Jack Kirby was born on Essex Street in New York in 1917 and spent much of his early life trying to get away from those poor surroundings. His superhuman work ethic and talent got him out but those were developed in part through his involvement with the Boys Brotherhood Republic, an organization that helped many young men to put their youthful energy to constructive purposes.
In one way or another, he wrote a lot about the B.B.R. in some of his comics and about those surroundings. In the Fantastic Four comic, Ben "The Thing" Grimm fought an ongoing feud with the kids of The Yancy Street Gang, which was a thinly-disguised version of a real-life gang that claimed Delancey Street as their home turf.
Well…tomorrow morning at 9 AM, there will be a ceremony in New York at the corner of Delancey and Essex. One block of Delancey Street for one day will be renamed — I hope I have this name straight — Yancy Street/Jack Kirby Way. How's that for an honor for a kid who used to sell newspapers and get involved in fist fights on that corner? Jack's son Neal and his wife Connie just called to tell me about it and we talked for a while about how thrilled Jack would have been to see it…even if it is a promotion for the new Fantastic Four movie.
Neal and Connie can't be there for the ceremony but Jack's granddaughters Jillian and Tracy will be there. I hope to have photos of the event or at least the street sign.
By the way: The Boys Brotherhood Republic is still operating and still doing good work. The main thing that's changed is that it's now the Boys & Girls Republic. I'm sure Jack would have approved. In fact, he'd probably say, "Why couldn't they have had girls there when I was a member?"