Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center

From the “If You Could” project of London design studio HudsonBec:

Kam Tang – “Power Cosmic”

London-based illustrator Kam is one of the most successfully diverse graphic artists working today. A constant re-invention of his aesthetic means his output is consistently exciting, cementing himself as a leading figure in the industry for many years to come. A list of collaborations and clients as long as your arm include The Chemical Brothers, Gnarls Barkley, Burberry, Adidas, the London Design Museum and Royal Mail.

The November print expires in 22 days from posting of this message

Kam is generously donating a percentage of his sales to the Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center.

• John Noonan posted an article on the Netcetera section of the findingDulcinea site.
• Sleestak posted an entry on its Lady, that’s My Skull blog.
• Paul Pope posted an entry on his Pulphope blog.
• Jacob Russell posted an entry on his Geekdad/Wired blog.
• Warren Ellis posted an entry on his blog.
• Gerry posted an entry on his Partners West blog.
• Matt posted an entry on the alert nerd blog.
• Dr. K posted an entry on his Doctor K’s 100-Page Super-Spectacular blog

• Bob Heer posted a 91 image cover slideshow on his Kirby Museum-sponsored Jack Kirby Comics Weblog.
• Museum member Mark Badger posted an entry on his Comics and Code blog.
• Mark Evanier posted a few paragraphs and a photo of Jack on his Newsfromme blog.
• Tom Spurgeon posted a number of Kirby art samples on his The Comics Reporter blog.
• Bill Henry posted contributions from a number of comic book creators on the Mid-Ohio Con’s Mighty Mighty MOC-Blog.
• Kevin Church posted an entry on his BeaucoupKevin(dot)com blog.
• Chris Sims posted an entry on his Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog.
• Heidi MacDonald posted an entry on her The Beat blog.
• Patrick McEvoy posted an entry on his Megaflow Graphics News blog, including his photo with Kirby from the mid 1970s.
• Fake Stan Lee posted an entry on his Stan’s Soapbox blog.

We’d hoped to have an upgrade to our web site all ready for a big virtual ribbon-cutting ceremony today, Jack Kirby’s 91st birthday, but the darn t-s wouldn’t cross and i-s wouldn’t dot. Best we can do is announce a few things.

Kirby Documentary

As Rand announced at the Jack Kirby Tribute panel at Comic Con International: San Diego, the Kirby Museum is starting fund raising and pre-production on its feature-length Jack Kirby documentary with Jon B. Cooke and Andrew D. Cooke. You may know the Cooke brothers by their work as Montilla Pictures on the wonderful “Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist“, and Jon from his exceptional Comic Book Artist magazine. As a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation, the Museum is going to be funding the production through fund raising. In fact, we are seeding the project with funds from our members’ Annual Dues. No doubt, this documentary will be a powerful tool in getting the word out about Kirby and his work, as well as a valuable resource to aid in funding of further Museum projects. Please consider lending your support to this project.

Retrospective

Also through the generosity of our members, and mentioned at the CCI:SD Kirby Tribute panel, the Museum has started a small original art acquisition program. These pieces will be the foundation of our Traveling Retrospective, as well as being helpful resources when we are queried by our peer educational, cultural and literary organizations looking for Kirby assets.

Kirby Kinetics and Web Site

Once we’ve finished moving the core of our web site over to the open-source Drupal Content Management System, we’re going to be premiering a new blog titled “Kirby Kinetics“, written by Norris Burroughs, which will focus on analyses Kirby’s art. Norris was inspired by Greg Theakston’s article “That Old Jack Magic” in Amazing Heroes 100 from 1986, which Greg has given permission to post, as well.

Also in the queue are an article on the Boys Brotherhood Republic by Stan Taylor, videos from San Diego and audio files from Jack Kirby Quarterly’s Chrissie Harper.

Special thanks

The Museum would like to thank Dez Skinn and Chrissie Harper, publisher and editor, respectively, of Jack Kirby Quarterly 15, for committing to donate a percentage of their revenue to the Museum.

A BIG Thanks again to Trustee John Morrow for the support at San Diego, and the percentage of Kirby Five-Oh! and Kirby Checklist – Gold Edition.

