Jack Kirby Is Honoured As New York City Renames His Birth Street Yancy Street

A Lasting Tribute To The King Of Comics

On 9 July, the corner of Delancey and Essex in New York City joined the Marvel Universe for a day. In honor of the seminal artist and creator Jack Kirby, Delancey Street was renamed Yancy Street/Jack Kirby Way.…

Jack “King” Kirby, a legendary artist and prolific storyteller, is responsible for some of the most iconic characters in the world, including Captain America, Iron Man, Ant-Man, the Hulk, and of course The Fantastic Four. Beyond designing art and creating stories that would inspire and entertain for decades, he also pulled from his own life as a New Yorker as inspiration for the fictional world that would become the Marvel Universe.

Marvel and the City of New York erected a commemorative sign celebrating the inspiration that Delancey and the neighborhood gave Jack Kirby, born Jacob Kurtzberg on August 28, 1917. Born just a block away on Essex Street, Kirby drew from his Lower East Side upbringing in his comics — especially in the life of Ben Grimm, who grew up on “Yancy Street.”

Members of the Kirby family were also there to celebrate the sign’s unveiling, with granddaughter Jillian Kirby noting that so much of the Fantastic Four drew from the Kirby family’s own history: “Grandpa Jack saw himself in the Thing, Ben Grimm being named after our great-grandfather… [The Fantastic Four] is so grounded in the Kirby family. Sue Storm [was also] named after our aunt Sue.”

She also reflected on the importance of the Boys’ Brotherhood Republic, now the Boys & Girls Republic, which Jack Kirby has pointed to as being instrumental in keeping him off the streets — he edited the organizations newspaper and contributed cartoons.

After unveiling the sign, granddaughter Tracy Kirby noted, “This would be a great honor for [Jack]… he was a New Yorker to the end.”

Kirby was born and lived at 147 Essex Street and he paid his own tribute to this through creating Yancy Street where Ben Grimm aka Fantastic Four’s The Thing lived. Marvel sent a few of its members of staff there and Marvel’s editor-in-chief CB Cebulski said this on social media about the event: “Honored to have been a part of this morning’s ceremony honoring Jack Kirby by renaming Delancey St… Jack Kirby Way/Yancy St. Thanks to everyone at Marvel who helped make this happen, to the city of New York for working with us on the project, and to the Kirby family who flew in to be a part of this special day.”

Here’s a few photos of the event from Cebulski

https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/new-york-renames-yancy-street-jack-kirby-way

Jack Kirby was born Jacob Kurtzberg in New York City in 1917. He anglicised his name and went on to co-create many of Marvel’s most iconic characters like The Fantastic Four, Captain America, Thor and The Avengers. This seems like a fitting tribute to the man.