Jack Kirby (/ˈkɜːrbi/;[1] bornJacob Kurtzberg; August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) was an Americancomic book artist, widely regarded as one of the medium's major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators. He grew up in New York City and learned to draw cartoon figures by tracing characters from comic strips and editorial cartoons. He entered the nascent comics industry in the 1930s, drawing various comics features under different pen names, includingJack Curtiss, before settling on Jack Kirby. In 1940, he and writer-editorJoe Simon created the highly successfulsuperhero characterCaptain America forTimely Comics, predecessor ofMarvel Comics. During the 1940s, Kirby regularly teamed with Simon, creating numerous characters for that company and forNational Comics Publications, later to becomeDC Comics.
After serving in theEuropean Theater inWorld War II, Kirby produced work for DC Comics,Harvey Comics,Hillman Periodicals and other publishers. AtCrestwood Publications, he and Simon created the genre ofromance comics and later founded their own short-lived comic company,Mainline Publications. Kirby was involved in Timely's 1950s iteration,Atlas Comics, which in the next decade became Marvel. There, in the 1960s, Kirby co-created many of the company's major characters, includingAnt-Man, theAvengers, theBlack Panther, theFantastic Four, theHulk,Iron Man, theSilver Surfer,Thor, and theX-Men, among many others. Kirby's titles garnered high sales and critical acclaim, but in 1970, feeling he had been treated unfairly, largely in the realm of authorship credit and creators' rights, Kirby left the company for rival DC.
At DC, Kirby created hisFourth World saga which spanned several comics titles. While these series proved commercially unsuccessful and were canceled, the Fourth World'sNew Gods have continued as a significant part of theDC Universe. Kirby returned to Marvel briefly in the mid-to-late 1970s, then ventured intotelevision animation andindependent comics. In his later years, Kirby, who has been called "theWilliam Blake of comics",[2] began receiving great recognition in the mainstream press for his career accomplishments, and in 1987 he was one of the three inaugural inductees of theWill Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame. In 2017, Kirby was posthumously named aDisney Legend for his creations not only in the field of publishing, but also because those creations formed the basis forThe Walt Disney Company's financially and critically successful media franchise, theMarvel Cinematic Universe.
Kirby was married to Rosalind Goldstein in 1942. They had four children and remained married until his death from heart failure in 1994, at the age of 76. TheJack Kirby Awards andJack Kirby Hall of Fame were named in his honor, and he is known as "The King" among comics fans for his many influential contributions to the medium.
Jack Kirby was born Jacob Kurtzberg on August 28, 1917, at 147Essex Street on theLower East Side ofManhattan in New York City; he grew up there.[3] His parents, Rose (Bernstein) and Benjamin Kurtzberg,[3] wereAustrian-Jewish immigrants, and his father earned a living as agarment factory worker.[4] Kirby grew up on the Lower East Side. In his youth, Kirby desired to escape his neighborhood. He liked to draw, and sought out places he could learn more about art.[5] Essentially self-taught,[6] Kirby cited among his influences thecomic strip artistsMilton Caniff,Hal Foster, andAlex Raymond, as well as such editorial cartoonists asC. H. Sykes,"Ding" Darling, andRollin Kirby.[6] He was rejected bythe Educational Alliance because he drew "too fast with charcoal", according to Kirby. He later found an outlet for his skills by drawing cartoons for the newspaper of the Boys Brotherhood Republic, a "miniature city" on East 3rd Street where street kids ran their own government.[7]
At age 14, Kirby enrolled at thePratt Institute inBrooklyn, leaving after a week. "I wasn't the kind of student that Pratt was looking for. They wanted people who would work on something forever. I didn't want to work on any project forever. I intended to get things done".[8]
Captain America Comics #1 (cover-dated March 1941); cover art by Kirby andJoe SimonLightnin' And The Lone Rider, ad fromFamous Funnies #61 (August 1939)
Kirby joined theLincoln Newspaper Syndicate in 1936, working there on newspaper comic strips and on single-panel advice cartoons such asYour Health Comes First!!! (under thepseudonymJack Curtiss). He remained until late 1939, when he began working for the theatrical animation companyFleischer Studios as aninbetweener (an artist who fills in the action between major-movement frames) onPopeye cartoons at the same time in 1935. He left the studio before the Fleischer strike in 1937.[9] "I went from Lincoln to Fleischer," he recalled. "From Fleischer I had to get out in a hurry because I couldn't take that kind of thing," describing it as "a factory in a sense, like my father's factory. They were manufacturing pictures."[10]
Around that time, the American comic book industry was booming. Kirby began writing and drawing for thecomic book packagerEisner & Iger, one of a handful of firms creating comics on demand for publishers. Through that company, Kirby did what he remembered as his first comic book work, forWild Boy Magazine.[11] This included such strips as the science fiction adventure "The Diary of Dr. Hayward" (under the pseudonymCurt Davis), theWestern crimefighter feature "Wilton of the West" (asFred Sande), theswashbuckler adventure "The Count of Monte Cristo" (again as Jack Curtiss), and the humor features "Abdul Jones" (asTed Grey) and "Socko the Seadog" (asTeddy), all variously forJumbo Comics and other Eisner-Iger clients.[12]
ForRobert W. Farrell’s Associated Features Syndicate, he first used the surname Kirby as the pseudonymousLance Kirby in the comic stripLightnin’ and the Lone Rider, written by Farrell in 1939[13][14] and later reprinted inEastern Color Printing'sFamous Funnies (1939-1940).[12][13] He ultimately settled on the pen name Jack Kirby because it reminded him of actorJames Cagney. However, he took offense to those who suggested he changed his name in order to hide hisJewish heritage.[15]
Kirby moved on to comic-book publisher and newspaper syndicatorFox Feature Syndicate, earning a then-reasonable $15-a-week salary. During this time, Kirby met and began collaborating with cartoonist and Fox editorJoe Simon, who in addition to his staff work continued to freelance. Simon recalled in 1988, "I loved Jack's work and the first time I saw it I couldn't believe what I was seeing. He asked if we could do some freelance work together. I was delighted and I took him over to my little office. We worked from the second issue ofBlue Bolt through... about 25 years."[16]
After leaving Fox and collaborating on the premiere issue ofFawcett Comics'Captain Marvel Adventures ([March] 1941),[17] the first solo title for the previously introduced superhero, and for which Kirby was told to mimic creatorC.C. Beck's drawing style,[18] the duo were hired on staff atpulp magazine publisherMartin Goodman'sTimely Comics (later to become Marvel Comics). There Simon and Kirby created the patriotic superheroCaptain America in late 1940.[19] Simon, who became the company's editor, with Kirby as art director, said he negotiated with Goodman to give the duo 25 percent of the profits from the feature.[20] The first issue ofCaptain America Comics, released in early 1941,[21] sold out in days, and the second issue's print run was set at over a million copies. The title's success established the team as a notable creative force in the industry.[22] After the first issue was published, Simon asked Kirby to join the Timely staff as the company's art director.[23]
With the success of the Captain America character, Simon said he felt that Goodman was not paying the pair the promised percentage of profits, and so sought work for the two of them atNational Comics Publications (later renamedDC Comics).[20] Kirby and Simon negotiated a deal that would pay them a combined $500 a week, as opposed to the $75 and $85 they respectively earned at Timely.[24] The pair feared Goodman would not pay them if he found they were moving to National, but many people knew of their plan, including Timely editorial assistantStan Lee. When Goodman eventually discovered it, he told Simon and Kirby to leave after finishing work onCaptain America Comics #10.[25] Kirby was bitterly convinced it was specifically Lee who betrayed them, ignoring Simon's willingness to give him the benefit of the doubt.[26]
Kirby and Simon spent their first weeks at National trying to devise new characters while the company sought how best to utilize the pair.[27] After a few failed editor-assigned ghosting assignments, National'sJack Liebowitz told them to "just do what you want". The pair then revamped theSandman feature inAdventure Comics and created the superheroManhunter.[28][29] In July 1942 they began theBoy Commandos feature. The ongoing "kid gang" series of the same name, launched later that same year, was the creative team's first National feature to graduate into its own title.[30] It sold over a million copies a month, becoming National's third best-selling title.[31] They scored a hit with the homefront kid-gang team, theNewsboy Legion, featuring inStar-Spangled Comics.[32] In 2010, DC Comics writer and executive Paul Levitz observed that "LikeJerry Siegel andJoe Shuster, the creative team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby was a mark of quality and a proven track record."[33]
