Alter Ego #33 Preview by TwoMorrows Publishing

THE TRIUMPH, TRAGEDY, & TALENT OF

MIKE SEKOWSKY

Featuring Art & Artifacts By:

INFANTINO •ANDERSON KANE • FRENZ •SINNOTT KURTZMAN •GILBERT BUSCEMA • DILLIN STEVENS •EVANIER SHAW! •NORMAN AMASH •PÉREZ TOTH & MORE!

1994--2004

5.95

In the USA

No. 33

February 2004

Vol. 3, No. 33 / February 2004 Editor

Roy Thomas

Associate Editors

™

MIKE SEKOWSKY & Company Section

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

Contents

Production Assistant

Eric Nolen-Weathington

Writer/Editorial: Three Songs for Mike Sekowsky....................... 2 “Chicken Scratchings”................................................................... 3 A 1963 meeting of Sekowsky and comics fan Bernie Bubnis—in the days when many

Cover Artists Ron Frenz Joe Sinnott Sal Buscema

fans loved to hate Mike’s art!

Cover Colorists Tom Ziuko

And Special Thanks to: Lee Ames Ger Apeldoorn Mark Austin Brian H. Bailie Bob Bailey Valerie Barclay Jack Bender Chris Brown Bernie Bubnis Mike Burkey Pat Calhoun Bob Cherry Lloyd Clingman Steve Cohen Jon B. Cooke Rich Dannys Theresa R. Davidson Mike Esposito Mark Evanier Shane Foley Stephen Friedt Todd Franklin Carl Gafford Paul Gambaccini Janet Gilbert Jennifer T. Go Stan Goldberg Tom Horvitz Glen D. Johnson

John Kelly Stan & Joan Lee Mark Lewis Dennis Mallonee Nancy Maneely Joe & Nadia Mannarino Mile High Comics Matt Moring Brian K. Morris Mark Muller Will Murray Floyd Norman Don Perlin Tom Ranheim Gene Reed Paul Rivoche Trina Robbins Pat Sekowsky Scott Shaw! David Seigel Jeff E. Smith Dave Stevens Marc Swayze Greg Theakston Dann Thomas Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Dr. Michael J. Vassallo Mrs. Hazel White

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Mike Sekowsky & John Tartaglione

Pat and Mike.................................................................................5 A candid interview with Pat (Mrs. Mike) Sekowsky about a talented—and troubled— cartoonist, conducted by Jim Amash.

The Mike Sekowsky Dinner.........................................................22 Four artists and writers reminisce about “Big Mike’s” years in comics and animation. Comic Crypt: The Unknown Kurtzman.....................................37 Michael T. Gilbert presents early work by the creator of Mad.

“Shelly Mayer Thumped My Thick Young Head” .....................44 Alex Toth on learning to do the job of a cartoonist. Barclay, Sekowsky, & Others Section..............................................Flip Us! About Our Cover: This issue is largely a “Mike Sekowsky Special,” and we wanted to cover both his DC and Timely/Marvel years. But rare or unpublished Sekowsky artwork with either the Justice League (his most important work) or the super-heroes he drew for Stan Lee back in the 1940s is rarer than hens’ teeth. An inspiration: Roy had met longtime Marvel artist Ron Frenz at a comics convention a year or so ago, and Ron said he’d love to pencil a cover for Alter Ego—so we bit the bullet and asked him to do not one, but two—both homages to the work of Mike Sekowsky, with a few other elements thrown in! To our delight, Ron said yes. We then lined up two first-class inkers to embellish his pencils. On this side, it’s Joltin’ Joe Sinnott—and on our flip side—but we’ll let you see who inked that cover when you turn the book (or yourself) upside down! Us—we’re happy whether standing on our feet or on our head! [Art ©2004 Ron Frenz & Joe Sinnott; JLA TM & ©2004 DC Comics.] Above: Since our theme is “Three Songs for Mike Sekowsky,” we figured we might as well start with a panel from the only Sekowsky-penciled “Inferior Five” story, in Showcase #65 (Nov.-Dec. 1966). in which that slaphappy super-group teamed up with a takeoff on Marvel’s X-Men to sing “the old school song”—with lyrics by E. Nelson Bridwell & inks by Mike Esposito. Thanks to Shane Foley for the black-&-white art copies. [©2004 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.

Three Songs For Mike Sekowsky part one

“Chicken Scratchings”

A 1964 Meeting of MIKE SEKOWSKY and a Comics Fan by Bernie Bubnis

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Keeping the three movements of our Sekowsky symphony on this side in rough chronological order, we begin with a piece more than forty years old—headed by a photo of Big Mike at work, surrounded by images of his and others’ DC work from the same era. After the initial joy of there simply being a Justice League of America comic in the early 1960s wore off, many readers became increasingly critical of Sekowsky’s penciling even on Murphy Andersoninked covers such as the one below left of JLA #32 (Dec. ’64)—

compared to the cleaner lines and more realistic approach of Murphy himself on full art (Hawkman #4, Oct.-Nov. ’64), Carmine Infantino & Joe Giella (The Flash #138, Aug. ’63), and Gil Kane & Anderson (Green Lantern #29, June ’62). Mike’s work was coming in a distant fourth with fandom—even though Justice League was selling as well as or better than the other three comics. Incidentally, all art is taken from photos of the originals appearing in 1990s Sotheby’s art-auction catalogs, and is ©2004 DC Comics.

Three Songs For Mike Sekowsky part two

Pat and Mike

A Candid Interview with PAT (MRS. MIKE) SEKOWSKY about a Talented (and Troubled) Cartoonist Interview Conducted & Transcribed by Jim Amash [INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: The Mike Sekowsky story is a complicated one. By most accounts, he was a terrific artist with inner demons that plagued him throughout his entire life, and this interview explores this subject in some detail. Mike was one of those men who gave his life to creating comic book art and eventually found himself cast out of the industry for which he had given his artistic blood. Maybe we’ll never quite know what all his problems were, but despite them, he created an amazing body of work during his comic book days, probably never fully realizing his own importance. Special thanks goes to Josephine (Pat) Sekowsky for her honest portrait of a man she loved very much, and for her willingness to share Mike’s story with his admirers. —Jim.]

Mike was preparing to get back into comics. He always had that thought in his head, “I’m going to get back into comics!” That’s when he went to work for Daerrick Gross. Daerrick was working up a comics line of ninja and skateboard comics, and this was when I took Mike back, because he had taken ill and passed out in the street. They thought he was drunk, of course. JA: When was this? 1985? SEKOWSKY: Yes, I guess so. That sounds right. Mike was going to do this ninja thing and said, “I’m going to do it and prove to them that I can do everything.” Mike was on medication at this time, and I don’t know if he stopped drinking, because I’d go to work and leave him alone and he wasn’t bad when I got home. He knew

“His Life Was Difficult” PAT SEKOWSKY: Well, there’s no getting around the fact that Mike was an alcoholic, and it ruined his life and the lives of a lot of other people. It didn’t help make him loved by his peers, but he could be very charming, and I don’t think Scott [Shaw!] and Mark [Evanier] ever really got to see the bad side of him. Mike was very shrewd about that. JIM AMASH: Maybe so, but both Scott and Mark are very smart people and probably did know about his problem. I believe Mark mentioned it in a piece he wrote about Mike. SEKOWSKY: Well, they had to know. I mean, when they wrote about Mike’s being a diabetic and stuff; they knew he was sick. I didn’t even know about some of these things. For the last decade of his life, Mike primarily worked in animation (Scooby-Doo being one that I recall), but occasionally did comics for various places, like Hanna-Barbera’s foreign department. He did things like He-Man, Captain Carrot, and Blackhawk for DC Comics, and comic booklets. I left him about two years after he started with Hanna-Barbera, because the drinking was getting worse. Nobody knew he had diabetes at that time, and the drinking wasn’t helping matters. He’d go out with friends who drank and did other things, which Michael never did. Later on, Mike was on the rebound from some serious health problem due to his diabetes, and Scott called me. I went to the hospital, but Mike didn’t tell me about the diabetes. He got home and I helped him get a nice apartment. That’s when I started seeing him again, and

[Above left:] Josephine (Pat) Sekowsky and Mike Sekowsky, date unknown— and the Sekowsky-Sachs splash of Justice League of America #1 (Oct.-Nov. 1960), repro’d from a black-&-white photo of the original art printed in a 1990s art auction catalog. Script by Gardner Fox. [©2004 DC Comics.]

