Category Archives: Prize

Not Kirby, Young Love #8 “Which Is Your Dream Man”

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Posted in 2006/08, 5 Studio, Kirby Or Not, Periods, Prize, Topic, z Archive.

Young Love #8
Young Love #8 (April 1950) “Which Is Your Dream Man” by Mort Meskin

The Jack Kirby Checklist lists “Which Is Your Dream Man” (Young Love #8) as Kirby pencils and Simon inks. This a one page work and it is not signed. But frankly it clearly has Mort Meskin as both penciler and inker. I just do not get a Kirby attribution at all.

There is always a mild cultural shock when reading old romance comics. But it is particularly striking in this short feature. “I like a man who shows me who’s boss” or “I like a possessive man”. Do you think these really represent the beliefs of the readers or those of the men who wrote, drew and produced the comic?

Not Kirby, Young Love #6 “My Promise”

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Posted in 2006/08, 5 Studio, Art Editing, Kirby Or Not, Periods, Prize, Topic, z Archive.

Young Love #6
Young Love #6 (1949) “My Promise” by unidentified artist

I was going to skip this particular work because frankly it is a bit of quibbling to say the Checklist is wrong. I will explain why I changed my mind later. The Checklist says that 1/2 page of this story is by Kirby. I suspect that this is their way of saying that the splash is by Jack. Well I think that there is little question that the figure of the man was done by Kirby. But the woman is a perfect match for how she is portrayed in the rest of the story. I am certain she was done by the story’s artists and not Jack. Nothing in the rest of the splash looks like Jack’s work to me either.

When the inking is examined we once again find that all the splash except for the man has the same style inking as the rest of the story. This style is not the Simon and Kirby shop style either, although in one area it tries to be. The S&K shop style frequently uses an abstract arch shadow. There is something like that between the man and the woman. But I have never seen the shop style turn the arc into an ‘S’ pattern like the artist did here. Further whereas the shop style makes effective use of the abstract arch shadow in the design, the ‘S’ shadow here seems poorly placed. When the inking of the man is examined it looks very different from the rest of the splash or the story. The spotting is done with much more assurance. The spot lines in the jacket sweep further and are effective in both depiction and design. The lines placed in the face and hand have nuances that the story artist just does not seem capable of. Some of the spotting in the hair was done with a broad brush, something not found in the rest of this work. Although the man is missing any of the rows of spots or the picket fence crosshatch often found in the S&K shop inking, it is otherwise a perfect match.

The artist draws rather large and poorly placed ears when viewed from behind. It may just be a quirk of the artist, but it was something the Jack Kirby also did during the war years. The rest of the face is not like what Jack did so my suspicion is that the artists was using old Simon and Kirby comics as an aid to drawing those parts he had problems depicting.

Two possible explanations for what happened here. One is that the story artist did a close swipe of a Kirby figure for the man in the splash. I do not like that explanation because of the inking which have subtleties that seem beyond the ability of the story artist. The other explanation, and the one I accept, is that Jack has stepped in here in his role as an art editor. The man plays a crucial part of the splash and I suspect the story artist did not do a good enough job on him. Kirby redid the figure but used restraint in the inking so as to blend in better. It is as an example of Kirby as art editor that made me reconsider posting on it.

Not Kirby, Young Love #8 “Danger, Soft Shoulder”

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Posted in 2006/08, 5 Studio, Kirby Or Not, Periods, Prize, Topic, z Archive.

Young Love #8
Young Love #8 (April 1950) “Danger, Soft Shoulder” by Mort Meskin

The Jack Kirby Checklist was originally published in 1998 but it was updated in issue #32 (July 2001) of The Jack Kirby Collector. The Checklist is a marvelous resource. Probably the only real problem I have with it is that is not clear how or who finally makes the attributions. But no matter how it is done disagreements are bound to happen. Nonetheless I plan to occasionally post what I consider errors in the Checklist. But I do not want to just list my corrections, I want to provide a scan example and some discussion.

My first subject will be the story “Danger, Soft Shoulder” from Young Love #8 (April 1950). Originally the listing was Kirby as penciler and Simon as inker. In the update Simon is removed as inker. I have to admit that I am unclear on the notation and do not understand the significance of “a(1)”. Does that mean Kirby did both pencil and inks? In any case to me both the penciling and inking for this story was actually done by Mort Meskin. Mort had a distinct style that seems to clearly show up in this work. But the real clincher is that the splash panel is signed “Mort”. I do not believe Mort would have done so if he was only the inker.

Charlie Chan & Carmine Infantino

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Posted in 2006/08, 5 Studio, Artists, Infantino, Carmine, Periods, Prize, z Archive.

Charlie Chan #1
Charlie Chan #1 (June 1948) “Charlie Chan” by Carmine Infantino (signed)

It occurs to me that I have done so many posts about forgotten artists that some might think that all the artists who worked for Simon and Kirby have fallen into that sad lot. That certainly was not what happened to Carmine Infantino. Carmine went on to have an important part of the Silver Age of comics and afterwards. There is so much history available on Infantino that I am not even going to try to summarize it here. Instead I am going to discuss the short period of time that he worked for S&K.

In Jack Kirby Collector #34 Jim Amash does an interview with Carmine where talks about his experiences with Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Before starting his career Carmine was obviously a fanboy since he and Frank Giacoia paid a visit to Joe and Jack’s studio during the period that S&K were providing work for DC. Years later when Joe approached Carmine about doing some work for them, Carmine’s initial reaction was to decline because DC was already keeping him quite busy and that company’s rates were higher. But when Carmine thought about it he felt he could not miss the chance to work with Jack Kirby and Mort Meskin.

The comic that Joe was asking Carmine to do was Charlie Chan. This title was a bit unusual for Simon and Kirby. At this time they were producing their own creations but earlier in their career they had also worked on other people’s creations. But Charlie Chan was obviously not theirs nor was it an already ongoing feature. Since Charlie Chan was another’s creation, royalties would have to be paid. Although Charlie Chan movies were popular, I do not think they were such big sellers that a successful comic was assured. So why this decision to produce a Charlie Chan comic? Well the answer lies in a lawyer that S&K used by the name of Fleagle (who Joe refers to as the Legal Eagle). It turns out that Fleagle also represented the interests of the estate of Earl Derr Biggers. I guess Fleagle must have been pretty pursuasive.

Charlie Chan #4
Charlie Chan #4 (December 1948) by Jack Kirby

Despite what the Jack Kirby Checklist says, Jack did not supply any of the interior art for Charlie Chan. But Kirby did pencil all the covers for the Prize run. These are all great jobs by Jack. As typical for Simon and Kirby covers that provide an entire story in just one scene. Unfortunately for an unwary buyer the story was not one of those found inside the comic.

Charlie Chan #1
Charlie Chan #1 (June 1948) “Land of the Leopard Men” by Carmine Infantino (signed)

Although the Kirby covers were obviously an enticement the reader really should not have been disappointed because Carmine Infantino did a really first rate job. Infantino would do all of the Charlie Chan features for the first four issues. He could also do a couple of the backup features, but most were done by other artists. Bill Draut did one (CC #1 “The Weasel Of Wall Street”) and Manny Stallman did another (CC #5 “Floating Mine Racket”). I have not identified most of the other artists who worked on backup features. In the first issue two of the Charlie Chan stories have full page splashes. These splashes are inked in the S&K shop style, which is probably why some have attributed them to Kirby. But they are signed by Infantino and a careful examination shows that they really are not done in Jack’s pencil style but are fully in agreement with Carmine’s drawing. The inking of the story itself is not in the shop style although because Carmine was working in the S&k studio he may have gotten assistance there also.

Charlie Chan #2
Charlie Chan #2 (August 1948) “Number One Trouble” by Carmine Infantino

After the first issue Carmine’s splash size seem to get progressively smaller and the S&K shop style inking disappears. But that is okay because Infantino is also a great story teller. I particularly like the sequence (see above) showing Charlie Chan and his number one son escaping from bondage. Carmine draws his characters as full with emotions. He makes eyebrows that are even wilder then those by Jack Kirby. Like any good detective, Charlie Chan depends on his wits. But Infantino handles what action there is quite well. I gather that in the future Infantino would abandon some of the stylization shown in these Charlie Chan stories, but not he would not loose his talent. This is still a relatively young Carmine Infantino, learning from masters like Jack Kirby and Mort Meskin and polishing his craft as he becomes a master himself.

Charlie Chan #3
Charlie Chan #3 (October 1948) “The Mystery Of The Phantom Killer” by Carmine Infantino

As is my usual custom I have provided a checklist. But with Carmine the limitations of my checklist are glaring. I simply am not in the position to provide information on his extensive work while his efforts for S&K was very limited. Carmine has said that he only drew Charlie Chan and nothing for the other S&K titles. So far my searches in Simon and Kirby productions confirms his statement. As I said Carmine did all the Charlie Chan stories for the first four issues. But the art for the Chan stories in the fifth issue appear different. The faces in frontal view are more triangular. Infantino’s work appears more realistic then those from this last Prize issue. Therefore I attribute much of the work from CC #5 to an unidentified artist. But Carmine did do one backup story ” The Fox Of Paris “. In Amash’s interview Carmine says that although he worked on Charlie Chan in the S&K studio he continued to do work for DC at night. This grueling work load eventually took its toll and Carmine had to give up on Charlie Chan.

Charlie Chan #5
Charlie Chan #5 (February 1949) “Murder On Ice” by unidentified artist

Carmine never worked for Simon and Kirby again. But eventually both Joe and Jack would end up working for Infantino. Kirby fans often are very critical of Carmine’s dealings with Jack in the early 70’s but personally I think such criticism is unwarranted. Infantino’s relationship with Joe does not seem to have been clouded with any similar issues and they remain good friends to this day.

Jerry Robinson, a Kirby collaborator

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Posted in 2006/08, 4 DC (early), 5 Studio, Artists, Periods, Prize, Robinson, Jerry, z Archive.

Detective #65
Detective #65 (July 1942) by Jack Kirby and Jerry Robinson

In my post of the S&K usual suspect John Prentice I provided a scan of In Love #1 which was jointly done by Kirby and Prentice. As I mentioned in that post, if we exclude work with Joe Simon and also unrelated inserts, there was only one other example of a cover where Kirby shared pencil duties with another artist. Here I am fulfilling my promise to post on that other example which was Detective #65. This cover of Batman and Robin meeting the Boy Commandos is unusual in that Jack has provided a more realistic rendition of the Commandos compared to how he normally did these characters. I do not understand why he thought this was necessary since Batman and Robin were done in a unrealistic, more cartoony, fashion and Jerry Robinson’s effort on this cover is no exception. Still the cover is a rather nice joint effort. Although Jerry started his career helping Bob Kane, at the time this cover was done he was working directly for DC.

