TwoMorrows Publishing Comics - MLJ Companion by PressPad

THE

THE All characters TM & © Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Archie characters created by John L. Goldwater. The likenesses of the original Archie characters were created by Bob Montana.

C O M PA N I O N

Printed in China.

Then, in the swinging ’60s, The Mighty Crusaders arrived with some of the wildest characters ever assembled, including the hen-pecked Web (whose wife secretly sneaks out to fight as Pow Girl!), as well as the sensual super-heroine who (no lie!) goes by the name of Fly-Girl! Plus, lest we forget, there was the Black Hood’s faithful robot horse named Nightmare…! This comprehensive book covers 75 years of ever-changing incarnations, including little-known, behind-the-scenes looks, such as the Watchmen-influenced Spectrum Comics line abruptly cancelled before debuting due to public outcry, as well as the scoop behind the not one, but two lines of Archie heroes oddly published by a main competitor, DC Comics! From the days of Zip and Pep to today’s Dark Circle, this massive blue ribbon, top-notch retrospective has it all!

THIS 288-PAGE VOLUME INCLUDES:

ISBN-13: 978-1-60549-067-0 ISBN-10: 1-60549-067-9

53195 60 PAGES OF CLASSIC GOLDEN AGE ADVENTURES • OVER 20 CREATOR INTERVIEWS! RARE LOOKS AT: THE WEB BY NEAL ADAMS! THE HANGMAN BY KELLEY JONES! LEARN 9 781605 490670 ABOUT THE DAY THE FLY (ALMOST) MADE TO THE SILVER SCREEN! PLUS: THE TIME THE RIVERDALE GANG BECAME SUPER-HEROES; LOOKS AT SUPER DUCK & THUNDER BUNNY; AND MORE!

TwoMorrows Publishing Raleigh, North Carolina

ISBN: 978-1-60549-067-0 $31.95 in the U.S.

Offenberger, Castiglia & Cooke

From the dawn of the 1940s Golden Age of comics to the current graphic novel scene, the super-heroes of Archie Comics have entertained avid fans and casual readers alike with their often thrilling and sometimes wacky exploits. Called the MLJ super-heroes, the line-up includes such unforgettable characters as The Shield, America’s first patrotic super-hero; the ill-fated Comet, the first comic book crimefighter to actually be killed in the line of duty; and his vengeance-seeking brother, The Hangman, a “hero” who didn’t hesitate to execute the bad guys by rope!

COMPANION

ALL THE WAY WITH THE HEROES OF MLJ!

by Rik Offenberger Paul Castiglia & Jon B. Cooke from THE GOLDEN AGE…

through the silver age…

into the 1980s…

up to the present day!

The Complete History of the Archie Comics Super-Heroes!

Chapter 1: MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and ’40s Partner Profiles: The Men Behind MLJ Magazines ........................................... 76 All The Way With MLJ! by Ron Goulart.............................................................. 79 Creator Chat: Irv Novick...................................................................................... 96 The Black Hood… on the Air!.............................................................................. 101 Stanley Taffet Takes the Top-Notch Prize......................................................... 105 The Black Hood, Pulp Fiction Hero................................................................. 107 A Brief History of Canada’s Golden Age Archie Comics .............................. 108 Super Duck, the Cockeyed Wonder.................................................................... 110 Close-Up: MLJ Comics… Exposed!...................................................................... 114 Interlude: The Archie Phenomenon.....................................................118 Chapter 2: Mighty Comics in the 1950s and ’60s Those Mighty Crusaders by Will Murray........................................................... 120 The Anti-Crime Squad........................................................................................ 123 MLJ Done the S&K Way.................................................................................... 127 The Pre-Mighty Comics...................................................................................... 130 The Spider and the Fly......................................................................................... 132 Too Many Ultra Heroes!..................................................................................... 139 Mighty Comics “Expands”................................................................................. 140 Mighty Marvel and the Mighty Crusaders...................................................... 142 The Other Fly-Man................................................................................................ 144 The Invasion of the High Camp Super-Heroes................................................. 146 Jerry Siegel’s Second Act...................................................................................... 149 Super Heroics: the Game of Crime Fighting..................................................... 150 The Shadow’s Forgotten Era at Archie Comics................................................. 152 The Secret Life of Mr. Archibald Andrews........................................................ 156 Interlude: Where are the Heroes?.........................................................160 Chapter 3: 1970s’ Red Circle Comics Group Sorcery Supreme! Vicente Alcazár Interview by Jon B. Cooke........................ 162 Creator Chat: Gray Morrow.............................................................................. 164 Red Circle Comics Group Index....................................................................... 167 Interlude: Mighty Legion of Justice......................................................168 Chapter 4: The Red Circle Heroes of the ’80s The Red Circle Years by Rik Offenberger............................................................. 170 Creator Chat: Rich Buckler................................................................................ 174 The Eve of Neal Adams........................................................................................ 177 With One Magic Clap… Thunder Bunny!...................................................... 179 Creator Chat: Cary Burkett............................................................................... 180 The Mighty Crusaders Action Figure Line..................................................... 184 Creator Chat: Dick Ayers................................................................................... 186 Creator Chat: Bill DuBay................................................................................... 188 Creator Chat: Stan Timmons ........................................................................... 192 Fox in Archie’s Henhouse: Alex Toth’s Edgy Take on the MLJ Hero ......... 195 Interlude: Descent into Darkness.........................................................198

Table of Contents

Foreword by Paul Castiglia ............................................................................... 69 Introduction by Rik Offenberger .................................................................... 71 Prelude: Roots of the MLJ Line........................................................................ 72 A Key to the Mighty Heroes of MLJ ................................................. 74

Chapter 5: The Ill-Fated Spectrum Comics Line Into the Spectrum by Rik Offenberger & Bradley S. Cobb............................... 200 Creator Chat: Kelley Jones................................................................................. 200 Creator Chat: Mark Ellis..................................................................................... 201 Creator Chat: Jim Valentino.............................................................................. 202 Steve Englehart Charts the Fly’s Course............................................................. 204 Scott Fulop on Spectrum (and those PSAs)...................................................... 207 Spectrum: The Comics Buyer’s Guide Article..................................................... 208 Spectrum: Killed at Birth....................................................................................... 210 Interlude: In the House of Superman...................................................212 Chapter 6: Impact Comics of the 1990s Making an Impact by Bradley S. Cobb................................................................. 214 The Impact Trading Cards.................................................................................. 220 Creator Chat: Brian Augustyn........................................................................... 224 Impact Socks It Old School................................................................................ 227 Creator Chat: Jimmy Palmiotti......................................................................... 229 Character Stats: The Black Hood, The Comet, and The Fly.......................... 230 Interlude: DC’s Diminishing Impact....................................................236 Chapter 7: Between Impact and Archie The Fly (almost) Goes Hollywood by Paul Castiglia....................................... 238 Creator Chat: Michael Uslan....................................................................239 Chapter 8: An MLJ Hero in the Digital Age The Web Goes World Wide by Paul Castiglia................................................... 244 Chapter 9: The Archie Gang Joins the MLJ! MLJ Goes to Riverdale by Paul Castiglia............................................................ 246 Creator Chat: Paul Castiglia.............................................................................. 248 Interlude: The Straczynski Effect...........................................................252 Chapter 10: The Crusaders Return to DC Into the DC Universe: Rachel Gluckstern Interview by Rik Offenberger.... 254 Creator Chat: Marco Rudy................................................................................. 256 Creator Chat: John Rozum................................................................................ 257 Creator Chat: Eric Trautman............................................................................. 260 Creator Chat: Brandon Jerwa............................................................................ 261 Creator Chat: Tom Derenick............................................................................. 263 Interlude: Full Circle at DC Comics.....................................................264 Chapter 11: Red Circle’s Fox and New Crusaders Digitizing MLJ’s Heroes by Jon B. Cooke............................................................ 266 Interlude: Archie’s Monster Makeover.................................................270 Chapter 12: Dawning of the Dark Circle Red Circle Goes Dark: Alex Segura Interview by Rik Offenberger................ 272 Bright Ruminations on the Dark Circle Comics.............................................. 276 Postscript: Those Majestic MLJ Heroes 75 Years (and Counting) of Archie’s Ever-Changing Super-Heroes............ 278 Collecting MLJ Comics: J. C. Vaughn Interview by Rik Offenberger........... 280 Learn More About MLJ......................................................................................... 284 It’s a Mighty MLJ World........................................................................................ 286

by Paul Castiglia Often the best discoveries are the most unexpected. One such discovery for me was the Mighty Crusaders. I came upon Archie’s fabled heroes as I imagine many my age did: randomly and in-between incarnations. Stumbling across a public service announcement in an Archie digest while researching the company for which I hoped to become a freelance writer, the image of the characters at once excited, fascinated and intrigued me. Here were Captain America-esque star-spangled titans I’d never seen before. And a feral-in-a-Wolverine-kind-of-way hero with leopard spots on his costume. And a yellow and green webby dude who wasn’t Spider-Man. Who were these guys?!

My next encounter with the characters came at a comic shop that was literally a warehouse of back issues. Here were all of them in comic series of their own, as well as anthologies! Some were published under a “Red Circle” banner while other issues sported “Archie Adventure Series” on the cover. I snapped up the issues at a bargain price, most five or more years after their original publication date. I immersed myself in this “other” comics universe that strangely mirrored those of the “Big Two,” yet simultaneously had hints of an indy edge as well. Inspired by what I read, I became even more determined to get work at Archie… but now my focus shifted to getting “inside” in an editorial capacity, to perhaps help usher in the next incarnation of these characters.

The images set off a slideshow in my mind. It flashed through memories of the books, Steranko’s History of Comics, Feiffer’s The Great Comic Book Heroes, and Les Daniel’s Comix, but there was nary an image I could immediately recall connecting to these characters. Mentions perhaps, but my mind remained in limbo: these characters were at best vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t definitively place them.

The happy outcome was landing a full-time job at Archie in January of 1990. Initially I was an assistant editor and archivist/ historian, but ultimately became a full-fledged editor as well as writer, public relations, and direct sales coordinator and director of new product development. The Mighty Crusaders permeated every aspect of my work on-staff, and even later as a freelance writer/editor, after I left the staff position in 1999.

Foreword

Heroes Unexpected

As public service announcements, Archie Comic Publications used their superhero characters to combat illiteracy. This 1990 house ad was MLJ Companion co-author Paul Castiglia’s first introduction to the MLJ super-hero universe!

Foreword

by Rik Offenberger The Mighty Crusaders have meant a lot to me for many years. I first met the Crusaders in the early ’80s. They showed up at my local comic shop without much fanfare. There on the shelf was the first copy of Mighty Crusaders #1 from Red Circle Comics. I had never heard of Red Circle, but the art was great and the comic had the look and feel of a high-quality publication. I purchased it and learned to love the Crusaders. I didn’t really know anything about them. On the inside front cover Robin Snyder gave the historical background to the Golden Age of MLJ. It was just like discovering DC or Marvel comics all over again. There was a lot of backstory, and it was fun to get to know all the heroes.

I was saddened when the Crusaders were canceled, and looked forward to their eventual return. They came back with the !mpact line of comics. As Image comics was launching and Valiant comics was picking up steam, DC Comics licensed the MLJ heroes from Archie and created a young readers universe, with their own version of the heroes. Unfortunately, !mpact did not have the impact DC was looking for and Archie and DC canceled the licensing agreement.

Introduction

Our Mighty Crusade FPO

In-between Archie had a new plan of their own for their heroes; they called it Spectrum Comics. There were articles in the Comic Buyers Guide, The Comics Journal, and Amazing Heroes about the upcoming comics. The new line would compete head-to-head with the As I read the stories I grittier fare coming out of DC, remembered my father Marvel and some independent reading Alan Light’s publishers that had made a Flashback Reprints to me, splash in the “direct sales” sharing his childhood comics comic shop market. Ultimately, with me. They included Pep the management then-inComics and Special Comics. I charge at Archie, taking their also remember checking out core readership into account copies of The Adventures of and their close connection with the Jaguar from the public the Comics Code Authority library. I lived near one of (headed by former Archie the few libraries that carried MLJ Companion co-author Rik Offenberger discovered the MLJ super-heroes via President John Goldwater) comics. They were all older the ’80s reboot, Red Circle’s Mighty Crusaders #1 [Mar. ’83]. This cover art detail is decided that it was not the comics donated to the by the line’s editor, artist Rich Buckler. right time for this version of library and were quite beaten up, but it was there I discovered that Archie had super-heroes. I the heroes to see the light of day. While the Spectrum line enjoyed the Archie animated cartoon series as a small child but never saw print, interviews with the creators behind the project in magazines and on the Internet have kept the legend alive. had no idea that the company published super-heroes, and at the time I never made the connection between the MLJ comics As if to underscore how amazing these heroes are, the above my father read and Archie Comics. is only part of their story! In these pages, Paul Castiglia and I hope, with the help of various other writer-historians, fans and I also didn’t know that the Shield was the first patriotic creators to bring their rich and ongoing history to life in a way super-hero, or that Dusty pre-dated Bucky. I was unaware that that will inspire new legions of Mighty Crusaders fans. the Comet inspired Cyclops or that Simon and Kirby created the Fly at the dawn of the Silver Age, inspiring Spider-Man. Both were adaptations of Joe Simon’s Silver Spider comic. Introduction

THE JAGUAR: Zoologist Ralph Hardy, friend to all animals, picks up a mysterious jaguar belt left by the ancients and transforms into The Jaguar -- complete with superheightened animal powers! THE SHIELD: Chemist Joe Higgins devoted his life to fighting evil after the murder of his father by the diabolical Eraser. Donning a patriotic costume, this G-Man has become an extraordinary hero!

THE COMET: An experimental substance gives young scientist John Dickering powers beyond beliefâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;including the power of flight! He soon decides to use his newfound powers in the fight for justice!

THE FLY: Attorney Tommy Troy, using the powers of the magic ring given to him by Turan, emissary of the extraterrestrial Fly People, transforms into the Fly. He possesses the strength of 100 men, has the ability to see in all directions and is endowed with super quick insect reflexesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;making him a super guardian of justice!

THE MLJ COMPANION

tradition of crime fighting,

THE WEB:

Detective Matt

Professor

Burland dons

John Raymond,

a black hood

criminologist

and special

and famed

utility vest to

mystery writer,

fight crime and

dons his

corruption.

web costume as he wages psychological warfare against lawbreakers everywhere!

The Mighty Heroes of MLJ

THE BLACK HOOD: Following a family

FLY GIRL: Turan, the emissary of the extraterrestrial Fly People, reacting to the fact that evil forces abound throughout the world, decides to bestow a magic ring to another -- this time, actress Kim Brand.

In addition to these core members, the following have also served at one time or another: • The Hangman • Steel Sterling • Private Strong • The Fox • The Darkling • Black Jack • Captain Flag • Mr. Justice • Firefly • The Wizard • Inferno • Bob Phantom • Fireball and more... The Mighty Heroes of MLJ

Chapter One

MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and 1940s

Archie Comics put out a whole slew of super-hero characters beginning in their very first comic publication, Blue Ribbon Comics #1, way back in November 1939. Other super-hero titles they published during the 1940s included Zip Comics, Jackpot Comics, Hangman Comics, Shield-Wizard Comics, and even Pep Comics—which before Archie came along in issue #22, was home to the first-ever patriotic super-hero, The Shield.

