Alter Ego #1 Preview

5.95

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In the USA

Roy Thomas’ Legendary Comics Fanzine Returns!!

No. 1 Summer 1999

ever! r o F r e e Ag Silv

Stan Lee Gets Roasted By

Julius Schwartz And Co.!!

PLUS: Vive le

Silver Surfer!

Grass Green’s Classic

Da

Ordway & Thomas on

Frantic Four! Infinity Inc.!

Volume 3, No. 1 Summer 1999

™

Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editor Bill Schelly

FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck

Consulting Editors John Morrow, Jon B. Cooke

Contributing Editor Michael T. Gilbert

Editors Emeritus Jerry G. Bails, Ronn Foss Biljo White, Mike Friedrich

Cover Art Jerry Ordway, Irwin Hasen

Cover Color Tom Ziuko

Design & Layout Chris Knowles, Rich Grasso

Mailing Crew Russ Garwood, D. Hambone, Glen Musial, Ed Stelli, Pat Varker

And Special Thanks to: Bill Black Ray Bottorff, Jr. Sal Buscema Chris Claremont Carla Conway Ray A. Cuthbert Peter David Al Dellinges Nancy Ford Carl Gafford Jeff Gelb Jean Giraud (Moebius) Richard “Grass” Green Ron Harris Irwin Hasen Richard Howell Jean-Marc Lofficier Jerry Ordway John G. Pierce John Romita Julius Schwartz Jim Shooter Marc Swayze Joel Thingvall

Contents Silver Age Forever! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Roy Thomas and Bill Schelly welcome you to the new A/E!

The Stan Lee Roast. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 The Man gets skewered by Schwartz, Shooter, Claremont, David, Thomas, Romita, and Buscema— but it’s all in fun, right? Right?

Da Frantic Four . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Bill Schelly introduces the classic 1962 parody by Grass Green!

The Secret Origins of Infinity, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 The creation of the JSAers’ heirs apparent in 1982— courtesy of Roy Thomas, Jerry Ordway, and Mike Machlan.

Vive le Silver Surfer! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Jean-Marc Lofficier on two 1980 issues of Silver Surfer published only in France.

Golden Age Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! A very special thanks to Jerry Ordway, original penciler and co-creator of Infinity, Inc., for our beautiful Silver Age cover—based on the layout of All-Star Comics #36, 1947. And if you want to see something closer to the original, flip us! (Art ©1999 Jerry Ordway; Jade, Fury, Flash, Green Lantern, and Atom ©1999 DC Comics Inc.; SpiderMan, Thing, and Silver Surfer ©1999 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Stan Lee and Julius Schwartz © themselves.)

Alter EgoTM is published quarterly by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Phone: (919) 833-8092. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher.

Alter Ego Editorial Offices: Rt. 3, Box 468, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@oburg.net. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $5.95 ($7.00 Canada, $9.00 elsewhere).

Four-issue subscriptions: $20 US, $27 Canada, $37 elsewhere. All characters are © their respective companies.

All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Alter and Captain Ego ©1999 Biljo White. JLA, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Brainwave Jr., Nuklon, Silver Scarab, Hawkman, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Infinity Inc., Power Girl, Huntress, Northwind, Fury, Jade, Obsidian, Wildcat, Atom, Sovereign Seven ©1999 DC Comics Inc.; Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Thing, Stranger, Silver Surfer, Hulk, Daredevil, Zarlok ©1999 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Magnus Robot Fighter ©1999 Acclaim; Da Frantic Four , Xal-Kor ©1999 Grass Green. Go-Go Comics page © Charlton. The Eye ©1999 Bill Schelly. Printed in Canada.

FIRST PRINTING

Stan Lee Roast

The Stan Lee Roast Held at the ’95 Chicago Comicon Transcribed by Dann Thomas Edited by Roy Thomas Introductory Note by Nancy Ford: The Chicago Comicon, coordinated by Robert Weinberg, Gary Colabuono, Larry Charet, and me, had been running for many years before we started our own awards presentation. We decided to honor people who had been pivotal in the comics and related fields, and who had done their work in an entertaining and classy manner, so we instituted the toast/roast banquet. At first the other speakers at the banquet were nervous about the possibility of their remarks being interpreted as being mean-spirited, but we assured all who participated that they had the choice of what to say, and that all humor would be based in respect. Our first honoree, in 1993, was Julius Schwartz, followed by Harlan Ellison in 1994, and Stan Lee in 1995. Not only were the honorees spectacular, but the roasters were also in a class of their own. The awards were held for about four years, until the Chicago Comicon was bought and the awards dropped.

Note by Ye Editor: For the most part, I have not indicated when or to what extent the audience applauded, or laughed, or booed good-naturedly, or whatever, leaving that to the reader’s good sense.

Suffice it to say, there was a lot of applause and

laughter, in particular. The transcription has been abridged slightly, in the interests of space, although probably 75-80% of what the major eight parties involved said is included... no easy task, since the videotape of the roast was not intended for transcription. No official photograph of the dais where were seated the seven— eight, counting Stan Lee—people who composed the group seems to exist; but hopefully the accompanying photographs, generously provided by Nancy Ford, will give an added feeling to what transpired in late June of 1995. Alas, Nancy was unable to recall the name of the photographer, but if he’ll make himself known, we’ll credit him in a future issue.

For the most part, the comments made by roasters and roastee need little explanation to a reasonably knowledgeable comics fan audience—and would often be utterly unintelligible to anyone else. Thus, the only elaboration we’ll make at this point is to say by 1995 the socalled “Marvelution”—read, “downsizing”— had begun, as Marvel’s market share eroded and its financial troubles moved into high gear (and onto the front pages). This was also the period during which it was wrongheadedly (but mercifully briefly) decided that many years’ worth of Spider-Man adventures had actually happened to a clone of Peter Parker; hence the various “clone” references. And now, without further ado....

[To applause in the packed banquet room, the seven roasters are escorted to their seats on the dais by young ladies. At this point SpiderMan enters, strides to the microphone.]

“I’d like to introduce a man who’s been like a father to me...”

5 SPIDEY: I’d like to introduce a man who’s been like a father to me. Ladies and gentlemen... Mr. Stan Lee! [Stan Lee is ushered in, to thunderous applause, and hops onto the dais.]

STAN LEE: Thank you... thank you! [Throws up his arms, shouts:] EXCELSIOR! [Sits. Gary Colabuono walks to the podium.]

GARY: Our master of ceremonies tonight is a dear friend of mine, who’s our guest of honor this year. [At this point Peter briefly falls off his chair, but regains it with reasonable aplomb.]

All of us in the business end of comics are envious of Peter David, because he started in the business end of comics, and now he’s doing what we’ve all wished we could do.

Peter David...

PETER: Ladies, gentlemen, disgruntled former Marvel employees—and we’ll be having a “Count the Former Marvel Editors-in-Chief Contest” after dinner—last year the Chicago Comicon had Harlan Ellison as the guest of honor, and they had a Harlan Ellison Tribute Dinner. This year I am the guest of honor... so naturally we’re having a Stan Lee Tribute Dinner.

I’m actually a “special guest,” which is kind of like “special Olympics,” I suppose. At any rate, ladies and gentlemen, try and have a fun evening.

[After dinner, Peter takes the podium again; he blows one of the noisemakers provided to each guest; its tongue juts out, then dips straight down] Look, it’s Marvel market-share toys!

[Mixture of groans, laughter, applause] We begin tonight’s symposium with my favorite Stan Lee anecdote. I regret that it is customary, indeed almost an obligation, that when you are telling a Stan Lee anecdote, you have to do a Stan Lee impression. This is actually fairly easy because, to get Stan, you do kind of a cross between Mr. Rogers and Maxwell Smart. You know, like [in high-pitched voice:] “Would you believe, three Peter Parkers!”

I was on a convention panel with Stan, and I was supposed to ask him all kinds of interesting questions, which, ideally, he would answer. And just before we start, Stan says to the audience: “I just want to tell you guys about this young, fabulous writer”—this is a few years ago—he says, “This young man has written one of the best graphic novels Marvel has ever published!” I knew I was in trouble, because at the time I had not written any graphic novels. And Stan drapes his arm around me and he says, “Ladies and gentleman, this young man, the writer of Greenberg the Vampire!”

The audience goes like this... [Imitates someone starting to applaud, then slowing his clapping, halting, puzzled] I’m sitting there dying, and I say to the audience, “Should I tell him?” And they say, “I think you’re going to

6

Stan Lee Roast podium]

M.C. Peter David: “When you are doing a Stan Lee anecdote, you have to do a Stan Lee impression....”

SAL: Thank you. What a night! Peter, I know a guy named Guido in Brooklyn that’ll pay you a visit. He’s got a nose like this. [Indicates broken nose] I was absolutely thrilled when I was asked to come here to this banquet honoring this living legend...

Hulk © 1999 Marvel Characters, Inc.

STAN: He forgot my name!

have to.” And Stan says, ”What?” And I have to explain to him that I am, in fact, not Marc de Matteis.

Stan actually had a fairly good explanation as to why he’d screwed up, an explanation of which I think I speak on everyone’s behalf when I say: “WE DON’T CARE!” At any rate, I’d like to introduce, one by one, our speakers.

[Looks toward Sal Buscema] What can I say? When it comes to discussing master storytelling, dynamic rendering... when it comes to discussing the true artistic greats of the super-hero genre, what can I say that has not already been said about—Sal Buscema’s brother? I remember as a kid, many, many, many, many years ago, the first time I opened a comic and saw the name “Sal Buscema.” And I thought, “Wow! John Buscema has a sister!”