John Hodgman, author, humorist, resident expert on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, “PC” on the Apple “Get a Mac” ad campaign, compiler of hobo names, provided the New York Times with a sweeping review of not only the Fourth World Omnibus Volume 4 and Mark Evanier’s Kirby: King of Comics, but also Eric Shanower’s Age of Bronze and Brian K. Vaughn & Pia Guerra’s Y: The Last Man. Of special note is Hodgman’s acknowledgment that Age of Bronze and Y: The Last Man are experiencing the kind of success that Kirby had envisioned in the 1970s for comics’ future.

Below is only a portion of Kirby Museum happenings since our last update of this page:

Documentary

The Trustees have agreed to a team and their proposal. Rand HOPPE is working with the team on pre-pre-production issues. More news as the project progresses.

Play

We are hoping to produce a showcase or reading of a play about Jack Kirby written by a Museum member. Efforts are afoot with the intent to have it appear in New York City in April. Again, we’ll share details as they firm up.

Big Apple “National” Convention

Thanks to Jon B. COOKE, Allan ROSENBERG and Mike CARBONARO, the Museum had a table at the New York Big Apple “National” Convention this past November. Once again, Richard BENSAM and Lisa HOPPE volunteered and helped Rand the whole weekend at the table, which was situated next to Mark EVANIER and Sergio ARAGONES. Original Kirby art was scanned through the generosity of Richard HOWELL, Anthony SNYDER, Becharra MAALOUF and more. Somehow, we missed Simon & Kirby blogger Harry MENDRYK when he stopped by Sergio’s booth

Carl Solomon Book Fair at the Howl! Festival in Tompkins Square Park on NYC’s Lower East Side

Thanks to James ROMBERGER and Marguerite VAN COOK, Rand manned a table at the Carl Solomon Book Fair at the Howl! Festival in Tompkins Square Park on NYC’s Lower East Side. Lisa HOPPE and Richard BENSAM generously volunteered their time both days, and Trustee John MORROW generously donated some of his Kirby publications for us to sell and build the Museum’s coffers. Simon & Kirby blogger Harry MENDRYK stopped by, as did Andy COOKE, director of the documentary “Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist.” All those manning the booth enjoyed talking Kirby with the folks who stopped by.

A wonderful way to start the week of Jack Kirby’s 90th birthday was the publication of Brent Staples’ “Jack Kirby, a Comic Book Genius, Is Finally Remembered” in the Op-Ed section on 26 August. Although the piece was spurred by the appearance of Kirby art on 8 of the 20 Marvel Super Heroes stamps issued by the United States Postal Service, Mr. Staples noted the growing interest in Mr. Kirby.

California

Rand and scanner were set up at the TwoMorrows booth at the huge San Diego convention again this year. He was pleased to talk with Kirby fans like David Schwartz, Glen Gold, Kasra Ghanbari, and Andrew Cooke, to only mention a few. Once again, Mike Thibodeaux, Mike Burkey, Anthony Snyder and more allowed us to scan Kirby pages for our archive.

After the convention, Lisa Kirby also invited Rand and his wife Lisa to stop by her house north of Los Angeles for a visit. A lovely time was had by all, with Rand scanning many pieces from Lisa’s personal collection.

Tom Morehouse starts off “Kirby’s Real Folks” exhibit

Tom Morehouse, who curated our Kirby’s Civil War exhibit, sparks another show titled Kirby’s Real Folks. Says Tom, “whether it was a world leader or just some kids he met at a convention; Jack’s universe was peopled with real folks.” While Tom has gathered examples from some of the more obscure and rare items in his “kirbykrypt” collection, we hope that everyone will contribute. See the exhibit page for more information.

Kirby Museum table at Lower East Side Art Festival

On 8&9 September the museum will be manning a table spreading the Kirby word in Tompkins Square Park in the Manhattan Island’s East Village/Lower East Side. Jack Kirby spent his early life a few blocks away. He fought in the ghetto’s streets, then worked hard and got out; never wanting to return. The neighborhood has changed a lot since then, but in some ways it’s the same. TwoMorrows is sending some Kirby books for fund raising purposes, we’ll have samples of our membership gift posters for ogling and enticement – as well as a large print of the spread from Kirby’s autobiographical “Street Code”. Special thanks to festival organizers James Romberger and Marguerite Van Cook for their help.

