Joe Simon is a legend in the world of comic books. He co-created Captain America (and many other memorable characters), worked with many of the field’s most important names, and stands as one of the first artists to recognize the importance of controlling his own copyrights.
I attended his spotlight panel at this year’s New York Comic Con, and after hearing him banter back and forth about his career, his friends, and his childhood memories of delivering papers and meeting a Civil War veteran in history class, I went and bought his book immediately. I hoped that a fraction of the good nature and charm that he conveyed in person would carry through in print… And it certainly does.
From his early years in New York to his first career as a newspaper illustrator to his move into comics as the business dawned, telling of his successes and struggles, Simon keeps the pace quick and the tone casual. His long standing partnership with Jack Kirby, his struggles for adequate compensation from publishers with questionable ethics, and his concerns both practical and artistic all receive space, and it makes for a vastly compelling read, a lifetime events told in casual and conversational style. He creates pictures of his life through countless tiny anecdotes: hundreds of memories follow one after the other, in roughly chronological order, building up to a grand overview of a man, his creative triumphs, and his limitless imagination. There’s tales of business conferences and all-night sessions at the drawing board, but also of romance and wartime and family and heroes and villains (both fictional and real).
It’s warm and inviting, like hearing a favorite uncle tell stories… And in this case, the stories just happen to be entwined with the rise and evolution of an art form. It’s a look inside a bygone era, and a joyful recounting of how a tailor’s son grew up to create American legends.
Joe Simon: My Life in Comics