Fantastic Four #151 (1974) Buckler |
Fantastic Four #69 (1967) Kirby |
Comic book swipes and homages, along with art that appears to have been--at least in part!-- inspired by other art. And there's lots of the Silver Age Fantastic Four here because that was just about my favorite comic book back then!
If the internet existed back in 1974 Kirby would have quite a case against Marvel lifting his work for existing comics. Wow. I didn't realize the magnitude of how many Kirby swipes were in the 74 run of the Fantastic Four.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's interesting, isn't it? And you know, Kirby returned to Marvel in late 1975, his first published work then was Captain America #193 (cover dated Jan. 1976). I know Buckler had a lot of other work so perhaps it's a coincidence, but after Kirby returned Buckler didn't remain on the FF for long--his last FF 1970s work was FF #169, cover dated March 1976.
ReplyDeleteWhen Buckler returned to the FF in 1989 (!) his work still contained Kirby-inspired panels, though not inked by Joe Sinnott, so they look less Kirbyesque then the 1974 work does. I'll probably get around to posting the 1989 stuff sometime in 2015.
To be fair, other Marvel artists used Kirby panels too--to maintain the house style, as a shortcut,etc.--and I'll be posting some of those too. Thanks again for the comments and stay tuned. :)