Monday, July 18, 2022

Russkie-Smashers FIGHTING AMERICAN and SPEEDBOY "Z-Food!"

Sometimes, you just have to ask..."What were Joe Simon and Jack Kirby imbibing/inhaling/drinking?"
Perhaps it was this stuff!






It was only 1954 when this story appeared in Prize's Fighting American #3, so how did Simon & Kirby predict the hallucinogenics which would become so prevalent in the early 1960s?

Monday, July 11, 2022

Russkie-Smashers FIGHTING AMERICAN and SPEEDBOY "Stranger from Paradise" and "Red Agent"

Today, we're presenting a couple of short features starring our patriotic heroes!

Art by Jack Kirby and Walt Simonson
First, a two-page featurette from Prize's Fighting American #3 (1954) starring SpeedBoy...
...and a one-page text feature from Prize's Fighting American #5 (1954-55)...
"Stranger from Paradise" was penciled by Jack Kirby and inked by Joe Simon.
The writer was either Simon or Kirby...or both!
"Red Agent's" writer is unknown, but could be Kirby, Simon, both...or neither!

Monday, July 4, 2022

Russkie-Smashers FIGHTING AMERICAN and SPEEDBOY "Man Who Sold Out Liberty!"

What could be more patriotic on the 4th of July...
...than kicking American traitors' and Russkie agents' asses on top of the Statue of Liberty?




Written and illustrated by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, this lead (but not cover-featured) tale from Prize's Fighting American #3 (1954) is sort of a midway point between early serious and later farcical stories!
BTW, Malloy will return later in the series and we'll show it to you!
Happy
4th of July!

Monday, June 27, 2022

Russkie-Smashers FIGHTING AMERICAN and SPEEDBOY "Roman Scoundrels"

There are those who claim today's media are merely Russkie dupes!

This story, not published until a decade after it was written and illustrated, might have proven them right!
Note: "Yutz" is Yiddish for "useless".
Note the sixth panel has been modified, likely to remove a knife, which the Comics Code wouldn't allow actually being plunged into someone's back!
This was one of three stories created for #8 of Prize's Fighting American comics that went unused when the series was cancelled with V2N7 (1956).
In 1965-66, Joe Simon was packaging a new line of super-hero/sci-fi titles labeled Harvey Thrillers for Harvey.
Besides titles with new super-heroes, he prepared two comics featuring classic characters that combined reprints with new material; The Spirit, which creator Will Eisner packaged, and Fighting American, which is where Joe published those never-used FA tales along with reprints!
Be Here on July 4th as Fighting American and SpeedBoy take on a traitor to America working for the Russkies!

Monday, June 20, 2022

Russkie-Smashers FIGHTING AMERICAN and SPEEDBOY "Three Coins in the Pushcart"

Sooner or later, every hero has to battle a criminal imitator.....

....out to discredit him, but not usually three of them at once!
Note: There are a couple of pop culture references you should be aware of in order to better understand this tale from Prize's Fighting American V2N1 (1955)...
The title is based on the title of a then-popular novel/movie Three Coins in the Fountain.
(There are no other similarities)
"Gorgeous Georgia" is a riff on then-popular professional wrestler "Gorgeous George"
(Again, the only similarity was the name.)
If you believe the story seems a bit "off", you'd be right, since the script wasn't by Joe Simon or Jack Kirby, but Carl Wessler, and the art (over Kirby layouts) was by John Prentice!