Joe Simon Dies

It's been a rough month for the Golden Age, with the co-creator (with Jack Kirby) of Captain America, the Newsboy Legion and the Boy Commandos passing.

He was born Hymie Simon in Rochester, N.Y., in 1913, and as a youngster he was drawn to journalism. Instead, he ended up in the scruffy, deadline-driven comic book business that popped up in New York City in the 1930s. His first collaboration with Kirby came in 1940 with a hero called Blue Bolt, but they struck gold with Captain America — who was punching Adolf Hitler on newsstands months before Pearl Harbor. It turned out to be a quick hit for Timely Comics, which would later become Marvel Comics. Simon, who was both a writer and artist, came up with the concept of the red, white and blue character, but it was Kirby — by most appraisals the most important comics artist ever — who created the dynamic artwork in the early issues.

I covered Simon's oddball series for the late Silver Age DC, Brother Power the Geek back in the early days of this blog.