Young Romance #6
Young Romance #6 (July 1948) “The Inferior Male” by Jerry Robinson and Mort Meskin (signed)

After the war when Joe and Jack were producing their own comics Robinson would do two stories for them. This work was done with Mort Meskin. I have already include a scan of one of these stories (Young Romance #6 July 1948) in my post on Mort but I include here another page from that story. Mort was a talented penciler with his own easily recognized style. But this YR story does not show much of that style so I believe it was primarily penciled by Jerry and inked by Mort. But the other story (Justice Traps the Guilty #5, July 1948) has all the signs of a work by Mort and so I believe Mort penciled while Jerry inked. Of course as with any collaboration such attributions probably greatly over simplify how the work was truly being done. However the work was divided it is pretty good stuff. But for whatever reasons the team of Robinson and Meskin went their separate ways. Jerry would go on to work on a syndication strip and work outside of the comic book industry for a few years. Mort would become a frequent artist for S&K productions and would actual work in the studio.

Justice Traps the Guilty #5
Justice Traps the Guilty #5 (July 1948) “Murder Special Delivery” by Jerry Robinson and Mort Meskin (signed)

Joe Simon attended the first New York Comic Con. While there he was greeted by Robinson. Later I commented to Joe how well Jerry looked. Joe said sure he looked good, he was still young. I guess it is all a matter of perspective. By the way that is Joe’s son Jim Simon behind Joe.

Jerry Robinson and Joe Simon
Jerry Robinson and Joe Simon (2006).

Ann Brewster, Not One of the Guys

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Posted in 2006/08, 5 Studio, Artists, Brewster, Ann, Periods, Prize, z Archive.

Once again I would like to give some attention to another of those forgotten comic book artists. Ann Brewster did not do a lot of work for Simon and Kirby but fortunately she did sign most of her stories. As usual I have more information about Ann’s efforts for S&K productions then on her career elsewhere. I have tried to supplement with information gleaned from the GCD (Grand Comic Book Database), Atlas Tales, Who’s Who of American Comics and other places on the Internet. I must admit that I am uncomfortable with using some of these sources. During the cold war the saying was “trust but verify”. But since I cannot verify anything outside of the Prize romance material, I find it hard to be trusting. At least Atlas Tales indicates what work was actually signed by Ann.

Brewster’s career seems to have started in the early 40’s. Working through various studios, Ann drew for a number of comic titles. It sounds like she worked in a variety of different genre. Unfortunately it also looks like Ann never got the opportunity to stay and grow with a particular feature. Perhaps she did with Rip Carson for Feature House where Who’s Who has Ann working from 1944 to 1948. Ann did some work for Crime Patrol (EC) and that title has been reprinted so maybe I will someday get a chance to see what her crime work looked like.

Prize #63
Prize #63 (March 1947) “Yank and Doodle and the Black Owl” (signed) by Ann Brewster (signed)

But I do have an example of Ann’s super hero art from Prize #63. Fortunately this piece is signed otherwise I am sure I would not have recognized it as being done by Ann. I cannot say I am very impressed with the art in this particular story. Much of the problem is the design of the Black Owl which is not Brewster’s fault. Even Jack Kirby was unable to make that super hero impressive when he worked on the Black Owl in the early 40’s. Otherwise the art is adequate but nothing that strikes me as much different then a host of other artists working at that time. Of course it is not fair to judge Ann’s ability in this genre based on a single story.

Simon and Kirby created the romance genre in comic books in 1947. Once other publishers caught on to the money that could be made in romance it was not long before Brewster seemed to be type cast. For instance all the signed works found in Atlas Tales are for romance titles. But Ann might not have been completely type cast, the sources indicate she still did some work in the horror and science fiction genre. Between 1958 and 1961 Brewster did work on the World Around Us titles. If the Internet sources are accurate this marked the end of her comic book career. Ann Brewster is listed as the illustrator for the dust jack of the book “Silver Wolf” published in 1973 by Atheneum.

Young Love #5
Young Love #5 (October 1949) “Too Many Boy Friends” by Ann Brewster (signed)

Her first piece for S&K seems to have been for Young Love #5 (October 1949). Actually it seems to be the only work Ann did for the studio at that time period. But it is a good piece of work done by someone who seems to know what they are doing. The drawing is a bit on the conservative side and one single mid-distance view predominates. However the story is presented well. The inking was done in the S&K shop style including techniques like the picket fence crosshatching and the use of some abstract arc shadows. Most likely it was inked by artists in the S&K studio and Ann only did the pencils.

