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Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby, 1993
Born	Jacob Kurtzberg (1917-08-28)August 28, 1917 New York City, New York, United States
Died	February 6, 1994(1994-02-06) (aged 76) Thousand Oaks, California, United States
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Writer Penciller Artist Inker Editor
Pseudonym(s)	Jack Curtiss Curt Davis Lance Kirby Ted Grey Charles Nicholas Fred Sande Teddy
Notable works	Captain America Fantastic Four Fourth World Hulk Kamandi Manhunter Newsboy Legion Thor Young Romance X-Men
Awards	Alley Award, Best Pencil Artist (1967), plus many awards for individual stories, Shazam Award, Special Achievement by an Individual (1971)
Spouse(s)	Roz Goldstein

Jack Kirby (August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994), born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium.

Kirby grew up poor 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 and drew various comics features under different pen names, including Jack Curtiss, ultimately settling on Jack Kirby. In 1940, he and writer-editor Joe Simon created the highly successful superhero character Captain America for Timely Comics, predecessor of Marvel Comics. During the 1940s, Kirby, generally teamed with Simon, created numerous characters for that company and for National Comics, the company that later became DC Comics.

After serving in World War II, Kirby returned to comics and worked in a variety of genres. He produced work for a number of publishers, including DC, Harvey Comics, Hillman Periodicals and Crestwood Publications, where he and Simon created the genre of romance comics. He and Simon also launched their own short-lived comic company, Mainline Publications. Kirby ultimately found himself at Timely's 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics, soon to become Marvel. There, in the 1960s, he and writer-editor Stan Lee co-created many of Marvel's major characters, including the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the Hulk. Despite the high sales and critical acclaim of the Lee-Kirby titles, however, Kirby felt treated unfairly, and left the company in 1970 for rival DC.

There Kirby created his Fourth World saga, which spanned several comics titles. While these series proved commercially unsuccessful and were canceled, the Fourth World's New Gods have continued as a significant part of the DC Universe. Kirby returned to Marvel briefly in the mid-to-late 1970s, then ventured into television animation and independent comics. In his later years, Kirby, who has been called "the William Blake of comics", began receiving great recognition in the mainstream press for his career accomplishments, and in 1987 he was one of the three inaugural inductees of the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.

Kirby was married to Rosalind "Roz" Goldstein in 1942. They had four children, and remained married until his death from heart failure in 1994, at the age of 76. The Jack Kirby Awards and Jack Kirby Hall of Fame were named in his honor.

Life and career

Early life (1917–1935)

Jack Kirby was born Jacob Kurtzberg on August 28, 1917, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City, where he was raised. His parents, Rose and Benjamin Kurtzberg, were Austrian Jewish immigrants, and his father earned a living as a garment factory worker. In his youth, Kirby desired to escape his neighborhood. He liked to draw, and sought out places he could learn more about art. Essentially self-taught, Kirby cited among his influences the comic strip artists Milton Caniff, Hal Foster, and Alex Raymond, as well as such editorial cartoonists as C. H. Sykes, "Ding" Darling, and Rollin Kirby. He was rejected by the 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.

At age 14, Kirby enrolled at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, 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".

Entry into comics (1936–1940)

Kirby joined the Lincoln Newspaper Syndicate in 1936, working there on newspaper comic strips and on single-panel advice cartoons such as Your Health Comes First!!! (under the pseudonym Jack Curtiss). He remained until late 1939, when he began working for the movie animation company Fleischer Studios as an inbetweener (an artist who fills in the action between major-movement frames) on Popeye cartoons. "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."

Around that time, the American comic book industry was booming. Kirby began writing and drawing for the comic-book packager Eisner & Iger, one of a handful of firms creating comics on demand for publishers. Through that company, Kirby did what he remembers as his first comic book work, for Wild Boy Magazine. This included such strips as the science fiction adventure "The Diary of Dr. Hayward" (under the pseudonym Curt Davis), the Western crimefighter feature "Wilton of the West" (as Fred Sande), the swashbuckler adventure "The Count of Monte Cristo" (again as Jack Curtiss), and the humor features "Abdul Jones" (as Ted Grey) and '"Socko the Seadog" (as Teddy), all variously for Jumbo Comics and other Eisner-Iger clients. He first used the surname Kirby as the pseudonymous Lance Kirby in two "Lone Rider" Western stories in Eastman Color's Famous Funnies #63-64 (Oct.-Nov. 1939). He ultimately settled on the pen name Jack Kirby because it reminded him of actor James Cagney. However, he took offense to those who suggested he changed his name in order to hide his Jewish heritage.

In the summer of 1940, Kirby and his family moved to Brooklyn. There, Kirby met Rosalind "Roz" Goldstein, who lived in the same apartment building. The pair began dating soon afterward. Kirby proposed to Goldstein on her eighteenth birthday, and the two became engaged.

