Jack Kirby
The King of Comics: Jack Kirby's legendary creations and influence
Susan Skaar · via Wikipedia: Jack Kirby · CC BY-SA 3.0
He became a major innovator and prolific creator in American comic books.[1] Jacob Kurtzberg, who later became known as Jack Kirby, was born on August 28, 1917, at 147 Essex Street in Manhattan's Lower East Side.[2][3] The Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame counted Kirby among its three first inductees in 1987.[4]
Quick Facts
- Birth name
- Jacob Kurtzberg
- Born
- 28 August 1917
- Birthplace
- New York City, U.S.
- Died
- 6 February 1994
- Place of death
- Thousand Oaks, California, U.S.
- Also known as
- Jack Curtiss
- Curt Davis
- Lance Kirby
- Ted Grey
- Charles Nicholas
- Fred Sande
- Teddy
- The King
- Notable works
- Fantastic Four
- Fourth World
- Thor
- Captain America
- Eternals
- New Gods
- Black Panther
- Spouse
- Rosalind Goldstein (1942)
Facts from the source article.
Life and work
Kirby grew up in a poor family; his father was a garment factory worker and his parents were Austrian-Jewish immigrants.[2][5] In 1936 he joined the Lincoln Newspaper Syndicate, working on comic strips and single-panel cartoons.[6][3] He later worked as an inbetweener at Fleischer Studios on Popeye cartoons.[6][7][3] Kirby and Simon launched their own company, Mainline Publications, in 1954.[8]
He returned to Marvel briefly in the mid-to-late 1970s.[4][9] While employed at Fox Feature Syndicate, Kirby received a weekly salary of $15; it was there that he encountered editor Joe Simon and asked to collaborate.[10][5] On June 7, 1943, the U.S. Army drafted Kirby during World War II.[11]
What the cited sources add
A 1999 interview with Joe Simon recalls that Kirby asked if they could do freelance work together, and they worked from the second issue of Blue Bolt for about 25 years.[5] The same source notes that Kirby was very fast, once penciling five pages in a day.[5] That biography also notes that Kirby produced a huge volume of work at Lincoln, including ongoing strips and panel gags.[3] A Cartoon Research.com article says Kirby worked as an in-betweener at Fleischer Studios in 1935 earning around fifteen dollars a week.[7]
The same article states that Kirby legally changed his name in 1942 but insisted he did not do it to hide his Jewish heritage.[7]
References
- Wikipedia, "Jack Kirby" (CC BY-SA 4.0) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jack Kirby" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Evanier, "Jack Kirby Biography", Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center, March 20, 2008; Evanier, "Jack Kirby Biography", Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center, March 20, 2008; Hamilton, Sue L. Jack Kirby. ABDO Group, 2006. , p. 4 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Evanier, "Jack Kirby Biography", Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center, March 20, 2008. facts only, no text reused. kirbymuseum.org
- Wikipedia, "Jack Kirby" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Morrison, "My Supergods from the Age of the Superhero", The Guardian, July 23, 2011 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- "More Than Your Average Joe – Excerpts from Joe Simon's panels at the 1998 San Diego Comic-Con International", The Jack Kirby Collector, August 1999. facts only, no text reused. twomorrows.com
- Wikipedia, "Jack Kirby" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: at Cartoon Research.com. (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- at Cartoon Research.com.. facts only, no text reused. cartoonresearch.com
- Wikipedia, "Jack Kirby" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ro 2004; Beerbohm, "The Mainline Story", The Jack Kirby Collector, August 1999; Theakston, "The Complete Jack Kirby", Pure Imagination Publishing, Inc., 1997, p. 29; Simon, "The Comic Book Makers", Crestwood/II Publications, 1990, p. 151; Mainline at the Grand Comics Database.; Ro 2004 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jack Kirby" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bullpen Bulletins: "The King is Back! 'Nuff Said!", in Marvel Comics cover-dated October 1975, including Fantastic Four #163 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jack Kirby" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "More Than Your Average Joe – Excerpts from Joe Simon's panels at the 1998 San Diego Comic-Con International", The Jack Kirby Collector, August 1999 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Jack Kirby" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ro 2004; Ro 2004 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Jack Kirby (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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