Alter Ego #29 Preview by TwoMorrows Publishing

Roy Thomas ’ Grave Grave Comics Comics F Fanzine anzine

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In the the USA USA In

No. 29

October 2003

Vol. 3, No. 29 /October 2003 Editor

™

Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout

Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor

P.C. Hamerlinck

Comic Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

Editors Emeritus

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

MONSTERS MALICIOUS & MIRTHFUL Section

Production Assistant

Eric Nolen-Weathington

Cover Artists Frank Brunner Pete Von Sholly

Contents

Cover Colorists Tom Ziuko Pete Von Sholly

And Special Thanks to: Gary Arlington Mark Austin Randall J. Barlow John Benson Chris Brown Frank Brunner Mike Burkey Orlando Busino Nick Caputo Gene Colan Dave Cockrum Jon B. Cooke Al Dellinges Roger Dicken & Wendy Hunt Shel Dorf Shelton Drum Tim Easterday Bill Fraccio George Gladir Stan Goldberg Paul Handler Dustin Harbin Daniel Herman

Richard Howell Thomas G. Lammers Stan Lee Steve Leialoha Pablo Marcos Michael Mikulovsky Mile-High Comics Fred Mommsen Brian K. Morris Dave O’Dell Jerry Ordway Tom Palmer John G. Pierce Larry Rippee Paul Rivoche Trina Robbins Pete Von Sholly Marc Swayze Dann Thomas Alex Toth Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Michael J. Vassallo Hames Ware Michael Zeno

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

William Woolfolk

Special Halloween Hulkorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 “I Didn’t Want to Draw Superman and Captain America!”. . . . . 3 A brief Halloween-oriented interview with the fantastic Frank Brunner.

“And Men Shall Call Him... Prototype!”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Tom Lammers looks at the foreshadowing—or something—of the Marvel Age of Comics.

“Doing Comics Was a Fun Learning Experience!” . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Bill Fraccio to Jim Amash on his years as a comic book penciler—and as half of “Tony Williamsune.”

A Talk with John Benson (Part III). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Bill Schelly concludes his conversation with the editor of the EC fanzine Squa Tront.

FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) #88 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 P.C. Hamerlinck presents Swayze, Colan, Ordway, Palmer, Cockrum, Marcos, and Pierce— plus a brief tribute to the late great Bill Woolfolk.

Horror, Terror, & Love Goddesses Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: It was a toss-up between two fabulous Brunner Batman pencil illustrations as to which would become our cover—definitely a no-lose situation! See them both in the pages that follow—plus lots more Brunner artwork drawn with the macabre in mind! [Art © 2003 Frank Brunner; Batman TM & © 2003 DC Comics.] Above: “Rorgg, King of the Spider Men” beat your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man into a Martin Goodman mag by nearly two years—but does that mean there was a cause-and-effect relationship between them? Read Tom Lammers’ microscopic scrutiny of the problematical, even controversial Marvel “prototypes,” beginning on p. 14. [© 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, $11.00 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.

Frank Brunner

“I Didn’t Want to Draw Superman or Captain America!”

A Brief Halloween-Oriented Interview with Formerly Far-Out FRANK BRUNNER Conducted by Roy Thomas (via e-mail) [Unless otherwise indicated, all art accompanying this interview was provided by the artist.] ROY THOMAS: In the interview in Comic Book Artist #6 you said that you originally had it in mind to be an underground cartoonist. Why was that, and what made you change your mind? FRANK BRUNNER: Back in 1968-69, it seemed as though the underground press was where things were happening. These were comics produced by young creative people without restrictions on style or content. After meeting some of them, I realized we had a lot in common. We listened to the same music, smoked the same “stuff,” spoke in similar terms, and dressed quite colorfully and, of course, we all were against the war going on at that time. So I set my cap and worked up some ideas for my entry into this subculture of comics. However, just as I was about to join them, they all left New York and headed (no pun intended) west to San Francisco! Well, that ended those plans, and I began to take another look at doing “overground” comics. My fanboy roots began to flourish and I started meeting new eager young writers and artists, who also were just breaking into the business. We all had ideas about changing comics, working around the Comics Code if possible, sneaking little things past management, and in general trying to expand what comics looked like beyond the very prevalent “house” styles that were fairly well entrenched at companies like DC and Marvel. RT: Your first published work appeared in black-&white horror mags. Did you always have an affinity for horror comics, or was it just a way you saw as your entrée into the field? You have said, after all, that you never saw yourself as a superhero artist. BRUNNER: Actually, my first solo story was published in Web of Horror #3 (“Santa’s Claws”). And by solo, I mean solo. I wrote it, penciled and inked it, and lettered it, too! Yes, I was an EC Comics fan, especially the horror and sci-fi books, but when the Code came along, all that ended for

Photo of Frank Brunner taken at the 2003 Heroes Con—and a black-&-white version of his penciled Batman/graveyard commission drawing that was used as this issue’s cover. To learn how to contact Frank to buy or commission original work, see the end of this piece. With thanks to Shelton Drum & Dustin Harbin of the Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find comics shop in Charlotte, NC; check out their website at <www.heroesonline.com>. [Art ©2003 Frank Brunner; Batman TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

“I Didn’t Want to Draw Superman or Captain America!”

Splash page of Frank’s first professional solo art effort, from Web of Horror #3 (April 1970). WoH was a “Warren wannabe” black-&-white horror comic which featured the developing work, in its three bimonthly 1969-70 issues, of newcomers (and future stars) like Jeff Jones, Bernie Wrightson, Michael Kaluta, Bruce Jones—and Frank Brunner. To learn more about their Web experience, pick up Comic Book Artist Collection, Vol. Two, available from TwoMorrows; see its ad bloc in this issue. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

color comics. Then came the Warren magazines (without the Code) and a chance to do some work that had teeth! I liked reading super-hero comics as a child, but after discovering those old pre-Code EC comics (while in my teens), I saw what could be done in the medium beyond just super-heroes! I didn’t want to draw Superman or Captain America, especially at a time when my country was trying to get me killed (or make me a killer) in Vietnam! And finally, yes, horror was the way I got into the business; not everyone could (or wanted to) draw the dark and stylish art these stories required. RT: Anything else you can remember about the Web of Horror experience besides what you said in Comic Book Artist #6, about how editor Terry Bisson left the company and so they canceled the mag right away? What was the second story you had done for Web, the one you wound up selling to Warren? BRUNNER: As you say, I don’t want to go over what happened to Web again. But when the publisher canceled Web (he really only wanted to do Cracked magazine), I had already completed stories for issues #4 and #5. Word got out that Warren was lusting after most of the artists who had done work for Web, so I took the stories over to his office and he instantly bought the story called “Eye of Newt, Toe of Frog,” written by Gerry Conway. The other story, “Sword of Dragonus,” he wanted also, but I got it published in a very slick “pro-zine” entitled Phase #1. I had plans to continue doing “Dragonus” stories and wanted to retain the rights to the character. [See Star*Reach #3.] RT: You did three stories for Marvel’s color comic Chamber of Chills.

The splash page of a story Frank drew for James Warren’s Creepy or Eerie. It was never published. [© =2003 Frank Brunner.]

Frank Brunner The first of these was the Robert E. Howard adaptation “The Monster from the Mound,” scripted by Gardner Fox—at least I’m assuming you drew them in the order in which they were published. Any particular recollections of that story? It was reprinted a few years back by Cross Plains Comics, the REH-based company, under its original Howard title “The Horror from the Mound.” BRUNNER: Well, it was my first solo story for Marvel, and my first full-color comic book story, and that first printing (in Chamber of Chills #2) was the best printing it ever got. Later, Marvel reprinted it in one of its black-&-white magazines, and somebody put in all these dark marker tones obscuring most or the drawing. Then, as you say, Cross Plains Comics reprinted it again, using the terrible stats that Marvel used to make. (Marvel’s stat machine seemed to have only one setting, and only the thick and darkest line work would reproduce), so just about all my feathering work dropped out! I offered Cross Plains the opportunity to shoot from my originals, but they wanted to avoid paying me anything, so that’s why it looks the way it does! RT: I think Cross Plains’ idea was to pay, if its comics had made money; but they didn’t, because, though they sold well in comics shops, most store owners wouldn’t order more than the absolute

handful they knew they could sell three seconds after they arrived. The REH comics sold well where they got out, so it was a very shortsighted view on their part. Anyway—I presume Gardner wrote a full script for that story, right? Did you make any changes, or feel that you could have? Did I or someone else talk with you about the story before you drew it? Did you read Howard’s original prose story before doing the art, as well as the script? BRUNNER: I’m pretty sure it was a full script, and no, I made no changes I can remember. We might have talked briefly about the story, but I was most concerned about getting it in on time. I’m a slow inker, and this was my debut appearance for Marvel as penciler. I did not read the original Howard story. I didn’t own a copy at the time, and besides I was mainly into his barbarian stories. For horror I read mostly Lovecraft in the early ’70s. RT: Did you feel any particular restrictions because of the Comics Code (besides the name change, of course)? BRUNNER: You bet your fetid bones I did! We (the artists) were not even allowed to depict red blood, and if any blood were shown it was black.

