Jack Kirby's spin on Green Arrow during his late 1950's stint at DC produced some highly entertaining stories and successfully injected a more modern feel into the Golden Age character who had labored long and hard in the back pages of Adventure Comics and World's Finest Comics. Those adventures written by Dave Wood and Ed Herron were collected in 2001 in a handsome and highly readable little package, where is where I encountered most of them for the first time.
The cover of that package showcased this image of Green Arrow by Kirby done in his later style.
Recently I happened to notice (and I know it's pretty obvious isn't it) that the Green Arrow pose is very much like this one of the Simon and Kirby creation Bulls Eye, a western character they cooked up for their Mainline Comics brand. Above is an image of Bulls Eye by Kirby inked by Bill Black for the cover of his early AC magazine Bill Black's Fun Comics #3.
That Kirby figure was produced by Kirby for his famous portfolio in the 70's. And it's clear that he had a go-to pose for bowmen.
No big thing, but just something I noticed.
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It's the same drawing. Royer made some changes when he inked it and turned him into Green Arrow. Kirby was already gone by the time this came out.
ReplyDeleteThe Green Arrow book came out in 2001, several years after Kirby's passing. I did not know this lore. Thanks.
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Apparently he was given the inked drawing and had to reverse-engineer it. I found this relevant interview with Royer: http://comicfdc.blogspot.com/2013/01/mike-royer-green-arrow.html
DeleteThanks for that. How I didn't know this is incredible. I see now it's mentioned on the net in a few places. Sigh.
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