Fantastic Four #77 (August 1968), Cover Re-creation, 2008
This week we remember Jack Kirby with an artist who worships the King — and expresses his adoration with unique and lovely homages and recreations.
Giorgio Comolo speaks no English. None. Niente.
That makes speaking to him about his art challenging if, like me, you don’t speak Italian. (I don’t include the handful of words I learned in my childhood neighborhood. Those are not very useful for polite conversation.)
Thankfully, his brother speaks some, and his sister-in-law a bit more, so roughly translated, I was able to tell him last year how much I enjoy his work when I met the whole family in Italy.
And fortunately, King Kirby is a universal language, and Comolo speaks Kirby fluently. The Italian artist recreates many Kirby covers and scenes as paintings, using a specific palate that utilizes cooler color tones and hues. It might be a stretch to some, but his cosmic paintings often remind me of those wild blacklight posters published in 1971 by a long defunct company called Third Eye.
Of course Comolo’s paintings are not Day-Glo — but they definitely pop. His palette creates a very distinctive look to his homages.
And he focuses on Jack’s later works at Marvel (and some of the Fourth World material at DC), so there’s plenty of cosmic material to work with.
Like this cover recreation of FF 77. It’s a trippy composition to begin with, and in Comolo’s hands, becomes… even trippier.
