Kirby's genius was converting pop culture into comic book gold. He created
an entire series based on a popular Science Fiction movie he had never even
seen. He was inspired by the Depression Era pulp sensation Doc Savage to create
two series, one in the 1950s and one in the 1960s. When he noticed in the 1940s
that women were buying true romance magazines Kirby created the romance comics
genre. He even had Captain America punch Hitler before America entered World War
II.
Halloween 1968 the movie that was the template for THE WALKING DEAD comic,
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD was in the theaters. Fortunately for Robert Kirkman
Kirby must have been too busy creating his Fourth World mythology while simultaneously free-lancing at Marvel to
notice.
