Jack Katz is best known for his early graphic novel
The First Kingdom. He was 93 when he drew this image!
The First Kingdom is a SciFi/Fantasy story. Years and years ago, I bought the first issue or two, but I didn't follow the series. I thought the art was amazing and one day, I will read it.
I found this review of the book by Robert Fisher on Amazon to be useful:
The First Kingdom is a sweeping saga of humanity rising from an apocalyptic disaster. A man named Tundran and a woman called Fara will become the protagonists, but this first volume is mostly the story of Tundran's parents; Darkenmoor, a mighty hunter who develops grand ambitions and his mate, Nedlaya. Darkenmoor becomes the leader of a tribe and founds a nation.
However, Nedlaya's brother Vargran proves to be both jealous and treacherous. Vargran allies himself with Nadan, a fallen member of a hierarchy of gods, who now seeks global domination and sees Vargran as a useful idiot. The race of gods is very interested in Darkenmoor. There is Selowan, a goddess who desires him. Tedra is a goddess who seeks his destruction. Then there is Aquare, an enigmatic philosopher. There are also Terog and Himemet, two odd little creatures who prove to have a critical history.So, back to this headshot! As you (and I) now know, Fara is a protagonist in The First Kingdom. What you don't know is that she's a remarque in my copy of
The Unseen Jack Katz, a Kickstarter project by Liam Sharp.
The book, per the Kickstarter page, is "A collection of previously unseen and unpublished work from the legendary artist, with exclusive new inks by today's comics heroes!" I think it's pretty fascinating. We get to see Jack's beautiful pencils interpreted by a number of different inkers - Mike Perkins, Liam Sharp, Sandra Hope, and then a Kingdom story (Kingdom: Artemis Rises) inked by Joe Prado, Cam Smith, Andy Smith, Lee Townsend, Robin Riggs, Andy Lanning, Michael Cho, Liam Sharp, Mike Collins, Marc Laming, Michael Peters, John Lives, Matylda McCormack-Sharp, Rafael Kayanan, Ben Wolstenholme, Andrew Curry, Stephen Baserville, David Roach, Bill Reinhold, Rod Ramos, Bill Sienkiewicz, Joyce Chin.
Lettering by Roger Landridge and Liam Sharp