Pat and Mike

PERSONAL MEMO FROM A SEKOWSKY FAN—“ROY THE BOY” THOMAS Alter Ego’s editor, who was a Justice League of America fan from Day One, had previously admired Sekowsky’s unsigned work in Sterling’s Captain Flash, though the artist’s name was then unknown to him. It was upon perusing 1960’s JLA #1 that Roy suddenly realized the dinosaurs in the “Wonder Woman” chapter [top right]—especially the spotted ones—reminded him of those in Captain Flash #3 (May 1955) [top left], and were probably the work of the same artist. But ’twas not till JLA #2 that editor Julius Schwartz mentioned on a letters page that “the stories are illustrated by Mike Sekowsky, one of the best artists in the comics field.” (This reinforces Sekowsky’s 1963 claim to Bernie Bubnis that he had been sought out to draw the group comic.) Years later, as Marvel’s associate editor, Roy was pleased to have a hand in assigning Mike to pencil “The Inhumans”—as in the splash [above left] repro’d from a scan sent by Bob Bailey of original art from Amazing Adventures #10 (Jan. 1972)—reuniting Sekowsky with one of his best inkers, Frank Giacoia. And it was the fulfillment of a dream for Roy to script Sekowsky’s pencils on Giant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up #2 (June 1975), which was inked by Sam Grainger [center]. Somehow, though, Mike didn’t quite work out at Marvel. Still later, as a writer/editor for DC, Roy was enthusiastic about having Mike pencil a backup tale in Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! #6 (Aug. 1982) [above right], even if the proportions of the radioactive-carrot-eating rabbit were a bit more humanoid than he and inker (and series co-creator) Scott Shaw! might have wished. [Captain Flash art ©2004 the respective copyright holders; JLA & Capt. Carrot art ©2004 DC Comics; Marvel art ©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Pat Sekowsky on Mike Sekowsky Sekowsky was apparently only filling in for absent Carmine Infantino when he penciled the first Fox-scripted “Adam Strange” story in Showcase #17 (Nov.-Dec. 1958), seen at bottom left. Even so, as Robert Shaw’s character says in Jaws: “But we delivered the bomb!” Pat S. reports that young Jack C. Harris, a future DC writer and editor, was initially impressed because Mike had drawn a “NoMan” tale for Tower’s T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. In issue #2 (Jan. 1966) the artist penciled both “Menthor” and “T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Squad,” as per the splash at right for the latter, repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, courtesy of Steve Cohen. Oddly, Steve informs us that on the back of that page are “what might be some Gil Kane rough sketches, or someone trying to imitate Gil. There was a typical Kane up-the-nose shot there.” [See below.] So what do you say, readers? Are these pencil sketches the work of Sekowsky or Kane? At bottom right is a Sekowsky splash from Tower’s war comic, Fight the Enemy #2 (Oct. 1966). [Showcase art ©2004 DC Comics; “T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Squad” art ©2004 John Carbanaro; sketches ©2004 the respective artists.]

better than that, because I’d throw him out. He was drawing up a storm again: writing, penciling, and inking. Now, c’mon, how many people can do that? Not many, but to me, it wasn’t his best work. I think Scott has a set of that stuff, because I gave him the originals. It wasn’t printed because Mike died before he could finish the trilogy. At one point, we rushed him back to the hospital... we went twice. They operated on him and I didn’t want them to. They say, “Well, we’re going to operate on him”... so what are you going to say? You should say, “No,” so he could die in peace. Instead, he was in a coma and I couldn’t even talk to him. That’s the awful part of all of that. As far as personal things go, his life was difficult. I can’t blame Carmine [Infantino], and I can’t blame DC after all the years he worked there. They did try and try and try. But when Michael drank, he started off on plateaus. He could be very cute, then sarcastic, and then nasty. That’s why we moved around so much. He’d fight with the neighbors because he drank too much. He was a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Yet, when he worked, he’d get up in the morning and be as pleasant as you could be. I don’t know how, because I’d have a hangover if I drank that much.

Pat and Mike

Super-Sidebar You find fans of the Sekowsky-drawn Justice League in the strangest places! In his 1992 preface to DC’s JLA Archives, Vol. 1, 1960s comics fan (and now BBC-Radio broadcaster) Paul Gambaccini revealed that Salman Rushdie, author of the celebrated (and vilified) novel The Satanic Verses, had written about the JLA in a magazine article. Intrigued, Ye Editor tracked down the piece: “Is Nothing Sacred?” was later included in the Rushdie collection Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticisms 1981-1991, published by Granta Books. Rushdie, Paul said, was an Indian from Bombay who had come to live in Great Britain, “seeking a place in a culture to which he was an alien.” Rushdie himself wrote that “[a]mong the childhood books I devoured and kissed were large numbers of comics of a most unliterary nature.” He felt those comics’ heroes were “almost always mutants or hybrids or freaks” such as Batman, Spiderman [sic], and Aquaman, “who was half-fish,” as well as Superman, “who could easily be mistaken for a bird or a plane.” Rushdie is writing at first of “the middle 1950s,” but soon mentions that all these “hawkish law-and-order conservatives” joined forces in the Justice League of America. However, Rushdie continues, “in spite of the extreme emphasis on crime-busting, the lesson they taught children—or this child, at any rate—was the perhaps unintentionally radical truth that exceptionality was the greatest and most heroic of values; that those who were unlike the crowd were to be treasured the most lovingly; and that this exceptionality was a treasure so great and so easily misunderstood that it had to be concealed, in ordinary life, beneath what comic books called a ‘secret identity.’” He goes on to say that “Superman could not have survived without ‘mild-mannered’ Clark Kent; ‘millionaire socialite’ Bruce Wayne made possible the nocturnal activities of the Batman.” The point, as interpreted by Paul, is that Superman and Aquaman—plus two early JLAers that Rushdie didn’t mention, Wonder Woman and the Martian Manhunter—were indeed “aliens” of various sorts; even Aquaman, by then, had an Atlantean mother. If they had been accepted in their chosen country (America), Paul postulates that the future author must have asked himself: “Could the young Salman Rushdie achieve the same?” (Top:) Sekowsky/Sachs art from a b&w reprint from JLA #16 (Dec. 1962); (right:) the cover of The Official Justice League of America Index #2 (April 1986) is by George Pérez. It took nearly three issues of the latter publication, edited by Murray Ward, to cover the run of Sekowsky issues. [Quotation ©2004 Salman Rushdie; art ©2004 DC Comics.]

A nice crime-comics page penciled by Sekowsky: The Informer #5 (Dec. 1954), published by Feature Television Productions. Inker unidentified. Special thanks to collector & dealer Tom Horvitz; contact him online at trhgallery@earthlink.net or at (818) 757-0747. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

“I Met Him at Parties...” JA: I guess he had all that alcohol in his system and could recover quicker? SEKOWSKY: I suppose. I met Mike in 1966. I have a copy of a letter this kid had written him. This was a young fellow named Jack Harris from Toms River, NJ, who went up to DC. He wrote, “I didn’t think I was a fan of Mike Sekowsky’s but I’m wrong. I only met Mike Sekowsky once and that was back in 1966, when I, as a wide-eyed high school student, had an opportunity to visit the old DC Comics offices. Editor Julius Schwartz introduced me to Mike as he sat in the bullpen, penciling. I discovered later that he had drawn a ‘NoMan’ story for T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. All my derogatory thoughts towards his art vanished as he graciously autographed my copy of the first Adam Strange Showcase comic.” And that showed the side of Mike that you liked. That was what he was like. I met him at parties during the time I was divorcing my first husband. We had a crazy

Three Songs For Mike Sekowsky part three

The Mike Sekowsky Dinner

Four Los Angelenos Reminisce about “Big Mike’s” Years in Comics and Animation Moderated by Mark Evanier [MODERATOR’S INTRO: One of comics’ most prolific artists, Mike Sekowsky, died in 1989, far from his native New York and even farther from the comic book industry. For the last eleven years of his life, he worked primarily in animation in Los Angeles... and comics’ loss was our gain. Those of us who worked in the cartoon business welcomed him, for he was not only a terrific artist but a genuinely fascinating individual—shy but feisty, outspoken but timid, and alternately very intense and very funny. [One Tuesday night in November of 2003, four of us gathered in a restaurant in Burbank, California, to share memories of “Big Mike.” Present were cartoonist and “Oddball Comics” curator Scott Shaw!—illustrator and creator of The Rocketeer Dave Stevens—and longtime Disney and Hanna-Barbera cartoonist Floyd Norman. Oh, yeah—and I was there, too. Any excuse for a meal. All four of us had worked with Mike at H-B, and at other local enterprises, as well. After the dinner plates were cleared away, I hauled out a tape recorder and led off the proceedings.... —Mark Evanier.]

