Champ #19 (June 1942)

Champ #19

This is one my favorites of the Harvey covers. Once again there is a Jon Henri signature, but this time it was Joe Simon doing the pencils. The visual humor found in the primary crook, will reappear later in the Duke of Broadway. Even the bullet’s near miss of the policeman is more humorous then it is suspenseful. Joe portrays the Liberty Lads younger then Jack did. If they look familiar that is because they actually are Gabby and Scrapper from the Newsboy Legion.

It is amazing to see how well all the pieces of the story are present. The robbed bank, most of the policemen ineffectively on the other roof, the single policeman in the correct location is about to taken care of by the crooks before they make their get-away. That is except for the Liberty Lads approaching unseen from the back, about to save the day. What a masterpiece.

Joe could work in a style close enough to Kirby’s that to this day many are fooled. But he had his own vision too and I am a bit surprised that so many experts still attribute this cover to Kirby. I suspect many use aesthetics to distinguish the two; for them if it is one of the better covers Jack must have done it. Jack did most of the penciling and Joe acknowledges that Kirby was an incredible artist. But I am here to tell you that Joe Simon is a lot better artist then many give him credit for.

Again this cover was published in 1942, not 1941 as listed in the Checklist.