A handwritten note signed by Jack Kirby

Captain America

Formulated in 1939 by myself and Joe Simon – Created in Joe’s apartment + submitted to “Atlas”

Published in 1941

Fantastic Four – Hulk – Spiderman – Thor – Sgt. Fury

When I arrived at Marvel in 1959, it was closing shop that very afternoon, according to what was related to me by “Stan Lee”

The comic book dept. was another victim of the Dr. wertham negative cycle + definitely was following in the wake of E.C. Comics, “The Gaines Publishing House.”

In order to keep working I suggested to “Stan Lee” that to initiate a new line of Super heroes he submit my ideas to Martin Goodman the publisher of Marvel

The line that I came up with was

Fantastic Four a team of Super Heroes

The Hulk which was a spin off of a single story I did for “Marvel”

Spiderman grew from a different script called “The Silver Spider” which was written by Joe Simon’s brother-in-law – Jack Oleck – who is now deceased.

Joe was out of the field at that time + I utilized the “Silver Spider” script to create a single new character. This was given for development to Steve Ditko after I drew the first cover with the original costume.

Thor quickly followed + was fleshed out with the character of the original legend.

Sgt. Fury, a mixture of the “Dirty Dozen”. James Bond, + my own war experiences became another successful book.

I created many costumes for new “Super Heroes” such as Iron Man, Ant Man + created all related characters such as “Silver Surfer”, Galactus – The Inhumans + many more which are included in the enclosed list.

To insure sales I also did the writing which I was not credited for, as “Stan Lee” wrote the credits for all of the books which I did not correct because of his relationship with the publisher Martin Goodman.

This was later changed to “Produced by “Stan Lee + Jack Kirby” in some of the books.

Although I was not allowed to write the “Balloon” dialogue, the stories, the characters + the additional planning for the script’s progress was strictly due to my own foresight + literary workmanship.

There were no scripts. I created the characters + wrote the stories in my own home + merely brought them into the office each month.

FF published 1961
The Hulk 1962
Thor 1962
Spider Man 1962
Sgt. Fury 1963

– Jack Kirby

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  1. Pingback: The Myth of the Jolly King | The Kirby Effect

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