Explore the extraordinary legacy of Nazi-slugging comic book pioneer Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby (1917–1994) is probably the most famous American comic book artist and writer in history. Kirby created and co-created many of the most famous characters in comics, including Captain America, Thor, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, the X-Men, Black Panther, the Incredible Hulk, and many more.

He's long been my favorite cartoonist. Here's what I wrote for Hilobrow in 2011:

In the summer of 1977 Jack Kirby came to Colorado to make appearances at the three different Mile High Comics stores — in Fort Collins, Boulder, and Denver. At the time I was 16 years old and worked after school and on the weekends at the Boulder store; I fell asleep thinking about Kirby and woke up in the morning thinking about Kirby. I'd become an instant fan upon discovering Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth. Before Kamandi, I read Richie Rich and other Harvey titles, but had zero interest in Marvel or DC comics, which were exclusively about superheroes and seemed as ridiculous to me as spectator sports.

Kamandi was different from any other comic. It was about an ordinary boy, with no special powers or skills, surviving on his own in a crazy world taken over by intelligent, bipedal mammals. The series came on the heels of Planet of the Apes — a movie I watched over and over again in the theater — and Kamandi was like an improved extension of that world. So when Kirby came to Colorado I was the first in line at all three stores. I hung out at the signing table from the minute he arrived until he left the stores in the evening.

I remember three things about his visit:

1. On the first night, somebody asked him what role Stan Lee played in the writing of the Marvel titles that Kirby had illustrated. Kirby answered, "He didn't do anything. I did the whole damn thing." A few minutes later, he noticed that someone was holding out a small tape recorder to record his answers. He said, "What are you doing! Gimme that." When the guy handed him the tape recorder, Kirby removed the cassette and stuck it in his back pocket. He then handed the recorder back to the guy and said, "Don't do that!"

2. On the second night, Kirby and his wife went to see Star Wars in the theatre with the owner and the manager of Mike High comics. I was jealous that the owner hadn't invited me to go. The next day the manager told me that Kirby had remarked that Darth Vader looked a lot like Darkseid, Kirby's Fourth World supervillain.

3. On the third and final day, at the Fort Collins store, Kirby said to me, "You should come out to Thousand Oaks sometime and visit. I have a teenage niece who would be interested in you." (I never did make the trip out to Thousand Oaks. I was a pest, but not that much of a pest.)

A few months ago, I got hold of the PDFs of all the Kamandi back issues (I don't feel guilty for having downloaded them, because I bought each and every single copy of Kamandi from the newsstand.) I stuck them on my iPad and read them to my seven-year-old daughter. I didn't know if she would be too young to understand and enjoy the comics, but it turned out that she understood enough to ask me to read them to her every night before bed. One of her favorite parts of the series was about an army of gorilla-hating tigers, led by the Great Caesar — first seen in the panel shown here from Kamandi #1 (October 1972).

Like Jane, my teenage self was thrilled to follow Kamandi's adventures with the truculent felines, and to see a friendship blossom between Kamandi and Tuftan, the Great Caesar's teenaged son. This would make a terrific movie, I thought as I read the comics to Jane, but I hope one never gets made.

Yesterday, I went with Jane and Carla to see the "Jack Kirby: Heroes and Humanity" exhibition at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. This major retrospective celebrates Kirby's 50+ year career, beginning with Kirby's Jewish heritage and upbringing in Manhattan's Lower East Side. I brought along my reading glasses so I could inspect the many dozens of pages of original art from his comics, along with his watercolors and psychedelic collages from the late 1960s, a drawing he gave to Paul and Linda McCartney and a reproduction of a futuristic costume he designed for a UC Santa Cruz production of Julius Caesar.

The exhibition also includes a copy of the rare Captain America #1 from 1941, which came out before the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, and a large percentage of conservatives in America were rooting for Hitler. Kirby wasn't having any of it. The cover deliciously shows Captain America delivering a knockout blow to Hitler's ugly face. Kirby's family also loaned the museum his military uniform, which is displayed next to a photo of him wearing it during World War II. And while the army took advantage of Kirby's drawing skills by enlisting him to draw maps, the 5-feet-2-inches tall Kirby also served in combat, landing at Omaha Beach in Normandy in August 1944.

The exhibition runs from May 1, 2025 to March 1, 2026. Even if you aren't familiar with Kirby or comic books, I highly recommend this exhibition as an essential slice of American cultural history.

Previously:
• Giant book of scanned art from Jack Kirby's best comic book series: Kamandi
• Jack Kirby's glorious comic book experiment
• Jack Kirby's long-lost, incomplete 'The Prisoner' comic book