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Joe Simon

From Wikipedia, in a visual modern way
Joe Simon
JoeSimonatNYComicCon2006.jpg
Simon with a fan at the
2006 New York Comic Con
BornHymie Simon
(1913-10-11)October 11, 1913
Rochester, New York, U.S.
DiedDecember 14, 2011(2011-12-14) (aged 98)
New York City, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Area(s)Cartoonist, Writer, Penciller, Inker, Editor, Publisher, Letterer, Colourist
Pseudonym(s)Gregory Sykes, Jon Henri
Notable works
Captain America, Fighting American, Sick, Young Romance, The Fly, Blue Bolt
CollaboratorsJack Kirby
AwardsInkpot Award, 1998
Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame, 1999
Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame (2014)
Spouse(s)Harriet Feldman
Children5
For other people named Joe Simon, see Joe Simon (disambiguation).

Joseph Henry Simon[1] (October 11, 1913 – December 14, 2011) was 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 superheroes, 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 and 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 over a decade. He briefly published with DC Comics in the 1970s.

Simon was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1999.

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Golden Age of Comic Books

Golden Age of Comic Books

The Golden Age of Comic Books describes an era of American comic books from 1938 to 1956. During this time, modern comic books were first published and rapidly increased in popularity. The superhero archetype was created and many well-known characters were introduced, including Superman, Batman, Robin, Captain Marvel, Captain America, and Wonder Woman.

Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a division of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, Magazine Management/Atlas Comics in 1951 and its predecessor, Marvel Mystery Comics, the Marvel Comics title/name/brand was first used in June 1961.

Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby was an American comic book artist, writer and editor, widely regarded as one of the medium's major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators. He grew up in New York City and learned to draw cartoon figures by tracing characters from comic strips and editorial cartoons. He entered the nascent comics industry in the 1930s, drawing various comics features under different pen names, including Jack Curtiss, before ultimately settling on Jack Kirby. In 1940, he and writer-editor Joe Simon created the highly successful superhero character Captain America for Timely Comics, predecessor of Marvel Comics. During the 1940s, Kirby regularly teamed with Simon, creating numerous characters for that company and for National Comics Publications, later to become DC Comics.

Captain America

Captain America

Captain America is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by cartoonists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 from Timely Comics, a predecessor of Marvel Comics. Captain America was designed as a patriotic supersoldier who often fought the Axis powers of World War II and was Timely Comics' most popular character during the wartime period. The popularity of superheroes waned following the war, and the Captain America comic book was discontinued in 1950, with a short-lived revival in 1953. Since Marvel Comics revived the character in 1964, Captain America has remained in publication.

DC Comics

DC Comics

DC Comics, Inc. is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Newsboy Legion

Newsboy Legion

The Newsboy Legion is a teenage vigilante group 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 #64. In 1970, Jack Kirby introduced a new Newsboy Legion, made up of the sons of the original Golden Age characters.

Boy Commandos

Boy Commandos

Boy Commandos is a fictional organization from DC Comics first appearing in Detective Comics #64 by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. They are a combination of "kid gang" characters, an international cast of young boys fighting Nazis — or in their own parlance, "the Ratzies".

Manhunter (comics)

Manhunter (comics)

Manhunter is the name given to several different fictional characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. They are depicted as superheroes and antiheroes.

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. A Western in the then-prevalent "kid gang" vein popularized by such film series as "Our Gang" and "The Dead End Kids", the series starred three adolescents—Dandy, Wabash, and Angel—who operate a ranch that was bequeathed to them, under the adult supervision of frontiersman Clay Duncan. Supporting characters included Palomino Sue, Wee Willie Weehawken, citizens of the town Four Massacres, and various Native Americans, including a fictional version of the real-life Geronimo.

Fighting American

Fighting American

Fighting American is a superhero created in 1954 by the writer-artist team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Published by the Crestwood Publications imprint Prize Comics, it was, contrary to standard industry practices of the time, creator-owned. Harvey Comics published one additional issue in 1966. One final inventoried tale was published in 1989, in a Marvel Comics hardcover collection of all the Fighting American stories.

Fly (Archie Comics)

Fly (Archie Comics)

The Fly is a fictional comic book superhero first published in 1959 by Red Circle Comics. He was created by Joe Simon as part of Archie's "Archie Adventure Series" and later camped up as part of the company's Mighty Comics line. He first appeared in The Double Life of Private Strong #1; however, his origin story and first "full-length" appearance were in Adventures of the Fly #1.

