Cosplaying comic book fans swarmed Manhattan Monday as a local street was renamed for Marvel\u2019s other mastermind, Jack Kirby \u2014 the so-called \u201cKing of Comics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kirby, a legendary artist who feuded with former Marvel writer and editor Stan Lee for credit of some of the company\u2019s most iconic superheroes, was remembered with an honorary co-naming of Essex and Delancey streets as \u201cJack Kirby Way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fans showed up dressed as some of his co-creations including Captain America and members of the Fantastic Four.<\/p>\n
A corner of Essex and Delancey streets in Manhattan is co-named Jack Kirby Way after the legendary comic book artist. Stephen Yang for NY Post<\/p>\n
Costumed characters created by Kirby, including the Fantastic Four, attend the street co-naming event. Stephen Yang for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cJack Kirby isn\u2019t just arguably the most important artist in the history of comics, he\u2019s one of the most important artists of the 20th century,\u201d said Roy Schwartz, a pop culture historian and friend of the Kirby family who spearheaded the street co-naming campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a founding father of popular culture in New York, of a beloved American mythology,\u201d he said, \u201cand he was born right here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born Jacob Kurtzberg to Jewish immigrant-refugees from Austria, Kirby drew inspiration from his upbringing in a crowded Essex Street tenement building \u2014 and fighting in a youth gang during the Great Depression \u2014 to create some of the most iconic heroes in the Marvel Universe, officials said.<\/p>\n
Notable creations include Captain America, The Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Hulk, Iron Man and Black Panther. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s also credited with played a role in the creations of Spider-Man and Daredevil, among others. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a founding father of popular culture in New York, of a beloved American mythology,\u201d Schwartz said, \u201cand he was born right here.\u201d Stephen Yang for NY Post<\/p>\n
One Kirby character, the Fantastic Four\u2019s \u201cThe Thing,\u201d even grew up on the Delancey Street-inspired \u201cYancy Street,\u201d Schwartz noted. Captain America\u2019s origin story as a bullied youngster on the streets of New York was also pulled from the artist\u2019s own experiences.<\/p>\n
Essex Street residents petitioned the local community board to consider the street re-naming last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cDenied proper recognition during his lifetime\u2014especially compared to creative partner Stan Lee\u2014Kirby\u2019s unbridled imagination, groundbreaking artistic innovation, and moralistic storytelling have inspired generations of New Yorkers, Americans, and people around the world,\u201d the petition read. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis was beyond overdue,\u201d Council member Christopher Marte said at the ceremony. \u201cHis story is the story of the Lower East Side.<\/p>\n
Born Jacob Kurtzberg, Kirby drew inspiration from his upbringing in a crowded Rivington Street tenement building, officials said. Susan Skaar via Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center<\/p>\n
\u201cHe went onto represent the Lower East Side throughout his work, and told stories of underdogs from poor neighborhoods who became superheroes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The co-naming coincides with the opening of a new exhibit about Kirby\u2019s legacy, dubbed \u201cThe Jack Kirby Way: How a boy from the Lower East Side became the \u2018King of Comics.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The free display, presented by the American Jewish Historical Society, features many never-before-shown artifacts including original art and rare comics.<\/p>\n
It will be on view from view May 11 through Nov. 26.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis neighborhood helped make him who he was,\u201d Marte added, \u201cand now we can honor his legacy by ensuring he\u2019s part of this neighborhood forever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cosplaying comic book fans swarmed Manhattan Monday as a local street was renamed for Marvel\u2019s other mastermind, Jack…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[70655,6129,358,75,2431,57,9,56,63,65,64,58],"class_list":["post-227864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-comic-books","tag-dc-comics","tag-lower-east-side","tag-manhattan","tag-marvel","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}