Shieldmaster: Blast to the Past #1
Publisher: Simon Studios
Creators: Jesse Simon, Geovane Amaro, Joe Rubenstein, Agus Rider, Randy Sargent, Alfred Cabillon
Cover Art: (Main cover) Joe Rubenstein, (Cover B) Joe Simon, (Cover C) Tom Morgan
Price: $10.00 (first available on Kickstarter)
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
From the Kickstarter campaign:
“In the present day, ShieldMaster, along with his companions Jim and Jesse Simon, go to a comic convention. There, they encounter a mysterious space simulator, when they are blasted back into time. Suddenly, they find themselves in 1963.
President Kennedy is in town at the U.N. building and calls upon Fighting American to safeguard him from a genuine threat known to the secret service. Fighting American rallies a team of extraordinary heroes: The Fly, Private Strong, Stuntman, Captain 3-D, and Bullseye, in the defense of JFK. I won’t reveal the threat as it should be a surprise. See if you can figure it out based off of the covers shown!
Meanwhile, Jim and Jesse need to confront a dilemma of their own. Their father/grandfather, Joe Simon, is present at the 1963 comic convention. Should they approach Joe and his collaborator Jack Kirby, or should they proceed with caution to avoid disrupting the timeline?”
So, let’s get this out of the way at the start. I adore the Simon & Kirby characters in this issue, especially The Fighting American. Those characters’ involvement are the whole reason I picked up this issue. The legal status of these guys is unique. While the majority of the characters are co-owned by both the Simon and Kirby Estates (Fighting American, Speedboy, and Bullseye), The Fly and Lancelot Strong, once mainstays of Archie’s Crusaders comics, have been fully owned by the Simon Estate since being returned to the family in 1999 by Archie Comics. Stuntman and Captain 3-D, both created by Simon and Kirby, have long lapsed into the Public Domain. So like I said, a little bit all over the place. However, the title character of this book, Shieldmaster himself, is the creation of Joe Simon’s son Jim, and directed in this issue by series writer Jesse Simon, Joe’s grandson, and Jim’s son.
As far as the plot of the story, thanks to a time-travel MacGuffin, Shieldmaster (along with Jim and Jesse themselves) end up traveling back in time to 1963 where they encounter not only the aforementioned heroes (as well as President John F. Kennedy), but Joe Simon and Jack Kirby themselves! The story is, at its core, about family. It’s an opportunity tor Jesse and Jim to see Joe again, and have that time with him after he’s been gone in their own time. Who among us wouldn’t love the chance to see those who we’ve lost if we had the opportunity? It’s a touching moment that Jesse uses to express some of the doubts he and his father have about what Joe would think of their efforts.
But lest we forget, there’s plenty of action as well as the Simon & Kirby heroes do battle with a Shieldmaster imposter, before teaming with the actual Shieldmaster to defeat the villain. We don’t learn who it really is or what its purpose was, but it’s clearly alien. So that feels like a setup for a future tale. And I hope we get it. I really want more of these characters together.
As for the creative team, Jesse himself does double duty both telling the tale as well as providing inks over Geovane Amaro’s pencils. Amaro’s art style is more simple, but by no means basic, in a more animated style similar to what you see on the covers of DC’s Scooby-Doo series. I like it. The colors are by several individuals, but they all maintain a unified palette, so as a whole, they look the same. Veteran inker Joe Rubenstein provides inks over the real-life individuals in the book, both historic and those who got to be in it as Kickstarter Backers. In fact, G-Man Comics’ own Agent Squires makes a cameo as part of Kennedy’s Secret Service detail! That would be a fun bit to incorporate into the character’s canon, and good fodder for a future tale of his own.
The one part of this book that I don’t like is the lettering. It’s distracting, doesn’t flow well, and can be confusing in places. It also gets cut off the sides of the pages in parts, which hints at a technical issue by the unnamed letterer. I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: people tend to think of the Letterer as the least-important element of comic production, but when it’s done poorly, nothing makes the book look worse.
In conclusion, I’d recommend this book if you’re a fan of the Simon and Kirby characters involved, and the creative team themselves.
About Author