With World War II underway, Liebowitz expected that Simon and Kirby would bedrafted, so he asked the artists to create an inventory of material to be published in their absence. The pair hired writers, inkers, letterers, and colorists in order to create a year's worth of material.[31] Kirby was drafted into theU.S. Army on June 7, 1943.[34] After basic training atCamp Stewart, near Savannah, Georgia, he was assigned to Company F of the11th Infantry Regiment. He landed onOmaha Beach inNormandy on August 23, 1944,2+1⁄2 months afterD-Day,[35] although Kirby's reminiscences would place his arrival just 10 days after.[34] Kirby recalled that a lieutenant, learning that comics artist Kirby was in his command, made him a scout who would advance into towns and drawreconnaissance maps and pictures, an extremely dangerous duty.[36]
The team had its greatest success in the postwar period by creatingromance comics. Simon, inspired byMacfadden Publications' romantic-confession magazineTrue Story, transplanted the idea to comic books and with Kirby created a first-issue mock-up ofYoung Romance.[38] Showing it to Crestwood general manager Maurice Rosenfeld, Simon asked for 50% of the comic's profits. Crestwood publishers Teddy Epstein and Mike Bleier agreed,[38] stipulating that the creators would take no money up front.[39]Young Romance #1 (cover-date Oct. 1947) "became Jack and Joe's biggest hit in years".[40] The first title sold a staggering 92% of its print run, inspiring Crestwood to increase the print run by the third issue to triple the initial number of copies.[41] Initially published bimonthly,Young Romance quickly became a monthly title and produced the spin-offYoung Love—together the two titles sold two million copies per month, according to Simon[42]—later joined byYoung Brides andIn Love, the latter "featuring full-length romance stories".[41]Young Romance spawned dozens of imitators from publishers such as Timely,Fawcett,Quality, andFox Feature Syndicate. Despite the glut, the Simon and Kirby romance titles continued to sell millions of copies a month.[40]
Bitter thatTimely Comics' 1950s iteration,Atlas Comics, had relaunched Captain America in a new series in 1954, Kirby and Simon createdFighting American. Simon recalled, "We thought we'd show them how to do Captain America".[43] While the comic book initially portrayed the protagonist as ananti-Communist dramatic hero, Simon and Kirby turned the series into a superhero satire with the second issue, in the aftermath of theArmy-McCarthy hearings and the public backlash against the Red-baiting U.S. SenatorJoseph McCarthy.[44]
At the urging of a Crestwood salesman, Kirby and Simon launched their own comics company,Mainline Publications,[44][45] securing a distribution deal with Leader News[46] in late 1953 or early 1954, subletting space from their friendAl Harvey'sHarvey Publications at 1860 Broadway.[47] Mainline, which existed from 1954 to 1955, published four titles: the WesternBullseye: Western Scout; thewar comicFoxhole becauseEC Comics andAtlas Comics were having success with war comics, but promoting theirs as being written and drawn by actual veterans;In Love because their earlierromance comicYoung Love was still being widely imitated; and thecrime comicPolice Trap, which claimed to be based on genuine accounts by law-enforcement officials.[48] After the duo rearranged and republished artwork from an old Crestwood story inIn Love, Crestwood refused to pay the team,[49] who sought an audit of Crestwood's finances. Upon review, the pair's attorneys stated the company owed them $130,000 for work done over the past seven years. Crestwood paid them $10,000 in addition to their recent delayed payments. The partnership between Kirby and Simon had become strained.[50] Simon left the industry for a career in advertising, while Kirby continued to freelance. "He wanted to do other things and I stuck with comics," Kirby recalled in 1971. "It was fine. There was no reason to continue the partnership and we parted friends."[51]
At this point in the mid-1950s, Kirby made a temporary return to the formerTimely Comics, now known as Atlas Comics, the direct predecessor ofMarvel Comics. InkerFrank Giacoia had approached editor-in-chiefStan Lee for work and suggested he could "get Kirby back here to pencil some stuff.[52] While freelancing for National Comics Publications, the futureDC Comics, Kirby drew 20 stories for Atlas from 1956 to 1957: Beginning with the five-page "Mine Field" inBattleground #14 (Nov. 1956), Kirby penciled and in some cases inked (with his wife,Roz) and wrote stories of theWestern heroBlack Rider, theFu Manchu-likeYellow Claw, and more.[12][53] But in 1957, distribution troubles caused the "Atlas implosion" that resulted in several series being dropped and no new material being assigned for many months. The next year Kirby returned to the nascent Marvel.
For DC around that time, Kirby co-created with writers Dick and Dave Wood the non-superpowered adventuring quartet theChallengers of the Unknown inShowcase #6 (Feb. 1957),[54] while contributing to such anthologies asHouse of Mystery.[12] During 30 months freelancing for DC, Kirby drew slightly more than 600 pages, which included 11 six-pageGreen Arrow stories inWorld's Finest Comics andAdventure Comics that in a rarity, Kirby inked himself.[55] Kirby recast the archer as a science-fiction hero, moving him away from his Batman-formula roots, but, in the process, alienating Green Arrow co-creatorMort Weisinger.[56]
He began drawingSky Masters of the Space Force, a newspaper comic strip, written by the Wood brothers and initially inked by the unrelatedWally Wood.[57] Kirby left National Comics Publications due largely to a contractual dispute in which editorJack Schiff, who had been involved in getting Kirby and the Wood brothers theSky Masters contract, claimed he was due royalties from Kirby's share of the strip's profits. Schiff successfully sued Kirby.[58] Some DC editors had criticized him over art details, such as not drawing "the shoelaces on a cavalryman's boots" and showing a Native American "mounting his horse from the wrong side."[59]
Several months later, after his split with DC, Kirby began freelancing regularly for Atlas despite harboring negative sentiments about Stan Lee (the cousin of Timely publisher Martin Goodman's wife), whom Kirby had always found annoying on top of his aforementioned betrayal he suspected in the 1940s. Because of the poor page rates, Kirby would spend 12 to 14 hours daily at his drawing table at home, producing four to five pages of artwork a day.[60] His first published work at Atlas was the cover of and the seven-page story "I Discovered the Secret of the Flying Saucers" inStrange Worlds #1 (Dec. 1958). Initially withChristopher Rule as his regular inker, and laterDick Ayers, Kirby drew across all genres, from romance comics to war comics to crime comics to Western comics, but made his mark primarily with a series of supernatural-fantasy and science fiction stories featuring giant,drive-in movie-style monsters with names likeGroot, the Thing from Planet X;[61] Grottu, King of the Insects;[62] andFin Fang Foom for the company's many anthology series, such asAmazing Adventures,Strange Tales,Tales to Astonish,Tales of Suspense, andWorld of Fantasy.[12] His bizarre designs of powerful, unearthly creatures proved a hit with readers. Additionally, he freelanced forArchie Comics around this time, reuniting briefly with Joe Simon to help develop the seriesThe Fly[63] andThe Double Life of Private Strong.[64] Additionally, Kirby drew some issues ofClassics Illustrated.[12]
At Marvel Kirby hit his stride once again in superhero comics, beginning withThe Fantastic Four #1 (Nov. 1961),[12][65] which some have observed, shares many elements of Kirby'sChallengers of the Unknown.[66] The landmark series became a hit that revolutionized the industry with its comparativenaturalism and, eventually, a cosmic purview informed by Kirby's seemingly boundless imagination—one well-matched with the consciousness-expandingyouth culture of the 1960s.[67][68] For almost a decade, Kirby provided Marvel's house style, creating many of the Marvel characters and designing their visual motifs. At the editor-in-chief's request, he often provided new-to-Marvel artists "breakdown" layouts, over which they would pencil in order to become acquainted with the Marvel look. As artistGil Kane described:
Jack was the single most influential figure in the turnaround in Marvel's fortunes from the time he rejoined the company ... It wasn't merely that Jack conceived most of the characters that are being done, but ... Jack's point of view and philosophy of drawing became the governing philosophy of the entire publishing company and, beyond the publishing company, of the entire field ... [Marvel took] Jack and use[d] him as a primer. They would get artists ... and they taught them the ABCs, which amounted to learning Jack Kirby ... Jack was like the Holy Scripture and they simply had to follow him without deviation. That's what was told to me ... It was how they taught everyone to reconcile all those opposing attitudes to one single master point of view.[69]
Highlights of Kirby's tenure also include theHulk,Thor, theX-Men andMagneto,Doctor Doom,Uatu the Watcher,Ego the Living Planet, theInhumans[70][71] and their hidden city of Attilan, and theBlack Panther[72][73] (comics' first black superhero) and hisAfrofuturist nation,Wakanda.[74] Kirby initially was assigned to pencil the firstSpider-Man story, but when he showed Lee the first six pages, Lee recalled, "Ihated the way he was doing it! Not that he did it badly—it just wasn't the character I wanted; it was too heroic".[75]: 12 Lee then turned toSteve Ditko to draw the story that would appear inAmazing Fantasy #15, for which Kirby nonetheless penciled the cover.[76] Lee and Kirby gathered several of their newly created characters together into the team titleThe Avengers[77][78] and brought back old characters from the 1940s such as theSub-Mariner[79] and Captain America.[80] In later years, Lee and Kirby disputed over who deserved credit for such creations asThe Fantastic Four.[81]
