There's a photo of Jack Kirby in his natural state of Creating Something. Jack would have been 95 years old today…and if you "live" only by being mentioned, he'll be around as long as many of the characters he launched. I still find myself thinking about him, quoting him, being asked about him and starting sentences with "Y'know, Kirby once said…" on a daily basis.
Y'know, Kirby once said that you always have to look at the Big Picture. He was a Big Picture kind of guy. As is obvious to all who know his work, he drew in Big Pictures, no matter their actual dimensions on a page. He thought in Big Pictures, too. With Jack, it was all about where we were, how we got here and — most important — where we were going. His mind wandered too much for him to be able to drive a car but he often seemed to be driving us anyway…all around the neighborhood and into the future.
I have written extensively — some say too much, though others say not enough — about his creative brilliance and also about what a decent, wonderful human being he was. As is not unusual with those who are praised so, a certain backlash is inevitable. I occasionally spot it on Internet message boards where people without real names argue that he wasn't that clever and/or that nice; that he couldn't have been.
Not long ago, I was slammed on one for advancing these myths. The contrarian did not seem to get that the view of Kirby I give is not just mine. It's darn near unanimous among those who knew him and those who worked with him. Take me out of the pool and everyone whose opinions could matter still thinks he was a lot more than just a guy who moved the pencil on some memorable and successful comic books. He was still Jack Kirby.
And as A. Whitney Brown used to say on Saturday Night Live: That, my friends, is the Big Picture.