Partnership with Joe Simon

Kirby moved on to comic-book publisher and newspaper syndicator Fox Feature Syndicate, earning a then-reasonable $15-a-week salary. He began to explore superhero narrative with the comic strip The Blue Beetle, published from January to March 1940, starring a character created by the pseudonymous Charles Nicholas, a house name that Kirby retained for the three-month-long strip. During this time, Kirby met and began collaborating with cartoonist and Fox editor Joe 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 of Blue Bolt through... about 25 years."

After leaving Fox and landing at pulp magazine publisher Martin Goodman's Timely Comics (later to become Marvel Comics), Simon and Kirby created the patriotic superhero Captain America in late 1940. Simon cut a deal with Goodman that gave him and Kirby 25 percent of the profits from the feature, as well as salaried positions as the company's editor and art director, respectively. The first issue of Captain America Comics, released in early 1941, 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. After the first issue was published, Simon asked Kirby to join the Timely staff as the company's art director.

With the success of the Captain America character, Simon felt that Goodman was not paying the pair the promised percentage of profits, and so sought work for the two of them at National Comics (later renamed DC Comics). 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. Fearing that Goodman would not pay them if he found out they were moving to National, the pair kept the deal a secret with Stan Lee while they continued producing work for the company. Goodman eventually learned of the deal, and Kirby and Simon, convinced that Lee had revealed their plans, left after completing their work on Captain America Comics #10.

Kirby and Simon spent their first weeks at National trying to devise new characters while the company sought how best to utilize the pair. After a few failed editor-assigned ghosting assignments, National's Jack Liebowitz told them to "just do what you want". The pair then revamped the Sandman feature in Adventure Comics and created the superhero Manhunter. In July 1942 they began the Boy 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. It sold over a million copies a month, becoming National's third best-selling title. They also scored a hit with the homefront kid-gang team, the Newsboy Legion, featuring in Star-Spangled Comics.

Marriage and World War II (1943–1945)

Kirby married Roz Goldstein on May 23, 1942.

With World War II underway, Liebowitz expected that Simon and Kirby would be drafted, 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. Kirby was drafted into the U.S. Army on June 7, 1943. After basic training at Camp Stewart, near Savannah, Georgia, he was assigned to Company F of the 11th Infantry Regiment. He landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy on August 23, 1944, two-and-a-half months after D-Day, though Kirby's reminiscences would place his arrival just 10 days after. Kirby recalled that a lieutenant, learning that comics artist Kirby was in his command, made him a scout who would advance into towns and draw reconnaissance maps and pictures, an extremely dangerous duty.

Kirby and his wife corresponded regularly by v-mail, with Roz sending "him a letter a day" while she worked in a lingerie shop and lived with her mother at 2820 Brighton 7th Street in Brooklyn. During the winter of 1944, Kirby suffered severe frostbite on his lower extremities and was taken to a hospital in London, England, for recovery. Doctors considered amputating Kirby's legs, but he eventually recovered from the frostbite. He returned to the United States in January 1945, assigned to Camp Butner in North Carolina, where he spent the last six months of his service as part of the motor pool. Kirby was honorably discharged as a 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.

Postwar career (1946–1955)

Simon arranged for work for Kirby and himself at Harvey Comics, where, through the early 1950s, the duo created such titles as the kid-gang adventure Boy Explorers Comics, the kid-gang Western Boys' Ranch, the superhero comic Stuntman, and, in vogue with the fad for 3-D movies, Captain 3-D. Simon and Kirby additionally freelanced for Hillman Periodicals (the crime fiction comic Real Clue Crime) and for Crestwood Publications (Justice Traps The Guilty).

The team found its greatest success in the postwar period by creating romance comics. Simon, inspired by Macfadden Publications' romantic-confession magazine True Story, transplanted the idea to comic books and with Kirby created a first-issue mock-up of Young Romance. 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, stipulating that the creators would take no money up front. Young Romance #1 (cover-date Oct. 1947) "became Jack and Joe's biggest hit in years". Indeed, the pioneering 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. Initially published bimonthly, Young Romance quickly became a monthly title and produced the spin-off Young Love—together the two titles sold two million copies per month, according to Simon—later joined by Young Brides and In Love, the latter "featuring full-length romance stories". Young Romance spawned dozens of imitators from publishers such as Timely, Fawcett, Quality, and Fox Feature Syndicate. Despite the glut, the Simon & Kirby romance titles continued to sell millions of copies a month, which allowed Kirby to buy a house for his family in Mineola, Long Island, New York in 1949, which would be the family's home for the next 20 years, working out of a basement studio 10 feet in width, which the family referred to as "The Dungeon".

Bitter that Timely Comics' 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics, had relaunched Captain America in a new series in 1954, Kirby and Simon created Fighting American. Simon recalled, "We thought we'd show them how to do Captain America". While the comic book initially portrayed the protagonist as an anti-Communist dramatic hero, Simon and Kirby turned the series into a superhero satire with the second issue, in the aftermath of the Army-McCarthy hearings and the public backlash against the Red-baiting U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy.

