Kirby Five-Oh!: Celebrating 50 Years Of The "King" Of Comics (Paperback)

by John Morrow (Author), Jack Kirby (Author) "When Jack Kirby was nine years old, and still Jacob Kurtzberg, his family lived in the Bowery..." (more)
Key Phrases: female furies, graphic design, street code, Fantastic Four, Jack Kirby, Fourth World (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
This lavish, tabloid-sized tribute to one of comics’ great innovators, cocreator of the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, doubles as the fiftieth issue of Jack Kirby Collector, a labor-of-love magazine devoted to the artist, whose career spanned 50 years. To constitute a milestone, the contributors have chosen a half-hundred of Kirby’s best in four categories, that is, 50 foremost stories, covers, unpublished artwork, and character designs. There are also 50 artists’ and authors’ testimonials to Kirby’s influence and 50 pages of samples of Kirby’s pencil originals, which the oversize pages show off to full advantage. Perhaps the volume of heartfelt praise of Kirby by his acolytes becomes exhausting, just like reading too many of the artist’s action-packed pages; but if anyone in comics deserves such effusiveness, it’s the man who pretty much created the superhero genre as we know it today. Libraries in which Mark Evanier’s biography, Kirby: King of Comics (2008), attracts attention should definitely consider this book, not to mention the five volumes of The Collected Jack Kirby Collector. --Gordon Flagg

Product Description
KIRBY FIVE-OH! is a special look at the best of everything from Jack Kirby s 50-year career in comics! The regular columnists from The Jack Kirby Collector magazine have formed a distinguished panel of experts to choose and examine: The best Kirby story published each year from 1938-1987! The best covers from each decade! Jack s 50 best unused pieces of art! His 50 best character designs! And profiles of, and commentary by, the 50 people most influenced by Kirby s work! Plus there s a 50-page gallery of Kirby s powerful raw pencil art, and a deluxe color section of photos and finished art from throughout his entire half-century oeuvre. This tabloid-sized trade paperback features a previously unseen Kirby Superman cover inked by DC: The New Frontier artist DARWYN COOKE, and an introduction by Mark Evanier, helping make this the ultimate retrospective on the career of the King of comics! (A percentage of profits will be donated to the Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center.)

Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: TwoMorrows Publishing; illustrated edition edition (April 23, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893905896
• ISBN-13: 978-1893905894
• Product Dimensions: 13.8 x 9.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #387,674 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 50 best of everything Kirby!!, June 12, 2008

By	Miguel Tavarez "Mikey" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This book has lots of Kirby's work and after all, that's why i bought this large format paperback.
I took one star off for the crappy paper inside, but it does have a glossy cover though.
Also lots of facts about kirby you might have not known.It's a list of the 50 best 'everything' about Kirby.
If you love Kirby then what are you waiting for?
Buy the book already...

5.0 out of 5 stars 50 YEARS OF THE KING CELEBRATED!, July 29, 2008

By	Tim Janson (Michigan) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

If you're a fan of Jack Kirby's, the last few months have been a boon for you. First we had the outstanding book `Kirby, King of Comics" published by Abrams Books and now TwoMorrows Publishing has delivered "Kirby Five-Oh". This is actually a very special fiftieth issue of TwoMorrow's Kirby Collector Magazine only this is no mere magazine. This is a treasury-sized trade paperback book, which is filled with Kirby artwork, much of it unpublished, or being seen for the first time in decades. As a fiftieth issue, Editor John Morrow presents readers with lists of the fifty best Kirby stories, covers, unused pieces of art, and character designs along with a fifty page Kirby art gallery, and fifty people who have been influenced by the "King".

The fifty best stories is a bit misleading. Rather than pick the fifty best Kirby stories, the panel of Kirby experts chose the best Kirby story by year, starting with Jack's first comic book work in Jumbo Comics #1 from 1938. It probably wasn't easy picking a best Kirby story in the late 40s and into the 1950s. By that time, superhero titles had nearly all disappeared and Jack took work wherever he could. He found himself doing a lot of romance and western comics but in 1956 he did a story for Astonishing which represented his first Silver Age work for Marvel, called Atlas at the time.

It also had to be quite hard to pick a best Kirby story once you got into the 1960s because there was just so many to choose them. This decade featured so many great creations and stories but making the cut are "The Sub-Mariner Vs. the Human Race" from Fantastic Four Annual #1 (1963), The Galactus Trilogy from 1966, and the Madbomb Saga from Captain America #193 - 200 (1976). This storyline was Jack's triumphant return to the character he helped to create 35 years earlier.

The lists are enjoyable reading but the real attraction is the bounty of Kirby art. All 50 of the best covers are reprinted along with comments from many notable comic artists and writers including George Perez, Russ Heath, Dave Stevens, and Alex Ross. There's also a lot of great photos of jack from throughout his life, both working and also with his family. The book concludes with 50 short interviews, and comments from creators who've been influenced by Jack. Even people who are considered comic legends in their own right like Alan Moore, Alex Ross, and John Romita Sr., still revere Jack Kirby. Jack may be gone but thanks to publishers like TwoMorrows, his work continues to live on.

5.0 out of 5 stars Should be displayed for eye-catching interest, July 14, 2008

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Jack 'King' Kirby is co-creator of the Marvel Comics line; "Kirby Five-Oh!" is a celebration of his 50-year career gathers regular columnists from the Jack Kirby Collector magazine to provide the best Kirby story published each year, from 1938-87. The oversized, mostly black-and-white reproductions include writings about Kirby's career and contributions, and makes for an outstanding analysis of his impact. Libraries will find "Kirby Five-Oh!" difficult to shelve due to its oversized format - but then, this book shouldn't disappear on a shelf; it should be displayed for eye-catching interest.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch