Finally, what you’ve been waiting for! Like a screaming newborn child awash in afterbirth, below are our top five Kirby characters.

But what about the rest of the list, you ask? Ok:
20-16
15-11
10-6

5. Black Panther

AFD: Slick and austere: that’s the design for the Black Panther, whose classy costume works best in Kirby’s refined all-black version. The only character on our list whose look, in old-school superhero fashion, is directly inspired by — and captures the nature of — their real-life namesake (although I like to think Devil Dinosaur actually existed), it’s Kirby’s subtle and effective touches to the get up that give the Black Panther his tangibly intense, mysterious, and intimidating edge: most noticeably, the bright white eyes and mouthless mask.

Steve: Though the Black Panther’s costume is an rather basic one, especially by typical Kirby standards, it’s also one of the King’s best. Simple and sleek, the only details Kirby opted to give it are the pinstriped boots and gloves and the ears on the mask. It’s stunning in it’s simplicity, really, and is completely befitting one of Marvel’s most regal characters. A master at customizing costumes to their owners roles and personalities, the costume was also given the optional mini-cape in keeping with the Panther’s role as king, making it look that much cooler.

4. Dr. Doom

AFD: The greatest and most charismatic villain Kirby ever designed. Marvel’s OG. The go-to template for maniacal, over-the-top supervillains then, now, and forever. Proving that at its best the Marvel Universe is grand opera, Doom’s appearance makes an immediate, overwhelming impression on the reader with a theatrical presence that perfectly fits Victor Von’s melodramatic, cartoonish, charismatic personality. The green tunic, cape, huge belt, baggy hood (which always has to be up) and vaguely medieval armor give him a kind of classic, 19th century, Jules Verne-by-way-of-Hammer-Studios thing happening. True to his role as one of the Marvel Universe’s great outsiders, Doom belongs to another time and place.

Steve: By all rights, Doom shouldn’t be in the top 5 Kirby designs, probably not in the top 25, if only because he has that ridiculous Renn-faire hood on his head. However, the incredibly emotable mask entirely trumps the hood – an iron mask that only allows us to see the insanely evil, sometimes noble, always self-serving eyes of Victor Von Doom. Doom’s costume itself provides the reader with the perfect visual description of the Latverian monarch, with the combination of the mechanical armor and medieval garb reflecting the character’s dual methodology which consists of both traditional gypsy magic as well as cutting edge technology. Tack on the character’s penchant for the dramatic, often shaking both fists high in the air while screaming his own name or that of Mr. Fantastic, and you’ve got the greatest villain Marvel’s ever seen.

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Our look at Jack Kirby’s 20 best character design continues! Below are numbers 10-6.

The rest of the list:
Numbers 20-16
Numbers 15-11

10. Devil Dinosaur

AFD: We can wax pretentious and philosophical about Kirby all we want, but sometimes the basic reason for his popularity and obvious visual brilliance can be best explained as this: he was really great at drawing huge dudes that like to destroy stuff. Essentially, here’s one of the very basic reasons I’ve always loved Kirby: Big dinosaur? Yawn. Big red, enraged dinosaur? Ok!

Also, this is kind of cheating, but I like to consider our inclusion of Devil Dinosaur, even though it was some time later, as representative of all of the fantastic monsters Kirby created for Marvel before (and a bit after) he landed the FF gig: Fin Fang Foom, Tim Boo Ba, Monsteroso, etc. If I remember correctly, he drew almost 200 of these stories, and in each and every one the monster is noticeably different and memorable. Amazing.

Steve: If Kirby had simply drawn a dinosaur, then good old DD wouldn’t have made this list at all, much less ranked in the top 10. However, Kirby drew a bright red T-Rex-type critter who would not only grab stuff with his mouth but was just as likely to somehow drop kick you into the next panel. I really don’t fully understand all of the science involved, but this automatically and incontrovertibly makes Devil Dinosaur awesome. The fact that Kirby actually devised an explanation for the character’s crimson hue (his family was burned alive and Devil Dinosaur survived, albeit somewhat lobsterized) just makes him even better.

9. Red Skull

AFD: The oldest Kirby character to make our list and one of the least complicated. Yet another example of Kirby finding sophistication in the straightforward, the pulp-inspired Red Skull is vaguely awe-inspiring in its Why Didn’t I Think Of That? simplicity. Devising a perfect foil for Captain America, Simon and Kirby had a scary sundae with the super Nazi concept — all they needed to complete the idea was the perfect cherry on top…so to speak. And so they devised a character that would become one of the Marvel Universe’s most menacing and recognizable (and underused) villains.

Steve: What – some guy in a green jumpsuit with a swastika on the sleeve made it onto the list? Hells yeah, he did – he’s got a head that’s shaped in the form of a bright red skull, after all! That’s the beautiful thing about Kirby – sometimes he’d go all out with the craziness like with Galactus, and other times he’d reign it in and go for simple and sweet like the Red Skull. The cigarette the Red Skull was always smoking with the ridiculously pretentious cigarette holder was the icing on the cake.

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Hope you’re enjoying our look at Jack Kirby’s top 20 best character designs! Yesterday we covered 20-16, below are 15-11.

