I'll take the opportunity to provide some long delayed updates...

Comic-Con International: San Diego

Museum Trustee, and Kirby Collector publisher, John Morrow graciously provided some space in his booth not only for the some Museum promotional material, but also my large format scanner. Tom Kraft and I, with the help of Bechara Maalouf and many original art dealers, scanned many pieces of Kirby original art for the Original Art Digital Archive. As always, I enjoyed spending time with John and meeting Kirby fans such as Museum members Jean Depelley, Scott Rowland and Scott Shaw! (of course there were more, but these gents come to mind as I write this a month later).

I was caught up a little more this year than last, so I did not post any of the news updates or photos that I expected. Mark Evanier's Kirby Tribute panel was well attended.

My wife Lisa and I enjoyed visiting and talking Kirby with Mike Thibodeaux, Steve Roberts, and David Schwartz at Mike's home the week after the convention.

Changes to the Board of Trustees

Please welcome new Museum Board members David Schwartz and Tom Kraft.

A longtime friend of the Kirby family and a Museum member since its founding, David Schwartz has written television cartoons and is currently involved in video production. With the significant contributions David has been making towards maintaining Kirby's legacy and his professional experience, he is a natural fit for the Board.

Tom Kraft has also been a Museum member since its founding, and has been volunteering for the Museum at comic book conventions scanning Kirby original artwork for a few years now. Tom, who has developed the incredible What If Kirby? web site, is partner in a print and interactive design firm. I couldn't be happier having Tom part of the Board.

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine.” What a mouthful of hyperbole. And yet once this claim was made, it rapidly became a self-fulfilling prophecy. The origins of the comic that changed the face of comics are fairly well documented, and yet the story is full of uncertainties and conflicting testimony. Consensus generally accepts the account that Marvel’s publisher Martin Goodman wanted a super hero comic book to match the success of DC Comics' latest hit, The Justice League of America. The year was 1961, and Goodman had been publishing a series of comics featuring monsters with names such as Fin Fang Foom and Gorgilla. The lead story was generally written by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby. Goodman approached his editor and chief writer, Stan Lee to come up with his superhero team. According to Lee, the writer prepared a synopsis and presented it to artist Jack Kirby.

Here, we have our first conflict. Jack Kirby, as you probably already know, was an artist gifted with one of the greatest imaginations in the history of comics or for that matter fantasy literature. Any story Kirby may have drawn has almost certainly been at least partially plotted by him. Kirby’s method of working has been described by Kirby historian, Mark Evanier, in his book “Kirby, King of Comics,” describing a strip called, Challengers of the Unknown.

“Dave Wood provided scripts, which pretty much meant sitting with Kirby, hearing him spin off a plot and then going home and typing it up. Jack rewrote whatever he was given anyway.”

I'm heading to San Diego today, with the Kirby Museum setting up with scanner, Mother Box, stickers, postcards and friendly conversation at TwoMorrows' Booth #1301.

Looking forward to seeing everyone; bring your original Kirby art to be scanned and included in the Original Art Digital Archive.

The Kirby Tribute panel is at 10am on Sunday.

Announcements, pictures, videos, tweets, who knows else, to come!

Kirby has said on several occasions that he identifies with the Thing, the grumpy orange skinned monster he co-created with Stan Lee in the first issue of the Fantastic Four. The son of Austrian Jewish immigrants, Kirby grew up on the mean streets of New York’s lower east side. The area was teeming with rival street gangs, and as the artist details in his Street Code comic, he fought nearly every day to survive. Just how much anger Kirby carried inside him is difficult to tell, but he certainly channeled it into his vital and energetic artwork.

In 1933, a film appeared that must have exploded like a rush of primordial energy in the impressionable brain of the then sixteen old Kirby. The impact of King Kong is difficult to appreciate today, but suffice it to say that nothing like it had ever been seen before. The cutting edge technology of stop motion animation allowed the filmmakers to create the illusion of a gargantuan creature in a primeval lost world and then see him transported to 20th century New York City.

King Kong has been analyzed extensively, yielding interpretations running the gamut from a metaphor for the subjugation of man’s primitive instincts to that of the enslavement of African Americans. What is certain is that Kong’s treatment at the hands of a callous humanity makes him an extremely sympathetic and tragic figure and it is easy to identify with his plight.

Essential listening for those of you interested in understanding the legal context of the copyright termination letters that the Kirby heirs delivered in September 2009.

Host Doug Lichtman (Professor, UCLA School of Law) and guests Peter Menell (Professor of Law, UC Berkeley) and David Nimmer (Author, "Nimmer on Copyright") informally discuss termination rights as part of Intellectual Property Colloqium.

Click on over to the Copyright Termination page to listen.