Tag Archives: Joe Simon

Simon and Kirby and Graphic Novels

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Posted in 2010/12, Artists, Kirby, Jack, Topic, z Archive and tagged , ,


Young Allies #1 (Summer 1941) pencils by Jack Kirby

Simon and Kirby had a tendency to do things in a big way. If they drew a guy running they would portray him with his legs so widely separated that it would almost look like he was executing a split. A full splash page might not be enough for Joe and Jack and they would use two pages for a splash. Their motto seemed to be take things to the extreme. One of the things that they pushed was the story length. Simon and Kirby stories were often a few pages longer than their contemporaries, but that is not what I am referring to. Sometimes Simon and Kirby would create stories that extended to much greater lengths.

The first occasion for Simon and Kirby to execute a long story was Young Allies #1 (Summer 1941). I have written about this comic before (Young Allies and the L Word). Only most of the splash pages seemed to have Jack Kirby’s directly involved while the rest of the story appears to have been executed by a number of different artists. Still it is obvious that Simon and Kirby were the guiding hands. The story is divided into 6 parts that are referred to in the comic as chapters. While it was described as “a complete comic adventure thriller”, designating the parts as chapters indicates that Simon and Kirby had the idea of a novel very much in mind.

Simon and Kirby did not call Young Allies #1 a graphic novel but should we? But to answer that question we need to know what the definition of a graphic novel is. Despite the common use of this term in recent years there is a lack of agreement about what constitutes a graphic novel. Is it the length or the subject matter? Is a lengthy sequential graphic story sufficient or need text be present? Does the text have to appear in word balloons? I could go on but the point is there is no generally accepted definition of a graphic novel except perhaps it has to be lengthy. Actually I am not surprised by the difficulty in agreeing on a definition as aspects of cultural are often difficult to define. The reader might think they know what rock and roll is but in some cases it is hard to distinguish between rock and roll and blues, jazz or even classical music. Rather than trying to come up with yet another definition of what characteristics are fundamental to a graphic novel, I prefer to use a cultural definition. Today there are a lot of what are described as graphic novels but they all seem to trace their inspiration back to a number of works that appeared from 1976 to 1978 but especially Will Eisner’s “A Contract With God” (1978). A graphic novel should be part of that cultural tradition. In order to be a graphic novel a work should also possess some characteristics that distinguish it from other cultural objects, particularly comic books. Of course the work’s length is certainly an important factor.


It Rhymes With Lust (originally 1950, image from 2007 Dark Horse Reprint) art by Matt Baker

However there are older works that appeared before 1976 that have characteristics that distinguish them from normal comic books. For instance “It Rhymes With Lust” by Drake Weller, Matt Baker and Ray Osrin (1950) was 126 pages long and more like a pocket book in construction. Such productions would be called graphic novel precursors. The precursors may have had a spirit in common with the modern graphic novel but they were culturally dead ends which at the time had little impact. Was Simon and Kirby’s Young Allies #1 such a precursor? I think so but just not as good a precursor as others. Young Allies #1 was unique in that the entire comic was devoted to one story 57 pages long. Perhaps there were previous examples done by other comic book artists but I am not aware of them. Now 57 pages might seem much less than the 126 pages for “It Rhymes With Lust” but that is like comparing apples to oranges as the physical size of the two works are very different. The art found in Young Allies #1 was the size typical of comic books of the day, 6.5 by 9 inches. The art in “It Rhymes With Lust” was 4.5 by 6.5 inches. The total art area for Young Allies #1 was 3334.5 square inches compared to 3685.5 square inches for “It Rhymes With Lust”. The Young Allies had roughly only 10% less art. While Young Allies #1 was lengthy it was otherwise not distinguishable from standard comic books and was sold with them as well. Further it was meant for the same audience.


Boy Commandos #4 (Fall 1943) pencils by Jack Kirby

Simon and Kirby repeated the idea of a full length story in Young Allies #2 (Winter 1942). Shortly later Joe and Jack left Timely for DC and subsequent Young Allies returned to the standard comic book format of several individual stories. But Simon and Kirby had not discarded the idea of extended stories and returned to it for Boy Commandos #4 (Fall 1943). This time the cover reference was nothing more than “special invasion issue”. However it too was divided into six sections designated as chapters. Boy Commandos #4 had some single page fillers so although the Boy Commandos story occupied the entire book it was slightly shorter at 50 pages.


In Love #1 (September 1954) pencils by Jack Kirby and John Prentice

After Boy Commandos #4, the idea of a book length story went dormant but not forgotten. When Simon and Kirby created Mainline, their own publishing company, the romance title In Love declared at the top “book length love novel”. Technically this was inaccurate because the each issue contained six pages of other romance stories. But now Simon and Kirby actually called it a love novel and even included a book icon to make the connection clear. “Bride of the Star” (In Love #1, September 1954) had 20 pages in three chapters, “Marilyn’s Men” (In Love #2, November 1954) 19 pages in three chapters, and “Artist Loves Model” (In Love #3, January 1955) 18 pages in two chapters. The idea of a extended story was abandoned for In Love issues #4 to 6.


Double Life of Private Strong #1 (August 1958) pencils by Jack Kirby

In a way the idea of an extended story was still not completely abandoned by Simon and Kirby. The first issues of the Double Life of Private Strong and the Adventures of the Fly (both August 1958) included origin stories that were covered in several sections. However these sections were not named as chapters and no reference was made to their being novels or extend length stories.


Sandman #1 (Winter 1974) pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Mike Royer

Simon and Kirby went the separate ways after Private Strong and the Fly until Carmine Infantino brought them back one last time for Sandman #1 (Winter 1974). Once again they turned to a comic length story, this time in two sections with a total of 20 pages. But comics had changed over the years and by 1974 comic length stories were not at all unusual. Simon and Kirby’s attempts to push the envelope of a comic story had been forgotten while true graphic novels would make an appearance a couple of years later.

“The Boy Commandos by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby” by DC

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Posted in 2010/11, Publications, Topic, z Archive and tagged , ,

I do not believe it is out yet, but last weekend Joe Simon gave me a copy of “The Boy Commandos by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby” volume 1. The current law requires that I admit to any financial benefit that I received when blogging about published books. I am not kidding, bloggers have been prosecuted for failure report that that the publisher gave them the review copy for free. In my case I supplied some of the scans used in this book and I believe the restorations for the covers. With that out of the way, the best way to describe this volume is that if you liked DC’s Newsboy Legion archive than you will like this book, perhaps even more so. It is very much the same approach. The reprints are based on scans with the yellow page color replaced by white. The dimensions of the book required that the scans be reduced in size. Some have criticized DC’s approach to these archives and I even wished they had decided to published a larger volume so that scans could have been printed full size. However I am a big believer in the use of scans in reprints rather than the reprehensible sanitized recreations that Marvel continues to put out. The DC archive includes one story (“Satan Wears A Swastika” that I restored for “The Best of Simon and Kirby”. The version from TBoSK was enlarged so it has a distinct advantage over the one in the DC archive. Personally I prefer my version (a completely biased opinion) but I do not think the reader would be able to find any true discrepancies between the two.

The Boy Commandos were Simon and Kirby’s biggest hit for DC. While Sandman and the Newsboy Legion were prominently featured in the titles they appeared in, the Boy Commandos was the only Simon and Kirby comic to get its own title. Since the feature also appeared in Detective Comics and World’s Finest there are a lot of Boy Commandos stories. The first volume of the DC Boy Commandos archives only makes it as far as Boy Commandos #2 and Detective Comics #72 (they started in issue #64). Potentially there are a number of volumes of this archive to come. For those only interested in Simon and Kirby drawn work (and I fully understand) this is the only archive that DC has so far published that is nothing but Simon and Kirby.

There are other reasons that the Boy Commandos are special. Of all the creations that Simon and Kirby did for DC, the Boy Commandos were the only one that actually fought the Axis Powers. The war was the biggest event of the time and yet most superheroes stayed on the home front (and that included Sandman). While the Newsboy Legion did paper and metal drives, they remained residents of Suicide Slums. But in story after story the Boy Commandos confronted the greatest evil of the day. The American spirit versus the tyrannical evil in its purist form. Now some readers may find it a bit unrealistic for youngsters to fight in the war and of course they are right. But if the reader is willing to suspend their disbelief to read superheroes comics they should have no problem in doing so for boy warriors. Especially today when it some parts of the world it has become a sad fact of life. And the rewards are worth it. This is Simon and Kirby at their best. Imaginative stories full of action and humor. Something not to be missed.

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 Birtday Joe Simon

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Posted in 2010/10, Artists, Simon, Joe, z Archive and tagged ,

Today (October 11) is Joe Simon’s birthday. He is now 97 years young. In celebration I am posting some of the fine art he has done over the years.


Silver Streak #2 (January 1940)


Wonderworld Comics #13 (May 1940)


Complete Detective Cases vol. 3 no. 2 (March 1941)


Zippy #1 (May 1941)


Pocket Comics #4 (January 1942)


Champ #19 (June 1942) (signed as Jon Henri)


Speed #22 (September 1942) (signed as Glaven)


Sketch for George Roussos (1942)


Alarming Tales #4 (March 1958)


Young Hearts In Love #17 (April 1962)


Sick #69 (August 1969)

Art of Romance, Chapter 38, A Final Transition

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Posted in Art of Romance, Serial Posts and tagged , , , , , , , , ,

(July – December 1959: Young Romance #101 – #103, All For Love #15 – #17, Personal Love #12 – #14)

Young Romance #102
Young Romance #102 (October 1959) “The Wounded Party”, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby was comparatively busy with romance art during this period providing one cover and four stories. All really nice pieces and all but one of them inked by Kirby himself. I do not think realism was ever an appropriate description of Kirby’s art, but his work seems especially abstract during this period. Note the simplified nostrils of both the man and the woman. The bridge of the nose seems unnatural. Details such as the eyelids are often dropped. But while these are by no means realistic portrayals, they are by no means unexpressive.


Young Romance #103 (December 1959), pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

Kirby’s last cover for Young Romance, or any Prize publication. Jack presents a nicely humorous variation on the theme of a third party looking at a romantic couple.

