Monday, January 23, 2012

Attention Paid: The Lettering skills of Artie Simek and Sam Rosen

An essential component of Marvel Comics’ distinctive appearance in the 1960s was the interior and cover lettering of Artie Simek and Sam Rosen - two of the finest craftsman employed by Stan Lee. Both men had worked in the business for decades: In the 1940s Rosen lettered for Will Eisner on his seminal Spirit comic strip and produced much work for Quality comics (Blackhawk); Simek worked on staff at Timely comics, the precursor to Marvel, where he crafted many logos. He also lettered for DC in the 1950s, where his work can be seen in Tales of the Unexpected and early issues of Challengers of the Unknown. Both men brought bombast and personality to Marvel's 1960s output. Guided by Editor/Art Director Stan Lee, who helped design the different bursts, balloons, captions and sound effects that Simek and Rosen brought to life, the Marvel letterers, through Lee’s promotional extravagances, began to gain unprecedented recognition, even if they were often the punch line to countless jokes in the credits.


Simek's name can be seen on a billboard, possibly added by artist John Severin, "A Dude There Was!" Stan Lee story. Two-Gun Kid # 50, Oct 1959.  

Sam Rosen's bold title lettering, splash from Amazing Spider-Man # 17, Oct 1964, Steve Ditko art.

Artie Simek's clean, attractive lettering (note the signature scallop style on "The Search for the...") Fantastic Four # 27, June 1964. Jack Kirby pencils; Chic Stone inks and Stan Goldberg coloring. All professionals at the top of their game. 
Besides contributing to a skillful product at Marvel for over a decade, Simek and Rosen designed eye-catching and attractive logos that drew the attention of those browsing the neighborhood newsstands.  The Fantastic Four, said to be designed by Sol Brodsky, with assistance from Artie Simek, had a fanciful, circus like style that was unlike more serious logos, the Amazing Spider-Man, possibly with the help of Steve Ditko, created a motif that held the lettering in an intricate web; Thor and Sgt. Fury had scalloped edges that were the motif of Artie Simek. The ragged, rough-edged look made the line stand out. Stan Lee, as art director, oversaw the finished product, as did publisher Martin Goodman. 

Sam Rosen lettered the cover of Tales of Suspense # 51, March 1965, Jack Kirby pencils; George Roussos inks. Stan Lee sometimes wrote directly on the penciled art, setting the balloon placement and style he wanted (i.e. the arrow, burst) that Rosen skillfully rendered.   

Artie Simek lettering, splash to Journey into Mystery # 125, Feb 1965, Jack Kirby pencils; Vince Colletta inks.
While other letterers were employed by Marvel in the 1960s, some quite good, especially the work of John Duffy, Ray Holloway (who is often credited as using the pen name "Sherigail." It is actually production assistant Morrie Kuramoto, who used an amalgam of his wife and daughters names), Jon D'Agosyino and Terry Szenics (whose husband Zoltan also worked in the industry as a letterer and occasional artist).Simek and Rosen were the workhorses, though. Their presence was anticipated almost as much as Lee, Kirby, Ditko, Colan or Romita. Simek worked for Marvel until he died in 1975; Rosen’s last work appeared in 1972; he reportedly had a nervous breakdown and passed away in 1992. His talented brother, Joe, another prolific letterer for various companies, including Harvey, went on to work for Marvel into the 1990s.

John Duffy's earliest lettering credits date back to the late 1940s. He worked for a great many companies in the 1950s, including Hillman, St. John, Chalrton, Dell, Archie and DC, to name just a few. Duffy likely started freelancing for Marvel in the late 1950s. He worked on a few fantasy stories and on early issues of The Fantastic Four and other hero titles. His attractive, low-keyed lettering gave a distinctive ambiance to Ditko's Spider-Man. The above example is from issue # 3, July 1963. Since this blog is entitled "Marvel Mysteries and Comics Minutia," I'd be neglectful if I didn't note that Duffy was paired with Ditko again in the mid-1970s, when he inked some of his Atlas/Seaboard stories (The Destructor; Tiger Man). 

Ray Holloway's splash to Journey into Mystery # 89, Feb 1963; Jack Kirby pencils; Dick Ayers inks, featuring one of my favorite titles: "The Thunder God and the Thug!". Holloway worked on staff at Timely/Atlas, I'm unsure of exactly when he began lettering, although examples likely occur in the late 1950s "monster era". He crafted quite a few of the early superhero stories in the 1960s and also worked for DC on many titles. His last known work appeared at Marvel in the mid-1970s in Spidey Super Stories.  

