i heard it something Sooter did to back at Kirby, after Kirby sued marvel over the ownership of his art.
is that true?
No. The Kirby Awards were co-managed by Fantagraphcs Books and some distributor they wound up suing. I think Fanta still co-sponsors the Eisners, but the distributor no longer does.
Kirby never sued Marvel over the artwork, although he may have considered doing so.
Not exactly. The Kirbys were started by Dave Olbrich, who then worked at Fantagraphics. When Olbrich left, there was a dispute about who should run the awards program. Eventually, Fanta started their own program (the Harveys, named after MAD creator Harvey Kurtzman) and Olbrich started the Eisners.
Today, however, the Eisners don’t look much like the original Kirby awards. Whereas the nominations for the Kirbys were open to most anyone in the industry (as the Harveys still are today), a five-person nominating panel picks nominees for the Eisners. (Panel membership changes every year; Eisner administrator Jackie Estrada names the panelists who come from various facets of the comics community.) In form, the Harveys are much more the descendant of the Kirby awards, as the selection process is roughly the same.
http://www.wondercon.com/Pages/CCIEisnersFAQ.html
–Cliffy