Horror comics

Horror comics

Horror comics are comic books, graphic novels, black-and-white comics magazines, and manga focusing on horror fiction. In the US market, horror comic books reached a peak in the late 1940s through the mid-1950s, when concern over content and the imposition of the self-censorship Comics Code Authority contributed to the demise of many titles and the toning down of others. Black-and-white horror-comics magazines, which did not fall under the Code, flourished from the mid-1960s through the early 1980s from a variety of publishers. Mainstream American color comic books experienced a horror resurgence in the 1970s, following a loosening of the Code. While the genre has had greater and lesser periods of popularity, it occupies a firm niche in comics as of the 2010s.

Early life

Joe Simon was born in 1913 as Hymie Simon[1] and raised in Rochester, New York, the son of Harry Simon, who had emigrated from Leeds, England, in 1905, and Rose (Kurland),[2][3] whom Harry met in the United States.[4] Harry Simon moved to Rochester, then a clothing-manufacturing center where his younger brother Isaac lived,[5] and the couple had a daughter, Beatrice, in 1912.[4] A poor Jewish family, the Simons lived in "a first-floor flat which doubled as my father's tailor shop".[6] 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.[7]

Discover more about Early life related topics

Rochester, New York

Rochester, New York

Rochester is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in Western New York, the city of Rochester forms the core of a larger metropolitan area with a population of 1 million people, across six counties. The city was one of the United States' first boomtowns, initially due to the fertile Genesee River Valley, which gave rise to numerous flour mills, and then as a manufacturing center, which spurred further rapid population growth.

American Jews

American Jews

American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by culture, ethnicity, or religion. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora Jewish populations of Central and Eastern Europe and comprise about 90–95% of the American Jewish population.

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, forger and political philosopher. Among the leading intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, a drafter and signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, and the first United States Postmaster General.

Yearbook

Yearbook

A yearbook, also known as an annual, is a type of a book published annually. One use is to record, highlight, and commemorate the past year of a school. The term also refers to a book of statistics or facts published annually. A yearbook often has an overarching theme that is present throughout the entire book.

Tempera

Tempera

Tempera, also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings done in this medium. Tempera paintings are very long-lasting, and examples from the first century AD still exist. Egg tempera was a primary method of painting until after 1500 when it was superseded by oil painting. A paint consisting of pigment and binder commonly used in the United States as poster paint is also often referred to as "tempera paint", although the binders in this paint are different from traditional tempera paint.

Career

Beginnings

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.[8] Between production duties, he did occasional sports and editorial cartoons for the paper.[9] Two years later, Simon took an art job at the Syracuse Herald in Syracuse, New York, for $45 a week, supplying sports and editorial cartoons there as well. Shortly thereafter, for $60 a week, he succeeded Liederman as art director of a paper whose name Simon recalled in his 1990 autobiography as the Syracuse Journal American,[10] although the Syracuse Journal and the Syracuse Sunday American, were the separate weekday and Sunday papers, respectively. The paper soon closed, and Simon, at 23, ventured to New York City.[11]

There, Simon took a room at the boarding house Haddon Hall, in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, near Columbia University. At the suggestion of the art director of the New York Journal American, he sought and found freelance work at Paramount Pictures, working above the Paramount Theatre on Broadway, retouching the movie studio's publicity photos.[12] He also found freelance work at Macfadden Publications, doing illustrations for True Story and other magazines. Sometime afterward, his boss, art director Harlan Crandall, recommended Simon to Lloyd Jacquet, head of Funnies, Inc., one of that era's comic-book "packagers" that supplied comics content on demand to publishers testing the new medium. That day, Simon received his first comics assignment, a seven-page Western.[13]

Four days later, Jacquet asked Simon, at the behest of Timely Comics publisher Martin Goodman, to create a flaming superhero like Timely's successful character the Human Torch. From this came Simon's first comic-book hero, the Fiery Mask.[12] Simon used the pseudonym Gregory Sykes on at least one story during this time, "King of the Jungle", starring Trojak The Tiger Man, in Timely's Daring Mystery Comics #2 (Feb. 1940).[14]

Simon and Kirby

1974 Comic Art Convention program, reprinting Simon's original 1940 sketch of Captain America.
1974 Comic Art Convention program, reprinting Simon's original 1940 sketch of Captain America.

