Alter Ego #30 Preview

No. 30

November 2003

5.95

$$

In In the the USA USA

ALEX ROSS ON THE 1960s-70s JLA!

DICK DILLIN

REDISCOVERED! Plus Rare Art & Artifacts By:

OTTO BINDER PAUL CHADWICK REED CRANDALL JOE CERTA WILL EISNER MICHAEL T. GILBERT DICK GIORDANO SCOTT GOODELL WALT GROGAN GIL KANE TOM MANDRAKE MORT MESKIN JOSH NEUFELD MICHELLE NOLAN GEORGE PÉ REZ BILL SCHELLY MIKE SEKOWSKY ROY THOMAS ALEX TOTH SAL VELLUTO WALLY WOOD & MORE!!

Justice League of America TM & ©2003 DC Comics

Vol. 3, No. 30/November 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 Alex Ross Steve Rude

Section

Contents

Writer/Editorial: Just a League of Their Own . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Liberty and Justice: The Alex Ross Interview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Walt Grogan interviews the acclaimed artist on his newest epic, JLA: Liberty and Justice.

Cover Colorists Alex Ross Solid! Colors

And Special Thanks to:

Kim Aamodt Ger Apeldoorn Gary Arlington Mark Arnold Dick Ayers Brian H. Baile Leslie Dillin Battista Allen Bellman Bill Black Lee Boyett Mike Brown R. Dewey Cassell Paul Chadwick Dick Cole Jon B. Cooke Craig Delich Mrs. Dick (Estella) Dillin Richard Dillin, Jr. Shel Dorf Frank Doscher Terry Dillin Doscher Martin Downham Michael Feldman Carl Gafford Paul Gambaccini Walter Geier Janet Gilbert Mark Glidden Scott Goodell Walt Grogan Mrs. Howard Keltner Bob Klein Scott Koblish

“Just A League Of Their Own”

David Anthony Kraft Jean-Marc & Randy Lofficier Tom Mandrake Andy Mangels Don Marquez Peter Meskin John Moores Josh Neufeld Michelle Nolan David Olsen Jake Oster Linda Rahm-Crites Larry Rippee Paul Rivoche David Roach Trina Robbins Alex Ross Steve R. Rowe Steve Rude Alex Ross Steve Skeates Robin Snyder Marc Swayze Greg Theakston Dann Thomas Alex Toth Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Sal Velluto Murray Ward Lynn Woolley Eddy Zeno Mike Zeno

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Dick Dillin & Warren Kremer

Remembering Dick Dillin: “The Top Man in the Country!” . . . . 14 A family remembers a husband, father, and longtime penciler of Justice League.

How Green Was My Martian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Michelle Nolan on J’onn J’onzz and other anomalies of the early-1960s JLA. The Schwartzian Epic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Roy Thomas unveils a long-lost JLA-related artifact—in the 53rd century.

“What Can You Get for a Nickel, Nowadays? Nothin’!! ”. . . 31 Michael T. Gilbert checks some books out of the notorious 1970s Nickel Library.

A Visit with Otto Binder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Bill Schelly excerpts his new biography of Captain Marvel’s most inventive scribe. re: [comments & corrections on A/E #24] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 The French Connection Section. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: The first-ever view most folks had of the Justice League of America in late 1959—the cover scene of The Brave and the Bold #28, only seen here from the P.O.V. of Starro the Conqueror. More about artist Alex Ross’ newest tabloid-size painted graphic novel on the pages immediately following—including, on p. 5, a step-by-step study of the illo used as our colorful cover. [©2003 DC Comics.]

Above: In conjunction with JLA: Liberty and Justice, Alex painted the JLA as part of a new line of “collector plates.” You can see the finished image, and even the photos of the guys who posed for the figures, on p. 11. Above, we’ve chosen to reproduce Alex’s pencils for the plate. [©2003 DC Comics.]

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.

Just a League of Their Own part one

3

Alex Ross at work in his studio. (Below:) One of the recent products of his labor: a pencil drawing of the Justice League in action for his new DC book JLA: Liberty and Justice. Photo courtesy of Alex Ross and Walt Grogan. [Art ©2003 DC Comics.]

Interview Conducted & Transcribed by Walt Grogan [INTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: In ten short years, Alex Ross has become a bona fide comic book legend. Bursting onto the comics scene with 1994’s Marvels (with writer Kurt Busiek), his vivid paintings retold the history of the early Marvel Universe, and his photo-realistic style had fans anxiously waiting for more. In 1996 Ross followed up his previous success with Kingdom Come, a post-modern take on DC’s seminal heroes and their offspring. With writer Mark Waid, Ross’ story was a thinly-veiled critique of the then-current comic book market. The story juxtaposed the values of the traditional heroes with that of a new breed of “heroes” they had inspired. Ross has also had a guiding hand in a series of stories from Marvel under the Earth X banner, as well as the Battle of the Planets series for Top

Cow. For the last five years Ross has collaborated with writer Paul Dini on a series of oversized tabloid-style comics featuring the greatest icons of the DC Universe: Superman: Peace on Earth, Batman: War on Crime, Shazam!: Power of Hope, and Wonder Woman: Spirit of Truth. As a coda to that series, Ross and Dini have re-imagined the Justice League for a new generation of readers in JLA: Liberty and Justice, a 96-page tabloid due on the stands November 19. —Walt.]

This interview was conducted via telephone on August 5, 2003, and was copy-edited by Alex Ross.

4

Alex Ross

WALT GROGAN: What led you to the Liberty and Justice book?

You had done the four icon books, and this one seems a departure from those.

ALEX ROSS: Really, just excitement. We [Paul Dini and I] had been having such a good time with the books we were doing that the idea of a book with multiple characters in it was something we could really sink our teeth into—particularly the group we grew up with. These characters are the center of the super-hero universe—the longestrunning of all team books. We felt that it would be more captivating, more exciting than anything else we had done. It would be a Alex’s pencil sketch for a triptych series of covers for Wizard magazine, done to publicize the new book. payoff for everything. We’ve [©2003 DC Comics.] taken the time to establish this WG: So that’s what led you to use this particular set of characters, the sort of “Ross/Dini Corner of the DC Universe,” which to me is just “Barry Allen” Flash and the “Hal Jordan” Green Lantern, for re-establishing the universe that was, before DC rewrote it with Crisis instance? on Infinite Earths and everything that has followed since. I wish to create a pocket for fans like me who grew up with this form of enterROSS: It comes from what we grew up with. To my mind, the stuff in tainment. the ’70s was sort of finding everything in, arguably, a bit of a developmental paralysis. The characters who had been introduced in the mid’50s or early ’60s pretty much stayed the same during most of that time.

So it’s kind of like a “Them were the good ol’ days” kind of attitude.

The characters were all in their prime. Nobody had died yet; nobody had lost a wife or child, and these are the purest forms of those concepts.

Also, the simple origins of the classic Silver Age versions are just that— they’re simple. They are heroes that add to the cultural mythos of DC and, frankly, to the cultural mythos of the world. They have 40 years among most of them. They’ve been around. They’ve been the standard.

They’ve been replaced in only the last ten years, most of them, although it’s been a lot longer for Wally West (the current Flash). They’ve changed the backstory with Green Lantern and Aquaman. All those changes are only ten years old. And during those ten years, those changes have been the most hotly contested by fans like myself and others who have always felt like, “Why do we have these pure, unchanged classic icons (i.e., Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman) side-by-side with these guys who have been so radically reconfigured, so that we lose the sense of this legendary ensemble who were so timeless before?”

WG: So, given your views on using the Silver Age icons, was there resistance to using these versions of the characters?

ROSS: I thoroughly would have expected huge resistance, and there was none. We had our editors, Charlie Kochman and Joey Cavalieri, both feeling that they were given 100% encouragement that anything we would want to do like this would be warmly received. They also didn’t fight us at all on the fact that we still wanted it to be an over-sized book.

For this final thing, it seemed a fitting send-off that we finish it with a great giant-size “Justice League” story that’s a third longer—96 pages— than the average book that we had done. I’m painting more characters than I did per book before—why let it be small? I’ll probably be back to comic-size with the next thing I do.

WG: Your body of work for DC and Marvel takes place either in the past or the future. Do you consciously avoid working with the present day incarnations of the characters?

Pencils for a Flash and Green Lantern poster done in conjunction with JLA: Liberty and Justice. The composition of the Flash figure is quite different here from the version in the released poster. [©2003 DC Comics.]

ROSS: You know what it must be? I would consider myself to be a big comics fan, and I like a lot of things that have happened in modern

Liberty & Justice

5

The birth of a page of JLA: Liberty and Justice—and incidentally of the cover of this issue of Alter Ego. (Left to right:) Alex starts with a super-tight thumbnail (which is reproduced here not much smaller than subsequent versions of the art).

Based on that small sketch, he then does a full-size detailed pencil rendering of the panel/page (center). At this point, he photographs his models for use in the lighting of his final painting. At bottom right they have been inserted into the pencil rendering, just for fun. The models are, clockwise from upper left: Cory (Flash) Smith, Tony (Green Lantern) Vitale, Rhonda (Wonder Woman) Hampton, Chris (Aquaman) Fleming, and Alex (Martian Manhunter) Ross. Hey, maybe we should’ve used this version as our calamitous cover! [Art ©2003 DC Comics.]

were as old as their legends were, there are kids who have grown up and become heroes in their own right (i.e., Dick Grayson as an adult Robin). It allows for this latitude as if all publishing were real continuity. All of that history was worthwhile.

Sort of like the point of John Byrne’s Generations book.

You’re not supposed to ignore the fact that these characters had this long history. This philosophy doesn’t make it impossible to enjoy a lot of the new things that are done. I enjoy the contemporary JSA book—it’s something I like and read. I can enjoy Mark Waid’s Superman: Birthright series because I think it’s an extension of what they’ve done on the Smallville television series. Smallville makes the idea of a young Superman or a man who is not Superman yet in our modern day and age seem attractive and viable to me as a fan. And I don’t get up in arms that he doesn’t look enough like the classic Superman. At the end of the day, I’m much more interested in the spirit of these things. So I’m not completely inflexible about change.

times, but I’m very selective about it. I’ve been fatigued by the overwrought changes of the ’80s and ’90s that have happened to a lot of these mythologies. Because I view them as mythologies, thereby plugging my new book Mythology [an art-of-Alex Ross coffee table book designed by Chip Kidd with photography by Geoff Spear, published by Pantheon Books, out in stores now!] [laughs] You can screw up an icon if you make it unrecognizable. You may bump up the immediate sales of a book, and I’m not saying that should never be tried, but it’s risky to the character’s distinctiveness.

