Skirball Cultural Center

"I think there's something about comics and good storytelling that's a marriage, and they (the fans) realize that. That's the wonderful thing about comics: It puts the idea of published storytelling in the hands of the ordinary guy. That's American."—Jack Kirby

Captain America. The Fantastic Four. The Avengers. OMAC. The X-Men. The Black Panther. Mister Miracle. The Incredible Hulk. The New Gods. These iconic superheroes are among the best-known of the many characters first brought to life by comic book artist Jack Kirby (1917–1994). Over the course of an extraordinary six-decade career, Kirby created some of the most enduring characters and storylines in the history of American comics. Along the way, he expanded the emotional and intellectual horizons of the comic book medium, championed diversity, and helped establish the visual vocabulary of modern popular culture.

Jack Kirby: Heroes and Humanity traces his experiences as a first-generation Jewish American born to immigrant parents in Manhattan’s storied Lower East Side, a soldier who fought in World War II, a successful commercial artist who worked in marginalized creative industries, a mentor to a generation of younger comic creators, a resident of New York and Los Angeles, and a proud family man whose Jewish faith remained important throughout his life. This exhibition features original comic illustrations alongside Kirby’s other works, many on view for the first time, considering his fine art and commercial art as equally significant and worthy of recognition.

Today, Kirby remains a pivotal figure in American popular culture, and his influence in the worlds of comics, film, animation, graphic design, and pop art is evident more than thirty years after his passing.

This exhibition was co-curated by independent curators Patrick A. Reed and Ben Saunders. The organizing curator is Skirball Museum Deputy Director Michele Urton.