Jack Kirby Net Worth

What was Jack Kirby's Net Worth?

Jack Kirby was an American comic book artist who had a net worth of $5 million. That's the same as around $10 million in today's dollars after adjusting for inflation.

Considered one of the most influential creators in the history of comic books, Jack Kirby helped create such iconic characters as Captain America, Iron Man, the Hulk, Black Panther, and Thor. Later in his career, he ventured into television animation and independent comics.

Early Life and Education

Jack Kirby was born Jacob Kurtzberg on August 28, 1917 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. His parents were Rose and Benjamin, both Austrian Jewish immigrants. Kirby loved to draw as a child, and learned how to illustrate cartoon figures by tracing various characters from comic strips. When he was just 14 years old, he enrolled at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, but left after a week.

Career Beginnings in Comics

In 1936, Kirby began his career in comics when he started doing comic strips and single-panel cartoons for the Lincoln Newspaper Syndicate. He did that until 1939, and then became an inbetweener for the animation company Fleischer Studios. As the American comic book industry expanded, Kirby began writing and drawing for the comic book packager Eisner & Iger. He continued drawing various comics for different publishers over the subsequent years, using a myriad of pseudonyms. Kirby had a particularly successful partnership with cartoonist and editor Joe Simon, with whom he created the patriotic superhero Captain America for Timely Comics in 1940. The pair created many other characters for that company, which would later become Marvel Comics, and also for National Comics Publications, which would later become DC Comics.

Military Service

In 1943, Kirby was drafted into the US Army during World War II. Assigned to Company F of the 11th Infantry Regiment, he landed at Omaha Beach in Normandy in August of 1944, over two months after D-Day. Due to his background in comics, Kirby served as a scout who went into towns to draw reconnaissance maps and pictures. He was honorably discharged as a private first class in July of 1945.

Postwar Career

After the war, Kirby reunited with Joe Simon to work at Harvey Comics. He also created work for such publishers as Hillman Periodicals and Crestwood Publications. At the latter, Kirby and Simon created the popular genre of romance comics in 1947, inaugurated by the series "Young Romance." In the 1950s, the duo established their own comics company, Mainline Publications, but it was short-lived. Kirby also created for Atlas Comics, which became Marvel Comics in the 1960s. For Atlas, he drew across all genres, but became particularly renowned for his supernatural and science-fiction characters.

Marvel Comics, 1960-1970

Kirby had one of the most successful stretches of his career at Marvel Comics in the 1960s. There, he co-created some of the company's most iconic characters and series, starting with the Fantastic Four in 1961. Kirby went on to help create the Hulk, Iron Man, Black Panther, Thor, Ant-Man, and the X-Men, among many other famous superheroes. However, he became increasingly unhappy while working at Marvel due to various factors, including a lack of full creative control and tensions with writer and editor Stan Lee. As a result, Kirby left Marvel in 1970 for its rival DC Comics.

DC Comics, 1970-1975

At DC in the 1970s, Kirby created his Fourth World saga, which encompassed several comics titles, including the "New Gods" series. He also created such DC series as "OMAC," "Kamandi," and "Kobra," and with his former collaborator Joe Simon worked on a new incarnation of the Sandman. Kirby left DC in the mid-1970s amid disagreements with the company's policies and antipathies with other DC artists.

Return to Marvel

Kirby returned to Marvel in 1976 and went on to both write and draw the monthly "Captain America" series. He also wrote and drew "Black Panther" comics, created the series "The Eternals," and created such characters as Devil Dinosaur and Machine Man. However, Kirby again became displeased with how he was treated by Marvel, and left toward the end of the 1970s to work in television animation and film.

Later Career

After leaving Marvel, Kirby did designs for animated television series produced by Ruby-Spears Productions. He also worked on the animated series "The New Fantastic Four" with Stan Lee and illustrated an adaptation of the Disney film "The Black Hole" for "Walt Disney's Treasury of Classic Tales" comic strip. In the 1980s, Kirby worked for Pacific Comics and did periodic work for DC. Late in his life, he spent much of his time battling with Marvel executives over the ownership rights to his original page boards.

Style and Legacy

Kirby's art style is marked by a sense of kinetic movement, with muscular, exaggerated, supernatural figures who are often suspended in mid-action with foreshortened limbs and powerful poses. He pioneered the "Kirby Krackle," characterized by clusters of black dots representing cosmic energy. Kirby's compositions were dense yet pellucid, with each panel full of dynamic action and dramatic angles. Often given the imperious moniker "The King," he is credited with helping to transform comics from simple adventure stories into complex modern mythology, influencing generations of future artists.

Personal Life and Death

In 1942, Kirby married Rosalind Goldstein, who lived in his apartment building in Brooklyn. They had four children: Susan, Neal, Barbara, and Lisa. The family lived in a house on Long Island where Kirby worked out of a small basement studio. At the end of the 1960s, they moved to Southern California.

On February 6, 1994, Kirby passed away from heart failure at his home in Thousand Oaks, California. His body was interred in Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village.

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