Month: December 2010

Jack Kirby in the Valley

New Genesis
They call him the king because Jack Kirby rules over the entire medium of superhero comics. It’s not that he was the boss, but because he was the best. You may even want to argue that if you’re not fond of his style, but you’ve got to admit that he had style bursting out in all directions. I think he was extraordinary, not only a creative wizard but a truly gifted illustrator who created unbelievably dynamic comic-book images that have burned themselves into my consciousness since I first started paying attention. In fact, if you look around at images that use a certain pop-cultural shorthand for comic books and superheroes, you see a whole lot of Kirby in those dots.

So I was giddy to come across this lengthy article on Kirby from Vice magazine. I haven’t had a chance to savor it yet, so I’m mostly writing this to file the link away for future reference and your enjoyment. Nevertheless, all hail the king!

You got it raw!

I’ve wanted to write something about John Waters, and why I respect and adore him so much, and how he’s been so influential for so much of my life — I saw him speak last Saturday night, just before I left the UK, and had him autograph my expired visa — but it would be hard to put all that in tow words properly at the best of time, and I’ve been absurdly busy.

Instead, let’s just enjoy a few moments from Cry-Baby, shall we? I still remember seeing this with some girls I knew in college, and when Polly Bergen said with some disgust, “Boys with long hair . . . and tattoos . . . who spit on the ground,” we all experienced a collective throb of “Oh yes.”

Ye Olde Fanboy Forum

from Amazing Spiderman #85

Aw, doesn’t this take you back? It’s a form asking readers to send in their thoughts to be gathered for a future edition of Stan Lee’s Soapbox. Back then, it took some serious effort — writing, clipping a page out of a comic, and stamps — to whine about how things didn’t live up to your sense of fanboy entitlement, or to praise comic creators for their daring portrayals of super-powered nerds. It took commitment. It was a natural troll deterrent! (Well, that and editors getting to choose whose letters saw the light of day.)

[From Amazing Spider-Man #28, as found at Comics Make No Sense.]