Whether you know his name or not, if you're familiar with Marvel Comics, you know Jack Kirby. The legendary artist, who would have celebrated his 100th birthday this week, is responsible for creating and working on a huge portion of the Marvel characters we all know and love. If you're already a die hard Kirby fan, though, you'll be doubly excited by this new logo and the promise from Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige that the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok is a love letter to Kirby's immense talent. Here's a look at the logo he unveiled with the sentiment.
Jack Kirby's influence on the logo design itself is clear. The texturing on the words is straight out of the artist's vast catalogue of cosmic illustrations. This isn't the first time we've seen the late artist's influence on Thor: Ragnarok, either. The trailer includes a few direct references to Kirby art, including a panel of artwork that can be seen behind Jeff Goldblum's Grandmaster. The first trailer even concludes with a signature "Kirby Krackle" behind the Ragnarok logo. Kirby would fill negative space in his designs with that unique depiction of cosmic energy. Since he, with Stan Lee, is also responsible for creating Marvel's Thor in the first place, it's a pretty safe bet that we're going to be seeing a whole lot more Kirby nods in Ragnarok as the movie approaches.
Although he tragically passed in 1994, Jack Kirby's 100th birthday would have fallen yesterday. Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi celebrated with his own social media post, which you can check out below. There's no telling whether or not we'll see this Galactic Head on the big screen, but Waititi's comments seem to double down on Kirby's connection to the upcoming Marvel film.
Although he's best known today for helping to usher in the "Silver Age " of comics with 1960s books like Fantastic Four, The Avengers, X-Men and many, many more, Jack Kirby's contributions to Marvel began about 20 years before the company even existed! It was in 1940 that he, alongside Joe Simon, created Captain America for Timely Comics, the company that would eventually transition into Marvel. He's not only known for his Marvel work, however, as Kirby left the company in the 1970s to go and work for the Distinguished Competition.
At DC Comics, Jack Kirby took his love of science fiction and gave birth to the publisher's New Gods and a cosmic stage that would become known as DC's Fourth World. November will belong to Kirby as, two weeks after Walt Disney Pictures releases Thor: Ragnarok, Warner Bros. Picures will deliver Justice League. The DC Comics ensemble is said to feature quite a few elements from Kirby's Fourth World, including would be conquerors from the hellish world Apokolips.
Whether you're a fan of Marvel, DC or both, we all owe a big debt to Jack Kirby, and it's great to see that his work will endure for some time to come. Kirby himself was a big fan of science fiction films (when he returned to Marvel in the 1970s it was, in part, to take on a series based on Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey), so it's very appropriate that he'll be celebrated with two different sci-fi blockbusters this fall. Thor: Ragnarok arrives on the big screen November 3 with Justice League following November 17. Here's what else is coming up.
