Alter Ego #22 Preview by TwoMorrows Publishing

BILL EVERETT & JOE KUBERT INTERVIEWED BY

GIL & NEAL KANE ADAMS

5.95

In the USA

No.22 March 2003

DAN ADKINS ROSS ANDRU DICK AYERS CARL BURGOS JOHN BUSCEMA SAL BUSCEMA GENE COLAN DAN DeCARLO AL FELDSTEIN PAUL GUSTAVSON LLOYD JACQUET JACK KIRBY RUDY LAPICK BOB POWELL MIKE SEKOWSKY JOHN SEVERIN MARIE SEVERIN AL WILLIAMSON WALLY WOOD MICHAEL T. GILBERT LANDON CHESNEY BILL SCHELLY JIM AMASH ROY THOMAS & MORE!!

Featuring Golden/Silver Age Art & Artifacts By:

Vol. 3, No. 22 / March 2003 Editor

™

Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout

Christopher Day

Consulting Editors John Morrow Jon B. Cooke

FCA Editor

P.C. Hamerlinck

Comic Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

Editors Emeritus

Jerry Bails (founder) Ronn Foss, Biljo White, Mike Friedrich

Production Assistant

Eric Nolen-Weathington

Cover Artists/Colorists

Bill Everett & Friends Section

Contents

Mailing Crew

Writer/Editorial: “It Is an Ancient Mariner” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Four of a Kind. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Bill Everett & Joe Kubert interviewed by Gil Kane & Neal Adams in 1970!

And Special Thanks to:

Prince Namor, the Sub-MaREENer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Roy Thomas on his nearly 60-year love affair with Bill Everett’s aquatic creation—with art by the

Bill Everett C.C. Beck Russ Garwood, Glen Musial, Ed Stelli, Pat Varker, Loston Wallace

Neal Adams Heather Antonelli Boris Aplon Bob Bailey Dennis Beaulieu Blake Bell Jack Bender John Benson Bill Black Jerry K. Boyd Frank Bresee Tom Brevoort Mike Burkey Diego Ceresa Russ Cochran Bob Cosgrove Rich Danny Teresa R. Davidson Al Dellinges Shel Dorf Linda S. Downey Jack Elmy Don Ensign Mark Evanier Wendy Everett Al Feldstein Keif Fromm Grant Geissman Joe Gill Jason Gillespie Ron Goulart James P. Greiss The Guys at The Mint David G. Hamilton Jim Harmon Bill Harper

Ron Harris Gary Patrick Hart Mark & Stephanie Heike Hal Higdon Roger Hill Elaine Kane Robert Knuist Joe Kubert Rudy Lapick Mitch Lee Jon Lundin Don Mangus Simon Miller Fred Mommsen Matt Moring Pete Morisi Brian K. Morris Karl Nelson Jerry Ordway James Plunkett Richard Pryor Rich Rubenfeld Carole Seuling Gwen Seuling Mike Shields Robin Snyder Bill Spicer Kevin Stawieray Marc Swayze Dann Thomas Mort Todd Alex Toth Michael J. Vassallo Hames Ware John Wells Bob Wiener

Buscemas, the Severins, and other great Namor delineators.

InJackSearch of Lloyd Jacquet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Elmy on his quest for information about the mysterious founder of Funnies, Inc.! Lapick of the Litter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Jim Amash interviews Golden Age Timely inker Rudy Lapick about his life and times. Landon Chesney (1938-–2001) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Bill Schelly, Jason Gillespie, and Bill Spicer on a major artist of 1960s fandom. The Incredible Mystery of the “Lost” EC Page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Michael T. Gilbert re-examines a couple of Wally Wood’s little-known landmarks. Captains Courageous! Section. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: In 1947, after an exhaustive (and doubtless exhausting) effort, young future novelist and comics historian Ron Goulart finally got Bill Everett to draw an illustration of The Sub-Mariner for him. In fact, Bill rendered it in color, and even worked in his apology for the delay! Ron says he sold the piece years back, alas, long before it commanded the price it did recently when collector Mike Shields purchased it. We thank Mike for sharing this sunken treasure with us—and Ron for getting Wild Bill to draw it in the first place! [Art ©2003 Estate of Bill Everett; Sub-Mariner TM & ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Above: Ye Editor feels strongly that, groundbreaking as the first 2-3 years of “Sub-Mariner” were before Bill Everett went into the Army after Pearl Harbor, his Namor artwork reached its peak in the 1950s. This panel from Young Men #26 (March ’54), Bill’s third outing during the 1953-55 Timely super-hero revival, is reproduced from photocopies of the original art. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Alter EgoTM is published monthly 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@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $8 ($10 Canada, $11 elsewhere). Twelve-issue subscriptions: $60 US, $120 Canada, $132 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. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

Four Of A Kind

Four Of A Kind BILL EVERETT & JOE KUBERT Interviewed By GIL KANE & NEAL ADAMS July 1970

Bill Everett (left) and Joe Kubert (right), at the 1970 “power luncheon.” They’re flanked here by exquisite examples of their art—courtesy, respectively, of Rich Rubenfeld and Jim Amash. [Art ©2003 Estate of Bill Everett & ©2003 Joe Kubert, respectively; Sub-Mariner TM & ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Hawkman TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

[A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: During the decade-plus period from the late 1960s through the early 1980s when Phil Seuling’s New York Comic Art Conventions over July 4th weekends were the biggest held anywhere, our amiable host had a practice of holding a special luncheon on one day of each convention. One or more major guests would lunch on the dais with Phil, while other conventioneers—inevitably including pros as well as fans—ate at other tables. After lunch, Phil would either interview the guests, or have someone else do the honors. In 1970 he did a super-talent tag-team, inviting artist Gil Kane to interview writer-artist Bill Everett, creator of “The Sub-Mariner,” “Amazing-Man,” and other features, with relative artistic newcomer Neal Adams there to ask questions of one of his idols, Joe Kubert, known especially for his work on “Hawkman,” Tor, and DC’s war comics. The interview was later edited by John Benson and was printed in the 1971 convention’s program book. All photos accompanying this reprint of that interview are from the latter. Thanks to John Benson and to Phil Seuling’s daughters Gwen and Heather—and for that matter to Joe and Neal—for their blessing to re-present the interview... and to Fred Mommsen for supplying a pristine copy of the program book so we could get the best photo reproduction possible at this late date. Special thanks, too, to Carole Seuling, for putting us in touch with Fred, Gwen, and Heather... and to Joe, Neal, Wendy Everett, Elaine Kane, and John Benson for their blessing re this re-publication. —Roy.]

Bill Everett & Joe Kubert Interviewed By Gil Kane & Neal Adams GIL KANE: It’s my privilege to introduce Bill Everett. Bill was one of my original inspirations... and the thing that I always thought of in connection with Bill was, he was an artist of great facility, but more than that, he was an unparalleled storyteller.

actually had only two years of art training, and I didn’t really have that. I was credited with two years of training because I got through three years in about a year and a half, and this was only due to an inborn talent and drive. I had to get somewhere fast. That’s about the size of my formal training. I think that anything else was just an innate talent and a desire to put things on paper.

I think that, for instance, in Aman, the Amazing-Man, he did one of the most remarkable jobs of telling a story. You could follow the action so perfectly from panel to panel. The dynamic storytelling, the tension buildup, the action, the continuity of movement: all of these things were done so beautifully that you didn’t realize you were looking at single frames. There was just this feeling of continuity all the way through. And, of course, when he started to do “Sub-Mariner,” why, he was virtually at the peak of his capacity as a storyteller, and he did absolutely brilliant stuff. Regrettably, he hasn’t done much work on “Sub-Mariner” since that time. Bill was the best artist on “Sub-Mariner” because he had the best feeling for the character, and the character had a life and personality all its own that it never had for anyone else. And it was in that certain storytelling quality and that special characterization that Bill really rose above most of the other artists in comics. Bill, what is your background? What sort of art education did you have?

KANE: You were always, in my estimation, one of the best writers that comics ever produced. The writing on the Amazing-Man was just superb. And I thought Sub-Mariner was one of the great character creations in comics. It was the first time someone attempted to do a leading character who was a villain, but still attractive, you know; he created the tension in the feud with The Human Torch. Were you interested in pulps? Were you interested in movies? What shaped your taste in stories? EVERETT: I knew Gil was going to ask me some tough ones, and this is a tough one to answer. I came into the comic Centaur’s Amazing-Man Comics, the first comic book named business almost by accident, by necessity. I after a super-hero, started with #5, picking up the had done some writing; but as far as my numbering of an earlier mag. Issue #11 sports the best of inspiration, if I were to use that term, I Everett’s covers for the title, near the end of his tenure, don’t know that I really had any. I was as he elected to devote himself to Timely Comics and “The Sub-Mariner.” Thanks to Pete Morisi for the color sort-of led into cartooning by my father’s photocopy from his own (obviously well-read) copy. wish. He always wanted me to be a [©2003 the respective copyright holder.] cartoonist, and he died, unfortunately, before he saw that come true. But that probably was in back of the whole thing.

BILL EVERETT: First, I want to thank everybody here for the honor of sitting at this table. Without you people I don’t think we’d amount to too much today. Certainly not what we are. To answer Gil’s question, my formal art training was never complete. I have to first state that I was born with this talent and can take no credit for it. If I take any credit at all, it’s in having been able to do something with it. I’ve had a pencil in my hand almost all my life. I

Gil Kane (at left) interviews Bill Everett. At right is Gil’s cover for The Invaders #24 (Jan. 1978), which fronted for a reprinting of the first Namor/Human Torch team-up (as opposed to battle) by Everett and Carl Burgos, from Marvel Mystery Comics #17 (March 1941). Inks by Frank Giacoia. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

As far as storytelling is concerned, I read a great deal when I was very young, through junior high school and high school. I read what was then considered the deeper novels, the high-class literature. I didn’t go much for pulp material. I didn’t even read the daily comics. My education was very limited. I dropped out of high school; I dropped out of the art school, as well. I had to make up for this in reading, and I wanted to be a writer. But if I had any idol at all, it would have been Jack London. I

Four Of A Kind (Left:) When Gil Kane was invited by editor Jon B. Cooke to draw the cover of Comic Book Artist #2, he responded with an illo that depicted Amazing-Man holding in his hands Gil’s own co-creations Adam Warlock and the 1968revamped Captain Marvel, because he felt that both (even more so Iron Fist!) owed something to Bill Everett’s first super-hero. This is Gil’s pencil layout; you can see the finished color cover in The Comic Book Artist Collection, Vol. One, available from TwoMorrows. The note on the layout faxed to A/E’s editor, hard to read here, says: “Roy—This is my rough for Amazing Man— Gil.” [Art ©2003 Estate of Gil Kane; Warlock & Captain Marvel TM & ©Marvel Characters, Inc.; Amazing-Man ©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

liked the way he told a story. And I figured that, rather than try to be the greatest novelist of all time, I would attempt merely to tell a story in the simplest terms that I could summon, that I could utilize. And I think that this showed up in the early writing, as Gil mentioned, in the Amazing-Man series—which is a little amusing; I think a lot of you people remember a lot more about it than I do. Unfortunately, I didn’t stay with the strip long enough to get very deeply involved. I was permitted, however, almost complete leeway on what I did with it, and it was a chance to express myself by using Amazing-Man as, if Roy Thomas will forgive the expression, my alter ego... a chance to just put down on paper and write about myself, had I been able to do what I’d like to have been. And this again evolved into “The Sub-Mariner.” I am only recently beginning to learn that there was more to my writing of “The Sub-Mariner” than I actually thought at the time. He was an angry character, and I probably expressed some of my own personality. But, again, at least in the origin of The Sub-Mariner, in the beginning of it, I was allowed full expression. There were no limitations set by editors, no limitations set by publishers, no limitations set by anyone, art directors or others. And this was a case where an artist or an artist-writer could freely express himself. And if you had something to

(Right:) Talk about buried treasures! Collector Mort Todd writes: “While helping Gene Colan archive his original art collection, I came across this piece on the back of an Everett-inked issue of a Colan Captain America (#136). It’s a neat color pencil over ink drawing of a smoking Steve Rogers contemplating his mask and a new wetsuit design for Cap ‘à lá Black Widow,’ as Everett writes. Unfortunately, some of the art is clipped off, because the only place to make color copies in Colan’s Vermont hometown would not allow DIY (do it yourself) copying, and the attendant couldn’t get it centered right.” We’ll take what we can get, Mort—and thanks for sharing it with us. For the record, the costume’s hood, belt, gloves, boots, and top third of the “A” chest symbol are red, the rest blue except for the white “A” on the hood and a white stripe across the middle of the chest “A.” Dunno about you, but Ye Editor’d just as soon think that “A” stood for “Amazing-Man”! Interestingly, the blond hair notwithstanding, the artist drew Steve Rogers looking more like a slightly younger Bill Everett than like any Steve Rogers ever depicted by Simon and Kirby, Gene Colan, or whomever. The cigarette, an ever-present prop of Bill’s, is, methinks, the clue that this is at least partly a self-portrait. Bill would naturally have thought of The Black Widow, since he inked Gene Colan’s pencils of her first black-wetsuit appearance in 1970-71 issues of Amazing Adventures. Incidentally, though the sketches are dated “1971,” since that would’ve been the year in which Steverino might’ve worn his suggested new C.A. gear, a stamp at the bottom right indicates that the Comics Code reviewed the Captain America art on the reverse side in November of 1970. [Art ©2003 Estate of Bill Everett.]

Prince Namor

Prince Namor, The Sub-MaREENer! A Brief Look at a Six-decade Love Affair with Bill Everett’s Aquatic Creation

by Roy Thomas Fathoms of the ’40s Yep, that’s what I—and every other comic-book-reading kid I knew back in the late 1940s—called him: The Sub-MaREENer—accent on the third syllable. It makes more sense than you might imagine. No pre-teen in those days was likely to have read Coleridge’s poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, from which Bill Everett always claimed he took the post-hyphen part of that cognomen. Fact is, the unhyphenated word “submariner” (pronounced just as in the title of this piece) had been used during the Second World War, if not before, to refer to a member of a sub’s crew... not that I consciously recall hearing that phrase in the latter half of the ’40s. From 1946, at the age of five and six, when I first read comics, I never used the “The” part of his monicker, either, since it wasn’t part of the logo... nor do I recall ever thinking of him as “Namor”—just plain “Sub-Mariner.” What does puzzle me in retrospect is that, though I was aware from an early age of both SubMariner and DC’s equivalent hero, Aquaman, it was always the Timely hero I imagined myself when playing games in the shallow end of the local swimming-pool. Since Aquaman had a flashy costume (in those days when Namor wore black trunks with yellow stripes) and could order sea creatures around, I can only imagine it was a combination of Namor’s striking physical attributes (pointed ears, quasi-triangular head with wildly arched eyebrows, and winged feet) and the fact that he had his own comic, that made me prefer him. Aquaman only got to wade around for a few pages a month in Adventure Comics, and was never depicted on covers. My love for Sub-Mariner got me into trouble in the first grade. To my later sorrow, from an early age I often would cut hero figures out of my comics and use them to make up my own stories. One day in school, a fellow inmate and I were passing cut-outs of Subby and the Human Torch back and forth in the same row—when the teacher spotted us and confiscated them. I recall feeling it woefully unfair that he wouldn’t give

(Left:) Though Bill Everett drew the story “The Shark Strikes!” within, Syd Shores drew the cover for Sub-Mariner #23 (Summer ’47). (Above:) Namor and Namora in a full page of Everett-drawn action, in #30 (Feb. ’49). Thanks, respectively, to Blake Bell and Dr. Michael J. Vassallo. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

them back to me even when the school day was over. I doubt I ever again brought a comic book to school. I’d like to say I was always aware that some of the “Sub-Mariner” stories between 1946 and ’49 were drawn by Bill Everett and were head and shoulders above the rest. But I’ve no recollection of that. I just liked Sub-Mariner... period. And I was very sad when, in ’49, both SubMariner and Marvel Mystery Comics, as well as other favorite Marvel and non-Marvel titles, abruptly vanished from the Jackson, Missouri, drugstores where I bought them. (And yes, those comics were always “Marvel Comics” to me, because of the logo they sported off and on during the late ’40s—never “Timely,” a term I didn’t hear till the early 1960s.)

Roy Thomas On The Sub-MaREENer

The Fabulous ’50s It seemed like both a very short time, and an eternity, before one Saturday night, about four years later and nearing age thirteen, I wandered into one of my haunts in nearby Cape Girardeau, MO— Osterloh’s Book Store, where I bought occasional hardcover books about wild animals, Oz, Tarzan, Bomba, and the new Pogo paperbacks—and, perusing their supply of comics, found myself face to face with the cover of Young Men #24. “The Human Torch Returns!” screamed a topline. “He’s back from the dead!” shouted one behatted man, as the glowing-red Torch hurled a series of fireballs that demolished the side of a building. Below that drawing were small inserts showing “Submariner” (sic) and Captain America and Bucky, who were “also in this issue.” That was when I fell in love with the artwork of Bill Everett. I’d seen it before, of course... in Venus and Marvel Boy/Astonishing and elsewhere, though I never read horror comics, which he also drew. Bill Everett’s “Sub-Mariner” splash for 1953’s Young Men #24 is on view on p. 15, so here’s a panel in which Betty Dean reminisces about her old war buddy. And if you can make “Bill Everett” out of his signature from that same story, you’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din! [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.

But now I became truly enamored of Bill Everett’s artwork— starting with that wonderful splash of Sub-Mariner battling some robots. I noticed right off that he now sported blue, scaly trunks with a big “S” on the belt—and I would be disappointed when, next issue, he reverted to plain black swimgear. I also noted that, at the end of the splash caption, he was referred to as “The SubMariner”; that article invariably prefixed that particular noun in the story. I think I noticed just about everything there was to notice about Young Men #24. But, though the “Sub-Mariner” story boasted a signature, I’d be darned if I could read it! “Bill”—well, I could read that part well enough. But not the rest. Out of Bill’s signatures on stories in various Atlas mags during this period, I eventually figured his last name was “Enereh,” and that’s how I referred to the artist for years. While I reveled in the adventures of all of Timely/Marvel’s “Big Three” during this brief revival (inspired by the TV success of The Adventures of Superman), I quickly became aware that the “Sub-Mariner” stories had a quirky quality that made them stand out. I’d later learn this was because most of them were also written by “Bill Enereh.” I was fascinated to learn, for the first time (in two different versions), the Sub-Mariner’s origin, since his sub-Antarctic race had rarely appeared in the late ’40s. I learned that he, like Cap and the Torch, had been active back in World War II. And it intrigued me that he wasn’t always in “costume.” When he’s summoned by his old girlfriend Betty Dean in 1953, he shows up in a checkered blue suit and tie. And he and Betty wear matching (except for cleavage) striped t-shirts in the final panels. Here was a hero who could walk amongst men—pointy ears, triangular head, and all. That guy Bill Enereh wasn’t afraid to add a few twists to the usual super-hero mix.

Though Everett drew most of his 1950s tales, two 5-page “Sub-Mariner” stories of that era were drawn by Bob Powell. This page from Human Torch #36 (April ’54) is repro’d from photocopies of the original art provided by Michael T. Gilbert. [©2003 Marvel Characters.]

The “Sub-Mariner” stories continued to be of a high and quirky quality: a race of alien man-eating sharks, with goresuggesting scenes that anticipated Jaws two decades later (“My foot—it’s gone!”)... a well-realized sub-Antarctic kingdom and supporting characters... Namor’s ambiguous relationship with Betty Dean, which both was and wasn’t quite a romance... the

In Search Of...

In Search Of Lloyd Jacquet An Account of One Man’s Quest for an Elusive Figure in Comics History by Jack Elmy

The problem is this: information on Lloyd Victor Jacquet is scarce. For a man who was there at the birth of comic books in 1934, and remaining a major player for the next quarter of a century, there is precious little on him. Hell, he was instrumental in launching Marvel Comics, yet is only mentioned in passing in Les Daniels’ huge Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World’s Greatest Comics. I became interested in the elusive Mr. Jacquet while researching Bill Everett, the creator of The Sub-Mariner. Everett worked closely with Jacquet for four years. Since learning about Jacquet might shed some light on Everett, I set out to find what I could. What follows are the ups and downs of my search for Lloyd Jacquet. My first source was Bill Everett himself. Though he died in 1973, he left behind two important records: a biographical letter to Mad’s thenassociate editor Jerry de Fuccio in 1961, and an interview conducted by Roy Thomas for the first volume of Alter Ego circa 1970, wherein Everett recounted how he met Jacquet in 1938 at Centaur Comics. Jacquet was an editor and Everett was just getting into the business. A year later, Jacquet and Everett jumped ship to form Funnies, Incorporated, a studio that prepared comics for publishers. Everett and Jacquet were the lifeblood of Funnies, Inc., until 1942, when they had a falling-out.

(Left to right:) “Funnies, Inc., president and comic book pioneer” Lloyd Jacquet, Frank Torpey, and Ray Gill. This photo appeared in The New York World-Telegram in 1942 in conjunction with a three-part article by “staff writer Douglas Gilbert,” which was recently reprinted in Comic Book Marketplace—Special Edition #5 (Summer 2002) from an early-1990s issue of CBM. Frank Torpey was reportedly the man who talked Martin Goodman into publishing comic books—while artist Ray Gill was the brother of writer Joe Gill; both Torpey and the latter are mentioned in this article about what it called “comic strip magazines.” Our thanks to CBM editor Russ Cochran for his blessing to pick up this historic 60-year-old photo. Anytime we can return the favor, Russ....

[A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: Generally, Alter Ego or related magazines feature either an interview with a comics creator, or an article about him/her. When Jack Elmy contacted me recently about his attempts to learn more about Lloyd Jacquet, a major but mysterious figure in comic book history from the late 1930s on, I found myself fascinated to hear about the process—the hunt, as it were—and I thought the story of his mission to date might make interesting reading, showing the trouble that comics historians must often go through behind the scenes, before that article or interview emerges. Enjoy! I did. —Roy.] Sometimes I wish ghosts were real. At least that way there would be a chance of waking up in the middle of the night to find Lloyd Jacquet’s spectre sitting at the end of my bed, lighting his corncob pipe, ready to answer my questions. But I don’t live in the anything-goes world of comics. If Jacquet is to answer my questions, I’ll need to find another way to ask them.

Next, I reached for the various history books on comics. I have about twenty of them, some more trustworthy than others. They didn’t, however, have much more to offer. Most of their information on Jacquet was from Everett’s letter and interview. Jerry Bails and Hames Ware’s 1970s Who’s Who of American Comic Books supplied a few more facts, but nothing biographical, except the name of Jacquet’s wife, Grace. My next source was an unlikely one. Jon B. Cooke’s Comic Book Artist #9 was wholly devoted to Charlton Comics, which I wasn’t interested in at the time, just two or three years ago. I skimmed through it anyway, however, and stumbled upon a reference to Jacquet in an interview with writer Joe Gill. Gill had freelanced for Funnies, Inc., after World War II. He didn’t say much about Jacquet, though, only that she was a wonderful woman to work for. What? It took me a minute to realize that Gill must be referring to Grace Jacquet. I was intrigued enough to track down Joe Gill. The interview was conducted by Chris Irving, whose e-mail address I got hold of. Chris put me in touch with Gill, with whom I exchanged a couple of phone calls and letters. The “wonderful woman” Gill had referred to was indeed Jacquet’s wife, who, Gill told me, was an essential part of the shop’s day-to-day operation. Something curiously absent in the history books. Joe Gill knew Lloyd Jacquet, too, but they weren’t close. According to Gill, he was a gentleman, but also a “stuffed shirt.” Gill mainly dealt with Grace. He had a couple of other facts for me. Jacquet was in the Naval Reserve and was called to duty in Naval Intelligence during World War II. He was middle-aged when Gill knew him in the late 1940s, and at one point his wife became ill and had to have a lung removed. A friend of Joe Gill’s, popular novelist Mickey Spillane, freelanced for Jacquet before the war. In 1999 Spillane wrote an introduction to The

...Lloyd Jacquet Golden Age of Marvel, Vol. 2., wherein he wrote: “Our boss, Lloyd Jacquet, a dead ringer for Douglas MacArthur (corncob pipe and all) was a wonderful man, but could never understand living among wildcat writers and artists.” I was lucky enough to get in touch with Spillane. When I asked him to describe Jacquet, he only needed one word: puzzled. According to Spillane, Jacquet didn’t have the business acumen to take full advantage of the booming comic book industry. When I thought about this, I had to agree. Funnies, Inc., had a proven track record of supplying the material that launched companies and made publishers rich. Why couldn’t Jacquet find enough financing to get into publishing himself? Instead, he was constantly staving off bankruptcy and paying his freelancers subpar rates. When I asked Spillane about Grace Jacquet, he said he knew of her, but she rarely visited the office. At first that seemed at odds with Gill’s story. But when I realized that Spillane worked with Jacquet before the war, and Gill worked with him after, it added up. In all likelihood, Grace Jacquet took an active role in the shop when her husband reentered the service, and simply remained after he returned.

25 Comics) wrote to me, saying: “I brush away the cobwebs of my mind and see Lloyd Jacquet at his desk, pipe ’tween his lips and in a tweed jacket. Mickey Spillane had it so right! Jacquet did indeed remind one of Gen. Douglas MacArthur (sitting on the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri signing the surrender papers for the Japanese in 1941!). In this case giving me my first assignment (‘The Ferret’ or ‘The Fox’?!). At that time, in the small world of comic book publishers, Jacquet had that touch of class—in a class by himself.” I next checked the Social Security Death Index, which lists several Lloyd Jacquets. There is Lloyd Jacquet of Louisiana (1906-1965), who maybe could be ours; another Louisianan Jacquet (1933-1972) who is obviously too young; and a Lloyd Jaquet (no “c”) who was born March 7, 1899, and died in March 1970. Despite the missing “c” in the name, this was the most promising match.

Of course, Internet newsgroups can be a rich source of information. It was on the Silver Age/Golden Age Yahoo! Groups message board (also known as SAGA) that I came across a gem. The first of the first: Bill Everett’s splash page for the 8-page “Sub-Mariner” story that appeared Collector/historian Robert first in the black-&-white, Jacquet-produced Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1 in 1939. Soon afterward, with four new pages added, it was reprinted in color in Martin Goodman’s Marvel Beerbohm had unearthed Comics #1. Thanks to Bob Wiener for sending Roy (again!) copies of that b-&-w art; he first did an article Jacquet had so years ago, so the 8-pager could be reprinted for the first time ever in The Invaders #20 (Sept. written for the 1977). Its most recent re-presentation was in the 1997 trade paperback The Golden Age Newsdealer trade of Marvel, Vol. 1. (See p. 10 in this issue for how Everett retold this episode in 1954.) At this point I was magazine in 1957, called beginning to realize that Some comics researchers have long questioned whether Sub-Mariner grew out of a planned “The Coming of the but never-realized movie about sunken Atlantis; Ye Editor frankly doubts it, but would love to none of my sources had Comic (Book),” in which know for sure! If so, that might explain why Atlantis, which Bill admitted in his circa-1970 been really close with Jacquet recounts his interview for Alter Ego was part of his inspiration for the hero’s origin, is never mentioned in Lloyd Jacquet. Neither beginnings in comic books the feature until 1962, when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby revived Namor in Fantastic Four #4. Hey, Everett, Gill, nor Spillane with Major Malcolm d’you suppose Bill will finally get recognition on-screen (or his kids any money) if and when ever described him as a Wheeler-Nicholson in the proposed Namor the Sub-Mariner film comes out? [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.] friend or mentor. A picture 1934. In addition to his begins to emerge of fascinating account of the Jacquet, a military man twenty years older than the “wildcat writers and early days of comics, Jacquet gives us a biographical nugget when he artists” he works with, having a hard time clicking with the younger refers to the newspaper The Brooklyn Daily Eagle as his old alma generation. I did, however, find one “Wildcat” artist—quite literally— mater. who had only nice things to say about the man. The most intriguing thing about the article is the introduction, which Irwin Hasen (co-creator of the “Wildcat” feature in DC’s Sensation

Rudy Lapick

Lapick Of The Litter

A Timely Conversation with RUDY LAPICK about the Late-’40s Bullpen Interview & Transcription by Jim Amash [INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: Unless you’ve been reading Archie Comics for the past few decades, you may not know who Rudy Lapick is or have seen his work. That’s a shame, because it’s very possible that Rudy has inked more comic book pages than any other inker in comics history. Along with his former partner Dan DeCarlo, Rudy spent most of the past fifty years making kids laugh at Timely features like My Friend Irma, Millie the Model, and My Girl Pearl, and later at all the Archie characters in Riverdale, USA. On his own, Rudy’s pen work over nearly all the other Archie artists during the last three decades helped define (and refine) the Archie “look.” I don’t know how many pages Rudy has inked in his career, and I can’t ask him to count them, because he’s still sitting at the drawing board adding to his total. Hey, at least I got him away from the board long enough for a brief look at Timely Comics and its colorful 1940s personnel! —Jim.] JIM AMASH: When and where were you born? RUDY LAPICK: I was born in the Bronx, New York. November 17, 1926. JA: Is your name pronounced “La-pick” or “La-pick” or “Lay-pick”? LAPICK: It’s pronounced “la-pick.” It’s my fault for any confusion, because the family spelt the name “Lapick.” My brother told me to spell it “LaPick,” because people kept mispronouncing my name. But that’s not my true name anyway. When my grandparents came to this country from Italy in the early 1900s, Italians weren’t too popular, so he changed the family name from Lapicarelli to Lapick. You know, when I got married, I intended to change my name to Lapicarelli, because I was proud of being Italian. But there was a lot work involved in doing that, so I didn’t bother.

Though his name wasn’t on the stories, Rudy Lapick inked much of penciler Dan DeCarlo’s best work for Timely/Atlas, as per this splash from Sherry the Showgirl #2 (Sept. 1956); we’re not certain if Rudy inked the cover, as well, but we’ve tossed it in, just in case. For some reason, DeCarlo often signed his name on the last page of his Timely stories—while Stan Lee stuck his printed logo on the first, as here. Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo for the photocopy of the art. Sorry Rudy never got around to sending us a photo of himself. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

JA: What got you interested in drawing?

was a short little guy. We used to hang out in groups at the front of the school, and he’d give me a headache because he was always singing. Some time after we graduated, this girl I knew was giving me a ride in her car and she said to me, “Remember that guy, Anthony DiBennett? He used to give you headaches?” I asked, “What about him?” She said, “Well, he’s Tony Bennett, the singer.”

LAPICK: My father used to draw and it came naturally to me. I used to draw in grammar school and did backgrounds for plays. The teacher was interested in me and saw to it that I took a test to get into the School of Music and Art. Then I went to the School of Industrial Art (S.I.A.). I didn’t like the School of Music and Art because it was primarily a painting school and I didn’t go for that. I found out that S.I.A. had a comic book and advertising courses, so I switched schools.

I went to the School of Music and Art with Norman Maurer and Joe Kubert. They were making a fortune because they were already working in comics. But they kind-of looked down on the rest of us. And Maurer married a woman who was the daughter of Moe Howard of the Three Stooges. Maurer went into the Navy and was still doing comics. He signed his work “Norman Maurer, U.S.N.R.” He must have had a cushy job while he was there.

Another guy who went there the same time I did drove me crazy. He

I graduated in 1944 and enlisted in the Navy. I wasn’t there too long because I got hurt during training. I had a choice of either staying in and

Lapick Of The Litter

Remember him? Stan was kind of tall and thin like him. He did have this one joke that I didn’t care for. He’d walk into the room and look at you and say, “You’re fired.” I hated that. I’d be in the bullpen and making everybody laugh and Stan would time it. He’d walk in and say, “You’re fired” and walk out. Then everybody would go “Wwoooooo...” That was his joke. Stan used to play that flute all the time, too. He didn’t spend much time in the bullpen. He’d usually go and talk to Syd Shores or Sekowsky. I like to mimic people, and sometimes I’d be in the elevator with Stan and he’d ask me to do impressions. In fact, I met him about twenty years later at a show and he remembered my impressions. JA: What year did you start working there? LAPICK: I started as a staff inker in November 1947, and worked there until they let everyone go in February 1950. They had several rooms, and we worked from nine to about 4:30. I worked in a large room and Gene Colan sat in front of me. In front of him was John Buscema. Bill Savage, an adventure inker, sat behind me. Sol Brodsky was there and so was Dan DeCarlo. Mario Acquaviva and Vince Alascia were there as inkers. Syd Shores and Mike Sekowsky were there, too.

The climactic panels from a Gene Colan horror tale from an early-’50s Timely comic, as reprinted in Marvel’s black-&-white mag Monsters Unleashed! #4 (Feb. 1974). You can see the splash panel in A/E #16. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

getting a desk, or getting a discharge. I figured I’d go home. JA: Did you read comics as a kid? LAPICK: All the time. I used to get these second-hand comics for a penny or two cents. I had a lot of comics and copied them. I was always very interested in comics, and I liked Flash Gordon in the newspapers. I also liked Eisner’s Spirit and Tarzan. I was more into super-heroes than other stuff. Captain America and Captain Marvel were favorites. JA: Where did you break into comics? LAPICK: I started with Cinema Comics, which was on 45th street in New York, in 1945. Richard Hughes was the editor. I inked adventure comics for them. Bob Oksner was a kid and he worked on staff, as did Ken Battefield. They penciled. I worked on staff about a year and made about $45 a week. Then, for some reason, they let me go. I don’t know why. I had all kinds of other jobs and I don’t remember how I ended up at Timely Comics. They may have had an ad in the paper, because they were looking for people. I went to see them and had my Cinema Comics work in my portfolio. Alan Jaffee was one of the art directors and he interviewed me. I liked Al Jaffee. He was a nice guy and very amiable. He talked to Stan Lee and I was hired. JA: What did you think of Stan Lee? LAPICK: I liked Stan Lee. I was the only one who thought this, but he reminded me of Robert Walker, the actor.

When Gene Colan was working for Timely, he was just a kid. He looked like he was about fifteen. One day, he got real mad because he was driving his dad’s car and a cop stopped him because he didn’t think Gene looked old enough to drive. I really love Gene. We both like the same things. And he’s such a great talent. Gene was also a fast artist. Did you know I gave Gene a tattoo? I accidentally jabbed him in the wrist with my crow quill and he still has the India ink under his skin. Gene says, “I can’t forget you.” JA: Do you remember what the big sellers were? LAPICK: Patsy Walker and Millie the Model sold real well, and so did Captain America. The westerns sold well, too, but I can’t give you any details. JA: Martin Goodman published his comics under several different company names. Do you remember what company name was written on the check? LAPICK: We didn’t get a check; we got an envelope with money in it. That was the olden days! I made a lot of money in those days. They hired me at $55 a week. That was in November. By May, I was making $75 a week. So I got married. In fact, they were making money off of me. They were paying $14 a page for inking and I was doing two pages a day, five days a week. So I was putting out a $140 a week worth of work and getting seventy. JA: Didn’t that bother you? LAPICK: No. I was a kid and was happy. I could have taken freelance work home, but I didn’t want to do that. Rudy Lapick says that, even when he began working there in late 1947, Captain America was one of Timely’s best-selling comics—yet by #70 (Jan. ’49) sciencefiction and even horror themes were beginning to force their way into C.A. The mag died later that year. Artist may be Syd Shores; and that’s Bucky’s latterday replacement, Golden Girl, at left. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Title Comic Fandom Archive

Landon Chesney 1938––2001

become a successful professional. When at last I established personal contact with the man from Cleveland, Tennessee, who was living at the same address that had accompanied his letters in early issues of Fantastic Four, Chesney confirmed Spicer’s information. He considered himself something of a glorified amateur, without the inner resolve and iron discipline to have made it in the competitive world of professional comics. The idea of chaining himself to a drawing board, and being required to cut corners and repeat himself to meet deadlines, was anathema to him.

by Bill Schelly On December 19th, 2001, legendary fan artist Landon Chesney passed away in his sleep. This tribute in three parts—belated though it is, because of the space we wished to devote to his life and career—relates the impact his life and death had on Yours Truly... the quasi-paternal role he played in the life of his nephew Jason Gillespie... and an appreciation by Bill Spicer, who in the 1960s published some of Chesney’s best work in his quality fanzine Fantasy Illustrated. We’ll begin with my own thoughts....

Part I

Chesney wasn’t lazy. He was an idealist. He was interested in breaking new ground with his art, and solving complex problems of composition and anatomy. He didn’t feel driven to bend his talent toward remuneration, but rather preferred to keep it pure.

(Top left:) 1969 photo of Landon Chesney, taken during a period when he drew maps for a living—and his moody “Dr. Weird” splash page from the fanzine Star-Studded Comics #8 (March 1966). Photo courtesy of Jason Gillespie. [Art ©2003 Estate of Landon Chesney; Dr. Weird TM & ©2003 Gary S. Carlson & Edward DeGeorge.]