Terry Szenics was an both an inker and letterer; her art appeared primarily in MLJ/Archie comics titles from the 1940s into the 1960s. She worked for Marvel in the 1960s as well, particularly early fantasy and superhero features. Her attractive, subdued lettering was a perfect fit for Ditko's mood-drenched "Doctor Strange". Splash page from  Strange Tales # 111, August 1963. 
Although rarely discussed in conjunction with the period of 1960s Marvel, Simek and Rosen’s talents were sorely missed by the mid-1970s, when quite a few less talented letterers were employed. Those less skilled at calligraphy made the finished package considerably weaker in appearance.Thankfully, a number of exceptional letterers continued to grace the Marvel line, notably Tom Orzechowski and John Costanza, but the professionalism of Simek and Rosen was a cut above, ranking highly with the best in the field such as Ben Oda, Joe Letterese, Howard Ferguson, Gaspar Saladino and Ira Schnapp, to name a few. Along with the coloring skills of Stan Goldberg (who rates his own blogpost, coming soon) Simek and Rosen gave the Marvel comics of the 1960s a distinctive and attractive look.     

For an informative study on Marvel's logo's (as well as other companies) go to lettering pro Todd Klein's blog:
http://kleinletters.com/Blog/?page_id=2709

33 comments:

  1. Sam Rosen. Excellent letterer and thanks for keeping his name out there. Also, a shout out to J. Morelli an old school letterer doing great work now at Archie Comics.

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  2. Artie and Sam were a cut above and no mistake. Another fine letter with a nice spontaneous style was Martin Epp, who lettered for Marvel and DC.

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  3. A few other letterers that come to mind are John Workman and Jim Novak. Novak did some fine work for Marvel in the 1970s.

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  4. Nick, great post as usual. I love Artie's work. Kid, I'm recalling also that Marty Epp was Bob Powell's letterer, I believe, at Street & Smith and in the early 1950's. It was Powell, Nostrand, Epp and George Seifringer.

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  5. Thanks Doc. I've added your blog to my blog list. Great stuff.

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  6. Great info as usual, Nick. Back then I was always trying to spot visual differences between Sam and Artie's work, but unfortunately the best I could come up with was that Sam added a period after his page number--and Artie didn't! The letterers did the page numbers, right?

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  7. Hi Sharon,

    Yes, the letterers added the page numbers. Some letterers were easier to identify than others, Irving Watanabe, for instance, had a very distinctive look that I immediately recognized (although didn't particularly care for). I tended to pay attention to the poorer letterers more, since they detracted from the art.

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  8. Thanks for the great post. Even as a kid, I was always a Simek fan. Sam's letter forms and balloon shapes were slicker, but Artie's had more "umph". In addition, I think Artie's sound effects and story titles were better. I'm still trying to emulate his style in my own work; still coming up short.

    David Marshall
    Comic Book Author
    Comic Book Teacher

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  9. Hi Dave,

    I'm glad you enjoyed the post. While I like Sam a little better, both men were talented and gave those comics a distinctive style.

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  10. Ray Holloway is credited with Giant-Sized Spider-man #3, and Spider-man 144, from the middle of the Gwen Clone Saga around the same time. A pity he was under-used for so many years. He did nice, Sam Rosen-style lettering.

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  11. Regarding Jim Novak: He also did great work on The Death of Captain Marvel, in 1982. His work is reminiscent of the somewhat rough-hued work of Sam Rosen and John Costanza, in my opinion the finest letterers of their respective generations.

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  12. And finally: in Avengers Annual 2 (1968), probably due to deadlines, credited letterer Joe Rosen gave some pages to Big Brother Sam to letter. Given time, I can give you specific page numbers at a later date, but take a look. The family resemblance is obvious, but Joe's style is a little rounder than Sam's.

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  13. Hi Maw Maw,

    I concur with your comments on Jim Novak and Ray Holloway, both very talented letterers whose work I enjoyed.

    I'll have to take a look at the Avengers Annual but I wouldn't be surprised that Joe asked for assistance from brother Sam. The same often happened with uncredited inkers.

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  15. You mentioned John Duffy in this post, and I wanted to ask if you know anything about him besides the comics he worked on? I've been doing some research, but haven't turned up a single thing about his life outside of comics.

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  16. Hi Nathan,

    In my years of researching I've not turned up any info on Duffy either, unfortunately. I have seen his work appearing for various companies throughout the years; the earliest dating back to the 1950s; the latest in the mid-1970s, but nothing about him personally.

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  17. Thanks. A shame that Duffy remains a man of mystery, as he worked on some genuinely significant books.

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  18. Excellent stuff as usual.

    Random thoughts ---

    Ray Holloway was still lettering for Marvel in the seventies.

