Young Love #66

Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, and Bill Draut (attributed) Young Love #66 Unused Cover Original Art (Prize Group, 1955). Here is a unique piece of unpublished collaborative art from the trailblazing team of Simon and Kirby, originators of the romance-comics idiom, among many other innovations. Produced for a book intended for the Simon-Kirby Mainline imprint, the comic was never realized as such. (Young Love #66, as published, shows a different cover, by Mort Meskin.) In the present selection, the couple at right displays a Simon-style composition, with inking likely by Draut. The patched-in background figure at left is patently the work of Kirby -- attached with a visible seam. Ink over graphite on illustration board with an image area of 12" x 17.75". Toned, modern-day stat re-creations of the logo and header are affixed to the board,