Comic Book Apocalypse | HAND OF FIRE

19 July 2017

Comic Book Apocalypse, Comic-Con International, Events, Signings, The Kirby Museum

The CCI Kirby Museum Booth, plus What I’m Doing at CCI

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I’d like to crow about what I’m doing at Comic-Con International: San Diego this weekend, but more importantly, I want to talk about the Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center.

The Kirby Museum is the epicenter of grassroots Kirbydom, a champion of comics and Kirby scholarship, and an incredible repository of images and history. It’s also the work of a great and generous team.

They will be at Comic-Con International: San Diego this weekend, of course, telling the world about Jack Kirby and his art. Showing his art, in fact, and inviting everyone to share in the project of Kirby studies. All convention long, the Museum will be displaying 2100 images from Kirby’s original art—a stunning exhibition of Kirbyana. What’s more, their booth will play host to artists and commentators like Mark Badger, Ray Wyman, and the great Kirby collaborator Mike Royer—all part of a concerted celebration of Jack’s centenary.

As if Comic-Con’s exciting slate of Kirby centennial and Will Eisner centennial events weren’t enough, the Kirby Museum team will make its booth the very HQ of Kirby studies right on the exhibit hall floor! That’s Booth #5520, in the Gold and Silver Pavilion, just across, as usual, from the TwoMorrows booth (where of course there will also be a wealth of Kirbyana, including issues of The Jack Kirby Collector and the new Kirby100 book, courtesy of the great John Morrow and co.). You really should visit that Pavilion.

Signing and selling: Thanks to the Kirby Museum’s generosity, I get to spend some time signing and selling my Kirby studies books at the Museum’s booth. Copies of the Eisner-winning Hand of Fire (2011) and the Comic Book Apocalypse exhibition catalog (2015) will be available, and a cut of the proceeds will go to the Kirby Museum! Look for me on:

Thursday, July 20, 3:30-6:00pm
Friday, July 21, 3:00-4:00pm
Saturday, July 22, 2:00-5:00pm

I look forward to talking with anyone and everyone with an interest in the King!

Biographical and Autobiographical Comics: Besides reveling in Kirbyana this weekend, I have the honor of moderating a panel on nonfiction comics with four great cartoonists: Box Brown (Andre the Giant; Tetris), Sarah Glidden (Rolling Blackouts; How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less), Sonny Liew (The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye; The Shadow Hero) and Mimi Pond (The Customer Is Always Wrong; Over Easy). We’ll be discussing the slippery relationship between fiction and nonfiction, with reference to their wonderful books. That’s Biographical and Autobiographical Comics, on Friday morning, July 21, from 10:00 to 11:00 am, in Room 28DE. You couldn’t ask for a stronger set of creators in one panel!

31 March 2016

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Comic Book Apocalypse, Kirby in Academia, News, TJKC

Kirby Panel Transcript Lands This Week!

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The newest issue of The Jack Kirby Collector, #67, hits comic shops this week—edited, designed, and published by the great John Morrow, as always. Every issue of TJKC is crammed with good stuff, and this one is no exception; it includes two interviews with Kirby as well as a lovely reminiscence by John himself. It also includes the transcript of the panel discussion at CSU Northridge last September, based on our exhibition Comic Book Apocalypse: The Graphic World of Jack Kirby and featuring Scott Bukatman, Doug Harvey, Adam McGovern, Andrei Molotiu, Steve Roden, Ben Saunders, and me. This is a far-ranging discussion, taking in perspectives from fandom and academia, from art history, literature, and cultural studies, and from the very personal—our first memories of Kirby—to such dauntingly big questions as “Does comic art belong in galleries?” and “What is Art, anyway?” I’m proud to have been part of this rich, thought-provoking conversation.

Unfortunately, due to my own mistakes, the panel transcript got rushed into print in raw, mis-edited form, and without the approval of my co-panelists. This means that the version included in the print edition of TJKC #67 does not reflect the editorial input of Scott, Doug, Adam, Andrei, Steve, or Ben, and contains several mistaken names, mis-attributed statements, and mis-heard lines. The responsibility for these errors is solely mine, and I apologize to my colleagues for green-lighting this flawed and unapproved transcript. In the mad, breathless rush of the past few months, that is the one thing I really regret.

Fortunately, John Morrow has graciously made it possible for us to include a thoroughly revised and corrected transcript in the digital edition of issue 67, and also to make the whole article available as a free download. To get this download, go to the “FREE stuff!” section of the TwoMorrows website, at:

FREE Jack Kirby Collector #67 Supplement

It will look like this:

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To be clear, subscribers to the digital Jack Kirby Collector should automatically see this revised, corrected version of the article in their digital copies of #67. Subscribers to TJKC in print should find a small information card in their mailed copy of #67 directing them to the free download.

