We’re almost halfway there! Day 15 of this month-long tribute to Kirby. Howard Simpson’s brainchild, it’s open to all creatives, and you can find what people are posting on your favorite social media platforms by the hashtag #KirbyArtTributes.
Today’s prompt is Darkseid. The primary antagonist of Kirby’s Fourth World books at DC, Darkseid was a real gift Kirby gave to DC: a villain conceptually much larger than any other DC had ever had up to this point. It could be argued that with the exception of Galactus, Darkseid even topped most of Kirby’s previous villain creations for Marvel. He was in search of something called the Anti-Life Equation, which would enable him to take over the minds and will of everyone in the Universe!
Hope you like my Darkseid drawing, and feel free to come back and see what’s new tomorrow!
I wonder how the character might have been used in the movies if Kirby was still around to have a say in the outcome? You capture the blues nicely that the dark movies do not. Coloring is so important to the fan. It helps a story pop for me, while dark presentations sort of bury the story for me. Thanks much
Glad you like it. I’d never tried to draw Darkseid before. He’s one of those characters that it seems like you can easily get him wrong, if you’re not careful.
While it would be nice if he did have a say, I kind of doubt Kirby would’ve had any more say in the use of Darkseid than other comics creators have had a say in how their DC or Marvel creations have been used. Now if we were talking about properties Kirby owned all the rights to (like Captain Victory or Silver Star), that would be a different story.
As to color: I’ve intentionally limited myself on these to the limited palette used inside of most old comics. Like you, I kind of feel like it defeats the point of doing a superhero movie when you mute your palette back so far that things are almost just gray. It’s as if they’re embarrassed to be making a movie based on superhero comics, and trying to distance themselves from the source material as much as possible by muting the color that far.