15. Mr. Miracle

AFD: Kirby’s tenure at Marvel during the 60s was obviously his most groundbreaking and successful, but his 70s work at DC, when he was given relatively free reign to build worlds with the New Gods, is arguably just as intriguing…at least in theory. Mr. Miracle’s dry personality could use a dose of Stan Lee, but the character’s look is an absolute triumph of design. Although I honestly have no idea, I would hazard a guess that Kirby put a lot of effort into Mr. Miracle. There’s a striking use of bold color and perfect symmetry at work, which gives the character a sleek, economical, refined look that feels like the result of a long revision process. Mr. Miracle also shows once again Kirby’s genius for memorable visuals: you may not know this character, but once you see him, he’s locked in your brain for eternity.

Steve: Much like the Demon, Kirby’s use of bright yellow and red, along with a liberal use of bright green, should have left eyes nationwide weeping in pain. Again, like the Demon, Kirby not only pulled it off, avoiding any 3-D Man type disasters, but managed to create a singularly unique character in the process. Personally, the thing that always fascinated me the most about Mister Miracle’s look was the way his outfit bonded to his face as though it were a second skin. Rather than simply wearing a mask, it’s as though he’s been shrink wrapped in his costume’s material resulting in a subtle but throughly unique twist on the whole masked hero concept.

14. Magneto

AFD: THE HELMET. Although Kirby might be better known for being outlandishly elaborate and strange, he did know when something perfectly simple worked. Ninety-five percent of Magneto, one of Marvel’s five most popular and infamous villains, is actually pretty dull. He’s got a cape, he’s got a skin-tight suit, he’s got boots and whatever. Everything he’s wearing is a similar shade of purple. Oooh, scary. So why is Magneto imposing and frightening? THE HELMET. Said THE HELMET hides much of the character’s face, but leaves enough room for sneers and psycho bug eyes and open mouths yelling and anything else Kirby has in his Villainous Expression arsenal. And of course there’s that weird transmitter thing on the forehead. THE HELMET.

Steve: Andrew really didn’t leave a whole lot for me to add here – HELMET. When we were developing the list, one of my concerns about including Magneto was the simple fact that, helmet aside, he’s really boring. Then it dawned on me – the simple fact that I was even debating whether or not to ixnay the Master of Magnetism from the list rather than simply doing so was evidence enough that he belonged. As soon as I realized that Magneto’s helmet has become nearly as recognizable a symbol as Spider-Man’s chest emblem or the Punisher’s skull, there was no way I could knock him out of here.

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From the venerable Murray Roach comes this classic ad that Marvel would likely prefer to never think of again. Y’see, kids, back in the day, comic book artists didn’t get their original art back. For years they were cool with it, since they didn’t see any intinsic value in the original pages, but Kirby kind of did. He asked Marvel for his art, they said no, and years of namecalling (from Marvel towards The King) ensued. Marvel eventually gave in and returned the art they still had in their posession, creating another cottage industry with comic book art dealers and the like as a result, but before that happened, Marvel was publically shamed by various comic book companies and professionals. The ad below ran on the back cover of Eclipse comics in “celebration” of Marvel’s 25th year of publishing.

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That’s right people: summer’s here, school’s out, the weather’s hot, the days are long, and it’s time for an A+ nerd out.

To distract ourselves from the cinematic abominations of the heavily hyped Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer — a film where Jack Kirby’s influence looms larger than Galactus, but his lively creative spirit is nowhere to be found — we’ve decided to celebrate The King’s monumental contribution to pop culture by putting together a list of his twenty finest creations. The countdown starts below with numbers 20-16. Tune back in tomorrow for 15-11!

20. Adolf Hitler (Hate-Monger)

Steve: Face it – if you had no idea what a creep Hitler was and you stumbled across him at the supermarket, you’d feel kind of bad for the little, nerdy looking guy. Kirby’s Hitler, on the other hand, just oozed psychotic power while still being immediately recognizable as one the most reprehensible bastards of all time. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Red Skull’s origin story, and using Hitler’s clone for the Hate Monger’s alter ego was a stroke of genius by Stan and Jack.

AFD: Kirby’s Hitler echoes most of the American media’s popular propaganda that depicted the German dictator/warmonger as a cartoonishly loud and frenzied psycho mad crazy man. But what’s also apparent in Kirby’s characterization is the canny and terrifying realization that here was an actual, real-life supervillain.

19. Etrigan the Demon

Steve: By all rights, Kirby’s Demon should be dismissed as a goofy looking guy due to the garish colors alone, but despite being a bright yellow character in a bright red suit, Etrigan manages to bring it. Huge, yet squat, with a face only a mother could bear to look at and not get queasy, The Demon is one of the few DC character designs from Kirby that’s managed to stand the test of time without appearing dated.

AFD: Although a minor character by all accounts, The Demon’s refusal to disappear into obscurity has a lot to do with Kirby’s strange but unforgettable design. The loud colors and short stature make a frightening character sympathetic, and as he did so well in Thor, Kirby crosses stereotypical fantasy tropes (Horns? Check. Pointy teeth? Check. Red beady eyes? Check.) with his own pop aesthetics (Cape? Check. Muscular and imposing? Check.) and accomplishes what most people would picture in their own minds if asked: what if a demon were a superhero?

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