Monthly Archives: October 2006

Amazing Man #10 (March 1940) Ranch Dude by Joe Simon

In his book, “The Comic Book Makers”, Joe describes being assigned his first comic book work. It was a seven page western. When Joe first started in the industry he worked on a variety of genre; science fiction, super heroes, crime and jungles stories. But this story in Amazing Man #10 is the only western I am aware of. Ranch Dude is an interesting example of Simon’s early work. I actually think it was one of his best efforts from that period. It has some features that distinguish it from other work by Joe. In Ranch Dude Joe adheres to a strict grid layout to the panels. For all other stories the panel sizes vary so that the gutters trace irregular paths. Also in Amazing Man Simon numbers the pages very simply, while in other stories the page numbers are enclosed, usually in a circle. Finally Ranch Dude is the only work I have seen where Joe makes the “splash” as a single panel no larger then the other panels.

Although cover dated as March, could Ranch Dude have been Simon’s first comic book work? But if it was why would it been kept as inventory for several months? The first published comic book work for Joe have a January cover date (the covers for Keen Detective #17 and Silver Streak #2 and the story “The Tree Men of Uranus”). Ranch Dude is six pages long, not the seven that Joe recalls in his book. But hey the book was written 50 years later, perhaps the page difference is just a memory lapse. My feeling right now is Ranch Dude is likely to be the first comic book work done by Joe Simon. It may be the “first comic book work” but as I said above it was not the “first published comic book work”. Tomorrow I will present the “first published comic work”. With all these subtle but careful phrasing I am beginning to feel like a lawyer!

I showed Ranch Dude to Joe and asked what he thought. He said that the presentation seemed simpler to him then for example the Trojak story in Daring Mystery #2 that came out a month earlier. But unfortunately Joe just could not remember his first work well enough to say if this was that story. In fact Joe said he never saw the published version of that work. He added the comment “who knew”? From previous conversations I took that to mean who knew that comics would last, that Joe would stay in that business or that over 60 years later people would care? However Joe did remember that the villain of the story, Bull Sendach” was named after his roommate in Syracuse Murray Sendach.

Amazing Man #10 (March 1940) Ranch Dude by Joe Simon

If this was Joe’s first comic book art then he adopted his working method right from the start. Compare the shooting man from panel 5 of page 4 with the one on the cover to Keen Detective #17. I cannot say what the source was but this repeated use of the same image show Joe was swiping from someplace. Also add some robes and the man falling on the right of the same panel becomes the Arab shot in Keen Detective #17. Previously I mentioned that Joe seemed to have picked up from Jack the theme of a hero slugging a foe so hard that he sends him flying. I recently showed that Simon used this device prior to meeting Jack. Here is an example at least two months before meeting Kirby, perhaps even four months.

Amazing Man #10 (March 1940) The Iron Skull by Carl Burgos

I really cannot say what were some of Joe’s influences. He shared the Amazing Man Comics #10 with Carl Burgos. Carl did a really great story but I really do not think Simon picked up anything from Carl.

Amazing Man #10 (March 1940) The Amazing Man by Bill Everett

Bill Everett was also in Amazing Man #10 doing both the cover and the feature story. I have to say that at least for these particular works I am not that impressed by Bill. The story by Burgos is better and I like Joe’s first covers much more then the Amazing Man #10 cover. However in the Amazing Man story Bill sometimes draws the eyes and eyebrows in a single angular form similar to the way Joe did. In his book Joe describes having to learn the simpler drawing methods necessary in comics. Perhaps he was given some comics with Bill Everett material in them as examples. Joe says he is not sure whether he met Everett.

Art by Joe Simon, Joe Simon as a Newspaper Staff Artist

Art by Joe Simon, Chapter 2, Before Kirby

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Daring Mystery #3 (April 1940) Trojak by Joe Simon

Joe Simon created the Trojak feature in Daring Mystery #2 (February 1940) under the alias of Gregory Sykes. He continued to work on Trojak in Daring Mystery #3 (April 1940) but this time signing with his real name. Many of Joe’s mannerisms show up in this story, in particular his method of combining eyebrow and eye as a single angular form. There are differences between issues #2 and #3, particularly in the natives. The natives in DM #2 were clearly swiped, they are similar to some aliens from Silver Streak #2 (January 1940). It is not clear if the natives in DM #3 are swipes or not. As shown in my series The Art of Joe Simon (and certainly well known by many comic historians), swiping was a common technique used by Joe. So although I cannot point out any obvious examples in this story, that does not mean swipes were not used. Joe may just have done a better job integrating them into the story. I do believe we can confidently say that the large tiger head of the splash was copied from somewhere. Still Joe did a marvelous job on it and it is another example of Joe’s fondness for oversize figures and floating heads.

Daring Mystery #3 (April 1940) Trojak by Joe Simon

Compared to DM #2 Joe seems to be advancing in his story telling ability. DM #3 actually contains two stories; Trojak’s efforts against a giant prehistoric beast and his fight against a Nazi army. Previously I discussed the hero slugging a villain on the cover of Champion #8 (June 1940). At that time I attributed this to the influence of Jack Kirby. It seemed a reasonable conclusion since Joe had just met Jack and Kirby became famous for this sort of slugfest. However it seems that conclusion was not correct. Take a look at panel 2 from the page above. Here Joe provides another example of a hero’s hitting with such force that the foe ends up flying. Since DM #3 has an April cover date while the Simon Fox covers start with May, it is unlikely that Joe and Jack have met. I will be providing an even earlier example in a future post.

I have to admit that every time I look at DM #3 I wonder if was correct to conclude that Joe was not responsible for Daring Mystery #4 (May 1940). But when I compare them side by side I always end up convinced that despite some similarities DM #3 and #4 were not done by the same artist. In general I have no problems distinguishing Joe’s penciling for this period. But I worry that Joe’s use of swipes may sometimes end up hiding his involvement. Previously I did not attribute the covers of Champ #22 (September 1942) or Speed #22 (September 1942) to Simon. I felt that they did not match the style of other Joe Simon covers of the period. The Gaven signature (another Simon alias) proved me wrong. Joe’s heavy reliance on swipes for these Harvey covers (particularly for Champ #22) does seem to make it difficult to find Simon traits. So I am concerned that something similar might be happening with DM #4. I plan to make a study of these early works for features other then artistic style to see if they might help to resolve this issue.

Art by Joe Simon, Chapter 2, Footnote

Art by Joe Simon, Chapter 3, Working for the Fox

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