(Left:) The first Brunner-drawn story in a Marvel comic—and a color mag, at that—debuted in Chamber of Chills #2 (Jan. 1973), based on a Robert E. Howard vampire story from Weird Tales pulp magazine for May 1932. In 1972 the Comics Code still objected to the use of the words “horror” or “terror” in story titles or on covers... though they didn’t object mentioning the story’s original name in the credits. (Right:) In August 2000 the Fox/Brunner adaptation was reprinted by Cross Plains Comics under editor/publisher Richard Ashford—in black-&-white with grey-tones added, with the original credits moved to the inside front cover, with the first caption “typeset”—and with the “Monster” in the title altered to the correct “Horror.” Too bad the exclamation point wasn’t omitted, too; but the $5.95 comic, Robert E. Howard’s Horror, was well-received and well-reviewed, and also contained art by Gene Day, Sandy Plunkett, and Steve Lightle. [©2003 Robert E. Howard Properties, LLC.]

“And Men Shall Call Him... PROTOTYPE!”

“And Men Shall Call Him... PROTOTYPE!” A Look at the Foreshadowing––––or Something–––of the Marvel Age of Comics

by Thomas G. Lammers [All art, unless noted, provided by the author or by Alter Ego’s editor.]

Part I Pre-Hero Prototypes Everybody knows them. We’ve all seen them. Amazing Fantasy #15. Journey into Mystery #83. Fantastic Four #1. Tales of Suspense #39. Strange Tales #110. Those crucial first appearances of the heroes who defined what Stan Lee dubbed the Marvel Age of Comics. Some of the most highly desirable (and outrageously expensive) properties in all comicdom. But what if those were not exactly the first appearances of those heroes? What if one could find earlier incarnations of Iron Man or Ant-Man or Dr. Strange in the company’s pre-super-hero books? To see a “market test” of Spider-Man or The Hulk—wouldn’t that be great fun! And wouldn’t that make an otherwise pedestrian comic much more desirable... and much more expensive? We know that editor Stan Lee did such things—at least once. Before resurrecting the company’s Golden Age standard-bearer, Captain America, in Avengers #4 (March 1964), we were treated to an ersatz Cap in the “Human Torch” story in Strange Tales #114 (Nov. 1963). At the end of the story, Lee made it clear that he was indeed gauging the potential for a comeback: “You guessed it! This story was really a test! To see if you, too, would like Captain America to return! As usual, your letters will give us the answer!” If Lee (or publisher Martin Goodman) didn’t want to bring back a former top-seller without a try-out, how much less A trial balloon that flew—or did it? As related above, a bogus Captain America (the villainous Acrobat in disguise) appeared in the “Human Torch” tale in Strange Tales #114 (Nov. 1963), of which we’ve repro’d the cover and a key page. (Interestingly, Cap’s trunks are colored an incorrect red throughout the story, while, on the cover, blue seems to have been laid in over red trunks, making them purple.) The real Cap returned just four months later, in The Avengers #4 (March ’64)—hardly sufficient lead-time to have gauged reader reaction, since Avengers #4 would likely have been in the works by the time S.T. #114 went on sale. Either the Marvel offices were bombarded with letters almost instantaneously upon Cap’s faux comeback and the Real McCap was rushed into print—or else editor Stan Lee and publisher Martin Goodman made up their minds to revive him without waiting for readers’ response (let alone sales reports!). A/E’s editor holds with the latter view, but he’s open to arguments. Thanks to Mark Austin & Chris Brown for the art scans. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The Foreshadowing–––or Something–––of the Marvel Age of Comics likely would he be to inaugurate totally new characters untested? And so was born the concept of the Marvel Pre-Hero Prototypes. Searching through earlier issues of Marvel’s comics reveals any number of stories that in one way or another remind us of our beloved superheroes of the 1960s and beyond. These stories have come to be regarded as prototypes of that which came after. The concept of super-hero prototypes is most closely associated with The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. In the most recent (32nd) edition1, 34 pre-hero issues of Amazing Adult Fantasy, Journey into Mystery, Strange Tales, Tales of Suspense, and Tales to Astonish are identified as “prototype issues.” In fact, the concept is even applied to stories pre-dating the May 1957 “Atlas Implosion” that reduced Goodman’s empire from over 60 titles to a mere 16: three stories in Mystic and Uncanny Tales are likewise considered prototypes. All these stories allegedly foreshadow the development of major heroes (e.g., Spider-Man, Hulk, Dr. Strange) as well as villains (e.g., Dr. Doom, Sandman, Mr. Hyde).

“What Do You Mean, ‘Prototype’?” My dictionary5 defines prototype as “an original model or pattern from which subsequent copies are made, or improved specimens developed.” It is very much a word associated with manufacturing: companies frequently create prototypes as part of marketing research and product development. Before Boeing delivered the first B-17 Flying Fortress to the Army Air Corps in 1936, it produced the Model 299 prototype as a testbed for the production of four-engine heavy bombers.6 Before General Motors introduced the Buick Skylark in 1953, it created the XP-300 concept car and put it on the auto show circuit, to test the reaction of the motoring public.7

Although it is not stated explicitly, it seems to me that a prototype of this sort embodies the concept of intent. In my view, an object is a prototype only if its creator intended to use it as a model or pattern from which to develop subsequent specimens. Therefore, a pre-hero character can be regarded as a prototype for a subsequent character only if there was a conscious Until recent editions, intent to use it to gauge the Overstreet Guide reader reaction and sales carried a very explicit potential. For example, Stan account of how these issues Lee says to Jack Kirby, “I came to be identified as wonder what readers would prototypes. For example, think about a series the 28th edition2 stated (p. featuring a guy inside a 963), “Some of today’s powered metal suit. Let’s popular super-hero whip up a little story for characters were developed Tales of Suspense with a from or after earlier forms guy like that and see what or prototypes. These kind of mail we get. If the prototype characters response is good, maybe I sometimes were introduced Beginning in 1974, Marvel produced an annual calendar featuring its most popular can sell Goodman on a to test new ideas and heroes at that time, with a cover by John Romita. Dracula and Conan the Barbarian regular series.” If such were concepts which later had pre-existed Marvel Comics, and were themselves virtual prototypes for every later the case, I would say such a developed into full fledged vampire and sword-and-sorcery hero. [Conan TM!&!©2003 Conan Properties, Inc.; story could fairly be super heros [sic], or old other characters ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.] considered a prototype, “an material sometimes would original model or pattern from which... improved specimens [were] inspire new characters. Below is a list of all known prototypes. The developed.” Marvel/Atlas issues have been verified by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and Jack Kirby.” Curiously, such a statement is not found in the 2002 But what if there was no intent? What if, when the earlier tale was edition. first prepared, it was just another story, with no thought given to possible future development of the character? Later, a certain type of Many have criticized the whole idea of Marvel Pre-Hero character is needed, and the writer or artist harks back (consciously or Prototypes.3 Though the concept is well known among buyers and unconsciously) to this earlier work for ideas or inspiration, thus creating sellers of comics, it is not found in most published histories of the the perceived similarities between the two. Rather than a “prototype,” Marvel Universe.4 In this series, I want to explore this concept in some might it not be better to call such a story or the character in it a detail. We first will consider what it means to be a prototype, and ask precursor or forerunner of the later character? These words denote a whether this is the best term to describe the perceived similarities thing that precedes subsequent development, but do not carry the between pre-hero and later characters. Then, we will examine the stories connotation of intent or deliberate planning. In fact, it allows for the listed by the Overstreet Guide as prototypes, judging their status. possibility that the perceived similarities are entirely unintentional. Finally, just for the fun of it, we will examine additional stories, some Furthermore, while the word “prototype” is associated with manufacgoing back to the early ’50s, that have not been identified as prototypes, turing, a precursor or forerunner has a more naturalistic, almost evolubut which might seem to have as much claim to such a designation as tionary implication, which seems to me more in tune with the nature of some of the others. the creative process.

“And Men Shall Call Him... PROTOTYPE!”