Young Brides #24
Young Brides #24 (September 1955) “Riches Or Romance” by Ann Brewster (signed)

Brewster next period of work for S&K was from April 1955 to June 1956. Like Joe Albistur, Ann seemed to arrive to help take the place of the missing Jack Kirby. During this period Jack stopped doing Prize romance art, presumably to concentrate on Mainline, S&K’s own publishing company. Ann’s style had improved since her previous work for S&K. Ann probably was one of those artists that always trying to advance their craft. Ann’s characters now seem to be more lively and her women often had greater warmth. He story presentation has become better with more variation in the viewer distance used. Even the clothing style of the women has changed and hair length is now shorter. I really do not know if the hair and clothing styles presented were more up to date, but it is possible. These stories are no longer inked in S&K shop method and it is likely that now Ann was doing the inking. As with the other freelance artists, Ann stopped getting much work from the S&K studio once Kirby returned to do pretty much the entire Prize romance comics. Also like many of the other artists that freelanced for S&K, Brewster did not do any further work for S&K even after the all Kirby run was over.

Young Romance #77
Young Romance #77 (June 1955) by Ann Brewster

During Kirby’s absence the covers for the romance titles were mostly done by the usual suspects (Bill Draut, Mort Meskin and John Prentice). But Ann also did a couple of covers, sort of. A stat was made from Brewster’s splash panel, blown up and edited. It was a treatment that was not done by S&K for any other cover up to that time. Even though designed for the splash, the art made rather good covers. It makes you wonder what Ann might have done if given the chance to actually do an original cover. I previously posted the YR #79 Brewster cover in Chapter 2 of my “End of Simon and Kirby”. The cover for YR #77 (shown above) is a marvelous piece of work. I particularly like the lady’s left hand. It is not just well drawn but perfectly captures the woman as she is lost and overwhelmed by the unexpected kiss. However there is a problem with the cover but it was not due to Ann. The dancing couple on the left is partly covered by the subtitle “True Love Stories”. It makes a bit of a muddle but I guess it could not be helped. The composition needs the pair. Further their presences helps to indicate that the main couple had been part of the dancing. The subtitle is a standard presence on the cover so it could not just be eliminated. The final result is an uncomfortable compromise. But it is a small defect in an otherwise great cover.

Although it is not actually bad, I cannot say I am very excited about the early work I have seen by Ann Brewster. But the work she did for Simon and Kirby in the mid 50’s is really nice. Ann presented good stories, drew attractive women and designed interesting half page splashes. It does make me wonder what her Atlas work looked like since some of it immediately follows the S&K material. I must admit that my admiration goes beyond her artistic voice. I suspect that it must not have been easy for Ann to work in such a male dominated industry as comic books. Even romance comics were generally written, drawn and published by men. Yet Ann managed to have a career of perhaps 20 years in comics.

Strange Worlds of Your Dreams, strange indeed

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Posted in 2006/06, 5 Studio, Anthologies, Prize, Topic, z Archive.

Strange World of Your Dreams #3
Strange World of Your Dreams #3 (November 1952) by Jack Kirby

Your Dreams was certainly the oddest comic anthology that Simon and Kirby produced. It can be viewed as a spin off of the successful Black Magic comics that started a couple of years earlier. But its focus on the dream theme gave it a special flavor. The idea of a dream comic came from Mort Meskin, one of the few artists working for S&K who worked in the studio. Credits are printed on the first page of the comic with Simon and Kirby as the producers and Mort Meskin as associative editor. This is the only case in S&K productions where someone else is called an editor.

YD #3 The Women In The Tower
Strange World of Your Dreams #3 (November 1952) “The Women In The Tower” by Jack Kirby

The stories can be divided into three categories. The first is dream analysis, well that is how they present it. Despite the ads offering to pay for dreams, it is hard to believe that these stories portray real dreams. After all where is the one in the middle of giving a book report in front of the class you realize you are not wearing any clothes? The analysis does not look anymore authentic then the dreams, no Oedipus complex here. What is real is the opportunity for Kirby to go wild, which Jack takes full advantage of. Most of the dream analysis stories were done by Jack, and most of the stories he did in this series were dream analysis. I can only conclude that he relished this chance, he certainly makes effective use of it.

YD #3 Send Us Your Dreams
Strange World of Your Dreams #3 (November 1952) “Send Us Your Dreams” by Bill Draut

The dream analysis stories were occasionally done by other artists, including Mort Meskin and Bill Draut. As much as I admire these artists, Meskin and Draut in particular, I feel that they were not at all comfortable with this theme. Bill spent more time with the non-dream portions and little on the dream, whereas Kirby did most of the story on the dream itself. Most of these analysis stories tended to be very short, just a couple of pages long.

YD #1 The Dreaming Tower
Strange World of Your Dreams #1 (August 1952) “The Dreaming Tower” by Mort Meskin

A second story category for this anthology was fictional stories. When I provided Joe Simon with restorations of these comics, Joe commented that he must have pulled those stories from the Black Magic drawer. They are the type of story that would fit very well in a Black Magic comic. But if there truly was such a drawer full of Black Magic inventory, the ones that were selected were only those with a dream theme. Bill Draut presents a story of a man who finds himself in a perfect world, only to be told it is a dream. Despite warnings and pleadings he insists in waking the dreamer. Of course he regrets it when he succeeds (“Don’t Wake The Sleeper”, SWYD #1, August 1952). But the best of the Your Dreams fictional stories, in fact the masterpiece of the entire series, was Mort Meskin’s “The Dreaming Tower” (SWYD #1). Mort uses his blacks and manipulate his panels to build up suspense without even providing why there would be such tension. Kirby could have done the revelation panel better, but Jack could never have orchestrated the build up as masterfully as Mort.

