Creator Jack Kirby is Having a Moment.

[John R]

article

 

If you have even a glancing familiarity with the comics of the 1960s and 70s that gave rise to today’s cross-media franchises, you’ve probably encountered the work of artist Jack Kirby, even if you have never heard his name.

 

Kirby, who died in 1994 at age 76, virtually invented the visual language of American superhero comics: the dramatic poses, the exaggerated anatomy, the visceral sense of action that pulls the reader into the story, no matter how outlandish the plot and premise. He also has a strong claim to co-creating just about every major hero in the Marvel Comics pantheon: Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk, The X-Men, The Black Panther, The Inhumans and down the line. Captain America? Kirby co-created him back in 1941 with then-partner Joe Simon.

 

For decades, the story of how everyone made a fortune off the work of this visionary creator except for Kirby himself – who until his final days toiled to eke out financial security for his family – stood as one of the most egregious injustices in an industry distinguished by its ill-treatment of creative talent. Now, as we approach his centenary in 2017, the man that Stan Lee nicknamed “King of the Comics” is finally starting to get his due in the wider world of art, culture and commerce.

 

A Creator, Not Just an Artist. Kirby worked closely with Marvel writer and editor Stan Lee throughout the 1960s, drawing full stories based on Lee’s skeletal plot outlines. Kirby often took the stories in his own direction, inventing new characters that Lee explained and characterized when he added dialogue to Kirby’s pages. Kirby did this work as a freelancer, under an arrangement that Marvel insisted was work-for-hire and thus negated any claims to ownership.

 

Throughout the 1960s, Stan Lee built the Marvel brand through the force of his flamboyant, media-friendly personality while Kirby toiled in the shadows, growing increasingly resentful that Lee was seen as the “creator” while he was merely the “illustrator.” In 1969, he left the company to work for rival DC. Despite some interesting efforts, it didn’t work out; nor did his subsequent return to Marvel.

 

Kirby spent his final decade doing work where he could, in animation and independent comics, and appearing every year as an honored guest at San Diego Comic-Con, holding out for the credit and money he felt he was due. Less than a decade after his death, Marvel and its movie partners were turning his creations into billion dollar properties.

 

A Prophet Without Honor. While comics fans know and love Jack Kirby, the wider world has not been as sympathetic. Courts consistently rejected the claims of Kirby and his estate, upholding Marvel’s ownership of the intellectual property. Kirby’s artwork was considered kitsch and Americana, collectable by enthusiasts, perhaps, but not museum-quality.

 

And while the sunlight of celebrity shines on Stan Lee, the avuncular elder statesman of comics with his cameo appearances in every Marvel film and six-figure appearance fee at comic conventions worldwide, Kirby’s titanic contributions to our modern-day mythology remain largely in the shadows.

 

A Reversal of Fortune. The Kirby Estate and its lawyers fought Marvel in the courts for decades without much to show for it, and by 2014, they had only one shred of hope remaining: an appeal to the US Supreme Court. Few observers thought the case had a chance because of how courts had been interpreting the 1976 Copyright Law and its work-made-for-hire provisions.

 

But unexpectedly, prominent legal scholars began filing briefs to the Court that raised the specter that many valuable IP assets created under similar conditions as Kirby’s work for Marvel might in fact be eligible for termination of copyright. The Court asked Disney to respond.

 

Rather than have the case go before the Court and risk a ruling that could undermine huge swaths of corporate-owned IP in the United States, Disney, which now owns Marvel Entertainment, elected to settle. The terms of the settlement have not been formally disclosed, but some in the industry estimate it to be in the $40-50 million range, and some think it could be closer to $100M. Most significantly for Kirby’s legacy, he also now receives co-creator credit on dozens of characters across the media spectrum

 

New Respect in the Art World. The art world has traditionally looked down on commercial artists and illustrators. The case of Kirby was especially problematic because he worked in a genre most critics consider juvenile, and worked at it with a deeply unfashionable lack of pretention. Sure, his work sells for tens of thousands of dollars per page, but mostly to fans, not serious people.