The story frequently cited as Lee and Kirby's finest achievement[82][83] is "The Galactus Trilogy" inFantastic Four #48–50 (March–May 1966), chronicling the arrival ofGalactus, a cosmic giant who wanted to devour the planet, and his herald, theSilver Surfer.[84][85]Fantastic Four #48 was chosen as #24 in the 100 Greatest Marvels of All Time poll of Marvel's readers in 2001. EditorRobert Greenberger wrote in his introduction to the story that "As the fourth year of theFantastic Four came to a close, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby seemed to be only warming up. In retrospect, it was perhaps the most fertile period of any monthly title during the Marvel Age."[86] Comics historianLes Daniels noted that "[t]he mystical and metaphysical elements that took over the saga were perfectly suited to the tastes of young readers in the 1960s", and Lee soon discovered that the story was a favorite on college campuses.[87] Kirby continued to expand the medium's boundaries, devising photo-collage covers and interiors, developing new drawing techniques such as the method for depicting energy fields now known as "Kirby Krackle", and other experiments.[88]
In 1968 and 1969, Joe Simon was involved in litigation with Marvel Comics over the ownership of Captain America, initiated by Marvel after Simon registered the copyright renewal for Captain America in his own name. According to Simon, Kirby agreed to support the company in the litigation and, as part of a deal Kirby made with publisher Martin Goodman, signed over to Marvel any rights he might have had to the character.[89]
At the same time, Kirby grew increasingly dissatisfied with working at Marvel, for reasons Kirby biographer Mark Evanier has suggested include resentment over Lee's media prominence, a lack of full creative control, anger over breaches of perceived promises by publisher Martin Goodman, and frustration over Marvel's failure to credit him specifically for his story plotting and for his character creations and co-creations.[90] He began to both write and draw some secondary features for Marvel, such as "The Inhumans" inAmazing Adventures volume two,[91] as well as horror stories for the anthology titleChamber of Darkness, and received full credit for doing so; but in 1970, Kirby was presented with a contract that included unfavorable terms such as a prohibition against legal retaliation. When Kirby objected, the management refused to negotiate any contract changes, bluntly dismissing his contribution to Marvel's success since they considered Lee solely responsible.[92] Kirby, although he was earning $35,000 a year freelancing for the company[93] (adjusted for inflation it was the equivalent of over $271,000 in 2024),[94] then left Marvel in 1970 for rival DC Comics, under editorial directorCarmine Infantino.[95]
Kirby spent nearly two years negotiating a deal to move to DC Comics,[96] where in late 1970 he signed a three-year contract with an option for two additional years.[97] He produced a series of interlinked titles under the blanketsobriquet "The Fourth World", which included a trilogy of new titles—New Gods,Mister Miracle, andThe Forever People—as well as the extantSuperman's Pal Jimmy Olsen.[12][95][98] Kirby picked the latter book because the series was without a stable creative team and he did not want to cost anyone a job.[99][100]
The three books Kirby originated dealt with aspects of mythology he had previously touched upon inThor.The New Gods would establish this new mythos, while inThe Forever People Kirby would attempt to mythologize the lives of the young people he observed around him. The third book,Mister Miracle was more of a personal myth. The title character was an escape artist, which Mark Evanier suggests Kirby channeled his feelings of constraint into. Mister Miracle's wife was based in character on Kirby's wife Roz, and he even caricatured Stan Lee within the pages of the book asFunky Flashman, a depiction Lee found hurtful while Kirby tried to downplay the insult when confronted about it by Lee's protege,Roy Thomas, who was similarly insulted with Flashman's sidekick, Houseroy.[101][102]
The central villain of the Fourth World series,Darkseid, and some of the Fourth World concepts, appeared inJimmy Olsen before the launch of the other Fourth World books, giving the new titles greater exposure to potential buyers. The Superman figures and Jimmy Olsen faces drawn by Kirby were redrawn byAl Plastino, and later byMurphy Anderson.[103][104] Les Daniels observed in 1995 that "Kirby's mix of slang and myth, science fiction and the Bible, made for a heady brew, but the scope of his vision has endured."[105] In 2007, comics writerGrant Morrison commented that "Kirby's dramas were staged across Jungian vistas of raw symbol and storm ... The Fourth World saga crackles with the voltage of Jack Kirby's boundless imagination let loose onto paper."[106]
In addition to his artistic efforts, Kirby proposed a variety of new formats for comics such as planning to collect his published Fourth World stories into square-bound books, a format that would later be called thetrade paperback, which would eventually become standard practice in the industry. However, Infantino and company were not receptive and Kirby's proposals only went as far as producing the one-shot black-and-white magazinesSpirit World andIn the Days of the Mob in 1971.[107]
Kirby's production assistant of the time,Mark Evanier, recounted that DC's policies of the era were not in sync with Kirby's creative impulses. Also Evanier said that he was often forced to work on characters and projects which he did not like.[104] Meanwhile, some artists at DC did not want Kirby there, as he threatened their positions in the company; they also had bad blood from previous competition with Marvel and legal problems with him. Since he was working from California, they were able to undermine his work through redesigns in the New York office.[117]
At thecomic book convention Marvelcon '75, in 1975, Stan Lee used a Fantastic Four panel discussion to announce that Kirby was returning to Marvel after having left in 1970 to work for DC Comics. Lee wrote in his monthly column, "Stan Lee's Soapbox", "I mentioned that I had a special announcement to make. As I started telling about Jack's return, to a totally incredulous audience, everyone's head started to snap around as Kirby himself came waltzin' down the aisle to join us on the rostrum! You can imagine how it felt clownin' around with the co-creator of most of Marvel's greatest strips once more."[118]
Back at Marvel, Kirby both wrote and drew the monthlyCaptain America series[119] as well as theCaptain America's Bicentennial Battlesone-shot in the oversizedtreasury format.[120] He created the seriesThe Eternals,[121] which featured a race of inscrutable alien giants, theCelestials, whose behind-the-scenes intervention in primordial humanity would eventually become a core element ofMarvel Universe continuity. He produced an adaptation and expansion of the film2001: A Space Odyssey,[122] as well as an abortive attempt to do the same for the classic television seriesThe Prisoner.[123] He wrote and drewBlack Panther and drew numerous covers across the line.[12]
Kirby's other Marvel creations in this period includeMachine Man[124] andDevil Dinosaur.[125] Kirby's final comics collaboration with Stan Lee,The Silver Surfer: The Ultimate Cosmic Experience, was published in 1978 as part of theMarvel Fireside Books series and is considered Marvel's firstgraphic novel.[126]
Still dissatisfied with Marvel's treatment of him,[127] and with an offer of employment fromHanna-Barbera, a job located in nearby Hollywood,[128] Kirby left Marvel to work in animation. In that field forRuby-Spears Productions he did designs forTurbo Teen,Thundarr the Barbarian and other animated series for television.[104] In addition to a superior pay to his comics work, Kirby enjoyed excellent relations with the staff, especially with the younger artists who typically credited him as their inspiration.[129] He worked onThe New Fantastic Four animated series, reuniting him with scriptwriter Stan Lee and they kept their relations sufficiently cordial on a professional level.[130] He illustrated an adaptation of theWalt Disney movieThe Black Hole forWalt Disney's Treasury of Classic Tales syndicated comic strip in 1979–80.[131]
In 1979, Kirby drew concept art for film producer Barry Geller's script treatment adaptingRoger Zelazny's science fiction novel,Lord of Light, for which Geller had purchased the rights. In collaboration, Geller commissioned Kirby to draw set designs that would be used as architectural renderings for a Coloradotheme park to be called Science Fiction Land; Geller announced his plans at a November press conference attended by Kirby, former American football starRosey Grier, writerRay Bradbury, and others. While the film did not come to fruition, Kirby's drawings were used for theCIA's "Canadian Caper", in which some members of theU.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran, who had avoided capture in theIran hostage crisis, were able to escape the country posing as members of a movie location-scouting crew.[132]
Topps Comics'Bombast #1 (April 1993). Cover art by Kirby.
