Joe Simon
Encyclopedia
Joseph Henry "Joe" Simon (born Hymie Simon, October 11, 1913) is an American comic book
writer
, artist
, editor
, and publisher
. Simon created or co-created many important characters in the 1930s-1940s Golden Age of Comic Books
and served as the first editor of Timely Comics
, the company that would evolve into Marvel Comics
.
With his partner, artist Jack Kirby
, he co-created Captain America
, one of comics' most enduring superhero
es, and the team worked extensively on such features at DC Comics
as the 1940s Sandman
and Sandy the Golden Boy, and co-created the Newsboy Legion
, the Boy Commandos
, and Manhunter
. Simon & Kirby creations for other comics publishers include Boys' Ranch
, Fighting American
and the Fly. In the late 1940s, the duo created the field of romance comics
, and were among the earliest pioneers of horror comics
. Simon, who went on to work in advertising and commercial art, also founded the satirical
magazine Sick
in 1960, remaining with it for a decade. He briefly returned to DC Comics in the 1970s.
Simon was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1999.
, New York
, the son of Harry Simon, who had emigrated from Leeds, England
, in 1905, and Rose whom he met in the United States
. Harry Simon moved to Rochester, then a clothing-manufacturing center where his younger brother, Isaac, lived and the couple had a daughter, Beatrice, in 1912. A poor Jewish family, the Simons lived in "a first-floor flat which doubled as my father's tailor shop." Simon attended Benjamin Franklin
High School, where he was art director for the school newspaper
and the yearbook
— earning his first professional fee as an artist when two universities each paid $10 publication rights for his art deco
, tempera
splash pages for the yearbook sections. Upon graduation in 1932, Simon was hired by Rochester Journal-American
art director Adolph Edler as an assistant, replacing Simon's future comics colleague Al Liederman, who had quit. Fearing that Goodman would not pay them if he found out they were moving to National, the pair kept the deal a secret while they continued producing work for the company. At some point during this time, the duo also produced Fawcett Comics
' Captain Marvel Adventures #1 (1941), the first complete comic book starring Captain Marvel
following the character's run as star of the superhero anthology Whiz Comics
.
Kirby and Simon spent their first weeks at National trying devise new characters while the company sought how best to utilize the pair. After a few failed editor-assigned ghosting assignments, National's Jack Liebowitz
told them to "just do what you want". The pair then revamped the Sandman
feature in Adventure Comics
and created the superhero Manhunter
. In July 1942 they began the Boy Commandos
feature. The ongoing "kid gang" series Boy Commandos, launched later that same year, sold over a million copies a month, becoming National's third best-selling title. They also scored a hit with the homefront kid-gang team, the Newsboy Legion
.
Harry Mendryk, art restorer on Titan Books
' Simon & Kirby series of hardcover collections, believes Simon used the pseudonym Glaven on at least two covers during this time: those of Harvey Comics
' Speed Comics #22 and Champ Comics #22 (both Sept. 1942), though the Grand Comics Database does not independently confirm this. Mendryk also believes that both Kirby and Simon used the pseudonym Jon Henri on a handful of other 1942 Harvey comics, as does Who's Who in American Comic Books 1929-1999.
Simon enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II
. He said in his 1990 autobiography that he was first assigned to the Mounted Beach Patrol at Long Beach Island
, off Barnegat, New Jersey, for a year before being sent to boot camp near Baltimore
, Maryland
, for basic training. Afterward, he reported for duty with the Combat Art Corps in Washington, D.C.
, part of the Coast Guard Public Information Division. He was stationed there in 1944 when he met New York Post
sports columnist Milt Gross
, who was with the Coast Guard Public Relations Unit, and the two became roommates in civilian housing. Pursuant to his unit's mission to publicize the Coast Guard, Simon created a true-life Coast Guard comic book that DC agreed to publish, followed by versions syndicated nationally by Parents
magazine in Sunday newspaper comics sections, under the title True Comics. This led to his being assigned to create a comic book aimed at driving Coast Guard recruitment. With Gross as his writer collaborator, Simon produced Adventure Is My Career, distributed by Street and Smith Publications for sale at newsstands.
