The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Frank Zappa with Jack Kirby; on the Coolometer (invented Prof Farnsworth) that rates so many megafonzies its off the scale. Its cooler than a polar bear bathing in liquid nitrogen. Two of the greatest artists in two of the great modern sub-cultures – comics and music. Wow.

You may have come across this already this week, but for those who haven’t read about it yet The LA Times blog’s Hero Complex has an article on Kirby and Zappa’s friendship, with Jeff Newelt also bringing in Zappa’s son Ahmet to discuss their friendship for Royal Flush magazine. As a boy Ahmet was nonplussed by the celebrities who would come to visit his father, being quite used to it, until his dad introduced him to a friend who happened to be the creator of many of young Ahmet’s favourite comics: ““I was not starstruck at all by rock stars because music is its own language and my father spoke it, so we spoke it,” Ahmet explains matter-of-factly. “This totally demystified the fame or the celebrity. There was no currency for ‘oooh, that guy sold a million records, we just cared about good music. One of the most significant moments in my life is when my dad said, ‘Meet Jack, he’s the guy who created all those superheroes you love.’ That blew my little mind. I thought it was awesome and weird that my dad had this friendship with this guy. It was like meeting like a real magician!”” (thanks to Bryan Talbot – who mentioned the photo to Jeff that Jeff then tracked down – for the heads-up)