Tom Spurgeon of The Comics Reporter has just interviewed me (Charles Hatfield) about Hand of Fire and Kirby! You can find the interview here.
Tom put so much work into this: not only his reading and questioning, which led me to think about some very interesting and important issues, but also the formatting, illustrations, and links. It’s wonderful to be featured on such an excellent newsblog.
I’m very grateful for the opportunity, and, again, for the thought-provoking questions!
Benjamin Woo, a super-sharp scholar of comics and culture at Simon Fraser University, has posted a review of Hand of Fire to his site, BenjaminWoo.net. It’s very encouraging. Woo calls the book “smart and sharp and learned, but accessible to the interested layperson and shot through with genuine love for the material.” Nice to hear!
Also, Gary Picariello’s review for Yahoo! calls Hand of Fire “enjoyable and thoughtful reading” that “makes the reader think.” I particularly appreciate his description of the book as “critical thinking at its best.”
Meanwhile, Rob Steibel, over at his Kirby Dynamics blog, has nicely sounded the trumpets! Thank you, Rob.
Reader response has started to appear on amazon.com, of course, with the usual mixed results (heh). Nothing like contrasting doses of ego-boosting affirmation and skull-rattling provocation all at once!
Now that I’ve got my copy—my first copy—I can confirm that, yes, Hand of Fire is out. Looking good, too:
HAND OF FIRE: The Comics Art of Jack Kirby from Charles Hatfield on Vimeo.
I look forward to hearing from readers. What are you waiting for? 🙂
Comments are starting to trickle in from readers who have received, or even read, Hand of Fire. Yes!
Me, I’m still waiting for my author’s copies—but I’m delighted to be able to say, Hand of Fire is out now!
Hype Alert: I’ve just created an audio introduction to Hand of Fire:
Kirby Studies 