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris MARK EVANIER: We are sitting here at a restaurant, talking about our friend Mike Sekowsky, who left us some time ago. I am here with Scott Shaw!, Floyd Norman, and Dave Stevens, and we’re going to talk a little bit about Mike, and try to remember this friend of ours whose career was tragically cut short just as he was starting to get ample recognition for the work he did. I thought I would try to draw a strained analogy this evening between Mike and his artwork, because Mike’s artwork was the kind of art that, sometimes, you couldn’t warm up to immediately. A lot of people didn’t like it when they first saw it. But eventually it grew on them and they discovered the joys of Mike Sekowsky art.

Animator Floyd Norman generously drew the above fine sketch of his take on the Mike Sekowsky Dinner—but, since Big Mike was at least there in spirit, we couldn’t resist adding overhead the Sekowsky-penciled, Bernard Sachs-inked image of the Justice League, from the splash of JLA #21. (Left to right at the dinner table:) Mark Evanier, Dave Stevens, Floyd Norman, Scott Shaw! And if you have to ask who those guys are in the cloudy patch above them—boy, have you got the wrong magazine! [Bottom art ©2004 Floyd Norman; top art ©2004 DC Comics.]

And Mike was, in some ways, the same kind of person. When you first met him, he was a little standoffish, a little cold. He wouldn’t look

The Mike Sekowsky Dinner

Mike Sekowsky in the Catskills, a resort region in upstate New York —and a model sheet of The Penguin he drew for Hanna-Barbera’s Super Powers series. Photo courtesy of Pat Sekowsky; for the model sheet, thanks to Bob Bailey. [Art ©2004 DC Comics.]

23 up doing a freelance job for me on some educational film strip I was doing around that time, because I just loved the way the guy drew and I couldn’t wait to get him to do something for me besides the regular Hanna-Barbera stuff. I seemed to follow Mike around, or he followed me. We were at Disney around the same time. I know he did the comic book work on Condorman. He was supposed to do work on Roger Rabbit, but [laughs] had kind of a falling-out with Daan Jippes, so that didn’t work out. And then we all ended up at a very strange studio in Newport Beach—Tom Carter—and that’s kind-of where our story ended.

you in the eye. Still, when you got to know him, he turned out to be a pretty decent guy. All of us worked with him when he was at HannaBarbera, where he fled after he decided there was no place for him in the New York comic book community. Floyd, how close was he to your drawing table?

NORMAN: Oh, man... what were those? Super Friends, Scooby-Doo.

FLOYD NORMAN: Maybe a few desks away. He was pretty close by.

DAVE STEVENS: I know he worked on The Shmoo.

EVANIER: What was his job description at HannaBarbera?

NORMAN: The Shmoo. How about Casper and the Space Angels? That was a strange show.

NORMAN: Mike was a layout artist, but he also probably did character design. When I first met Mike, probably in the mid70’s, when a lot of the guys came out from New York, Mike, as Mark said, was a pretty scary guy, and kind of standoffish, and a big guy. But, once you got to know him, he was a pretty nice guy and we became good friends. I, maybe unlike many, fell in love with his work the first time I saw it. He even ended Floyd Norman, in a photo provided by the animator—and Sekowsky art for the Disney movie Condorman, in which a comic book writer (played by Michael Crawford) plays spy and pursues a beautiful Russian defector (played by Barbara Carrera). Thanks to Pat Sekowsky, Jim Amash, and Theresa R. Davidson for scans of the Condorman art. [Art ©2004 The Disney Company.]

EVANIER: Let’s go back to Hanna-Barbera. Any idea what shows Mike worked on?

Evanier, Shaw!, Stevens, and Norman

Mark Evanier on a San Diego Comic-Con panel (photo by Dave Siegel)—and panels of a different kind, from Justice League of America #240, Sekowsky’s only 1980s issue of the mag of which he had been the first illustrator. Of course, JLA #240 was still in the future when Mike went to work at Hanna-Barbera in the late 1970s, but he had designed the Royal Flush Gang back in the ’60s. Thanks to Bob Cherry. [JLA art ©2004 DC Comics.]

SCOTT SHAW!: I don’t think he did anything on that. I know he did some Flintstones, though. NORMAN: Yeah, a lot of Flintstones stuff. I can’t remember all that! There’s so much of it. EVANIER: My recollection is that, one day, a group of guys were sitting in my office at Hanna-Barbera. Don Rico... Rick Hoberg, I think. Scott, you may have been there. And in walks Iwao Takamoto, who at the time— what was his title at the studio? STEVENS: Creative Director. EVANIER: Creative Director. He walks in with a letter in his hand and he says, “You’re the comic book guys. I just got a letter from a guy who’s a comic book artist, who says he wants to work here. And I wonder if you’ve heard of him. His name is Mike Sekowsky.” And we all yelled, “Yes! Get him! Immediately!” Because the studio was doing Super Friends at the time and who better to draw Super Friends than Mike Sekowsky?

Once we heard that Mike was there, everybody went around to see him and you could tell that he really didn’t know how to deal with it. [chuckles] Now that I’m 52 and have worked in the business longer than I care to think about, I suddenly understand why he had that certain look on his face when we’d all come up and pay tribute to this guy. He really wasn’t sure if he was being put on or not.

I think he’d had enough bad experiences with the people in New York that it was like dealing with a wounded animal. He may not have ever dealt with people that were just admirers of his work, or if he had, it hadn’t happened in a long time. He almost seemed to be looking around to see if somebody had paid us to all come up and do this, like it was all some sort of gag. Everybody kind of had the same sort of shpiel, Some people wanted to talk about Justice League, some people wanted to talk about B’wana Beast, some people wanted to talk about Super Rabbit. I mean, it was kind of funny because the studio had just hired a lot of guys from comic books. Doug Wildey was back... Carmine Infantino had actually worked there for about two weeks until that didn’t work out... Rick Hoberg, Will Meugniot, Dave, myself...

By a strange quirk of fate, when Mike came to work at the studio, I believe the very first job they gave him was designing model sheets for The Royal Flush Gang. They were villains he had designed for the Justice League of America comic book and now they were being used on the TV show. They handed him Xeroxes of the comic book and said, “Do a model sheet of these guys,” and they didn’t realize they were handing Mike Sekowsky a Mike Sekowsky comic book to work from. They gave him a little cubicle, and I went up to meet him... and by God, there was a man sitting there sketching, and Mike Sekowsky art, just like I knew from the comics, was appearing on his drawing board. Scott, what do you remember about that time? SHAW!: I remember that we were in the old building at Hanna-Barbera. It was at 3400 Cahuenga in Hollywood, in the Cahuenga Pass, and I remember the word coming around that Mike was there. I don’t think I was there in the room you describe, Mark, but I remember I had started in the layout department not that long before.

Scott Shaw! (in a photo taken at the 1998 San Diego Comic-Con) eyes his 1980s creation Pig-Iron, a charter member of Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! Pig-Iron’s alter ego was the 1950s DC character Peter Porkchops. Photo courtesy of David Siegel; thanks to Todd Franklin for the sketch. [Art © Scott Shaw!; Pig-Iron TM & ©2004 DC Comics.]

Comic Crypt

From Varsity, Vol. 2, #23 (April 1950). [Non-Kurtzman material ÂŠ2004 the respective copyright holders.]

