"When I and the other young artists were working in comics, our work carried with it a particularly American slant. After all, we were Americans drawing and writing about things that touched us. As it turned out, the early work was, you might say, a comic book version of Jazz"
About this Quote
There’s a quiet bravado in Joe Simon framing early American comics as “a comic book version of Jazz.” It’s not a claim about prestige so much as a claim about origin: comics weren’t born from imported taste or institutional blessing, they were improvised in the churn of American city life by young artists moving fast, making something out of whatever was at hand.
The intent is corrective. Simon pushes back against the idea that comics were merely disposable pulp or second-rate illustration. By invoking jazz, he borrows a language Americans already use to dignify an art form that began as popular entertainment and only later got canonized. Jazz is the perfect analog because it’s both rigor and riff: structure underneath, spontaneity on top. Early comics worked the same way - tight deadlines, assembly-line production, recycled motifs - but also bursts of invention, exaggerated motion, vernacular humor, and a street-level sense of drama.
The subtext is about cultural ownership. “Particularly American slant” sounds modest, but it’s a line in the sand: these stories emerged from immigrant neighborhoods, newsstands, radio chatter, wartime anxieties, and the swagger of modernity. Like jazz, comics were collaborative, commercial, and suspiciously democratic - made for mass audiences, not gatekeepers.
Context matters: Simon helped define the medium in its industrial, pre-literary era, when “young artists” were building a national style without asking permission. Calling it jazz isn’t nostalgia; it’s a reminder that America’s most influential art often starts as hustle.
The intent is corrective. Simon pushes back against the idea that comics were merely disposable pulp or second-rate illustration. By invoking jazz, he borrows a language Americans already use to dignify an art form that began as popular entertainment and only later got canonized. Jazz is the perfect analog because it’s both rigor and riff: structure underneath, spontaneity on top. Early comics worked the same way - tight deadlines, assembly-line production, recycled motifs - but also bursts of invention, exaggerated motion, vernacular humor, and a street-level sense of drama.
The subtext is about cultural ownership. “Particularly American slant” sounds modest, but it’s a line in the sand: these stories emerged from immigrant neighborhoods, newsstands, radio chatter, wartime anxieties, and the swagger of modernity. Like jazz, comics were collaborative, commercial, and suspiciously democratic - made for mass audiences, not gatekeepers.
Context matters: Simon helped define the medium in its industrial, pre-literary era, when “young artists” were building a national style without asking permission. Calling it jazz isn’t nostalgia; it’s a reminder that America’s most influential art often starts as hustle.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
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