After Simon (1956–1957)

At the urging of a Crestwood salesman, Kirby and Simon launched their own comics company, Mainline Publications, securing a distribution deal with Leader News in late 1953 or early 1954, subletting space from their friend Al Harvey's Harvey Publications at 1860 Broadway. Mainline, which existed from 1954 to 1955, published four titles: the Western Bullseye: Western Scout; the war comic Foxhole, since EC Comics and Atlas Comics were having success with war comics, but promoting theirs as being written and drawn by actual veterans; In Love, since their earlier romance comic Young Love was still being widely imitated; and the crime comic Police Trap, which claimed to be based on genuine accounts by law-enforcement officials. After the duo rearranged and republished artwork from an old Crestwood story in In Love, Crestwood refused to pay the team, who sought an audit of Crestwood's finances. Upon review, the pair's attorney's 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. However, the partnership between Kirby and Simon had become strained. 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."

At this point in the mid-1950s, Kirby made a temporary return to the former Timely Comics, now known as Atlas Comics, the direct predecessor of Marvel Comics. Inker Frank Giacoia had approached editor-in-chief Stan Lee for work and suggested he could "get Kirby back here to pencil some stuff." While also freelancing for National Comics, the future DC Comics, Kirby drew 20 stories for Atlas from 1956 to 1957: Beginning with the five-page "Mine Field" in Battleground #14 (Nov.1956), Kirby penciled and in some cases also inked (with his wife, Roz) and wrote stories of the Western hero Black Rider, the Fu Manchu-like Yellow Claw, and more. 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. It would be the following year before Kirby returned to the nascent Marvel.

For DC around this time, Kirby co-created with writers Dick and Dave Wood the non-superpowered adventuring quartet the Challengers of the Unknown in Showcase #6 (Feb. 1957), while also contributing to such anthologies as House of Mystery. During 30 months freelancing for DC, Kirby drew slightly more than 600 pages, which included 11 six-page Green Arrow stories in World's Finest Comics and Adventure Comics that, in a rarity, Kirby inked himself. 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-creator Mort Weisinger.

He also began drawing a newspaper comic strip, Sky Masters of the Space Force, written by the Wood brothers and initially inked by the unrelated Wally Wood. Kirby left National Comics due largely to a contractual dispute in which editor Jack Schiff, who had been involved in getting Kirby and the Wood brothers the Sky Masters contract, claimed he was due royalties from Kirby's share of the strip's profits. Schiff successfully sued Kirby. Some DC editors also 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."

Marvel Comics in the Silver Age (1958–1970)

Several months later, after his split with DC, Kirby began freelancing regularly for Atlas in spite of his lingering resentment of Lieber's earlier treatment of him in the 1940s. Because of the poor page rates, Kirby would spend 12 to 14 hours daily at his drawing table at home, producing eight to ten pages of artwork a day. His first published work at Atlas was the cover of and the seven-page story "I Discovered the Secret of the Flying Saucers" in Strange Worlds #1 (Dec. 1958). Initially with Christopher Rule as his regular inker, and later Dick Ayers, Kirby drew across all genres, from romance comics to war comics to crime comics to Westerns, but made his mark primarily with a series of supernatural-fantasy and science fiction stories featuring giant, drive-in movie-style monsters with names like Groot, the Thing from Planet X; Grottu, King of the Insects; and Fin Fang Foom for the company's many anthology series, such as Amazing Adventures, Strange Tales, Tales to Astonish, Tales of Suspense, and World of Fantasy. His bizarre designs of powerful, unearthly creatures proved a hit with readers. Additionally, he also freelanced for Archie Comics' around this time, reuniting briefly with Joe Simon to help develop the series The Fly and The Double Life of Private Strong. Additionally, Kirby drew some issues of Classics Illustrated.

It was at Marvel, however, with writer and editor-in-chief Lee, that Kirby hit his stride once again in superhero comics, beginning with The Fantastic Four #1 (Nov. 1961). The landmark series became a hit that revolutionized the industry with its comparative naturalism and, eventually, a cosmic purview informed by Kirby's seemingly boundless imagination—one well-matched with the consciousness-expanding youth culture of the 1960s.

For almost a decade, Kirby provided Marvel's house style, co-creating with Stan Lee many of the Marvel characters and designing their visual motifs. At Lee'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 artist Gil 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 ... Jack and use 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.

Highlights other than the Fantastic Four include: Thor, the Hulk, Iron Man, the original X-Men, the Silver Surfer, Doctor Doom, Galactus, Uatu the Watcher, Magneto, Ego the Living Planet, the Inhumans and their hidden city of Attilan, and the Black Panther—comics' first known black superhero—and his African nation of Wakanda. Simon and Kirby's Captain America was also incorporated into Marvel's continuity with Kirby approving Lee's idea of partially remaking the character as a man out of his time and regretting the death of his sidekick.

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.

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 Dots", and other experiments. Yet he grew increasingly dissatisfied with working at Marvel. There have been a number of reasons given for this dissatisfaction, including resentment over Stan Lee's increasing 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. He began to both script and draw some secondary features for Marvel, such as "The Inhumans" in Amazing Adventures, as well as horror stories for the anthology title Chamber of Darkness, and received full credit for doing so; but in 1970, Kirby was presented with a contract that included such unfavorable terms as a prohibition against legal retaliation. When Kirby objected, the management refused to negotiate any contract changes. Kirby, although he was earning $35,000 a year freelancing for the company, subsequently left Marvel in 1970 for rival DC Comics, under editorial director Carmine Infantino.

DC Comics and the Fourth World saga (1971–1975)

Kirby spent nearly two years negotiating a deal to move to DC Comics, where in late 1970 he signed a three-year contract with an option for two additional years. He produced a series of interlinked titles under the blanket sobriquet "The Fourth World", which included a trilogy of new titles — New Gods, Mister Miracle, and The Forever People — as well as the extant Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen. Kirby picked the latter book because the series was without a stable creative team and he did not want to cost anyone a job. The central villain of the Fourth World series, Darkseid, and some of the Fourth World concepts, appeared in Jimmy 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 by Al Plastino, and later by Murphy Anderson. In 2007, comics writer Grant 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."

An attempt at creating new formats for comics produced the one-shot black-and-white magazines Spirit World and In the Days of the Mob in 1971.

Kirby later produced other DC features such as OMAC, Kamandi, The Demon, "The Losers", "Dingbats of Danger Street", Kobra and, together with former partner Joe Simon for one last time, a new incarnation of the Sandman.

Kirby's production assistant of the time, Mark Evanier, recounted that DC's policies of the era were not in synch with Kirby's creative impulses, and that he was often forced to work on characters and projects that he did not want to work on.

Return to Marvel (1976–1978)

At the comic book convention Marvelcon '75, in spring 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", that, "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."

Back at Marvel, Kirby both wrote and drew the monthly Captain America series as well as the Captain America's Bicentennial Battles one-shot in the oversized treasury format. He created the series The Eternals, which featured a race of inscrutable alien giants, the Celestials, whose behind-the-scenes intervention in primordial humanity would eventually become a core element of Marvel Universe continuity. Kirby's other Marvel creations in this period include Devil Dinosaur, Machine Man, and an adaptation and expansion of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as an abortive attempt to do the same for the classic television series, The Prisoner. He also wrote and drew Black Panther and drew numerous covers across the line.

Film and animation (1979–1980)

Still dissatisfied with Marvel's treatment of him, and with the company's refusal to provide health and other employment benefits, Kirby left Marvel to work in animation. In that field, he did designs for Turbo Teen, Thundarr the Barbarian and other animated television series. He also worked on The Fantastic Four cartoon show, reuniting him with scriptwriter Stan Lee. He illustrated an adaptation of the Walt Disney movie The Black Hole for Walt Disney’s Treasury of Classic Tales syndicated comic strip in 1979-80.

In 1979, Kirby drew concept art for film producer Barry Geller's script treatment adapting Roger 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 also be used as architectural renderings for a Colorado theme park to be called Science Fiction Land; Geller announced his plans at a November press conference attended by Kirby, former NFL American football star Rosey Grier, writer Ray Bradbury, and others. While the film did not come to fruition, Kirby's drawings were used for the CIA's "Canadian caper", in which some members of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran, who had avoided capture in the Iran hostage crisis, were able to escape the country posing as members of a movie location-scouting crew.

Final years and death (1981–1994)

In the early 1980s, Pacific Comics, a new, non-newsstand comic book publisher, made a then-groundbreaking deal with Kirby to publish a creator-owned series, Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers, and the six-issue miniseries Silver Star, which was collected in hardcover format in 2007. This, together with similar actions by other independent comics publishers as Eclipse Comics (where Kirby co-created Destroyer Duck in a benefit comic-book series published to help Steve Gerber fight a legal case versus Marvel), 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.

Though estranged from Marvel, 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 1985 Super Powers miniseries and the 1985 graphic novel The Hunger Dogs. In 1987, under pressure from comics creators and the fan community, Marvel finally returned approximately 1,900 or 2,100 pages of the estimated 10,000 to 13,000 Kirby drew for the company.

Kirby also retained ownership of characters used by Topps Comics beginning in 1993, for a set of series in what the company dubbed "The Kirbyverse". These titles were derived mainly from designs and concepts that Kirby had kept in his files, some intended initially for the by-then-defunct Pacific Comics, and then licensed to Topps for what would become the "Jack Kirby's Secret City Saga" mythos. Marvel posthumously published a "lost" Kirby/Lee Fantastic Four story, Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure (April 2008), with unused pages Kirby had originally drawn for a story that was partially published in Fantastic Four #108 (March 1971).

On February 6, 1994, Kirby died at age 76 of heart failure in his Thousand Oaks, California home. He was buried at the Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park, Westlake Village, California.

Personal life

Kirby and his wife Roz, who married in 1942, had four children. Susan was born December 6, 1945, followed by Neal in May 1948 and their third child, Barbara, in November 1952. They also had another daughter, Lisa.

Kirby's estate

Lisa Kirby announced in early 2006 that she and co-writer Steve Robertson, with artist Mike Thibodeaux, planned to publish via the Marvel Comics Icon imprint a six-issue limited series, Jack Kirby’s Galactic Bounty Hunters, featuring characters and concepts created by her father for Captain Victory. The series, scripted by Lisa Kirby, Robertson, Thibodeaux, and Richard French, with pencil art by Jack Kirby and Thibodeaux, and inking by Scott Hanna and Karl Kesel primarily, ran an initial five issues (Sept. 2006 - Jan. 2007) and then a later final issue (Sept. 2007). The series was collected in hardcover (ISBN 978-0-7851-2628-7) in 2007, and in trade paperback (ISBN 978-0-7851-2629-4) the following year.

On September 16, 2009, the Kirby estate also served notices of termination to Walt Disney Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, and Sony Pictures to attempt to regain control of various Silver Age Marvel characters. Marvel is seeking to invalidate these claims. However, in mid-March 2010 Kirby's estate "sued Marvel to terminate copyrights and gain profits from comic creations." In July 2011, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a summary judgment in favor of Marvel, which was affirmed in August 2013 by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The Kirby estate filed a petition on March 21, 2014 for a review of the case by the US Supreme Court.

In July 2010, Dynamite Entertainment announced that in 2011, it would publish Kirby: Genesis, an eight-issue miniseries by writer Kurt Busiek and artists Jack Herbert and Alex Ross, featuring Kirby-owned characters previously published by Pacific Comics and Topps Comics.

Legacy

The New York Times, in a Sunday op-ed piece written more than a decade after his death, said of Kirby:

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.

Michael Chabon, in his afterword to his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The 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." Director James Cameron said Kirby inspired the look of his film Aliens, 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 like A.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."

Several Kirby images are among those on the "Marvel Super Heroes" set of commemorative stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service on July 27, 2007. 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, and The Fantastic Four #3.

In 2002, jazz percussionist Gregg Bendian released a seven-track CD, Requiem 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 Above Zenn-La".

Various comic-book and cartoon creators have done homages to Kirby. Examples include the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mirage Comics series ("Kirby and the Warp Crystal" in Donatello #1, and its animated counterpart, "The King", from the 2003 cartoon series). The episode of Superman: The Animated Series entitled "Apokalips...Now! Part 2" was dedicated to his memory.

As of July 2012, Kirby's drawing table and small taboret table reside in the den of his son, Neal Kirby, who hopes that they will inspire Kirby's great-grandchildren.

As of September 2012, Hollywood films based on characters Kirby co-created have collectively earned nearly $3.1 billion. Kirby himself is a character portrayed by Luis Yagüe in the 2009 Spanish short film The King & the Worst, which is inspired by Kirby's service in World War II. He is portrayed by Michael Parks in a brief appearance in the fact-based drama Argo (2012), about the Canadian Caper.

Awards and honors

Jack Kirby received a great deal of recognition over the course of his career, including the 1967 Alley Award for Best Pencil Artist. The following year he was runner-up behind Jim 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
• 1964:
  • Best Novel - "Captain America Joins the Avengers", by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, from The Avengers #4
  • Best New Strip or Book - "Captain America", by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, in Tales of Suspense
• 1965: Best Short Story - "The Origin of the Red Skull", by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Tales of Suspense #66
• 1966: Best Professional Work, Regular Short Feature - "Tales of Asgard" by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, in The Mighty Thor
• 1967: Best Professional Work, Regular Short Feature - (tie) "Tales of Asgard" and "Tales of the Inhumans", both by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, in The Mighty Thor
• 1968:
  • Best Professional Work, Best Regular Short Feature - "Tales of the Inhumans", by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, in The Mighty Thor
  • Best Professional Work, Hall of Fame - Fantastic Four, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby; Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., by Jim Steranko

Kirby won a Shazam Award for Special Achievement by an Individual in 1971 for his "Fourth World" series in Forever People, New Gods, Mister Miracle, and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen. He was inducted into the Shazam Awards Hall of Fame in 1975. In 1987 he was an inaugural inductee into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame. He received the 1993 Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award at that year's Eisner Awards.

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 the Harvey Award for Best Domestic Reprint Project, and the Eisner Award for Best Archival Collection/Project.

The Jack Kirby Awards and Jack Kirby Hall of Fame were named in his honor.

With Will Eisner, Robert Crumb, Harvey Kurtzman, Gary Panter and Chris Ware, Kirby was among the artists honored in the exhibition "Masters of American Comics" at the Jewish Museum in New York City, New York, from September 16, 2006 to January 28, 2007.

In February 7th, 1998, the Superman The Animated Series two-part episode Apokolips Now produced by Bruce Timm, Alan Burnett and Paul Dini paid a homage to Jack Kirby. Dan Turpin, a detective he created in Detective Comics and New Gods Comics, in the animated series his image was based on Kirby features. The Turpin's funeral in the episode was inspired by the actual Kirby elogy, where various friends and colleagues from comics industry where present like Mark Evanier and Stan Lee.