Alex Toth

“Shelly Mayer Thumped My Thick Young Head!” ALEX TOTH on Learning to Do the Job of a Cartoonist

(Left:) One of the primo assignments given to a young Alex Toth by All-American (AA) editor Shelly Mayer circa 1947 was the art chores of the original “Green Lantern,” both in his own mag and in Comic Cavalcade and All-American Comics. Here are the dramatic splash and another dynamic page from AA #96 (April 1948). [©2004 DC Comics.]

PLUS: PLUS:

HT TLIG O P S On

VALERIE BARCLAY MIKE SEKOWSKY

1994--2004

5.95

In the USA

No. 33

February 2004

& MORE!!

Vol. 3, No. 33 / February 2004 Editor

Roy Thomas

™

BARCLAY, SEKOWSKY, & Others Section

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 Ron Frenz (pencils) Sal Buscema (inks) Joe Sinnott (inks)

Viva Valerie! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Artist Valerie Barclay talks to Jim Amash about Timely Comics—and Mike Sekowsky!

Cover Colorists Tom Ziuko

Contents

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Mike Sekowsky & John Tartaglione

Lost Comics Lore - Part III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Concluding Will Murray’s look at early comic books—as reported by Writer’s Digest. Journey into Comics: Casualties of the Comics Code . . . . . . . . 22 Welcome to Pat Calhoun—and his guided tour of three Golden Age comics! The Late, Great Biljo White . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 The second installment of Bill Schelly’s celebration of the life and work of Capt. Biljo. InDr. Memoriam: John Tartaglione . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Michael J. Vassallo on the passing of a veteran comics artist. Cavalcade of Comics, Featuring Don Perlin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) #92 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 P.C. Hamerlinck presents Marc Swayze—and a fabulous 1954 Captain Marvel parody by Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, annotated by Roy Thomas!

Mike Sekowsky & Company Section. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: We think we pretty much said it all on our flip side, except to thank penciler Ron Frenz—and inker Sal Buscema, this time—for a great artistic salute to the titans of 1940s-50s Timely/Marvel, and in particular “Big Mike” Sekowsky. [Art © 2004 Ron Frenz & Sal Buscema; All Winners Squad TM & ©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Starro TM & ©2004 DC Comics.] Above: Our interview with Valerie Barclay showcases a pair of pages of the Mike Sekowskypenciled “Sub-Mariner” story from Human Torch #31 (July 1948)—and since, sadly, Mike isn’t around to help us positively ID others, here’s one more panel from that water-logged tale, courtesy of Matt Moring. [©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Alter EgoTM is published monthly by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Phone: (919) 833-8092. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: Rt. 3, Box 468, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $8 ($10 Canada, $11.00 elsewhere). Twelve-issue subscriptions: $60 US, $120 Canada, $132 elsewhere. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

Valerie Barclay

Viva Valerie! An Interview with “Glamorous Girl Inker” VALERIE (a.k.a. VIOLET) BARCLAY Conducted & Transcribed by Jim Amash

[INTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: Many people who give interviews naturally tend to gloss over negative aspects of their careers. Not so with Valerie Barclay. She’s a gutsy lady, honest in her appraisals of herself and of those she knew. In the quest for more knowledge pertaining to Timely Comics in the Golden Age, I found her candor both surprising and informative. Trina Robbins briefly profiled her in Alter Ego, Vol. 3., #11, but this is the first in-depth interview with Valerie Barclay ever published. —Jim.]

Valerie Barclay in a photo taken in 1987—and her caricature (by Ken Bald? Dave Berg?) as it appeared in that 1947 Stan Lee classic, Secrets behind the Comics. She feels that it “didn’t look like me. It’s just a cartoon of a girl.” Yet, ever since, Timely/Atlas/Marvel collectors have referred to Valerie/Violet Barclay as that “glamorous girl inker”! Photo courtesy of V.B. [Art ©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

who were almost college age. And Mike Sekowsky said that he saw me in the hall and decided right then and there to marry me. I remember him walking around in a green sweater. He had a head full of thick, wavy, blonde hair. He was not that good-looking, but he was a sweet, sweet person.

“It’s Okay to Ask That”

JA: Some people liked him, some people didn’t.

JIM AMASH: I know it isn’t gentlemanly to ask this first question, so I hope you’ll forgive me. When and where were you born?

BARCLAY: He was a good man. A very good man. JA: In our first phone conversation, you asked me about Sekowsky’s later life. He had become diabetic and was a fairly heavy drinker. He had become surly and difficult in the eyes of several people who knew him then. In the last year of his life he quit drinking, but the damage was done and he passed away from diabetic complications.

VALERIE BARCLAY: It’s okay to ask that. I was born November 5, 1922, in Manhattan. JA: Where did you get your art training? BARCLAY: I went to the School of Industrial Arts with Mike Sekowsky. I met Mike at the school; we were fellow students. Later on, I studied with Jack Potter at the School of Visual Arts. And for the past thirty years I’ve been going to the Arts Students League. But I didn’t learn anything at Industrial Arts. They had English teachers teaching art. They taught us nothing. And then they had a school that was very much like the Arts Students League, where they had all these students that were goof-ups like me. These students didn’t learn anything; they didn’t want to go to school. They were like truants. One day, a truant officer took me out for coffee and said, “If you don’t go to school until you’re seventeen, they’ll send you to reform school.” So I had to go to school and went to the School of Industrial Arts. They had a lot of students

One of the earliest signed Sekowsky-drawn stories is this “Father Time” tale from Captain America #11 (Feb. 1942), written by a guy named “Neel Nats.” Wonder what ever happened to him!? Thanks to Mile High Comics. [©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

BARCLAY: His being difficult was just a defensive mechanism, to protect his feelings. Mike always told me that he hated me because I always liked the pretty boys and I didn’t like him. He went with me for four years and bought me clothes, jewelry, everything. He drew these beautifully finished penciled comic book pages and he let me ink them. He did everything for me. I was just a girl lover of his, and even when I met my husband, Mike said he hated me, which meant he really didn’t.

Viva Valerie!

The dialogue in the partial-panel above, from an early-’40s Timely humor story penciled by Mike Sekowsky and inked by George Klein, even contains the names of the two colleagues; they also drew (and signed!) the “Black Widow” splash reprinted at right from U.S.A. Comics #5 (Summer 1942). Mike and George became enemies over Violet Barclay—so we’ve printed these two pieces of art even though you already saw them if you picked up A/E #20. Caricature art provided by Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., and Dr. Michael J. Vassallo; “Black Widow” art thanks to Mark Austin of Acme Comics in Greensboro, NC—interviewer Jim Amash’s one-time boss. Small world, ain’t it? [©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

I had problems and I was young, and Mike wasn’t really my type. I liked George Klein. I don’t know what George looked like when he was older, but he was attractive when he was young. JA: I know Klein died in 1969, but I don’t know what he died from.

“When I Was Young I Was a Terrible Person” BARCLAY: I didn’t know he died that long ago. Trina Robbins told me he had a heart attack. But you know, Mike was a very good human being. Everybody at Timely liked Mike. Nobody liked me, because they thought I was doing a number on him. Which was true. World War II was on and there were no men around, so I just killed time with him. Everybody, Dave Gantz

especially, picked up on that. Dave didn’t like me because when I was young I was a terrible person. An example: Mike married this girl Joanne [Latta], who was a petite little blonde. It was Christmas time and she came over to me at a big party we were having at Timely and she showed me these slippers that Mike had bought her from the Lord and Taylor department store. She was very happy and she was very proud of them But I did something I’d never do now. I’m a different person today. I said, “Oh, really?” And with that, I went over and I got this great big box. In it was a two-piece negligee, all of lace and pleated chiffon, that Mike had got from Lord and Taylor, and I said, “This is what Mike got me for Christmas.” Later, I heard she was sitting in the middle of the floor, crying and getting drunk. That was a terrible thing for me to do. I’d never do that today. And Mike used to do another thing with me. He used to look in the window at Lord and Taylor, and he’d see an outfit that he liked, then go inside and buy me the whole outfit. Mike bought me my first mink jacket; he was very kind to me, though he once tried to get me fired over my fling with George Klein. Mike went to Stan Lee and said, “Stan, I want her fired, and if she doesn’t get fired, I’m going to quit.” Well, you couldn’t ever tell Stan Lee what to do. Stan said, “Well, Mike, it’s been nice knowing you.” Stan wasn’t going to do what Mike wanted, and yet Mike “Stan Lee,” says Valerie, “was a sweetheart”—so he surely won’t mind our reprinting this oft-seen caricature of him from Secrets behind the Comics yet again—or our juxtaposing it with a nice page inked by Valerie/Violet Barclay over penciler Kin Platt in Rusty #18 (Aug. 1948). This is one of the few comics stories that even so dedicated a researcher as Doc Vassallo has definitely been able to identify as having been inked by our interviewee, in that day of quasi-anonymous styles. [Stan Lee caricature ©2004 Stan Lee; Rusty page ©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Valerie Barclay

was very valuable to him. I was no one.

to do that to Mike. I don’t think Dave particularly liked me.

