Jeremy Kirby, the grandson of Jack Kirby who co-created Black Panther, revealed the first sketch Jack made of the Black Panther in the 1960’s.
The drawings were revealed earlier this week to celebrate Black Panther’s Academy Award nominations. Jeremy wrote, “When my grandfather first put pencil to paper on [Black Panther] he had no idea a simple sketch would change so many lives. He wanted to make a small contribution to equality and give readers a hero who looked like them. Congratulations team for an amazing movie! First BP sketch.”
The original design revealed the Black Panther is noticeably different from the all-black garb the hero became known for. Actually, when Jack Kirby and Stan Lee first created Black Panther, Kirby referred to the character as Coal Tiger (hence the “T” in this costume). Within a year and before his debut in 1966’s Fantastic Four #52, the design was completely revamped and his name was changed. Marvel eventually created a character called Coal Tiger, whose first full appearance was in 1992’s Avengers vol 1 #355. This was an alternate universe version of T’Challa, the Black Panther, who wore an almost identical costume to what is seen in this original sketch.
Earlier this week, Black Panther was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture. This is the first time a comic book film has received a nomination for the best picture category.
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