Creating a charitable book celebrating Jack Kirby, the King of Comics
Jack Kirby is famous for having created or co-created some of the most well-known and beloved superheroes in the history of comic-books, such as the Avengers, Captain America, the X-Men, Hulk, the Fantastic Four,or the New Gods. His drawing style and storytelling techniqueshad such influence over the superhero genre that he was even dubbed the King of Comics by his peers.
Even today, the greatest artists and writers in the comics industry often quote his work as influential in their own. Many decades after the publication of his latest comics, most comicsfans still consider Jack Kirby’s work as a cornerstone in the history of comics.
August 2017 will be the centenary of Mr. Kirby’s birth and we, at Komics Initiative, have seen this as an opportunity to assemble fans from all around the world, professionals and amateurs, and to ask them to show and tell how Jack Kirby impacted them and their works
Kirby & Me will be 300-pages long and will feature over 150 participants among which professionals, specialists, and other fanatics from all around the world.
Tributes will come in various forms: never-seen-before artworks, original testimonies and interviews,as well as some comics specially done for the occasion and many other surprises. All of this compiled within a carefully-crafted collection, in art book format with texts both in English and French.
Kirby&Me has been designed to be an ambitious, generous, and radiant tribute to the memory of Jack Kirby. In the spirit of Jack Kirby as a symbol for artists throughout the world, all proceeds from this campaign will go to a non-profit organization: Hero Initiative. For years, now, Hero Initiative has been helping artists in need and we feel the man we’re paying tribute to would have agreed with this.
Here is a sneak peek at a fraction of the artwork which will be featured in the book. We’ve already gathered more than 100 illustrations, done by renowned artists and talented amateurs. And this number grows with each passing day, even as this campaign runs.
The following participants have already sent us their contributions and will be in the book:
2D, Pierre Alary, Alexis Bacci Leveillé, Derf Backderf, Steve Baker, Beuh, Franck Biancarelli, Bicargo, Señorita Bicho, Josselin Billard, Jon Bogdanove, Roland Boschi, Russ Braun, Jerome Bretzner, Dan Brereton, Philippe Briones, Luc Brunschwig, Stéphane De Caneva, Hugo Canuto, Roberto Cardinale, Marc Caro, Caza, Cécil, Darick Chamberlin, Marco Checchetto, Vicente Cifuentes, Patricio Clarey, Tomm Coker, Giorgio Comolo, Philippe Cordier, Czek, Sergio Davila, Jean Depelley, Mike Deodato Jr, Tony Dennison, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Kyko Duarte, Patrick Dumas, François Duprat, Davidé Fabbri, Ivan Fernandez Silva, Frank Fosco, Mathias Fourrier, Mr Garcin, Rafa Garres, Barry Ira Geller, Gess, Romain Gondy, John Gonzales, Griffon, Fred Grivaud, RM Guéra, Guile, Guillomcool, Boris Guilloteau, Alan Heller, Chris Hénin, Eric Hérenguel, Dylan Horrocks, Mike Huddleston, Julien Hugonnard-Bert, Juapi, Nicolas Kéramidas, Antonio Lapone, Jonathan Lau, Paolo Leandri, Laurent Lefeuvre, Jeff Lemire, Etienne Le Roux, Greg Lofé, Lorenzzo, LRNZ, Flavio Luiz, Tom Lyle, Chris Malgrain, Reed Man, Patrick Marcel, Enrico Marini, Marti, Freddy Martin, Alvaro Martinez, Pat Masioni, Rodolphe Massé, Mauricet, Brendan McCarthy, John McCrea, Adam McGovern, David Messina, Paskal Millet, Boris Mirroir, Guillermo Mogorron, Thierry Mornet, Motte, Cyrille Munaro, Frédéric Mur, Alex Nikolavitch, Art No, Julien Noirel, Nagy Norbert, Rafael Ortiz, Stéphane Perger, Alberto Ponticelli, Juanan Ramirez, Mike Ratera, Reed Man, Paul Renaud, Juan Jose Ryp, Radja Sauperamaniane, Valerio Schiti, Diana Schutz, Laurent Sieurac, Emanuel Simeoni, Crystal Skillman, Joe Skull, Robert Solanovic, Scorpio Steele, Matej Stic, Fran Strukan, Goran Sudzuka, Dalibor Talajic, Ciro Tota, Ronan Toulhoat, Emilio Van Der Zuiden, Fred Van Lente, Olivier Weinberg, Nikola Witko, Laurent Zimny… and many more to come…
This campaign will support an honest yet ambitious project which main appeal is that it’s being done by fans, for the fans, to celebrate the man without whom comics wouldn’t be what they are today.
The collected funds will serve to pay a professional design artist, the book’s printing, the various other rewards and, of course, the postage of all the rewards to the backers.
From the start, we wanted this book to be the ideal media through which artists could pay tribute to Jack Kirby. That’s why we’ve opted for an artbook-like format (25cm wide and 31cm high). The book will be hard bound with an original illustration specially made for the occasion and this single edition will have all of the texts (interviews, commentaries, etc) in both English and French. The edition will be numbered, according to the number of backers.
Even if you don’t take part in the campaign by funding it, you can help us by talking about it around you, on the Internet or on social media.
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Proceeds from this campaign will be directed towards an American non-profit called Hero Initiative.
This association is well-known by convention-goers as it is frequently either present or represented by famous authors and artists there. Hero Initiative’s goal is to help the workers in the comics industry, for example by helping them pay costly medical bills. As American artists tend to be freelancers, they seldom have an insurance plan (nor healthcare). Hero Initiative helps in such cases. Sometimes, the association’s help can be material (after an artist’s studio got damaged, theft, etc.)
Mickaël Géreaume and Alain Delaplace, reviewers over at PlaneteBD and Jack Kirby fans extraordinaire, have founded Komics Initiative, a French association dedicated to the promotion of comics and bandedessinee. They’ve been working for now two years over this project, hoping to offer Kirby fans around the world a noble and memorable celebration of their favourite artists.