JA: That tells me a lot about Stan, because he’d have made life difficult for himself if he had let his star artist go. I could put Stan in the Hall of Fame just for that.

JA: Well, as I said, I didn’t have that impression.

BARCLAY: Stan Lee was a sweetheart. Stan was as nice as a boss could be. He was a real generous leader. He used to let us all play in the morning; we all sat there and we’d pick over every magazine that was published in Manhattan and cut out all the pictures. We spent hours doing that in the morning in order to build up a swipe file for reference. Stan was the first one who got me started doing that. JA: I talked to Dave Gantz, and I sure wasn’t under the impression that he disliked you. Why do you think he disliked you?

Another George Klein caricature (top left), this time from a “Silly Seal and Ziggy Pig” tale in Krazy Komics #13 (Jan. 1944) which Jim Vadeboncoeur thinks was drawn by Dave Gantz—plus another of the “Black Widow” pages Klein and Sekowsky produced together for U.S.A. #5. They made a good team—in comics, if not in the office, once their rivalry began! (In later years George was a notable inker of “Superman” stories for some years, and was inking The Avengers and other material for Marvel when he passed away unexpectedly in 1969.) During the 1940s, as Valerie records, Dave Gantz just stayed out of the line of fire during the Sekowsky-Klein feud! The drawing at top right, from the same Krazy Komics yarn, Jim V. and others believe to be Dave caricaturing either himself, or Al Jaffee, who allegedly resembled Dave at the time. [©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“Now I Have to Get Personal”

when you started there?

BARCLAY: I remember, one time, Dave asked me, “Why do you wear artificial eyelashes?” And later on, when my husband and I were breaking up, Dave and I were working at the same place and he said to me, “ Don’t you ever get mad?” In other words, my husband was bringing his new girlfriend around to pick up work or something and Dave was there. Which embarrassed me. But I had this gorgeous husband that I was crazy about and he looked like a movie star. Unfortunately, when you marry a guy like that, other women feel the same way about him and you wind up having him cheat on you. So I left him, and maybe Dave felt sorry for me at that time. But at Timely, he didn’t like me. JA: But didn’t you tell me that Dave taught you how to ink

BARCLAY: Well, there was this incident—and now I have to get personal. George Klein came back from the Army, and I liked George. I was very attracted to him and I did not love Mike. So George took me out to The Tavern On The Green and we went dancing. I don’t know how it happened, but Dave was there with Al Jaffee and their wives. They saw George and I were dancing, and of course Mike knew about it the next morning.

BARCLAY: Dave had a command of the Windsor-Newton Series Seven Number Three brush that was beautiful. He really knew how to ink. He showed me the brush and how to use it. Dave was a very nice human being. I liked Dave Gantz.

Mike decided to make George’s life hell, which he proceeded to do. Mike invited George out into the hall for a fight once, and I think George would have probably wiped the floor with him. Mike had rheumatic fever when he was young and had a bad heart. He wasn’t in good physical shape, and George had just come back from Okinawa. But George didn’t consider me anything to fight about. George just wanted to get rid of me because Mike was making problems for him. And George liked all the guys there; he was friends with them. I was just another girl. They were his friends, including Dave Gantz, but they all put George down after that, figuring George wasn’t a nice human being

JA: How did Mike Sekowsky get you your job at Timely?

“I Was Seventeen” BARCLAY: I was seventeen, and working as a restaurant hostess at the Cafe Rouge, where you’d meet all kinds of guys. It was a wonderful job, and one day, Mike Sekowsky walked in and decided to save me from this life of degradation as a restaurant hostess. I was also helping to support my two younger brothers and my mother, who had left my father. So I needed money and was making $18 a week as a hostess. Mike said, “I’ll get you a job making $35 a week as an inker, and you can freelance over the weekend. I’ll let you ink my stuff.”

Lost Comics Lore

Part 3: Continuing Our Look at the Early Comic Book Biz, as Witnessed in the Pages of Writer’s Digest Magazine by Will Murray [EDITOR’S NOTE: In Alter Ego #23 & 32, Will began his examination of the Golden Age comics industry as a market for would-be writers, as reported in a major trade magazine. He now moves his study into the post-World War II years in showing what the companies planned to do—and what actually came to pass—which were not always one and the same thing. —Roy.]

Hoppy sold so well he was given his own title in December 1945, along with four other new magazines. The November 1945 Writer’s Digest carried a notification of Fawcett’s postwar comics push:

The year 1946 was the beginning of a rough patch for comic book publishers. Once the war was over, the bottom dropped out of the market for comics in general and super-hero titles in particular. Fawcett Comics would suffer along with the rest of them, despite the formidable presence of Captain Marvel. Fortunately, they had already pioneered the funny-animal genre with Fawcett’s Funny Animals,

“Fawcett has definite plans for putting out 28 comic books as fast as paper and presstime permit. Of these, 12 will be monthlies. Books will be increased to 64 pages each, with two bi-monthlies at 96 pages. By December, four new comics will be out: Mary Marvel Comics, George Pal Puppetoons, Marvel Family Comics, Hoppy the Marvel Bunny— all monthlies. Captain Marvel Adventures will become a semimonthly book.”

where Hoppy the Marvel Bunny had made his auspicious debut, so they had something to fall back on that wasn’t super-heroes.

Writer’s Digest occasionally included what movie theatres then referred to as “Prevues of Coming Attractions” concerning comics companies. Here’s one “funny animal” that made the grade in his own mag, and one that didn’t, quite. Since we printed the original art for the cover of Animal Fair #1 (probably née Silly Animals) in A/E #25, here are the contents page for Hoppy the Marvel Bunny #1 (Dec. 1945) and an “Billy the Kid and Oscar” splash from Fawcett’s Funny Animals #43 (Oct. 1946). Billy, of course, was a cowboy—er, we mean, cow-goat! [Hoppy, Billy the Kid, & Oscar TM & ©2004 DC Comics.]

Writer’s Digest

While Captain Marvel Adventures did increase frequency to every second week, and there was a temporary page increase, Fawcett’s grandiose plans never fully materialized.

more, you can easily see that there is plenty of room for new talent to handle the tremendous volume of work.” The reason for the abrupt suspensions was explained by Harriet Bradfield in her regular “New York Market Letter” for WD, which, as explained in earlier segments, featured market tips for prospective writers. In subsequent columns, she wrote that, contrary to expectations, paper and presstime actually tightened after the war ended, as she wrote in March 1946:

In addition, new Fawcett editor Mercedes “Merci” Shull promised four new funny-animal titles scheduled to go to press “before December.” They were: Silly Animals, Sherlock Monk Comics, Benny Beaver Comics, Billy the Kid Comics. Of this happy quartet, only the last was actually issued as promised. Billy the Kid and Oscar was the ultimate release title. A quarterly, it debuted with a Winter 1945 cover date and lasted a measly three issues—a failure by any publishing standard. Silly Animals never appeared, but in March 1946 Fawcett released Animal Fair, which was probably Silly Animals under another name. It, too, did not go on to great success, expiring after eleven issues. Even having Captain Marvel Bunny on the cover of issue #1 [printed from the original art in the FCA section of A/E #25] didn’t save it. Interestingly enough, the 1946 Writer’s Year Book listed both Sherlock Monk and Benny Beaver Comics in their Fawcett market roundup, but added parenthetically that they were “tentative.”

“The end of paper control enormously increased the troubles of magazine publishers. Practically every office I’ve visited in the past weeks has had a sad tale to tell. And this has included many wellestablished magazines as well as newcomers.

