Category Archives: Periods

It Ain’t Soup

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Posted in 1 Early, 2011/05, Artists, Kirby, Jack, Odds & Ends, Periods, Topic, z Archive and tagged


Wilton of the West, pencils, inks and letters by Jack Kirby

Mark Evanier provides an image of a Campbell’s Soup on his blog can when he announces that he is too busy to continue normal posting. It seems I have developed my own tradition, one where I use a scan of a Kirby page from Jumbo comics (see A Brief Pause and Another Brief Pause). Last weekend found me struggling with some particular difficult restorations while remaining determine not to let my schedule slip. In the end I kept to my schedule but was left without any spare time to initiate a post for this blog. So instead I provide a scan of Wilton of the West. This was one of the syndication strips that Kirby did for the Eisner and Iger studio. Some were used in early issues of Jumbo Comics but the image I provide was scanned from a presentation piece which provided higher quality reproduction.

I find Kirby’s work for Eisner and Iger particularly interesting because they show Jack in the process of learning his trade. I know there are some fans who continue to insist that Kirby had already reached a high level of skills but to me this was clearly not the case. Had Kirby’s comic career ended with his work for Eisner and Iger he would have become nothing more than a footnote in the history of comics. Talking heads dominate this page which would have presented a problem for any comic book artist. Kirby tries to keep it interesting by changing the viewing distance as well as adding various props. Jack was not completely successful in this attempt but you can tell he is trying. The page ends with a fist fight. Kirby was famous for his slugfests but here the depicted punch seems rather awkward. The inking is improved over the last page I presented. Kirby varies his inking depending from darker panels such as the first and fourth to simpler lighter ones such as the eighth panel. Here Kirby is still a long way from his mature inking style but that is what makes these pages so interesting. Jack did the lettering as well. Kirby’s lettering here is adequate but nothing more. While his lettering would improve somewhat, Jack never became a master letterer. But then again I cannot think of any golden age comic book artist that was good at both drawing and lettering.

My schedule will remain pretty tough over about the next month so I cannot guaranty that I will not be forced to put up a Jumbo scan again. However I hope that will not be the case because my recent post on the Police Trap pinup reminds me that I have not yet covered that title.

The Police Trap Pinup

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Posted in 2011/05, 6 Mainline, Artists, Kirby, Jack, Odds & Ends, Periods, Police Trap, Topic, z Archive and tagged ,

For the most part pinups did not play an imported role in the Simon and Kirby repertoire. The most import exception was Boys’ Ranch where double page and inside cover pinups were present in each issue. Other than those from Boys’ Ranch there were only two other pinups that I can think of. One appeared in Win A Prize #1 (February 1955). I have discussed that one previously (The Wide Angle Scream, Almost an Afterthought). While I would not dismiss out of hand Joe’s explanation that the piece was originally meant for Captain America #11, there are a number of details that suggest a later date. Therefore the genesis behind that piece of art remains an unresolved issue.


Police Trap #2 (November 1954) “It’s Your Police Station”, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

The other Simon and Kirby pinup appeared in Police Trap #2 (November 1954). It is a great pinup with a marvelous cast of characters. Each person depicted in the foreground was given a distinct personality. A complete story is presented in this single panel with the added touch of Simon and Kirby humor. Kirby not only drew the art but did the inking as well. I believe it is one of the relatively few pieces that Jack also did the outline inking, a job normally assigned to others.

The top caption declares this is the first of series of Police Trap pinups of various police officers. However no further pinups were ever placed in the subsequent issues. Nor were pinups found in any other Mainline titles (Win A Prize was published by Charlton). The natural question is why this one?


Police Trap #1 (September 1954) “The Beefer”, pencils and inks by Joaquin Albistur

The explanation can be found in the first issue of Police Trap. That issue contains the story “The Beefer” with art by Jo Albistur. Albistur was from Argentina and seems only to have worked in the United States for brief period. His time working for Simon and Kirby lasted a little over a year but it was very productive period for him. Frankly I am unimpressed by some of the art I have seen that he did for other comic book publishers but he is one of may favorite Simon and Kirby artists. “The Beefer” opens with constant complaining of an arrested street peddler. Kirby would often create a cover based on a story from the same issue but illustrated by another artist. The similarity between “It’s Your Police Station” and “The Beefer” indicates that is what happened here and this pinup was originally intended as the cover for Police Trap #1.


Police Trap #2 (November 1954) “It’s Your Police Station”, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby, original art

The original art for this pinup still exists. It is very unusual for work by Simon and Kirby in that art was constructed from three pieces. The top caption, the art, and the bottom caption are on different illustration boards taped together on the back. In the future Joe Simon would frequently construct art from various separate sources but up to this point such techniques were rarely used. The explanation in this case is that since the art was initially meant for a cover the original top probably had the comic book title. Probably as an expediency this was just cut off. Since Joe and Jack often recycled their work this title may have been used for some other cover. The original art for some of the Police Trap covers still exist and it would be It would be interesting to see if any of them were constructed from two pieces of illustration board. The original bottom of the art was probably not sufficient for the desired caption so it was trimmed as well.


