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I’m bringing a few of these lovely silkscreens to our booth (532) at NYCC today. $60.

Come celebrate the “King of Comics” with the Kirby Museum at NY’s Javits Center this weekend! We’ll have books, magazines, postcards, posters and portfolios. Also, a library of Kirby wonders. Take some of our stickers and feed a newly fashioned Mother Box with your donations! Bring your Kirby original art for scanning/inclusion in our Digital Archive. Daily raffles for new/renewing members!

Jack Kirby’s Julius Caesar: The SPQR Portfiolio

We’ll be offering a limited edition of a small portfolio featuring the costume designs Jack Kirby created for a 1969 production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Each of the twelve images is printed on 5″ by 7″ 50 lb. acid-free 100% cotton rag paper.

Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist

We’re sharing our booth with Montilla Pictures, who will be selling DVD and Blu-ray copies of Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist. (I love that the first voice heard in the documentary is that of Jack Kirby’s.)

Just look at what we scanned in Secaucus, New Jersey on Sunday:

Thanks to the wonderful Comic Art Con hosted by Joe Veteri and Dan Gallo of Comic Art Showcase, thirty-seven new pieces of Kirby art were added to the Original Art Digital Archive.

Many thanks also to Bechara Maalouf, and, of course, Kirby Museum Trustee Tom Kraft for making these digital acquisitions possible.

And hats off to Hans Kosenkranius, Brad Savage, Will Gabriel, Anthony Snyder, Rich Donnelly and all the other generous collectors and dealers who allowed the Museum to scan their pieces.

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.

Unfortunately, Lisa Kirby has stepped down from the Board. Lisa’s early support for the Museum’s founding by joining the Board and gifting the posters we’ve been offering as Membership premiums was critical. I’m sure the other Board Members join me in thanking Lisa for everything she has done for the Kirby Museum, and wishing her and her family all the best.

Blog news!

Since I feel I don’t do it enough, I’d like to thank and congratulate our Museum bloggers for their incredible work.

Harry Mendryk just finished an incredible 38 chapter “serial post” titled “Art of Romance,” where he examines all of the Simon and Kirby studio’s romance comics work. (He started in early 2008.) Highly recommended! (Harry’s also been doing the amazing restorations for Titan’s Simon and Kirby library.)

Jason Garrattley is offering a Kirby portrait gallery on Kirby-Vision today!

Bob Heer’s doing a great job keeping us up-to-date on what Kirby is coming to the comic shops and book stores. Buying Kirby from Amazon via links on Bob’s Jack Kirby Comics Weblog will put some revenue in the Museum’s coffers…!

Norris Burroughs’ examinations of the themes and visual language of Kirby’s work in Kirby Kinetics are compelling. Hope you’ve been reading…!

After having been posting some charming Kirby tidbits on his own for the last five months, I’d like to welcome Rob Steibel’s Kirby Dynamics into the Museum’s fold.

I’ve put quite a bit of time on the website’s software the past few weeks. Drupal/Gallery and WordPress are all up-to-date. >whew!<

There are more Kirby Museum blogs and subsidiary sites in the works, folks. Stay tuned.

Please Visit the Museum’s New FACEBOOK page.

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!

Tom Kraft, who made the video slideshow above, loaned many pieces of Kirby art to the Fumetto exhibit.

Have you seen Tom’s great What If Kirby website?

I’ve posted the slightly-longer-than-an-hour Kirby discussion that Dan Nadel, Paul Gravett and I had last Saturday at Fumetto on Livestream.com. (If YouTube approves the Kirby Museum’s Non-Profit application, I’ll move the video there.)

I’d like to acknowledge and thank Greg Theakston for gifting his Kirby papers to the Kirby Museum – these papers were the source for the Street Code and the V-mail included in the Fumetto exhibit.

Having listened to the talk many times while preparing it for posting, I’m compelled to clarify and/or correct:

• Many pre-code comics were not “for adults, not kid stuff,” they were all-ages. An important distinction.
• Kirby’s wartime ailment was trenchfoot, not frostbite.
• The Fourth World wasn’t only “expensive” considering the sales level, affidavit fraud by distributors contributed to the low sales levels used in that equation.
• I should not have included Bob Powell along with Joe Orlando and Wally Wood regarding artists’ concerns about being paid for writing the comics via their pencil artwork.

That’s Tom Morehouse speaking from the audience a few times. Tom Kraft manned the video camera. The last question, about Kirby’s output, is asked by Fabrice Stroun.

Thanks again to Fumetto, Dan and Paul.

Four video tours shot and narrated by Paul Gravett, co-curator with Dan Nadel of this Jack Kirby exhibit mounted by Fumetto International Comix Festival, 2010. I’ve included all four in a YouTube playlist – they should play in sequence.

The Fumetto International Comics Festival at Lucerne, Switzerland is mounting “Jack Kirby: The House That Jack Built”, the first major retrospective of original art by Jack Kirby. Over 150 works spanning from 1942 to 1985 will be on display from 1-9 May. Included will be all but two pages from “Whosoever Finds The Evil Eye!” (1966, Fantastic Four 54), the seven page “City of Ghouls!” (1954, Fighting American 2), the 22 page “Flower” (1973, Kamandi 6), the cover and 16 pages for “Good-Bye Broadway, Hello Death!” (1975, Our Fighting Forces 156) as well as rare sketches and key pages from throughout Kirby’s career.

The exhibit is curated by Dan Nadel and Paul Gravett.

Among those lending pieces from their collections are Kirby Museum members Tom Morehouse, Tom Kraft and Jonathan Ross.

The Kirby Museum is a proud supporter of Fumetto’s exhibit.

I’m pleased to be able to offer a replica of what could arguably be Jack Kirby’s first comic book, 1937’s “The Romance Of Money” as a new membership premium.

A panel feature that Kirby produced while working for H. T. Elmo at Lincoln Feature Syndicate, “The Romance Of Money” was not syndicated out to the many small newspapers that took Kirby and Lincoln’s other strips and editorial cartoons.

Instead, the panels were compiled into a booklet which was given out for free by banks. Just as the banks put a “house ad” on the back cover, I’ve taken the space to include some descriptive text.

There was also a 1947 edition of “The Romance Of Money” which featured red ink and fewer pages.

Thanks to Jerry McClanahan and Tom Morehouse for the scans.