Returning to New York City after his discharge, Simon married Harriet, the secretary to Harvey Comics' Al Harvey. The Simons and the now-married Kirby and his wife and first child moved to houses diagonally across from each other on Brown Street in Mineola, New York
, on Long Island
, where Simon & Kirby each worked from a home studio. The Simons would have a son, James.
, Simon & Kirby began producing a variety of stories in many genres. In partnership with Crestwood Publications
, they developed the imprint
Prize Comics, through which they published Boys' Ranch
and launched an early horror
comic, the atmospheric and non-gory series Black Magic
. The team also produced crime
, and humor comics, and are credited as well with publishing the first romance comics
title, Young Romance
, starting a hugely successful trend.
At the urging of a Crestwood salesman, Kirby and Simon launched their own comics company, Mainline Publications
, in late 1953 or early 1954, subletting space from their friend Al Harvey's Harvey Publications at 1860 Broadway
. Mainline published four titles: published four titles: the Western
Bullseye: Western Scout; the war comic
Foxhole, since EC Comics
and Atlas Comics
were having success with war comics, but promoting theirs as as being written and drawn by actual veterans; In Love, since their earlier romance comic Young Love
was still being widely imitated; and the crime comic Police Trap, which claimed to be based on genuine accounts by law-enforcement officials.
The partnership ended in 1955 with the comic book industry beset by self-imposed censorship, negative publicity, and a slump in sales. Simon "wanted to do other things and I stuck with comics," Kirby recalled in 1971. "It was fine. There was no reason to continue the partnership and we parted friends." Simon turned primarily to advertising
and commercial art
, while dipping back into comics on occasion. The Simon & Kirby team reunited briefly in 1959 with Simon writing and collaborating on art for Archie Comics
, where the duo updated the superhero the Shield in the two-issue The Double Life of Private Strong (June-Aug. 1959), and Simon created the superhero the Fly; they went on to collaborate on the first two issues of The Adventures of the Fly (Aug.-Sept. 1959), and Simon and other artists, including Al Williamson
, Jack Davis
, and Carl Burgos
, did four issues before Simon moved on to work in commercial art.
magazine Sick
, a competitor of Mad
magazine, and edited and produced material for it for over a decade.
During this period, known to fans and historians as the Silver Age of Comic Books
, Simon & Kirby again reteamed for Harvey Comics
in 1966, updating Fighting American for a single issue (Oct. 1966). Simon, as owner, packager, and editor, also helped launch Harvey's original superhero line, with Unearthly Spectaculars #1-3 (Oct. 1965 - March 1967) and Double-Dare Adventures #1-2 (Dec. 1966 - March 1967), the latter of which introduced the influential writer-artist Jim Steranko
to comics.
In 1968, Simon created the two-issue DC Comics
series Brother Power the Geek
, about a mannequin
given a semblance of life who wanders philosophically through 1960s hippie
culture; Al Bare provided some of the art. Simon and artist Jerry Grandenetti
then created DC's four-issue Prez
(Sept. 1973 - March 1974), about America's first teen-age president.
Simon & Kirby teamed one last time later that year, with Simon writing the first issue (Winter 1974) of a six-issue new incarnation of the Sandman
. Simon and Grandenetti then created the Green Team: Boy Millionaires in the DC try-out series 1st Issue Special #2 (May 1975), and the freakish Outsiders
in 1st Issue Special #10 (Jan. 1976).
For a concept called ShieldMaster, created by Jim Simon, Joe Simon provided prototype art. A ShieldMaster graphic novel was in production by Organic Comix in 2010 and is scheduled for release 2011.
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
, and publisher
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
. Simon created or co-created many important characters in the 1930s-1940s Golden Age of Comic Books
Golden Age of Comic Books
The Golden Age of Comic Books was a period in the history of American comic books, generally thought of as lasting from the late 1930s until the late 1940s or early 1950s...
and served as the first editor of Timely Comics
Timely Comics
Timely Comics, an imprint of Timely Publications, was the earliest comic book arm of American publisher Martin Goodman, and the entity that would evolve by the 1960s to become Marvel Comics....
