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Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg; August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) was an American comic book artist, widely regarded as one of the medium's major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators.
Giacoia helped him out by inking King Masters, a detective strip with a setting in the world of jazz music. Years before, Jack had been asked to succeed the late Alex Raymond on another detective strip, Rip Kirby, but the post went to an artist on the Simon-Kirby staff, John Prentice.
- Jack Kirby’s Childhood in The Lower East Side Inspired Many of His characters.
- Jack Kirby Wrote Under A Variety of Pseudonyms For Different genres.
- Jack Kirby Helped to Popularize Golden-Age Romance Comics.
- Jack Kirby Put A Lot of Himself Into The Thing from The Fantastic Four.
- The “Kirby Krackle” Became One of Jack Kirby's Signature Artistic Elements.
- Jack Kirby Originally Had A Different Name in Mind For Black Panther.
- There Was A Short-Lived “Kirbyverse” Based on Original Jack Kirby characters.
- Jack Kirby’s Relationship with Marvel Turned Contentious
- Some of Jack Kirby’s Previously Unpublished Drawings Were Released posthumously.
Kirby grew up on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the turf of the notorious gangster Charles “Lucky” Luciano, also known as the father of modern organized crime in the United States. Witnessing fights amongst his peers and friends, and even getting involved in some brawls himself, Kirby’s time on the streets later seeped into many of his comics. He wen...
Although Kirby is best known for his superhero comics, he also wrote across a variety of genres under a number of different names. These pseudonyms included Fred Sande (Western, such as Wilton of the West), Ted Grey (humor, such as Abdul Jones), and Curt Davis (science fiction, such as The Diary of Dr. Hayward).
Before he helped jumpstart the Marvel Universe, Jack Kirby was a prolific romance comic artist in the '40s and '50s, having co-created series like Young Love and Young Romance, which is regarded as one of the first books in the genre. These titles were overwhelmingly popular at the time, even more so than superhero books, and would routinely sell m...
When creating the Thing from The Fantastic Four, Jack Kirby drew upon many of his own experiences and mannerisms. For one, they both grew up Jewish on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Kirby also talked about how he saw the Thing as a certain reflection of himself on the page, embodying Grimm’s gruff-but-lovable spirit. “If you’ll notice the way the Thi...
In addition to taking advantage of double-page spreads and eye-popping splash pages, Kirby was known for being an innovator of many illustration techniques, including the use of collages and incredibly complex technical sci-fi drawings. However, one of his most unique artistic flourishes was the “Kirby Krackle” (or “Kirby Dots”), a stylistic conven...
Within the landscape of mid-century comics consisting primarily of white characters, Kirby championed more diverse comics with a robust representation of various races. To this end, Kirby sketched a new character named Coal Tiger, a Black superhero decked out in a colorful costume. The concept was reworked before it was ever published and eventuall...
Published between 1993 and 1994, the “Kirbyverse” was a comics line released by Topps Comics that consisted of drafts of stories and previously unpublished characters that were never fully realized by Kirby. While the issues themselves used Kirby's art on some covers, the interior art was mostly done by a number of comic veterans like Spider-Man co...
While Jack Kirby created some of the world's most popular comic characters, it wasn't the financial windfall you'd assume, due to Marvel's claims that all of his work was “for hire” and thus he did not have the right to terminate the company's copyrights. Kirby worked for decades without royalties, health insurance, or possession of his original ar...
In 2006, Marvel published Jack Kirby's Galactic Bounty Hunters, a six-issue miniseries based on one of Kirby’s unfinished stories and concepts. Kirby’s daughter, Lisa Kirby, was co-writer with Steve Robertson, while Mike Thibodeaux provided the art. The coversto most of the issues were all unpublished Jack Kirby originals. In 2008, Marvel also publ...
- Olivia Popp
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May 1, 2024 · Jack Kirby (born August 28, 1917, New York, New York, U.S.—died February 6, 1994, Thousand Oaks, California) was an American comic book artist who helped create hundreds of original characters, including Captain America, the Incredible Hulk, and the Fantastic Four.
The Expo features original art from dealers, artists and collectors with guest comic artists. We will be set up with T-Shirts, prints and more for sale. Help us add to our Digital Archive – Bring your Jack Kirby original art!
A comic book artist who began working during the Golden Age of comic books and continued into the 1990s, Jack Kirby (1917-1994) created or co-created hundreds of characters, including many of today's best known superheroes.
Jack Kirby designed countless characters and locales, and being a comic book artist, drew thousands and thousands of drawings to tell his stories. As a pre-eminent visual storyteller of the last century, he would certainly have appreciated being included in the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame. Randolph Hoppe.
