Signings | Kirby Studies

22 July 2024

Comic-Con International, Events, Signings, The Comics World, The Kirby Museum

Doing Kirby at Comic-Con 2024

*Apologies to Rick Geary, Jack Kirby, and Joe Sinnott!*

This week brings, once again, the happy madness of Comic-Con International in San Diego, an event that in some ways began with Jack Kirby and continues to testify to his influence. I’ll be there this week, for the first time in, what, seven years? (I don’t think I’ve been to CCI since Kirby’s and Will Eisner’s combined centenary in 2017, which is the last time I used the above graphic.)

Honestly, I’m a bit intimated about returning to the hectic swirl that is Comic-Con. Remember, folks: good shoes, plenty of water, energy bars, that sort of thing. And patience! (Maybe don’t plan on attending two back-to-back time-certain events with less than half an hour’s transit or break time in between?)

I’ve been to Comic-Con many times (starting in 1986), but life has changed since we last went. COVID has hit. Politics have seesawed with terrifying unpredictability. My in-laws and my own parents have all passed away. Mom and Dad’s passings were hard. My wife, our daughter, and I have lived in our current house, through the pandemic, long enough to know the place minutely, almost every nook and cranny. My son and his wife have been married seven years, and are parents now, which makes us grandparents (the usual proud and doting kind!). My daughter traverses greater Los Angeles as a librarian and activist. I’ve termed out of my service to the Comics Studies Society and continue to pursue publishing projects. My wife has transitioned out of (she hates the R-word) her years as a teacher and counselor and returned to school to pursue her first love, art. I am eyeing that kind of move (the R-word!) myself in the coming few years. I watched a few Comic-Con@Home videos in 2020 but then lost touch. This blog went on a near two-year hiatus, only recently ended (good grief!). These days, I’m up to my neck in further Kirby studies work. Whew.

I’m looking forward to getting back to CCI in a smaller way than before, with a reduced schedule and, I hope, lots of get-togethers with friends. We’ll be attending the annual Teaching and Learning with Comics workshop (with Peter Carlson, Antero Garcia, and my friend and colleague Susan Kirtley) at the San Diego Central Library on Wednesday afternoon, hopefully the screening of John Kinhart’s documentary film Married to Comics (about Carol Tyler and Justin Green) on Thursday afternoon, the Eisner Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday morning, and of course the panel I’m participating in, which is about Patrick McDonnell’s recent book, The Super Hero’s Journey:

Mutts creator Patrick McDonnell’s The Super Hero’s Journey is a celebration and reinvention of the Marvel Comics drawn by Jack Kirby he loved as a kid. McDonnell will discuss this book and his upcoming Comic-Con Museum exhibit with Kirby experts Glen David Gold (Carter Beats the Devil), Charles Hatfield (Hand of Fire: The Comics Art of Jack Kirby), and publisher Charles Kochman (Abrams ComicArts). Moderated by Kim A. Munson (Comic Art in Museums).

Thanks for Kim Munson for making me a part of this panel!

There are several other Kirby-themed events happening at Comic-Con, and I hope to be able to attend some of them. Look out for:

Jack Kirby’s Mythology (hosted by Rand Hoppe of the Kirby Museum, with Tracy Kirby, Ray Wyman, Jr., Bruce Simon, and Mark Badger), on Thursday at 12:00 noon
the Comic Arts Conference session Take This Job and…: Kirby Characters, Work for Hire, and Rebels with a Cause (with Jim Thompson, Marc Greenberg, and Daniel Barer), on Saturday at 11:30am,
TwoMorrows Turns 30 (with John Morrow, publisher and editor of The Jack Kirby Collector among many other things), on Saturday at 4:00pm
and of course Mark Evanier’s Annual Jack Kirby Tribute Panel, on Sunday at 10:00am, this year with Patrick McDonnell, Rick Parker, Tracy Kirby, Dave Schwartz, and Paul Levitz along with Evanier

In addition, there are many panels featuring friends and colleagues of mine that I hope to take in. Also, we’ll be visiting, and on Thursday afternoon after 3pm I’ll be guesting at, the booth of the Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center (booth #1804), which is on my favorite part of the convention floor, in a triangle formed by the IP (independent publishing) Pavilion, the Small Press Pavilion, and the Gold and Silver Pavilion (near Lobby B2). There’s a map below, FYI, or you can find the Museum’s booth by visiting the searchable Comic-Con Exhibitor Portal and typing in “Kirby.”