Young Romance #103
Young Romance #103 (December 1959) “The Man For Me”, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

Floating heads are not typical for Kirby’s art, but he does turn to them every once in a while. In this case it provides good examples of how Kirby was now drawing woman. In this respect his art is at a mid-point. Earlier Jack drew woman with much variation in looks, some of which while not completely unattractive would hardly be described as beauty queens. Later in his career, most of Kirby’s woman looked alike; differing mainly in their hair and clothes styles. In the splash for “The Man For Me” there still is some variation in the faces of the woman but nowhere near as much as before. All are attractive but I wonder if many readers in 1959 would have consider these woman as truly beautiful?

Young Romance #103
Young Romance #103 (December 1959) “Liars In Love” page 4, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

A final example of Kirby’s romance graphic story telling. Shifting perspective, varying viewing distances, body language and facial expressions all played a part in Jack’s art. What a master.

Young Romance #101
Young Romance #101 (August 1959) “Man In The House”, pencils by John Prentice, inks by Joe Simon

In the last chapter I briefly discussed a piece that looked like the work of John Prentice. The problem was that it was not nearly as well done as was typical for Prentice. I put off deciding about the attribution until this chapter where I would have four stories by the same artist to examine. While it is perfectly possible for one artist to imitate another, it is difficult if not impossible for such imitation to be consistent over an entire story, let alone a number of stories. This work must have been drawn by John Prentice. But there are some parts that look like some other artist hand, in fact like a particular artist, Joe Simon. I now believe that unlike his prior practice, Prentice only supplied pencils which Simon then inked. I have to say that as much as I admire Joe as an artist he really was not doing Prentice justice. Perhaps it was Joe’s blunt brush, which had gotten even blunter over the years. Perhaps Joe was in a rush.

All For Love #15
All For Love #15 (August 1959) “Love For a Lifetime”, pencils by Jack Kirby

During the prior year and a half, Kirby only appeared in Young Romance. “Love for a Lifetime” is the first, and only, piece Jack did for All For Love. This was not the only example of an artist that appeared in Young Romance and either All For Love or Personal Love. I will be pointing out some other below and conclude with an explanation why this was happening. Kirby did not ink “Love for a Lifetime”. Nor was it inked by the artist who Jack used often at this time for his inking (who I believe was Marvin Stein). The inker did a good job but I have no idea who he was. This seems to be the only piece he inked for Kirby.

All For Love #17
All For Love #17 (December 1959) “Why Turn Back”, art by Paul Reinman

Previously Paul Reinman was another artist who frequented Young Romance but never appeared in either All For Love or Personal Love. During the period covered in this chapter, Reinman drew four stories but only one appeared in Young Romance. The others were published in All For Love.

The piece I selected as an example of Paul’s work is perhaps not the most typical of his art. But I find the art for the opening page rather nice. The tall narrow panels and the way the lady advances in each panel is very interesting. There is something a little unnatural about it all but it is still very effective.

All For Love #15
All For Love #15 (August 1959) “Scheduled For Heartbreak”, art by Bob Powell

A new artist appearing in the Prize romance, or more correctly reappearing in the case of Young Romance, is Bob Powell. Powell did five stories; two for Young Romance, two for All For Love and the last for Personal Love. Hence is another example of an artist during this period appearing in all the Prize romance comics. Powell used studio assistants and his art varied quite a bit. I believe Bob had little if anything to do with some of the work attributed to him for the Harvey romance titles. Quality of the Prize romances vary but in my opinion all had significant involvement by Powell himself.

All For Love #17
All For Love #17 (December 1959) “Our Man, Van”, pencils by Bruno Premiani, inks by Joe Simon

Perhaps my biggest surprise when reviewing this period was return the of Bruno Premiani. Premiani last worked for Simon and Kirby from in 1949 and 1950. He is said to have left the United States in 1952 (in a short biography by an unknown author which no longer resides on the web) but returned in 1960. However “Our Man, Van” indicates Bruno was actually back in the U.S. around July 1959 (the proper date for creation of art with a December cover date).

Premiani, just like John Prentice, provided pencils only Which Joe Simon then inked. Again it was not the best combination. Further Bruno only did this one story (probably because he began working for the better paying DC).

I should add that earlier in this series I always included a question mark with my Premiani attributions. That was because the work for Prize looked different from what at that time I had seen by Premiani. Since then I have examined a story in DC’s Greatest Adventure that Bruno did that shows a similar drawing style. So I have now dropped off the question mark feeling confident that Premiani was indeed the correct attribution. 

Personal Love #12
Personal Love #12 (July 1959) “Lover’s Knot”, pencils and inks by Marvin Stein

There is only a single piece during this period by Marvin Stein (same thing was reported in the last chapter). Marvin has gone further in simplifying his art. That is saying a lot since his earlier work would hardly be called complex. Stein has gone so far that I doubt I would have recognized his hand in this work had it not been for “Lost Paradise” (AFL #14, June 1959), the previous piece that he did. While his art style had changed he has not lost his skill at graphically telling a story. It would have been interesting to see where Stein’s style would end up had he continued to do comic book art but unfortunately I believe this he is last comic piece.