How Can You Recognize a Prototype? If we wish to distinguish true prototypes from mere precursors, how do we judge intent? How can we ascertain, 40 years after the fact, whether a particular story was intended to serve as a trial balloon for a subsequent super-hero or villain? The seemingly obvious answer—“Ask the creators!”—might actually yield the poorest results. In numerous interviews over the years, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and others who worked at Marvel in the early 1960s have been asked repeatedly about various events surrounding the creation of the Marvel Universe. For whatever reasons, their memories in many cases have proven unreliable. Not only are the recollections of different individuals in conflict; in some cases, a given person’s memories also have changed over the years. If we cannot rely on creators’ memories, we must per force seek internal evidence of intent—evidence from the books themselves. What form might this take? The most obvious evidence would be an editorial note seeking reader input, similar to the one at the end of the Captain America story in Strange Tales #114. Such invitations of input were not infrequent in books edited by Stan Lee, both during the ’50s and into the ’60s. For example, World’s Greatest Songs #1 (Sept. 1954) carried a half-page plea headed “Now YOU Tell US...” in which Lee invited readers to “write and tell us what you like and don’t like about ‘World’s Greatest Songs.’” Similarly, on the first page of Patsy Walker #124 (Dec. 1965), we read: “Important! In order to find out which kind of story you, the readers, prefer... we’re presenting three Patsy and Hedy adventures this month! There’s one tale of romance, one of glamour ... and this fun-filled action story! Please write, and tell us which one you liked best!!” Lee clearly was not shy about asking for feedback. If reader input is explicitly solicited in an alleged prototype story, it could be taken as a sign of

intent. It is significant that not a single one of the alleged prototype stories contains such a plea. Very close correspondence between an alleged prototype and its supposed derivative might also count as evidence of intent. As we shall see, the perceived similarities that suggest relationships between pre-hero and subsequent characters are of four types: (1) close correspondence in character attributes; (2) close correspondence in story plot; (3) strong visual resemblance; or (4) possession of the same name. One would think that either of the first two might be a better indicator of a true relationship between character and alleged prototype than either of the last two by themselves. Furthermore, if the similarity involved three or all four of these aspects, it might be interpreted as an indication of intent. It is only fair to note that the opportunity for close resemblance will be somewhat constrained by the difference in genres. None of the alleged prototype stories are super-hero tales, as the titles in which these stories appeared were anthologies devoted to various kinds of fantasy or mystery stories. The most prominent were the “giant monster” stories, no doubt inspired by the many films of that sort produced during the 1950s, e.g., The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), Them! (1954), and The Beginning of the End (1957). In such tales, an enormous creature of some sort menaces the human race, and is overcome by an otherwise unremarkable protagonist. Other stories were modern morality plays, often with O. Henry twist endings, of the sort popularized by the Twilight Zone television series of the day. In these, a criminal or otherwise disreputable character would get his comeuppance or learn a lesson in some ironic, often supernatural way. Still others were straight science-fiction tales, with spaceships, robots, alien invaders, and distant planets. Because of these differences in genre, none of the alleged prototypes will precisely match the super-hero character supposedly derived from it. If a story were truly intended as a market test for a new character, one might expect it would be depicted on the cover. In the newsstand era, covers were widely regarded as a key factor to sales. An intriguing, eye-catching cover could mean the difference between sellthrough and massive returns to the distributor. If the whole point of a prototype was to gauge a character’s potential to generate sales, it would only make sense to have featured it prominently on the cover.

Patsy Walker #124 (Dec. ’65) asked whether readers preferred “romance,” “glamour,” or “fun-filled action”? The Al Hartleydrawn Patsy soon vanished from newsstands—to return a decade later in Avengers #144 (Feb. 1976) as a super-heroine called Hellcat. Maybe this was considered “fun-filled action”? Cover art by Gil Kane & Frank Giacoia. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

One other factor bears mention in our attempt to evaluate the claims of these stories to prototype status. Stan Lee is widely credited with creating or co-creating the super-hero characters that became the Marvel Universe.8 Almost every one of those key origin stories, in Fantastic Four #1 and the rest, was scripted (or at least plotted) by Lee. He seems to have signed

“And Men Shall Call Him... PROTOTYPE!”

Will The Real Incredible Hulk Please Stand Up!

The Lee-Kirby Hulk, inked by Paul Reinman, from the splash of The Incredible Hulk #1 (May 1962), flanked by three earlier proto-Marvel Hulks. (Clockwise from top right:) Kirby and Ayers’ Xemnu, from Journey into Mystery #62—the Ditkodrawn movie-poster from Tales to Astonish #21—and the robotic/exo-skeletal Hulk from Strange Tales #75 (June 1960, of which more next issue). There was even a cowboy bad-guy of that nomenclatural persuasion in an issue of Gunsmoke Western as far back as 1960; more about him in #30, too. Xemnu, by the way, was orange in his original appearances, but white when he faced The Defenders a decade later. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The Foreshadowing–––or Something–––of the Marvel Age of Comics

Take a deep breath and see if you can follow this: Xemnu, the Living Hulk, may (or may not) have been inspired by Bugs Bunny theatrical cartoons (above), as Tom Lammers reports—but Xemnu’s stint pretending to be a Big-Bird-type puppet on a kiddie-TV show (top right) in the Ross Andru/Bill Everett-drawn third “Defenders” outing in Marvel Feature #3 (June 1972) reflected the impact made in 1952 on 11year-old future scripter Roy Thomas by the Gaines/Feldstein/Orlando story “The People’s Choice” in EC’s Weird Science #16 (below)—a chilling send-up of the early TV puppet show Kukla, Fran, and Ollie (photo at right), wherein Allie Gator turns out to be an alien, who is elected President and promptly takes over the Earth for his kind. See? Everything has prototypes—or at least precursors, or forerunners, or something. [Defenders art ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.; EC art ©2003 William M. Gaines, Agent; Bugs Bunny art ©2003 AOL!Time-Warner; Kukla &!Ollie TM &!©2003 Estate of Burr Tillstrom.]

1961). He is the star of a monster film, an apparently enormous alien from outer space. He has a generalized anthropoid shape, with somewhat bumpy orange skin. Again, all of the elements that make The Hulk what he is are absent. This is no prototype, nor much of a precursor; the only commonality is the name. (Yet another “Hulk” will be described in Part II of this series, under Iron Man.) One of the Hulk’s earliest adversaries, the Toad Men from Incredible Hulk #2 (Jul 1962), allegedly got a try-out in Tales to Astonish #7 (Jan. 1960). In “We Met in the Swamp” (5 pp.), penciled by Kirby and inked by Ditko, an old hermit recounts an encounter with alien creatures. These creatures are short, rather silly-looking, and carry guns, thus resembling the alien invaders defeated by The Hulk. Much of this resemblance may be due to the fact that the Toad Men were also drawn by Kirby and inked by Ditko. Although it is difficult to accept that Goodman or Lee would want to test-market a minor opponent for a super-hero who hadn’t been created yet, the numerous similarities argue for at least regarding these earlier aliens as precursors of the Toad Men.

Bill Fraccio

“Doing Comics Was A Fun Learning Experience!” Veteran Artist BILL FRACCIO Talks about His Years as a Penciler—and as Half of “TONY WILLIAMSUNE” Interview Conducted and Transcribed by Jim Amash

(Top:) Bill Fraccio today—and (at right) a recent illo (drawn for Roy Thomas) of two squabbling 1960s Charlton superheroes, Son of Vulcan and Blue Beetle. Actually, back in early ’65, Bill penciled the first two scripts Roy sold—for Son of Vulcan #50 (Jan. ’66) and Blue Beetle #54 (Feb.-March ’66). Since the covers of those mags were printed in Comic Book Artist #9 and Alter Ego #20, respectively, and both main splashes appeared in A/E #8, on this page are a pair of secondary Fraccio & Tallarico splash pages from those issues. Photo & original art courtesy of Bill Fraccio. [New art ©2003 Bill Fraccio; previously published art ©2003 DC Comics; Son of Vulcan &!Blue Beetle TM!& ©2003 DC!Comics.]