For my first time spent with the DC characters, I moved directly to the future so I could pass that entire problem by and go to a time period where all those issues were past. I did a revision of Superman, focusing on his classic characteristics, while also doing a creative blend of history with a modern graphic approach. It was fun to play with, but in my mind and in my heart the characters I wanted to draw were the ones I grew up with and who also happened to look that same way for many years beforehand. I was born in 1970. At the time I was reading comics, the Justice League would have been around for fifteen years by the time I got my first issue. And some of these characters had been around for 20, 30, or 40 years before I came into contact with them.

WG: Would the changes in mythology make it difficult to do something like a Justice Society book set in the 1940s?

ROSS: Let’s say I had the opportunity to do a Justice Society book. I would need to embrace the JSA for what they were—the 1940s DC super-heroes, the first super-hero group. Most of that group had not been affected by crazy changes made in continuity. I would never have Wonder Woman called Queen Hippolyta. That’s not correct in terms of publishing or history; let’s not try to retroactively rewrite what happened to the world. In Kingdom Come, which could’ve been taken not as a story of the future but as a story of today where the characters

If DC hadn’t allowed me to use the classic versions of the Justice League, I might not have done it. A lot of these characters are still changing every year, and, in many cases, going back to what they had been before. So if you check forward five years into the future and you find the Justice League look like how they were painted in this graphic novel, then my views would have been prescient. If that turns out to be the case, then we will have created a product that stands the test of time. That’s something that’s very important to me. That’s why I don’t like drawing something that commits it to a particular period of time. And if people look at what I’m doing now as something of the past, that view is generally contained within the current comics readership.

People outside of comics don’t know that Aquaman doesn’t look like that anymore. As it is, DC already cut his hair, and they’ve already given him back a hand of sorts.

WG: And it looks like DC is going to give him his orange shirt again.

ROSS: They’re giving him back the shirt!?

WG: Anybody else we’re going to see in

Just a League of Their Own part two

14

REMEMBERING DICK DILLIN

—“The Top Man In The Country!”

The Family of DICK DILLIN Talk about Life with the Longest-ever Artist of Justice League and Blackhawk Interview Conducted & Transcribed by Walt Grogan [INTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: Ask almost any longtime comics fan the name of the artist who drew Justice League of America and you’ll probably get Mike Sekowsky’s name in return.

While certainly Sekowsky was synonymous with the JLA in its early years, I consider Dick Dillin the League’s defining artist.

Dillin’s run as penciler on a single super-team title has yet to be matched— with 115 consecutive issues to his credit (his only break being the pre-planned reprint issues #67, 76, 85, and 93). His JLA output spanned twelve years, starting with #64 (Aug. 1968) and ending with #183 (Oct. 1980) at the time of his death.

Before George Pérez became known as the super-group artist, Dillin was the reigning king, often drawing dozens of characters pitted against one another in the JLA/JSA annual team-ups.

[If you grew up with Dick Dillin’s run on Justice League, you were treated to many a fine JLA/JSA team-up and were often introduced to a number of long-forgotten super-heroes, some of whom hadn’t seen the light of day in decades. He had the uncanny ability to weave these time-lost heroes into a modern-day story without any of them seeming out of place. He also handled the artwork on many of the JLA’s defining moments, such as: the introduction of a new Red Tornado (#64, Aug. 1968)... the return of the Seven Soldiers of Victory (#100-102, Aug.-Oct. 1972)... the second coming of many Quality Comics heroes (#107-108, Sept.-Dec. 1973)... Superman and the JLA meet the Fawcett Marvel Family (#135-137, Oct.-Dec. 1976)... “No Man Escapes the Manhunter!” and its sequel (#140-141, March-April 1977)... a 1950s proto-JLA (#144, July 1977)... a JLA/JSA/Legion of Super-Heroes crossover (#147-148, Oct.-Nov. 1977)... an assemblage of DC heroes of yesteryear (#159-160, Oct.-Nov. 1978)... the murder of Mr. Terrific (#171-172, Oct.-Nov. 1979)... and “Crisis on New Genesis,” the first chapter of a 3-part JLA/JLA/New Gods crossover (#183, Oct. 1980). Great moments... and we recall them all as they were seen and depicted by Dick Dillin.

Dick Dillin worked at the same drawing table for his entire professional career, so it’s highly likely that this unique cover art for The Amazing World of DC Comics #14 (March 1977) was composed there, as well. Why “unique”?

Because it seems to have been reproduced (and even colored) from a signed Dillin pencil—one of the only uninked samples of his artwork known to exist. (Even if he did ink it with pen, it’s still unique, because Dick virtually never inked his own work!) All photos and much of the art reproduced with this article were provided by Walt Grogan and the Dillin family. [Art ©2003 DC Comics.]

[Dick Dillin’s wife Estella, their son Richard, Jr., and their daughters Leslie and Terry were kind enough to participate in a joint interview on August 17, 2003, about this remarkable artist they all loved. Special thanks to Dillin fan supreme Alex Ross for setting up this one-of-a-kind interview. —Walt.]

WALT GROGAN: When was Dick born?

MRS. ESTELLA DILLIN: December 17, 1929, in Watertown, NY. WG: And when did he pass away?

MRS. DILLIN: March 1, 1980.

WG: Where did he go to school?

MRS. DILLIN: Watertown High School. And he went, as a special art student, to Syracuse University. He went to Syracuse after his tour of duty in the service, on the G.I. Bill.

“The Top Man In The Country!”

15

which is the beginning of the Hudson Highlands. All of a sudden it gets mountainous and very picturesque. That’s where I was raised and that’s where the family was for years. It was a nice little river town back then.

Nowadays, it’s quite different.

WG: Mrs. Dillin, how long had you been married before he switched jobs?

MRS. DILLIN: Probably about four or five years.

WG: So you knew about his love of art all along.

The Dillin family members who participated in this interview.

(Left to right:) Richard Dillin, Jr.... Leslie (Dillin) Battista... Estella Dillin... and Terry (Dillin) Doscher.

MRS. DILLIN: [laughing] Oh, definitely. Him and a couple of his friends who were artists.

RICHARD DILLIN, JR.: When he went as a special student to Syracuse, he was a special fine arts student and all he did was studio work.

WG: When did Dick get started drawing comics?

MRS. DILLIN: And he was on the Dean’s List. Every quarter he was there.

RICHARD: When he was very, very young. He knew what he wanted to be.

RICHARD: That’s where he got so good at anatomy, and why he didn’t like to draw animals. They didn’t bring too many animals to class. [laughs]

WG: Really? So he knew he wanted to be a comic book artist?

WG: Where was he stationed while he was in the service?

MRS. DILLIN: Yes. When he was a kid, he tried to copy Hal Foster and some of the Sunday comics—and always the action ones with a lot in them.

RICHARD: In Okinawa.

WG: Mrs. Dillin, when did you get married and how many children do you have?

MRS. DILLIN: We were married in 1948 and we have three children, a son and two daughters: Richard, Leslie, and Terry.

WG: Were you and Dick already married when he started looking for work in comics?

MRS. DILLIN: He was working at this air brake company in Watertown, where they make air brakes for trains, and he came home one night and said to me, “I quit and I’m going to New York to look for art jobs.” I said, “Good.” Then he said, “I didn’t really quit, I wanted to see what you’d say.” [laughs] The next day I went out and got a job, and a couple of days after that he left for New York. He knew a man that had a little studio in New York, so he helped my husband at first, when he got a job, gave him a place to work. And about six months later, the kids and I moved down.

RICHARD: He used to love the Hudson River Valley.

When he first left Watertown to walk the streets of New York to find work, he got on the train and was looking for a place to live and came up to Peekskill, Portrait of Dick Dillin, taken while he was in military service—and a photo of “Dick and his best friend Delos Barney, a great artist in his own right, back from Japan in 1948. They were born side-by-side in Watertown.”

WG: So did he have a desire to become a comic strip artist, or was he interested in becoming a comic book artist?

Rich Dillin (Richard Dillin, Jr.) says of this photo of Dick’s sister Ruth, his mother Hazel, and young Dick holding a Hal Foster Prince Valiant page he had copied: “He wanted to be a comic book illustrator from the time he could first look at the funny papers. He drew constantly, copying the greats and developing his own style. I always considered him to be among the few people in the world who knew their goal at a very young age and accomplished it. I had never seen the picture before. I think he might have been a child prodigy. He worked at home and was there all through my childhood.”

MRS. DILLIN: Always comic books.

RICHARD: As a matter of fact, he used to copy stuff from the time when he was a kid. He saved money from delivering groceries, when he was a kid, and he bought his first drawing board. He had that drawing board his whole life through. When the kids were home, he used to have the drawing board in the master bedroom, and when we moved out, he finally got his own room and I still have it in my master bedroom today—the very same drawing board.

WG: What a treasure! What comic book titles did he work on?

MRS. DILLIN: He worked on a lot of them at Quality Comics. Blackhawk was the main one; there were a lot of little ones that you never heard of.

WG: So what happened when Quality closed up shop?

MRS. DILLIN: We went up to Watertown

Just a League of Their Own part three

23

How Green Was My Martian

by Michelle Nolan [EDITOR’S INTRO: While preparing this issue’s coverage of the early Justice League of America, I—that’s A/E editor Roy Thomas— got to musing about various oddities and anomalies of the first story or three of that all-important super-hero group: [Why Superman and Batman were used so sparingly in early issues.

(This, at least, we could almost guess at the time, and the truth has

Why was J’onn J’onzz, Manhunter from Mars, rather than Green Arrow, selected as the “seventh” member of the first version of the Justice League of America?

Why a six-page backup character from Detective Comics, one who didn’t really start out as a super-hero or costumed character, at least in the traditional sense? Why not a much longer-running, full-fledged costumed hero (albeit also a backup)—the non-super-powered Green Arrow, who was nearly two decades old when the JLA debuted in 1960?

And yet—why not the Martian Manhunter? As someone who watched with considerable curiosity as that hero developed during the 1955-59 period, I remember being enthused over seeing the greenskinned J’onn J’onzz (as he was almost invariably called in the early “JLA” stories, with the term “Martian Manhunter” becoming common usage only some time later) in the original group lineup.

Of course, it didn’t take Green Arrow long to catch up, since the Emerald Archer joined the group in Justice League of America #4, the

been confirmed since. DC, or at least those two heroes’ respective editors, feared that they might seem over-used.)

[As long as we were picking nits, I even pondered the fact that Aquaman’s gloves are colored yellow in the first “JLA” tale, just as they had been for the preceding two decades—then suddenly become green in both the second “JLA” tale and in solo “Aquaman” stories from then on. (Coincidence? Probably. Still, one may wonder if perhaps the “JLA” colorist didn’t make a minor error—and Aquaman’s guiding editor didn’t decide he liked that hue better, after all.)