Personal Love #13
Personal Love #13 (September 1959) “Reckless Impulse”, art by Ted Galindo

While some artists were appearing in both Young Romance as well as All For Love or Personal Love, Ted Galindo was not one of them. All three stories that he did appeared in Personal Love. He really was a talented artist and among the Prize romance artists he seemed to be the one to experiment the most. For the “Reckless Impulse” splash, Ted has completely eliminated all the background as well as the panel border. The rest is very effective.

Personal Love #13
Personal Love #13 (September 1959) “Shadow of Love”, art by Joe Orlando

Yet another Orlando signature that I missed until this latest review. During this period Joe also did an unsigned piece. Orlando also seemed to like to experiment a little. The splash is actually part of the story but what is more interesting is that the second panel is higher than the splash. The three remaining panels are also tall and narrow.

Chapter Conclusion

In his book, The Comic Book Makers, Joe reports that when Mike Bleier (one of the partners for Prize Comics) died in 1960 the remaining partner, Teddy Epstein, asked Joe to take over the comics. So it is not surprising that the postal statements from 1960 until 1963 list Simon as the editor. In 1960 Joe would replace All For Love and Personal Love with a re-launched Young Love and a new title Going Steady. In the past I believed these steps were taken by Joe as soon as he began as the romance editor. This review has made me change my mind. During the previous year and a half the different artists appeared in Young Romance as compared to All For Love or Personal Love. Jack Kirby and Paul Reinman were only shown in Young Romance while Ted Galindo and Joe Orlando only worked for All For Love and Personal Love. Other artists, most unidentified, also followed this pattern. The only exception seems to have been Marvin Stein who appeared in all the Prize titles. However Jack Kirby is in the August issue of All For Love and Reinman does work for the December issue. John Prentice appears in YR #101, AFL #15, #16 and #17. Bob Powell shows up in YR #103, AFL #15 and #16, as well as PL #16. My conclusion is that Joe started as the romance editor in August when this mixing of artists began. This would mean that the 1960 date of Bleier’s death is inaccurate; that he actual died in 1959. I believe that such a error is understandable and not particularly significant.

Series Conclusion

When I started this serial post, Art of Romance, I knew it would take some time to finish. Well over two years later and with 38 chapters I have finally come to the end. Prize’s romance comics would continue from 1960 to 1963 but they were different from what came before. In his book, Joe described it as a basement operation with substantially reduced art and script costs. Most importantly for this blog, they would no longer include any involvement from Jack Kirby. In fact there would be no further Simon and Kirby collaboration of any type until many years later. I am certain I will post about the Prize romance titles under Joe Simon someday, but I am not prepared to do it now.

While for most fans, Simon and Kirby’s reputation rests on their superhero, crime, horror and similar genre, the romance genre was much more important to Joe and Jack. To put some perspective on it for the period spanned by this serial post (cover dates September 1947 to December 1959) Jack Kirby drew a total of 3855 pages of art*. At 1936 pages, romance was by far the greatest part of that work. The breakdown per genre is:

1936 romance
507 hero
459 crime
417 horror
356 western
91 humor
45 science fiction
24 war
20 anthology

There was more romance art than all the other genre combined. Once Simon and Kirby launched Young Romance, they never stop producing romance comics right up to their parting of ways at the end of 1959 (cover dates). Simon and Kirby produced no other genre continually during that period.

One of the themes of this blog is that Simon and Kirby did not only create art, they produced comics as well. Actually that is how they made most of their money. While working together, Simon and Kirby produced 7593 pages of romance art**. This included the work of a lot of different artists and since Simon and Kirby seem to encourage the creators to sign their work, this serial post was able to identify and give examples of the majority of the contributors.

I thought I was well acquainted with Simon and Kirby romance work when I started Art of Romance but I learned a lot by reviewing them sequentially. Much of the knowledge I gained concerned artist attributions but there was three more general observations as well.

Based on interviews of a couple writers that Simon and Kirby had employed, Jack was heavily involved in supplying the writers with plots. But in my opinion, Kirby subsequently had little if anything to do with the stories supplied to the other artists. However I believe something very different happened with the stories that Kirby drew himself. I find the writing of the Kirby drawn romances to be very different for the stories drawn by others. Frequently they display phrasing that to me sound very much the writing of Kirby himself. I am certain that Jack would re-write much of the scripts that he drew.

With the exception of Jack’s own art, Simon and Kirby left all inking of art to the artists themselves. That does not mean that all the other artists inked their own work but the great majority of them appeared to do so. Certain this was the case for frequent contributors Bill Draut and John Prentice. Mort Meskin’s pencils often inked his own pencils but he for a time he used George Roussos as an inker as well. I do not claim to have sorted it all out but my opinion is that Mort did almost all his own inking with a relatively small fraction inked by George. Inking of Kirby’s pencils was something very different. Joe Simon has described it as an assembly line with different inkers contributing to different parts of the same story. My observations of the actual comics supports Joe’s statements. When I identify a particular inker of Kirby’s art I am not saying that they were the only inker but rather just the only one I thought I could identify but other inkers may have been involved as well.

