Ah! Yesterday afternoon I spent of couple of hours in the storefront window at Newhall’s Brave New World Comics, talking Kirby and signing copies of Hand of Fire. Awesome! Thanks again to BNW proprietor Portlyn and everyone who took part. I met some cool people and got to do one of the things I love best, i.e. share my enthusiasm and wonder at the life and work of Jack Kirby.
Below are a few snaps from the event, taken by the wonderful Mich:
Right on the heels of The Comics Journal‘s spirited roundtable about Hand of Fire, Brave New World Comics, my local, Eisner Spirit Award-winning shop—and one of my favorite haunts in greater Los Angeles—is hosting a signing for Hand of Fire this very afternoon!
Yes! Today, Saturday, May 12th, from 3:00pm to 5:00pm, Brave New World, in the yellow Victorian building at 22722 Lyons Avenue, Newhall, CA 91321, will be hosting Kirbyana with a vengeance. Read all about it at BNW’s ever-busy Facebook page!
I’ll be previewing and reading from Hand of Fire, discussing the book’s major themes, and revealing a bit of how the book came to be—then taking questions, chewing the fat, and personalizing copies. Once again, in fiery red ink!
It’s a great pleasure to do a signing at a shop that I respect and that has been such an important part of my comics buying and reading life over the past decade. Brave New World is a genuine innovator in comics retailing, and a friendly, welcoming, super-smart shop. I hope some of you, my readers, can make it there today! You can find directions to the shop here.
Looking forward to meeting you!
And thanks to Portlyn Freeman of BNW for setting this up!
Wow! The Comics Journal has just posted the first chapter of what is to be a three-part roundtable on Kirby and Hand of Fire!
Assembled by Jeet Heer, this roundtable also includes Sarah Boxer, Robert Fiore, Glen David Gold, Doug Harvey, Jonathan Lethem, and Dan Nadel. That’s a great lineup!
The first chapter deals with Kirby from several different angles, prompted by Jeet’s opening remarks. The later chapters will engage Hand of Fire in particular. Already I’ve found much food for thought here—and of course I’m looking forward anxiously for what comes next!
Professor and comics scholar Jason Tondro, author of the recently published Superheroes of the Round Table: Comics Connections to Medieval and Renaissance Literature—which itself has much to say about Kirby, along with Arthurian legend, Shakespeare, Grant Morrison, and many other topics—has posted a first response to Hand of Fire on his blog. Some highlights:
Hand of Fire is a big sloppy wet kiss to all of us who think that the author is still relevant. One of Charles’s arguments—and there are several—is that Kirby’s life experience, the shape of his career and the conditions under which he worked, had a huge influence over the art and stories he produced. Charles spends plenty of time doing textual analysis of Kirby’s pages, looking at how they work and what they say, but he always does it in the context of the argument that these pages are expressions of Kirby’s values, values shaped by very real forces which can be traced and outlined. I’m a historicist by training and this kind of argument goes a very long way with me.
Big sloppy wet kiss? Ha. I like that!
Charles shows a keen awareness of his reading audience when he walks us through semiotic theory, and an awareness of the audience is no less refreshing in a scholar’s second book than it is in a freshman essay. Most of my academic life is spent teaching, and when Charles walks us through some of his classroom experiments teaching semiotics to his students, this is nourishing food to a starving man. It makes the book useful beyond its title. If Charles had “only” written an informed, articulate, and thorough examination of Kirby’s art, that would still have been damn impressive. But it is also a practical handbook on how to teach semiotics theory in the classroom and how to put it into practice on the page.
I’m delighted to know that the book’s treatment of semiotics is proving so useful, and that Jason finds its practical emphasis on application helpful. The theory-speak in Chapter 1 presented a real challenge rhetorically, so these comments cut right to something that concerned me greatly. Good to know!
Simon & Kirby expert and blogger extraordinaire Harry Mendryk recently commented on Hand of Fire in encouraging and properly critical terms, noting some of its strengths and fencing with some of its claims. I’m delighted to hear from Mendryk, one of the most expert and dedicated readers of Kirby’s early work and an important source of information about Simon & Kirby in particular. His Simon and Kirby blog is essential reading! (Note that Mendryk performed the art restoration on Titan’s recent and splendid Simon & Kirby Library.)
I’m encouraged to know that Harry finds the book’s discussion of the origins of the Marvel Universe balanced and credible, and that he considers its take on the Fourth World “the best that I have ever read.” I also find his comments about Kirby’s art, which take exception with one of my claims or at least my phrasing, very important. Here’s his conclusion:
[Hand of Fire] is a great book if you want to enter into a discussion about Jack Kirby and his art. You may not agree with everything Hatfield writes, but you will understand why he takes the positions that he does and you may [find] his ideas challenging.
Heartening words indeed! Thanks, Harry, for extending the conversation.