[Then came the biggie: Why was Green Arrow, who after all had debuted in the very same issue of More Fun Comics in 1941 that Aquaman had, left out of the JLA for its first half dozen adventures, in favor of a minor player like J’onn J’onzz, Manhunter from Mars, who had never been a cover feature as G.A. had? Was it only because the Martian had super-powers while Green Arrow was basically Batman with a bow? And, most intriguingly of all—was it mere coincidence that, in his solo series in Detective Comics, J’onn J’onzz had only become visible to Earthlings a very short time before The Brave and the Bold #28 introduced the Justice League of America to the waiting world?

[Michelle Nolan and I were kicking these and other thoughts around on the phone one night, and she volunteered to write an article about “John Jones—Manhunter from Mars”—which turns out to be a far more interesting and innovative series than I had given it credit for. —Roy.]

(Left:) J’onn J’onzz was a far grimmer, more Spectre-like character when he first appeared in Detective Comics #225 (Nov. 1955) with his prominent brow and stern demeanor; later he was often drawn as just a smiling green Martian. This debut story was most recently reprinted in the 1998 Replica Edition of the first Secret Origins special, from 1961. Pencils by Joe Certa.

(Right:) Artist Tom Mandrake, artist of a recent long-running Spectre series, restored the grim visage in this pencil-and-ink sketch, done for collector Mike Zeno and used by permission of both Tom and Mike. Visit Tom’s website at <www.tommandrake.com>. [Detective #225 art ©2003 DC Comics; sketch ©2003 Tom Mandrake; Martian Manhunter TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

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Martian Manhunter

JLA’s seventh adventure, counting the three tales in The Brave and the Bold #28-30.

Still, one cannot but wonder about this drastic change in the Manhunter. I purchased Brave & Bold #28 on January 5, 1960—the day that issue hit the stands on the West Coast. Was it just coincidence that J’onn J’onzz had finally become visible to the world in Detective #273, which was cover-dated November 1959 and had gone on sale only a few months earlier, in either late September or early October? I wondered at the time, and I still do.

Many collectors still don’t fully realize, however, that the slowly-evolving “John Jones—Manhunter from Mars” feature—as the strip was titled through its 102-issue run in Detective Comics #225326—was in reality as fresh a concept in 1960 as were the Silver Age versions of The Flash and Green Lantern.

With the ever-increasing emphasis on science-fictional themes in comics after the launching of the Soviet satellite Sputnik in 1957, soon followed by the first U.S. Earth orbiter in 1958, the Martian Manhunter emerged as a far more commercially viable character than Green Arrow, then still just a holdover from the Golden Age. Many, if not most, of the original readers of Justice League of America probably did not realize how radically J’onn J’onzz’s presentation had changed—much for the better, from the standpoint of young readers who dug seeing green-skinned Martians—in the two years before the JLA’s debut in The Brave and the Bold #28 (March 1960).

Even so, it was just common sense to see the Martian Manhunter emerge from the shadows of invisibility, if only to provide more story possibilities for his series. He did so in Detective #273 (Nov. 1959), when his Martian identity became known to the world in “The Unmasking of John Jones.” He did, of course, retain his secret identity as the muscular daredevil detective John Jones, who was usually portrayed as anything but a less-than-aggressive Clark Kent type.

I often wrote the date on which I bought comics—right at the top of the first page—and those dates were almost always the date each comic hit the newsstands and comic racks. I would usually visit all the half dozen racks near my home on Tuesdays and Thursday (new-comics days in that era) to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Remember, comic book circulation was far wider but also much more inconsistent in those days.

How our memories play tricks on us! A/E’s editor had long recalled the full-page house ad that heralded the upcoming JLA debut at the end of 1959 as being topped by that oft-seen “Just Imagine!” heading, which actually appeared on ads for later issues, starting with Justice League of America #1. He’d forgotten that Starro the Conqueror got such double-billing, too! But Roy’s memory was correct about J’onn J’onzz being colored yellow instead of green on the ad, probably because a DC colorist accidentally confused the hero with the different-hued Martian criminal B’rett in Detective Comics #273; the Manhunter’s garb was colored on the ad as B’rett’s had been, as well. Incidentally, Michelle Nolan took this house ad from Batman #129 (Feb. 1960)—cover-dated one month earlier than The Brave and the Bold #28. [©2003 DC Comics.]

J’onn J’onzz had occasionally revealed his Martian visage and physique to Earthlings in a few previous stories, but these always ended with folks believing the green apparition to be a hoax. In Detective #271, in fact, three crooks captured by a very visible Manhunter were derided as delusional. (A brief origin recap in that issue, incidentally, is not totally faithful to the first story in #225.)

In Detective #273, the Martian criminal B’rett exposed J’onn to a gas compound, permanently taking away his Martian super-powers when he was invisible (though he could still turn invisible). Until that issue, the Manhunter had spent much of his time in his invisible state, which longtime “John Jones” artist Joe Certa strangely rendered in different ways.

Even though the Martian Manhunter was soon destined to join the JLA—less than four months after, in fact, with regard to newsstand time—I still have my doubts that this change in his visibility was made intentionally so that he could join the Justice League. Jack Schiff edited Detective and Joe Samachson wrote most of the “Manhunter from Mars” stories, while Justice League of America was edited by Julie Schwartz and written by Gardner Fox.

For some reason, I did not record the purchase date for my copy of Detective #273, but I did so date Action Comics #258, which also carried a November cover date. I bought the latter on September 29, 1959, which means Detective #273 came out at about the same time, probably no more than a week earlier or later. So call it only about three months ahead of the JLA’s debut.

In those days, with no comics press and no way of knowing anything about what was coming up in comics three months in advance, little could I know that “visibility” was soon to take on an entirely new meaning for J’onn J’onzz, with the stunning creation of the JLA. But, while reading Detective #273, I was just happy to see the intriguing Martian take such a leap forward.

For me, the Martian Manhunter was what I later came to call an “always character”—that is, he had always seemed to exist for me. When I had begun buying comics in April 1956, little had I known that “John Jones—Manhunter from Mars” was such a fresh concept. Unique, in fact. Nor did I understand what DC was trying to accomplish with this odd little strip, especially in its first two years.

My first exposure to the Martian Manhunter was in Detective Comics #233 (July 1956)—that’s right, the wonderful issue that also introduced Batwoman in the “Batman” lead feature. That landmark issue contained the Manhunter’s ninth story; but, much to my consternation, his Martian self was never shown therein! To my eight-year-old mind— which thought green-skinned Martians were much more intriguing than their human disguise could ever be—this was every bit as frustrating as those episodes of The Adventures of Superman on television in which the Man of Steel appeared in only a couple of scenes.

Nor did the Manhunter’s Martian identity appear in Detective #234 or #235. It wasn’t until #236 (Oct. 1956)—in the story “The Great Earth-Mars Mystery”—that at last I first saw the green-skinned super-

Just a League of Their Own part four

27

The Schwartzian Epic

[ROY’S INTRO: In 1963, for Alter Ego (Vol. 1), #6, then being edited and published by Ronn Foss, I dashed off the following parody of historical/archaeological scholarship. In this I had some help from then-ladyfriend Linda Rahm, who is fondly remembered by early’60s fans as the photographic incarnation of original A/E symbol “Joy Holiday” in issues #5-6 (and who soon went on to a Woodrow Wilson fellowship in the study of literature and became a university professor). This “Schwartzian Epic” is somewhat half-baked, perhaps, but at the time I was reading such weighty late 19th/early 20th century tomes as J.G. Frazer’s The Golden Bough, Gilbert Murray’s The Rise of the Greek Epic, and Jane Ellen Harrison’s Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion. Under their heady influence, I had

fun theorizing how scholars in a far-future era might reconstruct the world of the mid-20th century if one of the few surviving artifacts left from our day was a single issue of the Julius Schwartz-edited Justice League of America, one of the most influential comic books of the period. Re-reading the piece after forty years, I was sorely tempted to revise and polish it—not least because not everyone will recognize such (now) obscure 1960s references as, for example, one to “striped tubes” (which, in truth, held a long-gone but then-new brand of toothpaste called Stripe). In the end, however, I opted to re-present the parody as itself an artifact—of the importance of the original JLA to early comics fandom. And so, without further ado or apology:]

of to a three-volume work e warp, the introduction tim ey are a Th . via ana ed, ark uir Tex acq of in having Brrz of the University .

X.I Alter Ego is fortunate sor fes ation Pro nsl by tra . in definitive n in the year 5263 A.D y, but are here presented tur cen literary criticism writte d 53r the of ge ndardized langua written in the super-sta . assist from Linda Rahm an h wit as, om

by Roy Th

Introduction to e League of America tic Jus z’s art hw Sc on ht Lig ew N ic: Ep The Rise of the Twentieth-Century remain

dful of literary works catastrophe, a small han mic cos erica, and e tim of s age epic Justice League of Am Having withstood the rav se, the classic Schwartzian weighty the n of e upo e On . um vol A.D ed nia pir len ins from the first three mil , as is well known, has and ers the center oth in the n all rui a ve ulders abo the basement of stands out head and sho le over a century ago in litt a y onl y ver isco red ce its volume of comment sin wn as America. ept, of of this continent once kno hing about this epic exc agreement on virtually not in at works n gre bee e the hav of ics one crit as Iliad and Odyssey r’s These commentators and me Ho h wit ked ran t that it must be r to the surviving Linda Rahm and Roy Thomas, e it to a position inferio course, the undeniable fac have attempted to relegat o wh critical faculty. rs in ola g in a 1963 photo taken at Biljo sch kin lac ose be Th to of antiquity. conclusively shown n bee ce sin g lon e White’s home in Columbia, hav anonymous play Hamlet ume work, but a few Missouri. Photo by Ruth the subject of a three-vol o int ply dee in the go to ion introduct White. Thanks to Bill Schelly. aining a liberal education It is not the place of an who is interested in obt der rea l era gen the to out d highlights may be pointe twentieths. ssic cla nearly-complete piece of study of our one extant ng any in bei ly as d dab one voi nti una me es ” re aris “Julius Schwartz First of all, of course, the the view of rtzian question.” Was the to wa ty Sch e bili “th usi as pla wn any re kno is ? Is the century literature what of the epic a real person have kept the and untranslatable term) ber of persons who may num e larg a ing ent “editor” (a still confusing res rep ite pos com a but is 1 wartz Professor Urgiz that Sch iod of many years? cess of growth over a per early work by epic alive and in the pro since Professor Urgiz’s thrown on the problem n bee pondence from has res ss— cor al kne dar son new d one containing per nte pri a New light—or perhaps es, pag g sin rk was mis wo the view that this a part of one of the the discovery in 5248 of seems to give credence to ich wh th, Ear net pla various parts of the Epic, pp. 310 ff. dy of the Schwartzian 1 See his Prolegomena to the Stu

2003 NOTE: No longer having access that good ol’ 1963 time warp, we primitives of the early 21st century can only guess at which issue of Justice League of America had turned up in the 53rd century. At left is an early-’60s Mike Sekowsky/Bernard Sachs group shot repro’d in The Amazing World of DC Comics #14 (March 1977). [©2003 DC Comics.]

