Under the pseudonym of Curt Davis, Kirby did Diary of Dr. Socko the Seadog, created by a Lincoln co-worker as an obvious Popeye emulation, proved to be Kirby’s most popular strip of the period.Įven while producing for Lincoln, Kirby worked as part of the large artists’ studio of Will Eisner and Jerry Iger on a number of weekly comic strips. Cyclone Burke was among his first ventures into science-fiction. Whereas The Black Buccaneer strived for a ‘wood-cut’ effect, Abdul Jones was more in keeping with the style of contemporary humor strips. All were penciled, inked and lettered, and most were written by him and the different styles reflect Kirby’s own experimentation at this stage. Lincoln was a small operation with few clients, and some of the strips Kirby created only appeared in a few newspapers while others may not have been published at all. While working for Lincoln, Kirby produced a huge volume of work, including ongoing strips, panel gags, and ‘fact’ panels. That employment was found at the Lincoln Newspaper Syndicate, where he began his 3 1/2 year tenure as a political, gag, and strip cartoonist. After a few months however, labor unrest erupted at the studio and Kirby decided to get out before he found himself on strike and to seek employment elsewhere. Ultimately, Kirby began his career not in comics but in the other media where drawings are used to tell a story: animated cartoons.Īs an ‘in-betweener’ at the Max Fleischer studios, Jack worked on Popeye cartoons. Earlier attempts at submitting his work to various markets had yielded an endless series of rejection slips from every market from The New Yorker right on down. Family financial pressures necessitated such and it wasn’t long before Kirby was searching for practical applications of his talents – those which would be both financially rewarding and self-satisfying. It did, however, come as a surprise when he dropped out the afternoon of his first day at Pratt. With such potential, it came as no surprise that Kirby should enroll in the famed Pratt Institute to refine his abilities. Remaining sketchbooks from Kirby’s earlier days are filled with pencil renderings of expertly-formed, carefully-shaded figures and scenes. A semi-realistic caricature – realistic to be identifiable and exaggerated for effect. It does, however, perfectly convey the idea of figures in motion. Rather, it was to tell exciting, interesting stories – the Kirby conception of anatomy, for example, defies all manner of real physiology. From the start, his drawing style was never intended to emulate reality or to provide any sort of photographic representation. The storytelling sense grew, as well, and it was to be important… for it was most likely what led the youthful Kirby into comics instead of into serious illustration. He learned techniques, not styles, and then went on to make them his own. Some of them have adopted its techniques with little reservations and others, like Kirby, now boast very little of the then-important Raymond influence. Splendidly illustrated, it has served as the model for a majority of today’s panel-artists. An early source of art-inspiration, for example, was Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon newspaper strip. He learned from anyone who had something to offer, adopting the virtues and making them his own. Jack Kirby was, then, the student without an official teacher. Schooling was not the best and certainly inadequate in the field of creative writing and art. That, more than anything else, occupied young Jack’s time. And, too, there was the foreshadowing of what was to come – the doodles cluttering every available scrap of paper, the ‘wasted’ afternoons at the movies… the profound interest in stories. And the growing up period is not entirely atypical, either: Street-fighting, the usual childhood activities, and the burgeoning instinct of self-preservation were all a part of it. The birth date was August 28, 1917, and the Kurtzberg family at 147 Essex Street was one more strong. Like many success stories, it all begins with a birth date on the Lower East Side of New York City. Further corrected by the members of the Jack Kirby Discussion Group.A corrected and amended version published in Kirby Unleashed by TwoMorrows Publishing: Raleigh, NC.Originally published in Kirby Unleashed by Communicators Unlimited: Newbury Park, CA.
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