Ladies and gentlemen, a man who needs no introduction, and, I would hazard a guess, would have preferred none to this one... Ms.-ter Sal Buscema! [Sits down, as Sal walks to the

SAL: ...whatever his name is. I left Virginia, left my lovely wife and family to come here to make you laugh with some funny remarks about this guy. And believe me—believe me—there is nothing funny about this man! Absolutely nothing!

So where do I start? I guess at the beginning. Many, many years ago, more than I like to remember, I had an appointment with Stan, and I was very nervous. You know, when you’re going to meet a living legend, you get very nervous.

I was ushered into his office. He asked me to sit down, and proceeded to give me the Stan Lee Five-Minute Crash Course on How To Do Comics the Marvel Way. He started leaping around his office—on the chair, up on the desk, back onto the floor, back up onto the desk, super-heroes from the right, super-villains from the left—I was absolutely terrified! I didn’t know what was going on! Scared the hell out of me! Just about the time when I was ready to run out of the room, he was finished. But then, I had a vision... Can you imagine this man in a Spider-Man costume?

That scared me even more!

He asked me to step outside and talk to Sol Brodsky—the late Sol Brodsky, delightful man—about a page rate, and then to come back after we had settled on it. Sol and I bantered back and forth, and we came up with a figure.

I went back into Stan’s office, and he said, “What did you settle on?” And I told him the price. And he said, “Well, it’s probably more than you’re worth.” True story.

What a confidence-builder this was! Stan, it’s been 27 years. Can I have a raise now?

But, you know, in reality, I really have not worked with Stan that much! And from what I understand, this is probably the best thing that’s ever happened to my career! Look at the guys that he has worked with: John Romita... Roy Thomas... Tom DeFalco. These guys are still in their prime, and it’s all over for them! [Looks at John Romita] I think Guido’s gonna be paying me a visit!

A couple of years ago, Stan and I were both at a convention in Texas—it was part of a Marvel Megatour, and all the Marvel people were housed in the same hotel. And Stan and I sort of gravitated together, I guess because we were surrounded by a bunch of teenyboppers.

You know, Stan’s older than dirt, and I’m almost as old as dirt, so it was sort of the natural order of things.

STAN: And I had no one else to talk to.

SAL: And he had no one else to talk to. They were all ignoring him. So anyway, our host brought us to this very nice Mexican restaurant and we had a wonderful conversation.

“Conversation.” He talked... I listened. As a matter of fact, this is the first time I have been in the same room with this man that I’ve been able to say anything more than, “Hi, Stan, how are you?” I’ve never been able to get a word in edgewise.

Now we get serious. I think everybody here is familiar with this man’s credits. They’re a mile long, they’re endless, they go on forever, he’s done everything. To me, the thing that is most significant—the contribution that he’s made to this industry, this crazy industry that we’re in, his vision, his seemingly boundless energy, his considerable talents—I think what I’m trying to say is that there’s probably not anyone in this industry today—any artist,

Sal Buscema: “[Stan] started leaping around his office... I was absolutely terrified!”

Stan Lee Roast

7 John Romita, Senior! [Sits down; John walks to the podium]

JOHN: Thank you, Peter. I think I came out almost unscathed in that. 27 years for Sal... my God, I’ve got ties older than that! I’ve been in this business for 45, going on 46 years.

When I was 19 I worked for Stan, but he didn’t know it. A buddy of mine was getting work from Stan, but Stan never knew the guy couldn’t pencil; he was just an inker. So this guy hired me to ghost-pencil, and he took the work up to Stan and represented it as his own. So I worked for Stan for about 18 months without ever meeting Stan. Those were the best years of my life! I kid you not. I thought I was working hard. Those 18 months were bliss!

When my partner and I broke up, I went to Stan’s secretary, a beautiful blonde—he always had beautiful girls working for him—and I said, “I’ve been working for Stan, but he doesn’t know me; I’ve been doing such-and-such titles.”

She went in and talked to Stan, and came out with a script. What she didn’t know was that I had never inked professionally. The assignment was to pencil and ink, and that was the beginning of my troubles.

When I brought the job in, that’s the first time I met Stan. Now, I’ve been a rather insulated character in my time—I haven’t dealt with more than maybe four or five editors in my whole life, and that’s a joke for 45 years. Stan happens to be one of those guys that looks at the pages—carefully—and he would tell you what he thought, good or bad. He would compliment you. For the first year and a half that I worked for him directly, every time I went in there I got a $2 raise in my page rate. I started at $17 a page—I was up to about $40 a page by the time I finished. It was wonderful! That’s pencil and ink, by the way.

Just so people don’t think I was rich.

As I said, his attention to detail became the bane of my existence. It made me a dribbling moron. He wore me out. No matter how good I got, it was never good enough. He’d say, “You’re too good to do it this way, you should do it a little bit better. Now you need patterns on the clothes, now you need more hair styles, you’ve gotta look at Women’s Wear Daily, you gotta look at all of Sal Buscema’s pencils for Zarlok, from Marvel’s planned “Excelsior” line. ©1999 Marvel Characters, Inc. these magazines.” Well, he wore me out. And like the masochist that I am, I stayed with him. writer, editor, whatever—that doesn’t owe a debt of gratitude to this That was only the beginning. We were doing westerns... now I had man. And the reason I say that... is because he told me to. to learn how to draw horses. We were doing war stories... I had to learn But seriously, 27 years ago, Stan gave me my start in this business. how to draw tanks. Stan doesn’t know that you’ve gotta learn these And I’ve probably had more fun than any human being deserves to things in the week he gives you an assignment. He wants to know that have, and it’s all because he had faith in me. And I just want to tell you you can do everything! that I am personally very, very grateful for that, Stan. [Sits down] [To Stan] I think I worked 25 years for you—because I did have eight years over at the Distinguished Competition, doing love stories. I PETER: Awwwwww... [Looks at John Romita] What can I say? Many, haven’t done as many things as Kirby did, because he was much faster— many, many, many years ago, when dinosaurs walked the Earth, Stan Lee faster than anybody—but I’ve done more stories, more plots, more covers needed a new artist for Spider-Man. Someone who could follow Steve with Stan Lee than anybody in the world, so everybody look at me and Ditko, the way a swine follows pearls. [nervously:] I’m insulting Italians see what happens to a man who—I’m a physical wreck. in Chicago. There’ll be a Hulk head in my bed tomorrow morning.

And when he took off and went to California, I inherited the job of Anyway, Stan needed someone who had his own unique style. giving the—it wasn’t five minutes by that time—the Stan Lee Spiel to After all, Spider-Man is no place for an artistic clone. After much thought every young artist. I didn’t jump around the furniture, but I would give and agonizing, the word finally went out. Stan said, “Get me John them all of his precepts: You don’t have anybody thump the table—no, Buscema—or his sister!” But they weren’t available, so they got this guy. you have him smash the table!

Ladies and gentlemen, the artist formerly known as John Romita... Mr.

8

Stan Lee Roast

John Romita:“I stand before you as a shell of a man....”

come in for lunch.”

He took me out for a three-hour lunch and gave me both barrels right in the face. He threw everything at me, including, “You want to be a little fish in a big pond? How about being a big fish in a little pond?” I wasn’t even a fish at all. And he’s calling the whole comics industry a little pond. Well, this was ’65, I’ll give him that.

So he talked me out of going to BBD&O. I had to call them up embarrassed the next day and tell them I’d changed my mind about taking the job. He’d conned me into staying in comics. So now I stand before you as a shell of a man who made half the amount of money I probably could’ve made if you hadn’t made me such a fanatic.

STAN: Don’t give away our secrets!

JOHN: I remember the first Daredevil story I did. I did it somewhat like a love story for DC. I had Daredevil getting dressed, he’s taking off his clothes, he’s putting on his Daredevil equipment, and Stan says, “Nah, you got it all wrong! The first three pages are a waste of time. Gotta get Jack Kirby. I’ll show you how to do it.” He calls up Jack that very minute. He says, “Jack, here’s the story, I want you to do ten pages of breakdowns. Send ’em in tomorrow.”

And Jack says okay.

I’m in there with Stan a couple of days later, and there are ten pages by Kirby of the wildest stickfigures or silhouettes, labeled “Daredevil”—“Matt Murdock”—“Karen Page”—but he had, in those few scribbled lines, the most dynamic—! The sequence that he tore apart of mine, he turned into: Daredevil grabs his billy club—out the window—didn’t even look to see if there was a ledge or anything—landed down on the street—jumped—and he’s going up the West Side Highway, not on one car—on two cars.

One foot on each car. If you look at Daredevil #12, you’ll see the scene, because I was too stupid to change it. I did it exactly the way he did it.

I learned more in that week than lots of comic artists learn in two years, because it suddenly struck me, “My God, yes, all you have to do is—whatever you were thinking of, was too dull.” Go ten times further than you thought you were gonna do, and that’s gonna be the one to be the Marvel way. So I lived through all of that. And later I had to teach young artists to do it Stan Lee’s way. He was in California, he was sucking up the sun, and I was breaking my back in New York.

STAN: As it should be.

JOHN: [to Stan] This July it’ll be thirty years since the day you talked me out of quitting comics. I left DC and I was burned out. I called Stan up and said, “I can’t make our appointment, I just signed up to work with BBD&O [Advertising Agency], doing storyboards.” He said, “Don’t do a thing until you

John Romita art over Jack Kirby layouts, from Daredevil #12. ©1999 Marvel Characters, Inc.

18

Comic Fandom Archives

You’ve heard of the Bestest League of America? Get ready to meet FUMIN’ SCORCH… INVISIBUBLE GIRL… THANG… and MISTER FRANTIC--otherwise known as…

Da

Frantic Four!

