Category: Cartooning

Dave Stevens, born mere weeks before me, has died of leukemia. Dave was a comic book artist. A very good one. In fact, he was so good he was able to stop drawing comic books and instead concentrate on covers, pin-ups, and portfolios. Sadly, in his case, the good really did die young.

Stevens took an idealized vision of Bettie Page, the iconic 50’s “underwear model,” and paired her with a version of the character introduced in a 1949 Republic movie serial called King of the Rocketmen. With better art than story, and with installments sometimes years apart, Stevens had a cult hit on his hands, with a fan following that was big enough for it to be picked up by Disney and turned into a movie. Unfortunately, Disney was the wrong studio at the wrong time to make The Rocketeer, and the movie didn’t take off.

Actually, Mark Evanier has given us plenty of preparation for his new book, Kirby: King of Comics. Years worth, in fact!

The book exists! It’s here! Mark’s first pass at a biography of comic book creative dynamo Jack Kirby does not disappoint. I’ll give it my usual short review for something that I consider to be a must-get item for anyone with any interest and inclination in the subject — get it! The page count is relatively low, about 220, but the format is B-I-G, as it must be to do justice to Jack’s powerful art. Reproduction and printing are faultless, and World Economy worriers take note — it was printed and bound in the U.S.A.

I’ve had the book for literally only an hour, but I can assure that, as expected, it does the job of providing a complete, but not overly detailed, history of Jack’s life and work. I’ll quote one passage, from pages 34 and 35.

[Jack] may also have fantasized the tale of his one day at Pratt Institute, a story he told often in later years. Details changed with each telling, but essentially involved him landing a few minor illustration jobs — minor in both importance and salary. These jobs, he said, turned around his father’s attitude about there being money in drawing. It was arranged for Jack to enroll in the famed art school, but the very next day Ben Kurtzberg lost his latest tailoring job, and his son had to quit art school.

It’s nifty to know there was some sort of connection between Kirby and the name Pratt, however tenuous it may have been! Personally, I don’t know if art school would have helped or hindered Jack’s natural talent.

I’ve scanned a couple of photos from the book. The one at left is from 1966, and it shows what I would guess might be one of the last pictures of Stan Lee before he started wearing hairpieces. The other picture, of Evanier with Kirby, is undated, but I’d guess sometime in the 80’s. If you want to hear Jack’s voice, go back to this previous posting of mine

Bravo, Mark! THANK YOU, Mark. Kirby: King of Comics will hold us over until you complete your ultra-deluxe, obsessively detailed, KING SIZE edition.