Captain America
Jack Kirby was matter-of-fact about his talent; he loved to draw, and he tried to treat his readers with respect. But as new generations discovered comic books, they discovered Jack Kirby, defending him amid the corporate takeovers and boosting his spirits. Michael Chabon dedicated his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about two comic book creators, "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier he was a Depression-era kid. His distinctive action-packed style became the model for many comic-book artists. Jack Kirby drew himself surrounded by his creations, including Captain America and the Fantastic Four.
The nickname was meant as a joke, a little needle from Marvel Comics mainstay Stan Lee to artist Jack Kirby. Longtime Kirby associate Mark Evanier pens historical essays for each section. Simon himself, who is still alive and producing, provides the introduction, an intimate portrait of his working relationship with Kirby. Another of the superhero pieces, this one involving the Simon and Kirby version of the vintage character known as the Sandman, pits that stalwart against a villain disguised as the Norse thunder God, Thor; which is chiefly notable because Kirby would be closely associated with another, and more lasting, version of Thor a couple of decades later. Others, which often work quite well on their own level, are now risible for other reasons, notably one crime story where a thug goes crazy from marijuana withdrawal, and a hard-bitten Korean War tale about the soldiers who fall to ruin after they encounter a buxom young lady who turns out to be bait for a, I'm not kidding, "Booby Trap." But the overall impression given is that of incredible versatility, ranging from the expected science fiction stories to the steamy romancer, "The Savage in Me," the tale of a sexually repressed missionary's daughter who grows hotter and more passionate the more irritated she gets at the local rogue she can't stand.
And there are a couple of pieces here, included for their historical importance, that are at best campy pleasures today, among them a pair of the superhero pieces: Captain America's first battle with the Red Skull, and another involving a character known as Stuntman. The Best of Simon and Kirby is hardly that, since a compendium that seeks to showcase all the many fields in which they toiled can only feature a few samples in each genre and cannot devote more time to the places where they were consistently excellent. Best known today for their superhero work, which they excelled at and which helped to define that genre, they were in truth far more versatile than that, working in just about every storytelling convention from horror to western, and in fact helping to establish one, the romance comic, that is now barely mentioned in connection with their names. It's a spectacularly inexact comparison, but Joe Simon and Jack Kirby could be described as the Lennon and McCartney of the Golden Age of comic books.
Alex Ross's kinetic cover is part of Marvel Comics giant-size Captain America issue No. The gimmick isnt going wide: The Foilogram treatment is only for top-shelf stars. The spectral ballet has been known to incite compulsive purchasing, so lock down your wallet if youre just window-shopping. Marvel Comics new Foilogram cover treatment for the publishers new Ultimate Comics line is a reflective grabber. In the Stuntman episode from 1946, the two are producing the kind of panoramic shots that Kirby would make his trademark in the sixties Marvel comics.
In the Sandman adventure, created a year after the Vision story, we're provided a full-page brawl between NYC cops and Viking gangsters that practically kicks you in the face. With the oldest pieces you can see the two struggling to see how far they can push the parameters of comic book tier storytelling the Vision entry, for instance, contains a page where one of the panels seems to slip out of the sequence altogether though the learning curve is pretty steep. Much of the earliest work presented in this handsomely produced coffee table book collection is the hero stuff: Captain America, Sandman, and the Vision.