YD #4 Romance In The Stars
Strange World of Your Dreams #4 (January 1953) “Romance In The Stars” by unidentified artist

The third and final category of story types was introduced in the final two issues (#3 and #4). It is astrology based stories. I have no idea why a comic based on dreams should include astrology also. The way the stories worked was the “characteristics” of people with a particular sign are given and then a story provided to illustrate these supposed characteristics. These stories are not the horror variety of the fictional stories of the second category. The astrology stories would generally fit pretty well in a romance comic. But they are not true romances, a better description would be comic drama.

Strange World of Your Dreams #5
Strange World of Your Dreams #5 (March 1953) by Jack Kirby

This was an oddball of a comic. It is one of the most interesting to read of all the S&K creations. But much of the interest lies in the uniqueness of a comic based on dreams. It is hard to believe that even Simon and Kirby could have maintained that interest over a long run. Still Joe and Jack were obviously aiming to try because they had the cover for the fifth issue done before the plug was pulled on this title.

John Prentice, usual suspect #3

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Posted in 2006/05, 5 Studio, 6 Mainline, Artists, Assorted, In Love, Periods, Prentice, John, Prize, Prize, z Archive.

John Prentice was the last of the usual suspects (artists that worked frequently for the S&K studio for an extended period of time). John served in the Navy during the war, in fact he was at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attached. Afterwards he went to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh for a short time. John arrived in New York in 1947 and the GCD shows him doing work for in Airboy Comics and Gang Buster. The first work he did for the Simon & Kirby studio was Young Love #4 (August 1949). Once John started with S&K he was a frequent artist for their productions. The work he initially did for S&K was pretty good, but John progressed fairly rapidly while until he achieved his mature style which really was exceptional.

YL #4 Two Timer
Young Love #4 (August 1949).

Joe and Jack must have thought highly of John’s work because he was an important contributor to Bullseye #1. The Bullseye origin story was divided into three chapters (“The Boy”, “The Youth” and “The Man”). Jack did all of the first chapter and the splash pages for both of the other chapters, but Prentice penciled all the rest of the story for the last two chapters. Bullseye was part of the Mainline comics, Simon and Kirby’s attempt at self publishing. But while doing Mainline S&K continued producing comics for Prize (Black Magic and the romance titles) during that time. Presumably because of his work load, Jack stopped penciling for these Prize productions. Prentice seems to have taken up some of the work for the absent Kirby because his page output jumps from an average of about 12 pages a month to about 26 during the period from March to October, the last month for Mainline comics.

B #1 The Youth
Bullseye #1, “Bullseye, The Youth” (August 1954).

Like Bill Draut and Mort Meskin, John seemed to worked in all of the genre from the S&K shop. Romance genre were the most frequent stories produced by the studio and Prentice’s style was well suited for them. John was probably the most realistic artist to work for S&K. His men tend to have small eyes and long faces. John’s women are attractive, but are not what I would call glamorous, perhaps sophisticated would be a better description. For some reason Prentice never signed any of his work for Simon and Kirby. Attribution of this work to John is based on work done for the Rip Kirby strip (see below).

YL #45 I Like It Here
Young Love #45, “I Like It Here” (May 1953).

Simon and Kirby’s timing in starting their own comic publishing company, Mainline, was unfortunate because that was the period when anti-comic sediment swept the country fueled by Dr. Wertham and a Senate Investigation Committee. Many publishers felt the effects, but it was probably worst for new companies like Mainline. Mainline’s last comics were dated April 1955. John Prentice’s last work for S&K’s Prize publications was Young Love #69 February 1956. However Joe Simon did some editorial work for Harvey during this difficult period, and Prentice work there on romances until February 1957 (Hi-School Romance #60). If the GCD can be trusted, John returned to work for DC, mostly on their version of the horror genre.

Young Love #58
Young Love #58 (June 1954).

I would like to repeat a cover that I posted earlier, In Love #1. This is one of the few covers that Kirby shared pencil duties with an artist other then Simon. The foreground couple are clearly Jack’s, but the background men were done by John Prentice. Ignoring covers with unrelated inserts, there was only one other cover that Jack shared with another penciler other then Joe during the S&K years. If you don’t know which cover I am talking about, don’t worry I’ll post it shortly.

In Love #1
In Love #1 (September 1954)

On September 6, 1956 Alex Raymond, the artist for the syndication strip Rip Kirby, died. Two months later Prentice took over this popular newspaper comic strip. John would do Rip Kirby until he in turned passed away in 1985. I’ve always heard how much work was involved in producing a comic strip for syndication. But the GCD continues to list comic book work by Prentice from 1957 on into the early 70’s.


Rip Kirby (5/6/58).

Well now I’ve managed to give a brief review on each of the usual suspects. But work by Draut, Meskin and Prentice is so common in S&K productions I am sure to be blogging on them from time to time. Although the usual suspects did a lot of work for the studio, there were other artists who would work for Joe and Jack for shorter periods of time. Many of these artists were quite talented, some later on would achieve fame. I’ll post on some of the other artists some other time.

Crime Does Pay

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Posted in 2006/05, 5 Studio, Anthologies, Periods, Prize, z Archive.

