Kirby, Jack (I)

Report

biography of Kirby, Jack

Jacob Kurtzberg
The King
28 August 1917, New York City, New York, USA
6 February 1994, Thousand Oaks, California, USA (heart failure)

- He was a major artist in the comic book medium throughout his career, raising standards for illustration and created important and influential characters like Captain America, the Fantastic Four and many other characters for Marvel and DC comics amoung others.

- In honor of Jack Kirby, comic strip artist-writer Rick Veitch named his son Kirby.

- A dispute with 'Stan Lee (I)' (qv) forced Kirby to leave Marvel after over thirty years of writing and illustrating for them. Kirby then moved to Marvel's chief rival D.C. Comics, where he introduced his "Fourth World" series which included The New Gods, The Forever People, Mister Miracle as well as one of his greatest creations, the villain Darkseid.

- While at D.C., Kirby also created the characters OMAC (One Man Army Corps) and Kamandi, the last boy on Earth.

- Had a major lawsuit with Marvel Comics to get back his original artwork (which consisted of well over 9000 pages over his ten year tenure). They however were only going to give him 88 pages as they said that's all that were left, even though hundreds were sold at conventions every year. The lawsuit ended in a stalemate.

- The character "Dan Turpin" in _"Superman" (1996)_ (qv) (aka Superman: The Animated Series (1996)) was based on Jack Kirby.

- Created and drew comic book characters in the 1940s: Blue Bolt, Captain America, Boy Commandos, Guardian and the Newsboy Legion, revamped the Sandman.

- 1950s: Created Stunt Man, Fighting American, The Challengers of the Unknown

- 1960s: Along with Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, was among the leading creative forces in Marvel Comics creating most of the major titles including Fantastic Four, the Avengers, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk and The Mighty Thor.

- 1970s: Created "The Fourth World" titles for DC Comics: The New Gods, Forever People & Mr. Miracle. Also created DC titles: Kamandi: Last Boy on Earth, The Demon & OMAC. For Marvel Comics: 2001: A Space Odyssey comic adoption, Devil Dinosaur, The Eternals.

- 1980s: Drew the Super Powers mini Series and The Graphic Novel, The Hunger Dogs for DC

- Created "Captain Victory" for Pacific Comics which is one of the first creator owned independent characters which in turn encouraged other comic book talents for push for similar consideration.

- Mark Evanier. _Kirby: King of Comics._ New York: Abrams Books, 2008. ISBN 081099447X

- I've never done anything half-heartedly; it's a disservice to me and the audience if I do it half-heartedly

- "The New York Times" (USA), 9 January 2010, Vol. 159, Iss. 54,915, pg. C2, by: Brooks Barnes, "Marvel Sues Family of Comics Artist"

- "The Independent Arts & Books Review" (UK), 16 May 2008, pg. 10 - 11, by: Tim Walker, "The real comic book hero"

- "The New York Times" (USA), 26 August 2007, by: Brent Staples, "Jack Kirby, a Comic Book Genius, Is Finally Remembered"

- "Strip!" (Denmark), September 2005, Iss. 31, pg. 36-38, by: Morten Søndergård, "Dengang i 60erne"

- "The New York Times" (USA), 27 August 2003, by: Elvis Mitchell, "One Vision From 1940's Still Rocks; Jack Kirby Heroes Thrive In Comic Books and Film"

- "Stripschrift" (Holland), February 2001, Iss. 334, pg. 9, by: Jasper Bakker, "Hoorspel-toneel over Jack Kirby op weg naar VS"