As Joe Simon detailed, "Comic book publishers were dropping out of the business in wholesale numbers.
When the presses were silent, printing companies still had to pay overhead, so they were more than willing to back a new comics organization if it showed promise.
While keeping their hand in at Crestwood to fulfill their contract, Simon and Kirby invested their savings in their new company, working with veteran paper and printing broker George Dougherty, Jr.[2] The two had long wanted to self-publish, and they further wished to create comics for the adults of the 1950s who had read comics as children in the 1940s.
[2] As Simon recalled, The distributor we chose was Leader News, the company that distributed Bill Gaines' EC Comics.
"[1] In response, Simon and Kirby arranged in November 1954 to audit Crestwood, leading to a meeting between, on one side, Simon, Kirby, their accountant Bernard Gwirtzman and the attorney Gwirtzman chose, Morris Eisenstein;[4] and on the other Crestwood publishers Teddy Epstein and Paul Bleier[5] as well as general manager M. R.
"[3] Epstein countered that all monies had been paid, and no royalties withheld, so Gwirtzman clarified that the claimed funds derived largely from overseas sales, and that over the previous seven years the total was around $130,000.
Offered a $10,000 settlement and the recently delayed payments, Simon and Kirby returned to working on Mainline, but under increasingly strained circumstances.
With the demise of Mainline, the longstanding partnership between Simon and Kirby also ended, although they would collaborate on a few more comics.