I’m actually reasonably happy with Argo winning Best Picture. I’ve given up on the idea of the Academy Awards ever mirroring my own tastes, and Argo is a pretty great film from a director who is developing into a wonderful talent. And the awards last night spread the love around. It’s hard to hate a ceremony that can give Quentin Tarantino a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Django Unchained.
Anyway, in celebrating the success of Argo, how about a look at Jack Kirby’s original designs for the fictitious movie Lord of Light (which became Argo)? Kirby was a comic book legend, who created The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, Captain America, Thor and countless other iconic comic characters. In the seventies, Kirby had an ever heavier science-fiction bint, creating his wonderful Fourth World and The Eternals and O.M.A.C. As part of the operation to rescue the escaped diplomats, Kirby designed these storyboards for the movie, which actually hit upon several of the author and artist’s favourite themes – including advanced god-like beings and the merging of the rational with the mystical.
Check out his sketches below. Click to enlarge.
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Academy Award, Academy Award for Best Picture, Argo, arts, awards, ben affleck, captain america, django unchained, fantastic four, JackKirby, Michelle Obama, Movies, quentin tarantino, x-men |
the m0vie blog 
It’s great to see the detail in these lovely designs. I really enjoyed Argo and noticed the drawings, so it’s super to see them properly. Thank you!
Thanks Greer! I’m looking forward to watching argo again when it comes out this weekend. Be curious to see what my family makes of it.
Very cool.
They are, aren’t they. I love Kirby’s art. I do want to do a month dedicated to his comics sometime this year or next, because Kirby’s work – even the stuff that isn’t classic – has such an energy to it.
Beautiful designs, but this would be unfilmable. How did they fool anybody with these?
I suspect you could say that a lot of it is post-production special effects work. (Not that it would look half as beautiful.)