Jack Kirby | |
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Kirby in 1992
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Born | Jacob Kurtzberg August 28, 1917 New York City, New York, United States |
Died | February 6, 1994 Thousand Oaks, California, United States |
(aged 76)
Nationality | American |
Area(s) | |
Pseudonym(s) | Jack Curtiss, Curt Davis, Lance Kirby, Ted Grey, Charles Nicholas, Fred Sande, Teddy |
Notable works
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Captain America, Fantastic Four, Fourth World, Hulk, Kamandi, Manhunter, Newsboy Legion, Thor, Silver Surfer, X-Men |
Awards | Alley Award, Best Pencil Artist (1967), plus many awards for individual stories, Shazam Award, Special Achievement by an Individual (1971) |
Spouse(s) | Roz Goldstein (m. 1942–1994; his death) |
Children |
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Jack Kirby (/ˈkɜːrbi/; 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.
Kirby grew up in New York City, and learned to draw cartoon figures by tracing characters from comic strips and editorial cartoons. He entered the nascent comics industry in the 1930s, drawing various comics features under different pen names, including Jack Curtiss, before ultimately settling on Jack Kirby. In 1940, he and writer-editor Joe Simon created the highly successful superhero character Captain America for Timely Comics, predecessor of Marvel Comics. During the 1940s, Kirby, generally teamed with Simon, created numerous characters for that company and for National Comics Publications, later to become DC Comics.
After serving in World War II, Kirby produced work for a number of publishers, including DC, Harvey Comics, Hillman Periodicals. At Crestwood Publications he and Simon created the genre of romance comics and later founded their own short-lived comic company, Mainline Publications. Ultimately, Kirby found himself at Timely's 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics, which in the next decade became Marvel. There, in the 1960s, Kirby and writer-editor Stan Lee co-created many of the company's major characters, including the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the Hulk. The Lee-Kirby titles garnered high sales and critical acclaim, but in 1970, feeling he had been treated unfairly, Kirby left the company for rival DC.