“Doing Comics Was A Fun Learning Experience!” [INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: Bill Fraccio (pronounced Frah’-chi-oh) was the first artist to draw a script written by A/E’s editor, Roy Thomas. While Charlton’s Son of Vulcan was hardly the highlight of either man’s career, I mention it because my purpose in doing this article was twofold. The first was to surprise Roy, which it did; but of primary importance is the recording of Bill Fraccio’s career, which deserved and needed documenting. There have been many unanswered questions in this regard, and now Bill tells us his side of those stories, including the secret of late-’60s Warren artist “Tony Williamsune”! Bill’s career involves more than just Charlton and Warren, but he’ll tell us about them, and about Hillman, Fawcett, and Graham Ingels—starting right now. —Jim.] JIM AMASH: When and where were you born? BILL FRACCIO: In Mount Vernon, New York, July 9, 1920. They didn’t have comic books when I was young, you know. [laughs] JA: Right, but you had the newspaper strips. When did you decide to become a cartoonist? FRACCIO: When I needed to make a living. I went to the same art school [American School of Design] as Fred Kida. He got out of school before I did, and started working at Hillman Publications. Fred was the one who got me into comics. He was a nice, softspoken guy. His father was Japanese and his mother was Norwegian, I think. And we were both big Milton Caniff fans.

I started out as an inker on Bob Fujitani’s “Iron Ace” feature. Bob was a real character and he was at the American School of Design with Fred and me. Bob was one of the stars of the school... actually the three of us were. His pencils were tight and easy to ink. He was a very conscientious, personable guy. He met his wife at the school. Bob was a talker and a wild and crazy guy; you had to like him. I inked a lot of Fred’s and Bob’s work. I’d go over to their houses and work. “Airboy” was Kida’s big feature. Kida and I used to play the clarinet while we were doing these jobs. It sort-of relaxed us in between, because there was a lot of pressure to meet those deadlines. I don’t remember how much we were paid, but it wasn’t much. Kida’s brotherin-law was an agent and he could have gotten better-paying work for Fred, but he wanted to do comics. JA: Do you know if Kida and Fujitani experienced any racial prejudice during the Second World War? FRACCIO: I don’t think they did, but you must remember that there were several Japanese working in comics during this time. There was one guy, George Greg, who changed his last name from Mabuchi. He penciled and inked and was good. I helped him on a few jobs; he later got into doing portraits. George was born in Japan but his brother was born here. He got into trouble for that, and George got into all kinds of crap because of his brother, but it wasn’t really all that bad. It was just a pain in the neck. I also remember Dan Barry from those days. He was a live wire. I didn’t see him that much, though. He’d push his personality on you, so you had to like him. Barry worked so fast that I don’t think he was really looking at the pages when he drew. He turned out so much stuff that he was like a printing press. Dan always needed money.

World War II was on and the companies needed artists, so Fred took me over to meet editor Ed Cronin at Hillman. Fred gave me some pointers. I practiced with a brush before I saw Cronin, taking with me both penciled and inked samples. Cronin was a nice guy—a little fussy, but he was watching out for his job. They had a whole floor where Hillman did comics and magazines, like Pageant. They had a little room for artists, but that was mainly for corrections. I didn’t have to do corrections very often. Cronin had an assistant editor, but I don’t remember his name.

Title Comic Fandom Archive

A Talk with John Benson The Editor of Squa Tront Talks about WILL EISNER, WALLY WOOD and witzend, His Alter Ego Interview with GIL KANE, His 1966 New York Comicon, & Much More!

Part III by Bill Schelly Introduction [In the first two parts of this interview, John filled us in on his early years, his love affair with Mad and EC comics, and the many comics fanzines that were published in the late 1950s, such as Ron Parker’s Hoohah! We also found out how his ground-breaking interviews with Harvey Kurtzman and Bernard Krigstein came about. In this concluding segment, we move into the mid-1960s and even the early ’70s, as John reminisces about comic fandom in the NYC area, including the informal monthly meetings of comic book fans and pros that took place in the apartments of various pros. [This interview was conducted in January 2003, and was transcribed by Brian K. Morris. It was edited by John Benson and Bill Schelly. [©2003 by Bill Schelly] BILL SCHELLY: How did you get Will Eisner to agree to that great interview for witzend? JOHN BENSON: Even earlier than that interview, I was, I’m pretty certain, the first comic book fan ever to contact Eisner. Maybe there were readers who contacted him when The Spirit was being published, but I’m talking about after. I was a big fan of The Spirit, so I thought, “I’ll go up and talk to the guy.” That was in August 1961. So I just walked in. BS: [laughs] I guess that’s a pretty good method, huh? BENSON: Well, it wasn’t that good. I walked into his office and I told him I was a fan of The Spirit,

[Above, left to right:] Dick Blackburn (mentioned in this interview), Bill Pearson (ditto; back to camera), John Benson, and convention co-host Phil Seuling at the 1968 SCARP-Con cocktail party; photo courtesy of JB. “SCARP” stood for “Society of Comic Art Restoration & Preservation.” [Center:] From the late 1960s on, Will Eisner was supportive of comics conventions; here’s his Spirit-ed drawing from the second San Diego Comic-Con (1971), with thanks to Shel Dorf. [Below:] Eisner and fans at the 1968 SCARP-Con, covered later in this installment; thanks to Fred Mommsen. [Art ©2003 Will Eisner.]

and all. And I remember that he was absolutely desperate to avoid having me sit down, because if I sat down, then I would be there for more than thirty seconds. [laughs] He was very cordial, but he immediately stood up and came around his desk and kept standing. He was obviously anxious to get me out of his office as soon as he could. He seemed very surprised that someone would be interested enough in The Spirit to visit him at that time. It seemed very much in the dark past to him. Rather different from my contact with Feiffer around the same time. Arnold Roth had invited me to a lecture Feiffer gave in Philadelphia. I wrote about this in the latest issue of Squa Tront. I was able to talk to Feiffer at the cocktail party afterward. He was a little surprised that I knew of his connection with The Spirit, but he quite understood my

Comics Fandom Archive

fascination with the strip. Anyhow, I reported on that first contact with Eisner, not the part about not sitting down, in my fanzine Image, which I reprinted in the most recent Squa Tront. I think I must have said to Eisner, “I’ve interviewed Harvey Kurtzman,” and he said, “Oh, well, why don’t you talk to Kurtzman, then? He knows all about me.” You know, “What can I say to get this guy out of my office?” So I interviewed Kurtzman again for Image. BS: Why didn’t Eisner want to talk to you himself? BENSON: Well, that was in 1961, and I was just some kid, twenty years old, walking into his office where he was publishing commercial stuff, and he was busy. Again, The Spirit seemed much further in the past then than it is now. So it was like Krigstein being amazed that somebody even remembered the stuff. BS: But you eventually did get to interview him for witzend in, I think, 1968. BENSON: Right. By that time he was aware that there was some fan interest in The Spirit. He was a guest at the 1968 SCARP-Con. I remember, during that interview, he hinted that possibly he may not have been very enthusiastic about the war in Viet Nam, but he cut that out in the published transcript. The Army was still a client at the time. All through those early conventions, first thing, I would go around to every table and say, [excited] “Do you have any Spirits?” I built a complete set that way. I got virtually a complete set of the tabs from Ron Goulart. God, I was making, like, a hundred bucks a week, or something, and I would be sending him these $250 checks. I don’t know how I did it. “Don’t sell them to anyone else, Ron. I’ll send you a check in a couple of weeks. Hold on.” I bought them in three or four batches.

about Wally was when I took him up to the Boston NewCon in 1978. The transcript of the Wood-Krigstein-Kurtzman panel at that convention is in the latest Squa Tront. He was living in Connecticut then, and I stopped off on the way up from New York to pick up Wally and Bill Pearson. Wally sat in the back seat, and when I got back to the city I discovered it was like the Peanuts character Pigpen had been back there. There were empty cans, and papers and wrappers and potato chip crumbs all over. [laughs] He was already in decline by that time, obviously. BS: Let’s move on to comics conventions. BENSON: Yeah, you have to go back to ’64. It was one day, a weekday, and I think Dick Lupoff wrote a review of that convention... BS: I ran it in The Golden Age of Comic Fandom. BENSON: ...where he spends half of the time complaining that it was on a weekday afternoon. BS: And then the other half complaining that there were young kids around, and that everybody was scrambling for issues of Jimmy Olsen and Superboy, which I just know wasn’t the case.

At left, Wally Wood relaxes after an editor’s panel at the 1968 SCARP-Con (photo from program book sent by Fred Mommsen). At right is Wally’s superlative cover for the April 1959 issue of Galaxy science-fiction magazine, courtesy of Michael T. Gilbert. [©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

BS: That Eisner interview appeared witzend #6, when Bill Pearson was publisher, but weren’t you also connected with the magazine at the beginning when Wally Wood was publishing it? What did you do on witzend then?

