Joe Simon Jack Kirby John Severin Boy Explorers Mainline Comics
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Fully Authorized $5.95 By The In The US Kirby THE Estate A 100-PAGE ISSUE #25, AUG. 1999 ISSUE SPOTLIGHTING Collector SIMON & KIRBY! Feature-Length Interview with Joe Simon As he discusses the S&K Shop Jack Kirby Talks about his Golden Age work With Joe Simon Interview with John Severin The Unpublished Boy Explorers The Story Behind Mainline Comics Special Art & Features: Stuntman Sandman Captain America Kid Gangs And others . c n I , s r e t c Unpublished Art a r a including published h C l e pages Before They v r Were Inked, And a M © Much More!! & M T l l u k 1999 S Eisner d e Awards R , Nominee a c for “Best i r Comics-Related e Publication” m A n i a t p a C THE ONLY ’ZINE AUTHORIZED BY THE Issue #25 Contents THE KIRBY ESTATE Jack Kirby in the Golden Age .............4 (a revealing interview with the King) Sandman in All-Star Comics .............12 (S&K’s rare stories in the Justice Society) The Mystery of Jon Henri .................15 (who drew those masked men?) ISSUE #25, AUG. 1999 COLLECTOR Prof. Reinstein, I Presume? ...............16 (of Eugenics and super-heroes) Classic Kirby Text Illustrations ..........19 (some little-known spot illos) The Best of S&K’s Golden Age ..........21 (war, romance, red underwear, and werewolves!) Just For Laughs .................................27 (the humorous side of Joe and Jack) S&K’s Swipe File ...............................28 (we caught them red-handed!) John Severin Interview .....................30 (John tells us why “They were aces!”) Joe Simon Interview .........................33 (he’s more than your average Joe) Centerfold: Captain America .............50 (the oldest surviving S&K original art?) Sid Jacobson on Simon & Kirby .......52 (Captain 3-D’s editor speaks) Simon & Kirby and the Kid Gang ....54 (an overview of S&K’s kid groups) Re-Examining the Boy Explorers ......61 (a fresh look, plus an unfinished story!) The Edge of the World .....................72 (a complete 1946 Boy Explorers story) The Mainline Comics Story ..............86 (an initial examination of S&K’s short- lived self-publishing company) Classifieds .........................................96 Collector Comments .........................97 Front cover inks: Dan Adkins Back cover inks: John Severin Cover color: Tom Ziuko Photocopies of Jack’s uninked pencils from published comics are reproduced here courtesy of the Kirby Estate, which has our thanks for their continued support. Our sincere thanks to Joe Simon for his cooperation and assistance with this issue! COPYRIGHTS: Boy Commandos (Brooklyn, Andre, Tex, Percy, Jan, Alfy, Rip Carter), Demon, Guardian, Jed, Jim Harper, Losers, Mister Miracle, Newsboy Legion (Gabby, Scrapper, Tommy, Big Words, Flippa Dippa), Orion, Sandman, Sandy, Starman, The Mist TM & © DC Comics, Inc. • Bucky, Captain America, Dr. Strange, Falcon, Ikaris, “Man From the Wrong Time Track”, Man-Thing, Red Skull, Silver Surfer, Sis-Neg, Sleepy Eyes, “Speed Will Be My Bride”, Thing, Vision, Yellow Claw TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. • All the 1930s and ’40s early drawings are © Jack Kirby. • All Joe Simon solo drawings , The Fly, Private Strong, Silver Spider © Joe Simon. • Boy Explorers (Commodore Sindbad, Gadget, Mr. Zero, Smiley, Gashouse), Boys’ Ranch (Dandy, Wabash, Angel, Clay Duncan), Bullseye, Captain 3-D Tigra, Don Daring, Fighting American, Foxhole, In Love, Inky, Invisible Irving, Jack In 1977, Steve Robertson bought this unused cover for Justice Traps the Guilty #1 from Jack. Jack felt bad that it wasn’t fin - McGregor’s Bluff, Nancy Hale, Night Fighter, Panda, Police Trap, Round ished, and offered to finish it up. Steve declined, since he wanted to preserve it as it was, so Jack sold it for the princely sum of Robin, Speedboy, Stuntman, Vagabond Prince, Young Brides, Young Love, Young Romance © Joe Simon & Jack Kirby. • Headline Comics, $20! Jack signed and dated it 1977, but then changed the date to ’57, saying, “That’s when I did this!” (It should’ve been ’47!) Justice Traps the Guilty © Prize Publications. • Champ Comics, Champion Comics, Front-Page Comics, Speed Comics © Harvey Publications. • Crime SuspenStories © EC Comics. • Popeye © King Features. • The Duel © Gilberton Publications. • Cockeyed © The Jack Kirby Collector , Vol. 6, No. 25, Aug. 1999. Published bi-monthly by & © TwoMorrows Publishing, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Whitestone Publications. • Real Clue Crime Stories © Hillman 919-833-8092. John Morrow, Editor. Pamela Morrow, Asst. Editor. Jon B. Cooke, Assoc. Editor. Single issues: $5.95 ($7.00 Canada, $9.00 elsewhere). Periodicals. • Green Hornet © The Green Hornet. • Sick Magazine © Headline Publications. • Blue Bolt, Green Sorceress © Novelty Press. • Six-issue subscriptions: $24.00 US, $32.00 Canada and Mexico, $44.00 outside North America. First printing. All characters are trademarks of their respec - Blue Beetle © Fox Publications. • Crazy, Man, Crazy, From Here To tive companies. All artwork is © Jack Kirby unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter is © the respective authors. PRINTED IN CANADA. Insanity, I Love You © Charlton Publications. 