This revised digital version of the transcript entirely supersedes the print version, and is the one I hope Kirby fans and scholars will cite going forward.

My thanks to John and to my brilliant co-panelists for their patience, understanding, and revisions. I am very proud of the final result!

18 March 2016

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Comic Book Apocalypse, Events, Other Thinkers on Kirby, The Kirby Museum, Uncategorized

Just Draw! Mark Badger Brings Kirby Studies and More to SVCC

Going to the Silicon Valley Comic Con this weekend? Look out for Kirby stuff, Kirby studies, and ace cartoonist Mark Badger!

Tomorrow through Sunday, March 18-20, Mark, wearer of many hats–artist, teacher, Comic Book Apocalypse essayist, and Kirby expert among them–will be appearing at the inaugural SVCC at the San Jose Convention Center, where he’ll be doing a lot of great things:

Manning a booth on behalf of the Kirby Museum (that would be booth AA2 H) in collaboration with underground comix artist Bruce Simon. They’ll be selling the Four Faces of Evil poster for the Museum, plus Museum T-shirts and sundries, plus examples of their own work–and copies of our Comic Book Apocalypse catalog, as a Museum fundraiser!

Co-presenting, with Bruce Simon and puppeteer, writer, and longtime Kirby associate Steve Sherman, the Kirby panel A Graphic Apocalypse, on Sunday at 2:00pm. (You can consult the SVCC schedule here.)

Presenting his own interactive workshop, Just Draw, a session on “drawing, mindfulness, comics, and storytelling,” on Friday night from 8 to 9pm. This is based on Mark’s new publication, Just Draw, which he describes as a manual for “stressed out” artists who want to stop worrying and “get their work done.”

Did I mention Mark’s own work? How about his amazing, multipart Abstract Kirby project? How about his now complete Kirby-inspired opus, William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, collected for the first time anywhere, just in time for SVCC? Great stuff.

If you don’t know Mark’s comics, you’re missing out on some wonderful cartooning. I learned to recognize his work back in 1988, when his pencils, inks, and colors on a Martian Manhunter miniseries (scripted by J.M. DeMatteis) hipped me to his distinctive style: swooping, slashing, and bold, abstracted into modernistic pattern and pure vectors of force, taking lessons from Kirby and Picasso alike and wreaking havoc with superhero conventions. I followed him to later projects such as Batman: Run, Riddler, Run (1992, scripted by Gerard Jones) and Animal Rights Comics (1996, scripted by Joyce Brabner). His resume since then has been strange and awesome.

Mark is not only a terrific comics artist, but also a teacher and activist. His current projects, such as Just Draw, pull these threads together. His “Daily Kirby” exercises (a 3-year-long series of devotional studies to the King) have to be seen to be believed. Read more about Mark’s career here, and if you’re going to SVCC, look up Mark and tell him I said hello and thanks! Mark’s been one of the voices reminding me of just how important it is to keep up the dialogue between critics and artists–and his own recent work amounts to an amazing creative and critical encounter with Kirby’s work.

17 March 2016

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Comic Book Apocalypse, Kirby in Academia, My publications, News, Uncategorized

The Apocalypse Now Available at Comic Shops!

I’m delighted to report that the exhibition catalog for Comic Book Apocalypse: The Graphic World of Jack Kirby, co-edited by Ben Saunders and me, and published by IDW in partnership with the CSU Northridge Art Galleries, has at last arrived at comic book shops across the country!

That’s right: the CBA catalog, published last fall, made it to comic shops yesterday, March 16. Kirby fans and scholars, look out for it!

It was a labor of love, and is a trove of Kirby artwork, Kirby lore, interpretation, analysis, and appreciation, as well as a complete documenting of the record-setting Kirby exhibition at CSUN in Fall 2015! For further information, and images, see my posts of January 26, December 5, and October 30, below.

More Kirby news forthcoming!

8 March 2016

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Comic Book Apocalypse, Kirby in Academia

Still Waiting on the Apocalypse (set your doomsday clocks to March 16)

I’m sorry to report that the exhibition catalog for Comic Book Apocalypse: The Graphic World of Jack Kirby, which I previously announced would be reaching comic book shops in January, then in February, and then on March 2, has again been delayed. The new release date is a week from tomorrow, March 16, which has been confirmed for me by IDW Publishing and by local shops. So, Kirby fans and scholars, please ask about the catalog at your LCS on March 16!

My posts from February 18 and January 26 give more context, including links to detailed info about the book. Please scroll down to check those out!

I hope to post about recent developments in Kirby studies next week, in time for the March 16 release of the catalog to local shops. Please watch this space!