Click here to view the Real Folks exhibit.

Tom MOREHOUSE writes –
As a lifelong collector of Jack Kirby’s work, one of the things that I always enjoyed is the sense of reality about the universe Jack created. His fight scenes work because as a fighter himself, Jack would think about how (if he had the skills/powers of the protagonist) he would go about taking down his opposition. While some have a problem with how accurately he drew his handguns, Jack’s weaponry & machinery always looked like it should be able to do whatever he wanted us to believe it could. Another factor in conveying a sense of reality to his stories was the inclusion of recognizable "real people", whether it be a world leader or just some kids he met at a convention. Jack’s universe was peopled with real folks and that’s the focus of this exhibit/archive; to gather and document as many examples of these as possible.

So start pouring through your Kirby comic collections and memory banks and send the museum scans of the primary panel/page on which the person appears along with the issue name, date, etc.. If the illustration is from some publication other than a traditional comic book, please include scans of the entire article for reference use. Be sure to identify the figure(s) in the scans. You can contact me at mohavipack@aol.com, or Rand at curator@kirbymuseum.org.

To start things off I’ve gathered examples from some of the more obscure and rare items in my Kirbykrypt collection as well as a couple of examples from standard comics.
– Tom MOREHOUSE

This exhibit/archive is an active, ongoing project – we’ll be adding to it as we go. Click on the Captain America page above to see the whole exhibit. So, as Tom says above, contact us with your suggestions and scans.
– Rand HOPPE