31

[Above Wally Wood art Š2003 the respective copyright holder.]

32

Comic Crypt

[Art ©2003 Estate of Wally Wood.]

The Nickel Library prints were all 8H" x 11", printed on stiff card stock with 3 holes punched on the side, so they could be collected into notebooks. When the series began in the early ’70s, the Nickel Library was aiming for 500 different prints. They eventually produced 58––each selling for a nickel!

No. 28: Wally Wood experimented with an unusually detailed fine-line style in this sci-fi drawing, probably done in the ’50s.

Wood generally drew more streamlined illos for science-fiction digests like If or Galaxy magazine. Check out the previous page for an example of Wood’s more stripped-down sci-fi style (No. 8).

Title Comic Fandom Archive

37

A Visit with OTTO BINDER

Brilliant Writer of SF and Comic Books An Excerpt from the Book Words of Wonder: The Life and Times of Otto Binder

by Bill Schelly Few comic book writers have contributed more to the medium than Otto Oscar Binder (1911-1974), author of over half of all strips featuring Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family for Fawcett Publications. In the course of writing an estimated 3000 comic book scripts between 1940 and 1970, he worked for nearly every publishing house, including Timely, EC, Dell, Quality and Warren. Binder wrote stories for Captain America, Blackhawk, Sub-Mariner, Black Hood, Uncle Sam, and literally dozens of other character in the Golden Age of Comics.

After Fawcett ceased publishing comic books in 1953, Binder moved over to DC to become the principal writer of the Superman family of titles through the end of the 1950s, despite a stormy relationship with irascible editor Mort Weisinger.

Binder launched both Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen in their own books, and cocreated Supergirl, Krypto, The Legion of Super-Heroes, Brainiac, Kandor, Lucy Lane, the Superman Emergency Squad, and Jimmy Olsen’s signal watch. He also wrote the first Bizarro story in comic books.

In 1969, largely in response to the death of his 14-year-old daughter Mary, Otto and his wife Ione moved from “the house that Captain Marvel built” in New Jersey to a considerably more modest abode in the Adirondack mountains, completely turning his back on the comic book field. As a result, little has generally been known of the man in his final years—until now.

legendary science-fiction and comic book writer. The ringleader of the group was Tom Fagan, the man who had brought the costumed heroes to Rutland for the annual Halloween parade. Tom was a writer too, having penned some remarkably well-written articles and fiction pieces for Alter Ego, Batmania, and Comic Crusader. He had already met Otto, having been in the bar of the Hotel Broadway Central to listen as Binder and Bill Finger drank cocktails and were interviewed by a clueless reporter from The New Yorker magazine for an article (which eventually appeared a week or two later). Otto’s appearance had changed since then. He now wore a mustache, and his complexion was more noticeably red. He had also grown a substantial potbelly. All those years of sedentary activity had had their effect. But his welcome was hearty, and his eyes twinkled as he shook their hands.

The second member of the fan contingent was J. Randolph Cox, known to his friends as Randy, and nicknamed Steed

by Fagan (after The Avengers television show). Cox was not particularly a comics fan; his interest was in researching the history of the famous publishers of The Shadow, Street and Smith. He had heard that Otto had written for them, and hoped he might glean some information on that subject. He, like Fagan, had hoped to meet with Jack as well as Otto, for he thought Jack might have retained records of the accounts he had had with Street and Smith as the owner of a comic book production shop in the early 1940s.

The cover of Bill Schelly’s spanking-new, just-published biography Words of Wonder, featuring Bill’s cover portrait of Otto Binder, plus hero art by Jerry Ordway. [Art ©2003 the respective artists; heroes TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

A year before he passed away, Otto Binder was visited by a contingent of admirers from comic fandom— not an unusual occurrence in itself, for he received visits from a few other fans in the months before and after. But what was different in this case was the fact that virtually the entire visit was taperecorded… and those long-lost tapes have been found! This account, and the quotes found within it, are the result of a distillation of some of the material on those tapes, as well as interviews conducted recently with the three participants.

On October 29, 1973, three travelers arrived at Otto Binder’s modest colonial-style home on Friend’s Lake Road just outside Chestertown, New York. They had driven over from Rutland, Vermont, to visit the

The third member of the group, more or less in the category of “hanger-on,” was a dark-haired 16-year-old who dreamed some day of drawing comics himself. Clearly he was hoping to learn something from the old seasoned pro. His name was Frank Miller.

Frank (now famed as the writer/artist of The Dark Knight Returns, Daredevil, and other comics) recently recalled: “Back then, I lived in farmland, a few miles from Montpelier, Vermont, where I was raised. I’d gotten word about an annual comic book Halloween parade in Rutland, Vermont, run by Tom Fagan. Tom was very generous with his time, letting me tag along as he put the show together and managed it. I’d known since I was six years old that I was going to make comic books for the rest of my life. This was my first chance to actually mix with other people who shared the passion.” The trip to Chestertown was another chance for Miller to pal around with Fagan, as well as meet a comics legend.

38

Otto Binder communicate with the living. For a while in the early 1970s, EVP was popular among spiritualists and the counter-culture.

The trio of comic book fans had arrived in late afternoon. It was just Otto and his cat, no sign of his wife Ione. While it was still light, Otto took them back to his garage to show them where he had kept his Fawcett and other Golden Age comics. “There was nothing there but new stuff, but I guess he wanted to show us where they’d been. He said he was eternally grateful to Jerry Bails for helping him sell them. When I asked why he would sell his personal collection, Binder said simply, “I had to eat.”

“The new comics included a lot of copies of the Fatman, the Human Flying Saucer comic book,” Fagan said. “Frank and Randy were saying how great they thought it was, sort of reviving the look of Captain Marvel. But I spoke up and said I didn’t like it, because I thought it made fun of fat people. They were a little shocked that I would say something like that in Otto’s presence, but—though he obviously disagreed—it didn’t seem to bother him. After all, it was just my opinion.”

The trio of 1973 Binder interviewers (plus one) in other eras: [Left to right:] Daredevil/Boy Comics/Crime Does Not Pay writer/artist/editor Charles Biro rapping with Tom Fagan and J. Randolph Cox circa the late 1960s—plus a 1986 photo of Frank Miller.

The house where Otto and Ione lived was set well back from the road in a lot among the tall pine trees of the Adirondack Mountains. As Ione’s niece put it in a recent interview, they were “about as far in the boonies as you could go.” Their nearest neighbor was a half mile away.

They had chosen the house for its affordability (for they had suffered many financial reversals over the years), and because it was just over a mile from the Jack Binder homestead, where Otto’s brother had set up a shop to make signs for the local motels and dude ranches, and decorative statuary for both residential and commercial purposes. The childless couple were no longer the dewy-eyed young lovers who had fallen in love and wed 33 years before. But, though shattered by the death of their daughter, the effects of Ione’s mental problems, the effects of their dependency on alcohol, and the vicissitudes of his making a living as a freelance writer, Otto and Ione had nevertheless found a kind of peace here in the back woods.

Otto’s voice on the tape sounds very much the same as he had when he had been riding high in 1965 as a guest of the New York Comicon, his first two Adam Link stories having been adapted for the Outer Limits TV show late in ’64. Friendly, sincere, genial—gentle. He was obviously pleased that these fans had made a special effort just to see him.

Talking to the Dead On the drive to Chestertown, Fagan had cautioned his compatriots, “Whatever you do, don’t ask him about trying to communicate with the dead. It might embarrass Otto.”

But Cox recalled, “Funnily enough, it was Otto who brought the subject up. He was sort of apologetic, saying he realized we might not be too interested in the phenomenon.” Otto had become fascinated with the theories of Dr. Konstantin Raudive, the Latvian-born student of Carl Jung who wrote a book about electronic voice phenomenon (EVP). In his book Breakthrough—An Amazing Experiment in Electronic Communication with the Dead (1971), Raudive published his interpretation of tens of thousands of “spirit voices” obtained by simply turning a tape recorder on and recording “silence.” When played back, with the volume amplified, he claimed that the sounds one hears are the voices of dead people trying to

Next, the host produced several reels of home movies. He set up a projector, and showed his guests several brief 8millimeter films made in the late 1940s and early 1950s of the Fawcett crew relaxing and clowning around in his old back yard in New Jersey. These three fans may be the only members of comicdom to have seen these (apparently) lost pieces of comic book history.

“Who’s hungry?” Otto asked. He was quite surprised when Tom Fagan insisted on footing the bill for the group to go to a restaurant. It was Fagan’s turn to be surprised by the Chestertown restaurant that Otto chose.

“It was the seediest place imaginable, a real dive, with the lights down so low—it was so dark in there! I turned to Otto and asked, ‘Isn’t there any place that’s nicer than this?’ Otto said, ‘Yes, there is one other place, but it’s quite expensive.’ I got the feeling that perhaps Otto didn’t frequent the place where we eventually had our dinner. I wasn’t rich, but I wanted to do something for Otto, and I felt good about it.” Sometime in the course of that meal, Binder brought up his interest in paranormal phenomenon, specifically the theories of Raudive.

Fagan said, “When we got back to his place, Otto did play us a tape that he claimed sounded like his daughter saying something like, ‘I’m here. I’m here. Help.’ I couldn’t hear it, but I have always been curious about such matters so I didn’t think it was ridiculous.”

The group decided to conduct an experiment in EVP right then and there. That’s when they began the recording that is the basis of this account. The lights were turned down low, and they huddled close to the bulky reel-to-reel recorder.

Otto was the first to speak.

“We’re at the house of Otto Binder in Chestertown, New York. There are four of us. This is Otto Binder speaking, and the others will introduce themselves in turn.