I admired Landon Chesney’s art from the moment I got my copy of Fantasy Illustrated #2 in 1964, which featured his extraordinary work on “The Life Battery.” This was a fanzine adaptation of an Otto (Eando) Binder story from the science-fiction pulp Amazing, one of his best. Chesney’s use of light and shadow was masterful, and though his stylings were reminiscent of the great Johnny Craig work in EC comics, they had an original slant all their own. Each panel had a kind of perfection—not necessarily in the draftsmanship, but it its conception. Here was an artist who had a profound understanding of storytelling in the comics medium. Throughout the mid-1960s, more work by Chesney appeared in a number of the most widely-circulated fanzines, including Star-Studded Comics (“Dr. Weird”) and Voice of Comicdom (“The Cloak”). What a thrill it was to find those treasures again when I returned to fandom in the early 1990s and began re-assembling my fanzine collection! What, I wondered, had the great Chesney produced in the interim? The very last thing I’d seen was his new cover on an underground comic book featuring a reprint of “The Life Battery.” Had he gone on to great heights? When I got in touch with his good friend and former publisher Bill Spicer (Fantasy Illustrated, Graphic Story Magazine, Fanfare), I learned to my surprise that Chesney had basically stopped producing art for publication sometime in the 1980s! After working on an aborted graphic novel starring The Cloak, and a few projects for some underground comix, it seems Landon felt he didn’t have what it took to

Then, too, there was something else, which his nephew Jason Gillespie reveals in the interview that follows: Chesney suffered from a debilitating physical condition that had an effect on his ability to produce work on demand.

But one thing was clear from our correspondence: Landon Chesney possessed a remarkable intellect, and a sophisticated understanding of the graphic story medium. I never failed to be fascinated by the observations he shared, whether they be about his great regard for the work of Roy Crane, or his admiration for the comics produced by his good friend and collaborator Grass Green. Chesney was extremely articulate, and in the exchange of letters that we had in the late 1990s I learned a lot from his thoughts and observations. He was also kind enough to allow me to reprint “The Life Battery” and some of his other strips in my two Fandom’s Finest Comics books. It was a dream-come-true for me to be his publisher, even if on a humble scale. I only spoke to him once. I needed to get his approval to add a touch of zip-a-tone to his “Two Flashes Meet The Purple Slagheap” strip from Xero #10 when I was about to reprint it in Fandom’s Finest Comics, Vol. 2—so I phoned him. “That sounds like a very good idea,” he said in his Tennessee twang. That over with, we chatted of other matters for a few minutes, and I ended with, “I hope we have an opportunity to talk some more,” to which he concurred. We never did. Isn’t that so often what happens? Then, after a space of too long between letters, in February of 2002 I received one from his nephew, informing me Landon had passed away

Landon Chesney on December 19, 2001. Just like that, Chesney was gone. I hadn’t known he was ill, and even his family was taken by surprise.

A panel from the minimalistically clever “Two Flashes Meet the Purple Slagheap,” from Xero #10 (1963), which served as most fans’ introduction to Landon Chesney’s artwork. The full five-page parody is on view in the trade paperback Fandom’s Finest Comics,Vol. 1; see Hamster Press’ ad elsewhere in this issue. [Art ©2003 Estate of Landon Chesney; Flashes TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

because, perhaps stupidly, I didn’t want Grass to know.

I wanted to let people know, but how could I tell Grass Green, his friend who had just lost Ronn Foss a few months before, and who was now coping with lung cancer? So I delayed....

Now, as I write this, they are both gone. Did we appreciate them enough when they were here? Did we let them know how much they meant to us?

JASON: Up until two years ago, yes. At this point, his mother—my grandmother—was getting to the point where she needed more help. But Uncle Landon had been suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and some other things that he had been taking medication for... and he just wasn’t physically able to help facilitate what she needed to get done. Take her to the doctor, things like that. My mother had been talking to my grandmother about her and Landon moving closer to her. Then finally, two years ago, they moved to Goodlettsville, Tennessee, right outside Nashville, where I grew up. They moved into a place called Windsor Court. BILL: Was his passing a complete surprise, or was it something that was more or less expected? JASON: It was a surprise. We knew that he had been feeling bad, and had been switching medications. I don’t really know enough about what the doctors were doing about it. His health would fluctuate—his feeling good, his feeling bad. BILL: How did you find out? JASON: My wife and I went up for Christmas. I walked in the door and my mother was trying to tell me, and she broke out into tears. It had just happened a couple of days before we showed up. He died on December 19th... I believe, in his sleep. They said that it was a heart attack. They found him the next morning when my grandmother went in to check on him.

Yes, I think we did. They knew they had fans and friends. Fandom is good that way.

Part II

“He Filled A Big Void” Interview with Landon Chesney’s nephew Jason Gillespie, conducted July 14, 2002, by Bill Schelly; transcribed by Brian K. Morris [NOTE: Jason Gillespie is the son of Landon Chesney’s sister, Jane Gillespie.] BILL: Did you live and grow up around your uncle Landon? Or did you know him only as someone you went to visit? JASON: Only as someone we went to visit. But I was closer to my mother’s side of the family than my father’s side. So, really, the Chesneys were more like an extended immediate family. We spent a lot of time with Landon, visited him often, and spent a lot of the summer visiting him, staying with my grandmother where my mother would drop my sister and I off, once she showed up, seven years later. He really filled a big void. My parents got divorced when I was seven and my uncle kind of picked up the slack. BILL: Landon made a special effort to be a significant player in your life? JASON: Right. He was always sending me things. We visited regularly, up until the time when I was in high school. Then, after I went into the Army and college, it became a little bit more your traditional ‘going-tovisit’ sort of thing. BILL: Was Landon living with his mother in the house on Harle Street in Cleveland, Tennessee, the whole time?

Comic Fandom Archive

Bill Spicer sent these “EC-styled roughs with Post-It comments, done around mid-1999. These were inspired by the idea Russ Cochran floated in his Gemstone newsletter about the feasibility of reviving one or more EC titles with new stories and art for today’s market. Nothing was actually in the works so far as we know (maybe nothing ever will be), but the proposal was enough for Chesney to go ahead with a few sketches in case something developed. Fan Addicts will notice his Craig-like approach to subject matter and layout is very much reminiscent of EC’s earlier New Trend issues from 1950-51 (Landon’s preferred years), when they occasionally used a dialog balloon to enhance cover scenes.” [Art ©2003 Estate of Landon Chesney.]

came to me that was his, and he had his drawing paraphernalia. You know, he had his French curves, and his compasses, and all his various things like that. I guess once he got out of that, he didn’t feel the need to keep an actual space that was set aside for doing artwork. BILL: You know, I don’t think I ever knew his exact birth date. JASON: He was born on Groundhog Day in 1938. BILL: He lived in that house on Harle street most of his life, didn’t he? JASON: The little red house, yes. BILL: Did he have a studio of any kind? JASON: Not really. Because when our relationship began, he had pretty much ended most of his efforts for fandom. Anything he did was liable to be done at the kitchen table, or in his room. I know he drew a lot. He did a lot of stuff with me, but it was always in that context. A lot of stuff

BILL: But he definitely continued drawing for his own amusement, and maybe to show you stuff... because it turned out you also had art talent. JASON: Right. I ended up working as a freelance artist for a number of years. BILL: So you learned from him. JASON: Yeah. I got to be there, and to see how he approached his work... which is something nobody in fandom could see. He was a meticulous person when it came to crafting his art. He just kept working at it, at least into the 1980s, when he may have stopped most of the output. But for a long time, he really kept at it, and I wish I had half the stuff that he had done for me. I’ve got some of it, and hopefully there’s some of it still in my mother’s house. He was still coming up with ideas.

I. The Incredible Mystery of the “Lost” EC Page by Michael T. Gilbert Back in Alter Ego #15, we printed a previously unpublished Wally Wood EC Comics sci-fi page. A couple of years earlier, I’d accidentally stumbled on the image while surfing eBay for rare comic art. The owner was selling it for a price well out of my range, but I managed to download a fuzzy scan for later use in A/E. The seller’s description of the art suggested that it might be a censored EC page, but offered little more information.

I’d heard of unpublished pages from EC’s aborted Picto-Fiction line of black-&-white magazines, but never any pages from their four-color comics. The lone exception was a single story, “An Eye For An Eye,” that had been rejected by the Comics Code and bounced from the final issue of Incredible Science Fiction (#33)—and that story had already seen print in the 1972 book, The EC Horror Library Of The ’50s. So, where did this Wally Wood page come from? Was it part of an entire never-before-seen EC story, or a censored page removed from a

