Kirby's Dynamic New Aliens (King Kirby 095)

We looked previously at the introduction of  Jack Kirby's world into DC's mainstream, with the Hairies providing the first glimpse of what was to follow. While Jack unveiled the Cadmus Project, the Evil Factory, and their varied offspring in the man stories, he also ran little 2 page bits to build more background for his world.
But first, he ran one of his forward thinking essays to get us thinking, too-

One of the many reasons i always enjoy when The King is writing his own stories is his tendency to explore thoughts and possibilities that society in general hasn't really yet noticed. The essays on Machine Man are another good example of the sort of deep thinking that can lie behind the wild tales we read.
.
Now here are the other 2-pagers, beyond the one we've already seen:

To wrap this one up, here's Kirby's pin-up of one of the greatest D.N.Aliens of all:

Dubblilex knows you want to argue - but don't.

text & Jack Kirby page art from Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #s 135, 143, 144, 146 & 148 (1971-1972)

Welcoming The King (King Kirby 083)

When Jack Kirby made the leap from Marvel to DC at the beginning of the 70s, there was no fan network, no internet, no information sources for the average reader. A great deal of people didn't know who Jack was, or really understand the big significance of his arrival at DC. There were announcements of his coming that really told nothing to anyone who didn't already know who The King was, and generally left a lot of readers confused. But once he arrived, a number of text pieces popped up throughout the books introducing Jack, and introducing his concepts.
Two of the best introductions were also good contrasts to each other - one was written by Jack himself, the other a recollection of first meeting Kirby by rising star Marv Wolfman.
Let's look at that one first -

Jack's written introduction to himself came with an introductory note when it appeared in Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen:

 

Last i knew, 20 years later, Lisa was still "the kid from left field".

text pieces from Mister Miracle #1 and Jimmy Olsen #133 (1971)

Prisoner Kirby (King Kirby 074)

Just a year before he died, Jack Kirby appeared on Prisoners Of Gravity, a TV news magazine broadcast in Canada. The show was a tribute to Jack hosted by Commander Rick who also interviews Will Eisner, Walt Simonson, Scott McCloud, Max Allan Collins, Kevin Eastman, Len Wein, Dave Gibbons, Charles De Lint, and Samuel R. Delany. Eisner tells the story that was shown from his The Dreamer yesterday, adding much humor to the telling. There were a lot of good bits to the show, but we're going to look at what pointed me to Prisoners Of Gravity - a partial transcript of the Jack Kirby interview segments from John Morrow, one of TwoMorrows - the home of Jack Kirby collecting. The transcription ran in Jack Kirby Collector #14.
The King speaks at the concept level on comics & superheroics:

 The whole show is worth watching, not just for the things that Jack has to say...

 ...but also for the insights offered about The King.

I'm not going to embed the videos here, but you can watch the complete program on YouTube:

 Part One / Part Two / Part Three

transcript rom Jack Kirby Collector #14 (1997) 

Young Kurtzberg (King Kirby 040)

Let's return to the Jack Kirby interview in The Comics Journal #134. Last time, Kirby spoke of his early art career. This time, let's jump back before that to his days growing up before he started his career.

For a bit of extra perspective, here's an excerpt from the interview in The Jack Kirby Treasury, Vol. 1 covering the same period:

Here's a photo of the Boy's Brotherhood Republic that ran with both interviews:

 ...and a cartoon from the BBR Reporter's 3rd Anniversary:

And, lastly, we have a sample of young Jacob Kurtzberg's first weekly strip, K's Konceptions:

Jack Kirby interviews by Gary Groth and unknown (Greg Theakston?) for The Comics Journal #134 and The Jack Kirby Treasury Vol. 1 (1990, 1982)

Early Art Days (King Kirby 030)

I mentioned previously Gary Groth's massive interview with Jack "King" Kirby back in issue #134 of The Comics Journal. Let's start digging into that a bit. But just a bit at a time with over 40 pages, it's an epic interview. Even better, Roz joins in partway through. If that name isn't familiar to you, Roz Kirby was Jack's wife for nearly 60 years. If you ever met them, you know she was very much a part of him. Also, quite conveniently for the interview, she acted as something of an external memory storage bank for Jack at times.
That's later, though. We're going to start not quite at the beginning, but close. We'll come back to Jack's early days growing up and the street code.

Today we'll focus on The King's beginnings as an artist.
(NOTE: The excerpted interview segments below sometimes skip over portions of the conversation that were less relevant to today's topic, so this is not a complete transcript of the article. Some of the skipped bits are linked to other topics we'll be covering later, and will appear at that time.)

excerpts from Gary Groth's interview with Jack Kirby for The Comics Journal #134 (1990)