Dr. Konstantin Roudive, author of Breakthrough, which dealt with EVP (electronic voice phenomenon). [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

“We would like to contact the Spirit Man, and call for Mary Binder, my daughter. This is your Daddy.” He paused to leave space on the tape for a response to his request. Then: “I would also like to contact Earl Binder, my brother. This is

PLUS: PLUS:

5.95

$$

In the the USA USA In

No. 30

November 2003

Vol. 3, No. 30/November 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

The French Connection Section

Production Assistant

Eric Nolen-Weathington

Cover Artists

Contents

Steve Rude Alex Ross

Cover Colorists Solid! Colors Alex Ross

And Special Thanks to:

Kim Aamodt Ger Apeldoorn Gary Arlington Mark Arnold Dick Ayers Brian H. Baile Leslie Dillin Battista Allen Bellman Bill Black Lee Boyett Mike Brown R. Dewey Cassell Paul Chadwick Dick Cole Jon B. Cooke Craig Delich Mrs. Dick (Estella) Dillin Richard Dillin, Jr. Shel Dorf Frank Doscher Terry Dillin Doscher Martin Downham Michael Feldman Carl Gafford Paul Gambaccini Walter Geier Janet Gilbert Mark Glidden Scott Goodell Walt Grogan Mrs. Howard Keltner Bob Klein Scott Koblish

David Anthony Kraft Jean-Marc & Randy Lofficier Tom Mandrake Andy Mangels Don Marquez Peter Meskin John Moores Josh Neufeld Michelle Nolan David Olsen Jake Oster Linda Rahm-Crites Larry Rippee Paul Rivoche David Roach Trina Robbins Alex Ross Steve R. Rowe Steve Rude Alex Ross Steve Skeates Robin Snyder Marc Swayze Greg Theakston Dann Thomas Alex Toth Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Sal Velluto Murray Ward Lynn Woolley Eddy Zeno Mike Zeno

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Dick Dillin & Warren Kremer

Writer/Editorial: Three Cheers for the Blue, White, and Red! . . 2 Blue (Hawk), White (Archer), Red (Mask) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Jean-Marc Lofficier on the super-heroes of French popular culture, from 1857 to today.

Ghost Writers in the Sky. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Jim Amash talks with Golden Age writers Kim Aamodt and Walter Geier—who scripted tales for Simon & Kirby!

“If It Doesn’t Tell a Story, It’s Just Wallpaper!”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Alex Toth on storytelling in comics—and he should know!

Warren Kremer (1921-2003) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 A brief tribute by Mark Arnold. re: [caveats, correspondence, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) #89 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Paul Hamerlinck presents Marc Swayze, C.C. Beck, and the Shazam! cartoon show.

Just A League Of Their Own Section. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: As detailed in Jean-Marc Lofficier’s exhaustive survey that starts on p. 3, the French-spawned Homicron started as a super-hero in 1972—was revived in 2000 with art such as this powerful drawing by Nexus artist/co-creator Steve Rude—then metamorphosed overnight into a super-heroine! Thanks, Steve! [Art ©2003 Steve Rude; Homicron TM & ©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

Above: Nope, it’s not The Fly (a.k.a. Fly-Man) from 1960s Archie Comics—or even The Human Fly, who was licensed by Marvel in the mid-1970s. It’s Mikros, the Titan Microcosmique, leader of an insect-powered super-hero team that debuted in French Comics in 1980. And if you think he’s something, wait’ll you get a load of Saltarella and Bobby Cragg! Art from Titans #63 (April 1984) by Jean-Yves Mitton. [©2003 J.-Y. Mitton.]

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.

Blue (Hawk), Whie (Archer), Red (Mask)

3

Blue (Hawk), White (Archer), Red (Mask): An Historical Overview of French Super-Heroes

by Jean-Marc Lofficier

[Unless noted, all art accompanying this article has been provided by the author.]

In the Beginning: Rocambole

The first French super-hero ever was Rocambole, the creation of writer Pierre-Alexis Ponson du Terrail. The saga of Rocamabole, ou Les Drames de The French Tricolor flag came to life in some of that nation’s greatest Paris [The Dramas of Paris] was heroes and villains. L’Epervier Bleu (The Blue Hawk) battled pirates of the stratosphere—Jean-Yves Mitton’s L’Archer Blanc (The White initially serialized in chapters Archer) was a manhunter with a bow and arrow, and Masque A new universe? A new publisher? which appeared in the pages of Rouge (Red Mask) apparently conducted of his dirty work in the daily Parisian newspaper Le No, just some of the names of superpre-World War I skies. [L’Epervier Bleu art ©2003 Sirius/Dupuis; Matin, and was later collected in heroes that have appeared in the pages of other art ©2003 the respective copyright holders.] approximately a dozen volumes, French comic books and pulp magazines published between 1857 and 1870. since the 1940s, following a pulp literary tradition that began in the The last serial was, in fact, left uncompleted due to the untimely death of 1850s! This article will provide an historical overview of some of the its author. best-known or most interesting of them, as well as the publishing context in which they evolved.

Rocambole, whose origins remained shrouded in mystery, was an adventurer who did good, but was often on the wrong side of the law, like Leslie Charteris’ Saint. Foreshadowing Doc Savage, Rocambole Before the medium of comics (in French, “bandes dessinées”) was gathered around him a group of trusted assistants, selected from various invented by Swiss writer-cartoonist Rodolphe Töpffer (whose first slices of society. And, like The Shadow, Rocambole had mastered the graphic story, Histoire de M. Vieuxboix [The Story of Mr. Vieuxbois], famed skills of the Orient and inherited the secrets of an ancient Tibetan was published in Geneva in 1827), super-heroes were to be found, in civilization. He was more than a mere man; his ability to escape from France as in America, in popular literature serials published first in daily any kind of deadly trap led to the French coining the adjective “rocamnewspapers—hence the label “roman feuilleton,” feuille (leaf) being a bolesque” to label any kind of fantastic, outrageous adventure. term for a newspaper page—before being collected in what we would The amazing Rocambole. The elusive Fantômas. The Nyctalope. Mad Doctor Cornelius. Judex. Fantax. Satanax.

Salvator. Zembla. Wampus. Photonik.

Homicron.

recognize as “pulps.” As is the case today, there was a distinction between those forms of popular entertainment and more highbrow literary works with more respectable cultural aspirations.

Rocambole’s sometimes lover, sometimes rival, was the beautiful Baccarat, a former courtesan who was a fearless shooter, rider, and swordswoman. Baccarat is perhaps the first modern female super-hero in the history of pulp literature. Rocambole’s arch-enemy was his former master, the satanic Sir Williams, who, like Doctor Doom, had a sense of

4

An Historical Overview of French Super-heroes

panache and doomed grandeur about him. Rocambole always referred to Sir Williams as “my good Master,” and it was clear that the two adversaries liked and respected each other. Rocambole tales were often sprinkled with fantastic elements, such as a sect of Kaliworshipping thugs, an exiled Russian prince who was always a mad scientist plotting to conquer the world, etc.

With Rocambole, Ponson du Terrail created and virtually defined all the archetypes of modern heroic and superheroic fiction.

Sâr Dubnotal—Master of Psychognosis Sâr Dubnotal was created by writer Norbert Sevestre, and was published in 1909-1910 as a series of pulp magazines, not unlike the Shadow and Doc Savage pulps in the U.S. The Sâr Dubnotal was the one of the few pulps to embrace a full range of larger-than-life super-heroics, but, perhaps because of this, its success was limited and it was cancelled after only twenty issues.

The Sâr Dubnotal was the Great Psychagogue, a Master of Psychognosis, the Conqueror of the Invisible. (“Sâr” itself is some sort of Oriental/Hindu title meaning “wise man” or some such thing.) In spite of his stylish Oriental guise, Dubnotal, like Mandrake, Sargon, Dr. Strange, and their various imitators, was a western man who had first been educated in the Rosicrucian tradition, before learning the ancient occult secrets of the Hindu yogis, and mastering their fantastic paranormal abilities.

Skipping ahead a bit chronologically: fourteen issues of a Rocambole comic book were written and drawn by Gaston Niezab and published by Armand Fleury Cover of Sâr Dubnotal #11, probably 1910. in 1947. Over 200 black-&-white daily He was the Dr. Strange of his day. Art Dubnotal lived in a comfortable Parisian apartment comic strips were written and drawn by

by Sarace. [©2003 the respective located beneath his sophisticated laboratory. His regular copyright holder.]

André Galland and serialized in the daily companion and assistant was the beautiful, plucky Italian newspaper Le Parisien Libéré in 1949medium, Gianetti Annunciata. Dubnotal was usually busy 50. Later, over 600 strips labeled The New Adventures of Rocambole thwarting the nefarious goals of a colorful gallery of super-villains, and likewise done by Galland, were serialized in Le Parisien Libéré in including Tserpchikopf the Hypnotist, who was later revealed to be Jack 1954-56. Finally, 41 issues of yet another Rocambole comic book series the Ripper, and the Russian terrorist mastermind Azzef. were published by Aventures & Voyages between 1964 and 1967; its writer and artist are unknown. In the latter, Rocambole was depicted as a The Sâr Dubnotal series was never reprinted nor collected in book freelance adventurer who lived in semi-retirement in a Brittany castle form, and remains to this day a relatively obscure, yet ground-breaking with his faithful man-servant and his dog Kid; he was periodically achievement. summoned to London by the British Intelligence Service to undertake a variety of perilous missions.

The Nyctalope—a Gallic Dark Knight

A more popular pulp super-hero was The Nyctalope, created by Jean de La Hire, a prolific pulp writer of the times. The Nyctalope was the alias of Léo Saint-Clair (or Jean de Sainclair in some novels, continuity not being La Hire’s strong point). He was a super-powered crime-fighter whose piercing yellow eyes could see in the dark, and who sported an artificial heart. His name refers to an eye condition in which vision is normal in daylight but abnormally weak at night— paradoxically, the exact opposite of his powers!

Like Rocambole, The Nyctalope’s adventures were first serialized in the daily newspaper Le Matin, starting in 1908 with L’Homme Qui Peut Vivre dans l’Eau [The Man Who Could Live Underwater], and were later collected in sixteen volumes with equally lurid titles. The last one appeared in 1954, a mere two years before La Hire’s death.