Police Trap #1 (September 1954) “The Beefer”, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

The Police Trap #1 cover that was published in place of “It’s Your Police Station” is certainly a fine piece of Simon and Kirby art. The portrayed scene shows a multitude of characters each carefully handled. The caption actually seems a little superfluous since the art is all that seems to be needed to tells the individual stories. Yes, this is cover art at its very best. That is not to say that the art for “It’s Your Police Station” was any bit inferior. The most distinct disadvantage for the pinup had was that it was very specific to a single story, “The Beefer”. While Simon and Kirby often took that approach to a cover, they undoubtedly considered that the new comic should be launched with a cover that reflected on the theme of the title and not a particular story. With all the criticism cast at crime comics, Simon and Kirby wanted to emphasize that the police were subject of this new comic not the criminals. This police centric theme is superbly provided by the published cover.

Criminal Couples

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Posted in 2011/04, 5 Studio, Artists, Kirby, Jack, Odds & Ends, Periods, Prize, Topic, z Archive and tagged , ,

I had previously discussed how crime by women was handled by Simon and Kirby (Crime’s Better Half). However here I would like to briefly discuss the criminal couple, much rarer perpetrators of crime in Simon and Kirby or real life. The most famous today would be Bonnie and Clyde. Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow and other members of their gang were active between 1932 and 1934. It was the fact that they were a couple that projected Bonnie and Clyde into national infamy. The gang really were not very talented criminals. They only rarely robbed banks and never got much for their efforts for their few attempts. Generally Barrow gang robbed smaller institutions like grocery stores and gas stations. They were cold blooded killers quick to use their weapons against lawmen or civilians alike. Frankly the Barrow gang without Bonnie would not a received much attention outside of Texas.


The real Bonnie and Clyde hamming it up (1933)

During one quick get-a-way, the Barrow gang left behind a some rolls of film. The photographs that came from the developed film were sensationally. Among them were shots of Bonnie holding up Clyde at gun point and another of Bonnie with a cigar and a gun. These photos of the gang fooling around were just that, nothing more than fiction. Bonnie did not participate much in the actual crimes and she did not smoke cigars. But the photos provided a lot of national publicity and played an important part in the legend that followed.


Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty from Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

And Bonnie and Clyde did become a legend with two movies and one made for TV movie; the Bonnie Parker Story (1958) and the more important Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Bonnie & Clyde, the True Story (1992). Eighty years later they are still well known.


Headline #27 (November 1947) “The Bobby Sox Bandit Queen”, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

While Bonnie and Clyde may have been the most famous criminal couple Simon and Kirby never featured them in any crime comic. There was, however, another criminal couple that were made into a Simon and Kirby story; Stella Mae and Bennie Dickson in “The Bobby Sox Bandit Queen” from Headline #27 (November 1947). Stella and Bennie were not as famous (or infamous) as Bonnie and Clyde. They were reported in the press of the day but as far as I know no movies were ever made based on them. But in many ways they were a much better criminal couple then Bonnie and Clyde. For one they were much more successful in robbing banks. In one bank hold up they got away with about $47,000. Not bad by today’s standards but pretty good during the depression and much better than the Barrow gang ever did. One bank robbery by Bonnie and Clyde got them $115. And while Bonnie posed with a gun for pictures but was not really participate much in the actual crimes, Stella was very handy with a gun and a big asset in the robberies. In fact her sharp shooting of a police car’s tires during a chase allowed the criminal couple to make a clean get-a-way.


Stella Mae Dickson

It is easy to see why Simon and Kirby picked Stella Mae and Bennie for a story but why did they never do a story on Bonnie and Clyde? Could it be the rather gruesome end that Bonnie and Clyde had under a barrage of bullets? Seems doubtful since Joe and Jack had depicted similar deaths in the past and did show Bennie Dickson’s comparable end. No, I think the real reason Bonnie and Clyde were off limits as far as Simon and Kirby were concerned was due to their marital status, or more precisely lack thereof. Stella Mae and Bennie were legally married, Bonnie and Clyde were not. That Bonnie and Clyde were unmarried, romantically involved and living together added spice to their story. But while that sold papers it was not the sort of thing that many would consider appropriate for a young audience. Dr. Wertham may have declared that comic books corrupted their youthful readers but Simon and Kirby were really more careful about what they included in the comic stories they created than their critics would admit. Still I would have loved to have seen what Simon and Kirby would have done with Bonnie and Clyde.

