Gardner Fox was the more productive… Maybe too much so because the quality of his writing fluctuated a lot.

Ed Hamilton was an established SF writer from the pulps, but not necessarily the best at doing comic book work. I always though he wrote infantile stories too many times.

Otto Binder was also an established pulp writer, who also transposed his experience at Fawcett to build up Superman’s great Silver Age pantheon (Supergirl, etc) using themes he already had exploited for Captain Marvel.

Arnold Drake was the one who pushed the limits with concepts such as Deadman and Doom Patrol.

John Broome wrote good and tight stories. I can almost always spot his stories in Julius Schwartz great SF anthologies (STRANGE ADVENTURES and MYSTERY IN SPACE)

On Joe Simon’s poor Bronze Age concepts.
I don’t think it was because he failed at everything he did during this period because his concepts were too wacky or weird. Jack Kirby did pretty weird things in the Bronze Age (Omac, Kamandi, Devil Dinosaur, etc.). The Bronze Age is an era of wild, bold and crazy ideas. Most of them didn’t sell that well, but they still retain a cult following type of appeal even 30 or 40 years later. I think that Joe Simon failed because he was disconnected from his readership. Wild ideas need hard work to sell the concept or at least make them entertaining. In that regard, I think that Simon took the reader for granted and didn’t respect their intelligence. He wrote as if readers were barely out of kindergarten, at a time when most readers were in their teens and comic books were being openly read in colleges (remember that Stan Lee was being invited to lectures in the late 60′s).

But– but– what about The Jordan Brothers? You _can’t_ hate the Jordan Brothers. It’s physically impossible, like hating the Kennedys.

In fact, the Jordan Brothers are just like the Kennedys; the difference is that one of the Jordans is the Green Lantern of Earth.

But, seriously: I think John Broome is a seriously under-appreciated and over-looked writer. He’s the man that gave us Gorilla Grodd, Professor Zoom, Sinestro, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Weaponeers of Qward– an incredibly fertile imagination that helped to refine the superhero genre.

I’m not saying anything’s wrong with anyone who doesn’t care for Broome– I just personally feel that he’s seven different kinds of awesome.

And damn, do I love those Jordan Brothers stories.

But as far as characterization and likability goes? Elongated Man, bar none.

Mr. Fantastic has always been the weakest of the FF, I think– even when he’s written correctly, which is a damn slight more passionate than he got at the end of CIVIL WAR # 7.

Haven’t read Jigsaw, but he seems pretty awesome.

I wonder where Stretch Armstrong fits into such a ranking? :- )

As for Simon and Kirby having wild, crazy ideas, all I can say is… Hotsky Trotski!

Most of my comic-book loving fans tend to stress the Lee & Kirby partnership, but I can see now just how much Simon & Kirby both had in common– wild, crazy ideas coming from ceaselessly creative men.

I would like to see one of the planets in the DCU dedicated to all of the off-the wall and insane (yet-light hearted) ideas of yester-year. I’m sure you could use these Simon ideas, thorw in a couple of Kirby ideas (Newsboy legion) and whatever else you or Grant Morrison could dig up and just let it go.