In the early 1980s, Kirby andPacific Comics, a new, non-newsstand comic-book publisher, made one of the industry's earliest deals forcreator-owned series, resulting inCaptain Victory and the Galactic Rangers,[133][134] and the six-issue miniseriesSilver Star (later collected in hardcover format in 2007).[135][136][137] This, together with similar actions by otherindependent comics publishers asEclipse Comics (where Kirby co-created the characterDestroyer Duck in a benefit comic-book series published to helpSteve Gerber fight a legal case against Marvel),[138] helped establish a precedent to end the monopoly of the work-for-hire system, wherein comics creators, even freelancers, had owned no rights to characters they created.[139]
In 1983 Richard Kyle commissioned Kirby to create a 10-page autobiographical strip, "Street Code", which became one of the last works published in Kirby's lifetime. It was published in 1990, in the second issue of Kyle's revival ofArgosy.[140] Kirby continued to do periodic work for DC Comics during the 1980s, including a brief revival of his "Fourth World" saga in the 1984 and 1985Super Powers miniseries[141] and the 1985 graphic novelThe Hunger Dogs. DC executivesJenette Kahn andPaul Levitz had Kirby re-design the Fourth World characters for theSuper Powers toyline as a way of entitling him to royalties for several of his DC creations.[142] In 1985, Kirby andGil Kane helped to create the concept and designs for theRuby-Spears animated television seriesThe Centurions. A comic-book series based on the show was published by DC and a toy line produced byKenner.[143]
In the twilight of his life, Kirby spent a great deal of time sparring with Marvel executives over the ownership rights of his original page boards. At Marvel, many of these pages owned by the company (due to outdated and legally dubious copyright claims) were given away as promotional gifts to Marvel clients or simply stolen from company warehouses.[144] After the passage of theCopyright Act of 1976, which greatly expanded artist copyright capabilities, comics publishers began to return original art to creators, but in Marvel's case only if they signed a release reaffirming Marvel's ownership of the copyright. In 1985, Marvel issued a release that demanded Kirby affirm that his art was created for hire, allowing Marvel to retain copyright in perpetuity, in addition to demanding that Kirby forego all future royalties. Marvel offered him 88 pages of his art (less than 1% of his total output) if he signed the agreement, but reserved the right to reclaim the art if Kirby violated the deal.[145] After Kirby publicly slammed Marvel, calling the company thugs and claiming they were arbitrarily holding his creations, Marvel finally returned (after two years of deliberations) approximately 1,900[146] or 2,100 pages of the estimated 10,000 to 13,000 Kirby drew for the company.[147][148]
For the producerCharles Band, Jack Kirby made concept art for the filmsDoctor Mortalis andMindmaster, which were later released asDoctor Mordrid (1992) andMandroid (1993), respectively.[149]Doctor Mordrid began as a planned adaptation of the Marvel Comics characterDr. Strange, but Band's option expired.[150][151]
ForTopps Comics, founded in 1993, Kirby retained ownership of characters used in multiple series of what the company dubbed "The Kirbyverse".[152] These titles were derived mainly from designs and concepts Kirby had kept in his files, some intended initially for the by-then-defunct Pacific Comics, and then licensed to Topps for what became the "Jack Kirby's Secret City Saga" mythos.[153]Phantom Force was the last comic book Kirby worked on before his death. The story was co-written by Kirby with Michael Thibodeaux and Richard French, based on an eight-page pitch for an unusedBruce Lee comic in 1978.[154] Issues #1 and 2 were published byImage Comics with various Image artists inking over Kirby's pencils. Issue #0 and issues #3–8 were published by Genesis West, with Kirby providing pencils for issues #0 and 4. Thibodeaux provided the art for the remaining issues of the series after Kirby died.[155]
In the early 1940s, Kirby and his family moved toBrooklyn. Kirby met Rosalind "Roz" Goldstein, who lived in the same Brooklyn apartment building. The pair began dating soon afterward.[156] Kirby proposed to Goldstein on her 18th birthday, and the two became engaged.[157] They married on May 23, 1942.[158] The couple had four children: Susan (b. December 6, 1945),[159] Neal (b. May 1948),[40] Barbara (b. November 1952),[160] and Lisa (b. September 1960).[159][161]
After beingdrafted into theU.S. Army and serving in theEuropean Theater inWorld War II,[162] Kirby corresponded with his wife regularly byv-mail, with Roz sending daily letters while she worked in a lingerie shop and lived with her mother[163] at 2820 Brighton 7th Street in Brooklyn.[164] During the winter of 1944, Kirby suffered severefrostbite and was taken to a hospital in London for recovery. Doctors considered amputating Kirby's legs, which had turned black, but he eventually recovered and was able to walk again.[165] He returned to the United States in January 1945, assigned toCamp Butner in North Carolina, where he spent the last six months of his service as part of the motor pool. Kirby washonorably discharged as aprivate first class on July 20, 1945, having received aCombat Infantryman Badge, aEuropean/African/Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with a bronzeBattle Star.[166][167]
In 1949, Kirby bought a house for his family in East Williston, New York, onLong Island.[40][168][169] It was the family's home for the next 20 years; Kirby worked out of a basement studio just 10 feet (3.0 m) wide, which the family referred to jocularly as "The Dungeon".[170] He moved the family to Southern California in early 1969, both to live in a drier climate for the sake of daughter Lisa's health and to be closer to the Hollywood studios Jack Kirby believed might provide work.[171]
In an interview, Kirby's granddaughter Jillian Kirby said Jack Kirby was a "liberal Democrat".[172] Jack Kirby heldanti-communist views, once saying that "I was against the reds. I became a witch hunter. My enemies were the commies—I called them commies. In fact,Granny Goodness was a commie,Doubleheader was a commie."[173]
He created a new grammar of storytelling and a cinematic style of motion. Once-wooden characters cascaded from one frame to another—or even from page to page—threatening to fall right out of the book into the reader's lap. The force of punches thrown was visibly and explosively evident. Even at rest, a Kirby character pulsed with tension and energy in a way that makes movie versions of the same characters seem static by comparison.[175]
Jack Kirby has been referred to as the "superhero of style", his artwork described by John Carlin inMasters of American Comics as "deliberately primitive and bombastic",[176] and elsewhere has been compared toCubist,[177]Futurist,Primitivist andoutsider art.[178] His contributions to thecomic book form, including the many characters he created or co-created and the manygenres he worked on have led to him being referred to as the definitive comic book artist.[179] Given the number of places Kirby's artwork can now be found, the toys based on his designs, and the success of themovies based upon his work,Charles Hatfield and Ben Saunders said he was "one of the chief architects of the American imagination."[180] He was regarded as a hard working artist, and it has been calculated that he drew at least 20,318 pages of published art and a further 1,385 covers in his career. He published 1,158 pages in 1962 alone.[181] Kirby defined comics in two periods: his work in the early 1940s withJoe Simon on theCaptain America strip, and then his superhero comics of the 1960s and early 1970s, first withStan Lee atMarvel Comics and then on his own atDC Comics.[182] Kirby also created stories in almost every genre of comics, from the autobiographicalStreet Code to the apocalyptic science fiction fantasy ofKamandi.[183]
Like many of his contemporaries, Kirby was hugely indebted toMilton Caniff,Hal Foster, andAlex Raymond who codified many of the tropes of narrative art in adventurecomic strips. It has also been suggested that Kirby drew fromBurne Hogarth, whose dynamic figure work may have informed the way Kirby drew figures; "his ferocious bounding, and grotesquely articulated figures seem directly descended from Hogarth's dynamically contorted forms."[184] His style drew on these influences, all major artists at the time Kirby was learning his craft, with Caniff, Foster and Raymond between them imparting to the sequential adventure comic strip a highly illustrative approach based on realizing the setting to a very high degree. Where Kirby diverged from these influences, and where his style impacted on the formation of comic book art, was in his move away from an illustrated approach to one that was more dynamic. Kirby's artistic style was one that captured energy and motion within the image, synergizing with the text and helping to serve the narrative. In contrast, successors to the illustrative approach, such asGil Kane, found their work eventually reach an impasse. The art would illustrate, but in lacking movement caused the reader to contemplate the art as much as the written word. Later artists such asBryan Hitch andAlex Ross combined the Kirby and Kane approaches, using highly realistic backgrounds contrasted with dynamic characters to create what became known as a widescreen approach to comics.[185]
Kirby's dynamism and energy served to push the reader through the story where an illustrative, detailed approach would cause the eye to linger.[186] His reduction of the presentation of a given scene down to one that represents the semblance of movement has led Kirby to be described as cinematic in his style.[187] Kirby had worked atFleischer Studios before coming to comics and had a grounding in animation techniques for producing motion. He also realized that comic books were not subject to the same constraints as the newspaper strip. While other comic book artists recreated the layouts that format used, Kirby swiftly utilized the space a whole comic book page created.[182] As Ron Goulart describes, "(h)e broke up the pages in new ways and introduced splash panels that stretched across two pages."[188] Kirby himself described the creation of his dynamic style as a reaction both to the cinema and to the urge to create and compete: "I found myself competing with the movie camera. I had to compete with the camera. I felt likeJohn Henry... I tore my characters out of the panels. I made them jump all over the page. I tried to make that cohesive so that it would be easier to read... I had to get my characters in extreme positions, and in doing so I created an extreme style which was recognizable by everybody."[189]
Fantastic Four #51 (June 1966) p. 14; collage and pencilled figure by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Sinnott, letters byArtie Simek, dialogue by Stan Lee, illustrating Kirby's use of collage
In the early 1940s Kirby at times disregardedpanel borders. A character was drawn in one panel, but their shoulder and arm would extend outside the border, into thegutter and sometimes on top of a nearby panel. A character may be punched out of one panel, feet being in the original panel and body in the next. Panels themselves would overlap, and Kirby found new ways to arrange panels on a comic book page. His figures were depicted as lithe and graceful, although Kirby would place them thrusting from the page towards the reader.[190][178][191] In the late 1940s and 1950s Kirby moved away from superhero comics and with Joe Simon worked in a number of genres. Kirby and Simon created theromance comics genre, and working in this as well as the war, Western and crime genres saw Kirby's style change. He left behind the diverse panel framing and layouts. The nature of the genres enabled him to channel the energy into the posing and blocking of characters, forcing the drama into the constraints of the panel.[178]
