Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center

Thanks to Hoboken comic shop Traders of Babylon, I had the pleasure today of speaking to a sixth grade class about Jack Kirby.

In addition to all the personal blogs the Kirby Museum hosts, I’ve just fired up “The Kirby Effect“, which I’ve designated “The Journal of The Jack Kirby Museum”. I hope the The Kirby Effect will be become a rich offering of papers, articles and media presentations. Consider this post the requisite Call For Papers. I have a few things in the works for the Effect already, but they won’t last, so I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks to the interest of journalist Bruce Bennett, Jack Kirby and the Kirby Museum were featured in an article in the Wall Street Journal’s New York Culture section this past Wednesday.

Writer Glen David Gold, writer/designer Steven Brower and I talked with Bruce who pulled together a fine piece regarding Kirby’s place in our culture considering the success of adaptations of his work in recent years, as well as the increase in value of his original art. The Museum’s efforts, especially the Pop-Up project, were mentioned, as well.

Thanks to all!

Yep, Rat Bastard‘s Cliff Galbraith has organized the Asbury Park Comic Con at the rockin’ Asbury Lanes tomorrow.

The Kirby Museum will be there, two blocks from the boardwalk, with our stickers, postcards, t-shirts, books and posters.

So, there’ll be comics, bowling, tater tots, who knows what else?! Come by and say hi!

We are not only humbled, but downright impressed with the amount of support we’ve seen surrounding the Avengers opening. Our plan to open a gallery celebrating the life and work of Jack Kirby in New York City has met with some astounding results. Thanks to good folks reblogging us on tumblr, retweeting us on Twitter, and just generally getting the word out, we’ve generated an additional thirteen hundred dollars in donations in the last week! Now, this may seem like a drop in the bucket compared to the 700 million bucks that Avengers has generated worldwide (so far), but this is a big step. And here’s why: Since we officially kicked off our fundraising campaign in September, we’ve raised almost 30% of our goal. It took us over six months to get to the eight thousand dollar mark, and we’ve added $1300 in just a week. However, we need to have thirty thousand in our coffers just to get the doors open (it is expensive in NYC, after all), and the more funds we raise, the more we can do with the space we’ll have, and the longer we may be able to stay open.

And it hasn’t just been the money that’s been coming in, either! We’ve experienced a storm of new followers on tumblr and Twitter, new likes on Facebook, a significant increase of daily hits on the Museum’s homepage, and more mentions of Jack’s name in the mainstream media than we’ve ever seen! What’s more, we’re thrilled to see that other comics-related non-profits like The Hero Initiative are also reporting a groundswell of support. So, please, keep getting the word out for us. Facebook, Twitter, tumblr, Pinterest, all of it. Make sure people know that the characters in this movie they’re enjoying were created by human beings, and aren’t just corporate trademarks. If you can’t donate (hey, times are tough!), just help us get the word out. While Avengers is well on its way to becoming a billion-dollar franchise, it’s also generating all kinds of discussion and interest about creators’ rights in places where there had been none before. That’s a good thing, and we’re honored that so many of you have chosen our cause to donate your hard-earned cash to. Thanks for reading, and thanks again for your help and support!

Congratulations to Cory Robinson, the holder of ticket number JKM-TN52-100!

The Jack Kirby Museum will have tables at both the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo and the MoCCA Festival this coming weekend.

If you are going to attend the Calgary show and own Kirby original art, please consider bringing it to the show and allowing us to scan it for our Original Art Digital Archive.

Mike Cecchini and Richard Bensam will be manning the MoCCA Festival table, while I’ll be in Calgary.

We’ll be at Penn Plaza Pavilion this Saturday for Mike Carbo’s New York Comic Book Marketplace from 10am to 7pm..

There will be many Kirby inkers there: Joe Sinnott, Dick Ayers, Greg Theakston, Herb Trimpe, as well as Stan Goldberg, Rich Buckler, George Perez, Jim Steranko, Neal Adams, and Carmine Infantino.

Stan Lee will be there, too.

If you’re heading to WonderCon and have Jack Kirby original art in your collection, please bring it to the show for us to scan for our Original Art Digital Archive. OR we may be able to visit your home or office, since we’ll be around a day before and after the show. Feel free to send me an email at scans@kirbymuseum.org to see if we can arrange something.

Tom Kraft of What if Kirby, will be set up at booth 323 of Bechara Maalouf’s Nostalgic Investments, and I should be set up at John Morrow’s TwoMorrows Publishing booth 721.

Of course, Tom, John and I enjoy talking to all Kirby fans, so be sure to stop by and say hello!

Kirby Museum member Russell Payne presented a talk about Jack Kirby in Cardiff, Wales.