There is a famous story about Jack Kirby going on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.” When Johnny read his intro off a card that said, “My next guest is known as the ‘king of comics,’” Johnny went off script and started laughing, saying, “Who is this guy to call himself the king of comics? I know all the great comedians, and I’ve never heard of this guy.” Of course, he would soon find out that comics was referring to comic books, and that his guest had co-created “Captain America,” “The Fantastic Four,” “The Black Panther” and so many more modern superhero mythologies.
From way back then with Johnny Carson until today, it seems not much has changed… until now.
Thanks to the Skirball Cultural Center, Kirby is finally getting the honor and respect he deserves with his own exhibit, “Jack Kirby: Heroes and Humanity.”
Kirby, who was Jewish and from the Lower East Side, was born in 1917. He was a comic book illustrator who co-created “Captain America” with Joe Simon, a writer and editor. Captain America was a character who fought Nazis to save the United States. Kirby fought off the page when he was drafted during World War II. It’s cool to think that a Jew is behind the most American character of all time.
In the 1960s, while at Atlas Comics, which later became Marvel, Kirby co-created characters like Ant-Man, Iron Man, the Hulk, the Silver Surfer, the X-Men, the Avengers and Thor.
“It was important to have this exhibition because Jack’s story is such a compelling Jewish American story,” said Michele Urton, Skirball’s exhibitions manager. “I hope that people will come away understanding that so much of the world that we live in today in popular culture was really impacted by this one person.”
The exhibition includes Kirby’s comic books as well as his personal items, like his uniform from World War II, rare collages, original pieces and character costumes from the movies. His family was involved in helping put it together.
Ben Saunders, one of the co-curators for the exhibit as well as a professor of English at the University of Oregon — where he founded the Comic Studies minor — said, “Jack Kirby emblematizes, almost literally, the power of the imagination. His fingerprints are all over my mind.”
“Jack Kirby emblematizes, almost literally, the power of the imagination. His fingerprints are all over my mind.”
– Ben Saunders
Saunders and his co-curator, Patrick A. Reid, had to go to private collectors to get the pieces. Though it wasn’t an easy ask, it was worth it.
“Even as a huge Kirby fan, I hadn’t seen a lot of these things,” Saunders said. “It was part of the excitement for me to be able to do this.”
For Reid, it was special that the exhibit is being held at Skirball.
“Jack lived and worked in Los Angeles for the second half of his career,” he said. “He and his family were integral to the community here. He helped inspire the fandom that founded San Diego Comic Con, and he was a foundational part of fandom on the West Coast. To be able to do that here, in a cultural institution, and celebrate Jack and his family is just a dream.”
If you are a fan of comic books, or you simply want to learn about the man behind so many characters that shaped pop culture and our collective imagination, make sure you visit “Jack Kirby: Heroes and Humanity,” which is on display until March 1, 2026.
“I hope that when people come, they walk away with a sense of joy,” said Urton. “Jack Kirby’s family has been incredibly excited to see him finally get an exhibition of this scale. It’s long overdue.”
