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| Copyright TWO MORROWS PUBLISHING and DC COMICS |
Another book that arrived at Castel Crivens yesterday is the above one - Jack Kirby's Dingbat Love, by TwoMorrows Publishing in cooperation with DC Comics. I meant to order it when it was first announced as being in production a couple or so years back, but you know how life has a habit of getting in the way of one's plans. Then recently I was reminded of it when I saw it on Rip Jagger's Dojo, so wasted no time in buying myself a copy.
Rather than me witter on about it in my typical longwinded way, below is the official spiel on the back cover - though I suspect diehard Kirby fans will already know its contents having already bought theirs. A nice touch inside is what Soul Love #1 could've looked like had it been published - well, it has now. It was also available as a separate magazine in limited numbers, but I only learned that on Rip's blog and my chances of obtaining one are probably zilch.
Kirby's dialogue is clunkier than a thrupenny bit (or pound coin nowadays), but his art (for the most part) is top-notch - though there's one panel with a guy resting books on his bonce, which looks like the top of his head has been sawn off. The Dingbats Of Danger Street is another proposition entirely; not what you'd call bad, art-wise, but not Kirby at the top of his game.
What with my original issues, Kirby Omnibus volumes, and now this, I think it's safe for me to say that I now have everything that Jack Kirby did for DC during his '70s run. Well done me!
Below is an Alex Ross illustration based on JK's layout for the proposed cover of Soul Love #1. I don't know why (and nothing to do with Ross's art), but to me, it doesn't quite have a 1971 'look' to it for some reason.
Look at the panel below. It really astounds me that Jack couldn't see what was wrong with it in regard to the 'head meets books' department. It leaps off the page at me, so why not him?
4 comments:
It's like finding forbidden fruit -- the stuff they didn't want to you to see way back then. And despite the flaws, Kirby's ratio of miscues to masterpieces still is higher than most.
Rip Off
Yeah, but it's 'cos he was usually so good, RJ, that for me, his 'howlers' stand out all the more. Having said that, the 'books boo-boo' may have been fixed before publication had it seen the light of day back in the '70s.
That certainly is a very strange image, Kid. It's as though it has been inked over pencils that were not yet completed. I'm intrigued enough to get the book, though. I'd been thinking of ordering it as I'd been very impressed by the Two Morrows hardback of Kirby's "In the Days of The Mob" which incorporated issue #1 and the unpublished issue #2. I have an original "Spirit World" in one of the long boxes somewhere, as well.
I've got the original issues of Mob and Spirit, as well as the TwoMorrows editions, B, and the hardbacks are very nice indeed. If you do buy Dingbats, you won't be disappointed.
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