Category Archives: z Archive

Champ #21 (August 1942)

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Posted in 2006/06, 4 DC (early), Harvey Covers, Periods, Topic, z Archive.

Chame #21

While I worked on the End Of Simon & Kirby serial post I put on hold my posting on the S&K Harvey covers. But now it is time to resume that effort. I say effort not because of the writing, but the restoration of the images. These Harvey comics are not common and frequently in poor shape. But all these covers are gems and well worth the work.

This cover shows one of the Liberty Lads ejecting from a plane flown by his partner. I am not sure where the boy left the plane, it looks like a one seater. Nor is it clear why the plane had to fly upside down. The plane’s camouflage does not seem effective as the ship’s spot light has been trained on it. The bailing Liberty Lad is just about to open his parachute. It is not at all clear how he is going to attach the ship armed with only a machine gun and with no possibility of surprise. But this sort of logical analysis really is pointless with these Harvey covers, bravery trumps logic.

The bailing Liberty Lab is not in exaggerated perspective, but still seems to have the Kirby touch. So I believe Jack was the primary penciler.

Strange Worlds of Your Dreams, strange indeed

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Posted in 2006/06, 5 Studio, Anthologies, Prize, Topic, z Archive.

Strange World of Your Dreams #3
Strange World of Your Dreams #3 (November 1952) by Jack Kirby

Your Dreams was certainly the oddest comic anthology that Simon and Kirby produced. It can be viewed as a spin off of the successful Black Magic comics that started a couple of years earlier. But its focus on the dream theme gave it a special flavor. The idea of a dream comic came from Mort Meskin, one of the few artists working for S&K who worked in the studio. Credits are printed on the first page of the comic with Simon and Kirby as the producers and Mort Meskin as associative editor. This is the only case in S&K productions where someone else is called an editor.

YD #3 The Women In The Tower
Strange World of Your Dreams #3 (November 1952) “The Women In The Tower” by Jack Kirby

The stories can be divided into three categories. The first is dream analysis, well that is how they present it. Despite the ads offering to pay for dreams, it is hard to believe that these stories portray real dreams. After all where is the one in the middle of giving a book report in front of the class you realize you are not wearing any clothes? The analysis does not look anymore authentic then the dreams, no Oedipus complex here. What is real is the opportunity for Kirby to go wild, which Jack takes full advantage of. Most of the dream analysis stories were done by Jack, and most of the stories he did in this series were dream analysis. I can only conclude that he relished this chance, he certainly makes effective use of it.

YD #3 Send Us Your Dreams
Strange World of Your Dreams #3 (November 1952) “Send Us Your Dreams” by Bill Draut

The dream analysis stories were occasionally done by other artists, including Mort Meskin and Bill Draut. As much as I admire these artists, Meskin and Draut in particular, I feel that they were not at all comfortable with this theme. Bill spent more time with the non-dream portions and little on the dream, whereas Kirby did most of the story on the dream itself. Most of these analysis stories tended to be very short, just a couple of pages long.

YD #1 The Dreaming Tower
Strange World of Your Dreams #1 (August 1952) “The Dreaming Tower” by Mort Meskin

A second story category for this anthology was fictional stories. When I provided Joe Simon with restorations of these comics, Joe commented that he must have pulled those stories from the Black Magic drawer. They are the type of story that would fit very well in a Black Magic comic. But if there truly was such a drawer full of Black Magic inventory, the ones that were selected were only those with a dream theme. Bill Draut presents a story of a man who finds himself in a perfect world, only to be told it is a dream. Despite warnings and pleadings he insists in waking the dreamer. Of course he regrets it when he succeeds (“Don’t Wake The Sleeper”, SWYD #1, August 1952). But the best of the Your Dreams fictional stories, in fact the masterpiece of the entire series, was Mort Meskin’s “The Dreaming Tower” (SWYD #1). Mort uses his blacks and manipulate his panels to build up suspense without even providing why there would be such tension. Kirby could have done the revelation panel better, but Jack could never have orchestrated the build up as masterfully as Mort.

YD #4 Romance In The Stars
Strange World of Your Dreams #4 (January 1953) “Romance In The Stars” by unidentified artist

The third and final category of story types was introduced in the final two issues (#3 and #4). It is astrology based stories. I have no idea why a comic based on dreams should include astrology also. The way the stories worked was the “characteristics” of people with a particular sign are given and then a story provided to illustrate these supposed characteristics. These stories are not the horror variety of the fictional stories of the second category. The astrology stories would generally fit pretty well in a romance comic. But they are not true romances, a better description would be comic drama.

Strange World of Your Dreams #5
Strange World of Your Dreams #5 (March 1953) by Jack Kirby

This was an oddball of a comic. It is one of the most interesting to read of all the S&K creations. But much of the interest lies in the uniqueness of a comic based on dreams. It is hard to believe that even Simon and Kirby could have maintained that interest over a long run. Still Joe and Jack were obviously aiming to try because they had the cover for the fifth issue done before the plug was pulled on this title.

An end to unauthorized copy taken from this blog.

