However, later in the seventies, a dispute with Marvel over ownership of original art and royalties caused Kirby to drift away from mainstream comics, to work on his own pet projects for smaller publishers, as well as for film and animation studios.
It was during his time away from the spotlight in 1978, that Kirby contributed designs for what was to be a movie adaptation of Roger Zelazny's Hugo Award-winning novel 'Lord of Light'. In its scope, Kirby's beautiful concept-art is reminiscent of the sci-fi vistas seen in The Fantastic Four, and also in his lesser-known comic works, such as the New Gods, The Eternals, and his expanded adaptation of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
It seems the artist was very much attuned to counter-culture fads for alternative religion and New Age thinking ( such as Erich Von Daniken's non-fiction best-seller 'Chariots of the Gods' ) and it was these prevailing ideas that inspired his elaborate depictions for the proposed film.
Ultimately, the film production of Lord of Light never happened: The concept - and Kirby's art - was left languishing in development limbo. That is, until it was hastily dusted off a year later, and used in a real-life CIA operation, by secret agent Antonio Mendez. Mendez' mission was to sneak into revolutionary Tehran and rescue six American diplomats who had gone into hiding at the Canadian Embassy. He was to 'exfiltrate' them across the Iranian border, disguising them as a Canadian film crew scouting locations for a science fiction film called Argo. To back up the story - in case any Iranians were curious enough to do a background check - Mendez placed bogus notices in Variety, and Kirby's art was included with a script, to give the project credibility.
It was perhaps only due to the critical and box office success of Argo that Kirby's Lord of Light concept-art surfaced at all, even though they were unable to use his originals in the Affleck film. Ironically, the movie allowed Affleck to find favour in Hollywood again, after several years in career doldrums following his poorly-received comic-book movie adaptation, Daredevil ( a comic that Kirby had also worked on, back in the sixties ).
Kirby, who died in 1994 at the age of 76, was not able to benefit from his cultural profile, or the billions generated in merchandising and box office revenues from blockbusters such as The Avengers or Captain America. But he nevertheless leaves a lasting legacy: Stylistically, he has inspired a diverse generation of comic-book talent such as John Byrne, Michael Allred, Jaime Hernandez and Shaky Kane. And perhaps most satisfyingly, his dispute with Marvel led to creator-owned properties being the norm in the comics industry, rather than the exception.
Below: Argo poster for the CIA 'caper', and ( right ) artist Jack Kirby.
...and finally...Kirby Couture..?!
MONOBLOG spotted these beautiful Classic Marvel-style outfits while researching this article. Looking closely, we think we can spot designs and stylistic signatures by legends John Byrne, John Buscema, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko...
From an article by Shitika Anand, with photography by Allan James Barger.
Hit KA-THOOM for the bigger, full-color article, True Believers!
