352 KIRBY, JACK
parallel between Superman’s return and the second coming of Christ was also infl uenced
by Ross’s religious background. Even the narrative style, though provided by Mark Waid,
has roots in Ross’s previous work, Marvels , a bystander story about a photographer who
catalogues through pictures the rise of the heroes in the M arvel Comics universe.
When Kingdom Come was collected into a single volume, an epilogue was added
that features a meeting between Superman, Wonder Woman , and Batman where it
is revealed that Superman and Wonder Woman are expecting a child. A prequel, Th e
Kingdom , was also published in 1999 along with several one-shots that tied into the
events of Kingdom Come , but Alex Ross had no offi cial connection to the prequel. Th ere
has been one novelization of the comic, published in 1998 and written by Eliot S! Mag-
gin, and the characters from Kingdom Come have been marketed as toys, trading cards,
and game pieces in the DC Heroclix collectible miniatures game. Kingdom Come has
recently become canon after the series 52 , which established the universe of Kingdom
Come as one of the realities parallel to DC Comics’ regular continuity, the Superman
from Kingdom Come appearing in the “Th y Kingdom Come” storyline running from
Th e Justice Society of America Vol. 3 #7–22. In 1997 and 1998, Kingdom Come and its
creators won a total of seven Eisner Awards.
Jackson Jennings
KIRBY, JACK (1917–94). Born Jacob Kurtzberg in Manhattan’s lower east side, Jack
Kirby was perhaps the most infl uential illustrator of superhero comics of the 20th cen-
tury. Raised in New York, the son of working class Jewish immigrant parents, Kirby
taught himself how to draw by copying popular newspaper comic strips, such as Barney
Google and Jiggs and Maggie. Citing as infl uences such artists as Milton Caniff , Alex
Raymond, Hal Foster, and Rollin Kirby (from whom Kirby would eventually adopt
his pen name), Jack Kirby received his fi rst professional work as an artist from the Max
Fleischer animation studios. After a brief stint there, he went to work for Lincoln Fea-
tures Syndicate, drawing comic strips and turning out the occasional political cartoon.
By the late 1930s, with the comic book industry in full swing, Kirby began producing
his fi rst comic book work for Golden Age comic publisher Eisner & Iger, as well as
working in the sweatshop studios of Victor Fox at Fox Features Syndicate.
It was at Fox Features Syndicate where Kirby met Joe Simon , the editor and writer
with whom Kirby would make the move to Timely Comics (which would later become
Atlas and then Marvel Comics ). Always the better businessman of the pair, Simon
negotiated a deal with Timely publisher Martin Goodman that guaranteed Simon and
Kirby 15 percent of the profi ts generated by their co-created Captain America (1941)
comic book. A fl ag-wearing, fascist-bashing patriot, Captain America proved highly suc-
cessful, with the fi rst issue selling out in a matter of days and fi rmly establishing Simon
and Kirby as creators and collaborators of note. In the pursuit of better pay, the pair
soon began working for National Comics (which later changed its name to DC Com-
ics), where they created the Boy Commandos (1942) comic before Kirby was drafted
into the U.S. Army in 1943.