When Kirby andStan Lee came together atMarvel Comics, his art developed again. His characters and representations became more abstract, less anatomically correct. He placed figures across three planes of a panel's depth to suggest three dimensions.[192] His backgrounds were less detailed where he did not want the eye to be drawn.[193] His figures moved actively along diagonals[192] and he utilizedforeshortening to make a character appear to recede more deeply into the panel, so that they appeared to move towards the reader off the page.[191][194][195] During the 1960s Kirby also developed a talent for creatingcollages, initially utilizing them within the pages ofThe Fantastic Four. He introduced theNegative Zone as a place within the Marvel Universe that would only be illustrated via collage. However, the reproduction within the published comics of the collages, coupled with the low page rate he was being paid and the time they took to develop saw their use discarded.[196] Kirby would later return to the use of collage in his Fourth World work atDC Comics. Here he used them most often in the pages ofSuperman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen.[197]
Kirby's style in the late 1960s was regarded so highly by Stan Lee that he instituted it as Marvel's house style. Lee would instruct other artists to draw more like Jack, and would also assign them books to work on using Kirby's breakdowns of the story so that they could more closely hew to Kirby's style.[198] Over time, Kirby's style has become so well known that imitations, homages and pastiche are referred to as Kirbyesque.[199][200][201][202]
Kirby Krackle, also referred to as Kirby Dots,[203] is Kirby's artistic convention of depicting the effect of energy. Within the drawing, a field of black, pseudo-fractal images is used to representnegative space around unspecified kinds ofenergy.[204][205] Kirby Krackles are typically used in illustrations ofexplosions, smoke, the blasts fromray guns, "cosmic" energy, and outer space phenomena.[206] The advanced technology Kirby drew, from theAfrofuturistic state ofWakanda through theMother Boxes of theNew Gods to the spaceships and design ofthe Celestials is gathered together under the collective term "Kirby Tech".[207][208]John Paul Leon has described it as "It's tech; it's mechanical even if it's alien, but it's drawn in such an organic way that you don't question it. It's just an extension of his world. I'm not sure who else you could say did that."[209] Kirby's depiction of technology is linked by Charles Hatfield toLeo Marx's idea of the technological sublime, specifically utilizingEdmund Burke's definition of theSublime. Using this definition, Kirby's view and depiction of technology is that of it as something to be feared.[210]
Jack Kirby's detailed pencils for the splash page toThe Demon #1DC Comics (September 1972)
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Kirby did not use preliminary sketches, rough work or layouts. He would instead start with the blank board and draw the story onto the page from top to bottom, start to finish. Many artists, includingCarmine Infantino, Gil Kane andJim Steranko have remarked on the unusual nature of his method. Kirby would rarely erase while working; the art, and therefore the story, would flow from him almost fully formed.[211] Kirby's pencils had a reputation for being detailed, to the point that they were difficult to ink.[212][213]Will Eisner remembers even in the early years that Kirby's pencils were "tight".[214] Working for Eisner, Kirby initially inked with a pen, not confident enough in his ability to use the Japanese brushes Lou Fine and Eisner preferred.[215] By the time Kirby worked withJoe Simon, Kirby had taught himself to use a brush, and would on occasion ink over inked work where he felt it was needed.[216]
Due to the amount of work Kirby produced, it was rare for him to ink his own work. Instead the pencilled pages were sent on to an inker; different inkers left their own stylistic stamp on the published version. As Kirby noted, individual inkers were suited to different genres.[217] Harry Mendryk has suggested that for a period in the 1950s, Kirby inked himself due to other work drying up.[218] By the late 1960s, Kirby preferred to pencil, feeling that "inking in itself is a separate kind of art."[217]Stan Lee recalls Kirby not really being too interested in who inked him: "I cared much more about who inked Kirby than Kirby did... Kirby never seemed to care who inked him... I think Kirby felt his style was so strong that it just didn't matter who inked him".[219]Chic Stone, an inker of Kirby's during the 1960s at Marvel, recalled "(T)he two best [inkers] for Jack wereMike Royer andSteve Rude. Both truly maintained the integrity of Jack's pencils."[220]
The size of theart board made a difference to Kirby's style. During the late 1960s the industry shrunk the size of the art board artists used. Prior to 1967, art boards were around 14 x 21 inches, being reproduced at 7 x 10 inches. After 1967 the size of the board shrunk to 10 x 15.[221] This affected the way Kirby drew. Gil Kane noted that "the amount of space around the figures became less and less... The figures became bigger and bigger, and they couldn't be contained by a single panel or even a single page".[222] Professor Craig Fischer asserts Kirby at first "hated" the new size.[223] Fischer argues that it took Kirby around 18 months to negotiate a way of working at the smaller size. Initially he retreated to a less detailed, close up style, as seen inFantastic Four #68. In adjusting to the new size, Kirby began utilizing depth to bring the pages to life, increasing his use of foreshortening.[223] By the time Kirby had moved to DC, he started to incorporate the use of two-page spreads into his art more. These spreads helped define the mood of the story, and came to define Kirby's late era work.[224]
Kirby's art has been exhibited as part of the Masters of American Comics joint exhibition by theHammer Museum andMuseum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles from November 2005 to March 2006.[225] In 2015 Charles Hatfield curated the "Comic Book Apocalypse" exhibition at theCalifornia State University, Northridge Art Galleries. The exhibition focused on Kirby's work from 1965 onward.[226] In 2018 "A Jack Kirby Odyssey" was organized by Tom Kraft. The exhibition displayed photocopies of unpublished Kirby pencils for stories intended for publication in the2001: A Space Odyssey comic book adaptation series as well as reproductions of the published work.[227] In 1994The Cartoon Art Trust organized an exhibition inLondon of Kirby art, "Jack Kirby: The King of Comic Books", in the wake of Kirby's death.[228] In 2010 Dan Nadel andPaul Gravett curated "Jack Kirby: The House That Jack Built", a retrospective of Kirby's career from 1942 to 1985. The exhibition was part of theFumetto International Comics Festival held inLucerne, Switzerland.[229]
Kirby's original art regularly sells at auction, withHeritage Auctions listing the cover ofTales of Suspense #84, inked byFrank Giacoia as realizing a price of $167,300 in a February 2014 auction.[230] A large portion of Kirby's art remains unaccounted for. Work created aroundWorld War II would have been reused or pulped due to paper shortages.DC Comics had a policy of destroying original art in the 1950s.Marvel Comics also destroyed art until 1960, when it stored artwork prior to a policy which had art returned to the artist. In Kirby's case, it is reported that about 2,100 pieces of the estimated 10,000 pages drawn were returned to him. The whereabouts of the missing pages are unknown, although some do turn up for sale, provenance unknown.[231][232]
Lisa Kirby announced in early 2006 that she and co-writer Steve Robertson, with artist Mike Thibodeaux, planned to publish via the Marvel ComicsIconimprint a six-issuelimited series,Jack Kirby's Galactic Bounty Hunters, featuring characters and concepts created by her father forCaptain Victory.[161] The series, scripted by Lisa Kirby, Robertson, Thibodeaux, and Richard French, with pencil art by Jack Kirby and Thibodeaux, and inking by Scott Hanna andKarl Kesel primarily, ran an initial five issues (Sept. 2006–Jan. 2007) and then a later final issue (Sept. 2007).[233]
Marvel posthumously published a "lost" Kirby/LeeFantastic Four story,Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure (April 2008), with unused pages Kirby had originally drawn for a story that was partially published inFantastic Four #108 (March 1971).[234][235]
On September 16, 2009,[238] Kirby's four children served notices of termination to The Walt Disney Studios, 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, and Sony Pictures to attempt to gain control of various Silver Age Marvel characters.[239][240] Marvel sought to invalidate those claims.[241][242] In mid-March 2010 Kirby's children "sued Marvel to terminate copyrights and gain profits from [Kirby's] comic creations."[243] In July 2011, theUnited States District Court for the Southern District of New York issued asummary judgment in favor of Marvel,[238][244] which was affirmed in August 2013 by theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.[245] The Kirby children filed a petition on March 21, 2014, for a review of the case by theSupreme Court of the United States,[246][247] but a settlement was reached on September 26, 2014, and the family requested that the petition be dismissed.[248] While the settlement has left uncertain the legal right to works governed by theCopyright Act of 1909 created before theCopyright Act of 1976 came into force, the Kirby children's attorney,Marc Toberoff, said (in 2014) that the issue ofcreators' rights to reclaim the work done as independent contractors remains, and other potential claims have yet to become ripe.[249]
Grave stone of Rosalind "Roz" KirbyGrave stone of Jack Kirby
Glen David Gold wrote inMasters of American Comics that, "Kirby elevates all of us into a realm where we fly among the beating wings of the immortal and the omnipotent, the gods and the monsters, so that we, dreamers all, can play host to the demons of creation, can become our own myths.[250]
Michael Chabon, in his afterword to hisPulitzer Prize-winning novelThe Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, a fictional account of two early comics pioneers, wrote, "I want to acknowledge the deep debt I owe in this and everything else I've ever written to the work of the late Jack Kirby, the King of Comics."[251]
DirectorJames Cameron said Kirby inspired the look of his filmAliens, calling it "not intentional in the sense I sat down and looked at all my favorite comics and studied them for this film, but, yeah, Kirby's work was definitely in my subconscious programming. The guy was a visionary. Absolutely. And he could draw machines like nobody's business. He was sort of likeA. E. van Vogt and some of these other science-fiction writers who are able to create worlds that — even though we live in a science-fictionary world today — are still so far beyond what we're experiencing."[252]
WriterMarv Wolfman: "The imagination of Jack Kirby has no boundaries, no limits. ...When man eventually reaches the far end of the universe, he will undoubtedly find the name Jack Kirby signed on the lower right hand corner."[253]
Several Kirby images are among those on the "Marvel Super Heroes" set ofcommemorative stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service on July 27, 2007.[254] Ten of the stamps are portraits of individual Marvel characters and the other 10 stamps depict individual Marvel comic book covers. According to the credits printed on the back of the pane, Kirby's artwork is featured on: Captain America, The Thing, Silver Surfer,The Amazing Spider-Man #1,The Incredible Hulk #1,Captain America #100,The X-Men #1, andThe Fantastic Four #3.[175][254]
In the 1998 episode "The Demon Within" ofThe New Batman Adventures,Klarion hasEtrigan break into theKirby Cake Company. Both characters were created by Kirby.
