Jack Kirby is increasingly emerging as an important 20th century American artist even beyond the realm of the comics world. His art provided pen-and-ink counterparts to the formal concerns of Abstract Expressionist painting, formalizing compositions and graphic rhythms with as much sophistication as artists such as Jackson Pollock or Franz Kline. Even "Kirby crackle" can be compared to the notion of "all-over" mark-making in abstract art as championed by Clement Greenberg. Outer space scenes especially, requiring innovative graphic forms to suggest sublime and unrepresentable space phenomena, provided occasions for some of Kirby's most powerful abstract compositions. This panel will discuss the relationship of Kirby with abstract art, his deeply modernist artistic achievement, and his influence on art and abstract comics.
Andrei Molotiu (Indiana University, Bloomington;
Abstract Comics: The Anthology) will give a presentation on the topic, then will discuss the subject with artist
Mark Badger (
Batman: Jazz,
Martian Manhunter) and other surprise guests.
http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_search_results.php?strShow=33&strRec=4287
