An interesting biography about Jack Kirby, not really what I expected. It's told as if Kirby himself is telling the story. The writer got the dialogue mostly from interviews and such, but I'm not sure I like the approach. At times, it felt like it needed more explanation. Makes me want to buy another biography about Jack Kirby at some point.

There was a lot in this I didn't know. It gives some background information to his creations, kind of confirms that things that Stan Lee gets credit for that should be Kirby also or more so, like the Silver Surfer.

I love that this book doesn't favor Marvel or DC. I feel like Kirby liked and disliked working with both companies. He kind of got screwed over. Independent company, like Image, came around too late. He was basically semi-retired at the end.

Side Note: This book contains swears, some graphic images, and some heated drama. Just pointing that out incases someone gets this for a kid. ( )

Jack Kirby's life, presented as if he were the narrator of a classic Marvel comic -- well, I take that back, with the giant captions, stiff art, and strict six-panel grid, it looks more like a product of Charlton Comics, Marvel's Connecticut competitor. But Kirby's life is big, even if these panels are small. (Oddly, the creator has chosen to depict Kirby with a giant manga head while everyone else in the book is illustrated in a more traditional style.)

Based mostly on interviews Kirby gave late in life to fan magazines and books devoted to him, we follow "The King" from his birth in 1917 to his death in 1994. So if you are a Stan Lee fan, prepare to see him thrown under a fleet of buses. Kirby was a grinder, churning out ideas and pages like a machine, often working simultaneously on several projects for multiple publishers. It's sad to see him be worn down and become embittered with the industry that took so much from him while giving little back.

Kirby's art could be goofy at times and way too blocky (those giant rectangular fingers reaching off the page!), but it was striking as hell. His writing on the other hand . . . The more control he had over the dialogue and plot, the worse his books became. The cosmic crap of the New Gods/Fourth World and Eternals is just unreadable. I think there's a reason none of these characters (maybe excepting Darkseid) ever became big hits no matter how often DC and Marvel have tried. (And now the movie studios think they can do something with them. Poor saps!)

Anyhow, I still respect Kirby as a creator and will not deny the huge impact he had on the industry during his life and beyond. Giant corporations will still be milking his work long after we are all gone. ( )