Jack Kirby Museum Eyeing Permanent Lower East Side Location Next Year

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Photo: Lori Greenberg

You hear a lot about Stan Lee whenever talk of Marvel commences. He’s the one who reaps much of the credit for the comics universe. Yet, the guy behind the guy, Jack Kirby, is equally important, if not more so. He was the illustrator who put pen to paper in co-creating juggernauts like Captain America, the Hulk, Fantastic Four, and the X-Men. His experiences growing up on the Lower East Side likewise informed the artwork.

So, it comes with no surprise that the Jack Kirby Museum would want to plant a permanent flag in the neighborhood. After a series of pop-ups in the area the past few years, archivist Randolph Hoppe is reportedly planning ahead. If he has his way, the famous comic book illustrator will have a proper home in his birth neighborhood.

As it stands, the Jack Kirby Museum only lives online and reps an extensive digital archive of original works, both from private collectors and the estate.

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Jack Kirby in 1942, Photo: Kirby Museum

“Our goal with [pop-up exhibits] is to make an appearance in New York and just get the word out that this son of the Lower East Side was so involved in developing the language of comic books and so many of these characters that people love so much right now with all these movies that are coming out,” Hoppe told Tech Times.

Hoppe’s hope is to open a brick-and-mortar museum in the neighborhood sometime in 2017, the centennial of Kirby’s birth. Could it fit in Essex Crossing, where the Andy Warhol Museum couldn’t? Probably not, as rents for this space require large footprint and equally deep pockets.