Spy Smasher might’ve regained his own solo title after the war ended—but apparently he was so closely tied to Axis-bashing that, instead, he quickly shed his costume and secret identity and briefly fought everyday hoodlums in Whiz Comics as Crime Smasher, before vanishing completely. Ah, if only he had known about Kim Philby, Klaus Fuchs, Alger Hiss, the Rosenbergs, et al., Spy Smasher could have hung out his shingle for a whole new (cold) war! This very-marked-up page of original art (by an unidentified artist) from a wartime “Spy Smasher” tale is in the collection of Jack Bender, artist/co-writer of the Alley Oop newspaper strip. Look for a piece by Jack about comics’ first caveman in an early issue of Alter Ego. [Spy Smasher TM & ©2004 DC Comics.]

Since Sherlock Monk and Benny Beaver were characters who had been running in Fawcett’s Funny Animals, no doubt the inventory for those aborted titles was plowed right back into the anthology mag. That Fawcett was gearing up for a big postwar push is made clear by executive editor Will Lieberson in his article “Comics Is a Funny Business” in WD for January 1946, where he wrote: “Now that the restrictions on paper are at the end, comics are entering a period of expansion and development. There are a great many writers in the field now, but you can count the good ones on your typewriter fingers. (We are referring to the touch system, not the hunt and peck.) Considering that there are over 150 magazines appearing on the stands every month now, and that there will soon be

“Several of the titan publishers have been bidding for paper mills and paper jobbing houses. Whereby, smaller companies have lost out on sources of paper believed secure. And the lack of magazine printing presses is almost enough to wring tears from the sympathetic listener.

“As a consequence, many publishers who had announced plans for stepping up frequency of production on many magazines, have beat a hasty retreat.” There was a mad postwar rush to buy paper mills by the bigger publishers in order to guarantee an unobstructed supply. Smaller publishers were squeezed out. Evidently encountering the same problem, Fawcett reluctantly shelved those two titles, and who knows how many others that were in the planning stages. Some expansion plans did go forward. Hopalong Cassidy, Nyoka the Jungle Girl, Bulletman, Ibis the Invincible, and Golden Arrow were all successfully revived. And we can speculate that, among the titles suspended during the war, Spy Smasher Comics and Minute Man Comics were probably casualties of the hitherto-unexpected 1946 Fawcett Implosion.

Journey Into Comics

[YE ED’S INTRO: With this issue, Alter Ego is proud to welcome to its pages Pat Calhoun, who for some years has been a well-known columnist in Comic Book Marketplace. Welcome, Pat! —Roy.]

Casualties of the Comics Code Even comic book history provides an example of how little it avails to respond to the “problem” of violence with a greater act of violence. There were other reasons—besides the moral high ground of removing a contribution to juvenile delinquency—behind the pogrom against horror comics in the mid1950s. Other companies envied the success and market share of the horror publishers, and the “newcomer” television was ready to court the reading audience by pointing its finger at the “nasty” comic books. EC’s line

Ghost Comics #11 (Summer 1954). There’s no story inside matching the cover (above)—which Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., believes was drawn by Maurice Whitman, though he agrees with Hames Ware that the high-cheekboned female seems at least inspired by Matt Baker’s work if not actually drawn by him. Still, the cover is an effective evocation of the issue’s contents, which are a half-new, half-reprint mix. “Grab-bag” (center right), drawn by Bill Bernulis, is new, while the entry from the longrunning series “Werewolf Hunter” (far right) features a George Evans-drawn story from 1948’s Rangers Comics #18. The Eisneresque “Dr. Drew” splash page is by former Spirit assistant Jerry Grandenetti. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

Casualties of the Comics Code

Upper Air” tells of Himalayan climbers who run into an “abominable snowman,” with expressive art by Johhny Bell. In “Grab Bag,” the other original, a group of college girls buy a trunk—contents unknown—at an auction. Each finds something inside that she uses later—with fatal results. Artist Bill Benulis comes through with a graphic finale that really satisfies.

of books was one of the main targets; fortunately they avoided complete disaster by changing Mad into a black-&white “bedsheet” magazine that could bypass the censorship of the Comics Code. Some companies did perish and many others were badly wounded. A lot of good titles breathed their last in the second half of 1954; let’s salute three of them here.

The first of the two reprints is a “Werewolf Hunter” story from 1948. This was a supernatural sleuth series, elegantly rendered this time by George Evans. It’s followed by another occult detective, the superlative “Dr, Drew,” drawn in a Spirit-inspired style by Jerry Grandenetti, who had assisted Will Eisner on his weekly feature. “The Witch’s Doll” invests a basic voodoo plot with such visual pizzazz that it becomes something special.

T.T. Scott’s Fiction House had been a strong publisher all through the 1940s, with a distinctive line of comics that blended action and cheesecake, cheesecake being the display of female flesh. They had mastered this formula in pulps, as well. This “adult” stance was not destined to work well under censorious review; Fiction House’s last comics were dated Summer 1954. They also terminated their pulps; digest mags, paperback originals, TV, and (less racy) comics had taken over the market. Ghost Comics #11 was one of the company’s summer swan-songs. This issue combines excellent reprints with original stories that show Fiction House capable enough at the new style, which favored stand-alone stories over series with continuing characters. “Lords of the

(Above, and below left:) the cover and lead splash of Frankenstein #33 (Oct.-Nov. 1954). It’s terror time, as man and monster battle atop the clock tower on this typically excellent cover by the series’ auteur, Dick Briefer, capping his great 15-year run on the classic horror character—from horror to humor and back again! Another story inside (bottom right) foreshadows Little Shop of Horrors. [©2004 the respective copyright holder.]

Frankenstein’s Monster is the quintessential horror character, the walking symbol of science gone awry. At the end of World War II, humor-hungry audiences led Prize (which had been running a “Frankenstein” strip by Dick Briefer in their eponymous flagship title since 1940) to package 17 issues of a funny Frankenstein, but when the early ’50s called for horror, Briefer did a U-

Title Comic Fandom Archive

The Late, Great Biljo White The Second Part of A/E’s Celebration of the Life and Work of Capt. Biljo by Bill Schelly In the 1960s Biljo White’s celebrated “White House of Comics” may actually have been just a small cinder block building behind his home in Columbia, Missouri; but the mouth-watering comic book treasures it housed—complete or semi-complete Golden Age runs of Batman, Detective Comics, Captain Marvel Adventures, The Marvel Family, Military Comics, All-Star Comics, and numerous other titles—would today buy a sumptuous mansion straight out of Gone with the Wind! The photo, courtesy of Mrs. Hazel White, shows Biljo circa 1975, during his days as a firefighter. [Art ©2004 Estate of Biljo White.]

Room in Alter Ego is always at a premium, given the backlog of terrific material that Roy has amassed (with the help of dozens of comics enthusiasts around the globe, of course!). Even with our monthly schedule of 108-page issues, counting covers, there’s never enough space. Thus, a phone call from Roy to Yours Truly:

“Bill, I’m going through all the visual material you sent to accompany your tribute to Biljo White in A/E #32,” Roy said. “There’s a lot of really good stuff here.” “Yeah,” I agreed. I had sent more than my usual quota of illustrations and photographs, to give him lots to choose from. “In fact, there’s too much stuff to run in the available space,” he continued. “And I’d really like to reprint Biljo’s original ‘Alter and Capt. Ego’ strip [from A/E #7], even if I have to do it by putting two of its pages on a single page, sideways, like we did with Grass Green’s fan stories. So what would you think of continuing our tribute to Biljo into #33?” I agreed at once, since it would have been a shame not to use some of the photos and illos, especially stuff that hasn’t been widely seen. Rather than the usual text-heavy piece, the installment of the Comic Fandom Archive in A/E #33 would consist mainly of Biljo’s fanzine covers, illustrations, and photos. I would merely compose a brief introduction and info on the art materials, and offer some commentary on White’s “Alter and Capt. Ego” strip. As I hung up the phone, I was beaming ear to ear. Now we’d be able to celebrate Biljo’s life and work more extensively. And it would be fitting, since he had served as art editor of Alter Ego itself, back in its original incarnation in the 1960s. “Come to think of it,” I muttered to myself, “there are a few more cool things we might include. I wonder if I can find that photo of Chuck Moss at Biljo’s place, holding the splash page to The Brave and the Bold #34!” (P.S.: I did. See right.)

