And now it’s August 31st! The last day of this year’s Jack Kirby Tribute Month. Just like in previous years, the prompt for today is a wild card: “Your creation.” Or as Howard Simpson put it the first year, “Draw your own original character. The King would want you to create characters you own.”
Because this year’s theme all month has been the Fantastic Four and related characters, I’m bending the rules. So here’s a character I came up with back in 1981 as my own addition to the FF cast: the Wizard’s niece.
At that point (thanks to old comics I’d been loaned by some college friends), I was sort of undergoing a crash course on a lot of Marvel characters and stories that I didn’t previously know about. I apparently knew about the Frightful Four and their classic lineup, and had become aware that in the years post-Kirby/Lee, with Medusa no longer part of the group, the Frightful Four tended to have a rotating fourth member whenever they would show up again (I think I had seen Thundra show up in that capacity). Somehow, the idea of the Wizard having a niece who would join the group occurred to me. It seemed like the family relationship might make for an interesting dynamic in the group.
Before anyone asks, I don’t remember her name. Maybe I never came up with one (A pro tip, kids: jot notes to yourself, in case you’re looking at your work years later and don’t remember things)! I do remember that her power was either mental or magical in nature, and I believe it was supposed to be focused through the jewel on her forehead. Around that time, I’d also had the opportunity to read some of Jim Starlin’s Adam Warlock stories, so that may have been in the back of my mind with the jewel.
I don’t think this was part of Marvel continuity yet back when I did my original drawing, but probably the gem would’ve worked as being part of the Infinity Stones.
I always feel a bit embarrassed when posting really old drawings, but at least it’s proof that I maybe got a little better in the intervening years!
So that’s a wrap (at least officially) for Jack Kirby Tribute Month 2025! I wasn’t entirely sure I was going to get through everything in time, but here we are! If you’ve seen what I’ve done in past years, you may rightfully be expecting a sort of “encore” tomorrow. So feel free to swing by for that.
Bejeweled. Wonderful. A sparkling idea. I will accept this gemstone is older than anything Infinity Stone. And more powerful as well. The origin of everything may lie in the tale of its history and the acquisition of the gem, coupled with your character’s search for the answer of how it came to be. I love the boots in your original drawing. She does not have a look of malevolence in your original. And in your new piece she seems quite self-satisfied. The shadowing on the gem is mysterious and maybe hides something?
Thanks, Mark.
Glad you like the idea. Yeah, the whole Infinity Stones thing works out conveniently for me with this, but I figure if Warlock’s stone (which is what I believe inspired me to give her one and base her powers through it) is an Infinity Stone, I also figure retroactively if Marvel had done a character like this, it’s most likely where they would have gone with it. Now I feel like probably she doesn’t really fully know what she has, or the extent of what she can do with it. Which would be quite dangerous for a lot of reasons. Maybe ultimately she would have ended up going all cosmic, whether she wanted to or not? But that could have made for an interesting story too.
I’m glad you like her boots. That’s one of the aspects that at this late date, I’m unsure of. Practicality, I guess. It’s funny; if I were designing the character now, I probably wouldn’t have done that with her boots or her gloves. Not sure what I was thinking at the time. It does give her a sort of spritely/elven feel, maybe? But when I revisit my old ideas for things like this, I feel compelled to try to play by the rules, honor the intent of what I did before.