In 2002, jazz percussionistGregg Bendian released a seven-track CD titledRequiem for Jack Kirby, inspired by Kirby's art and storytelling. Titles of the instrumental cuts include "Kirby's Fourth World", "New Gods", "The Mother Box", "Teaneck in the Marvel Age" and "Air AboveZenn-La".[256]
TheCartoon Network/Adult Swim seriesMinoriteam uses artwork as a homage to Jack Kirby (credited under Jack "The King" Kirby, who is credited under special thanks in the show's end credits).
Various comic-book and cartoon creators have done homages to Kirby. Examples include theTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mirage Comics series ("Kirby and the Warp Crystal" inDonatello #1, and its animated counterpart, "The King", from the2003 cartoon series). The episode ofSuperman: The Animated Series entitled "Apokolips ... Now!, Part 2" was dedicated to his memory.[257][258]
As of June 2018, Hollywood films based on characters Kirby co-created have collectively earned nearly US$7.4 billion.[259] Kirby himself is a character portrayed by Luis Yagüe in the 2009 Spanish short filmThe King & the Worst, which is inspired by Kirby's service in World War II.[260] He is portrayed byMichael Parks in a brief appearance in the fact-based dramaArgo (2012), about theCanadian Caper.[261]
A play based on Kirby's life,King Kirby, by Crystal Skillman andNew York Times bestselling comics writerFred Van Lente, was staged at Brooklyn's Brick Theater as part of its annual Comic Book Theater Festival. The play was aNew York Times Critics' Pick selection and was funded by a widely publicized Kickstarter campaign.[262][263]
The 2016 novelI Hate the Internet frequently mentions Kirby as a "central personage" of the novel.[264]
To mark Jack Kirby's 100th birthday in 2017,DC Comics announced a series ofone-shots involving characters that Kirby had created, including The Newsboy Legion and the Boy Commandos, Manhunter, Sandman, the New Gods, Darkseid, and ending withThe Black Racer andShilo Norman.[265]
In May 2004, inFantastic Four issue #511 (written by Mark Waid and penciled by Mike Weiringo), Reed, Sue, and Johnny travel to Heaven to recover the soul of the deceased Ben Grimm. After passing a trial, they are allowed to meet God himself, who is depicted as Jack Kirby. God explains that he is seen by them as what he is to them, and that he considers the fact that they see him as Kirby to be an honor.
Alan Moore delivers his tribute to Jack Kirby in his next-to-last issue of theSupreme series,Supreme #62 (The Return #6) "New Jack City" (March 2000), illustrated byRob Liefeld and, for the Kirbyesque part,Rick Veitch. In this story Supreme enters a realm of pure ideas where he meets a gigantic floating Jack Kirby head, smoking a cigar. "This gigantic entity explains to him that he used to be a flesh and blood artist but now he is entirely in the realm of ideas, which is much better because flesh and blood has its limitations because he can only do four or five pages a day tops, where now he exists purely in the world of ideas".[266]
The 2025 Marvel movieThe Fantastic Four: First Steps is set on Earth-828, which is derived from Kirby's birthday (August 28), and includes a quote in the end credits from Kirby about his presence in all of the stories he created.
Kirby guest starred in the episode "Bounty Hunter" ofStarsky & Hutch as a police officer.
Kirby made an un-credited cameo appearance in the episode "No Escape" ofThe Incredible Hulk. He can be spotted in the hospital scene as a police sketch artist who is recreating, from the witness's description, a picture of the man he claimed to have saved his life. Instead of resembling the live-action Hulk, this illustration is instantly recognizable as the Hulk as he appeared in the original comics.
Kirby appeared as himself in the episode "You Can't Win" ofBob.
Jack Kirby received a great deal of recognition over the course of his career, including the 1967Alley Award for Best Pencil Artist.[268] The following year he was runner-up behindJim Steranko. His other Alley Awards were:
1963: Favorite Short Story – "The Human Torch Meets Captain America", by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby,Strange Tales #114[269]
Kirby won aShazam Award for Special Achievement by an Individual in 1971 for his "Fourth World" series inForever People,New Gods,Mister Miracle, andSuperman's Pal Jimmy Olsen.[274] He received anInkpot Award in 1974[275] and was inducted into the Shazam Awards Hall of Fame in 1975.[276] In 1987 he was an inaugural inductee into theWill Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.[277] He received the 1993 Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award at that year'sEisner Awards.[278]
His work was honored posthumously in 1998: The collection of his New Gods material,Jack Kirby's New Gods, edited by Bob Kahan, won both theHarvey Award for Best Domestic Reprint Project,[279] and the Eisner Award for Best Archival Collection/Project.[280] On July 14, 2017, Jack Kirby was named aDisney Legend for his part in the creation of numerous characters that would comprise Disney'sMarvel Cinematic Universe.[281]
Asteroid51985 Kirby, discovered September 22, 2001, was named in his honor.[288] Acrater onMercury, located near the north pole, was named in his honor in 2019.[289]
This is an abridged listing of Kirby's comics work (interior pencil art) for major comics publishers DC Comics and Marvel Comics. For his work at DC it lists any title Kirby worked on for eight or more issues between 1970 and 1976. Of his Marvel Comics work, it lists any title Kirby worked on for eight or more issues between 1959 and 1978.
^abEvanier, Mark; Sherman, Steve; et al. (March 20, 2008)."Jack Kirby Biography". Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center.Archived from the original on September 17, 2013. RetrievedFebruary 24, 2012.
^"'I've Never Done Anything Halfheartedly'".The Comics Journal (134). Seattle, Washington:Fantagraphics Books. February 1990. Reprinted in George 2002, p. 22
^Markstein, Don (2010)."Captain America".Don Markstein's Toonopedia. RetrievedApril 9, 2012.Captain America was the first successful character published by the company that would become Marvel Comics to debut in his own comic.Captain America Comics #1 was dated March, 1941.
^Wallace, Daniel; Cowsill, Allan (2010). "1940s". In Hannah, Dolan (ed.).DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. London, United Kingdom:Dorling Kindersley. p. 41.ISBN978-0-7566-6742-9.Hot properties Joe Simon and Jack Kirby joined DC ... [and] after taking over the Sandman and Sandy, the Golden Boy feature inAdventure Comics #72, the writer and artist team turned their attentions to Manhunter with issue #73.
^Wallace "1940s" in Dolan, p. 41 "The inaugural issue ofBoy Commandos represented Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's first original title since they started at DC (though the characters had debuted earlier that year inDetective Comics #64.)"
^Wallace "1940s" in Dolan, p. 41 "Joe Simon and Jack Kirby took their talents to a second title withStar-Spangled Comics, tackling both the Guardian and the Newsboy Legion in issue #7."
^abHowell, Richard (1988). "Introduction".Real Love: The Best of the Simon and Kirby Love Comics, 1940s–1950s. Forestville, California: Eclipse Books.ISBN978-0-91303-563-4.
^Beerbohm, Robert Lee (August 1999)."The Mainline Story".The Jack Kirby Collector (25). Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing. Archived fromthe original on May 26, 2011. RetrievedMarch 26, 2008.
^"'I Created an Army of Characters, and Now My Connection with Them Is Lost". Evanston, Illinois: interview, The Great Electric Bird radio show,WNUR-FM,Northwestern University. May 14, 1971. Transcribed inThe Nostalgia Journal (27) August 1976. Reprinted in George 2002, p. 16
^Kirby's 1956–57 Atlas work appeared in nine issues, plus three more published later after being held in inventory, per"Another Pre-Implosion Atlas Kirby". Jack Kirby Museum. November 3, 2007.Archived from the original on July 9, 2012. In roughly chronological order:Battleground #14 (Nov. 1956; 5 pp.),Astonishing #56 (Dec. 1956; 4 pp.),Strange Tales of the Unusual #7 (Dec. 1956; 4 pp.),Quick-Trigger Western #16 (Feb. 1957; 5 pp.),Yellow Claw #2–4 (Dec. 1956 – April 1957; 19 pp. each),Black Rider Rides Again #1, a.k.a.Black Rider vol. 2, #1 (Sept. 1957; 19 pp.), andTwo Gun Western #12 (Sept. 1957; 5 pp.), plus the inventoriedGunsmoke Western #47 (July 1958; 4 pp.) and #51 (March 1959; 5 pp. plus cover) andKid Colt Outlaw #86 (Sept. 1959; 5 pp.)
