Table Of ContentHAND OF FIRE
“Few know Kirby’s name but everyone is familiar with the characters he co-
created: Captain America, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Tor and countless
others. Kirby was the throbbing heart and soul of the American comic book
industry and a crucial figure in global popular culture. Charles Hatfield’s eru-
dite and enthusiastic survey of Kirby’s career is among the very best studies
ever devoted to a cartoonist, a major work of scholarship that does justice to
the creator’s protean and influential life’s work.”
—JEET HEER, coeditor of the Walt and Skeezix books
“With judicious intelligence and infectious enthusiasm, Charles Hatfield takes
on the daunting task of understanding the titanic career and accomplishments
of Jack Kirby, emphasizing the crackling excitement of what he compellingly
refers to as Kirby’s ‘delirious graphiation.’ Focusing on two of the peak periods
of Jack Kirby’s long history of innovation—his years as Marvel’s founding con-
ceptualist and the self-edited/written/drawn Fourth World saga of the 1970s—
Hand of Fire explores the specificity of Kirby’s achievement without ignoring
the very real commercial constraints on his practice and demonstrates the far-
reaching legacy of his prodigious output. Hatfield helps us understand how
Kirby’s art works specifically as narrative drawing and explores its profound
connection to the aesthetics of the sublime. His discussion of comic art in
relation to sign theory represents an exciting contribution to comics studies.”
—SCOTT BUKATMAN, author of Matters of Gravity: Special Effects and Supermen in the 20th Century
GREAT COMICS ARTISTS SERIES
M. Thomas Inge, General Editor
Hand of fire
The Comics Art of Jack Kirby
CHarles Hatfield
University Press of MississiPPi • Jackson
www.upress.state.ms.us
Designed by Peter D. Halverson
Te University Press of Mississippi is a member of the Association of American
University Presses.
Publication of the book was made possible, in part, by a subvention from the
College of Humanities, California State University, Northridge.
Copyright © 2012 by University Press of Mississippi
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
First printing 2012
∞
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hatfield, Charles, 1965–
Hand of fire : the comics art of Jack Kirby / Charles Hatfield.
p. cm. — (Great comics artists series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61703-177-9 (hardback) — ISBN 978-1-61703-178-6 (paper) —
ISBN 978-1-61703-179-3 (ebook) 1. Kirby, Jack—Criticism and interpretation.
2. Cartoonists—United States. I. Title.
PN6727.K57Z69 2012
741.5’973—dc23 2011026939
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
In memory of my friend Dio
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CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ix
INTRODUCTION
3
Chapter 0
KIRBY’S IMPROBABLE CAREER
20
Chapter 1
KIRBY’S NARRATIVE ART
36
Chapter 2
KIRBY, STAN LEE, AND THE CREATION OF MARVEL COMICS
78
Chapter 3
HOW KIRBY CHANGED THE SUPERHERO
108
Chapter 4
KIRBY’S TECHNOLOGICAL SUBLIME
144
Chapter 5
THE GREAT BUST-OUT: KIRBY’S FOURTH WORLD
172
Chapter 6
KIRBY AT APOGEE
206
Chapter 7
“UNEXPECTED CONSTANTS”: KIRBY’S ETERNALS VERSUS THE MARVEL UNIVERSE
228
Appendix
KIRBY AND KIRBYANA IN PRINT AND IN FANDOM
253
NOTES
262
WORKS CITED
272
INDEX
284
Contents viii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Tis one’s been a long time coming: not just the handful of years I’ve spent
pushing and pulling at the book’s text, not just the seventeen-plus years since
my first professionally published article on Jack Kirby—my first professional
publication, period—but much longer, so long, in fact, that the roots of the
business are beyond the reach of my memory. I became an active collector of
Kirby when I was ten (with Kamandi 32, dated August 1975) but I’m positive
I knew his style well before that. It’s as if Kirby has always been with me. As I
said, a long time.
I’m glad, though, that I took my time getting to this. As much as this book
is the result of a childhood fascination, it is also the result of work done and
bridges crossed over the past several years. I couldn’t have done what I’ve done
here even a handful of years ago. I definitely could not have done without the
friends and colleagues I’ve lucked into over the past fifteen years or so as I’ve
pursued writing about comics.
I can’t name everyone who has helped me get to this point; I can’t remem-
ber them all. For that I’m sorry. But I thank the following for lending infor-
mation, support, and images, and in some cases a critical eye, in recent times:
Tim Bavlnka, Bart Beaty, Steve Bissette, Isaac Cates, Michael T. Gilbert, Gene
Kannenberg, Marc Kardell, Mike Rhode, Mark Rogers, Ben Saunders, Marc
Singer, Rusty Witek, and Kent Worcester. I also want to thank John Morrow
and Jon B. Cooke for past and present help, and for boosting my understand-
ing of Kirby and of comics. Many thanks as well to Tom Roberts for helping
me get in the game, and Tom Inge for opening the window of opportunity for
this project.
Emphatic thanks are due to Craig Fischer and Jarret Keene, who gener-
ously reviewed the manuscript in beta and whose feedback made a world of
difference; Ian Gordon and Jeet Heer, who, crucially, did the same at the next
phase; and Scott Bukatman and Paul Gravett, who read and cheered as the
book hurtled over the finish line. Special thanks, doubly underlined, go to my
ix