A fond look back at one of the silliest chapters in the annals of comic fandom

by Bill Schelly

T

here is a famous, and telling, anecdote about the death of a venerable actor. A man approached the bedside of his dying friend and asked, “What you’re going through... is it very difficult?” The actor opened his eyes and whispered, “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.”

Indeed. Whatever the medium—stage, screen, the printed page—humor rarely gets the same respect as serious material... yet the practitioners of these arts have always held that laughs are harder to evoke than tears. I submit that this is no less true for the comic book medium.

Consider the case of Richard “Grass” Green, one of the premier artists to emerge in the classic comics fanzines of the early 1960s.

Though he was well known for his funny stuff, it took the straight-ahead adventures of Xal-Kor, the Human Cat (in the pages of the long-running Star-Studded Comics), to cement his reputation.

In retrospect, however, it seems obvious to this writer that Green’s greatest talent— where he outshone all others in the super-hero fanzine field, and indeed could stand comparison to the great parodists in the pro comics— was his genius for comedy. And it was “Da

Frantic Four” comic strip that is presented here, and which originally appeared in the fanzine The Comicollector #8 (Oct. 1962), that introduced Green’s facility for parody to fandom in general.

Before we get to that, we must first back up to the early 1950s for some vital background information. We can’t discuss “Grass” Green or Da Frantic Four without discussing his boyhood friendship with another major artist from the Golden Age of comic fandom, Ronn Foss.

It was Ronn who, at some time during their days as junior high pals in Fort Wayne, Indiana, gave Richard the nickname Grasshopper, later shortened to just Grass. The nickname stuck, and so did their friendship, leading to many collaborations over the years.

Did the fact that Grass Green was an African-American make their relationship in

any way difficult? In a recent interview, Ronn stated that it was never a factor. “We were more like brothers than friends,” he said. “As soon as we discovered each other’s mutual interest in comics, and drawing, we were inseparable.

We would spend hours on the phone, excitedly talking about our ideas for comic book characters.”

When Grass completed a hitch in the U.S. Air Force and was discharged in Southern California, he naturally made his way north of San Francisco to visit his buddy Ronn, who had moved there with his young bride Myra Left: Fandom’s favorite Green creation: Xal-Kor, the Human Cat. Above: The first Frantic Four cartoon, by Ronn Foss, from the cover of The Comicollector #7.

Da Frantic Four

just months before. In the summer of 1962 Foss introduced Grass to comics fandom. It was perfectly natural that these two budding talents would collaborate on an idea for the fanzines. That’s exactly what happened, and the result was “Da Frantic Four.”

19

Grass, Ronn, and Myra, though evidently Myra did not actually contribute to this project.)

parodies in Mad magazine drawn by Mort Drucker were visually sedate affairs, relying principally on his uncanny caricatures of popular actors, along with clever scripting. Green clearly fell into the Kurtzman camp.

Within the realm of parody, many artistic approaches are possible. Harvey Kurtzman’s parodies in the early color Mad comics (laid out by Kurtzman, then finished by Elder, Wood, Davis, et al.) were broad and highly energetic, often getting laughs from slapstick. In contrast, by 1962 the movie

From Grass’ pencil flowed an FF who were like something out of the Keystone Kops.

Green worked quickly—instinctively—with little pre-planning, and the result was his highly spontaneous, farcical brand of lunacy. The strip is chaotic, even anarchistic, basically eschewing a semblance of narrative, or even conventional comedy construction. This is Grass at his unbridled, unselfconscious best:

Foss’ discovery of the infant comics fandom movement of the early ’60s had come when a friend had sent him a copy of Alter Ego #2 (June 1961). He shared this and A/E #3 (Nov. 1961) with Grass.

Those issues featured, among a number of groundbreaking articles on the history of comics, Roy Thomas’ Kurtzman-influenced parody of the JLA called “The Bestest League of America.” Is it unreasonable to conclude that Da Frantic Four was directly inspired by—a sort of answer to— Thomas’ BLA? If so, there is a certain symmetry, since the LeeKirby Fantastic Four comic was Marvel’s attempt to capture some of the lightning Julius Schwartz had found when he launched the re-tooled Justice Society in The Brave and the Bold #28.

Lightning had indeed struck twice. The self-styled “World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” became the sensation of 1962. The FF received the Alley Awards from fandom for “Best Comic Book of the Year” and “Best Group of Heroes” for that year, toppling the JLA, who had been the winners the year before. It’s a testament to the early impact made by Fantastic Four that the spoof presented here was understood by all, less than a year after Lee and Kirby’s team comic debuted.

“Da Frantic Four—The World’s Most Greatless Heroes!” began as a single gag panel in the form of a cover, drawn by Foss for The Comicollector #7 (Sept.

1962), Ronn’s first issue after taking over the editorial reins from Jerry Bails. Using that cartoon as a creative springboard, Foss and Green co-plotted a six-page strip for the next issue of CC. (The “Triad” credited on the strip itself was a name meant to include

Top: A 1998 self-caricature by Grass.

Above: Splash page to “Da Frantic Four”; the rest of the story follows. Just turn the mag sideways...

The Secret Origins of Infinity, Inc.

25

Two Co-Creators Reveal—

The Secret Origins

of Infinity,

Inc.

by Roy Thomas (with the special input of Jerry Ordway)

I. A Concept a-Borning The sons and daughters—the natural children and spiritual heirs—of the Justice Society of America!

Turns out this may be one of the oldest ideas in the so-called Silver Age of Comics, and I’m just lucky I’m the guy who got to write it first.

Luckier still that, when I got my shot, I had two of the most talented young artists around to do it with me!

Let’s backtrack a bit: In Bill Schelly’s 1995 book The Golden Age of Comic Fandom, Larry Ivie, a comics/ science-fiction fan as well as a talented artist and writer, reported that in the late ’50s he spoke to a DC editor about an idea he had: “Ivie’s great disappointment was that National wasn’t interested in his proposed revival of the Justice Society of America, to be called the Justice Legion of the World, which would be made up of the sons and daughters of the original JSA.”

America from All-Star Comics.

It was quite a different group from what Larry had envisioned, but his “sons and daughters” concept was an idea that was bound to surface again. It was, as they say, “in the air.”

In 1975, having resigned the previous year as editor-in-chief, I was still employed by Marvel as a contractual writer/editor (its first, after Stan Lee).

One night, at the Manhattan apartment of my friend Gerry Conway, who had recently stopped writing for Marvel to return to DC, the two of us were kicking around ideas, as was our wont. And suddenly I heard myself suggesting a few pet notions I’d like to see DC publish, even if I wasn’t free to write them myself.

Larry moved on to other projects, including his own magazine Monsters and Heroes, and has promised that one of these days he’ll tell Alter Ego the full story of his “Justice Legion,” a concept that was perhaps a bit ahead of its time.

In 1960, of course, under editor Julius Schwartz, National (as DC was then officially known) launched the Justice League of America, an updated version of its 1940s Justice Society of

This Mike Machlan-penciled, Jerry Ordway-inked illustration became the cover of Infinity, Inc. #1. ©1999 DC Comics, Inc.

26 One of those ideas was the return of AllStar Comics, with the Justice Society of America.

Gerry sparked to the idea at once and carried the ball from there, with no further input from me. All-Star Comics #58 (Jan.-Feb. 1976), the first of the new series, was of course set on Earth-Two. And if you have to ask what Earth-Two was, you’re probably too young to be reading this, but: From 1963-1985, the JSA existed on a parallel world of that name, from which they made annual forays into the pages of Justice League of America. Writer/editor Gerry took them out of that limited guest-star sphere and into their own magazine again, though still set on Earth-Two. To add a youthful accent to a bunch of heroes who after all had been around since World War Two and before, he added to the JSA an “All-Star Super Squad” composed of three heroes who hadn’t been JSAers in the old days: the Earth-Two Robin, the Star-Spangled Kid (from 1940s Star-Spangled Comics)—and Power Girl, a new heroine he created as the cousin of that world’s Superman, and thus the alternate Earth’s equivalent of Supergirl.

Power Girl, named Kara (Gerry and Carla Conway would later name their only child Cara; she also happens to be my godchild), proved instantly popular. Of course, her stunning figure and cut-out bust, as drawn by Ric Estrada and Wally Wood, probably didn’t hurt any.

Later Gerry offered me a chance to ghostwrite an issue or two of All-Star. I thanked him, but told him that if I ever did a comic about the JSA, I wanted my name on the splash page.

He understood.

Soon afterward, when Stan and I lured Gerry back to Marvel, Paul Levitz of Legion

Two Co-Creators Reveal— of Super-Heroes fame took over the scripting of All-Star. In issue #70 (Jan.-Feb. 1978), he and artists Joe Staton and Bob Layton introduced The Huntress. In the 1940s this had been the name of a Wildcat villainess, but this one was different: She was the daughter of the Earth-Two Batman!

Thus, the notion of the sons and daughters of the JSA picking up the torch from the older heroes was slowly and unconsciously taking form, even if Power Girl was Superman’s cousin rather than his daughter.

When the great DC Implosion of 1978 led first to cancellation of the revived All-Star and then of the Adventure Comics into whose many pages the JSA had retreated, Power Girl and The Huntress went mostly into mothballs.

But not for long.

II. Elements Assemble!

In 1980 I reluctantly ended my 15-year stay at Marvel and (not at all reluctantly) signed a writing contract with DC. Among other things, I was allowed to create a new title—All-Star Squadron, set during the World War II years—to utilize the many EarthTwo super-heroes of that era (including but not limited to the JSA). My longtime colleague Len Wein was assigned as the book’s editor and chose the artists, though it was understood that the story direction of the series would be left to me.

