jack kirby Born on August 28, 2017. His spirit lives on in nearly every sector of the mainstream American comics industry…and beyond. He created or co-created Captain America, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Darkseid and hundreds of characters you know and love to argue about.
Kirby has it all: superheroes, fantasy, sci-fi, war, westerns, romance. He invented romance comics, children’s comics, the Clark effect and everything else.
One of the things Kirby is most famous for is monsters. The early Marvel comic series (pre-Spider-Man) consisted of a ton of monster comics, all of which had goofy sound effect names, and similarly shocking Twilight Zone storylines written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Cards Drawn by Bee, Ditko Dick Ayers and others. Sergio Lopez’s Gutter Review article provides some of Kirby’s thoughts on them.
In 1975, Kirby made a scathing assessment of comics, saying: “I got monsters, so I made them. I’d rather just keep drawing [Westerns]. But the monster was made by me. We have “Grottu”, “Kurrgo” and “It”. Trying to do something—anything—with such a ridiculous character is a challenge. He later admitted the commercial element behind chasing fads: “They bring sales, and that’s always been the main goal of my comics. To keep myself working, I have to make sales. So I put in everything that will drive sales.” .It has always been like this.
Indeed, the stories were written at breakneck speed (Lieber recalled that Kirby could draw six pages of monster comics in a day, enough to make up a complete story), and they worked strictly within the constraints of the genre—but there were also Many pieces have an intangible element of creative magic. They proved important to the development of many of the creators involved: the grand scale of the narrative allowed for a sublime, faux-epic narrative style in a way that westerns and romance comics did not, and this tenor would become Lee’s logo. Editorially, Lee had the opportunity to experiment with innovations that would become key to establishing his own mythology: some monster comics included occasional editorial notes, letters pages, and reader polls; often the creator would sign the cover. At times, the stories—especially Ditko’s—featured metanarratives about Lee and the artist himself—a precursor to the fictitious persona of Marvel bullpen Stan Lee. All of these nascent elements would return in an expanded version and help establish Marvel as a brand.
Although Kirby freely acknowledged the commercial nature of these stories, he still drew them as if his life depended on them. Maybe it is.
This Jack Kirby monster (above) was drawn by Steve Ditko.
Every image of a terrifying beast destroying property as the villains flee is fresh, as if it had just been invented.
Another Ditko ink piece.
Even a brief search for Jack Kirby monster art on the web reveals another much-discussed thing: how much better the original colors look compared to the new versions. Take this classic and creepy photo.
There is also a reprint
Whatever this is – probably a tribute.
Another example: 
The colors are the same, but… they don’t look that good.
Marvel has been getting a lot of criticism for its questionable color reprints, but I’ll leave that issue for another article.
Kirby can also draw non-monsters.
He can draw many things.
Happy birthday, Jack. I hope you can see the world you create come alive around you.