Simon and Kirby Colorists, Chapter 3, More on Prize Crime

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Posted in 2011/04, 5 Studio, Periods, Prize, S&K Colorists, Serial Posts, z Archive and tagged ,


Headline #24 (May 1947) “Grim Pay-Off For The Pinball Mob” page 3, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

There is one coloring peculiarity whose significance I am still uncertain of that appears during the early crime Headline period. It concerns the use of middle cyan (C50) as hair coloring. The limited palette available for coloring presented a problem when it came to depicting black hair. The problem was not that black was unavailable but rather that using black alone would result in a massive black with no distinction for strands of hair. The convention most comic colorists adopted to circumvent this problem was to use cyan (C) or blue (CM25) to represent black hair. Technically not truly accurate but a convention so widely used that comic book readers took it for granted. This use of cyan or blue to represent black hair is followed in most Simon and Kirby crime stories, but not all. Some stories feature the use of middle cyan (C50) instead. This unusual choice was not an accidental misread by the printer of the original color guide. The presence of pure cyan (C) on the same pages of middle cyan (C50) hair indicates that this was in fact the colorist’s intent. Nor does this seem to be an attempt at representing gray hair. While middle cyan (C50) works quite nicely as gray hair it was used primarily on people with an otherwise young appearance. Further I have not yet found a story which used middle cyan (C50) and either cyan (C) or blue (CM25) for hair coloring. What is less clear is what this use of different hair coloring signifies. Does it indicate two different colorists at work or one colorists purposely adding a little variation to his output? I am still undecided but so far I have recognized no other coloring distinctions between the stories with the two ways of indicating black hair.


Headline #26 (September 1947) “Beyond The Law” page 3, art by unidentified artist

In the previous chapter I mentioned the occasional unusual coloring of people in the early Prize crime comics. I wondered if the same special color was ever done on artwork not drawn by Jack Kirby. A search reveal only a few. I do not make much out of their scarcity as unusually colored people are pretty rare even in the Kirby drawn material. Further most of the examples are found in the earliest issues of the crime version of Headline; issues that Kirby drew most or all of the work. By the time other artists were frequently used less effort seemed to have been expended on the coloring and such unusual coloring of people was no longer done. Still the presence of unusually coloring in material not drawn by Kirby conforms with my believe that the same colorist worked on both Kirby and non-Kirby material.


Color Palette used by Prize for Headline (starting in June 1948)

In the previous chapters I discussed the coloring used in Simon and Kirby crime comics published by Hillman and Prize. Since this material was published during the same period (March to September 1947) differences in the coloring can safely be attributed to the presence of different colorists. However for the period that follows only Prize published Simon and Kirby crime comics. Under these conditions it become less certain that changes in coloring would indicate different colorists. Such changes might also indicate the evolution of a single colorist style.


Headline #30 (June 1948) “Bullet-Proof Bad Man” page 3, pencils by Jack Kirby

One coloring change that is found in the later period and does seem to be significant is the appearance of the use of pale green (C25Y25). The use of pale green (C25Y25) and pale yellow (Y25) was an important distinction between the Hillman and Prize colorists. Now pale green appears does appear in Prize crime comics but without pale yellow. Further studies are needed, but at this time I find no obvious differences between the coloring. So was this just the evolution of the style used by a single colorist or a change of colorists? I am not ready to hazard a guess at this time.

I consider these three chapters on Simon and Kirby colorists as just an initial step. Much further studies are needed. Of particular interest would be around 1954 when Simon and Kirby were producing comics for Prize and Mainline (there own publishing company). This would provide another chance to compare coloring from two different publishers from the same time period. I am not sure when, but I will be returning to this topic sometime in the future.

Simon and Kirby Colorists, Chapter 2, Early Prize Crime

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Posted in 2011/04, 5 Studio, Periods, Prize, S&K Colorists, Serial Posts, z Archive and tagged ,


Color Palette used by Prize for Headline (March to September 1947)

C, C50, C25, CM50, CM25, X, X, X
M, M50, M25, MY, YM50, YM25, X, X
Y, Y25, M50Y25, M25Y25, X, MC50, MC25, M50C25
CY, YC50, YC25, CYM50, CYM25, CY25, C50Y25, C25Y25
CM, C50M50, C25M25, C50M25, C50M25Y25, C25M25Y25, X, X
MYC50, MYC25, YC50M50, YM50C25, YC25M25, YC50M25, X, X

In the previous chapter I discussed the coloring used by Hillman in Clue Comics and Real Clue Crime Stories. Now I will write about the coloring used in Headline Comics published by Prize during the same period (March to September 1947). To facilitate comparing the colors I have devised a standard palette of 38 colors. That is not to say that the standard palette will cover all comics published during the golden age. I may have to expand it in the future but it covers all the colors I will be discussing at this time. Hillman used 34 of the standard palette while during the same period Prize’s Headline used 30. However this is can be a bit misleading because not all the colors that Hillman used but Prize did not are really significant. In particular Hillman rarely used deep violet (CM) or red brown (MYC25) (see the previous chapter for an explanation of the terminology I am using to precisely identify the colors). However there are some colors not used by Hillman that are pretty rare in Headline; deep green (CYM50), dark green (CYM25) and emerald blue (CY25). There are two colors absent from Headline that did in fact play an important roll in the Hillman palette; pale yellow (Y25) and pale green (C25Y25).

