Jack Kirby was an American comic book artist, widely regarded as one of the medium's major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators. He grew up in New York City and learned to draw cartoon figures by tracing characters from comic strips and editorial cartoons. He entered the nascent comics industry in the 1930s, drawing various comics features under different pen names, including Jack Curtiss, before settling on Jack Kirby. In 1940, he and writer-editor Joe Simon created the highly successful superhero character Captain America for Timely Comics, predecessor of Marvel Comics. During the 1940s, Kirby regularly teamed with Simon, creating numerous characters for that company and for National Comics Publications, later to become DC Comics.
Kirby in 1992
Captain America Comics #1 (cover-dated March 1941); cover art by Kirby and Joe Simon
Kirby in the U.S. Army during World War II
Young Romance #1 (Oct. 1947); cover art by Kirby and Simon
Joseph Henry Simon was an American comic book writer, artist, editor, and publisher. Simon created or co-created many important characters in the 1930s–1940s Golden Age of Comic Books and served as the first editor of Timely Comics, the company that would evolve into Marvel Comics.
Simon with a fan at the 2006 New York Comic Con
1974 Comic Art Convention program, reprinting Simon's original 1940 sketch of Captain America.