Just in time for the release of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer this coming Friday (June 15) comes a new extended DVD edition of the original FF movie from 2005. This version adds 20 minutes to the original film, but skip watching that first disc. It's still an incredibly crappy movie. Instead, go directly to disc 2 and slide that right into your DVD player. There's pure gold on it. (And in it, too. There's a "movie money" ticket for Rise of the Silver Surfer worth up to $8.50 off the price of admission for the new film from June 15-July 7.)
The Special Features on this new edition include two one-hour documentaries, "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine," and "Jack Kirby: Storyteller." The first one gives us a generous overview of the Fantastic Four comic, from its inception in 1961 until 2005, when the documentary was produced. Filled with great--and surprisingly candid--interviews with the likes of Stan Lee, Joe Sinnott, John Romita, Alex Ross, Mark Waid, Walt Simonson, Rich Buckler, George Pérez, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Jim Lee, and many more, it takes a decade by decade look at the "World's Greatest Comic Magazine."
But the real gem here is the Kirby documentary, and engrossing and--again--candid look at the life of the man many consider to be comics' greatest storyteller. Interviews with son Neal Kirby and daughter Lisa Kirby, and comic luminaries Neal Adams, Tim Sale, Bruce Timm, John Romita, Barry Windsor-Smith, Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee, and former assistants Steve Sherman and Mark Evanier, among others. (In fact, there's lots of Evanier, both time-wise and physically, since this was taped before his dramatic weight loss over the past year.) It's a PBS/Ken Burns quality film, a paean to a man who was, as someone puts it in the documentary, the top artist in comic books for three decades (I'd extend that to four, actually: 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s).
There are so many wonderful observations in this film, so many great quotes. One of them comes early on, and is from John Romita, who is incredibly articulate in both documentaries. Romita says of Kirby, "He had no barriers. I mean, I had corners in my rooms, he didn't have corners in his rooms. His rooms were panoramas." In the same opening sequence, Barry Windsor-Smith points out "nowadays, it's violence. When Jack did it, it was action." Neal Adams talks about Kirby's impressionistic art style, and how his muscles were rounded, yet he'd add a straight line through them to represent sinew. Adams is hilarious as he admits he couldn't draw that way, but he'd love to ink it.
The film spends much time on Kirby, the man, with interviews with two of his children, Neal and Lisa, both of whom are charming and talkative. Everyone seems totally at ease talking about Kirby, a subject that literally animates people, makes them jump off the screen, just like Jack's art jumped off the page. (Incidentally, both films are in 16:9 aspect ratio, a definite plus, adding to Romita's panorama theory.) The Kirby doc ends with a loving tribute to Jack's wife, Roz, the anchor who grounded him and let him be the creative--and somewhat eccentric, at times--genius he was.
All in all, "Jack Kirby: Storyteller" is probably the best comic book documentary I've ever seen. Like Kirby's drawing style, it starts at the upper left corner and fills the page with an incredible vision of who the man--as an artist, husband, father, and comic book god--was. It's a thorough and moving tribute to the creative force behind a company who continues to strip mine his creations forty years later. And that mine is very crowded these days, with Hollywood bringing in their heavy equipment, too. It's great to see Jack Kirby finally get at least some of the recognition he so richly deserves. It's a shame the movie of his greatest creation, the Fantastic Four, is such a piece of crap.
I agree the documentary is great - a welcome suprise on a major dvd release.
As for the FF film - I like it. It's goofy, fun, mercifully short and aimed at kids... and it's bright and fun. Not something that can be said for the appallingly dull and overlong Superman Returns or the X-Men movies
Posted by: Max | 06/13/2007 at 03:55 PM
I am very excited about seeing this documentary on Jack. His contribution to comics is unprecedented, and it's about time this giant in the industry was given a classy, and thorough tribute. I was fortunate to have known and spoken to Jack and Roz on a number of occassions, and they were definitly a team, and two of the nicest people you could ever meet. As we know, nice people are often taken advantage of, and I am waiting for Marvel to step up and do the right thing by paying the Kirby family at least a small portion of the money they deserve for Jack's contributions. This oversight is almost worse then what DC did to Siegel & Shuster over Superman. That was one icon that they created. Jack helped create dozens of superhero icons for Marvel. Characters that they are continually making money from in all media.
Stan Lee's contributions were great, and even he had to fight for what he deserved, but Jack's contributions were far greater. The death of Captain America (a Kirby creation)was national news and will make Marvel lots of money. So will all the films that are based on his characters. Money that the Kirby estate will never see. It's a shame really. The people who sell the idea of superheroes and standing up for what's right in the world, would rightly be depicted as villains in their own books . Nuff Said --
Posted by: Jeff Rack | 06/11/2007 at 05:12 PM
I don't recall any actual video or film of him drawing, but there are a number of pictures of him at the drawing board and with various pieces of art.
Posted by: Gary | 06/11/2007 at 02:29 PM
Haven't seen any of this...is there footage of Jack drawing?
Posted by: TUCK! | 06/11/2007 at 12:50 PM
I have no beefs about Stan Lee, and just mentioned the fact that he does, indeed, give full credit to Kirby in this documentary, in response to the previous comment, that's all. I'm one of the group that believes, as Barry Windsor-Smith points out, that Kirby and Lee together were like Lennon and McCartney, never as good when alone.
Posted by: Gary | 06/10/2007 at 08:13 PM
Whatever beefs you may have about Stan Lee, please don't pretend that this documentary is the first example of Lee publicly giving Kirby full credit for the creation of the Surfer. I'd heard the story 30 years ago of how, when the pages of FF 48 came back Stan looked at the Surfer and asked "who's this?" and Kirby said that he thought Galactus would have a herald or messenger that he would send in first.
Posted by: Pat Kelly | 06/10/2007 at 07:04 PM
In the WORLD'S GREATEST COMICS MAGAZINE documentary, Stan Lee tells the story of the creation of the Silver Surfer, and essentially acknowledges the fact that Kirby drew him in on his own, without any input from Stan.
Posted by: Gary | 06/10/2007 at 12:52 PM
I don't care how "crappy" the FF movie is, why isn't Kirby's estate getting a big chunk of the profits anyway? The way Stan Lee is?
And it sure would be nice to see some publicity for this latest one mention that the Silver Surfer WAS CREATED SOLELY BY KIRBY!
Posted by: dave™© | 06/10/2007 at 09:16 AM