Tag: Joe Simon

5BC: Five Times DC Referenced Marvel Characters in Interesting Ways

We've been talking a lot about the unofficial crossovers between characters and the homages that were done. But beyond that, there's a whole other category of instances in which one company either appropriated or parodied or referenced the characters of another. These instances tended to take many different forms--there was one memorable instance, for example, … Continue reading 5BC: Five Times DC Referenced Marvel Characters in Interesting Ways →

Lee & Kirby & Goldberg & Hartley: The Unlikely Cameos of Jack Kirby

Reader Steven Thompson asked me a question about this recently, so this piece exists entirely due to his interest--you can thank him if you find anything here of value. There was a time-honored tradition of writers and artists inserting themselves into their stories, and Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were no different. In general, the … Continue reading Lee & Kirby & Goldberg & Hartley: The Unlikely Cameos of Jack Kirby →

Great Covers: Marvel Around The World 2

It's been a while since I did one of these, and since I still find the subject interesting, let's take another look at assorted Marvel titles from the past as they were imported into assorted countries around the globe. This Spanish version of FANTASTIC FOUR #1 dates to 1968 and sports a home-grown cover painting … Continue reading Great Covers: Marvel Around The World 2 →

BHOC: MARVEL TREASURY EDITION #2

I ordered a copy of this MARVEL TREASURY EDITION featuring the Fantastic Four from the Superhero Merchandise catalog--or as the firm would later be known, Heroes World. They had bought out Marvel and DC's back-stock of their various Treasury Editions and would sell them for years thereafter, often advertising in the comics themselves. I eventually … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TREASURY EDITION #2 →

Making The Shield Into Captain America

Captain America was not the first patriotically-themed super hero to appear in comic books. That honor is reserved for The Shield, headliner of PEP COMICS for MLJ (eventually ARCHIE) who first appeared in the inaugural issue of that series, the creation of Harry Shorten and Irv Novick. Like most of the early super heroes, the … Continue reading Making The Shield Into Captain America →

Brand Echh – Spyman #1

This one really should have been the blockbuster that Stan Lee and Martin Goodman feared that Harvey was going to produce with Joe Simon heading up their attempt to jump onto the super hero bandwagon in 1966. Spyman was the brainchild of future Marvel superstar Jim Steranko. But apart from the odd spot illustration (such … Continue reading Brand Echh – Spyman #1 →

Brand Echh – Sick #48

In the mid-1960s, Joe Simon was in the middle of a court battle attempting to recapture the rights to Captain America, an effort which would eventually come to nothing in part thanks to an affidavit made out by his old partner Jack Kirby specifying that he was aware at all times that everything created for … Continue reading Brand Echh – Sick #48 →

Brand Echh – Unearthly Spectaculars #2

Upon hearing that Captain America co-creator Joe Simon had joined forces with Harvey Publications to release a new line of super hero titles to capitalize on the new wave of costumed hero popularity, both Martin Goodman and Stan Lee were concerned. They both had a ton of respect for Simon's commercial abilities, and feared that … Continue reading Brand Echh – Unearthly Spectaculars #2 →

Brand Echh – Fly Man #35

In their masterful two-issue summation of the WORLD'S WORST COMICS, James Schumeister and Rich Larson gave a particular adroit description of the books put out under the Mighty Comics banner. They said that it was as though Russian spies had smuggled out a copy of a Marvel book and had tried to reverse-engineer it. That … Continue reading Brand Echh – Fly Man #35 →