Kirby dots

Kirby dots are an artistic convention in superhero and science fiction comic books and similar illustrations: a field of black, roughly circular dots that are used to represent energy of a powerful but unspecified kind. They are typically found in illustrations of explosions, the blasts from ray guns, and outer-space phenomena.

Kirby dots are named after Jack Kirby, the highly influential comic book artist whose superhero art frequently featured them. They were developed from the use of a pattern of round black spots to depict smoke or flying debris from explosions, or as a way to manually generate the random patterns that depict the path of lightning strikes.

External link

• Kirby dots on the Penciljack forum.