• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Disney to honor Jack Kirby with a Disney Legends Award

About time and more than deserved.

This July, Jack Kirby will be honored for his remarkable creative achievements as a Disney Legend in a ceremony to be held at D23 Expo: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event in Anaheim, California. Hosted by Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger, the Disney Legends Award ceremony will take place at 10 AM on Friday, July 14, in Hall D23 during D23 Expo 2017.

Jack Kirby first grabbed our attention in the spring of 1941 with Captain America, a character he created with Joe Simon. Kirby then followed this debut with a prolific output of comic books in the Western, Romance, and Monster genres–all a prelude to his defining work helping to create the foundations of the Marvel Universe. For the next decade, Kirby and co-creator Stan Lee would introduce a mind-boggling array of new characters and teams—including the Avengers, Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, Silver Surfer, Ant-Man, Wasp, Black Panther, S.H.I.E.L.D., and the Inhumans. Kirby was inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame's 1987 inaugural class and continued creating comics throughout the '90s before passing away in 1994.

Other honorees of this year's Legends Award are Carrie Fisher, Clyde ”Gerry" Geronimi, Manuel Gonzales, Mark Hamill, Stan Lee, Garry Marshall, Julie Taymor, and Oprah Winfrey.

https://news.marvel.com/comics/66965/disney-honor-jack-kirby-disney-legends-award/
 
Marvel – and then Disney – spent decades in litigation with the estate of Jack Kirby. Battling for creator rights, Kirby famously never received a penny in royalties from his Marvel work when he was alive. On 2014, Marvel/Disney settled with his family for what was described to Bleeding Cool as a mid-eight figure sum. Since then, Marvel and Disney have been more open to using Jack Kirby name and work for promotional purposes.
BC
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
Finally. I know it is a business but shame on them (Marvel) for shitting on his legacy for so long.
 
Steve Ditko will never get this, maybe Sony should recognize him.

Finally. I know it is a business but shame on them (Marvel) for shitting on his legacy for so long.

He's literally the most influential comics creator of all time at this point IMO. I've spent my entire adult life being pissed at Marvel for their treatment of him, and I'm 50.
 

Vibranium

Banned
Damn right, this man was and still is a genius even in death, he made so much and never got what he was owed. Not to mention Kirby also fought in WWII besides being the GOAT comics creator. MCU fans really should be more aware of who he is.

Stan Lee will be on hand to accept the award for him.

Heh. In all seriousness though, Jack's family will probably be there to collect. A shame Roz didn't live to be here.
 
He's literally the most influential comics creator of all time at this point IMO. I've spent my entire adult life being pissed at Marvel for their treatment of him, and I'm 50.
How have they mistreated him? Honest question since my understanding is Kirby was overworked and didn't retain the rights to characters he helped create but since leaving Marvel and to his dying day tried to argue that he was solely responsible for the creation of everything he ever touched.
 

Viewt

Member
Steve Ditko will never get this, maybe Sony should recognize him.



He's literally the most influential comics creator of all time at this point IMO. I've spent my entire adult life being pissed at Marvel for their treatment of him, and I'm 50.

Steve Ditko is reclusive as fuck, so I doubt he'd go to an event honoring him. He definitely deserves it, though. He was (and is, presumably) a very talented, creative guy with a lot of impressive credits.

I was bummed to find out some years ago that he's way into objectivism. It was almost as disappointing as finding out that Neal Adams believes that Earth is expanding over time. Or when we all found out that Frank Miller is certifiable. Something something don't meet your heroes, ya know?

How have they mistreated him? Honest question since my understanding is Kirby was overworked and didn't retain the rights to characters he helped create but since leaving Marvel and to his dying day tried to argue that he was solely responsible for the creation of everything he ever touched.

Kirby was an amazing artist, but a terrible businessman, and frequently let himself be talked/bullied into bad deals where he retained little to no rights on his creations. He also didn't receive fair credit on stuff he worked on. Take, for example, his work with Stan Lee. Lee is credited as the writer, but that's a pretty gross exaggeration. He'd give Jack some basic idea, "The X-Men are gonna fight Magneto, and Beast gets critically injured!" Then Jack would think up an actual story to work around that, draw it up, and put notes in the margins to give each scene context. Then Lee would fill in the gaps with dialogue/narration that was itself frequently ghost-written by assistants, freelancers, etc.

This isn't to throw Lee under a bus, though - he was always an amazing businessman, editor, and idea man. He was extremely creative and formidable in his own right. But he knew Jack was a phenom and he had no problem letting people assume he was doing all of the work.
 
Steve Ditko is reclusive as fuck, so I doubt he'd go to an event honoring him. He definitely deserves it, though. He was (and is, presumably) a very talented, creative guy with a lot of impressive credits.

I was bummed to find out some years ago that he's way into objectivism. It was almost as disappointing as finding out that Neal Adams believes that Earth is expanding over time. Or when we all found out that Frank Miller is certifiable. Something something don't meet your heroes, ya know?

He's a real turd personally, probably voted for Trump. Read his Mr. A comics if you want to throw up.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Steve Ditko is reclusive as fuck, so I doubt he'd go to an event honoring him. He definitely deserves it, though. He was (and is, presumably) a very talented, creative guy with a lot of impressive credits.

I was bummed to find out some years ago that he's way into objectivism. It was almost as disappointing as finding out that Neal Adams believes that Earth is expanding over time. Or when we all found out that Frank Miller is certifiable. Something something don't meet your heroes, ya know?

At least Alan Moore is keeping it real.
 

Viewt

Member
By the way, if you all want to read in-depth about Jack Kirby and his days at Marvel, I'd recommend Tales to Astonish by Ronin Ro and the more recent Marvel: The Untold Story by Sean Howe. Both are fantastic.
 
Top Bottom