This past week, I was moved to be at the ceremony dedicating a section of Essex Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan as Jack Kirby Way.
To see his surviving grandchildren unveil it & hear him celebrated by Tom Brevoort and the always eloquent Paul Levitz was wonderful. Knowing from a Mark Evanier interview that, at one time, Kirby couldn’t enter stores because of the sight of toy versions of his uncredited creations… To see him remembered this way decades after he’s gone brought a tear to my eye.
He saw the shape of things to come for comics, created the most insanely impactful artwork, built most of an entire fictional universe of characters, but was wildly under-appreciated in his lifetime.
Tourists visiting NYC and little kids will see this sign and ask who he was for years and years and years. This is a nice step in the right direction.
(The final photo of the linked Instagram post is of an exhibit in The Center for Jewish History at 15 West 16th Street about Kirby, his work, & the street dedication! It was free to attend & I believe it will still be up to November!)
