Tuesday, July 09, 2013

The King of Superhero Comics



Kirby: I had to make a living. I was a married man. I had a home. I had children. I had to make a living. That is the common pursuit of every man. It just happened that my living collided with the times. Circumstances forced me to do it. They forced me. There wasn't a sense of excitement. It was a horrible, morbid atmosphere. If you can find excitement in that kind of atmosphere it was the excitement of fear.



Jack Kirby, the man who created (by himself with no "co-creator"), most of the early Marvel Universe.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

That's a great quote and pretty much sums up what I think it was like in the comic biz in the 50s and 60s. Can I ask where you got the quote from? Was it an interview?

James Robert Smith said...

It was from an extensive collection of interviews with Jack Kirby.

He was explaining why he continued to work for Lee and Goodman even while they were stealing his intellectual property. He had to support his family and he was doing it the best way he knew how.

Kirk G - The Thrifty Rocketeer said...

What atomsphere was he describing? Atlas comics in the late 50s? DC in the early 70s? Marvel in the 60s? I'd like to know more of the interchange and just what he was describing or the question that had been posed to him.

James Robert Smith said...

In that comment I think he was talking about working for Lee and Goodman. The more I research what was done to him, the angrier I become.