Kirbyology! articles

KIRBYOLOGY!: Tom Scioli Tells the Greatest Jack Kirby Story Possible (His Own)

KIRBYOLOGY!: Tom Scioli Tells the Greatest Jack Kirby Story Possible (His Own)

From the 1930s to 1990s, Jack Kirby created gob-smacking art and unforgettable characters, but he was mainly a storyteller. “The Pact,” “Madbomb,” the Galactus trilogy, Captain America’s origin, Silver Star, OMAC, and even Thundarr the Barbarian are among the thousands of tales he spun solo or with collaborators. But the greatest Kirby story is the

KIRBYOLOGY!: The Kirby-esque Joys of CANKOR: CALAMITY OF CHALLENGE

At C2E2 2019 — long before the steaming shitpile called 2020 — I first spied the work of Matthew Allison in artist’s alley. Allison’s pastel colors, inventive character designs, faceless humans, and 80s-inspired grotesqueries stand out on any shelf or at any convention, but next to so many same-old, same-old corporate comics, Cankor was an

KIRBYOLOGY!: Getting Through 2020 with Jack Kirby

Well, this suuuuuuuucks. 2020 is making Apokolips look like Chocolate Cake Land. So who’s up for some distraction? As with life, when it comes to the massive career of Jack Kirby, it’s the little things that can mean the most. Here’s a smattering of some of those little things — little being relative, since this

KIRBYOLOGY!: Warren Ellis’s KARNAK and a Reminder to Not be the Worst

I have a superpower of sorts. I can look at anything — a crowded coffee shop, a walk in the park with my dog, a conversation with a neighbor, a ride down the elevator, or just the creaky process of getting up in the morning — and immediately predict, in great detail, how it’s going

KIRBYOLOGY!: Two Tales of Cavemen from the Craziest Trading Cards Ever

Some people carry a Bible in their pocket for comfort or as an inefficient bulletproof vest. I carry Jack Kirby: The Unpublished Archives, a 1994 set of trading cards that feature unused Kirby concepts from his time working in animation for Ruby-Spears. To say these concepts all over the map undersells their bonkers quotient by

KIRBYOLOGY!: Charles Glaubitz, Dickheads, and STARSEEDS

A while back I talked to Charles Glaubitz about his ongoing cosmic epic Starseeds, which has been published in two volumes so far. Here’s part two of our talk, with more of Glaubitz’s thoughts on his quantum work, Jack Kirby, and penis hats. Glaubitz’s approach to the concept of starseeds is opposed to what you’ll

KIRBYOLOGY!: The Most Prophetic of Jack Kirby’s Orange Monsters

Jack Kirby’s comics are, often literally, a punch to the face of fascism. Some of those punches, inspired by Kirby’s harrowing experience as an army scout in World War II, flew into the future, catching America’s current top fascist squarely in the jaw. As Elana Levin discussed for The Daily Beast, anti-life evangelist Glorious Godfrey

KIRBYOLOGY!: The Cosmic Science of Charles Glaubitz’s STARSEEDS

A bazillion years ago, my current atoms — and yours — arrived on Earth thanks to exploding stars. About a month ago, I heard about painter-turned-graphic-novelist Charles Glaubitz’s Starseeds, specifically the publication of volume two from Fantagraphics. At my local comic book store, I picked up volume one, which blew my brain into my mind

KIRBYOLOGY!: The Sheer Energy of That Hammering of Mad and Beautiful Ideas

Understatement alert: Jack Kirby’s career was characterized by an excess of ideas. Giants of the Promethean Galaxy! An epic beginning with an epilogue! The first romance comic! The Silver Surfer! The Black Racer! Paranex the Fighting Fetus! MODOK! Home Geneticus! Odin’s hats! The pinnacle of that excess, I reckon, was the 1970s, when Kirby was

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