- Jack Kirby was famous for being as tough as his characters. For instance, when a gangster was shaking down Kirby's boss, Will Eisner, to take his towel service, Kirby charged in to throw the gangster out. When Kirby created Captain America with Joe Simon, Nazi sympathizers once gathered in the lobby of the office building where the pair worked to threaten them. However, when upon hearing that Kirby was heading down with his sleeves rolled up to physically confront them himself, they fled before he arrived.
- The relationship between The Thing and Mr Fantastic was modelled on his own with Stan Lee.
- A dispute with Stan Lee forced Kirby to leave Marvel after several years of writing and illustrating for them. Kirby then returned to Marvel's chief rival D.C. Comics (Simon & Kirby left Timely Comics, in the 1940s to jump to rival National/DC, and Kirby later worked for them in the 1950s), 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. Although Kirby's direct involvement with his creations proved short-lived, he was later involved in action figure designs for these characters in the Super Powers toy line by the Kenner Toy Company in the 1980s. As DC Comics was proud to point out, this led to Kirby finally getting direct royalties for his comic book characters for the first time in his career.
- Created Groot of ''The Guardians of The Galaxy'' fame.
- Had a major dispute with Marvel Comics to get back his original artwork (which consisted of well over 9000 pages over his ten year tenure). Marvel asked him to sign a release indemnifying the company for any missing work. Kirby refused. After a massive support campaign within the industry, Marvel eventually returned the remaining art, without conditions; but, much of it was missing, from his peak period.
- His creations have included Captain America, Thor, Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, Black Panther, Silver Surfer, Doctor Doom and the X-Men.
- Kirby created production art for an abandoned film project, based on Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light. The film script and concept art was later used for the "Argo" film project ruse that was part of the successful CIA-Canadian operation that managed to extract six Americans out of revolutionary Iran in 1980.
- He based the character of Ben Grimm, aka The Thing in Fantastic Four, on himself.
- The character "Dan Turpin" in Superman: The Animated Series (1996) (aka Superman: The Animated Series (1996)) was based on Jack Kirby.
- Kirby was a veteran of World War II, where he saw combat in the European Theater. He later applied these experiences in his war comics, especially his lesser known work on DC's "The Losers.".
- In honor of Jack Kirby, comic strip artist-writer Rick Veitch named his son Kirby.
- Kirby is remembered fondly as not only a prolific artist, but a very considerate man at work. For instance, when he came to DC Comics after his most famous work at Marvel Comics in 1970, he insisted on taking over the minor title, "Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen," because it had no assigned talent at the time so he could work on it without causing anyone to lose his job.
- 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.
- The only time Kirby regretted his calling was when a military officer recognized him as an illustrator while he was serving in the field as a infantry trooper in World War II. He was then assigned to be a forward scout with the task of heading into hostile territory ahead of the main force to map it out, an extremely dangerous duty.
- Was named a Disney Legend in July 2017, one month before the 100th anniversary of his birth.
- While at D.C., Kirby also created the characters OMAC (One Man Army Corps) and Kamandi, the last boy on Earth.
- He is the mutual idol of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. In honor of him they made a character called Kirby King for a comic book (Donatello #1, "Kirby and the Warp Crystal").
- According to Stan Lee, Kirby was the most imaginative and inventive guy he has ever met.
- Every comic book he ever created he saw as a storyboard for a movie.
- The fighting scenes he drew in his comics were inspired by his own fights with street gangs as a young boy.
- He was known as a very polite and gracious man who left a strong positive impression on people he met.
- Was included in one of Mark Waid's ''Fantastic Four'' comics as God or some other powerful deity who was responsible for the creation of the heroes and Their adventures. The character was implied to have been the Ominiscient creator of all Marvel Universes.
- During his service in World War II, he once got frostbite so severe he nearly lost both of his feet.
- According to Kirby, Captain America was created out of the American patriotism felt at the time during World War 2.
- He was a combat infantry man with Patton's Fifth Division in World War 2, and the character of Nick Fury was based off his experiences and feelings in the war.
- He is considered by many writers and fans to be the single most important and influential figure in comic books.
- His favorite of his own works was the ''New Gods'' saga.
- Kirby originally worked in animation at Fleischer Studios as an inbetweener animator, but found that work unappealingly laborious and soon left it for the comic book industry. However, Kirby eventually returned to animation in the late 1970s and found it a far more enjoyable experience working in more senior creative positions such as a storyboarder and character designer while the younger subordinate personnel who worked on the more laborious duties treated him with a respect he never felt from management while working in comic books.
- His inspiration for creating Galactus and the Silver Surfer was the Bible.
- Made a cameo appearance as a sketch artist, in The Incredible Hulk Tv series (1978). Season 2 Episode 18.
- Was so immersed in his work, that once he went driving with his son, and landed on the curb, while thinking of his next story.
- According to Stan Lee, the quality of Kirby's work was always at a very high standard, even when he had to turn in 5 new pages that night or the next day.
- Was born at 147 Essex Street, Lower East Side, New York City. His family later moved to 131 Suffolk Street, Lower East Side, New York City, where he grew up and spent most of his childhood.
- He had 4 children with Rosalind Goldstein: Susan, Neal, Barbara, and Lisa.
- He loved to tell war stories.
- He is completely self-taught and as a child started drawing on the walls inside the tenement building where he was staying, on the Lower East Side.
- Loved going to the movies ever since he was a child. Later in his life, he had a dream of going to Hollywood to make movies.
- Two characters he identified most with from his New Gods series were Orion and Mister Miracle.
- Co-created Captain America for Timely Comics at the age of 22.
- Had the following pen names throughout his career: Jacob Kurtzburg, Lance Kirby, Jack Curtis, Jack Cortez, Bob Brown, Ted Gray, Kirby, Jack and eventually settled for Jack Kirby, which he changed legally.
- He did 102 issues of The Fantastic Four.
- He could work 12-14 hours a day. He did his drawings in the small basement, called The Dungeon, in his New York City home. He worked mostly in the evenings, with the radio and TV on, until 4am in the morning.
- One newspaper writer described his appearance as that of a "foreman on a construction yard.".
- He was an avid reader with a large library filled with books on many subjects such as religion, history and mythology.
- He and his wife enjoyed having guests at his home and was always an excellent host, even to total strangers who dropped by unannounced.
- Has stated in an interview that the amount of characters he has created, amounted to an army division. Army divisions usually numbered in the amount of 8000 soldiers and upwards.
- After becoming partners with Joe Simon, Kirby and Simon then got an office in Tudor City, New York City from where they created Captain America.
- His father came from Austrian aristocracy.
- He had a brother 5 years younger.
- One of Kirby's bosses, Victor Fox, coined the phrase "King of the Comics" which Kirby later used.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content