(CNN) — Joe Simon, the co-creator of star-spangled comic book hero Captain America, has died at 98, his family announced.
Simon passed away late Wednesday in New York after a short illness.
Simon and Jack Kirby, who ran a studio, developed the character in the early 1940s and worked outside the box to develop a distinct design.
“Together, the team created Captain America as well as long list of characters, including The Newsboy Legion and The Boy Commandos,” a statement Thursday from his family said.
A Marvel Comics website provides a summary of Captain America and his superhero quest.
“In World War II, patriotic soldier Steve Rogers, recipient of the ‘Super Soldier Serum,’ became the living symbol of freedom, Captain America. Left for dead while frozen in ice, the star-spangled hero with an indestructible shield awoke years later to continue his never-ending battle for liberty.”
The movie “Captain America: The First Avenger” was released this year. Chris Evans, in the title role, went up against villain Red Skull, played by Hugo Weaving.
Kirby and Simon created Captain America for Timely Comics, Marvel’s predecessor. The comic was a huge hit during World War II.
With Captain America came some of Kirby’s comic book innovations, Mark Evanier, author of the book “Kirby: King of Comics,” told CNN in 2008.
Comic books, which had started as reprints of newspaper comic strips, had adhered to that form’s look of repetitious boxes. Kirby and Simon used different-sized panels, varying shapes, even full pages.
“They kind of invented things that made comic books different than strips,” Evanier said. They realized they “had the whole page to play with. … They’d take three or four pages for a single action scene.”
The popular genres after the war were crime and horror comics, and Simon and Kirby created a handful, including the dramatically named “Justice Traps the Guilty.” They also pioneered the romance genre, juxtaposing Kirby’s innately thrilling style with primly dressed women and men in neat suits and sweaters.
Simon is survived by two sons, three daughters and eight grandchildren.