, the company that would evolve into Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
.
With his partner, artist Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium....
, he co-created Captain America
Captain America
Captain America is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 , from Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics, and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby...
, one of comics' most enduring superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
es, and the team worked extensively on such features at DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
as the 1940s Sandman
Sandman (Wesley Dodds)
Sandman , is a fictional superhero appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. The first of several DC characters to bear the name, he was created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Bert Christman....
and Sandy the Golden Boy, and co-created the Newsboy Legion
Newsboy Legion
The Newsboy Legion are fictional characters, a kid gang in the DC Comics Universe. Created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, they appeared in their own self-titled feature which ran from Star Spangled Comics #7 to Star Spangled Comics #64 .-Pre-Crisis version:A group of orphans, living on the streets...
, the Boy Commandos
Boy Commandos
Boy Commandos was a 1940s comic book series created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby for DC Comics. A combination of "kid gang" comics and war comics, the title starred an international cast of little tough guys fighting the Nazis — or in their own parlance, "the Ratzies".-Creation:Simon & Kirby, hired...
, and Manhunter
Manhunter (comics)
-Golden Age:The first of DC's Manhunters was a non-costumed independent investigator, Paul Kirk, who helped police solve crimes during the early 1940s. Though the series was titled "Paul Kirk, Manhunter", Kirk didn't use the Manhunter name as an alias...
. Simon & Kirby creations for other comics publishers include Boys' Ranch
Boys' Ranch
Boys' Ranch was a six-issue American comic book series created by the veteran writer-artist team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby for Harvey Comics in 1950...
, Fighting American
Fighting American
Fighting American is a patriotic comic book character created in 1954 by writer Joe Simon and artist Jack Kirby, published by Crestwood Publication / Prize Comics and, against normal industry practices of the time, creator-owned...
and the Fly. In the late 1940s, the duo created the field of romance comics
Romance comics
Romance comics is a comics genre depicting romantic love and its attendant complications such as jealousy, marriage, divorce, betrayal, and heartache. The term is generally associated with an American comic books genre published through the first three decades of the Cold War...
, and were among the earliest pioneers of horror comics
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
. Simon, who went on to work in advertising and commercial art, also founded the satirical
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
magazine Sick
Sick (magazine)
Sick was a satirical-humor magazine published from 1960 to 1980, lasting 134 issues. It was created by comic-book writer-artist Joe Simon, who also edited the title until the late 1960s. Sick was published by Crestwood Publications until issue #62 , when it was taken over by Hewfred Publications...
in 1960, remaining with it for a decade. He briefly returned to DC Comics in the 1970s.
Simon was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1999.
Early life and career
Joe Simon was born and raised in RochesterRochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, the son of Harry Simon, who had emigrated from Leeds, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, in 1905, and Rose whom he met in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Harry Simon moved to Rochester, then a clothing-manufacturing center where his younger brother, Isaac, lived and the couple had a daughter, Beatrice, in 1912. A poor Jewish family, the Simons lived in "a first-floor flat which doubled as my father's tailor shop." Simon attended Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
High School, where he was art director for the school newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
and the yearbook
Yearbook
A yearbook, also known as an annual, is a book to record, highlight, and commemorate the past year of a school or a book published annually. Virtually all American, Australian and Canadian high schools, most colleges and many elementary and middle schools publish yearbooks...
— earning his first professional fee as an artist when two universities each paid $10 publication rights for his art deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
, tempera
Tempera
Tempera, also known as egg tempera, is a permanent fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigment mixed with a water-soluble binder medium . Tempera also refers to the paintings done in this medium. Tempera paintings are very long lasting, and examples from the 1st centuries AD still exist...
splash pages for the yearbook sections. Upon graduation in 1932, Simon was hired by Rochester Journal-American
Rochester Journal-American
The Rochester Journal-American was an American newspaper in Rochester, New York.-History:Sometime prior to 1935, the Rochester Journal-American was published by Meyer Jacobstein, Ph.D...
art director Adolph Edler as an assistant, replacing Simon's future comics colleague Al Liederman, who had quit. Fearing that Goodman would not pay them if he found out they were moving to National, the pair kept the deal a secret while they continued producing work for the company. At some point during this time, the duo also produced Fawcett Comics
Fawcett Comics
Fawcett Comics, a division of Fawcett Publications, was one of several successful comic book publishers during the Golden Age of Comic Books in the 1940s...