What a pleasant surprise to be contacted by Ken Wong, President of New York City’s Museum of Comic and Cartoon and Art (a/k/a MoCCA), who asked for our support for the Stan Lee exhibit he was co-curating with comics scholar Peter Sanderson. Ken hoped we would help find some original art and review interpretive materials like display and narrative cards. Our Board of Trustees agreed that the Museum should take the opportunity to participate in educating the show’s vistors about Jack Kirby’s contributions to the work he produced for Marvel in the 1960s with Stan Lee. The opening reception took place in the evening of the first day of the New York Comic Con, where Rand and Lisa Hoppe enjoyed speaking with Stan Lee, Ken Wong, Peter Sanderson, Kirby Museum member Tom Morehouse (who loaned art and Marvel memorabilia to the show), Jim Salicrup, Danny Fingeroth and more. The exhibit runs through 3 July 2007.

“Jack Kirby SHOULD have a museum!” – Stan Lee

Rand scans at NYCC and WonderCon

Rand Hoppe recently set up his scanner at the TwoMorrows booth at NYCC and WonderCon, where he was able to add archival quality scans of pages from “Bombing Out On The Panama Canal” from Our Fighting Forces 158, “The Devil and Mister Sacker!” from Kamandi 12, the 2001: A Space Odyssey adaptation, an uninked, unused Black Magic cover and the Molecule Man pin-up from Fantastic Four Annual 2, among others. Thanks to Tom Kraft, Tom Morehouse, Mike Thibodeaux, Albert Moy, Anthony Snyder and more for allowing their Kirby pages to be scanned.

Don’t forget, we aren’t just looking for archival scans. We’re interested in compiling scans or photos at any quality level. Visit the project’s web page for more information.

Kirby Museum Shop – Amazon and Tales of Wonder affiliate links

The Shop hasn’t come together as we prematurely announced in our last newsletter. However, over at his Museum-sponsored Jack Kirby Comics Weblog, Bob Heer offers the next best thing – he’s compiled two pages, Kirby In Print Guide and New Kirby – Announcement Page, that contain affiliate links to the Amazon and Tales of Wonder web stores. If you buy using those links, the Kirby Museum will get a portion of each sale to fund its programs.

* Bob Heer’s Jack Kirby Comics Weblog
* Bob’s New Kirby – Announcement page
* Bob’s Kirby In Print Guide

We certainly hope you’ve stopped by Harry Mendryk’s Simon & Kirby blog. Harry’s been regularly writing some fascinating studies on Simon & Kirby work.

Jack Kirby pencil art is now viewable in our Gallery. TwoMorrows has donated the results of its efforts in scanning the photocopies of Kirby pencil art to the Museum, and we’ve made selected pages from Captain Victory, Eternals, New Gods and OMAC available for viewing on our web site. Museum members, however, get a little bit more, as we’ve made some Captain America scans available to members only. So now, your membership dues not only helps us with in our operations and programs, but it gets you a nice poster and grants you greater access to awesome Kirby pencil art.

Original Art Digital Archive update

Once again, Kirby Museum Vice-President John Morrow donated some of his TwoMorrows Publishing booth space at Comic-Con International: San Diego to the Kirby Museum. This year, Museum member Tom Kraft and Secretary/Treasurer Rand Hoppe were manning a large-format scanner acquiring archival quality scans for our Original Art Digital Archive project. Thanks to the generosity of the Kirby family/Mike Thibodeaux, art dealers and collectors like Anthony Snyder, Glen Gold, Dan Forman, Bechara Maalouf and Dan Forman, the Museum now has archival scans of all interior pages from 1968’s “When Wakes The Sleeper!”, first published in Captain America 101, as well as pages from Mister Miracle, Tales To Astonish, New Gods, Journey Into Mystery, a Sky Masters Sunday strip, pencil art commission pieces, full color presentation pieces, and more.

We aren’t just looking for archival scans, though. We’re interested in compiling scans or photos at any quality level. Visit the project’s web page for more information.

Kirby Museum panel at CCI: San Diego report

Lisa Kirby, John Morrow and Rand Hoppe all took part in a special Kirby museum panel in July at the San Diego convention. We discussed our plans for the organization and shared some Jack Kirby video clips with the attendees. Our thanks again to Tom Kraft for helping with the audio/visual tools.

Coming soon!

Unfortunately, the opening of the Museum Shop has been slightly delayed.