The website HiLowbrow.com has begun running a series called “Kirb Your Enthusiasm”, in which writers take a panel of the artwork of the great Jack Kirby and delve into its mysteries, ponder its meanings, extol its magnificence, or just diddle around in awestruck wonder. The series will continue through March 7th. I’m curious to see what the writes come up with, although the best Kirby-related writing on the site so far was written by the critic David Smay: “The dense, blocky dynamism of his Fourth World art, as inked by Mike Royer. The narrative build leading to the heartbreak on Ben Grimm’s face as Reed Richards forced him to transform back into The Thing in Fantastic Four #40. Kamandi’s Jackie Kennedy-esque bouffant flip. The photo montages he used when depicting the Negative Zone. Stealing The Demon’s face from a panel in Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant. The epic backgrounds in Tales of Asgard. The “Mother Delilah” story in Boy’s Ranch #3. Fin Fang Foom! These are some things I particularly love about the work of JACK KIRBY (1917-94). All of which barely hints at his genius. His achievement is so vast that inventing the genre of romance comics is just a footnote in his career. I don’t rate the King with his handful of comics peers (Tezuka, Hergé, Barks, Eisner, Crumb). Why? Because he was the James Brown of comics: insanely prolific, unbelievably vital, formally inventive, forever influential. Kirby was superbad.”
