Kirby Aliens

Do you love Kirby aliens as much as I do?
I can never figure out whether they are supposed to be funny or serious.
I hope they meant to be taken seriously because that makes them even funnier.

DON'T FORGET FLAGSTAFF

If you happen to live in Arizona, drive over for Saturday or Sunday's show.

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2010/07/ill-be-at-flagstaff-film-festival.html

Kirby Before Marvel: Anatomical Structure

The Kirby style most people are familiar with is the superflat 70s and 80s Kirby. At least that's the style people generally imitate when they draw in his style.

I love his 60s Marvel superheroes, not just because of his iconic surface stylings, but because of how solid his drawings were. You can see that even better in his earlier comics.
Kirby is known for making up muscles that don't exist, but the forms the surface muscles lay on tell me he actually has a very good feel for real anatomy.
Look at the beautiful and solid shapes of Thor's arms. Absolutely amazing! -and the upshot of the barrel chest. Very convincing.

He drew great hands too - and they weren't flat and squared off like his imitators draw them.


I think Kirby is not merely a stylist, but a fantastic draftsman who must have studied and drew everything he saw all the time. The guy could draw scenes in any locale, in every genre and from any angle. -And he had to do tons of these drawings every day because he was a comic book artist. By comparison, a magazine illustrator had a leisurely job. He could pose and copy live models and spend a lot of time on a single scene.

Ger Apeldoorn has been posting a lot of 50s Kirby art from DC comics and you can really see how solid and studied his skills were before he settled into what is known today as the Kirby style.

http://allthingsger.blogspot.com/search/label/Jack%20Kirby

Thanks To Donators

Thanks to all these folks and I hope you are getting something out of it!
BTW, I have started my first private and semi private lessons. Rather than having one all-encompassing course that each student has to fit into, I am tailoring classes to the individual's needs and their stage of skill. If you live in the LA area and are interested, put a comment and a link to some of your work.

Classes would be no more than 2 or 3 students at a time.

If you don't live nearby, keep digging through these online lessons and tips. There's plenty for you to absorb here.

http://johnkcurriculum.blogspot.com/

Toy Interlude

Ron Ferdinand Interview 2

b) Who were all his ghosts?

The names I recall are Fitzgerald, Al Wiseman, Lee Holley, Bob Bugg and later Frank Hill….there were a few more that escape me at the moment. (Marcus Hamilton - jk)
http://www.dennisthemenace.com/marcushamilton.html

When did Ketcham start using assistants?
I think he did the whole enchilada for the first year or two.

Who did the Sunday pages in the 50s and sixties?

Y’know , here, I’m really not sure.
I know Fitzgerald was doing Sundays but there are some names I’m not sure of.
I think Lee Holley did Sundays for a while as well as the Golden Books.
And there was all the product stuff, too.

When did the comic books start up and was that a completely different team of people?

I think it was pretty much the same artists doing everything. Of course the dailies were always Hank’s baby.

You know I am a fan not only of Ketcham, but of Owen Fitzgerald too. I find it fascinating to see 2 of my favorite cartoonists working together.

Do you now anything about their working relationship?

Not really. Hank and Fred Toole always spoke very highly of him.

How they met?

Not sure.
Fred Toole said Owen developed some kind of nervous condition that caused his drawings to get looser and looser until they were no longer usable. He moved to LA and got treatment and went on to work in animation

How were the stories crafted? Was Ketcham involved?

Don’t think he was very involved with the comic book writing until we were doing the Marvel comic.
Fred Toole was the main writer for the earlier Fawcett comics.

I read his book and remember that he said he worked with a team of gag writers for the dailies.
Did you work with the same people? Were they the same writers for the comic book?

Nope. Different guys.

http://greatestape.blogspot.com/2006/03/how-to-be-cartoonist.html