One of the joys of having a diverse number of other blogs to read, is the ability to run across a geat post covering something that I would certainly have missed since I no longer, sadly, live in New York City. However, i certainly would have loved to have been there. RAB has a great post titled Kirby in the Park that you must read not just for the fact that its a great story, but because he has some great observations on Jack's particular place in the popular culture at large, as opposed the comic geek culture at large., particularly in New York.
That dovetails with my own post on the dinner after Jack's death, that the Defiant crew held after a New York convention over on 8th Ave. Have a read if you missed it the first time. Its one of my favorite stories of all time. Jack was one of them, a true New Yorker at heart, soul and upbringing, and, finally, the rest of the country is slowly but surely getting to realize what a giant he was in his imagination and the effect he had on the 20th Century through pop culture.
Great great post RAB. Wish that I could have stopped by.
1 comment:
Thanks for the kind words! And may I add, more than once during that weekend I thought of your story about that dinner.
I couldn't honestly say that Kirby is more recognized here for being a native son; a lot of the people who recognized his work at the festival were actually surprised (and pleased) to hear that he came from their neighborhood. It may simply be that Kirby's work embodied a certain "New Yorkness" -- a feeling of restless energy, soaring architecture, and bursting action that New Yorkers recognize as speaking to them. To be truly scientific about this, we'd have to conduct the same experiment in city parks all over the nation and see how the crowds respond...
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