 

Nevertheless, Kirby’s stock has been rising in academia as scholars recognize the contributions he has made to popular culture, and he has been the subject of several serious aesthetic critiques, group shows and retrospective exhibits.

 

Last fall, Charles Hatfield, a Kirby scholar and professor at California State University Northridge, mounted a gallery show called The Comic Book Apocalypse: The Graphic Work of Jack Kirby, that made a strong claim for his groundbreaking aesthetics in the context of 20th century American Art. The show was thoughtfully reviewed in the current issue of Art in America.

 

There is also a Kirby Museum project mounted by curators including Rand Hoppe, Tom Kraft and Mike Cecchini, which is seeking a physical home on New York’s Lower East Side (Kirby’s birthplace) for its collection of hundreds of Kirby original works.

 

A museum dedicated to Kirby's work is seeking space on the Lower East Side, and featuring presentations by scholars like Arlen Schumer. Image courtesy Arlen Schumer.

A museum dedicated to Kirby’s work is seeking space on the Lower East Side, and featuring presentations by scholars like Arlen Schumer. Image courtesy Arlen Schumer.

 

Kirby’s Story Being Told. Jack Kirby was a colorful figure and has had a few star-turns in mainstream literature. He was one of the main inspirations for Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (2001), received a sympathetic biography from author Mark Evanier in 2008, and played an unsurprisingly prominent role in Sean Howe’s 2012 history of Marvel comics, Marvel: The Untold Story.

 

Kirby’s life is also the subject of an outstanding dramatic work, King Kirby, by award-winning playwright Crystal Skillman and Fred Van Lente, which earned a Critics Pick from the New York Times when staged in Brooklyn in 2014, and is now wrapping up a successful run in Seattle.

 

Each of these works does its part to revise the prevailing narrative surrounding Lee, Kirby and the birth of the Marvel superhero pantheon, thrusting the plainspoken creative visionary into the spotlight alongside his more polished and media-savvy collaborator.

 

Having burried the legal hatchet with the Kirby Estate, Marvel now celebrates the King's contributions in this super-deluxe edition. Image © Marvel Entertainment

Having burried the legal hatchet with the Kirby Estate, Marvel now celebrates the King’s contributions in this super-deluxe edition. Image © Marvel Entertainment

 

Now that even Disney is willing to credit this account, perhaps Kirby will gain the widespread cultural recognition that his contributions to 20th and 21st century art and commerce deserve.

 

 

[Doktor]

Marvel gave a lot of credit & mentions to Jack in the most recent 75th anniversary Captain America special that ran on ABC before the premiere of Agent Carter on Tuesday. It was nice to hear. They also gave Neal Kirby a relatively decent bit of screen time, to speak on behalf of Jack.

[Michelangelo]

Kirby is the man - he is EVERY BIT as influential to the comic book industry as Stan Lee is.

 

As an artist myself, creating a character drawing is as important as developing character traits, powers, name, story.

[Cat-Man_America]

article

 

If you have even a glancing familiarity with the comics of the 1960s and 70s that gave rise to today’s cross-media franchises, you’ve probably encountered the work of artist Jack Kirby, even if you have never heard his name.

 

Kirby, who died in 1994 at age 76, virtually invented the visual language of American superhero comics: the dramatic poses, the exaggerated anatomy, the visceral sense of action that pulls the reader into the story, no matter how outlandish the plot and premise. He also has a strong claim to co-creating just about every major hero in the Marvel Comics pantheon: Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk, The X-Men, The Black Panther, The Inhumans and down the line. Captain America? Kirby co-created him back in 1941 with then-partner Joe Simon.

 

For decades, the story of how everyone made a fortune off the work of this visionary creator except for Kirby himself – who until his final days toiled to eke out financial security for his family – stood as one of the most egregious injustices in an industry distinguished by its ill-treatment of creative talent. Now, as we approach his centenary in 2017, the man that Stan Lee nicknamed “King of the Comics” is finally starting to get his due in the wider world of art, culture and commerce.

