Famed comic book artist Joe Simon was born in 1913 in Rochester, New York. Though he always showed an interest in art – he was the art director for his school newspaper and yearbook – Simon’s first professional art jobs were drawing sports comics for the Rochester Journal-American and retouching publicity photos for Paramount Pictures. Simon’s first real comic job was for Funnies, Inc, where he created a seven-page story called “Western.” During this time, he met fellow artist Jack Kirby, who would be his artistic partner for the next two decades.

Thanks to his prodigious talent, Simon quickly became the first editor at Timely Comics (soon-to-be Marvel Comics), where he and Kirby created the famous superhero Captain America in 1940. In the World Word II climate, Captain America was an immediate success, prompting Simon to ask Kirby to join Timely Comics as art director. Eventually, the pair moved to National Comics (later renamed DC Comics), where they created the superhero Manhunter. The partnership broke up in the 1950s due to a slump in the comic book industry; Kirby stayed with comics, but Simon ventured into advertising and commercial art, namely for the advertising agency Burstein and Newman.

Simon spent his last years painting before his death on December 14, 2011.