With art by Rich Buckler and inker Jerry Ordway, and a brilliant cover concept by Len, All-Star Squadron #1 (Sept. 1981) had a very good sale of 250,000+ copies; and while it soon fell from those lofty heights, the comic fared well for some time. A primary reason for that was Jerry Ordway.

Squadron. But as soon as I saw his embellishing of Rich’s pencils on the 16-page preview slated to appear as a teaser in JLA #193, I fell in love with his work.

As an inker, anyway.

Nineteen issues later, after Rich had long since departed and Jerry had spent more than a year inking the pencils of Adrian Gonzales, Len forced Jerry on me again—this time as penciler as well as inker. Since again I hadn’t seen specimens of Jerry’s work in this area, I back-pedaled, but it was Len’s decision.

(Jerry told me recently that actually he’d been trying to get penciling work from DC for some time. He once agreed to ink Joe Staton on JLA, being led to believe that he was being groomed to take over as penciler; but he quickly learned Staton wasn’t going anywhere, so Jerry left JLA instead. Finally, he says, he announced that if he wasn’t made penciler of All-Star Squadron, he would have to leave the title. He got the job.)

I’ll admit to initial misgivings when I pored over the first few pages of Jerry’s pencils for #19 (March 1983). Not that they weren’t good—in some ways they were very good. I was especially impressed by his renderings of the Trylon and Perisphere and other artifacts left over from the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair. Still, I wasn’t quite 100% sold— —until I flipped over Page 8, and saw his powerful full-page panel of six All-Stars staring

I won’t go into rhapsodies here about Jerry’s talent, because I’ll admit that, no less than twice, he was thrust upon me by editor Len Wein.

Top: Gerry Conway’s 1976 revival of All-Star Comics featured an adult Robin, the Star-Spangled Kid—and a very pneumatic Power Girl, drawn by Ric Estrada and Wally Wood. © 1999 DC Comics Inc.

First it was as an inker.

Now, I had nothing against Jerry—it’s just that Len hadn’t shown me any samples of his inking, so to me Jerry was an unknown quantity when he was made inker of All-Star

Left: Hippolyta Trevor had made her debut in Wonder Woman #300 only months before the confrontation with her mother (left) in Infinity, Inc. #1, as penciled by Jerry Ordway and first seen in Amazing Heroes #36, Dec. 1, 1983. © 1999 DC Comics Inc.

The Secret Origins of Infinity, Inc. wide-eyed at eight comatose but upright, tube-encased members of the Justice Society of America!

At that moment I fell in love with Jerry’s work all over again.

As a penciler, this time.

This isn’t an article about All-Star Squadron—although I’ll admit I’m toying with the notion of an ongoing series about that title and its 1980s offshoots in Alter Ego—but there’s no getting away from the mag, because it brought together Jerry and me—and, before long, Jerry’s friend and fellow Wisconsan Mike Machlan, who began inking Jerry’s pencils with #21.

Ere long, Jerry got restless again, and decided to move on from AllStar Squadron. But, at that point, being now a DC editor as well as writer, I had someplace he could move to.

It was called Infinity, Inc.

III. The (Watery) Road To Infinity In the fall of 1982 I made a working trip from Los Angeles to New York with my wife Danette. (No, I didn’t shoehorn in another wife between Jean and Dann; in the early 1980s Danette legally changed her first name to Dann.) While in the Big Apple, I remarked to her casually that, during the eleven years I’d lived there from 1965-76, I’d never gotten around to taking the ferry out to the Statue of Liberty. Next thing I knew, we were on the boat out to Liberty Island.

Now, Lady Liberty is impressive and all that. But after a while, there’s not much left to do but sit around staring up at her, while waiting for the next ferry to take you back to the mainland.

So, partly on the island and partly on the boat, Dann and I got to batting around the idea of a new, younger group that would take over from the Justice Society—their sons and daughters. A new generation of super-heroes, with a built-in potential for the generation gap to end all generation gaps.

27

My lovely red-haired spouse, whose parents hadn’t allowed her to read comics as a child and who’s never shown much interest in any since except Howard the Duck and Groo the Wanderer, nonetheless has had a number of good comics-related ideas over the years—plus her rightful share of bad ones. I’ve always figured my job was to figure out which was which.

I don’t recall many details of our conversation, but by the time the ferry docked in Manhattan we had made up the names, parentage, and powers of many (though not all) of the others.

Now, let’s see what concepts came out (or may have come out) of that ferry ride:

IV. The Young (Sea) Lions My wife and I had only recently co-written Wonder Woman #300 (to be cover-dated Feb. 1983), with “Danette Thomas” becoming the first female ever to receive scripting credit on the world’s foremost superheroine. For it, with penciler Ross Andru, we had created Lyta—short for Hippolyta—the vivacious and super-powered blonde daughter of the Steve and Diana Trevor of Earth-Two. In a sense, like others before us, we were gearing up subconsciously for the sons-and-daughters-JSA concept. To keep up the Graeco-Roman connection, we decided Lyta would become Fury, one of the members of the new group.

As a longtime Hawkman fan, I wanted Carter and Shiera Hall represented in the new group, even if not by a blood relative. After all, for an offspring of theirs to have real wings, we’d have had to jump through some hoops, since the Halls strapped on synthetic wings and belts of Ninth Metal when they went trolling for criminals. Instead, we settled on a godchild. For years I had been enraptured by the Gardner Fox/Joe Kubert Hawkman tale “The Land of the Bird People” in Flash Comics #71 (May 1946); so Dann and I came up with Northwind, a half human, half Arctic bird-person. (See Alter Ego, Vol. 2, #1, in Comic Book Artist #1 for scenes from that story. It would later be re-created by Kubert aficionado Al Dellinges in Infinity, Inc. #4.) Whether or not we decided that day that his human half was African-American, that addition wasn’t long in coming.

I quickly decided that this, rather than another long-forgotten notion I had at the time, was the idea I wanted to present to DC while in New York. I loved writing All-Star Squadron, set in the darkest days of the By including Superman’s cousin and Carter Hall’s godchild, we were Second World War, and Arak, Son of Thunder (Danette’s concept, actually), drifting slightly away from our concept of “the sons and daughters of set near the turn of the ninth century A.D.; but I wanted to write somethe JSA”—but only slightly, we told ourselves. thing that was definitely “Eighties,” as the expression Neither Dann nor I can recall if Hector Hall, then was. (And gee, didn’t that sound cool then— Hawkman tackles his godson Northwind in the real son of Hawkman and Hawkgirl, was a the way “Nineties” did through about, oh, 1993.)

Infinity’s premier issue. Pencils by Jerry Ordway. © 1999 DC Comics Inc.

Vive Le Silver Surfer!

An American Super-Hero In Paris (Well, Anyway, France)

by Jean-Marc Lofficier

A

freakish, wandering celestial body threatens to collide with the planet Earth. Even the Silver Surfer is powerless to divert its course. But his numerous acts of charity and mercy raise the spiritual level of humanity as it waits for the Day of Judgment.

This naturally upsets Mephisto, who dispatches his demons Belzebuth and Astaroth to spread new evil on Earth.

If you read every one of the eighteen original issues of The Silver Surfer when that Marvel comic was published between 1968 and 1970 and can’t recall the above plotline—and if you don’t recognize it from the hundred or so issues of the recent series, or even from the TV cartoon— Don’t worry, Frantic One! Seek not for a missing issue in your Silver Surfer collection.

For this adventure, entitled “La Porte Étroite” (“The Narrow Gate”), was published for the first and only time in two issues of a French comic book called Nova.

To understand how this came to be, we must now flash back to 1940s France.

I. From The Ashes of Defeat The Nazis had taken over most of France in 1940. Even though the Axis powers and the United States were not yet at war, a side effect of the German occupation was the discontinuation of the import of popular American comic strips such as Flash Gordon, Brick Bradford, Prince Valiant, et al. French publishers scrambled to replace this material, and quickly turned to native French talent—and Italian imports, despite the fact that Mussolini’s Italy was the ally of Hitler’s Third Reich.

In the French city of Lyons, during the War, a young writer named Marcel Navarro was asked by the president of the publishing company S.A.G.E. to translate some Italian comics. While working for S.A.G.E., Navarro met writer-artists Pierre Mouchotte and Robert Bagage, both heavily influenced by American strips.

These three men were later almost singlehandedly responsible for a publishing explosion that produced a myriad of inexpensive monthly or bimonthly comic magazines, intended to satisfy the demand for harder-edged, more violent, more fantastic, American-style stories.

In 1946 Mouchotte started his own publish-

ing company, but was ultimately driven out of business by a censorship law passed in July 1949 at the behest of Catholic educators and parents to monitor the contents of comic books. As a result of that law, most magazines were forced to go to a black-and-white, digest-size format and became known as the petits formats (small formats).

Meanwhile, Navarro had joined Éditions Sprint, for which he created the character of Secret Agent Z.302, drawn by Bagage under

the pseudonym “Robba.”

In 1946 Bagage left Sprint to create his own publishing company, the Éditions du Siècle

Artist J.Y. Mitton’s Buscema-cloned cover for Nova #25. The Surfer’s figure is a swipe from Silver Surfer #6 (June 1969), page 2, though with a bit more sheen.

Silver Surfer ©1999 Marvel Characters, Inc.

36

Vive le Silver Surfer! returned from a trip to the United States, convinced Navarro to publish the first translations of Marvel Comics in France, in a magazine entitled Fantask.

