Dear Times Editor,
I was delighted to see an article on August 27, 2003 concerning my favorite artist, Jack Kirby. I was not so delighted to see accompanying art that was neither drawn by Mr. Kirby nor featuring characters he created.
The lead image on your web edition featured an image drawn by another artist—one of markedly less quality. This not only leads to erroneous assumptions from the casual reader—this is what an artist who started his craft in the 1930’s draws like?—it is misleading as to the nature of Mr. Kirby’s association with the characters.
The image featured, from left to right, characters named Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, the Beast, and one so generic I cannot identify her (I am a fan of Mr. Kirby’s work, not the current crop of flashy excess). Mr. Kirby did indeed create the visuals for the original versions of Cyclops and the Beast, but I believe a Mr. Dave Cockrum was responsible for the visual creation of Storm and Colossus—characters who debuted much later.
Then, in your slideshow, you show an image of Hugh Jackman from the “X-Men 2” movie. To my knowledge, Mr. Kirby had nothing to do with the conception or creation of the character Wolverine. The visual of Wolverine was probably created by Mr. Herb Trimpe, who chronicled his first appearance.
Perhaps the fact that those characters are members of the X-Men posed a source of confusion. One can think of it this way: while Mr. Joe DiMaggio was certainly a great Yankee, he most certainly never associated with Mr. Derek Jeter.
Sincerely,
Gorjus
No more posting, eh? Too busy with all the work, eh? I’m not buying it. I will, however, buy you a beer at the “new” Cherokee this thursday evening. Dang.
I think the unidentifiably generic figure is Jean Grey, believe it or not, shorn of her flowing tresses. The art’s from the new Ultimate X-Men series; one of the Kubert bros drew it—Adam or Andy, I can’t remember which one, the one I like less so, anyway (the other one is drawing Neil Gaiman’s 1602 right now, which rocks so far).
For me, whatever frustrations seeing Hugh Jackman et al may have stirred up was more than compensated for by the Mister Miracle images—what a great design, what a great character. He’s the only one of that whole New Gods cast I can really stomach, though (besides Darkseid).
HR
herc!! i think you’re right. my intial feeling was that it was rachel summers—perhaps it was a conscious decision of theirs to make her look similar.
haven’t read 1602 yet, but i want to. x-men was undeniably my favorite comic & mythos for a good five or six years of my life—but i think it turned rank around the jim lee time.
i can’t stand the baby kuberts. ugh, what hacks. i think their father is wonderful, but they are little more than journeymen. the “logan” miniseries is a low point, but its particularly banal plot—this is what i’ve been waiting twenty years of my life to learn??—didn’t help.
Have you been picking up Grant Morrison’s recent work on New X-Men (collected in trades now)? His first two arcs on the book—collected as “E is for Extinction” and “Imperial,” and the more recent “Riot at Xavier’s” are all kinds of brilliant—Morrison manages to keep the necessary angst, but makes everything a whole lotta fun, something that the X-Men haven’t really been since the Byrne/Claremont heyday. I think most writers since then have been too awed by either the characters or the big-name creators from the past and so have always played it safe; Morrison has no interest in that. He’s not everyone’s cup of tea, though.
Did you read the 80s Giffen/Maguire Justice League? My Mister Miracle devotion started there…disappointed to see that he’s not in the limited series reluanch thing they’re doing.
HR
yes and yes again! i don’t like the current x-men storyline—with the fantomex stuff, and weapon fifteen? but it makes better sense than most wolverine stuff.
i have unequivocably enjoyed all of grant morrison’s stuff—especially the fact that he lets them be WEIRD AS HELL. i remember an alan moore-authored captain britain from MANY years ago where the title hero was complaining about having to walk. “i fly everywhere. i’m not used to walking.” very neat take, and morrison does it one better.
he’s probably been my favorite since i first heard of him—on animal man and doom patrol, my two faves growing up. i’m proud to own a few pages from each series in the “good” time period. if you promise not to tell anyone, i’ll even talk about how i’m a vegetarian (seventh year) because of animal man . . .
likewise, i loved justice league for what i like about morrison: humanity, or perhaps realism. i loved that series, although without mcguire’s super-realistic pencils it fell off. have you seen the kind of “reject” one-shot that’s coming out, about all of those characters?
boy, i love comix!! now i want to read them all nite long. dammit, herc! i promise to post more comics stuff in the days to come (since i’ve apparently completely abandoned my ‘i don’t have time’ thang).
oh wait!! i forgot to say . . . did you ever see the BRILLIANT steve rude one-shot miracle man series from, oh, say ‘86?? me & pollan just bought a couple more copies of it—i have one at my dad’s place somewhere. if you don’t have it, i’ll SEND you a copy. dripping with kirby perfection.
gclark, the same goes for you! i reckon i owe you a big bucket of loot round about now.
Hey, seriously? That would be swell! I haven’t seen it, but would love to. My e-mail address is below; we can even work out some kind of trade iffen ya want. A friend of mine here just completed his collection of the Eclipse Alan Moore Miracle Man run, after paying $90 or so for #15 (or one around there). He’s justifiably proud, and justifiably protective.
And thumbs up on Animal Man—Morrison’s last story is one of my all time fave comic book stories. Are you following The Filth? I am indeed reading Formerly Known as the Justice League (I think issue 3 comes out next week or the next), and it’s been pretty good—not quite up to the level of the old series, but worthwhile. You’re right about that book needing Maguire—I liked the Adam Hughes era pretty well, but the Ty Templeton fill ins and so on just didn’t work. I remember reading that Luke McDonnell, who did Ostrander’s Suicide Squad in the 80s, was originally slated for JL—I like him fine, and his grittier style suited SS, but the series wouldn’t have been half as successful with him.
The other thing I generally rave on annoyingly about, besides Morrison, is Christopher Priest’s Black Panther run (and now his run on the Crew, which is apparently, sadly, getting cancelled with issue 7). Did you follow that at all? Smart, smart, fun writing.
As the dissertation work grinds on and on, I’ve been saying more and more often that I wish I could just go get a job as asst. editor at Marvel.
Back to work…
HR