' Captain Marvel Adventures #1 (1941), the first complete comic book starring Captain Marvel
Captain Marvel (DC Comics)
Captain Marvel is a fictional comic book superhero, originally published by Fawcett Comics and later by DC Comics. Created in 1939 by artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker, the character first appeared in Whiz Comics #2...
following the character's run as star of the superhero anthology Whiz Comics
Whiz Comics
Whiz Comics was a monthly ongoing comic book anthology series, which was published by Fawcett Comics from February 1940 with issue #2 and stopping at issue #155 in June 1953, best known for introducing Captain Marvel. The first issue published of Whiz Comics was issue #2...
.
Kirby and Simon spent their first weeks at National trying devise new characters while the company sought how best to utilize the pair. After a few failed editor-assigned ghosting assignments, National's Jack Liebowitz
Jack Liebowitz
Jacob "Jack" S. Liebowitz , was an American accountant and publisher, known primarily as the co-owner with Harry Donenfeld of National Allied Publications .-Early life:...
told them to "just do what you want". The pair then revamped the Sandman
Sandman (Wesley Dodds)
Sandman , is a fictional superhero appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. The first of several DC characters to bear the name, he was created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Bert Christman....
feature in Adventure Comics
Adventure Comics
Adventure Comics was a comic book series published by DC Comics from 1935 to 1983 and then revamped from 2009 to 2011. In its first era, the series ran for 503 issues , making it the fifth-longest-running DC series, behind Detective Comics, Action Comics, Superman, and Batman...
and created the superhero Manhunter
Manhunter (comics)
-Golden Age:The first of DC's Manhunters was a non-costumed independent investigator, Paul Kirk, who helped police solve crimes during the early 1940s. Though the series was titled "Paul Kirk, Manhunter", Kirk didn't use the Manhunter name as an alias...
. In July 1942 they began the Boy Commandos
Boy Commandos
Boy Commandos was a 1940s comic book series created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby for DC Comics. A combination of "kid gang" comics and war comics, the title starred an international cast of little tough guys fighting the Nazis — or in their own parlance, "the Ratzies".-Creation:Simon & Kirby, hired...
feature. The ongoing "kid gang" series Boy Commandos, launched later that same year, sold over a million copies a month, becoming National's third best-selling title. They also scored a hit with the homefront kid-gang team, the Newsboy Legion
Newsboy Legion
The Newsboy Legion are fictional characters, a kid gang in the DC Comics Universe. Created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, they appeared in their own self-titled feature which ran from Star Spangled Comics #7 to Star Spangled Comics #64 .-Pre-Crisis version:A group of orphans, living on the streets...
.
Harry Mendryk, art restorer on Titan Books
Titan Books
Titan Publishing Group is an independently owned publishing company, established in 1981. It is based at offices in London, England's Bankside area. The Books Division has two main areas of publishing: film & TV tie-ins/cinema reference books; and graphic novels and comics reference/art titles. The...
' Simon & Kirby series of hardcover collections, believes Simon used the pseudonym Glaven on at least two covers during this time: those of Harvey Comics
Harvey Comics
Harvey Comics was an American comic book publisher, founded in New York City by Alfred Harvey in 1941, after buying out the small publisher Brookwood Publications. His brothers Robert B...
' Speed Comics #22 and Champ Comics #22 (both Sept. 1942), though the Grand Comics Database does not independently confirm this. Mendryk also believes that both Kirby and Simon used the pseudonym Jon Henri on a handful of other 1942 Harvey comics, as does Who's Who in American Comic Books 1929-1999.
