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Topic: "Jack Kirby" FF Galactus Art: Fake or Real? Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Matt Hawes
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Joined: 16 April 2004
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Posted: 04 October 2022 at 6:24am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

I came across this piece while searching for images of Jack Kirby on Google images:



I am pretty darn certain that is NOT really Jack Kirby's artwork, later period or otherwise. Besides some details not looking right to me, Jack's pencils usually have a... less labored look. This feels like someone really trying to draw like Kirby, but it has a certain stiffness to it.

Does anyone here know anything about this piece?

What's your opinion about it?

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Darren Ashmore
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Posted: 04 October 2022 at 7:18am | IP Logged | 2 post reply

Sue looks way off the Kirby style and Johnny's left hand
seems awkward too. Might be legit, might not, it wouldn't
be the first time a bogus piece has appeared on that site.
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Conrad Teves
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Posted: 04 October 2022 at 7:37am | IP Logged | 3 post reply

In addition to what Darren said, I'd point out somethin "off" about the signature too.  Kirby does what's called a "crook's claw" or "felon's claw" in his capital "J"s. The bottom curve on the J is usually pointy on anyone who does this.  Looks oddly round to me, very much so compared to any other samples I googled.  (This caught my eye immediately since I read a number of books on handwriting analysis back in the 90's)*  On the other hand, maybe he was just tired.

Also, I seem to recall Kirby being much sharper with perspective in the backgrounds?  This is kinda janky.  Look at the windows between Sue and Galactus.

*Eventually decided the practice was very unscientific, mostly nonsense, particularly stroke-trait analysis, where the name for the "crook's claw" comes from.  The fact that some people draw their Js that way is obviously quite real, though.
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Joe Hollon
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Posted: 04 October 2022 at 12:13pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

Doesn’t jump out as fake to me and based on the rest of that guys
collection I would think it’s legit.
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John Byrne
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Posted: 04 October 2022 at 12:16pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

Looks like late vintage Kirby to me.
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Brian Miller
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Posted: 04 October 2022 at 12:17pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

The Torch doesn’t look right at all
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Vinny Valenti
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Posted: 04 October 2022 at 2:34pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

Along the lines of what JB said, later Kirby started to go off his own model, so I agree.
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Eric Smearman
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Posted: 04 October 2022 at 2:59pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

Looks legit to me. Looks like it could have been done in or
around the time that Kirby was doing SUPER POWERS at DC.
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John Byrne
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Posted: 04 October 2022 at 3:50pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

SUPER POWERS is just what I found myself thinking of as I looked at this piece. We see here the same kind of line and shading Kirby used there.

At the risk of calling down the Wrath of God on my pointy little head, there is much evidence of someone very much at the end of his period of peak creativity.

Sad but true--and something that would make for a curious choice if the piece was forged.

Compare:

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Jason Ladwig
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Posted: 04 October 2022 at 3:52pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply

A little off topic but maybe along the lines of an artists early work versus later:

JB: As you've aged, how much ( if any) do you think your drawing ability changes by choice( purposefully doing something different)  versus  age related changes ( vision, arthritis, etc)?

*edited for punctuation


Edited by Jason Ladwig on 04 October 2022 at 3:53pm
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John Byrne
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Posted: 04 October 2022 at 3:55pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

JB: As you've aged, how much ( if any) do you think your drawing ability changes by choice( purposefully doing something different) versus age related changes ( vision, arthritis, etc)

••

A LOT!!

I was looking at the hardcover collection of my NEXT MEN: AFTERMATH miniseries the other day, and really missing the kind of line that I'd evolved by that point. Forgive the towering immodesty, but that was some sweet stuff. Alas, I could not hang onto it.

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Mark Haslett
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Posted: 04 October 2022 at 3:59pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

Looks authentic to me.

Trying to isolate a piece of evidence: Reed’s face is a late-Kirby face
instead of a recognizable “Kirby’s Reed” face. This is something difficult
to forge: how would late Kirby re-invent his style for Reed’s face?

So many details seem correct to me for that late vintage and I’ve seen
other highly finished pencil pieces by him.

Edit: while I typed this up, JB made a much better case in other posts
that went up before I finished and posted this.

Edited by Mark Haslett on 04 October 2022 at 4:06pm
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