The Epic Life Of The King Of Comics!

Jack Kirby - The Epic Life of The King of Comics is a great read. Scioli has been an acolyte of "King" Kirby his entire career, with a bombastic style which evokes Kirby's boldest artwork. But he's done something a wee bit different in this charming biographical comic book. 

Using a spare six-panel page, Scioli takes us back to Kirby's earliest days as a kid battling on the streets of New York City. Jacob Kurtzberg was the son of immigrants who like most immigrants just want to work hard and find a way forward to improving their lives. With what appear to be loving parents, Jacob has to learn in the school of hard knocks more times than not. Scioli tells the story in first person, though he is careful to note in the beginning of the book that this is not an approved biography, let alone an autobiography. At times the narrative will shift to Roz Kirby's perspective. At another spot we get Stan Lee's point of view. 

So much has been written and said about the career of Kirby that it's difficult to find a fresh way to appreciate the talent. Scioli has accomplished that by using the very medium Kirby mastered and innovated to tell the story of his life and to some small extent his influence on the medium itself. The famous anecdotes are here, such as the notorious run-ins with a young Stan Lee and the story of how Joe Simon became Kirby's partner for so many years. By using the form of comics and at time imitating Kirby's art itself, Scioli offers up a story which is a fusion of form and content. 

The successes are here, as well as the defeats. There is a great deal of time spent documenting Kirby's time in the war. I'd read snatches here and there, but it was enlightening to see a more complete presentation. Scioli's artwork has a naive charm to it, that draws the reader in. The tone pages are great at evoking a sense one is reading a vintage comic. One strange detail is how Kirby as an adult is presented with enormous eyes, in the style of Japanese Manga. It gives the character of Kirby a timelessness through the story of his life and sets him apart from other characters who are presented somewhat more realistically. 

The story takes its time to get to what is considered by most to be Kirby's most fecund period, the second tenure at Marvel working in tandem with a voluble Stan Lee on legendary projects like The  Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Avengers, and so many more. Some might've sacrificed the earlier moments to focus on the work that made Kirby most famous. We follow the move to a third DC tenure which gave us the New Gods. We follow Kirby to the world of animation in his final years and even to his demise. The story moves past his death and spends some time focusing on his influence, and influence which motivates the form to this very day. 

This is a great read. I highly recommend it. I know that there is another one about Stan Lee himself, but I haven't made the move for that one yet. When comparing them in the store, the Stan book seemed to be less visually dense and compelling, as it uses a broader more varied panel design. Maybe soon. 

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