^Irvine, Alex "1950s" in Dolan, p. 84: "Kirby's first solo project was a test run of a non-super hero adventure team called Challengers of the Unknown. Appearing for the first time inShowcase #6, the team would make a few moreShowcase appearances before springing into their own title in May 1958."
^Evanier, Mark (2001). "Introduction".The Green Arrow. New York, New York: DC Comics.All were inked by Jack with the aid of his dear spouse, Rosalind. She would trace his pencil work with a static pen line; he would then take a brush, put in all the shadows and bold areas and, where necessary, heavy-up the lines she'd laid down. (Jack hated inking and only did it because he needed the money. After departing DC this time, he almost never inked his own work again.)
^Evanier 2008, pp. 103–106 "The artwork was exquisite, in no small part because Dave Wood had the idea to hire Wally Wood (no relation) to handle the inking."
^Markstein, Don (2007)."The Shield". Don Markstein's Toonopedia.Archived from the original on April 12, 2013.
^DeFalco, Tom "1960s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 84: "It did not take long for editor Stan Lee to realize thatThe Fantastic Four was a hit ... the flurry of fan letters all pointed to the FF's explosive popularity."
^Krensky, Stephen (2007).Comic Book Century: The History of American Comic Books. Minneapolis, Minnesota:Twenty-First Century Books. p. 59.ISBN978-0-8225-6654-0.Archived from the original on February 4, 2021. RetrievedNovember 12, 2020.Readers ... liked seeing Reed and Sue bicker, Johnny annoying everyone, and Ben being grumpy. ... Kirby's vivid illustrations created a whole new style for Marvel, where the imaginative art matched the colorful, loose style of the time.
^Mercier, Sebastian T. (2008)."'Truth, Justice and the American Way: The Intersection of American Youth Culture and Superhero Narratives".Iowa Historical Review.1 (2).University of Iowa:37–38.doi:10.17077/2373-1842.1010.The liberalization of American culture allowed superhero comic books to challenge the assumptions behind 1950s censorship. ... Marvel was able to position themselves as a publishing maverick. Several of their new superheroes, including the Fantastic Four and the Amazing Spider-Man were able to reflect real-world sensibilities and problems. Other heroes such as the Invincible Iron Man and the Silver Surfer examined the political landscape of the 1960s. The close bonds shared with youth culture meant that superheroes had reasserted themselves into the American national consciousness.
^Gil Kane, speaking at a forum on July 6, 1985, at the Dallas Fantasy Fair. As quoted in George 2002, p. 109
^DeFalco "1960s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 117: Stan Lee wanted to do his part by creating the first black super hero. Lee discussed his ideas with Jack Kirby and the result was seen inFantastic Four #52.
^Theakston, Greg (2002).The Steve Ditko Reader. Brooklyn, New York: Pure Imagination.ISBN1-56685-011-8.
^Cowsill, Alan; Manning, Matthew K. (2012). "1960s".Spider-Man Chronicle Celebrating 50 Years of Web-Slinging. London, United Kingdom:Dorling Kindersley. p. 15.ISBN978-0756692360.Kirby had the honor of being the first ever penciler to take a swing at drawing Spider-Man. Though his illustrations for the pages ofAmazing Fantasy #15 were eventually redrawn by Steve Ditko after Stan Lee decided that Kirby's Spidey wasn't quite youthful enough, the King nevertheless contributed the issue's historic cover.
^DeFalco "1960s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 94: "Filled with some wonderful visual action,The Avengers #1 has a very simple story: the Norse god Loki tricked the Hulk into going on a rampage ... The heroes eventually learned about Loki's involvement and united with the Hulk to form the Avengers."
^DeFalco "1960s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 86: "Stan Lee and Jack Kirby reintroduced one of Marvel's most popular Golden Age heroes – Namor, the Sub-Mariner."
^DeFalco "1960s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 99: "'Captain America lives again!' announced the cover ofThe Avengers #4 ... Cap was back."
^Batchelor, Bob (2017).Stan Lee : The Man Behind Marvel. Lanham, Maryland. p. 73.ISBN978-1-4422-7781-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Hatfield, Charles (2004). "The Galactus Trilogy: An Appreciation".The Collected Jack Kirby CollectorVolume 1. TwoMorrows. p. 211.ISBN978-1893905009.
^Thomas, Roy; Sanderson, Peter (2007).The Marvel Vault: A Museum-in-a-Book with Rare Collectibles from the World of Marvel. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:Running Press. p. 93.ISBN978-0762428441.Then came the issues of all issues, the instant legend, the trilogy ofFantastic Four (#48-50) that excited readers immediately christened 'the Galactus Trilogy', a designation still widely recognized four decades later.
^DeFalco "1960s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 115: "Stan Lee may have started the creative discussion that culminated in Galactus, but the inclusion of the Silver Surfer inFantastic Four #48 was pure Jack Kirby. Kirby realized that a being like Galactus required an equally impressive herald."
^Sanderson "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 146: "As Marvel was expanding its line of comics, the company decided to introduce two new 'split' books ...Amazing Adventures andAstonishing Tales.Amazing Adventures contained a series about the genetically enhanced Inhumans and a series about intelligence agent the Black Widow."
^McAvennie, Michael "1970s" in Dolan, p. 145 "As the writer, artist, and editor of the Fourth World family of interlocking titles, each of which possessed its own distinct tone and theme, Jack Kirby cemented his legacy as a pioneer of grand-scale storytelling."
^Evanier, Mark. "Afterword."Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus; Volume 1, New York: DC Comics, 2007.
^McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 141 "Since no ongoing creative team had been slated toSuperman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen, "King of Comics" Jack Kirby made the title his DC launch point, and the writer/artist's indelible energy and ideas permeated every panel and word balloon of the comic."
^Raphael, Jordan; Spurgeon, Tom (2004).Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book. Chicago Review Press. p. 218.ISBN978-1-61374-292-1.
^Evanier, Mark (August 22, 2003)."Jack Kirby's Superman". POV Online.Archived from the original on March 8, 2012. RetrievedApril 22, 2012.Plastino drew new Superman figures and Olsen heads in roughly the same poses and positions, and these were pasted into the artwork.
^Daniels, Les (1995). "The Fourth World: New Gods on Newsprint".DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes. New York, New York:Bulfinch Press. p. 165.ISBN0821220764.
^McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 147: "Believing that new formats were necessary for the comics medium to continue evolving, Kirby oversaw the production of what was labeled his 'Speak-Out Series' of magazines:Spirit World andIn the Days of the Mob ... Sadly, these unique magazines never found their desired audience."
^McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 161 "InOMAC's first issue, editor/writer/artist Jack Kirby warned readers of "The World That's Coming!", a future world containing wild concepts that are almost frighteningly real today."
^McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 153 "Kirby had already introduced a similar concept and characters inAlarming Tales #1 (1957) ... Coupling the premise with his unpublished "Kamandi of the Caves" newspaper strip, Kirby's Last Boy on Earth roamed a world that had been ravaged by the "Great Disaster" and taken over by talking animals."
^McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 152 "While his "Fourth World" opus was winding down, Jack Kirby was busy conjuring his next creation, which emerged not from the furthest reaches of the galaxy but from the deepest pits of Hell. Etrigan was hardly the usual Kirby protagonist."
^Kelly, Rob (August 2009). "Kobra".Back Issue! (35). Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing: 63.Maybe that's because Kobra was the creation of the legendary Jack 'King' Kirby, who wrote and penciled the first issue's story, 'Fangs of the Kobra!'
^McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 161 "Jack Kirby also took on a group of established DC characters that had nothing to lose. The result was a year-long run ofOur Fighting Forces tales that were action-packed, personal, and among the most beloved of World War II comics ever produced."
^McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 158 "The legendary tandem of writer Joe Simon and artist/editor Jack Kirby reunited for a one-shot starring the Sandman ... Despite the issue's popularity, it would be Simon and Kirby's last collaboration."
^McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 162: "Debuting with Atlas the Great, writer and artist Jack Kirby didn't shrug at the chance to put his spin on the well-known hero."
^McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 164: "Though1st Issue Special was primarily DC's forum to introduce new characters and storylines, editor Jack Kirby used the series as an opportunity to revamp the Manhunter, whom he and writer Joe Simon had made famous in the 1940s."
^Abramowitz, Jack (April 2014). "1st Issue Special It Was NoShowcase (But It Was Never Meant To Be)".Back Issue! (71). Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing:40–47.
