Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, jack kirby, Jack Kirby Museum

Stolen Goods Report Filed Against The Jack Kirby Museum

By Tony Panaccio

Jack Kirby just cannot get any respect these days.

With Guardians of the Galaxy heating up in theatres, with scads of screen credits for just about every comic book creator who has ever worked on those characters EXCEPT Kirby, and the Supreme Court waffling on what to do with the Kirby vs. Marvel case, the latest news release from Greg Theakston just feels like insult and injury having a toga party.

Press release
Aug. 5, 2014

Sad Day for Jack Kirby Fans

Later today I will be filing a stolen goods report with the Hoboken Police department against The Jack Kirby Museum, its board, and administrator Randy Hoppe.

Last thing I wanted to do. Would never do anything to harm Jack's reputation and it seems odd that Randy doesn't seem to care. Let me make this as short as possible. The Kirbys gave me their Xerox archives of Jack's pencil art. When I was living in Brooklyn, Randy contacted me and asked if I could help with his new Jack Kirby Museum and of course I agreed. Randy scanned hundreds of items from my collection. Shortly before my move to Atlanta, I told Randy that he could borrow the Xerox copies but that I would want them back someday. As we were loading them into his car I underlined in red three times, "I will be back for these one day. When I return, I don't want to hear you say, 'I thought you gave those to me.'"

Guess what he said when I asked for them back.

That was late in June. Randy promised to get right on it then stopped returning my messages. He's holding 3,000+ of my Xerox copies and seems unwilling to return them. So, I will be filing a report with the Hoboken Police Department today.

Did not want it to turn out this way. Kirby was a straight-shooter and I would expect that his museum would be one as well. Randy seemed like such a nice guy.

We left voicemails for Rand Hoppe at the number listed for the Kirby Museum on the organization's Web site – which apparently is Rand Hoppe's Google Voice number — but have not received any response at this point. If Rand is interested in telling his side of the story, we'd be happy to update this piece with his statement.

Tony Panaccio is a business and marketing consultant and former Senior VP of CrossGen Entertainment, where he managed TV, film and media licensing as well as the company's involvement with The Hero Initiative, a not for profit agency that helps comic creators in need.

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