What's New With What if Kirby?

Happy birthday to Jack Kirby on today, his 93rd birthday anniversary and welcome to the new, relaunched What if Kirby website. I originally launched WiK in 2001, this new redesigned site was rebuilt from the ground up. So what has changed? Well basically everything. The site runs on a powerful content management platform called Drupal which allows for the collection of comic art in the gallery and creations sections to be searchable and easily added to. There is nothing like this relaunched version of WiK. Think of the Grand Comic Book Database for Kirby comic art. In addition, social media elements such as membership, rating, tweeting and facebook allow the site's content to be shared with the greater community. Here is a list of just some of the new features and content this site has to offer:

• An expanded gallery section. In 2006, The Jack Kirby Museum, on my suggestion, started the Original Art Archive with the ambitious goal of archiving every available piece of Jack Kirby’s art. Rand Hoppe, of The Jack Kirby Museum and I have teamed up to build a digital archive of Kirby's work by scanning archival quality (600 dpi, fronts and back) comic art. Scans are shared between The Jack Kirby Museum and WiK. 
• Remixed creations. Part of the original WiK website, the creations section's images are all rescanned and presented in higher resolution and better quality.
• Membership. WiK membership is free. Members can zoom into each piece of comic art in the museum and creations sections at 300% the original size to see extreme detail, click on "Art Zoom" on comic art detail pages. In addition, members can rate and comment on each piece of art. Each member has their own member page to track comments, their rated art and other information. Become a member!
• Kirby in Print. See a large library of Jack Kirby reprint books and publications. You can add your review and recommends or purchase them on Amazon.com.

In the next coming weeks, more art will be added to the creations section. The museum section has a back log of over 400 scans to be processed and added. Then there are plans for added functionality such as a compare art feature that will allow 5-6 pieces of comic art to be cross compared. All this new content and functionality will require help from you, so if you find value in this site please donate.

Thank you and please explore and most of all enjoy!
 
Tom Kraft (WiK member: spacekraft)