The Cartoon Art Museum to celebrate the work and lasting impact of legendary comic creators Will Eisner and Jack Kirby as part of Will Eisner Week.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- The Cartoon Art Museum will celebrate Will Eisner Week with “Will Eisner and Jack Kirby: A Centennial Celebration” on Saturday, March 11, 2017 from 3:00-5:00pm at Mission: Comics and Art, located at 2250 Mission Street, San Francisco.
The exhibit will discuss life and artwork of the legendary comic creators Will Eisner (born March 6, 1917) and Jack Kirby (born August 28, 1917). Bay Area comic creators Mark Badger (Batman, Julius Caesar), Al Gordon (Legion of Super-Heroes, Justice League), Justin Hall (No Straight Lines), Mario Hernandez (Love and Rockets), Steve Leialoha (X-Men, Fables), Trina Robbins (Wimmen’s Comix) and Judd Winick (Hilo) will discuss Eisner’s career and the impact that his work had on their own artistic endeavors. A book signing will immediately follow the panel discussion.
Will Eisner Week is an annual series of celebrations that takes place in multiple cities, timed around Will Eisner’s March 6th birthday. Started in 2009, Will Eisner Week is dedicated to promoting graphic novel literacy, free speech awareness, and the legacy of Will Eisner. This year Will Eisner Week is once again a truly international celebration including England, Scotland and Italy.
Will Esiner was born William Erwin Eisner on March 6, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York. By the time of his death on January 3, 2005, Eisner was recognized internationally as one of the giants in the field of sequential art, a term he coined.
In a career that spanned nearly eight decades -- from the dawn of the comic book to the advent of digital comics -- he truly was the “Orson Welles of comics” and the “Champion of the Graphic Novel.” He broke new ground in the development of visual narrative and the language of comics and was the creator of The Spirit, John Law, Lady Luck, Mr. Mystic, Uncle Sam, Blackhawk, Sheena and countless others.
One of the comic industry’s most prestigious awards, The Eisner Award, is named after him. Recognized as the “Oscars” of the American comic book business, the Eisners are presented annually before a packed ballroom at Comic-Con International in San Diego, America’s largest comics convention.
2017 marks the centenary of the birth of Jack Kirby, one of Comics’ greatest creators and visionaries and a man whose work, perhaps even more than he was alive, continues to inspire and amaze a worldwide audience, who may not know his name, but who love and are excited by his creations.
Jack Kirby was born as Jacob Kurtzburg on August 28, 1917 in New York City’s Lower East SIde, a first-generation son of immigrants, who came of age in the melting pot of tenement life. He began his professional cartooning career simultaneously with the birth of the use of original material in the newest of popular media; the comic book.
Over Kirby’s 50-plus year career, working at all the major and many of the minor comics publishers, he created many of the comic book icons that continue to compel in print and on the screen; Captain America, the Newsboy Legion, the Fantastic Four, the Mighty Thor, The X-Men, The Avengers, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, The Silver Surfer, Nick Fury and the Agents of SHIELD, The New Gods, Kamandi, Mister Miracle, Captain Victory and legions more.
Jack Kirby, even after his death on February 6, 1994, continues to thrill, entertain and inspire readers, audiences and his fellow professionals and is, if possible, beloved more as an individual, than as the creative force singular in comics history.
Source: Cartoon Art Museum
