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Comic Book Superhero Store - Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, and the American Comic Book Revolution

List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $4.99
Your Save: $ 9.96 ( 67% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Bloomsbury USA

Average Customer Rating:

Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5092
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Bloomsbury USA
Manufacturer: Bloomsbury USA
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: 2005-07-05
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Release Date: 2005-06-16
Studio: Bloomsbury USA

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Editorial Reviews:

The spectacular life and times of Jack Kirby, the legendary forefather of American comic books.

For fifty years, Jack Kirby drew more pages than any other comic book artist. As talented as he was prolific, Kirby was responsible for many of the most well-known and beloved superheroes in popular culture.

With his first writing partner Joe Simon, he created Captain America, DC Comics's Sandman, and the lucrative genre of the romance comic. In the 1960s, Kirby paired with Stan Lee to develop a pantheon of heroes that included, among others, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, the X-Men, Thor, Iron Man, the Avengers, the Silver Surfer, and the Inhumans. Together with Lee, this artist and writer forever changed the American comic book by introducing angst-ridden heroes, sympathetic villains, and a dynamic visual style that has influenced every artist who followed.

The inspiration behind The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Jack Kirby has been hailed by Wizard magazine as "Without any doubt...the single most important creator in the History of American Comic Books." In Tales to Astonish, Ronin Ro chronicles Kirby's poverty-stricken origins in the Lower East Side, his early commercial triumphs and failures, his renowned partnership with Stan Lee, his continuing artistic innovations (the production department hated him for pasting photographs into his pages), and his lengthy legal battles with Marvel comics over the ownership of his original art. An insightful portrait of one of its most enduring-and overlooked-artists, Tales to Astonish is also a lively, novelistic account of the comic book industry, from its inauspicious origins to its sensational successes.

Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating:

Summary: Astonishing that it was published!
Comment: I thought we would have to wait until Stan Lee passed away before someone was brave enough to set the record straight. While I admit to being a bit biased (I fell in love with Kirby's work at the age of 12 with Kamandi #11), I thoroughly enjoyed reading this account of Jack Kirby's life and his unequalled influence on the comic book medium.

If you're a Kirby fan (like me), you will probably enjoy this book, which filled in several gaps in my knowledge of his life and struggles. If you're a Stan fan and believe his hype, well...read his autobiography and try to reconcile the fact that Stan earns a 7-figure paycheck for being a figurehead who gained fame from others' work. I guess it's easier for a publishing company to pay one person who's willing to claim ownership than to be fair and distribute residuals to those who created most of the characters and did most of the work.

To address other reviewers, yes, the book has little to no documentation, but the author says it was written from interviews he conducted, and only reached out to other documents when he discussed people who were unavailable or deceased. He says something about a list, which isn't included. This indicates an intent to document his sources, and a possible publication flaw that didn't include the list.

And I agree that for those who have little or no frame of reference for Kirby's work, it is a shame that there are no pictures. However, for those of us who cut our teeth on Kirby, it's not really an issue. Clearly, this book was written for the fans, with obscure references and names dropped like cherries out of a tree.

Bottom line: If you're a Kirby fan, you'll probably have a hard time putting it down. If you're a Stan fan, you'll probably find it biased and hate it. If you know nothing about these guys and have no opinion, you probably won't be interested. I gave it five stars for its bold counteraction of the Man's (what an appropriate title) hyperbole and hype, and for the pure pleasure it gave me to see the record set straight.

While it's nice that Stan is now verbally giving Jack his due credit, it's books like these that should shame Marvel Enterprises into giving those who built the foundation for their millions a little piece of the cake.

Customer Rating:

Summary: MARVELous
Comment: I've always had a passing interest in comic books. Not so much as an avid reader of comics themselves but more of an interest in the early creators and its history. This book was my first and it really opened my eyes to the extent of Jack Kirby's influence on both the comic book genre and pop culture as a whole. It really was astonishing. The ending which includes the death of many of the heroes of this genre including the King was sad especially since it seemed Kirby left without the tangible side of leaving a legacy - royalties and above the title credit. However it seems most people within the industry and the avid followers of comics have come to fully understand his lasting contributions which may be as significant as anyone before or after.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Tales to Astonish - Astoundin!
Comment: A great insight into the life of Jack Kirby and sheds light on the creation of those fabulous Marvel Superheoes!

Customer Rating:

Summary: Incredible Book
Comment: I've been collecting comics for over twenty years, but this book blew me away. I'd read another review that said that everything in the book was common knowledge, and I can't see how anybody could say that. It was really in-depth and insightful, and surprisingly enough it was very well written. I don't usually read biographies, but this book was pretty much a bio on Jack Kirby. The only thing about it, is that after reading it, you may view the comics industry differently. It's a shame the way that the artists (and some writers) were treated by the comic companies. This book was incredibly detailed, and was full of many quotes from industry professionals throughout the years. Highly recommended, especially if you liked Kavalier & Clay.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Very Readable History of Jack Kirby and the Comics
Comment: With some hesitation, I ordered a copy of the book "Tales to Astonish" because of both praise and concern in the comic fan world. I found it to be a very readable entertaining book that relates the highs and low points of the modern comic book, from its inception in the late 1930s through Jack Kirby's career.

Criticism of this book are quite correct. There is no artwork, except for a Jack Kirby figure on the front and back. It is all text with no index. However, it is very readable, alternating between explanation, history and dialog between the major figures. This helps to make the story human, and show why and how things went wrong, how people felt, and what was done on both sides.

There were many "a ha" moments for me in this book. The explanation of WHY there were only 8 Marvel comics initially distributed by National and WHY Marvel may not have made their initial superheros LOOK like tradition superheroes is very interesting.

Also, the author has fleshed out some of the critical decisions to form partnerships and break-ups to explain more about the personalities involved. Example: Jim Steranko is a well known figure, but WHERE he came from, and WHY he fought with Stan Lee at the height of his success was very helpful. Jack Kirby's role in supporting this young master develop his form and then resentment at low pay for doing the majority of the layout work makes sense now.

I spotted at least two simple factual errors: DC's Challengers of the Unknown is said to have debuted in Showcase # 7, 11, 12.... but wasn't it 6, 7, 11, 12? Similarly, the author describes the development of "Him" the last Kirby developed character for Marvel in Fantastic Four # 76, but I KNOW it was 66-67 because I bought them as they came out. These small errors make me wonder if the editing was done by a non-comic fan, or someone intentionally fed mis-information to the author.

There is also a complaint that the same point or scene is repeated within a few pages of the book, over and over, being distracting cause you've just read that. I feel this is a linking technique when some additional information from research or interview has been inserted to flesh out a point, or illuminate another aspect of comics, and it derails the central discussion of Jack Kirby. Yes, annoying, but worked for me as it signals a return to the main theme.

All in all, I must agree this is not the definitive work on Jack Kirby, but it is a very good overview of the development of the comic book industry and hits interviews or quotes from interviews from all the major players, from Stan Lee, to Mark Evanier, Gene Colan to Gil Kane, Carmine Infantao to Julie Schwartz, Gary Groth to Greg Theakston. In short, alot of ground has been covered.... and reasonably well.

For a cheap price, this is a very quick, very readable over-view of Kirby's work, accomplishments, heartbreaks and legacy.
I'd recommend it.

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