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Posted in 2006/06, Uncategorized, z Archive.

I received an email from the owners of web page that had made an unauthorized copy of the Furnished Room image in my Bill Draut post. I fully accept their explanation that this was due to over enthusiasm and not to a deliberate attempt to ignore my copyrights. They have removed the image in question from the Draut biography. I therefore have deleted my post complaining about this use. I see no use for it remaining now that this issue has been resolved.

As for the posts with Joe Simon images that I removed, I do plan to restore them. But I am busy getting ready for my next post (a real dream) so I will not get to it until this weekend.

Mort Meskin, a biography of one of the usual suspects

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Posted in 2006/06, Artists, Meskin, Mort, z Archive.

When I did my previous post on Mort Meskin, I somehow missed an excellant biography on Mort. It is located at a web site called Top Two Three Films. Seems like a strange place for an article about a comic book artist. But it is the best write up on Meskin that I have read and is worth a visit.

Joe Albistur, another forgotten comic book artist

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Posted in 2006/06, 6 Mainline, Albistur, Jo, Artists, Assorted, Periods, Prize, z Archive.

PT #1 The Beefer
Police Trap #1 (September 1954) “The Beefer” by Joe Albistur

I mentioned Joe Albistur briefly in Chapter 3 of my “End of Simon and Kirby” serial post. Joe is another of those forgotten comic book artists. Web searches have provided nothing in the way of real biographical information. To make matters worse, some have misread his signature and refer to him as Al Bistur. It is easy for me to resist the temptation to look down my nose at those who got his name wrong. Honest mistakes made in the study of comic book history deserve correction not criticism. Besides I have to include myself among those who have made that particular mistake.

I asked Joe Simon about Albistur. Although Simon said he felt he should remember the name, and even corrected my pronunciation, he could remember nothing about him. In a way this is not surprising. Simon worked with a lot of artists over the years and Albistur worked for the S&K studio for only a short period of time. But it was that critical time during the Mainline period. Albistur first appeared in Police Trap #1 (September 1954) and last showed in Young Romance (October 1955). During his stay with S&K Joe produced 21 stories; 6 for Police Trap, 1 for Win A Prize and 14 for the Prize romance titles (see checklist). His appearance in these particular comics, but none of the other Prize titles, is one of the reasons I am convinced that Simon and Kirby were still producing the Prize romance titles at the same time they were publishing their own comics under Mainline.

PT #4 All In A Day's Work
Police Trap #4 (March 1955) “All In A Day’s Work” by Joe Albistur

Joe Albistur shows up in S&K productions with a fully developed style, he must have worked in comics elsewhere before this. Joe does a good job in the mild type of crime genre that is supplied by Police Trap. Albistur illustrates the story well and seems comfortable with the action sequences. He excels in presenting a story in unusual situations; on the ledge of a building where a cop tries to talk someone out of suicide, or in burning building rescuing a baby. Kirby is said to have provided layouts for S&K freelancers, but the way Albistur does these stories I doubt it is true in his case.

WP #2 The Handsome Brute
Win A Prize #2 (April 1955) “The Handsome Brute” by Joe Albistur

In Win A Prize #2 Joe’s contribution is a science fiction piece. Here again Albistur shows his story telling ability. But it also shows his weakness. When it comes to the part the alien reveals himself, Joe does not seem to know how to visualize him and so casts the face in shadow. Somewhat of a letdown. Of course it may have been difficult working for Jack Kirby, who is a master at this sort of thing. Black Magic had already been cancelled and Win A Prize never went past the second issue, so we never get a chance to see Albistur try his hand at this sort of thing again.

YR #77 The Big Fish
Young Romance #77 (June 1955) “The Big Fish” by Joe Albistur

It was in the romance genre that Joe Albistur did most of his work for S&K, filling in for the absent Jack Kirby. Albistur seems an odd match for the romance comics. His women do not have the clear beauty of Bill Draut, nor the sophistication of John Prentice, nor are they stylized like Mort Meskin’s. I am lost for words on how to describe Joe’s women. The best I can do is say that they have a sort of roughness that gives them an earthy look. But we do not need to accept the quality standards of a teenage girl from the 50’s. I am not sure they would have liked Joe Albistur’s work that much, but I do. Joe used some interesting composition devices, like having a panel edge cut off much of the face of the leading woman. Albistur also had an eye for gestures, like the pin ball wizard stretching his fingers. Although Joe’s women may not have a typical comic book beauty, they are done in an easily recognized style. I have little interest in a style for style sake. But I do admire an artist who develops a unique style as a way of expressing his own personal voice. That is a quality that Joe Albistur shared with the best of the S&K artists.

When Jack Kirby returned to providing work for the Prize romances he would begin to do pretty much the entire comic. Therefore Joe Albistur disappears from the Prize romance titles. Unlike Bill Draut and John Prentice, he does not show up in the Harvey romances. I suspect his work was not a good match for the Harvey house style of those romances. I have not seen any of Albistur’s post S&K work, but he does come up a few times in a search of the internet. It appears he did work for Gilberton in 1961 working in the Classics Illustrated and the World Around Us titles. In 1973 and 1974 Joe shows up in the DC titles Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion and the House of Secrets.