 

A Creator, Not Just an Artist. Kirby worked closely with Marvel writer and editor Stan Lee throughout the 1960s, drawing full stories based on Lee’s skeletal plot outlines. Kirby often took the stories in his own direction, inventing new characters that Lee explained and characterized when he added dialogue to Kirby’s pages. Kirby did this work as a freelancer, under an arrangement that Marvel insisted was work-for-hire and thus negated any claims to ownership.

 

Throughout the 1960s, Stan Lee built the Marvel brand through the force of his flamboyant, media-friendly personality while Kirby toiled in the shadows, growing increasingly resentful that Lee was seen as the “creator” while he was merely the “illustrator.” In 1969, he left the company to work for rival DC. Despite some interesting efforts, it didn’t work out; nor did his subsequent return to Marvel.

 

Kirby spent his final decade doing work where he could, in animation and independent comics, and appearing every year as an honored guest at San Diego Comic-Con, holding out for the credit and money he felt he was due. Less than a decade after his death, Marvel and its movie partners were turning his creations into billion dollar properties.

 

A Prophet Without Honor. While comics fans know and love Jack Kirby, the wider world has not been as sympathetic. Courts consistently rejected the claims of Kirby and his estate, upholding Marvel’s ownership of the intellectual property. Kirby’s artwork was considered kitsch and Americana, collectable by enthusiasts, perhaps, but not museum-quality.

 

And while the sunlight of celebrity shines on Stan Lee, the avuncular elder statesman of comics with his cameo appearances in every Marvel film and six-figure appearance fee at comic conventions worldwide, Kirby’s titanic contributions to our modern-day mythology remain largely in the shadows.

 

A Reversal of Fortune. The Kirby Estate and its lawyers fought Marvel in the courts for decades without much to show for it, and by 2014, they had only one shred of hope remaining: an appeal to the US Supreme Court. Few observers thought the case had a chance because of how courts had been interpreting the 1976 Copyright Law and its work-made-for-hire provisions.

 

But unexpectedly, prominent legal scholars began filing briefs to the Court that raised the specter that many valuable IP assets created under similar conditions as Kirby’s work for Marvel might in fact be eligible for termination of copyright. The Court asked Disney to respond.

 

Rather than have the case go before the Court and risk a ruling that could undermine huge swaths of corporate-owned IP in the United States, Disney, which now owns Marvel Entertainment, elected to settle. The terms of the settlement have not been formally disclosed, but some in the industry estimate it to be in the $40-50 million range, and some think it could be closer to $100M. Most significantly for Kirby’s legacy, he also now receives co-creator credit on dozens of characters across the media spectrum

 

New Respect in the Art World. The art world has traditionally looked down on commercial artists and illustrators. The case of Kirby was especially problematic because he worked in a genre most critics consider juvenile, and worked at it with a deeply unfashionable lack of pretention. Sure, his work sells for tens of thousands of dollars per page, but mostly to fans, not serious people.

 

Nevertheless, Kirby’s stock has been rising in academia as scholars recognize the contributions he has made to popular culture, and he has been the subject of several serious aesthetic critiques, group shows and retrospective exhibits.

 

Last fall, Charles Hatfield, a Kirby scholar and professor at California State University Northridge, mounted a gallery show called The Comic Book Apocalypse: The Graphic Work of Jack Kirby, that made a strong claim for his groundbreaking aesthetics in the context of 20th century American Art. The show was thoughtfully reviewed in the current issue of Art in America.

 

There is also a Kirby Museum project mounted by curators including Rand Hoppe, Tom Kraft and Mike Cecchini, which is seeking a physical home on New York’s Lower East Side (Kirby’s birthplace) for its collection of hundreds of Kirby original works.

 

A museum dedicated to Kirby's work is seeking space on the Lower East Side, and featuring presentations by scholars like Arlen Schumer. Image courtesy Arlen Schumer.

A museum dedicated to Kirby’s work is seeking space on the Lower East Side, and featuring presentations by scholars like Arlen Schumer. Image courtesy Arlen Schumer.