However I do not believe that colorists can be identified by the presence of a particular color in their work. With such a limited palette available to golden age colorists it seems almost certain that more than one used pale yellow (Y25), pale green (C25Y25) or both. While the early Headline crime colorist did not use pale green (C25Y25) this color would appear in a later period, although without pale yellow (Y25).

To circumvent the limitations of using just the color palette, I also compare how particular objects are colored. For example both the Hillman and Prize colorist use dark blue (CM25) for police uniforms but the Hillman colorist uses dark brown (MYC50) for the shoes and boots worn by the police while the Prize colorist uses cyan (C).


Headline #24 (May 1947) “Murder on a Wave Length” page 2, pencils by Jack Kirby

While the Hillman colorist generally uses middle green for foliage, the Prize colorist uses a greater variety of colors such as green (CY), middle green (YC50), light green (YC25) and even some very unnatural colors such as middle magenta (M50) or orange (YM50).


Headline #24 (May 1947) “Murder on a Wave Length” page 5, pencils by Jack Kirby

Furniture was coloring by the Hillman artist in a single brown or more rarely in two brown colors (usually CYM50, YC50M50, YC50M25 or YC25M25). The Prize artists often did furniture such as desk in a combination of two colors selecting from the same browns but also sometimes using some very unnatural colors as well.


Headline #23 (March 1947) “The Last Bloody Days of Babyface Nelson” page 4, pencils by Jack Kirby

When the Hillman colorist did night scenes, such as in “Get Me the Golden Gun” (Real Clue Crime Stories v.2 n.6, August 1947 as shown in the first chapter), only the presence of the moon suggests that the story occurs in the dark otherwise the coloring is just like in the day scenes. The Prize colorist, however, did distinctive night scenes. Coloring for the night scenes is largely limited to blue colors (generally C, CM25, C and C50) or violets (C50M50 and C25M25).


Headline #24 (May 1947) “A Phantom Pulls the Trigger” page 1
Headline #24 (May 1947) “Murder on a Wave Length” page 4
Headline #25 (July 1947) “Masquerade of Eddie the Doll” page 6
Headline #26 (September 1947) “The Strange Aftermath of the Kansas City Massacre” page 4 (all pencils by Jack Kirby)

Perhaps the most distinctive trait of the early Prize crime colorist was the occasional unusual coloring of people. The effect I am referring is not the blocking out of a figure in a single color (usually light violet, C25M25) that both the Hillman and the Prize colorists would sometimes do. The Prize colorist would go much further and use very unnatural colors. The Prize colorist did not do this very often but I have never seen the Hillman colorist do it.

The period I have been discussing in this and the previous chapter was from March to September 1947 during which time Simon and Kirby produced work for both Hillman and Prize. Undoubtedly because Prize offered a better financial deal, afterwards Joe and Jack stopped working for Hillman and Prize became their almost exclusive employer (they still were providing Boy Commandos for DC). I will discuss some of the coloring done in the Headline Comics and Justice Traps the Guilty in the next chapter.

Simon and Kirby Colorists, Chapter 1, Hillman

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Posted in 2011/03, 5 Studio, Hillman, Periods, S&K Colorists, Serial Posts, z Archive and tagged ,

Generally little is known about the comic book colorists during the golden age. Credits usually were not provided and while pencilers and inkers would sometimes leave signatures there was no outlet for colorists to make their contribution known. Occasionally there is documentary evidence about particular colorists but largely they remain anonymous. None the less I have begun to investigate coloring done on Simon and Kirby productions. I may not be able to identify all the colorists but I am still interested in seeing what can be learned about the effect different colorists had upon the comics.

Currently I have been examining interior coloring. Covers were typically handled by different printers than the interior pages. The special paper and attention given to covers allowed the use of colors and tonal gradations that did not appear in the interior art. Both the cover and interior art was printed using cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks (CMYK). In general, CMYK printing allows a wide range of colors to be represented. Actually not every color can be created by combinations of the CMYK inks but those that cannot are a very small part of the color spectrum and are so close to colors that can be printed by CMYK that their absence is difficult to notice.

