Stan, Jack, and Steve - The 1950's. (1954) 4 4

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1954

Jack Kirby did a 7 page story in Black Magic #33, called 'Loan Shark'... it's an interesting story... keep it in mind for later...

Meanwhile, both Kirby and Joe Simon were going through some difficult times (we'll get to that)....

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1954

With a lack of books this month, we'll look at the superhero fare being tried by other publishers and compare them to Kirby's Fighting American....

Here's Black Cobra #1 from Ajax (an update of the character from Captain Flight Comics #9-11)...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1954

And here's Black Phantom #1 from Magazine Enterprises, in her own book for the first time...

Ok, it's a stretch as a superhero, but with we can compare it to Kirby's Bulls Eye...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS SEPTEMBER 1954

Another month where Stan Lee has zero titles on the newsstand. 

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS SEPTEMBER 1954

Meanwhile, Steve DItko, in the beginning stages of tuberculosis, somehow manages to put out three covers for Charlton this month...

Or they already had those ready to go. Either way, this is the last we'd see of Steve's work for another year...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS SEPTEMBER 1954

Ditko DIDN'T do this one, but... I always liked it... it hit the newsstands this month in 1954!

Wertham would've been appalled!

Edited June 12, 2022 by Prince Namor

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS SEPTEMBER 1954

Simon & Kirby's Mainline Publications gave us Bulls Eye #3, in a new, superhero-ish costume... and Kirby mixing genre's again...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS SEPTEMBER 1954

Over at Crestwood (Prize), we get Fighting American #5... with maybe my favorite story in the series yet...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS SEPTEMBER 1954

And here's a 2nd story for ya...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS SEPTEMBER 1954

Kirby also did the cover for Foxhole #2

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS SEPTEMBER 1954

Maneely also had an interesting cover for the month....

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS SEPTEMBER 1954

And no, he didn't do the story inside, and no... it didn't feature a nerdy loner at school named Peter Parker, BUT.... just to satiate your curiosity, here it is:

With art by Ed Winiarski and a story by.... well no one knows who the story is by...

 

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS SEPTEMBER 1954

Here's a Dan DeCarlo story for Pines in late 1951/early 1952... seems pretty similar to the stories he was doing with Stan... Hmmm...

Actually it's not 100% known that it's DeCarlo - he didn't sign it - but many DeCarlo aficionados believe it IS him...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS OCTOBER 1954

Lee and DeCarlo's Millie the Model may have been an assembly line production that didn't vary much from month to month, including Paper Dolls, and Fashion sent in from fans, but DeCarlo's art was hard not to like...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS OCTOBER 1954

My Friend Irma would see it's last issue this month. The TV series had ended in June (it began as a radio program in 1947), and maybe the publishing agreement ran out for Atlas? Either way, they had a copycat idea in the works, naturally, that we'll see in December...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS OCTOBER 1954

With Ditko still out sick, we also see Jack Kirby missing from the month! 

What happened?

Well, here it is in the simplest way I can explain it:

 

Jack Kirby & Joe Simon create the romance genre in comics for Crestwood Publications in 1947, with Young Romance #1 in July.

They then expand to a second title, Young Love, in November of 1948, and Western Love in April of 1949, due to overwhelming success.

Those comics sold in the millions. Joe Simon would later reflect that Crestwood was stealing from them almost from the start.

S&K opened a studio where a staff of artists and inkers and letterers helped them provide content for those comics.

