I wasn’t a particular fan of Jack Kirby; his work was too weird, too abstract. What changed my mind was, while storyboarding on the Batman Animated TV Series, I was re-drawing a John Buscema Fantastic Four issue as samples for my portfolio and having difficulty with a splash page. Glen Murakami (then beginning his career as a character designer and storyboard artists) suggested I study Kirby’s double-page spreads for inspiration. I got stoned, took his advice, and it was like I got struck by lightning. Kirby was GOD! For the next 3 years he replaced Alex Toth as my primary artistic touchstone.
But I didn’t try to copy Kirby, per se. I was trying to emulate his simplicity, facility, speed, energy, exaggeration, abstractness, but in my own way. Basically, you’re looking at the results on these pages. This is me doing Kirby.
I am doing a serialized post of my storyboard for the Batman: The Animated Series, episode 406 550, entitled “Off Balance”. I did this storyboard, I believe, in 1992, and it was aired on November 23, 1992 as the 44th episode. I boarded much of Act 1, part of Act 2 and most of Act 3.
Today I am posting pages 51 through 55 of “Off Balance”, Act 3.
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