However the interior art in comic books was printed using a very limited palette. CMYK printing achieves color tones by the amount of area the ink covers. Typically, and this will be true of all the comics I will be discussing here, interior inks were limited to three tones 100%, 50% and 25%. It is possible to use 75% ink tones but printers find it difficult to do properly with the primitive presses and poor quality paper used for comic books. I have seen 75% tones used in comic books but it is quite rare and with a special exception to be discussed below it was not done in the books I will be discussing.

There are further limitations. No tones were used for the black ink. Actually this was not too limiting because black tones, that is the grays, can be achieved using combinations of CMY inks. Another limitation is that none of the comics I will be discussing use 50% yellow. I have seen it done elsewhere but again it is very rare. With three levels of cyan and magenta, two levels of yellow and one level of black it is possible to create at most 48 colors* (including white, the absence of any ink). The palette is actually even more limited in practice since about a dozen are rarely used. Most are combinations that include 25% yellow.


Generalized Comic Color Palette

C, C50, C25, CM50, CM25, X, X, X
M, M50, M25, MY, YM50, YM25, X, X
Y, Y25, M50Y25, M25Y25, X, MC50, MC25, M50C25
CY, YC50, YC25, CYM50, CYM25, CY25, C50Y25, C25Y25
CM, C50M50, C25M25, C50M25, C50M25Y25, C25M25Y25, X, X
MYC50, MYC25, YC50M50, YM50C25, YC25M25, YC50M25, X, X

Referring to colors as, for example, 100% yellow plus 50% magenta plus 25% cyan (brown), is somewhat tiring. The industry uses a designation which I find confusing so instead I will adopt my own using the first initial followed, if not 100%, by the percentage. So my brown example would be YM50C25. I always placed them in the order of dominance or (when two inks are equally strong) the order they are found in CMY. While this is an improvement it is still too difficult to use lists of such color designations when comparing palettes used. So I have also developed a matrix to show the color palettes. I show above the standard color palette that I will be using followed by the corresponding color designations (where an X indicates an unused matrix location shown as black). If a color is not used in a particular palette it will be ‘X’ out in the matrix. The first row is for blues; the second for reds; the third row for yellows, flesh colors and purples; the fourth row for greens; the fifth row for violets and grays; and the sixth for browns and one dirty green (YC50M25). In the future I will either use some of the currently undefined matrix locations or add additional rows for colors not included in the current matrix.


Color Palette used by Hillman in Clue and Real Clue Comics.

Joe Simon has said that the coloring was the responsibility of the publisher. There was a period (cover dates March to September 1947) where Simon and Kirby were producing work for crime comics from two different publishers; Clue Comics and Real Clue Crime Stories for Hillman and Headline Comics for Prize. It would therefore be interesting to compare the coloring between the two. The Simon and Kirby work produced for Clue and its renamed title Real Clue used a more complete palette than those for Headline. The Hillman work used 38 colors (excluding black and white). But this is a little misleading because some of the colors were rarely used; deep blue (CM50), some of the purple tints (MC25 and M50C25), and red brown (MYC25).


Real Clue Crime Stories v.2 n.5 (July 1947) “The Terrible Whyos”, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the Hillman palette was the common use of light yellow (Y25). We will see that this color was not used in Prize’s Headline Comics. Considering how most colors that include Y25 are avoided, it is surprising how often light yellow (Y25) was used. In one case Y25 was used for an automobile but it seems a poor choice for coloring prominent objects. However light yellow was generally used for background areas and it was surprisingly effective in making accompanying white areas stand out.

As mentioned previously, red brown (MYC25) was rarely employed but the other browns (dark MYC50, heavy YC50M50, medium YM50C25 and light YC25M25) were more frequently used. However not equally so as light brown (YC25M25) was not used nearly as commonly as the other three browns. Another not so frequently used color was dirty green (YC50M25).


Real Clue Crime Stories v.2 n.7 (September 1947) “Gang War” page 5, pencils by Jack Kirby

Besides light yellow (Y25) the only other unusual colors with frequent use from the Hillman palette are pale green (C25Y25) and dark grey (C50M25Y25). Frankly with the very limited palette available for comic books the presence or absents of particular colors are of limited use in distinguishing different colorists. Also of use is how the artists uses the colors for the different objects. For instance the Hillman colorist generally uses middle green (YC50) for foliage and only much more rarely green (CY) or pale green (C25Y25). Police uniforms are dark blue (CM25) with brown shoes or boots. Caption boxes were colored with a variety of light colors; yellow (Y), light yellow (Y25), pale green (C25Y25), light orange (YM25) and even white. Desks and chairs are usual have a single color; generally dark brown (YMC50), heavy brown (YC50M50) or light brown (YM50C25).


