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| Image copyright MARVEL COMICS |
Gotta be honest and say I don't think JACK KIRBY's collages always worked, but this one sure did. My one and only problem with it is that once again, Jack has drawn The THING far too small - SUSIE positively towers above him, even though BEN's meant to be in front of her. That apart though, it's certainly a very effective cover.
Even in the A5 Marvel UK Pocket Books, I loved these collages because they were just so different from anything else I'd seen in comics before. Seeing them full size and in colour many years later was a revelation.
ReplyDeleteI've currently got this one as the Home screen on my tablet:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/littlestuffedbull/3235824900/sizes/o/
That one's fine, OD, but sometimes they didn't work for me because the art wasn't incorporated into the collage very well. It wasn't Jack who put the figures on (as far as I know), it was done later by someone in the production or art department.
ReplyDeleteApparently, Kirby and other artists had trouble getting sizes right at times. On the cover of Fantastic Four #25, either the Thing is too small, or the Hulk is too big. (Sure, the Hulk is a giant, but is he twice the size of the Thing?) The Hulk also appears to be gigantic on the cover of Captain America #110.
ReplyDeleteOn the covers of Avengers #1 and Avengers Annual #2 (and in the last panel of Avengers #1), the Hulk is too small.
Fantastic Four #33 was adapted for an episode of the FF's TV cartoon series in 1967. Hanna-Barbera did not have the rights to the Sub-Mariner, though, so Namor's name was changed to something else.
Yeah, I've seen other artists do it too, TC, but Kirby did it with alarming regularity. (I featured the last panel of Avengers #1 in a post a couple or so years ago.) I remember reading about the FF cartoon, but I can't recall what Subby's name (as well as his appearance) was changed to.
ReplyDeleteThe Thing's first appearance in Fantastic Four issue 1,was in a clothes shop and he looks to be about 6 ft tall.
ReplyDeleteHe complains about the world being too small for him and crashes through a doorframe.
It all changes quite abruptly in the following issues and he is drawn as different sizes.
I have thought of him as a wee big guy.
I never liked the collages,probably the same reason as you mention above.
I'd say he looked far bigger than that in the clothes shop, Baab. Interestingly, when the first part of the FF's origin was reprinted in FF Annual #1, The Thing's top half was redrawn to make him look smaller. Surprisingly, sometimes Jack drew him as a big guy again (in one panel in FF #9), but he was never consistent with Ben's size. I don't think it was intentional at first, but later he seemed to deliberately draw him as a smaller guy.
ReplyDelete