A renaming ceremony in New York City honored Jack Kirby, whose bold, graphic style shaped Marvel’s most memorable characters. Kirby’s life began in 1917 tenement slums and was marked by conflict, including violent clashes with Irish-American gangs targeting Jewish residents. During World War II, he fought with U.S. forces in Europe, repeatedly risking his life as a scout ahead of General Patton’s advance. After the war, he faced exploitation by people who tried to steal comic book royalties and, more severely, artistic credit. The superhero blockbuster industry later became distant from the earlier comic book world, which was financially precarious and comparable to harsh garment sweatshops.
"Just a block away from his birthplace in New York City, a grand ceremony attended by family, dignitaries and fans in the costumes of their beloved Marvel characters marked the renaming of a street as Jack Kirby Way. Speeches celebrated his work and acknowledged the gesture was long overdue."
"But what was the Jack Kirby way? The life of Jacob Kurtzberg - as he was born in tenement slums of the city in 1917 - was driven by conflict: first, against the Irish-American gangs of his childhood who sought out the "Christ-killer" Jews of the Lower East Side in bloody pitched battles. Then, against the Nazis he fought with US forces in Europe in the Second World War, risking his life repeatedly as a scout in enemy territory at the spearhead of General Patton's remorseless push for victory."
"And, over and over again, against the shysters that sought to rob the towering giant of comic books of the royalties and - worst of all - the artistic credit for his work. The lucrative superhero blockbuster industry is now light years distant from the milieu in which Kirby and the other founding figures of the comic books - many of them Jewish - forged their legacy."
"For much of the last century, comic book artistry was an impecunious, hardscrabble existence not so very different from the sweatshops of the Delancey Street garment trade in which Kirby's A"
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