The “King” Who Built Comics

A co-creator for many of what we consider mainstream super-heroes, Jack Kirby left his mark on the comic world and genre entertainment alike with his dynamic pencilling style and character creating genius. Born Jacob Kurtzberg on August 28, 1917, and using many pseudonyms throughout his career, Jack became the legend among legends in the comics world known as Jack “the King” Kirby.

Largely self-taught, Kirby sought a formal education in art within the Education Alliance, but was rejected for what Jack described as “drawing too fast with charcoal.” Putting his talent to use, Kirby began drawing cartoons for a local newspaper titled Boys Brotherhood Republic, created for a local street-kid run government on East 3^rd Street in NY. He later did work for the Lincoln Newspaper Syndicate drawing cartoons and as an “inbetweener” for the animation company Fleisher Studios. His first real work in comic-books came with Wild Boys Magazine, drawn for the comic-book packager Eisner & Iger. His first super-hero related work came in the guise of the comic strip The Blue Beetle.

Kirby continued to find work in his particular field, moving back and forth between various companies in order to make a buck. Landing a job at Timely Comics, what would later become known as Marvel Comics, Jack and his new partner Joe Simon created a new patriotic super-hero known to the world as Captain America in late 1940. Selling out in days after its initial release in 1941, and enjoying huge commercial success, Captain America Comics had a print run set at over one million copies with the release of the second issue.

Jack Kirby’s credits in comics are substantial, and too much to list here, but Jack didn’t just settle for the super-hero genre; he also explored romance, war, westerns, supernatural-fantasy, science fiction, as well as several issues of Classics Illustrated. There is much written about the war between Jack and Marvel Comics and what Jack considered to be “unfair treatment” of an employee. Because of the never-ending feud with Marvel, Kirby began looking elsewhere and landed a job at rival DC Comics. Kirby jumped back and forth between Marvel Comics and DC Comics leaving his mark on both of the “big 2” publishers.

Jack had many accomplishments in comics that made him the “King” he is known as today, such as: his bizarre, unearthly, drive-in-movie-style monsters; the famous “Kirby Dots” or Kirby Crackle” style of art, which was Kirby’s way of showing a strong energy using dots of ink; and his “foreshortening” style of art that depicted various anatomy features larger at points to show depth in the character and panel. It wasn’t unheard of for Jack to spend 12-14 hours a day at his table drawing, pushing out 8-10 pages a day of comic books. Jack later helped to re-revolutionize comics with the industry hit The Fantastic Four, written by Stan “the Man” Lee. Kirby was later described by fellow industry artist Gil Kane as being “the most influential figure in the turnaround in Marvel’s fortunes from the time he rejoined the company…”

Jack Kirby died at age 76 of heart failure, and to this day, remains one of the most influential creators in comics history. Kirby co-created comics staples such as the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Hulk, Captian America and the Challengers of the Unknown. Kirby created these by doing what he loved: drawing; from newspaper strips and animation fill-ins, to the comics page, Jack did it all with grace, creativity and his own unique style by putting in on paper.