Comic History

Jack Kirby Street Sign Unveiling Date Announced

Marvel legend Jack Kirby will be honored on May 11 in New York City with a new street sign designating Essex Street between Delancey and Rivington Streets as “Jack Kirby Way”. The effort was spearheaded by author, writer, and pop culture historian Roy Schwartz who shepherded the application, a resident petition drive of support, several presentations. The city council approved the street designation in December of 2025.

Jack Kirby Way sign. Artist mock-up.
Mock-up rendition of what the corner signs will look like.

Jack spent the first 52 years of his life in New York (minus WWII service). He was born in 1917 and grew up on Essex street. In the early 1940s he moved into an apartment in Brooklyn where he soon met is wife Rosalind “Roz” Goldstein. They lived in Brooklyn until 1969. The Kirby’s moved to Southern where he spent the remaining 25 years of his life. New York will always be where he made most of his legendary contributions in his career, so it’s fitting that the street of his youth receives this designation.

For information on date, time of the street sign unveiling ceremony visit Jackkirby.com.

A related aside: Jack Kirby Way is not the only notable comic related street designations. The legendary Stan Lee has a “Stan Lee Way” at University Avenue between Brandt Place and West 176 Street in the Bronx, and Batman co-creator Bill Finger has a street named after him on 192nd St. near the corner of Grand Concourse in the Bronx.

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Comments 5

  1. When listing comics related street names, don’t forget Joe Shuster Way, in Toronto. Shuster lived his earliest years in Toronto, and the original name of the newspaper Clark Kent worked at, the Metropolis Daily Star, was taken from the hometown paper the Toronto Star.

    1. That would be a fun project—documenting all the comic related street name honorifics. But Toronto would be a stretch to include in the NYC map. 😃

  2. I like the “Yancy Street” detail.
    That was the fictitious NYC neighborhood where a young Ben Grimm of the Fantastic 4 grew up.
    Good job, NYC street-naming department.
    Excelsior!

  3. @Jeff, @Darryl – I have confirmed with Roy that the image above depicting Yancy Street was a “homage made by Marvel on July 9, 2025, to coincide with the FF movie.” I have swapped out the images at the top of the story with the rendition that Roy says is closer to what we’ll actually see in real life.

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