Originally Posted By: the G-man
Kirby doesn’t deserve shit. He was an experienced creator who made a conscious choice to repeatedly enter into work for hire arrangements rather than start his own business and take any risk.

Adams, to his credit, had the balls to walk away from DC and Marvel and start his own studio. Furthermore, Adams was not afraid to put himself at great career risk for people who were genuinely ripped off like Seigel and Schuster. He wasn’t just fighting for creator rights for himself.


At times I believe everything you just said. Adams did show a level of courage and willingness to break out on his own and leave the comics industry behind. While in the 1970's Adams was in his 30's and Kirby in his 50's, both had wives and children and mortgages, and there was risk.
I think Kirby was more in love with comics, and thus more reluctant to leave it behind for animation or other ventures. But he finally did after 1978, and only came back once creator rights and royalties began. But alas, way past his prime.

Mark Evanier, in one of the documentaries I linked a page or so back, said that what Kirby wanted in the 1960's and 1970's is now the standard contract, and if he could have gotten that in 1963 or 1970 or 1978, he gladly would have stayed the remainder of his career at Marvel. Now Kirby would not even have to fight for it, it's the standard contract.

And I just feel that retroactively, that should be offered to the Kirby estate, by both DC and Marvel, for Kirby's singular contribution to both companies. That's not too much to ask for the single greatest contributor to those two companies, spanning from the 1940's till 1978. That's not just handing it to Kirby, I think he earned it, ten times over. That's just giving proper compensation. His family should have what the surviving family of any current Marvel or DC contributor would receive.

There's very few who I think gave such a contribution that would be appropriate. Jack Kirby. Stan Lee. Steve Ditko. Neal Adams. Will Eisner. It's a pretty small club.