Bibliography

References

1. Jack Kirby at the Social Security Death Index via FamilySearch. Retrieved on February 15, 2013.
2. Morrison, Grant (23 July 2011). "My Supergods from the Age of the Superhero". The Guardian. UK. Archived from the original on November 7, 2011. Retrieved 23 July 2011. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
3. ^ Evanier, Mark; Sherman, Steve; et al. "Jack Kirby Biography". Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center. Archived from the original on September 17, 2013. Retrieved 2012-02-24. {{cite web}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |first2= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
4. Hamilton, Sue L. Jack Kirby. ABDO Group, 2006. ISBN 978-1-59928-298-5, p. 4
5. Jones, Gerard (2004). Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book. Basic Books. pp. 195–96. ISBN 978-0-465-03657-8.
6. ^ Mark Evanier, Mark (2008). Kirby: King of Comics. Abrams. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-8109-9447-8.
7. Jones, p. 196
8. "'I've Never Done Anything Halfheartedly'". The Comics Journal. No. 134. February 1990 (Jack Kirby interview, conducted summer 1989). {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) Reprinted in George, Milo, ed. (2002). The Comics Journal Library, Volume One: Jack Kirby. Fantagraphics Books. p. 22. ISBN 978-1-56097-466-6. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
9. Interview, The Comics Journal #134, reprinted in George, p. 24
10. Interview, The Nostalgia Journal #30, November 1976, reprinted in George, p. 3
11. ^ Jack Kirby at the Grand Comics Database
12. Jones, p. 197
13. Ro, Ronin (2004). Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and the American Comic Book Revolution. Bloomsbury USA. p. 14. ISBN 978-1-58234-345-7.
14. Ro, p. 16
15. "More Than Your Average Joe". No. 25. Excerpts from Joe Simon's panels at 1998 San Diego Comic-Con International, Jack Kirby Collector. August 1999. Archived from the original on November 13, 2010. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
16. ^ Ro, p. 25
17. Jones, p. 200
18. Ro, p. 21
19. Ro, p. 25-26
20. Ro, p. 29
21. Ro, p. 28
22. Ro, p. 30
23. Wallace, Daniel; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "1940s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. Dorling Kindersley. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-7566-6742-9. Hot properties Joe Simon and Jack Kirby joined DC... after taking over the Sandman and Sandy, the Golden Boy feature in Adventure Comics #72, the writer and artist team turned their attentions to Manhunter with issue #73. {{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
24. Wallace "1940s" in Dolan, p. 41 "The inaugural issue of Boy Commandos represented Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's first original title since they started at DC (though the characters had debuted earlier that year in Detective Comics #64.)"
25. ^ Ro, p. 32
26. Wallace "1940s" in Dolan, p. 41 "Joe Simon and Jack Kirby took their talents to a second title with Star-Spangled Comics, tackling both the Guardian and the Newsboy Legion in issue #7."
27. Evanier, King of Comics, p. 57
28. ^ Ro, p. 33
29. ^ Evanier, p. 67
30. Ro, p. 35
31. Ro, p. 40
32. World War II V-mail letter from Kirby to Rosalind, in George, p. 117
33. Ro, p. 40-41
34. Evanier, p. 69
35. Ro, p. 42
36. Ro, p. 45
37. ^ Simon, Joe, with Jim Simon. The Comic Book Makers (Crestwood/II, 1990) ISBN 978-1-887591-35-5; reissued (Vanguard Productions, 2003) ISBN 978-1-887591-35-5, pp. 123-125
38. Evanier, King of Comics. p. 72
39. ^ Ro, p. 46
40. ^ Howell, Richard, "Introduction" to Real Love — The Best of the Simon and Kirby Romance Comics 1940s-1950s (Eclipse Books, 1988)
41. Simon, p. 125
42. ^ Kirby, Neal (April 9, 2012). "Growing Up Kirby: The Marvel memories of Jack Kirby's son". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on October 27, 2013. Retrieved 2012-12-28. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
43. Ro, p. 52
44. ^ Ro, p. 54
45. Beerbohm, Robert Lee (August 1999). "The Mainline Story". Jack Kirby Collector. No. 25. Archived from the original on April 10, 2011. Retrieved March 26, 2008. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
46. Theakston, Greg (1997). The Complete Jack Kirby. Pure Imagination Publishing, Inc. p. 29. ISBN 1-56685-006-1.
47. Simon, Joe; with Simon, Jim (1990). The Comic Book Makers. Crestwood/II Publications. p. 151. ISBN 978-1-887591-35-5. Reissued (Vanguard Productions, 2003) ISBN 978-1-887591-35-5. Page numbers refer to 1990 edition.
48. Mainline at the Grand Comics Database
49. Ro, p. 55
50. Ro, p. 56
51. "'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. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help) Transcribed in The Nostalgia Journal (27) August 1976. Reprinted in George, p. 16
52. Ro, p. 60
53. 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 April 21, 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help) 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.), and Two Gun Western #12 (Sept. 1957; 5 pp.), plus the inventoried Gunsmoke Western #47 (July 1958; 4 pp.) and #51 (March 1959; 5 pp. plus cover) and Kid Colt Outlaw #86 (Sept. 1959; 5 pp.)
54. Evanier, Mark, Introduction, The Green Arrow by Jack Kirby (DC Comics, New York, 2001): "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.)"