During this time, Simon met Fox Feature Syndicate comics artist Jack Kirby, with whom he would soon have a storied collaboration lasting a decade-and-a-half. Speaking at a 1998 Comic-Con International panel in San Diego, California, Simon recounted the meeting:

I had a suit and Jack thought that was really nice. He'd never seen a comic book artist with a suit before. The reason I had a suit was that my father was a tailor. Jack's father was a tailor too, but he made pants! Anyway, I was doing freelance work and I had a little office in New York about ten blocks from DC [Comics]' and Fox [Feature Syndicate]'s offices, and I was working on Blue Bolt for Funnies, Inc. So, of course, I loved Jack's work and the first time I saw it I couldn't believe what I was seeing. He asked if we could do some freelance work together. I was delighted and I took him over to my little office. We worked from the second issue of Blue Bolt ...[15]

and remained a team across the next two decades. In the early 2000s, original art for an unpublished, five-page Simon and Kirby collaboration titled "Daring Disc", which may predate the duo's Blue Bolt, surfaced. Simon published the story in the 2003 updated edition of his autobiography, The Comic Book Makers.[16]

After leaving Fox and landing at pulp magazine publisher Martin Goodman's Timely Comics (the future Marvel Comics), where Simon became the company's first editor,[17] the Simon and Kirby team created the seminal patriotic hero Captain America.[18] Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941), going on sale in December 1940[19] – a year before the bombing of Pearl Harbor but already showing the hero punching Hitler in the jaw[20] – sold nearly one million copies.[21] They remained on the hit series as a team through issue #10, and were established as a notable creative force in the industry.[22] After the first issue was published, Simon asked Kirby to join the Timely staff as the company's art director.[23]

Despite the success of the Captain America character, Simon felt Goodman was not paying the pair the promised percentage of profits, and so sought work for the two of them at National Comics,[24] (later named DC Comics). Simon and Kirby negotiated a deal that would pay them a combined $500 a week, as opposed to the $75 and $85 they respectively earned at Timely.[25] 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.[26] 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.[27]

Kirby and Simon spent their first weeks at National trying to devise new characters while the company sought how best to utilize the pair.[28] 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.[29][30] In July 1942 they began the Boy Commandos feature. The ongoing "kid gang" series Boy Commandos, launched later that same year, was the team's first National feature to graduate into its own title.[31] It sold over a million copies a month, becoming National's third best-selling title.[32] They also scored a hit with the homefront kid-gang team, the Newsboy Legion in Star-Spangled Comics.[33] In 2010, DC Comics writer and executive Paul Levitz observed that "Like Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creative team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby was a mark of quality and a proven track record."[34]

Harry Mendryk, art restorer on Titan Books' Simon and 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),[35] though the Grand Comics Database does not independently confirm this.[36] Mendryk also believes that both Kirby and Simon used the pseudonym Jon Henri on a handful of other 1942 Harvey comics,[37] as does Who's Who in American Comic Books 1929–1999.[38]

Simon enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II.[39] 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.[40] 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.[41] 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.[42]

Returning to New York City after his discharge, Simon married Harriet Feldman,[43] 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 and Kirby each worked from a home studio.[44]

Crestwood, Black Magic and romance comics

As superhero comics waned in popularity after the end of World War II, Simon and Kirby began producing a variety of stories in many genres. In partnership with Crestwood Publications, they developed the imprint Prize Group, 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 successful trend.[45]

At the urging of a Crestwood salesman, Kirby and Simon launched their own comics company, Mainline Publications,[46][47] in late 1953 or early 1954, subletting space from their friend Al Harvey's Harvey Publications at 1860 Broadway.[7] Mainline 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 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. Bitter that Timely Comics' 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics, had relaunched Captain America in a new series in 1954, Kirby and Simon created Fighting American. Simon recalled, "We thought we'd show them how to do Captain America".[48] While the comic book initially portrayed the protagonist as an anti-Communist dramatic hero, Simon and Kirby turned the series into a superhero satire with the second issue, in the aftermath of the Army-McCarthy hearings and the public backlash against the Red-baiting U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy.[46]

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."[49] Simon turned primarily to advertising and commercial art, while dipping back into comics on occasion. The Simon and 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;[50] 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.[51]

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.[52] Concurrently, in 1960, he founded the satirical magazine Sick, a competitor of Mad magazine, and edited and produced material for it for over a decade.[53]