Publisher Profile: MLJ Comics by Rik Offenberger [Editor’s Note: The following originally appeared in slightly different form in Borderline #19 (Mar. 1, 2003).] Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit and John Goldwater formed MLJ Magazines and started publishing in November 1939. The company name was derived from the initials of the partners’ first names. MAURICE COYNE (Sept. 15, 1901–May 1971) Maurice Coyne had worked with Louis Silberkleit in several publishing ventures, starting with employment from Hugo Gernsback. Maurice Coyne and Louis Silberkleit were partners in Columbia Publishing. Maurice Coyne also served as MLJ’s bookkeeper and chief financial officer. LOUIS HORACE SILBERKLEIT (Nov. 17, 1900–Feb. 21, 1986) Louis Silberkleit had a college degree from St. John’s University, was a licensed registered pharmacist, and also had a law degree from New York Law School. Silberkleit was regarded as having an uncanny knack as a circulator and was known for setting very tight distributions and being an extremely tough negotiator with printers, distributors, and separators. He worked for a pulp chain in the late 1920s and, in the early 1930s, Silberkleit, Martin Goodman, and Maurice Coyne started Columbia Publications. Martin Goodman soon

MLJ Comics Index BLACK HOOD COMICS Winter 1943-44 to Summer 1946 #9–#19

BLUE RIBBON COMICS (BLUE RIBBON MYSTERY COMICS 9-18) November 1939 to March 1942 #1–#22

HANGMAN COMICS Spring 1942 to Fall 1943 #2–#8

JACKPOT COMICS Spring 1941 to Spring 1943 #1—#9

PEP COMICS

January 1940 to March 1987 #1—#65

SHIELD-WIZARD COMICS Summer 1940 to Spring 1944 #1-#13

SPECIAL COMICS Winter 1941-41 #1

TOP-NOTCH COMICS December 1939 to June 1944 #1–#45

ZIP COMICS

February 1940 to Summer 1944 #1–#47 Next page is a circa 1943 photo of the three founders of MLJ, a company name derived from the initials of the owners’ first names. From left, Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John Goldwater. Note the painting.

left that company and it was owned solely by Silberkleit and Coyne. Columbia was one of the last pulp companies, putting out its last pulp in the late ’50s (only Pines’ Ranch Romance ran longer). JOHN L. GOLDWATER (Feb. 14, 1906–Feb.26, 1999) John Goldwater grew up as an orphan in Harlem, New York. As a teenager, he traveled the country working odd jobs. Eventually returning to New York, he began working loading magazines at the docks, before starting at Independent News. Goldwater served as editor-in-chief and co-publisher for MLJ. He was focused primarily on the editorial end of the business. Goldwater was one of the founders of the Comics Magazine Association of America, and served as its president for 25 years. The CMAA is best known to comics fans for its Comics Code Authority. He was also a national commissioner of the Anti-Defamation League. All of them—Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John Goldwater—had met when they worked at Independent News for Paul Sampliner. Sampliner, along with Jack Liebowitz and Harry Donnenfeld of DC Comics, founded Independent News, which was, in turn, the distribution company of DC Comics. Louis Silberkleit worked on some publishing ventures with his friend Martin Goodman, who was a founder of Timely/Marvel Comics.

THE MLJ COMPANION

Chapter One: MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and 1940s

MAURICE COYNE

MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and 1940s

LOUIS SILBERKLEIT

JOHN GOLDWATER

for Pep Comics until March 1944, when Archie became the dominant feature; the Shield continued in Pep Comics until Jan. 1948. Also of note is the fact that the Shield predates Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s Captain America by 15 months, and his sidekick Dusty from Pep Comics #11 ( January 1941) predates Bucky by three months.

Martin Goodman and Louis Silberkleit, along with Maurice Coyne, were one of the earliest publishers of pulp magazines, with their company Columbia Publications. Columbia published Westerns, science fiction, detective, and romance pulp magazines. Many writers who went on to become famous got their start working for Louis Silberkleit at Columbia Publications. Among these were Harold Robbins, Isaac Asimov, and Harry Sinclair Drago, to name a few.

In December 1941, MLJ published Archie Andrews’ first adventure, by writer Vic Bloom and artist Bob Montana. “America’s newest boyfriend,” Archibald “Chick” Andrews, first appeared in Pep Comics #22 (Dec. 1941).

John Goldwater started his own company, Periodicals for Export, Inc., and he started buying unsold periodicals, mainly pulp magazines, from publisher Louis Silberkleit and exporting them for sale abroad. Observing the success of the Superman character in the infant comic book industry in 1939, Goldwater joined Silberkleit and Maurice Coyne in launching a magazine publishing company.

As Archie’s popularity grew, MLJ Magazines changed its name to Archie Comic Publications. In the mid ’50s, the advent of television caused the pulp magazine industry to suffer, as television became a dominant form of entertainment. With slumping sales, Bob Montana’s art graces this splash page of the first “Archie” story, from Pep Louis Silberkleit and Maurice Comics #22 [Dec. 1941]. Archibald Andrews, of course, changed the fate of the Their first comic was Blue RibCoyne decided to discontinue MLJ comics outfit, so much so they became Archie Comic Publications in 1946. bon Comics, published Nov. 1939; Columbia Publications. Coyne the first issue was half color with the remaining pages in red tints. In stayed on at Archie as chief financial officer until he retired in the Dec. 1939, Top-Notch Comics was introduced. Then, in Jan. 1940, 1970s. Silberkleit and John Goldwater continued publishing Archie Pep Comics debuted featuring the Shield, America’s first patriotic titles, sharing the same office, and eating lunch together comic book hero, by writer Harry Shorten (also the company’s man- for their entire business career. aging editor) and artist Irv Novick. The Shield was the cover feature

Biography of Harry Shorten, MLJ Comics editor by Robert L. Lemle

he began a career in writing and publishing. His first published book was How to Watch a Football Game, a guide for husbands to assist teaching their wives the finer points of their interest in the sport.

[Editor’s Note: Mr. Lemle is the grandson of Harry Shorten.] HARRY SHORTEN (1914–1991) Born to Russian/Polish immigrants, Joseph and Leah Shorten, in New York City, Harry Shorten attended Thomas Jefferson High School and New York University in the early ’30s, where he starred as a halfback for their football team. He was nicknamed “Streaky.” He was married to Rose Sadoff and had two children, Linda and Sue. His grandchildren are Robert and Laura Lemle, and Andrew and Jonathan Proctor. After a brief professional football career, 14

Harry Shorten in an undated photograph.

In addition to being the creative force behind The Shield and Archie comics, he created Tippy Teen comics and the newspaper feature There Outta Be a Law (with partner Al Fagaly). In the early ’60s, he founded Midwood/ Tower Publications, publishing paperback pocketbooks and Afternoon TV Magazine (and eventually Wallace Wood’s T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents under the Tower name). In the early ’70s, he created the Daytime TV Soap Awards, honoring the daytime drama actors of the time. THE MLJ COMPANION

All The Way With MLJ! The Saga Of The Super-Heroes Who Paved The Way For Archie by Ron Goulart [Editor’s Note: This material was originally printed, in slightly different form, in the magazine Comics Collector, in the issues for Summer and Winter 1984. Thanks to Brian K. Morris for a retyping assist.]

“Give Me An ‘M,’ Give Me An…”

In 1984, the Archie Comics folks again resurrected some of their old-time super-heroes and costumed crime fighters. By way of their Red Circle line of comic books, you could once again follow the adventures of Steel Sterling, the Shield, the Black Hood, Mr. Justice, and several other heroic chaps who first set up shop forty and more years ago. I got a kick out of seeing some of my boyhood idols cavorting again and I wish Red Circle well. The only trouble is, for someone like me who grew up following these fellows in their original Golden Age incarnations, these latter-day Mighty Crusaders are too slick and sensible. I miss those old illogical, sometimes outright wacky heroes of my youth. I miss, too, the second-banana good guys—such as Mr. Satan, Ty-Gor, the Firefly, Captain Valor, etc.—who probably won’t even get revived this time around. And I miss the eclectic look of the magazines of that long ago and more innocent age. Let me, in the following pages, show you what I mean. When these particular heroes first came forth, Archie hadn’t even been born and the publishers called themselves MLJ Magazines, Inc. Less formal than MGM, the company took its title from the first-name initials of its proprietors. They were Morris Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John Goldwater, and they entered the fast-growing funny-book field late in 1939. The artwork and scripts for the earliest issues of the new titles were provided by the sweatshop run by Harry “A” Chesler. While some gifted people worked for the enterprising Chesler, it doesn’t look as though he sent in his first team to produce material for Morris, Louis, and John.

Blue Ribbon Comics

The MLJ line got off to a rather shaky start with the launching of Blue Ribbon Comics. The first issue had a November cover date, and its star was not a super-hero but a dog. “Rang-A-Tang,” billed as “The Wonder Dog,” was right there on the cover acting courageous, and his six-page adventure started off the issue. Rin Tin Tin, who’d made his movie debut way back in the silent days of 1916, was undoubtedly the inspiration for this less-than-scintillating feature. Most of the other strips, such as “Dan Hastings,” “Buck Stacey,” and “Burk of the Briney,” weren’t much snappier. Science fiction hero Hastings wasn’t even brand new, having already done his stuff in Star Comics for another company as early as two years before. MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and 1940s

About the only bright spot in the issue was “Crime on the Run,” a lively Gang Busters sort of feature turned out by a young fellow named Jack Cole, later famed for creating Plastic Man. Although he favored big-foot gag cartooning, Cole was already developing an effective adventure style. He also, unlike most of the Chesler colleagues with whom he shared the magazine, understood that comic books were different from newspaper strips and pulp magazines.

At top is the cover of the very first MLJ comic book, Blue Ribbon Comics #1 [Nov. 1939] featuring the Rin Tin Tin knock-off, Rang-A-Tang, with cover art possibly by Edd Ashe. Above is “Bob Phantom” panel from Blue Ribbon #2, art by Irv Novick.

Charles Biro, like Cole an artist/writer who’d leave his mark on comics (he later created Crimebuster and Airboy, and drew the original Daredevil, as well editing and often writing and drawing for the ultra-popular Crime Does Not Pay), also showed up in that second issue. His “Scoop Cody,” dealing with an ace reporter, expired after two go-rounds, but “Corporal Collins,” about a “two-fisted American in the French infantry,” fared somewhat better. In fact, for a short time the redheaded Jimmy Cagney-type soldier was the star of the faltering magazine. The third issue was much the same as the two preceding it. But the fourth, which didn’t hit the stands until five long months later (cover-dated June 1940), was a great leap forward. Coming to their senses just in time, MLJ had dumped Chesler and hired some of his better people away from him. “Thrill to these smashing new features,” proclaimed ads in the other MLJ titles. There were three more by now: Top-Notch, Pep, and Zip. Gone were Scoop Cody, Buck Stacey, Dan Hastings, and their ilk, replaced by Hercules, the Fox, the Green Falcon, Ty-Gor, and Doc Strong. Showcased on the cover of issue #4 was the feisty Corporal Collins, blazing away with a machine-gun pistol in one hand and tossing a grenade with the other. In the midst of all this excitement, you could almost overlook the fact that Blue Ribbon still didn’t have a first-rate super-hero on the staff.

As Ron Goulart writes, the bright spot of Blue Ribbon Comics #1 was Jack Cole’s “Crime on the Run.” Cole, of course, would go on to greatness as the creator of the innovative super-hero/humor comic book character, Plastic Man. Above is the opening page.

Cole’s page layouts and his staging of scenes take advantage of the format. Blue Ribbon’s first super-hero arrived in the second issue. He wore a green costume, green cowl with wings over the ears, and a scarlet cape. His name was “Bob Phantom.” That doesn’t seem to be too striking a name for a chap who fancies himself “the Scourge of the Underworld.” A crime-buster with a first name is just too folksy to be formidable. You probably wouldn’t be frightened by Bill Batman or Fred Superman, either. Actually, Bob seems to have come by his name because the Chesler shop had it left over from an earlier character. Another Bob Phantom, a mustached magician in this case, had appeared way back in the first issue of the aforementioned Star Comics (Feb. 1937), then vanished. This new Bob P., drawn by Irving Novick, stuck around for two issues and then defected to Top-Notch Comics.

The closest thing was Hercules, written by Joe Blair and drawn by Elmer Wexler. For this one, Blair went all the way back to Greek mythology. “Hercules, strongest man in all history, earned a place on Mt. Olympus by wiping out the evils of ancient Greece. Now Zeus has ordered him back to Earth to rid the modern world of wars, gangsters and racketeers!!” The gimmick here, somewhat highbrow for a lowly comic book, was that Herc would tackle modern equivalents of the original 12 Labors of Hercules. Unfortunately, he only got as far as the fifth before he was dropped from the line-up. “The Fox” was a costumed crime fighter, but he didn’t have a super power to his name. In everyday life, he was Paul Patton, “former allaround athlete at Penn State,” who was now working as a newspaper photographer. Written by the ubiquitous Blair, the strip was initially drawn by Irwin Hasen. Younger readers, who are familiar only with Hasen’s newspaper strip Dondi, may find it hard to believe he once turned out effective comic-book adventure stuff. He did, though, and the Fox benefited from his loose, quirky style. Like Cole, Hasen thought in terms of the comic book page, and his layouts explored possibilities overlooked by some of his stodgier contemporaries. His only problem was with the Fox’s jet-black costume. It took Hasen a couple of issues to realize a hero’s costume is Hercules by writer Joe Blair and artist Elmer Wexler debuted in Blue Ribbon Comics #4 [June 1940], though the character completed only five labors.

THE MLJ COMPANION

Three other adventure features included in early Blue Ribbon Comics were (left to right) Doc Savage swipe Doc Strong; Medieval knight the Green Falcon; and Mowgli wannabe, Ty-Gor, Son of the Tiger.

a fantasy thing that doesn’t have wrinkles or baggy knees. Despite his name, “The Green Falcon” was not a super guy but a green-clad knight who hung out in the days of Richard the Lion-Hearted and behaved in the Robin Hood manner.

Like the Spectre, Mr. Justice has pupil-less Little-Orphan-Annie eyes when he’s in his evil-combating mode. Off-duty, he assumes “the form of a mortal man” and goes around as a handsome blond fellow in a business suit.

“Doc Strong” was a science fiction feature, and Doc himself was a famous scientist who went around stripped to the waist and wearing the trousers from one of his old business suits. It was set one hundred years in the future when “more than half the world has been wiped out, and cities lie in crumbling ruins and then a new menace arises, a vast barbaric horde from some forgotten corner of Asia descends on a trembling world.”

During his relatively brief career, Mr. Justice, sometimes referred to as the Royal Wraith, combated such villains as Rialb (“Blair” spelled backwards), a mystic who summoned up “demoniacal monsters” to do his bidding; Zarro the Zombie Master, a green-skinned voodoo man; a crazed doctor who brought executed criminals back to life; a green fellow named Ribo who possessed “the most hideous organ of sight ever seen on Earth—the evil eye!!”

The comic books of the Golden Age provided work for unemployed artists from other areas, including newspaper strips. “TyGor,” about an orphaned lad raised by tigers in the Malay jungles, was drawn by one such. George Storm had done a successful strip, Bobby Thatcher, until 1937 and then retired to try his hand at being a gentleman farmer in Oklahoma. By 1939, he was ready to get back into cartooning, and he returned to New York. We’ll have more to say about him when we get to his better-known MLJ creation, “The Hangman.”

Some of Mr. Justice’s antagonists were so awesome that the Royal Wraith couldn’t quell them in a single episode and had to battle them over several issues. One such was called the Dictator. He’s quite obviously Hitler, but in those months before America entered World War II, many comic book publishers were reluctant to have him appear under his real name, although it’s unlikely the Führer would have sued for defamation of character. The payoff is that the Dictator turns out to be Satan in more-or-less human form.

Finally, in issue #9 (Feb. 1941), Blue Ribbon Comics signed on somebody who could pass as a super-hero. His only flaw was that, like the Spectre over at DC, he was dead. “Mr. Justice,” created by the busy Joe Blair and artist Sam Cooper, was actually the spirit of Prince James, heir to the throne of England and murdered “exactly 200 years ago… but the legend has it his spirit arose from his body and strangled the men who murdered him.” Cooper’s notions of what life in 18th century England was like are quite interesting, and he draws the prince and his murderers wearing armor and chain mail. At any rate, the historic castle where the deed was done is, in 1941, “torn down and carted away, stone by stone… loaded aboard a ship and sent on its journey to America.” We can assume Blair got his inspiration for this part of the plot from the movie The Ghost Goes West. En route to America, the castle-laden ship is torpedoed by a Nazi sub, and this somehow liberates the spirit of Prince James. “Free! I’m free!” he exclaims as his soul soars upward from the sinking wreckage, decked out in cape and tights.

Though relatively non-descript in his Golden Age incarnation, the Fox, which debuted in Blue Ribbon #4 [June 1940], has proved remarkably resilient in the MLJ pantheon, especially in today’s Dark Cirle line.

MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and 1940s

a dagger entering an innocent heart with such explosive bloodiness. After Mr. J came “Inferno,” who made his debut in #13 ( June 1941). Also known as the Flame Breather, Inferno had first turned up as a villain over in Zip Comics. Reformed by Steel Sterling, he went straight and was rewarded with a strip of his own. His only wild talent was being able to spout flame out of his mouth. The magazine’s last hero came along three issues later and was of the super-patriot persuasion. Tom Townsend was just another drunken playboy until an enormous eagle carried him off to its mountain lair. Tom’s father, “wealthy inventor of the Army’s new bomb sight,” had been kidnapped and tortured by a sinister villain known only as the Black Hand. A cadaverous fellow with deadwhite skin, the Black Hand dressed in a hooded purple robe. He came by his name because of his right hand: “It is black… diseased! A disease easily capable of being transmitted by penetrating the skin with my claws!” In order to make the stubborn senior Townsend talk, his son is abducted as he comes staggering out of the exclusive Crane Club. Unfortunately, the Black Hand loses his temper and strangles Tom’s father. He’s about to do the same thing to the young playboy, when an eagle smashes into the rundown mansion and carries Tom off in his talons.