    Joe Rosen's initial works for Marvel started in the more peripheral titles in the sixties; the occasional annual, Sgt. Fury, Not Brand Echh and he was a staple for covers and house ads in the early days of British Marvel in the seventies, before his chunkier Harvey style was refined and he became a Marvel mainstay, helping to fill the void left by his brother and then Artie Simek

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  19. Anonymous,

    I appreciate the kind words.

    Ray Holloway was indeed lettering for Marvel in the 1970s. I've id'ed some of his work on Spidey Super Stories, which he lettered often.

    Rosen goes back quite a ways, particularly for Harvey. I've noticed brother Sam turned up on many of the MLJ/Archie Adventure titles at the same time he was lettering many Marvel titles. Talented AND prolific.

    Speaking of letterers, one of the most prolific and talented letterers, Ben Oda, was a real workhorse. Someone recounted a tale where he would work overnight in the DC offices finishing jobs!

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  20. I'm presently reading The Incredible Hulk, Epic Collection, volume 1 and a couple oF lettering things are intriguing me

    Hulk #3 --- the origin of the hulk, unless contradicted by work records, the lettering doesn't look like Sam Rosen and

    Hulk #4 and #5 (General Fang; page 9 on) looks like it might be the lettering of Jon D'Agostino.

    Fascinating subject is the hand lettering of Comics.

    Simeon and Rosen were a vital component in making early Marvel zing.

    And I agree about Ben Oda, magine what Ben lettering Spider-Man or the Fantastic Four would have looked like


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  21. Thankfully Art and Sam's lettering was better than my typing

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  22. Anonymous,

    The lettering on "Origin of the Hulk" (# 3) looks like Artie, not Sam.

    And you are absolutely correct that Jon D'Agostino is the letterer on # 4 and 5 from page 9 on. I've corrected many lettering credits but missed those. I'll provide those corrections to the GCD post-haste.

    Thanks for the great letterer spotting.

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  23. Wow! Glad to know there are still people out there who appreciated the world of Sam Rosen and Artie Simek. I think they both contributed as much to the look and feel of the silver age of Marvel as the artists. Rosen's lettering had a sleek, casual grace with rounded word balloons, whereas Simek was draftsman-like with balloons that were more geometric. When they were gone, Marvel comics were never the same.

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  24. While Rosen and Simek lettered just about every comic issue back in those days, occasionally there would be an issue lettered by Herb Cooper and Mike Stevens. I don't think anyone mentioned them.

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  25. I'll second the high regard for these two outstanding craftsmen. Glad to see Ray Holloway mentioned-- he did beautiful work for DC, uncredited, in the sixties. A great unsung talent. I always liked Terry Szenics, too-- a perfect combination of casual and precise. I never understood how Ira Schnapps could do the best display lettering in comics (only Gaspar was his equal) and the ugliest story lettering around. Marvel was in good shape in that department with Novak, Joe Rosen, Orzechowski, Costanza , Annette Kawecki and the crude-by-comparison but effortlessly readable Denise Wohl into the early 1980s. After that the lettering corps, with few exceptions from the old hands, went all-amateur...like Marvel's stories and art. Bill Oakley and Phil Felix were very bright spots a few years later.

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  26. Anonymous: There is one sample of the great Ben Oda lettering for Marvel. It's the first page of TALES OF SUSPENSE # 73. Like the work of all the masters, his reads effortlessly, letting the story unfold in your head and never calling attention to itself.

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  27. Kevin,

    Marvel had a fine line of craftsman as you noted. When a crude letterer appeared among those you mentioned it stuck out like a sore thumb and drew attention to itself and away from the art, a cardinal sin. Oakley and Felex were both very good.

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  28. Kevin,

    Oda was an exceptional and prolific letterer, working for many companies and also lettering many comic strips.

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  29. Kevin:

    Ben Oda split the story with Art Simek, lettering the splash page and pages 7-12, while Simek did pages 2-6, and (interestingly) the credit box on page 1. I would love to know what happened with this story--a looming deadline, perhaps? A 3-martini Friday afternoon lunch with 10 people passing pages across the table to be drawn, inked, lettered, proofread?

    Oh, by the way, it was Roy Thomas's first superhero work for Marvel. Maybe Stan requested major changes, leading to a hasty tag-team revision of the whole story?

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  30. Hi, Love this stuff! Thanks. Do you know if the letterer also penned the creators "signature"? i.e. "Stan Lee + S. Ditko" in the margen of a ASM splash?
    Thanks, Justin

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  31. Justin,

    Often the artist or inker penned the names in. Dick Ayers explained that he lettered "Kirby and Ayers" on covers and splash pages. Stan often signed his name as did Ditko.

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