The Adventures Of The Fly

by Joe Simon (Foreword), Jack Kirby, Jack Davis

Presenting one of the pioneering superheroes of the Silver Age: THE FLY! Tommy Troy is a young boy whose world is turned upside down when he meets an emissary of the Fly World and is given a special ring that magically transforms him into the superhuman FLY! Now you can relive the Fly's earliest adventures as charted by some of the most legendary talents in comics: Jack Kirby! Joe Simon! Jack Davis! Al Williamson! All of these artists and more are featured in this special edition that collects titanic tales from 1959 and 1960.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics

96 pages, Paperback

First published October 19, 2004

About the author

Joseph Henry "Joe" Simon (born Hymie Simon) was an American comic book writer, artist, editor, and publisher. Simon created or co-created many important characters in the 1930s-1940s Golden Age of Comic Books and served as the first editor of Timely Comics, the company that would evolve into Marvel Comics.

With his partner, artist Jack Kirby, he co-created Captain America, one of comics' most enduring superheroes, and the team worked extensively on such features at DC Comics as the 1940s Sandman and Sandy the Golden Boy, and co-created the Newsboy Legion, the Boy Commandos, and Manhunter. Simon & Kirby creations for other comics publishers include Boys' Ranch, Fighting American and the Fly. In the late 1940s, the duo created the field of romance comics, and were among the earliest pioneers of horror comics. Simon, who went on to work in advertising and commercial art, also founded the satirical magazine Sick in 1960, remaining with it for a decade. He briefly returned to DC Comics in the 1970s.

Simon was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1999.

Reviews

[J.L. Lamastus · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting piece of comic book history. I do like the Archie Comics super heroes that I've read and the Fly is no exception. Created by Captain America's creators Simon and Kirby he is a fun character.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting how you can trace back a lot of Spider-Man’s conceptualization to this Simon and Kirby creation. Certainly not the greatest superhero creation, but fascinating from its historical impact on later characters and concepts. Again, Simon and Kirby were ahead of the times and just kept missing the perfect hit by a year or two.

[Matt Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad. Kinda funny and silly. Tells of the origin of The Fly (Tommy Troy finds a ring in an attic which gives him the power to turn into the Fly as bestowed upon him by fly-like people from another dimension) plus several of his first adventures from the first two years of the serial.

[Michael P. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am not sure if this is the nadir of Simon and Kirby collaboration, but it must be close to the bottom. Even the best of these stories are derivative and utterly dopey.