Kirby: King of Comics
2008, aborted cover and book design
Publisher: Abrams
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Last year, I was commissioned by Abrams to design THE book on Jack Kirby.
Things were progressing well enough until disagreements began cropping up between myself and the author. Although I felt a strong sense of responsibility to see the project thru because of my esteem for Mr. Kirby, it became clear at a certain point that someone else, ANYONE ELSE should be designing the book.
Samples just arrived and as a designer, I still feel I made the right decision walking away. But as a Jack Kirby fan, I now feel a twinge of regret after seeing how it turned out. There are a few echoes of what I started, but it’s very different than I thought it should be. This, added to the fact that I left the editor and publisher holding the bag at the worst possible moment: Not good. Still, they kindly gave me a design credit for the jacket (the final cover was based on a earlier study) and my favorite page survived on the interior (see next).
That said, you should still pick up a copy. Evanier’s text made me teary near the end, and after all, it’s JACK KIRBY.