BENSON: I don’t remember exactly. Probably a lot of miscellaneous stuff like pasting things up, writing captions and incidental editorial material, stuffing envelopes, I don’t know. My name is in there as “Staff” for a few issues. At that time, Wally lived in a tenement walk-up about five blocks from my apartment. I think it was the same apartment that he had in the EC days. The stairs going up to his apartment sloped inward towards the central shaft. You always felt that someday the stairs would collapse. The apartment had a fairly large kitchen, and Wally had a little studio set up at one end. Someone recently wrote a piece, I wish I could remember where, about working with Wood in those days. [NOTE: It was artist Dan Adkins; see Alter Ego V3#8. —Roy.] This writer described these balls of dust suspended on wires from the ceiling, which he eventually realized had been model airplanes once. Wally was a really nice guy, but he perpetually lived in a world of disappointment. He just knew somebody was going to screw him; I don’t mean his personal friends, I mean professionally. And, darn!—they always did. My favorite anecdote

the thing had disbanded.

BENSON: I’m not so sure. I went to that convention. I was in New York in ’64. However, I had a job... basically the same complaint as Lupoff’s. I was literally there, but didn’t exactly attend. I went there after work, and I arrived just as it was breaking up. It was in a tiny room in, I believe, Academy Hall. I think it was the same building where William Everson had the Theodore Huff Film Society in for years. There was nothing but kids left there when I was there. Well, Seuling was one of four or five dealers lined up in the back, and they were still doing business, like, after

BS: So then comes 1965 and the first full-fledged attempt at a comic con, which we covered in Alter Ego in exhaustive detail. [laughs] Wasn’t that when you actually met Gil Kane and decided to interview him? BENSON: Yeah. I described that meeting in my introduction to the Kane interview, which you reprinted in your Best of Alter Ego book. I had been sitting there, rather bored. It was the last panel of the convention, and I hadn’t found the panel the day before very interesting. It seemed to me at the time that, to the pros on the panels, it had been just a job of work. But then, in the last panel, there were these two firebrands, Jim Warren and Gil Kane. I thought Kane was saying exciting stuff... although if the excerpts printed in Alter Ego #20 are an indication, it must have been his style as much as what he said that impressed me. I ran up to him right after that panel and said, [excited] “Mr. Kane, I’ve gotta interview you! [laughs] You know, I did this other interview and can we just get together and do an interview?” I didn’t mention in that introduction that I thought he was Bob Kane

HALCYON HALLOWEEN ISSUE!

No. 88 Our 30th Year! 1973-2003

Marc Swayze

mds& (c) [Art

[FCA EDITORS NOTE: From 1941-53, Marcus D. Swayze was a top artist for Fawcett Comics. The very first Mary Marvel character sketches came from Marc’s drawing table, and he illustrated her earliest adventures, including the classic Mary Marvel origin story, “Captain Marvel Introduces Mary Marvel (CMA #18, Dec. ’42); but he was primarily hired by Fawcett Publications to illustrate Captain Marvel stories and covers for Whiz Comics and Captain Marvel Adventures. He also wrote many Captain Marvel scripts, and continued to do so while in the military. After leaving the service, he made an arrangement with Fawcett to produce art and stories for them on a freelance basis out of his Louisiana home. There he

created both art and story for The Phantom Eagle in Wow Comics, in addition to drawing the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip for Bell Syndicate (created by his friend and mentor Russell Keaton). After the cancellation of Wow, Swayze produced artwork for Fawcett’s topselling line of romance comics. After the company ceased publishing comics, Marc moved over to Charlton Publications, where he ended his comics career in the mid-’50s. Marc’s ongoing professional memoirs have been FCA’s most popular feature since his first column appeared in FCA #54, 1996. In this issue, Marc backtracks to discuss his associations with comic strip creators Russell Keaton, Zack Mosley, and Rick Yager. —P.C. Hamerlinck.] Russell Keaton once said, “Carey Orr didn’t recommend solid blacks in backgrounds.”

Keaton, originator of Flyin’ Jenny, the first aviation comic strip to feature a female pilot, was making a final inspection of the week’s work, prior to mailing. When the statement was made I had no idea who he was talking about, but I knew what he was talking about. College art classes, helpful and appreciated as they had been, did not go into the subject of “solid blacks in backgrounds” as did comic strip artists.

Carey Orr, I learned, was a popular editorial cartoonist with the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate. He was also a widely admired instructor at the Chicago Academy of Art, which may have been where Keaton came to know Zack Mosley. Or maybe it was when the two were co-workers and pals at the John F. Dille Syndicate. Mosley, creator of the long-lasting newspaper strip Smilin’ Jack, has been rightfully accorded a place in the history of aviation comics. He could also be credited with having been one of the pioneers possessing

A Swayze-drawn “Captain Marvel” splash page from Whiz Comics #38 (Dec. 1942). The racially-stereotyped Steamboat, developed before Marc came to work for Fawcett, was dropped shortly thereafter. [© 2003 DC Comics.]

The influence of Smilin’ Jack accounted for the “great number of pen-line mustaches and crooked smiles seen around the airports of the day.” Sketch by Marc Swayze. [Art ©2003 Marc Swayze; Smilin’ Jack ©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

Those Marvel-ous Monsters

Captain Marvel and Those Marvel-ous Monsters by Michael Mikulovsky As a kid growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the 1970s, I always loved monsters. Not only on Shock Theatre on TV, but also all those great monster mags of the time: Famous Monsters of Filmland, Eerie, and Creepy. Then Marvel’s second “monster explosion” hit the scenes in the early ’70s. I went nuts! All my favorite monsters—plus some new ones—by all these great writers and talented artists! Even though I was always a so-called “Marvel zombie,” in the late 1980s I became a huge fan of the original Captain Marvel, because of the release on videotape of the old Republic serial and Jerry Ordway’s beautifully-painted graphic novel. Every fan has his/her own dream project which they would love to write or draw or just see published. Mine would be to see Captain Marvel star in a whole month’s worth of weekly titles. With a story with a Halloween theme that ties it all together—Cap battling an array of classic monsters, drawn by their Marvel Comics artist counterparts: Dracula by Gene (The Dean) Colan, The Zombie by Pablo Marcos, an updated Creature from the Black Lagoon by Dave Cockrum or Frank Brunner—also the Werewolf by Night and Frankenstein’s Monster by Mike Ploog. And all inked by Tom Palmer or Jerry Ordway. I’m still hoping to finish my personal quest by getting Frank Brunner and Mike Ploog to do the characters I mentioned above, but I’ve made a good start—and I’d like to thank all the artists for all their hard work, and Jon B. Cooke for all his help! And best of luck to producer Michael Uslan and screenwriter William Goldman, the announced team supreme on the upcoming Shazam! movie. FCA EDITOR’S NOTE: You sure have made a good start, Michael! And thanks for sharing your prizes with the readers of FCA and Alter Ego! Maybe by next year you’ll have even more goodies to lay on us! You’ve already glimpsed the Jerry Ordway-inked version of Gene Colan’s Captain Marvel-vs.-Dracula pencils on our FCA interior cover a few pages back. Above is the same cover inked by Tom Palmer, renowned as the inker of Gene’s Tomb of Dracula work for much of the 1970s. Alas, Michael had to photograph this version through glass, in a way that left a pattern, but we figured you’d want you to see it, all the same. Used by permssion of the artists. [Art ©2003 Gene Colan & Tom Palmer; Captain Marvel TM & ©2003 DC Comics; Marvel version of Dracula TM & ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Captain Marvel Faces Fear

Captain Marvel Adventures #89 Examined by John G. Pierce

Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

Preface The Bible, in I John 4:18, tells us that “perfect love casts out fear.” In the “Captain Marvel” story I discuss in this review, knowledge casts out fear. We fear the unknown, and often fear what we don’t need to fear at all. That seems to be the message of this story– a story, like so many “Captain Marvel” tales, not meant just to entertain, but to enlighten and inspire.

