I’ve been reading Jack Kirby’s “Madbomb” story from his run on Captain America comics in the 70’s. I came across a particularly strong panel of Cap gearing up to stick it to some fascist imperialists, and it occurred to me that this kind of panel – the extreme facial closeup – is a stylistic trope Kirby would frequently use to either ratchet up some intensity, or simply give his page some added visual interest. It’s a really cool and effective technique.
Anyway, as I was coming across more of these facial closeup panels I got a strong urge to cut them out and reassemble them into a giant wall of intensity. At least digitally anyway. The easiest way to do this was via Pinterest where I could just upload them and let the app arrange them. I’m building a board here if you wanna check it out. There’s not much there yet but it’s already looking pretty great. Hopefully Kirby would be cool with me doing this. He loved collages.
By the way, the “Madbomb” story I mentioned is very good. It’s not Kirby’s deepest story – you could tell he was going for a breezy, action-oriented arc – but it is (unfortunately) super relevant to the times we find ourselves in today. The premise is that this (literally) underground group of neo-imperialist fascists have created an artificial brain that, when activated, sends out a signal that makes people angry to the point of insanity, turning citizens against one another. HMM. And the ringleader is a conservative who has wrapped himself in the flag and is trying to dial the country back to the “good old days.” HUH. Anyway – it’s all nauseatingly relatable for a story from almost 50 years ago. And unlike a lot of Kirby’s earlier stories, he was actually able to take it to it’s natural conclusion before it was cancelled or some editor told him to cut it short.
It’s a really solid two-fisted satire. of Here’s a particularly gnarly passage:
