Last week I posted about the Mort Meskin group so now I would like to promote one for Leonard Starr. Starr has had a long and successful career and he is most famous for his syndication work for On Stage and Little Orphan Annie. Before that he was a comic book artist for a number of publishers as well as doing work for the Simon and Kirby studio. Presently my database has only 18 stories that Len did for Joe and Jack but since both of my ongoing serial posts, The Art of Romance and It’s A Crime, have entered the period that Starr is known to have worked for the studio I am sure that number will increase. While Leonard Starr may not have had a lengthy stay at the Simon and Kirby studio, he was an important contributor during that time.
Category Archives: Odds & Ends
Stan Lee Talking About Joe Simon
I mentioned Stan Lee’s statement about Joe Simon when I wrote about the 2008 New York Comic Con but I recently came across a short clip of it.
This was presented by YouTube user AstonishingTale’s. He also has a couple of other videos from the same Living Legends panel. One is a clip with Jerry Robinson and Stan Lee discussing the most creative individuals they ever meet. As much as I liked Lee’s choice, it was who Robinson praised that I really appreciated.
Mort Meskin Group at Yahoo
A new group has started on Mort Meskin. I have added on my sidebar but you can also follow this link. I have discussed Mort often in this blog, and I am sure I will so often in the future as well. Mort was perhaps the greatest talent of the Simon and Kirby studio, that is second to Jack. You could not tell it today as he is largely overlooked by comic fans. Perhaps this new group and an up in coming book on Meskin may start to change that. So if you are interested in discussing or learning more about Meskin why not join?
Happy Belated Birthday to Jack Kirby
Jerry Robinson at the Jack Kirby Tribute Panel
Detective #65 (July 1942), art by Jack Kirby and Jerry Robinson
I mentioned in a previous post a review of the Jack Kirby Tribute Panel that Comic Book Resources has posted (written by Jim MacQuarrie).
At the very end of the article is found:
Jerry Robinson closed the panel by recalling his participation in one of the very few collaborations that Kirby did with anyone but Joe Simon. “The only time Jack collaborated with anyone but Simon on a cover was an issue of “Detective Comics” when the Boy Commandos joined the book. The cover showed Batman and the Boy Commandos shaking hands. I drew Batman and Jack drew the Commandos.”
In Love #1 (September 1954), art by Jack Kirby and John Prentice
While of course Jerry is right about his contributions to the cover of Detective #65, he is not correct about being the only artist, other then Joe Simon, to collaborate on a cover with Jack Kirby. John Prentice, one of the usual suspects of the Simon and Kirby studio, also had that honor. Jack did the foreground couple while John did the two background figures.
Jerry greeting Joe Simon at the Big Apple Con of 2006
Jerry and Joe at New York ComicCon 2008
Abrams to Publish Simon and Kirby Art Book
Comic Book Resources has a commentary on the Jack Kirby Tribute Panel from the most recent San Diego Comic-Con International. Of greatest interest to this blog was an announcement made:
After discussing his recent book, “Kirby: King of Comics,” which he said was doing phenomenally well, Evanier turned the mic over to his publisher, Charlie Kochman from Harry N. Abrams Co., who announced that Joe Simon is opening his archives and Abrams will publish “The Art of the Simon & Kirby Studio” in Spring 2010. The large-format book will have oversize pages, with faithful reproductions scanned from the original art boards.
I am really happy to be able to finally post this. Abrams is one of the largest publishers of art books (if not the largest). The job they did on “Kirby: King of Comics” was just fantastic. I do not believe that any publisher has previously devoted a large book to original comic book art. I cannot begin to describe how excited I am about this project.
Historical Treasures
Treasure Comics #12 (Fall 1947), art by Dan Barry
In a recent post I included a brief discussion of Mort Meskin’s contribution to Treasure Comics #10 (December 1946) published by Prize Comics (It’s a Crime, Chapter 1, Promoting Crime). Mort’s piece was for a historical feature called “Know Your America”. I wondered at the time whether Meskin had provided other work for Prize. The answer to my question is yes for I have found that Mort also did the “Know Your America” feature for Treasure Comics #12 (Fall 1947). At this point Simon and Kirby were already producing Headline and Young Romance for Prize but I see nothing in Treasure Comics #12 to suggest that Joe and Jack had anything to do with it. I do not believe any of the artists from TC #12 would do work for the Simon and Kirby studio. That is excluding Dan Barry whose future roll for Simon and Kirby I still have not worked out. Dan Barry’s cover has nothing to do with the theme of this post but it is so nice I could not resist including an image of it. (Who else ever did a man lassoing a black leopard from the back of an elephant (the circus version of a rodeo)?
Treasure Comics #12 (Fall 1947) “Know Your America” page 5, art by Mort Meskin
This time Mort depicts events from the start of the Revolutionary War. The subject provides much more in the way of action then Meskin had in the story he did previously in Treasure Comics #10. Even with what should have been better material I cannot help but feel that Meskin just was not as successful as in his earlier effort. The close-up shots were not always done as well, although there are exceptions such as the first panel in the page shown above. I feel the greatest problem came from the distant shots that included groups of people. The individual actions portrayed seem to be overwhelmed by the settings. Still even an inferior work by Meskin is superior to the best efforts of most of his contemporaries.
Treasure Comics #12 (Fall 1947) “Know Your America”, art by Mort Meskin
There is a bit of a mystery connected with the art for this particular story. The Meskin family has two pages of uninked pencils from the first two pages of the same story. Unfortunately I cannot provide a link directly to the particular pieces but only to the home of the Meskin site provided by the family. Following the Original Comic Art link and then select the third thumbnail from the left in the top row. The page on the left is the same as the splash that I provide above. There are no significant differences between the penciled versus the published versions. The biggest alteration is the leaves of some of the trees. Why did Mort abandon the Meskin family page only to carefully repeat it for the published version? Or was the inking done on tracing paper or through the use of a light box? If so why? It is a conundrum for which I have no solution to offer.
Treasure Comics #8 (August 1946) “Know Your America”, art by Frank Frazetta
Since Mort Meskin did the “Know Your America” feature for TC #10 and #12 it is possible that he did the feature for TC #11 as well. But what about prior issues? It can now be said that Meskin did not do “Know Your America” for TC #8 as that was signed by another artist, Frank Frazetta. I am certain that there would a lot of people, including myself, who would not have identified Frazetta as the artist had this story been unsigned. It is a fascinating piece from early in Frank’s career. It is hard to believe it is the same artist who only a few years later would produce very polished comic book art.
An Open Letter from Joe Simon to Marvel Comics
Dear Marvel Comics:
Yesterday I received the latest Marvel Masterworks book, Golden Age Captain America. Thank you, Marvel. The book is wonderful, beautifully crafted, something to be proud of if it winds up in one’s collection.
I read the first chapter of the introduction by Gerard Jones.
Gerard, you are full of shit. You have already compromised your integrity by making statements and asking questions that you have no answers to. Why bring them up at all? The fly-by-nights were taking every advantage of the creators and that has been well documented in the past. You might have examined your statements but nobody ever asked me or Mr. Kirby if we had any papers or documents to confirm.
Marvel is a big boy now. You should grow up. Learn to check your sources before you shoot off the hip.
So, I make another friend. At this stage, why should I care?
Joe Simon
Postscript from Harry Mendryk: When I was leaving, Joe came with me to check his mail. As we waited for the elevator he commented: “After 90 you’ve earned the right to say someone is full of shit.”
Further postscript from Harry Mendryk: Gerard Jones wrote about the early history of Timely and Captain America. He included the story that Joe wrote about in his book The Comic Book Makers that Goodman had made a deal with Simon and Kirby to share the royalties from Captain America but when he did not live up to that agreement Joe and Jack left for DC. Jones also wrote that Goodman’s story was that after Captain America’s success Simon and Kirby broke their deal to go to DC for more money. Jones also wrote that since all the documentary evidence has been destroyed there was no way of knowing whose story is correct. However Gerard Jones never contacted either Joe Simon or the Kirby estate to verify that statement.
added on 8/4/08: There are responses from both Gerard Jones and Joes Simon in a more recent post.
Coming Soon from Titan: Simon and Kirby
It is not much, but Titan has a little announcement about their Simon and Kirby books on their web site.
Goodbye Creig Flessel
During my visit with Joe Simon today we got the news of the passing of Creig Flessel. It saddened us both. Joe reminisced about Creig and George Tuska being part of his crew. Joe commented that they both were beautiful people. The three lived close to one another at that time. It is a period of Joe’s career that I have not studied sufficiently and so have not posted on yet. Not because it is less important then the rest of his career, but just because there is so many parts of his life that need to be studied.
I can recall a number of occasions during previous visits where Joe would pull out a copy of some commission piece that Creig had done recently. He never could get over how beautiful Creig’s work still was (nor could I).
Mark Evanier has a nice obituary for Creig Flessel. Ger Apeldoorn’s blog has a couple of posts with nice examples of Flessel’s commission work and other oddities.
One of Joe’s last comments before I left was “I am not ready to check in yet, I just ordered a couple of boxes of cigars”. In that case Joe, keep ordering those cigars.