Grand Street in Hoboken, NJ<\/a>, Randolph Hoppe is here to work on his passion project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the comic book artist Jack Kirby. Best known as the mind behind the Hulk, the Avengers, Captain America and others, Kirby died in 1994, leaving behind a huge legacy of art and inspiration for his untold numbers of fans\u2014among whom Randolph happily counts himself.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019m a cartoonist and I\u2019ve been a comic book collector since I was 12 years old. Over the years, as I did some graphic design work for nonprofits in the art and media world, I realized that Jack Kirby was enough of a literary and cultural force to have his own nonprofit. I wanted his work to be treated with seriousness and not left to comic book companies or Disney,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Randolph is particularly compelled by Kirby\u2019s own life story: growing up Jewish on New York City\u2019s Lower East Side, serving on World War II\u2019s frontlines and turning a love of science fiction and mythology into countless memorable stories and characters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tend to think of them as just \u2018superhero stories,\u2019 but there\u2019s a lot more self-expression in them than you\u2019d think,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
In his civilian life, Randolph works as a collections manager for the Hoboken Historical Museum, a job he came by after visiting its website for years and doing what he calls \u201ctime-traveling\u201d through its digital images in his free time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very small museum and we all wear a lot of hats, but my main role is to catalog and archive the materials,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Among its most notable items, Randolph says, is the original neon \u201cGood to the Last Drop\u201d sign from the former Maxwell House coffee factory. He\u2019s self-taught as an archivist, having learned the skills along the way as a comic book collector.<\/p>\n
For now, the Jack Kirby Museum Research Center is strictly a volunteer effort. The website supports a digital art archive, and the physical collection lives at CubeSmart. Randolph and his board organize a few pop-up events and visits to comic conventions a year. He\u2019d like to see it grow but he\u2019s also dedicated to carrying out its mission in small, impactful ways.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just want to continue to tell his story and reach out to new audiences to share what for many of us has been a great reading experience that stays with us for the rest of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We’d love to hear how self storage has positively impacted your life. Share your #HumansofSelfStorage story in the comments.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\t\t\t\tTake a look as we explore what’s inside the stories of our Customers. Randolph works for a nonprofit comic book organization dedicated to the works of Jack Kirby, AKA the mind behind the Hulk, the Avengers, and Captain America!\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1938],"tags":[878,880,924,232,879],"class_list":["post-12431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-real-life","tag-hoboken","tag-hoboken-storage","tag-humansofselfstorage","tag-inside-self-storage","tag-new-jersey-storage"],"yoast_head":"\r\n
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<\/p>\n