Welcome to Yancy Street: New York Renames Street Corner in Honor of Jack Kirby

The Lower East Side of Manhattan is making way for the King.

On July 9, the corner of Delancey and Essex in New York City joined the Marvel Universe for a day. In honor of the seminal artist and creator Jack Kirby, Delancey Street was renamed Yancy Street/Jack Kirby Way.

Jack “King” Kirby, a legendary artist and prolific storyteller, is responsible for some of the most iconic characters in the world, including Captain America, Iron Man, Ant-Man, the Hulk, and of course The Fantastic Four. Beyond designing art and creating stories that would inspire and entertain for decades, he also pulled from his own life as a New Yorker as inspiration for the fictional world that would become the Marvel Universe. 

Marvel and the City of New York erected a commemorative sign celebrating the inspiration that Delancey and the neighborhood gave Jack Kirby, born Jacob Kurtzberg on August 28, 1917. Born just a block away on Essex Street, Kirby drew from his Lower East Side upbringing in his comics — especially in the life of Ben Grimm, who grew up on “Yancy Street.”

Members of the Kirby family were also there to celebrate the sign’s unveiling, with granddaughter Jillian Kirby noting that so much of the Fantastic Four drew from the Kirby family’s own history: “Grandpa Jack saw himself in the Thing, Ben Grimm being named after our great-grandfather… [The Fantastic Four] is so grounded in the Kirby family. Sue Storm [was also] named after our aunt Sue.”

She also reflected on the importance of the Boys’ Brotherhood Republic, now the Boys & Girls Republic, which Jack Kirby has pointed to as being instrumental in keeping him off the streets — he edited the organizations newspaper and contributed cartoons.

After unveiling the sign, granddaughter Tracy Kirby noted, “This would be a great honor for [Jack]… he was a New Yorker to the end.”

Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps opens in theaters July 25.