Jack Kirby Museum Receives its Largest-Ever Gift of Original Kirby Art
The Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center has announced today that Richard Howell has donated a significant number of pages of original art by Jack Kirby from the legendary Howell/Kalish collection to the Museum’s permanent collection. Howell is a comic book writer, artist, and editor; co-founder of Claypool Comics; a Kirby scholar; and a longtime collector of comic art.
The gift comprises more than 50 pages and is the largest donation of original Kirby artwork the Museum has received. It spans his industry-defining work at Marvel in the 1960s, including Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Thor, through his mid-1970s work for DC on 1st Issue Special, his return to Marvel on 2001: A Space Odyssey and Devil Dinosaur, as well as his animation concept art of the early 1980s for Hanna-Barbera. The gift also includes pencil art for an unpublished Kirby cover for What If? #10, featuring Jane Foster as Thor. Also included are two original stories from Kirby’s Boys’ Ranch series, published in 1950.
Selections from this donation will go on view in 2027 in an exhibition curated by the Museum (exact dates and exhibition theme will be announced at a later date). The works will also be available for viewing through the Museum’s online archive, now in development.
Additionally, the Kirby Museum has been named a beneficiary of a trust established by another longtime collector who wishes to remain anonymous at this time. Gifts of original art, whether made during a collector’s lifetime or through a will or trust, are how the Museum builds its permanent collection and keeps Kirby’s work available to researchers and the public.
Collectors and families considering a gift of artwork or a bequest can contact Rand Hoppe or (201) 204-0532. The Museum can provide its legal name, tax identification number, and sample bequest language for collectors and their advisors.
About the Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center: The Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center is organized exclusively for educational purposes; more specifically, to promote and encourage the study, understanding, preservation, and appreciation of the work of Jack Kirby by:
- illustrating the scope of Kirby’s multi-faceted career,
- communicating the stories, inspirations, and influences of Jack Kirby,
- celebrating the life of Jack Kirby and his creations, and
- building understanding of comic books and comic book creators.
To this end, the Museum will sponsor and otherwise support study, teaching, conferences, discussion groups, exhibitions, displays, publications, and cinematic, theatrical, or multimedia productions.
Jack Kirby, the co-creator of Captain America, The Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, and many other pop culture icons, played an indispensable role in the emergence of comics as an art form. Kirby is to comics what Hitchcock or Spielberg are to movies, Babe Ruth is to baseball, or The Beatles are to rock n’ roll. Not only was Kirby incredibly prolific and influential, but he was an innovator whose work has come to define fantastic storytelling in comics and beyond. 