When Hicksville came out in the early 90s, the idea of comics being respected and cartoonists feted was as much a pipedream as winning the lottery – on Mars. The quote was popularized by New Zealand cartoonist Dylan Horrocks, who used it as the epigraph of his comic about comics, Hicksville, in which there’s a magical island where everyone loves comics and cartoonists are the greatest celebrities. Not to sound like a name dropping douchebag, but I knew Kirby a little and I was quite curious about the origin of the statement, as it’s a bit more dour than I might have expected. Re the previous post, Faith Erin Hicks used a classic comics quote this is attributed to Jack “King” Kirby with that source in mind the message “Comic will break your heart,” coming from the man who invented the comics, is indeed a sobering reminder that with great love comes great heartbreak. That’s it, it’s the defiance of the Kirby I met that has always made me wonder about this quote. He usually said such things with a feisty, defiant manner. He probably said it much less (if at all) in the last years of his life when he could see creators sometimes holding onto copyrights and making real good money in comics.Īnd I doubt he was ever as dour as the above drawing (by New Zealand cartoonist Dylan Horrocks) made him out to be. When he did say things like that it came from a frustration not with the form of comics, which he loved, but with the working conditions, bad compensation and loss of control of one’s work he encountered. There were times he was happier in the field than he was at other times. I should also point out that Jack’s advice fluctuated. However, he does have one caveat with the narrative expressed in this post: UPDATE: Jack Kirby biographer Mark Evanier, has responded to this post with a thorough history of Jack Kirby saying comics will break your heart many times.

Comics will break your heart a novel