55. Ro, p. 61
56. Evanier, King of Comics, pp. 103-106
57. Evanier, King of Comics, p. 109
58. Ro, p. 91
59. Van Lente, Fred (2012). The Comic Book History of. IDW. p. 100. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
60. Jones, p. 282
61. Gil Kane, speaking at a forum on July 6, 1985, at the Dallas Fantasy Fair. As quoted in George, p. 109
62. Simon, p. 205
63. Foley, Shane (November 2001). "Kracklin' Kirby: Tracing the advent of Kirby Krackle". Jack Kirby Collector (33). Archived from the original on November 13, 2010. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
64. Evanier, King of Comics, p. 126-163
65. Evanier, King of Comics, p. 163
66. Braun, Saul (May 2, 1971). "Shazam! Here Comes Captain Relevant". The New York Times Magazine. Abstract accessed on January 18, 2012.
67. ^ Van Lente, Fred (w), Dunlavey, Ryan (a). The Comic Book History of Comics. IDW Publishing. 2012. Page 115.
68. Ro, p.139
69. Ro, p. 143
70. 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."
71. Evanier, Mark. "Afterword." Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus; Volume 1, New York: DC Comics, 2007.
72. McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 141 "Since no ongoing creative team had been slated to Superman'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."
73. Evanier, Mark (August 22, 2003). "Notes From ME". POV Online. Archived from the original on April 22, 2012. Retrieved April 22, 2012. Plastino drew new Superman figures and Olsen heads in roughly the same poses and positions, and these were pasted into the artwork. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |deadurl= (help)
74. ^ Kraft, David Anthony; Slifer, Roger (April 1983). "Mark Evanier". Comics Interview. No. 2. Fictioneer Books. pp. 23–34.
75. Morrison, Grant (2007). "Introduction". Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus Volume One. DC Comics. pp. 7–8. ISBN 978-1401213442.
76. 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 and In the Days of the Mob...Sadly, these unique magazines never found their desired audience."
77. McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 161 "In OMAC'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."
78. McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 153 "Kirby had already introduced a similar concept and characters in Alarming 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."
79. 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."
80. 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 of Our Fighting Forces tales that were action-packed, personal, and among the most beloved of World War II comics ever produced."
81. 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."
82. Bullpen Bulletins: "The King is Back! 'Nuff Said!", in Marvel Comics cover-dated October 1975, including Fantastic Four #163
83. Powers, Tom (December 2012). "Kirby Celebrating America's 200th Birthday: Captain America's Bicentennial Battles". Back Issue (61). TwoMorrows Publishing: 46–49.
84. Hatfield, Charles (July 1996). "Once Upon A Time: Kirby's Prisoner". Jack Kirby Collector (11). Archived from the original on November 13, 2010. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
85. "Ploog & Kirby Quit Marvel over Contract Dispute," The Comics Journal #44, January 1979, p. 11.
86. "Jack Kirby". Lambiek Comiclopedia. March 6, 2009. Archived from the original on April 5, 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
87. Bearman, Joshuah (April 24, 2007). "How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran". Wired (15.05). Archived from the original on November 13, 2010. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
88. Morrow, John "The Captain Victory Connection" (collected in The Collected Jack Kirby Collector Volume 1, TwoMorrows Publishing, ISBN 978-1-893905-00-9. page 105)
89. Larsen, Erik (February 18, 2007). "One Fan's Opinion". (column #73), ComicBookResources.com. Archived from the original on January 13, 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
90. Kean, Benjamin Ong Pang (July 29, 2007). "SDCC '07: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson on Image's Kirby Plans". Newsarama.com. Archived from the original on March 29, 2009.
91. Kean, Benjamin Ong Pang (May 2, 2007). "The Current Image: Erik Larsen on Jack Kirby's Silver Star". Newsarama.com. Archived from the original on March 29, 2009.
92. Destroyer Duck at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on February 7, 2012.
93. Dean, Michael (December 29, 2002). "Kirby and Goliath: The Fight for Jack Kirby's Marvel Artwork". The Comics Journal. Archived from the original on July 31, 2013. Retrieved 2013-10-31. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
94. ^ Gold, Glen (April 1998). "The Stolen Art". Jack Kirby Collector (19). Archived from the original on December 23, 2010. Retrieved January 12, 2012. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
95. ^ "Marvel Returns Art to Kirby, Adams". The Comics Journal (116): 15. July 1987.
96. Evanier, p. 207
97. Cooke, Jon B. "Twilight at Topps" (in The Jack Kirby Collector #21, collected in The Collected Jack Kirby Collector, TwoMorrows Publishing, 220 pages, 2006, ISBN 978-1-893905-57-3 ,pages 149-153)
98. Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators. Archived from the original on February 7, 2012.