During this period, known to fans and historians as the Silver Age of Comic Books, Simon and 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.[54]

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.[55] Superman editor Mort Weisinger harbored an admitted dislike for the hippie subculture of the 1960s and felt that Simon portrayed them too sympathetically which helped to bring a quick end to the title.[56] Simon and artist Jerry Grandenetti then created DC's four-issue Prez (Sept. 1973 – March 1974), about America's first teen-age president[54][57] and the three-issue Champion Sports (Nov. 1973 – March 1974).[54] That same year, Simon returned to the romance genre as editor of Young Romance and Young Love and oversaw a Black Magic reprint series.[58]

Simon and 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.[59] Simon and Grandenetti then created the Green Team: Boy Millionaires in the DC anthology series 1st Issue Special #2 (May 1975),[60] and the freakish Outsiders in 1st Issue Special #10 (Jan. 1976).[54]

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".[61][62]

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 was scheduled for release in 2011; ShieldMaster comics continue to be published in France and the United States.[63]

Simon is among the interview subjects in Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle, a three-hour documentary narrated by Liev Schreiber that premiered posthumously on PBS in October 2013.[64]

Simon's grandchildren attended the Los Angeles premiere of Captain America: The First Avenger and called Simon from the red carpet when his name was announced as creator of the character.[65]

In 2000, American writer Michael Chabon published The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that loosely alluded to elements of the partnership of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, among others.[66][67][68]

Discover more about Career related topics

Rochester Journal-American

Rochester Journal-American

The Rochester Journal-American was an American newspaper in Rochester, New York owned by William Randolph Hearst.

Syracuse, New York

Syracuse, New York

Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, Yonkers, and Rochester.

Syracuse Telegram

Syracuse Telegram

The Syracuse Telegram was established in 1922 in Syracuse, New York, by William Randolph Hearst. Between the years 1922–1925, the newspaper was published as both Syracuse Telegram and Syracuse Evening Telegram and the Sunday edition was called the Syracuse American, and alternately the Syracuse Sunday American.

Morningside Heights

Morningside Heights

Morningside Heights is a neighborhood on the West Side of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Morningside Drive to the east, 125th Street to the north, 110th Street to the south, and Riverside Drive to the west. Morningside Heights borders Central Harlem and Morningside Park to the east, Manhattanville to the north, the Manhattan Valley section of the Upper West Side to the south, and Riverside Park to the west. Broadway is the neighborhood's main thoroughfare, running north–south.

Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state of New York. Located near the southern tip of New York State, Manhattan is based in the Eastern Time Zone and constitutes both the geographical and demographic center of the Northeast megalopolis and the urban core of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass. Over 58 million people live within 250 miles of Manhattan, which serves as New York City’s economic and administrative center, cultural identifier, and the city’s historical birthplace. Residents of the outer boroughs of New York City often refer to Manhattan as "the city". Manhattan has been described as the cultural, financial, media, and entertainment capital of the world, and hosts the United Nations headquarters. Manhattan also serves as the headquarters of the global art market, with numerous art galleries and auction houses collectively hosting half of the world’s art auctions.

Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University is a private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhattan, it is the oldest institution of higher education in New York, the fifth-oldest in the United States, and one of nine colonial colleges founded prior to the Declaration of Independence.

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production and distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global. It is the fifth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest film studio in the United States, and the sole member of the "Big Five" film studios located within the city limits of Los Angeles.

True Story (magazine)

True Story (magazine)

True Story is an American magazine published by True Renditions, LLC. It launched in 1919 and was the first of the confessions magazines genre. It carried the subtitle Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction.

Western comics

Western comics

Western comics is a comics genre usually depicting the American Old West frontier and typically set during the late nineteenth century. The term is generally associated with an American comic books genre published from the late 1940s through the 1950s. Western comics of the period typically featured dramatic scripts about cowboys, gunfighters, lawmen, bounty hunters, outlaws, and Native Americans. Accompanying artwork depicted a rural America populated with such iconic images as guns, cowboy hats, vests, horses, saloons, ranches, and deserts, contemporaneous with the setting.

Timely Comics

Timely Comics

Timely Comics is the common name for the group of corporations that was the earliest comic book arm of American publisher Martin Goodman, and the entity that would evolve by the 1960s to become Marvel Comics.

