Jack Katz, Pioneer of the Graphic Novel, Is Dead at 97

The volumes were originally issued by the publishing arm of Comics & Comix, a retailer in Berkeley, and later by Bud Plant, a founder of Comics & Comix.

After completing his masterwork, Mr. Katz continued to paint and teach art. Along the way, he published two books on the art of anatomy, two volumes of sketchbooks and another graphic novel, “Legacy,” about the mysterious fate of a billionaire’s fortune, written with the comics veteran Charlie Novinskie.

Mr. Katz’s survivors include two sons, Ivan and David, and two daughters, Beth and Laura Katz, as well as grandchildren and great-grandchildren. His three marriages ended in divorce.

Around 2013 — the year Titan Comics reissued “The First Kingdom” — Mr. Katz embarked on an ambitious follow-up to his masterwork: a 500-page graphic novel called “Beyond the Beyond,” which he financed in part through the crowdfunding site Indiegogo, while toiling away on it up to 18 hours a day, often in his pajamas, he said in a 2015 video interview. He added that he already had the story by the time he was 12, and that “The First Kingdom” was basically its preamble.

“All of these people, they were, ‘Oh, you’re 45, you’re over the hill!’” he told ICv2, recalling the early days of “The First Kingdom.” “I’m 85 now! I’m ready to take on ‘Beyond the Beyond’!”

That work, completed in 2019, remains unpublished. Then again, Mr. Katz understood the challenges going in.

“For heaven’s sake,” he said, “you know, if you climbed Mount Everest one time, it’s not a snap the second.”