Jack Kirby: Heroes and Humanity smashes its way to the Skirball Cultural Center! I had meant to attend the Jack Kirby exhibit at the Skirball for more than six months! The Jack Kirby exhibition opened on May 1, 2025 and runs to March 1, 2025. Check out information at: https://www.skirball.org/museum/jack-kirby-heroes-and-humanity. They are open most days except Mondays. General admission is $18 with a $2 increase on January 1st! Thursdays are free to everyone! Note that the docent tours are at Tuesday to Friday at 1 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. I was delayed by traffic so missed the 1 p.m. tour! The 405 has construction heavy traffic delays from UCLA to the Getty Center.
The organizing curator is Michele Urton who is the Museum Deputy Director at the Skirball Cultural Center. It was co-curatored by Patrick A. Reed, curator of Jack Kirby exhibitions, and Professor Ben Sanders. I was impressed by the curators because the exhibit is very detailed on Kirby’s life and the different eras of his creative work. Even more that it details the process of inking. I also had a thousand questions so will have to return for the tours. It has a wall with the incredible streaks of light which I think is from The Silver Surfer (1978) graphic novel. Inside is one of Kirby’s editorial cartoons from 1940. Next to it is a plastic case and inside Captain America Comics #1 (1940) by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon!
This was a comic book that had a brief appearance in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). Then, a display has the pages open to Captain America Comics #5 (1941). This is great to see the inside of an actual comic besides art pages and posters. The section, Kirby Goes To War, notes the printing of the first issue of Captain America. Then, a display of Kirby’s U.S. Army uniform, and his commendations including a Combat Infantry Badge. Pulp Fiction - Comic Book Style! Details the return of the iconic duo, Simon and Kirby, who created the romance comic in 1947 with Young Romance. Simon Kirby explored many genres including Foxhole, their war comic for their company, Mainline Comics, and later the Western title, Boys’ Ranch.
The artwork is noted as from the Simon and Kirby studio, some of the pencil lines look like from other artists. It is fascinating because one page of Boys’ Ranch #2 (1950) I’m almost certain has three different artists workign on the page. I love seeing this original pages used to make the comic; all of the notations, yellowing, and pasted text. A Time of Transition explains the troubled comic industry that led to the Comics Code Authority. This also had Simon and Kirby going their own ways. Kirby returned to Timely Comics renamed Marvel Comics with monster books over seen by Stan Lee. The one monster left out is Groot from Tales to Astonish (1960), he was just world conquering kaiju, and became the “I Am Groot” in the limited series, Annihilation Conquest.
A New Era Dawns brings in the Fantastic Four with the pinups of the FF! There was also a Happy Hanukkah card of The Thing. There are pages of Fantastic Four and on the next wall was displays of Marvel Comics, 1961-1967; various comic pages showing Black Panther, Thor, and the Avengers! An impressive display of the comics that also introduced Doctor Doom, the X-Men, and the Hulk. Another display had the spread showing the squad from Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1 (1963) which had Kirby countering racism with the different soldiers. A wall had several comic pages from X-Men #7 (1964). Note that the Lee and Kirby run lasted only nineteen issues (1963-1966). Roy Thomas took over and then a few creative teams contined until the title went into reprints. It was only until Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975) by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum that the title became popular with writer, Chris Claremont.
From Marvel to DC has a display with first issue of many of Kirby’s comics, they are some of my favorites, many in my collection. What was impressive was seeing character designs for Mister Miracle and Metron. Along a wall is Kirby’s Stylistic Evolution that shows examples of his artwork from his Early Career, Adventure Comics #73 (1942), Mid-Career, Fighting American #1 (1954), and Late Career, Fantastic Four #74. I think his late career would involve post-Marvel and DC with the comics he made for Pacific Comics like Silver Star, there was a comic page. Then, Image Comics with Phantom Force.
Another room had Kirby as Interpreter that had a knockout page from Super Powers #5 (1984). Also, a comic page from 2001: A Space Odyssey Treasury (1976), it is fascinating that Kirby adapted a cinematic classic, but went in his own direction! Kirby And Worldbuilding has a stunning character design of Black Panther with his original un-masked costume with yellow and black striped uniform. There was a few comic pages, one from Fantastic Four #51 (1965) that had Reed Richard in the Negative Zone, using collage. I think comic art has still not caught up to Kirby’s use of design like collage. The other current artists who have pushed the artform I would note is Dave McKean and Bill Sienkiewicz.
I think Jack Kirby as a creator is impressive in that he was a writer and artist. He had solo writing duties with his DC titles taking over Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsenwith issue #132 (1970). He introduced Darkseid in that run and a year later, the Fourth World was formed with New Gods #1 (1971). Kirby’s production should really shame the current artists as he churned out several titles a month also covers! He returned to Marvel and Captain America, writing and pencilling starting with issue #193 (1976). Modernizing Myths also noted that Kirby used Central American iconography that was in his original series starting with The Eternals #1 (1970).
A display has the Black Panther costume from the 2018 film. Marvel Studios also contributed a Sakaaran Guard costume, very Kirby, from Thor: Ragnarok (2017). There was a reproduction of Calpurnia costume for a 1969 University of California, Santa Cruz production of Julius Caesar. I didn't know about his Shakespeare designs. One Man’s Imagination had Kirby’s typewriter from his family’s collection. It notes that Kirby moved to California in 1969. He had worked on various animated series including a presentation piece, painted artwork, for Thundarr the Barbarian! There were so many art pieces that this does not cover them all. Plus, it is great to see in person the construction of comic book artwork. Highly recommended! Jack Kirby: Heroes and Humanity is a must-see exhibition at one of the finest institutions, the Skirball Cultural Center!
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