Martin Goodman (publisher)

Martin Goodman (publisher)

Martin Goodman was an American publisher of pulp magazines, paperback books, men's adventure magazines, and comic books, launching the company that would become Marvel Comics.

Personal life

Simon was married to Harriet Feldman,[43] with whom he lived on Brown Street in Mineola, New York, on Long Island.[44] The Simons had two sons and three daughters.[69]

Simon died in New York City on December 14, 2011, at the age of 98, after a brief illness.[69][70][71]

Marvel Comics dedicated Avenging Spider-Man #5 to Simon.[72]

Awards

Source: "Joe Simon", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, March 4th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Simon.

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Further Reading

Jack Kirby

Marvel Comics

C. C. Beck

Timely Comics

American comic book

Harvey Comics

Fighting American

Boy Commandos

Vision (Timely Comics)

Crestwood Publications

Captain 3-D

Young Romance

Boys' Ranch
References
  1. ^ a b Simon, Joe (2011). Joe Simon: My Life in Comics. London, United Kingdom: Titan Books. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-84576-930-7. "I ... was born in 1913 – on October 11 – in Rochester's Strong Memorial Hospital. ... [My father] had a cousin name Hymie. ... So when my mother gave birth to me, my father completed the birth certificate without consulting her, and named me 'Hymie Simon.' ... [my mother] flipped. Turns out she wanted me named after her brother, Joseph. ... At least if it had been 'Hyman' Simon, she said, it would have rhymed. ... No, she just called me Joseph, and after a while it stuck. Yet that's not what my birth certificate says. To this day it hasn't been corrected, not Social Security-wise, [war-]veteran-[records]-wise, or for anything else. ... We never had middle names in my family, either. ... But I took the 'H' from Hymie and I made it into Henry. .... Note: Some sources erroneously give 1915 as birth year, including:
    * "Joe Simon". Lambiek Comiclopedia. Archived from the original on November 3, 2016. Retrieved November 3, 2016.
    * Bails, Jerry; Ware, Hames (eds.). "Simon, Joe". Who's Who in American Comic Books 1929–1999. Archived from the original on May 11, 2007. Retrieved October 16, 2016.
  2. ^ Simon, 2011, p. 10
  3. ^ Commrie, Anne (1975). Something about the Author, Volume 7. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale. p. 192. ISBN 0810300621. Retrieved May 9, 2016. Born October 11, 1913, in Rochester, N.Y.; son of Harry (a tailor) and Rose (Kurland) Simon
  4. ^ a b Simon, 2011, p. 11
  5. ^ Simon, 2011, p. 9
  6. ^ Simon, Joe; with Simon, Jim (1990). The Comic Book Makers. Crestwood/II Publications. p. 22. ISBN 1-887591-35-4. Reissued (Vanguard Productions, 2003) ISBN 1-887591-35-4. Page numbers refer to 1990 edition.
  7. ^ a b Simon, 1990, p. 24
  8. ^ Simon, 1990, pp. 26–27
  9. ^ Simon, 1990, p. 28
  10. ^ Simon, 1990, p. 29
  11. ^ Simon, 1990, pp. 29 & 31
  12. ^ a b Simon, 1990, p. 31
  13. ^ Simon 2011, pp. 61–64.
  14. ^ Confirmed by Joe Simon to Simon and Kirby art restorer Harry Mendryk, cited at Daring Mystery Comics #2 Archived February 8, 2012, at the Wayback Machine at AtlasTales.com; Daring Mystery Comics #2 Archived June 4, 2011, at the Wayback Machine at the Grand Comics Database; and Mendryk, Harry (July 8, 2006). "Art by Joe Simon, Chapter 7, Glaven". Simon & Kirby (column), Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center. Archived from the original on November 18, 2008. Retrieved September 10, 2011.
  15. ^ "More Than Your Average Joe". Jack Kirby Collector. No. 25. (excerpts from Joe Simon's panels at 1998 San Diego Comic-Con International) TwoMorrows Publishing. August 1999. Archived from the original on November 30, 2010.
  16. ^ Simon, Joe; with Simon, Jim (2003). The Comic Book Makers. Vanguard Productions. p. 23. ISBN 1-887591-35-4.
  17. ^ Sanderson, Peter; Gilbert, Laura, ed. (2008). "1939". Marvel Chronicle A Year by Year History. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 11. ISBN 978-0756641238. Martin Goodman hired writer/artist Joe Simon to be Timely's first Editor-in-Chief in late 1939. {{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)
