What Jack Kirby means to me

2017 would have been Jack Kirby's centennial.  As I read through the barrage of Twitter posts covering many aspects of The King's legacy, I began to ponder his effect on my life.

My first exposure to The King, though I had no way of knowing at the time, was before I could read.  I was probably four or five, flipping through a stack of my uncle's comics, when I came across Captain America #100.  I was captivated by the images of Cap being unthawed from his icy tomb and revived and begged my grandma to read it to me.  Not only was it what hooked me on Jack Kirby, it's what hooked me on comics.

My next brush with the King, the one that really mattered, was when I became enamored with Who's Who: The Definitive History of the DC universe.  It seemed like every character I was interested in had a drawing by Jack Kirby: The New Gods, Mister Miracle, the red and yellow Sandman, the list goes on and on.  I ordered a lot of Kirby comics from Mile High in those years.  Little did I know, I was just scratching the surface.

When I was around 10, another uncle gave me one of those 1970's paperback sized Marvel reprint collections featuring Captain America.  I was surprised to see Jack Kirby's name all over everything.  I bought a few issues of Marvel Saga around the same time and began sensing Kirby's impact was even bigger than I originally suspected.  In those pre-internet days, research was a lot harder than it is now, but I eventually discovered The Challengers of the Unknown, Silver Star, Captain Victory and a lot of Kirby creations.  Not to mention the Lee and Kirby issues of The Fantastic Four.  Pure gold!

Where am I going with this?  Jack Kirby is responsible for most of the comic characters I love.  Without him, there would be no Marvel Universe and it's possible the comics industry would have never fully recovered after the crash of the 1950s.  These days, you can't get away from his influence.  Movies and merchandise depicting his characters are everywhere.

When I think of comics, I think of Jack Kirby.  With the advent of Marvel Unlimited, the Kirby-crafted cornerstones of the Marvel Universe are now available to a whole new audience.  Long live the King!