Category Archives: Odds & Ends

Joe Simon’s Fawcett Testimony

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Posted in 2010/11, Odds & Ends, Topic, z Archive.

Captain Marvel, Special Edition (March 1941) bleached page art by Jack Kirby

Not very long ago Ken Quattro (the comics detective) posted some court transcripts of testimony that was given during the DC versus Fox copyright infringement trial. This trial concerned DC’s claim that Fox’s Wonder Man was a copy of Superman. The transcripts of a number of witnesses was provided but the most surprising was that by Will Eisner. In the past Will Eisner had always maintained that, despite pressure from Fox to take the blame, he had told the court that Fox had instructed him to copy Superman. But the court transcript that Quattro obtained showed that in fact Eisner denied that Wonder Man was a copy of Superman. The transcript is a fascinating discovery that re-wrote comic book history as we know it.

The DC vs. Fox transcript brought to mind another trial, that of DC versus Fawcett. This was actually a more important case because Fawcett’s Captain Marvel was selling quite well, perhaps even better than Superman. One aspect of this lawsuit was of particular interests to me because in his book “The Comic Book Makers” Joe Simon had a chapter describing how he became a witness at the trial. I have recently had the opportunity to read a transcript of Joe’s appearance. Right up front, I want to say there were no big surprises to be found in the transcript. But in light of the historical importance of the DC/Fawcett trial I thought I would write about what the record shows.

Joe’s first appearance in court was on March 9, 1948. Under questioning from the plaintiff (DC) Joe first provided a brief description of his career. Mostly Joe dwelled on his work as a newspaper staff artist and while he mentioned the newspapers he worked for, Joe did not go into detail about the comic book publishers he had dealt with.

Then Simon was asked about his involvement with Fawcett Publications. Joe describe being contacted by Al Allard, Fawcett’s art editor. Simon was asked if he was willing to take on an assignment to put together a magazine of Captain Marvel. This work would end up being Captain Marvel Special Edition, the first time the big red cheese had appeared in his own comic book have previously appeared in Whiz Comics. Allard stated that Captain Marvel was a “take-off of Superman”.

Joe returned later with some sketches of Captain Marvel that he and Jack Kirby had drawn to show what they were capable of. Allard then introduced Joe to William Parker to supply the script. Ed Herror was also there. Joe asked Parker if they could make any changes in the script, telling him that they “were in the habit of changing script to improve the cartoon, having been writers and editors in the field ourselves”. Parker instructed Joe that they definitely could not alter the script, “they are following a definite pattern there, definite formula, and they had taken the formula from Superman”.

Joe brought the pencils for each story one at a time back to Fawcett for lettering. Afterwards they were retrieved and inked. The final inked versions were delivered by both Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. The payment for this work was done by check sent through the mail.

The above testimony was in response to questioning by the DC lawyers, DC then requested that Fawcett supply the original art that Simon and Kirby had done which had previously been subpoenaed. Fawcett did not have the art at that time and therefore questioning of Joe was stopped for the day.

The date that Simon reappeared as a witness is difficult to read on the copy of the transcripts that I saw. I believe it was either March 13 or 15. The original art that Simon and Kirby created for the Captain Marvel comic was then available. Under questioning from the DC lawyer Joe discussed the changes that had been made to the original art, which seems to have been rather abundant. From his testimony the changes had been made in both the penciled and the inked art. A copy of the published comic book was available but instead Simon would identify the changes by the art style. The most memorable change was that a rifle that in the original Simon and Kirby version was bent “so that it could shot around corners” had been altered into being bent like a pretzel. The DC lawyer produced a large photostat from the summer 1940 issue of Superman which also had a rifle similarly bent.

Joe was then cross examined by the Fawcett lawyer. First he was asked about his latest employment which was by Crestwood Publications (which in my blog I normally refer to as Prize Comics). On questioning, Simon reported that he got paid on a royalty basis. The lawyer asked to verify that if Crestwood was not satisfied with the art that Simon and Kirby produced then they do not accept it. Joe corrected that as part of their agreement they have to accept it whether they liked it or not. He added that they have never disliked anything they had done. On questioning about the characters that Simon and Kirby did for Crestwood Joe replied that the only “natural character” was Charlie Chan. He said that they had produced two issues to date but that none of they had yet to appear on the newsstands. As for other characters that Simon and Kirby produced “all others were true stories”. (At the time of this testimony Simon and Kirby were producing Headline, Justice Traps the Guilty and Young Romance.)