Joe Albistur was not as flashy as some of the more popular artists, you know someone like Jack Kirby. But at least in the work he did for S&K, he was not a run of the mill artist either. Albistur had talent and his own unique voice. He may not have been a superstar but he does not deserve the anonymity that he has fallen into.

The End of Simon & Kirby, Epilog

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Posted in 2006/06, Serial Posts, z Archive.

Originally I was going to provide a summary of the events from the end of the Simon and Kirby collaboration. Instead I think it maybe more helpful to provide a time line (see below). But I do want to say something about the end of the partnership. Unlike my discussions in previous chapters, here I will be using calendar, not cover, dates. For me the final years of the Simon and Kirby team unfolded in a three stage process. The first was the end of the studio, probably sometime in 1955 between February (last release of Mainline comics ) and August (when Kirby returned to working in the Prize romance titles). After this the two continued to collaborate on projects, but the way they worked was not the same. The next stage was when Jack began to do freelance work around April 1956. With that, Simon and Kirby projects became just one of Jack’s commitments. Finally came the canceling of Alarming Tales and Race For The Moon after October 1958. From this point on Jack would give a hand on Joe’s projects, but they would not really be Simon and Kirby productions.

I would not be surprised if there were some hard feelings between Joe and Jack after the failure of Mainline. After all both had invested a lot of time and money. But if there were any bad sentiments they were not strong enough to prevent the two from working together. For every project that Simon got Harvey to do, Jack always came through with enough material to fill at least the initial issues. Everything leads me to believe that if any of those projects had been successful enough, Joe and Jack would have truly rejoined and opened another studio. But without any hits and with the need to support their families, there really was no way that they could renew the collaboration that they had in the past.

Would the collaboration have lasted if they had never started Mainline? Well Joe says that they invested a lot of their own money into that venture. Had they not lost that investment there would have a more resources to fall back on during this difficult period. But Prize still had its problems. How long could the team have weathered the canceling of titles and the lowering of profits? Although in the end Prize survived, it was a diminished company. The only way the S&K studio could continue would be to find new work. But that is exactly what Joe had tried to do after Mainline’s failure. Why would things have been any different without Mainline? With the shrinking of the comic book market during this period there was less opportunities left for a studio like Simon and Kirby’s. Even without Mainline, I am sure that Joe and Jack would still have had to go their separate ways in the end.

This series of posts was based primarily on the comics themselves and my own data base. I will list what few references I used after the Time Line. Among them is the paper by Thomas Lammer, which provided the dating for the Atlas Implosion. Although Tom’s work appeared in Alter Ego (volume 3, #49), I used his expanded self published version. I cannot think of a finer scholarly work of comic book history. If you don’t have a copy already, I strongly recommend you get one from Tom. He still has copies and are available for $12 (US & Canada) order from tlammers@new.rr.com.

My viewpoint about the events I covered here has been shaped by discussions with others. Unfortunately my memory is not good enough to always remember where credit belongs. But the Kirby List has a number of knowledgeable people and often spirited debates. But I would like to particularly thank the fine scholar Stan Taylor who I believe was the one who pointed out the oddly shaped panels in the initial Challengers. He also helped me clear up my confusion about Young Love caused by duplication in volume numbering. Also of great importance to me have been the email exchanges I have had with Christopher Harder. Christopher is not only one of the finest Simon and Kirby scholars, he shares with me, dare I say, a love of the Simon and Kirby romance comics.

Time Line
 (Month given within parenthesis is the cover date)
1953
 December (February)
 Young Brides #13 (Prize, last photo cover for Prize)
1954
 January (March)
 Young Romance #67 (Prize, Kirby work stops appearing
 in Prize romances)
 February (April)
 Fighting American #1 (Prize)
 April (June)
 Senate committee questions Bill Gaines (5/22 & 5/23)
 May (July)
 Young Bride #17 (Prize, last monthly)
 June (August)
 Bullseye #1 (first Mainline)
 July (September)
 Young Romance #73 (Prize, S&K production credits in Prize stop)
 Young Love #61 (Prize, S&K production credits in Prize stop)
 Black Magic #32 (Prize, S&K production credits in Prize stop)
 August (October)
 Frankenstein Comics #33 (Prize, last issue)
 September (November)
 Black Magic #33 (Prize, title stops, will resume in 1957)
 October (December)
 Comic Code Authority created (10/26).
 Young Romance #80 (Prize, last monthly)
 Young Love #63 (Prize, last monthly)
 December (February)
 Witches Western Tales #29 (Harvey, with Boys' Ranch reprints)
 Thrills of Tomorrow #19 (Harvey, with Stuntman reprints)
 Win A Prize #1 (Charlton)
1955
 January (March)
 Police Trap #4 (Mainline, first with Comic Code stamp)
 February (April)
 Bullseye #5 (last as Mainline)
 Foxhole #4 (last as Mainline)
 Young Romance #81 (Prize, first bimonthly)
 Young Love #64 (Prize, first bimonthly)
 Witches Western Tales #30 (Harvey, with Boys' Ranch reprints)
 Win A Prize #2 (Charlton)
 Fighting American #7 (Prize, last issue)
 Young Love #64 (Prize, return of S&K production credit)
 March (May)
 In Love #5 (Charlton, first of former Mainline titles to be released
 by Charlton)
 April (June)
 Charlie Chan #6 (Charlton, formerly by Prize in 1948 and 1949)

