On I couple of visits to Joe’s place, I brought him printed copies of the pocket size Harvey covers (Pocket #1-4, Speed #14-16) as well as the regular size Speed #17.

Initially Joe commented that he only did a couple of pocket sized covers. But when he looked at the cover he said that Pocket #1, #2 and #4 were his. The only question was about Speed #16. Initially he said that he thought he did it, then latter he said he may not have done it. Joe commented that the feathering on the legs of Captain Freedom was not like he would do it. He also felt the drawing was rather poor. Joe also said he did Speed #17.

Joe also spotted the Jon Henri signature on Speed #17 and commented that his middle name was Henry. He also said that John Henry (I am assuming this spelling since this was an oral conversation) was a writer that he meet while serving in the Coast Guard. John Henry did some writing for the S&K after the war. But off course Joe was in the Coast Guard after the Jon Henri covers so that was just a coincidence.

June is Joe Simon’s months since he did both Champ #19 and Speed #19. Both signed as Jon Henri. To me the give-a-way that this is Joe’s penciling is the depiction of the Japanese impersonator. The whole idea of the Japanese setting up to disguise himself as Captain Freedom only to be interrupted by the real thing that seem to me to be something Simon would come up with. Captain Freedom’s fist is square like Jack Kirby would do it. But Joe had inked Jack’s work and was familiar with these sort of traits.

This Speed cover depicts a horde of Japanese soldiers coming down a flight of stairs and entering the room. Actually this is not too unusual at the time. Compare it to the cover for Speed #17 penciled by Jack Kirby where it is Captain Freedom who enters from a stairway. Some covers by Al Avison ( Speed #16 and Pocket #3 have the horde of advancing enemies, but lack the stairs. But in Speed #14 Avison had the stairs, but fewer enemies. But after this period where this motif seemed somewhat popular, I don’t remember S&K ever returning to the enemies entering from stairway motif. But surprisingly it shows up much later in art Joe Simon did which I believe was meant to be the cover for Fighting American #2 by Harvey meant for 1966. The art has a smaller number of enemies but it does show the stairs.

Harvey’s FA #2 was never published and the art I mentioned above has no indications for what it was intended. But Joe still has original art for two Fighting American stories that are marked as Fighting American #2. They are done on Bristol board, not the thick illustration board used for the Prize Fighting American art (1954/55). One of the stories (“The Beef Box”) got published in the Fighting American reprint volume published by Marvel in 1989. All the art intended for FA #2, including the cover, was done by Joe Simon.

This is one my favorites of the Harvey covers. Once again there is a Jon Henri signature, but this time it was Joe Simon doing the pencils. The visual humor found in the primary crook, will reappear later in the Duke of Broadway. Even the bullet’s near miss of the policeman is more humorous then it is suspenseful. Joe portrays the Liberty Lads younger then Jack did. If they look familiar that is because they actually are Gabby and Scrapper from the Newsboy Legion.

It is amazing to see how well all the pieces of the story are present. The robbed bank, most of the policemen ineffectively on the other roof, the single policeman in the correct location is about to taken care of by the crooks before they make their get-away. That is except for the Liberty Lads approaching unseen from the back, about to save the day. What a masterpiece.

Joe could work in a style close enough to Kirby’s that to this day many are fooled. But he had his own vision too and I am a bit surprised that so many experts still attribute this cover to Kirby. I suspect many use aesthetics to distinguish the two; for them if it is one of the better covers Jack must have done it. Jack did most of the penciling and Joe acknowledges that Kirby was an incredible artist. But I am here to tell you that Joe Simon is a lot better artist then many give him credit for.

Again this cover was published in 1942, not 1941 as listed in the Checklist.

Joe and Jack had done three covers for this series when it was published by Worth under the title Champions. Now the line was being done by Harvey after his unsuccessful pocket comics. Here and in the comics published at the same by National, we find the start of the real Simon & Kirby style. I believe the reason this happened now is that before at Timely there was a large crew working on Captain America. But initially there was probably only Joe and Jack at National. This really forged their collaboration. The Captain America covers were exiting but now Joe and Jack have taken it to a new level. Forget about how the Liberty Lads managed to get into this aerial fight. Who cares how one of them is able to slug a Jap off the plane with the propeller in between them? What matters is the story of the daring rescue of our capitol from the Japanese menace. How could a kid possibly pass this cover up without at least stopping to see what was inside. Unfortunately the contents did not, could not, live up to the cover. For that the comic reader would have to buy National’s Adventure or Star Spangled comics.

Another Harvey cover signed as Jon Henri. But does anyone have a doubt, that Kirby penciled this cover?

By the way, the Checklist uses an incorrect date for this cover as well as for #19, #20 and #21. They were all done in 1942, not 1941.

Al Harvey must have been a great salesman. As Joe Simon tells it, Al’s great idea of pocket size comics (Pocket, Speed and Spitfire) were very popular. Unfortunately one of the reasons for their popularity was the ease that kids could steal them. That fact did not make them popular with the newsstand owners. You would have thought that when the last of these small comics were published in January 1941, that would have been the end of Harvey’s publishing career. Instead not only did Speed Comics return in April as a regular size comic, Harvey took over publishing Champ Comics in May, and then even more surprising Green Hornet in June. Al would turn again to Joe Simon, and now Jack Kirby also, to help with the covers.

When Harvey resumed publishing, S&K were working for National. Joe and Jack’s version of Sandman was out in March (see image below), their version of Manhunter and their own creation the Newsboy Legion came out at the same time as Speed #17, and their creation Boy Commandos would come out in October. National was even using the Simon and Kirby name on their covers. It was pretty unusual at that time to use the creator names to promote the comic. Even so Joe and Jack would do covers art for Harvey. But they would not sign these with their own names. Instead some of the work is signed Jon Henri. I don’t believe that anybody in the industry or at National was fooled by this. I think the real reason that they did not use their own names is that Simon and Kirby had now become a brand name. It is one thing to give Al Harvey a helping hand, it is another to compete against yourself.

This cover has the Jon Henri signature. In later posts I shall show that other Henri covers would be penciled by either Jack or Joe. The overall composition is not unlike a classic Al Schromberg. Despite all that is going on, S&K seem to handle it well and present a clear story. But it is a layout style that was pretty unusual for them. Even though published by Harvey, this is very much a Captain America cover. Compare it to Captain America #10 which even has similar hooded figures. The art style is closest to what had been done at Timely. But the typical Simon and Kirby art had already appeared and National and would also show up on all the later Henri covers. I suspect that this cover was actually done just after leaving Timely and before their work at National gave birth to a true S&K style. Penciling was primarily done by Jack Kirby.

I admit that I am not comfortable with golden age ink attributions. But on this cover there is a peculiar inking pattern in the chute and the ceiling of the room above it. A similar inking style appears on the splash page that Al Avison did for Pocket #1. I have also seen it in “Red Skull’s Deadly Revenge” from Captain America #16, again by Al Avison. However I have also seen something similar on the covers for Champion #8 (Joe Simon) and #9 (Jack Kirby).