My final observation concerned the question of Kirby layouts for other artists; an often repeated claim. It is also one that is difficult to disprove by conventional comparisons. That is because it is hard to distinguish the difference between layouts, influence and swiping. Particularly since it often involves admittedly subjective criteria. The methodology I have found often useful was panel layouts. I would compare panel layouts from Kirby’s own work and those of other artists during the same period. After all its seems very unlikely that Kirby would adopt different panel layouts for work supplied to other artists to complete. I often found particular panel layout used by some artist over and over again. for instance during one period Leonard Starr frequently used tall narrow panels that rarely appeared in Kirby’s art. Using panel layouts I can confidently say that Kirby did not supply layouts to more important artists like Bill Draut, Mort Meskin, John Prentice, Bob McCarty and others. Kirby did appear to provide layouts for some minor and less talented artist but then the difficulty becomes distinguishing Kirby layouts that were finished and inked by the other artist from Kirby pencils just inked by another artist.

Footnotes:

* In the calculation present here I am excluding the work Kirby did for DC and Atlas after the breakup of the Simon and Kirby studio. I have included the 146 pages of Boy Commandos in the hero genre. Personally I do not consider the Boy commandos published during the time of World War II as war comics, but the post-war examples clearly do not belong in that genre.

** I am excluding from these calculations All For Love and Personal Love. As I discuss above Joe Simon may have been the editor of these titles as well for a period. However there is little reason to believe Jack Kirby had anything to do with them other than supplying a single story for All For Love.

Chapter 1, A New Genre (YR #1 – #4)
Chapter 2, Early Artists (YR #1 – #4)
Chapter 3, The Field No Longer Their’s Alone (YR #5 – #8)
Chapter 4, An Explosion of Romance (YR #9 – #12, YL #1 – #4)
Chapter 5, New Talent (YR #9 – 12, YL #1 – #4)
Chapter 6, Love on the Range (RWR #1 – #7, WL #1 – #6)
Chapter 7, More Love on the Range (RWR #1 – #7, WL #1 – #6)
Chapter 8, Kirby on the Range? (RWR #1 – #7, WL #1 – #6)
Chapter 9, More Romance (YR #13 – #16, YL #5 – #6)
Chapter 10, The Peak of the Love Glut (YR #17 – #20, YL #7 – #8)
Chapter 11, After the Glut (YR #21 – #23, YL #9 – #10)
Chapter 12, A Smaller Studio (YR #24 – #26, YL #12 – #14)
Chapter 13, Romance Bottoms Out (YR #27 – #29, YL #15 – #17)
Chapter 14, The Third Suspect (YR #30 – #32, YL #18 – #20)
Chapter 15, The Action of Romance (YR #33 – #35, YL #21 – #23)
Chapter 16, Someone Old and Someone New (YR #36 – #38, YL #24 – #26)
Chapter 17, The Assistant (YR #39 – #41, YL #27 – #29)
Chapter 18, Meskin Takes Over (YR #42 – #44, YL #30 – #32)
Chapter 19, More Artists (YR #45 – #47, YL #33 – #35)
Chapter 20, Romance Still Matters (YR #48 – #50, YL #36 – #38, YB #1)
Chapter 21, Roussos Messes Up (YR #51 – #53, YL #39 – #41, YB #2 – 3)
Chapter 22, He’s the Man (YR #54 – #56, YL #42 – #44, YB #4)
Chapter 23, New Ways of Doing Things (YR #57 – #59, YL #45 – #47, YB #5 – #6)
Chapter 24, A New Artist (YR #60 – #62, YL #48 – #50, YB #7 – #8)
Chapter 25, More New Faces (YR #63 – #65, YLe #51 – #53, YB #9 – #11)
Chapter 26, Goodbye Jack (YR #66 – #68, YL #54 – #56, YB #12 – #14)
Chapter 27, The Return of Mort (YR #69 – #71, YL #57 – #59, YB #15 – #17)
Chapter 28, A Glut of Artists (YR #72 – #74, YL #60 – #62, YB #18 & #19, IL #1 & #2)
Chapter 29, Trouble Begins (YR #75 – #77, YL #63 – #65, YB #20 – #22, IL #3 – #5)
Chapter 30, Transition (YR #78 – #80, YL #66 – #68, YBs #23 – #25, IL #6, ILY #7)
Chapter 30, Appendix (YB #23)
Chapter 31, Kirby, Kirby and More Kirby (YR #81 – #82, YL #69 – #70, YB #26 – #27)
Chapter 32, The Kirby Beat Goes On (YR #83 – #84, YL #71 – #72, YB #28 – #29)
Chapter 33, End of an Era (YR #85 – #87, YL #73, YB #30, AFL #1)
Chapter 34, A New Prize Title (YR #88 – #91, AFL #2 – #5, PL #1 – #2)
Chapter 35, Settling In ( YR #92 – #94, AFL #6 – #8, PL #3 – #5)
Appendix, J.O. Is Joe Orlando
Chapter 36, More Kirby (YR #95 – #97, AFL #9 – #11, PL #6 – #8)
Chapter 37, Some Surprises (YR #98 – #100, AFL #12 – #14, PL #9 – #11)
Chapter 38, All Things Must End (YR #101 – #103, AFL #15 – #17, PL #12 – #14)