99. "Jack Kirby, 76. Created Comic-Book Superheroes". The New York Times. February 8, 1994. Retrieved 2010-03-04. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
100. "Jack Kirby". Find a Grave. Retrieved February 21, 2009. Archived from the original on March 21, 2008.
101. Theakston, Greg (1991). The Jack Kirby Treasury Volume Two. Forestville, California: Eclipse Books. p. 39. ISBN 978-1-56060-134-0.
102. ^ Brady, Matt (April 20, 2006). "Lisa Kirby, Mike Thibodeaux, & Tom Brevoort on Galactic Bounty Hunters". Newsarama.com. Archived from the original on September 15, 2009.
103. Jack Kirby's Galactic Bounty Hunters at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
104. ^ Marvel Worldwide, Inc., Marvel Characters, Inc. and MVL Rights, LLC, against Lisa R. Kirby, Barbara J. Kirby, Neal L. Kirby and Susan M. Kirby, via "Court rules in favor of Marvel in Kirby copyright case — with text of ruling and depositions". ComicsBeat.com. July 28, 2011. Archived from the original on August 1, 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
105. Fritz, Ben (September 21, 2009). "Heirs File Claims to Marvel Heroes". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on January 24, 2010.
106. Kit, Borys and Matthew Belloni (September 21, 2009). "Kirby Heirs Seeking Bigger Chunk of Marvel Universe". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on August 1, 2011. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
107. Melrose, Kevin (January 8, 2010). "Marvel Sues to Invalidate Copyright Claims by Jack Kirby's Heirs". Robot 6. Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on January 24, 2010.
108. "Marvel Sues for Rights to Superheroes". Associated Press via The Hollywood Reporter. January 8, 2010. Archived from the original on November 13, 2010. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
109. Gardner, Eriq (December 21, 2010). "It's on! Kirby estate sues Marvel; copyrights to Iron Man, Spider-Man at stake". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on August 1, 2011. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
110. "Marvel Worldwide, Inc., Marvel Characters, Inc. and MVL Rights, LLC, against Lisa R. Kirby, Barbara J. Kirby, Neal L. Kirby and Susan M. Kirby, 10 Civ. 141 (CM) (KNF)" (PDF). July 28, 2011.
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112. Text of Marvel Characters Inc., MVL LLC v. Kirby, No. 11–3333–cv (August 8, 2013) is available from: Findlaw Justia
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114. Biggers, Cliff (July 2010). "Kirby Genesis: A Testament to the King's Talent". Comic Shop News. No. 1206.
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116. ^ Staples, Brent "Editorial Observer: Jack Kirby, a Comic Book Genius, Is Finally Remembered", The New York Times, August 26, 2007
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118. Lovece, Frank (February 26, 1987). "'Aliens' Arrives on Video this Week". United Media newspaper syndicate. Retrieved May 29, 2013.
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120. Berkwits, Jeff (January 28, 2002). "Requiem for Jack Kirby: Gregg Bendian sketches memorable musical scenes from Jack Kirby's legendary comic-book images". Science Fiction Weekly (SciFi.com). Archived from the original on February 11, 2003.
121. Eury, Michael (2006). The Krypton Companion. TwoMorrows Publishing. pp. 226–227. ISBN 978-1893905610.
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132. Mark Hanerfeld, who counted the votes, first listed Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. as the winner. Later, he noticed that he had counted votes for a) "Fantastic Four by Jack Kirby", b) "Fantastic Four by Stan Lee", and c) "Fantastic Four by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby", separately. Had they been counted as one feature, these votes combined would have given the Fantastic Four the victory.
133. "1971 Academy of Comic Book Arts Awards". Hahnlibrary.net. Archived from the original on August 1, 2011. Retrieved 2010-08-10. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; June 27, 2008 suggested (help)
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135. "Will Eisner Comic Industry Award: Summary of Winners". Hahnlibrary.net. Retrieved 2010-08-10.
136. "The Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award". Comic-con.org. 2010-07-23. Retrieved 2010-08-10.
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140. Kimmelman, Michael (October 13, 2006). "See You in the Funny Papers". (art review), The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 10, 2011. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help).

External links

• The Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center
• Jack Kirby at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
• Jack Kirby at IMDb
• POV Online: "Jack Kirby", by Mark Evanier (includes Jack Kirby FAQ)
• "Jack Kirby Heroes Thrive in Comic Books and Film", by Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times, August 27, 2003
• "Roz Kirby Interview Excerpts", The Jack Kirby Collector #10, April 1966
• Creations of Jack Kirby at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
• The Monsters of Jack Kirby

Further reading

• Wyman, Ray (1993). The Art of Jack Kirby. Blue Rose Press, Inc. ISBN 0-9634467-1-1.

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