Jack Kirby: A Personal Journey

Meeting Your Hero

♦ Tripwire’s Contributing Writer PETER MANN took a look at Glenn B Fleming’s film about meeting Jack Kirby, Jack KIrby: A Personal Journal, available now on DVD…

Jack Kirby: A Personal Journey: A Film by Glenn B Fleming

$20 (US) / £12 (UK) (includes postage) from glennbfleming@gmx.com.

♦ 2017 marks the centennial of the birth of seminal American comic book artist and writer Jack Kirby. Kirby had a dominant hand in creating many of the iconic characters in comics and film today. From the Fantastic Four, The Avengers, The Incredible Hulk and many more for Marvel comics to the New Gods, Mister Miracle, the Forever People for DC comics, to his own work in Silver Star and Captain Victory, Kirby is the preeminent comic book creator of the 20th century.  There are those that argue for Stan Lee’s predominance in creating the Marvel cast of characters. To which there is a simple question to answer: name a single iconic character created at Marvel after the departure of Jack Kirby.

Kirby invented genres, not just characters. His origination of the Romance Comics genre, kid team comics such as Boy Commandos, Boys Ranch, and the Newsboy Legion, satire in Fighting American (his take on Captain America), horror comics in Black Magic, war comics in Foxhole – Kirby was a comics innovator second to none. For some time it was thought that his later work – The Demon, Captain Victory, and similar work was sub-standard to his early work. It is increasingly clear that a wholesale reappraisal of this work is necessary, and this is being urged by writers of the calibre of Glen David Gold and Michael Chabon.

Almost thirty years ago, following a chance encounter, Glenn Fleming found himself in California, sitting at the King of Comics dinner table, in total awe and almost total silence being fed by Jack and his wife Roz. Glenn got to do things that others can only dream about – talk to the King, open packages of recently returned artwork from New Gods and the Fantastic Four, and hold Kirby’s original artwork in his bare hands.

Three years later, Glenn returned to the Kirby home and recorded part of his meeting creating a film that has never before been seen showing Jack Kirby in his own home, in his own studio, talking about his own life, in his own words. Now Glenn has decided to release the Kirby footage and has commissioned an interview, where he talks of his journey to Jack Kirby’s house, his meeting with Jack, his thoughts on Jack’s work and the man himself. This DVD is Glenn’s story of how he met the undisputed King of Comics, Jack Kirby.

The DVD itself is in two parts: in the first part, Glenn sets the scene for us, telling us how the meeting came about, his experience in Jack’s household, and his love of Kirby’s work. The second section of the DVD is the meeting with Jack that Glenn recorded with Kirby.

The first part is basically a Kirby fan’s tribute to Jack, and his excitement at meeting his idol. Glenn comes across as enthusiastic and slightly amazed at having met such an iconic individual. The second part, while interesting, suffers from technical quality issues, common to home video cameras of the past, and the transference from tape to digital. Having said that, just how many chances to see the King of comics are there? Both as a fan’s tribute to a comic great that he loved, and as a fascinating historical document into the day-to-day life of that man, Jack Kirby: A Personal Journey is a worthy endeavour, although I would have to say for hardcore Kirby fans only. As that describes me, I’m happy to have had the opportunity to spend a little time in the company of Jack “King” Kirby.

Peter Mann