 May (July)
 I Love You #7 (Charlton, continuing from In Love numbering)
 July (September)
 Police Tray #6 (Charlton, last of former Mainline titles to be
 released by Charlton)
 August (October)
 Western Tales #31 (Harvey, with new S&K material)
 Young Romance #79 (Prize, Kirby work returns to Prize romance)
 October (December)
 Young Romance #80 (Prize, start of all-Kirby Prize romances, last
 S&K production credit)
 Charlie Chan #9 (Charlton, last issue)
 November (January)
 Hi-School Romance #47 (Harvey, first John Prentice for Harvey
 romance)
 Warfront #28 (Harvey, Kirby cover)
 Black Cat Mystery #57 (Harvey)
 December (February)
 Hi-School Romance #48 (Harvey, start of Bill Draut for Harvey
 romance)
1956
 January (March)
 Love Problems And Advice #38 (Harvey, start of Kirby covers for
 Harvey romance)
 Western Tales #32 (Harvey, Simon cover)
 May (July)
 Western Tales #33 (Harvey, last issue)
 Warfront #29 (Harvey, Kirby cover)
 July (September)
 Leader News goes bankrupt
 Prize Comics Western #119 (Prize, last issue)
 Black Cat Mystic #58 (Harvey)
 September (November)
 Young Brides #30 (Prize, last issue)
 Battleground #14 (Atlas, first Kirby work for Atlas)
 October (December)
 Young Romance #85 (Prize, last all Kirby)
 Young Love #73 (Prize, Young Love stops, last all Kirby)
 Hi-School Romance #58 (Harvey, last Kirby Harvey romance cover)
 Yellow Claw #2 (Atlas, First Kirby work for Yellow Claw)
 December (February)
 Showcase #6 (DC, start of Kirby for DC, first Challengers of the
 Unknown)
1957
 February (April)
 All For Love v1 n1 (Prize, new romance title, not produced by S&K)
 Yellow Claw #4 (Atlas, last issue)
 March (May)
 Love Problems And Advice #45 (Harvey, last Bill Draut and John
 Prentice for Harvey romance)
 July (September)
 Alarming Tales #1 (Harvey)
 Black Cat Mystic #59 (Harvey)
 Black Magic #34 (Prize, restart of title)
 Personal Love v1 n1 (Prize, new romance title, not produced by S&K)
 October (December)
 Russia launches Sputnik 1 (10/4)
1958
 January (March)
 Race For The Moon #1 (Harvey)
 Alarming Tales #4 (Harvey, last with Kirby)
 Black Cat Mystic #62 (Harvey, series stops)
 February (April)
 Justice Traps the Guilty #92 (Prize, last issue)
 July (September)
 Race For the Moon #2 (Harvey)
 September (November)
 Sky Masters syndication starts (9/8)
 Race For The Moon #3 (Harvey, last issue)
 Alarming Tales #6 (Harvey, last issue)
1959
 February (April)
 Sky Masters Sunday strip starts (2/8)
 Young Romance #99 (Prize, last time Simon and Kirby listed
 as editors)
 All For Love v3 n2 (Prize, includes story by Kirby)
 April (June)
 Double Life Of Private Strong #1 (Archie)
 Challengers of the Unknown #8 (DC, last Kirby for DC)
 June (August)
 Adventures of the Fly #1
 Double Life of Private Strong #2 (Archie, last issue)
 July (September)
 Personal Love v3 n2 (Prize, last issue, title changes to Going Steady)

 October (December)
 Young Romance #103 (Prize, last Kirby in Young Romance)
 All For Love v3 n4 (Prize, last issue, title changes to Young Love)
 November (January)
 Adventure of the Fly #4 (Archie, last produced by Joe Simon)
 Going Steady v3 n3 (Prize, first issue, title was Personal Love)
 December (February)
 Young Love #74 (Prize, Young Love restarts uses volume number
 from All For Love)
1960
 February (April)
 Sky Masters Sunday strip ends (2/14)
 April (June)
 Young Romance #106 (Prize, first Joe Simon alone listed as editor)
 June (August)
 Sick #1 (Crestwood [Prize], produced by Joe Simon)
 July (September)
 Going Steady v4 n1 (Prize, last issue)
1961
 February (April)
 Sky Masters end (2/25)
 September (November)
 Black Magic #50 (Prize, last issue)
1963
 February (April)
 Young Romance #117 (Prize, last time Simon listed as editor)
 April (June)
 Young Romance #124 (Prize, last issue by Prize)
 Young Love #94 (Prize, last issue by Prize)

Bibliography

Cooke, Jon B. “The Story Behind Skymasters”, The Jack Kirby Collector #15

Lammers, Thomas G., “Tales of the Implosion: A Detailed Look at the 1957 ‘Atlas Implosion’ and its Effects on Comic Books” (revised and expanded from article in Alter Ego vol. 3, no. 49

Simon, Joe and Jim Simon, “The Comic Book Makers”

Chapter 10, A Fly in the Mix

Chapter 1, The Beginning of the End

The End of Simon & Kirby, Chapter 10, A Fly In The Mix

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Posted in 2006/06, 7 Freelance, Archie, Assorted, Periods, Serial Posts, z Archive.

