Titan Books has announced that it will continue its series of books collecting classic comics by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, in the wake of Simon’s death (see “RIP Joe Simon”).  Titan’s collections are the only ones fully authorized by Simon.

The next volume, out this fall, will be The Simon and Kirby Library: Science Fiction.  It will collect works from a 20 year span, including Blue Bolt and Race for the Moon (with inks by Reed Crandall, Angelo Torres, and Al Williamson).  The first Blue Bolt story, all by Simon, has not previously been reprinted.  The volume will also include other stories from the 40s and 50s, including some with art by Crandall, Torres, and Williamson (without Kirby). 

The volume will have an introduction by Dave (Watchmen) Gibbons. 

The fifth volume in the series, The Simon and Kirby Library: Horror, will be released in 2013.  It will include stories from Black Magic (which played a role in televised hearings by the Senate Subcomittee on Juvenile Delinquency) and Strange World of Your Dreams.

Previous volumes in Titan’s series include The Simon and Kirby Superheroes (see “’The Simon and Kirby Superheroes’”), The Best of Simon and Kirby (see “Preview of ‘The Best of Simon and Kirby’”), and The Simon and Kirby Library: Crime, which was released last November.  That volume made the New York Times bestseller list. “It’s a thrill to be a New York Times bestseller for the first time in my life,” Simon said just before his death.  “I’m just grateful for the opportunity to breathe new energy into the work Jack and I did throughout our careers.”