Jack Kirby

The Unsung Hero of Marvel

By: Justin Murphy

Narrated by: Jack Nolan

Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Many recognize Stan Lee as the face of Marvel. Yet Jack Kirby is the one who did a lot of the hard work in creating such heroes as Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, and Ant-Man. While Lee was the public face for what became the multimedia brand, Kirby’s legacy is relegated to the shadows.

Much like Bill Finger of Batman and Gene L. Coon of Star Trek, this man doesn’t get enough credit. A man who gave everything to the comic book industry. This book hopes to shed some light on his life and career.

©2020 Justin L Murphy (P)2020 Justin L Murphy

Bizarre Narration Spoils Decent Bio

This audiobook’s narration is totally bonkers. The narrator frequently makes LONG meaningless pauses in the middle of sentences. Is he turning a page? Is he drinking coffee? What is happening? Why did he stop? And why stop in the middle of a sentence rather than pause at the end? He then will cram several sentences together, ignoring periods entirely and reading very quickly like they are all one big sentence. The narration is so ramshackle it actually makes the text hard to understand. It’s almost worth it just to hear what is happening here. It’s unlike anything else. I wish there was an explanation. The book seems fine but the audiobook is a disaster.

The truth of Marvel's history

I once met Jack Kirby in the 80s and he told some stories about the characters he had outlined and fleshed out in so many intimate methods that only an actual reader would have understood the details he related. Jack talked at some length about the Fantastic Four and some of the stories he had written. I had read these stories in the 70s and remembered the tales Jack told. Jack was absolutely wonderful and talked for at least an hour before he was scheduled to sign some artwork.
About a year later, I was renting a table at a comic convention in southern California and saw that Stanley Lieber was going to be at a table to sign some comics. I paid the organizer to allow me to set up close to that table and engaged Mr. Lieber about the story that Jack Kirby had related to me about the Fantastic Four. Stan had no recollection about the story. I got a bound copy of the story and talked with him again about some mundane subjects about his women and how popular he was. After Stan had finished advertising himself to me, I asked him about the story again and showed him the reprinted copy and he started talking about how he had created that story and told Jack how to draw the panels and how he had steered Jack how to draw the characters in action.
Clearly, Stan was grandstanding and making up the story as he didn't know that I had already gotten the story from Jack.

This story is accurate and rang a truth note for me as the details are the same details I had heard from Jack, Don Heck, Roz Kurtzburg and Joe Simon.