Largely due to the misinterpretation of Captain Marvel by DC Comics, and the fact that comics historians generally have failed to chronicle the full scope of Captain Marvel’s adventures of the past, today’s readers frequently tend to think of the original “Captain Marvel” stories as having been strictly in a humorous vein. But even a perfunctory C.C. Beck’s cover for Captain Marvel Adventures #89. glance at some of the old Fawcett comics would easily dispel any such mistaken notions. And one prime example is Captain Marvel Adventures #89 (Oct. 1948), and particularly its lead story, “Captain Marvel Faces Fear!” Fear is presented as a tangible entity with flowing white robes and a Spectre-like hood. Inviting the reader to witness his power, Fear introduces the story with a scientist who, having completed an invention, turns it over to a delivery boy. When the boy gets a look at the package’s label, which says ‘Atomic Engine,’ he jumps to the conclusion that he is carrying an atomic bomb. The youngster promptly disposes of the package in a trashcan, while Fear gloats that “The news will spread like contagion.” A garbage disposal unit empties the trashcan contents into a truck, while the boy, still on the run from the “bomb,” smashes into Billy Batson, who promptly says “Shazam!” (Contrary to what some people, including C.C. Beck himself, have reported, Billy didn’t always wait until moments of extreme danger to say his magic word, as this example shows. Or perhaps Billy had either a low threshold of excitement or a newsperson’s instinct for danger.) Captain Marvel stops the boy long enough to get an explanation. Cap flies the lad back to the trashcan, and thence to the scientist’s office. While the delivery boy takes off again, Captain Marvel learns from the scientist that the atomic engine is “absolutely harmless.” But it’s too late, as the delivery boy/messenger has gone, and “news travels fast on the wings of Fear.” As crowds flee the city, “the tiny voice of reason is lost in the clamor of…Fear!” Billy, at station WHIZ, attempts to broadcast that there is no danger, but to no avail. He changes to Captain Marvel, who almost succeeds in quelling a riot. But Fear decides, “I’ve got to do something…” A passing truck backfires, convincing the crowd that the “bomb” exploded.

But Captain Marvel spots Fear. “Who’s that fellow sulking around in that queer outfit?” he wonders, and gives pursuit. Fear, being “stronger

Art ÂŠ2003 Pete Von Sholly; King Kong TM & ÂŠ2003 the respective trademark & copyright holders.

Vol. 3, No. 29 /October 2003 Editor

™

Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout

Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

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 Pete Von Sholly Frank Brunner

Contents

Four Touches of Venus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Trina Robbins on the Goddess of Love as a comic book heroine of infinite variety.

Cover Colorists

Classics NOT Illustrated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Pete Von Sholly Tom Ziuko

HORROR, TERROR, & LOVE GODDESSES Section

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

William Woolfolk

Pete Von Sholly shows you how to fake a book report—in an alternate universe!

The “Dark and Haunting” Art of Ernie Schroeder . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Hames Ware & Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., present a Heap of great artwork.

Maneely Monsterpieces! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 A handful of horror for a haunted Halloween—served up by 1950s artist Joe Maneely. “Melt Figure into Black Shadows” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Alex Toth writes about “mysterioso, blackgarbed nightcreature hero/villains, etc.”

The EC’s That Never Were!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Michael T. Gilbert on The Nickel Library and its five-penny horror-comics covers.

Tales Calculated to Drive You BATS! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Jim Amash interviews George Gladir & Orlando Busino—the men behind the madness.

Monsters Malicious & Mirthful Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: The Eighth Wonder of the World! Many of the great horror-lit scenes (see pp. 17-22) painted by Pete Von Sholly would’ve made fabulous covers for this issue of A/E in the vein of Classics Illustrated. But, since Ye Editor is a guy who last year shocked the dean of a university liberal arts department by telling her (when asked) that his favorite movie of all time is King Kong—well, what other choice could Roy have made? [Art ©2003 Pete Von Sholly; King Kong TM & © the respective copyright holders.] Above: Bill Everett was noted for drawing heroes like The Sub-Mariner—and great Timely/Atlas horror comics. He got a chance to do both in the 1950s Venus series— as in this splash from #16 (Oct. ’51). More eldritch Everett coming up inside! [©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, $11.00 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 Touches of Venus

Super-hero! Horror! Science-Fiction! Romance! Timely/Marvel’s Golden Age Love Goddess Did It ALL—and BILL EVERETT Was There! by Trina Robbins

Romance! A 1950 house ad treats Venus as a love comic—pairing it with the shortlived cowgirlromance title Reno Browne. Artist uncertain. Reproduced from a photostat of the original art. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Science-fiction! On the cover of Venus #10 (July 1950) the heroine and a male are “Trapped on the Moon!” —but you’ll notice that only he needs a space suit. See Jim Vadeboncoeur’s checklist on p. 15 for possible artist. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Super-hero! Long before Thor’s 1962 debut in Journey into Mystery, the Roman goddess Venus swoops down at the bad guys in issue #13 (April ’51), though she didn’t use flying powers in the stories themselves— except to transport her back to Olympus. Bill Everett had a hand in the art. Repro’d from a photostat of the original art. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Horror! The splash of the lead tale in the penultimate issue, Venus #18 (Feb. ’52), is horrifically detailed. Art by Wild Bill Everett, repro’d from a photostat of the original art. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Super-hero! Horror! Science-Fiction! Romance!

Fifteen years before Dr. Don Blake discovered the magic Uru hammer that turned him into the Norse thunder god, Thor, Stan Lee created a comics series starring a different mythic deity—this one female. Timely Comics, under Stan Lee’s editorship, had been successfully producing comic books aimed at girls and/or featuring female protagonists since the 1944 debut of Miss America. In its first five issues, that title spotlighted Miss America, a young crime-fighter from Marvel Mystery Comics who sported a patriotic costume and (sometimes) cat’seye glasses, making her the only near-sighted super-heroine in comics. With issue #6, the magazine devoted itself solely to teenage girls without super-powers, and Miss America was demoted to guest spots in other Timely comics. Next to get her own book was Blonde Phantom in 1946, the only super-heroine to fight crime in a red evening gown and matching highheeled pumps. Blonde Phantom was still going strong when, two years later, Timely came up with Sun Girl, Namora—and Venus, who eventually saw some pretty frenzied action in an evening gown herself. Namora, Sub-Mariner’s cousin, and Sun Girl, billed as “The Mysterious Beauty,” lasted three issues each; but Venus, the ancient Roman goddess of love, was another story, surviving through 1952 and owing her comparative longevity to her (and Stan Lee’s) ability to change with the times. 1948 was also the year that the film One Touch of Venus opened in theatres across America. Based on the 1943 musical comedy with songs by Kurt Weill and Ogden Nash, it starred Ava Gardner as the goddess who comes down to Earth. (In the earlier stage musical, Mary Martin had played the title role. Because she later become so identified with her role as the nurse in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific, I can’t help but imagine her singing, “I’m Gonna Wash That Mars Right Out of My Hair!”) It’s very likely that the movie version was the inspiration for Stan Lee, who always had his eye on the latest trend. In a recent telephone interview, he couldn’t remember whether or not he had been inspired by One Touch of Venus, but he said, “If it makes your article any better, you can say the movie was my inspiration.” He also believes that he did write some “Venus” stories, though he can’t remember how many or which ones. The first splash page from Venus #1 (April ’48). Experts disagree concerning the artist; see both the article and the checklist on p. 15. Repro’d from photostats of the original art. Thanks to Trina Robbins. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The photo of dark-haired Ava Gardner in the 1948 film version of One Touch of Venus (left) was quite likely the inspiration for the art spot seen at right, whose comely blonde image topped Timely’s 1951 “Venus” stories. The movie dropped most of the songs from the 1943 stage musical, although singing idol Dick Haymes did get to croon the beautiful “Speak Low” to Ava. Haymes was no stranger to so-called “love goddesses,” once being married to Rita Hayworth; but in the film, after a department-store mannequin of Venus comes to life, he loses Ava (herself often styled a “love goddess”) to boyish Robert Walker—before Venus returns to Olympus in one of those “it-wasall-a-dream” endings. Note that Ava Gardner’s autograph is backward on the reversed photo. Thanks to Trina Robbins. [Art ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Four Touches of Venus

The splash page to Venus #2 (Aug. ’48)—if we read the notation on the black-&-white photostats a-right—juxtaposed with art from another story therein, in which Venus uses her powers to confound poor mortal men. Artist uncertain, but inking may be by George Klein. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

In the first issue of Timely’s Venus comic book, the beautiful blonde goddess paces the halls of her “castle of the gods on Mount Luster,” located—where else?—on the planet Venus. Bored with her perfect life, she wishes herself upon the planet Earth, soars through outer space, and lands on a busy street in New York City, causing a traffic jam. At that moment, along comes handsome publisher Whitney Hammond, thinking, “There must be a new idea which I can use in Beauty Magazine... something different, fresh, exciting!” The “new idea,” of course, is Venus. Although Hammond never really believes she is a goddess come to Earth, her looks are all he needs, and on the spot he hires her to edit the magazine. Venus was originally a sort of supernatural version of Timely’s “girl comics.” These were mostly about teenage girls like Patsy Walker, Cindy Smith, Jeannie, or Margie, but there was also a sub-genre of “career girl comics”: Millie the Model, Nellie the Nurse, Tessie the Typist, and Hedy DeVine, who was a movie star. The career girls were older than their teen counterparts—maybe as old as 21!—and, as editor of a beauty magazine, Venus fit into this category. The earliest “Venus” stories were drawn, at least according to some sources, by Ed Winiarski, who also drew the career-girl character Hedy DeVine. “Hedy DeVine” stories in both teen and career-girl comics tended to revolve around the Archie/Betty/Veronica-type love triangle of blonde-vs.- brunette, with some guy in the middle. In the case of blonde Venus, the other end of the triangle is Hammond’s jealous

