FIGHTING AMERICAN (trade paperback collection, one-shot, $19.95)

WHO’S RESPONSIBLE? Joe Simon and Jack Kirby (writers/artists), as well as various uncredited art collaborators.

There’s no overstating the incredible influence the Joe Simon-Jack Kirby partnership had on the Golden Age of Comics. Together, the writer-artists created Captain America for Timely Comics, the precursor to Marvel, as well as revamping the character Sandman and creating Manhunter, both for National Comics. After serving stints in World War II, the two returned to help popularize the Western comics genre (with Boys Ranch), romance comics (with Young Romance) and crime comics.

The Simon-Kirby partnership extended well through the ‘40s and ‘50s. And in the ‘60s, Kirby experienced true superstardom as the co-creator and artist on such Marvel Comics titles as Fantastic Four, Captain America, the Avengers  and many others. (Later, at DC, he created his mind-bending Fourth World comics and characters, as well as The Demon.)

Titan Books is releasing a series of volumes that concentrates on their collaborative works. The latest of these is simply title Fighting American.

Fighting American was Simon and Kirby’s response to Atlas Comics (the other Marvel precursor) reviving the Captain America title in the early ‘50, to mostly poor results. As Simon put it, “We thought we’d show them how to do Captain America.”

The title character was frail, bookwormish Nelson Flagg, who had his mind transferred into the revived body of his dead brother, Johnny. During the day, he broadcasted news and combatted Communist propaganda. At night, he wore a star-spangled suit, and battled the Red Menace physically. And like Captain America, he had a sidekick: Speed Boy, a studio page/usher.

Seven issues comprised the original series, for the duo’s Prize Group company, though Harvey Comics later produced two more issues featuring more Simon and Kirby Fighting American tales.

THE GOOD.

Really, how can you go wrong with a Jack Kirby-illustrated comic? There’s a reason why such modern artists as Erik Larsen and Eric Powell continue to sing “The King’s” praises.

For example, there’s a spectacular, full-page battle between Fighting American and Poison Ivan that presaged Kirby’s equally unforgettable fight sequence between Captain America and Batroc the Leaper in Tales of Suspense #85 by more than 10 years.

Also, you get to some the origins of some of the later weirdness of Kirby’s works. Once the McCarthy era was over, the stories got even more cheeky and goofy. (Fighting American and Speed Boy were pitted against such enemies as the Mad Inker, the Sneak of Araby, Deadly Dolittle and Invisible Irving.)

THE BAD.

It’s pretty obvious which of the stories were written by Kirby, as compared to Simon. His stories were more broadly comic, sometimes to overwhelmingly silly degree.

(As much as we all might hate to credit the boastful Stan Lee, it was his collaborations with Kirby that truly made him “The King,” and the Marvel Comics writing style allowed Kirby to fully utilize his art and writing skills.)

And these reprints may have been re-mastered, but the colors are still grotesquely garish. (I almost needed sunglasses to read some of the tales.)

THE UGLY.

And … sigh. There’s the accompanying xenophobia, ethnophobia and racism of the time on shameful display. The “Reds” are sometimes depicted as monstrous and hygienically challenged. (Though it’s interesting to see Simon and Kirby’s softer, more sympathetic portrayal of Japanese character here … as compared to their World War II depictions.)

Also, later issues featured several uncredited art assists. It appears such contemporaries as Wally Wood and George Tuska either penciled certain pages and panels, or worked over Kirby’s “breakdowns.” (It would be nice to know if they did. And if that is actually Milton Caniff who did some of it as well.)

IN CONCLUSION: If you’re a fan of Simon and Kirby … and who isn’t, really? … $20 is a pretty cheap price for 200 pages’ worth of fun comics by two of the form’s masters.

Jerk-Bot is the robotic nom de plume or Utah-based writer/reviewer Jeff Michael Vice. He would like you to listen to him rant about movies and other geeky stuff on both the Geek Show Podcast (www.geekshowpodcast.com) and the Mediocre Show (www.mediocreshow.com), as well as watch him review movies on the Big Movie Mouth-Off (www.facebook.com/bigmoviemouthoff).