 

Kirby’s Story Being Told. Jack Kirby was a colorful figure and has had a few star-turns in mainstream literature. He was one of the main inspirations for Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (2001), received a sympathetic biography from author Mark Evanier in 2008, and played an unsurprisingly prominent role in Sean Howe’s 2012 history of Marvel comics, Marvel: The Untold Story.

 

Kirby’s life is also the subject of an outstanding dramatic work, King Kirby, by award-winning playwright Crystal Skillman and Fred Van Lente, which earned a Critics Pick from the New York Times when staged in Brooklyn in 2014, and is now wrapping up a successful run in Seattle.

 

Each of these works does its part to revise the prevailing narrative surrounding Lee, Kirby and the birth of the Marvel superhero pantheon, thrusting the plainspoken creative visionary into the spotlight alongside his more polished and media-savvy collaborator.

 

Having burried the legal hatchet with the Kirby Estate, Marvel now celebrates the King's contributions in this super-deluxe edition. Image © Marvel Entertainment

Having burried the legal hatchet with the Kirby Estate, Marvel now celebrates the King’s contributions in this super-deluxe edition. Image © Marvel Entertainment

 

Now that even Disney is willing to credit this account, perhaps Kirby will gain the widespread cultural recognition that his contributions to 20th and 21st century art and commerce deserve.

 

 

This is an important enough article that I'm going to link your post to the GA board Timely page with a few Kirby covers from my own collection. Good post, John.

[Meeklo]

Kirby is the man - he is EVERY BIT as influential to the comic book industry as Stan Lee is.

 

As an artist myself, creating a character drawing is as important as developing character traits, powers, name, story.

 

After that Captain America special, I almost feel like he is more influential than Stan Lee.

 

Of course they didn't re-hash all the characters Lee is credited with creating, most of which are co-created with Kirby.

[Mr. 10%]

As the titanic importance of Kirby starts to dawn on todays superheroe media landscape it comes forward as pretty disgusting how the industry clercs treated him and his enormous creative power.

[rodan57]

Kirby didn't live in a time period that allowed him to flex any independent creative muscle.

 

But one does wonder if he may have had the opportunity to give birth to such had he left Marvel in 1966 when Ditko asked him. What if Wallace Wood had not be plagued with his own addictions at that same time?

 

Of course there were such a confluence of issues that weakened his strength in a period when he may have needed it the most (e.g., his desire to write his own stories; his disillusionment with Marvel, leading to lesser quality work in the 1967-1970 period; and his growing eye problems exacerbating perspective issues in his drawings).

[Mr. 10%]

Kirby didn't live in a time period that allowed him to flex any independent creative muscle.

 

But one does wonder if he may have had the opportunity to give birth to such had he left Marvel in 1966 when Ditko asked him. What if Wallace Wood had not be plagued with his own addictions at that same time?

 

Of course there were such a confluence of issues that weakened his strength in a period when he may have needed it the most (e.g., his desire to write his own stories; his disillusionment with Marvel, leading to lesser quality work in the 1967-1970 period; and his growing eye problems exacerbating perspective issues in his drawings).

 

The original post above seems to posit the claim that "the media savy" Lee managed to turn the creative combo with Kirby upside down by slowly conquerring the public role as "creator" and "Mr. Important no. 1, Marvel comics President, etc. And with Kirby merely working in the shaddow as "illustrator" If correct it should be considered a move so faul. It will not be forgotten by pop culture history Stan.

[Forbush-Man]

Kirby is the man - he is EVERY BIT as influential to the comic book industry as Stan Lee is.

 

As an artist myself, creating a character drawing is as important as developing character traits, powers, name, story.

 

After that Captain America special, I almost feel like he is more influential than Stan Lee.

 

Of course they didn't re-hash all the characters Lee is credited with creating, most of which are co-created with Kirby.

 

In my book, Kirby is WAY more influential. Period.

[mdube16]

Time for a plug....if you liked the article, follow Rob on twitter and read his other stuff including his book . He is a lifelong collector who turned it into his career.

