Jack Kirby[1] (born Jacob Kurtzberg; August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) was an American comic book artist, widely regarded as one of the medium's major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators.

There, in the 1960s, Kirby cocreated many of the company's major characters, including Ant-Man, the Avengers, the Black Panther, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Iron Man, the Silver Surfer, Thor, and the X-Men, among many others.

Among his close friends was Leon Klinghoffer, who grew up in the same neighborhood, and who in 1985 was shot, killed and thrown overboard from the cruise ship Achille Lauro by Palestinian Liberation Front hijackers.

He remained until late 1939, when he began working for the theatrical animation company Fleischer Studios as an inbetweener (an artist who fills in the action between major-movement frames) on Popeye cartoons at the same time in 1935.

"[16] After leaving Fox and collaborating on the premiere issue of Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel Adventures ([March] 1941),[17] the first solo title for the previously introduced superhero, and for which Kirby was told to mimic creator C.C.

[24] The pair feared Goodman would not pay them if he found they were moving to National, but many people knew of their plan, including Timely editorial assistant Stan Lee.

"[33] With World War II underway, Liebowitz expected that Simon and Kirby would be drafted, so he asked the artists to create an inventory of material to be published in their absence.

Simon, inspired by Macfadden Publications' romantic-confession magazine True Story, transplanted the idea to comic books and with Kirby created a first-issue mock-up of Young Romance.

[43] While the comic book initially portrayed the protagonist as an anti-Communist dramatic hero, Simon and Kirby turned the series into a superhero satire with the second issue, in the aftermath of the Army-McCarthy hearings and the public backlash against the Red-baiting U.S.

For DC around that time, Kirby co-created with writers Dick and Dave Wood the non-superpowered adventuring quartet the Challengers of the Unknown in Showcase #6 (Feb. 1957),[54] while contributing to such anthologies as House of Mystery.

[58] Some DC editors had criticized him over art details, such as not drawing "the shoelaces on a cavalryman's boots" and showing a Native American "mounting his horse from the wrong side.

Additionally, he freelanced for Archie Comics around this time, reuniting briefly with Joe Simon to help develop the series The Fly[63] and The Double Life of Private Strong.

[66] The landmark series became a hit that revolutionized the industry with its comparative naturalism and, eventually, a cosmic purview informed by Kirby's seemingly boundless imagination—one well-matched with the consciousness-expanding youth culture of the 1960s.

Editor Robert Greenberger wrote in his introduction to the story that "As the fourth year of the Fantastic Four came to a close, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby seemed to be only warming up.

"[86] Comics historian Les Daniels noted that "[t]he mystical and metaphysical elements that took over the saga were perfectly suited to the tastes of young readers in the 1960s", and Lee soon discovered that the story was a favorite on college campuses.

[90] He began to both write and draw some secondary features for Marvel, such as "The Inhumans" in Amazing Adventures volume two,[91] as well as horror stories for the anthology title Chamber of Darkness, and received full credit for doing so; but in 1970, Kirby was presented with a contract that included unfavorable terms such as a prohibition against legal retaliation.

When Kirby objected, the management refused to negotiate any contract changes, bluntly dismissing his contribution to Marvel's success since they considered Lee solely responsible.

[92] Kirby, although he was earning $35,000 a year freelancing for the company[93] (adjusted for inflation it was the equivalent of over $271,000 in 2024),[94] then left Marvel in 1970 for rival DC Comics, under editorial director Carmine Infantino.

[97] He produced a series of interlinked titles under the blanket sobriquet "The Fourth World", which included a trilogy of new titles—New Gods, Mister Miracle, and The Forever People—as well as the extant Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen.

[103][104] Les Daniels observed in 1995 that "Kirby's mix of slang and myth, science fiction and the Bible, made for a heady brew, but the scope of his vision has endured.

[120] He created the series The Eternals,[121] which featured a race of inscrutable alien giants, the Celestials, whose behind-the-scenes intervention in primordial humanity would eventually become a core element of Marvel Universe continuity.

[132] In the early 1980s, Kirby and Pacific Comics, a new, non-newsstand comic-book publisher, made one of the industry's earliest deals for creator-owned series, resulting in Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers,[133][134] and the six-issue miniseries Silver Star (later collected in hardcover format in 2007).

[140] Kirby continued to do periodic work for DC Comics during the 1980s, including a brief revival of his "Fourth World" saga in the 1984 and 1985 Super Powers miniseries[141] and the 1985 graphic novel The Hunger Dogs.

[159][161] After being drafted into the U.S. Army and serving in the European Theater in World War II,[162] Kirby corresponded with his wife regularly by v-mail, with Roz sending daily letters while she worked in a lingerie shop and lived with her mother[163] at 2820 Brighton 7th Street in Brooklyn.

Kirby was honorably discharged as a private first class on July 20, 1945, having received a Combat Infantryman Badge, a European/African/Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with a bronze Battle Star.

[170] He moved the family to Southern California in early 1969, both to live in a drier climate for the sake of daughter Lisa's health and to be closer to the Hollywood studios Jack Kirby believed might provide work.

[175]Jack Kirby has been referred to as the "superhero of style", his artwork described by John Carlin in Masters of American Comics as "deliberately primitive and bombastic",[176] and elsewhere has been compared to Cubist,[177] Futurist, Primitivist and outsider art.

[183] Like many of his contemporaries, Kirby was hugely indebted to Milton Caniff, Hal Foster, and Alex Raymond who codified many of the tropes of narrative art in adventure comic strips.

The exhibition displayed photocopies of unpublished Kirby pencils for stories intended for publication in the 2001: A Space Odyssey comic book adaptation series as well as reproductions of the published work.

[285] With Will Eisner, Robert Crumb, Harvey Kurtzman, Gary Panter and Chris Ware, Kirby was among the artists honored in the exhibition "Masters of American Comics" at the Jewish Museum in New York City from September 16, 2006, to January 28, 2007.