After returning from war service, Simon and Kirby made a deal with Al Harvey to produce Stuntman and Boy Explorers comics. Because of the post-war glut of comics, this venture was short lived. Both comics were cancelled but Harvey would eventually use work that was already produced in both Green Hornet and Black Cat Comics. Joe and Jack then did a variety of work for publisher Hillman, funny animals (“Earl the Rich Rabbit” and “Lockjaw the Alligator”), adventure (“The Flying Fool”), teenage humor (“My Date Comics”) and crime (for “Real Clue Crime Stories”). They did a surprisingly good job on the funny animal stories. But their efforts were probably lost on the younger audience for that type of comics and they must have realized that it was not their forte. The adventure and teen humor were more suited to their style but other publishers already dominated those areas. However the crime stories were even a better match for them and at that time it was a popular genre. The only problem was that their work for Hillman appears to have been work for hire, and they wanted something more.

Headline Comics #23

So S&K made a deal with Prize Publications to produce a crime comic for a share of the profits. This would be the first of a number of deals where Joe and Jack would do produce the artwork for the entire comic with Prize handling the printing and distribution ends. Prize already had a bi-monthly hero anthology called “Headline Comics”. Headline was a pretty good title for a crime comic and perhaps it was not doing all that well, so it was converted to crime. The expected cover date for issue #23 was delayed two months for a March 1947 crime issue. Unlike their previous deal with Harvey, initial work was pretty much a solo Simon & Kirby effort with Jack doing all the pencils. With both work for Hillman and Prize going on at the same time, this resulted in a incredible page count, over 60 pages a month (in September alone it was 139). In fact this rate is so high, and the preceding months so low, that I suspect that much of it was done well before actual publication. If that is true then Joe and Jack probably already had decided to pitch a crime comic package before working for Hillman. Joe says when they wanted to make a proposal to a publisher they would do the entire comic first. That way if a publisher liked the idea but did not want to hire them to do it they could still get it out before him by finding another publisher.

Justice Traps The Guilty #1

There are two signs that a comic was a success. One is that goes monthly and the other is that a spin-off is made. S&K’s Young Romance must have been very popular because it did both. Black Magic went monthly but never did a spin-off, unless you consider the short lived Strange World of Your Dreams as such. Headline did not go monthly, but S&K and Prize did launch Justice Traps The Guilty (October 1947). Guilty was also a bi-monthly and alternated in the schedule with Headline. If this was not enough work for Simon and Kirby, after Headline they had also been pitching the first romance comic which came out in September. This was an awful lot of work, even for Jack. But it was never the intention of S&K to do all the art themselves, so they began to field out work to other artists. For instance Bill Draut (usual suspect #1) returns with “G-Man Trap” in the first Justice Traps The Guilty. Joe and Jack had finally succeeded in going from comic book artists to comic book producers.

Headlive Comics #37

Now that the Simon and Kirby studio was up and running, Jack’s penciling efforts were generally directed to the latest launched product. At this time Kirby continued to provide the pencils for all the covers. There were some good artists working for them, but Jack was still the star. But Young Love #2 (April 1949) had the first non-Kirby cover, a photograph. Soon the other comics followed; Headline #36 (July), Young Romance #13 (September) and Justice Traps the Guilty #12 (October). The romance photographs seemed to be supplied by various agencies, but S&K had a hand in at least some of the enactments of the crime photo covers since Jack appears on Headline #37 September 1949). But photograph covers did not last long for the Prize crime comics, the last one for Guilty #17 (August 1950) and for Headline was #43 (September 1950). With the end of photo covers we have the return of Kirby covers, but not for long. Headline #45 January 1951) was the last one Jack did for that crime title. As for Justice Traps the Guilty Jack’s last cover appears on #23 (February 1951). However Guilty #20 has a cover by some other artist (probably Marvin Stein). Headline #46 has postal statement listing Nevin Fiddler as the magazine’s editor. The contents changed also since the artists normally supplying art to S&K productions started to disappear from these crime comics. It would appear that Simon and Kirby were no longer producing Headline and Justice Traps the Guilty. Both comics would have a long history after S&K, with Marvin Stein frequently doing the covers. But it just wasn’t the same.

Headline Comics #51

The First Romance Comic

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Posted in 2006/04, 5 Studio, Art of Romance, First Romance, Hillman, Periods, Prize, Serial Posts, Topic, z Archive.

I have seen some different proposals as to what was the first romance comic. It seems to me that these proposals were based on a superficial basis. If the comic title sounds good or the cover art look romantic, then it was a romance. A sort of judging the book by its cover. But a cover or title might make a teenage girl comic reader look at the issue, but it was the content that would determine if the sale would be made. To be called a romance comic, the contents must be romance. The romance genre is very recognizable, but it is the story that determines if a comic belongs to that genre not the title or cover.

Young Romance Comics

Young Romance #1

One of the contenders for the first comic romance is Simon & Kirby’s Young Romance. The first issue is dated September 1947. The stories in it are from the start typical for romance comics. I could describe any story from the first issue and it would easily be recognized as a romance story. But because one of the other contenders is a long story, I wanted to select a longer story to provide a better comparison. I have chosen “Bride Of The Star” from In Love #1 published by Mainline Simon & Kirby’s company (September 1954). Every so often Simon and Kirby seemed to have an interest in working in a longer comic format. This story is 20 pages long and was penciled by Jack Kirby.