Unfortunately, Lug had repeated run-ins with the censors, who objected to the super-hero violence, the bright colors (deemed “garish”), and the various monsters, creatures, and assorted super-villains. The French censors had the power to decide that material was unsuitable for children, and force it to be labeled “for adults.” In addition to keeping such magazines out of younger hands, the VAT (Value Added Tax) on adult material was twice that of material produced for children, making many marginal publications suddenly unprofitable. As a result of these factors, Fantask was cancelled after only six issues. In fact, it would seem the magazine was banned outright! (For a much fuller account of French comics censorship during this period, see articles in The Collected Jack Kirby Collector, Volume Two, published in 1998 by TwoMorrows.)

During these six issues, Fantask reprinted Fantastic Four #1, 3-10, 12, 14-18; Amazing Spider-Man #1-3; and The Silver Surfer #1-2, 4-6.

The latter series in particular (“Le Surfer d’Argent” in French), was

(which would be renamed Imperia in 1952).

In 1947 Navarro, too, left Sprint, to go to Aventures & Voyages, another petits formats publisher, for which he created “Yak” and “Brik” for artist Jean Cezard.

Finally, in 1950, Navarro teamed up with would-be publisher Auguste Vistel to create Éditions Lug, which was also based in Lyons.

(Lug was the ancient Gauls’ god of commerce and trade, and the original Latin name of Lyons had been Lugdunum, “City of Lug.”) At first, Lug published the traditional mix of French and Italian series. But, unlike its competitors, Navarro (who used what he considered the American-sounding pseudonyms “Malcolm Naughton” and “J.K. Melwyn-Nash”) actually created many of the characters, which were then entrusted to Italian studios to script and draw.

II. O Bitter Victory In 1969 Claude Vistel, Auguste Vistel’s daughter, who had just

Top: The cover of Fantask #4, utilizing the Buscema art for the cover of the U.S. Silver Surfer #5 (April 1969).

Silver Surfer ©1999 Marvel Characters, Inc. Left: A comics convention sketch of an airborne Norrin Radd by renowned French illustrator Moebius.

See a near-future issue for more previously-unpublished Moebius Surfer art.

Art ©1999 Starwatcher Graphics Silver Surfer ©1999 Marvel Characters, Inc.

5.95

$

Roy Thomas’ Legendary Comics Fanzine Returns!!

In the USA

With Speci al Bonus:

No. 1 Summer 1999 1999

!

Extra:

The Original

Capt. Marvel Meets The Original

Human Torch!

PLUS: Interview with Artist

Irwin Hasen!

Unseen H.G. Peter Art Of

Wonder Woman!

Mr. Monster unearths

Stan Lee!

™

Golden Age Forever!

W Volume 3, No. 1, Summer 1999

Table Of Contents Golden Age Forever!. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 More from Ye Editor about this new incarnation of A/E.

“So I Took The Subway And There Was Shelly Mayer!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Irwin Hasen, Golden Age great, is interviewed by Roy Thomas.

Two Touches Of Venus . . . . . . . . . . 14 Never-before-seen Wonder Woman scripts— plus rare Wonder Woman illos by original artist H.G. Peter.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt “There’s Money In Comics!” . . . . . 25 So said Stan Lee in the Nov. 1947 Writer’s Digest! A special regular feature presented

by Michael T. Gilbert.

Fawcett Collectors of America #60 . . 31 P.C. Hamerlinck introduces you to Fawcett Collectors of America—now an ongoing feature in every issue of A/E!

“We Didn’t Know... It Was The Golden Age!” (FCA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Marc Swayze, major Fawcett artist, continues his behind-the scenes look at the comics industry in the 1940s.

“When Marvels Clashed!” (FCA) . . 37 The original Captain Marvel meets the original Human Torch!

Alter EgoTM is published quarterly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605.

Phone: (919) 833-8092. Roy Thomas, Editor.

John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: Rt. 3, Box 468, St. Matthews, SC 29135.

Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@oburg.net.

Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $5.95 ($7.00 Canada, $9.00 elsewhere). Year subscriptions: $20 US, ($27 Canada, $37 elsewhere). All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck.

Alter Ego hero ©1999 Roy Thomas & Ron Harris.

JSA, Superman, Batman, Dr. Mid-Nite, Hawkman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Wildcat, Atom, Doiby Dickles, Steve Trevor, Harlequin, Black Canary, Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, Billy Batson, The Marvel Family, Taia ©1999 DC Comics Inc.; Human Torch, Blonde Phantom, ©1999 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Flyin’ Jenny ©1999 Bell Syndicate; Judi the Jungle Girl, Lucky Bill, and Jango ©1999 Marc Swayze; Mr. Monster ©1999 Michael T. Gilbert; Cat-Man ©1999 Holyoke & AC Comics; Dondi ©1999 Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate; Daredevil ©1999 Lev Gleason; Firehair ©1999 Fiction House; Classics Illustrated ©1999 Gilberton Publishing. Tor ©1999 Joe Kubert.

ell, here I am again—or, here I am for the first time, if you’ve elected to read this issue’s offerings in chronological order, Golden Age first, then Silver Age and beyond. It really doesn’t matter, because both comic book ages are equally important to this third incarnation of Alter Ego. After all, it was the meeting of Golden Age and Silver Age in early 1961—when the Justice Society had only recently been superceded by the Justice League, and the Flashes of two worlds were on the verge of crashing head-on, and a new and improved Atom was about to smash onto the scene—that the original A/E was founded by Jerry Bails with a bit of help from Yours Truly.

What’s more, it was Julius Schwartz, editor of All-Star Comics from 1944-51 and of the Justice League of America from its debut in The Brave and the Bold #28, who midwifed the fanzine—another case of Golden and Silver Ages intermingling in the early days of superhero comics fandom.

It was a distinct pleasure to put this issue of A/E together, and there was plenty of serendipity to go around: Jerry Ordway faxed me a congratulatory note re the A/E section of Comic Book Artist #3—and quickly found himself drawing our cover, and being interviewed for his take on the creation of Infinity, Inc. Jerry Bails, founder of A/E, sent me the Fox and Marston scripts for the Wonder Woman chapter of All-Star #13, as well as a few other WWrelated items; Al Dellinges drew a page approximating what the Wonder Woman splash of All-Star #13 might have looked like, if Fox’s script had been used instead of Marston’s.

Irwin Hasen, one of my favorite Golden Age artists, consented to be interviewed—and to look over beaucoup pages of his work to prepare him for my onslaught of questions.

Fan/collector Ray Cuthbert sent me a copy of Irwin’s 1941 Christmas message to publisher M.C. Gaines—which Irwin himself hadn’t seen in nearly six decades!

Jean-Marc Lofficier prepared no less than two articles—and anything that didn’t make it into #1 will be definitely seen in the months to come. Michael T. Gilbert dug up several real treasures from the 1940s, for this and future editions of “Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt.”

Paul Hamerlinck agreed to include his excellent fanzine FCA in A/E for the foreseeable future—with happy results, we hope, for all concerned. Bill Schelly painstakingly handcorrected the dim spirit-duplicator lines of Grass Green’s great 1962 parody of the Fantastic Four, which has languished unseen for far too long. John G. Pierce parted with his impossible-to-replace Brazilian Captain Marvel comics, so that hardworking layout artist Chris Knowles could get the best possible reproduction.

A final note: Julie Schwartz is depicted on our cover beside Stan partly because the two of them together are the main editors of the Silver Age—and partly because Julie was originally to have been even more prominent in this issue, in an article dealing with the Silver Age Atom. However, that one got squeezed out till next issue—which merely gives us something to look forward to! As for Julie: he still figures this time around in both the Hasen interview and the Stan Lee Roast, as he celebrates his 84th birthday this very June!

A zillion more of ’em, please, Julie!

Bestest,

The super-hero called Alter Ego and teenage amanuensis Rob Lindsay were featured in the First Comics Alter Ego title in 1986. See the Silver Age section for A/E’s other mascots.

Note: For the “Silver Age” half of this premier issue, flip us over—or else stand on your head. Your choice!

This issue is dedicated to the memory of five men who, each in his own way, gave us Superman in 1938, and an industry for more than six decades: co-creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster... cheerleaders M.C. Gaines and Shelly Mayer... and Vince Sullivan (1911-1999), who as editor made the fateful decision to put Superman both in (and on the cover of) Action Comics #1. *A special thanks to Irwin Hasen for allowing us to use as our Golden Age cover his 1997 re-creation of the cover of All-Star Comics #36 from 1947. That cover was originally done by Winslow Mortimer, but utilized figures by Hasen, Joe Kubert, Lee Elias, H.G. Peter, and perhaps others. (Art ©1999 Irwin Hasen; JSA ©1999 DC Comics Inc.)

F

or most of the 1940s, with time out for World War II, Irwin Hanan Hasen was a major artist at National/DC Comics’ sister company All-American Comics. While he is noted mostly for his two stints as a primary artist of the Golden Age Green Lantern, between 1946-49 he also did some of the best work in All-Star Comics, before becoming the original artist (and later writer, as well) of the longlived Dondi newspaper comic strip. The following phone interview was done in late 1998.—RT ALTER EGO: In his Who’s Who of American Comic Books, Jerry Bails lists your nickname as “Zooie.” How did that happen?

IRWIN HASEN: I was working in the bullpen in the late ’30s—1939— with Charlie Biro, Irv Novick, Mort Meskin—for Harry Chesler, an entrepreneur type. I was a kid doing fill-in pages, and I sort of got friendly with the group, and Charlie Biro called me Zooie. To this day I have no idea why.

A/E: This must be an error in Jerry’s book. It says you were born in 1918. But you can’t be eighty years old.

IRWIN: I’m eighty years old.

A/E: That’s amazing. You don’t look it. You don’t act it.

IRWIN: I don’t feel it, thank God. A/E: Where did you grow up, and how did you get interested in art— comic book or otherwise?

