The King-Sized Kirby Hardcover pays tribute to the “King of Comics” with collected stories from one of the industries’ most revered creators.
“If there were a Mount Rushmore of American comic book artists, Jack Kirby would be front and center.” This quote from Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso sums up Kirby’s legacy in the comic world pretty succinctly. The statement comes from Marvel’s announcement that an 800-page hardcover collection compiling some of Kirby’s best work is due out next year. With entries from classics like Fantasic Four #1 and 1941’s Captain America Comics #1, as well as appearances by notorious Marvel characters such as Spider-Man, Thor, and the X-Men, the King-Sized Kirby Hardcover brings Kirby’s best Marvel stories together in an Adamantium-sized book.
Jack Kirby began working on comics in the mid-1930s. He co-created Captain America in 1940 and helped shape some of the Marvel and DC universes’ most prolific characters before the Big Two were the Big Two. Sadly, after spending decades working on some of the biggest books in the industry, Kirby left without ownership of his work, and his family has fought Marvel in the years since his 1994 death. Kirby’s estate reached an agreement with Marvel in September 2014, just before it was set to reach the United States Supreme Court.
Given the legal difficulties this year, it’s interesting to see Marvel championing Kirby as an icon of the publisher so soon after settling with his estate. That settlement has yet to be revealed, but it would seem that the outcome has allowed Marvel to feel comfortable publicly hailing Kirby’s work. The King-Sized Kirby Hardcover is set to hit comic shops in July 2015.
Source: Marvel
