The King
I remember exactly where I was when I heard that Jack Kirby had died.
When I was in high school I watched a television show called Prisoners of Gravity hosted by Rick Green of the comedy troupe The Frantics. The premise of the show was that a space-stranded nerd by the name of Commander Rick would high jack the broadcast of a typically Canadian wilderness show and replace it with a program devoted to various forms of speculative fiction. Despite its loopy framing device, the show was wonderfully deep, with topics that rant the gamut from Alternate Histories and Cyberpunk to Feminism and Race, utilizing plenty of interviews to draw from by far too many people to list here.
I was settling in for that week’s episode when the broadcast was genuinely interrupted, this time by a grim Rick Green in a suit and tie sitting behind a desk. I was so used to seeing the comedic opening sequence and Commander Rick rocking a jumpsuit that the entire thing threw me off-kilter. Rick Green issued a statement that Jack Kirby had passed away, and that they would repeat an episode dedicated to him in his honour. And the world tilted just a little bit further.
The next day at school I bumped into my friend Will in the hallway. Will and I rarely hung out, but he was one of my go-to guys when I wanted to talk about comics. He asked if I had seen it, without saying what ‘it’ was. I said that I had. It was one of those moments I’ll always remember, in the days before the internet when you couldn’t just find like-minded people to commiserate with at the touch of a button. It was good to know that I wasn’t alone in my dismay.
When the program aired I still had the presence of mind to throw a tape into the VCR and record the tribute. In the subsequent months, I would show it to friends of mine who weren’t initially interested in Kirby’s work. By the end of the program there wouldn’t be a dry eye in the house. As a result, it became progressively difficult to track down Kirby back issues at comic conventions I attended with my friends over the years. That’s the kind of problem I’m happy to live with.
It’s been fifteen years since The King left us. Long live The King.
Illustration by Jack Kirby, as found in Dark Horse Presents #103.