Friday, 25 January 2013

JOURNEY INTO SWIPERY...


Art by Jack Kirby. JIM #83, page 8, panel 1

All artists have (or should have) a reference file.  This usually consists of a collection of photos and illustrations of just about every scene imaginable.  It can contain previous drawings by the artist and also even the artwork of others - which is why it's also called a 'swipe' file, because it provides the working illustrator with material from which he can copy if his imagination (or knowledge of the subject) is a little lacking.

It may surprise you to learn that not every artist can sit at their drawing boards and draw just about anything off the top of their head or at the drop of a hat.  Even those who seemingly do so are often drawing (pun intended) upon their experience of an earlier drawing, the subject of which they first had to meticulously research before committing to memory.

Even artists such as WALLY WOOD and JACK KIRBY occasionally swiped from illustrators who had preceded them, like HOGARTH and FOSTER.  Joltin' JOE SINNOTT, inker of many of MARVEL's top pencillers - and an illustrator of no mean accomplishment in his own right - occasionally swiped when he was performing sole drawing chores on The MIGHTY THOR back in the 1960s.

Joe drew five Thor strips for JOURNEY Into MYSTERY (#s 91, 92, 94-96) and not only swiped from Jack Kirby, but even from himself.  I thought it might be interesting to look at a few panels 'inspired' by ones in previous stories.  Some are direct copies, others have been tweaked (and flipped), but their sources are still all-too apparent.

The following examples result from a casual browse through the stories themselves and are by no means exhaustive (in fact, I've since seen one or two others), so look through the issues yourself (if you have 'em) and see which ones you can spot.

Art by Joe Sinnott. JIM #91, page 12, panel 7

Art by Joe Sinnott. JIM #94, page 12, panel 5

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Art by Jack Kirby. JIM #83, page 10, panel 7

Art by Joe Sinnott. JIM #92, page 10, panel 6

Art by Joe Sinnott. JIM #95, page 4, panel 7

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Art by Jack Kirby. JIM #85, page 6, panel 3

Art by Joe Sinnott. JIM #94, page 10, panel 2

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Art by Jack Kirby (?)/Steve Ditko. JIM #88,
page13, panel 5

Art by Joe Sinnott. JIM #91, page 1, panel 4

Art by Joe Sinnott. JIM #94, page 5, panel 7

Art by Joe Sinnott. JIM #95, page 2, panel 7

Art by Joe Sinnott. JIM #96, page 2, panel 1

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Art by Joe Sinnott. JIM #91, page 11, panel 7

Art by Joe Sinnott. JIM #95, page1, panel 6

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Art by Joe Sinnott. JIM #91, page 13, panel 3

Art by Joe Sinnott. JIM #92, page 11, panel 2

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Art by Jack Kirby. JIM #93, page 3, panel 7.
(This panel looks like a patch)

Art by Joe Sinnott. JIM #96, page 8, panel 3

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Art by Jack Kirby. JIM #86, page 12, panel 5

Art by Jack Kirby. JIM #91, page 9, panel 7

Art by Joe Sinnott. JIM #95, page 10, panel 7

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Art by Jack Kirby. JIM #86, page 11, panel 6

Art by Joe Sinnott. JIM #95 page 2, panel 3

Art by Joe Sinnott. JIM #95, page 13, panel 7

Art by Joe Sinnott. JIM #96, page 2, panel 3
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2 comments:

  1. DeadSpiderEye26 January 2013 at 14:03

    After examining these depictions of Thor it struck me that a few of them look as though they might be derived from baseball poses. I wonder, do you think it's possible that there was a Thor reference library with a bunch of baseball shots in it?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kid26 January 2013 at 14:26

    It's possible that Jack Kirby (who first drew the pics that Joe Sinnott copied from) used photos of baseball players as reference. I think Joe just copied from Jack, so it's unlikely in his case.

    Interestingly, when Kirby first drew the Silver Surfer, I think he probably used photos of surfers to get the poses right. However, afterwards he just drew from memory. I think that's why Kirby's Surfer eventually became very stiff-looking, which is probably why Stan Lee gave the regular series to Buscema.

    ReplyDelete

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