Mr. Justice was introduced in Blue Ribbon Comics #9 [Feb. 1941] and he was, in actuality, Prince James of England, an 11th century noble, whose spirit was resurrected just in time for World War II when the “Royal Wraith” made battle with the Devil himself to save the soul of our world. The hero would vanish from the Golden Age scene by 1943.

Hardly was this villain bested when up popped the Green Ghoul, a scaly chap with three bloodshot eyes. He’s devoted to “committing murder and atrocity as fast as his wretched mind can conceive of new plots.” Mr. Justice needed a full three months to overcome the Green Ghoul. They meet for their final showdown in “the void between the spirit world and the real world.” Out-punching his rival, Justice sends him at last into the sea “to sink to the foul depths from which he sprang.”

While the Hand goes on a rampage of sabotage and ruthless crime, Tom stays in the mountains with the eagle and “develops the muscles he had allowed to degenerate.” One day, after the former wastrel has shaped up sufficiently, the eagle brings him an American flag. “This is a symbol of my destiny—a destiny I vow to fulfill!” He whips up a star-spangled costume, “and so Tom Townsend becomes Captain Flag!” His first target is, of course, the Black Hand. In the battle that ensues, the Hand is knocked cold and seems to perish in the fire that sweeps his hideout. “But is the Black Hand really dead? See for yourself in the next issue!”

Two late arrivals to Blue Ribbon were Captain Flag and former Steel Sterling villian and now hero, Inferno (seen with a lick of flame coming from his mouth, below).

Sam Cooper rendered all this half-baked horror in a toothsome style that never missed an opportunity to be excessive. His ghouls and demons are all appropriately loathsome, their twisted, gaping mouths jampacked with such a spiky array of fangs that feasting on anything but human flesh would have been out of the question. He never passed up a chance to depict his fiends slavering and drooling, and few could draw

THE MLJ COMPANION

out on his spy-smashing missions. Initially, we were told that Higgins’ super-powers came from his uniform. “This uniform, of his own secret construction, not only is bullet and flame-proof, but gives him power to perform extraordinary feats of physical daring and courage. Wearing his shield, he has the speed of a bullet and the strength of a Hercules. With these powerful forces, he shields the U.S. Government from all enemies. The four white stars on the field of blue signify to what he has devoted his life—truth, justice, patriotism, and courage.” In the spring of 1940, over in Detective Comics, Batman took on Robin, the Boy Wonder, to assist him in his war on crime. This precipitated a mini-trend among his costumed contemporaries, and soon many of them were picking up youthful sidekicks, too. The Shield got his in Pep #11 ( Jan. 1941) in the person of a redheaded lad named Dusty, the Boy Detective. The new team devoted their next several months to combating a master criminal and super-saboteur known as the Vulture. A cloaked, pointy-eared chap, he was especially fond of plunging daggers into his victims. Though he’d commenced his crime career with pink flesh, the Vulture showed up green in later issues. It added nothing to his charm. With the coming of the Second World War, the exploits of the Shield and Dusty grew bloodier and more violent. The Axis villains they started confronting were especially bloodthirsty. There was a vicious Nazi called the Strangler, an even more rotten Japanese known as the Fang, and, worst of all, the Hun.

The Shield has proved to be the most resilient MLJ super-hero since first appearing in Pep Comics #1 [Jan. 40]. By #11 [Jan. ’41], Dusty, the Spectacular Boy Detective, joined up with Joe Higgins to become permanent sidekick. Pep #15 [May ’41] introduced the Shield G-Man Club.

While all this was going on, Novick was also adding quite a few “Good Girl Art” touches: upthrust bosoms, bondage, stocking tops, etc. Earlier, in the midst of the Shield’s second year, the artwork had changed quite a bit. There were now more action, more odd angle shots, and improved anatomy. Most of this new flamboyance was due to the hiring of the unsung Pierce Rice to pencil the strip. The Shield hung on in Pep until #65 ( Jan. 1948). His later returns and reincarnations are beyond the scope of this piece.

MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and 1940s

Pep’s other pioneer super-hero was “The Comet,” written and drawn by Jack Cole. Not one of the other new features in the magazine opened as exuberantly as his. Cole’s splash panel shows the brightly costumed hero whizzing across the night sky and nearly flying off the page. Cole was also the only one to provide his own blurb: “Smash adventures of the most astonishing man on the face of the Earth.” Even in those days, when supermen were proliferating like mushrooms in a damp cellar, the Comet was rather unusual. For one thing, he killed people, lots of them, and usually with glee. That might not seem odd in these days of splatter comics, but back then it was. John Dickering is a young scientist who discovers “a gas that is fifty times lighter than hydrogen.” He finds that “by injecting small doses of the gas in his bloodstream, his body becomes light enough to make leaps through the air!” Never mind

1 Irv Novick

Creator Chat

An Interview with

Conducted by John Coates [Editor’s Note: This interview was conducted in the 1990s and it originally saw print in Comic Book Marketplace #77 (April 2000). From 1939 to 1946, Irv Novick (April 11, 1916 – October 15, 2004) worked for MLJ Comics. He was the primary artist for the super-hero comics, including the Shield, Bob Phantom, the Hangman, and Steel Sterling. Irv continued to work in comics through the 1990s, mostly for DC Comics. Primarily focusing on the war comics, in the super-hero line he worked on Superman, Batman, The Flash, Teen Titans and Wonder Woman. Our thanks to Brian K. Morris for a retyping assist.]

“[MLJ] Was Paying More Money Than Chesler Was” John Coates: How did you become interested in comic books? Irv Novick: Well, I graduated from the [National Academy of Design] in 1938 and had seen an ad in the New York Times newspaper for artists to draw comic books. Being that the industry was still in its infancy, I had never heard of a comic book, never seen one, didn’t know what it was other than it meant work. I showed them my showcard art and they hired me right away. This was with Harry Chesler’s outfit. At first, I worked in his shop but eventually moved to working freelance from my home. Working in the office was pleasant, but I preferred working at my own pace, on my own time. I’ve always been a night person. I like to work at night when everyone else has gone to bed. I never went to bed before two o’clock. JC: How long did you work for Harry Chesler? Novick: A few years, I believe. At the time, MLJ was buying most of the work being produced from Chesler’s studio. MLJ was a publishing house founded by Morris Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John Goldwater. Anyway, after a while, Louis came to me and asked if I could work directly for them. They wanted me to work on a character called The Shield. They were paying more money than Chesler, so I did. I think this was around 1940.

Above is a portrait of Irving Novick as young MLJ artist. Below left is the artist in 2002 with his wife Sylvia. Novick would pass away two years later. On the opposite page is Novick’s late ’60s/early ’70s illustration rendered for Jim Steranko’s History of Comics.

character. Did they have a ready-made character when you arrived? Novick: Well, they had an idea for a hero that was based on the patriot theme. From their initial idea, I designed the costume and created his character of being a G-man. Once I had defined and created the character, Harry Shorten was brought in to write and edit the stories. I believe The Shield was the first patriotic hero. He appeared in Pep Comics. JC: You’re correct; he was the first patriotic hero. Were you at all excited or surprised when it became a hit? Novick: I tell you, John, to me it was just a character and a job and that was it. I tried to do it to the best of my abilities. That’s it! JC: What was the creative process at MLJ? Novick: Well, MLJ provided me with a script, and I penciled and inked it. If I wanted to change things in the story, they were always open to it.

JC: Let’s talk about The Shield. You JC: While at MLJ, there were other artists of note. Let me toss out a said MLJ wanted you to work on the few names: Charles Biro?

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Over the course of Irv Novick’s stay at MLJ as the predominant artist on “The Shield” and (after the departure of Charles Biro) “Steel Sterling,” the emphasis on the line’s covers would shift to torture scenes and bondage (of invariably scantily-clad young ladies). Here are two such Novick examples, Pep Comics #7 [Aug. ’40] and Zip Comics #18 [Sept. ’41].

Novick: Yes, Charlie Biro was a pretty big guy, overweight, a real heavy-set type. At the time, the MLJ office was located on the eighth floor of the New York Telegraph Building, on Hudson Street. I remember Charlie would always challenge me to all kinds of things when I came into the office. I never knew why. [laughs] For instance, he would bet me that if I took the elevator up and he raced the stairs, he could beat me. Well, I thought it was worth it to see him drop dead when we reached the top so I accepted! He almost did drop dead. [laughs] But you know, he did beat me! JC: Mort Meskin? Novick: Mort was a very fine person. An excellent artist, too. During my time at MLJ, Mort and I were very close. We had planned to get a studio together down in the village, but we never found the right place. We kept in touch for quite a while, but then he up and disappeared on me. It was quite some time before I saw him again. I believe it was the 1960s when we met again while at an advertising agency. You just lose track. Unfortunately, he died in 1995. JC: Bob Wood? Novick: Yes, Bob was an okay guy, but I think he was sent away to prison for a while for shooting someone. I can’t remember for what exactly, but I do know he was sent to prison for awhile. 34

JC: I had read he shot his wife. How about Jack Binder? Novick: Jack was a nice guy, but some people didn’t like him. I don’t know why, because I liked him. Since Jack was paying for the work, he demanded quality. I had no problem with that. JC: Bob Montana? Novick: Bob created the character “Archie,” which is what MLJ is called today: Archie Comics. I thought Bob was a very fine person, but somehow MLJ took the rights to Archie. Bob later took them to court and won. Now I understand that there is another suit going on where John Goldwater is claiming that he created the character. That’s not true. I was in the office when Bob walked in with that character and presented it to MLJ. Goldwater did not create the character; Bob did. JC: How long did you work with MLJ? Novick: I continued to work with MLJ throughout the war. After being drafted in 1943, I was stationed in Mississippi for a year and half. From there, I was stationed in Fort Knox, Kentucky, for two more years, until 1946. I never saw combat because when the Army sent me to Officer Candidate School, they re-examined me and found I had a heart murmur. The examining doctors said, “How did you even get in the Army in the first place?” I said, “They needed warm bodies and they said I qualified!” [laughs] I told them I had a heart murmur, but the doctor at the entrance exam ignored it. I got it as a child when I had Rheumatic fever. THE MLJ COMPANION

The MLJ Super-hero Gets His Own Radio Show After three years in the comic books, The Black Hood debuted on network radio on July 7, 1943 on the Mutual Broadcasting System (MBS). It was a sustaining (nonsponsored) series and aired its 15 minute episodes five times weekly until going off the air in January 1944, having failed to pick up an advertiser.

The Black Hood (1943) 15-minute Mutual Network Radio Program Author Unknown.  Based on the MLJ Comics and Magazine Character.

Two then unknown, but competent, radio performers played the leads: Scott Douglas portrayed The Black Hood/Kip Burland, while Marjorie Cramer was the voice of his girlfriend, Barbara Sutton, usually called “Babs.” A supporting character in this Zip Comics #43 [Jan. ’44] featured this ad promoting the Black Hood radio show. radio series, Sergeant McGinty of the local police, was a third SFX: GONG Hit wheel to the crime solving accomplishments of Kip and Babs. Radio standards for content were more stringent than the pulps and the comic books, so radio’s Black Hood had much less violence in his stories, while bondage and torture were eliminated altogether. The theme music for this radio program was a curious choice: the “water bucket” segment from “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” composed by Paul Dukas in 1897, but certainly recognizable to juvenile listeners as Mickey Mouse’s showcase scene in Disney’s 1940 classic, Fantasia. While approximately 120 episodes of The Black Hood were aired on Mutual, only one audio copy has survived, the initial episode which was recorded as the audition disk. Here is a transcript of that episode:

MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and 1940s

CAST OF CHARACTERS:  Kip Burland/ The Black Hood  Barbara Sutton  Sergeant McGinty  Gunman  Womba  Old Man

The Black Hood… on the Air!

The Black Hood Stalks the Airwaves!

ANNCR: The Black Hood! SFX: GONG Hit. ANNCR: Criminals beware… The Black Hood is everywhere! SFX: Weird TONE UP and UNDER HOOD: (filter) I, the Black Hood do solemnly swear that neither threat, nor bribe, nor bullet, nor death itself—will keep me from fulfilling my vow: To erase crime from the face of the earth! SFX: Tone UP AND OUT SFX : GONG HIT MUSIC: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, by Paul Dukas. UP AND FADE OUT UNDER ANNCR.

ANNCR: The Black Hood, who is really patrolman Kip Burland, a fact known only to newspaper woman Barbara Sutton, has just been talking to Barbara on the phone. They were discussing the old Miracle Man and his strange housekeeper Womba. Sergeant McGinty, Patrolman Burland’s superior had thought their visit to the Voodoo doctor merely routine. But Kip Burland and Barbara Sutton were fascinated by the black magic of the Old Miracle Man. In fact, the old man had given Barbara an odd emerald ring in a twined serpent setting. Womba, the old housekeeper had objected to the gift. We find the telephone conversation between Burland and Barbara Sutton has been interrupted by a stranger at Barbara’s door—Burland is holding the line.

BARBARA: This ring? Well… it’s not worth very much… GUNMAN: That’s all right, I’ll take it anyhow. BARBARA: (determined) It’s on my finger, and that’s where it’s going to stay! GUNMAN: I wouldn’t want to have to shoot it off. BARBARA: Aren’t you satisfied? You’ve got everything of value in the place. I’m going to keep this ring! GUNMAN: Now look here— I’ve tried to be nice with ya! It looks like I’m going to have to take it by force! BARBARA: Why you…Oh— Stop!

BARBARA: (Screams) What are you doing here with a gun? You can’t come in!

SFX: Sound of scuffle, with sudden pounding on door. HOOD: That’ll be enough in there —open this door!

GUNMAN: Oh, I can’t — eh? Well, I’m coming in, and no one’s going to stop me, either! Not till I get what I came for.

GUNMAN: Somebody to help ya, eh? Well, I’ll get that ring if I have to kill the both of ya!

KIP: (filter) Barbara, are you alright?

SFX: DOOR KICKED OPEN, followed by SHOT. Hard FOOTSTEPS, GLASS BREAKS, followed by another SHOT and METAL FOOTSTEPS on fire escape.

GUNMAN: There’s no one around. I checked and made sure the doorman was out… KIP: (filter) Barbara!

BARBARA: There he goes Kip, out the window, and down the fire escape!

GUNMAN: I came in and walked up the stairs…

HOOD: He didn’t hit you KIP: Well, I’ve heard For the Winter 1943 issue, Hangman Comics was renamed for the increasingly popular with one of those stray MLJ character the Black Hood [#9]. Black Hood Comics would last for eleven issues enough of that! I’d better shots, Babs—did he? get over to Barbara’s right until it would change to Laugh Comics by #20 [Fall ’46], starring Archie Andrews. away… (deeper) It’s time BARBARA: No, I’m all for THE BLACK HOOD to go to work! alright… well, except for my finger. He almost twisted it off trying to get this ring! SFX: GONG Wait until the last reverberation has faded out, then: HOOD: You poor kid! Well, he certainly made a fast exit. BARBARA: I’ve told you time and time again—that’s all the money I have in the apartment. You’ve got all the silver and linen—what more do you want? GUNMAN: Now I’ll have that emerald ring on your finger.

BARBARA: I’ll say he did! HOOD: Look, he left his loot behind. Did you get a good look at him? BARBARA: Yes, and I’m glad I asked you to hold the

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The Black Hood… Pulp Fiction Hero! Though many comics would adapt pulp magazine heroes such as the Shadow and Doc Savage to the fourcolor realm, few characters would be translated in the other direction. But one mystery man who did make the jump was MLJ’s Black Hood, who headlined three issues of his own magazine between 1941–42, which featured prose “novels” centered on the Top-Notch character. Interestingly, only the first issue was called Black Hood Detective, with the remaining titled Hooded Detective. To find out why, we asked pulp historian Will Murray. “The reason Columbia was forced to change the title goes to the little-know legal battles pulp magazine publishers often fought behind the scenes and out of sight of magazine readers,” Murray shared. “No sooner had Albing’s Red Mask Detective hit the stands in 1941 than its title was changed to Red Hood Detective. (This despite featuring Stanley Richard’s Man in the Red Mask series.) “The explanation is simple. Popular Publications— which recently purchased Black Mask [a long-running and popular mystery pulp]—threatened legal action, calling it an infringement on their trademark. So Albing hastily capitulated. Two months later, Columbia released the first issue of Black Hood Detective, starring their comic book and radio hero, the Black Hood. Popular Publications sought an injunction against use of that title, again citing infringement against their Black Mask. Columbia lost on appeal, and Black Hood Detective swiftly became Hooded Detective. Both titles sank without a trace shortly after. Otherwise the owners of Red Hood and Hooded Detective would probably have gone to war!”

