JF Ptak Science Books   Post 1077

[A History of Blank, Empty & Missing Things, #78]

The indefatigable team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby (Joseph H. Simon, born 1913 and still going and Jacob Kurtzberg,1917-1994, respectively) produced some of the enduring heroes and ideas of the Golden Age of Comics. In capacities as comic book writers, artists, editors and publishers they knocked the bottom out of the creativity bin, affecting all manner and aspects of that industry, as well as  introducing the genres of horror and modern romance comics.

And as necessary as it is scary, the nearly unrecognizable forensic pathology of the kiss in pink (above):

I was initially drawn to their harsh colors,  blocky characters and un-magnificent dialog looking for wonderbits of non sequitor images and thought/word balloons populated with broken english.  They’re marvelous and easy to find, though I did get distracted by the unexpected part that I’m posting about right now–the missing, blank kiss.  Since they started the romance comics angles there’s plenty of 1940’s kisses to be found, but what I found was that although the kissing aspect wasn’t missing, the act of kissing was.  There’s plenty of heads smashed together that don’t leave a lot of room for faces, and in general it might be the sensitivities of the Golden Age’s age that cast away the kiss itself, their characters rushing face first into bad screen kisses. 

There’s nothing wrong with this, and perhaps the kids never really noticed this, rushing to get ahead to the end of the confusing romantic interests.

There is a hint of a lip in this one, below, though it wasn’t supposed to be a passionate cheek kiss.