Joe Simon was born Oct. 11, 1913.
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Joe Simon is best known as Jack Kirby’s creative partner in the Golden Age. Together, they gave comics one of its greatest stars — Captain America, for Marvel precursor Timely Comics. But they did so much more together, including the Boy Commandos, Newsboy Legion, Sandman and Manhunter for DC. (Plus, later, they gave us romance and Western comics, the Fighting American, etc., etc.)
For this 13 COVERS salute, I’m choosing to focus on those earliest collaborations.
A couple of notes: As usual, I’m going by the credits listed in the great Grand Comics Database. There seems to be some question as to whether Simon actually worked as inker on some of these covers. Either way, what’s relevant to me in making this list is that Simon and Kirby were partners on these books.
Simon died in 2011, at the ripe age of 98.
(Here’s the usual caveat: This is a subjective list and not a ranking of any kind. This is pretty much what I dig and you may feel very differently. So, rather than beef about a cover you don’t see, instead join in the fun and share your own choices in the comments section or in whatever social-media thread you saw this.)
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Simon pencils and inks.
Kirby/Simon
Kirby/Simon
Kirby. Simon designed the logo. (I wasn’t going to leave this out, either way.)
Kirby/Simon (signed as Simon, at least)
Kirby/Simon
Kirby/Simon (signed as …)
Kirby/Simon
Kirby/Simon
Kirby/Simon
Kirby/Simon
Kirby/Simon (signed as …)
Simon’s 1940 Cap sketch was used for the ’74 Comic Art Convention program cover … (Image from mycomicshop.com)
