For The Morbidly Curious

Some time back on the now defunct Kirby-L there was some debate as to whether Jack Kirby had actually had a heart bypass operation.  One Kirby friend claimed he had been swimming with Kirby and had never seen a bypass scar, but just recently I was viewing some Kirby video and I think I see some evidence of a bypass scar.

Judge for yourselves by looking at these screen captures:

I know that hair does not grow in scar tissue, so when you look at this earlier picture of Jack with all the visible chest hair, it's fairly obvious that something changed:

Kirby-L R.I.P.

R.I.P.

Well, Kirby-L was finally shut down last night.  I'm not sure what the point of doing that was.  This incarnation of Kirby-L had been around since 1999 and was an off-shoot of a list by the same name which had been started even earlier by Chrissie Harper in 1996.

A number of splinter groups have been started in an attempt to replace Kirby-L, but, as of this writing, none of them even come close to the number of members Kirby-L had at the time of it's closing which was well over 700.

At this time

"Jack Kirby Creates" has 27 members

Kirbyville  has 32 members

JackKirby  has 51 members

Personally, I think it would have been more admirable of the Kirby-L moderator to offer the list back to it's original creator Chrissie Harper than to simply "nuke" it in this inelegant way.

Jack thinks killing Kirby-L "stinks"

Kirby Double Page Splash

Kirby made great use of the double-page splash.  Click HERE to see 103 of them on one site!  (Thanks to Dr. Marc Miyake for pointing me to this page)

Jack Kirby

Kirby at the Drawing Board

The KirbyMuseum has just uploaded a video onto YouTube of Mr. Kirby at his drawing board.  Originally shot by Kirby friend and associate Greg Theakston in 1983.  It's an interesting glimpse of Jack at work.

I would have preferred the camera be situated on the left so that one could actually see the lead hitting the paper, but it is still a treasure, and it's great to hear Jack and Roz once again.

Click HERE to enjoy.

Joe Simon turns 97

Jack Kirby's longtime partner, Joe Simon, turns 97 today!  Happy Birthday, Joe, you are immortal!

Joe and his most famous creation, Captain America

Joe does "The Last Supper" his way

In the 1970s, Sandman #1 was the final Simon and Kirby collaboration.  The first issue was a tremendous seller, so the Simon&Kirby team ended on a high note:

Alternate unused cover based on a design by Jerry Grandenetti
Jack Kirby-pencils/Joe Simon-inks

Kirby on Television

Jack managed to make it on to television a number of times.  Here's a few images from his appearance on the 1970s "Hulk" television show where he played a police sketch artist:

 

Below are some images of Jack and his wife Roz on the short-lived Bob Newhart program "Bob":

Roz Kirby

Kirby was also interviewed a number of times.  Below are some images from "Entertainment Tonight" where Jack was interviewed by Catherine Mann:

And here's Jack being interviewed by WXII  Channel 12 Winston-Salem North Carolina:

It's a shame that, despite numerous television appearances and newspaper interviews, Jack Kirby is not more well-known to the general public.

Kirby Casual Friday

I got a number of emails regarding the Kirby Casual Friday photo:

I thought you might like a closer look at the Kirby-Tech image Jack was working on:

Thanks to Kirby-L whipping boy Robert Steibel for sending me the above scan many moons ago. :-)  Check out his blog:  Kirby Dynamics

Jack Kirby