Real Clue Crime Stories v.2 n.5 (July 1947) “The Terrible Whyos” page 4, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

Most golden age colorists were more concerned with providing clarity to a scene by providing the different objects with distinct colors. Realistic coloring was not a high priority. So with the Hillman colorist we get such oddities as multi-color sidewalks, pale green buildings and some really bizarre interiors. Not very realistic, but all more interesting than if a more realistic, and therefore more limited, selection of colors were used.


Real Clue Crime Stories v.2 n.6 August 1947) “Get Me the Golden Gun” page 13, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

As previously mentioned, golden age colorists did not generally use graduated color tones for interior art. That is colors were restricted to mixtures of 100%, %50 or %25 of the cyan, magenta or yellow inks. But there was an exception to this rule and that was the use of simple color gradient usually to the background. The Hillman colorist made use of this varying a one ink of a color from 75% to 25%. Usually this was done rather smoothly but occasionally less care was taken. This was the sole exception that the Hillman colorist made to not using a 75% ink. The use of a starting value of 75% was not a whim. With the primitive presses used for comic books, 75% would sometimes fill in and become effectively 100%. If this happened to a gradient that started at 100% then a poor gradient would result with over much of it a pure color. With gradients starting at 75% any similar filling in would still provide a suitable gradient.

Although I have concentrated on the coloring of the Simon and Kirby pieces, the same colorists seemed to work on the stories drawn by other artists as well. The pencilers and inkers for Clue and Real Clue were used in other Hillman comics and were not the same ones that Simon and Kirby used for Prize’s Headline Comics. I therefore believe that Simon and Kirby were just supplying art to Hillman and not producing the entire comic as they were doing for Prize. I will compare the Hillman colorist to that used for Prize’s Headline Comic next week.

footnotes
* the complete comic color palette for three levels of cyan and magenta, two of yellow and a single of black. Those marked with asterisk are not shown in my standard comic palette:

K        CMY25*      CM
C50MY    C50MY25*    C50M
C25MY    C25MY25*    C25M
MY       MY25*       M
    
CM50Y    CM50Y25*    CM50
C50M50Y  C50M50Y25*  C50M50
C25M50Y  C25M50Y25*  C25M50
M50Y     M50Y25*     M50

CM25Y    CM25Y25*    CM25
C50M25Y  C50M25Y25   C50M25
C25M25Y  C25M25Y25   C25M25
M25Y     M25Y25      M25

CY       CY25*       C
C50Y     C50Y25      C50
C25Y     C25Y25      C25
Y        Y25         W

A Story too Incredible to be Real

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Posted in 2011/02, 5 Studio, Artists, Featured Work, Kirby, Jack, Periods, Prize, Topic, z Archive and tagged


Headline #24 (May 1947) “A Phantom Pulls The Trigger” page 6, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

They said it on the cover, “All True Famous Detective Cases”. Would Joe Simon and Jack Kirby say that if it was not true? But surely not all the stories in Headline Comics #24 could be true? Who would be credulous enough to believe the tale told in “A Phantom Pulls The Trigger”? A man going about the French countryside killing individuals for the sole reason of keeping the size of the population down? Whose philosophy comes from reading Thomas Malthus’ “Over-Population”? A man who avoids detection by using a gun installed inside his wooden leg? Who after being uncovered and arrested is allowed to keep his now disarmed wooden leg and has friends smuggle in a new gun and bullets? Who uses his re-armed wooden leg right before his execution with unintended results? Who could possibly believe such an incredible story to be true?

Except it was.

Well as true as any story told by Simon and Kirby who seemed to adhere to the philosophy of never letting the facts get in the way of a good story. But the basic facts portrayed in “A Phantom Pulls The Trigger” all appear to be true. There really was a man who went by the names of Herman Gottler and Raoul Croc as presented in the story but not included in the story were his other names Gottlieb Einhalter and Armande Giraud. His armed and deadly wooden leg was so devious that after he had been found in the vicinity of several murders it remained undetected even though he was carefully searched. He undoubtedly would have continued to evade the law for some time had not one of his victims lived long enough to report seeing smoke coming from the end of the wooden leg. After capture, Raoul was quite open about what he had done and why he did it. In fact he attracted a number of admirers. And yes the authorities really did allow him to keep his unarmed wooden leg which Raoul re-armed with the help of his friends. While seated waiting for the executioner’s sword, Raoul aimed his leg at one of his followers and set his pistol off. Only it seems the pistol’s muzzle had become blocked with mud and stone and therefore exploded instantly killing Raoul.

But how had Simon and Kirby come across this story? The events occurred in France during the early part of the 19th century so it was unlikely to have been a object of discussion in New York City during the mid 20th century. A Google search revealed a few possible French links (I cannot read French) but only a single English source. That source was “Howitt’s Journal of Literature and Popular Progress, Volume 1” by William Howitt and Mary Botham Howitt published in 1847 (the story told on pages 103 to 105 and 122 to 125). This does not seem to be likely reading material for either Joe or Jack. Perhaps Jack heard the story told in France while he was there as a soldier during World War II.