Adventures of the Fly #1
The Adventures of the Fly #1 (August 1959) by Jack Kirby

Previously in the End of Simon and Kirby we saw that after the failure of Mainline and with a decrease in work for Prize, Jack Kirby turned to working as a freelance artist. Joe Simon continued to get Harvey comics to publish various S&K projects but none of them became hits.

After the end of Alarming Tales and Race For The Moon in November 1958, Harvey comics was probably reluctant to try any other new ideas from Joe Simon, at least right away. But that did not stop Joe from coming up with them. As Simon tells the story in The Comic Book Makers, in 1953 C. C. Beck wanted to get back into the comic business and asked Joe to come up with an idea. From this came a character called the Silver Spider and Beck would do a rough drawing of a story that was scripted by Joe’s brother-in-law Jack Oleck. This was presented to Harvey without generating any interest. Years later when Goldwater from Archie Comics wanted a couple of superhero comics, Joe remembered the Silver Spider concept, retrieved the art from Harvey, and rethought the idea. Joe sent Beck’s Silver Spider art to Jack Kirby and ask Jack to update it as the Fly. Joe’s story makes sense to me. Had the Silver Spider originally been a S&K concept, Kirby would certainly have done the original story, not Beck. But it would seem that Jack came up with the costume for the Fly, basing it in part on a unused S&K concept called the Night Stalker.

Double Life of Private Strong
The Double Life Of Private Strong #1 (June 1959) by Jack Kirby

Joe took this concept of the Fly to Archie Comics and added to it a proposal to re-do an old superhero called the Shield. The original Shield was the first patriotic hero from before when the company was referred to as MJL. The new Shield would be given great powers and would have a secret identity as a soldier, sort of combining the original Shield with Captain America and Superman. Well Archie must have liked Joe’s ideas because The Double Life of Private Strong would come out in June 1959 and the Adventures of the Fly would follow in August. As Joe tells it, a threat of a lawsuit by DC put an end the new improved Shield with issue #2, also released in August.

Silver Spider page 1
Silver Spider (1953) page 1 by C. C. Beck

Silver Spider page 2
Silver Spider (1953) page 2 by C. C. Beck

The Oleck/Beck story was pretty much retained when Kirby updated it for the Fly. The main difference is that Jack replaced the original genie with an emissary from the Fly People. Kirby did introduce a discrepancy, in both versions the superintendent of the orphans is shown as under threat by mobsters because of a gambling dept. But in Jack’s version he is latter presented receiving his share of the of the orphanage racket and thus acting as one of the gang. This was probably done to streamline the story. Beck’s version required the Fly to first confront the superintendent before proceeding to the gangsters. While Jack made one fight by making the superintendent a gang member.

Adventures of the Fly page 1
The Adventures of the Fly #1 (August 1959) “The Strange World of the Fly” page 1 by Jack Kirby

Adventures of the Fly page 2
The Adventures of the Fly #1 (August 1959) “The Strange World of the Fly” page 2 by Jack Kirby

Although Kirby came up with the how the Fly should look like, Simon really was the driving force behind this new character. In previous new titles Kirby would generally supply the art, at least for the initial issues. But with the Fly Simon would turn to a number of artists to create the contents; Jack Davis, George Tuska, Al Williamson. He even got Carl Burgos to do layouts. Joe once showed me a list someone made of what artists did what. Unfortunately he followed this by saying that the list maker got it all wrong. Frankly I am not even going to try, with so many hands involved I am not always sure I can always pick out the work that Kirby did. Was Jack too busy with work at Atlas, or did Joe decide he might be better off using different artists? Unlike the Fly, Private Strong did get the Kirby treatment. At least for the first issue, which is all Jack. But the second only has one Kirby story.

Joe still has a lot of the original art and it is interesting as it shows Joe’s working practices at that time. For some of the stories much of the pages are cut and paste jobs. I do not know whether Joe was condensing, rearranging or adding to the story. But a fair portion of these comics went through this special type of editing. Joe would also construct some of the covers in a similar way. He would even swipe Captain America from a 1941 cover (Captain America #7) to make the Fly for the cover to issue #2. As far as I am concerned all the prior projects that came out after Mainline’s failure were Simon and Kirby productions of some kind. But the Fly and the Shields were not, the Simon and Kirby collaboration was over. With the Fly Joe finally seemed to have at least a limited success. But apparently Archie Comics was not completely satisfied and felt it could be better. So after just four issues (January 1960) Simon was out and a new crew took over the Fly.

