Captain America #1 hit the newsstands December 20, 1940. It was an immediate smash hit, selling almost a million copies right away. 

Although this was a full year before America entered WWII, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s bold cover art proves heroes don’t wait for government approval to start punching Nazis.

Joe Simon: “The opponents of the war were all quite well organized. We wanted to have our say too.”

Joe Simon: “The United States hadn’t yet entered the war when Jack and I created Captain America, so maybe he was our way of lashing out against the Nazi menace.”

The Nazi menace was thriving openly at home in the form of the German American Bund, a Nazi fan club based in New York. Jack Kirby and Joe Simon received a flood of hate mail and threatening phone calls in response to their comic book.

Jack Kirby: “I once got a letter from a Nazi who told me to pick out any lamppost I wanted on Times Square, because when Hitler arrived, they’d hang me from it.”

Joe Simon: “Some people really opposed what Cap stood for.” 

When the Bund’s threats moved off the phone lines and into the streets, Mayor La Guardia intervened and sent cops to protect the publisher’s offices. The mayor told Joe Simon: “You boys over there are doing a good job.”

Jack Kirby and Joe Simon were both in their 20s, both born in New York, both Jewish and both children of immigrants from Europe. They continued to write and draw Captain America up to issue #10. 

All artwork from Captain America #1.