I Drew a Jack Kirby Birthday Portrait

August 28, 2013 marks the 96th anniversary of Jack Kirby's birth. Jack Kirby, my favorite comic book artist of all time!

I decided I would commemorate this anniversary by producing a portrait of the gentleman. I had never sat down and tried drawing Mr. Kirby before, but the time had arrived. I wanted my artwork to hinge on the occasion in some way rather than be merely generic.

96, 96, 96. How could I somehow tie in with 96. Then it came to me! Since JK had drawn 101 issues of The Fantastic Four, maybe the cover of issue 96 might be a fertile playground. I am not in possession of the encyclopedic recall of a Mark Waid so I had to look up that cover:

Bingo! I could work with that. I decided to give the figure of The Mad Thinker the old heave-ho, to be replaced by Jack Kirby himself, in profile, drawing. Well let me tell you what a wonderful thing the internet is because, without ever having seen it before, I found exactly the photo I needed:

So then I put the pieces of the puzzle together and drew the portrait. That was fun!

If you'd like to see some Jack Kirby birthday portraits by other artists, please do take a look right over here.