BY Jeff Ruffolo
Remember the name – Jack Kirby.
Stan Lee may have written the words to my childhood heroes The Avengers, Namor the Sub-Mariner and The Fantastic Four but the artwork was all Jack Kirby, who had the vision to take the words of his linguist partner Lee and bring them to a visual masterpiece.
How many galaxies have I traveled to? How many times have I traveled to the Negative Zone with Mr. Fantastic and The Thing? How many wonders have I read from the magic of a comic book?
Uncounted.
Most young boys I knew when growing up had as their heroes baseball or football players that they aspired to be when they grew to manhood. My heroes all came from the pages of Marvel Comics … and as a high school teenager I became a great long-distance runner to emulate the super speedster Quicksilver – another member of The Avengers.
If your child is struggling with reading, hand she or he a comic book and just look at their eyes light up in wonder. Very soon, they too will be holding hands with Mr. Kirby and Mr. Lee on this incredible journey.
Is there any wonder that Marvel Comic movies make as much money as they have at the Box Office with the Avengers and Iron Man movies making more than $2 billion?
It is because the worlds created by Kirby and Lee are so much fun that we all want to be swinging on a web like Spider-Man.
Excelsior!
