This week marks the centennial of Jack “King” Kirby, arguably the most important contributor to the art form of comics of all-time. Kirby, born Jacob Kurtzberg (the son of Jewish immigrants; you know the drill), is mostly known for his iconic artwork for Marvel Comics. Working with the likes of Jewish writers Joe Simon and Stan Lee, Kirby co-created the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and Captain America, just to name a few that have had staying power. But some of Kirby’s most fascinating, innovative work is (comparatively) less-well known, coming after he switched to Marvel’s competitor, DC, and began to write as well as draw, now in more direct control over his creations.

The main result of this DC period is the New Gods, a complex, space operatic struggle of good-and-evil, with an assembly of weird characters in convoluted conflicts. It’s certainly not as simply accessible as, say, Captain America punching Hitler in the face. But it’s still brilliant.

Jewcy is on a summer residency! To read this piece, and our others for July and August 2017, go to our big sister site, Tablet Magazine!

The post Jewish Artist Jack Kirby Co-Created X-Men and Captain America. But What He Did Next Was Even Better. appeared first on Jewcy.

The trailer is out for Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, and you have to go watch it immediately. It may not have Gal Gadot, but the film about Wonder Woman’s creator and his family looks amazing.

Honestly, the story is hard to resist. Comics writer William Moulton Marston had a background in psychology, but tried his hand at everything, from film-writing to inventing the lie detector (well, it’s a bit more complicated than that, but that’s how he liked to put it). But his personal life was especially ripe for the retelling; he was polyamorous, and lived with his wife, Elizabeth Holloway, and another female partner, Olive Byrne, as well as all their children, under one roof.

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Jewcy is on a summer residency! To read this piece, and our others for July and August 2017, go to our big sister site, Tablet Magazine!

The post Hey, Hollywood: Why No Biopics of Jewish Comic Book Creators? appeared first on Jewcy.