MLJ Heroes in the 1930s and 1940s

A Brief History of Canada’s

Golden Age Archie Comics by Rik Offenberger [Editor’s note: Thanks to Stephen Lipson, Tom Burton, Jonathan Gilbert, Curtis Leach, Richard Boucher, Bradley Cobb, and Shawn Clay for helping with research, information, and cover scans.] Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. On Sept. 3, 1939, after German forces penetrated deeper into Poland, Britain, France, Australia, and New Zealand declared war on Germany. This marked the beginning of World War II. Canada was an independent country at this point, but many still felt a strong kinship with the British Empire, and thousands of Canadians immediately joined the armed forces to fight on behalf of the motherland. On Sept. 10, 1939, Canada declared war on Germany. With the country quickly shifting into wartime mode, the federal government created new agencies to oversee such war efforts as munitions manufacturing, propaganda control, and the rationing of natural resources. By mid-September of that year, the Foreign Exchange Control Board was established to oversee the rationing of foreign currency and take charge of monitoring Canada’s international trade. Throughout 1940, its members grew concerned by Canada’s growing trade deficit with the United States. Still a neutral country at this point, the United States would not enter the war until after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, on Dec. 7, 1941.

In Dec. 1940, as Canada’s trade deficit with the United States grew and British gold shipments were curtailed, government intervention in the economy broadened with the introduction of the War Exchange Conservation Act. While sterling bloc countries traded heavily with England and kept their currency at parity with the English pound, this act was aimed at countries outside the sterling bloc and was primarily designed to conserve United States dollars by restricting the importation of non-essential goods. “Non-essential” goods meant practically anything that couldn’t be converted into weapons and ammunition, so among the items banned were comic books. Publishers of “Canadian Whites” (Canadian comic books which were mostly black-&-white) began importing printing plates from the U.S. and printing the American comics in Canada for the Canadian market. These comics weren’t published in any particular order, nor were they often exactly the same as the U.S. editions. One of the new Canadian pulp magazine publishers, Science Fiction, made this claim: By the purchase of this periodical, you are giving Canadians employment, Canadians who are paying taxes, buying

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MLJ Comicsâ&#x20AC;Ś Exposed!

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THE MLJ COMPANION

The Archie Phenomenon

America’s Teen transformed MLJ and the entire field by Jon B. Cooke Let’s face it: the appeal of the comics depicting the antics of a gang of high schoolers from the mythical American town of Riverdale (as idyllic and improbable a place as Walt Disney’s “Main Street, U.S.A.” attraction) is sex. Not the icky, sweaty, fumbling-in-the-backseat sex of our all-too real world, but more the foolishness and, well, quaint hormone-driven attraction between kids growing ever so slowly into adulthood amid a typically middle-class rural America hamlet. The love triangles, the striving to impress, the pining (with just a touch of angst), the stereotypes and cliques, and overall silliness of the courtship “drama” of pubescent youngsters… That’s what keeps the Archie Comics’ teenage humor juggernaut barreling along, now heading to its eighth decade, an unbroken progression of success for a single comic book genre that cumulatively beats out even the seemingly dominant category of super-heroes. And here’s the thing: though it was the fantastically-powered costumed crimefighters which expanded the comics industry when Superman first lifted that coupe over his head in 1938, and besides, perhaps, the provocativeness of Matt Baker’s Phantom Lady and other flimsily dressed damsels, what super-heroes lacked was any overt sex appeal. Archie Andrews and company… well, they simply filled a need. Teenagers, a huge portion of the comics readership, are perennially obsessed with the mating ritual, and what better subject to exploit for a company cognizant of the booms and busts of the magazine industry?

As fate would have it, the appellation for kids going through puberty, though long in the making, was coined at almost the exact moment Archie Andrews debuted in Pep Comics. Author Steven Mintz cites in his book, Huck’s Raft: A History of American Childhood, “The first published use of the word teenager occurred in September 1941, when a columnist in Popular Science Monthly remarked about a young person: ‘I never knew teen-agers could be so serious.’” Though rarely somber, Archie and his four-color Riverdale gang (at least Betty and Jughead) first appeared—buried 49 pages into the 68page Pep #22 [Dec. ’41], hardly a headliner, in writer Vic Bloom and artist Bob Montana’s superfluous six-pager—and real-life teen readers made the feature a smash hit. Soon enough, the carrot-topped “America’s Typical Teen” would become the engine that drove MLJ Publications, so much so that the company changed its name to Archie Comic Publications less than five years hence. It is safe to surmise that had it not been for their teenage humor property, MLJ would not have survived the 1940s as a comic book publisher. The Archie formula proved bulletproof, unlike the superheroes (including MLJ’s troupe of mystery men) who were dropping like dud bombs by the end of the Second World War, hardly six years after their exploding on the scene. The rubric consisted of a small cast of characters all playing their parts in mundane situations: Archie, the headliner, who Craig Yoe describes as “clean cut, well mannered, and well-meaning, but extremely impulsive and well distracted”; his girlfriends, the wholesome, blond girl-next-door Betty and her best friend, Veronica, a spoiled rich, sultry brunette; pal Jughead, ever seeking a nap and a cheeseburger, always fleeing both labor and female attachment; and nemesis Reggie, the handsome, smart alecky jock with seemingly sinister intent. Supporting cast members abound in the bucolic setting of small town America, where the kids hang out at Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe and attend Riverdale High under the tutelage of Principal Weatherbee and their teacher, Miss Grundy, but it’s the romantic triangle (epitomized by the illustration at left) that most resonates: Archie yearns for a (relatively) indifferent Veronica and rejects the unceasing adoration of Betty. Of course, other dynamics come into play and desires can vary, but this basic template is the crux of the Archie phenomenon, resonating now for three-quarters of a century. (And do not be fooled: male readers—if not necessarily super-hero fans—have consistently comprised a significant portion of the readership of these socalled “girls’ comics.”) Many thousands of Archie comics have milked this classic love triangle, in an apparently infinite range of possibility.

THE MLJ COMPANION

Chapter Two

Mighty Comics in the ’50s and ’60s

The Shield led off Archie’s Silver Age super-hero publications in the famous Joe Simon/Jack Kirby collaboration, The Double Life of Private Strong ( June 1959), but the threat of a lawsuit by DC Comics (over the character’s supposed similarity to Superman) killed the title after only two issues. Archie soon published another Simon/Kirby opus, The Adventures of the Fly (August 1959), as well as Adventures of the Jaguar (Sept. 1961). By the mid-’60s, the super-heroes were back in full force in both Mighty Comics Presents and The Mighty Crusaders, which featured all of Archie’s super-hero characters teaming up for epic adventures.

Those Mighty Crusaders! The Rise And Fall—And Rise And Fall And Rise— Of Archie’s 1960s Super-Hero Group by Will Murray [Editor’s Note: This article was edited from a piece that originally appeared in the magazine Comics Feature #56-57 (July & July 1987).]

Part I: Radio Comics

When I began collecting comics in the early 1960s, my allowance was a mere dollar per week. But comic books were only 12 cents. It was enough to buy all the DCs—my first love—and most of the Marvels. And a smattering of lesser titles from the Charlton, Dell, and ACG lines. High on my “smattering” list were the unlikely pair of Adventures of the Fly and Adventures of the Jaguar, products of the Archie Adventure line, formerly known as MLJ Comics, but for some reason now calling themselves Radio Comics. I bought those two titles for simple reasons: they were bright, colorful, and most importantly, between 1961 and 1964, they were practically the only super-hero comics not published by DC or Marvel. They were also relentlessly anonymous. No writer credits were given, and the artist never signed his Idendeliquas aut quo di volor raturib uscias eos venis dest, sitem volupta ssequi ni inverori voluptas maio. Nequat. Da con nos santium enes qui utestib usaessunt estestrunt occulparum fugit eost apicit ulparchil ma is doleces cipsund anisti bla cuptatentur

work—they were just very simple stories of a couple of well-drawn and fairly new super-heroes. I never ran across any of the pre-1961 issues of either title, so I never suspected that it hadn’t always been that way. Nor did I have an inkling that the figure of the Fly buzzing out of the magazine’s bold logo—it had to be bold because the title was so wimpy—was actually drawn by no less than Jack Kirby. But I get ahead of my story. Adventures of the Fly was the older of the two titles—its first issue had a cover date of Aug. 1959—and my favorite of the pair. Blond attorney Thomas Troy possessed a magic ring which, when he rubbed it in the fashion of Aladdin and his magic lamp, transformed him into the heroic Fly. Clad in a spiffy green and yellow outfit, a buzz gun hanging at his hip, and clear fly wings growing out of his shoulders, he was half-man, half-insect. The Fly could fly, spin hard steel cocoons around his body, and communicate with an obedient insect world. He also possessed the proportionate strength of an insect—a superpower analogy than went back to Superman’s earliest days. In many respects, the Fly was an anticipation of Marvel’s Spider-Man and AntMan, two characters on which Jack Kirby would later claim co-creator status.

THE MLJ COMPANION

The stories were simple and straightforward, but in truth, dull. The Fly fought the usual hoods, an arch-enemy uninspiredly called the Spider, and hosts of alien invaders. Alien invaders were a Fly staple. Curiously, almost all of them were similar saurian bipeds armed with death rays, doom robots, and names like Lxo III, Roxr, and Bra-kr. But the art sparkled. It was mostly the work of John Rosenberger, now deceased, who drew in what might be described as the Silver Age DC house style—crisp and clear of line and devoid of frills—only he was doing it mostly for Archie/Radio. One thing that fascinated me was the Fly’s costume. It was a bright yellow and green. But no ordinary green. Not quite

blue-green, and certainly not olive green, it lay somewhere in between. Definitely an insect green. I’ve rarely seen this specific hue before or since, and I’m told that in colorist parlance it’s known as Y3BR2—which means that it’s a blend of 50% yellow, 25% red and a solid blue. Not every comic book company had the palette to reproduce it properly. Apparently it was formulated to mimic the iridescent green of the common housefly. By contrast, The Jaguar’s costume was a bright red, relieved only by spotted leopard-skin boots and belt, with a black jaguar symbol etched on his chest. He was a sort of animal-powered version of the Fly, and John Rosenberger originated him, in concert with his uncredited Fly scripter, Robert Bernstein. I

Mighty Comics/Radio Comics/ Archie Adventure Index ADVENTURES OF THE FLY

DOUBLE LIFE OF PRIVATE STRONG

ADVENTURES OF THE JAGUAR

FLY-MAN

October 1961 to September 1963 #150–#160, #168

LAUGH COMICS

August 1964 to September 1965 #1–#8

August 1959 to May 1965 #1–#31

September 1961 to November 1963 #1–#15

ARCHIE’S MADHOUSE October 1965 #43

Mighty Comics in the 1950s and 1960s

June 1959 to August 1959 #1–#2

July 1965 to September 1966 #32–#39 October 1961 to March 1963 #127–#144

MIGHTY COMICS

November 1966 to October 1967 #40–#50

MIGHTY CRUSADERS

November 1965 to October 1966 #1–#7

PEP

THE SHADOW

Chapter Two: Mighty Comics in the 1950s and 1960s

FPO

SUPER HEROES VS. SUPER VILLAINS July 1966 #1

Sphinx, she first appeared in Adventures of The Fly #9 (Nov. 1960) as a villainess who attempted to enslave that book’s hero. Failing that, she turned her sights on her natural counterpart, the Jaguar. In the process she fell victim to evil entities from a two-dimensional world, and the Jaguar had to rescue her. Naturally, she fell in love with him—and, for the rest of the series, was disposed toward trickery and mischief in her quest to become Mrs. Jaguar. The pair first met in Adventures of the Jaguar #4 ( Jan. 1962), over a year after her introduction in The Fly. suspect their inspiration for the character came from the Jaguar luxury sports car, which in the late 1950s was taking America by storm. As revealed in his first issue (dated Sept. 1961), the Jaguar was really Ralph Hardy, a zoologist who stumbled upon an Inca temple in Peru while hunting the fabled white jaguar. In the ruins, he discovered a Jaguar Belt. Donning it, he became the Jaguar, imbued with animal strength, invincibility, and the power to telepathically communicate with all animals. He added a pair of nucleon-jet energy pods to his belt and thus acquired the un-jaguarlike power of flight. How a zoologist possessed the technical genius to invent a flying belt was never addressed. Where the Fly’s magical transformation included a yellow aviatorstyle helmet and goggles to conceal his true identity, when Ralph Hardy became the Jaguar, his pencil-thin Clark Gable mustache simply—disappeared. The transformation obviously worked in the same suspension-of-disbelief way that Clark Kent’ glasses confused everybody’s perception of Superman’s rugged face. In fact, there were a lot of Superman touches to the Jaguar series. He had a snoopy girlfriend, Jill Ross, who was pretty sure the Jaguar was really Ralph. And, like Superman’s Lois Lane, whom she more than resembled, Jill Ross had plenty of competition. There was the green-skinned sea siren Kree-Nal, who loved the Jaguar with the same watery fervor that mermaid Lori Lemaris loved the Man of Steel.

Cat-Girl possessed supernatural powers such as flight and invisibility, as well as telepathic control over felines. She also changed costume a lot, first appearing in a tawny leotard, adding leopard-skin trim after her first encounter with the Jaguar, then changing to a blue miniskirt and tiger(!)-striped tunic, and, in a girlish touch, a 1950s ponytail. Despite that, there was more than a touch of dominatrix to her bad-girl persona, which set her apart from comic book femme fatales of that more innocent era. In Adventures of the Jaguar #13, Cat-Girl reappeared as society girl Lydia Fellin, having lost her supernatural powers as a result of strontium buildup from atmospheric nuclear tests. She also lost her cougar-colored ponytail when her sandy hair turned as black as an unlucky cat. But she still pined for the Jaguar and helped him to fight the Cat Gang. It looked like the beginning of a new chapter in their lives, but the Jaguar’s magazine was cancelled a mere two issues later. Alas for ongoing subplots. Superman-like plot devices were also a Fly staple. He wasn’t burdened with a snoopy girlfriend, but he did inherit the equivalent to a Supergirl. Actress Kim Brand (think Kim Novak) first appeared in issue #13 in 1961. The Fly happened to save her life when she fell from a roof and he caught her—a standard “Superman” story opening—and they became friendly. Elsewhere in that issue, an ad alerted readers to watch for first appearance of Fly Girl in the very next issue. (Three guess who that was likely to be!)

Our hero again bumps into Kim Brand in Th Fly #14 and their friendship—it was never a Then there was romantic interest—resumes. Along comes Cat-Girl. the Metal Monster, an alien whose powers strikingly resemble those of future In many ways Hulk villain the Metal Master, but Cat-Girl was more intriguing than who looks like a silver robot with even the Jaguar. The an ice cube for a head. While the modern reinFly has his hands full fighting off the carnation Metal Monster’s robotic menaces, of the Et odis vellate omnihicimint officimolor sit, consequ ature, corpore hendiate sum vel estem. Torrovid quiae optatus andestotatur ma dunt, verferum quibus num quatistia as debit autat aut rescil ex erum utat. Landicius erroviti aut maximpora nonseque reicipsam nobite pro is

THE MLJ COMPANION

The Anti-Crime Squad!

The first real appearance of the Mighty Crusaders

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by Rik Offenberger In the letters page of Adventures of the Jaguar #9 [Oct. 1962], reader Paul Seydor suggested that Archie create a super-hero team consisting of Lancelot Strong/the Shield, the Black Hood, the Jaguar, the Fly, and Fly Girl. He called this team the “Anti-Crime Squad.” The reader was likely inspired by the other popular super-hero team books that had great success in 1962: DC Comics’ Justice League of America and Marvel’s Fantastic Four. When Archie debuted the Mighy Crusaders team in the pages of Fly-Man #31 (May 1965), the line-up was pretty similar. Lancelot Stong was replaced by a new Shield and Jaguar was substituted by the Web, but it was a team of five heroes and did revive the Golden Age hero the Black Hood. In fact, it appeared odd that Archie would publish the letter from a DC letter writer that so closely matched the actual team, and that the editor would ask fans to comment on another fan’s letter. I contacted Dr. Paul Seydor at Chapman University, where he Mighty Comics in the 1950s and 1960s

is a professor. He has a unique background, combining a Ph.D. in American Civilization with a triple emphasis in American Literature, American Intellectual History, and Film from the University of Iowa, with scholarly research and writing, and a major career in filmmaking honored by an Academy Award nomination and an American Cinema Editors award. In the industry, his work with a long list of impressive directors, including Ron Shelton, is testament to his reputation. Paul has taught at both the University of Southern California and the University of Iowa. His books on director Sam Peckinpah gave birth to a reevaluation of Peckinpah as a master director in American cinema. Paul said, “This must be someone using my name to get an in with the editors at the time, because I never drew such a cover and in fact never read these characters. I mostly liked DC comics at the time, and it was to their various publications, almost all the ones edited by Julius Schwartz, that I wrote most of my letters.… I read Archie comics for a good while, Rik, but I could never understand why he was so besotted with Betty. I always thought the brunette Veronica the far dishier girl of the two.”