Pete Von Sholly

NOT

Classics Illustrated Cover Paintings from a World That Never Was—But Ought to Be! by Pete Von Sholly [Art on the next five pages ©2003 Pete Von Sholly; “Classics Illustrated” is a trademark of Frawley Corporation and its exclusive licensee, First Classics, Inc., a subsidiary of Classics International Entertainment, Inc., and is used herein for historical and parodic purposes.] Did you ever have one of those dreams where you go into a store and find all these great things (comic books, magazines, toys, or other childhood pleasures)—even though they’re ones that never really existed? You can see them clearly—savor their rich colors, their images, their titles, etc. You can’t believe it, but there they are, tangible and within your very grasp: unsuspected treasures that are yours for the taking!

“The Dunwich Horror” was the second of his stories that I read, and the one that warped my whole life—and got me in trouble with my American history teacher for reading it in class. (I couldn’t help it... I had to see what was going to happen at the end of the story!) It’s really a long short story, like most of HPL’s work, but certainly long enough to provide material for an entire issue of Classics Illustrated if they had done one:

And then something happens—perhaps the store closes, or you don’t have any money, or the treasures begin to fall apart on you, and you awaken to realize that you can’t have those wonderful things, after all. Even the details fade frustratingly as consciousness returns. Well, I have had such dreams, and this piece describes an attempt to bring some of those items into the real world for my own pleasure, and hopefully for that of a few kindred spirits. When I was a lad, there was a line of comics called Classics Illustrated (née Classic Comics in the early 1940s), published by the Gilberton Company, which adapted famous literary works into comics form. Many of us may remember these as being very handy for doing book reports on novels we didn’t actually read. I admit it: I liked “real” comic books much better, but once in a great while the Classics guys would accidentally put out something cool. The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Frankenstein, and The Invisible Man are the ones that come most readily to mind. Mostly, however, Classics Illustrated were the four-color equivalent of Novacane for me. But what if things had been different? Here are my “Earth-Von Sholly” versions of at least the painted covers of some classics that the Gilberton Company didn’t adapt in illustrated form—but should have. Let’s start with H.P. Lovecraft, the supreme horror writer of the first half of the twentieth century—if not of the entire century. His stories appeared mostly in the lurid Weird Tales magazine in the 1920s and ’30s before his death from cancer in 1937 at the age of 47, and he never made much money from them—nor did literary critics hail his stories and occasional novellas as “classics,” although the cognoscenti among horror-fiction fans did. Horror writers from Stephen King forward have acknowledged Lovecraft’s influence on them, and he is now commonly acknowledged as the 20th century successor to Edgar Allan Poe—except that HPL’s work has one foot in terror, the other (surprisingly enough) in science-fiction.

Yes, I know I shouldn’t really have shown the monster on the cover, since its size and shape are unknown until the very end of the story, as in so much of HPL’s fiction—but I couldn’t help that, either.

Classics Not Illustrated

Next we have “The Shadow over Innsmouth,” on which cover I also show the monsters, perhaps with a bit more justification:

And then there’s At the Mountains of Madness, a short novel, which possibly looks the most like a real Classics Illustrated cover and does not show the monster, or at least shows only a hint of it.

The preceding three tales are among my favorites by the illustrious Old Gentleman of Providence, Rhode Island. And it would have been a warm day on Yuggoth before the Classics folks would have touched them, Lovecraft being a mere pulp writer and beneath the notice of serious academia!

Title “The Great Unknowns”—Part III of a Series

The “Dark and Haunting” Art of ERNIE SCHROEDER by Hames Ware & Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr.

[Unless otherwise noted, all art accompanying this piece was provided by Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr.] Of the three “S” artists we’ve covered so far in this series (the two previous being Henry Enoch Sharp and Mike Suchorsky), none to our knowledge ever signed his work in comic books. And, as delighted as fellow comic art detective Jerry de Fuccio was with our finally pinning a name to the art of Mike Suchorsky, the identification that delighted our late friend the most was when Hames was able to provide the name “Ernie Schroeder” as the primary early-1950s artist on Hillman’s two major features, “Airboy” and “The Heap.” It seems that not only was he one of Jerry’s favorite artists, but the longtime Mad magazine associate editor had also acquired a great deal of original art by him, yet Jerry had had no success getting a name for him. The way Hames had come across Schroeder’s ID was certainly not from the comics, for, as with Suchorsky and Sharp, Schroeder never signed a single thing he did in the comic books. No sneaks... no nothin’! But, to let Hames put it in his own words:

Ernie Schroeder started out doing super-heroes like so many others— Black Cat, Captain Freedom, and The Young Defenders on the cover of Harvey’s Speed Comics #37 (May 1945), and the “Captain Freedom” tale in Speed #44 (Jan.-Feb. ’47). [©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

“When I was a kid, I used to kill time waiting for my turn in the barber chair at the local small barbershop by perusing the mostly men’sadventure magazines (especially if they included illustrations) that were scattered about for the patrons. This particular time, I was leafing through stories with titles like “I Hunted Killer Sharks in Dangerous Oceans,” and I suddenly felt a sense of excitement, and not about killer sharks. It was because I realized that the illustrations I was looking at were unmistakably done by the longtime ‘Heap’ and ‘Airboy’ artist at Hillman! None of these illustrations was signed, either, but as I flipped back to the first page of the magazine story, I held out hope that maybe the magazine might have given a byline to the artist, as they sometimes did in those days. And there, at long last, were the welcome words:

Ernie Schroeder so it was, years later, that I was able to make Jerry de Fuccio a very happy man and, better still, make sure that Ernie Schroeder would find his rightful home in The Who’s Who of American Comic Books, of which I was co-editor with Jerry G. Bails. Since then, we’ve located Schroeder’s art at Ziff-Davis, where, like our first two ‘Great Unknowns‚’ he also chronicled the adventures of ‘G.I. Joe.’ But he goes back much further into the Golden Age and was one of the lighthearted delineators at Harvey on many features in Speed Comics.”

Alas for de Fuccio’s longerterm purposes, unlike the dogged determination that enabled him to turn up relatives for Mike Suchorsky, try as he could, Jerry was never able to trace Ernie Schroeder even drew fairytales, as in this story from Parents’ Calling All Kids #12 (Sept. ’47)—and light-hearted war stories Schroeder beyond the such as this one from Ziff-Davis’ G.I. Joe #51 (June ’57), the final issue of the series. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.] shipyards where initial leads ‘Illustrations by Ernest Schroeder.’ The ‘Heap’ and ‘Airboy’ artist had said he had gone to work after the art markets dried up in the 1950s. finally been given an identity! Consequently, there’s little more to add to the Ernie Schroeder story, “This was one of the first times that cross-referencing of other media unless perhaps some of Alter Ego’s readers can fill in the blanks. In the would yield long-sought names of never-signing comic book artists. meantime, the best thing Hames and Jim can do now is to pull back the (Anyone who knows Jim will understand why I had a major advantage curtain of time and let A/E’s readers see the dark and haunting style that over him regarding this type of barbershop research.) Schroeder used so well to capture the atmosphere that intertwined the two features he will always be identified with—“Airboy” and “The Heap”! “I went home after my haircut and dutifully logged this great new find in my ledger where I maintained my lists of comic book artists. And

An Airboy–Heap Addendum

by Jim & Hames

In December of 1948, the title feature in Airboy Comics was passed from the capable and recognizable hands of Dan Zolnerowich and Fred Kida to a new artist who would draw the lead feature longer than anyone else. Moody and dark and noirish, this artist immediately took Airboy’s adventures from the skies to the sewers with a two-part chiller called “Airboy and the Rats.” A year later, with the December 1949 issue, this artist, Ernie Schroeder, also took over the other continuing series in Airboy Comics, “The Heap.” And down underground went the original swamp monster—into a cave in some central-European mountain range. In fact, with Schroeder at the helm, both characters began to face and overcome antagonists more in tune with the growing trend of the times—horror comics. In addition to the intelligent rats and sub-human cave creatures, there were horrendous “crabmen” in the sewers of Paris, frozen icepeople with no eyes, threatening asteroids, weird life from space, lost Roman cities and legions in Africa, monstrous sea slugs, strange Tibetan great white apes, rampaging prehistoric monsters preserved in ice, revived Egyptian mummies, and ghosts and wizards and vampires and centaurs and such. And all that was just in the first two years!