In Love #1

In Love #1 page

A young lady nearly gets beaned with a baseball. This becomes the first meeting between the new rookie Warren and Patty, who just happens to be the daughter of the teams owner. Romance and then marriage follows. But having the father-in-law as the teams owner brings in difficulty. Warren insists in not getting special treatment. Betty stays home as the team travels and follows her husband’s progress, or lack thereof using newspapers. Warren is not doing well as a pitcher, wants to be sent back to the minors and resents that his special relationship with the owner is the only reason he hasn’t been. Eventually Warren leaves both baseball and Patty. Sometime latter Warren returns to pick up his things. During a discussion with Patty, Warren wants to know if she still loves him. Patty says she wants to love him and it is not important that he is not a big star. But Warren has changed, before he wouldn’t accept defeat, now he was a quitter. Warren stays, the owner/father has a medical breakdown, and Warren helps Patty run the team. The team’s pitching staff all have injuries so Warren decides to step in and pitch. He declares he has kept himself in training. His pitching wins the game. Warren tells Patty that winning the game was not that important, it was winning her respect that mattered. Obviously their love has returned as the story ends with a kiss.

Kirby always seemed to have to add action to his love stories and this one is not an exception. Even so this story is a true romance. The whole story is told from Patty’s viewpoint. When Warren is on the road, we stay home with Patty. The only scenes of playing baseball are when Patty is there to cheer Warren on. In fact that cheering is every as bit important to the story as Warren’s pitching. The theme throughout the story is the ups and downs of the romance, everything else take supporting roles. There can be no doubt that this belongs in the romance genre.

My Date

My Date #1

A number of people have proposed that My Date Comics was the first romance comic. The cover date for the first issue is July 1947, two months before Young Romance #1. But let us take a look at one of the stories from My Date #1, “My Date With Swifty Chase” by our intrepid artists Simon and Kirby.

MD #1 My Date With Swifty Chase

It starts with Swifty pining over Sunny Daye, while Sunny is swooning over a photo of Humphrey Hogart, while Hollywood mogul B. O. confronts Humphrey insisting that he cannot marry the actress Chandra. We next find Swifty trying out his new jet propelled car, which ends in crash. Swifty is all right, but with his vehicle is in shambles and he has lost a means to impress Sunny. Later at the garage that he works, he is told to deliver a car to Sunny’s father. But instead of great opportunity he finds Sunny is only interested in the actor Humphrey. Back at the garage, a customer shows Swifty his disabled car, only Swifty realizes that the customer is Humphrey who turns out is on his way to marry Chandra. Humphrey needs a couple of witnesses, so Swifty goes to get Sunny. Sunny’s father overhears talk of elopement and calls the police. After the wedding Swifty then decides to take Humphrey and his new bride back to talk to Hollywood Mogul B. O. A rival for the affections of Sunny chases after them but in the end Swifty seems at last to have won over Sunny.

There can be little doubt that this is not a romance story, but instead is S&K’s take on Archie. That is it is essentially a teen humor comic. Some of the supporters of My Date as the first romance accept this, but point to one feature, “My Date”, that is an illustrated story about an unusual date that someone supposedly sent in. So let us take a look at the “My Date” feature from My Date #4. I don’t know who the artist is, but he did a great job.

MD #4 My Date

It opens in a soda shop where charismatic Harry and fumbling Bill have taken notice of the beautiful Mary. Harry gets Bill to introduce him to Mary. While Bill goes to order some sodas, Harry asks Mary to the dance. Mary says she was hoping Bill would ask her. Harry tells Mary she doesn’t have to decide now and then rushes off with her on a bus, leaving Bill behind. Bill catches up, and is about to ask Mary to go to the dance, when Harry pulls him aside and tells him that Mary has agreed to go to the dance with him (Harry). Harry suggests that Bill buy a corsage for Mary to take to the dance. Bill agrees and returns to Mary’s house with the corsage. Mary interprets the gesture as an indication that Bill wants to take Mary. Bill says he would not want to get between her and Harry. Mary gets upset with Harry’s tactics and cancels the date with him. We end with Harry finding Bill and Mary at the dance together.

Once again this is more like teen humor then a romance story. The My Date feature in the other issues are similar. My Date Comics may have a title that suggests to some that it is a romance comic, but the contents show that this series is not part of the romance genre.

Romantic Picture Novelettes

Romantic Picture Novelette

What is put forward as an even earlier contender for the first romance comic is Romantic Picture Novelettes. The title sounds like a romance and the cover art looks like a romance. The inside front cover has a photo of the “Romantic John Hodiak” and the inside back cover one of the “Romantic Alan Ladd”. The comic itself packages a story from the syndication strip called Mary Worth. Mary Worth started in 1938 and is still published today, making it the longest running continuity strip. The best description for what this strip is about it that it is a comic page soap opera. Mary Worth is an elderly, rather dowdy, lady. Although the strip carries her name, it is really about the lives of people who Mary knows. What this syndicate feature is not, however, is a romance. But with the range of story subjects in the newspaper Mary Worth strips, could Romantic Picture Novelettes be a selection of a romance story? Well the contents can be described as a picture novelette since it is 46 pages long. But is it a romance?

