Joe Simon (comic book writer)

Joe Simon at New York Comic Con (2006)

Joseph H. "Joe" Simon (born October 11, 1913 in Rochester , New York , † December 14, 2011 in New York City ; pseudonyms: Gregory Sykes, Jon Henery ) was an American comic book author, illustrator and editor. Simon was best known as a co-creator of the cartoon character Captain America .

Life and work

Simon was born in 1913 as the eldest son of a Jewish family. The son of a tailor spent his youth in Rochester , New York, where he also attended Benjamin Franklin High School. In 1932 he began working as an artist for the Syracuse Herald and soon afterwards for the Syracuse Journal American . In 1933 Simon moved to New York City , where he worked for the Paramount film studios. Specifically, he revised (retouched) publicity images (images for newspapers, etc.) on behalf of the studios before they were brought to the public for advertising purposes. At the same time, Simon was responsible for illustrations for magazines such as True Story magazine for McFadden Publications .

In the late 1930s, Simon began working as a full-time comic book writer and illustrator at the comic book publisher Funnies, Inc. through Harlan Crandall, a senior editor at McFadeen, who, through his advocacy for publisher Lloyd Jacquet, secured him a position . Soon after, he took on assignments as a staff draftsman at Fox Feature Syndicate. It was around this time that Simon met the New York artist Jack Kirby , with whom he eventually entered into an artistic partnership that lasted until the 1960s.

The two achieved their greatest artistic and commercial success in 1940 with the figure of the patriotic super soldier Captain America. For the first time, they introduced him, a weak war volunteer who is transformed into an almost indomitable fighter for American values ​​through a medical experiment by the US Army, in the first issue of the series of the same name, Captain America Comics .

During the Second World War, the comics about the contender for the “values ​​of the free world”, who turned in the American national colors, became a bestseller and the figure of the “Captain” became a symbol of the American will to assert himself in the confrontation with German National Socialism and Japanese military fascism . Since then, the figure has been used in numerous other comic and cartoon series, movies and toy products and as a decorative motif on countless everyday objects and is still one of the world's best-known figures of the superhero genre as well as the most famous comic characters in general.

Captain America became a political issue even before the USA officially entered the war: The cover picture of Captain America Comics # 1, which shows the title hero hooking the German dictator Adolf Hitler's face with a swinging chin, a few weeks before the Japanese attack appeared on Pearl Harbor , which brought the United States to war, immediately became a political issue. Not only did the German embassy in the United States object to the magazine and its cover picture - which is now considered to be one of the most famous covers in American comic history - many Americans also endeavored to protect the United States at all costs from becoming involved in the Second World War to preserve, they disliked the booklet, in which they saw further explosive for a conflict with foreign countries. Accordingly, the publisher of Captain America Comics, the Timely Comics publishing house (later Marvel Comics ), received not only enthusiastic letters to the editor but also numerous criticism and abuse letters.

In the years 1940 to 1942 the two created a few more reasonably popular concepts or series for the publisher National Publications (later DC Comics ) such as Newsboy Legion, Boy Commandos and Manhunter. There were also the war comic Fighting American and the science fiction outfit The Fly .

The two also worked together on Sandman (1940) and Captain Marvel for Fawcett Comics.

In the late 1940s and 1950s, Simon and Kirby shifted to producing horror comics, romantic comics, Humcomics ( Young Romance Comics ), and star comics for publishers such as Prize Comics. In 1953, the two briefly ran their own publishing house, Mainline Publications, for which they developed the western hero Bullseye and the superhero parody Fighting American. In 1955, Simon gave up his career in the comic industry to work as a full-time advertising artist.

Aside from his work as an advertising artist, Simon continued to take “excursions” into the comic industry. He worked briefly for the satirical magazine Sick and for the publishing house Archie Comics, for which he designed two issues in the series The Double Life of Private Strong and several issues in the series The Adventures of the Fly . In 1966 he teamed up again with Kirby to present a modernized version of Fighting American for Harvey Comics . The last collaboration with Kirby came in 1974 when Simon and Kirby jointly designed an issue of the Sandman series .

In the 2000s, Simon worked primarily as a painter and designer of marketing products. In 2007, on the occasion of the "death" of Captain America - or the decision by Marvel Comics to let the character die on one of its adventures - Simon appeared on numerous television news programs that covered the "event".

Web links

• Joe Simon in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ T. Rees Shapiro: Joe Simon, co-creator of the Captain America comics, dies at 98. The Washington Post , December 15, 2011, accessed September 1, 2014 . 
2. ^ The Superheroes, Documentation USA 2006.