Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, and the American Comic Book Revolution
By Ronin Ro
Bloomsbury 2004
Cover illustration by Jack Kirby; design by Elizabeth Van Itallie

Jack Kirby (1917-1994) is acknowledged as one of the supreme creative forces in the world of comics. Not only did numerous superhero characters spring from his pen, but from the 1930s onwards he established a template for sequential-art storytelling that is still followed to this day. His panels crackle with vitality and brio.

Tales To Astonish recounts the life of Kirby, born Jacob Kurtzberg, from his breadline-basic upbringing on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. He spent decades as a jobbing artist in the “funny-book” trade, until the 1960s when he launched the Marvel Comics line with writer Stan Lee. He co-created the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, the X-Men and the Silver Surfer, among others.

Ronin Ro’s biography borrows its title and cover style from a classic 1960s Marvel comic, and journeys through Kirby’s life in a breezy, novelistic style. What emerges is a picture of a man with almost boundless enthusiasm and a Trojan work ethic. Cigar permanently clenched between teeth, Kirby would turn out five or six fully detailed pages of pencil art in a day.

For its cover Tales To Astonish uses part of one of Kirby’s own creations: his alternative version of Nasa’s 1972 “pioneer plaque”, an engraved tablet placed on board the Pioneer spacecraft. Kirby felt the original plaque lacked “idealism and drive”; his version featured two smiling super beings, male and female, leaping proudly from our planet. This, in Kirby’s view, would announce that the residents of Earth were friendly but not to be trifled with, he said.

The costumed figure is classic Kirby, full of vigour and steely positivism. Designer Elizabeth Van Itallie has built around it a mock-up of a vintage comicbook “splash panel”, right down to the primary colours and hand-lettering. Perfect for a book about a man who lived and breathed comics and who breathed life into comics.