Kirby Was Here

You can always tell a Jack Kirby illustration. The comic book artist, who along with Stan Lee created the bulk of Marvel’s roster of superheroes and villains, had arguably the most distinctive and least imitated drawing style in comic books. He drew in heavy lines, and characters like Mr. Fantastic or the Hulk were often drawn in awkward but dramatic poses.

As his late career DC series New Gods indicates, he saw his cartoon creations as more than just men in tights: he wanted to create gods. Often his characters looked too heavy to move in earth’s gravity. Unlike the artists who would recreate his characters later, with smooth contours and presumably spandex costumes, Kirby drew characters outfitted with prominent stretch lines and wrinkles.

Illustrating technology, Kirby created mazes of circuitry. You can stare at his spaceships and alien fortresses for hours; the extra-terrestrial landscapes he created with photo collages and geometrical patterns are equally hypnotic.

A lot of the trippy beauty is probably lost on the comics’ adolescent male audience — after all, there’s a lot of whiz bang excitement going on in those pages. But his art has been mostly ignored by high-minded critics. Usually the closest museums will get to comic books is Roy Lichtenstein. At least until now.

New York City's Jewish Museum has an exhibit called “Masters of American Comics” celebrating six artists, including Kirby. Kirby, who died in 1994, would probably have been pleased.

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