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

tale already in print? In April 2000, comics historian Grant Geissman attempted to unravel the mystery by sending a copy of the mysterious page to former EC editor Al Feldstein. After looking it over, Feldstein replied: “I vaguely recall the story it came from. As far as this 74-year-old brain can remember, it was not an original of mine, but my usual edited adaptation of a script by Jack Oleck… and that it was probably scheduled for Weird Science-Fantasy [actually Incredible Science-Fiction—the mag’s name had changed by then. —MTG] #34, which was never published. “In those days, Wally’s meeting deadlines was problematical. Note that he is missing from several of the last issues of WSF [ISF]. This story may have been turned in after… or very close to… Bill’s decision to quit… being forced to do so by the bankruptcy of Leader News, his weak and ineffective distributor. “Whether it was ever part of the conflict I was having with [Comics Code chief] Judge Murphy, getting stories approved by him, I do not remember. It may have been submitted to him [for Code approval], I do not remember. It may never have been submitted to him, because the title, along with all the others, was killed before I ever could. “Where it came from, I cannot help you with. Maybe Russ Cochran knows. Perhaps it was sold by him in one of those early auctions that Bill okayed when he finally parted with the art work he’d stored over the years. Maybe that‘s how the ‘censored’ description came to pass. …in an effort to market it for a better price. “I cannot envision Wally himself selling it, because Bill never stiffed anyone for work they’d done (art or script). …even if he never intended to publish it. Witness the artwork for the Picto-Fiction books that were never published. “I know I’ve been of little help, but we’re talking about a period in my life that was very painful… Bill letting me go with the dropping of all the titles… over 45 years ago.” Al’s memory was good, as far as it went. Jack Oleck did indeed write the story, and it was initially rejected by Judge Murphy’s Comics Code Authority. But the full story only emerged after we printed the mysterious page in Alter Ego. Shortly after the issue appeared, readers James P. Greiss and Mitch Lee each separately came to the same conclusion concerning the page’s true origin. Mitch Lee wrote: “I just bought the issue today, and greatly enjoyed your latest Wood installment. I believe the unpublished Wood EC sci-fi page is the original page 2 from “You, Rocket” (Incredible Science-Fiction #31) that was rejected by the CCA. If you compare the original with the page that was published, you can see why it was rejected. In addition, there’s a common link between the two pages in the image of the surgeons in the panels of both pages.” After reading Mitch’s letter, I substituted our EC page with the published 2nd page of “You, Rocket” (reprinted in the Russ Cochran EC Library). It was a perfect match! The clincher was the final word on page one, “prayer,” which was also the first word on the censored page 2. It’s worth noting that the original version is much more chilling than the one printed. The revised “You, Rocket” told of a car-crash victim whose brain was harvested from his dead body. The man’s memories were wiped clean, inserted in a computer and reprogrammed to run a rocket. Creepy, huh? But the original, censored version (the one we printed in Alter Ego #15) was a lot creepier! Futuristic government goons steal a healthy baby (!) from his sobbing parents—then hand him over to doctors who slice

his head open, remove the brain and place it in the rocket. Ugh! Needless to say, this version could never have been published under the Code. What were they thinking? In his letter, Mitch also pointed out that the story’s final panel lacks EC’s traditional “The End” banner. This, along with the story’s surprisingly abrupt conclusion, suggests the possibility of an 8th page that was dropped from this 7-page story at the last minute. If true, one wonders if that page, too, will eventually turn up. Shortly after Mitch’s letter, I received another one from longtime EC fan Bill Spicer, editor/publisher of the 1960s fanzine Fantasy Illustrated, who included a clear stat of the art. Bill also informed me that an unpublished EC page was about to appear in an upcoming revival of John Benson’s classic EC fanzine Squa Tront––though he didn’t know whether it was the page I’d just printed. I e-mailed John and discovered that it was indeed the same page. John sent the new information to Grant Geissman, who passed it on to Feldstein. Al was surprised to learn the page in question wasn’t from a lost story after all, but rather a censored page from “You, Rocket.” In Al’s own words: “That certainly stirred the memory cells, especially after examining the published page two with the ‘censored’ page two, and I finally recalled having hastily re-written the page and having Wally quickly re-draw it. “The real mystery, however, is: Where did the page come from?? “Bill Gaines zealously hoarded and guarded all original art at EC.

PLUS: PLUS:

5.95

In the USA

No. 22 March 2003

“CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS!”

Awesome Art & Artifacts By:

C.C. BECK MARC SWAYZE ALEX TOTH CARL PFEUFER JOHN JORDAN BUD THOMPSON KURT SCHAFFENBERGER MAC RABOY LEONARD FRANK RON HARRIS JIM HARMON DON PERLIN PAUL REINMAN LORRAINE FOX JOHN ROMITA JOHN BUSCEMA & MORE Of The World’s Mightiest Mortals!

CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT

Vol. 3, No. 22 / March 2003

™

Editor

Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout

Christopher Day

Consulting Editors John Morrow Jon B. Cooke

FCA Editor

P.C. Hamerlinck

Comic Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

Editors Emeritus

Jerry Bails (founder) Ronn Foss, Biljo White, Mike Friedrich

Production Assistant

Eric Nolen-Weathington

Cover Artists/Colorists

Captains Courageous! Section

C.C. Beck Bill Everett

Mailing Crew

Russ Garwood, Glen Musial, Ed Stelli, Pat Varker, Loston Wallace

And Special Thanks to:

Contents Writer/Editorial: Captains of Our Fate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Twelve O’Clock in Shadow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Jim Harmon turns the (winged) clock back on—Captaaain Midniiiiiight! “Who Cares? I Do!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Alex Toth sings the well-deserved praises of Paul Reinman and Lorraine Fox. re: [correspondence & corrections]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) #81 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 P.C. Hamerlinck presents C.C. Beck, Marc Swayze, Capt. Marvel Jr.—& Tom Mix! Bill Everett & Friends Section. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: This one’s from P.C. Hamerlinck’s personal collection—a “re-creation” of figures, if not of a precise comic book cover, that Captain Marvel artistic co-creator Charles Clarence Beck did for FCA’s editor a couple of decades back. P.C. felt it should be seen by thousands—and we heartily concur. [Art ©2003 Estate of C.C. Beck; Marvel Family TM & ©2003 DC Comics.] Above: Captain Midnight in an outfit truly deserving of his legendary name, in one of the Erwin L. Darwin illustrations from the 1942 Whitman book Joyce of the Secret Squadron, written by Russ Winterbotham, later the scripter of such newspaper comic strips as Twin Earths and Chris Welkin, Planeteer. Courtesy of Jim Harmon. [Art ©2003 the respective copyright holders.] Alter EgoTM is published monthly 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@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $8 ($10 Canada, $11 elsewhere). Twelve-issue subscriptions: $60 US, $120 Canada, $132 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. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

Captain Midnight

Twelve O’Clock In Shadow

Turning Back the (Winged) Clock on CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT

by Jim Harmon Radio Flyer For many months in the mid-1980s I had lunch once a week with the best-known of radio’s Captain Midnights—that is, of the several actors who had played the role—and with a number of others from old-time radio, at the Masquers’ Club in Hollywood. I often tried to guide my conversations with Ed Prentiss to discussion of his old show. It seldom happened. Most of the conversation was devoted to which of the old gang had died this week. “Did you hear about…?” “Yeah, and his wife, too.” Prentiss did tell one story about how the FBI paid them a visit when the storyline concerned a fictional attack on a great American base. As a matter of fact, he told the story twice—once naming the base as Pearl Harbor, and another time as the Panama Canal. I found out later that he was having problems with his memory. I suppose I might have got him to open up more if he had liked me better. Unfortunately, Prentiss, unlike (happily) most of the many oldtime radio actors I’ve met, truly seemed to dislike me. Perhaps it was

A Midnight for many media! In this Fawcett house ad that appeared in Captain Marvel Adventures #14 as well as other comic books, the publisher tied in its Sept. 1942 debut of a Captain Midnight title with the aviator-hero’s four years on radio and the 15-chapter movie serial earlier that year. By its second issue, the comic became a monthly. Artist unknown—probably someone (or someones) in the Jack Binder comic shop. Thanks to Jim Harmon for providing many of the illustrations that accompany his study. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

because I really did not have the professional credentials to be a part of the Chicago radio actors group, the “Bridge Is Up Club,” referring to the excuse that actors often made about the drawbridge over the Chicago River in order to excuse themselves for being late. Fortunately, Art Hern, Prentiss’ last “Ikky,” did like me. He was like an uncle to me, and thought I would enjoy the meetings. (He would soon be ninety, his last year on Earth, and did not have much recall of specific details of the show.) But, after a few months, I decided I was not really welcomed there by several members, especially Prentiss. It was quite a contrast to my relationship to radio’s Tom Mix, Curley Bradley, who I’m told looked on me as an adopted son. Captain Midnight director Kirby Hawkes makes a point to actors Jack Bivans (“Chuck Ramsey,” center) and Ed Prentiss (“Captain Midnight,” right, at microphone), circa 1942. This photo appeared, courtesy of Boris Aplon (“Ivan Shark”) in Jim Harmon’s 1992 book Radio Mystery and Adventure from McFarland & Company.

So, while it might seem as I’ve had some opportunities to obtain a golden insight into the series, most of my information about Captain Midnight comes from public sources... and from years of research.

Cap’s comic book debut in Dell’s The Funnies #57 (July 1941) and the following issue were “slavishly adapted” from the first Captain Midnight radio episode three years earlier. The interior art by Robert Brice is repro’d from relatively poor photocopies, but does give the feel of the first stories.

Maiden Flights There is some confusion about who was the first actor to play Captain Midnight—but it was definitely Ed Prentiss. The earliest episode of the syndicated transcription feature I have is No. 65, on which he plays the lead. He played the role beginning in 1938 for the regional series, which was sponsored by Skelly Gasoline stations. The first appearance of Captain Midnight on radio was slavishly adapted to comics form in 1941 for a comic book called The Funnies #57 (July ’41). The art was done in a neat, workmanlike style, and was credited to Robert Brice. No writer was indicated; in any event, the dialogue was virtually word for word from the radio script. I own copies of some of the episodes which were adapted into comics as radio episodes, including the origin. The original radio scripts and most of the series were written by the team of Robert M. Burtt and Wilfred G. Moore, real-life aviators and creators of such other flying heroes on radio as Jimmie Allen and Sky King. The first episode of Captain Midnight told the now-familiar tale of how a lone American pilot went on a secret mission on which depended the whole outcome of the First World War. If he returned successfully, the gathered military staff would know the war was won for the Allied cause. Late that night, they had all but given up hope, when the faint sound of a single plane could be heard, and with it the striking of a church clock. The captain had returned, just at midnight.

