Kirb Your Enthusiasm (9)

What do you think?

1. I’m so glad you shared this particular — easy-to-overlook — panel with us, Annie. It’s fascinating to hear about your time at Marvel, and to read a Kirby comic the way a Marvel editor-writer (or at least one Marvel editor-writer) reads it. I particularly love the insight and style of the final line — you rock.

2. True Believers started reading comics young, shared the helix of twin saplings entwining early, a genetic bonding I missed by arriving so late to the party.

   I didn’t start reading comics when I was sixteen, and I’ve always felt that I didn’t ‘get’ comics the way those that started reading as children did. Thanks for phrasing it so beautifully.

3. What a beautiful piece — thanks Annie.

   I’m going to offer a theory about the hydrant, well, actually two.

   Unus is a fairly reluctant ally of the Evil Mutants. I like Lee’s dialogue that suggests his ambivalence about adopting the traditional visual code of the new identity he’s going to assume. He’s looking at his street-wear, hanging on that most everyday of objects, and realizing, with some sense of regret that he’s forever leaving the world of the prosaic behind him.

   There’s somehting else (spoiler alert: 45 years on from original publication). The jacket really wraps itself around the hydrant. It shows the contours of when fabric and metal meet, touch and interact. The conclusion of this story deals with the opposite effect — Unus the Untouchable becomes both Unus the Untouchable and Unus the Untouching — everything becomes driven away by his forcefield. He can’t eat, iie down, sleep — Nothing. His agency in the world has been entirely removed, and if we were Freudians we might say that he has become Eunuch the Untouchable, because he can no longer engage with any sense of volition in the material world of physical or social relationships (never mind sex.) too high flow? Did Kirby ‘intend’ this? Who can say what went on in that astonishing mind, consciously or unconsciously?

4. Nice to read your own super origin story! Kirby’s compositional thrust has so much in common with the Mexican muralists, even Aztec wall and codex designers. When I met him, I asked him about this and he said that he looked at National Geographic and all kinds of things, but just drew what he imagined.

5. Yes, Gary — the first issue of The Eternals, the amazing Aztec/Maya-meets-alien carvings and murals, I think it must be because of Kirby that I’ve always believed that sort of Fortean theorizing must simply be true. Kirby and that one late “Tintin” story where they discover the alien cave.

6. I’m so glad you mentioned the hydrant–before I read your piece, it was the first thing that caught my eye, and I wondered about its significance. Who is Hydrant-Man?

7. This is super, Annie. Such a treat to read an X-Men exegesis from a former editor.

8. Sweet! A lovely piece. I appreciate it especially as a non-superhero person.

9. Mark Frauenfelder notes on his entry that Kirby was a little ruffled by the resemblance of Darth Vader to his Darkseid. I wonder if he was also irritated by the resemblance of R2D2 to his forgotten Fire Hydrant character from X-Men #8?

10. Oh, another observation: I’ve always thought that I was one of the very few Kirby fans who came late to my Kirby appreciation. As it turns out, almost every entry so far has noted the same phenomenon!

11. Thanks for all the great comments! And Jason & Jen: the R2D2 Hydrant Man, hilarious!

12. Yes one thing I’ve learned is that whether or not you read comics as a child, for almost everyone Kirby was an acquired taste. And like most acquired tastes, once you’ve acquired it nothing else seems nearly as good.

13. Yeah, this one–like its predecessors–is superb. “Comic panels are designed to control the musicality of the eyes.” Wow.

14. Aces, Annie! “Go deep, trip on by.” If anybody could make me like superhero comics, you could.

15. This is a wonderful panel to write about, Annie. I like your comment that Kirby’s work is “scrappy and cosmic.” So true!

16. I fell in love with Kirby/Sinnott the moment I first saw it, when I was seven in 1974: in a B&W reprint of FF 94. Living in England we saw most stuff in B&W, and this suits the dream team extremely well. By this time there’s more Sinnott than a couple of years before, but that makes the page, if slightly less raw and dynamic, prettier and smoother on the eye, thanks to Joe’s wonderful brushwork. As a 10/11 year old I did find some of Kirby’s final phase Marvel works bemusing, but now appreciate so much of it (Black Panther and 2001 stands out for me in particular) Though I wonder if I’ll ever truly dig Devil Dinosaur?

17. Some comments posted to Annie’s Facebook item about this essay:

    Eduardo Ignacio Flores Ramirez: ‎”Ineffable things that a lover does by happenstance on the way to becoming beloved.” That’s love, you know? Thanks, Ann, for a beautiful love letter, and a great phrase, summarizing that which make us go on…

    Caroline Roland-Levy: Great writing Annie!

    Victor Manuel Fernandez Patiño: Thank you Annie! I’ve always been a big fan of your work. What you have written in your blog is a delight and a profound love letter.

    Ian Murphy: Great article, thanks Annie. I think that in drawing the reader’s eye to the hydrant we’re drawn to the jacket on the hydrant and the action that’s taking place in the panel – the costume change. Unus is standing pretty still in that shot but the text tells us he’s in the middle of changing outfits. The jacket on the hydrant emphasizes that action in a way Kirby didn’t otherwise do because he squeezed so much else into the panel. And I’m glad he did – the detail of the cityscape adds so much to it.

    Roberto Bartual: Great article. “True Believers started reading comics young, shared the helix of twin saplings entwining early, a genetic bonding I missed by arriving so late to the party. When I wrote comics, I cycled my private obsessions though the sieve of the form” That’s exactly the reason why you wrote some of the best comics Marvel has ever published.

    Chad Talbot: It’s a great love letter Annie! Even though I grew up reading comics, I really didn’t come to appreciate Kirby as a storyteller until later. He still blows me away. All the little details I took for granted on first read came to life, like the “crackles” of power coming out of fists. Thank you so much for sharing this Annie!

    John Payne: You were far from an imposter, my dear; you were fresh air, and you are missed.

    Brent Eric Anderson: Beautiful, Annie. Kirby was one of my creative fathers, and in a million of my own words I could never express my feelings for the man’s work as eloquently as you did in nineteen. Thank you.

    Th Mza: v. heartbreaking panel, brilliant exegesis. I wouldn’t put my clothes on a fire hydrant, but supervillains have more important things to worry about

18. “One of the many gentle, ineffable things that a lover does by happenstance on the way to becoming beloved.”

    Indeed. Thanks for a lovely piece.

19. A lovely and affecting last line —

20. Thanks for the link from FuckYeahKirby.

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