True confession: As a kid growing up in the mid-1970s, I didn't "get" Jack Kirby. I was asked on Twitter a few weeks ago if I was in the market for the Kirby Returns King-Size Hardcover. Nope, I am not. While I already own the Behold: Galactus! hardcover and would like to get the Kirby is Mighty King-Sized Hardcover and the Kirby is... Fantastic! King-Sized Hardcover, I really hold no love for the King's return to Marvel. For that matter, I couldn't say I'm a fan of his short tenure at DC - but that's more to the fact that those years fall just before I became a regular reader of comics. But even then, it was mainly Marvel Comics. So the DC stuff has always been on my "I should really check that out someday" list. Perhaps that's my loss, because I know there are those who absolutely love Kirby's Fourth World and Kamandi.
My childhood memories of Jack Kirby are his fingers - chunky and boxed on the ends. I'd often look at my own little hands and wonder who had hands with square fingers? Of course Kirby's Silver Age material was always in print, in Marvel's Greatest Comics, for example, as well as in the Origins of Marvel Comics series of trade paperbacks from Fireside Books. I always liked the older FF and Captain America art I'd seen, and often wished that the then-present stuff still looked like that. But up against the Bronze Age's young guns? Kirby's art seemed distant to me. Of course, the years have shown me how immature I was, and I have a much greater appreciation for Kirby across his career.
Today I just want to celebrate some of Jack Kirby's pencil work, mainly in the form of convention sketches. Even here, when the King might have just banged out an image in a couple of minutes, we feel the energy. Jack never left his fans wanting in that category, and I hope you'll feel likewise today. Thanks to the wonderful folks across the Interwebs who have shared these works that I in turn bring to you today.