IRWIN: I grew up on the West Side of Manhattan. We moved from Brooklyn to 110th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. And across the street was the National Academy of Design, a huge structure like a garage, an airplane hangar. One of the oldest art schools in America... one of the most prestigious. Classical art. I was always drawing. I was drawing in the backs, on the empty pages, of books. So my mother, God bless her soul, took me across the street and enrolled me in a course of drawing.

A/E: You had to go all the way across the street, huh?

IRWIN: Across the street. Honest to God. Around the corner. I was there for three years, every night during the week, drawing in charcoal all the statues of Michelangelo and all the Bernini and all the classics. And it was something that I couldn’t believe later on—how the hell did I get into that? Because during the day I would hawk, sell, drawings of prizefighters down in New York. That was my first job—boxing cartoonist.

I made a very small, very slight living. I was 19-20 years old. I sold my cartoons to the Madison Square Garden Corporation. They were printed all over New York, in different newspapers. It was like public relations for the fights.

A/E: What years did you go to the National Academy of Design?

IRWIN: 1939—when I got out of DeWitt Clinton High School. And after that came the Art Students League, in Manhattan. You know, so many of these young kids who go into comics never really learn how to draw.

A/E: You’ve said your influences, instead of the usual comic book and comic strip artists, are Gustav Dore, Heinrich Kley... and Willard Mullin. I’m afraid I’m not familiar with the last name.

IRWIN: Willard Mullin was the greatest sports cartoonist that ever lived.

He worked for the New York World Telegram from 1930 to 1935. And I loved him from afar. And then one day after I graduated, I snuck in their offices and I waited for the receptionist to turn her heard and I walked into the city room. And there was my hero sitting at his desk. He allowed me to come down there a few times. It’s funny—when you really want to do something, you do it. I had a lot of audacity as a kid. I was a pushy little fella. And I sat at his desk. We became friends. He liked my work, whatever. That started me off, and then I went in to DC—or National, as we called it then.

A/E: Joe Kubert tells me he and Lee Elias and Frank Giacoia and

Carmine Infantino all worshiped Alex Raymond and Hal Foster and Milt Caniff—but Caniff was the one they could copy easiest, because he had the most direct style for comic books. Did you have that feeling, too?

IRWIN: Yeah, absolutely. Caniff was one of my idols. He was a great transference into comic books because he kept it simple and he knew how to tell a story. But my greatest idol is Roy Crane, who did Wash Tubbs. He was the first adventure cartoonist in the newspapers. I think he is the ultimate cartoonist’s cartoonist.

A/E: You started out freelancing for comics shops like Chesler and Bert Whitman—and Lloyd Jacquet—that was Funnies, Inc., right? Did you know Bill Everett and Carl Burgos there?

IRWIN: They were there, but I didn’t deal with them. I didn’t travel in that company. And there was another shop—Phil McClide; that was for Archie Comics—MLJ, then. We all hustled in those days, Roy. It was the Depression. You had to try to make a living, a buck. We were selftaught when it came to comics, where today you’ve got these schools—

“So I Took The Subway And There Was Shelly Mayer...”

An Interview with Golden Age artist Irwin Hasen Conducted by Roy Thomas, transcribed by Carla Conway

the Joe Kubert School, the School of Visual Arts, etc.

Building in New York. We became very close friends.

A/E: Some of your earliest strips were for Holyoke and such companies, strips like “The Ferret” and “Secret Agent Z-2.” Were these through the shops, or were they direct clients?

A/E: You found out only in the past few years that you did the very first Cat-Man story for Holyoke, didn’t you?

IRWIN: Oh, that’s what I did with Bert Whitman and Lloyd Jacquet. I would go from one publisher to the other, but mostly through the shops at first. I did mostly sports fillers. At Chesler, guys like Novick, myself, Mort Meskin—we worked like schoolkids at desks, and he would sit at the front of the desks. He’d ask each of us to come up like a student: “How much do you need to live on?” That was the wonderful way he paid us. It was pretty rotten.

A/E: A lot of people started with comics shops, but within a short period of time figured they were better going off on their own. Who’s Who says you did a Green Hornet strip or two.

IRWIN: That was with Bert Whitman. I worked in his office at the Times

IRWIN: Yes. I saw it in a magazine. I think I was working with Whitman then, but I really don’t remember. But it’s my artwork.

A/E: Since the Batman, Superman kind of heroes obviously weren’t what drew you to comics, what did you think of the idea of drawing that kind of character? Did it make any difference to you?

IRWIN: No. All I did was take samples up to National at 480 Lexington— that was when Donenfeld owned it. Jack Liebowitz was the main accountant then. I’ll never forget, he used to wear shiny black suits. Jack was Donenfeld’s right-hand man, and my uncle knew Jack, so my uncle said, “Go down there. I made an appointment for you. Show some samples.” So I went to National and Jack looked at my work and he didn’t know. He said go down to 225 Lafayette Street, M.C. Gaines....

14

Two Touches Of Venus

Two Touches Of Venus Wonder Woman Gets “Shanghaied Into Space”—Twice Over!

by Roy Thomas

O

f the multitude of pages of comic book art produced since 1935, only a figurative thimbleful of original art still exists. This is particularly true of the period prior to the 1970s, when Marvel, DC, and others began returning the artwork to artists (and occasionally even to writers).

Of course, there are at least some hundreds of pre-’70s pages floating around out there in private collections—and wouldn’t it be great if somebody could inventory them all one day? But that’s still a pitiful percentage of the total pages produced. Pre-Code pages (i.e., before 1955) are rarer, naturally, than later ones, even allowing for the cache of EC pages put on the market a few years back by the late Bill Gaines.

Though less sought after, rarer still are comic book scripts, for obvious reasons. Once a story was drawn, there was no reason for editor or artist to hang on to them, and writers rarely asked for their return (and usually threw away any carbon copies they’d made).

So when a pair of comic scripts turn up from as early as 1942, it’s something of an historical find.

Back in the 1960s Dr. Jerry Bails, one of the founders of comics fandom (and creator of Alter Ego), began corresponding with Mrs. Elizabeth H. Marston. She was the elderly widow of Dr. William Moulton Marston, the man who had conceived the idea of Wonder Woman in 1941 and had written nearly all of the Amazon’s adventures until his death in 1947. In 1970 Mrs. Marston gave Bails a few items related to her husband’s comics career, which will be dealt with in a future issue.

Ride ’em, cowgirl! Rare, perhaps neverpublished Wonder Woman art by H.G. Peter, circa 1943. Courtesy of Jerry G. Bails. ©1999 DC Comics Inc.

Most significant was a matched pair of items: the carbon copy of Gardner F. Fox’s script for the six-page Wonder Woman chapter of the Justice Society of America story in All-Star Comics #13 (Oct.-Nov. 1942), and the carbon of a six-page script of Dr. Marston’s which was a total rewrite of Fox’s!

Two Touches Of Venus

15

One script by the co-creator of The Flash, Hawkman, Dr. Fate, the JSA, and other major early features—and another by the originator of Wonder Woman, the most successful female super-hero of all time—both written for one of the most influential titles of all time, the comic which the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide has rightly called “a break-through concept, second in importance only to the creation of the super-hero” in the history of the industry.

This is the meat which fanzines like Alter Ego were created from 1961 on to devour.

As everybody who is anybody knows, Wonder Woman burst upon the comics scene in late 1941, her origin shoehorned in after the 56-page JSA story in All-Star #8 (Dec. 1941-Jan. 1942).

Her creators were Dr. Marston (under the byline “Charles Moulton”) and artist Harry G. Peter.

She was also the cover feature of Sensation Comics #1 (Jan. 1942), which went on sale only a few weeks later.

I have a theory, based on analysis of internal evidence, that Wonder Woman’s nine-page origin may actually have started out as a 13-pager slated for Sensation #1, and then been truncated so she’d get advance exposure in the popular JSA title—but that’s a speculation for another day and issue.

Be that as it may: By All-Star #11 (June-July 1942), Wonder Woman appeared in an actual JSA story as “guest star in a national emergency”—this being the first issue written after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Following the Sheldon Moldoff-drawn Hawkman chapter came a one-page interlude (drawn

by Jack Burnley, not by Moldoff, as credited in the generally excellent All Star Archives, Volume 3), in which Diana Prince meets fellow army nurse Shiera (Hawkgirl) Sanders and Hawkman himself on board an American convoy ship. Immediately afterward, Wonder Woman has a sixpage, H.G. Peter-drawn battle with Japanese troops assaulting the Philippines. At issue’s end, Dr. Fate tells the other JSAers she ought to be a member of their group.

In All-Star #12 (Aug.-Sept. 1942), she is named and pictured on the cover, but isn’t mentioned on the splash page roll call, which even lists honorary members Superman, Batman, Flash, and Green Lantern, none of whom so much as appears in the issue! Nor does she have a solo chapter in #12.

With the Amazon at his side, Hawkman tells his fellow male JSAers she has volunteered “to be our secretary while we are at war.”

This suggests the DC bigwigs were still uncertain whether or not she should become a full-fledged “fighting member” of the Justice Society (which had been re-christened the “Justice Batallion,” allegedly for the duration of the War).

An unused mid-40s Wonder Woman cover. The original was sold at auction by Sotheby’s in 1997. ©1999 DC Comics Inc.

With All-Star #13 (Oct.-Nov. 1942), Wonder Woman is again shown and named on the

Above: This just in—from The Key Reporter, Autumn 1942, the official publication of the Phi Beta Kappa! Wonder Woman ©1999 DC Comics Inc., Text ©1998 Phi Beta Kappa.

26

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

There’s Money In Comics!

by Stan Lee, Editor and Art Director, Timely Comics, Inc.

