<<•>>  selected and edited by Mark Evanier <<•>>   
Any Kirby fan opening this book for the first time and realizing what they're holding in their hands will have the same reaction we did: "WOW!"  When we first heard about this book/project a year or so ago, we assumed it would be a coffee table type book more or less along the lines of Evanier's previous book titled simply Kirby, which was a swell tome offering an overview of the king's life and work along with a generous election of high quality scans of his original art and published work.  The Art of the Simon and Kirby Studio is a different beast altogether.  Here we have assembled one of the largest selections of high quality scans of original art ever put between two covers.  Thiis massive, oversize, hardcover tome opens with a fifteen page introduction by Evanier, which is then immediately followed by a mind-boggling 350 high-resolution scans of original art that emanated from the Simon and Kirby Studio from 1942 through 1959, with the vast majority of it from the '50s.  While other artists' work is on display here, most notably that of S&K Studio members, Mort Meskin and Bill Draut, most is by Jack Kirby.  Many complete stories are included along with covers, double-page splashes, unfinished pencils and unpublished pages.  Nearly 70 pages from Kirby's seminal Boys' Ranch are here, which is some of the strongest work of his career (although six of the pages are, sadly, incorrectly formatted, resulting in blurred/pixilated images).  Also, some amazing pages of Al Williamson inking Kirby that will knock the socks off even the most jaded seen-it-all.  Once again, we say, "WOW!"