Fantasticast Four #29: Kirby Kollage 1
Written with a dash of greatness by: Stan Lee
Drawn with a hint of glory by: Jack Kirby
Inked with a touch of drama by: Chic Stone
Lettered with a bottle of india ink by: S. Rosen
Presenting the very first Fantastic Four collage as created by Jack Kirby. Combining photographs, artwork and dialogue balloons, this is the first of several notable collages from Kirby over the years. It's a rarely-used technique in western comics, normally done for fun, novelty or kitsch value. But not in Jack's hands. Here, the form would be used to provide depth and wonder to his comics, as seen in this journey to the moon.
Some of Kirby's collages would suffer from the printing techniques of the 1960s, especially when he started combining multiple photographic sources to convey his vision. However, it's these same printing techniques that make his collages really work. The roughness of the reproduction of the photograph allows it to blend well with the detailed inking work provided by Chic Stone, making for a relatively smooth transition between the forms.
Such a shame that letter Sam Rosen would make a grammatical error in the caption to distract from the gorgeous artwork...
Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #29 on our thirty-second episode: Now With Genuine People Personalities
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