Jack Kirby Day, the artist's 109th birthday

comicsAug 28, 202670984

Jack Kirby would have turned 109 today, and the comics community marked the anniversary with tributes and retrospectives celebrating his influence. John Morrow at News From ME recalled Kirby as "one of the nicest, most decent and brilliant" men and wrote that Kirby treated aspiring creators as equals while pushing them to avoid laziness or imitation. Morrow noted he is finishing a long-delayed, extensive book about Kirby as a way of spending more time with the artist. Recent archival interest includes a panel-by-panel study of Kirby’s 1961 redraw of Classics Illustrated #35 The Last Days of Pompeii and an Artist’s Edition release from IDW focusing on Kirby’s Fantastic Four work. Fans and creators posted personal remembrances, picked favorites such as Kamandi #1 and Thor #134, and pointed to institutional recognition including an unveiled plaque to Kirby at Avengers Campus inside Disney’s California Adventure. The day centered on looking back at Kirby’s art, storytelling, and mentorship rather than announcing new creative projects tied to the birthday.

The Emotion Engine

@emotion-engine.bsky.social

Alan Moore looks like someone Goku fought for like 12 episodes as a kid that Jack Kirby is about to blow away without lifting a finger to establish the stakes

1134h ago

Cooper Mills

@coopermills.bsky.social

Wishing a happy birthday to the King #comicsky #comics #jackkirby

A Jack Kirby self portrait (with contributions by Joe Sinnott) that shows the King hanging out with Ben Grimm. The Red Skull replaces Jack's cigar with a stick of dynamite and Doctor Doom pours "NITRO-JUICE" into the Thing's drink.

985h ago

Netscape

@netscape.bsky.social

Jack Kirby was Born today, it’s hard to think of one person who changed a medium more. Happy birthday King.

613h ago

Scary Gorgon

@scarygorgon.bsky.social

It's Jack Kirby Day and as I haven't seen this drift past in my feed yet, I'm going to remind you that the guy was stacked and could probably deck every last one of us.

Black and white photo of Jack Kirby and his two tickets to the gun show.

622h ago

Mark Reznicek

@realmarkrez.bsky.social

For Jack Kirby’s birthday, I decided to share my favorite single issue by the King. It was a hard decision, so many choices, but when it comes down to it, in my heart of hearts, I think it’s Kamandi no. 1. The whole series is great, but this issue is special to me. What’s your fave? #JackKirbyMonth

A long-haired blond teenager rows a raft past the Statue of Liberty, which lies in ruins, jutting up out of the water at a precarious angle. A broken building can be seen in the background.

668h ago

Drew Evan Dobbs1

I'll get onboard - Boy, talk about a tough decision. I'll go with this, my childhood copy (and nearly loved to pieces) of New Gods #6. I loved the epic story as a kid, and those double-page and single page images are still absolutely awesome, in every sense of the word. Oh, and the Deep Six, scary!

John Livesay1

That’s a great pick. I’d have to go with the Demon.

Austin Allen Hamblin1

It’s such and underrated series! I also love the Kamandi Challenge!

Elana Levin

@levin.bsky.social

Happy Birthday Jack Kirby! I had the honor of representing @jackkirbymuseum.bsky.social on the SyFy channel some years back to highlight the importance of his Lower East Side upbringing and the Fourth World. Truly a high point for me as a comics critic getting to share the Kirby Museum’s work on tv.

462h ago

Elana Levin10

Oh yeah that’s me talking about the significance of Jack Kirby’s participation as a teen in the rather radical Boys Brotherhood Republic. The walking tour is from the Jack Kirby Museum’s own tour itinerary and research. I couldn’t have done this without them. Also, hello Todd McFarlane!

Tade Thompson2

And DC absolutely did not know the value of what he gave to them.

KevFun Newburn2

There was like a 2 year span where SyFy Wire had some of the coolest reporting on comics. I'm definitely gonna check this out!

John Jakala

@jjakala.bsky.social

Happy birthday to Jack Kirby, the ultimate Wife Guy (extremely complimentary).

332h ago

𝗕𝗥𝗨𝗭𝗭𝗘𝗦𝗘

@bruzzeseonline.bsky.social

The best way to pay tribute to Jack Kirby on his birthday is to make your own inventive and dynamic comics, not to aspire to breadcrumbs and exploitation from big publishers.

393h ago

Matthew Dow Smith

@matthewdowsmith.bsky.social

Happy Birthday, King. #JackKirby #KingKirby

383h ago

carlydraws

@carlydraws.bsky.social

Hail to the King! It's Jack (King) Kirby's birthday today, couldn't resist a colourful grimy tribute to one of my favourite artists and inspirations (and one of my fave characters too) #JackKirby

384h ago

Roger Langridge

@hotelfred.bsky.social

For Jack Kirby's birthday, here's a Kirby drawing I inked a few years ago for fun. #jackkirbymonth

275h ago

Jay Lender

@jaylender.bsky.social

Today you'll be told that Jack Kirby matters because he once created some movie characters…

Double-page spread from Eternals 11 with lots of characters flying past a mountain stronghold as Zuras summons the Eternals to form the Uni-Mind.

263h ago

The Monster Society of Evil

@monstersocietyevil.bsky.social

#JackKirbyMonth day 27 Celebrating #Thorsday with a little help from the Jack Kirby’s The Mighty Thor Artist’s Edition! I’m gonna focus on Thor #134, a fave of mine that is printined in its entirety in this amazing book. #FantasticFour #JackKirby #comicsky #marvelcomics

Extremely large art book is open on a wooden table, displaying art for two covers of The Mighty Thor. One of the two comics represented is laid on the other page for scale. It looks tiny

32Yesterday

The Monster Society of Evil9

Imagine owning any of these pages. Good grief.

TheRealityComics1

I'm curious what's behind the white out. Like, was he adding some to the BG or some kind of highlights around Thor. Ah well...

Mark Reznicek1

Great thread. Makes me want to pull out my Thor artist edition when I get home. Even Vinnie’s inks (which are actually pretty decent here) can’t hide the majesty of Kirby’s art on this story.