“A Phantom Pulls The Trigger” is special not only for its amazing story but also because it had one of the only two double page splashes for a crime comic (The Wide Angle Scream, It’s a Crime);

The Corrosive Influence of Pinball

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Posted in 2011/01, 5 Studio, Artists, Featured Work, Kirby, Jack, Periods, Prize, Topic, z Archive and tagged ,


New York City Major Fiorello La Guardia toppling a pinball machine (August 1938)

America has a long history of concerns about the corruption of youth (a concern that today seems greatly diminished but by no means absent). The anti-comic book crusade of Dr. Wertham and others that ultimately led to the creation of the Comic Code is one example of such a concern but it is by no means the only one. Another object of worry was the pinball machine. Pinball was not a harmless way to pass the time, at least not to the cultural powers of the day. It was, gasp, a form of gambling. Not only could you win free games, but winning clearly depended on nothing more than luck. So concerned were communities of the day that pinball machines were banned in many places across the country, including New York City.


Headline #24 (May 1947) “Grim Pay-Off For The Pinball Mob”, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Simon

I do not see how anyone can doubt the testimony of former major La Guardia about the dangers of pinball. I mean after all they named an airport after him! But if the reader still doubts the evil nature that pinball represented than I will appeal to even higher authorities, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. They present their case through the mouth of a soda shop owner when a gang brings one of the machines into his store:

I said get that infernal thing out of my store! There’s a school across the street … I won’t have those kids losing their lunch money!!

Unfortunately the owner’s arguments are overruled by a thug’s fist. Simon and Kirby show that the gang is not limited to pushing pinball machines but they are also involved in running a gambling house. When the public objects to all the gambling a detective uses the pinball connection to trace the gang to their bigger operations. Thus Joe and Jack show us that the danger of pinball goes beyond the corruption of youth.

There is irony in Simon and Kirby’s voicing their concerns about pinball at the same time that many in the public were complaining about the danger comic books, and in particular crime comics, presented to the nation’s youth. Did they really see pinball as a corruptive danger? Or were they just trying to divert attention away from comic books?

Pinball games continued in spite of the ban imposed by many communities. New York lifted its pinball ban in 1976. The City Council did so largely because Roger Sharpe demonstrated that pinball required skill, not luck. He proved this playing a game where he announced that he would land the ball in the middle lane and proceeding to do just that. After that pinball flourished in New York. The pinball industry did quite well at the time driven by the digital age. But in the end home computers and video games brought about a severe decline in the pinball industry. I have not been able to find any company that is currently making pinball machines. With no more pinball games I guess we can say that they no longer present a danger to today’s youth.

Not Just Any Crime

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Posted in 2011/01, 5 Studio, Artists, Featured Work, Kirby, Jack, Periods, Prize, Topic, z Archive and tagged


Headline #23 (March 1947) “Burned At The Stake” page 4, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

Simon and Kirby tried to vary the type of crime that was portrayed in their stories. But of course they could write very different stories that deal with the same type of crime. So there are multiple gangster, western outlaw and other stories. But there was one crime category that Joe and Jack only dealt with once in their crime comics, treason. It probably should not be surprising that treason was so rarely featured in the stories. After all it is not what one normally comes to mind when you think of crime. What is truly odd is that it was not treason against the United States that Simon and Kirby wrote about but against England. For “Burned at the Stake” is about the failed attempt by Guy Fawkes and others to blow up the English King and his parliament. Perhaps the reason Simon and Kirby selected this story is that Guy Fawkes seems to have generated the greatest public reaction to a traitor. Sure everyone in America knows of Benedict Arnold but when was the last time he was hung in effigy? In England Guy Fawkes’ effigy has been hung and burned on November 5th for the last 400 years!

While Simon and Kirby’s version of the gunpowder plot is relatively accurate, it completely leaves out the religious background. There is no mention of the Protestant faith of England’s rulers or the difficulties faced by the Catholic minority. One might accept Simon and Kirby’s assertion that Fawkes went to Flanders to seek glory, but only religion would explain why he joined the Catholic Spanish side against the Protestant Dutch Republic. As Simon and Kirby present it, the leaders of the plot objections to King James I seems based on little more than personality. Also there appears to be no explanation for Guy Fawkes’ joining the plotters other than something akin to a lark. Some understanding of the religious issues is needed to make the whole story comprehensible but nowhere is that subject mentioned by Simon and Kirby.

