting on the state of the future. A world wide war. Kirby was fascinated with the twilight of the future while honoring the wisdom, heartbreaks, and history of the past. My favorite comic book authors are masters who write with their art; creating a unique and personal storytelling calligraphy.
Despite some of his outlandish yet oft times super prescient concepts [Ego the living planet, The Silver Surfer, Galactus, The Negative Zone, The Power of HIM, OMAC, Mother Box, and “The Source,” to name a few], Jack Kirby knew it was a priority to entertain while delivering emotional truths. He didn’t seem so concerned with the wiring of plausibility but more with the nuts and bolts of what makes us tick. And, with that in mind, Kirby cleaned our clocks with his big ideas and made them attainable for young boys and girls to grasp and mull over. Kirby made people think in ways that could ignite the atoms of genius and melt lesser minds.
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CHECK OUT “Cosmic Debris: Kirby in the ’70s,” a series running in tandem with “Kirb Your Enthusiasm” at the 4CP gallery of comic book details | Kirby cutaways and diagrams collected at the Comic Book Cartography gallery | Joe Alterio’s Cablegate Comix and HiLobrow posts about comics and cartoonists, and science fiction | The Jack Kirby Chronology | scans of rare 1940-50s Kirby comics at the Digital Comic Museum | Joshua Glenn on the New Gods generation
POSTS IN THIS SERIES: Douglas Rushkoff on THE ETERNALS | John Hilgart on BLACK MAGIC | Gary Panter on DEMON | Dan Nadel on OMAC | Deb Chachra on CAPTAIN AMERICA | Mark Frauenfelder on KAMANDI | Jason Grote on MACHINE MAN | Ben Greenman on SANDMAN | Annie Nocenti on THE X-MEN | Greg Rowland on THE FANTASTIC FOUR | Joshua Glenn on TALES TO ASTONISH | Lynn Peril on YOUNG LOVE | Jim Shepard on STRANGE TALES | David Smay on MISTER MIRACLE | Joe Alterio on BLACK PANTHER | Sean Howe on THOR | Mark Newgarden on JIMMY OLSEN | Dean Haspiel on DEVIL DINOSAUR | Matthew Specktor on THE AVENGERS | Terese Svoboda on TALES OF SUSPENSE | Matthew Wells on THE NEW GODS | Toni Schlesinger on REAL CLUE | Josh Kramer on THE FOREVER PEOPLE | Glen David Gold on JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY | Douglas Wolk on 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY | MORE EXEGETICAL COMMENTARIES: Joshua Glenn on Kirby’s Radium Age Sci-Fi Influences | Chris Lanier on Kirby vs. Kubrick | Scott Edelman recalls when the FF walked among us | Adam McGovern is haunted by a panel from THE NEW GODS | Matt Seneca studies the sensuality of Kirby’s women | Danny Fingeroth figgers out The Thing |
“Perfection is sustained.” Brrr.
That drawing is an alpha-doozy.
The echoes of the fire in the rock, the opposite thrusts of movement…the dude’s spatial instinct is unworldly. Great panel, great piece.
I never noticed before how Moon Boy has no defining lines at his edges — he’s all feathering. I wish I were made of brushwork like that.
A three-layers cake stack of round, feathered below, all set on square rock bottom. Deeee-lightful!
What a great pick. A span of eons in one panel shown by contrasting textures. This panel elegantly shows the range of Kirby’s world.
Yep. Perfection is Sustained by this piece. That phrase is an example of one of those great moments where Kirby’s relative literary limitation produces something actually quite astonishing. It’s not a rare occurrence in his work. But you have to develop an ear for it. It’s still sometimes a struggle.
It reminds me of Thelonious Monk — Kirby’s dialogue seems to be fighting the idea of language in the way that Monk embodies the struggle of articulating ideas through the limitations and possibilities of his instrument and the idea of tonality itself. Only on Hilobrow would I dare write a sentence such as that.
Stan Lee was more of an Oscar Peterson of course.
Kirby in pure Black & White is such a thing of beauty — Glen will testify to this. It was great to see some of your collection at the Jewish Museum in NYC a year or two back. I have a few pieces. But boy did I get collector’s envy!
Black & White KIrby was one of the few privileges of living in England in the 70s: Marvel published cheap weekly reprints for a dying economy who could only dream of producing ‘Full-Color’ Comics.
Thad’s why the Essentials Series has special resonance for us Brits. B&W, cheap pulp paper — but also rather beautiful.
Meanwhile, I wonder who will be first to adopt ‘Perfection is Sustained’ as their company’s brand line…..It would suit BMW or someone like that….