Jack Kirby
August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994
Related pages Marvel Comics
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby The Wonder Years, TwoMorrows Publishing, 128 Pages amazon.com
Marvel Comics Encyclopedia - 400 Pages, amazon.com
Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book - 320 Pages. By Josh Raphael and Tom Spurgeon at amazon.com
Ronin Ro biography of Jack Kirby - 304 Pages at amazon.com
Kirby King of Comics by Mark Evanier, Neil Gaiman introduction amazon.com
Short BIo of Jack Kirby
One of the most famous comic book artists of the 20th century, Jacob Kurtzberg was born in New York City to Austrian Jewish immigrants, and he spent the majority of his childhood on Suffolk Street, always interested in art and seeking out ways to learn about it. Some of how Kirby remembered his childhood is depicted in the penciled comic book story "Street Code" which was published by Twomorrows Publishing in the anthology collection Streetwise.
Kirby used the name "Jack Curtiss" in his first comic book efforts during the 1930s as a teenager. He had also worked for the Fleischer Studios in animation film for awhile, and had drawn images for various New York City area publications. He was finally working at Fox Feature Syndicate in 1942, drawing the hero book "Blue Bolt," and from there he went to Timely Comics and was soon drawing Captain America, a character he co-created with writer and artist Joe Simon. The contract on Captain America gave Kirby a 15% stake in profits for the character through Timely Comics owner Martin Goodman.
With the second world war underway, Kirby and SImon generated a years worth of Captain America and other material for Goodman in anticipation of being drafted into the United State military. Kirby finally went into the army at the end of 1942, after marrying "Roz" Goldstein. Kirby was released from the service after hospitalization for frostbite which he received from his combat duty in europe. Kirby was discharged as Private First Class on July 20, 1945, having received a Combat Infantryman Badge and a European/African/Middle Eastern Theater ribbon with a bronze battle star.
Kirby and Simon teamed again to produce material for Harvey Comics, Crestwood and Hillman Publications, working on children's comics, "kid gang" books and then finally their biggest success, "romance" comics which Simon and Kirby had negotiated a 50% share in profits for the flagship title "Young Romance," the sales volume was enough to allow Kirby to purchase a home for his growing family, which now included three children.
At the same time, Timely relaunched Captain America, and Simon and Kirby countered with "Fighting American" which originally was played as a straight hero book, but then began to include satire following the uproar over the anti-communist "witch hunts" of the 1950s and particularly the career of Senator Joe McCarthy.
At about this time Kirby and Simon began to disagree on projects for their partnership (and a comics company they began together called "Mainline Comics"), and following a financial battle with Crestwood over $130,000 in unpaid monies, the pair split up.
Freelancing, Kirby then started a 600 plus-page run at National Periodicals (DC Comics) but after a multitude of disagreements with various DC Comics editors and fellow-artists/writers, Kirby went to Atlas Comics, then edited by Stan Lee, nephew of Martin Goodman of Timely Comics. Kirby continued to contribute some work to DC Comics, but finally settled in at Atlas which had begun the transformation into Marvel Comics. Kirby's work on monster titles like Tales to Astonish were selling particularly well, and Kirby and Stan Lee took the concept and expanded it into superhero books with Fantastic Four #1, in 1961.
This comic book, and its sales success, prompted Kirby to create dozens of additional characters and in effect create a theme for all of the Marvel comics throughout the 1960s, attenuated by Stan Lee who was both editor-and-chief and a principal writer. The success of the company, and fighting over ownership of Captain America (litigation prompted by Joe Simon filing a copyright renewal on the character in his own name in 1969) combined into a legal and personal chasm between Kirby and Martin Goodman, Marvel's owner.
In 1970 Kirby signed a three-year contract with DC Comics and discontinued his Marvel work. At DC he created a series of various books under the rubric of "The Fourth World" which touched upon an expanded view of superhero existence into a kind of galactic mythology of super powered deities. Though not particularly successful from a sales point of view, the books have been imitated and strongly contributed to the "superhero mythos" ideas that abound in later 20th century and now 21st century superhero comics.
In 1976, Kirby was back at Marvel, but was still rankling over financial fights in which he sought either compensation or ownership over characters he had created in the 1950s and 60s. By the 1980s, Kirby was again freelancing and did work for various publishers, but specializing in animation design which he was doing from his California home, having left New York City with his family to escape the winter weather.
He continued to agitate, by various means and with the support of friends, for acknowledgement of his seminal comics work and for legal ownership of characters he has created in the past.
Kirby died of heart failure on February 6, 1994, at the age of 76.
Iron Man's first appearance - 1963 Kirby/Don Heck
Art by Jack Kirby and Don Heck (inks) for Tales of Suspense #39, March 1963 issue - see enlarged.
Related:
The Further Adventures of Marvel Comics
Jack Kirby
Fantastic Four #1, 1961, Jack Kirby Cover
Fantastic Four #1, Jack Kirby page
Giant-Size Conan, 1975, Kirby cover with Elric
Tales of Suspense #39, March 1963, Jack Kirby and Don Heck Art
Kamandi #9, Sept 1973, The Murdering Misfit Splash Page
Captain America's Shorts - Jack Kirby Art
Joe Simon and Jack Kirby Superhero Book
August 2011
Steve Bissette calls for Marvel boycott
over their treatment of Jack Kirby
From Heidi McDonald's Comics Beat
Quoted below:
* I don’t question the legal logic Marvel’s attorneys made, and the court decision reflects. However, nothing is being said about the conditions under which Kirby signed, and was pressured to sign, the contracts presented. I don’t think “extortion” is too unfair a word to use, particularly in the very public case of the Marvel artwork “return” contracts.
