The Wikipedia post reads: “Jack Kirby (/ˈkɜrbi/; August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994), born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer, and editor widely regarded as one of the medium’s major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators.” This is understatement; he was known as King Kirby for a reason.
Check out this page for just some of the characters he was responsible for creating or co-creating.
Lots of people can write more eloquently than I about Jack, notably Mark Evanier, who worked with him for a time; just search his page, or at least go to his August 28 posts each year.
Check out Jack Kirby on Entertainment Tonight – 28 Oct 1982.
A couple years back, I posted this piece for Trouble with Comics, and I thought I’d repost it here, and now.
Hey, Jack-
Happy birthday! You know the store FantaCo in Albany had its birth date on August 28, 1978. Total coincidence, but kind of nifty.
Oh, and when I called you for the preliminary conversation for the Fantastic Four Chronicles back in 1982, I really thought I was clear that I wanted you to talk about, well, the Fantastic Four, not Captain Victory.
Marvel had let us use its logo, and when a certain tall editor person saw the interview, he was…not happy, let’s just say.
Anyway, it makes a good story, now.
Thanks for everything, and I’m glad you got your settlement with Marvel, albeit posthumously, so I can start seeing those MU movies again. .
I just had dinner with someone I’ve known for over 20 years, who, in the course of talking about comics, said, “Kirby wasn’t the best when it came to writing dialogue.”
I gave him my currrent response. Kirby had a UNIQUE writing voice. And from 3-1/2 years of working on my POE project, I’ve come to feel there are certain writers whose words you DO NOT MESS with… Poe, Doyle, Shakespeare, and Kirby.