Panels from “Airboy and the Rats” in Hillman Periodicals’ Airboy Comics, Vol. 5, #11 (Dec. 1948). This Schroeder art is a far cry from most of the blond young hero’s previous aerial adventures—though one should never forget his wartime Fred Kida-drawn encounters with the entity called Misery! [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

Joe Maneely

Maneely Monsterpieces! A Handful of Horror for a Haunted Halloween [EDITOR’S NOTE: Our previous issue of Alter Ego spotlighted the life and work of Joe Maneely, one of the premier Timely/Atlas artists of the 1950s. Even so, thanks to all the specimens of his work sent us by article-scribe Dr. Michael J. Vassallo and a few others, we had lots of art photocopies left over—including a goodly number from the horror comics that sent Fredric Wertham, M.D., screaming for cover in the first half of that decade. So, even though we used up some of the very best terror-art last time, here’s another horrific helping of Atlas scare-fests, to show you why Joe Maneely and Halloween are all but synonymous in horror-minded households everywhere. Except where noted, copies were provided by Doc V. Except for the final example, all art in this 3-page section ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc. —Roy.]

Joe’s cover for Mystic #29 (April 1954).

Splash from Suspense #17 (April 1952).

An early Maneely horror splash, from Suspense #5 (Nov. 1950).

Alex Thoth

“Melt Figure Into Black Shadows”

Golden/Silver Age Artist ALEX TOTH Writes “about Mysterioso Blackgarbed Nightcreatures Heroes/Villains, etc.”

I’m now aware of what should always have been obvious, since boyhood, thru all forms of graphic storytelling, yet missed connecting the dots, of revelation/discovery, but now, I’m convinced of the validity of my theory. Which is—to maintain that mysterioso quality of a Batman/Shadow/Zorro/Bat/Spider/Green Hornet (badly-misdesigned/colored)—in film/video/fotos/pulp/comic art/illos, I’d now avoid, like the plague, ever again coming in close-up on any of the above—keep them away—midground/full figure/backdrop shadows to conceal/not reveal the masked/cowled/helmeted face/head and, when practicable, melt figure into black shadows. This voids undue familiarity! Part of Alex’s handwritten original 4-page article. [©2003 Alex Toth.]

All art on the following seven pages ©2003 the original artists. “The New Nickel Library” is TM!&!©2003 by Gary Arlington. All EC art & logos are TM & ©2003 William M. Gaines Agent, and are used only for historical purposes.

Comic Crypt

The EC’s That Never Were! By Michael T. Gilbert In the early ’70s, underground publisher Gary Arlington began an ambitious comic art series called The New Nickel Library. These were mostly 8"x 10" single-page prints, black-&-white on cardboard stock with binder holes so they could be collected in notebooks. Gary planned a total of 500 different images on a weekly publication schedule. Truly “labors of love,” each Nickel Library print sold for the grand sum of 5¢! The pictures included all kinds of neat stuff, public domain and otherwise. One issue might feature an old pulp drawing, the next a rare Harrison Cady cartoon or some new art from the many cartoonists who frequented Gary’s 23rd Street comic book shop. Gary also published actual underground comix under the San Francisco Comic Book Company imprint, but these single pages were far easier to produce. With the help of cartoonists Roger Brand and Kim Deitch, Gary’s vision soon became a reality. A Deitch-illustrated flyer heralded the new series: “Because they are the labor of love, and are generally non-profit undertakings, most fanzines are years in the making. The Nickel Library too will undoubtably [sic] be years in the making. However, there is one major difference; … you the reader, can see, even share in the creation of the Nickel Library now, as it happens, page after fascinating page!” Wow! Who could resist a pitch like that? In a few weeks, one-sheet wonders featuring vintage art by Reed Crandall, Will Eisner, Murphy Anderson, and Harrison Cady began rolling off the presses. But the best was yet to come—at least for fans of the grand old EC comic book line! Say, did I mention that Gary was a die-hard EC fan-addict? Indeed he was, and he never quite recovered when his favorite comic company died back in the ’50s. So in true EC tradition, “Ghoulish Gary” came up with the idea of bringing his favorite comics back from the grave! Sometime in 1973, he began commissioning a series of new imaginary EC covers drawn by some of the underground comix artists who frequented his comic shop. It wasn’t a hard sell, since many of the cartoonists were already loyal EC fans. In fact, comix like Slow Death, Skull, Last Gasp, and Bijou frequently featured stories modeled on Tales from the Crypt, Weird Science, and the old Mad comic books. In short order, cartoonists Larry Todd, Charles Dallas, and Greg Irons drew some delightfully gruesome imitation-EC covers. Gary and crew completed the illusion by slapping down stats of actual EC logos, with numbering continued from the original series. The art may not have been as slick as the original EC artists, but the EC spirit

Nickel Library #0. This flyer announced the arrival of The New Nickel Library. In case you’re wondering, “Eric Fromm” was a pseudonym Gary used for his mail-order business. [Art ©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

The EC That Never Was was there. When Roger Brand discovered an unpublished Wally Wood original, it too became an EC cover—one drawn by an actual EC artist! Gary was so pleased with the results he sent copies to EC publisher Bill Gaines. Bad move. It turned out that Gaines’ lawyers weren’t thrilled with Gary’s ongoing use of the EC titles and logos, and told Gary to knock it off. Never one for half measures, the publisher pulled the plug on the entire series. His heart just wasn’t in it anymore.

Gary reminisced recently, saying he really enjoyed doing the EC covers, but “the 5¢ thing just ran out of gas. No money was to be made, not at five cents.” All together, only 57 prints out of 500 were completed between 1971 and 1973 on a less-than-weekly schedule. Nonetheless, even today the Nickel Library is fondly remembered by fans of both EC and underground comix. For one brief, shining moment, the freewheeling spirit of EC flourished anew. And with it came… The EC’s That Never Were!

Nickel Library #53. Larry Todd’s creepy “Tales From The Crypt #48” cover (with the original EC logos and horror host bullets added). Larry wrote and drew sci-fi and horror stories for Eerie and other Warren magazines in the ’70s, but is best remembered for his hilarious underground comix series, Dr. Atomic. This and all other non-EC art, along with the EC mastheads & logos, that accompany this article are published for historical purposes. [©2003 Larry Todd; EC title & logo ©2003 William M. Gaines Agent.]

George Gladir & Orlando Busino

Tales Calculated To Drive You BATS! Brief Interviews with GEORGE GLADIR & ORLANDO BUSINO —Co-creators of Archie’s Horrific Humor Title (Or Was It Their Humorous Horror Title?) Transcribed and Conducted by Jim Amash

George Gladir meets Melisssa Joan Hart (TV’s Sabrina) at the Los Angeles Festival of Books, 2002—flanked by the first-ever appearance of Sabrina in Archie’s Madhouse #22 (Oct. 1962) and the cover of Tales Calculated to Drive You Bats (the full official title) #1 (Nov. 1961). “Sabrina” art by Dan DeCarlo; Bats art by Orlando Busino, whose interview begins on p. 45. [Art ©2003 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

I. GEORGE GLADIR, Writer [INTRODUCTION: George Gladir is one of the most prolific writers in comic book history. A few years ago, Robin Snyder’s research indicated that Paul S. Newman wrote more comics stories than anyone else—though recently, in his magazine The Comics! Robin’s begun to wonder aloud if Robert Kanigher might just have a claim on that crown, after all—and it’s just possible that, when all is said and done, George Gladir might just take that title away from both of them! Either way, George’s amazing ability to consistently write funny scripts for several decades, whether for Archie Publications or others, is a remarkable achievement. Personally, we think George was also a horror-ble writer, as the following interview will demon-strate. (Please forgive the puns, George.) —Jim.] GEORGE GLADIR: Archie’s Madhouse was originally supposed to be a take-off on Mad magazine. I didn’t originate the series, but came on board as a writer with the sixth issue. Eventually, I got to do most of the writing, which I did for quite a while. The monster pages were sporadic at first; there was a potpourri of subjects in each issue. I tried to cover things that might interest our readers. Once Orlando Busino and I started doing the monster pages, we soon came up with the idea of doing