Simon enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He said in his 1990 autobiography that he was first assigned to the Mounted Beach Patrol at Long Beach Island
Long Beach Island
Long Beach Island is a barrier island and summer colony along the Atlantic Ocean coast of Ocean County, New Jersey in the United States...
, off Barnegat, New Jersey, for a year before being sent to boot camp near Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, for basic training. Afterward, he reported for duty with the Combat Art Corps in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, part of the Coast Guard Public Information Division. He was stationed there in 1944 when he met New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
sports columnist Milt Gross
Milt Gross
Milt Gross , was an American comic strip and comic book writer, illustrator and animator. He wrote his comics in a Yiddish-inflected English. He originated the non-sequitur "Banana Oil!" as a phrase deflating pomposity and posing. His character Count Screwloose's admonition, "Iggy, keep an eye on...
, who was with the Coast Guard Public Relations Unit, and the two became roommates in civilian housing. Pursuant to his unit's mission to publicize the Coast Guard, Simon created a true-life Coast Guard comic book that DC agreed to publish, followed by versions syndicated nationally by Parents
Parents (magazine)
Parents, published by Meredith Corporation, is the oldest parenting publication in the U.S. It was first published in October 1926.Its editorial focus is on the daily needs and concerns of mothers with young children. The glossy monthly features information about child health, safety, behavior,...
magazine in Sunday newspaper comics sections, under the title True Comics. This led to his being assigned to create a comic book aimed at driving Coast Guard recruitment. With Gross as his writer collaborator, Simon produced Adventure Is My Career, distributed by Street and Smith Publications for sale at newsstands.
Returning to New York City after his discharge, Simon married Harriet, the secretary to Harvey Comics' Al Harvey. The Simons and the now-married Kirby and his wife and first child moved to houses diagonally across from each other on Brown Street in Mineola, New York
Mineola, New York
Mineola is a village in Nassau County, New York, USA. The population was 18,799 at the 2010 census. The name is derived from a Native American word meaning a "pleasant place"....
, on Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, where Simon & Kirby each worked from a home studio. The Simons would have a son, James.
Crestwood, Black Magic and romance comics
As superhero comics waned in popularity after the end of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Simon & Kirby began producing a variety of stories in many genres. In partnership with Crestwood Publications
Crestwood Publications
Crestwood Publications, also known as Feature Publications, was a magazine publisher that also published comic books from the 1940s through the 1960s. Its title Prize Comics contained what is considered the first ongoing horror comic-book feature, Dick Briefer's "Frankenstein"...
, they developed the imprint
Imprint
In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...
Prize Comics, through which they published Boys' Ranch
Boys' Ranch
Boys' Ranch was a six-issue American comic book series created by the veteran writer-artist team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby for Harvey Comics in 1950...
and launched an early horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
comic, the atmospheric and non-gory series Black Magic
Black Magic (comics)
Black Magic was a horror anthology comic book series published by Prize Comics from 1950-1961. The series was notable for being packaged by the celebrated creative duo Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, and for its non-gory horror content....
. The team also produced crime
Crime fiction
Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...
, and humor comics, and are credited as well with publishing the first romance comics
Romance comics
Romance comics is a comics genre depicting romantic love and its attendant complications such as jealousy, marriage, divorce, betrayal, and heartache. The term is generally associated with an American comic books genre published through the first three decades of the Cold War...
title, Young Romance
Young Romance
Young Romance is a comic book series created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby for the Crestwood Publications imprint Prize Comics in 1947. Generally considered the first romance comic, the series ran for 124 consecutive issues under Prize imprint, and a further 84 published by DC Comics after Crestwood...
, starting a hugely successful trend.
At the urging of a Crestwood salesman, Kirby and Simon launched their own comics company, Mainline Publications
Mainline Publications
Mainline Publications, also called Mainline Comics, was a short-lived, 1950s American comic book publisher established and owned by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon.-Foundation:...
, in late 1953 or early 1954, subletting space from their friend Al Harvey's Harvey Publications at 1860 Broadway
Broadway (New York City)
Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...
. Mainline published four titles: published four titles: the Western
Western comics
Western comics is a comics genre usually depicting the American Old West frontier and typically set during the late nineteenth century...
