Comics will break your heart- Jack Kirby
I was about 18 years old aimlessly figuring out my life and besides sneaking out of my room to smoke marijuana and collecting jazz records, I was spending the beginning of my adulthood at my local library. Being a book reader as a kid thanks to my mother as she would take me to libraries every weekend mostly to read comics. My love for comics always started with my love for Spiderman and the X men which eventually evolved into a love of manga and anime and to even indie and European comics then something changed as I found this book in my local library.
If you’re a comic book fan how do you not know Jack Kirby?He’s hailed as one of the greatest comic book artist of all time. You’ve seen his influence on american pop culture even if you don’t know his work. Being a pillar in the comic landscape and a hard worker, his love of old myth tales and high sci fi concepts like chariot of the gods impacted his art heavily. His work has been a source of ideas and inspirations to thousands of many artist and writers. Helping creating the marvel universe with Stan lee would be what mostly he is known for but being and artist in those times restricted him for so long. He decided to leave for dc comics to make his own creator owned work at dc comics he called the FOURTH WORLD.
The fourth world is something I’ve always been aware of ,cause of my love for dc comics and the introduction of the fourth world characters in superman the animated series.The art was the first thing that popped out at me it was so different then the usual comic book stories but a collage of art and expression telling this mythic story that put you in the action. Characters like Orion, a hardened warrior from the the utopia new genesis but son of dc comics interpretation of the devil and lord of apokolipse Darkseid or Lightray a free spirited hero of new genesis. The forever people Kirby’s interpretation of the flower power generation also weird characters such a O.M.A.C. , Etrigan the rhyming demon or Clarion the witch boy. A post apocalyptic story about the last boy on earth Kamadi which you can argue it vague resemblance to the cartoon adventure time.
Born in 1917 in New York city ,Jacob Kurtzberg will use his talent and work ethic to leave the poverty stricken lower east side and become one of the most world renowned artist st the time.Stating with drawing romance comics to monsters he will eventually team up with Stan lee to create at the there companies answer to the popular justice league from dc comics ,The fantastic four. He worked harder than even modern day comic artist by turning in at least 15 pages of comics a week. The deal with the fourth world is that it was Kirby Unchained there was no restriction or battling a certain writer(Stan Lee) about characters and story. It was all Kirby from beginning to end his artistic expression not bound by anything.
The new gods were an idea Kirby always had even in the marvel days with his ideas for Thor. He wanted Ragnarok to happen and kill all of the Asgardian and old mythic gods and replace them with the new gods ,that didn’t go well with his partner or the company as a whole so eventually like most of the old artist in marvel, he left and went to dc comics.Dc comics let him have complete creative control of the books but the new gods books didn’t quite sell as well as dc hoped. Eventually he would come back to marvel and make new weirder and fantastical characters such as devil dinosaur and machine man also a small book that was like his new gods idea but wasn’t as successful called the eternals or as you will eventually see it as the new billion dollar marvel and Disney franchise in the Marvel Cinematic universe starring Angelina Jolie.
To me creating art is to create something meaningful that has a long lasting impact and influencing on what comes next, I think no artist next to Leonardo de Vinci personifies that besides Jack Kirby. Being influential to so many artist in comics today in contrast on how his entire career he was always looked down upon by major publishers. During the 90’s in old comics conventions on the other hand he would have lines of young people wanting to meet him as he was the architect of their childhoods. Reading the omnibus of his work was so exciting to me in a way I haven’t felt since reading Dr Seuss when I was 5.
There was a quote he said to a young convention goer “comics will break your heart” that quote describes to me what being an artist is about doing what you’re passionate about even if you don’t gain anything out of it, other than the work itself. Jack Kirby’s art and hard work made a path into the subconscious of american culture and watching Avengers Endgame make a billion dollars is proof enough ,the impact of what was considered children's books can be made into symbols of our modern society. Reading the fourth world and what it took to create it was so inspiring to me that it made me get over my fear and finally go to film school and pursue my creative interest.As a artist be fearless and trust your work be Kirby and be untethered by what holds you back.
