Tribute
(below) Left to right, that’s Jerry Robinson, Joe Ruby, and Ken Spears. Photos by the incomparable Chris Ng, who’s always on hand to snap shots for our use; thanks as always, Chris!
2008 Kirby Tribute Panel (Conducted Sunday, July 27, 2008, at 10 a.m. as part of Comic-Con International: San Diego, and featuring comic book legend Jerry Robinson and animation producers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears. Kirby attorney Paul S. Levine was also present on the panel, but time restrictions limited his input. Moderated by Mark Evanier, and transcribed and edited by John Morrow.) MARK EVANIER: In honor of Jack Kirby, will you all please set your cell phones on “explode.” (laughter) This is the annual Jack Kirby Tribute Panel, so inevitably I’m Mark Evanier. (applause) I’d like to apologize for the hour; I do not make the schedule for this convention, I just live in it. We’re gonna divide this into three chapters. The first part is going to be a brief rambling by me, kind of a “state of Kirby” speech. Then I’m going to have announcements, and if you have a Kirby-related announcement you’d like to make, that’d be the time to do it. The third part is we’re going to be talking to these gentlemen about Jack and their relationship to him. Let me introduce them to you. On my immediate left is one of the great legends of the comic book business. People have been coming up to me for several days at this convention, saying, “I can’t believe I just met the guy who created the Joker, and drew all those neat Batman stories.” When they gave the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award to this man, that’s what it was meant for. When they gave it to me, they made a mockery of it. (laughter) This is Mr. Jerry Robinson, ladies and gentlemen. (applause) As we’ll discuss when we get to Act Three of these proceedings, Jack had a lot of career turmoil in the late 1970s and early
Levine, folks. (applause) I’m going to start this by talking at some length about Jack, and a thought that occurred to me. A lot of people here did not have the opportunity to meet Jack; that’s one of the reasons we do these panels, so those of us who did can pass on that wonderful little glow we got from being near the man. When you met Jack, you might come to him and say, “I want a sketch of the Thing” or “I want an autograph.” What you got that was most valuable—he usually wouldn’t do a sketch for you. He would sometimes autograph, depending on how his drawing hand was at the time. But what you got from Jack, if you were perceptive enough to receive it—which many people were not—was always a philosophical concept. Because the most valuable thing Jack had, even more so than his ability to draw great looking monsters and such, was a perception. You’ve heard me talk or write in the past about how Jack predicted this and that. People have asked me if he had psychic powers. I don’t believe in psychic powers; if I ever did I would believe that Jack had them. I still don’t believe people have psychic powers, but I do believe that some human beings on this planet are just smarter than other people, and some of them are more perceptive than other people, at least in certain areas. Those of us who knew Jack can itemize areas where he was not perceptive; this is a man who could not drive a car because he would drive off the road inevitably. But when it came to grand visions of the future—where something was going—he didn’t know where he was always going, but he always knew where the future was going. One of the concepts Jack gave me to think
1980s. He felt very alienated from the comic book business. He was unhappy in it for a number of reasons—not the least of which was that it was still the comic book business after all those years. He found an escape route; Mister Miracle managed to get out of the comic book business and the prison that it was for him, and worked very happily in animation for many years. He worked very happily for these two gentlemen, who had and still have a very fine animation studio named Ruby-Spears. These are Mr. Joe Ruby and Mr. Ken Spears. (applause) On the far end is the Kirby family attorney. Jack had two wonderful lawyers working for him during the original art battle which you all know about, and some of the other battles he fought. Now this gentleman represents the Kirby Estate and many other people you know, even me. This is Mr. Paul S.
about a lot—he’d throw out new ways of looking at it over the years—was something that might be called “the passing of the torch.” I met Jack in July of 1969; it is scary to me—and one of those thoughts I can’t quite wrap my brain around—that at that point, Jack was younger than I am today, by a couple of years. He seemed old to me; not old in a bad way. He seemed like an adult, an experienced guy with years and years on him, and I was this stupid, geeky kid who knew too damn much about comic books, and look where it’s got me. (laughter) And I don’t feel like I’ve changed, but obviously something has changed. This is my 12th panel of this convention, and I have five in a row today. It dawned on me as I was looking at my schedule— the next panel in this room is a tribute to a man named Dave Stevens. Dave was even younger than I am, and we lost him this 25