There probably isn’t anybody more important to the history of American comic books than writer/artist Jack Kirby, and probably nobody better suited to write about him than former Kirby assistant and award-winning TV/comics writer Mark Evanier. Which is one reason why “Kirby: King of Comics” ($40, Abrams), literally years in the promise, has been a greatly anticipated book — especially by me.

And I wasn’t disappointed. Surprised a little, because I was able to whiz through it in an evening. Surprised, but pleased. Evanier doesn’t do a lot of talking; he lets Kirby’s art do most of the talking. And, as any comics fan will tell you (until you physically force him or her to stop), Kirby’s art is incredibly eloquent.

Especially the rarely seen, autobiographical, 10-page “Street Code” from the mid-1980s, printed here in its entirety in staggeringly detailed pencils. It is a jaw-dropping tour de force — and a heartstring-tugger. Kirby’s true story in “Code,” amid the hurly burly and street fights of 1920s New York City, is one of loving moms and fierce honor and youthful hope. Jack “King” Kirby, whose name is synonymous with action/adventure comics, managed to touch the heart of even this jaded, cynical old fanboy.

Evanier also lets a lot of other folks, famous ones, do some talking — which is not only fun to read, but is probably more convincing than anything a biographer (or a blogger) can tell you about Kirby’s importance. There’s Neil Gaiman saying “Jack Kirby created part of the language of comics and much of the language of superhero comics.” And there’s Will Eisner saying “Every time the comic industry needed someone to kick it in the butt or in a new direction, along came Jack. He was like the cavalry with a pencil.” There’s David Copperfield calling Kirby “a contemporary Homer” and Harlan Ellison saying “no praise is too much.” Quote after quote, the giants of fiction and entertainment pour out their love. As well they should — Kirby blazed the trail for many of them in his remarkable career.

Speaking of which, Evanier dutifully covers all the major periods of Kirby’s life. There’s his hardscrabble youth in the wrong part of New York as Jacob Kurtzberg; his early partnership with Joe Simon (with whom he co-created Captain America, and later the romance-book genre); his fecund and celebrated partnership with Stan Lee in the ’60s (with whom he co-created virtually all of Marvel Comics); his groundbreaking, interrelated “Fourth World” books for DC Comics in the ’70s (including one of fiction’s greatest villains, Darkseid); and his later years, with eyesight failing but recognition growing, and projects even more personal; and the events up to and including his death (of heart failure) in 1994 at the age of 77.

But most fans know that already. What you’re all waiting for is to find out what Evanier has to say about one of fandom’s most divisive arguments. You want to know which side he comes down on in the great debate about who created what in the “Marvel Age of Comics,” during the fabled Lee-Kirby partnership that gave us the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and all the rest. Was Lee, as Kirby boosters would have it, just “Kirby’s stenographer”? What part did Kirby play in the creation of Spider-Man, drawn by someone else (Steve Ditko)? Was Kirby justified in feeling slighted by Lee, a belief that created a bitter rift and drove Kirby into the arms of DC Comics in 1970? In short, who created Marvel Comics?

Well, if you’ve ever read Evanier’s long-running comics commentary over the years, you know his answer: They both did. He does chronicle the competing claims of the two men (and some of their boosters), but for all of that, you’ll have to get the book. All I’ll say is that the impression I came away with is that Evanier believes there’s credit enough for both men.

Which is entirely appropriate for this book, a celebration of the life and career of the man Stan “the Man” Lee himself dubbed “the King.”