 

@robsalk

 

http://www.amazon.com/Comic-Con-Business-Pop-Culture-Entertainment/dp/0071797025

[Jaylam]

It seems to me Jack's art was slowly evolving, becoming more polished and less cartoonish throughout his Marvel run in the 60's. When Joe Sinnott began doing the inks for Fantastic Four at about issue #44, the finished product took a significant step forward. The quality and visual appeal of Jack's art with Joe's inks really started this title popping, bringing an artistic maturity and energy to comics that had not been seen up to that point.

[djpinkpanther67]

It seems to me Jack's art was slowly evolving, becoming more polished and less cartoonish throughout his Marvel run in the 60's. When Joe Sinnott began doing the inks for Fantastic Four at about issue #44, the finished product took a significant step forward. The quality and visual appeal of Jack's art with Joe's inks really started this title popping, bringing an artistic maturity and energy to comics that had not been seen up to that point.

+1

Arguably the best Penciller/Inker tandem in history

[Senormac]

It seems to me Jack's art was slowly evolving, becoming more polished and less cartoonish throughout his Marvel run in the 60's. When Joe Sinnott began doing the inks for Fantastic Four at about issue #44, the finished product took a significant step forward. The quality and visual appeal of Jack's art with Joe's inks really started this title popping, bringing an artistic maturity and energy to comics that had not been seen up to that point.

+1

Arguably the best Penciller/Inker tandem in history

 

+1

And how many artists throughout history, just got more and more famous long after they were gone. The work endures (in this world anyways).

 

In 25 or 50 years.....Kirby artwork is going to be through the roof valuable.... as if it wasn't already

[silverweb]

Thanks for the write-up. I have always adored Kirby's covers and artwork. Glad he is getting his due. Wish I could see the play in Seattle. Hoping it comes to California

[Prince Namor]

Stan Lee deserved credit for the birth, co-creation, and promotion of the Marvel Universe and has gotten it over the years. It's nice to see the emphasis on Jack come to light.

[Michelangelo]

Stan Lee deserved credit for the birth, co-creation, and promotion of the Marvel Universe and has gotten it over the years. It's nice to see the emphasis on Jack come to light.

 

absolutely..

[thehumantorch]

It seems to me Jack's art was slowly evolving, becoming more polished and less cartoonish throughout his Marvel run in the 60's. When Joe Sinnott began doing the inks for Fantastic Four at about issue #44, the finished product took a significant step forward. The quality and visual appeal of Jack's art with Joe's inks really started this title popping, bringing an artistic maturity and energy to comics that had not been seen up to that point.

+1

Arguably the best Penciller/Inker tandem in history

 

Agreed. The mid 1960 FF run was a masterpiece.

[ComicConnoisseur]

With all the technical advantages the new and upcoming creators have or had over Jack Kirby you would think another modern comic creator would give Jack Kirby some competition. It doesn't seem so.

What I mean by new technology as an advantage is Jack had to draw the stuff by hand with no computer to help out or internet for quick research.

Jack Kirby was something special.

[Jaylam]

I think I remember seeing an interview where Jack explains he drew (no pun intended there) a lot of his inspiration from the stories in the Bible.

That interview can be seen here, linky below:

[Aman619]

With all the technical advantages the new and upcoming creators have or had over Jack Kirby you would think another modern comic creator would give Jack Kirby some competition. It doesn't seem so.

What I mean by new technology as an advantage is Jack had to draw the stuff by hand with no computer to help out or internet for quick research.

Jack Kirby was something special.

 

I'm not sure what role you think technology plays in creative efforts!

 

And as for giving Kirby competition? Jack Kirby has his unique place in comics history because of his unique style, but , in reality, his legend owes a lot to the times he worked. He worked in the industry's infancy. And 20 years later was in the eye of the hurricane of change in comics, at marvel with Stan et al.

 

He created and co created nearly all of Marvel! And comics today are still nearly all derived on things he touched and gave life to. As we all know, you can name on a hand or two all the truly memorable heroes and even villains created since then.

 

So a modern day creator can create a new hero, have his own book or two... But can never reshape the industry anymore. It's a 1000 times bigger and more varied than in Jacks time. MCFarlane and Image came as close as anyone, and that was a lady 25 years ago!