What if Kirby

Kirby Inkers Unite! Mike Carbo's New York Comic Book Market Place

tomkraft — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 01:25:14 +0000

This weekend is a power weekend for comic shows. On Saturday, March 31st, Mike Carbo's New York Comic Book Market Place event. For any Jack Kirby fan in the area or those who can travel, you must attend it! First off, a very rare appearance by Stan Lee. If thats not enough this is one of the very rare occasions when so many of artists who have inked Jack Kirby are at one event at the same time. Perhaps the only time this will happen. Here is the list:

Start Your Scanners: WiK at WonderCon

tomkraft — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 19:46:09 +0000

WonderCon 2012 starts in less than a week in lovely Anaheim, California from March 16th - March 18th and WiK will be there and in the LA area the day before the con.

I, Tom Kraft of What if Kirby, will be set up at booth 323 of Bechara Maalouf's Nostalgic Investments scanning and archiving Jack Kirby original comic art for the Jack Kirby Museum's Original Art Digital Archive and for display on WiK. In addition, Rand Hoppe of the Jack Kirby Museum will attend, set up at John Morrow's TwoMorrows Publishing, booth 721.

Counting Down to Number 1,000th Jack Kirby Page

tomkraft — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 16:15:26 +0000

UPDATED Feb 28: FINALLY! Cover #1,000 is The Demon

What if Kirby is closing in on the 1,000th page of Jack Kirby original art posted in the Gallery. WiK launched in August 2010 with little more than 100 pages. Membership access gives the additional benefit of zooming into the art to study and enjoy it.

On the Road Again: Building the Jack Kirby Original Art Archive

tomkraft — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:16:46 +0000

Next month starts the time of the year when I pack up my large format scanner and get hit the road or the plane or whatever, with high hopes of archiving more Jack Kirby art for the Jack Kirby Original Art Archive. Between Rand Hoppe of the Jack Kirby Museum and me, we've scanned almost 2,000 pages of Kirby original art pages. Our goal is to reach 3,000 before year's end.

To attempt to meet this goal, there are several upcoming events where I'll be set up to scan more Kirby pages with the help of comic art dealers and art collectors.

A better Kirby punch? Part II

tomkraft — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 19:58:07 +0000

After I wrote this article and posted the versions for Cap that Pete Von Sholly provided, I received some additional insight from WiK members about what Jack Kirby might have meant buy the strange pose in Tales of Suspense page laid out by Kirby and penciled by Dick Ayers.

First I'd like to mention that my account of Stan Lee wanting Jack to do layouts for other artists was corrected by Patrick Ford:

A better Kirby punch?

tomkraft — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:55:22 +0000

By the mid-60s Jack Kirby's output reached a feverous pitch. Stan Lee demanded more and more from Kirby in order to distill Kirby's powerful style as Marvel's house style. To get more out of Kirby and train Marvel's other artist, Stan Lee had Kirby do quick pencil layouts for artists such as Dick Ayers and John Romita, among others, to finish Kirby's designs with their pencils and thus, learn his style. In most cases, as Kirby laid out the page he plotted the stories leaving his notes in the margins.

Merry Kirby Christmas!

tomkraft — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 13:23:34 +0000

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas today and a happy holiday season. Hope your presents include some Jack Kirby treats!

Three Degrees of Separation

tomkraft — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 02:41:24 +0000

Some 25 years ago, Jack Kirby's art was finally returned to him from Marvel, well at least a fraction returned. In the late 80s, collectors could purchase art directly from the Roselyn and Jack Kirby and later, in the 90's and after, also through Mike Thibodeaux. New art was periodically being released to the market through the then new, Jack Kirby Collector magazine and comic cons, especially the San Diego Comic Con International well into the 2000s.

A lifetime of defining the comic book - Joe Simon passes away at 98

tomkraft — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 13:36:13 +0000

Last week we all received the news on Thursday of Joe Simon's passing on Wednesday, December 14th. There are many great articles written and about his life and incredible contributions to the comic book industry such as the LA Times and the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. Joe was a native of my hometown, Rochester NY.

What if Kirby smashes the 900 Barrier!

tomkraft — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 14:59:20 +0000

Today, with Thor's mighty hammer, What if Kirby has smashed the 900th page barrier. WiK now has over 900 pages in the searchable, Gallery section of the website. To highlight this milestone, the panel page to Thor 137, page 5 was chosen. The ongoing mission of WiK and the Jack Kirby's Museum's Original Art Digital Archive is to scan as many pages of Kirby art as there are still in existence. Any and all Kirby art is important to archive and preserve for us and future generations.