The Comics Rack

Moonlighting with Jack and Joe

   Back in the early 1940s, the team of Simon and Kirby were the head hogs at the trough at Timely Comics, having created Timely's best selling title, Captain America. The book was produced at the Timely offices and, according to all accounts, the team, with some assistants, would spend a normal work day at the offices producing Captain America stories, along with a number of other features that filled out the rest of the book. In terms of comics, this was a very sweet deal that Simon had brokered with Martin Goodman, the publisher of Timely, and, except for ownership of the character, they were doing quite well. Jack and Joe, however, did not plan to rest on their laurels. Although they worked for Goodman during the day, there was nothing that said what they could do with their off time, so, in secret, a deal was struck with Fawcett.
   Fawcett, at this time, had a major hit on their hands with the Captain Marvel strip that had just been introduced in the pages of Whiz Comics. Following the formula that DC had used with Superman, Fawcett set out to produce a second, all Captain Marvel, title and released Special Edition Comics to test the waters. The book was a hit upon its release, but while it was in production, there were some editorial changes at Fawcett and the decision was made to call the all Captain Marvel book Captain Marvel Adventures. This was not the only change, however. Simon & Kirby were approached with the proposition that they, not C.C. Beck, produce the new Captain Marvel book. Not wanting to leave their work at Timely, Simon & Kirby agreed to do the book for Fawcett, but they would produce it on their own time and Timely, meaning Goodman, must not be aware of their moonlighting for another publisher. Contracts were signed, an apartment was rented for the new venture, and S & K set to work.
   It's not clear how long it took Goodman to become suspicious that something was up. Maybe it was because Jack and Joe didn't hang around the office as much as they used to, or possibly they just couldn't make a dinner or social function due to prior commitments. In any event, Goodman did become suspicious and assigned his young nephew to follow S & K on a couple of occasions to determine what they were up to. Either through confrontation or some sly detective work, the nephew found out that S & K were doing work on the side, reported the information to Goodman and Goodman fired the team, which is why Simon and Kirby only produced the first 10 issues of Captain America. The deal with Fawcett didn't work out too well either (S & K didn't understand Captain Marvel) and so, Simon & Kirby ended up at DC, where they produced some of the best super-hero work of their career before Jack went off to serve in WWII.
   Of course, many stories have a final punchline or touch of irony to wrap them up and this one is no exception. The facts of Jack and Joe's tenure at Timely are well recorded, as is the deal with Fawcett and their subsequent firing. It is the nephew part of the story that has always kind of bothered me, but I have seen this apocryphal tale in a couple of disparate sources and this makes me think that it may have a bit of truth to it. You see, Goodman's nephew, according to the tale, was young Stanley Leiber, better known to us today as...Stan Lee.