In 1964 fan-collector Chuck Moss drove all the way from Nebraska to Columbia, Missouri, to meet Biljo. Here, in the White House of Comics, he marvels over original Joe Kubert art to the return of Hawkman in The Brand and the Bold.

The Late, Great Biljo White

Only days after Ronn’s 1963 visit, Jerry and Sondra Bails dropped by from Detroit, at the same time that Roy Thomas and Linda Rahm drove over to Columbia from the St. Louis area. Here, Jerry and his first wife peruse Biljo’s copy of a rare Flash Gordon artifact in the White House of Comics, before a wall decorated with a color proof of the Silver Age Hawkman’s second appearance, and pages of original Mike Sekowsky-Bernard Sachs art from the third Justice League of America outing; all were gifts from DC editor Julius Schwartz, who sent pages out in the 1960s as a thank-you for good letters of comment. Photo by Ruthie White. Circa 1966-67, Biljo White and Roy Thomas (hiding behind the name of his pal Gary Friedrich, since Roy was then associate editor of Marvel Comics) teamed up to offer a revamped “Son of Vulcan” to Charlton, with inking by Sam Grainger. But nothing came of it. Roy suspects that the story, never finished, was never shown to Charlton editor Dick Giordano. This is the splash panel of the only completed page; the entire splash page was printed in Hamster Press’ Fandom’s Finest Comics, Vol. 1. [Art ©2004 Estates of Biljo White and Sam Grainger; Son of Vulcan TM & ©2004 DC Comics.]

Biljo did make it into comics, though—in Marvel’s The Invaders #16-18 (1977), as the name of a soldier-cartoonist who as a civilian had drawn a super-hero comic book titled Major Victory. That Biljo White even appeared on the cover of #18, penciled by Gil Kane—but writer/editor Roy and story penciler Frank Robbins forgot to free him from Hitler’s clutches at story’s end! One Robbins/Springer page from the story arc can be seen in the photo of Biljo’s wall, above—while at right is a page from Invaders #16 in which a Jim Mooney-penciled Captain America reads a “Major Victory” origin which, Roy believes, was penciled by Biljo at his old Missouri friend’s invitation; inking of the entire page is by Frank Springer. Repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, courtesy of Jeff E. Smith, to whom Biljo sold it a few years back. Photo courtesy of Hazel White. [Art ©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Comics Fandom Archive

“Alter and Captain Ego” Reprised Some of the fans active in early fandom—maybe even a majority— were almost exclusively interested in collecting old comic books, and in reading articles that gave them information about the contents of those sought-after treasures. They bought the fanzines that mainly featured such fare: G.B. Love’s Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector and his Rocket’s Blast Specials, which contained a lot about the history of various Golden Age comics, as did Robert Jennings’ Comic World, Mike Tuohey’s Super Hero, and others. Biljo White contributed to this genre of fanzine with Batmania. From its outset in 1961, Alter Ego was likewise primarily an article-zine, but its format also left room for one original comics feature in most issues. First had come Roy’s three-part “Bestest League of America” in A/E #1-3, then Ronn Foss’s Eclipse in #5, and Roy and Grass teaming up in #6 with “The Bestest League of America Meets Da Frantic Four.” Each of these was

(Above:) Circa May 1963, Biljo and Ronn Foss (partly behind Biljo) look over the original layouts to Ronn’s first issue of Alter Ego. At left is the Whites’ daughter Sunday. For economic reasons, the published A/E [Vol. 1] #5 was far smaller than the layout version seen here, having dimensions of only 8H” x 7”. It featured a profile on Biljo written by his then-wife Ruthie (who also snapped the above photo) and three drawings by Biljo for a pseudonymous article which asked the musical question: “The JLA—Overcrowded?” The illo above right was given an entire page in the issue. [Art ©2004 Estate of Biljo White; Justice League TM & ©2004 DC Comics.]

The above pencil illo for “The Blade” was done, according to the inscription, on March 9, 1952, while Biljo was stationed in Baumholder, Germany, with story by a fellow soldier. The idea was reworked in 1964 for the prominent fanzine Star-Studded Comics, produced by The Texas Trio. [©2004 Estate of Biljo White.]

Biljo White himself may not have traveled much after he got out of uniform, but his cartoon counterpart Captain Biljo did— in a pair of stories. In this one, we follow as the Cap’n attends a comicon; in the second one, he must ferret out the thief who stole his comic book collection. [Art ©2004 Estate of Biljo White.]

No. 92 February 2004

ROSS ANDRU & MIKE ESPOSITO

Lampoon Captain Marvel

Also:

Marc Swayze

We Didn’t Know... Did you ever hear of Mickey Malone, the boy who built his own plane from castaway parts and flew against the enemy in World War II? Mickey was the famed Phantom Eagle, in Wow Comics... remember? Oh, you never heard of him...? Well, anyway, whether you knew him or not, you’ll have to admit it was a pretty clever idea for a comic book feature... a kid, too young to fly legally, but an expert pilot... flying in the cause of his country. By

mds& (c) [Art

I didn’t know him, either, when I barged into the Fawcett comic book editorial offices in 1944—still in uniform—to say I’m back and need a script of some kind so’s to pay my hotel bill. I took a peek at the story handed me by editor Mercedes Shull and on the way out picked up a copy of Wow Comics to see who this Phantom Eagle was, and what he looked like. Mercy hadn’t been bothered by the fact that I was unfamiliar with the character.

[FCA EDITOR’S NOTE: From 1941-53, Marcus D. Swayze was a top artist for Fawcett Comics. The very first Mary Marvel character sketches came from Marc’s drawing table, and he illustrated her earliest adventures, including the classic origin story “Captain Marvel It was issue #28. Sharing the first page with the editorial credits were Introduces Mary Marvel (CMA #18, Dec. ’42); but he was primarily six crowded panels of my own work where Mary Marvel visited a hired by Fawcett to illustrate “Waste Paper Reclaiming Factory.” Captain Marvel stories and The title panel of the lead story over covers for Whiz Comics and on the next page had a nice drawing of Captain Marvel Adventures. Mary gracefully pounding an evil foe... He also wrote many and a poster reading “Who Can Defeat Captain Marvel scripts, and Mr. Question?” In the bottom margin continued to do so while in was a by-line in small type: Drawn by the military. Upon leaving Jack Binder. the service, he made an Introducing the second story in the arrangement with Fawcett 1944 Wow was a nice big logo to produce art and stories for stretching across the top of the page in the company on a freelance italicized, red, capital letters... basis out of his Louisiana PHANTOM EAGLE. The title was home. There he created both “Trouble in Tibet!” Following it was art and story for The an untitled tale featuring Mr. Scarlet Phantom Eagle in Wow and Pinky versus a diabolical “Mr. Comics, in addition to Green.” The issue was closed by a tale drawing the Flyin’ Jenny of Commando Yank assisting the newspaper strip for Bell American underground in the Syndicate (created by his Philippines. friend and mentor Russell Keaton). After the cancelNo question as to when that comic lation of Wow, Swayze book was issued. Plugs and blurbs produced artwork for promoting the U.S. war effort... Fawcett’s top-selling line of stamps, bonds, paper salvage, WAC romance comics. After the enlistment... appeared throughout its company ceased publishing pages. And why not? After all, WWII comics, Marc moved over to was still in full swing. Charlton Publications, where he ended his comics Without reading the “Tibet” story career in the mid-1950s. in detail, after flipping through the Marc’s ongoing professional memoirs have been FCA’s most popular feature since his first column appeared in FCA #54, 1996. Last issue, Marc recalled his opposition to the assembly-line system of producing comic books. This time, he looks back to when he was first assigned a Phantom Eagle story, before (Above:) Just think of all the Golden Age comics lost to World War II paper it became a regular drives! Mary Marvel art by Marc Swayze from Wow Comics #28 (Aug. 1941). assignment for him. (Right:) Mercedes Shull was already the editor of Wow when this photo was —P.C. Hamerlinck.] taken at Fawcett’s New York City offices in 1942. [Art ©2004 DC Comics.]

