stuff :: Golden Age

Joe Simon. & Kirby? & Milt Gross?!

Artists: Joe Simon (All) , Milt Gross (Writer)

4 Comments - 280 Views - 2 Likes

Joe Simon. & Kirby? & Milt Gross?! Comic Art

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Invoice

Milt Gross, Genius!

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Reg Greenwood Tip-Top Comics 56

Artwork Details

Title:	Joe Simon. & Kirby? & Milt Gross?!
Artist:	Joe Simon (All)
Artist:	Milt Gross (Writer)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Interior Page
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	280
Likes on CAF:	2 3
Comments:	4
Added to Site:	7/31/2023
Comic Art Archive:

Description

Duke of Broadway was a series that Simon & Kirby came up with to fill a back-up slot in Boy Explorers. It seems to have been mostly Joe's baby. Four stories were completed, with the latter three published in Black Cat 5-7 when Boy Explorers was cancelled after only one issue (there was a truncated #2 sent to subscribers only, but it had no Duke story).

The series debuted as a straightforward Damon Runyonesque light comedy of Broadway, probably written by Joe, but it went through some tonal shifts in it's short run, with a couple of quite dark Eisner-ish stories: Black Cat 5 features "My City is No More," in which New York is actually annihilated and the Duke dies along with everyone else. Somehow he came back like nothing happened in Black Cat 6 with "Fear: the Story of a Guilty Conscience" and then the series wrapped on a completely screwball note with Topsy Turvy Tavern, from which this page comes.

GCD lists the story as pure Simon art, but, to my eye, the action and the muscular dog in panel one smells like Kirby (except for its face), as well as the smoke at the bottom of the last panel (lol but I'm serious tho).

But what is REALLY interesting about this page, and you're reading it here first, is the HIGH likelihood that this story was WRITTEN by the legendary Milt Gross. If you know his work, the page is saturated with Gross-like content, but that is only my back up evidence. See exhibit A in the additional images: an actual S&K invoice (auctioned on Heritage back in 2014), paying Milt Gross for 12 pages of script for "Duke episode 2". Now, as it turned out, Topsy Turvy Tavern was the fourth published episode, a year later, but given the other two episodes are NOTHING like a Milt Gross story, I'm feeling pretty confident on this attribution.

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About the Owner

	Aaron N. ( 6 ) Premium Gallery Owner
Joined:	November 2009
Last Login:	September 2025
Country:	UNITED STATES
On CAF:	Artworks Commented On Liked Art Site Activity on CAF

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Comments on this Artwork

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Mitch Itkowitz
Member Since 2006

Posted on 7/31/2023

All Joe Simon.

No Kirby at all.

Aaron N.
Member Since 2009

Posted on 7/31/2023

Mitch Itkowitz wrote:

All Joe Simon.

No Kirby at all.

Thanks Mitch, glad to have your opinion! Based on the look of the art, or something else?

SIMON COMICS
Member Since 2020

Posted on 8/1/2023

Page is pure Joe. Nice piece

J H
Member Since 2019

Posted on 10/25/2023

I'm a fan of Simon's golden age work. Big fan of dogs, too. Great golden age Simon doggo page! That first panel is great, and I love how he uses the dog and his action to create a nice composition. I dig the snappy writing, too. :) Score!

All
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