“The Best of Simon and Kirby” Nominated for Harvey Awards

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Posted in 2010/07, Best of Simon & Kirby, Topic, z Archive and tagged , ,

Not long ago I posted that “The Best of Simon and Kirby” had been nominated for a Eisner award //kirbymuseum.org/blogs/simonandkirby/archives/2689. Now I am thrilled to be able to write that the book has now been nominated for two Harvey awards:

BEST DOMESTIC REPRINT PROJECT

  • “THE BEST OF SIMON AND KIRBY”, by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby; edited by Steve Saffel, Titan Books
  • “HUMBUG”, conceived and edited by Harvey Kurtzman and created by Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Davis, Will Elder, Al Jaffee and Arnold Roth; edited by Gary Groth, Fantagraphics Books
  • “RIP KIRBY”, by Alex Raymond; edited by Dean Mullaney, IDW
  • “THE ROCKETEER: THE COMPLETE ADVENTURES”, by Dave Stevens; edited by Scott Dunbier, IDW
  • “THE TOON TREASURY OF CLASSIC CHILDREN’S COMICS”, edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly, Abrams ComicsArt

BEST BIOGRAPHICAL, HISTORICAL OR JOURNALISTIC PRESENTATION

  • “ALTER-EGO”, edited by Roy Thomas, TwoMorrows
  • “ART OF HARVEY KURTZMAN: THE MAD GENIUS OF COMICS”, by Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle, Abrams ComicArts
  • “THE BEST OF SIMON AND KIRBY”, by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby; edited by Steve Saffel, Titan Books
  • “THE COMICS JOURNAL”, edited by Gary Groth, Michael Dean and Kristy Valenti, Fantagraphics Books
  • “UNDERGROUND CLASSICS”, by James Danky and Denis Kitchen, Abrams ComicArts

You can see the complete list in Newsarama. As was the case with the Eisner nomination, the BoSK faces strong competition. “The Rocketeer” is just an amazing book. I am currently reading the second volume of IDW’s “Rip Kirby”. Although Alex Raymond is usually remembered for his Flash Gordon, I believe his Rip Kirby was much better and more important. Some of the other books I have not had the chance to examine closely but who could question the importance of Harvey Kurtzman? “Alter Ego” is the magazine to go for anyone interested in the silver and golden age comic book artists. So once again I am not holding to much hope of “The Best of Simon and Kirby” actually winning one of these awards. However I am quite pleased to have been part of a project that is has received the recognition that these nominations bring.

A Simon and Kirby Swipe

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Posted in 2010/07, 6 Mainline, Fighting American, Periods, Swiping, Topic, z Archive and tagged , ,


Fighting American #5 (December 1954) “Invisible Irving”

In a previous serial post on Fighting American (Fighting American, Chapter 3, Jumping the Shark) I discussed the story “Deadly Doolittle” (Fighting American #6, February 1955). That story was a rewrite of a Manhunter story from Adventure Comics #75 (June 1945). In the comments Ger Apeldoorn remarked that the “Invisible Irving” from the previous issue looked like it was reused art as well. Sometime later Lucas pointed out that “Invisible Irving” was based of the Starman story from Adventure Comics #77.

Adventure #77
Adventure #77 (August 1942) Starman, art by Jack Burnley

A quick check of the Jack Kirby Checklist showed this fact was reported there as well. It was, however, news to me so I thought a comparison of the two stories might be of interest. The first thing that can be noticed right from the splash pages is that the text “Invisible Irving” was not lifted from the Starman story. The text was re-written for the Simon and Kirby piece. While what was said by the characters may be very similar the actual words were by no means identical.

However the plots were pretty much the same. Both start with a prison break aided by the use of invisible paint. The escape villain starts up a criminal gang that uses use planted valuables that unsuspecting passersby find and keep. T “lost” valuables then hypnotize the victims into committing crimes for the gang. The gang attacks one lady who instead of keeping the “lost” object intends to take it to the police. Fortunately she is rescued by the hero who removes the effect of the invisible paint the gang was using. However the main villain escapes only to be pursued by the hero. The hero catches up to the criminal mastermind at a windmill. Initially the villain captures the hero only to have the table turned on him in the end. The only reason I have summarized the plot here is to show how similar the two stories are. This summary applies equally well to either story.

Fighting American #5
Fighting American #5 (December 1954) “Invisible Irving” page 4 panel 6

There are some small differences between the two stories. Many of the differences are due disparity between the lengths of the two pieces. Much had to be eliminated to bring the 11 page Starman story down to 6 page length for use in Fighting American. Other changes had to be made because while Starman could fly, that ability was not possessed by Fighting American. Starman also had a star-ray that could remove the effects of the invisibility solution while Fighting American had to rely on paint remover instead. Other differences have to do with the use of humor by Simon and Kirby. After the initial issues of Fighting American, Joe and Jack began to poke fun at their own creation. Scenes like the one above showing Fighting American being kicked in the seat of his pants are absent from the Starman story (or as far as I know of, from any other superhero comic book).