On questioning about other characters that Joe had previously created he mentioned Marvel Boy, Young Allies, T-Man, the Newsboy Legion and Captain America. The Fawcett lawyer seemed intent out getting Joe to describe the costume but the DC lawyer would object, sometimes successfully and other times not.

Joe was asked how long he had known Herron, Allard and Parker which in all cases was not long before working on the Captain Marvel comic. The Fawcett then proceed to question Joe about the changes to the art. The lawyer would ask Joe if there was any indication of whiteout on some panel. And Joe kept trying to explain that whiteout was not required for changes to the pencils and that he could tell what was changed by the style.

During redirect by the DC lawyer, Joe was asked about what other work he had done for Fawcett. Joe stated that while they did no more work on Captain Marvel they later did some for Wow Comics (this would by Mr. Scarlett that appeared in Wow #1).

On recross by the Fawcett lawyer, Simon was questioned about whether he had heard Mr. Herron testify to writing scripts for Captain America and Joe had answered that he was not present at Herron’s appearance. Joe was asked if he had done the art for the Sandman character from Adventure Comics #87 which he had done for “several issues”. One objection from the DC lawyer, Fawcett said that they trying to show that “he draws not only characters having these traits but he draws them for the plaintiffs”. Joe was also questioned about Manhunter.

Like I wrote at the beginning, there are no big surprises in the testimony. Joe mentioned a few times that people at Fawcett had admitted to him that Captain Marvel was a copy of Superman. Simon was not asked this directly but since he was DC’s witness I presume they were already aware of what Joe would say. In “The Comic Book Makers” Joe says that before the trial the DC lawyer “skillfully led us into the testimony he was seeking”. Another objective of the plaintiff (DC) seemed to be the reworking of the art. It was not elaborated during Joe’s testimony but I believe it was DC’s argument that these changes were made to make the art more similar to that found in Superman. The defendant’s, Fawcett, objectives seem to be to discredit Simon as a witness. Their attempts at questioning Joe about the art changes seemed to be directed at making it appear that Simon could not reliably identify the changes. The questioning about Joe’s career and the work that he had done for DC was clearly aimed at “trying to test the credibility of the witness’s testimony”. The idea being that if Joe worked for DC his testimony was biased. Surprisingly Fawcett never just asked Joe directly if he was currently doing work for the plaintiff. Had Fawcett asked that question Joe would have had to answer yes since Simon and Kirby were still doing Boy Commandos.

Simon’s testimony does provide evidence about one detail of comic book history. Sometime back I read the suggestion that Simon and Kirby’s Mr. Scarlett was done sometime before their work on Captain Marvel Special Edition. This suggestion was based on a dates provided from a second source for the Captain Marvel Special Edition and Wow #1 (in which Mr. Scarlett first appeared). Unfortunately neither comic has a proper cover date. Joe’s testimony places the Captain Marvel work before that done on Mr. Scarlett.

Crime’s Better Half

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Posted in 2010/11, 5 Studio, Artists, Hillman, Kirby, Jack, Odds & Ends, Periods, Prize, Topic, z Archive and tagged


Headline #26 (September 1947), art by Jack Kirby

Simon and Kirby only worked in the crime genre during two periods. The first, and most extensive one, was from 1947 to about 1950 when the worked on Clue and Real Clue Comics for Hillman, as well as producing Headline and Justice Traps the Guilty for Prize. The second occasion was when they produced Police Trap for the own publishing company Mainline. Joe and Jack were always very creative and the crime genre gave them a wide range of subjects. They produced stories about gangsters, western outlaws, and other historical criminals. Another variation Simon and Kirby seemed fond of were women criminals. By no means were Joe and Jack the sole comic book creators that did work about crime by females (there even was a title Crimes By Women published by Fox). However like pretty much everything Simon and Kirby did, they created some very memorable work about women criminals.


Clue Comics volume 2, number 3 (May 1947) “The Battle For Packy Smith” page 11, pencils by Jack Kirby

The first of Simon and Kirby’s beautiful villains was Velvet. She appeared in the second story about Packy Smith, a gentlemen highly sought after for the element X contained in his body. Packy was much very taken with the charming Velvet Silver, only to end up betrayed by her for the bounty that a crime lord had placed on his head. But once she was paid for her efforts, Velvet then proceeded to betray in turn the crime lord and freed Packy. Velvet may have been larcenous but she also had a heart of gold. A villain you cannot help but love.


Real Clue Crime Stories volume 2 number 6 (August 1947) “Get Me the Golden Gun”, art by Jack Kirby

Packy never made a third appearance, but Velvet returned without Packy in “Get Me the Golden Gun”. It was the hero, Gunmaster, who now fell under her spell. While Packy had been a criminal himself, Gunmaster of course was not. So he found his attraction to Velvet to be very troublesome. While she was not quite so villainous as Velvet, Simon and Kirby developed a similar relationship between Riot O’Hara and Link Thorne in “The Flying Fool” (produced at the same time and for the same publisher Hillman).


Justice Traps the Guilty #4 (May 1948) “Queen of the Speed-Ball Mob”, art by Jack Kirby

Gunmaster and Velvet were clearly meant to be fictional however the work Simon and Kirby produced for Prize were meant to be considered as true stories (or at least initially). So similar mismatched romance between a hero and a criminal were not repeated in Headline or Justice Traps the Guilty. Still women criminals played an important part of the Simon and Kirby repertoire for Prize. Often when the lead character was a female, Simon and Kirby would present the story as if it was told by the woman. Generally in such cases, the story would start with what I describe as a confessional splash. A splash were the main character introduces the story with their speech balloon forming the feature’s title. This device was common in Simon and Kirby romance publications but only seems to be used by Joe and Jack for the crime genre when the protagonist was a woman. Most likely this was because male criminals generally had a very bad ending while the woman repent and paid her debt to society. Apparently Simon and Kirby preferred not to kill or execute even villainous women but had no qualms about providing the male criminals with such fates. In all honesty this form of sexual discrimination is still very much prevalent today.


Real Clue Comics volume 2 number 4 (June 1947) “Mother Of Crime”, art by Jack Kirby

The Simon and Kirby rule was all female villains where young and beautiful and would in the end repent their life in crime. But of course every rule has exceptions. I doubt many would call Ma Barker either young or beautiful. Not only does she come to a bad end, she does not sound very repentful either. It is a marvelous story that fortunately was included in “The Best of Simon and Kirby”. If you have not bought the book yet, what are you waiting for?


Headline #25 (July 1947), pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Simon

Interesting Dick Briefer Work

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Posted in 2010/10, Artists, Breifer, Dick, Odds & Ends, Topic, z Archive and tagged

I am rather busy and have little time for exploring the Internet, but there are some blogs that I try to periodically check out. Booksteve’s Library is one of them and there I recently found the post Rare Dick Briefer Non-Comics Art-1942. Booksteve inserts a You Tube video of Rumpelstiltskin as performed in the Playette Theatre. The Playette Theatre was the invention of Larry Wise and Dick Briefer. It is a little toy theater in which illustrations can be inserted. The illustrations were done by Briefer and they are just wonderful. They are narrated by Ben Wise (son of one creator and nephew of the other) and although it is not an Academy Award winning performance it makes for an enjoyable experience. Ben Wise has a You Tube page which includes five other Playette Theatre performances. It is so great that Ben Wise has saved these treasures and provided them as videos.

Jack Kirby’s Cityscapes

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Posted in 2010/10, Artists, Kirby, Jack, Odds & Ends, Topic, z Archive and tagged

I recently came across a curious claim being made by a couple of authors. I do not have these writings in front of me but they went something like: Jack Kirby’s always drew his buildings like the tenements from the lower East Side where he grew up, while artist XYZ drew modern buildings. This is not an unreasonable statement since the work of artists often reflects their life experiences. But just because a statement is reasonable does not make it true.


1942 photograph of tenement buildings (from Old New York in Color, Part III, Lower East Side 1942in Citynoise).

The above photograph was taken some years after Kirby lived in the Lower East Side but the buildings themselves did not change all that much. I have seen photographs from the turn of the century and they were not that different even then. Actually in many ways they still have not changed. Many former tenements have been renovated for modern living (I live in what used to be a cold water flat). These renovations were largely performed on the interiors leaving the external features relatively unaltered. Tenements were basically low buildings with no more than six floors. At some point a law was passed that required elevators for any building taller than six stories. Most tenements were built with bricks but some brown stone buildings became tenements when the neighborhood declined. Ornamentation was generally simple, often nothing more than cornices and raised brickwork. Since they were occupied by a number of families, fire escapes would appear on both front and back of the buildings.


In Love #3 (January 1955) “Search for Inspiration”, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Simon

There is no question that Kirby could and did draw tenements. The buildings at the bottom of the In Love splash shown above are easily recognized as such. Note the limited number of floors and simple ornamentation. If the buildings were not enough observe the wash hanging out to dry on the top of one of the buildings. The structures visible at the top of the splash are not tenements. While Kirby provides them with little ornamentation, the architecture is much more interesting than the tenements. The presence of water towers indicate that these are tall buildings since the lower heights of tenements would not require water towers to provide proper pressure. The lack of fire escapes is surely nothing more than artistic license.


