This Thursday, May 1, the Skirball Cultural Center here in Los Angeles opens its exhibition Jack Kirby: Heroes and Humanity, co-curated by Patrick Reed and Ben Saunders in collaboration with Michele Urton, the Skirball’s Museum Deputy Director. This exhibition, the first career-spanning Kirby show in an American museum,
traces his experiences as a first-generation Jewish American born to immigrant parents in Manhattan’s storied Lower East Side, a soldier who fought in World War II, a successful commercial artist who worked in marginalized creative industries, a mentor to a generation of younger comic creators, a resident of New York and Los Angeles, and a proud family man whose Jewish faith remained important throughout his life.
The show, which runs through March 1, 2026, promises a mix of “rare original comic book artwork and print comics, fine art, and commercial work,” including many pieces never before exhibited. For example, the complete original art for X-Men #7 (Sept. 1964) will be shown. In all, the show incorporates more than 150 objects, including personal artifacts such as Jack Kirby’s US Army uniform and “ephemera that illustrate his life [and] inspirations.” Docent-led tours will begin on May 29. On the night of Wednesday, April 30, just before the show’s public opening, the Skirball offers a member’s preview event that includes a reception and an early look at the exhibition. I will be there!
I’ve known of this project for some time, and recently, at WonderCon 2025, my wife Mich and I were able to take in a panel moderated by Patrick Reed, “Comic Culture in Museums: The World of Pop Media Exhibitions,” that offered a sneak peek (Sunday, March 30). During that panel, Reed announced that Heroes and Humanity is the first of three substantial exhibitions about comics that the Skirball will be showing over roughly the next three years. Joining Reed on the panel were Rachel Pinnelas, comics writer and editor as well as consultant and co-curator on the Skirball projects; Xaviera Flores, librarian and archivist at UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center; and Rita Vandergaw, executive director of the Comic-Con Museum. All three discussed their experiences working on pop culture-related exhibitions, and the challenges and joys of crafting exhibitry rooted in comics and zines. It’s exciting to know that the Skirball is going for comics in such a big way!
The Skirball will present various programming events tied into these comics exhibitions, starting with Comics, Cultures, and Communities: The Jewish World in Graphic Novels, a six-week course (May 4-June 15) led by Dr. David Greenfield focusing on graphic books by such artists as Rutu Modan, Joann Sfar, and Joe Kubert.
Having curated the Kirby exhibition Comic Book Apocalypse in 2015, I’m of course keenly interested in all this! Patrick Reed and Ben Saunders, colleagues and friends of mine, have had ample experience creating comics and pop culture exhibitions both individually and together. In fact, Ben and I worked closely together on Comic Book Apocalypse, and co-edited its companion book. Ben significantly shaped that show. I’ve been in awe of his curatorial work; in 2018, I reviewed here a show that he spearheaded, the traveling Marvel: Universe of Super Heroes, and I’ve seen several of his other exhibitions too (check out this stunner for instance). In addition, I’ve seen Patrick and Ben’s jointly curated Spider-Man: Beyond Amazing, which opened at the Comic-Con Museum in 2022 and has since traveled. So, I can’t speak disinterestedly about these things — but, FWIW, I think their record is stellar. Further, the Skirball is a wonderful venue with a history of creating or hosting exhibitions that I’ve loved, so I’m stoked. I hope to take several groups of students to Heroes and Humanities over the next ten months.
Kirby Studies 