Adventure #77 Fighting American #5
Adventure #77 (August 1942) Starman page 2 panel 1, art by Jack Burnley
Fighting American #5 (December 1954) “Invisible Irving” page 2 panel 1

Could the writer have been responsible for swiping the plot from the Starman story? After all one of the writers that Simon and Kirby used was Jack Oleck and he was known to do that sort of thing. However some of the art is so similar between the two stories that there can be no doubt that the artist was swiping from the Starman story.

Adventure #77 Fighting American #5
Adventure #77 (August 1942) Starman page 3 panel 7, art by Jack Burnley
Fighting American #5 (December 1954) “Invisible Irving” page 3 panel 6

While the artist for Fighting American was clearly swiping from the Starman he was not drawing close copies. None of the figures would be mistaken for tracings. Poses were often adjusted and while the panels might portray the same events they are completely redrawn. It is the story that the artist is interested in, not help in drawing the figures.

Adventure #77 Fighting American #5
Adventure #77 (August 1942) Starman page 10 panels 3 and 4, art by Jack Burnley
Fighting American #5 (December 1954) “Invisible Irving” page 5 panels 4 and 5

Readers may have noted that I have not said who the artist was that provided the “Invisible Irving” story. I do not remember anyone that previously credited this story to an artist other than Jack Kirby. However prior experience indicates that once it has been shown that some Simon and Kirby piece was swiped it will then be attributed to Joe Simon (Jack Kirby, Fanboy). There are many who just do not like to admit that Jack Kirby would sometimes swipe, despite all the contrary evidence that have been unearthed. If the reader chooses to now attribute “Invisible Irving” to Joe Simon, he must also credit Joe for being extremely adept at mimicking Kirby. So good that he has fooled the experts. But then again, Simon and done that before.

First Look at the “Simon and Kirby Superheroes” Book

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Posted in 2010/07, Publications, Topic, z Archive and tagged , ,

Joe Simon has a very rare book. It is the only copy of the “Simon and Kirby Superheroes” in the Western Hemisphere. So it was my great pleasure to have a chance to leisurely examine it during my visit with Joe today. My impression can be summed up in one word.

WOW!

Okay, perhaps I should expand a little on that. Beautiful printing, beautiful colors, beautiful layouts, beautiful binding, beautiful cover… it is just beautiful. If you have seen the “Best of Simon and Kirby” you know what to expect in terms of paper, printing and colors. The book uses the same high quality flat paper stock. The printing is good and clean with nice bright colors and rich blacks. In my completely biased opinion the restoration is even better than that for BoSK. BoSK is still special because of its size (and of course the wide range of genre) but “Simon and Kirby Superheroes” is no small book in either page count (480 pages) or size. I have heard a lot of complaints about the reduced size of some recent reprints but that is not a problem here. All the art is reproduced in its original dimensions. And it makes a world of difference.

This is the book I could only dream of ten years ago. This is the book all Simon and Kirby fans will want to have. More importantly this is the book that people who have not previously considered themselves Simon and Kirby fans will want. Wait until you see this book.

Fortunately Joe’s volume will not be rare for very long. Those lucky enough to go to San Diego will have a chance to buy a copy. Joe Simon will not be traveling out west to the convention but the books sold there will come with a bookplate signed by Joe with a surprise accompanying autograph. Regrettably the rest of us who cannot go will have to wait for October 12. (Okay I am hoping to get my copy before that).

Joe Simon: The Man Behind the Comics

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Posted in 2010/06, Publications, Topic, z Archive and tagged

I have noticed that Amazon has a entry for Titan’s “Joe Simon: The Man Behind the Comics: The Illustrated Autobiography of Joe Simon“. It is listed being released on April 19 at a list price of $24.95 but at $16.47 from Amazon. Amazon UK also lists the book but get this, there is already someone selling a used copy! That is absolutely impossible. Not only has the book not been printed, it has not even been put together yet.

David Wigransky for the Defense

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Posted in 2010/06, 5 Studio, Artists, Kirby, Jack, Periods, Prize, Topic, Wertham & Censoring, z Archive and tagged , , , , ,

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Frederic Wertham

The May 29, 1948 issue of the Saturday Review of Literature included an article “The Comics…Very Funny” by Dr. Fredric Wertham. Yes the very same Wertham whose 1954 book “The Seduction of the Innocent” initiated the events that crippled and nearly destroyed the comic book industry (The Real Reason for the Decline of Comics). The article was written in the same style used in his later book and likewise condemned the reading of comic books by children. Much of the article’s beginning is devoted to numerous descriptions of crimes perpetrated by children. As an example:

Think of the many recent violent crimes committed by young boys and girls. A twelve-year-old boy who kills his older sister; a thirteen-year-old burglar who operates with a shotgun; a seventeen-year-old boy who kills a thirteen-year-old boy a leaves a note signed “The Devil”…

The supposed links between the children’s’ crime and the reading of comics is provided in only a very few places but otherwise the connection between the crime and comics is largely ignored except for this rather surprising statement:

All these manifestations of brutality, cruelty, and violence and the manner in which they are committed–that is the folklore of the comic books.

