Jack Kirby book on remainder sale at Barnes & Noble

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GeorgeC

Jack Kirby book on remainder sale at Barnes & Noble

Post by GeorgeC » April 7th, 2012, 9:38 pm

Mark Evanier's excellent retrospective of Jack Kirby art, "Kirby: King of Comics", is on remainder sale at Barnes & Noble.

For $12.99 (plus tax) you get a large, coffee table-sized book that originally sold for $40.

Kirby was the most significant comic book artist in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s. His designs populate both the DC Comics and Marvel Comics Universes. They have been among the most successfully translated works to both animation and live-action. The DC animated series -- beginning with Superman (1996) -- have done an excellent job carrying the Kirby design aesthetic into 21st century TV animation.

Kirby I think was at his best in the 1960s on the latter half of his run on Fantastic Four. Other than that historic run, I appreciated his Tales of Suspense run on Captain America the most. The TOS Cap run was a huge influence on the the recent Captain America movie and its subplots...

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Re: Jack Kirby book on remainder sale at Barnes & Noble

Post by Randall » April 7th, 2012, 10:23 pm

I'll second that it's a fantastic book, which I gobbled up as soon as it was released (and then had Evanier sign my copy when I saw him at Comic-Con!). I've just finished reading Kirby's Demon run, and recently read his OMAC, both wacky & great DC series from the 1970s. I can't get enough of his stuff, though I didn't care for his art when I was younger. So nice to see so much of his stuff getting reprinted nowadays, and most of it does give his family royalties (certainly the DC collections do), which he was generally denied at the time of original production.

GeorgeC

Re: Jack Kirby book on remainder sale at Barnes & Noble

Post by GeorgeC » April 8th, 2012, 2:44 pm

I just put up the notice for the book in case anybody was interested in the book at a lower price.

I didn't pay $40 for my copy, either. I got mine at Half-Price Books over a year ago.

What I saw at both stores were practically spankin' brand new copies of the book. I have no idea how well it sold but can imagine... :(

*************

I never really appreciated Kirby much while he was still alive even though I saw several of the TV shows he worked on (Thundarr) and read a lot of the 1960s Marvel reprints in the 1980s trade and hardcovers. By the 1980s, his artwork had deteriorated and the latest mainstream work he had done was for DC Comics. (I don't count the independents much... Their distribution was worse than the 2 majors and print runs of Kirby's later work were pathetically short.)

I've read enough of both the DC and Marvel work to see that his Marvel projects are easier to understand and more relatable. As mythic as his DC work was, it's just not as enjoyable for a great number of people as the Marvel work. His best work I say was still on Fantastic Four and the 1960s Captain America stories.

It was only well after he was dead that I began to see how important his work was to the development of comics and superheroes in general. Also, out of all the comic book artists there have been, his design work seems to translate to animation best.

He's also one of the few artists that truly impacted the first two major ages of comics -- Golden AND Silver Age. Admittedly, most of my knowledge is in the Silver Age -- I've read far more from that era than the Golden Age -- but it has to be said that most of the artists that are remembered and credited for impact are from the Silver Age. These guys just got better press and were alive longer to attend the comic cons!

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