Joe and Jack’s handling of Guy Fawkes is very out of place with the treatment typically reserved for traitors. Fawkes is by no means a sneaky or cowardly villain but an individual to be admired, even if reluctantly. When discovered by the King’s guards, Fawkes puts up a valiant but unsuccessful fight to avoid capture. Afterwards Guy refuses to reveal the names of his fellow conspirators even under extensive torture. The only glaring inconsistency is Fawkes’ gallows confession of guilt. Guy was said to have repented but since history is written by the winners one wonders how accurate testimony of that confession was. But this story is in a crime comic and American morality of that day required that “crime never pays” (which phrase Simon and Kirby conclude the story).

I have previously discussed the double page splash for this story (The Wide Angle Scream, It’s a Crime). Until recently Guy Fawkes has not occupied much of a place in the American conscious. That is not true for the English, I once worked with a lady originally from England who despite being Catholic took part in November 5 celebrations. However Americans were re-introduced to Fawkes through Alan Moore’s graphic novel “V for Vendetta” and the movie based on it.

A Simon and Kirby Valentine

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Posted in 2011/01, 5 Studio, Artists, Featured Work, Kirby, Jack, Periods, Prize, Topic, z Archive and tagged ,


Headline #23 (March 1947) “To My Valentine”, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

After the failure of Stuntman and Boy Explorers for Harvey Comics, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby began looking for a publisher that they could produce comics for. They eventually made a deal with Prize Comics where they converted the existing Headline Comics from a superhero to a crime title. The first crime issue was Headline #23 (March 1947) and it is packed with great stuff. Full of material all drawn by the dynamic Jack Kirby. The premise, at least initially, was that Headline would consist of true stories often presented by “Red Hot” Blaze. One of which was “To My Valentine” the story of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

The story as presented by Simon and Kirby starts with a dramatic full page splash. Cupid with a machine gun having just finished mowing down a line of men. It seems at least one of them had a handgun so it can be presumed that they were criminals. Text presented as a scroll informs us about the war between two gangs one headed by Al Capone and the other Bugs Moran.

The first story page depicts a man discarding a Valentine Day card and then abusing the store’s proprietor when he asked to be paid for the damaged card. An odd start for a crime story, but then again Simon and Kirby were always very original in their story telling. This beginning indicates the story is taken place on Valentine’s Day and introduces the reader to the thug-like nature of the man.

On the next page the readers follows the man to his arrival to a group of gangsters as they prepare for some undisclosed criminal activity. Only they become interrupted by the appearance of some uniformed policeman. Or rather as is revealed in the last panel, as members of the “other mob” dressed up as cops.

Page four has the arrival of boss and massacre of the apprehended gangsters. Pretty dramatic stuff. But interestingly nowhere is either gang mentioned by name. The reader will learn later that the victims belonged to Bugs Moran gang but the name of the leader of this particular confrontation is never revealed. While some of the facts about the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre are well known the perpetrators have never been positively identified.

Page five introduces “Red Hot” Blaze as he bridges the story from the massacre to the arrival of a reported to interview a prison inmate. Only the reporter finds out that the inmate is out, not on bail but for a stroll. The reporter does not wait for the inmate’s return as he already has a great story for his newspaper. The reporter returns later to interview the prisoner only to be roughed up by the inmate right in front of the sheriff. When the reporter objects to the treatment he has received the sheriff responds he did not see anything. “Red Hot” Blaze describes the story as an example of the corruption in Chicago at that time. Still this sub-story seems only remotely related to the rest of the Valentine’s Day Massacre story. It takes up two pages, as much room as the massacre itself. Why did Simon and Kirby include it?

Page five ends with Bugs Moran hearing about a party the other gang was having and on the final page of the story we find Bug’s gang performing their own massacre at their rival’s party. This was supposed to have taken place at the Manning’s Hotel but a Google search fails to come up with any mention of Bug’s revenge.

“Red Hot” Blaze returns once again in the last two panels and in the final one says:

Just another thought cousins! … it isn’t hard to give crime another boost to a new heydey … Those who play ball with the black market boys and their like are only giving a new ‘go-signal to mob rule! Don/t encourage them … you’ll pay a higher price later!!!

Here Simon and Kirby reveal the story’s real theme and the explanation for the sub-story of the newspaper reporter from Chicago. “To My Valentine” is not just, or even primarily, about the gang war between Al Capone and Bugs Moran. Rather the story is concerned about the corruptive influence of organized crime and the dangers involved in supporting it. The years immediately following War World II were prosperous especially when compared to the pre-war depression period. But although many were now earning good incomes the country’s industry as a whole took some time to re-tool from the production of military goods. People had money but could not always spend it on the goods they wanted. Under such conditions a black market sprung up (or rather continued from the war years). Here Simon and Kirby are warning about the possible outcome of supporting the black market and allowing it to prosper.