Bullseye: Western Scout; the war comic
War comics
War comics is a genre of comic books that gained popularity in English-speaking countries following World War II.-American war comics:Shortly after the birth of the modern comic book in the mid- to late 1930s, comics publishers began including stories of wartime adventures in the multi-genre...
Foxhole, since EC Comics
EC Comics
Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books specializing in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950s, notably the Tales from the Crypt series...
and Atlas Comics
Atlas Comics (1950s)
Atlas Comics is the term used to describe the 1950s comic book publishing company that would evolve into Marvel Comics. Magazine and paperback novel publisher Martin Goodman, whose business strategy involved having a multitude of corporate entities, used Atlas as the umbrella name for his comic...
were having success with war comics, but promoting theirs as as being written and drawn by actual veterans; In Love, since their earlier romance comic Young Love
Young Love (comic)
Young Love was one of the earliest romance comics titles, published by Crestwood/Prize, and later sold to DC Comics.-History:After the Sept/Oct 1947 release of Crestwood/Prize's genre-launching Young Romance comic, , by the prolific team of Simon & Kirby sold "millions of copies", the company ...
was still being widely imitated; and the crime comic Police Trap, which claimed to be based on genuine accounts by law-enforcement officials.
The partnership ended in 1955 with the comic book industry beset by self-imposed censorship, negative publicity, and a slump in sales. Simon "wanted to do other things and I stuck with comics," Kirby recalled in 1971. "It was fine. There was no reason to continue the partnership and we parted friends." Simon turned primarily to advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
and commercial art
Commercial art
Commercial art is historically a subsector of creative services, referring to art created for commercial purposes, primarily advertising. The term has become increasingly anachronistic in favor of more contemporary terms such as graphic design and advertising art.Commercial art traditionally...
, while dipping back into comics on occasion. The Simon & Kirby team reunited briefly in 1959 with Simon writing and collaborating on art for Archie Comics
Archie Comics
Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the Village of Mamaroneck, Town of Mamaroneck, New York, known for its many series featuring the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Jughead Jones. The characters were created by...
, where the duo updated the superhero the Shield in the two-issue The Double Life of Private Strong (June-Aug. 1959), and Simon created the superhero the Fly; they went on to collaborate on the first two issues of The Adventures of the Fly (Aug.-Sept. 1959), and Simon and other artists, including Al Williamson
Al Williamson
Alfonso "Al" Williamson was an American cartoonist, comic book artist and illustrator specializing in adventure, Western and science-fiction/fantasy...
, Jack Davis
Jack Davis (cartoonist)
Jack Davis is an American cartoonist and illustrator, known for his advertising art, magazine covers, film posters, record album art and numerous comic book stories...
, and Carl Burgos
Carl Burgos
Carl Burgos was an American comic book and advertising artist best known for creating the original Human Torch in Marvel Comics #1 Carl Burgos (né Max Finkelstein, April 18, 1916, New York City, New York; died March 1984) was an American comic book and advertising artist best known for creating...
, did four issues before Simon moved on to work in commercial art.
Silver Age of Comics and later
Through the 1960s, Simon produced promotional comics for the advertising agency Burstein and Newman, becoming art director of Burstein, Phillips and Newman from 1964 to 1967. Concurrently, in 1960, he founded the satiricalSatire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
magazine Sick
Sick (magazine)
Sick was a satirical-humor magazine published from 1960 to 1980, lasting 134 issues. It was created by comic-book writer-artist Joe Simon, who also edited the title until the late 1960s. Sick was published by Crestwood Publications until issue #62 , when it was taken over by Hewfred Publications...
, a competitor of Mad
Mad (magazine)
Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. Launched as a comic book before it became a magazine, it was widely imitated and influential, impacting not only satirical media but the entire cultural landscape of the 20th century.The last...
magazine, and edited and produced material for it for over a decade.
During this period, known to fans and historians as the Silver Age of Comic Books
Silver Age of Comic Books
The Silver Age of Comic Books was a period of artistic advancement and commercial success in mainstream American comic books, predominantly those in the superhero genre. Following the Golden Age of Comic Books and an interregnum in the early to mid-1950s, the Silver Age is considered to cover the...