A vintage illustration of Ponson du Terrail’s Rocambole. Artist unknown. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

The Nyctalope had superpowers and a secret identity, and was, like Rocambole,

The Nyctalope—French forerunner of The Black Bat and Dr. Mid-Nite (except that the latter two had the added twist of being blind in normal daylight). Cover art by R. Brantonne. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

Blue (Hawk), Whie (Archer), Red (Mask)

5

(Left:) The famous Sarace illustration of Fantômas bestriding Paris, with the dagger in his right hand partly, er, cut off at the edge, appeared on a 1987 hardcover English-language translation of the original novel. (Center:) This poster from the 1913 Gaumont Louis Feuillade movie serial features a fuller version of the illo—only somebody erased the dagger! (Right:) A somewhat less debonair poster for a 1932 Fantômas movie. [©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

surrounded by a devoted group of fearless assistants, including the Japanese count Gno Mitang, the mysterious Jewish wizard Mathias Lumen, and the international Committee of Information and Defense against Evil, which he had created. His rogues’ gallery was colorful enough to excite envy in even Doc Savage or Batman. These included the megalomanical Baron Glo von Warteck (aptly nicknamed Lucifer), the mad monk Fulbert, the devilish Oxus, Gorillard the Mastodon (a brilliant mastermind), the mad engineer Korridés, the “Scarlet Princess” Diana Ivanovna Krosnorow (Queen of the Hashishins, a.k.a. Titania), and finally, Leonid Zattan, who was truly evil incarnate.

who created him in 1911. He appeared in 32 volumes written by the two in only two years—then in eleven more volumes written by Allain alone after Souvestre’s death in 1914.

Arch-criminal Fantômas remains even today one of the most popular characters in French pulp literature. His adversaries were the determined policeman Juve and the dashing young journalist Jerôme Fandon, who eventually fell in love with Fantômas’ daughter. Another recurring character was the tragic figure of Fantômas’ lover, Lady Beltham, who was constantly torn between her passion for the villain and her horror at his criminal schemes.

The first Fantômas book cover, showing a contemplative masked man dressed in a dinner jacket and holding a dagger, boldly stepping over Paris, has become so well known that it is almost a cliché today.

The Nyctalope’s adventures took him to every location on Earth, underwater, into the snowy wastes of Tibet, and even to Rhea, an unknown satellite of Earth, and to Mars, where he fought H.G. Wells’ Martians! In one if the novels, he is forced to travel to the future to battle Belzebuth, the son of Leonid Zattan and Titania.

Just as Sherlock Holmes became the archetype for a host of rivals and imitations, so did Fantômas. Among his better-known, and even more horrific, literary descendants were Arnould Galopin’s Tenebras (1911), Gaston René’s Masque Rouge [Red Mask] (1912), Louis Feuillade’s gang of Vampires (1915), Fascinax (1921), Gabriel Bernard’s Satanas (1921), Arthur Bernède’s Belphégor (1927), Marcel Allain’s own Tigris (1928), Fatala (1930), Miss Teria (1931), and Ferocias (1933)—and a bevvy of Italian super-villains, such as Diabolik, Satanik, Kriminal, and others.

The last “Nyctalope” story (according to internal chronology) was written in 1944 but took place in 1941. In it, The Nyctalope appeared to have succumbed to the charms of collaboration with the Nazis, retroactively making him the first super-hero to have actually gone bad in his old age!

Fear over Paris: Fantômas As Rocambole was France’s first super-hero, so was Fantômas the first French super-villain to star in his own series. He was the brainchild of writers Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre,

In Le Secret du Masque Rouge #38 (circa 1913-14), on our title page, the villain was airborne; on the cover of issue #21, he operates under the sea. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

Fantômas was also the subject of several comics adaptations, the most recent in the 1990s.

28

Kim Aamodt

Ghost Writers In The Sky JIM AMASH Talks with KIM AAMODT and WALTER GEIER —Two Genial Gents Who Wrote for Simon & Kirby during the Golden Age I. KIM AAMODT: “It Was Fun While I Did It!” [INTERVIEWER’S INTRO: Kim Aamodt’s comic book career was brief but fascinating. He wrote for the fabled team of Joe Simon & Jack Kirby, as well directly for several comics companies. Alex Toth, known for being a shrewd judge of talent, has publicly praised Aamodt’s romance scripts on several occasions.

A victim of Dr. Fredric Wertham’s crusade against comic books in the 1950s, Kim tells us how he worked his way out of the morass into another field of work. —Jim.] JIM AMASH: Where and when were you born?

(Above:) Believe it or not—Kim Aamodt’s passport photo taken May 3, 2003! Courtesy of K.A. (Right:) The Simon & Kirby splash for a story in Black Magic #6 (Aug.-Sept. 1951)—which may or may not have been one of those Kim wrote. [©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

KIM AAMODT: I was born in North Dakota.

Jack Benny, Skeezix Wallet, Hugh Downs, and I share the same birthday, February 14. I’m Jack Benny’s age: 39. [laughs] I hate to say this, but I was almost named Valentine. My mother interfered and said, “I like Dr. Kimball and I like his name, so that’s what it’s going to be.” My full name is Kimball Ellsworth Aamodt. I don’t like that middle name, either. I was named after two grandfathers, Knute and Evan. That’s the way things were in those days.

JA: What got you interested in writing?

AAMODT: A teacher of mine (I don’t remember what grade I was in) said, “We’re going to study Edgar Allan Poe next week. Can you do better?” I said, “Yeah.” I wrote a story and she said, “It’s pretty good, Kimball, but it’s not better than Mr. Poe.” I started writing stories for pulp magazines and got a pile of rejection letters. I was eleven or twelve years old Kimball (“Kim”) Aamodt as a U.S. Navy pilot during then. Later, when World War II, “a couple of years before embarking on I got into college, the adventure of writing comics.” Courtesy of K.A.

I discovered literature. I’d always been a big reader, but it’d always been soft stuff.

JA: Where did you go to college?

AAMODT: I went to Hamlin in St. Paul, Minnesota, for a couple of years. Then I flew in the Navy for four years, 1942 to 1946. I was a flight instructor and that hurt, because I wanted to spill my blood, you know. When I finally got my orders for sea duty, they were planning for the invasion of Japan, and needed a lot of hospital ships. They sent me around for training on various planes. I flew as a co-pilot on big four engine planes. Then I volunteered for a new group for medical transport because we were told about the invasion. They didn’t tell us much, but we knew it was coming and they needed people to transport the wounded. They stationed me in Guam, which was probably the best thing that happened to me, because I’d have probably gotten killed if I’d gone on a big carrier. Some of my buddies did get killed.

When I got out, I finished up my schooling at New York University and took a graduate year. I found a great teacher in college, and after that, I couldn’t care less about writing for the sake of writing. I wanted to write literature. Or try.

Ghost Writers In The Sky

29

When I got to New York, I did write a couple of short stories.

One of them was published by Chicken Farming magazine, which was an organ for chicken farming in upstate New York. I had sent that story to Collier’s magazine, and the editor sent me a nice handwritten rejection slip. He said, “Any time you want to submit, submit to me.” I was very pleased, but I thought that anybody could do this. It was just commercial writing. I wasn’t interested in keeping this up.

I finally went back to North Dakota for six months in 1950 and wrote my novel, which was never published. All writers have a novel. When I finished, my buddy Walter Geier [pronounced “Guyer”] called me up and said, “Come to New York and write comic books.

The money grows on trees!” Walter was writing for Simon & Kirby at the time. We met on campus at N.Y.U. Well, I took the next train to New York, and I’m still waiting to find that money on the trees.

JA: I’ve never heard of Walter Geier. You know, Jack and Joe always said they wrote most of their stories, but I know they had some people, like Jack Oleck, writing for them.

AAMODT: Well, Simon and Kirby wrote the plots. They sat there and wrote them, and that’s what we followed. They were the only people who ever gave me plots. I had to submit plot ideas to everyone else. I’d send in a dozen and they’d say, “We’ll take six.” Then I’d go home and write.

Kim says he wrote “Black Magic and romance stories” for Simon & Kirby, but so far it’s proved impossible to ascertain which tales he did of each—so here are a couple of possibilities from that period. The Black Magic splash is from #28 (Jan-Feb. 1954)—while “Back Door Love,” from Young Romance, Vol. 3, #3 (1949), was reprinted in the 1988 volume Real Love: The Best of the Simon and Kirby Romance Comics: 1940s—1950s, edited by Richard Howell for Eclipse Books. [Art ©2003 Joe Simon & Estate of Jack Kirby.]

JA: So you fleshed out the plots and wrote dialogue for Simon & Kirby?

AAMODT: Yeah. And sometimes Walter and I would be sitting with them in a little anteroom that was their office. They’d be in there smoking big cigars, facing each other. It looked like two fireflies mating. [mutual laughter] Cigar smoke covered the room and it was hilarious to watch them, because they ignited each other and developed a story between them. Then they’d say, “That’s the story, kids.” Jack did more of the plotting than Joe. Jack’s face looked so energized when he was plotting that it seemed as if sparks were flying from him.

They’d say, “Do a five-pager on this, or a six-pager on that.” If the artist was really good, I might make a small suggestion about the art. If the guy was awful, I’d write more detail into the story.

JA: What did you write for them?

AAMODT: Black Magic and romance stories.

JA: Great! I’d like to be able to give you credit for what you did.

AAMODT: We never got credit for what we wrote there. In fact, we had to sign a paper that gave Simon & Kirby all the rights. I think we got a dollar each time we did that.

As seen in The Jack Kirby Collector #25, here is the Simon & Kirby shop circa 1949, a couple of years before Kim worked for the team. (L. to r., standing:) Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Bill Draut, Marvin Stein. Seated: letterer Ben Oda.

Anyway, it was hard for me to plot, so I spent many an indecent hour trying to come up with a decent plot. This story was for one outfit: a composer had run out of ideas and he sold his soul to the Devil, but

30

Kim Aamodt

didn’t know how he would be answered. One day, he was looking out his window, and on five power lines, there were five black birds sitting there in different positions. Suddenly, he realized he was looking at a music staff and that the black birds were notes. So he just copied them down and of course, after a year goes by, the man gets his comeuppance.

One night, it was about two a.m., and I had been reading. I turned the television on and there was my story, almost verbatim. I don’t know if someone sold my story or if it they stole the idea. Many times, I’ve seen my work come to life.

JA: So you had to sign a waiver-of-rights agreement with Simon & Kirby?

AAMODT: Yes, but I think this was common practice back then. Walter and I shared an apartment for five years, but he got out of comics before I did. He had started before me, but he went straight [laughs] and got a real job! He made good money.

JA: Who hired you at Simon & Kirby’s?

AAMODT: Walter recommended me and I went in with him... February 1951. They sat there and gave me a plot the first day; it was very informal. They’d say to us, “You do this one and you do that one. Five pages, six pages”... that’s how it worked. They paid $5 a page. I didn’t have to show them any writing samples.

JA: What was it like to work for them?

AAMODT: It was fun to go up to meet with them. Joe would occasionally spring for lunch, but maybe Walter could tell you more about them than I could. Joe was good, but not as creative as Jack was.

Joe had his own ideas, though. I always thought that Joe Simon was the businessman and Jack Kirby was the artist. They made for a great combination.

JA: Joe was an editor at Victor Fox’s, which is where he met Jack.