Street Code, Argosy vol. 3 #2 (1990) art by Jack Kirby

Jack’s use of tenements was not limited to the work he did in the 50’s. Kirby drew “Street Code” in 1983 but it was not published in Argosy until 1990. Despite the presence of some cars the scene really is not that different from the early photograph I provided earlier. Jack may have left the tenements many years before but the tenements never fully left him.


The Adventures of the Fly #1 (August 1959) “Come Into My Parlor” right half of splash, pencils by Jack Kirby

One of Joe and Jack’s final collaborations was the Fly for Archie Comics. Jack provided a multitude of buildings in the background for a double page splash in the first issue. These buildings look tall and have complex and imaginative architecture. Tenement buildings? Not by a long shot.


New York: 1933 (from Sharphy Historic Photo Archive)

If the buildings in the Fly splash were not tenements, what were they? While they are the product of Kirby’s ample imagination they draw heavily from buildings that could be seen in New York during Jack’s life and even today. I could provide further examples of later work by Kirby that seem to reflect a more modern architecture of buildings constructed of steel and glass. Actually examples of Kirby drawing tenements are much rarer. So while claims that Kirby always drew buildings that reflected the tenements that he inhabited as a youth may sound attractive, they just are not supported by Jack’s actually art.

Joe Simon’s New York Comic Con Appearance

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Posted in 2010/10, Artists, Odds & Ends, Simon, Joe, Topic, z Archive and tagged , ,

Joe Simon made an appearance at the New York Comic Con on Saturday (October 9) as I had previously announced. It was not a well publicized event, in fact my report was the only announcement on the web. I believe Titan wanted to keep the crowds to a minimum. Not that there were any lack of fans. Joe was kept busy for the duration of the stay during which he had a continual line of fans seeking his autograph or just to shake his hand. There was a short intermission so that everyone there could sing Happy Birthday to Joe and present him with a cake. Both Jerry Robinson and Joe Kubert stopped by to say hello to Joe. I believe it was the first time that Simon and Kubert had ever met. All in all a very enjoyable event, particularly for Joe. Unfortunately I did not have my camera but if I am able to track down some of the photos that others took I will post them later.

Also of interest, Comic Riffs has written about a birthday interview with Joe.

Happy Birthday Jack Kirby

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Posted in Artists, Kirby, Jack, Odds & Ends, Topic and tagged ,

It is time to celebrate Jack Kirby’s birthday again. I can think of no better way to honor Jack than to provide some examples of his art. This time using original art. Enjoy!


Champ #20 (July 1942)


Headline #25 (July 1947)


Police Trap #2 (November 1954)


In Love #3 (January 1955)


In Love #3 (January 1955)


Win A Prize #1 (February 1955)


Western Tales #31 (October 1955)


Warfront #28 (January 1956)


Western Tales #32 (March 1956)


True Bride To Be #19 (August 1956)


Black Cat Mystic #58 (September 1956)


First Love #70 (November 1956)


Alarming Tales #3 (March 1958) (unpublished version)


Sandman #1 (Winter 1974) (unpublished version)


Captain America #197 (May 1976)

The Truth About Will Eisner and Wonderman

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Posted in 2010/07, Odds & Ends, Topic, z Archive and tagged

I admit that I have little time for checking out what is the latest on the Internet. Therefore my blog is not the place to go to find the latest news. But my attention was recently pointed to a blog post that I thought deserved comment here. The post in question is DC VS VICTOR FOX: The Testimony of Will Eisner in Ken Quattro’s blog, The Comics Detective. Quattro has provided, for the first time every, the actual testimony that Will Eisner gave in court in the case between DC and Fox Comics.

For years Will Eisner has said that he refused submit to Victor Fox’s pressure to say in court that he (Eisner) created Wonderman. Instead, according to Eisner, he testified that Wonderman was based on instructions from Fox. It was a great story of young man standing up for his integrity at the cost of his future business with Victor Fox. Unfortunately the actual trial transcripts shows it is not true.

I am sure we will be hearing a lot about how Will Eisner lied. While the transcripts show he certainly plagiarized himself (that is lied) I do not believe Eisner’s telling of the story years later was a lie. Despite all that has been learned about memory in recent years people still think of memory as like some sort of tape machine. The tape might degrade with time but is otherwise accurate. Therefore if someone tells something about the past that is not true, he must be lying. In reality it turns out that it is surprisingly easy to develop false memories. Even the memories that seem to be accurate are often more correctly said to be based on our previous telling of the story rather than the events themselves. I doubt that Eisner would have repeated his story so often if he had actually lying. Will probably believed it and would have been quite surprised had he been presented with the trial transcripts.