A Black Hood oddity is the one-shot, unnumbered Black Hood published in Canada by F.E. Howard Publications, likely in 1944. The 52-page comic book featured reprints from Pep Comics #46–49, including pages that were curiously redrawn—actually traced—from the original American appearances. For more on the Canadian reprints, see article on page 44.

the adult Thomas Troy, lawyer, stands in his place. Adventures of the Fly was a similar packaging job. Simon & Kirby dropped out after only four issues. With the fifth, Robert Bernstein took on the scripting chores. The artists ran the gamut from the forgotten Bill Vigoda to John Giunta. With issue #5, Giunta took over the art chores completely. In that issue, Tommy Troy and the Marches disappear—and

Bernstein and Giunta redefined the series and perhaps saved it from early extinction. It was during these 1960 issues that CatGirl first appeared. In issue #7, the company’s greatest Golden Age hero returned in a story called “The Fly and The Black Hood Join Forces!” Next issue, The Fly teamed up with a rather bland non-Kirby Shield. The Shield seldom appeared after that, but Black Hood emerged as a frequent drop-in guest.

THE MLJ COMPANION

Black Hood was no Superman as super-heroes went, but back in his heyday (the 1940s) the acrobatic Black Hood, alias patrolman Kip Burland, had headlined his own comic book, pulp magazine, and even radio program—the latter distinction one he shared with Archie Andrews. I imagine the name Radio Comics is a holdover from those halcyon years. Staring with issue #11 (May 1961), John Rosenberger took over the art, and the golden age of the Fly—as far as I’m concerned—had commenced. Regardless of how limp Bernstein’s scripts were, his stories were always a feast for the eyes. In them, the Fly fought the colorful menaces that were a hallmark of the Bernstein-Rosenberger years. In fact, the Fly and Fly Girl acquired such a collection of foes that, in issue #21, six of the worst, including the Spider and the Metal Monster, teamed up as the Anti-Fly League. Over the next several issues they spun a wheel of fortune-like pointer to see who would next take a crack as the stub-winged duo. One by one, they failed. Evidently, they became dispirited and prematurely gave up their plans, for the idea petered out before every member had his or her shot. You’d have thought they would have all ganged up at once for a sure-fire victory. But Silver age villains weren’t very sophisticated.

It was probably no coincidence that, six months before the Anti-Fly League surfaced, Superman had had his first encounter with a very similar group, who called themselves the Superman Revenge Squad. Evidently, sales took off during the Bernstein/Rosenberger tenure, because the companion Jaguar title was launched in September of 1961—the very same month Fly Girl debuted. All three super-heroes grew so popular they took turns appearing in Pep Comics and Laugh Comics between stories featuring Archie Andrews and his pals. But that era, too, was short-lived. The last of these was printed late in 1963. An inventory story from an unpublished issue of Adventures of The Jaguar, it took him back to his origin. The tale was called “The Return of the White Jaguar” and it appeared in Pep for January 1964. Back in Peru, Hardy and his group are waylaid by bandits who make off with is wallet and Jaguar Belt. Tracking them to the Inca temple where he had originally found the magic Jaguar Belt, Hardy comes into the sights of a sniper when the White Jaguar itself appears out of nowhere and cuffs the sniper into fleeing for his life. Other bandits open fire, but the rounds go right through the supernatural creature.

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Mighty Comics in the 1950s and 1960s

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THE MLJ COMPANION

ly “Iron Man” and “Thor” epics before disappearing from the field. Earlier in his career, he had scripted “Captain America” and other Atlas features for Stan Lee. It was later revealed by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby that “The Fly” was a reinvention of a concept their studio had developed with Captain Marvel’s C.C. Beck. When Archie’s John Goldwater had asked them in the late ‘50s for some new super-heroes, they had salvaged one called “The Silver Spider” and redrawn him as “The Fly,” taking the name from the famous 1958 science-fiction/horror film. Costume elements from another aborted Simon & Kirby concept, “Night Fighter,” were added to the mix. Further, Simon has recounted how he and Kirby and their artists Mighty Comics in the 1950s and 1960s

were booted off The Fly in favor of talents willing to emulate the DC house look. Kirby went over to Timely (not yet called Marvel), where he has claimed that he offered still another version of “The Silver Spider” to Stan Lee. Out of this came “Spider-Man,” certainly the most successful super-hero since Captain Marvel. Given the shifting winds of the comic book field in the early 1960s, all of this would soon become highly ironic. With their hero crossovers and villains migrating between titles, Radio Comics had been dabbling in the kind of continuity that would revolutionize super-hero comics once Marvel got going. For, only six months after his cancellation, The Fly was destined to return, with a new name, new powers, and an entirely new look. 67

Shadow were solid efforts, the work of Fly scripter Robert Bernstein and Jaguar artist John Rosenberger. But, with the third issue, the character was turned inside out like a sock puppet. They took away his dark blue-black business suit and matching cloak, and handed him an ugly blue and green super-hero costume and a trick multi-pistol. Siegel, who had grown up on the Shadow’s pulp exploits and should have known better, was responsible for the re-imagining—or should we call it undoing? Some responsibility could also be attached to the new house artist, Paul Reinman. He had been working for Marvel Comics, doing short back-ups for Tales of Suspense and inking Jack Kirby’s pencils on classic Marvels like The Incredible Hulk #1 and The X-Men. No great penciler, Reinman was a pedestrian inker who stepped on Kirby’s pencils until the magic was, in the immortal words of Little Lulu’s Tubby, “mashed to a crisp.” The Shadow became very boring very fast. In virtually every issue the hero fought Shiwan Khan. But even as that title was marching into oblivion, Radio Comics unexpectedly revived The Fly. I really missed the Fly after his title was cancelled in the summer of 1964. So you can imagine my pleasure when, the following spring, the character came buzzing back. I can still recall my initial surprise at finding issue #31 at the corner drugstore. The cover showed a weakened Fly about to be pounced on by several thugs led by the Spider, now tricked out in a weird cobwebby purple outfit. Three other super-heroes were swooping to his rescue. I recognized the Black Hood and the Comet—but the latter’s costume was an ugly orange and green instead of the pristine red and white of his revival appearance. The third character

Part II—Mighty Comics

It was not the first time that the company that had once been MLJ had put its super-heroes out to pasture. By 1947, they had canceled all of their Golden Age mystery men except “The Shield” and “The Black Hood,” who hung around for another year or so in Pep Comics and the renamed Laugh Comics.

But Radio Comics was not completely defunct yet. They continued publishing their revival of The Shadow. Launched in 1964 to keep the Archie Adventure line going, at least in name, Radio’s Shadow was updated—a helping of James Bond, a touch of the old-time radio version of the Shadow, and a dollop—in the form of the character’s old arch-nemesis, Shiwan Khan— from the Shadow’s pulp magazine. His trademark slouch hat was nowhere to be seen. Out of fashion, no doubt. The first two issues of The 68

THE MLJ COMPANION

Writer Jerry Siegel shoe-horned 21 of his “ultra-heroes” and three ultra-villains into his aptly titled “Too Many Super Heroes” story crowding The Mighty Crusaders #4 [Apr. 1966], an assignment that doubtless had artist Paul Reinman scouring the bound MLJ Comics archives. Here’s a handy identification feature for you.

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

[Spoiler Alert: The climax of The Mighty Crusaders #4 features the Golden Age Wizard as the “secret super-hero” guest star.]

Mighty Comics in the 1950s and 1960s

Mighty Comics ‘Expands’! Teasing an Extension of the Mighty Comics Group

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In the sixth issue, the Mighty Crusaders were tormented by a villain who called himself the Maestro. It turned out that the Maestro was an agent for an U.N.C.L.E.-like organization and was testing the group before allowing them to join T.R.I.U.M.P.H., and become subject to the Maestro’s orders. Now, a Marvel super-hero would have been insulted. Not the Mighty Crusaders. They joined up, timorously wondering what the future held for them. As it turned out, exactly nothing. The next issue was their last. And it featured a five-page “Mighty Crusaders” story starring only Black Hood and the Shield. No mention of T.R.I.U.M.P.H. The cover feature was the second part of the “Steel Sterling” story that was supposed to have run in Steel Sterling #1. Part one had appeared in Fly Man #39 the previous month. Earlier, a different version of that story had appeared in the Belmont paperback book High Camp Super-Heroes. (Belmont was Archie’s book imprint.)

This was not the end of the Mighty line. Fly Man was retitled Mighty Comics with issue #40 (Nov. 1966), and it ran for ten more issues as a revolving door for the adventures of “The Web,” “The Fox,” “The Shield,” and whoever else Siegel and Reinman felt like playing with that month. The Black Hood seemed to get the most play—and his Golden Age nemesis, the Skull, was brought back despite the documented fact that he had been electrocuted by the state in 1941. The Hangman resurfaced as a hero again, with no explanation. The final issue, cover-dated October 1967, featured two excruciatingly undistinguished stories, a “Web” caper and a “Black Hood” exploit. And so it ended. The Mighty Comics line was a classic example of how publishers can go wrong chasing trends. The downfall of Radio Comics was that their books were slavish imitations of Mort Weisinger-era Superman comics. That was fine for the early ’60s, but by 1965, even the Man of Steel was falling out of favor with an increasing number THE MLJ COMPANION

The Invasion of the High Camp Super-Heroes! Sokk! Zip! The Mighty Heroes Hit the Book Rack… by Paul Castiglia

neither publishers’ comics were necessarily consciously campy.

The year was 1966. When Adam West donned the cape and cowl twice a week on network TV, Batmania took flight for a year or three… and there was no looking back! Suddenly, superheroes were synonymous with pop art and campy humor. TV brought on Mr. Terrific and Captain Nice, Modesty Blaise, and Rat Pfink a(nd) Boo Boo cavorted across cinema screens , animated super-hero spoofs like The Mighty Heroes and The Super Six appeared, and superheroes in comic books… well, you would think they followed suit but most of them remained unchanged. At least at the “big two,” Marvel and DC Comics.

That void didn’t remain unfilled for long. Dell Comics contributed super-hero versions of Dracula(!) and Frankenstein(!) and, by 1967, topped those with a title simply called Super Heroes. Probably to divert attention from the fact that the title heroes were actually called “The Fab 4” in the interior pages. No sense incurring the wrath of either the musical mop-tops’ lawyers nor the legal eagles defending Marvel’s first family of heroes residing at the Baxter building.

Marvel was in their renaissance of angst-ridden (and sometimes anti-) heroes with personal problems reflecting real-life. DC was enjoying their Silver Age resurgence of rebooted heroes, including the Flash, Green Lantern, the Atom, and Hawkman. Yet, despite some wise-cracking titans and comic relief sidekicks at Marvel, and a few super-powered gorillas and enlarged noggins permeating the DC universe,

The realization among baby boomers that cornball crimefighters were fun to mock became all the rage when, months prior to the campy Batman TV show, the atrocious 1943 Columbia serial Batman was shown to hip audiences. The binge screening ads trumpeted, “Come to jeer—stay to cheer… and vice versa!” By 1966, camp was king.

Not to be outdone, Archie Comics joined the fray, first by tackling their Silver Age titles. The Fly, which up until then had been mostly straightforward, got a camp injection and a name change, to Fly-Man. The Jaguar chugged along at a consistent place, though it always unintentionally bordered on camp from the start. It was when Archie noticed the success DC and Marvel had with their respective super-groups, the Justice League and the Avengers that they resurrected their stable of Golden Age super-heroes, and both teamed them up and pitted them against each other.

Holy Susan Sontag! It’s a Note or Two on ‘Camp’! In the Fall 1964 edition of the cultural and political journal Partisan Review, American intellectual Susan Sontag first gained wide notice with her groundbreaking essay, “Notes on ‘Camp,’ examining what was little discussed up to that time. The impact of Sontag’s piece was downright seismic, giving the intelligentsia permission (if you will) to simultaneously embrace and revile camp artifacts. Camp is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as, “An affectation or appreciation of manners and tastes commonly thought to be outlandish, vulgar, or banal.” Sontag writes, “Indeed 80

the essence of Camp is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration.” The writer confesses, “I am strongly drawn to Camp, and almost as strongly offended by it,” and, in her extended litany, Sontag lists “the old Flash Gordon comics” as a random example. Obviously the Mighty Comics line was an attempt to capitalize on camp’s popularity, but Sontag’s careermaking essay nails why Archie Comics failed in the effort (beyond the tone-deaf scripting). “One must distinguish between naïve and deliberate Camp,” she writes. “Pure camp is always naïve. Camp which knows itself to be Camp… is usually less satisfying.” True that. THE MLJ COMPANION

The words on the cover broadcast their intentions loud and clear.

By the mid ’60s, mass market paperbacks had taken a foothold, as well. Popular novels, after successful first runs as hardcover books, were brought back to life in the inexpensively bound softcover format. Easy and cheap to churn out, these books populated racks at every convenience store, highway rest stop, bus depot, and airport, ripe for the picking by any bored traveler seeking a respite from the rigors of their journey.

“MARVEL AT THEIR STUPOR DEEDS!” just going straight for the House of Ideas, no diagonal required!

Novels weren’t the only success in that format. Just about every popular newspaper comic strip or single panel cartoon brought in extra coin for its syndicate when reprinted in mass market paperback form. With black-&-white interiors, publishers could keep their printing costs down and pass on the savings to the consumer, allowing for bigger volume sales. Peanuts, Doonsebury, B.C., Hagar, and many others were collected in softcover editions, and snatched up by readers of all ages, particularly adults. This led to comic books also getting the paperback treatment, from MAD magazine to Spider-Man to… you guessed it, the Mighty Comics heroes! Belmont Books was the publisher behind High Camp Super Heroes… and just so happened to be a division of Archie Comics (though that fact was not widely known at the time). Since 1961, Belmont primarily published horror and science fiction novels, including reprints of H.P. Lovecraft tales, anthologies branded under the banners of Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone, respectively, and adventures featuring the classic pulp character, the Shadow. Unlike the publisher’s secret identity, Belmont made no secret that the overnight Bat-craze prompted the rush to bring the Mighty Comics characters to paperbacks.

Mighty Comics in the 1950s and 1960s

“DIG THEIR CRAZY COSTUMES”—stacked so that when the “D” in “DIG” and the “C” in “CRAZY” were read on a diagonal, it spelled out “DC”!

The cover also promised “STUPOR DEEDS,” with “super-scripting” by Superman’s co-creator, Jerry Siegel. Also promised by the over-powering cover text: “Super-starring STEEL STERLING, FLY MAN, THE SHIELD and the hen-pecked WEB!” Just in case you weren’t sure about the “super” part. Interesting too here was the emphasis on the Web’s harried domestic life, further underscoring the camp aspect.

The High Camp Heroes

While the Avengers and Justice League had their share of squabbles, Archie’s heroes, dubbed the Mighty Crusaders, were practically all-squabble. When they weren’t engaged in some of the most absurd action ever (flying robot horse, anyone?)!

The introduction by Siegel read thusly: A couple dozen years ago, if you’d have been caught dead or alive with a super hero comic book, you might’ve been laughed at, spat upon, or merely ostracized. (UGH!) Today, you can proudly carry a super hero comical book and be lauded, applauded and maybe even carried on the shoulders of cheering multitudes! (GASP!) The reason for this startling presto-changeo is that High Camp devotees have gone ape over long underwear-attired villain clobberers like the firm-jawed Steel Sterling, the firmlipped Black Hood, the firm-eyed Shield and the occasionally queasy Web! Nostalgia lovers who become dewy-eyed over contemplation of the Golden Age of Comics of the 30’s and 40’s will agree the masterful gems starring the aforementioned Mighty Ones presented within these pages pack plenty of SOKK, BAM and POWW! If television is making you yawn these days, if reading masses of type on a printed page gives you a migraine headache, if cinema spy capers are beginning to lose their

Super-Heroics: The Game of Crimefighting The Sport of Attacking the Ultra-Foe’s Fortress by Paul Castiglia Transogram was a toy and game company that had some of its biggest successes in the 1960s. Among its subsidiaries were Anchor Toy Corporation, Playwood Plastics Company, Toy Research Institute, Inc., Toy Scouts of America, Transco Adult Games, and Transogram Midwest, Inc. Toys, games, playroom furniture, coloring and paint-by-number sets, craft kits, and children’s sporting goods were manufactured under the brand name Transogram.