Captain Midnight

An action sequence from #58. Note Captain Midnight’s insignia—a winged clock with its hands pointing to 12 o’clock—on both the front and back of his flight jacket. Art by Robert Brice.

By his second outing, in #58, Cap had replaced the lackluster super-hero Phantasmo as the main cover feature. Seen here is a mediocre photocopy of the cover of issue #59, his third appearance.

By later stories, the size of Cap’s winged insignia had grown, and more closely resembled the chest symbols sported by Superman and company.

Who Cares? I Do!

Alex Toth On Paul Reinman, Lorraine Fox, & C.C. Beck [ALTER EGO INTRODUCTION: Some months back, master comics illustrator Alex Toth sent us a postcard with regard to the Reinman art and Gill Fox interview which were published in A/E #12. Here ’tis, stamp and all. Sorry it’s taken us so long to get around to printing these comments—but better late than never. —Roy.]

Paul Reinman was a key “Green Lantern” artist in All-American Comics from about 1945-47, as witness his painting-themed cover for AAC #74 (June ’46), and his splash from #80 (Dec. ’46). [©2003 DC Comics.]

No. 81

IN THE COMICS

We Didn’t Know...

mds& (c) [Art

[FCA EDITORS NOTE: From 194153, Marcus D. Swayze was a top artist for Fawcett Comics. The very first A panel from “Captain Marvel and the Training of Mary Marvel,” Mary Marvel character sketches came from Captain Marvel Adventures #19 (Jan. 1943)—Mary’s second from Marc’s drawing table, and he appearance. Besides drawing this story, Marc revealed a couple of illustrated her earliest adventures, issues back that internal evidence has convinced him that he wrote including the classic Mary Marvel it, as well—a fact he had long forgotten! [©2003 DC Comics.] origin story, “Captain Marvel Introduces Mary Marvel (CMA #18, trek of a youngster who had no idea of ever becoming Dec. ’42); but he was primarily hired involved in a Golden Age of any kind. by Fawcett Publications to illustrate I figured at an early age that I was an artist. My Captain Marvel stories and covers for mother assured me of that. Then there was this urge Whiz Comics and Captain Marvel that prevented me from passing a clean, white surface Adventures. He also wrote many without drawing something on it… a horse, a cowboy, Captain Marvel scripts, continuing to an ape, a ball player, and eventually, alas… girls! do so while in the military. After he left the service, Marc made an At our house was a set of my mother’s reference arrangement with Fawcett to produce books, The New Practical Reference Library, art and stories for them on a freelance copyright 1911. In it was a section on drawing. Before I basis out of his Louisiana home. There could read, the illustrations told me that Drawing was he created both art and story for The what the big word at the top said. From the work, Phantom Eagle in Wow Comics, in prepared by a Professor D.R. Augsburg, I learned that addition to drawing the Flyin’ Jenny there was a way to draw… a system, a newspaper strip for Bell Syndicate This World War I cover scene, mentioned on p. 32, procedure… involving lines, forms, arrangements. A (created by his friend and mentor is Marc’s first published work. It’s even signed! lifelong habit developed of drawing “through” the Russell Keaton). After the cancellation subject, beyond the foremost plane, with respect for of Wow, Swayze produced artwork for solidity and depth. Fawcett’s top-selling line of romance comics, including Sweethearts and Life Story. After the company ceased publishing comics, Marc I understood that the nice pictures in the books and magazines moved over to Charlton Publications, where he ended his comics around the house were created by human hand… by someone, career in the mid-’50s. Marc’s ongoing professional memoirs have somewhere… but I held little hope of ever becoming one of those been FCA’s most popular feature since his first column appeared in someones. How could I… a thousand or so miles from the world of FCA #54, 1996. Last issue, Marc reflected upon why he left the comic commercial art? Also, there was this thing grownups were talking book industry for good in 1956. In this issue, he shifts into reverse to about—the “Depression”—the big one! discuss his pre-Golden Age of Comics work. —P.C. Hamerlinck.] My old file of notes, sketches, and clips is not the neatest the world had ever known. At first glance one might think it had been assembled by a gorilla… a careless one. There are folders tattered from overuse, and there are folders that for years haven’t been touched except to be squeezed past to get to the next folder. And no wonder, bearing such uninteresting titles as “Pre-Golden Age Stuff.” Pre-Golden Age? Before the Golden Age? Not much call to open that one, the long-forgotten contents undoubtedly pertaining to publications like dime novels and pulp magazines, the dates going back to the ’30s. Not so, however. The title does not make general reference to the comic book business… but to the humble

Fantasy and Fantastic Inventions

Captain Marvel Jr.: The Post-War Years

by Don Ensign Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

Part IV

Fantasy–-And Fantastic Inventions [NOTE: In our previous three issues Don Ensign has examined the artists and various themes of the “Captain Marvel Jr.” tales in a cross-section of Master Comics and his own comics title (though not in The Marvel Family) in the years after World War II. Last issue dealt with horror, science-fiction, funny animals, and “human interest.” This time around our series concludes with a discussion of other themes. —PCH.}

Stories about Captain Marvel Jr. Many Captain Marvel Jr. stories centered on the problems of other people, as shown in the section on human interest tales. However, there were CMJ yarns that centered on the personality of the World’s Mightiest Boy himself. “Twenty-Four Hours to Live!” (CMJ #35) tells of an impending death: Captain Marvel Jr.’s own! Having invented a scanning machine that can predict the longevity of any animal or human, Dr. Elijah Longlife scans Junior and announces he has only 24 hours to live. This depressing news spurs Junior to go after his two greatest enemies, Brutal Bill Banion and Sivana. At the end of the 24 hours he returns to Dr. Longlife’s lab. The scientist learns he made a mistake—it was his own plate (scan) he’d read, not Junior’s. Longlife dies and Junior destroys his scanning machine. This story actually has Junior displaying some emotions (sadness, depression) and resolving to do the right thing with the short time he has left. Courtroom drama occurs in “Capt. Marvel Jr. Proves His Existence!” (CMJ #65). An unscrupulous scientist named Doc Skeem makes a deal with local gangsters to prove Cap Jr. is only a myth. In court, through clever deceptions, he makes the case that Junior is actually a boy he raised and to whom he gave powers by scientific means. A frustrated Junior receives 24 hours to prove Skeem’s testimony false—which of course he does. At story’s end the onceskeptical judge proclaims, “We, the people of the state, do affirm and agree Captain Marvel Jr. is truly and indubitably the World’s Mightiest Boy!” This is a well-

In wartime issues, as on this Mac Raboy-drawn cover for Master Comics #29 (Aug. 1942), Captain Marvel Jr. had the Axis bad boys to chastize. After the war ended, however, he, like other super-heroes, had to find other themes and genres to explore, if he were going to hold his audience! Thanks to Keif Fromm for the nice copy. [©2003 DC Comics.]

plotted tale that provides some suspense: just how is Junior going to resolve the situation? “Freddy Freeman’s Big Day” (CMJ #65) gives the readers insights into Freddy’s resourcefulness when he’s so plagued by unstoppable hiccups that he twice fails when he tries to call on Junior to rescue endangered people, and must save them himself. Eventually, when bound by a baddie named Doc Mixum, who (for complicated reasons) is about to scald his throat with boiling water, this scares the hiccups out of Freddy so he can call on Junior to deal with Mixum and his henchman. When Junior completed a dangerous mission in “The City Sleeps,” from Master Comics #83 (Sept. 1947), which was discussed last issue, the kindly Mrs. Wagner never knew he’d ever left his bed! Art by Bud Thompson. [©2003 DC Comics.]

The World’s Mightiest Boy’s opinions on politics are revealed in “Captain Marvel Jr. for Mayor” (CMJ #67). The voting public is suspicious of two mayoral candidates after a third one is proven dishonest. Junior makes a public speech

Captain Marvel Jr.: The Post-War Years

asking people not to forsake the democratic process—only to have the galvanized audience hoist Junior on their shoulders and declare him their candidate. Ward J. Heeler, campaign manager for one of the candidates, devises a publicity campaign to smear Junior. But when a horse-drawn haywagon carrying his son and other children in a torchlight parade catches fire and Junior rescues them, Heeler confesses his dirty tricks and his candidate resigns. Freddy’s parting thoughts: “Capt. Marvel Jr. had a narrow escape this time! He... that is, we... don’t want to get mixed up in politics!” (Note that Freddy said “Captain Marvel” here with no change to his alter ego. This was a frequent goof amongst CMJ writers.) In “The Touch of Life” (CMJ #98), an artist named Eric Bodyn, obsessed with bringing his art to life, searches for the legendary “Life Stone” which has the “power to confer life.” Junior, in rescuing him from his folly, touches the Stone and is given the power to turn insentient objects like trees, boats, and houses into things that sprout legs and move—whether he wants to or not. Junior goes into a selfimposed exile on a small island, till the Life Stone’s effects prove temporary and Junior tells the artist he can give his masterpieces “immortal life—with your genius!” The World’s Mightiest Boy often encouraged people see the good side of life when things are gloomy.

Here he helped a disturbed artistic genius see the importance of his work in a positive light.

