Monday, March 06, 2006

Kirby is King!






I really love the art of Jack Kirby. I've spent years studying his work, and have never grown tired of looking at it. It's just so unique and powerful. One of the nice things that's happened since his death is the amount of scholarship and care being put into maintaining his legacy. There are many sources online and in print of great Kirby art and information. For me, like countless other fans, the benefit of it all has been seeing some the wonderful rare work he left behind, like photocopies of his original pencil art or personal drawings and self-rejected pages.

Here are some Jack Kirby pencil drawings that were scanned in from magazine sources and then printed out and inked by me. I am in no way pretending that I can ink Kirby as well some of his inkers like Mike Royer or Joe Sinnott -- I was just having fun inking some drawings by the master and trying to learn what I could. I kind of view inking a Kirby drawing like doing the adult, professional equivalent of colouring a colouring book -- a fun diversion for an afternoon and pretty much foolproof as long as you stay within the lines.

Thanks always to Jack Kirby, who left behind such a rich resource of material for future students to learn from.