3 Jack Kirby In The Golden Age Interviewed by James Van Hise, and originally published in Golden Age of Comics #6, November 1983. © James Van Hise. (Our thanks to James for permission to reprint the text of this interview.) JAMES VAN of course, nobody knew anything about. HISE: Before VAN HISE: Did you have a special liking for the Solar Legion ? Because you worked in in the late Thirties you’d revive it whenever you had a new forum. comic books, some of your KIRBY: Yes I did, because first of all, The Solar Legion involved a lot of earliest work was characters. I grew up among a lot of people and being born in New doing newspaper York’s lower East Side, which was a crowded section, there were people strips, wasn’t it? everywhere—and so I think it was natural for me to think in terms of groups, and of course I’d be included somewhere. My recollections of JACK KIRBY: I did work different types of people would be reflected in different themes in the for a small syndicate which comic strips. So if I did The Solar Legion, I might include different had about four hundred types of people that I knew. They’d have that kind of temperament. papers called the Lincoln Some of them would be Newspaper Features Syndicate. I cool. Some of them did a variety of work there and I was would be hot-tempered, grateful for that because it prepared me for doing a variety of comics. and they’d be people in I did editorial cartoons. I did a cartoon called Your Health Comes conflict and people who’d First where I gave ordinary prescriptions, and I did comic strips. (above, below, help each other. VAN HISE: This is where you used different styles drawn under and following pages) VAN HISE: How much of different names? Early Kirby pencil drawings, circa the 1930s. your own writing were you KIRBY: No, the styles looked different because the doing then? theme was different, but actually I didn’t dis - KIRBY: All of it. guise my style, I just changed the name on I’ve always the strip. One strip would be done by Jack done my own Curtiss and another strip would be done writing. under another name. That gave the syndi - cate the aura of having a larger staff. VAN HISE: What were the big influences on your work at the time? The adventure strips? The pulps? KIRBY: The adventure strips were only just beginning at the time. Dick Tracy was, of course, the first real adventure strip, and Buck Rogers was one of the early ones. So having been an admirer of that type of thing, I felt that I’d like to do that as well. I picked themes along those lines, but I did them with a science- fiction flavor which most of the others didn’t have. I would do a story about an airplane which went back into time.... VAN HISE: That was the Solar Legion, wasn’t it? KIRBY: Oh yes. I had an atomic cannon which was fairy tale stuff at that time. This was a time when there weren’t even jets. No one could even conceive of jets, so if you did an atomic cannon you were sort of an avant garde, far-out type of writer. I began doing things that people would speculate about, but which, 4 Early comic strip attempt by Kirby (signed “Jack Curtiss”), done in 1931 at age 14. When I got into comic books I began needing people like Joe Simon, and finally Joe and I got together to do Captain America. We were both profes - sionals and we were both capable of writing the stuff, but Joe did most of the business. He was a big guy, six foot three, very impressive, and he had college experience which I didn’t have— but I had a unique storytelling ability, so although he was quite capable of doing so, he never had to write the stories. I’d write the stories on Captain America or whatever we’d be working on and Joe did business with the publisher because he could meet the publisher on an equal footing. I was younger and I was the kid with the turtleneck sweater who was always working. VAN HISE: What was the actual break - down of work between you and Joe Simon on Captain America as far as penciling, inking, etc.? KIRBY: Well, I did most of it and Joe did some of it, but I did most of it because I had the time. I was constantly working. Joe had duties as an editor and he might be an editor in the publishing house and he’d be having contacts with the publisher that I didn’t.