Sick #1
Sick #1 (August 1960) by Joe Simon

On the face of it Teddy Epstein’s new idea just does not sound like a great one. I am amazed that after so many years and so many clones that Prize would want to try publishing yet another copy of Mad. Even more unbelievable is that fact that it succeeded! At lease one reason for that success was Prize turned to Joe Simon to produce it. Joe’s talent for visual humor would now be unleashed in Sick. Of course another reason for the success of Sick was the wonderful artists that Joe would hire. In a way even Jack Kirby showed up when Simon reworked some Fighting American art for a cover (Sick #42 February 1966). Joe would be editor of Sick from until 1968 and would still provide art for it for some time afterwards. During this period Joe Simon would work on other projects, primarily for Harvey Comics. At some point Joe would enter advertisement, but I still do not have a good handle on when that was.

Sick #42
Sick #42 (February 1966) by Jack Kirby altered by Joe Simon

Sick #66
Sick #66 (March 1969) by Joe Simon

Appendum 9, Mea Culpa

Epilog

Mea Culpa, correction to Chapter 9

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Posted in 2006/06, 7 Freelance, Periods, Prize, Serial Posts, z Archive.

In my last chapter to The End Of Simon & Kirby, An Old Romance I said

Prize must have truly started to recover, in August 1957 they relaunched Black Magic. That title had previously been a Simon and Kirby production, but their contract for that title with Prize must have been different. Joe and Jack would never have anything to do with the new Black Magic.

Well on the Kirby List Stan Taylor questioned that statement, pointing out that Dick Ayers has said that he did some work for Joe Simon for Black Magic.

I asked Joe Simon about the relaunced Black Magic and he confirmed that he did them without Jack Kirby. Joe added that they were done on a reduced budget.

So I am correcting my Chapter 9 post to say the following

Prize must have truly started to recover, in August 1957 they relaunched Black Magic. That title had previously been a Simon and Kirby production, but now Joe Simon would produce them on a reduced budget. Jack Kirby would never have anything to do with the new Black Magic.

So my thanks goes to that fine scholar Stan Taylor for this correction.

Chapter 9, An Old Romance

Chapter 10, A Fly in the Mix

The End of Simon & Kirby, Chapter 9, An Old Romance

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Posted in 2006/06, 7 Freelance, Periods, Prize, Serial Posts, z Archive.

Young Romance #103
Young Romance #103 (December 1959) by Jack Kirby

Previously in the End of Simon and Kirby their new comic publishing company failed. Joe and Jack produced comics for Prize and shared in the profits. But Prize was also having problems and cancelled some titles. In 1956 Jack would produce all Kirby Prize romance comics. In 1957 we find Jack doing freelance work for DC and Timely. Meanwhile Joe was getting Harvey to publish some new titles however none were big hits.

At the end of 1956 Prize was at a low point. They had one monthly title (Justice Traps The Guilty) and three bimonthly (Young Romance, Young Love, and Young Brides). But they obviously had a plan. In April 1957 Prize would publish a new title All For Love and cancel Young Love and Young Brides. But why cancel two romance titles and at the same time start a new one? For one thing I am sure Prize had not forgotten that three years before they had effectively helped finance Joe and Jack’s Mainline, a competitor comic publishing company. But there could also be a good business reason. Prize had to share the profit on the previous romance titles with S&K, that was part of the deal. If your titles are not making much profit, that left you with even less. But Prize had a contract with Simon and Kirby, I am sure they could not just take a title away. So they did the next best thing, they killed Young Love and Young Brides, set up their own title, and began producing that comic themselves.

As for Young Romance, Simon and Kirby are still listed as the editors in the postal declaration. Whatever their deal was it looks like it was still in place. Prize probably had cold feet about canceling their flagship title, Young Romance. Despite all the freelance work Jack was doing for DC, Atlas and Harvey, he still had time to pencil stories and an occasional cover for Young Romance. Most issues of these late Young Romance would feature one or two stories by Kirby. Jack even did a story of All For Love (volume 3, number 2, August 1959). For whatever reason, few if any, of the former S&K studio freelance artists returned to provide other stories. Despite Kirby’s presence, Young Romance was now just a shadow of its former self.

YR #99 Man Wanted
Young Romance #99 (April 1959) “Man Wanted” by Jack Kirby

The work Jack did for Young Romance after his year of producing the entire Prize romances seems to be a let down. This was the period where Kirby had begun to do freelance work for Atlas (Yellow Claw) and DC (Challengers of the Unknown) so perhaps he just did not devote much attention to Young Romance. Or perhaps it is because these late romances were largely inked by others. Whatever the reason the Young Romance work from 1957 are not the best that Jack has done. But as we enter 1958 the inking begins to change. I would say that by YR #92 (February 1958) a new style has immerged. Faces seem to receive even less spotting then before. Features like the noses, eyes and eyebrows become more abstracted, taking on an almost mechanical look and at times are even distorted. More often then before things like a nostril are indicated only by a thin line. From my description one might get the impression that the inking is unappealing. Quite the contrary, all these abstractions and distortions seemed aimed at an even more expressive effect. Jack’s Young Romance work from 1958 and 1959 is some of the best he has ever done. Jack did the spotting himself, whatever assistance he had with line inking was unobtrusive and the final results are pure Kirby. There are some variations in quality, but not nearly as much as had occurred in the past.

