Here’s a terrific color scan of the original artwork for the famous splash from the Silver Surfer graphic Novel (1978) featuring the fist of Galactus, — this in all likelihood inspired that wonderful piece of Kirby tribute art I posted yesterday.
The Kirby/Sinnott combination was beautiful. How many comics artists could make an entire splash page featuring only a clenched fist so visually stunning.
Occasionally some emails get lost in the shuffle. Here is one from earlier in the year on this post, Captain America # 105 Collisions – Adkins, from Mike Hoffman.
From: Mike Hoffman:
Rob– just reading your excellent Blog entries about Kirby and listening to the interview as well. I personally “think Kirby” quite a bit when I tell a story in comics, and I coincidentally mentioned him recently in a Horror story “An Artist Model” which I’ve attached a page from.
BTW, those triangular impact things Kirby did I think are meant to mimic shock waves, which you can see especially clearly in aerial films of bombing. In feel sure he must have seen that effect personally in WWII.
Keep up the great work,
Mike
Here’s a piece of Kirby collage homage sent in by John Mulder
Below is some of John’s contact information:
John Mulder
Jornalista De Arte Secuencial Venezolano
@muldercomic
Director de Mulderpress y Del Blog de Comics y Cultura Pop
http://muldercomics.blogspot.com/
Editor Asociado De Etnica Antologia de Historieta Latinoamericana. Miembro Del , Blog De La Revista Zuplemento. Corresponsal para Mexico De Cultura comic articulos publicados en revistas como: Castalida, Comikaze, Venezuela En comics, Etnica Escritor y Dibujante.
Here’s a great posting sent in by Payton Gauldin.
Leyendecker influenced Kirby’s Cpt. America?
Payton Gauldin:
I did a detailed comparison of WEAPONS OF LIBERTY and CAPTAIN AMERICA #1. I found a detailed history on this piece by J.C. Leyendecker on eBay.
I wonder if Jack and Joe based Cpt. America on the March 2, 1918 issue of the Saturday Evening Post. It was printed with a steel color scheme instead of gold and is the closet to their design.
I think the proof that it was the inspiration for Jack is Liberty’s right hand. It’s in a very distinctive Kirby-esque pose. I think Leyendecker is an uncredited influence for Jack.
Here are some links to Payton’s work:
I’ll be posting some Special Guest Star posts over the next few days.
Frank Fosco:
Jack’s motion lines and how he puts the effect of motion when the motion passes in front of something. Truly a Kirby original effect. The way he does with a few lines to indicate an object behind the motion makes it like a blur. Just an observation of another Kirby dynamic.
Here was my reply:
I don’t recall Jack ever mentioning the Oscar statue being an influence on Silver Surfer, so since he never commented on it, anything I said would be speculation. I asked Kirby historian Stan Taylor what he thought, and here was his reply:
Stan Taylor: The only reference by Kirby I can find is that based on the surfing craze movies, he became enamored with the sport. Remember this was the time of the Beach Boys, Gidget, Beach Blanket Bingo. I never got an “Oscar” vibe from the Surfer, it was all sports grace and dynamics. Remember the Silver Surfer is any other Kirby super-hero–just less a few costume lines. I just remembered that around this time Wide World of Sports used to show surfing competitions.
So if I had to guess I’d say the Oscar was not the influence, it was probably Jack seeing surfing on TV and he thought that might make for a great character.
The bald head and metallic skin may have just been Jack’s way of depicting his version of a streamlined cosmic character who could surf the cosmos.
But since anything is possible, the Oscar may have been an influence, or the image of the Oscar may have been something that crossed Jack’s mind at some point while he worked on the character. It may also be that Jack started using a lot of his famous squiggles at that point, and since the Surfer was all metallic, that character really gave Jack an excuse to experiment with that effect, and he was so successful at it, when we see the metallic Oscar stature we are reminded of Kirby’s Surfer.
I guess the Eisner awards are the “Academy Awards” of comics, but I’d love to see some Kirby Awards given away in the future — a little statuette sculpture of the Silver Surfer would be a great version of a Jack Kirby Oscar. 
One other comment on this:
I was hesitant to say this before because I genuinely do feel Stan Lee deserves tremendous credit for the 40-or-so years he spent in California trying to get people to make properties like Spider-man into movies — Lee was a major part of the Marvel publicity machine and that is one big reason these properties are so successful. But I found Lee’s comments here interesting:
Question: But it doesn’t appear for the film itself; and his fans feel he should get that recognition, with the movie exposing his work to a whole new audience.
Stan Lee: I know, but you’re talking to the wrong guy because I have nothing to do with the credits on the movies. I’m credited as one of the executive producers because that’s in my contract. But Jack was not an executive producer. So I don’t know what he’d be credited as. Again I know nothing about that, I have nothing to do with the movie’s credits. You’d have to talk to whoever is the producer of the movie. Is there anything you want to ask me about the documentary because I thought that’s what I was supposed to be talking about.
Again, I do feel Lee deserves some credit for promoting these properties for decades, and this analogy is not perfect, but to me Lee’s comments made me think: what if Paul McCartney was out there answering questions about something like a new Beatles movie based on the song “I am the Walrus.”
Hypothetical scenario: a reporter tells Paul McCartney: “John Lennon is not mentioned in the credits for the Beatles’ I am the Walrus film. His fans feel he should get that recognition, with the movie exposing his work to a whole new audience.”
Could you imagine Paul saying, something like, “I’m credited as one of the executive producers because that’s in my contract. But John was not an executive producer. So I don’t know what he’d be credited as. “
Imagine that. You can’t, right? Because Paul is a class act. He would be furious if somebody put out a Beatles movie, where he’s listed as an Executive Producer, without a John Lennon credit anywhere in the movie, and I guarantee he would take action.
Do I expect Lee to do something like that? Of course not. Stan Lee clearly does not care at all about honoring and promoting the legacy of Jack Kirby.
As it turned out, apparently Jack did get a credit in the film, somewhere (I recently saw Captain America and you’d need a magnifying glass to read the “Based on the Marvel Comic by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby” credit buried after all the actors in the final credit roll), but I think this exchange with Lee shows you that clearly Stan Lee is not interested in whether or not Kirby gets any kind of token credit on something like the Avengers movie. Lee actually finds the reporter’s question annoying; Lee’s there to talk about HIMSELF: his self-produced movie about himself! Is that reporter an idiot for not knowing that?
Sadly, like John Lennon, Jack is no longer with us; I wish both men were here — they both still had a lot of great art and stories in them. Fortunately for Lennon, some of his collaborators are still alive and they continue to give us new insights into John’s life and work.
Unfortuately for Jack Kirby, Stan Lee is one of his only surviving collaborators, and as you can see, Stan Lee finds even being asked about Jack getting credit in a Marvel movie — a nuisance.