RPN #1 page

The veiled Senora Lisa De Leon arrives at the office of the talented Dr. Karen Ward. Lisa wants Dr. Ward to perform some mysterious treatment. Dr. Ward is reluctant but agrees when Lisa proposes to endow a charity hospital. Dr. Ward gets Mary Worth to give Lisa a room during the treatment. But Lisa makes Mary promise to reveal to no one anything about herself or her treatment. When Lisa arrives at Mary Worth’s place, others try to pry into Lisa’s affairs, but to no avail. We readers however finally get a chance to see Lisa’s face. But there is nothing noticeably remarkable about it so we are still left to wonder why she hides it under a veil all the time. Dr. Worth begins the treatment at Lisa’s room. Lisa’s face becomes bandaged, but we still are not told about the true nature of the treatment. Meanwhile a Micheal Jonesy has returned from the war with a leg injury. There is a chance meeting between Michael and the veiled Lisa in the park. Friendship follows, which blossoms into something more. Michael asks Lisa to lift her veil, but Lisa is uncertain and tells Michael to return the next day for her answer. Dr. Ward visits Lisa and the bandages finally come off. When we finally get to see her face, it turns out that she now appears much younger. The treatment was some sort of plastic surgery! Lisa meets Michael in the park, now unveiled, a romance develops, sealed so to speak, with a kiss. But Michael becomes concerned that because of his injured leg, what Lisa feels is actually pity. He agrees to go to Dr. Ward for treatment and if that is successful he will then marry Lisa. Dr. Ward and Mary Worth become concern about the age difference between Michael and Lisa. Apparently the treatment will only last about 5 years, then Lisa will appear even older. Lisa insists that both Mary and the Dr. keep her secret. Michael’s treatment is successful and they set the date to be married. Now enters a new person, an elderly gentlemen named Sabin whose marriage to Lisa was stopped many years ago by her father, but who still loves her. Business takes him to the same town as the rest of the cast. He accidentally sees Lisa, recognizes her but becomes upset because it obviously can’t be her since she is too young. During a meeting between Lisa and Sabin her secret is now revealed. Michael has overheard it all, but still wants to marry Lisa. Lisa now realizes her mistake, declines and goes off with Sabin.

So is this romance? There is a kiss in the middle of the book and the romance between Michael and Lisa is an important part of the story. But that is just it, the romance is part of, but not the central theme of the story. A lot of pages are spent in the mysterious treatment, which is only revealed half way through. More pages are spent on Mary Worth and Dr. Ward’s concerns about the age difference and their promise to keep Lisa secret. Part of the story is about the attempt of noisy neighbors to intrude on the secret. And although Lisa goes off with Sabin, there is no declaration of love from her for Sabin, nor a kiss between the two. In short, this is a soap opera no different from typical story lines from the Mary Worth newspaper syndication. It is not part of the romance genre.

There are two requirements for a comic to be considered the earliest romance. Above I dealt with one of the requirements, that the contents of the comic be stories of the romance genre. But I would also like to add a comment on the second criteria, that the comic have an early date of publication. A close examination of Romantic Picture Novelettes has failed to reveal any publication or copyright dates, in fact I could not find a copyright at all. The indice only lists the publisher, Magazine Enterprises and an address. ME was created by Vincent Sullivan and was in business from 1943 to 1958. I am sure that the dates for when the story first appeared in the newspaper syndication could be determine. But that would only provide a minimal date, there is no reason to believe that the comic was published at the same time as the newspaper story finished. Frankly I find it rather surprising that so many have sited the 1946 date for this comic without explaining where it came from. But let me make it clear, that the date of Romantic Picture Novelettes is of secondary importance. It is not the earliest romance comic because it is not a romance comic at all.

I hope the conclusion I draw is very clear. The romance comic is a very distinct genre. This was true over the many years that this particular comic form survived. When I look at My Date Comics or Romantic Picture Novelettes what I find does not match the romance genre. One is teen humor the other a pictorial soap opera. When I look at stories in Young Romance #1 I find a perfect match. A romance comic reader from the final days of romance comics, would find Young Romance #1 a bit old fashion. But they would have no trouble recognizing it for what it was, that is the first romance comic. Could My Date or Romantic Picture Novelettes be considered prototypes? Even here I have to say no, not really. The best prototype for Young Romance #1 is just what Joe Simon said they got their inspiration, romance pulp magazines. Romance pulps were very popular at that time and provided just the proper guidance for what romance readers would want.

When I googled on Mary Worth I found the results rather interesting. It is not surprising that there are a number of pages on Mary Worth. But it is a bit surprising that all these references to Mary Worth describe it as a graphic soap opera, none describe it as a romance. As for Romantic Picture Novelette I found a couple of significant references. Dan Stevenson has a list of “All the Romance Comics Ever Published (?)”. At the bottom is a special category for comics excluded because “they are not felt to be true Romance Comics”. In that list are both My Date and Romantic Picture Novelettes. There is also a blog by Raphe Cheli dedicated solely to romance comics. On September 4, 2005 he has a posting called Revisionist History. In it he discusses both My Date and Romantic Picture Novelettes and comes to the conclusion that they aren’t romance comics. (Update: For some reason the Revisionist History entry has become unstable, if you follow the link you may not get the entire post)

Why the continuing insistence that Young Romance is not the first comic? I have no good explanation. It doesn’t seem based on the opinions of scholars of romance comics. Nor is it based on an examination of the contents of the comics in question. Even the publication date for Romantic Picture Novelettes of 1946 is used without explanation.

The Art of Romance, Chapter 1, A New Genre
(Young Romance #1 – #4)