Monday, February 8, 2010
Ol' Groove's Request Line: Kirby Fu!
HiiiiYA! Groove-ophiles! One thing that really grabbed a lot of ya during Kung Fu Week was the fact that none other than Jack "King" Kirby actually drew an ish of DC's Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter. The splash I shared left a lot of ya panting for more, and Ol' Groove never was one to hold out on his pals. So here for your viewing pleasure is Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter #3 (May 1975) by Denny O'Neil and the King (inked by D. Bruce Berry). Prepare to have your mind blown by "Claws of the Dragon!"
Hi Groove! I've been enjoying your blog on classic 70's comics! Those are the exact same time period as the comics I have from childhood.
ReplyDeleteI really hate to ay this, potentially offending a lot of comics fans, but the artwork in "Kung Fu Fighter #3" is hideous! My Dad bought us that very same comic, and I've hated the artwork in it since... 1975. Since Jack Kirby is a revered figure in comic-dom, can someone explain what happened? Was Kirby burned out by 1975? Was he overworked at the time? Did this issue just have the wrong combination of artist and inker?
All this time, I was wondering if all of the issues of "Kung Fu Fighter" looked this bad, but your posting of Issue #2 was very enlightening- the combo of Alan Weiss and Al Milgrom shows that KFF is capable of looking like a good comic.
I would guess that Jack Kirby has no desire to do this book - but his contract with DC had a monthly page count - I imagine that they needed an artist fir this issue and tapped Kirby to fulfill his page count.
ReplyDeleteIt does seem Kirby wasn't drawing at his best here. Not as detailed as much of his other work.
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