Just ran across this panel from CAPTAIN AMERICA # 23 ( 1943) and nearly laughed out loud! Just makes you long for those square-fingered, robust Kirby shots that would come later, doesn't it? GCD attributes this (with a ?) to Syd Shores but, oh, I hope not. Always liked Syd and especially his inking over Kirby early on in the sixties Cap run. When you consider that Simon and Kirby left Cap after only ten of his seventy-plus issues and a handful of stories published in 
other mags, Shores (along with Al Avison) ended up drawing the character more than anybody in his original run. I'd like to think he'd know better. (Oh, and for those looking for gay subtext in comics, Cap and Bucky go skinny-dipping together in this issue!).
other mags, Shores (along with Al Avison) ended up drawing the character more than anybody in his original run. I'd like to think he'd know better. (Oh, and for those looking for gay subtext in comics, Cap and Bucky go skinny-dipping together in this issue!).
The first ten issues of CAPTAIN
ReplyDeleteAMERICA, produced by the super team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby,
have been reprinted in various formats, and they stand as some of the best of the early Golden Age
of Super-Hero comics.
I own almost nothing of the later
post-Simon/Kirby Timely comics, but
what I have seen reprinted (such as the panels above) lead me to believe that the material in those
years of Timely comics is wildly
amateurish by comparison! Bill Everett, Carl Burgos and Simon/Kirby created great iconic
characters at the beginning, and
Sub-Mariner, Human Torch and Captain America kept those titles
going for a decade based solely
on their reputations. The individual stories and issues, however, don't hold up today.
That is however, only my opinion.
If anyone wants to send me a stack
of Golden Age Timely comics for a
LONG period of learned study and
exhaustive review, I will perhaps
be forces to alter my opinion.
Perhaps.
This is from a great issue, the cover features a big scarred nazin villain trying to cattle brand Betty Ross, Caps' girlfiriend with a swastika brand, Cap is smashing him in the face with a right hander while various nazis try and shoot him in the back. Its priceless. The actual story with the skinny dip features a toothy bad gauy called IZAN, Nazi backwards, and is probably pencilled by Avison, with inks by Shores.
ReplyDeleteAlan