Had he lived as long as his work is revered, Jack Kirby would have been 109 today..and the esteem in which he and his work are held is only increasing. To those of you who never had the honor of knowing this man, trust me on this: He was one of the nicest, most decent and brilliant man you could imagine. And his endless creativity was, to some degree, infectious. When you were around Jack, you just felt smarter and more imaginative.
Some of that was because he would treat you as an equal. And if you were interested in writing or drawing or doing just about anything creative, he would encourage you and give you advice, mostly about how to bring out whatever talents you might have had within you. The only way he wouldn't treat you that way is if he felt you were lazy — not giving maximum effort — or imitating what others did. As I've said many times, if I had somehow emerged from my employment with Jack able to draw just like him, he would have considered me a failure. Because I hadn't invented anything.
I'm finishing up a long-delayed (and very long) book about Jack that goes into way more detail about him and his life. I'm enjoying the writing of it a lot because it's a way of spending more time with him. I hope others will feel that way. He really was a remarkable man.