Fighting American by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby

Publisher: Titan

ISBN: 9780857681157

Paperback, 200 pages

I’ll have to keep this post short and sweet. I’m reading comics quicker than I have opportunity to write about them at the moment. So, at lightning speed, a quick rundown of Fighting American by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby.

This is the paperback volume printed by Titan Books in 2011. There was an earlier hardback printed by Marvel in the 90’s, but you’ll pay considerably more for that one and as far as I’m aware, it reprints the same material.

This reprint collects the original seven issue run of Fighting American, published by Prize Comics starting in 1954 and the two issues commissioned by Harvey Comics in 1966, of which only the first issue saw print.

The general package is very good, including a brief introduction by Joe Simon that puts the Fighting American’s origin in context. I was particularly happy with the colour retouching. It’s not too bold, it’s basically been cleaned up and realigned.

For anyone unfamiliar with the Fighting American, the character is a riff on Captain America, complete with his own Bucky called Speed Boy. The first couple of issues of the comic are pretty typical super-hero fare, inspired by Marvel’s short lived relaunch of Captain America in the 50’s. Marvel’s Captain America soon folded, but Fighting American managed to keep afloat for about a year (the issues were published on a bi-monthly schedule.) So why did two characters that were so similar fare so differently?

Well, the obvious answer is that Captain America didn’t have Simon & Kirby producing it. But there is a little more to it than that. I mentioned above that the first couple of issues were standard super-hero adventure, but as the series progressed the tone of the strip changed dramatically by becoming less dramatic. By the time the stories found their feet they were making their mark by poking fun at Fighting American and super-hero books in general. Speed Boy becomes much more than just a sidekick, in many of the stories he plays the straight man, saving the oblivious F.A. from certain doom on more than one occasion. The villains are ridiculously over the top stereotypes of Red Menace threats with names like Poison Ivan and Hotsky Trotski, which I suppose aren’t too dissimilar to the names used in his later Fourth World stories (Big Barda, Granny Goodness, Lashina.) and the stories range from Commie smashing to racket busting to extraterrestrial threats. Yes, the whole field is covered, with tongue firmly in cheek for the majority.

Now, I’m not saying that there isn’t similar Kirby work out there, but if there is anything comparable, I haven’t come across it. In very broad terms I’d describe it as Captain America crossed with The Spirit.

By the end of the book we move on to the Harvey Comics issues. Whilst I’m happy at the inclusion of these comics, they don’t have the sparkle that the original run did. From the look of the stories I would say that the involvement of Simon & Kirby was minimal for these issues. But, being a bit of a completist, it’s great that they are reprinted here.

For more detailed information regarding the creation and credits for the Prize issues, plus some other interesting bits, I’d recommend that you have a look at these and related pages at Kirby Museum: Fighting American.  

So there you go a (nearly) short and snappy post of a great curiosity from the Simon & Kirby library. It’s certainly worth owning and it’s available at a reasonable price.

Mad Thinker Reads………………….

Our Dear Departed Grandpa Jack & Uncle Joe.