On August 8, 1987, during the San Diego Comicon, the comic book industry threw a surprise 70th birthday party for Jack Kirby (August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) at the Hotel Dan Diego, organized by Mark Evanier, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Steve Rude, Scott Shaw, and many others.
Jack was indeed surprised–the word “overwhelmed” springs to mind–and scores of us gathered to celebrate the King, complete with a commemorative souvenir booklet featuring tributes in words and pictures by Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Frank Miller, Mike Royer, Steve Rude, Sergio Aragones, Chic Stone, Moebius, Toy Thomas, Julius Schwartz, Joe Sinnott, Don Heck, John Romita, George Roussos, Richard Howell, Dave Stevens, Will Eisner, and others.
And it looked something like this…
Tags: and others, birthday, Chic Stone, commemorative booklet, Dave Stevens, Don Heck, Frank Miller, George Roussos, Jack Kirby, Joe Sinnott, John Romita, Julius Schwartz, Len Wein, Mark Evanier, Marv Wolfman, Mike Royer, Moebius, Richard Howell, Roy Thomas, San Diego Comicon, Scott Shaw, Sergio Aragones, souvenir book, Stan Lee, Steve Rude, Toy Thomas, Will Eisner