Kirby's 75th Birthday

  I have been going to conventions for quite some time and I have met some of the biggest names in the comic book industry. Most of these meetings have gone fairly well. Me telling the creator how much I have enjoyed their work and so on.

One interesting story happened at Jack Kirby's 75th birthday party at the 1992 San Diego Comic Convention. Now some of you may know I am a huge Kirby fan. Even since I discovered his work in the early 80's I was hooked. I have amassed quite a large collection of Kirby items.

Well they were having an informal birthday party for the King of comics and my friend Jason and I decided this was something too cool to miss. After the show on Saturday we went to the upper area and walked into the room. The room was packed and there was also a big band playing swing music.

The room was wall to wall comic book professionals, there to wish happy birthday and pay tribute to the Man. I took a quick scan of the room and there were more professionals there then fans. I saw Jim Lee, Will Esiner, Kevin Taylor, Jill Thompson and many others. I was thinking, "This is great! I get to wish Happy Birthday to the biggest name in comics and I also get to rub elbows with some of the top talent in the industry"

Well Jason and I walked around the room like a couple of star stuck fans (oh wait that's what we were!) and have some nice conversations with the other professionals. Then the moment that we had all been waiting for arrived. Jack showed up and the band picked up the tempo.

There were some speeches made about Jack's impact on the industry and how he influenced a lot of the creators in the room. The whole time Jack was standing by the little podium area and I had my trusty 35 mm camera snapping pictures for posterity. While I was trying to get a good shot of Jack there was this guy in front of me who kept on moving in the direction I was moving taking his own pictures.

Almost every time I was about to take a picture this guy's head would pop up and I would have to re-adjust my position. Now I don't know about any of you but while I'm trying to take pictures I don't really want the back of some one's head to keep popping up.

I leaned over to Jason to express my disgust at the guy in front of me. I think I said something along the lines of, "Who is this schmuck...he keeps getting the way of my shots!" Now if you haven't met me let me explain something, I'm not a quite person. When I am passionate about something I tend to let the room know, the same when I am annoyed. So I know this guy in front of me heard me.

Then the MC of the ceremonies started to introduce the gust speaker for the evening. The man at the podium started talking about the guest speaking saying he was a huge fan of Kirby's and that he himself is quite an accomplished comic creator. Having worked on Spider-Man, Daredevil, Batman and Sin City.

That's right, he was talking about none other then the great Frank Miller!

The MC then said, "Let's give a warm welcome to Mister Frank Miller!" and everyone started clapping. I was clapping as well and then I noticed something very bad. The "schmuck" who kept popping his head into my shots stood up and turned around and waved at everyone. The "schmuck" was none other then Frank Miller...the guest of honor.

Right before he walked up to the podium he turned to me and smiled and walked up to the front of the room. Well let me tell you at that moment I felt about 1.2 inches tall and was very embarrassed. Frank gave a wonderful speech and got a well deserved round of applause from everyone in the room (especially me). After his speech and people were milling around the room I went over to Frank to apologize and he just smiled and said, "Don't worry about it".

That was quite an uncomfortable position I was in let me tell you...but the cool thing is that Frank was really cool about it and I got to meet Jack Kirby. I mean what could be better then that!

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