12. The larger story here is that of the "brutal bargain" Podhoretz talked about, where white children of immigrants have to become "facsimile WASPs" to make it. Podhoretz made that bargain & became big editor and right-wing Republican. Kirby had success in own way but never made that bargain.

13. A high school drop out who worked in the low-rent world of comic books and TV animation, Kirby knew that the markers of class & ethnic origin were not easily erased & the brutal bargain meant betrayal of family & friends. That's in fact an obsessive them in his work.