If you like the Joe Quinones interview, be sure and go back in the archives and find the ones I did with Thomas Hall/Daniel Bradford (Robot 13) and Ming Doyle (Jennifer’s Body, Popbot.). Thanks again!

Marsalis is a fine musician on a technical level, but as an artist his work is highly derivative, making a career out of imitating past styles that oft-times much older, and more acclaimed musicians had abandoned. Furthermore, he talks smack about musicians who were already established as innovators long before anyone ever heard of Marsalis, simply because they chose not to limit themselves to the state of jazz circa 1959. He’s no Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, or Charles Mingus.

Marsalis is the jazz equivalent of a guy who apes Kirby’s work with some success, never develops his own distinctive style, and then in every interview never misses a chance to say something nasty about the work of Quitely, Sienkiewicz, Gibbons, Bolland, and Chaykin.

I think it’s time the Kirby kids stopped for a moment and looked at the situation from another angle. Stan remained at Marvel and, when no longer editor-in-chief, took on the role of spokesman for the industry BASED on his association with Marvel. After two decades plus, it’s very difficult for us not to see Stan in that role… just like it is very difficult for us to see certain actors out of their starring roles either. When Stan dies (may it not be soon), THAT is the role he will be remembered for most.

Jack, on the other hand, didn’t become a spokesman. He let his art do the talking. And I think that the fact there is a Jack Kirby Collector magazine out there — and not for another artist or writer — that speaks volumes about the impact HE is remembered for. But it’s not just Marvel, like Stan, it’s also DC, and as much as they Kirby kids may want credit for their dad on that, Jack himself also pointed to things at other companies that turned him more into “artist” or “creator” than just “Marvel.”

(Not that either man is right or wrong, it’s just the role they created for themselves.)

Hm. Has she considered the fact that Stan was and is a compulsive huckster? The guy lectured in Carnegie Hall and at countless other venues in the 1970s. He made himself the face of Marvel Comics for decades. He appears in cartoon form in probably 100s of comics compared to, perhaps, a dozen appearances by Kirby? He introduced Marvel’s Saturday morning cartoons in the 90s. Etc., etc., etc.

Jack, by contrast, mostly did his job.

I think both gentlemen were/are greats. Honestly, among people who really know their stuff I think it’s safe to say that Kirby is actually a good deal more venerated than Lee. If Stan is better-known to the general public, so what? Michael Jackson is certainly far better-known than Wynton Marsalis. Maybe that bothers some people, too, but personally I don’t see the point of losing sleep over it.

Thanks for the link to the Erie story!