^Bullpen Bulletins: "The King is Back! 'Nuff Said!", in Marvel Comics cover-dated October 1975, includingFantastic Four #163
^Sanderson "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 175: "After an absence of half a decade, Jack Kirby returned to Marvel Comics as writer, penciller, and editor of the series he and Joe Simon created back in 1941."
^Powers, Tom (December 2012). "Kirby Celebrating America's 200th Birthday:Captain America's Bicentennial Battles".Back Issue! (61). Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing:46–49.
^Sanderson "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 175: "Jack Kirby's most important creation for Marvel during his return in the 1970s was his epic seriesThe Eternals"
^Sanderson "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 180: "Marvel published its adaptation of director Stanley Kubrick and writer Arthur C. Clarke's classic science fiction film2001: A Space Odyssey as an oversizeMarvel Treasury Special."
^Sanderson "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 185: "In [2001: A Space Odyssey] issue #8, cover dated July 1977, [Jack] Kirby introduced a robot whom he originally dubbed 'Mister Machine.' Marvel's2001 series eventually came to an end but Kirby's robot protagonist went on to star in his own comic book series as Machine Man."
^Sanderson "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 185: "Jack Kirby's final major creation for Marvel Comics was perhaps his most unusual hero: an intelligent dinosaur resembling aTyrannosaurus rex."
^Sanderson "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 187: "[In 1978], Simon & Schuster's Fireside Books published a paperback book titledThe Silver Surfer by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby ... This book was later recognized as Marvel's first true graphic novel."
^"Ploog & Kirby Quit Marvel over Contract Dispute",The Comics Journal #44, January 1979, p. 11.
^Evanier,King of Comics, p. 189: "In 1978, an idea found him. It was an offer from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon studio in Hollywood."
^Fischer, Stuart (August 2014). "The Fantastic Four and Other Things: A Television History".Back Issue! (74). Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing: 30.Stan Lee was a consultant to this series, and Jack Kirby played a very important part in this show as an animator and helped design the show.
^Morrow, John (2004)."The Captain Victory Connection".The Collected Jack Kirby CollectorVolume 1. Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 105.ISBN978-1893905009.Archived from the original on February 7, 2017. RetrievedJuly 19, 2016.
^Markstein, Don (2006)."Destroyer Duck". Don Markstein's Toonopedia.Archived from the original on September 13, 2012.[T]he centerpiece of the issue was Gerber's own Destroyer Duck ... himself. The artist who worked with Gerber was the legendary Jack Kirby, who, as co-creator of The Fantastic Four, The Avengers, X-Men and many other cornerstones of Marvel's success, had issues of his own with the company.
^Morrow, John, ed. (February 19, 2004).Collected Jack Kirby Collector. TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 129.ISBN1893905004.
^Manning, Matthew K. "1980s" in Dolan, p. 208: "In association with the toy company Kenner, DC released a line of toys called Super Powers ... DC soon debuted a five-issueSuper Powers miniseries plotted by comic book legend Jack 'King' Kirby, scripted by Joey Cavalieri, and with pencils by Adrian Gonzales."
^Jon B., Cooke (2006). "Twilight at Topps".The Collected Jack Kirby CollectorVolume 5. Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing. pp. 149–153.ISBN978-1-893905-57-3.
^abMorrow, John (April 1996)."Roz Kirby Interview Excerpts".The Jack Kirby Collector (10). Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing.Archived from the original on November 3, 2013.
^Evanier, 2008, pp. 157, 160 (unnumbered): "... drove Jack to distraction, and from there to Southern California. In early 1969, the Kirbys moved west. The main reason was daughter Lisa'sasthma and her need to live in a drier climate [than in New York State]. But Jack had another reason. ... Kirby had hopes that being close to Hollywood might bring him an entry to the movie business. ... Film seemed like the next logical outlet for his creativity. ...
^Hatfield, Charles (2005).Alternative comics : an emerging literature (1st ed.). Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi. p. 54.ISBN1578067197.
^Goulart, Ron (1986).The great comic book artists (1st ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 56.ISBN0312345577.
^Fischer, Craig (November 21, 2011)."Kirby: Attention Paid".The Comics Journal. Fantagraphics Press.Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. RetrievedMay 31, 2018.
^Feiffer, Jules (2003).The great comic book heroes (1st Fantagraphics Books ed.). Seattle, Wash.: Fantagraphics Books. p. 59.ISBN978-1-56097-501-4.Muscles stretched magically, foreshortened shockingly.
^Morrow, John, ed. (2004), "Conversations With Jack Kirby",The Collected Jack Kirby Collector, vol. 3,TwoMorrows Publishing, p. 40,ISBN1893905020
^"Generally Speaking".The Comics Journal (107): 37. April 1986.ISSN0194-7869.
^Sabin, Roger (2001).Comics, comix & graphic novels (Repr. ed.). London: Phaidon. pp. 110, 134 & 150.ISBN978-0-71483-993-6.
^[interviews] byRoy Thomas & Jim Amash; introduction byStan Lee (2007).John Romita --and all that jazz!. Raleigh, N.C.: TwoMorrows Pub. p. 155.ISBN978-1893905757.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^"The Rick Veitch Interview".The Comics Journal. Fantagraphics Press. May 24, 2013.Archived from the original on August 25, 2013. RetrievedMay 31, 2018. Originally published inThe Comics Journal #175 (March 1995)
^Crowder, Craig (2010). "Kirby, Jack". In Booker, M. Keith (ed.).Encyclopedia of Comic Books and Graphic Novels. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. p. 353.
^Mendryk, Harry (September 3, 2011)."Evolution of Kirby Krackle". Jack Kirby Museum: "Simon and Kirby".Archived from the original on June 4, 2012. RetrievedApril 30, 2015.
^Nama, Adilifu (2011).Super Black: American Pop Culture and Black Superheroes. University of Texas Press. p. 48.ISBN978-0-29274-252-9.
^Duncan, Randy; Smith, Matthew J., eds. (2013).Icons of the American comic book : from Captain America to Wonder Woman. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood. p. 368.ISBN978-0313399237.
^Morrow, John, ed. (2004), "Walt Simonson Interviewed",The Collected Jack Kirby Collector, vol. 3,TwoMorrows Publishing, p. 112,ISBN1893905020,... it's so powerful in pencil, it's really hard to ink it and really retain the full flavour of the pencils. I think a lot of really good inkers have not been able to do that
^Morrow, John, ed. (2004), "Chic Stone Speaks",The Collected Jack Kirby Collector, vol. 3,TwoMorrows Publishing, p. 90,ISBN1893905020,I was totally awestruck by the magnificent penciling ... no one inker could improve on Jack's penciling
^abMarvel Worldwide, Inc., Marvel Characters, Inc. and MVL Rights, LLC, against Lisa R. Kirby, Barbara J. Kirby, Neal L. Kirby and Susan M. Kirby, 777 F.Supp.2d 720 (S.D.N.Y. 2011).
^"Marvel Comics".Box Office Mojo.Archived from the original on July 14, 2019. RetrievedJune 9, 2018. Excludes movies starring Blade, Daredevil, Deadpool, Doctor Strange, Elektra, Ghost Rider, Guardians of the Galaxy, Howard the Duck, the Punisher, and Wolverine solo.
^Lente, Fred Van; Skillman, Crystal (July 31, 2014).King Kirby: A Play by Crystal Skillman and Fred Van Lente. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.ISBN978-1-49928-849-0.
^ab"1967 Alley Awards". Hahn Library Comic Book Awards Almanac.Archived from the original on July 25, 2014. RetrievedAugust 10, 2010.
^"1963 Alley Awards". Hahn Library Comic Book Awards Almanac.Archived from the original on July 25, 2014. RetrievedAugust 10, 2010.
^"1964 Alley Awards". Hahn Library Comic Book Awards Almanac.Archived from the original on July 25, 2014. RetrievedAugust 10, 2010.
^"1965 Alley Awards". Hahn Library Comic Book Awards Almanac.Archived from the original on July 10, 2014. RetrievedAugust 10, 2010.
^"1966 Alley Awards". Hahn Library Comic Book Awards Almanac.Archived from the original on July 25, 2014. RetrievedAugust 10, 2010.
^ab"1968 Alley Awards". Hahn Library Comic Book Awards Almanac. Archived fromthe original on July 25, 2014. RetrievedAugust 10, 2010.Mark Hanerfeld originally listedNick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. as the winner, but then discovered he had counted separately votes for 'Fantastic Four by Jack Kirby' (42 votes), 'Fantastic Four by Stan Lee', and 'Fantastic Four by Jack Kirby & Stan Lee', which would have givenFantastic Four a total of more than 45 votes and thus the victory.
Hatfield, Charles (2012).Hand of Fire: The Comics Art of Jack Kirby. University Press of Mississippi.ISBN978-1-61703-178-6.
Hatfield, Charles; Saunders, Brian, eds. (September 2015).Comic Book Apocalypse: The Graphic World of Jack Kirby : [this catalogue was published in conjunction with "Comic Book Apocalypse: The Graphic World of Jack Kirby", an exhibition organized by California State University, Northridge, With contributions by various essayists]. Northridge, California: IDW Publishing & California State University, Northridge.ISBN978-1-63140-542-6.
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