I expect to be at the Museum’s booth on Thursday between 3:30 and 5:30pm, signing and selling copies of my Eisner-winning Hand of Fire: The Comics Art of Jack Kirby (2011) and the exhibition catalog Comic Book Apocalypse: The Graphic World of Jack Kirby (2015). Please drop on by, say hello, and chat with me about Kirby! My books will be discounted a bit, and portion of all sales will go to the Kirby Museum.

Jack and Roz Kirby were practically patron saints of Comic-Con in its early years, and I can think of nothing I’d like to do more at the Con than support the Kirby Museum, who are doing the good work of preserving and extending his legacy. Why not stop by and donate?

If you do get to come to Comic-Con, go easy on yourself and everyone around you, remember to stay watered and fed, walk with patience, and enjoy! It’s like nothing else in this world.

28 April 2019

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Events, Kirby in Academia, Lectures, Signings

Mythology in Newsprint: PS

The crowd awaits (John Hay and Jenessa Kenway in the foreground).

Last Friday I had an oh-so-brief but fantastic visit to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where I gave my talk “Mythology in Newsprint,” interacted (and talked Kirby!) with some wonderful people, and signed and sold copies of Hand of Fire. The talk happened at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art (which is great—check out the current exhibition, Sorry for the Mess), as part of the UNLV College of Liberal Arts’ University Forum Lecture Series. We drew a full house on a Friday night—not too shabby for a university lecture! (Of course there were jokes about choosing between a lecture and Avengers: Endgame.)

I spoke at length—man, what a patient crowd—about Kirby’s co-authorship of the Marvel Universe in the 1960s, the primacy of narrative drawing in the Marvel production process, how Kirby changed the superhero genre, and finally, how his later work, starting in the 1970s, became increasingly self-reflexive, as Kirby ironically commented on his work, his field, and his fans—a point borne out by a brief reading of Kamandi #29 (1975), “The Legend.”

The UNLV crowd was gracious, engaged, and delightful. Q&A was robust, the conversation in the lobby afterward was warm and welcoming, and the kind remarks and thought-provoking follow-up I received from so many people were profoundly encouraging. Thank you all!

Getting started. Looping a couple of splash pages from THE NEW GODS just before the talk was a last-minute choice.

Particular thanks are due, once again, to organizer Jarret Keene, my fellow Kirby scholar and friend and a great writer:

Jarret (Monster Fashion) Keene, without whom…

It was a delight to spend time with Jarret, after a gap of too many years, and to meet his partner Dr. Jennifer Keene, Interim Dean of Liberal Arts at UNLV, as well as their boys Dylan and Devon. Likewise, it was lovely to meet and talk to Jarret’s colleagues, among them Dr. John Hay (of the English Department, author of Postapocalyptic Fantasies in Antebellum American Literature) and Ben Morse (Visiting Lecturer in Social Media, and former Editorial Director of New Media at Marvel Entertainment), who kindly introduced my talk. Also, I got to meet and talk to creators Ariel Sparx and Edward Tyndall; members of the Barrick Museum team, including Deanne (D.K.) Sole and LeiAnn Huddleston, who helped me out a lot; and members of the UNLV English graduate student community, including Carly Hunter, Jenessa Kenway, and Gary Lindeburg—all of whom are doing mind-expanding research.