W

ell, what are you waiting for? They’ve been publishing comic magazines for more than 10 years. They’ve been buying scripts for these magazines from freelance writers for that same length of time and paying good rates for them. There are 92 comic magazines appearing on the stands every single month—and each magazine uses an average of 5 stories. It’s a big field, it’s a well-paying field, and it’s an interesting field. If you haven’t tried to crack the comics yet, now’s the time to start.

No matter what type of writing you specialize in—adventure, detective style, romantic stories, or humorous material, there is some comic magazine which uses the type of story you’d like to write. And, once you’ve broken into the field, you’ll find that your assignments come to you at a fairly steady pace.

Stan Lee has been Marvel’s most famous editor and writer since the 1940s, when the company was still known as Timely. This article was written around the same time as Stan’s behind-the-scenes book, Secrets Behind The Comics, and was designed to show would-be comics writers how to break in. It first appeared in the November 1947 issue of Writer’s Digest.

The only piece of art illustrating the original article was Syd Shores’ Blonde Phantom page—a page chosen to demonstrate the correct way to write comics.

However, I find it a very odd choice. This page (not scripted by Stan, strangely enough!) strikes me as the perfect example of comics storytelling at its worst! If you can figure out where to go after panel one, you’re a better man than I, Gunga Din! That minor quibble aside, the article is filled with solid information, and Stan’s infectious enthusiasm. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!

By the way if you have any rare old comics articles you’d like to see reprinted in future installments, please send copies to me at: Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, P.O. Box 11421, Eugene, OR 97440. Letters (or requests for my Mr. Monster back-issue catalog) can be sent to the above address, or via e-mail at jgilbert@efn.org ’Til next time, Michael T. Gilbert

The pay is good. A competent writer can write about 10 pages a day for $6 to $9 per page, depending upon the strip he is writing and the quality of his material. So, this comic field certainly bears a pretty close scrutiny from any writer who’s interested in receiving meaty checks, and in receiving them often. (And I’ve yet to see the writer who isn’t interested!)

“But I’m not good at drawing! How can I work with an artist on a comic strip?” How often I’ve heard that said by writers! Look! You don’t have to be able to draw flies! You do need an imagination, and the ability to write snappy dialogue and to describe continuity. And what writer won’t lay claim to those talents?

Comic strip writing is very comparable to radio writing, or to writing for the stage. The radio writer must describe sound effects in his script, and the playwright must give staging directions in his play. Well, the comic strip writer also gives directions for staging and sound effects in his script, but HIS directions are given in writing to the artist, rather than to a director. He must tell the artist what to draw, and then must write the dialogue and captions.

A sample page from a script of The Blonde Phantom follows. This is an actual page, just as it was typed by Al Sulman, the writer. You will notice that the page is roughly divided into two sections, the left-hand section containing the instructions for the artist, and the right-hand section containing the dialogue. There are no set rules as to margins and borders, the important consideration being to make sure that the script is written clearly and can be easily understood by the editor and the artist.

One interesting aspect of writing a comic strip is seeing how the artist finally interprets your script. Syd Shores used the above copy to draw one page for Blonde Phantom Comics, issue #15. As you can see, the artist relied on the instructions that Alan Sulman typed on the left side of the script.

BUT there’s more to comic strip writing than just knowing on which side of a page to type artist’s instructions. Let’s try to analyze some of the factors which go into the making of a good script: 1. Interesting Beginning. Just as in a story, the comic strip must catch the reader’s interest from the first. The very first few panels should show the reader that something of interest is happening, or is about to happen.

2. Smooth Continuity. The action from panel to panel must be natural and unforced. If a character is walking on the street talking to another character in one panel, we wouldn’t show him horseback riding in the next panel with a different character. There ARE times when it is necessary to have a sudden change of scene or time, however, and for such times the writer uses captions. For example, if we have Patsy Walker lying in bed, about to fall asleep, in one panel, and want to show her eating breakfast in the next panel, the second panel would have an accompanying caption

no. 60 Featured Artist: MARC SWAYZE

32

Fawcett Collectors of America

26 Years... and Counting!

Welcome to FCA #60 and to our new home in Alter Ego! FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), the long-running publication devoted to Captain Marvel and the rest of the Fawcett Comics lineup and to the talented people who created them, was founded in 1973 by Bernie McCarthy.

As a 1940s kid and a member of the Captain Marvel Club, Bernie had consumed the adventures of Cap, Ibis, Bulletman, Spy Smasher, and all the rest. His FCA provided articles on rare Fawcett comics, superb interviews with Fawcett creators, plus want ads for other Fawcett collectors to connect and trade.

With issue #12 in 1980 the publication became FCA/SOB (Some Opinionated Bastards), with Captain Marvel’s chief artist, the legendary C.C. Beck, stepping in as editor.

Beck’s incarnation of the publication went beyond merely being a nostalgic zine to one filled not only with C.C.’s wonderful artwork, humor, and wit, but also his hard-hitting essays, commentary, and opinions—most of them concerning art, writing, and his views on then-current comics.

Beck’s health diminished, and with #31 in 1984 Bill and Theresa Harper became the editors, renaming the ’zine FCA & ME, Too, because of their inclusion and excellent coverage of Magazine Enterprises’ western comics alongside the Fawcett-related features.

I took over as editor with issue #54 in 1996, returning the zine to its original name and focus on Fawcett’s Golden Age. Fawcett artist Marc Swayze’s outstanding column sets the tone for each issue, as he recalls what it was really like back in the 1940s. During my tenure I’ve had the opportunity to interview, illustrate, and write articles about many fine individuals who played vital roles in the history of Fawcett and/or the Captain Marvel mythos.

This type of coverage will continue in our new home in A/E, in addition to presenting a wealth of unpublished material by C.C. Beck, with whom I enjoyed a great friendship during the last eleven years of his life. I would like to thank Alter Ego editor Roy Thomas and publisher John Morrow for the opportunity to present the world of the Marvel Family and their pals, and the history of Fawcett Comics, to a larger audience, young and old.

I promise you we’re in for a fun, magical ride.

—P.C. Hamerlinck

Above: When Marc Swayze left his Fawcett staff job, C.C. Beck gave him this Beck-drawn original from Whiz Comics #19; note the inscription. © DC Comics Inc.

Marcus D. Swayze

Education: NE Center LSU (music); Louisiana Tech (art, BA); NE Louisiana U. (art, MA) 1939-41: Assistant to Russell Keaton on syndicated comic strip “Flyin’ Jenny,” daily and Sunday 1941-42: Staff artist, comics dept., Fawcett Publications. Captain Marvel: story art, covers, some writing. Mary Marvel: first visual conception, early story art, covers 1943-44: Military. Freelance writing, Fawcett: Captain Marvel 1944:

Civilian, NYC. Freelance art, Fawcett: Ibis, Mr. Scarlet, others. Mary Marvel, paper conservation ads

1944-53: Freelance, Fawcett—all work produced in Monroe, LA. Regular assignments: The Phantom Eagle in Wow Comics, art, much writing, through #69, 1948, total 37 stories; romance titles, 1948-53, art only—10 titles, 80 stories 1944-46: “Flyin’ Jenny,” Bell Syndicate, Sunday page, art only. Daily strip taken also upon illness of Russell Keaton, creator. Contract for both daily and Sunday signed following death of Keaton, as a professional courtesy (i.e., no pay involved, as Swayze considered Keaton a best friend and mentor) 1954-55: Charlton Publications, Derby, CT. Editorial work, freelance work: mystery/suspense art and writing; romances, westerns, art only To the surprise of many, Marc Swayze left the comics field for good in 1955, despite finally achieving a lifelong goal: a syndicate contract (with Bell) to write and draw a newspaper comic strip he created, “The Great Pierre”

We Didn’t Know... It Was The Golden Age!

33

“C.C. Beck called us the unknowns.

Rod Reed had called us the forgotten ones. I am said to be the most forgotten of the unknowns, or the most unknown of the forgottens. Like the rest of the comic book people at the time I had no idea it would become the Golden Age. Had we known, would we have done anything differently?

I doubt it.”

—Marc Swayze FCA #54, January 1996

( )

d

“We Didn’t Know... It Was the Golden Age,” a regular feature in FCA, first appeared in issue #54, Winter 1996. Its previous installments have offered readers a view of the comic book field as it impressed its author, Fawcett staff artist Marc Swayze, in the 1940s and ’50s. They tell of his arrival at Fawcett Publications, meeting comics editor Eddie Herron, art director Al Allard, and others (including artist C.C. Beck), and his awe at the size of the company and its large art department, library, and location in Times Square. Marc has recollected chats with C.C. Beck on many subjects, particularly the drawing of Captain Marvel, and how he landed the job of drawing Cap, along with the myth of Cap’s likeness being based on actor Fred MacMurray... plus his apprenticeship with comic strip veteran Russell Keaton (Flyin’ Jenny) before coming to work for Fawcett.

Marc has also talked about his affiliation with Fawcett, and the friendships he developed there, and how he both wrote and drew Captain Marvel stories. He discussed covers he illustrated for Captain Marvel Adventures, Whiz Comics, and Wow Comics, as well as the tools and techniques he used to create those classics. Marc covered

such subjects as the day Keaton met Beck; the average work day of Beck’s longtime assistant Pete Costanza; the music combo he and Beck played in; the great increase in the Captain Marvel workload; the change of editors from Eddie Herron to Rod Reed (who also wrote many of Cap’s earlier, more humorous adventures).

