For the most part, I try to avoid promoting Kickstarter projects that have already met their goal. Forgive me for making an exception. In some aspects, Jeremy Kirby’s new Kickstarter project is relatively straightforward: an art book-sized collection of never before seen photos of and artwork of his grandfather, a gentleman named Jack Kirby. If that isn’t enough, it will also include a play written by the King that almost no one has ever even heard of, much less read.
Yowza.
I don’t need to talk up Jack Kirby to you. You know just as well as I do that few, if any, creators have left as much of a mark on the medium, not only in the superhero scene but overall (though, sure, mainly in the action/adventure macrogenre). Jack Kirby created and co-created many of the comic characters we know and love, and hundreds more beyond that — never was he satisfied with merely doing the same thing over and over again. Speaking personally, Kirby represents my favorite thing about comics: how it is a medium where you can do virtually anything you want. Sure, you theoretically can in other storytelling mediums, but somehow a skiing Death seems much more awesome in a comic splash page than it does in a paragraph of prose. Kirby was a creator first and foremost, constantly coming up with out-of-this-world ideas. And, of course, this isn’t even mentioning his amazing artwork that defined a genre. Without hesitation, I would label Kirby as my favorite comic creator, and I doubt I would be alone in that.
Photos of Kirby are great — the man was 100% badass — and art that has managed to not be seen by the public to this day sounds excellent, but the real highlight is the virtually unknown play that will be included in the book, Frog Prince. Jeremy hasn’t shared much about the play beyond the list of characters, so it is anyone’s guess if the title means the classic fable will have a direct or merely thematic influence on the plot. I have always been a fan of seeing favorite creators working in different mediums; while it usually shows that their medium of choice is that for a reason, it gives insight to how they click that you otherwise might never see. I would never in my wildest dreams imagine that Kirby wrote a staged play, and I doubt that it is anything like his comics — and that’s what is exciting.
$50.00 is enough to get you the book, three prints, a mention of thanks in the back of the book, and a .pdf of the Frog Prince script. That’s a pretty damn good value if you ask me. If you’re in a bit of a financial bind, though, it only takes $10.00 to get the .pdf and treat yourself to a bit of history. Upwards of that, you can throw in a t-shirt at $100.00 or a title page thanks for $250.00, but the real big money incentives are both gone: signed New Gods comics at $500.00 and an original piece of Jack Kirby art. Lucky bastards. Even so, $50.00 is a steal for all that swag, so start your engines and get funding. It has already met its goal, so there’s nothing to lose!