Archie Comic Publications. The colorful, displayable game board featured an image of the heroes depicted as if they were all flying in a circle. The player was meant to move the game pieces around the board and the heroes served as “spaces.” Included were game cards, dice and colored cardboard markers which were all used for game play. The superheroes featured in the set included Fly Man, Fly Girl, The Shield, The Black Hood, Captain Flag, The Fox, The Web, Mr. Justice, The Jaguar, and Steel Sterling.

Transogram was the creator of many wellknown toys. In the 1930s it expanded into the board game business with such popular releases as “Big Business,” “Game of India” and “Green Ghost.” Its most famous game, “Tiddly Winks” was introduced in 1938.

The box art misidentified some of the heroes. The Black Hood became merely, “The Hood.” Captain Flag suddenly found an extra “G” at the end of his name. Mr. Justice gained some inexplicable colleagues in the “formal designation” department as The Fox became “Mr. Fox,” Steel Sterling was “Mr. Steel,” and perhaps the swingiest of all was the Jaguar, now formally known as “Mr. Jag!”

Transogram was no stranger to making board games based on popular licensed characters from newspaper comic strips, animated cartoons and comic books. Among their many offerings were games based on Popeye, Prince Valiant, Bullwinkle, Buck Rogers, The Flintstones, Superman, The Jetsons, Mighty Mouse, Yogi Bear and Jonny Quest. In 1966 Transogram produced the Mighty Comics Super Heroes Game, featuring the heroes of

There were two notable oddities regarding this set:

The collectible Mighty Comics Super Heroes Game included this set of instructions on how to play the board game—remember: the youngest player goes first! This item was produced in 1966 by the toy company Transogram and today it fetches, in good condition, between $50–$100.

There may have been some “mighty heroic” confusion for parents seeking out gifts for their children, as Transogram also licensed the characters from Terrytoons’ animated superhero spoof, The Mighty Heroes in 1966!

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The Mighty Super-Heroes Board Game

Mighty Comics in the 1950s and 1960s

The Shadow’s Forgotten Chapter Who knows… why he was made into a super-hero? by Paul Castiglia

That’s right, he throws his voice! To change into his “secret” I.D., he does nothing more than put on glasses and remove his cape! Amazingly, this is all it takes to project the mystery man described as “America’s top secret agent” in the “U.S. Secret Service”!

[Editor’s Note: This article appeared in different form in Comic Book Marketplace #101.] The Shadow. The mere mention of his name evokes many things: The classic radio show whose catchphrase—“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men… the Shadow knows!”—remains firmly ingrained in the American consciousness; the original magazine pulps, enthralling millions of readers; the merchandising spawned by the radio series; the movie serials and short features of the 1940s; and the various comic book adaptations—from the original Street & Smith editions to the Marvel, Dark Horse, and, of course, the celebrated Michael Kaluta-illustrated DC issues—not to mention his encounters with Batman! Like all great literary figures, however, the Shadow has a littleknown skeleton in his closet: From August 1964 until September 1965, his course was charted by the good folks at—are you ready?— Archie Comics!

Also on hand are secretary Margo Lane and chauffeur Shrevy. The plot involves the classic Shadow villain, evil Shiwan Khan, trying to steal plans for a new, experimental “cold war” theme. Despite the trite story, we are treated to a James Bond-esque scene in which Cranston, trapped in his own limo, gleefully informs his would-be-assassin that his Rolls is equipped with a “dual set of controls,” enabling him to control the car from the back seat and to knock out the driver with an electrical charge.

In the back-up story, “The Eyes of the Tiger,” the Shadow When you first pick up the Archie Comics’ version of The Shadow tackles #1 (Aug. 1964), the cover deceives you into thinking that this will some common thugs be just like the classic Street & Smith Shadow comics of the Golden attempting an insurance Age. The slouch hat, the dark cloak, and his distinctive nose are scam by holding a penclearly in view. Then you turn to the first page. In a story entitled light under his face so “The Shadow vs. the RXG Spymaster,” we see Lamont Cranston as that he appears ghost-like. the Shadow: no hat, a bright blue cloak, and blonde hair astonishing The crooks think he is a us all right off the bat with the awesome power of…ventriloquism! tiger(!), and the Shadow takes advantage of their fear to knock them out. The issue is written by Bob Bernstein with art by John Rosenberger.

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As if the incongruities of the Archie version weren’t

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The Alter Ego of Mr. Archibald Andrews That Year Riverdale Went Mad for Super-heroes by Jon B. Cooke Neque voloren ienihillam cus sequissit que optatur sitatium que pe vel id ma sunt aut utempore, si imped que nos arume re exere eium imus sus volla il ipis dolorerum il idundip samus, non pe eos sequiam ut quam alique parum, simil in ea quunt aditi tem qui se cum resequat autem sae volupti squam. Et quiscie nihici ulparibus et la vendae natur sim quibustiore, ipientis apellabo. Itaepudit quatis dolorehentor aut et laborest identio sseribu sdaectur ad quias et

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Red Circle’s ’70s Horror Comics

For a brief shining moment, Archie Comic Publications was dipping its toe into the more adventurous realms of comic book genres when it debuted the Red Circle Comics Group in late summer 1973. While the line-up mostly consisted of “mystery” titles—comics that resembled the Comics Code Authority approved quasi-horror comics then a staple of DC Comics (House of Mystery, etc.) as well as Marvel (Journey into Mystery, et al.) and Charlton—and not so much super-heroes (though a MLJ hero revival was in the works), the quality of the imprint’s offerings deserve mention here. Anyway, the crime book Red Circle did release was called The Super Cops, so what the heck!

Sorcery Supreme! The Glorious (albeit short-lived) 1970s Red Circle Horror Comics helmed by artist Gray Morrow by Jon B. Cooke Ucit porum doluptatis et autet quid quo te prae. Edi re pos sed molor autecea cuptates plis aut que volorum rem aut delitat pore, tem eum eribus res exero omnihil iquiatium andae volore sum nonse et id quis acea cus ea niscid eaquatur aut as et et autentemquos quodi num voluptaquiam que im in res aut a venit, ullorro qui nost, sinctur sitae et et, cum simoluptaqui consequide la pera nobit reperit optas diore officii sitium que ex et et moluptatis aut exceperem lanihit iostior ehendit vel eos dolore solore vid modi dolupisi doluptius nonsectem eiciis ipic to quae sani resed quid quias quatur? Ibus eveneceribus dolorempore ducition ne vollores num, nestian duciditia cuptate moluptae pa et ped quidis aut inullen daepero consect otatquam incto con pro moloriatibus mosto maio molum quodipsam accum quo quae ventenimpe con parum, volor aut volut velitatio explige nditaspe eosaere pro omnihil icilitatia dunt quis ipicaer fernam ipienda ndebist, con explant dignatquo erorehe ndamustrum eum es eum nimaionsedio et doloris atessinto volorat iorrum, temodicipic to ditibea tiumquis arum quideli genimolorpos et am aspelit odit ipsam rem qui inverferitam faccaest exceaqu isimi, nusdaecte nonse imaximod magnit maio quia cor 94

autenda ndigenimet, accullu ptatior re rerferum etur most, to te plit omnim con nonsequam aut aruptas esed qui derioreium quas quia doloreptur ma verum quam volori re non et id elis iliamus, solecae venimporitam sandi dicipsanis doluptae nimi, am explabo. Name volorepre, sitas nos et eventur, voluptatet inum velliquatem. Dunt quas simpe etur suntis as unto dolum fugia premquamus, omnihic tatur? Quiasitem alistiis nullum nihilit, sectiuscia cum nonsequi te nonsequi ducides eaqui optat laccae si tem fugitate conseque nonessint ditessu ntorest iorite non pos as dent, quia sandae nos at. Sunte sit ma qui delibus andamusdae. Ut et moloreprores magnia vid magnatur rem et imodis re as rem. Ita qui aut quos doluptatiam eicille ctorepu diosse si dis duciet mo blaut event occaborunto con eos elescil maiorepro etur, quidem et paribus ea ipis de nobisci entotatum in con re prat qui dolorrorum qui conet vendelignis velendit vitio. Conectum cuptibea volo es escient, ommod ut quas il id quia sape venimustrume conserferro maior anistrum restin nobit eum voluptatur adipis nisquat. Curiously, the inaugural title of the shortlived Red Circle Comics Group was, at least in name, a continuation of the teen-humor style mystery book hosted by Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. Interesting, too, is the fact that Chilling Adventures in Sorcery had been cancelled a year prior to the Gray Morrow reboot. At left are the covers of those two initial issues.

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3 Gray Morrow

Creator Chat

An Interview with

Conducted by Jon B. Cooke [Editor’s Note: Material from this article appeared in Comic Book Artist Vol. 1 # 17 (Jan. 2002).] Dwight Graydon Morrow—the artist we know commonly as Gray Morrow—was a renowned comic book artist and paperback cover painter (perhaps best recalled for his Perry Phodan covers). An “artist’s artist,” he was beloved by peers and, after years as a ghost on various syndicated strips and journeyman comic book artist (where Gray’s work appeared in the Warren horror line, Classics Illustrated, and in Marvel’s black-&-white magazines—where he co-created Man-Thing), Morrow found his niche producing luxuriant color episodes of his sword and sorcery character, Orion, for Heavy Metal magazine. The artist, who had a penchant to give very short answers to long-winded questions, was interviewed by phone in March 2001 for Comic Book Artist magazine. The artist passed away on Nov. 6, 2001. This interview was transcribed by Jon B. Knutson. — JBC Jon B. Cooke: I talked to you briefly about Charlton Comics, and I had a mistaken impression that you had a studio when you were packaging [the black-&-white comics magazine] Space: 1999. That wasn’t necessarily so? Gray Morrow: I was pretty much a lone wolf. JBC: Around the same time, the Red Circle account came along? Morrow: Yeah. JBC: Can you tell me the genesis of that? Morrow: Well, I don’t remember who or why they called me in, but they did. I met with Richard Goldwater [of Archie Comics], and his art director, Victor Gorelik. They asked me if I could put together 96

a package for them. I wasn’t sure if I could or not, but I said, “Why not? I’ll give it a shot.” JBC: Were you living in New York at the time? Morrow: In Brooklyn. JBC: You brought in a lot of superlative talent to work on the Red Circle books. What were your inspirations, what did you want to achieve with the books? Were they knock-offs of the DC mystery line, or were you reaching back to the EC’s, only within Code constraints? Morrow: Well, I guess I was thinking more in terms of old movies and radio shows. That’s what I was trying to emulate. JBC: Who was [ frequent Red Circle writer] Marvin Channing? Morrow: Marvin was a friend of Alan Barber. Alan is a sort of a super film buff, like Leonard Maltin. He did several books on Above is a portrait of the late artist and manager of the Red Circle Comics Group, Gray Morrow. The artist passed away in 2001. At left is a detail of Morrow’s cover art for Chilling Adventures in Sorcery #5 [Feb. 1974]. Never quite comfortable drawing super-heroes, the man was most adept at science fiction and fantasy illustration.

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Red Circle Comics Group Index BLACK HOOD #1 [Unpublished] Cover: ? “Black Hood” Gray Morrow/Gray Morrow 8 “It’s Murder to Beat the Odds” Marv Channing/Al McWilliams 5 “Life’s Not Like a Comic Book!” Gray Morrow (plot) Neal Adams and Dick Giordano (story & art) 10 “Black Hood Hits a Sour Note” Marv Channing/Alden McWilliams 4 Notes: Did not see print during Gray’s tenure, but was published in Archie’s Super-Hero Special Comics Digest #2 [1979] and in Blue Ribbon Comics #8 [1984] (“Black Hood Hits a Sour Note” was probably intended for the non-extant Black Hood #2). CHILLING ADVENTURES IN SORCERY #3 October 1973 Cover: Gray Morrow “…Cat!” Gray Morrow/Gray Morrow 6 “A Stab in the Dark” (text with illo) ?/Morrow? 1 “Missing Link!” Gray Morrow/Gray Morrow 5 “Immortality Factor” Gray Morrow/Gray Morrow 5 “Haunted Gallery” Gray Morrow/Gray Morrow 6 “Essays into the Supernatural” P. Seuling/Morrow 1 Notes: First two issues were Archie Comics-style horror stories told straight but drawn in the Dan DeCarlo humorous style(!), hosted by Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. Those two issues sported the lengthy title Chilling Adventures in Sorcery as Told by Sabrina, and appeared in September and October 1972 respectively, one year prior to the Morrow relaunch. #4 December 1973 Cover: Gray Morrow “Suicide… Maybe” Vincente Alcazar/Alcazar 6 “Loophole” (text fiction) ? 1 “Horripilate Host” ?/Dick Giordano 6 “Golden Touch” Gray Morrow/Gray Morrow 5 “A Thousand Pounds of Clay” Don Glut/Vincente Alcazar 6 Essays into the Supernatural: “The Witch!” Gray Morrow?/Gray Morrow 1 #5 February 1974 Cover: Gray Morrow “The Two Thieves of Baghdad” Morrow & Larry Hama/Vincente Alcazar 6 “Esmé” Vincente Alcazar/Vincente Alcazar 8 “Barometer Falling” Gray Morrow/Gray Morrow 5 “The Choker is Wild” ?/Vincente Alcazar 6 Essays into the Supernatural: “Dragons” Phil Seuling/Gray Morrow 1 Notes: “Esmé” is signed “Vincente Sarrano.” Title changes to Red Circle Sorcery with #6. MAD HOUSE #95 September 1974 Cover: Gray Morrow “The Terrible Trident” Don Glut/Vincente Alcazar 6 “The Happy Dead” ?/Doug Wildey 6 “The Night of the Leopard Men” Glut/Carlos Piño 6 “Take Care of Your Little Brother!” Marv Channing/Vincente Alcazar 4 “Two Glass Bottles” (text fiction) 1 Note: Title changed from Archie humor mag Madhouse Glads. Includes half-page house ad drawn by Gray Morrow. #96 November 1974 Cover: Gray Morrow “Never Bother a Dead Man” Marv Channing/Jesse Santos 5 “Essays in the Supernatural” Marv Channing/Sal Amendola 1 Red Circle’s ’70s Horror Comics

“Demon Kiss” Bruce Jones/Bruce Jones 7 “No Respect for the Dead” (text with illo) Marv Channing/Gray Morrow 1 “The Devil’s Matchmaker” John Jacobson/Sal Amendola 4 “The Gentlest Dog on the Block” ?/Alcazar? 5 Note: John Costanza, letterer on “The Devil’s Matchmaker.” Includes half-page house ad drawn by Gray Morrow.

Essays into the Supernatural: “Poltergeists” ?/Frank Thorne 1 “Enough to Raise the Dead” Don Glut/Carlos Piño 6 “The Man Who Tried to Kill Death” Marv Channing/Alex Toth 5 Notes: “Die in the Name…” features a pulpesque adventure character, The Cobra, and includes a character modeled on Alex Toth.

#97 January 1975 Cover: Gray Morrow “The Vampire Hunter” Channing/Frank Thorne 6 Essays in the Supernatural: “Zombies” Marv Channing/Gray Morrow 1 “Cellar Dweller” ?/Gray Morrow 6 “Heaven’s Not for Losers” Ralph Alfonso/Alden McWilliams 5 “The Earth Children” (text with illos) Marv Channing/Gray Morrow 2 “Too Mean to Die” Marv Channing/Carlos Piño 5 Note: Becomes Archie-style humor title. Includes half-page house ad drawn by Gray Morrow. “The Vampire Hunter” is thinly-veiled Sherlock Holmes pastiche.

#9 October 1974 Cover: Gray Morrow “…If I Were King” Marv Channing/Alex Toth 6 “The Devil’s in Borney!” Pat Boyette/Pat Boyette 5 “The Journey” (text fiction w/illos) Marv Channing/Gray Morrow 1½ The Inner Circle (letters column)` ½ “The Goal is Death” Marvin Channing/Vincente Alcazar 5 “Come In and Meet the Piano Player” Marv Channing/Carlos Piño 5 Note: Includes half-page house ad drawn by Gray Morrow.

