| The importance of Jack Kirby to comics can never be overstated. The man redefined the medium's look and atmosphere. His high-energy renderings, amazing concepts, and "Kirby-tech" have influenced the style of comic artists for all time, whether they know it or not. TwoMorrows Publishing releases issues of "The Jack Kirby Collector" on a somewhat regular basis. If you can stand the wait, you can eventually pick up the trade-bound format containing several issues. The trade edition is a bit smaller (dimension-wise), but it's also much easier to store and more of a bargain. With these trades, you get page after page of Kirby art, as well as articles, and interviews with those who either knew him or were influenced by him. The art isn't just pin-ups and portraits - it also includes reproductions of entire pages of comic art (some as pencil roughs), sketches, and unfinished projects for comics and animation. It can get a bit tedious at times, but there's always at least 2 interesting articles per issue. It's certainly a publication made more for the fan, but shouldn't everyone be a fan of ol' Jack? Even if you're not, I think this series does a great job of explaining to the casual reader just what made Kirby's art, vision, and storytelling so special. |