Entry tags:

char: captain america/steve rogers, creator: joe simon, title: captain america

Especially so soon after losing Jerry Robinson comes the loss of another of the founders of the whole four colour superhero comic concept. Joe Simon, long time working partner of Jack Kirby, and co-creator of, amongst others, a little fellow by the name of Captain America.

Mark Evanier has a nice eulogy at his site

I have two pieces to write here — one about Joe's enormous contribution to the world of comics, with and without Jack Kirby. Joe and Jack were really the first superstar creator(s) of comic books. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were important because they were the creators of Superman. Simon and Kirby were important because they were Simon and Kirby. They were the guys who were ahead of everyone else in making comic books different from comic strips. They were the guys everyone in the industry looked to for the next trend, the next innovation, the next hit. It wasn't just that they gave the world Captain America. They also showed everyone how to make comics more exciting.

I also need to write something about Joe himself. He was an amazing man, too often wrongly viewed as just the "business" side of Simon and Kirby. Jack was the better artist — even Joe admitted that — and Jack had that ultrahuman work ethic that allowed him to labor at the drawing table all day and all night. But if you asked Jack who did what in the Simon-Kirby parlay, he usually said, "We both did everything." That was true. Joe wrote, Joe drew, Joe inked. And he especially excelled in managing the money end of things because he understood publishing and contracts and such matters — a rare skill among comic book creators. He was also a superb designer and editor who really knew how to put a book together. People also too often overlook his many achievements wholly apart from Kirby. They included Sick magazine — for my money, the best of the MAD imitators and one of only two (the other being Cracked) to last long enough to be called a true success.

And for legality, the first Captain America cover credited to Mr Simon....