King Kirby: A play by Crystal Skillman & Fred Van Lente

by Fred Van Lente, Crystal Skillman (With)

“Crystal Skillman and Fred Van Lente, the husband-and-wife playwrights behind 'King Kirby,' know the score. She wrote the smart Off Off Broadway shows “Cut” and the fangirl-friendly 'Geek'; he was a co-author of the graphic novel 'Cowboys & Aliens,' later adapted for a Hollywood sci-fi western. With this supple, informative and poignant portrait, they offer penetrating insight into the tirelessly prolific Kirby (1917-94), whose brawny and dynamic yet nuanced style dominated comics for more than 40 years. Their play (Kirby was known as the king) documents a creator who attained immortality even as his life ended amid a morass of corporate exploitation.” — Andy Webster, The New York Times KING KIRBY is a play by the husband-and-wife team of New York Times bestselling comics writer Fred Van Lente and NYIT award-winning playwright Crystal Skillman about the life and times of Jack Kirby, the great comic book artist who created or co-created some of your favorite heroes on the page and screen, Captain America, the Avengers, Thor, Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Iron Man, Young Romance, the New Gods, Darkseid, The Demon… the list goes on and on. From the Jewish ghetto of New York's Lower East Side to the battlefields of France to the Senate hearings of 1950s, this is a hysterical and heartbreaking story about a man who pours his quintessentially Twentieth Century life into his comics, only to make the fateful mistake that sends him into obscurity while his creations become known to every person on Earth. A real-life "Adventures of Kavalier & Klay", King Kirby asks what happens when an artist doesn't own his own legacy? Can he ever get it back?

Genres: Plays

118 pages, Paperback

First published July 31, 2014

About the author

Fred Van Lente is the New York Times-bestselling author of comics as varied as Archer & Armstrong (Harvey Award nominee, Best Series), Taskmaster, MODOK's 11, Amazing Spider-Man, Conan the Avenger, Weird Detective, and Cowboys & Aliens (upon which the 2011 movie was based), as well as the novels Ten Dead Comedians and The Con Artist.

Van Lente also specializes in entertaining readers with offbeat histories with the help of his incredibly talented artists. He has written the multiple-award winning Action Philosophers!, The Comic Book History of Comics, Action Presidents! (all drawn by Ryan Dunlavey), and The Comic Book Story of Basketball with Joe Cooper (Ten Speed September 2020).

He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Crystal Skillman, and some mostly ungrateful cats.

Reviews

[me · Rating 4 out of 5]

did this play for school!! very silly 🥰🥰🥰❤️❤️

[Michael Giuliano · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5.
A cool short play about the life of Jack Kirby, and addresses the lack of fame/recognition he had while alive. A lot of research and love was put into this, and it really shows. Kirby is extremely moving at times, and hits you with a few emotional sucker-punches at points. I'd love to actually see this played out on a stage sometime, just to see how it's supposed to be set up, because (playing it out in my head) it sounds like a difficult task for just 3 people to do the whole thing.