RED CIRCLE SORCERY #6 April 1974 Cover: Gray Morrow “Warrior’s Dream” Steve Skeates and Mary Skrenes/Gray Morrow 5 Essays into the Supernatural: “The Werewolf” Marv Channing/Gray Morrow 1 “Out of Practice” ?/Ed Davis? 2 “Death Goes to a Sales Convention” Marv Channing/Carlos Piño 5 “The Patience of a Cat” Carole Seuling/Howard Chaykin 5 “Black Fog” (text with illos) T. Casey Brennan/Gray Morrow 2 “Face of Love—Face of Death” Marv Channing/Vincente Alcazar 5 Note: Title changed from Chilling Adventures in Sorcery. #7 June 1974 Cover: Gray Morrow “A Twist in Time!” Steve Skeates/Carlos Piño 6 Essays into the Supernatural: “Dibbuk” Marv Channing/Gray Morrow 1 “The Knife of Jack the Ripper” Marv Channing/Vincente Alcazar 5 “The Super Cops” (promo page with Morrow bio) Gray Morrow?/Gray Morrow 1 “The Rivals” Marv Channing/Bruce Jones 5 “The Man Who Would Not Laugh” (text with illos) Marv Channing/Gray Morrow 2 “The Benefactor” T. Casey Brennan/ V. Hack (Vincente Alcazar) 4 Essays into the Supernatural: “Possession and Exorcism” Gray Morrow/Gray Morrow 1 Note: The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide states that Bernie Wrightson, Jeff Jones, and Michael W. Kaluta assisted on Bruce Jones’ “The Rivals.” #8 August 1974 Cover: Gray Morrow “The Highwayman’s Escape!” Don Kraar/Frank Thorne 6 “The Marching Band” (text with illos) Marv Channing/Gray Morrow 2 “Die in the Name of the Law!” Marv Channing/Gray Morrow 5

#10 December 1974 Cover: Gray Morrow “Death is My Love’s Name” Marv Channing/Frank Thorne 6 Essays in the Supernatural: “Horror Films” Marv Channing/Gray Morrow 12/3 “Pirate Island” Marv Channing/Howard Chaykin 5 “The Final Battle” (text with illos) Marv Channing/Gray Morrow 1½ “One Evening on a Small Planet” Ed Newsome/Alden McWilliams 3 “The Prince of Evil!” Marv Channing/Alden McWilliams 2 “Demon Rider” ?/Wally Wood? 5 Notes: Includes separate half-page and third-page house ads drawn by Gray Morrow. Third-page announces impending release of Black Hood #1, which would not happen during Gray’s tenure. #11 February 1975 Cover: Gray Morrow “I Want to Die!” Marv Channing/Vincente Alcazar 6 Essays in the Supernatural: “Voodoo” Marv Channing/Gray Morrow 12/3 “The Eyes of Cagliostro” ?/Jack Abel 6 “Monster on My Back” Don Glut/Jim Mooney & Gray Morrow 5 “The Spectre” (text with illo) Bob Holland/Gray Morrow 2 “The Visitor” Pat Boyette/Pat Boyette 5 Note: Final issue. THE SUPER COPS 1 July 1974 Cover: Gray Morrow “Crime is Out of Fashion” Channing/Morrow 7 “Bedlam Beat” Marv Channing/Carlos Piño 5 “Men Behind the Shield” (text) Marv Channing 1 “The Next Stop… the Cemetery” Marv Channing/V. Hack (Vincente Alcazar) 6 “2 to Get Ready and 4 to Go!” Marv Channing/Frank Thorne 6 Notes: One-shot based on the “incredible but true” adventures of New York City policemen Dave Greenberg and Bob Hantz. Title simultaneously released with the 1974 Gordon Parks MGM movie, The Super Cops. [Special thanks to David A. Roach for his help.] — Compiled by Jon B. Cooke

The Red Circle Heroes of the ’80s

After taking a break in the 1970s (except for a brief Black Hood appearance in ’79), the heroes returned full-force in the 1980s, when Archie spun the characters off into a new line of periodicals called Red Circle Comics. The notion was for the House of Archie to claim its stake in the burgeoning direct sales market of that era, specifically appealing not just to the general reader but to the growing super-hero fan base. Leading the charge—once again—was the Mighty Crusaders, with Archie’s Silver Age characters, Lancelot Strong as the Shield and the Fly, getting their own series (as well as Golden-Agers Steel Sterling and the Comet helming their respective titles, as well as the modernized Black Hood) and Blue Ribbon Comics was resurrected to showcase other costumed characters.

The Red Circle Years

Dropping the Camp and Cornball, the MLJ Line of Super-Heroes Get Real and Gritty for the ’80s by Paul Castiglia? The concept of the direct market—comics publishers distributing their titles through stores specializing in the sale of comic books— was created in the 1970s by Phil Seuling, organizer of the New York Comic Art Convention. At the time, comics were dispersed by magazine distributors and sold to newsstands, pharmacies, and candy stores. These retailers had no choices of title, quantity, or publisher. The distributor would drop off the comics, and pick up the unsold copies, charging the retailer for the sold comics only, and destroying the unsold ones. Magazine distributors refused to deal with comic book specialty shops, used book stores, or with any retailer who dealt in back issues. These distributors believed comic shops would purchase used comics from their customers for pennies, and then send those copies back for credit as “unsold.” The distributors had no way of knowing if a comic had been sold at full retail price to the reader and then repurchased by the shop, with the intention of getting both a sale and a full credit for the returned product.

shops were allowed to order specific comics directly from the publishers. The most important elements of the system were that retailers’ orders were pre-paid and non-returnable—the retailers could chose which comic titles they wanted to sell and the quantity of each they would receive. Compared to newsstand distribution, Archie Comics owners Richard Goldwater and Michael Silberkleit saw the new direct market system as a bonanza. The newsstand distributor would subtract unsold returns from their payments to

Seuling formed Seagate Distributors as a method to get comics into the hands of collectors and enthusiasts. He made deals with Archie, DC, Marvel, and Warren to buy their comic books from a central distribution center in Sparta, Illinois. This was called the direct market distribution system, wherein specialty Idendeliquas aut quo di volor raturib uscias eos venis dest, sitem volupta ssequi ni inverori voluptas maio. Nequat. Da con nos santium enes qui utestib usaessunt estestrunt occulparum fugit eost apicit ulparchil ma is doleces cipsund anisti bla.

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Red Circle/Archie Adventure Series Index

THE MIGHTY CRUSADERS March 1983 to September 1985 #1–#13

THE ORIGINAL SHIELD April 1984 to October 1984 #1–#4

SHIELD/STEEL STERLING December 1983 #3

STEEL STERLING January 1984 to July 1984 #4–7

Out,” and a Black Hood tale originally printed in 1979, “Life’s Not Like A Comic Book,” drawn by Neal Adams and written by Gray Morrow. Archie sales were strong at Seagate and Seuling spoke with Silberkleit and Goldwater about producing more titles. Richard Goldwater hired John Carbonaro to edit a relaunched line of super-hero comics under the Red Circle brand. The name had been used by Archie prior, most recently with the Red Circle horror comics line of the ’70s, which also released the one-shot movie adaptation, The Super Cops.

Carbonaro started production with two titles: The Fly and Captain THUNDER BUNNY Strong. Prior to this, CapJanuary 1984 tain Strong had sported #1 the name the Shield, in The Double Life of Private Strong. Carbonaro didn’t want confusion between the Simon and Kirby Shield and the Golden Age Shield, and he thus felt a name change would solve any problem.

Red Circle’s ’70s Horror Comics

Chapter Four: The Red Circle Heroes of the ’80s

Archie and, by the time the accounting was done, Archie wouldn’t know if a comic was successful for approximately six months after publication. With Seagate—and the 20 regional direct distributors that soon followed in its wake—Archie was able to calculate prior to publication how well a comic would sell in the direct market based on ARCHIE’S SUPER HERO SPECIAL pre-orders. 1978 #1 In 1981, longtime ARCHIE’S SUPER HERO comics fan John CarbonCOMICS DIGEST MAGAZINE aro purchased Wallace 1979 Wood’s classic 1960s #2 Tower Comics title, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, BLACK HOOD and formed JC Comics, June 1983 to October 1983 using his initials as the #1–#3 imprint’s name. Shortly BLUE RIBBON COMICS after acquiring rights to the November 1983 to December 1984 T.H.U.N.D.E.R. heroes, #1–#14 Carbonaro made an arrangement with Archie THE COMET Comics to print and October 1983 to December 1983 distribute JC’s titles, which #1–#2 were initially black-&white, magazine-size THE FLY periodicals. The first of May 1983 to October 1984 these, JCP Features, in#1–#9 cluded the early Silver Age LANCELOT STRONG, THE SHIELD Fly story, Joe Simon and June 1983 to August 1983 Jack Kirby’s “The Hide#1–#2

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4 Rich Buckler Creator Chat

An Interview with

Conducted by Paul Castiglia [Editor’s Note: Rich Buckler is best known for his work on Marvel Comics’ The Fantastic Four in the mid-1970s and for creating Deathlok. He has drawn virtually every major character at Marvel and DC. Rich worked as the editor of the Red Circle Comics line from 1983 to 1984 and personally recruited Cary Burkett to write the Mighty Crusaders title.] Paul Castiglia: What was your first exposure to the MLJ heroes? Were you already aware of them before taking on your first Mighty Crusaders assignment? Rich Buckler: Working at Archie Comics in the ’80s to revive their characters for the direct sales comic market was for me a labor of love. My affection for the MLJ heroes goes back to my fan days in the late ’60s, when I first met Roy Thomas and Professor Jerry Bails. But the prospect of idea of reviving the Archie/Red Circle characters in the ’80s originated with John Carbonaro. John took the idea to Archie with the intention initially of reviving the Fly and Lancelot Strong, The Shield. John and I met at my retail comic book store in Staten Island and we talked things over. At first, John wanted to hire me to do some concept drawing. I wanted to be much more involved than that. So we set up a meeting with publisher Richard Goldwater, who was very enthusiastic about the prospect. He actually took it further by entertaining the possibility of reviving all of Archie’s super-hero properties. This was when Archie Comics still had their publishing offices in Manhattan. John’s interests were fan-based and included a desire to collaborate with the publisher to exploit the Thunder Agents property he had just acquired the rights for. I had considerable editing and publishing skills and I knew all of the Archie/Red Circle characters. So that’s what I brought to the table. Plus—and this was a big plus—I had extensive experience in dealing with the comics direct market both as a publisher and a comic book retailer. The timing seemed to be right and I was confident that I could take things to the next stage and make it actually happen for them. I remember clearly when Richard asked me: “So, when do we start, and what do you need to get started?” And I said, “Just give Maxim adicia quat vel inus esti ipsum laborum faciis sum fugit odi volorunt fugit, sin restotaquide sequide ndamus alitatur mo inusam que sa dollique nullorionsed unt eserum quunt is aut quibusam con nullendebis ea net quo quid moluptatiam nimet odic

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The Eve of Neal Adams

The legendary artist got started at… Archie Comics?

Before his golden age at DC, before creating Marvel classics, even before his ground-breaking Warren work and syndicated comic strip artistry, Neal Adams, the visionary comic book artist who, in the wake of the campy Batman TV series, completely invigorated and revitalized the super-hero genre, got his start in the field drawing… Archie Andrews gags…? Yep, back in 1959, the aspiring cartoonist Adams, a graduate of the School of Industrial art, was rejected by DC and gave Archie a try, where idol Jack Kirby was contributing.

During 1960, Adams, though his talent as super-hero artist clearly evident in that single Fly panel, enthusiastically took on ‘Archie’ gag work, aping the Bob Montana style. (Ty Templeton points out, in his blog devoted to “Top Ten Reasons to Love Neal Adams,” that one was that the artist wasn’t afraid to take on any assignment while starting out, “[B]ecause it was honest work.”) Adams single- and half-pagers appeared in Pep and Archie’s Joke Book, before he moved on to advertising and comic strip assignments.

“[At age 17] I started to do samples for Archie,” the artist shared, “and I left my Fly samples there. A couple weeks later when I came in to show my ‘Archie’ samples, I noticed that the pages were still there, but the bottom panel was cut off of one of my pages. I said, ‘What happened?’ They said, ‘One of the artists did this transition where Tommy Troy turns into the Fly and it’s not very good. You did this real nice piece, so we’ll use that, if it’s ok.’ I said, ‘That’s great. That’s terrific.’” That panel, seen above, is in The Fly #4 [ Jan. ’60].

Many years later, in 1974, Adams produced the ten-page Black Hood story, “Life’s Not Like a Comic Book,” for friend and peer Gray Morrow, who was packaging a new title for the Red Circle Comics Group bring a crime-story take to the character. Unfortunately that series would remain unpublished until 1979, reproduced at unfortunate dimensions in Archie’s Super Hero Comics Digest Magazine #2. It would finally be reproduced at correct size in Blue Ribbon #8 [May ’84).

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The Red Circle Heroes of the ’80s

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The Mighty Crusaders Action Figure Line The Sport of Attacking the Ultra-Foe’s Fortress by Paul Castiglia From the 1950s through the mid-1990s, the toy company Remco was one of the steady “independents” in the field. Producing a variety of toys from board games to dolls to vehicles, among their most popular offerings were action figures. Initially their figures were on the novelty side. These included everything from big-headed 1960s figures of characters from the Addams Family and Munsters TV shows, an I Dream of Jeannie doll with Barbie®-like fashions, to a line of “Energized” figures (figures with slight electronic features) based on Marvel and DC heroes. Ultimately Remco ended up releasing more standard articulated action figures, of such fan-favorites as DC’s Sgt. Rock, Conan the Barbarian and the Universal Monsters. In 1984, Remco struck a deal with Archie Comics to produce a line of action figures based on the Mighty Crusaders superheroes and villains.

Most of the figures came with accessories. These included weapons with holsters and a “secret sonic signaling shield” which could be blown like a whistle. Each also had “punch action,” activated by pushing a button in the figures’ backs. The package art for the figures was done by none other than comic book legend, Steve Ditko. Available exclusively at K-Mart stores, ads for the figures were featured in Archie-published comics. While not a huge success, they are much sought-after by collectors today. The relationship between Remco and Archie was mutually beneficial: just as Remco brought Archie’s comic book heroes to life via three dimensional toys, Archie returned the favor and created a comic book series and backstory for Remco’s line of human-robot mashup action figures, Mantech Robot Warriors. The series lasted four issues spanning 1984 and 1985, and featured the work of such Red Circle alumni as Rick Buckler, Dick Ayers, Chic Stone, Joe Giella and Rich Margopoulos.

The line-up consisted of four heroes and four villains. On the side of justice were The Comet, the Fox, the Shield and the Web. The dastardly villains they faced off against were the Brain Emperor, the Eraser, Sting and Buzzard. Of particular note is the fact that Sting and Buzzard appeared as action figures a year before they made their comic book debuts.

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The Ill-Fated Spectrum Comics

Archie hoped to bring back the MLJ superheroes in the late 1980s with a new imprint called Spectrum Comics, and recruited some of comics’ top talent, including Steve Englehart, Jim Valentino, Marv Wolfman, Michael Bair, Kelley Jones, and Rob Liefeld. Some of the titles planned included The Fly, The Fox, Hangman, Jaguar, Mister Justice, and The Shield. Archie eventually cancelled the Spectrum Comics project before a single issue was published. Here, some of the creators involved discuss the evolution and demise of the imprint.

Talking with the artists and writers of the almost MLJ Super-Hero revival of the late 1980s by Paul Castiglia?

Kelley Jones Conducted by Rik Offenberger [Editor’s Note: Kelley Jones began his career at Marvel with Micronauts, and then moved to DC, bringing a grim gothic style to Deadman, and a memorable turn on Sandman: Seasons of Mist. Kelley next made an impression with Batman, drawing the Elseworlds classic Red Rain, and becoming the cover artist for Batman and Detective Comics during the “Knightfall” event. With inker John Beatty, he is credited with creating one of the most defining versions of Batman ever. Archie Comics was set to launch The Hangman with the superstar artist, and here he explains his experience with the ill-fated project.] Rik Offenberger: How did Archie approach you for the Hangman job? Kelley Jones: I was contacted by Scott Fulop, editor of Archie. He and Len Wein were revamping the book.

Spectrum Comics Index THE FLY by Steve Englehart & Michael Bair Late 1980s Unpublished

THE FOX by Jim Valentino Late 1980s Discussion only

THE HANGMAN by Marv Wolfman and Kelly Jones Late 1980s Unpublished

JAGUAR by Mark Ellis Late 1980s Discussion only

MISTER JUSTICE Late 1980s Discussion only

THE SHIELD by Mark Ellis and Rob Liefeld Late 1980s Discussion only

RO: Was the offer originally just Hangman, or did you get to choose from a list of characters? Jones: They wanted me to do Hangman, after they saw Deadman, which they loved. RO: What made you decide to be part of the Spectrum Comics launch? Jones: I was eager to collaborate with Len and John Beatty. RO: You are an “A-list,” in-demand artist and were associated with several projects when Hangman was announced. Was your schedule free for Hangman? Jones: Nope, but I made time. RO: Had you been a fan of the prior work on the character? Jones: Never saw him before, but the idea and the premise were excellent. RO: How many character designs did you submit for the project? Jones: Just the one for Hangman, which they loved off the bat, and for Cadaver, the book’s bad guy, who was really creepy-looking. RO: How long was it from the

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RO: What type of feedback did get along the way? Jones: All positive, from Scott, Len and John. They were all very happy with my work. RO: How far along were you on the project when they cancelled the Spectrum line? Jones: I was waiting for the second script. RO: What reason did they give you for the cancellation? Jones: I was told that the orders were far in excess of what was hoped for and they kindly were giving me a lot of the credit for that due to my art. The next week I was told it was cancelled as of then because the art was too horrifying to the publisher, and it was done.

