Kirby Krackle
The Kirby Krackle is an artistic convention in superhero and science fiction comic books and similar illustrations, in which a field of black is used to represent negative space around unspecified kinds of energy. It is typically used in illustrations of explosions, smoke, blasts from ray guns, "cosmic" energy, and outer space phenomena.
History
The effect is named after its creator, comic artist Jack Kirby. While the Kirby Krackle in its mature form first appeared in Kirby's work during 1965–1966, comics historian Harry Mendryk of the Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center has traced the earliest version of the stylistic device as far back as 1940 to Jack Kirby and Joe Simon's Blue Bolt #5. As Joe Simon was the inker on that comic, he may have been partially responsible for the look of the proto-Kirby Krackle. Examples of a transitional form of the Kirby Krackle appear in two of Kirby's stories from the late 1950s: The Man Who Collected Planets from 1957 and The Negative Man from 1959. The effects were used during the transformation sequences in the Ben 10 franchise.Kirby Krackle is incorporated into the design of the Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout! attraction in Avengers Campus at Disney [California Adventure], and ''Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.''