In FCA’s 25th-year Anniversary Issue (#59, 1998), Marc gave tribute to his first editor, Eddie Herron, and told the inside story behind the creation of Mary Marvel; his ongoing syndicate ambitions; the baseball games the Fawcett staff played against the Jack Binder Shop (which supplied artwork to Fawcett); etc.

Which brings us to Marc’s latest installment! I hope you’ll enjoy reading his amazing first-hand accounts of the Golden Age of Comics as much as I have enjoyed presenting them. He and the others may not have known it was a Golden Age... but I know I love his column and I’m glad to know a true gentleman and to have a good friend like Marc Swayze.

—P.C. Hamerlinck

T

here could have been no better place to serve apprenticeship than with Russell Keaton. With a decade of comic strip experience behind him, and abundant talent to start with, he was an expert. He could do it all... write, pencil, ink, and letter. Furthermore, he was easy to work with... agreeable, considerate, patient, witty.

Now it was 1940. He had moved family and studio to a district where he could take flying lessons. When he suggested that I present Judi to the syndicates, he wasn’t kidding. “Take a week off,” he said.

“More, if necessary.”

When I boarded a bus in Memphis, Tennessee, bound for New York City, I had the artwork for eight Sunday pages of Judi the Jungle Girl tucked away in a homemade portfolio of brown corrugated board. I also carried a small, inexpensive suitcase. My budget was limited. Having never set foot in New York City, I had studied a map of the community, and a hotel register, and reserved a modest room near what I took to be the greatest number of newspaper syndicates.

I must have been the world’s worst salesman. I didn’t even know that a proper procedure in making a presentation was first to arrange an appointment. Instead, I barged into the offices of King Features so early in the morning the receptionist was still on her first cup of coffee. On the wall behind her was a beautiful painting of Prince Valiant, signed by Hal Foster. I wondered how a nice painting of Judi the Jungle Girl would look on the opposite wall, signed by you-know-who. When she looked up, I blurted that I had come a long way with a comic strip idea and wanted to show it to someone.

Marc Swayze on staff at Fawcett, circa 1941-42. Note the Bulletman page in the corner! Photo courtesy of Marc Swayze. Bulletman ©1999 DC Comics, Inc.

It worked. I was ushered into the plush office of Bradley Kelley, no less. Electric razors must have just come out, for he was sitting back in a red leather chair running a buzzing little gadget over his face. He continued

34 it as we talked. I am grateful for the attention and courtesy shown me that morning. I think I must have left King Features with my head a little higher, feeling as though I’d grown a couple of inches, all because of the cordiality of Bradley Kelley, the top banana at the top syndicate. I didn’t get a contract, of course, but I was encouraged to bring the Judi work back after I’d made the rounds. And it was suggested I consider a job on their staff... “rescaling,” he said. I knew he meant revising their comics to conform to the several popular newspaper formulas. I politely declined. My parting words were, “I’ll be back!” And I was, time and time again, for 12 or 13 years.

And so it went, syndicate after syndicate...

United Features, the New York News, McNaught, McClure’s... my list was long. So were the days... and Manhattan east-west blocks.

I became accustomed to the city buses and the subways, but not the taxicabs. Too expensive.

In the evening there were movies, stage plays, vaudeville shows, and big name bands, but my budget didn’t include them. Anyway, in the evening I was tired.

Marc Swayze created the original approved design of Mary Marvel’s costume.

Mary Marvel ©1999 DC Comics, Inc.

Fawcett Collectors of America Occasionally I made a few alterations to the Judi art, using an inverted dresser drawer as a drawing board—a trick I had learned from Russell Keaton. Generally my spirits were up, but now and then doubts nagged at me: “What am I doing here? Even with a college degree, I’m country. How comfortable life was... loading out a milk wagon... hitching up a horse... covering a regular route. Good old routine, that’s what it was! And more... old Dolly knew the way back to the dairy, and that enabled me to lay the reins aside and practice on my violin... oh, well...” And so to sleep.

Judi and I didn’t get our contract and I didn’t “leave the art,” as some syndicate suggested. Why? Because I had begun to realize I wasn’t ready. I had some learning yet to do... in both writing and drawing. Judi had been prepared for children, as one might expect Sunday comics to be, but already Sunday comics were being slanted to include an older readership. In the preparation of Judi I had been in a hurry... for success, I suppose... and I shouldn’t have been.

And there were some important principles to be learned about salesmanship... about perseverance... about downright persistence. My crude philosophy had been, if the work wasn’t good enough to sell itself, it just wasn’t good enough. That’s not the way to sell! I learned a few things about the syndicates. Some preferred to see daily strips, others Sunday pages. A few features editors liked the art I presented, but were cool toward the story, others just the opposite. It was confusing, but enlightening.

At one syndicate several assistants surrounded the feature editor at the presentation. One made a remark that stayed with me. “I notice,” he said, “that in some of your pictures of Judi her open mouth shows depth and teeth beyond the lips, while in others, after the lips there is nothing.”

I don’t know how I evaded the subject, but you can bet I did! The female mouth! The one subject on which I had disagreed with Russell Keaton from

The great Otto Binder in the early 1960s.

That’s Bill Ward in the background.

the day I went to work for him... but not openly, mind you. His portraits of Jenny, beautiful though they were, were toothless. It was simply the way he drew girls, and they looked great. I didn’t like them drawn that way, but being the assistant, that’s the way I drew them. I suppose in preparing Judi I swung back and forth between the two approaches.

Ironically, a few years later I drew a shot of Mary Marvel with her mouth open and for some reason never finished the mouth. It seemed as though any time I saw a picture of Mary after that, it was a reproduction of that shot, wide open mouth, no depth, no teeth.

On the ride back to Memphis, the decision was made to put Judi the Jungle Girl away... for good. But was I discouraged? I guess not, for on the bus I began to formulate my next syndicate try... a strip featuring her canine companion. I would call it “Jango.” When Jango emerged again, secretly, of course, it would be in a different world... the world of Fawcett Publications... the world of comic books... the world of Captain Marvel!

The Golden Age comic book guys were not a bunch of sissies. Rod Reed told of an incident on a subway train where a rider was creating a disturbance with loud, profane language. Soft-spoken Otto Binder, seated across the aisle chatting with a friend, cautioned him politely several times that in the sparsely occupied car were several ladies. Finally, his requests repeatedly ignored, Otto leaned across the aisle and, without a break in his conversation, delivered a neat right cross to the chin of the offender. Then, as the foul-mouthed rider slumped over, Otto waddled back into his seat, continuing his discussion as though nothing had happened.

When they left the car a few stops later, the cause of the disturbance was still sleeping peacefully.

I don’t know just when Gene McDonald joined the Fawcett forces, but he was around when I returned from the military in 1944. Mac was a squarely built man of medium height,

When Marvels Clashed!

37

When Marvels Clashed!

When The Original Captain Marvel Fought The Original Human Torch!

by John G. Pierce

W

ith all the hoopla surrounding recent inter-company crossovers, starting with DC vs. Marvel (or Marvel vs. DC, if you prefer), it’s important not to lose track of an earlier effort in the same vein.

No, I’m not talking about the Superman/ Spider-Man team-ups of the 1970s, or even of the cross-company Wizard of Oz adaptation that preceded it. I have in mind a DC/Marvel crossover that took place much earlier than that—in 1964, to be exact—a team-up you probably never saw: The pairing of Fawcett’s original Captain Marvel with Timely’s original Human Torch!

Oh, I know what you’re going to say: That Captain Marvel was discontinued by Fawcett in 1953, and didn’t reappear until the early 1970s, when DC acquired the rights of publication of the World’s Mightiest Mortal— and Timely’s first Human Torch disappeared in the late ’40s, resurfaced briefly in the ’50s, then did not return until a totally new version debuted in Fantastic Four #1 in 1961.

You’re dead right, on both accounts.

But—you can be forgiven for not knowing that Captain Marvel and the Human Torch both lasted well into the 1960s, because it didn’t happen in U.S. comics.

Instead, both features enjoyed long lives in a country now garnering a bit of attention for having provided comics with such artists as Mike Deodata, Jr., and Roger Cruz, among others.

I refer, of course, to Brazil.

The Human Torch had his beginnings in Brazilian comics in 1940, in the pages of a comic book entitled O Globo Juvenil Mensal (which might be roughly translated from Portuguese as Kids’ World Monthly, or Kid’s World Monthly—take your pick).

In the years that followed, the amazing android creation of Professor Horton (and Carl Burgos) would also turn up in other comics titles there, as well as in the comics sections of Brazilian newspapers. Other Timely characters who could be seen in Brazil included Sub-Mariner, Captain America, Sun Just imagine—your favorite heroes— “Capitáo Marvel” and “Tocha Humana”— in one adventure together!

Captain Marvel © 1999 DC Comics Inc.; Human Torch ©1999 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Girl, Miss America, The Angel, The Patriot, and the Young Allies, among others. (By contrast, the Stan Lee line of heroes whom we know today as the Marvel lineup didn’t start in Brazil until 1967!)

Fawcett’s Captain Marvel enjoyed a 25year career in Brazil, beginning in 1943 and stretching all the way into 1968, which was 15 years after he had been discontinued in the USA as a result of declining sales and the DC lawsuit! (And, since DC revived the Fawcett characters in late 1972, with Brazilian reprints

thereof appearing in 1973, Brazilian readers were minus the Marvel Family for only about five years—not for twenty years as in the States.)

Captain Marvel first appeared in Brazil in Gibi Mensal #34, dated October 1943. Oddly, he was actually preceded one month earlier by his sister Mary Marvel, who had begun appearing in O Guri (which, ironically, translates as Oh Boy) #71, dated Sept. 1, 1943. Gibi, where the Captain made his debut, was a standard-sized 100-page book with most of its features in black-and-white. It was one of the