You know what we haven't looked at? Of course you do - it's in the title. One of those obvious things that gets completely overlooked most of the time. I can't remember seeing it featured in any piece on Jack Kirby, though it's probably in one of the many books & magazines still waiting for us to dig up and find.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Kirby's first comic book cover was a collaboration with Joe Simon. At this early stage, it was Jack on pencils and Joe on inks, for Champion Comics #9 cover dated July 1940, from Worth Publishing Co.:
That appears to be Duke O'Dowd, The Human Meteor (not Duke O'Dowd, The Champ as it first appeared to me. The Champ is a different character) having issues with the colourist on the cover.
Doesn't Liberty Lads sound like a Simon & Kirby creation? It focuses on "two hardy Colonial lads" in Revolutionary times in the American Colonies. Jack & Joe would certainly go for more than two, but they'd have run with that concept and title, all the way to glory.
Bonus Fun!
Here's two Simon & Kirby covers from Champ Comics:
Champ Comics is from a different company, Family Comics, Inc., located in St. Louis, Missouri. Champion Comics was published in Buffalo, New York. Did The Champ take over the comic and move across country? No clue. And yet, our Human Meteor is here, too. Now he's wearing red on the cover and green inside, while up there at Champion Comics he's wearing blue on the cover and red inside. I'm still not sure what color his outfit is supposed to be, or if he's just fashionable.
Kirby/Simon cover for Champions Comics #9 (1940) and Champ Comics #s 19 & 21 (1942)