By late 1949, the number of Romance titles on stands hits an all time high. It is NOT to be underestimated the IMPACT that Simon & Kirby had on the industry with these... From ZERO romance titles in 1947 to 2 years later: Adventures in Romance, All Love, All Romances, Boy Meets Girl, Broadway Romances, Campus Love, Campus Romance, Complete Romance, Cowboy Love, Cowboy Romances, Cupid, Darling Love, Diary Loves, Film Star Romances, First Love Illustrated, First Romance Magazine, Forbidden Love, Flaming Love, Girl Romances (from Atlas) compared to Girls' Romances (from DC), Girls' Fun and Fashion Magazine, Girls' Love Stories, Glamorous Romances, Heart Throbs, Hi-School Romance, Hollywood Pictorial, Hollywood Diary, I Loved, Intimate Love, Life Story, Love at First Sight, Love Confessions, Love Experiences, Love Lessons, Love Memories, Love Problems and Advice Illustrated, Love Scandals, Love Stories of Mary Worth, Love Tales, Lovers, Lovelorn, Lovers' Lane, Mr. Anthony's Love Clinic, Miss Beverly Hills of Hollywood, Modern Love, My Confessions, My Desire, My Diary, My Experience, My Great Love, My Life, My Love, My Love Life, My Love Affair, My Love Memoirs, My Love Story, My Love Secret, My Own Romance, My Past, My Private Life, My Secret Life, My Secret Affair, My Secret Romance, My Secret Story, My Story, My True Love - Thrilling Confession Stories, Personal Love, Pictorial Love Stories, Pictorial Romances, Real Love, Real Secrets, Real West Romances, Revealing Romances, Romance Diary, Romance Trail, Romances of the West, Romantic Adventure, Romantic Affairs, Romantic Confessions, Romantic Love, Romantic Secrets, Romantic Story, School-Day Romances, Saddle Romances, Search for Love, Secret Hearts, Secret Lovers, Sweet Love, Sweethearts, Teen-Age Diary Secrets, Teen-Age Romances, Thrilling Romances, True Confidences, True Secrets, True Stories of Romance, True-to-Life Romances, Untamed Love, Western Life Romances, Western Love Trails, Women in Love, and of course, Young Romance, Young Love, and Western Love.

Tired of being taken advantage of, in late 1953/early 1954, they took their life savings and opened their own Comic Imprint, called Mainline Publications.

They utilized their staff to help.

They secured a deal for distribution through Leader News, who also handled EC’s line of popular titles.

They released four titles: Bulls Eyes, Foxhole, Police Trap, and In Love.

Meanwhile, someone on staff at Crestwood noticed that Joe Simon had re-edited a story previously used for another publisher, that was then printed in one of the Crestwood books.

Crestwood stopped paying Kirby and Simon completely.

A lawyer told Crestwood that the language of their contract with S&K had no stipulation regarding previously printed work.

They still refused to pay S&K.

S&K took it to mediation.

Crestwood LOST, was ordered to pay them the $130,000 owed, but said if they had to do that they’d simply file for bankruptcy, go out of business and not pay anything.

The lawyers negotiated a settlement of $10,000 for S&K. This would be the equivalent today of being owed $1.4 million for work done and having to settle for $109,000.

At the same time, the Wertham hearings in April and June, along with the Comics Code, put EC’s main line of top selling books out of business.

Leader News was no longer able to work their deal with S&K for Mainline.

Suddenly… S&K were on their own… though the strain of all of this… would split them in two…

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainline_Publications

https://www.twomorrows.com/kirby/articles/25mainline.html

https://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/simonandkirby/archives/56

Edited June 13, 2022 by Prince Namor

[PeterPark]

On 6/3/2022 at 2:05 PM, Prince Namor said:

ON NEWSSTANDS FEBRUARY 1954

Here's Kirby's 'The Head of the Family' from Black Magic #30, the only full story he did for the month. To me, these stories read like Silver Age Jack Kirby Marvel work, as they flow from beginning to end. Kirby historians pretty much see this as something Jack wrote and drew, as it reads almost identical to the type of material he'd do his entire life. 

It may say 'Produced by Simon & Kirby', but for anyone who's read Jack's complete library of work, this isn't any different structurally the what he did, regardless if he worked with a writer or not. 

shades of Modok...

[Prince Namor]

On 6/13/2022 at 12:38 PM, PeterPark said:

shades of Modok...

Exactly

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS OCTOBER 1954

A Joe Maneely cover and story from Journey Into Mystery #21 that hit the newsstands Oct 1954. Story by Paul S. Newman....

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS OCTOBER 1954

And a Kid Colt cover and a Ringo Kid story the same month in Wild Western #40. Writer unknown...