Young Romance #97
Young Romance #97 (December 1958) by Jack Kirby

YR #97 closeup
But at least some of the time Jack did seem to get some assistance in inking. It was not unusual for Jack to do a pretty rough job on hands placed near the periphery of the image, particularly women’s hands. Jack would fix up these hands at the inking stage. Most inkers were also artists, so if someone else was doing the line inking they also would correct it. But take a look at the close-up of a hand from the cover to YR #97 (December). What a mess the inker made of it. I am convinced that no artist inker would have done this, only someone who is not an artist would produce such a confused result. In his introduction to the Green Arrow trade back, Mark Evanier says that Roz Kirby helped Jack with the line inking for those stories (July 1958 to February 1959). I am convinced that Roz also helped Jack with at least some of these late Young Romances. I have not made a careful examination of all these YR, but I believe I also detect Roz’s help for the covers to YR #92 and #95 (February and August 1958).

Love Romances #83
Love Romances #83 (September 1959) by Jack Kirby

While Jack was finishing his tenure as a Young Romance artist, he was beginning to do some romance work for Atlas (soon to be called Marvel). But the work he did for Atlas was inked by other artists. Perhaps even at this early date, Stan Lee was encouraging his inkers to add their personal touches. I am sure he felt this would only improve the end product. But to my eyes there simply is no comparison between the Atlas worked inked by others, and the Prize work inked by Jack himself. But inking is not the only difference, the cover compositions are also different. Since the more recent Prize covers have compositions like those from previous years, it is not the late Prize covers that have changed. More likely Jack at Atlas was receiving instructions on what to do on the covers, perhaps even layouts.

Prize must have truly started to recover, in August 1957 they relaunched Black Magic. That title had previously been a Simon and Kirby production, but now Joe Simon would produce them on a reduced budget. Jack Kirby would never have anything to do with the new Black Magic.

Young Love #77
Young Love #77 (August 1960) by Joe Simon

The last Jack Kirby work for Young Romance would be issue #103 (December 1959). Previously the yearly postal declaration statement had listed both Joe Simon and Jack Kirby as the editors for Young Romance. But the next one in June 1960 would only list Joe. January 1960 was the last issue of Prize’s other romance title, All For Love. This cancellation was not a financial decision, instead it was due to the passing away of the editor. Prize turned to Joe Simon to edit a second romance title for them. Apparently Joe preferred to resurrect his old title Young Love, which started right away in February. In order to save on the postal registration fees, Young Love would take up the volume numbering from the All For Love title. Unfortunately the new Young Love would start with volume 3, while the old Young Love had ended with volume 8. This duplication of volume numbers often causes confusion among collectors and dealers. Without Jack Kirby or the S&K freelance artists, Young Romance and Young Love just do not seem the same. But occasionally an interesting artist does show up.

I don’t know how well these late Prize romances were doing, but there must have been some value in the titles because Prize continued to publish them even after canceling Justice Traps the Guilty (April 1958) and Black Magic (November 1961). Joe Simon would remain editor for the two romance titles until the last Prize issues (June 1963). After that Prize Comics would end and DC would take over publishing Young Romance and Young Love. I doubt that Joe continued as editor once DC arrived, but he would return to do some editing on these romance titles years later.

Chapter 8, If At First You Don’t Succeed

Appendum 9, Mea Culpa

The End of Simon & Kirby, Chapter 8, If At First You Don’t Succeed

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Posted in 2006/05, 7 Freelance, Harvey, Periods, Serial Posts, z Archive.

Alarming Tales #1
Alarming Tales #1 (September 1957) by Joe Simon

Previously in the End of Simon and Kirby, Joe and Jack’s own comic publishing company failed after just a short time. Another source of income for S&K was the comics they produced for Prize. But that company would also have difficulties and would cancel a number of titles. Kirby would turn to doing freelance work for DC and Atlas while Simon may have started do editorial work at Harvey.

We may not be certain whether Joe Simon was actually doing work at Harvey comics as an editor in 1957. But work by Bill Draut and John Prentice stopped appearing in the Harvey romance titles at about the same time as the Jack Kirby covers disappeared. Perhaps that is an indication that Joe stopped editing these titles. Whatever Joe’s job status was at this time, he still seems to be pitching comic proposals to Al Harvey, and at least some times succeeding. Alarming Tales would be a (Comic Code mild) horror/science fiction anthology. The first issue (September) would consists mostly of work done by Kirby. It could have been another all Kirby issue since Jack also supplied a cover, but Joe replaced it with one his own. It may sound like heresy but I think Joe was right. By removing the apparatus that covered the eyes, Joe’s man in a flying chair became scarier and thus more likely to induce a purchase. At some level Kirby must have thought this also because his splash page also shows the man in the flying chair without the goggles. It may not be obvious in the scan I provide, but Joe has used some sort of stipple paper to create the sky and has added zip tones on the car. Thus we see Joe using more modern materials to make comics, something that did not seem to interest Jack.

