Jack Kirby Way

On Monday May 11th, 2026, New York City awarded a special honor to one of their native sons.  

A street corner was named for the artist and visionary who was integral to forging Marvel Comics into a pop culture icon, a man whose singular talent was a jolt of creative energy to this art form we know and love called comic books.  

Jack Kirby was a strong, tough guy but was also known for being gentle and kind.  

With Joe Simon,he created Captain America which debuted with the Star Spangled Avenger punching Hitler on the cover. 

America was not at war with Germany yet but Kirby knew evil when he saw it and was not afraid to express it in his art.

Reportedly some pro-Hitler types showed up at the office to express their dissatisfaction with the treatment of their beloved der Führer.  

Kirby went down stairs to demonstrate what he thought of their dissatisfaction.   

Kirby grew up poor in a rough New York City slum and he knew what to do with bullies.

It was the 1960's that really catapulted Kirby into comics notoriety with his work on such feautures as the Mighty Thor and the Fantastic Four. 

But the time of Jack Kirby's greatest success at Marvel was also a time of his greatest frustration.  

Kirby's inclination to just keep his head down and keep producing the work put him at odds with Stan Lee's talent for glib salesmanship and self promotion.  Too many people pegged Stan Lee as the true genius at Marvel and Kirby was just the artist. 

Being sidelined and ignored began to gnaw at the nominally good natured Jack Kirby so he jumped ship to DC Comics.

On the plus side, Kirby was a creative dynamo unleashed without having to capitulate to a spotlight stealing scripter. At DC, he created the New Gods, Mister Miracle, the Forever People, the Demon Etrigan, Kamandi the Last Boy On Earth and OMAC.  Kirby was generating concepts that spanned time and space and remain crucial elements of the DC Universe. 

But the staid and tradition minded old guard that ran DC did not know what to do with Jack Kirby, leaving him feeling frustrated and unsupported by the DC regime.  

When his contract was up, he returned for a time to Marvel.  

Another bursts of creativity produced such diverse concepts like Devil Dinosaur, the Eternals and Machine Man.

In addition to those creations, Jack Kirby returns to the character that started it all, Captain America for a bonkers long form storyline called "Madbomb".

But Kirby At Marvel 2.0 was a temporary side trip and when that contract was done, Jack Kirby focused on storyboards for animation.  

Kirby did return to create some comics for the nascent independent comics scene such as Captain Victory.

He even returned to DC Comics for a New Gods graphic novel and to draw a toy tie in series called Super Powers.

I must be honest and confess that as a younger comics fan, I did not appreciate Jack Kirby's art.  It was too boxy, too weird, too stylized, just too.... something...

As I got older, I can't say I liked Kirby's art but I have grown to appreciate the power of it, the dynamism, the bursts of unleashed imagination and prescient insights to a world still to come.

Jack Kirby deserved better than what he got when he was alive.

The crowd that came out on that Monday to dedicate a street sign with his name on it was a powerful and sincere appreciation for the man and his talent.

He charted a unique path and produced a legacy to be proud of.

And he did it the Jack Kirby way.