Product Description: KIRBY FIVE-OH! is a special look at the best of everything from Jack Kirby s 50-year career in comics! The regular columnists from The Jack Kirby Collector magazine have formed a distinguished panel of experts to choose and examine: The best Kirby story published each year from 1938-1987! The best covers from each decade! Jack s 50 best unused pieces of art! His 50 best character designs! And profiles of, and commentary by, the 50 people most influenced by Kirby s work! Plus there s a 50-page gallery of Kirby s powerful raw pencil art, and a deluxe color section of photos and finished art from throughout his entire half-century oeuvre. This tabloid-sized trade paperback features a previously unseen Kirby Superman cover inked by DC: The New Frontier artist DARWYN COOKE, and an introduction by Mark Evanier, helping make this the ultimate retrospective on the career of the King of comics! (A percentage of profits will be donated to the Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center.)
50 YEARS OF THE KING CELEBRATED! If you're a fan of Jack Kirby's, the last few months have been a boon for you. First we had the outstanding book `Kirby, King of Comics" published by Abrams Books and now TwoMorrows Publishing has delivered "Kirby Five-Oh". This is actually a very special fiftieth issue of TwoMorrow's Kirby Collector Magazine only this is no mere magazine. This is a treasury-sized trade paperback book, which is filled with Kirby artwork, much of it unpublished, or being seen for the first time in decades. As a fiftieth issue, Editor John Morrow presents readers with lists of the fifty best Kirby stories, covers, unused pieces of art, and character designs along with a fifty page Kirby art gallery, and fifty people who have been influenced by the "King".
The fifty best stories is a bit misleading. Rather than pick the fifty best Kirby stories, the panel of Kirby experts chose the best Kirby story by year, starting with Jack's first comic book work in Jumbo Comics #1 from 1938. It probably wasn't easy picking a best Kirby story in the late 40s and into the 1950s. By that time, superhero titles had nearly all disappeared and Jack took work wherever he could. He found himself doing a lot of romance and western comics but in 1956 he did a story for Astonishing which represented his first Silver Age work for Marvel, called Atlas at the time.
It also had to be quite hard to pick a best Kirby story once you got into the 1960s because there was just so many to choose them. This decade featured so many great creations and stories but making the cut are "The Sub-Mariner Vs. the Human Race" from Fantastic Four Annual #1 (1963), The Galactus Trilogy from 1966, and the Madbomb Saga from Captain America #193 - 200 (1976). This storyline was Jack's triumphant return to the character he helped to create 35 years earlier.
The lists are enjoyable reading but the real attraction is the bounty of Kirby art. All 50 of the best covers are reprinted along with comments from many notable comic artists and writers including George Perez, Russ Heath, Dave Stevens, and Alex Ross. There's also a lot of great photos of jack from throughout his life, both working and also with his family. The book concludes with 50 short interviews, and comments from creators who've been influenced by Jack. Even people who are considered comic legends in their own right like Alan Moore, Alex Ross, and John Romita Sr., still revere Jack Kirby. Jack may be gone but thanks to publishers like TwoMorrows, his work continues to live on.
Should be displayed for eye-catching interest Jack 'King' Kirby is co-creator of the Marvel Comics line; "Kirby Five-Oh!" is a celebration of his 50-year career gathers regular columnists from the Jack Kirby Collector magazine to provide the best Kirby story published each year, from 1938-87. The oversized, mostly black-and-white reproductions include writings about Kirby's career and contributions, and makes for an outstanding analysis of his impact. Libraries will find "Kirby Five-Oh!" difficult to shelve due to its oversized format - but then, this book shouldn't disappear on a shelf; it should be displayed for eye-catching interest.
Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch
It's KIRBY! Nuff said! Landmark issue #50 of the Kirby Collector is an oversized collection of many items including 50 best Kirby stories, 50 best covers, 50 best examples of unused art, a 50 page art gallery, 50 best Kirby character designs, 50 people influenced by Kirby, all with text, full page photos and skads of Kirby primo art, pencilled, inked, and colored! Mark Evanier, John Morrow, and much more. A beautiful tribute to the King with hundreds of full page and smaller examples of art. Quality color cover and white, nice inside pages, and a color section that is psychedelic. If you are a fan, you must have this great book or be whipped by Granny Goodness for insubordination.
50 best of everything Kirby!! This book has lots of Kirby's work and after all, that's why i bought this large format paperback. I took one star off for the crappy paper inside, but it does have a glossy cover though. Also lots of facts about kirby you might have not known.It's a list of the 50 best 'everything' about Kirby. If you love Kirby then what are you waiting for? Buy the book already...
the KING is dead long live the KING WOW, the KIRBY legacy continues to grow ! This is the capper of great tabloid issues featuring the world's adoration of Jack Kirby. Why do we all love this guy...because he was the BEST. And still is if you head into a comic shop today. More of his work is in print now then ever !!!
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