In the article Wertham provided 17 points that he claimed supporters of comic books make and the arguments that can be made against them. For example:

7) That the children don’t imitate these stories. (But the increase of violence in juvenile delinquency has gone hand in hand with the increase in the distribution of comics books.)

(You can read the entire article at Seduction of the Innocent.org.)

“The Comics…Very Funny” certainly provide critics of comic books with useful ammunition. Frederic Wertham’s status as an authority and scientist carried much weight with the public. Wertham was effective in disarming his critics by pointing out that they were paid by comic book publishers. What was needed was someone independent from the comic book industry who could provide an articulate challenge to Wertham. Unexpectedly the most successful rebuttal was made by a 14 year old boy, David Wigransky.

DavidWigransky
David Pace Wigransky

Wigransky’s defense of comic books was published in the July 24th issue of the Saturday Review of Literature, the same periodical that published Wertham’s article. Wigransky’s letter was published under the title “Cain Before Comics” but the biblical reference that seemed more appropriate was David and Goliath. On the face of it, it would seem unlikely that a boy could offer very much of an intellectual challenge to an authority figure like Wertham. However of the two, Wigransky’s is the much more thought out discussion. When I read Wertham’s “Seduction of the Innocent” I was greatly bothered why everyone from that time did not see through his badly argued and poorly supported attach on comic books. Well David Wigransky did see right through it.

Wigransky pointed out that violence proceeded the creation of comic books. Further that good upbringing and reading good books were not proof against the adoption of murderous behavior in the young. While there were numerous readers of comic books, there were comparatively few delinquents. Wigransky noted that Wertham’s strong antipathy to comic books colored his investigations and reports. David suspected, correctly in my opinion, that Wertham manipulated his children patients to provide the evidence against comics that he, Wertham, expected. That the crusade against comic books was actually not really new; 1896 saw a crusade against the syndication comic strip “The Yellow Kid”. Crime and violence were looked at by comic book readers as adventure and excitement, not a something to experience. Wigransky predicted that generation of comic book readers would in the end turn out all right.

My summation of Wigransky’s article hardly does it justice. The reader can find the entire letter reprinted in “Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt” by Michael Gilbert (Alter Ego 90, December 2009).

David Wigransky did a fabulous job of defending comic books against Frederic Wertham’s critical article. Wertham’s response was to totally ignore him. Wigransky is not once mentioned in “Seduction of the Innocent” nor were his arguments every addressed by Wertham.

But not everyone ignored Wigransky’s defense. An editorial piece, probably written by Stan Lee, appeared in some Atlas Comics. The editorial not only mentions David Wigransky by name but includes quotes from his letter. Comic artists gratefully noted Wigransky as well. Alfred Andriola sent David the original art for a Kerry Drake strip titles “There’s your case against D.D.T., Mr. D.A.!”. The strip is dated December 26, 1947. It was signed “best wishes to David Wigransky from Kerry Drake and Alfred Andriola” (Cartoon Drawings: Swann Collection of Caricature and Cartoon).

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

More pertinent to this blog is that Joe Simon and Jack Kirby also recognized Wigransky’s contribution by presenting his with original art, the cover for Headline #25 (July 1947). The inscription was by Joe but Jack signed it as well. The cover is an early one from the start of Simon and Kirby’s work for Prize Comics after the war. Simon and Kirby had only produced two previous issues of Headline while Justice Traps the Guilty and Young Romance had yet to be launched. This cover was an apt choice to give to Wigransky considering that at this time it was the crime comics that were receiving the most negative criticism. Headline #25 was certainly the most graphic crime cover that Simon and Kirby had done to date. While there were some later covers that depicted dead or dying figures, this was the only one that showed the victim’s wound.

DoubleIndemity

The cover featured the black humor that often accompanied Simon and Kirby’s crime covers. The female protagonist’s name was not random but was modeled on that of Barbara Stanwyck. Not that long previously Stanwyck had starred in “Double Indemnity” (released April 24, 1944). However in the movie it is Stanwyck’s husband that was murdered for the insurance, while for the cover it was the step-father.

Joe and Jack’s gift to David Wigransky was rather fortunate. Very little original art remains for Simon and Kirby’s early work on the crime genre. Today there is much more art for the earlier Stuntman and that only lasted two issues. The only other original art from Simon and Kirby’s early crime comics that I am aware of is one splash panel (“The Case of the Floating Corpse”, Headline #24, May 1947 that originally came from Joe Simon’s collection) and one unfinished cover (intended for Headline #44, November 1950 that had been kept by Jack Kirby).

The four corners of the original art for Headline #25 shows the imprint left by thumb tacks which can be seen even in the low resolution image I have provided. I like to think that they were used by Wigransky to fasten the art to his bedroom wall.

David Wigransky kept his interest in comic books at least for a couple of years. The December 1949 issue of Popular Mechanics includes an advertisement he ran looking for old comic books or original art. As an adult he wrote a book on the singer Al Jolson (“Jolsonography”, 1974). That rare work (a copy is being offered for $400) must have been published posthumously as David died in 1969 at what must have been about the age of 36.