A Tribute to Artie Simek

If you're a fan of Silver Age comics, then there's a decent chance that you've seen the work of Artie Simek, a prolific Letterer for both Marvel and DC in the 1950s and '60s. Not the most celebrated member of the famous Marvel Bullpen, you don't really hear Simek get mentioned in the same breath as Lee and Kirby, or even Ditko or Sterenko, but odds are, if you own a Marvel comic from the 1960s (real or reprint), Simek worked on it. For those who don't know, Lettering was the job in which someone had to write all the letters on every page of a comic before typesetting was advanced enough to handle the speed and precision that comics needed. Seriously, look at a page of just about any comic from the era and imagine having to hand print every single letter, often quickly because of the time pressure to get issues out, then imagine doing work, often uncredited, on almost every issue of Marvel Comics.

Look, I'm not going to make this a piece about how early comics staff were exploited, we all know that, and Simek passed away in 1975, so getting mad at people who are mostly dead for doing what was standard in the industry at the time, even if it was grossly unfair, because it's kind of pointless at the end of the day. Instead, let's just take some time to appreciate a man who contributed so much to a medium we love. As well as lettering probably hundreds of classic comics, including most of the Lee/Kirby run of Fantastic Four, Simek is the guy who did most of the large sound effect balloons and had a hand in designing the famous Banner Titles on the covers of comics, including Fantastic Four and Marvel Two-In-One. In many ways, Simek contributed to the iconic look of many Marvel comics as much as Kirby, Ditko and the bullpen of artists churning out 12 cent funny books back in the day.

So do I have a broader point with all this? Yes and no. I think it's important to cover the lesser-known people who worked on comics back in the days when the medium was coming together and building the foundations that would eventually lead to them dominating the world of entertainment. Lettering is something that you probably don't consider all that much when reading an old comic, and whilst we can't retroactively make things better for Simek and those like him, appreciating the work that they did a little more is worthwhile. Lettering must have been a crummy job, hunched over a desk in his bedroom in Queens, but Simek was evidently a really jovial and friendly guy, working right up to the end bringing to live a form of entertainment that was considered juvenile and disposable right up until well into my own lifetime, but that people loved and internalised to a degree that has brought it into the fore half a century later. Damn impressive if you ask me.