A host of Kirby recreations courtesy of French web designer Michel Ravey.
To discover the illustration process behind Michel’s recreations, click on each of the Kirby
originals below.
Doug Hazlewood inks two new pieces from Kirby originals.
Doug writes: “The FIGHTING AMERICAN piece I inked over bluelined vintage pencils I found online. I worked with them in Photoshop to make them not so ‘squatty’. In making the image more proportional to 11 x 17 it made him not look so blocky and a bit more slender. I liked it better. Maybe the original was not quite as squatty and it happened with someone saving the copy of the image that way. I know someone inked it for publication somewhere before, as there is a color version online. This is my crack at the pencils. I remember how exciting it was to see the ads for the Harvey reprint back in the 60’s and I finally got one I think through the mail. I had been unaware of the character.”
X-MEN #9 title splash recreation. “I definitely tried to be very faithful to the original one. Can’t improve on that Kirby/Stone goodness!! Inked over printed bluelines.”
Scan of original splash page by Kirby and Chic Stone via What If Kirby
Third post this week from the brush of Doug Hazlewood. This time Doug recreates the cover of The Avengers #3 by Kirby and Paul Reinman.
Doug Hazlewood inks Avengers #12 from original Kirby pencils.
Doug writes, “I just finished this AVENGERS #12 cover recreation. I inked it (everything–lettering, too…nothing is pasted on) over bluelines of the cover art. I did want to keep some things very faithful to the original, but not just trace every line. I adore Kirby and Stone and this was inked on 11 x 17 Strathmore Bristol board. I’ve always felt that the big piece of rock with Wasp under it must have been retouched at the offices after Chic inked it. Maybe they wanted her to show up more. I rendered it in a different fashion, as the printed cover just looks ‘fiddled with’ there.”
Today marks the 96th anniversary of Jack Kirby’s birth and to celebrate KIRBY-VISION proudly presents our annual portrait gallery in honour of ‘The King of Comics’.
Jorge Freire
Craig Peters
Craig writes, “I’m more a writer than an artist, so I took one of my favorite pieces of Jack’s work and … well, rewrote it.” – Click Image to enlarge.
Derek Langille
For an extra visual treat check out Derek’s Flickr collection of 165 Kirby Double-page spreads.
Also joining in the Birthday celebrations with non-portrait pieces:
Jeff McKenzie
Volker Stieber
Les White
And finally, Italian Renato Stevanato gifted not one but five portraits which will form part of his own celebratory post at his blog, cartoonstherapy.
A huge thank you to all the artists who took the time to contribute to today’s Birthday celebration, making it our biggest portrait gallery ever. And of course a huge thank you goes out to Jack Kirby for his continuing inspiration. Long live The King!
Jack Kirby Marvel Tribute courtesy of Joe Zierman.
A second post this week from Marc Basile as he tackles, with his usual flair, a couple of pieces from some of Jack’s more crowded 1960’s books.
Original artwork by Jack Kirby, please click to expand. Avengers artwork via comicartsfans.
Just time for another heads-up about the forthcoming Kirby tribute show, Hail to The King!, which opens this week at the Resistance Gallery in London. Co-curator Jason Atomic has been drumming up publicity at his blog for what promises to be a Kirby-tastic night. Here’s just a small selection of some of the artists contributing:
Thomas Perkins makes a quick return to the blog with two wonderful pieces. First up we have Super Adaptoid, one of Thomas’ all time favorite weird villains. That’s followed by a Fantastic Four tribute, The Quantum Quartet, created for friend of Kirby-Vision, Evan Shaner.
Poker night at The Avengers Mansion courtesy of Bob Strang.