• Jack Kirby was a prominent comic book artist and writer. He is credited with creating or co-creating many of the major comic book characters that still exist to this day, such as The Fantastic Four and the X-Men.

  Born to Jewish Austrian parents, Kirby grew up in New York's Lower East Side. He was a largely self-taught artist and joined the Lincoln Newspaper Syndicate in 1936, drawing strips and single-panel advice cartoons. He later worked for comic book packager Eisner & Iger and publisher Fox Feature Syndicate. In 1940, Kirby and editor Joe Simon created Captain America for Timely Comics, which later became Marvel Comics. Kirby and Simon then moved to National Comics, one of the precursors of DC.

  Kirby was drafted into the army in 1943 and served with the Third Army combat infantry. He returned to the U.S. in 1945 and resumed his partnership with Joe Simon. Kirby and Simon would end their association amicably in 1955 with the failure of their own publishing endeavor, Mainline Publications.

  It was in the early 60s that Kirby's most famous partnership with Marvel editor and writer Stan Lee took off. Together, they created The Fantastic Four, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, X-Men and the Black Panther.

  Kirby returned to DC in 1970. The publisher gave him full creative control as an editor, writer and artist on such titles as New Gods, The Forever People and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen. Kirby later returned to Marvel and worked for such independent publishers as Pacific Comics, Eclipse Comics and Topps Comics.

  Kirby died of heart failure in 1994.

• Fast Facts

  1. Born: August 28, 1917
  2. Birthplace: New York City
  3. Real name: Jacob Kurtzberg
  4. Nickname: "The King"
  5. Died: February 6, 1994
  6. Produced an estimated 25,000 comic book pages
  7. One of Kirby's first jobs was working on Popeye cartoons
  8. 1953: Kirby and Captain America co-creator Joe Simon created their own short-lived publishing company, Mainline Publications
  9. 1975: Kirby was inducted into the Shazam Awards Hall of Fame

• Related Mahalo Pages

  Marvel Comics | Marvel Universe | DC Comics | DC Universe | Topps Comics | Pacific Comics | Stan Lee | Joe Simon | X-Men | Captain America | Hulk | Black Panther | Silver Surfer | Cyclops | Beast | Marvel Girl | Professor Xavier | Thor | Iron Man

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