Young Romance #52 December1952) “Soldier on the Train” by Bill Draut
Once again the original Checklist gave this as Kirby/Simon and the update as Kirby/Draut. But again it is clearly both drawn and inked by Bill Draut. Unfortunately at this point in his career Bill has stopped signing his work, but his style is quite unique and easy to spot. Bill had a distinct way of drawing woman, wide eye and simple long eyebrows.
Young Romance #51 (November 1952) “The Way They Met” by Jack Kirby
Well I guess I misnamed this series because now I want to provide a Kirby work that the Checklist missed. Even though it is a one page work it has all the signs of Kirby penciling. The inking is typical S&K studio style. Generally I am unwilling to hazard a guess, but in this case I believe the spot inking was done by Jack himself.
Young Romance #47 July1952) “A Man For My Birthday” by Bill Draut
Originally the Checklist indicated this was penciled by Kirby and inked by Simon. In the update (JKC #32) the inker was listed as Draut. Well the update is correct about the inker being Bill Draut, but he was also the penciler. In fact the entire store is done in a style so similar to other Bill Draut stories I am not at all sure why this one was singled out. I have no doubts that Draut not Kirby drew this piece.
Young Love #55 (March 1954) “Love War” by Jack Kirby
The Jack Kirby Checklist lists “The Baby Dolls” (Young Love #55) as penciled by Jack Kirby. But in fact there is no story by that name in that comic. Young Love #55 has the story “Love War” that is not listed in the Checklist. There is a “Baby Doll” story in Young Love #31 (March 1952) but it was not done by Kirby. I think we can be pretty certain that some clerical error has occurred and the wrong title was listed for YL #55.
Young Love #12 (August 1950) “Problem Clinic” by Mort Meskin
The Jack Kirby Checklist lists “Problem Clinic” (Young Love #12) as Kirby pencils and Simon inks. Not signed but clearly Mort Meskin pencils and inks. No Jack Kirby.
Mort did a lot of work for Simon and Kirby but so did Bill Draut and John Prentice as well as a host of other artists. Yet Mort has been mistaken for Jack Kirby more then any of the others.
Young Love #12 (August 1950) “Smooth Operator” by Mort Meskin
The Jack Kirby Checklist lists “Smooth Operator” (Young Love #12) as Kirby pencils and Simon inks. Once again it is signed as Mort, although it is hard to see because it is in an brown area on the lower right of the splash. And once again typical Meskin pencils and inks. I cannot see any sign of Kirby.
Young Love #9 (May 1950) “A Man In Her Room” by Mort Meskin
The Jack Kirby Checklist lists “A Man In Her Room” (Young Love #9) as Kirby pencils and Simon inks. This is another story with a splash panel signed as Mort. In a way I am more surprised with attributing the inking to Joe then I am the pencils to Jack. The inking is done in a manner seen on all Meskin’s work of this period. It is not at all similar to the S&K shop style. Meskin also had his own unique drawing style and this shows up throughout the story.
I am not sure why one of the most common errors found in the Checklist appears to be attributing work to Kirby that was actually done by Mort Meskin. His style is very different from Kirby’s. Actually I am a little surprised that I do not find more of Kirby’s influence in Mort’s work at this time. After all both were working together in the small S&K studio.
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?
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.
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.