Print this pageTwelfth in a series of posts, each one analyzing a single panel from a Jack Kirby-drawn comic book.
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In the years immediately following the end of World War II, Jack Kirby and his collaborator Joe Simon faced a dilemma: superhero comics weren’t selling. Meanwhile, magazines like True Romance and True Confessions were flying off the racks. Simon wondered whether adult women might buy a similar type of comic book, one filled with tales of heartache and redemption, told by a first-person narrator; Kirby thought the idea might work. A first attempt lasted only four issues, but when Young Romance #1 appeared in 1947, it sold over a million copies. Kirby and Simon, it seemed, had invented a new genre. They quickly followed up with other titles (Young Love, Western Love, In Love), as did their competitors.
Whether set in a penthouse or on a dude ranch, romance comics revolve around the simple theme of girl meets boy. Alas, the course of true love cannot run smoothly, or there would be no story. Thus, our heroine is conflicted. She cannot recognize Romance when it pulls up in front of her rooming house and asks her to go for a ride. She does not want a Second Hand Love who has been engaged before. Perhaps she is intrigued but reluctant because she carries a torch for the Wrong Man. Maybe she harbors a secret that she believes makes her Unfit for Love. Sometimes her True Love presents himself as a “Resort Romeo,” and it’s only when the heroine realizes — spoiler alert! — (a) he’s blind, and (b) despite his handicap, the best mountain climber she’s ever seen, that the scales fall from her own eyes. (Regarding the way in which the young and beautiful heroines of these comics so frequently and inexplicably fall for arrogant blowhards of dubious charm, it is perhaps best to remember that although most — but not all — of these “true” stories were told from a female point of view, they were written by middle-aged men.)
The final issue of Young Romance appeared in 1975, around the time that the genre itself declined. But one has only to look at the vivid colors, brash angles, and melodramatic text of this panel from Young Love (May 1950) to understand why Roy Lichtenstein appropriated images from the romance comics (though not necessarily Kirby’s work) for his mid-1960s pop paintings — a high-culture hat tip to a “low-brow” art form.
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CHECK OUT “Cosmic Debris: Kirby in the ’70s,” a series running in tandem with “Kirb Your Enthusiasm” at the 4CP gallery of comic book details | Kirby cutaways and diagrams collected at the Comic Book Cartography gallery | Joe Alterio’s Cablegate Comix and HiLobrow posts about comics and cartoonists, and science fiction | The Jack Kirby Chronology | scans of rare 1940-50s Kirby comics at the Digital Comic Museum | Joshua Glenn on the New Gods generation
POSTS IN THIS SERIES: Douglas Rushkoff on THE ETERNALS | John Hilgart on BLACK MAGIC | Gary Panter on DEMON | Dan Nadel on OMAC | Deb Chachra on CAPTAIN AMERICA | Mark Frauenfelder on KAMANDI | Jason Grote on MACHINE MAN | Ben Greenman on SANDMAN | Annie Nocenti on THE X-MEN | Greg Rowland on THE FANTASTIC FOUR | Joshua Glenn on TALES TO ASTONISH | Lynn Peril on YOUNG LOVE | Jim Shepard on STRANGE TALES | David Smay on MISTER MIRACLE | Joe Alterio on BLACK PANTHER | Sean Howe on THOR | Mark Newgarden on JIMMY OLSEN | Dean Haspiel on DEVIL DINOSAUR | Matthew Specktor on THE AVENGERS | Terese Svoboda on TALES OF SUSPENSE | Matthew Wells on THE NEW GODS | Toni Schlesinger on REAL CLUE | Josh Kramer on THE FOREVER PEOPLE | Glen David Gold on JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY | Douglas Wolk on 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY | MORE EXEGETICAL COMMENTARIES: Joshua Glenn on Kirby’s Radium Age Sci-Fi Influences | Chris Lanier on Kirby vs. Kubrick | Scott Edelman recalls when the FF walked among us | Adam McGovern is haunted by a panel from THE NEW GODS | Matt Seneca studies the sensuality of Kirby’s women | Danny Fingeroth figgers out The Thing |
So glad you wrote about one of Kirby’s romance comics, Lynn, since he spent such a large chunk of the Fifties drawing this sort of thing!
PS: I’m pretty sure that after Peggy steps out of Bob’s car, she finds a mega-rod on the side of the highway and transforms into BIG BARDA.
Just to avoid any confusion.
Joe Simon was Kirby’s business partner. Simon certainly didn’t write anything for Kirby in the 50′s.
Simon wrote a few things of his own, and supplied sketchy plots to Simon and Kirby Studio writers on occasion.
In two different interviews by Jim Amash S&K studio writers Kim Aamodt, and Walter Geier both confirmed that Kirby not only wrote his own material for the stories he penciled, but routinely supplied the other writers with detailed plots.
Geier even said, “They were Jack’s stories, I just filled in the balloons.”
Gil Kane, Jack Katz, and others have also confirmed Kirby wrote the stories he penciled.
Thanks, Patrick.
As the KIRB YOUR ENTHUSIASM series editor, I’ve tried to avoid using the word “collaborator” too often when talking about Joe Simon, but it’s tough to know what else to call him. As you say, he wasn’t a writer for Kirby like Stan Lee was (at times); however, “business partner” doesn’t make Simon sound like a creative talent in his own right. The subtitle of a book about Simon I’ve seen (but not read) — “The Man Behind the Comics” — is equally vague.
So… I guess it’s back to “collaborator.”
It’s certainly appears that Joe, still with us, was a good guy. He was a lot shrewder than Jack, and negotiated some good business deals (SImon still owns some rights to Captain America.)
Great to see a romance piece inhere too. Few would say that Kirby’s forte was drawing beautiful female faces, so it’s a great testament to his powers that he launched this genre!
I actually emailed Joe Simon’s amanuensis, trying to persuade Simon to contribute to this series…
I’ve tried to contact Joe’s son a couple of times about getting the delux signed edition of his book, but the conversation has always petered out from their end. I gave up as I don’t really want to hassle a 95-year old guy for the purposes of one fan-boy’s collecting gratification.