What say you?
Friday, April 4, 2014
Jack Kirby Drew Spider-Man?
I came across these images on Tumblr from back when Jack was The King. For some reason that is easy to see from these few examples that he was NOT the right artist for Spider-Man. Steve Ditko is and was the one who made Spider-Man the TEEN everyman. That was the key to his popularity and appeal. Kirby's Spider-Man has too much bulk. The sketch of him with the Hulk and the Thing gives us a Spider-Man who looks to be 8 feet tall and 400 lbs. The perspective is just 'off' somehow. I always thought that Kirby could draw anything and knock it out of the park but apparently even the very greatest can have an off day.
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7 comments:
Kirby was always da' MAN but he was definitely more suited to the god-like heroes - even his ladies were sloppin' over with grandiosity.
Not the ideal artist for Spider-Man, but beautiful stuff nonetheless.
You said it. Even 'bad' Kirby is better than 90% of what's out there.
I like Rob Liefeld...
Then you, sir, are a maniac.
Kal, you mentioned somewhere that you've got Origins of Marvel Comics and Son of Origins of Marvel Comics. In the first one (I think), Stan Lee tells the story of rejecting Kirby as the original Spider-man artist (For Amazing Fantasy #15, the origin story) and replacing him with Ditko, for exactly the reasons you cite.
Jack's signature is still on the cover of Amazing Fantasy #15 and the Kirby estate claims credit of the design of the Spider-Man costume, but it is widely accepted that Ditko drew the interior books because Steve was able to draw more "everyman" types of characters.
I must have stored that factoid in my mind and it came out in my post, Jordan.
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