Fantasy The fantasy stories can be divided into three categories: parables, fables, and fairy tales. These stories showed that Captain Marvel (Senior) did not have a monopoly on whimsical and gentler stories. Parables are “usually religious stories with a moral.” At least two stories under Kurt Schaffenberger’s cover for Master Comics #117 consideration fall (Aug. 1950), which got squeezed out of our into this category. coverage last time. [©2003 DC Comics.] “The Witch of Winter” (CMJ #63) uses Greek mythology as a backdrop. When a snowstorm occurs in mid-summer, Junior flies to the abandoned subway tunnel—and the old wizard Shazam tells him that the Greek god Zeus bestowed prizes on Spring, Summer, and Fall (personified as beautiful goddesses) for the “creation of beauty on earth.” Winter, an “ugly, old witch,” became angry at being overlooked and has taken her wrath out by kidnapping her sisters and causing the severe blizzard. Junior forcefully takes the bitter old hag to visit three families that are suffering great hardships because of the cold weather; Winter soon relents, and so does the blizzard. This excellent story borrows content from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol as well as the Greek myths. The Bible is used as a source in “The Ark From Space” (CMJ #98). A meteor bombardment on the distant planet Smorxx causes Anho and his young friend to gather two by two all the planet’s animals into a space ark to escape the doomed world just before it explodes. The ark eventually arrives on Earth, where some of the strange animals frighten the locals. Captain Marvel Jr. persuades angry townspeople to welcome the aliens as friends. However, the Earth’s atmosphere proves toxic to the extraterrestrial creatures, so Junior and the locals repair the damaged Space Ark—and Junior collects all of the fragments of Smorxx and

Tom Mix In Comics

The Legendary

The Ralston Mix The Ralston Purina Company of St. Louis, Missouri, which sponsored the Tom Mix radio show, began offering a 32-page full-color premium comic in exchange for the blue seal from the end of a box of Ralston Wheat Cereal. The giveaway comic lasted for 12 issues, spanning a two-year period from September 1940 until November 1942. The first nine issues were simply entitled Tom Mix Comics, but the last three saw him trade in his cowboy outfit for army fatigues and form a special raiding force that operated behind the Axis lines; at that time the title changed to Tom Mix Commandos.

In Comics

The creative team that produced the Ralston comic was made up of Stan Schendel (editor and writer), Fred L. Meagher (penciler), and Bill Allison, inker. Schendel and Meagher had previously worked together in the late ’30s on the Gulf Funny Weekly’s (a Gulf Oil Corporation giveaway) feature, “Wings Winfair.” After the Mix Ralston comics, Fred Meagher (pronounced “marr,” as revealed in A/E V3#11) went on to illustrate Nabisco’s Straight Arrow “Injun-uity” cards which appeared as premiums inside Nabisco Shredded Wheat in the early 1950s, and to illustrate all 55 issues of Magazine Enterprises’ Straight Arrow comic from 1950-1956, as well as other Straight Arrow spin-offs. He produced one issue of Fury (Straight Arrow’s horse) for ME’s A-1 series and sixteen installments of the “Dan

The Comic Book History of Cowboy Tom Mix by Bill and Teresa Harper with Jon Lundin [Originally published in Under Western Skies No. 23, May 1983; some portions previously used in C.C. Beck’s FCA/SOB and Al Dellinges’ Near Mint. Reprinted with permission, with minor editing, courtesy and ©2003 Linda S. Downey.]

Edited for FCA by P.C. Hamerlinck Will the Real Tom Mix Please Stand Up? Famed world champion rodeo cowboy Tom Mix rode his fabulous horse Tony full-stride into the hearts of Americans in the 1930s. Mix made between 300-400 movies (silent and “talkies”), had association (by name) with a radio show that ran for 17 seasons, and generated hundreds of premiums and numerous writings—both fiction and non-fiction. Tom Mix was a natural for early comic art. During the ’30s, the Whitman Publishing Company of Racine, Wisconsin, released a series of Tom Mix “Big Little Books” which featured full-color front and back cover illustrations and full-page comic-style panels in black-and-white. Big Little Books were designed to fit into a child’s pocket, cost only a nickel, yet each book contained more than 400 pages—200 illustrations facing nearly 200 pages of type. The National Chicle Company had also used Tom Mix as a subject of comic art in the ’30s, printing a total of 48 different tiny premium booklets packaged with chewing gum. Tom Mix never appeared in a newspaper comic strip, however. And only a month or so before his death (in an automobile accident near Florence, Arizona, on October 12, 1940) did a full-fledged comic book finally appear bearing his name.

The cover of one of the Rals ton Purina premium Tom Mix Comics from 1941— a year after the movie cow boy’s real-life death. [©2 003 Ralston Purina.]

Tom Mix In Comics stories were such features as “Wash’s Favorite Magic Tricks,” “Strange Facts” collected by The Old Wrangler, Peco’s “Straight Shooter Round-Up” (drawings and verses sent in by fans of the show), and the episodes of the “Fumble Family & Amos Q. Snood.” Jane, who was Tom’s ward, was featured twice in the comic: once on a page of crafts for girls, and a second time, as the heroine of a medieval Arthurian fantasy called “Jane at Dream Castle,” where she regularly joined forces with a blond Tarzan look-alike named Strongbow to foil the schemes of Maldred, a wizard, and the cowardly squires of a villain named Sir Lard Tub.

Brand and Tipi” feature in the Durango Kid comic. During the ’50s Meagher also illustrated the Buffalo Bill newspaper strip.

Radio and the Comics The Tom Mix Ralston comics owed their inspiration to the Tom Mix radio show. In fact, readers were continually exhorted at the bottom of most story pages to tune in to the NBC Blue Network for the further adventures of The Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters: “Remember: Monday thru Friday, coast to coast,” the message ran, “5:45 to 6:00 p.m. is TOM MIX TIME ON THE AIR!” An entire episode of “Stubby and his Straight Shooter Pals,” a regular feature of the comic, was developed around a group of boys listening to the Ralston program on a big radio console. The comic’s back covers carried advertisements for the cereal, “the B-1 Breakfast,” usually including a testimonial from one of the characters on the show, and its inside covers pictured additional Tom Mix premiums, such as pocket knifes and decoder badges, and were available to Ralston eaters for little more than postage and the blue seal from the cereal box. One of the cereal’s ads proudly proclaimed: “Boys and girls who never liked cereal before fall for good old Ralston… with Raisins!” (Over the years, the cold cereal called Shredded Ralston became Shredded Ralston Wheat Chex, and eventually just Wheat Chex. Now, of course, there are also Rice Chex, Corn Chex—and Alfalfa Chex, for all we know.) Each of the regular characters on the show—Tom, Wash, Pecos, Jane, The Old Wrangler, and Amos Q. Snood—were represented in special sections of the comic. The issues started and ended with “Tom Mix” stories in which he pitted his strength against villains like Grizzly Grebb and Dr. Goliath, in addition to werewolves, submarines, flying dragons, and giant moray eels. Between these This page from issue #9 of the Ralston Tom Mix Comics showcased the mag’s creative staff. At bottom from left to right in the photos are Stan Schendel, Ray Bouvet, Fred Meagher, and Bill Allison. If the plaid shirt is any clue, that’s probably artist Meagher doubling for Tom Mix in the photo at top. [©2003 Ralston Purina.]

The Ralston comics were entertaining, varied, colorful, finely drawn, unconventional westerns. Since they were sent through the mail, they rarely appear today in fine condition.

C.C. Beck

The Birth, Life, and Death of Fawcett’s Captain Marvel The Co-Creator and Original Artist Talks in Depth about the Big Red Cheese by C.C. Beck Drawings by the Author [Portions previously published in The Buyer’s Guide For Comic Fandom #61-65, 1974]

Edited for FCA by P.C. Hamerlinck So many different versions of the birth and brief life of Captain Marvel have appeared in print recently that I have decided I must now add my own. I have told this same story to many an interviewer and writer but somehow it has never come out the same way twice when printed. Perhaps what should be done now is to have someone put all the published stories about Captain Marvel together, then retain all the portions that agree with each other and eliminate everything else. This is what Biblical scholars and other historians of the dim past do in their search for the truth. This present story might suffer some severe cutting in such a process, as I was in no position back in those days when Captain Marvel was being produced to know much about what was going on in any department but my own. As a matter of fact, I have reason sometimes to believe now that I didn’t know very much about what was going on in my own department where I was called “Chief Artist” (I never made it to “Art Director,” as Fawcett already had two of them and didn’t need another).

The Birth of Captain Marvel In the Fall of 1939 Bill Parker, a staff writer at Fawcett Publications, created among others the three comic characters Captain Marvel, Ibis the Invincible, and Spy Smasher, which were assigned to me as a staff artist to draw up. Pete Costanza was hired to draw Golden Arrow, while other artists such as Jess Benton, Bob Kingett [Editor’s Note: Kingett

A classic Captain Marvel introductory panel by C.C. Beck, shown at right in later years with a copy of the first issue of Whiz Comics, which introduced the Big Red Cheese to a waiting world. Photo by Bill Black. [©2003 DC Comics.]

drew the first Lance O’Casey story and lettered most of the first issue of Whiz Comics. —PCH], and others whose names I can’t recall got other characters to draw. Fawcett’s comics were a big hit, and almost overnight they grew to a point where Fawcett had to put on a whole staff of editors to handle everything. Contrary to what some writers have said, no Fawcett artists had anything officially to do with story scripts. They were all worked out between freelance writers and Fawcett editors. We artists had enough work making the drawings, believe me! A few of the artists, I have learned since, wrote some stories on the side and sold them to Fawcett. I even wrote one myself once [Editors Note: Beck’s story appeared in Whiz Comics #22, Oct. 1941, entitled “Captain Marvel and the Temple of Itzalotahu,” recently reprinted in