Kirby, Jack, 1917-1994

Jack Kirby (b. Jacob Kurtzberg; August 28, 1917, New York, NY–d. February 6, 1994, Thousand Oaks, CA); American comic book artist, writer, and editor; entered the nascent comics industry in the 1930s, drawing various comics features under different pen names, including Jack Curtiss, before ultimately settling on Jack Kirby; with Joe Simon created the highly successful superhero character Captain America for Timely Comics, predecessor of Marvel Comics in 1940; during the 1940s, created many characters for Timely Comics and for National Comics Publications, later to become DC Comics; in the 1960s, Kirby and writer-editor Stan Lee co-created major characters, including the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the Hulk; married Rosalind Goldstein, 1942, had four children