Finally, I have to say, it was a thrill to meet artist and author J.H. Williams III, whose conversation is as wide-ranging, joyful, and energetic as his work is brilliant, and the delightful team of Ralph Mathieu and his wife Katherine Keller, of Alternate Reality Comics—a great shop that, thanks to Jarret, I got to visit on Saturday before flying out. I regret that I didn’t get very many pictures of these fine people and spaces, but here’s one:

Jarret Keene (left) and Ralph Mathieu in the middle of Ralph’s eye-boggling super-shop, Alternate Reality.

What a pleasure. I lead a charmed life. If my wife Michele could have joined me in Vegas, the experience would have been perfect! I look forward to visiting again—and to collaborating with Jarret Keene on other things Kirby-related (regarding which, watch this space for future announcements).

PS. I believe that KUNV (the Public Radio station at UNLV) will post audio of my talk in the coming weeks. I’ll link to that when it happens!

26 April 2019

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Events, Kirby in Academia, Lectures, Signings

Mythology in Newsprint at UNLV!

Newsflash! Tomorrow, Friday, April 26, 2019, I’ll be at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, giving a talk titled “Mythology in Newsprint: Jack Kirby on Heroes, Demigods, and Comic Book Fandom,” as part of the UNLV College of Liberal Arts’ University Forum Lecture Series.

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This talk will take place from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art / Harry Reid Center, Room 135. It will focus on Kirby’s role in the revival and transformation of Marvel Comics in the 1960s, his mature turn toward myth fiction and epic fantasy, and, as I near the end, the self-reflexive questioning that marks his late work. Expect a ton of images, much talk about narrative drawing, and several minutes on Kamandi! Books will be sold and signed afterward.

I promise that this image will be involved (click for a better look):

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I owe this opportunity to the co-sponsorship of UNLV’s Departments of English and History, World Literature Second-Year Seminar, Great Works Academic Certificate Program, and College of Fine Arts — and to the generosity of my friend and fellow Kirby scholar, Jarret Keene, Assistant Professor in Residence and World Literature Coordinator for the UNLV English Department.

Jarret is a widely published poet, a musician, a journalist, the author of Monster Fashion (2002), A Boy’s Guide to Arson (2009), and the rock band bio The Killers: Destiny Is Calling Me (2006), editor or co-editor of several Vegas-themed anthologies, and a fiercely original soul who is writing his own book about Kirby (I can’t wait!). Our friendship dates back to, I think, 1998, and he was one of the editorial voices who helped Hand of Fire become a better, more focused book, for which I can’t thank him enough.

Vegas, here I come!

19 July 2017

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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!

19 October 2014

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Events, Lectures, Signings, The Comics World

Talking Kirby at ZAPPCON!

This weekend I’m in Fresno, CA, presenting and signing books at ZAPPCON Year One: the first go-round for what promises to be an annual Central Valley comics/gaming/cosplay/fan culture convention. Thanks to my brother Scott Hatfield, who brought me on board, my wife Michele Hatfield, who makes everything better, my collaborator Alison Mandaville of Fresno State, who will be joining me at the podium tomorrow, and ZAPPCON’s David Holland, who scheduled my appearances and made it possible for Scott and I to arrange our exhibitors’ table!

ZAPPCON is happening at the Convention Center’s Valdez Hall. Tomorrow, Sunday, Oct. 19, I’ll be signing at our “Educators’ Corner” table on the exhibitors’ floor between 10am and 4pm, except when I’m doing these panels:

10:30-11:30am: The Superhero Reborn—or, How Jack Kirby Co-Authored the Marvel Universe (and More) from His Drawing Board (Sanger Room)

1:30-2:45pm: Comics in the Creative Classroom: Students and Teachers Doing Things with Comics (Sanger Room)—a roundtable with Alison Mandaville (CSU Fresno), John Beynon (CSU Fresno), Jennifer Crow (Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children’s Literature), Josh Walker (Coalinga Middle School), and me.

If you’re at ZAPPCON, why not take in these events, and/or drop by our table to talk comics, Kirby, education, the works? Today, Saturday, was a blast, and tomorrow promises to be even more so!