Jack Kirby – The Legendary Artist Behind Captain America

Jack Kirby is an American comic book writer and artist. His most famous creation is Captain America. During his career, Kirby’s work has won many awards and influenced nearly every superhero comic artist since. Many modern artists have given him great credit for their work, including Frank Miller, Steve Rude, Kevin Eastman, Dave Gibbons, Gilbert Hernandez, and Milton Caniff. Kirby died in 1994.

The character was originally created by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon for Captain America Comics #1 in 1941, and was the highest selling comic book of the war. Later, Kirby teamed up with Stan Lee, and the character was revived by Marvel in 1964. During his tenure at Marvel, Kirby collaborated with Stan Lee and became a member of the Avengers, and the Avengers were born. Kirby fought with Marvel Comics until his death, and his estate recently settled with Disney for $35 million.

After completing his first Captain America comic, Kirby resigned from the US Army to focus on comic books. He suffered from trench foot, and was discharged from active duty in January 1945. After his discharge, he returned to the United States. He re-started his work with Simon on comic books such as Boy Commandos and Star-Spangled Comics. In 1946, he started working with Harvey Comics.

After joining Marvel, Kirby wrote and drew ‘The Mighty Thor’, a comic book about a teenage mutant named Thor. He continued drawing the character until his tenure at Marvel ended in 1970. Kirby was originally signed to draw ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’, but he later decided to let Steve Ditko take the reins. He became an important part of the Marvel company’s production team.