It’s 3 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon and the Jack Kirby pop up museum at One Art Space in Tribeca is bustling. August 28th marks the 100th birthday of the "King of Comics" and Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center President Tom Kraft brought out his collection of original art for the occasion. The family of Kirby’s old friend (and famous inker) Joe Giella were in attendance along with dozens of comic book fans from young children to industry veterans to curious folks new to comics.
“We want to carry on his legacy because he’s the one who built the foundation of comics everybody enjoys today and most people don’t even know that,” Kraft told Player.One. “For younger people, to let them know...He has a lot of stuff he doesn’t get recognition for. He has a lot of great stories and a lot of great world's people would enjoy knowing about.”
You can look through a jumbo sized New Gods No. 7, Fantastic Four No. 48 or an issue of Young Romance. Famous covers line the walls and narrate Jack Kirby’s life. See how a panel of Captain America No. 103 was created from start to finish, from penciling, to the ink and color.
“This is very interactive, you can come up and look at stuff. That’s why I brought it,” Kraft announced, as he began to explain Kirby’s working relationship with Stan Lee. The two created Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, the X-Men and countless other pop culture icons even casual fans now cherish from the Marvel cinematic universe.
“Especially for Fantastic Four, Jack would put all his notes on the side and then Stan Lee would come in and say, this is what I’m going to say based on what Jack wrote in the notes. He would number them and write up a script,” Kraft said.
Before 1969, a lot of original comic book art was sold or destroyed and wasn’t returned to the artist. Much of this collection exists due to the efforts of creators-rights advocate Neil Adams. By the 70s, it became policy to return the covers and pages to the artists. Now the process is digital, and some comic book fans don’t realize all the steps that used to go into creating from start to finish.
“It’s always a challenge when we display original art, when we say here’s the original art for that Captain America cover and a lot of times if people aren't serious comic book aficionados, they say ‘Well, where's the color?’” said Kirby Museum co-founder Rand Hoppe, naming colorists such as Jerry Serpe. “We don't have the representation of the human hand on color. That’s one of our challenges when we want to display and educate people on what comic book art is. Basically just the printed piece, we don’t have the color guys.”
The Kirby Museum attends conventions across the country, such as San Diego Comic-Con, New York Comic Con, Wonder Con, Heroes Con and more. They’ve been hoping to do a show in Los Angeles, but spaces are too expensive … even for one of the best collections of Kirby Art in the world.
Kraft thinks the interest in comic books are growing, which could bring fans back to Kirby’s work. Kraft cites Tom King’s Mister Miracle, released earlier this month, as an old story finding a new audience. It’s a new take on one of Jack Kirby’s beloved New Gods.
“They are reprinting some of those backup stories we have original art here for. We were at another event last weekend and people came and said, 'I didn't know who Jack Kirby was before, but I started reading some of the new releases based on Kirby’s Centennial and I saw all these weird stories and it got me so interested and I wanted to figure out more.'”
Well, if you want to learn more too, stop by the Jack Kirby Museum at One Art Space in Tribeca, New York. Doors are open until 7 p.m Wednesday with a suggested donation of $5. Visit the Kirby Museum's website to stay up to date on future events.