  18. ^ Sanderson "1940s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 18: "Simon and Kirby decided to create another hero who was their response to totalitarian tyranny abroad."
  19. ^ Markstein, Don (2010). "Captain America". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Retrieved April 9, 2012. Captain America was the first successful character published by the company that would become Marvel Comics to debut in his own comic. Captain America Comics #1 was dated March, 1941.
  20. ^ Daniels, Les (1991). Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics. New York, New York: Harry N. Abrams. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-8109-3821-2. The cover of Captain America #1 which showed the new hero, dressed in red, white and blue, punching Adolf Hitler in the face. The date was March 1941.
  21. ^ Per researcher Keif Fromm, Alter Ego vol. 3, #49, p. 4 (caption)
  22. ^ Jones, Gerard. Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book (Basic Books, 2004; trade paperback ISBN 0-465-03657-0), p. 200
  23. ^ Ro, Ronin (2004). Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and the American Comic Book Revolution. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 21. ISBN 1-58234-345-4.
  24. ^ Ro, p. 25
  25. ^ Ro, p. 25–26
  26. ^ Ro, p. 29
  27. ^ Captain Marvel Adventures #1 Archived December 3, 2013, at the Wayback Machine at the Grand Comics Database
  28. ^ Ro, p. 28
  29. ^ Ro, p. 30
  30. ^ Wallace, Daniel; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "1940s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-7566-6742-9. Hot properties Joe Simon and Jack Kirby joined DC ... [and] after taking over the Sandman and Sandy, the Golden Boy feature in Adventure Comics #72, the writer and artist team turned their attentions to Manhunter with issue #73. {{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)
  31. ^ Wallace "1940s" in Dolan, p. 41 "The inaugural issue of Boy Commandos represented Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's first original title since they started at DC (though the characters had debuted earlier that year in Detective Comics #64.)"
  32. ^ Ro, p. 32
  33. ^ Wallace "1940s" in Dolan, p. 41 "Joe Simon and Jack Kirby took their talents to a second title with Star-Spangled Comics, tackling both the Guardian and the Newsboy Legion in issue #7."
  34. ^ Levitz, Paul (2010). "The Golden Age 1938–1956". 75 Years of DC Comics The Art of Modern Mythmaking. Cologne, Germany: Taschen. p. 131. ISBN 9783836519816.
  35. ^ Mendryk, "Art by Joe Simon, Chapter 7, Glaven"
  36. ^ Speed Comics #22 Archived October 3, 2010, at the Wayback Machine and Champ Comics #22 Archived October 18, 2012, at the Wayback Machine at the Grand Comics Database
  37. ^ Mendryk, Harry (July 4, 2006). "Art by Joe Simon, Chapter 6, Jon Henri". Simon & Kirby (column), Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center. Archived from the original on June 12, 2011. Retrieved September 10, 2011.
  38. ^ "Henri, Jon". Who's Who in American Comic Books 1929–1999. Archived from the original on May 11, 2007. This source nonetheless gives spelling "Jon Henery" at Simon's entry, cited in footnote 1.
  39. ^ Simon, 1990, p. 69
  40. ^ Simon, 1990, pp. 70–71
  41. ^ Simon, 1990, pp. 71–72
  42. ^ Simon, 1990, pp. 73 & 75
  43. ^ a b Shapiro, T. Rees (December 15, 2011). "Joe Simon, co-creator of the Captain America comics, dies at 98". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013.
  44. ^ a b Simon, 1990, pp. 84–85
  45. ^ Evanier, Mark (2008). Kirby: King of Comics. New York: Harry N. Abrams, pp. 72, 80. ISBN 978-0-8109-9447-8.
  46. ^ a b Ro, p. 54 Archived June 16, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  47. ^ Beerbohm, Robert Lee (August 1999). "The Mainline Story". Jack Kirby Collector. Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing (25). Archived from the original on May 26, 2011. Retrieved March 26, 2008.
  48. ^ Ro, p. 52 Archived May 6, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  49. ^ "'I Created an Army of Characters, and Now My Connection with Them Is Lost". interview, The Great Electric Bird radio show, WNUR-FM, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. May 14, 1971. Transcribed in The Nostalgia Journal (27) August 1976. Reprinted in Milo, George, ed. (2002). The Comics Journal Library, Volume One: Jack Kirby. Seattle, Washington: Fantagraphics Books. p. 16. ISBN 1-56097-466-4.
