Jack Kirby (August 28, 1917 - February 6, 1994)

Jack Kirby was born today in 1917. Some of the first comics I ever bought in New Zealand during the late'70's  were from Kirby's 1975-1977 run on Captain America and his Machine Man issues of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Before the arrival of comic specialty shops in Australasia, American comics with Kirby's work received spotty newsstand distribution through Gordon and Gotch. Kirby's work was also reprinted by numerous New Zealand and Australian comics publishers from the early 1950's. The Gallery below features a selection of Kirby covers from NZ and OZ reprints.

New Zealand editions of Black Magic an early production of Jack Kirby and Joe Simon. Black Magic was one of the titles cited by Richard Clendenen, Director of the Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency in Senate hearings conducted after the publication of Frederic Wertham's Seduction of The Innocent.

Australian editions of the Fantastic Four published by Newton Comics.

2001: A Space Odyssey - Yaffa Publishing Group (Scans courtesy of Ausreprints.)

The X-Men - Newton Comics (Scans courtesy of Ausreprints.)

The Avengers - Newton Comics (Scans courtesy of Ausreprints.)

Today: Awkwood Launch

Pikitiacast 1 - Chris Mousdale

Chris Knox portrait by Chris Stapp

I'll be posting some casually recorded podcasts on a casual basis because transcription is such a darn chore. So to start with here is a little chat with designer Chris Mousdale who is working with Beatnik Publishing to produce Graphic Knox - The Graphic Art of Chris Knox 1965 - 2014. Graphic Knox is currently on Fundnation as a project to raise funds for the production of the book. Please consider pre-ordering this book to help make it a reality.

Chris Knox drawn advert for album Beat.

Years Spent in Darkness - Jesus on A Stick #4

Happy As Larry - Chris Knox 1987

Page from Growth Spurt - Scratch The New Zealand Comix Magazine 1992 Anthology

Will Donald Comic Pages

While compiling supplemental material for The Cartoons of Will Donald I collected a dozen examples of his comic work. Donald seemed to reuse a lot of drawings within the same stories, swiping himself. My favourites were the more bizarre Fantasy/Sci-Fi stories, they seem to have more than a hint of Fletcher Hanks about them.

SPX 2014 Debut: The Cartoons Of Will Donald

The Cartoons of Will Donald

A collection of the early work of one of Australia’s pioneers of cartooning, Will Donald.  Donald produced cartoons for socialist newspaper, The Australian Worker socialist, from 1921 -1944.  This collection reproduces in chronological order six months of cartoons from Donald’s first work in March 1921. Donald’s work like his predecessor at The Worker, Adam Plass,  depicted the growing pains of Australia’s unionised workforce and Australian people at odds with the William Morris ”Billy” Hughes led Nationalist Party Government.

Will Donald also contributed to mainstream newspapers of the period with political cartoons and cartoon strips, notably Fashion Plate Fanny. From the 1920’s to late ’40’s Donald created some of Australia’s first original comic books.

Compiled by Matt Emery