Two people who helped create the comic book universes of DC and Marvel passed away this month. Sadly, they lived in the shadows due to more famous names pushing them aside, taking the credit or whatever. It’s a shame but when a beaucoup bucks are on the line for getting ludicrous licensing money, people turn into assholes.
Joe Simon was Jack “The King” Kirby’s early partner in the business. Their most famous collaboration being Captain America before Marvel’s pro-genitor screwed them over 10 issues later. Joe never gave up writing which is something I can admire him for. He went on to work for DC, Harvey and numerous other projects.
I find it amusing that he co-created Captain America out his sense of American patriotism since Jews weren’t exactly welcome in the US before WWII. It’s something for the Teabaggers, Know Nothings and Xenophobes to choke on; once again a Jewish person created an iconic American character (I’m sure you can guess the other). In the interest of full disclosure, my favorite president (FDR) once told his Jewish and Catholic staffers how America is a Protestant nation, everyone else is a guest. I wonder how the nine guests on the Supreme Court are doing?
Politics/History are done for now…
The other loss was Jerry Robinson, a name fewer people would know. Many blame this on Batman’s primary creator Bob Kane trying to take most of the credit. Comic book historians tend to agree on Jerry being the actual originator of Robin and the Joker, two rather important characters in the Batman mythos.
Jerry’s bigger and more important post-Batman work was writing about the history of comics, helping free an Uruguayan cartoonist imprisoned by the ruling junta, artwork for Playbill and teaching at the New York School of Visual Arts.
These gentlemen from the Golden Age will be missed. I thank them for the cool characters I grew up with. When I was a kid, my favorite Mego superhero doll/action figure was Robin and I remain a Nightwing fan.