  50. ^ Groth, Gary (February 1990). "Joe Simon Interviewed". The Comics Journal. Seattle, Washington: Fantagraphics Books (134): 106.
  51. ^ Evanier, Mark (2014). The Art of the Simon and Kirby Studio. New York: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-1419711602.
  52. ^ Bails, Jerry; Ware, Hames (eds.). "Simon, Joe". Who's Who in American Comic Books 1929–1999. Archived from the original on May 11, 2007. Retrieved October 16, 2016.
  53. ^ Simon 2011, pp. 214–216.
  54. ^ a b c d Joe Simon at the Grand Comics Database
  55. ^ McAvennie, Michael "1960s" in Dolan, p. 131 "The medium didn't appear to be ready for Brother Power, the Geek, envisioned by writer Joe Simon and artist Al Bare. Simon's mod re-imagining of Frankenstein's monster ... a mannequin turned reclusive hero-philosopher was a trip that lasted only two issues."
  56. ^ Markstein, Don (2007). "Brother Power, the Geek". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on July 19, 2014.
  57. ^ McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 156 "Teenage President of the United States Prez Rickard didn't enjoy a long term in comics. However scripter Joe Simon and artist Jerry Grandenetti gave him plenty to tackle in four issues."
  58. ^ Joe Simon (editor) at the Grand Comics Database
  59. ^ McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 158 "The legendary tandem of writer Joe Simon and artist/editor Jack Kirby reunited for a one-shot starring the Sandman ... Despite the issue's popularity, it would be Simon and Kirby's last collaboration."
  60. ^ Markstein, Don (2009). "The Green Team". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on September 1, 2016.
  61. ^ "Death to 'America': Comic-book hero killed off". Today.com. Associated Press. March 8, 2007. Archived from the original on July 22, 2017. Retrieved November 17, 2019.
  62. ^ "Comic hero Captain America dies". BBC News. March 8, 2007. Archived from the original on August 8, 2010.
  63. ^ Langshaw, Mark (April 26, 2010). "Jim Simon ('ShieldMaster')". DigitalSpy.com. Archived from the original on November 3, 2016.
  64. ^ Logan, Michael (October 14, 2013). "The Comics' Real Heroes". TV Guide. p. 27.
  65. ^ Margulies, Megan (Joe Simon granddaughter) (March 5, 2014). "Captain America Lives On: Remembering Joe Simon". Bleeding Cool. Archived from the original on May 5, 2014. Retrieved May 5, 2014.
  66. ^ Birnbaum, Robert. "Bret Easton Ellis", The Morning News, 2006-01-19. Retrieved on 2008-10-28.
  67. ^ Leonard, John. “Meshuga Alaska”, The New York Review of Books, 2007-06-14. Retrieved on 2007-07-27.
  68. ^ Lalumière, Claude (January 2001). "Where There Is Icing". (book review), JanuaryMagazine.com. Archived from the original on November 25, 2010.
  69. ^ a b Sacks, Ethan (December 15, 2011). "Joe Simon dead at 98: Created Captain America with Jack Kirby". Daily News. New York City. Archived from the original on June 6, 2014.
  70. ^ Moore, Matt (December 15, 2011). "Iconic writer Joe Simon, Co-creator of Captain America, Dies". Associated Press via USA Today. Archived from the original on December 17, 2011.
  71. ^ Dobuzinskis, Alex (December 15, 2011). "Captain America co-creator Joe Simon dies at 98". Reuters. Archived from the original on December 16, 2011.
  72. ^ "Best Shots Rapid Reviews: Aquaman, Avenging Spider-Man, More". Newsarama. March 29, 2012. Archived from the original on September 17, 2015.
  73. ^ "Inkpot Award Winners". Comic Book Awards Almanac. Archived from the original on July 9, 2012.
  74. ^ "1990s". San Diego Comic-Con. December 2, 2012. Retrieved December 16, 2012.
  75. ^ "2014 Inkwell Awards Winners". Inkwell Awards. Archived from the original on July 5, 2015.
External links
Preceded by
n/a
 Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief
1939–1941 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
n/a
 Captain America Comics writer/artist
(with Jack Kirby)
1941–1942 		Succeeded by
Stan Lee (as writer)
Al Avison (as artist)
Categories

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