The Comics Journal Library Volume 1: Jack Kirby

From Booklist
Jack Kirby launches, in oversize format, the Comics Journal Library, meant to collect interviews and essays from throughout the magazine's 25-year run. Kirby (1917-93), perhaps the most influential of all comic-book artists, is best known for his lengthy stint at Marvel Comics, where, with scripter Stan Lee, he defined the modern superhero with such creations as the Fantastic Four and the Hulk. His career began in the early 1940s, when he co-created Captain America. It has been estimated that he drew some 25,000 pages over the course of half a century. In addition to three sizable interviews with Kirby and his wife, the volume includes critical assessments and four pieces covering Kirby's battle with Marvel over creative rights and ownership of his original drawings. His distinctively dynamic artwork appears on nearly every page of this overdue tribute that, like the latest special edition, demonstrates that comics can sustain the same sort of critical and historical treatment as other art forms. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Booklist, 1 September 2002
[Kirby's] distinctively dynamic artwork appears on nearly every page of this overdue tribute.

Entertainment Weekly, Ken Tucker
An oversize paperback that does justice to the brawny, sprawling work of "King" Kirby, the godfather of superhero-comic-book drawing.

The List, 3 October 2002, Miles Fielder
Reproductions of Kirby's dynamic artwork make for a handsome coffee table book, while interviews and essays provide a fascinating account.

Book Description
Like any popular medium, comic books in the 20th century were marked by trends. Unlike music or film or television, comics can point to a small handful of men who, through a combination of imagination and artistry, dictated those trends. Chief among the idea men was Jack "King" Kirby, a primary inspiration for both Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and George Lucas' Star Wars films. Kirby's dynamic art and limitless imagination were responsible for much of what made comics great from the 1940s through the '70s. With early collaborator Joe Simon, Kirby created Captain America during World War II and, after the war, the romance comics genre that dominated the industry in the '50s. As the creative vision behind Marvel comics in the '60s, Kirby (with writer Stan Lee) rejuvenated superheroes with such characters as The Fantastic Four, The Hulk, Thor, and The X-Men. In the '70s, Kirby's ambitious "Fourth World" series of comics for DC Comics set a new standard in epic genre storytelling; today it is widely acknowledged as an inspiration for George Lucas' Star Wars mythos. In Jack Kirby: The Comics Journal Interviews, the first of a series of collections of interviews and essays from The Comics Journal—the field's premier magazine of comics news and criticism for the past 25 years—Fantagraphics Books presents a comprehensive look at the man and the creator through a series of exclusive in-depth interviews and critical essays. In his own words, Kirby describes the circumstances of the creative process, his many contributions to the comics medium, and candidly discusses his personal and professional triumphs and disappointments, including his landmark battle with Marvel Comics in the 1980s over the intellectual properties and original art created work-for-hire for the publishing giant over a 25-year period. Jack Kirby: The Comics Journal Interviews is published in an oversized art book format of 12" x 12" that spotlights Kirby's dynamic artwork as well as his words. Kirby, universally considered the "King" of the superhero genre in comics, passed away in 1993. Black-and-white illustrations throughout with a full-color section.


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