Special FCA TitleComics Section

Captain Marble Flies Again! The Golden Age of Parody Comics Lives Anew— Courtesy of ROSS ANDRU & MIKE ESPOSITO! by Roy Thomas It will come as no secret to those who know me that two of my favorite comic books of the first half of the 1950s were—and are— Dell’s Pogo Possum and EC’s Mad #1-23. While I perused the first three issues of the latter on comics racks, I never even came close to buying one till issue #4 (April-May 1953), with “Superduperman!” and its inclusion of Captain Marbles, a parody of the Big Red Cheese. Of course, at age twelve, I was unaware of full extent of the parody, since at that time I knew no more than the rest of the general public

Previous issues of A/E showcased other panels from the justly-famed “Superduperman!” parody in Mad #4, even reminding us all what the magic word “SHAZOOM” stood for (as if any true early-Mad fan needs reminding!). Here, Supes slugs Captain Marbles—though the result will not be quite what he expects. Repro’d from the fabulous black-&-white hardcover reprints published by Russ Cochran. [©2004 E.C. Publications, Inc.]

(i.e., nothing) about the DC-vs.-Fawcett lawsuit that would end Cap’s illustrious career before the year was out—or that DC would threaten EC itself over the Wally Wood-drawn parody. I didn’t buy Mad #4 that day, because I was ambivalent about the idea of a spoof of two beloved super-heroes. It wasn’t until two months later, when I saw and purchased issue #5 because of its “Black and Blue Hawks!” tale, that I immediately went hunting for a copy of #4—which, amazingly, was still on sale at another store—and plunked down my thin dime for it, as well. From then on, I was a Maddict, to coin a phrase... but my happiest moments were reserved for parodies of the likes of Superman, Blackhawk, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Plastic Man—what Harvey Kurtzman (though I didn’t know then that he was the writer of every story in Mad) called in the latter tale, “that fast-dying race of freaks.”

The discontinued super-heroes Harvey Kurtzman mentioned in his lead-in to “Plastic Sam!” in Mad #14 (Aug. 1954) are The Flash, Sub-Mariner, and Captain Marvel (even if Harv put two “z’s” in the verb “Shazzamed”). This was certainly the first time those three characters (and, less directly, Plastic Man) had ever been mentioned in the same comic book! Russ Heath’s art followed Kurtzman’s layouts more closely than any other non-Kurtzman art that ever appeared in Mad. Interestingly, #14 also contained a Will Elderdrawn takeoff on another quasi-super-hero feature, Mandrake the Magician. From the Cochran hardcovers. [© 2004 E.C. Publications, Inc.]

And dying they were. By 1954 only the above-named costumed heroes and a few back-of-the-book super-types remained, and new ones like Captain 3-D were basically stillborn. The success of the Superman TV show starring George Reeves had spawned revivals at Timely/Atlas and Charlton, and even a few new super-heroes, but none would really make the cut until the new Flash streaked onto the scene in 1956. As a result, there were virtually no super-hero parodies in any of the many four-color Mad wannabes that had short runs between 1953-1955—not in all that litany of logos that made up a page in Mad #17 (Nov. 1954): Bughouse, Crazy, Eh!, Flip, Get Lost!, Madhouse, Panic, Riot, Wild, Whack, Nuts!—

The Golden Age of Parody Comics Lives Anew!

But wait! I said “virtually” above, because there was at least one bona fide super-hero spoof outside the pages of Mad during that period. It appeared in Nuts! #5 (also Nov. ’54), the final issue of that comic published by the Premiere Comics Group. What’s more, it was not only a lampoon of Captain Marvel—which perhaps inevitably bore a name nearly identical to Kurtzman’s version—but it was a pretty good parody.

for the earlier mag and became inventory when Mikeross Productions/New Comics folded as had so many other small companies in the aftermath of the Wertham/Kefauver bloodbath. When I contacted Mike recently about that parody (and about an extended Esposito interview Jim Amash is doing with him, also upcoming in A/E), the veteran inker positively ID’d the story as being his and Ross’ work; but he didn’t believe it had been left over from Get Lost! Mike informed me the writer of “Captain Marble Flies Again!” was one Yvonne Rae—who, he says, had done some writing for him and Ross on Get Lost! He added in an e-mail:

Small wonder, partly because, as we now know, the unsigned artists of “Captain Marble Flies Again!” were none other than penciler Ross Andru and inker Mike Esposito, two artistic partners whose MikeRoss Publications had produced the three issues of Get Lost! in the first half of 1954. (In Marvel’s Brand Echh #1 [Aug. 1967], Ross, Mike, and I would work together on the first super-hero satire I would write as a pro: “The Human Scorch versus The Sunk-Mariner,” a send-up of the Golden Age battles of the Torch and Namor. And in the mid-’70s I would arrange with Ross and Mike, both of whom by then were friends of mine, to reprint several fondlyremembered stories from Get Lost! in the short-lived Arrgh! parody comic I initiated for Marvel.)

“[Ross and I] left our publishing venture and picked up some freelance work from Yvonne Rae [of Premiere], with whom we worked on some of our projects. I believe she was the editor on the comic book. It was really great to see it again, and I would love to see the whole story printed out in your magazine. I’m sure there is no copyright at this point. That magazine went under around 1954.” So: In 1967’s Brand Echh #1 (the name wasn’t changed to Not Brand Echh till #5), writer Roy Thomas, penciler Ross Andru, and inker Mike Esposito—under his pseudonym “Mickey Demeo”—teamed up on a parody of the classic Human Torch/Sub-Mariner battles in early-’40s Timely Comics. On the final page, Chaplain America points the Human Scorch and Sunk-Mariner to an old-folks’ home, where they sit around with several other comics heroes. [©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Getting back to “Captain Marble”: its art style always reminded me of stories in Get Lost! Still, I don’t recall ever asking Ross or Mike if they had drawn it, not when they came to parties at my Manhattan digs, or when Ross and I co-plotted #1 issues of Kull the Conqueror and Doc Savage, or when the three of us got together to kick around ideas for comic strips, or at the Friday poker games in which Mike and I were regulars for years. Over the decades, my prized copy of Nuts! #5 had gone lost (more likely, I sold or traded it, the more fool me); and I hadn’t seen it in years when I discussed it recently via e-mail with Ger Apeldoorn, a knowledgeable comics collector in the Netherlands—who, I hasten to add, is now writing a full-scale study of those 1950s color Mad clones for a near-future issue of Alter Ego. It was Ger who sent me art scans of the story. Ger and I wondered if, since Nuts! #5 appeared only four months after the final issue of Get Lost!, “Captain Marble” wasn’t maybe done

From 1961-65, comics stories were a mainstay of Alter Ego, Vol. 1: my own three-part parody “Bestest League of America,” followed by “Bestest League of America Meets Da Frantic Four” (the latter co-drawn by Grass Green)... two “Eclipse” tales by Ronn Foss... “Alter and Captain Ego” by Biljo White... and six previously-unprinted mid-1950s Mr. Tawny daily strips by Otto Binder and C.C. Beck. A/E, Vol. 2, in 199899, reprinted all 16 hero parodies that Len Brown, Art Spiegelman, Wally Wood, Gil Kane, and I had done for Topps Chewing Gum circa 1967. And now, for the first time since that rare 1966 Eisner Spirit story back in our second issue, this third volume of A/E joins forces with P.C. Hamerlinck’s FCA to present a “comics section”—a six-page 1954 minor classic by Yvonne Rae, Ross Andru, and Mike Esposito, with a few lines of cogent commentary by Yours Truly at the bottom of each page, which may be of use to those readers not quite as conversant with the World’s Mightiest Mortal as P.C. and I are...!

Captain Marble Flies Again!

Great splash—even if Cap’s cape is colored yellow, instead of white, throughout the story. (Can anybody read that Germanic lettering in the splash panel?) Writer/editor Yvonne Rae did her research, since she parodies the name “Mr. Mind.” And, even as a kid, I appreciated the line about Billy and Cap’s secret identities: it never made sense to me that nobody ever noticed that one of the pair vanished amid lightning and the other appeared in the selfsame spot—not that that ever stopped me from enjoying a good “Captain Marvel” yarn! (Oh, and the Hoopers were the rating system that radio and TV lived and died by, before the Nielsens.) Incidentally, Jim Amash tells us that an episode of the 1940s/early-’50s Superman radio show featured a villain named Captain Marble. If so, d’you think someone there had a wicked sense of humor? [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]