Mark Ellis Conducted by Rik Offenberger [Editor’s Note: Mark Ellis worked as a journalist, newspaper columnist, and copywriter before he became a comic book writer in the mid-1980s for Adventure Publications, including scripting Star Rangers for legendary comics artist Jim Mooney. In 1987, he created Death Hawk, a series that featured the first published work of comics artist Adam Hughes, as well as beginning his long association with the Justice Machine. In 1990, Mark and his wife Melissa co-founded Millennium Publications, serving as the imprint’s editor, giving early exposure to artists Mike Wieringo and Darryl Banks, and published industry veterans Jim Mooney and Don Heck. The couple co-authored The Everything Guide to Writing Graphic Novels, and currently teach writers’ workshops in Newport, Rhode Island.] Rik Offenberger: Mark, would you be willing to talk about your Spectrum Shield? Mark Ellis: Sure… hope I can remember all of the details. I did find my Spectrum proposal for The Jaguar, though. Dot matrix, yet.

RO: This must have been a surprise. Jones: It was. I never thought that a success like that could not be seen for what it was. The point was to compete with Marvel or DC, and they didn’t just do that, they exceeded it.

RO: Was it just the Shield and Jaguar? Ellis: I did talk to the editor about The Web, but I didn’t do a formal proposal for that. The whole Spectrum thing fell apart pretty quickly as I recall.

RO: What happened to all the Hangman art you had completed? Jones: It’s in an Archie flat file I suppose.

RO: How did Archie approach you to work on the Spectrum Line? Ellis: Jeez... my memories are pretty fragmented on all of this. Seems to me someone suggested I contact the Archie editor, Scott Fulop... it might’ve been Adam Hughes who made the suggestion.

RO: Do you still have a fondness for the character? Jones: Oh sure, he was great and it was a terrific first issue. Such a shame.

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The Ill-Fated Spectrum Comics Line

Chapter Five: The Ill-Fated Spectrum Comics

time you started on the project and when it was announced? Jones: About three months. Then they published a promo with a dozen pages or so in Comics Buyers Guide and it got a huge positive reaction. They were able to get nearly 400,000 orders for the book.

RO: They asked you to write the Shield, Jaguar and the Web? 129

Steve Englehart Charts The Fly’s Course The veteran writer’s script for The Fly #1 In 1989, veteran comic book writer Steve Englehart lent his formidable talents to the ill-fated Spectrum Comics line by offering a daring new take on The Fly. According to Englehart, “The Red Circle line was supposed to be a more horror-driven line, and once it was, Archie decided it was too much for their brand. But I very much liked what was done with the concept - particularly Len Wein’s HANGMAN - as I recall, he strung up evildoers on the street corner. My thing was, becoming the Fly was a death sentence: the inspiring alien who gave Troy his power was lying to him, and it was all a ruse to introduce the Fly virus, and soon the Flies themselves, into our world. Thus, the hero dies at the end of the first issue, but not before touching his girlfriend, who becomes the next Fly…only to die at the end of the second issue. With the third issue, this problem would be realized, and succeeding Flys would struggle to find a solution even as each one died. The overall concept was, individuals would die, but humanity would eventually work it out and turn back the invasion.” Following are the first several script pages of what would have been Spectrum’s The Fly #1:

The Fly #1 Script by Steve Englehart THE FLY—1 BLURB: Take a look at Troy Thompson! Star forward for the Fordham High basketball squad, rated first in the state! Good-looking, with a good head on his shoulders— and everybody says so! BLURB: He’s just the guy you’d pick if you wanted a hero!

that fly’s a second focal point. [Whoever you are drawing this—I’m being this detailed because I don’t know who you are yet. I’ll tell you if I see something essential, but otherwise, I’ll let you alone. [PS. That “girl on his arm” is Jenny Sharp, who will be the lead in #2. This issue, tho, she’s just part of Troy’s world.] THE FLY—2 1) [Troy and Jenny start up stairs, so they have a little privacy—they’re both having a good time] TROY:—we won’t get to Pablo’s party till after eleven— JENNY: Course not! I know you’ll be late on game nights— TROY: What I mean is, we don’t have to go! Not really go! TROY: We tell our parents we’re going, but then… 2) [Jenny is not a prude, but she’s not a pushover, either—he’s a nice enough guy that he’s not really put off by her refusal, tho he makes a college try—scene shot from stair level, above and ahead of them, where we see tiny fly buzz under stairs] JENNY: Troy! I told you, I’m not really into that yet… TROY: How do you know if you haven’t tried it?

BLURB: He just was…

JENNY: Who says I haven’t tried it? But—

TITLE: BUZZZ

JENNY: —ooh, it’s just complicated!

CREDITS [nice heroic poster shot of Troy—6’3”, handsome, his girl on his arm, as they walk through kids along a hall at normal upscale high school—he is everything you imagine about a successful young stud, but not a caricature—not a joke. He is, indeed, a real life hero. The thing is, this heroic scene, we now notice, is the upward view afforded to a fly flitting around in the foreground—

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3) [he’s smiling playful, rueful smile at her, as she smiles back] JENNY: You know I like you! And it’s not because I think you have AIDS or anything! I just— TROY: I know! Me Tarzan—you Jane! And Janes are different!

THE MLJ COMPANION

!mpact Comics in the 1990s

The next incarnation of the MLJ heroes was !mpact Comics, a line of comics published by DC Comics in the 1990s. Archie licensed the rights to DC and while many of their titles received critical acclaim, there were already too many superhero comics flooding the market, so interest was curtailed.

Making An !mpact

Recalling those bygone days when DC Comics licensed the Archie Super-Hero Line

by Bradley S. Cobb   It was 1991. Memories of the 1980s Red Circle era were still floating around in some comic fans’ minds. Some of the more astute fans were still wondering where the Spectrum Comics line went. It was a time when X-Men and Spider-Man got brand new titles which sold way more than they should have (and is McFarlane’s art really that good?). Mike Gold, along with Brian Augustyn and Paul Kupperberg, were coming up with some plans. Gold, for quite some time, has been a champion of bringing in younger readers to comic books. The big three really haven’t paid all that much attention to the idea (Batman Adventures being a notable exception from DC), but in 1991, the House of Superman gave it a shot. The premise was simple: find some old characters that have some name recognition, and update them. And, while not “dumbing them down,” make them easily accessible to the eight-to-twelve year-old age group. How well it worked can be debated forever (and seeing that !mpact folded after two years, the naysayers may have a point), but it brought this reader into comic books, and into the world of cool super-heroes. After deciding not to go with the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents (there were legal issues still surrounding the characters at the time), it was decided that the Mighty Crusaders would be good candidates. So, Archie Comics was approached, and the rest is history. Ate nullenistio. Imil molupta commolu ptatium endisquo mil iunde occab idempor aut aut pa non nulloreicia velendes solorem facepuditio que latem acestem aut andelecus molupta si ducid ut lam adis nis molupta tibust, cum abo. Itate

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THE BLACK HOOD

December 1991 to November1992 #1–#12

THE BLACK HOOD ANNUAL 1992 #1

THE COMET

July 1991 to December 1992 #1–#18

THE COMET ANNUAL 1992 #1

CRUCIBLE

February 1993 to July 1993 #1–#6

Artists were brought in, as well as writers (and some doubled as both), and the first !mpact Comics Conference was held. Pretty much, all the creators involved spent a weekend together getting ideas, and pitching them. It was from this conference that most of the

THE CRUSADERS

May 1992 to December 1992 #1–#8

THE FLY

August 1991 to December 1992 #1–#17

THE FLY ANNUAL 1992 #1

!MPACT WINTER SPECIAL 1991 #1

THE JAGUAR

August 1991 to October 1992 #1–#14

JAGUAR ANNUAL 1991 #1

LEGEND OF THE SHIELD July 1991 to October 1992 #1–#16

LEGEND OF THE SHIELD ANNUAL 1992 #1

THE WEB

September 1991 to October 1992 #1–#14

THE WEB ANNUAL 1992 #1

WHO’S WHO IN THE !MPACT UNIVERSE September 1991 to April 1992 #1–#3

!mpact Comics of the 1990s

stuff that appeared was created.

!mpact Comics of the 1990s

!mpact Comics Index

The first books to hit the stands were Legend of the Shield and The Comet. The following month, The Fly debuted, then The Web and The Jaguar.   As the summer went by, a new character emerged in the books. The Black Hood was a Punisher-type vigilante who shot first and asked questions later. He was going around the country recruiting the various super-heroes to join together as a team called “the Superiors.”  In the Winter of 1991, !mpact Comics put out what could be considered its “annual” for the year. The !mpact Winter Special was a spotlight of each of the books in the !mpact line— it featured short stories featuring each of the characters done by their respective creative teams, and was tied together with bookend stories by Mark Waid and Carmine Infantino. This could be considered the first appearance of the Crusaders in !mpact. The Black Hood finally got his own series shortly thereafter, only to be killed off in issue #1. Mark Wheatley, writer of the title, said “surprised you, didn’t it?” From that issue on, the Ate nullenistio. Imil molupta commolu ptatium endisquo mil iunde occab idempor aut aut pa non nulloreicia velendes solorem facepuditio que latem acestem aut

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The Hildebrandt Brothers Galley SIDEBAR: The Mighty Crusaders Make a Digital Comeback (of sorts) at www. archiecomics.com by Paul Castiglia In the late 1990s, Archie Comics began work on what would be their first attempt at an official website. My role was to develop content for the fledgling website. As the company was still a few years’ off from committing to a full-fledged comeback for the Mighty Crusaders in print, keeping the characters alive via the website was the next best thing. There were several features on the Archie Comics website that perpetuated the classic heroes. Among the features was an overview about the Mighty Crusaders which doubled as an introduction to new fans; “The ‘S’ Files,” a sort of “pot luck” collection of thoughts and articles relating to The Mighty Crusaders; the “Way ‘Un-Cool’ Dude of the Month,”

THE MLJ COMPANION

7 The ffaailure of the !m mpact line caused DC Comics to let their license exxppire, and as the Millennium began, the publication rights were back at Archie. The company kept the characters alive through a series of g uest-star appearances, and in 2009, Archie once again licensed the Mighty Crusaders and related characters to DC Comics, this time under a new “Red Circle” impprint.

MLJ ML LJ Goess to to Riverdale Riiv ver erdalle The Mighty Crusaders Meet Archie & F Fr riends!

by Paul Castiglia The 1990s and first decade of the 2000s were easily the most scattered time for the Mighty Crusaders characters. With projects ranging from a line of licensed comics (DC’s !mpact! im mpprint), to new retellings of the heroes’ origins via public ser vice announcements in the style of Batman: the Animated Series, from archive collections reprinting vintage Crusaders stories, to the online-only Web/Archie crossover stor y, T Too Save T ToomorrowNet, the offerings were eclectic indeed.

Archie’’s W Wei eird Mysteries #3 (April 2000) began with Archie excited over filling holes in his Mighty Crusaders comic book collection… but those weren’t the only holes to contend with. It wasn’t long before a literal portal opened up into Archie’ss world… a portal to a dimension where Archie’’s ffaavorite heroes were actually real! This stor y established a “substitute Crusaders” concept wherein the wealth of MLJ/M J ighty/Red Circle characters could all become Crusaders if necessar y. It also combined the supernatural Crusaders to form an imposing , and ultimately triumpphant off ffsho ff shoot team.

Adding to the variety of projects, and perhaps takkiing a cue from the online W Web eb -Archie pairing were a few attemppts to integrate the Crusaders characters into the world of Archie and his friends via team-up stories in the comic booIF ks. YOU ENJOYED THIS

In Aug ust 2001 the Crusaders returned in Archie’ e’’s W Wei eird Mysteries #14. The ante was upped as the Eraser created a device sending all the Crusaders except Black Jack into limbo. Black Jack’ss solution: PREVIEW, CLICK travel back to Riv erdale toTHE recruitLINK some real substitute substitute CrusadeTHIS rs: ArchBOOK! ie’ e’’s Super T Teeens! And it’s much-needed help, not BELOW TO ORDER There were baby steps leading to these team-ups. In the 1990s just to rescue the other Crusaders but also to defeat the Monster and early 2000s, Mighty Crusaders characters could be seen on Maker and his scar y army of Monstroids, who joined forces with the Archie characters’ walls as poster art, or on the covers of comics they evil Eraser! were reading ; sometimes the Archie gang masqueraded as Mighty Crusaders characters for Halloween (this happened in several The next team-up tale came in the pages of Sabrina #30 (Februar y history as the storTHE ies MLJ inclCOMPANION uding a padocuments ir of Arthe chcomplete ie Hallo weeofn Archie giveaaComics’ way csuper-hero omics) acharacters nd known 2002). Th“Mighty is version of Sabrina was based on the animated series that SHIELD, BLACK HOOD, STEEL STERLING, HANGMAN, MR. JUSTICE, THE FLY, and many others. It features cCrusaders”—THE o m ic c o n v e n t io n s, a nd b a l lo o n s of The Sh ield a nd ot he r C r u sade rs w a s s pu n off from the live-action sitcom. Sabrina and Salem travel in-depth examinations of each era of the characters’ extensive history: THE GOLDEN AGE (beginning with the Shield, the first patriotic pre-dated by q a ue fullnc year), ch aractsuper-hero, ers evenwho made it inCaptain to a pAmerica arade se e frTHE om the unexxpectto South Africa when their friend Llandra’s parents are kidnapped SILVER AGE (spotlighting those offbeat, campy Mighty Comics isesues, d-and -critically acclaimed Mar vel-Archie crossover event, Archie by a perpetrator claiming to be The Rememberer from Incan and The Fly and Jaguar), THE BRONZE AGE (with the Red line,Pand !mpact M eetCircle s the unthe ishe r. imprint published by DC mytholog y. However, it aapppears that the villain is getting hellp from Comics), up to THE MODERN AGE, with its Dark Circle imnone other than The Jag uar himself ! Could it be so ?! The answer is print (featuring such fan-favorites series as “The Fox” WAID and DEAN The firsbytMARK of the officia l teaHASPIEL). m-ups came in a pair of issues of Archie’ss soon revealed as Sabrina and the Jag uar prove to be a triumphant, Plus: Learn what “MLJ” stands for! Uncover such W eird Mysteries. Based on the animated series of the same name, heroic team. The action-packed tale was written by Mike Gallagher rarities as the Mighty Crusaders board game, and the spandex-clad wShadow’s riter Pshort-lived aul Castcareer igliaassaaw a naturasuperhero! l opening to connect the Crusadwith art from Dave Manak. the ill-fated Spectrum line of comics, that was eDiscover rs a nd A r ch ie u n iv e rses u si n g t he c o nc eit t h a t i n A r ch ie’ e’ ’ s W Wei ei r d abruptly halted due to its violent content! See where theyssuper-heroes intold Archie, M teries, ancrossed ythinover g cou hapBetty, pen and and it usually did. The stories In October 2002, Archie teamed up with Diamond Comic world! And read interviews with IRV NOVICK, wVeronica’s e r e dr a w n b y f fa a n -f f a v o r it e a r t is t F e r n a ndo Ru iz i n B a t m a n : t he A n i Dis tributors for the annual free Halloween-season giveaaway comic. DICK AYERS, RICH BUCKLER, BILL DuBAY, STEVE ENGLEmHART, atedJIM SeVALENTINO, ries style.JIMMY PALMIOTTI, KELLEY These popular mini-comics were often given aaw way by retailers to JONES, MICHAEL USLAN, and others who chronicled the Mighty t hei r lo y a l cu s t o me rs . As me n t io ne d ab ov e, t he Crusaders made Crusaders’ exploits from the 1940s to today! Idendeliquas aut quo di usciaswith eosa venis dest, sitem By RIK OFFENBERGER andvolor PAULraturib CASTIGLIA, cover by peripheral appearances in the prior Hallow ween giveaaways, but with IRV NOVICK RUBINSTEIN. volupta ssequiand ni JOE inverori voluptas maio. Nequat. Da con nos Archie & Friends and the Shield, the Crusaders… or namelyy, The INCLUDES 64estestrunt FULL-COLOR PAGES santium enes qui utestib usaessunt occulparum fugit OF KEY MLJ STORIES! Shield took center stage, aapppearing on 8 of the 12 stor y pages. The eost apicit ulparchil ma is doleces cipsund anisti bla.

THE

MLJ COMPANION

(288-page trade paperback with COLOR) $31.95 • (Digital Edition) $12.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-067-0 • SHIPS AUGUST 2016!

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