Alarming Tales #3
Alarming Tales #3 (January 1958) reworked Jack Kirby?

Alarming Tales #3 has a cover by Kirby, or is it really? There exists original art for another version of this cover that also looks like it was done by Jack. It has the same old man, boy and men in a boat. But the settings that holds these figures is different, more swamp like. The figures appear to be so similar between the two versions that stats may have been used for the published version. So what should it be called; a Simon and Kirby or Kirby pencils and Simon settings? In any case when Joe and Jack were working in the same studio I doubt that this would have happened. Reworking decisions like those for the covers of issues #1 or #3 would have been made before inking.

AT #1 Fourth Dimension
Alarming Tales #1 (September 1957) “The Fourth Dimension Is A Many Splattered Thing” by Jack Kirby.

Unlike some previous S&K titles that Harvey printed, Al seems committed to Alarming Tales and issued this title bimonthly. Jack’s contributions to the title fill the first two issues, but diminished to a single story in the next two releases. What Kirby did for this title was consistently pretty good. Stories include a future world ruled by rats and dogs, a scientist who develops plant men and a robot who wants to be a man, among others. But perhaps most unusual is “The Fourth Dimension Is A Many Splattered Thing”. Although the opening and closing sequences were clearly drawn by Kirby, I am not so sure about the fourth dimension panels. Frankly judging by previous efforts by Jack (Strange Worlds Of Your Dreams) I would have expected something visually more exciting. The inking on the Kirby stories is consistently excellent. At places there are the areas flooded with ink that seem a bit more abstract then natural, inking reminiscent of but not quite as good as the Yellow Claw work. In other places spotting takes on less of an abstract quality similar to what was done in Challengers Of The Unknown. There are even places with the “picket fence” type of crosshatching that was a mainstay of the S&K shop style, only once again done with a finer brush. I think much of the spotting in the first issue and the single story in the #3, perhaps even the line work, was done by Jack. There probably is less Kirby spotting in the issue #2 and #4. Alarming Tales continued without Kirby’s help until issue #6 (November 1958).

BC #59 Take Off Mr. Zimmer
Black Cat Mystic #59 (September 1957) “Take Off Mr. Zimmer” by Jack Kirby

In the same month that Alarming Tales #1 was launched, the much delayed Black Cat Mystic #59 came out. There is an adventure with Mr. Zimmer and the two youngsters, but otherwise the idea of using Mr. Zimmer as the host for the comic seems to have been dropped. The rest of the contents to this issue are just the same sort of stories that were used in Alarming Tales and here also were all done by Jack. In fact the unused alternate cover version that Jack did for Alarming Tales #1 that I mention above, was actually originally meant for this issue of Black Cat Mystic. As with Alarming Tales, Harvey seems to have committed to releasing Black Cat Mystic on a bimonthly schedule. Issue #61 is another Kirby packed issue, but just like a ghost, Mr. Zimmer has now completely disappeared. Inking is similar to what was seen in Alarming Tales. With issue #58 done a year before, there is the distinct possibility that some or all of the stories were done earlier. There is no Kirby after issue #60 and #62 was the end of the Black Cat title as a horror/science fiction anthology.

BC #60 A Town Full of Babies
Black Cat Mystic #60 (November 1957) “A Town Full of Babies” by Jack Kirby

Race For The Moon #3
Race For The Moon #3 November 1958) by Jack Kirby

As mentioned in the last chapter, Russia launched its Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957. Simon and Harvey’s response was pretty impressive. If you remember there is a 5 to 6 month difference between when a comic was started and the cover date of the final product. The earliest we could expect a response to Sputnik would be March 1957, and sure enough that is the cover date for Race For The Moon #1. Actually this issue probably would have come out later but Joe filled its contents with reprint material from older Harvey comics. Issue #2 would not come out until September but at least it was full of all new material by Kirby. Issue #3 followed promptly in November with more Kirby sci-fi. Included in this was the introduction story for The 3 Rocketeers, sort of a space version of the Challengers of the Unknown. But that month would be the last for both Alarming Tales and Race For The Moon.

RFTM #2 The Thing On Sputnik 4
Race For The Moon #2 (September 1958) “The Thing On Sputnik 4” by Jack Kirby

As I Simon and Kirby fan I find the material in Black Cat Mystic and Alarming Tales interesting reads. But how would a kid with only a few dimes feel about them? Frankly the contents of the two titles were the same. For that matter DC and Atlas offered not too dissimilar comics some with stories by Jack Kirby as well. I suspect that kid would just as likely spend his dimes elsewhere. I would have thought that Race For The Moon would have stood a better chance on the comic book racks. In any case, Joe had gotten Harvey to publish a number of titles, none of which became big hits. So by the end of 1958 Al Harvey probably was not too interested in trying again right away. If Joe had any other ideas he would most likely have to take them elsewhere. Unfortunately there were not a lot of other places to go.

Chapter 7, On His Own

Chapter 9, An Old Romance