Joe Simon: My Life in Comics
The Illustrated Autobiography of Joe Simon
Written by Joe Simon
Hardcover
Titan Books
Release date: June 21, 2011

I am a big fan of books that cover comic book history, particularly the golden age of comics. Joe Simon: My Life in Comics takes a look at that period through the eyes of the man who helped create Captain America, and I was looking forward to reading it. My Life in Comics turned out to be almost everything I had hoped for, but came up a little short. There are a lot of good anecdotes to be found in this book, I just wish certain events in Joe Simon‘s life had been looked at a little longer.

Joe Simon is perhaps most famous for joining with Jack Kirby to create the Captain America character in 1941, but he was responsible for much more than that. Before there was Jack and Stan Lee, there was Simon and Kirby, creating thousands of pages worth of entertainment and hundreds of characters that live on to this day. My Life in Comics looks at Simon’s life, from his childhood days, through his prolific career, into his twilight years. Simon tells the story of how he and Kirby jumped from publisher to publisher as different ideas were created. The autobiography spends most of its time dealing with the partnership and friendship between Simon and Kirby.

DC Comics released the official covers from the upcoming Green Lantern family of titles Monday, which you may have noticed were missing from their initial announcement. Although I’m not entirely sure why they withheld the covers, it is convenient that these were released the same week that the live-action Green Lantern film hits theaters. It’s also a great way for us to kick-off our Green Lantern Week of Geek!

In case you’ve forgotten, and I don’t see how that’s possible, these new covers and titles are a part of the relaunch initiative that DC Comics has planned for September, so if you’ll be going to see the new movie this weekend, make a note of the titles that you’re interested in here, because you’ll be able to start fresh with the comics in the Fall.

I’ve included the covers along with each of their solicitations, so check them out here below!

I know there are a lot of people out there who will be going to see Thor this week, and I’m betting that a lot of these people have never read any of his comic adventures. I’m here to present a few comics that are worth checking out if after you leave the theater you want to check out some of the god of thunder’s printed adventures.

If you want to check out the original stories that brought the god of thunder into the Marvel universe, there are two ways to do that. If you’re on a budget, you can pick up a volume of Essential Thor (there are 5 volumes currently available). These are nice black and white reproductions of the original Stan Lee/Jack Kirby stories (along with other creators in the later volumes) and each volume has about 25 issues each, so you get a lot of value. If you have a bit more money to spend, you might track down a copy of The Mighty Thor Omnibus. This is a massive hardcover that collects almost 40 issues’ worth of material and presents them in beautiful color. It is a little bit pricier, and may not be for the casual fan.

Recorded May 8, 2011.

Our May Doom Of The Month will be the first half of Grant Morrison’s New X-Men! If you want to read along with us, head on over to Instocktrades.com or DCBService.com to pick up New X-Men for a super price! The Ultimate Collection Book 1 TP collects NEW X-MEN #114-126 and ANNUAL 2001 so read up and be sure to check back at the end of May for our special review episode!

Check out Episode 62 of Comics of Doom, the official comics podcast of Geeks of Doom. In this episode we review the new live-action Marvel Studios movie Thor. Click HERE to open the podcast player in a new window.

Podcast player is here below, along with an Episode Guide.

Listen now!

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Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor, is easily one of the most powerful weapons in the Marvel Universe and one of the most coveted, along with maybe the Silver Surfers’ surfboard and maybe Jarvis (come on having your own butler, please”¦). So with the Thor out in theaters I started to consider what I’d do if I had that badass hammer. Now, I’m a caring guy of course so I’d wanna bring the rain to the parched and crush some evil here and there, but there are also those guilty pleasure sorts of things that would just be fun.

There’s the five things I’m thinking of right about now. So head down the rainbow bridge with me and let’s talk five things that would just be fun to do with that hammer of Thor.