This is the first time I have seen Ken Quattro’s blog. Quattro started it in February but like I said I am not good with keeping up with the Internet. A quick look at earlier posts on the blog indicate it is well worth following. I know I will.

Happy Fourth Anniversary!

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Posted in 2010/03, Odds & Ends, Topic and tagged

Who cares about Simon and Kirby? Well judging by the first two years of this blog’s existence only a small number of fans. But it was not just the low number of visits to my blog that suggested that Simon and Kirby were pretty much forgotten by the larger public. 2006 and 2007 also did not really have much in the way of books with significant Simon and Kirby content on the market. But all that has changed. In the last two years the number of visits to the Simon and Kirby Blog has increased by a factor of ten and it keeps on rising. The last year saw the publication of Titan’s “Best of Simon and Kirby” and DC’s “Simon and Kirby Sandman”. This year should see DC release books on the Newsboy Legion and the Boy Commandos. Even more important Titan will be publishing the “Simon and Kirby Superheroes” (okay I’m biased). I still believe what I wrote in my last anniversary post, that the key event to this change in interest was due to the publication of Mark Evanier’s “Kirby: King of Comics”.

I did not envision any of this when I wrote my first post on March 17, 2006. I just wanted to spend some time writing about my favorite comic book collaborators and the artists who worked for them. I had been studying Simon and Kirby for quite some time before starting this blog but something changed once I did. I found that writing helped clarified my thoughts. That and the studies that accompanied my posts greatly increased my knowledge. I have learned much more about Simon and Kirby in the last four years then I have all the time before that.

I admit that keeping the blog going during the last year has been quite difficult. My restoration work for “Simon and Kirby Superheroes” has taken up much of my time (I will be posting about that in the not too distant future). But I love writing this blog and do not want to give it up even for a short while. And there is so much more to write about. My serial post Art of Romance has gone 28 chapters so far but is only up to the end of 1954 while I intend to take it up to 1960. Another serial post, Little Shop of Horrors, has gone 9 chapters but alas will end with the next one. And yes I know there are other serial posts that have long been idle (It’s a Crime and Wide Angle Scream) however I fully intend to write more on them at some point. In the past I posted about two titles (Foxhole and In Love) from Simon and Kirby’s short attempt at being publishers but I have yet to give Bullseye and Police Trap a similar treatment. DC is reprinting their Simon and Kirby material and that provides an added incentive to writing about Sandman, the Newsboy Legion and the Boy Commandos. With so much to discuss about Simon and Kirby I am sure this blog will have many more anniversaries to come!

Big Apple Con Vs New York Comic Con

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Posted in 2009/10, Odds & Ends, Topic, z Archive and tagged , , , , ,

I been attended Big Apple Con over a number of years. It was reasonably priced and attracted a number of useful comic dealers. It used to be held in the basement of St. Paul where it always was overcrowded. It since has changed venues but somehow the show never seemed to gain in actual space. In April Wizard bought the convention and last weekend was their first show. Now Big Apple Con was held on a pier and there seemed plenty of room. I wish I could say I was pleased.

My problem was not how the show was run but in the price of admission. Where once the single day fee was $7 it now has jumped to an outrageous $40. I was unsure what day I would attend so I could not order my ticket ahead but that would only have saved me $5. I thought the ticket would cost $35 but there turned out to be a $5 handling fee. Frankly I feel such practices border on the dishonest; ticket prices should include all cost up front.

I decided to try the show anyway to see if it was worth the extra money. Unfortunately it was not. As far as I could tell it was largely the same comic dealers that I used to see for one fifth the price.

My biggest surprise from the show was finding out that Wizard had scheduled a Big Apple Con on the same weekend as the next New York Comic Con (October 8 – 10, 2010). So we are now faced with a smack down between the two conventions. Big Apple Con at $40 for a single day and the NY Comic Con at $30. No contest, why pay more for much, much less? I predict Wizard is in for a big surprise.

Belated Birthday to Joe Simon

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Posted in Odds & Ends, Topic and tagged , ,

Somehow I forgot to post Joe Simon’s 96th birthday yesterday. I did not forget his birthday as I visited him Saturday. But Joe downplays his birthdays and does not want to make a big deal about it. He is in good health and still rather active. He is scheduled to appear at the Wizard’s Big Apple Con on Friday, health permitting. No mention of time. Joe rarely makes convention appearances and when he does they generally are rather short. Not so much because he gets tired but rather because he gets bored. So if you go to the Big Apple Con keep and eye out for him.