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!

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!

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!

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!

Russkie-Smashers FIGHTING AMERICAN and SPEEDBOY "Poison Ivan and Hotski Trotski"

Even though it's almost Flag Day...
...patriotic super-heroes don't take a holiday from Russkie-smashing!
They just keep going, like muscular Energizer Bunnies!
(BTW, Jack Kirby penciled and inked the cover, a rarity...even in the 1950s!
And the cover spells villain Hotski Trotski's name as "Hotsky"! )

This cover-featured tale from Prize's Fighting American #3 (1954), features the full-on satirical style the series became famous for!

As with almost all the Simon & Kirby Studio work for Prize, it's hard to tell where Jack leaves off and Joe begins...and vice versa!
One of the complications when two creatives who are both writer/artists collaborate, I suppose...

MORE RUSSKIE-SMASHING FUN NEXT MONDAY!