Love Romances #98 - Jack Kirby art & cover

Jack Kirby
Love Romances v1 #98, 1961 - An entire book dedicated to Jack Kirby's artwork would normally be cause of celebration, but this issue largely disappoints. Like the cover, his four stories are filled with p barren panels and uninspired layouts. Vince Colletta only reinforces these faults with his quickly applied inking. The last story, "Lovers' Quarrel" is generally the best, especially with its dramatically lit opening splash. This is 10 of 18 Love Romances issues by Kirby.
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Kirby cover pencils (Vince Colletta inks) = *
"I'm Lost Without You" Kirby story pencils (Vince Colletta inks) 7 pages = **
"Second Best" Kirby story pencils (Vince Colletta inks) 6 pages = **
"My Kind of Man" Kirby story pencils (Vince Colletta inks) 5 pages = **
"It Was Only a Simple Lovers' Quarrel, but Oh the Heatbreak It Would Cause" Kirby story pencils (Vince Colletta inks) 5 pages = ***

Jack Kirby
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Love Romances #98 - Jack Kirby art & cover Love Romances #98 - Jack Kirby art & cover Reviewed by Ted F on 11:02 AM Rating: 5

2 comments:

Mr. Peabody said...

Not much to say about the inking on the cover but the interior page you showed looks pretty good to me. It is just romance, after all, and I doubt if either of the men who created this artwork were trying for a museum piece. Anyway, there's no way Colletta could have turned one of these rounded faced Kirby women into a something either realistic or beautiful. See the cover of Lovers #64 or most any other Vinnie girl from the 50s to get illustrate my point.

Ted Ignacio @ Pencil Ink said...

Regardless of the genre, I try to use the same standard within the context of the artist's entire career. Frank Frazetta and Matt Baker did some of their best work in romance. John Buscema, John Romita and Gene Colan also excelled in their work in 1960s Marvel romance titles. Kirby has done excellent work in this genre (notably the 1950s) but this is far from that.

Also, whether it's realistic or not is less important to me than the art's aesthetic quality and contribution to the storytelling.

I do agree that Colletta did his best work in this genre and era. Thanks for sharing your insights.

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