Jack

jackkirby08

Jack Kirby would have been 99 years old today. I write and talk a lot about the man because I think a lot about the man and I get asked a lot about the man.

I like that people seem to be getting that while he was an extraordinary artist, the great drawing was an extension of something more remarkable about Jack: He was a great thinker. He had ideas and visions and insights on a whole different level from the way most of us have ideas and visions and insights. Jack's were vast and prescient and always about what he called The Big Picture.

A teacher I had back in high school used to say that the mark of a great writer was not fully evident when you read their work but rather when you re-read their work. Was there something there the second time you didn't get at first read? The third time? The tenth? Because, she said, a great writer sets you to thinking about the characters and the concepts…and as you think, you get more and more out of what's on the paper.

I was 17 when I met Jack. At the time, I admired how he drew. Just about everyone did. But working for him for a few years and knowing him for the rest of his life, I came to more admire how he thought. A fellow I knew back then — a devout Marvel fan — went out and paid a visit to the Kirbys, who were sometimes way too hospitable in terms of inviting strangers into their home. The fan had but one goal: He wanted a free, original sketch from Jack.

Didn't want to talk to him. Didn't want to ask him questions. He just wanted Jack to do him a drawing, preferably of all his favorite Marvel heroes in a big crowd scene.

He came away disappointed that he didn't get it. Jack did do a lot of free sketches for people over the years, largely because he liked pleasing people. But he cut way, way back on that in the seventies because of several incidents where he realized that all he was doing was giving someone something they could and would sell for a lot of money. His profession — writing and drawing comic books — did not pay him so well that he could indulge in that kind of philanthropy; not when he was constantly worried about being able to provide for his own family.

So instead of spending a half-hour drawing something magnificent for his visitor, Jack spent a couple of hours talking with the guy, telling him stories, etc. The fan left angry, unaware he'd been given something far more valuable than a pencil sketch of The Hulk.

You cannot go visit Jack since we lost him back in 1994. Still, a pretty high percentage of his work remains in print or is easy to find because it was recently in print and will soon be again. It has a wonderful endurance and an ability to speak to new generations, far more so than other concurrently-created work which was perhaps more celebrated at the time. I like reading Jack over and over and damned if there isn't something new there every time I revisit a story I read before. It's not as good as actually talking to him but it's still pretty good.

At the moment, I'm revisiting a lot of his staggering output because I'm trying to finish a long-promised book that will tell the world everything I know about Jack. When you see it, which I hope will be some time next year for his centennial, you will understand why it took so long. Some of that is because I had to keep stopping work on it to wait out certain legal matters. Most of it is because he is such an awesome subject that it takes a lot of pages and a lot of thinking to get anywhere near close to The Big Picture.

Happy 99, Kirby. I just started to write, "You left us too soon" but with someone like you, any time is too soon. I'm so glad we still have so much of you around — what you did and what you inspired.