, Simon & Kirby again reteamed for Harvey Comics
Harvey Comics
Harvey Comics was an American comic book publisher, founded in New York City by Alfred Harvey in 1941, after buying out the small publisher Brookwood Publications. His brothers Robert B...
in 1966, updating Fighting American for a single issue (Oct. 1966). Simon, as owner, packager, and editor, also helped launch Harvey's original superhero line, with Unearthly Spectaculars #1-3 (Oct. 1965 - March 1967) and Double-Dare Adventures #1-2 (Dec. 1966 - March 1967), the latter of which introduced the influential writer-artist Jim Steranko
Jim Steranko
James F. Steranko is an American graphic artist, comic book writer-artist-historian, magician, publisher and film production illustrator....
to comics.
In 1968, Simon created the two-issue DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
series Brother Power the Geek
Brother Power the Geek
Brother Power the Geek is a comic book character created in the late 1960s for DC Comics by Joe Simon. He first appeared in Brother Power the Geek #1 ....
, about a mannequin
Mannequin
A mannequin is an often articulated doll used by artists, tailors, dressmakers, and others especially to display or fit clothing...
given a semblance of life who wanders philosophically through 1960s hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
culture; Al Bare provided some of the art. Simon and artist Jerry Grandenetti
Jerry Grandenetti
Charles J. "Jerry" Grandenetti was an American comic book artist and advertising art director, best known for his work with writer-artist Will Eisner on the celebrated comics feature "The Spirit", and for his decade-and-a-half run on many DC Comics war series...
then created DC's four-issue Prez
Prez (DC Comics)
Prez: First Teen President was a four issue comic series by writer Joe Simon and artist Jerry Grandenetti, released by DC Comics in 1973 and 1974...
(Sept. 1973 - March 1974), about America's first teen-age president.
Simon & Kirby teamed one last time later that year, with Simon writing the first issue (Winter 1974) of a six-issue new incarnation of the Sandman
Sandman (DC Comics)
Sandman is the name of seven fictional characters, superheroes appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. All are connected in one way or the other, though there are three largely dissimilar concepts, with two or three persons having served in each role various times...
. Simon and Grandenetti then created the Green Team: Boy Millionaires in the DC try-out series 1st Issue Special #2 (May 1975), and the freakish Outsiders
Outsiders (DC Comics)
The Outsiders are a fictional group of outcasts, comic book characters published by DC Comics. They debuted in 1st Issue Special #10, , and were created by Joe Simon and Jerry Grandenetti.-Publication history:...
in 1st Issue Special #10 (Jan. 1976).
21st century
In the 2000s, Simon turned to painting and marketing reproductions of his early comic book covers. He appeared in various news media in 2007 in response to Marvel Comics' announced "death" of Captain America in Captain America vol. 5, #25 (March 2007), stating, "It's a hell of a time for him to go. We really need him now".For a concept called ShieldMaster, created by Jim Simon, Joe Simon provided prototype art. A ShieldMaster graphic novel was in production by Organic Comix in 2010 and is scheduled for release 2011.
Awards
- Inkpot AwardInkpot AwardThe Inkpot Award, bestowed annually since 1974 by Comic-Con International, is given to some of the professionals in comic book, comic strip, animation, science fiction, and related pop-culture fields, who are guests of that organization's yearly multigenre fan convention, commonly known as...
, 1998 - Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame, 1999
External links
- Joe Simon Studio. WebCitation archive.
- Simon Comics. WebCitation archive.
- Berk, Jon. "The Weird, Wonder(ous) World of Victor Fox's Fantastic Mystery Men", Part II, Comicartville Library, 2004. WebCitation archive, Part I and Part II.
- Wilonsky, Robert. "Custody Battle: Marvel Comics isn't going to give up Captain America without a fight", The Pitch, April 19, 2001. WebCitation archive.
- Simon, Joe. "The Creator of Captain America Meets the Creator of the Human Torch", Alter Ego' #36, May 2004