578 SIMONE, GAIL
assistant. At Timely, Simon and Kirby created the one of the most famous comic book
superheroes, Captain America in late 1940. Steve Rogers was an ordinary GI who was
part of a secret Army experiment to create stronger soldiers, thus becoming Captain
America. Along with his sidekick Bucky, Cap would fi ght the Nazis even before the
United States had entered into World War II. Although their highly patriotic issues
sold out, Simon and Kirby disagreed with Goodman over royalties. Yet, instead of
challenging him, they sought out Jack Liebowitz at National Comics who would be
only too happy to off er them a better deal. On hearing of this, Goodman fi red the
team.
At National, they took over the Sandman character and had hit after hit including
the Boy Commandos, Newsboy Legion, and Manhunter. Simon created Th e Fly for Archie
Comics and Stuntman, Boy Explorers, and Boys’ Ranch for Harvey Publications—this
last title being his favorite collaboration with Kirby. In 1953, the Simon and Kirby team
would also create what would be another one of their favorites, the We s t e r n comic,
Bullseye. For Prize Publications they created an early horror comic Black Magic and
are also credited with creating the entire romance genre of comics with Young Romance
Comics in 1947.
As the industry fell into a sharp decline in the mid 1950’s, Simon focused more on
commercial art, but also helped oversee many of the kid-friendly comics put out by
Harvey Comics. In 1960, the business-savvy Simon created Sick Magazine, which com-
peted favorably against Mad. Th e Simon and Kirby partnership ended in 1955, but
they would come together over the years to work on updating old characters or creating
new ones. Th eir last collaboration was in 1974 when Simon wrote the fi rst issue of a
new Sandman for DC.
Sixty-six years after his co-creation of Captain America, Simon commented: “We
were movie directors, script men, penciler, colorers, inkers... we had dirty hands.”
Simon did it all and in doing so his creative force directly shaped the American comic
book industry almost from its inception.
Selected Bibliography: Simon, Joe, and Jim Simon. Th e Comic Book Makers. Lakewood,
NJ: Vanguard, 2003.
Jeff McLaughlin
SIMONE, GAIL (1974?–). In 1999, Gail Simone, a hairdresser and comics fan in her
native Oregon, compiled a list of women characters in comics who had been raped,
crippled, depowered, magically impregnated (without consent and therefore a form of
rape), turned evil, given a life-threatening disease, or murdered. Because of extended
continuity—made necessary by the longevity of medium—these characters were often
subject to a combination of these atrocities. Th is trend, Simone observed, became
known as “Women in Refrigerators”—after the particularly gruesome demise of the
Green Lantern’s girlfriend, Alexandra DeWitt—who was murdered and stuff ed in a
refrigerator. Th e list was sent to several comics creators, along with a letter, asking for