That’s when they became a team. When Simon became an editor at Timely, he took Jack with him.

AAMODT: Well, Joe did that because he had good sense.

JA: Yeah, because how many times do you get to work with a comics genius?

I remember that Jack Kirby was very good about making up titles. I remember giving him a lame title and Jack said, “No. We’re going to call it ‘Under the Knife.’” It was a surgical story. I was impressed that Jack came up with titles so quickly. And Jack and Joe were quite talkative.

We’d have lunch and tell jokes and have a good time. I worked for them for nearly two years. I can’t remember specifically how long, because I was also working for Standard after a while.

JA: Did other people work at the offices?

AAMODT: I don’t know. All I remember was that small anteroom. I don’t recall going into any other office there. They could have had other people working there.

JA: Why did you quit working for Simon & Kirby?

AAMODT: I think they got annoyed with me because I was in Maine on a little vacation and I told Walter to pick up my check when he went to pick up his. I had never asked for one before, and I think that annoyed Joe. I don’t know for sure, though, and I wasn’t really worried about it, because I had other work. In those days, comic book companies were interested in new people, so it was easy to show work around. I never had any problems and I was good at business.

JA: Was Standard the first place you got work after Simon & Kirby?

AAMODT: I think so. Joe Archibald was in charge there, and I had a wonderful editor named Jean Press. She really liked me and pushed me.

When she moved over to a confession magazine outfit, I started writing there.

Joe was the major domo, and he had a big reputation in the comic book field. He was an older man with gray hair... a little heavy. He may have had a great big mustache, but I can’t remember for sure. He was a warm person, but I only saw him a couple of times.

Jean edited love stories and said, “You’re really good at this stuff.

Have you ever been in love?” I said, “Several times. That’s why I have bitter endings.” [laughs] The hard part was coming up with plots, and as I told you, I’d have to submit them first. They chose which ones I was to write and gave me a page length. Some places gave you certain parameters. Some editors wanted lots of dialogue and little exposition; others wanted the reverse.

JA: Did you ever meet Alex Toth or Mike Peppe while you were AAMODT: There was one in my lifetime, and it was Jack. Jack drew there? some of my stories, but so did others, because they had a stable of artists.

Their office was in the 50s in Manhattan, and next door was one of the AAMODT: I met Alex a couple of times, and we used to correspond. new tabloid magazines, like JA: Did any of Confidential. the companies give you free Walter and I copies of your would see expublished strip-teasers work? come by and we’d get a AAMODT: glimpse of the They must real life. [laughs] have, because I Some of them don’t were old and remember ever they used a lot of buying any make-up, but comics. I never they had great got a by-line. figures. That’s why we’d make JA: Did the excuses to go up lack of a byand have a line bother meeting with You pays your money and you takes your chances! Aamodt wrote for romance comics published by Standard (a.k.a. you?

Joe. Better, Pines, and Nedor), so his stories might have appeared, for instance, in that company’s Popular Romance issues published with early-1950 cover dates; the series had begun with #5. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

Who Cares? I Do!

37

“If It Doesn’t Tell A Story, It’s Just Wallpaper!”

ALEX TOTH on Storytelling in Comics

[Art ©2003 Alex Toth.]

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Alter Ego is proud to present this 1999 piece by the Golden/Silver Age artist of Green Lantern, Johnny Thunder, Bravo for Adventure, and myriad other comics features.]

When he lauds comic book storytelling, Alex knows whereof he speaks, as per this page from All-American Comics #101 (Sept. 1948), the second-ever “Johnny Thunder” western tale. Writer: Robert Kanigher. [©2003 DC!Comics.]

38

Warren Kremer

Warren Kremer (1921-2003)

by Mark Arnold Warren G. Kremer was born in the Bronx, New York, down in the Mott Haven section, lower town, on June 26, 1921. He is best known as the prolific primary artist behind Casper the Friendly Ghost and Richie Rich for Harvey Comics, helping to design their present “Harvey look.” He worked for Harvey for 35 years, drawing everything from their horror mags to their children’s titles, and virtually every cover produced for comic books featuring Casper, Hot Stuff, Jackie Jokers, Little Audrey, Little Dot, Little Lotta, Richie Rich, Spooky, Stumbo, and Wendy.

He was born to a sign painter, raised on the likes of Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon and Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant, and was a huge fan of Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Cimmerian. He graduated from the School of Music and Art and the School of Industrial Arts, and spent over ten years working for publishing houses doing layouts and lettering, and illustrations for pulp and aviation magazines.

Warren Kremer (left) and another comics giant, Joe Simon, at the Harvey offices in 1975.

Photo courtesy of Mark Arnold.

A hernia kept him out of the military, so during World War II Kremer kept his job at Ace Magazines as an illustrator, eventually moving into their comic book line. One of the first comic books he drew was Hap Hazard Comics, which began in 1944. He then moved on to drawing the “Ozzie and Babs” feature in Fawcett’s Wow Comics and its own title in 1947. (Some accounts say it was Ozzie and Harriet, but that comic was published by DC and not until 1949.) It was also in 1947 that Kremer married his longtime letterer Grace (whom he met while working at Ace); and in 1948, he started freelancing for Harvey Comics. His first assignment there was drawing “Humphrey and Little Max” for Joe Palooka.

Kremer alternated easily between the cartoony and the gruesome, drawing one of the most graphic horror comic book covers of the early 1950s—Tomb of Terror #15, which featured an exploding head. He was soon offered a position as Harvey’s art director, a role he held to the end of the company’s first publication run in 1982.

The late artist Marty Taras once said of Kremer: “You know, if Warren went into animation, we’d all have to leave our jobs!” What Taras may not have known is that Kremer did work in animation, providing the opening and closing storyboards for The New Casper Cartoon Show and the Harveytoons logo. Kremer considered fellow Harvey artist and Famous/Paramount animator Steve Muffatti as one of his biggest influences and mentor.

Both Kremer and Harvey editor Sid Jacobson have laid claim to having created the character of Richie Rich. Kremer was also the primary illustrator for Stumbo the Giant (which he claimed he designed during his years at Ace), and he designed the present look for Casper (who was created by Joe Oriolo and Sy Reit).

Kremer’s take on the ongoing creation claims with regard to Richie Rich was that he based Richie on the TV show The Millionaire and named the character after his son. He said he then approached editor Sid

Jacobson with the idea, and Jacobson had Steve Muffatti design the character. However, The Millionaire did not debut until January 19, 1955, whereas Richie Rich made his debut in the September 1953 issue of Little Dot, nor did Kremer draw Richie from 1953-1960. Alan, Russel, Adam, and Eric Harvey maintain that their father Alfred created Richie Rich, and point out existing documentation, as early as the 1930s.

Kremer seems to have been one of the five most prolific cover artists in the history of comics, the other four being (in no particular order) Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, Joe Kubert, and Dan DeCarlo. According to Sid Jacobson, “Kremer could pencil eight pages of interiors a day at his most productive!” Kremer basically drew everything for Harvey (even Sad Sack for Hostess cakes ads in the late ’70s), but credit should also be given to fellow artists Howie Post (Hot Stuff, Spooky, Wendy, Little Audrey), Marty Taras (Baby Huey, Herman and Katnip, Nightmare, Wendy), Ernie Colón (Richie Rich, Little Dot, Little Lotta, Jackie Jokers), Sid Couchey (Little Lotta, Little Dot, Richie Rich), Dom Sileo, Ken Selig, and Ben Brown (all Richie Rich and related titles), and George Baker, Fred Rhoads, Jack O’Brien, Joe Dennett, and Paul McCarthy (all on Sad Sack-related comics).

After the original Harvey company closed its doors in 1982, Kremer ended his career at Marvel, drawing titles for their Star line, including Planet Terry, Royal Roy, Heathcliff, Flintstone Kids, Ewoks, Popples, Hugga Bunch, and Top Dog. “They don’t know it, but this is the best artist who ever walked through these doors,” claimed artist Marie Severin upon Kremer’s visit to the Marvel Comics bullpen.

His final comics work was for Count Duckula, before he suffered a debilitating stroke in the late 1980s, which left him partially paralyzed on his left side, rendering his drawing hand useless. In the early ’90s, he worked occasionally on merchandise projects for the new owners of the Harvey characters but eventually retired to his home in New Jersey.

According to Sid Jacobson, “Warren wrote with his right hand, but drew

No. 89 Our 30th Year!

1973-2003

ALL IN THE FAMILY

Filmation’s SHAZAM! Cartoon plus: MARC SWAYZE & C.C. BECK

Marc Swayze

45 or an infield... but a publishing business. The feeling on the 22nd floor was that there was a lot of publishing expertise “up there.”

But to have the new character concept funnel down with so little to go on: “a young super-hero... er, heroine... about Billy’s age.” From the art standpoint I could see a few handholds to grasp. But writing? I wouldn’t have touched it with a ten-foot pole.

By

[Art & logo ©2003 Marc Swayze; Captain Marvel © & TM 2003 DC Comics]

And yet, I did. It goes back to an early settler who lived on the banks of a Louisiana bayou. The founder of our community named not only the bayou, but the main street, in honor of the old trapper. His name was DeSiard.

Now I doubt... I’d even lay a little cash on it... that there is another community in the whole wide world with a “DeSiard Street” as its main thoroughfare.

[FCA EDITORS NOTE: From 1941-53, Marcus D. Swayze was a top artist for Fawcett Comics. The very first Mary Marvel character Years after working in comics, I was looking at an old copy of sketches came from Captain Marvel Adventures [#19] and noticed in the Marc’s drawing table, dialogue a mean guy’s reference to “186 DeSiard and he illustrated her Street.” A few pages later Mary Marvel herself earliest adventures, remarked to the reader that she was on her way to... including the classic “186 DeSiard Street.” Further inspection of the story Mary Marvel origin revealed small personal phrasings and familiar peculistory, “Captain Marvel arities that convinced me it was my writing—“The Introduces Mary Training of Mary Marvel”—where Captain Marvel Marvel (CMA #18, and Captain Marvel Jr. launched Mary on her own Dec. ’42); but he was trail of adventure. (“186,” by the way, was once the primarily hired by address of a jewelry shop operated by a musician Fawcett to illustrate friend, if my memory is correct.)

Captain Marvel stories and covers for Whiz When I departed the Fawcett offices for military Comics and Captain service, I left some of my belongings for storage in Marvel Adventures. the building where I had lived on West 113th Street.

