Jack Kirby – Mark Neumayer

Hey folks, I’ve talked before about trying to do more illustrations of characters with hair. I have been a lot better about that, but not this week, because this week the doctor is in – Doctor Doom! No visible hair on this guy, that is for sure.

I have a soft spot for Jack Kirby character designs and I have a lot of fond memories of reading Fantastic Four issues that featured the tyrannical ruler of Latveria so it was only natural that I would do a kawaii version of the character at some point. It is more fun for me to do cutesy versions of the evil guys anyway. Remember, it isn’t really a picture of Doctor Doom if he isn’t shaking his fist. Can’t you just imagine him shouting “I shall defeat the accursed Fantastic Four. Doom is supreme!”

It’s Saturday, which means it’s time for some kawaii superhero art. I was thinking the other day that my doing this every week must be some sort of throwback to the old Saturday morning cartoons I watched as a kid. Yes, young ‘uns, we used to only be able to watch cartoons one day a week when I was little. Oh, the horror!

This week I have another super-heroine for you – Big Barda. She is part of Jack Kirby’s New Gods pantheon so we have a little mix of comics and mythology going on today, which is especially appropriate for this blog. He used a lot of strong female characters in his stories and Big Barda certainly ranks among the top tier of DC characters for power. On top of that, I love Kirby’s designs. He always included so much cool detail into the costumes. It’s really fun to work them up into the kawaii style.

If you want to see more Kirby-influenced art, head on over to to the Kirby-vision blog. Lots of neat work by different artists all offering up their own versions of characters created by the king. See you next time!

Posted by Mark Neumayer