Mark Peters writes about how Jack Kirby might be deserving of some recognition for elements in Star Wars and its special mythology. I see a connection but then I see connections all over the place between Jack's work and that of many successful authors, artists, directors and other creative folks.
Jack certainly perceived a lot of Kirby inspiration in the first Star Wars film but he was in no way upset with George Lucas or anyone on that end. What rankled him was that when he'd done the New Gods and its allied titles for DC, the whole thing had been dismissed by DC's licensing division…which didn't see much value to anything but Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and maybe one or two other long-established properties. When Jack suggested his Fourth World series would make a dandy movie, he was treated like an amateur who didn't understand how the business worked.
That was one of the reasons the books were axed when they were. They were showing a profit but, the licensing folks insisted, they had no potential to be anything else but comic books. The overwhelming success of Star Wars convinced Jack he'd been right. So his main beef was that no one at DC had agreed with him and done it first. And of course since then, many of the characters from those books have been hugely merchandised and seen on TV, and the Master Villain is heading for the big screen in a multi-zillion dollar movie. This kind of thing happened with Jack a number of times.