| Author |
|
John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 136072
|
| Posted: 20 April 2026 at 3:07pm | IP Logged | 1
|
post reply
|
|
Plans are afoot to officially dub the intersection of Delancey and Essex streets in lower Manhattan “Jack Kirby Way”, commemorating his contributions to American and especially New York culture. Fine. Well deserved. Except this is based on Marvel’s insistence on equating Delancey St with the fictional Yancy St (something in which Mark Gruenwald played no small part), and overlooks the fact that Jacob Kurtzberg was born in Hell’s Kitchen, literally miles uptown from Delancey and Essex. sigh
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
|
| |
Michael Penn
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 13156
|
| Posted: 20 April 2026 at 4:00pm | IP Logged | 2
|
post reply
|
|
I had thought he was also born on the Lower East Side, until I saw this post and then I looked up in A Complete History of American Comic Books, by Shirrel Rhoades, that Kirby was: "Born in New York's rough-and-tumble Hell's Kitchen in 1917...."
Hmph.
Edited by Michael Penn on 20 April 2026 at 4:01pm
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
|
| |
Dave Kopperman
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 December 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 4014
|
| Posted: 21 April 2026 at 12:18pm | IP Logged | 3
|
post reply
|
|
Okay, here’s something weird. After reading JB’s post, I got an itch to see if my grandfather and Kirby ever crossed paths. I figured it was possible, as my grandfather was born and lived in that area of Manhattan, and even though there was a decade between them, my family had a dry goods store there.
And instead, I think I might have found out that my grandfather had been married and was a widower before he met my grandmother.
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
| www
|
| |
John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 136072
|
| Posted: 21 April 2026 at 12:33pm | IP Logged | 4
|
post reply
|
|
In my early 20s I was looking thru some family papers, and found my parents’ wedding license. There my mother was identified as “the divorced wife of…..”That was a shocker. It was literally decades before I found the courage to ask my Dad about it. (Turned out that during the War, when she was in the WAAF, Mom had married a dashing young pilot—who turned out to be Gay. This she discovered on her wedding night. With the marriage unconsummated, my Grandfather went to the town hall and paid £10 to have it annulled.) Weirdest part was I was at the ACA at the time and had a smallish crush on a girl who I now knew had the same last name as my mother’s first husband. I was not able to look at her the same way from then on. TMI, I know.
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
|
| |
Dave Kopperman
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 December 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 4014
|
| Posted: 21 April 2026 at 3:44pm | IP Logged | 5
|
post reply
|
|
It's pretty amazing how quickly families fly apart, and also how much of this stuff was happening all the time everywhere but was all swept under the rug. Case in point - this was my paternal grandfather I was talking about, but my maternal grandfather also had been married once before he met my grandmother and fathered my mom. No biggie, except for the fact that my mom has a half-brother from that first marriage that she only found out about in her late forties.
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
| www
|
| |
John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 136072
|
| Posted: 23 April 2026 at 4:18pm | IP Logged | 6
|
post reply
|
|
Being transported to the other side of the world when I was a child pretty much squashed any hope I might have had of an extended family. Four cousins, but no contact with any of them since the Sixties. (Close knit family? What the heck is that??)I’ve mentioned sometimes wondering if any of them give any thought to me. Probably not!
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
|
| |
Michael Hogan
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 2099
|
| Posted: 23 April 2026 at 4:55pm | IP Logged | 7
|
post reply
|
|
It's that Irish blood in your background, JB. Close-knit
Irish family?...Yep, we get together for weddings and
funerals!
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
e-mail
|
| |
John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 136072
|
| Posted: 23 April 2026 at 7:52pm | IP Logged | 8
|
post reply
|
|
We don’t even do those!
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
|
| |
John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 136072
|
| Posted: 28 April 2026 at 11:22am | IP Logged | 9
|
post reply
|
|
Marvel has sent out a huge number of emails inviting people to the naming ceremony. I know this because (a) I received one and (b) my mailbox is filling up with RSVPs from people who evidently don’t know the difference between REPLY and REPLY ALL.
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
|
| |
Petter Myhr Ness
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 02 July 2009
Location: Norway
Posts: 4220
|
| Posted: 28 April 2026 at 11:26am | IP Logged | 10
|
post reply
|
|
30+ years of e-mail, and people still haven't figured that out ...
Are you planning on going, JB?
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
|
| |
John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 136072
|
| Posted: 28 April 2026 at 11:27am | IP Logged | 11
|
post reply
|
|
No. See my opening post in this thread.
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
|
| |
