We’ve reached the seventh day of the second annual Jack Kirby Tribute Month, created by Howard Simpson. A cool new aspect he’s introduced is themed weeks, where each day’s prompts fit within that theme.
If you’ve been following along, this week’s theme is the Fantastic Four. Today’s prompt is the Thing.
Ben Grimm as the Thing is a character who might appear fairly simple and straightforward on the surface, but if you’ve read the original run by Jack and Stan, you realize there’s more to him than meets the eye. He can be funny, but there’s also underlying pain and regret, being stuck in this monstrous form. Later creators have sometimes lost that aspect, focusing more on the comedic elements.
The Thing is not an easy character to draw! I had a bit of a struggle here before I felt like I had it reasonably correct.
Hope you approve. Tune in tomorrow to see who’s next!
Thanks Mark.
I can see, once I gave it some thought, how the Thing would be difficult to draw. The Kirby style must be kept. And yet the “lego” blocks of his face and his body must take shape and keep the shape from panel to panel. But a lot is said with his eyes. And you do that.
Johnny threw plenty of jabs at Ben, and Ben throwing them back was the insult comedy. But as you point out, it was Ben’s pain that attracted this pre-teen, struggling as we all do with body changes, that held my attention to the character. So I say “right on” to you for pointing that out. Right out of the box, Jack and Stan had me hooked mostly with The Thing. I have always wondered if it wasn’t that character quality that led to the X‑Men.
Good one.
Glad you approve of my attempt here. Of all the characters, the Thing seemed to be the one who took the longest to arrive at a final design. So obviously Kirby himself was grappling with it.
And I think you’re right about there being a connection between the Thing and the X‑Men, that sense of not fitting in that everyone goes through at that phase of growing up that the reader identified with. Same as Peter Parker being the misfit and hard luck case, who didn’t have as much as some of the other kids.
This looks like a panel from FF circa 48 to 90. I mean that as a compliment, nice work.
I take it as such; thank you!