Sam shares with Clem and angular exclamation point. Joe also said that as a comic book artist he thought he had used three pseudonyms. I included Speed #16 in the books I once made of the complete Simon and Kirby covers.
Captions are generally done in italics while balloons remain standard lettering. Marty uses various drop caps some of which are quite distinctive.Battle Cry #4 (November 1952) “The Treatment” by Howard FergusonWe last saw Howard Ferguson doing work on Stuntman and Boy Explorers. But actually that was true with Joe and Jack during all their collaboration. Oddly Marty adds serifs to ‘I’ whenever it is the first letter of a word such as “IT”.
Simon gave the Claw more of a Frankenstein look in the face, but the hands are similar to both Wonderworld #13 and Pocket #1.Pocket #2, Joe Simon (pencils and inks) and Barbara Hall (pencils and inks), September 1941In Pocket Comics #2 the title has been reduced compared to #1 so there is more room for the art. Here we get Joe doing Joe.There are things about this cover which I find unfortunate. In the hands of Jack Kirby, Captain Freedom would look even more like Captain America then he already had. Finally the question mark do not have the more distinctive ‘Z’ shape of Oda’s with the lower stroke is much shorter than Oda from this same time.Justice Traps the Guilty #31 (October 1951) “335 Days of Terror” by GeorgieGeorgie is another unidentified letterer found in Justice Traps the Guilty from July 1951 to April 1952 (oddly he was never used for Headline). There was one work signed by Ferguson where he did not use drop caps or banner captions (Romantic Love #1 September 1949) but such none ornamented lettering was unusual for Howard. Also present are Ferguson’s frequent and effective use of drop caps. The Black Cat on the cover was taken from the splash to the story from Pocket #1. In this letter set note the use of serifs on ‘I’ and ‘J’, the almost vertical outer strokes for ‘M’ and the vertical stroke for ‘G’ that provides just a suggestion of a serif at its bottom. I am not one to remain idle for long so I decided to take up a Simon and Kirby investigation I had always wanted to do. Truly a joint effort. Howard can be found lettering for Avon (March 1949 to October 1950) and later for Stanley Morse (May 1952 to February 1954). While the ‘J’ lacks serifs, it has long and gently curved horizontal portion but there are some other letterers who use the same ‘J’. Also note the vertical outer bars he used for the letter ‘M’. I did so because I thought it was possible that Joe Simon might have been the artist. For the period covered in this chapter (September 1947 to July 1954) and excluding titles that Simon and Kirby or their studio artists had no hand in there were 1757 features to be lettered for a total of 11,281 pages. Despite the fact that the last time we saw Bill lettering was in 1947, not much has changed.
Fortunately there is a studio photo graph taken from this period (see above). The biggest change is he has abandon the vertical lower arm to ‘Y’ to go for one that is an extension of the upper right stroke. In the story the lady is held captive in a building across the street from the offices where the Green Hornet’s alter ego works as a newspaper reporter. A very effective guard indeed as shown by his blood stained knife. I immediately recognized the name Glaven.The cover to Speed #22 was signed Glaven. I have seen it in “Red Skull’s Deadly Revenge” from Captain America #16, again penciled by Al Avison. This was before Al Harvey was publisher for Speed. Towards the end of his tour of duty in the Coast Guard, Joe did some comic book work which he lettered himself. This is over two decades since Oda’s last work for Prize but his lettering has not changed too much. The exaggerated perspective in the Liberty Lads are a signature style for Jack Kirby, so he is the primary penciler. Instead not only did Speed Comics return in April as a regular size comic, Harvey took over publishing Champ Comics in May, and then even more surprising Green Hornet in June. All the features that Draut did for the Simon and Kirby’s Harvey titles was lettered by himself. Ferguson would even letter Simon and Kirby work that was published by Harvey. However under the new editors other letterers would make appearances. The captive is not in the spot light but is highlighted by it, visually connecting her to the hero. There was a time I thought Ray might actually be Simon.