He also wrote many I’m not certain I would ever have returned for any of Captain Marvel it had I not overheard Tucky, Rod Reed’s wife, say scripts, and continued she was looking for a small drawing table. Just such to do so while in the an item was among the things I had left for storage. military. After leaving It was good to see again my old pal Marvin, the service, Marc elevator operator and general custodian of the worked for Fawcett on A panel from “The Training of Mary Marvel” in Captain Marvel Adventures #19 (Jan. 1, 1943) which contains an old street address a freelance basis out of familiar to Swayze. It was this clue that made him realize that he his Louisiana home. had written the story as well as drawn it. [©2003 DC Comics.]

There he produced 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 top-selling 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.

Last issue, Marc discussed his associations with comic strip creators Russell Keaton, Zack Mosley, and Rick Yager. This time, he revisits the early-1940s period when he helped to originate Captain Marvel’s little sister, Mary Marvel. —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

There were things I couldn’t understand. One: How a major character like Mary Marvel could have been conceived without there being a definite road set out for her to travel... some consideration as to who her readers were to be... and in her stories, some thoughts about her friends, her adversaries, her environment. As put by the industrial world... what were the long-range plans?

The idea had come from “upstairs.” It was pretty clear that when Dad Fawcett brought his four boys up, it wasn’t with the idea of a backfield...

“The chest emblem and the cape’s floral pattern were important factors in emphasizing Mary’s relation to Captain Marvel,” says Marc. A previouslyunpublished illo by her visual creator. [Art ©2003 Marc Swayze; Mary Marvel TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

48

All In The Family

All In The Family SHAZAM! Television’s Animated Marvel Family Adventures

by Andy Mangels

Almost all fans of Captain Marvel are aware that the World’s Mightiest Mortal appeared in a 1974-1977 live-action CBS-TV series produced by Filmation. But many aficionados may have forgotten that Cap was accompanied to the small screen by the other members of the Marvel Family a few years later, for a spate of animated adventures.

As the ’80s began, Filmation pitched the idea of a super-powered series based on The Archies to NBC’s head of programming, Fred Silverman.

Unfortunately, their license to do Archie cartoons had expired, but producers Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott had an easy solution: they would create new high school characters that closely resembled Archie characters, but with superpowers added.

The resulting concept was Hero High, a series which replaced Archie with Captain California, his rival Reggie with Rex Ruthless, Betty with Glorious Gal, Veronica with Dirty Trixie, and other corollary characters.

But while NBC was positive about the show, they were much more happy when Filmation decided to pair Hero High with new animated adventures of Shazam! After all, Silverman had been at CBS when the successful live-action series had aired, and since that earlier Shazam! had been brought back into reruns in 1980, a new generation of kids would now already be acquainted with Captain Marvel.

Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck Despite these minor alterations, the writers and artists strove to make the animated Shazam! faithful to the comics. One episode even featured a cameo appearance by C.C. Beck and E. Nelson Bridwell, called by name! Several comic book professionals (past and future) worked on the series, including writer Paul Dini and layout artists Russ Heath, Dave Hoover, and Bruce Timm. Almost all the scripts had references to Captain Marvel as a “Big Red Cheese,” and when he flew, Cap took a running leap, just as he had on the live-action series.

The animation was standard for most Filmation shows of the time, which is to say, quite limited. There were lots of stock and reused shots, and characters only moved when absolutely necessary. The music and sound effects were re-used, as well, from the live-action Shazam! series.

But despite these shortcomings and some ridiculous plots, the show at times did contain some of the same charm of the original Captain Marvel comics.

NBC needed a concept to package the series together, and Filmation fell back on a tried-and-true variety hour show. The series would feature liveaction wraparounds of the Hero High kids singing songs and telling (bad) jokes to a live-in-studio audience of children, before introducing either the two Hero High stories per hour, or the 18-minute Shazam! adventure.

Two of the Hero High episodes had VHS cassette cover of a Shazam! home video release.

[Art ©2003 the Work began on a series of twelve featured cameos of Marvel Family respective copyright holders; Captain Marvel TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

Shazam! episodes, which hewed much members, and one even featured a more closely to their comic book cameo appearance of sister TV heroine Isis. predecessors than had the live series. The model sheets followed the Christened The Kid Super Power Hour With Shazam!, the series simple style of C.C. Beck’s artwork, right down to Captain Marvel’s premiered on NBC on September 12, 1981. Ratings were acceptable, but squinting eyes. Brought into the fold were Mary Marvel and Captain not astonishing. One Hero High actress won the Youth in Film Award Marvel Jr., as well as supporting cast members Uncle Dudley/Uncle for Best Actress in a Daytime Series, but the series itself lost out in the Marvel, Mr. Tawny, Mr. Morris, Freckles Marvel… and a host of familiar Best Children’s Television Series category, even though it had been villains, including Dr. Sivana, Mr. Mind, Black Adam, Ibac, Aunt nominated. Unfortunately, after a year’s run the series was cancelled, as Minerva, and Mr. Atom. the live super-hero concept didn’t attract enough attention to merit a There were some changes made to the series. WHIZ-TV was now planned Hero High album deal and concert tour. Years later, both WIZZ-TV. Tawny was never called “Tawky Tawny,” and his surname Shazam! and Hero High were repackaged as separate half-hour shows, was spelled differently. Many of the characters never quite got full and aired in syndication. Family Home Entertainment also released names, either: Mr. Morris was never Sterling Morris, and Dr. Sivana videotapes and laserdiscs. wasn’t revealed as Thaddeus Bodog Sivana. Most odd were the facts that What follows is a complete episode guide to the Shazam! episodes, Dudley talked like W.C. Fields—and that Freddy Freeman/Captain along with some trivia, examples of the wonky dialogue, and other Marvel Jr. was given an inappropriate, “pipsqueak”-like voice. goodies.

Shazam! Television’s Animated Marvel Family Adventures

The Animated SHAZAM! Episode Guide Cast: Burr Middleton (Billy Batson/Captain Marvel) Dawn Jeffory (Mary Batson/Mary Marvel) Barry Gordon (Freddy Freeman/Captain Marvel Jr.) Alan Oppenheimer (Uncle Dudley/Mr. Tawney/Dr. Sivana) Lou Scheimer (Mr. Morris) Norm Prescott (Narrator) Animation Directors: John Armstrong, Marija Dail, Ed Friedman, Lou Kachivas, Selby Kelly, Marsh Lamare, Ernie Schmidt, Lou Zukor.

Produced by Lou Scheimer, Norm Prescott for Filmation Associates.

Network: NBC. Running Time: 18 minutes each.

Series originally aired September 12, 1981 to September 11, 1982.

1.“Who’s Who at the Zoo?” Story by Fred Ladd. Teleplay by Dennis O’Flaherty.

Uncle Dudley, a.k.a. Uncle Marvel, was part of the regular cast. Freckles Marvel, who in the 1940s had been a supporting character in many “Mary Marvel” stories, appeared in one TV episode. [Art ©2003 the respective copyright holder; Uncle Marvel & Freckles Marvel TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

Billy is interviewing Mr. Tawny at the zoo about the new gorillas that have arrived. One of the gorillas is secretly Dr. Allirog, and he uses his mind control powers to force a zookeeper to let the lions loose. Captain Marvel soon rounds up the lions, but Allirog swears vengeance. Later, Mary and Freddy are captured by gorillas, and Tawny and Uncle Dudley go to the zoo to investigate. Although Dudley is captured, Tawny strips out of his clothes and escapes. Allirog plans to release the animals and put humans in cages, and use his “jungle machine” to grow super-plants and turn the world into a jungle. Captain Marvel plans to use weed killer on the giant plants, then recaptures all of the escaped animals from the zoo. Cap confronts Allirog, who shoots him with a ray that makes him too powerful, and Marvel shoots off into space, then returns to Earth and is almost flattened by a steamroller. He changes back to Billy, who now has powers almost equal to Cap’s level. Billy leaps to the zoo, ties up a snake, defeats Allirog, and frees the others.

2.“The Incredible Shrinking City” Written by Paul Dini.

At the park, Billy, Mary, and Freddy meet a creepy ice cream vendor who is really Dr. Sivana in disguise. Not only that, but Mr. Mind is in his cart! The two villains use a “Mind Warper” blast to make the trio forget their magic word, but Freddy is unaffected. Captain Marvel Jr. soon destroys the ray, and Sivana is captured. Mr. Mind gets away, though, and escapes into the sewer to form an evil all-worm army. They plan to chew a huge sinkhole under the city. While Uncle Dudley is showing Mr. Morris his fantastic

49 new dry ice machine, buildings begin to topple. The Marvel Family must rescue a school bus of children and right the buildings. Mr. Mind gives an ultimatum that his worms will keep attacking unless he is declared “King of the World.” Dudley uses his worm-finder invention to find an underground cave where Mr. Mind is organizing his minions at a worm convention. Mind reminds the worms of the evil one-way fishing trips humans take them on. The Marvels realize that worms come to the surface when it rains, but it’s been a dry summer. They use Dudley’s dry ice machine to fill three dumpsters and fly above the clouds to seed them and create rain. Just as the worms strike at the Farmer’s Market, rain begins, and the worms come to the surface. As birds eat the worms, Mr. Mind flees, vowing revenge.

3.“Best Seller” Written by Dennis O’Flaherty.

When she comes for a visit, Freckles Marvel brings Mary an old book sold to her by a peddler. She doesn’t know that the peddler was Ibac the Accursed! That night, humanoid lizards (who wear white tennis shorts and shirts) jump out of the book in a section called “The Hissmen Cometh!” and enlarge themselves to human size. They quickly capture Billy, Mary, and Freddy and shrink them down. Transporting them back into the book, the lizards deliver them to Ibac, who puts them in his “People Processor” and turns them into lizards unable to say their magic words! Escape seems an option, until they learn they are a million years in the past, and dinosaurs roam the area around Ibac’s castle. Ibac puts a “time tube” up into Billy’s back yard, and plans to use it to bring humans back and change them into Hissmen so that they can fight the cavemen and thus prevent the human race from ever coming into power! Freckles, Dudley, and Tawny are puzzling over the tube when Billy escapes out of it and changes to Captain Marvel. Inexplicably, Freckles and the others immediately know Ibac’s plans. Unable to enter the tube as Captain Marvel, Billy changes back, but he’s recaptured when he tries to rescue Mary and Freddy. Luckily, Freckles, Dudley, and Tawny go through the tube and free Billy. He changes to Cap and turns the Hissmen into people, then flies off to capture Ibac. Once Ibac is saved from a dinosaur, the Marvels return to their own time, and throw the book into the time tube. Captain Marvel tosses the tube into outer space.

Cap in a scene from the episode entitled “Best Seller.” [Art ©2003 the respective copyright holder; Captain Marvel TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

4.“Flight 601 has Vanished” Written

by Dennis O’Flaherty.

Dudley and Mary are headed to a