That is a moral issue here, and Marvel’s pattern of decades of effectively slandering, maligning, and dimissing Kirby and his legacy is, too.
* If, in the 1970s, Neal Adams and Jerry Robinson hadn’t rallied around Siegel & Shuster, who had multiple signed settlement contracts with National Periodicals to wield against them, agreements they had signed over their lifetimes (agreements they and their legal reps—like Albert Zugsmith—had negotiated), nothing would have changed.
Adams and Robinson brought to the public the moral case, the moral outrage, over the treatment of the creators of Superman.
At that time, the legal matters were considered “settled.”
C’mon, folks: Jack changed a century, the medium, the industry, our lives, and Marvel.
Let’s change how the rest of this onfolding story goes.
* The very public pattern of undercutting Kirby’s legacy as a co-creator of properties of great value to Marvel Comics (see Stan Lee’s and Martin Goodman’s revisionism on Captain America) dates back to 1947, and the first edition of Stan Lee’s “The Secrets of Comics” pamphlet.
Aug 2, 2010
Jack Kirby Family loses legal case against Disney/Marvel
The judge cited the 'work for hire' laws in play at the time of Kirby's employment at Timely/Marvel, also the 1909 Copyright laws which controlled the legal landscape of the time in question (these laws have since been overhauled several times. For more on this, see this page on the Superman Copyright Wars involving the Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's family fight with Warner Bros/DC Comics).
There seems to be a remarkable symettry between the Superman case that has been fought and refought for decades, and the plight of the Kirby heirs (in fact, the same attorney team under Marc Toberoff is working for both family groups). Toberoff is appealing the decision.
At stake are the ownership of Captain America, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, The Avengers, Iron Man, Hulk, The Silver Surfer and Thor, along with a number of other characters making the entire list estimated at over three-dozen (I haven't seen a complete list).
Marvel/Disney had filed against the Kirby family in January 8, 2010 (defendants: Lisa R. Kirby, Barbara J. Kirby, Neal L. Kirby and Susan N. Kirby).
Many names of Comic Book history were drawn into this case. Take a look at thisdocket entry from August 16, 2011:
"CLERK'S JUDGMENT That for the reasons stated in the Court's Memorandum Opinion and Order dated July 28, 2011, Plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment is granted; defendants' cross-motion for summary judgment is denied; plaintiffs' motion to strike the expert reports of Mark Evanier and John Morrow are granted; plaintiffs' motion to strike the declarations of Sinnitt and Steranko are denied, and judgment is entered is favor of plaintiffs'; accordingly, the case is closed. (Signed by Clerk of Court Ruby Krajick on 8/8/11) (Attachments: # 1 Notice of Right to Appeal)"
And this one from March 26, 2011:
"DECLARATION of Gene Colan in Opposition re: 60 MOTION for Summary Judgment.. Document filed by Barbara J. Kirby, Lisa R. Kirby, Neal L. Kirby, Susan N. Kirby. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit A (Filed Under Seal), # 2 Exhibit B (Filed Under Seal), # 3 Exhibit C (Filed Under Seal), # 4 Exhibit D (Filed Under Seal))(Toberoff, Marc)"
Evanier's exhbiits on behalf of the Kirby's in interesting stuff. here for example is Evanier discussing Jack Kirby's refusal to sign the four-page release forms Marvel gave him in order to release his original artwork back to him:
DECLARATION of Mark Evanier
July 2010
Disney joins Marvel in fight against Kirby estate claims
CBR reports that Walt Disney is throwing their legal team into the fight against the copyright claims made by the Jack Kirby estate:
"The Walt Disney Co. has waded into the legal battle over many of Marvel's best-known characters, filing a memo in support of the publisher's efforts to dismiss copyright claims by the heirs of Jack Kirby.
Marvel sued the Kirby children in January, seeking to invalidate notices sent almost four months earlier to terminate copyrights to such characters as the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Thor, the Incredible Hulk, the X-Men, Iron Man and Spider-Man. The Kirby family responded in March by suing Marvel and its new parent company Disney."
Vaguely related: Jack Kirby Captain America mens shorts, and Disney Co buys up Marvel Comics
March 2008
Jack Kirby 4th World Omnibus
"I have heard the word - - it is Battle!" (page 108)
March 2008
New Jack Kirby book from
Art Book Publisher Abrams
Kirby: King of Comics
Abrams Publishers
224 Pages
by Mark Evanier (Author), Neil Gaiman (Introduction)
$40 list price; approx $26 from amazon.com
This is a nice, large "coffee table" style art book full of Kirby artwork, a biography by Evanier, and a general plug for Kirby and his status as major pop-culture influence proposed by famous writer Neil Gaiman.
Very nice binding and printing job, superior to the "Omnibus" Kirby books that have been coming out over the last year or so.
if you like Kirby, then you already know you'll like this book. If not, seeing his labors splashed large might not make any difference. Kirby's impatience with anatomy, details of storytelling is as evident as ever. But Kirby's grand scope, his ideas and his ability to make any shaped panel or page work as a window into a violent, cathartic super-world is on display. As almost all Kirby literature is, the book is part history, and also part tribute.
There's nothing like real analysis of Kirby as an artist here; only as a cultural force and as an inspiration to other people within and without the comics industry. There is also a biography of his life.
Cover to the Abrams Kirby Art Book:
