Day 10 of this year’s Jack Kirby Tribute Month, curated by Howard Simpson, and this year is focused on the Fantastic Four and related characters. At the moment, we’re in the midst of a group of allies and supporting characters. Today’s prompt is Crystal of the Inhumans.
Crystal first shows up in Fantastic Four #45, where most of the Inhumans were also first introduced. Johnny Storm encounters her, is fascinated by her, but she runs away, fearful of being seen by normal humans. When Johnny flames on as the Human Torch, she is no longer fearful, thinking he must be an Inhuman also.
Johnny and Crystal quickly get very close (most would say she was Johnny’s first love), but they’re tragically separated when the Inhumans’ Hidden Land is trapped under an impenetrable dome. Johnny spends a lot of time trying to get to her. Later (in issue #81), she actually joins the FF when Sue steps away for a time. Often referred to as an “Elemental,” Crystal has the power to manipulate earth, air, fire and water.
In her first appearance, she just wore a white dress, which helped to give her a sort of innocent and ethereal appearance (I’m pretty sure this had to be deliberate).
Something about the way Jack drew her face in that first appearance made me think of Kathy Ireland. Years later, in the mid-’90s, when Producer/Director Larry Houston was doing a Fantastic Four cartoon, I got the chance to draw the character model for Crystal. Another artist had drawn her in the yellow costume that kind of became her standard outfit later (which I drew her in here). But Larry had wanted her in the white dress, since they were adapting her introductory storyline from issue #45 where she met Johnny.
I chose to also try to keep her initial likeness to Kathy Ireland from that first appearance. No one told me to do that; it just felt right to do it, since it was a distinctive face. But as it turned out, they actually got Kathy Ireland to play the character for that episode! Kind of neat it worked out that way.
I tried to achieve that same face here again, though this time with the yellow outfit. No idea how that hairband and those “endpieces” in her hair work, but they sure look cool!
Hope you like my take on Crystal. Feel free to come back tomorrow to see who shows up next!
Though August is over and it’s now Sept. 1st, I have an established tradition of taking all my Kirby Tribute Month images and putting them together into one big poster image. This year is no different.
