Tag: Jack Kirby

I usually don't comment on my activity or lack of it any more, but I have pressing matters which preclude commenting on some of the big stuff going on—I'm still working on that damn TCAF report—including the ongoing Jack Kirby/Avengers/creators rights matter. Or the matter of the day as I like to call it. I've been saving up my links and girding my loins. I guess I feel a bit defensive about it because not commenting on something is often attacked as condoning this or supporting that. My thoughts are complex and I don't want to dash something off; it's too important for that.

For Australian Fashion Week, Romance Was Born designers Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales went all Jack Kirby with an "exuberant" mix of stripes and patterns.

WOW, Creator Rights day on the Internet rolls on with what we might call Stan Lee's Hilary Rosen moment: an unforced error that cannot be rolled back. In an interview with Moviefone, of ALL PLACES, Stan is asked POINT BLANK about whether Jack Kirby should be credited on THE AVENGERS:

In the words of Charlie Brown.....ARRRRRRRGH.

On October 21st, Stephen Bissette from The Center for Cartoon Studies met up with Oliver Goodenough from The Vermont Law School to discuss Jack Kirby and his relationship with Marvel Comics. The Comics Journal put the audio up and it is a good listen with a nice James Sturm introduction

Earlier today we noted Stan Lee's penchant for pacting. Sadly, his partner in the Marvel Age, Jack Kirby, did not live to see the era where his creations and influence dominate pop culture. In fact, his family is right now engaged in a bitter dispute with Marvel Comics over the rights to the characters he created. Some have called, passionately, for a boycott of Marvel over this. and they would have the high ground. But if a boycott isn't your style. Nat Gertler has started his own way to remember The King, a program called A Buck for Jack, which suggests you donate a dollar every time you go see a movie based on Kirby's creations.

New developments in the Atomic bankruptcy and Grant Morrison vs Chris Ware, and a new take on Kirby/Lee.

Now this is a great way to spend your money! Cartoonist Jason Young has spent the last three years slowly commissioning an array of great indie artists to redraw FANTASTIC FOUR #9, the issue co-starring the Sub-Mariner. It's a Coober Skeeber/Strange Tales mash-up that proves the talents of all involved. Young writes:

Based on what we know of publishing data, August 8th, 1961 was the day FANTASTIC FOUR #1 arrived on newsstands. Tom Brevoort sent out a birthday tweet. Although there's talk of boycotts and justified anger over Marvel's shoddy treatment of some of its greatest talent over the years, we should still mark this day. Pairing the protean storytelling of Ditko and Kirby with the breezy populism of Stan Lee created some of the greatest adventure comics that have ever been, and we suspect they'll be read for another 50 years.

The must-read from yesterday is Michael Dean's look at the actual court documents ALSO, Spanish cartoonist Pepo Perez has his own comments on creator ownership, here in the Google translation. That's makes for some awkwardness, but also some great stuff.

Spinning out of a Facebook discussion, cartoonist and educator Steve Bissette is making a case for a boycott of Marvel over how shabbily they have treated Jack Kirby and his heirs:

A sad day for those who hoped, perhaps against hope, that Jack "The King' Kirby's heirs would get some of the money their father's creations have made over the years. Characters including Captain America (created in the '40s with Joe Simon), The Hulk, Iron Man and Thor-- you know, if they called next year's potential biggest-movie-of-all-time THE AVENEGRS "JACK KIRBY'S AVENGERS" they would not be far from the mark. Deadline has analysis, seeing it as a big setback for lawyer Marc Toberoff, who has won many unlikely IP cases against giant studios in the past: