Alter Ego #5 Preview

5.95

$

In the USA

Special Issue!

Justice Society Of America!

No. 5 Summer 2000

Volume 3, No. 5 Summer 2000 Editor

™

Justice Society Section Background image: The dynamic cover from All-Star Comics #52 (Apr.-May, 1950), featuring the JSA. ©2000 DC Comics

Roy Thomas

Associate Editor Bill Schelly

Design & Layout Janet Sanderson John Morrow Eric Nolen-Weathington

Consulting Editors

And Justice for All. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 A few words (like we’ve got room for any more!) about this special issue of A/E.

Together Again for the First Time – The Justice Society of America. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

John Morrow Jon B. Cooke

FCA Editor

A condensed Cook’s Tour of all the JSAers— with more rare and unpublished artwork than you can shake a Gravity Rod at!

P.C. Hamerlinck

Shelly Mayer: Origins of The Golden Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Contributing Editor Michael T. Gilbert

All-Star— Flash Comics— Green Lantern— Wonder Woman— he edited them all, and lived to tell the tale— in this classic 1975 interview by Anthony Tollin.

Editors Emeritus

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

Cover(s) Artist

Droopy, The Drew Field Mosquito . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 More of Flash co-creator Harry Lampert’s award-winning cartoons from the Second World War.

DC vs. The Justice Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Writer/artist Larry Ivie has his say on the birth of the Silver Age... and what he says may surprise you.

Carmine Infantino Jerry Ordway Mart Nodell

The “Nuclear” Wars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Roy Thomas tells the hidden story behind All-Star Squadron #14 and #16— plus unpublished Wonder Woman art by the immortal H.G. Peter.

Cover Color Tom Ziuko

Mailing Crew

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

And Special Thanks to: Manuel Auad Mike W. Barr Al Bigley Bill Black Randy Bower Jerry K. Boyd Jack Burnley Bill Cain Al Dellinges Steve Ditko Creig Flessel Keif Fromm Carl Gafford Jeff Gelb Martin L. Greim Gary Groth George Hagenauer David Hamilton Ron Harris Irwin Hasen Roger Hill Tom Horvitz Richard Howell Chris Irving Larry Ivie Steve Korté

Contents

Harry and Adele Lampert Paul Levitz Sheldon Moldoff Rich Morrissey Will Murray Marty and Carrie Nodell Ethan Roberts Alvin Schwartz Robin Snyder Marc Svensson Marc Swayze Joel Thingvall Anthony Tollin Dann Thomas Kim Thompson Hames Ware Marv Wolfman Ed Zeno

From Fan to Pro – The Gardner Fox Letters, Part IV. . . . . . . . . 31 Ye Editor had always hoped these letters had been burned, but Gardner Fox saved everything— and who’s going to say no to Michael T. Gilbert and Mr. Monster?

So – You Want to Collect Fanzines? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Bill Schelly conducts a guided tour of the great fanzines of the 1960s and ’70s— with lots of great, rare pro art!

Special Green Lantern/FCA Section. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About our cover: Actually, we don’t have to tell you about the marvelous Infantino-Ordway drawing which graces our cover(s)— ’cause we got owner Marty Greim to do that for us on our flip section’s editorial page. For once, we can just sit back and enjoy— a perfect 1948 JSA moment!

[Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Atom, Black Canary, Hawkman, and Dr. Mid-Nite ©2000 DC Comics; art used by permission of Martin L. Greim, with the blessings of Carmine Infantino and Jerry Ordway.]

Alter EgoTM is published quarterly by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Phone: (919) 833-8092. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: Rt. 3, Box 468, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@oburg.net. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $5.95 ($7.00 Canada, $9.00 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $20 US, $27 Canada, $37 elsewhere. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Alter and Captain Ego ©2000 Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly. Air Wave, Aquaman, Binky, Black Canary, Blackhawk, Blue Beetle, Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., Commander Steel, Cyclone Kids, Dr. fate, Dr. Mid-Nite, Dr. Sivana, Firebrand, Flash, Green Lantern, Guardian, Hawkgirl, Hawkman, Holliday Girls, Hop Harrigan, Hour-Man, Ibis, Johnny Peril, Johnny Quick, Johnny Thunder, Justice Society of America, Liberty Belle, Mary Marvel, Mechanique, Metal Men, Minute Man, Mr. Terrific, Newsboy Legion, Nuclear, Plastic Man, Red Tornado, Robotman, Rose & Thorn, Sandman, Sandy, Scribbly, Solomon Grundy, Spectre, Spy Smasher, Starman, Steve Trevor, Sugar & Spike, Superman, Uncle Marvel, Wildcat, Wonder Girl, Wonder Woman, Wotan ©DC Comics. Dan Dare, Dr. Voodoo, Golden Arrow, Lance O’Casey, Master Man, Mr. Hogan, Phantom Eagle © Fawcett Publications, , Capt. Midnight is a TM of Ovaltine. Dr. Strange, Fantastic Four, Hulk, Spider-Man, Warlock © Marvel Characters, Inc. The Fly, The Shield, The Wizard © Archie Comics. Chuck chandler, Nightro, Slugger © Lev Gleason. Green Hornet © Harvey Comics. Fighting Yank © Nedor/Better Comics. Fighting American © Joe Simon & Jack Kirby. Pillsbury Dough Boy © Pillsbury. John Carter of Mars © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. Alter Ego hero art © Ron Harris, hero © Roy and Dann Thomas. Donald Duck, Huey, Dewey, and Louie © Walt Disney Productions. Golden Lad © Spark. Droopy © Harry Lampert. Opus © Berke Breathed. Voltar © Estate of Alfredo Alcala. Conan © Conan Properties, Inc. Music Master © Eastern Color Printing. Flyin’ Jenny © Bell Syndicate. The Great Guy © Marcus Swayze. Pogo and Albert © Estate of Walt Kelly. Transisto, Lunar-Man © Estate of George Roussos. Printed in Canada.

FIRST PRINTING

Together Again For The First Time...

Art © Shelly Moldoff. Characters TM & ©2000 DC Comics. From the collection of RT.

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Together Again For The First Time...

The Justice Society of America!

A brief glimpse at the cast and crew of the first & foremost super-group of all time

by Roy Thomas Our emphasis artwise this issue might be on the Green LanternFlash-Wonder Woman trio who were the most popular of the regular

JSAers. Still, we didn’t want to totally neglect any of the eighteen heroes who, at one time or another in the 1940s, passed through the meeting halls of the Justice Society, whether as full members or not.

And since, as it just happens, we have access to reproductions of original, often rare or even previously unpublished art of many of those stalwarts, we thought we’d kill two birds with one stone. E.g., our lead-off panorama is a 1990s drawing by 1940s “Hawkman” artist (and later “Batman” ghost) Shelly Moldoff of most of the Golden Age membership of the JSA— excluding only Johnny Thunder, Black Canary, Wildcat, perhaps-JSAer Mr. Terrific, and one-page guest star Red Tornado— with Shelly’s co-creation The Bat-Mite thrown in just for a zane.

Now, let’s take a look at our colorful cast, one by one:

...The Justice Society of America!

“A” IS FOR “ATOM”: This never-published tier of panels is from a story that was “written off” by DC circa 1949 when his last solo berth, Flash Comics, was cancelled. Judging by its use of blacks, this Joe Gallagher art probably dates from 1943-44, at latest. [Atom © 2000 DC Comics; courtesy of Ethan Roberts.]

BATMAN: A fine, moody Batman re-creation

by Bob Kane. [Courtesy of Jerry Boyd; art © 2000 estate of Bob Kane; Batman © 2000 DC Comics]

BLACK CANARY: Three Black Canarys for the price of one! This Carmine Infantino-penciled splash is from an episode left unpublished when Flash Comics was cancelled; at one time it had been slated to appear in #101.

But —notice anything unusual? That’s right: there are two Black Canarys in the drawing! Not only that, but when DC finally got around to printing this story in 100-Page Super-Spectacular, Vol. 1, #DC-20 (1973), neither of these figures was in evidence; instead, Carmine (probably back in the late ’40s) had drawn a new Canary bracing herself more dramatically in the stone gargoyle’s mouth to catch the falling Larry Lance.

Inks credited to Frank Giacoia; script most likely by Robert Kanigher. [© 2000 DC Comics; repro’d from photocopies of the original art, courtesy of Ethan Roberts.]

DOCTOR FATE: By All-Star #14, this Gardner Fox-Howard Sherman hero didn’t display his original magical powers in this panel repro’d from photocopies of the original art— but he’s still one of the greatlooking super-heroes of all time. [©2000 DC Comics; courtesy of Joel Thingvall.]

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Origins of the Golden Age

Origins of the Golden Age An interview with Shelly Mayer Conducted by Anthony Tollin

Shelly Mayer from Amazing World of DC Comics.

Shelly himself sketched the 1975 portrait which appeared on that issue’s cover.

[Art © 2000 DC Comics]

[A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: The following interview was conducted for The Amazing World of DC Comics, Vol. 2, #5 (MarchApril 1975), a sort of official house fanzine of that period which deserves an entire article to itself, and not merely for the number of entry-level DC staffers who put it together as the so-called “Junior Woodchucks,” then went on to high-profile professional careers.

[Sheldon Mayer (1917-1997) was a true phenomenon, both as writer/artist and as the first editor of the All-American Comics line, from 1939 through 1948. DC staffer Anthony Tollin put the pieces together skillfully, dropping his interview-style questions out entirely so Mayer could speak for himself, with Tony’s own informational and historical comments interspersed where needed. Few interviews with Mayer survive, but this article stands as probably the best, and we are grateful to Paul Levitz and DC Comics for making it available to us. The interview is ©1975, 2000 by DC Comics, and is reprinted with permission. All artwork is reproduced via “fair use.”

Now, let’s let Tony introduce his subject...]

Among the top artists developed by Mayer was a teenage Joe Kubert, who rose to prominence after 1945 as the artist of “Hawkman.” This beautiful splash page from Flash Comics #72 (June 1946) is repro’d from photocopies of the original art, courtesy of Al Dellinges. [© 2000 DC Comics]

There are as many opinions in the comic book business as there are creative people and topics to argue about. Few men or concepts are held sacred, but Sheldon Mayer is. I’ve never heard anyone speak a word against his creativity, editorial prowess, or skill at training and polishing raw talent into genius. His protégés provide living evidence of his

An Interview With Shelly Mayer achievements— men like Carmine Infantino, Julie Schwartz, Alex Toth, Bob Kanigher, and Joe Kubert today keep alive a legacy they inherited from Shelly Mayer. His comic creations, including Scribbly, Sugar and Spike, Binky, and The Three Mouseketeers, give further testimony to the genius of the man who was the creative force behind DC’s All-American line of the 1940s.

“Sheldon Mayer is a rara avis: one of the few creative men I’ve met in comics,” proclaims Bob Kanigher. “He ran All-American like Charlie Chaplin opening the cabinet of Dr. Caligari. He mixed plots like D.W. Griffith and Mack the Knife sharing a Catskill Mountains kitchen. He was one of the early barnstorming pilots who fearlessly flew across the unknown seas of imagination by the reckless seat of his pants.”

I grew up in East Harlem. It was a rough, tough neighborhood in those days. Kids began to think about what they were going to do for a living from the day they were born, because everybody wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

You had only three choices: you could do what your father did (usually menial work), or you could run errands for the hoods that the area was full of and work your way up in the mobs, or you could learn a skill on your own that could be turned into honest money.

Nobody considered college because it was unreachable... impossible.

A bust of All-American publisher and future EC founder Max C. Gaines, done by Mayer.

[Photo originally printed in Amazing World of DC Comics #5.]

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devoting a large share of my time to doing that instead of opaquing and was promptly fired.

During the next year I was working during the day and going to high school at night. I worked in a factory, as an M.C. at a night club, and at a variety of odd jobs. Meanwhile, I developed about six different daily strips and was receiving a great deal of encouragement from a guy named John Lardner, the feature editor of the Bell Syndicate.

None of the strips “took,” however.

I also got a lot of encouragement from [newspaper cartoonist] Milt Gross, who was very nice and did everything he possibly could to get me located somewhere, anywhere, but the Depression was on. In any case, I made $90.00 that year as an artist because I had sold six greeting cards. It took me half a day to draw ‘em and the rest of the year to collect the money.

In 1933 M.C. Gaines convinced Eastern Color Publishing to package comic strip reprints as advertising premiums. The enthusiasm the booklets received convinced Gaines to release a 10-cent comic book for newsstand distribution. The magazine, Famous Funnies, became the first regularly published comic book.

Soon, other publishers followed suit and many more comic books hit the newsstands, all featuring reprints of the popular newspaper comic strips of the time. Reprint rights to the more popular strips were hard to come by when Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson entered the comic book arena with New Fun Comics in February of 1935. Wheeler-Nicholson was forced to commission all-new material for New Fun (soon to be rechristened More Fun) and its companion magazine New Comics (soon to become better known as Adventure Comics).

My first work in comic books was for Wheeler-Nicholson. I wandered into their office to show them my portfolio and they hired me on the spot. They were thrilled with my work and I didn’t know that the enormous amount of money they promised me was just big talk.

They gave me a very involved contract. Of course, I was too young to

My dad had a small butcher shop. I hated raw meat, law-breaking didn’t appeal to me, but cartooning looked like something I could learn to do on my own.

There was no such medium as comic books when I was growing up. The big thing was newspaper strips. Back in those days, the newspaper cartoonist was a sort of god. The papers had recently discovered that their circulations really depended on strong comic strip features. The news itself had become secondary. The top syndicated cartoonists were pulling in better than a thousand a week at a time when a man could support a family on a weekly salary of $28.00.

Cartooning was a pretty notable ambition for a youngster in those days.

By the time I was fourteen, the family had moved to Washington Heights. I was hanging around pestering a cartoonist named “Ving” Fuller who had his home and studio in the neighborhood. He’d been an assistant to Billy (Barney Google) DeBeck, done animated cartoons, and was then doing a daily semi-political comic strip for the New York Mirror. I worked as his assistant for a while until the Mirror cut back and let him go.

(Two other neighborhood kids came to work for him, too: one was Harry Lampert, a lifelong buddy, who later became the first artist to draw “The Flash” and is now president and founder of the highly regarded Lampert Advertising Agency.)

Luckily, I still maintained a contact with the people I’d met on the paper, and could pick up a few dollars here and there as a gofer (go fer this... go fer that).

In 1934 I went to work for the Fleischer animation studio as an opaquer. I soon discovered that I could get $5.00 for suggesting an idea for a scenario or $2.50 for a series of gags for a scene. I began

The late, great Sheldon Mayer at his desk, in a 1945 publicity shot by Sol Harrison. [Photo originally printed in Amazing World of DC Comics #5.]

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DC Vs. The Justice Society Of America

DC vs.

by Larry Ivie “It was because we didn’t know our audience,” said Sheldon Mayer, the first editor of All-Star Comics, “that the writers and artists of the early ’40s had the greatest freedom to try everything, and most of it sold!”

“And the reason,” I explained, “was that each issue had such a variety of stories, at that time, that the things of no interest to us were purchased with the same dime that got us what was!”

(Above) “Making costumes to play the best versions of the JSA characters,” Larry says, “was our second childhood attempt to save them from unpopular changes.”

(Below) “After DC ended the series with AllStar #57, we tried to continue it with binders containing old solo stories [clipped] from other titles. The binders contained full-sized prints cut from two extra copies [of each comic]— 5¢ each from back-issue shops— pasted onto sheets of binder paper (on the front side only).” The “All-Star #58 cover” at left utilizes the splash of the Green Lantern/Solomon Grundy encounter from Comic Cavalcade #24 (Dec.-Jan. 1947-48); that issue was to spotlight previously-printed tales of Hop Harrigan, Aquaman, et al.

The “All-Star cover” at right (which its artist/writer called “L.I. #8) was done in lightcolored pencil, never intended for reproduction. It evidently included a new, Ivie-drawn story, “The Justice Society’s Arabian Nights Adventure.” “Our single-copy issues,” Larry says, “were drawn on sheets of typing paper folded in half, making four pages per sheet.”

[New art ©2000 Larry Ivie; JSA, Hop Harrigan, Aquaman ©2000 DC Comics]

was early 1959, at my desk in a classroom at New York City’s School of Visual Arts. I had had no awareness that Mayer would be the guest professional of the day, so it was by pure chance that what he spotted on my desk, which caused him to pull up a chair to begin a conversation with me, was a drawing of the very characters he had once edited!

“And we were so intoxicated with the success of the whole,” said Mayer, “we never paused to learn the secret only your generation could give us— which was which!”

I was five years old at the time I began making the first independent selections of issues for my parents to buy and read to me, with a few additional years in which the racks offered a variety to choose from that would later be gone.

And, during school recesses, we had hundreds of conversations on why we were all buying the issues we were buying.

The year this revealing exchange between different generations finally took place

Mayer was fascinated by the revelations he was learning a decade Article ©2000 Larry Ivie

DC Vs. The Justice Society Of America and a half too late. And, as he looked at the other sample pages of the old JSA characters, he said, “You’ve got both the art and the knowledge that can enable DC to overcome its slump... and make enormous amounts more than it is now. Don’t wait to Larry Ivie: “Perhaps, we finish the inking. Take thought, if the costumes what you’ve got now, of our childhood creative and let them know enthusiasms were prewhat you’ve just told served, the traditions DC me about what they’ve began destroying, in a been doing wrong!” seeming war against the said.

“I tried to,” I

OPPORTUNITIES MISSED #1 1956

buyers, leaving them behind in ‘51, could live again through carefullymade home movies!”

Some of the JSA-related costumes and artifacts Larry made during the 1940s are depicted in the photographs on the following pages. The item at left, of course, is Starman’s Gravity Rod. [Photo ©2000 Larry Ivie.

As soon as the first issue reviving The Flash appeared, I phoned the editor to see if he’d be interested in a revival of The Justice Society. (I felt it should be done at its peak, with chapters for each character. I wanted to do Hawkman, and knew others who also could produce better art than DC was currently using.)

But he didn’t agree with my prediction that, despite its weaknesses, the new Flash was going to take off, and a JSA revival could do even better. He said he wasn’t interested in another revival until they saw how well the first one did. Why didn’t he realize what, to many, was obvious?

So I produced some sample pages of both Superman and Batman, instead, as a foundation for giving those editors the secrets of what could instantly increase sales of their characters. I knew why the kids who had made them so successful had begun to loose interest in 1948, as a sudden tidal wave of bad decision-making seemed to engulf the DC titles. In the next few years, an increasing enthusiasm for re-reading the issues for the “good days,” rather than buying the new stuff, showed there was no loss of interest for the characters, as they had been. And, as long as the familiar titles kept appearing, although no longer as popular, there was hope that soon someone would dash into the classroom to shout, “There are good issues of All-Star, and Superman, and Flash Comics on sale again!” so we could all rush out, after class, to buy out everything in sight.

Instead, there were only groans as word spread that our once-beloved characters were being replaced by cowboys! Even those of us who lived in the West thought of all “cowboys,” except the Lone Ranger, as third-rate next to the old Justice Society.

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As I, years later, entered the office of Superman editor Mort Weisinger, it seemed strange that there was nothing of Superman in view. I had considered it rather strange, while at the receptionist’s cubicle, to see the edge of the famous painting of Superman jutting out from behind a filing cabinet behind her. Stranger still, the Superman editor didn’t have a single Superman story in his office, other than a clipping in his desk from over a decade before— one of the first under his control— which, after a quick dismissal of my samples, he pulled out to show me what a “good” Superman story was like.

Before that, however, he had quickly turned a sign to face the wall.

But not before I saw that it read: “Remember, we are writing for 8-yearolds!”

The story he showed me was very familiar. I clearly recalled our classroom conversations about it, the day following its appearance, in which it was generally agreed to be the worst Superman story we had ever seen!

“How ironic,” said Weisinger, “that Larry’s 1946-47 models of Green Lantern’s original just as we were lantern-shaped ring— and a magical railroad turning things in a lantern. [Photos ©2000 Larry Ivie.] better direction, sales would begin to fall, due to competition from... TELEVISION!” None of us had stopped buying comic books during the early years of TV. Only the titles going in the wrong direction.

It was in hopes of eventually finding an editor who could understand what was needed that I finally began the samples for the Justice Society revival I had suggested in ‘56.

These included scripts for three issues.

The first explained the origins of the members, how they got together (never originally told), and how they were able to suddenly return with new vigor (as had been predicted and explained in an early issue of Wonder Woman).

The second script tied up loose ends from the original series.

The third set the foundations for a spin-off title, if wanted. It was set twenty years in the future, during a gathering of two groups— the original Justice Society members and their teenage offspring, ready to take over.

Planning ahead, quickly, I re-assigned the already drawn introductory page as

The “Nuclear” Wars

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The “Nuclear” Wars A Close Look at All-Star Squadron #14 and #16— and Two Very Odd Golden Age Wonder Woman Exploits

by Roy Thomas [INTRODUCTORY NOTE: It was my original intention to begin, with this issue, a chronological history of All-Star Squadron, the title I conceived and wrote for DC Comics from 1981-86— or through 1989, if you count its Young All-Stars follow-up series, which I do. However, for various reasons I won’t go into here, I decided to wait till next issue to properly initiate that series (which a number of readers have requested, not that I need much of an excuse to talk about the JSA or its pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths offshoots). This time, I decided both to jump ahead a year-and-a-half, and back nearly a third of a century, from All-Star Squadron #1. Bear with me, okay? —R.T.]

L

ike so many others, I’ve no idea what happened to all those many, many comic books I owned as a kid (in my case, during the latter half of the 1940s and into the 1950s).

Sure, I had to donate some to a paper drive when I was in grade school (parting with as few as I could get away with, and sneaking home a couple of comics from others’ piles to assuage my loss).

Also, at a very young age I used to cut up copies of some of my mags so I could make up my own adventures on rainy days (though I generally managed to find a spare dime to purchase a second copy of destroyed All-Stars).

And, unlike in sad cases related by many others, my mother didn’t burn all my comics while I was away in the military or at college (for one thing, I commuted the ten miles to college— and when afterward I moved away from home I took ’em with me).

Yet, somehow, most of those youthful treasures vanished along the way, some perhaps falling apart from overreading. Still, certain comics remained in my possession even when the DC “revivals” began to appear in the late ’50s, and I still had them when university prof Jerry Bails started a comic book version of what science-fiction fans called a “fanzine”— with the hyphenated name “Alter-Ego”— and invited me aboard.

And one of the old comics I still owned, from the day it came out till only a few years ago, was Wonder Woman #43 (Sept.-Oct. 1950).

At first glance there doesn’t seem anything unusual about WW #43. By this point Irwin Hasen and others drew the covers, but original artist H.G. Peter was still drawing all the stories in (Top) Yes, Virginia, there was an Earth-Two Aquaman— at least for this one issue! Near the end of its six-year run, Roy Thomas had penciler Arvell Jones stick virtually every DC hero who’d appeared in the series onto the cover of All-Star Squadron #59 (July 1986)— plus Mekanique, a mutation of the “Robot Maria” from Fritz Lang’s 1927 film classic Metropolis. The inker was Tony DeZuniga. (Hey, Arvell and Tony are lucky Roy didn’t ask them to squeeze on the Quality heroes, to boot!) Repro’d from the original art, from the collection of R.T. [©2000 DC Comics] (Above) The splash and first (delayed) appearance of Nuclear from Wonder Woman #43. [©2000 DC Comics]

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The “Nuclear” Wars

those “52-page” issues.

Woman-Nuclear clash, which had been described in W.W. #43.

The middle story in it— “Nuclear Returns!”— always intrigued me. For one thing, the villain was a male, in a magazine which had long tended toward female villains, especially when “Charles Moulton” (really psychologist William Moulton Marston) was writing it.

(By 1950, however, Marston was three years dead and the writer, I’d later learn, was editor Robert Kanigher.) Nuclear was a good-looking character in his mostly green armor— and well-named, in those early years of the Atomic Age.

Because it was a cheaper comic to collect in the 1960s and ’70s than most other comics featuring members of the Justice Society, I amassed copies of the first three dozen issues of Wonder Woman, plus a goodly pile of Sensation Comics. In fact, I still own bound volumes of Comic Cavalcade #10-29 (the last super-hero issue). Eventually, through the medium of microfilm, I was able to peruse every Golden Age adventure of Wonder Woman, as well as most other 1940s super-heroes.

And, somewhere along the way, I made a most startling discovery.

In the story Wonder Woman rescues the ocean liner Princess Leatrice (on which Etta Candy and the Holliday Girls just happen to be sailing) from being magnetically pulled into some cliffs by Nuclear, who’s extorting money from “Lemuel Tugboat, owner of the Lenard Shipline.” Diana is puzzled, for, as she tells the girls, “I saw Nuclear fall into a flaming furnace.”

She decides to investigate, because Nuclear and a wealthy socialite named Percy Playboy (a name so deliberately corny it deserves to have been coined by Marston before his death) had “disappeared at the same time and I think they are one and the same man!” And indeed, when Wonder Woman visits the “Playboy mansion,” the flashback at right ensues: Learning more about Percy’s troubled youth, Wonder Woman does an instant psychoanalysis and opines that he has “nursed a secret hatred” of his sister since childhood because their father had named Joye, rather than himself, as his heir.

There had never been an earlier Wonder Woman-Nuclear story!

But— things like that just didn’t happen! Writers, artists, and editors in the 1940s simply didn’t make up sequels to stories that had never been published!

(Above) A Nuclear Flashback. (Below) Too dumb to live. [©2000 DC Comics]

Wonder Woman is unable to convince Joye that her brother is Nuclear, and indeed it soon looks as if the super-villain has kidnaped Percy. Back on board the Leatrice, Wonder Woman, Joye, and the Holliday Girls, joined by Steve Trevor, soon find the ship sinking after a Nuclear attack— and our heroine shoves everyone aboard to safety on a lifeboat.

Meanwhile, standing underwater (!) on the deck of his submarine (see sequence at right) — well, we’ll let the pictures tell the story: There’s nothing left for Wonder Woman to do but hoist the liner up out of the sea with her bare hands, empty out all the water, and rejoin the others. Joye, naturally, fears that her dear brother was on Nuclear’s sub when it was destroyed. Diana elects not to tell her truth— not that Joye would believe her.

So there you have it. Not one of the great Golden Age stories, or even one of the great “Wonder Woman” stories. For one thing, the Amazon has zilch to do with defeating Nuclear; the armored idiot does himself in by his own carelessness. Perhaps embarrassed by his own sheer ineptitude, Nuclear never appeared in another Golden Age story.

Still, for years I nursed a desire to track down that first Wonder

So there had to be another Nuclear story lurking around someplace. I learned, in time, that lots of never-printed DC artwork had been destroyed when Flash Comics, AllAmerican, Green Lantern, and a number of other comics and features had been discontinued circa 1949.

But it still didn’t make sense to me that a “Wonder Woman” story could have been burned in the DC incinerator. After all, Wonder Woman was an ongoing title!

In late 1980 I left Marvel Comics and signed a near-exclusive three-year contract to write for DC. Since my star was fairly high at that time, I was given a certain amount of control over the comics I would write, and one of the happy results was All-Star Squadron, set on that wonderful parallel world known and loved as “Earth-Two,” in the year of our Lord 1942, during the early days of America’s participation in that little celebration of human progress known as the Second World War. More about that next ish. This time around, let’s skip to the 14th issue of All-Star Squadron, which sold quite well for the first couple of years.

My good friend and screenwriting partner Gerry Conway was then the reigning writer of Justice League of America. The two of us convinced the DC powers-that-were to let us do a back-and-forth crossover between our two related mags. The result was the five-part “Crisis on Earth-Prime!” in JLA #207-209 and All-Star Squadron #14-15. All that concerns us here is the final six pages of #14, plus #16.

As enthusiasts of All-Star Squadron (bless ‘em) know, I conceived of that mag as equal parts comic book and tapestry, or perhaps mosaic. I wanted to weave together as much as I could of past DC continuity— not because I had to, but simply because it was there.

Besides, ideas have to come from somewhere; and I was convinced— correctly, as it turned out— that I’d never run short of fun stories to tell in Squadron if I took my cues from the multitude of early-’40s

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

31

32

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

The Gardner Fox Letters Part IV From Fan to Pro

by Michael T. Gilbert Fate’s pretty funny.

A few years back, I discovered a treasure trove of comic book ephemera that had been donated to the University of Oregon by legendary comics writer Gardner Fox. Buried in this collection was a box of old fan mail. I was surprised to discover that many of the eager young fans who wrote to Fox over the decades eventually went on to become comic book professionals. Marv Wolfman, Alan Weiss, and Mike Vosburg were among those who wrote Fox to praise him, or to get his professional advice.

However, the most interesting correspondence— and by far the most voluminous!— was a series of letters sent to Fox by future comics writer and Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas. All told, I uncovered no less than 26 typewritten letters that Thomas sent to Fox during a period from 1960 to 1965. Many of the letters concerned the original Alter-Ego, the fanzine which Roy helped Jerry Bails originate in the early ’60s.

I sent copies of the letters to Roy— who had worked with me earlier on a series of Elric comics for Pacific and First, as well as a “Spectre” story for Secret Origins— with the vague idea of someday reprinting this rare correspondence somewhere. Roy was astonished and delighted to learn that copies of his old letters still existed, and gave me permission to reprint them if the occasion arose. But where to print them?

That’s when Fate stepped in.

Shortly after Roy and I exchanged letters, TwoMorrows publisher John Morrow and editor Jon B. Cooke invited Roy to revive the above-mentioned Alter Ego as a mini-fanzine attached to the then-upcoming Comic Book Artist.

He, in turn, invited me to contribute a series of articles on the Fox collection to the reborn fanzine. I happily signed on, and suggested that we might eventually reprint some of his old correspondence with Fox. Roy was enthusiastic, but concerned that printing his old letters in a magazine he edited might seem slightly egotistical on his part. I assured him that these letters were fascinating and historically important.

Why important? First and foremost, these letters are a valuable record of comics fandom’s earliest days.

Jerry Bails, one of fandom’s founding fathers, created the original (hyphenated) Alter-Ego in 1961. After editing the first five issues, he gave up the Roy drew this self-portrait in 1964 for Alter Ego (Vol. 1) #7, and is embarrassed to admit it probably resembled him at the time. [©2000 Roy Thomas]

Gardner Fox was depicted by Gil Kane for the third issue of DC’s own “fanzine,” The Amazing World of DC Comics (Nov.-Dec. 1974). [©2000 DC Comics]

editing chores to cartoonist Ronn Foss. Foss edited issues #5-6, then passed the baton to Roy, who directed the final four issues of its 1960s run. Under their guidance, A/E became one of the best-loved fanzines of the ’60s— famous as a showcase for future comics talent and for its informative articles on comic book history.

Unfortunately, Fox’s letters back to Roy do not survive, but Roy’s letters to Fox discuss his involvement with the creation of Alter-Ego, and provide a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse of early comic book fandom. I find it incredibly ironic that these letters should see print in a revived version of that very fanzine, forty years later— with one of the original editors editing his own fan writings four decades after the fact!

See? I told you Fate was funny.

Equally important, these letters took place at a very crucial junction for Roy personally. The first of them was written while he was still a 19-year-old senior at Southeast Missouri State College, majoring in English and history. His Fox collection correspondence dates from late 1960, right before the creation of A/E, and end in 1965, the year he began his long tenure at Marvel. In the space of these five years, “Roy the Boy” left fandom to become Stan Lee’s invaluable right-hand man and a first-rate comics scripter. When Lee cut back his output, Roy took his mentor’s place as the company’s most prolific writer, winning numerous awards in the process. And when in 1972 he became Marvel’s editor-in-chief, Roy’s transformation— from fan to pro— was complete.

But it all started here....

The Gardner Fox Letters

[ASIDE FROM R.T.: With Michael’s permission, I’ve added a few explanatory notes between these letters. Gardner’s home address was given to me— a fact pretty amazing in and of itself— by Julius Schwartz, editor of The Flash, Green Lantern, and Justice League of America— in response to what I believe were my very first letters to those comics. I say “letters” because, naive as I was, I wrote virtually identical missives to each of the three, not bothering to notice they all had the same editor— let alone the name in the indicia.

[I should add that Michael has mercifully omitted certain paragraphs from my letters. He painstakingly cut apart and taped back together photocopies of the originals, from which these are reproduced. I promised him free rein, so the choice of what to print is his. Myself, I’m embarrassed by my lack of sophistication in these letters— I was a college student, after all!— but not by my admiration of Gardner F. Fox. The same can be said for the “rather intelligent friend” I mentioned in the P.S.— one Gary Friedrich, then about 16, who would later write for Charlton, Marvel, and Skywald.

[And yes, by that time, I had somehow garbled in my mind the names of Solomon Grundy and Vandal Savage, recalling the villain in All-Star #33 as “Gorgon Savage.” Not a bad name, actually: At age fourteen, I’d even used it for a similar monster in typewritten tales starring a 1955 super-group I concocted of the briefly revived Ajax/Farrell heroes The Flame, Black Cobra, Wonder Boy, Samson, and Phantom Lady, which I called The Crusaders of Justice. And of course I, and others, would soon learn what Hour-Man looked like. But, onward...]

An art aside from Roy T.: “Those who recall my ‘Liberty Legion’ tales in Marvel Premiere and The Invaders in 1976, and the four-issue 1993 Invaders series, may be amused to see how far back my love for that name goes. In fact, it was in the early ’50s that my first, 72-page comic, done on typewriter paper, featured a ‘Liberty Legion’ composed of my own heroes, plus Green Lantern, Spectre, and Atom (rechristened Tornado).”

[Green Lantern ©2000 DC Comics; all others, including Flame Man (!), ©2000 Roy Thomas.]

33

So – You Want To Collect Comics Fanzines?

39

So-You Want To Collect

Comics Fanzines?

O

ne of my favorite features in the original volume of Alter Ego was #5’s article “So—You Want to Collect Comics?” in 1963. In it author Ed Lahmann blithely rattled of a list of “key issues” (Action #1, Detective #27, etc.) that would make a solid foundation for any comic book collection. (Ed’s article was reprinted in Alter Ego: The Best of the Legendary Comics Fanzine, the nearly out-of-print 1997 volume from Hamster Press.)

In recent years, with the vigorous resurgence of interest in the early days of comics fandom, fanzines from that era are increasingly sought after by collectors. As someone who has nearly as much enthusiasm for comics fanzines as I do for comic books themselves, I’ve long wanted to write a companion piece that would give the same kind of overview for fanzines that Ed did for comics.

While my Comic Fandom Archive contains audio tapes, original art, correspondence, photographs, books, videos, and many other artifacts from fandom’s Golden Age in the 1960s, the anchor of the Archive is the 1800 comics fanzines that I’ve been able to amass. They have been by far the most important resource I’ve used in researching the books of fandom history that I’ve published under the aegis of Hamster Press.

Fanzines, magazines published on a limited scale by and for other comics fans (the term was originally coined by science-fiction fans of the 1930s and ’40s), offer an incredible array of fascinating material that has been invaluable in documenting not only the progress of fandom, but even that of the professional comics. A good deal of comics’ history— especially the tenor of the times— is documented only in these long out-ofprint small press publications.

Those who number themselves among the truest of true believers in the comics medium will want to have a selection of fanzines in their collections.

Fanzines also provided a training ground for upcoming talents to gain the skills necessary to produce a professional- quality product.

Many of the most prominent writers and artists from comics of the 1970s forward “got their chops” working in amateur publications.

Then, too, some very talented folks produced excellent work for fanzines which is well worth enjoying in its own right, even if those folks chose to go into non-comics careers.

What constitutes a well-rounded fanzine collection?

What are the most essential publications of this type, either due to their quality or the uniqueness of their contents? Over the past few years I have received enough queries of this sort to tell me that the following article will be welcome in many quarters. And, if you are not now interested in this corner of the collecting universe, perhaps you will be by the time you peruse this piece, and Part Two in Alter Ego V3#6.

So— you want to collect comics fanzines? Or expand your existing collection into a more or less well-rounded selection?

You’ve got a challenge ahead of you!

But any collector worth his salt knows that the “thrill of the hunt” is at least half the fun. The first step— perhaps the most important— is to construct a Want List. You’ll naturally accumulate others as you go, but it’s vital to have a clear idea of what you’re seeking: a “collecting goal,” as it were.

We know one thing: About 2200 comics-related fanzines were published between 1960 and 1971.

by Bill Schelly All characters and publications © their respective publishers.

That is a fact, documented by John and Tom McGeehan, indexers extraordinaire. Many more arrived as the 1970s progressed.

Which are the most desirable? Let’s divide them into categories by format or function, and take them one by one.

40

So – You Want To Collect Comics Fanzines?

I. GENERAL-INTEREST FANZINES The fannish term for general-type fanzines is “gen-zines.” The “general” application refers both to the fact that they contain any type of content item— editorials, columns, strips, fiction, articles, cartoons, trade and sales lists, and letters — as well as the fact that they are of general interest to the majority of comics fans.

If there is a Holy Grail of fanzine collecting, there’s little doubt it would be Alter-Ego #1 (March 1961).

Certainly there were comicsoriented fanzines before it, especially in EC fandom of the 1950s, but it was the most influential. Alter-Ego (its name was hyphenated for the first four issues) was published by Jerry G. Bails, with Roy Thomas as titular “co-editor,” as a direct response to the super-hero revivals engineered by editor Julius Schwartz at National Periodical Publications (now DC Comics). A-E editor Jerry Bails’ first issue reached a total print run of between 200 and 300 copies, some of them without Roy’s five-page “Bestest League of America” parody strip, which printed light due to being printed using black ditto masters rather than the longerrunning purple ones.

A-E #1 is extremely hard to find and will command top dollar due to its historical importance. Don’t get hung up on finding it — or #2 and #3 (also ditto). In actual fact, the photo-offset issues, which have the added dimension of topquality artwork, are more fun to read. Jerry still edited #4, Ronn Foss took over for #5-6, and Roy Thomas assumed the editorship with #7 in 1964. The best of the offset issues are probably #7 and #8; but any of #5 through #10 would be good beginnings for your collection. Try to get at least two of them. (Incidentally, issues bearing a return address of “The S.F.C.A.” are authorized reprints published by G.B. Love, essentially identical to the originals printed by Foss and Thomas.)

Of course, much of the material from the first 11issue volume of A/E can be found in the volume Alter Ego: The Best of the Legendary Comics Fanzine, still (just barely) available from Hamster Press. But we’re talking about collecting the original fanzines here.

For those who are primarily fans of newspaper comic strips, Don and Maggie Thompson’s Comic Art is the gen-zine for you.

Beginning with their Harbinger in late 1960, announcing their intention to publish a fanzine about comics, Comic Art presented highly intelligent, ground-breaking pieces by Jerry de Fuccio, Dick Lupoff, Harlan Ellison, Larry Ivie, and Robert Coulson— and that’s just in #3 (1962)! There were seven issues published between 1961 and 1968. Forget about #1 and #2; they are next to impossible to find.

Any of #3 through #7 is worth having, especially if you have a sciencefiction bent or are largely interested in the history of comic strips, as opposed to comic books. In any case, any representative fanzine collection needs at least one issue of Comic Art. As for Xero, the fanzine that influenced both Jerry Bails and the Thompsons, this basically s-f fanzine published by Dick and Pat Lupoff from 1960-63 is important because it launched the important “All in Color for a Dime” series of articles. It seems that all the top s-f fan writers contributed to Xero, including Ted White, Harlan Ellison, Don Thompson, Richard Kyle, Jim Harmon, and many others. The most desirable issue is probably Xero #3, with four comics-related features, but they are all good.

Again, forget about finding Xero #1; only about ninety copies were printed, and they were handed out for free at the 1960 World ScienceFiction Convention. If you can’t find any copies of the mimeographed Xero, don’t despair. The “All in Color for a Dime” series was partly collected into a book of that title, edited by Lupoff and Thompson, currently available in an inexpensive reprint from Krause Publications (along with an allnew sequel, The Comic Book Book).

Later came Comic Crusader, in some ways the successor to Alter Ego in the late 1960s and into the mid-1970s. Martin L. Greim managed to assemble some of the top talent in fandom, Even 1997’s Alter Ego: The Best of the Legendary including writer Tom Fagan of Comics Fanzine from Hamster Press, reprinting Rutland, Vermont, who primo material from “Volume 1,” 1961-1978, penned a number of articles is almost out of print. [Alter-Ego #1 ©2000 Jerry about Airboy and other Golden Bails (art by Roy Thomas); Alter Ego #8 Age heroes. Greim also pub©2000 Roy Thomas (art by Biljo White); Blackhawk ©2000 DC Comics] lished a number of original illustrations by Jim Steranko, as well as C.C. Beck, Kurt Schaffenberger, and many others. Issue #6 (1968) and beyond are the best. Comic Crusader had one of the largest circulations for a fan-published zine, yet these dozen or so later issues are not so easy to find. Still, you’ll want to add two or three to your collection.

Other top gen-zines?

From about #15 onward, Bill G. Wilson’s The Collector is excellent, especially if you’re a fan of the art of John Fantucchio. #26 (1972) had a full-color wraparound cover by Steve Ditko.

All three issues of Bob Schoenfeld’s Gosh Wow! (1967-1969)

™

Volume 3, No. 5 Summer 2000

Background image: Art ©2000 Mart Nodell; Green Lantern ©2000 DC Comics

Editor Roy Thomas

Contents

Associate Editor Bill Schelly

Design & Layout Janet Sanderson John Morrow Eric Nolen-Weathington

Consulting Editors John Morrow Jon B. Cooke

A Justice Society for the Ages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 In a guest writer/editorial, Marty Greim tells the story behind this issue’s Infantino/Ordway cover.

New Light on The Green Lantern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Interview with Mart (and Carrie) Nodell about the creation of The Green Lantern—

and the Pillsbury Dough Boy.

Preserving the Golden Age. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Jeff Gelb talks with publisher Bill Black about AC Comics, and its marvelous Golden Age reprints.

FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck

Gil Kane on Comics— Past, Present, and Future. . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Chris Irving presents a heavily-illustrated 1998 interview with a dynamic artist who

Contributing Editor Michael T. Gilbert

left us far too soon.

Editors Emeritus

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

“George Roussos Did It All!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 And that’s an understatement, as this interview by Bill Cain will definitely demonstrate!

Alfredo Alcala (1925-2000) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Cover(s) Artist

A reminiscence by his friend Manuel Auad of the late great Filipino comics master.

Carmine Infantino Jerry Ordway Mart Nodell

Re: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Letters from longtime pro writer Alvin Schwartz and lots of other interesting folks.

Cover Color

FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) #64 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 P.C. Hamerlinck presents another fantastic Fawcett festival.

Tom Ziuko

Mailing Crew

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

And Special Thanks to: Manuel Auad Mike W. Barr Al Bigley Bill Black Randy Bower Jerry K. Boyd Jack Burnley Bill Cain Al Dellinges Steve Ditko Creig Flessel Keif Fromm Carl Gafford Jeff Gelb Martin L. Greim Gary Groth George Hagenauer David Hamilton Ron Harris Irwin Hasen Roger Hill Tom Horvitz Richard Howell Chris Irving Larry Ivie Steve Korté

Green Lantern / FCA Section

Harry and Adele Lampert Paul Levitz Sheldon Moldoff Rich Morrissey Will Murray Marty and Carrie Nodell Ethan Roberts Alvin Schwartz Robin Snyder Marc Svensson Marc Swayze Joel Thingvall Anthony Tollin Dann Thomas Kim Thompson Hames Ware Marv Wolfman Ed Zeno

“We Didn’t Know... It Was the Golden Age!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Artist Marc Swayze tells about drawing Phantom Eagle and Flyin’ Jenny—

without getting off the ground.

A Jab in the Butt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Captain Marvel co-creator C.C. Beck had his own ideas on how to

tell a comic book story. (What? You’re surprised to learn this?)

Fond Memories of Wendell Crowley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 The longtime Fawcett editor is lovingly remembered by friends Hames Ware & John Putnam.

Special Justice Society Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About our inside cover: A beautiful re-creation drawing by Mart Nodell. Let those who worship evil’s might— get the hell out of town!

Alter EgoTM is published quarterly by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Phone: (919) 833-8092. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: Rt. 3, Box 468, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@oburg.net. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $5.95 ($7.00 Canada, $9.00 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $20 US, $27 Canada, $37 elsewhere. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Alter and Captain Ego ©2000 Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly. Air Wave, Aquaman, Binky, Black Canary, Blackhawk, Blue Beetle, Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., Commander Steel, Cyclone Kids, Dr. fate, Dr. Mid-Nite, Dr. Sivana, Firebrand, Flash, Green Lantern, Guardian, Hawkgirl, Hawkman, Holliday Girls, Hop Harrigan, Hour-Man, Ibis, Johnny Peril, Johnny Quick, Johnny Thunder, Justice Society of America, Liberty Belle, Mary Marvel, Mechanique, Metal Men, Minute Man, Mr. Terrific, Newsboy Legion, Nuclear, Plastic Man, Red Tornado, Robotman, Rose & Thorn, Sandman, Sandy, Scribbly, Solomon Grundy, Spectre, Spy Smasher, Starman, Steve Trevor, Sugar & Spike, Superman, Uncle Marvel, Wildcat, Wonder Girl, Wonder Woman, Wotan ©DC Comics. Dan Dare, Dr. Voodoo, Golden Arrow, Lance O’Casey, Master Man, Mr. Hogan, Phantom Eagle © Fawcett Publications, , Capt. Midnight is a TM of Ovaltine. Dr. Strange, Fantastic Four, Hulk, Spider-Man, Warlock © Marvel Characters, Inc. The Fly, The Shield, The Wizard © Archie Comics. Chuck chandler, Nightro, Slugger © Lev Gleason. Green Hornet © Harvey Comics. Fighting Yank © Nedor/Better Comics. Fighting American © Joe Simon & Jack Kirby. Pillsbury Dough Boy © Pillsbury. John Carter of Mars © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. Alter Ego hero art © Ron Harris, hero © Roy and Dann Thomas. Donald Duck, Huey, Dewey, and Louie © Walt Disney Productions. Golden Lad © Spark. Droopy © Harry Lampert. Opus © Berke Breathed. Voltar © Estate of Alfredo Alcala. Conan © Conan Properties, Inc. Music Master © Eastern Color Printing. Flyin’ Jenny © Bell Syndicate. The Great Guy © Marcus Swayze. Pogo and Albert © Estate of Walt Kelly. Transisto, Lunar-Man © Estate of George Roussos. Printed in Canada.

FIRST PRINTING

2

Guest Editorial

A Justice Society for the Ages A Guest Editorial

by Martin L. Greim [As a special treat, both for you and for myself, I asked longtime fan and collector Martin Greim— who also created the mainstream hero Thunder Bunny some years back— to relate the full story behind the original JSA drawing by Carmine Infantino and Jerry Ordway which graces the cover of this issue of Alter Ego. In it, I also learned that Marty had once owned two pages of original art from All-Star Comics #40. Great to know such artwork still exists— and perhaps one day it will turn up, to be shared with the readers of Alter Ego. And now, here’s Marty! —R.T.]

I

n the late 1980s, when I was heavily into collecting original art, the only piece that eluded me was a shot of The Justice Society of America featuring my personal favorite members from a specific time in their All-Star Comics run.

At that time I did have two original All-Star pages from the issue where the JSA fight juvenile delinquency. (Both were OK pages, but they were sold in 1993 to a local art dealer.) But they didn’t show Black Canary, or Hawkman and/or The Atom in their original costumes.

I was fortunate to have as a good friend the late Mark Hanerfeld (the person who served as the model for Abel in DC’s House of Secrets comic). Mark often acted as an agent for Carmine Infantino. I contacted Mark and asked him to see what he could do about having Carmine do a pencil rendering of the Justice Society for me, featuring seven members.

Mark called back in a couple of days and told me that Carmine had agreed to do it and had set a price. A price I was more than happy to pay. I provided Carmine with a thumbnail sketch of what I wanted, showing where each hero was to be positioned.

Within three weeks I had received a beautiful penciled page in the mail. Carmine had even put in one of his trademark backgrounds.

What he also did was make the drawing horizontal instead of vertical as I had envisioned it. I’m glad he did, because it would have seemed cramped on a standard comic book page and I did want the figures to be good-sized.

Now I had what was, for me, the ultimate Justice Society picture.

My next step was to get it inked. Murphy Anderson came to mind, but I needed someone who would be willing to render each character exactly as he or she appeared in his/her own feature in the 1948 era.

Jerry Ordway was the best and only choice.

Jerry and I go back many years, and I count him as a good friend.

He and I met years ago when I did my last fan venture before going pro: Comic Crusader Storybook. He provided some fantastic work for that 196-page publication that featured all-new stories of the best of the fan-created super-heroes.

I contacted Jerry and told him about the Infantino/JSA piece I wanted to have inked. I am still in his debt for his graciously agreeing to do it. Especially since each hero had to have a certain look. To this end, I provided Jerry with a batch of my Golden Age comics. The Flash had to have thick eyebrows (he and Captain Marvel must have been distant cousins) and a full lightning bolt on his chest... not the small one a lot of the artists were using. Hawkman had to have the right headpiece and wings from the right ’48 period. Green Lantern, Doctor Mid-Nite, and The Atom had to have the Alex Toth flowing capes I loved so much when he worked on these heroes. Black Canary and Wonder Woman... err... they had to look great!

A few weeks went by, and I received my comics and the art back from Jerry. I was blown away! It had the look I wanted. Every hero looked the way I wanted.

The art became and still is, to this day, one of my favorite pieces in my collection. Although I’ve sold off a great deal of my collection over the years, this Justice Society piece still remains framed and hung in my home’s office space. It hangs along with other great Golden Age renderings: Dick Sprang’s Batman, Wayne Boring’s and Curt Swan’s Superman pieces, and H.G. Peter’s Wonder Woman (seen in an earlier issue of Alter Ego).

Carmine Infantino and Jerry Ordway provided me with a piece of art that brings me joy whenever I look at it. Now I get to share that joy with the readers of this issue.

Again my thanks go out to Carmine and Jerry for this wonderful piece of art!

4

New Light On The Green Lantern

New Light on The

Green Lantern The Ultimate (well, at least the Penultimate) Interview with Mart Nodell on the Emerald Gladiator — and Other Things

[NOTE: This interview has traveled a long and winding road. It had been scheduled for months by the time I saw Marty Nodell and his charming wife Carrie at the MegaCon in Orlando, Florida, and we arranged a date for me to talk to him by phone. Somehow, in the press of other work, I totally forgot that phone call till the next morning! Marty was understanding about it, but was about to leave for another convention— and then a “comics cruise,” about which more below— and wouldn’t be back for another couple of weeks. That pressed our deadline, but everything worked out in the end.

[Mart Nodell, of course, is the man who came up with the concept of The Green Lantern in 1940, and was the feature’s first artist— in some ways, as this interview underscores, its first writer, as well, (This page) Marty and Carrie Nodell at home, surrounded by some of Marty’s recent Green Lantern color art commissions— plus a drawing done especially for Roy and Dann Thomas. [Photo courtesy of Marty and Carrie Nodell; art ©2000 Mart Nodell; Green Lantern ©2000 DC Comics]

Conducted and Edited by Roy Thomas Transcribed by Jon B. Knutson Profusely Illustrated Mostly by Mart Nodell although Bill Finger became involved in that very first story. Marty has also done other work in comics and in the commercial art field.

This interview was intended to cover his entire career, but in particular to delve, more deeply than previous ones have done, into the little matter of the creation of “The Green Lantern.” To that end, in advance of my phone call, I sent him questions about every angle of Green Lantern’s creation I could possibly think of. Some conversational dead ends that led nowhere have been eliminated from the interview that follows. —R.T.]

Mart Nodell Interview ROY THOMAS: First, Marty, let’s hear what you’d been doing with your life before you walked into the All-American offices that fateful day in 1940.

MART NODELL: Well, I went to high school in Chicago, and had a little schooling at Chicago University, and a little more at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. I decided I was interested in art, and I was interested in the theatre. Actually, my interest in the theatre comes from members of my family, so I wanted to get on the stage. I did work for community theatre in Chicago, and some theatre work where I would do art— in other word, ads— and I’d also do work on the staging and whatever else I could do.

I came to New York with letters— letters from the theatre people who liked what I did, letters from the art people who thought they liked what I did. When I came to New York, the theatre people thought I should go see the art people, and the art people thought I should go see the theatre people.

5

operas, and I thought, “Well, if this is interesting to them, I might come up with some idea.”

One of the first things I thought of was the Wagnerian Ring Cycle [of four operas]. I thought it would be something that could be used, one way or another. So, when I got to the subway station, which was four or five blocks away...

RT: Where were you heading?

NODELL: I was going home to Brooklyn, and I tried

RT: So they were fighting over you, huh? [Laughs] NODELL: Oh, they were fighting negatively. So I figured I should probably look in on art, which is what I did. Back in art school I had done work that would possibly lead me to comics, and I thought I could do that.

RT: A list of your pre-GL comics work includes “Larry Harrigan,” “The Sands of Doom,” “Buck Steele,” “The Raven,” all for Ace. And Jerry Bails’ Who’s Who says that for Fox Comics in 1940 you did a character called “Doctor Doom.” Do you remember working for Victor Fox? NODELL: No, I don’t.

RT: When you went to the All-American offices there on Lafayette Street in New York, had you seen that name in a comic book, or did someone else tell you you should try that company?

NODELL: What I did was to check out the old Mom and Pop newsstands. It seemed to me that if there were these things called comic books, it might be advantageous for me to see some of them. There had been something called “Superman” for almost two years, and “Batman” was coming along for almost a year, so by 1939 I just looked up the address in the comics. There were a couple of different addresses, and the one I picked up was Lafayette Street.

RT: That was M.C. Gaines’ outfit, downtown. It was affiliated with Harry Donenfeld’s National/DC, which had offices further uptown.

Most readers never knew they were two companies, because they had the same DC cover symbol, and used so many of the same artists and writers, and overlapped in so many different ways. So one day you just sort of showed up on AA’s doorstep?

NODELL: Ah... not quite. I came up with a number of samples, and showed them to Sheldon Mayer. I didn’t know who he was, or any of the editors or writers or people involved there at all, so I came into their offices, showed him what I had, and he said, “Well, I’ll tell you— the only thing I can think of is, if you come up with a superhero, we’re looking for another super-hero; and if you were to have that, maybe we could talk about something.” He was very vague.

On my way home, ideas were popping into my head. Now, my first idea was to come up with something that I’d be familiar with, something I would know about, things I could put into some sort of storyline. I was interested in Chinese folklore...

RT: How did you get interested in that?

NODELL: Oh, I had been interested in it, off and on, for a number of years. I was also interested in Greek mythology. Also, I had friends who liked opera, and this is New York, so they played a lot of various

working out some ideas as I got to the station.

I was writing down everything I could possibly think of. I thought, “Gee, I’ve got to do this real quick, because if I think of something, other people will, too. It might have some meaning to them, too.”

As I entered the subway, there were a number of people standing around, and there was a train man in the subway station, in the trough of the tracks, and he was waving a red lantern, which meant, “Hold the train, don’t come in.” When he checked the tracks, he waved a green lantern. The green lantern meant, “Come in.” As the train would come in, he would get out of the way, get behind a pole and stay there, and that was the end of his part in “Green Lantern.”

But when that green lantern meant something to me, I just wrote it down: “The Green Lantern.”

A couple of 1990s sketches by Marty of Green Lantern. The original ones he did for Shelly Mayer in 1940 were probably not dissimilar—but in color.

[Art ©2000 Mart Nodell; Green Lantern ©2000 DC Comics]

16

Gil Kane On Comics

Gil Kane on Comics Past, Present, and Future

Comics Legend Gil Kane Talks about the Industry He Loved—and Loathed Interview Conducted and Transcribed by Chris Irving

[INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: Anyone who considers himself (or herself) a comics fan should know the name of the late, great Gil Kane... and anyone who has read the reincarnation of Alter Ego in the past two years certainly does. After starting out as a comic book artist in his mid-teens in the early 1940s, Gil became one of the leading artists of the Silver Age of Comics, having co-created and drawn both the Hal Jordan Green Lantern (in 1959) and the Ray Palmer Atom (in 1961) for DC. Aside from that landmark work, Gil drew just about everything else under the sun at one time or another. The following phone interview was conducted in summer of 1998.]

(Left) A Kane pencil sketch for a Green Lantern cover, courtesy of David Hamilton.

[Art ©2000 estate of Gil Kane; Green Lantern ©2000 DC Comics] (Right) Gil’s groundbreaking interview in Alter Ego, Vol. 1, #10, in 1969, and later in various issues of The Comics Journal (where he even debated underground artist Robert Crumb), were a trendsetting festival of information and opinion. [Self-portrait ©2000 Estate of Gil Kane.]

CHRISTOPHER IRVING: You started working on “The Shield and Dusty” for MLJ back when you were 16, didn’t you?

GIL KANE: Actually, my first strip was “Inspector Bentley of Scotland Yard.” I was working in production at MLJ, so I was doing this stuff in the evening when I’d go home. Finally, I was fired after three weeks; then I was rehired by Scott Meredith. He later became one of the biggest literary agents in the United States, for all of the big people. His name was Scott Feldman at this time. He was the associate editor and he lived near me.

Three weeks after I was fired, MLJ came back and rehired me. It was at that point that I was still doing production work, and I was doing “The Shield and Dusty” at the same time.

practical jokes and learning about the business and meeting some of the people who were there. For instance, Bob Montana, who created “Archie,” was there, and Irv Novick was there and was the chief and best artist. Charlie Biro had just left with Bob Wood to start Crime Does Not Pay and Daredevil. Bob Fujitani was there, and ultimately cut his name down to Bob Fuge; he had been working with Busy Arnold and Quality Comics. He came over and started doing a strip called “The Hangman.” I was an early artist on that.

CI: What was it like at MLJ?

CI: That was related to “The Comet” strip, wasn’t it? [NOTE: The Hangman was created in Pep Comics #17 (July 1941) to avenge the original Comet when he was murdered.]

KANE: It was like going to college and being a sophomore. It was all

KANE: “The Comet” was earlier. In fact, they had a lot of existing

Past, Present and Future

17

strips done by a lot of the artists there. There was Sam Cooper and Lin Streeter; they did a lot of that stuff. In fact, one of their chief artists was Mort Meskin, who did “The Wizard” and a bunch of other strips for them. They had a pretty good crew, and most of them came from Harry Chesler, who had an art agency.

“Irv Novick... was the chief and best artist” at MLJ even before a very young Gil worked there. Note that the early Pep Comics covers heralded “Action Detective - Adventure”— the titles of three popular DC monthlies. From Pep #2 (Feb. 1940) courtesy of Marc Svensson. [©2000 Archie Comics Group.]

At first, Chesler packaged the books, and then the three guys who were running what ultimately would be called Archie— but in those days was called MLJ— did. They hired a bunch of these artists away and, for a couple of years, they were the central group of artists. Little by little, they started to shift, too. As the War started, a lot of them got drafted; a lot of them went over to Charlie Biro when Biro became bigger and needed more artists. He added another title called Boy Comics. A lot of the artists started to drift.

By 1942, when I was sixteen, I went up to MLJ and got a job as a production assistant. I had been trying for about a year to get work in the field, and this was the first job I was able to get. I found Joe Kubert already working there as an inker.

CI: So where did you go from there?

KANE: I was there about six months, and had a difference of opinion with Harry Sahle, the editor, and I was fired. I drifted around the field until I was recommended by John Beardsley, who was the editor at the time at Quality Comics, when [Will] Eisner had already gone into the army. I was recommended to Jack Kirby and Joe Simon.

They were both going into the army later that year, and they had a quota to meet for their contract with DC. They had a studio in the city and I went to work copying their stuff, penciling for them, and then they would do the splash page and get somebody else to ink the stuff. All I was doing at 16 was copying the material, shot for shot. Joe went into the army first, and I kept working with Jack. When Jack gave up the studio and started working at DC, I would meet him at DC. When Jack left, DC gave me one assignment to handle by myself.

Of course, I was inadequate to the job, so they fired me and hired a guy named Phil Bard, who had done “Minute Man” over at Fawcett. That was it. [see page 18] After I was fired from DC, I wandered around and was finally hired by Bernie Baily for his shop, and there I met Carmine Infantino, who was my old classmate. Baily had already drawn “The Spectre” for a number of years, and was also drawing a strip called Dick Jordan. He was the second or third artist on this newspaper strip for a paper called PM. I did pencils there, and I occasionally assisted on Dick Jordan, and worked around the field.

As a matter of fact, I shared a studio with Jack Sparling and Al Plastino for a while.

I was with Bernie for about eight months before I was drafted into the Army.

CI: What was it like working for Simon & Kirby?

KANE: They were nice guys. Since Jack was the real workhorse, he was there every day, penciling, doing the entire range of Boy Commandos and “The Guardian” [i.e., “The Newsboy Legion”] and “Manhunter.” He penciled all of that stuff, and there were eight panels to each page. They were big pages, usually 13” x 18”. He worked on illustration board. Sometimes, he would do six or seven of those pages a day; it was a miracle watching him.

He was talkative. Joe was talkative, but Joe was in and out of the office a lot, so I got to know Jack better. Also, they had a letterer, Lou Ferguson, who was considered the best of that day. Later on, when Simon & Kirby were in the service, I found him working with Bernie Baily as Bernie’s letterer, too. He was a great old guy.

We frisked about a bit, and it was great fun. I didn’t make much money, but it was great fun.

CI: That’s all that matters sometimes. When you got back from the War, was it really hard to find work?

KANE: Oh, yeah. It was a recession. You couldn’t even get clothes. You couldn’t even buy new shirts, new suits, and you couldn’t even buy new cars. Everything was on hold because the conversion [to peacetime] hadn’t started. The first people to buy were people that had a lot of dough. It took a while for the economy to loosen up.

I was working at DC and did six months’ worth of work. I worked for Fox, worked for Famous Funnies, and then I was rehired again at DC, and that was for the long run. I was hired in ’49, and have worked for them to this day.

Mort Meskin on “The Wizard” in an early issue of Shield-Wizard. [©2000 Archie Publications; courtesy of Michael T. Gilbert.]

I did “Johnny Thunder,” Rex the Wonder Dog, Hopalong Cassidy. I must have done well over a thousand or fifteen hundred covers, all told.

18 CI: Even today, does it surprise you when you hear that your old Green Lantern or Atom stuff is deemed a classic?

KANE: As a matter of fact, I’ve done practically everything. I did Prince Valiant for five weeks. Tarzan I’ve done in newspaper strips. I ghosted on Flash Gordon. I’ve done practically everything over at Marvel, yet the only thing people ever associate me with is the Green Lantern book.

CI: Do you have any plans for doing any comics in the future?

Gil Kane On Comics void, and that was to bring pictures to pulp stories. It seemed like a perfect marriage. And the quality of images that came out of comics was very original and different from the images in newspaper work. It was more flamboyant, and those images and values, even though they were very resistant to the general public at first, were ultimately assimilated and pulled into the culture.

Now you see them everywhere: in movies, in toys, in everything. It is a total assimilation. Plus the fact that a new technology came along. A new technology always means a turn in the culture.

So what happens is that, all of the values having been assimilated, and all of the media generating facsimiles of comics material (not totally but in one way or another), that makes comics somewhat irrelevant.

Also, the economics have changed in the field so that there are no more ten-cent comic books. Comic books KANE: I’m working on a Green cost $2.50 to $3.00, and that’s just a starting price. As a Lantern/Atom two-parter [for result, people don’t buy them in the millions anymore.

Legends of the DC Universe], and The circulation has dropped precipitously.

I’ve got a Superman graphic novel after Plus the fact that these companies are owned “[Simon and Kirby] had a quota to meet for their contract with DC.” By 1944, that. I did the last one by enormous corporations. In the early days, they met it with ghosted art behind S&K covers like this one. [©2000 DC Comics] about a year ago, the owner had a direct hand in the editorial called Distant Fire. It was my pitch. I plotted the story, and I did the same thing with this one. I’m also negotiating something else with another publishing firm.

CI: How do you view the marketplace today?

KANE: First of all, when comic books came out they filled an existing

(Left) Comics student Rich Morrissey says Gil penciled both “Newsboy Legion” and “Sandman” circa 1944 (see his letter in this issue’s “re:” section). So could The Guardian’s pug nose in Panel 5 of SSC #35 be Gil’s? At any rate, it certainly isn’t by Simon and Kirby. [©2000 DC Comics] (Above) After Joe and Jack were drafted, DC fired Gil and replaced him with Kirby-influenced “Minute Man” artist Phil Bard. Here’s what Bard had been doing for Fawcett before “Sandman,” repro’d from photocopies of original art, courtesy of Keif Fromm. [Minute Man ©2000 DC Comics]

30

Alfredo Alcala

Alfredo Alcala (1925-2000) A Memory by Manuel Auad

A

LFREDO ALCALA was born August 23, 1925, in Talisay, Occidental Negros, Philippines. Bent on becoming an illustrator, he dropped out of school at a tender age. Initially, he painted signs, and then turned to designing chandeliers, table lamps, and garden furniture for a wrought-iron shop. After work he would spend night to dawn studying and copying Harold Foster’s Prince Valiant and Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon. However, it was Louis K. Fine, the artist of comic book heroes “The Black Condor,” “Uncle Sam,” “The Doll Man,” etc., who most influenced him.

In October 1948 Alcala got his first professional comic book job with Bituin [Star] Komiks. A month later he was working for Ace Publications, which started with two comic books: Pilipino Komiks and Tagalog Klasiks. Later on, two more titles were added: Hiwaga Komiks and Espesyal Komiks. Alcala worked on these comic books, which were coming out simultaneously, all by himself— penciling, inking, and lettering.

Because of the workload demand, there were times when he went without sleep for days.

Alcala also wrote some of the stories which he drew. Among the most memorable ones are Ukala, an epic set against the background of the American Northwest, and Voltar, a Viking saga. Both were so meticulously drawn that he reaped praises from even the severest art critics of the day. He also drew a series on the German and Japanese warships that had become legends during World War II. As Alcala progressed, he studied American illustrators such as Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth, Dean Cornwell, J.C. Leyendecker, and others. One of his strongest influences was the great British muralist Frank Brangwyn.

In the early 1970s DC Comics’ editor Carmine Infantino, along with Joe Orlando, traveled to the Philippines to look at some of the work being done by the Filipino artists they had heard so much about. Alcala was one of the first to be hired, on the spot. He worked, for many years, for most of the U.S. comic book publishers. Of all the Filipino artists hired, Alcala did the most work for DC, taking on any title sent to him. He could draw everything from a horror story

to a war story or a sword-and-sorcery story with such ease that he never ceased to impress his editors.

In 1976 Alcala came to the U.S. and continued to do an enormous amount of work. Aside from comic books, he also did daily and Sunday strips such as Rick O’Shay and Star Wars. In 1977 he was presented with the Inkpot Award at the San Diego Comics Convention.

Alcala’s work on The Savage Sword of Conan, both inking the pencils of John Buscema and later on his own, will long be remembered. In the 1980s he revived his Voltar character for Warren Publications.

Because of his failing eyesight, Alcala could not continue to draw. And on April 4, 2000, he passed away. He was 74 years old. We shall not see the likes of him again.

Conan ©2000 Conan Properties, Inc.; other art ©2000 Estate of Alfredo Alcala.

Alfredo Alcala [Manuel Auad, who is the editor of two acclaimed books showcasing the art of Alex Toth, was a longtime friend of Alcala’s. He will miss Alfredo— [And so will I, and so will many others. I myself still treasure a lovely painting Alfredo insisted on giving me one day, simply because I admired it; he wouldn’t take a penny for it.

It appears to depict Don Quixote on horseback, facing his infamous windmills— until you look a second time, and suddenly realize that Don Q. isn’t on horseback— he’s a centaur! Tilting with windmills— yet full of fantasy— and a playful sense of mischief.

[That’s how I’ll always think of the great Alfredo Alcala. —Roy Thomas]

31

32

Re:

re:

ated, but the fact that they were never created in a vacuum. “Superman” took off in the midst of two great cataclysms— the back end of the Great Depression and the beginning of World War II. Now, a lot of the creators referred to their military experience, but almost in passing. Yet if “Superman” marked the beginning of the whole super-hero world and the growth of the comic book industry, it owed much to those two cataclysms. And the regeneration, in somewhat degraded form, it’s true, of the whole messianic idea that underlies the Judaeo-Christian west (the Jews at one pole looking toward the coming of the messiah, the Christians at the other looking back on the messiah who had already come and hoping for a second visit)— so that, given war and depression, a superman of sorts already had the welcome mat out for him. And no one was more welcoming than a drafted GI in the midst of a war. In fact, as you may already know, 50% of DC’s circulation went to the armed forces during the war.

I don’t want to belabor the point in this letter of thanks as much as simply point it out, and suggest that it would be more interesting if more of comics history, the kinds of stories that became popular, were explained in terms of the social context that made them successful. It would serve a better purpose than trying to figure out whether, for example, Otto Binder wrote the first “Bizarro” story or I wrote it. In fact, I wrote the first one, but it didn’t appear first because the daily strips were written far more than ten weeks in advance, and Otto, who surely wouldn’t have seen my story before it came out (or if he had would he have copied it) probably got it from Mort Weisinger, who copied and passed on and stole from everybody, including himself.

Since I seem to recall Mort’s proposing to me a glimmer of an idea for a story with some kind of Superman double, although coming up with something as sophisticated as the first Bizarro story was outside the grasp of his imagination, I suppose he deserves some credit for suggesting the double. Incidentally, by the time that first Bizarro story came out, I had already left DC, deciding that there were better things in life than writing for Weisinger.

Our mascot at war! A previously-unpublished 1985 Ron Harris conceptual drawing of the super-hero called Alter Ego which he and Roy & Dann Thomas developed for First Comics.

[Art © Ron Harris; Alter Ego is a trademark of Roy & Dann Thomas.]

Hi—It says on the envelope bringing me the latest issue of Alter Ego— “99 issues still remaining.” A lifetime subscription? Well, first, thank you very much. Second, I’ll admit to reading through most of the two issues I’ve received so far. A lot of nostalgic stuff for me.

Especially the Spring issue. I really first got started in comics through Shelly Mayer. The way I met him has been, shall we say, immortalized in a Superman story I wrote many, many years ago, entitled “The Chef of Bohemia,” celebrating that tiny, one-arm, one-counter little village restaurant known as Alex Borscht Bowl. But I’ve told that story elsewhere.

However, as I lost myself somewhat in the detailed recollections of who wrote and drew what, and how they did it, and whether this account or that account of the origin of any particular strip was accurate or not, along with some fine drawings and photographs, it struck me that in the midst of all the trivia of detail something essential was missing.

Let me put it this way: You do such a fine and unsparing job of what comics fanzines usually do that I first began to notice the omission so common to all of them. Maybe I also noticed because it’s one of the things I don’t do. After working on “Superman” and “Batman” (as well as legions of other comics) for some 17 years, I never lost the sense of what I call context. Not just how the comics came to be cre-

But that’s beside the point. The real point I’m trying to suggest is—how about more material in which the context of a strip gets examined? And thanks again for the subscription. I’m anticipating years of pleasant nostalgia.

Alvin Schwartz And we aim to give it to you, Mr. S.! Actually, we feel we provide a bit more context in Alter Ego than you give us credit for, but doubtless not nearly enough. Thanks for your insights on working in comics in the 1940 and ’50s, and we hope to hear from you again.

Dear Roy: A/E V3#4 was one of the best issues yet. But I’m pretty sure it was Flash Comics #4, not #3, in which Shelly Moldoff took over “Hawkman.”

In #3 Shelly was still doing “Cliff Cornwall.”

Wasn’t “Bentley of Scotland Yard” Gil Kane’s first solo feature?

After his death, I was re-reading the last “Green Lantern” story by the original team in Green Lantern #75, and suddenly realized that John Broome seemed to be paying tribute to his long-standing collaborator... who, like Broome, was leaving the book with that issue. In “The Golden Obelisk of Qward,” Green Lantern is accompanied throughout by an idealistic and courageous young doctor who resembles Gil Kane... and his name is Eli Bently! Eli was, of course, Gil Kane’s original first name, but the last name was hard to place... until I was reminded of the MLJ strip, which makes it almost certainly more than a coincidence.

Kane seems to have drawn most (though not all) of the “Sandman” stories from the late Simon and Kirby era that weren’t penciled by

P.C. Hamerlinck’s

no. 64

1940 Whiz Comics house advertisement from Fawcett’s Mechanix Illustrated Magazine. Artwork by C.C. Beck. [©1940 Fawcett Publications. Captain Marvel, Ibis, Spy Smasher ©2000 DC Comics.]

40

Fawcett Collectors of America loved to do... draw comics.

I set up shop in my father’s old home where a sun porch, with a row of north light windows, seemed to be begging for conversion into a studio. On an ancient Singer our mother had left her, my sister whipped up some curtains for the window, and a neat fitted cover of colorful denim for a bed that was already there. When it was all done I was surprised at the place. Kind of like in a movie.

mds& (c) [Art

logo ©2000 Marc Swayze; Captain Marvel ©2000 DC Comics]

[FCA EDITOR’S NOTE: From 1941-53, Marcus D. Swayze was an artist for Fawcett Publications, originally working on Captain Marvel and later designing Mary Marvel. Marc’s ongoing professional memoirs have been a feature of FCA since #54 in 1996. Last issue he told how, in 1944, after being discharged from the armed services for a knee injury, he decided to move back to his home in the South. Despite the policy of most comics companies back in those pre-FedEx days that writers and artist should live in the New York area so they could come in personally to deliver material and meet with the editors, Marc was given the okay to work long-distance.

So he left the big city, taking with him the assignment of the monthly “Phantom Eagle” feature in Wow Comics— and a new job as artist of the Sunday page of the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper comic strip, on which he had previously been an assistant to originator Russell Keaton. —PCH.]

I

t was a good feeling. I was back in my home town where I had intended to be someday... and sort of knew I would. Although many of my old friends and schoolmates had not yet returned from the war... and some never would... it was nice exchanging daily greetings with folks I had known a lifetime... and with their children, their parents, their grandparents.

Especially gratifying were the arrangements with two New York companies... regular features with Fawcett Publications and The Bell Syndicate.

I would be doing what I

The studio couch, as it was called thereafter, would be great for an artist who might want to throw his tired self upon it after working into the late hours. It was common knowledge among freelancers, the importance to press on when the creative juices were flowing... to offset those dreadful spells when nothing worthwhile came forth.

The couch was also a convenient place for spreading out artwork, like several pages at one time... which is what I was doing on this morning in 1944. They just about covered the surface... six original Flyin’ Jenny Sunday pages, supplied by the New York syndicate, the story leading up to where I was to take over. Near an edge were two issues of Wow Comics, each opened to a Phantom Eagle title page.

Two aviation features?!! I leaned back and thought about my long career in the air... twenty minutes or so as a nervous guest in a neighbor’s Piper Cub. And already I was receiving mail from people who assumed I was an expert! I felt like an impostor. Oh, well... I’d get over it.

Converting the sun porch into a studio was not the only thing my sister could do. Before leaving New York, I had called her. “Can you print?” I asked. I figured the term “lettering” was professional talk and would confuse her.

“You mean operate a printing press?” she answered. “What kind?”

Marc Swayze, Fawcett offices— Paramount Building, NYC, 1942— Staff Artist.

“No,” I said. “Have you ever tried to write, like you see in printed matter? You know... like...”

“Like the dialogue in Jiggs... and Blondie...?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” I was getting excited.

“Like in Joe Palooka? And The Gumps? The answer is NO,” she said.

“Look, Daisy, I’m not kidding here! I’m coming home with more work than I want to handle alone,” I said. “I need someone to do the lettering.”

“I’ll give it a try,” said my sister.

I knew she would. I told her where to find the T-square, lettering guide, pens, ink, emery paper... the works. “When I get there, you better be ready!”

She was. Not all that great, at first, but good enough. I thought it best to wait a while with what was to be constructive criticism, for fear it might be discouraging. Criticism, I then realized, would be no more than that the lettering didn’t have the old “comic strip snap”... which meant it didn’t look like all the others. I decided to leave it alone.

“Two aviation features?!! I felt like an impostor!” A recent sketch.

[Art ©2000 Marc Swayze; Phantom Eagle ©2000 Fawcett Publications; Flyin’ Jenny ©2000 The Bell Syndicate.]

A few years later that confidence was confirmed when Will Lieberson, executive editor of Fawcett Comics, wrote that at some occasion he had attended, “my” lettering was cited as the easiest to read. It was a pleasure

“We Didn’t Know… It Was the Golden Age” to advise him that the credit belonged to my sister Daisy.

The two comic books on the couch appeared dejected... almost falling off an edge. I felt a little sorry for The Phantom Eagle. He had first seen the light of day in Wow Comics in the mid-forties, about the same as Mary Marvel and Commando Yank. Thereafter he had continually played second fiddle to both characters in that magazine, unheralded and unpromoted. Now, here he was, being crowded off my couch by Flyin’ Jenny.

What was wrong? Why was the feature so obviously low man on the Wow totem pole? Thumbing through the issue before me, I had to conclude that the “My sister, Daisy Swayze, was the best story, though it comic strip letterer in the business in the ’40s, in my opinion... some of the borrowed heavily editors thought so too.” from a classic, was up to par in interest. The story layout was excellent, with ample closeups of the hero and his companion, Jerry. The art was well done in a clean-line-and-solid-blacks style of storytelling. In my opinion the original concept for The Phantom Eagle was absolutely tops... a vulnerable kid, about the age of our imaginary reader, who could fly in his plane to the ends of the earth... and beyond... and confront foes real or mythical.

Mickey Malone, boy aviation mechanic, The Phantom Eagle, was good comic book material with limitless story possibilities.

41

If there still remains at least one distinction between the male and female members of our society, it has to be in the use of the word “cute.” Men just don’t say it. You may hear a “beautiful” now and then, or even a “gorgeous”... like when talking about a woman or a golf shot... but you never hear a “cute.” I don’t know why... it hasn’t acquired, as far as I know, any weird connotation, as have some of our perfectly good words that went astray. And I don’t know how we manage to avoid the word... there don’t appear to be any satisfactory substitutes.

But in attempting to describe in my mind those delightful little Keaton backgrounds, the word kept cropping up. Those tiny hangars, the runways, the windsocks flying high... heck, it was all just plain cute.

There! I’ve said it!

And those people... often anonymous extras you never saw before and never expected to see again... who, with a turn of the head or a wave of the hand, assured you of their life and breath. He knew when to stop, did Keaton... when to abandon detail and begin to suggest. As those characters receded into the distance they lost their noses, their eyes became mere slits or dots, but they never lost their identity. It wasn’t simply that the artist knew how much to give and take in allowing for the reduction from original art to print size, but how to instill warmth into those figures... into those miniature environments.

So what was wrong? I had thought that once the feature had been analyzed, its weaknesses would stand out clearly and work to overcome them could begin, with glorious and dramatic results. Now, there appeared to be no weaknesses.

A question came to mind: If I had originated the feature, what might have been done differently? The first thought was of The Phoenix Squadron, six young flyers, each representing an Axis-conquered country, who flew and fought in support of The Phantom Eagle and his causes. The idea of a gang of pals did not make comic book sense. Okay for movies, but not comics. When the movie director needed the gang on camera, all he had to do was crook a finger. In a comic strip it meant some poor guy at the drawing board had to position every individual within the panel, pencil and ink each adequately to emphasize distinct features, duplicate the various uniforms and insignia... all this within a tight panel, on a tight 6- to 9-panel page... and very likely on a tight schedule.

Here’s another thing: Extra pals not only weakened a feature from the narrative standpoint, they seemed to suggest a less forceful hero. I liked to imagine that, whatever was necessary to save the day, The Phantom Eagle, young lightweight though he might be, could pull it off. And, let’s face it, no matter how dire a hero’s predicament, who’s to worry, with the ever-present possibility of the calvary riding up in the nick of time?

Turning to the Flyin’ Jenny Sunday pages, my eyes went directly to the backgrounds... just as they had when I joined Russell Keaton on the strip years earlier.

The first page of the first Swayze “Phantom Eagle”— from Wow Comics #30 (Oct. 1944).

“The idea of a gang of pals did not make comic book sense.” [©2000 Fawcett Publications.]

A Jab In the Butt

45

A Jab in the Butt The Best Way to Get Reaction from Comic Readers

by C.C. Beck [EDITORS NOTE: The following opinion article is taken from FCA’s C.C. Beck essay archives. It is previously unpublished, and was written in the mid1980s. There will be Beck material in each issue of FCA, all previously unpublished. —PCH]

Opus the penguin looks over C.C. Beck’s shoulder as he writes this article. [Art ©2000 the estate of C.C. Beck; Opus ©2000 Berke Breathed.]

In a recent Bloom County panel, Opus the penguin was shown being jabbed in the butt with a sharpened pencil. Actually, he wasn’t shown being jabbed in the butt, but having been jabbed in the butt. The picture showed him leaping into the air with a surprised and pained look on his face.

Berke Breathed, Bloom County’s creator, knows that the moment after an action is more important than the action itself, which is better imagined than seen.

If this panel had been drawn by most comic book artists, we might have been a picture, probably a closeup, of Opus’ butt with the sharpened pencil penetrating it and producing an outlandish sound effect and spurts of blood, flying feathers, and other special effects. The panel would probably have been put into a circular frame or a triangular shape, or it might have been expanded to a double-page spread and repeated on the cover and in the opening title panel. Comic book art, almost since its beginning, has put far too much emphasis on violent action of all kinds and not enough on the reaction of the characters in the stories. This is one of the reasons why comic book characters are denounced as “cardboard characters” and why the art is not considered to have much value.

Comic book artists, unlike good cartoonists, don’t leave anything to the imagination. They put everything into their panels— every eyelash, every tooth, every hair, every shadow, every wrinkle, every bit of action whether important or unimportant. As a result, their pictures don’t show any action at all, for it has all been stopped and frozen in time. The panels in a comic book story are as cold and dead as so many dead fish lying side by side in a frozen food locker.

All successful artists— and Berke Breathed is one of the most successful artists working today— know that the less you show in a picture, the more a viewer will imagine he sees in it. As a cartoonist, he knows that things that don’t exist in the real world, such as penguins that talk and wear neckties, make great comic strip characters, but that realistically drawn characters (human or animal) with complete sets of teeth, eyelids, eyelashes, and bulging muscles and with every hair and wrinkle brought out in detail, don’t.

He knows that to hold the reader’s attention the picture must show only the high spots of a story, not bury it in a mass of complicated and overdone detail.

Good art, whether cartoon or realistic, appeals to the viewer’s imagination and causes him or her to feel the joy or the pain, the triumph or the defeat, of the characters in the picture. Paintings of landscapes and “still life” pictures of objects contain no movement or action, and no living, moving creatures. They appeal to art lovers, not to people who want pictures to appeal to their emotions. When too much landscape and too many objects are put into story illustrations, they cease to arouse emotion and become simply “art,” much like the material seen in art galleries and museums.

The attempt to make story illustration into art gallery art is misguided; buyers of comic books and of newspapers containing comic strips are not looking for art, but for stories and action. When the art in a story overpowers the story itself, as it does in far too many comic books, the panels become simply a series of still-life pictures without appeal, and are quite boring and dull. “Action-packed” pictures are not exciting; imagination-packed pictures are. A good illustrator knows that his imagination is not what the reader is interested in, but the reader’s. He wants to have his own imagination stimulated, not deadened by a mass of detail and artwork which, most of the time, he can’t even understand.

C.C. Beck’s mid-’80s sketch for a re-creation of the cover of Marvel Family #6, courtesy of the collection of Bruce Pritchard. [Art ©2000 estate of C.C. Beck; Marvel Family ©2000 DC Comics]

Everyone needs a good jab in the butt now and then. Breathed showed Opus’ reaction to one; I hope that I have succeeded in jabbing a few butts with the sharpened pencil with which I wrote this article.

46

Fawcett Collectors of America

Fond Memories of

Wendell Crowley A Look Back at Fawcett’s Most Beloved Editor

by Hames Ware

I

t may be difficult, in current times of fan conventions and other opportunities for fans and pros to commingle, to re-create what a thrill it was for a kid of the 1940s and ’50s to actually get to meet one of the comic book professionals whose name was as recognizable to him as, say, the President’s was to his parents.

Wendell Crowley was just such a name to me, because of all the comic books I grew up reading and studying the art in, the Fawcett titles were predominant in my collection.

They were my favorites, even though they frustrated my desire to know the artists’ names, since by the time I was reading them no art credits were given.

Cartoon of Wendell Crowley by C.C. Beck, done in the 1970s for Legion Outpost fanzine. [©2000 estate of C.C. Beck]

As if this wonderful new correspondence wasn’t enough, it turned out that Wendell, after Fawcett had folded, had taken over the family lumber business, and consequently would take trips to states with large timber resources— and Arkansas was one of those states!

Thus I got to meet and visit with Wendell on several occasions as he passed through our state (nearly always dropping by to visit Fawcett friend Marc Swayze in nearby Louisiana at the same time).

It’s hard to describe what a wonderful thrill it was to have the editor of my favorite comic books sitting with a pile of those same comics he’d edited years before, and pointing out artist after artist on story after story— right there— in person.

Thanks to Wendell, not only was I able to finally learn to recognize the styles of up-to-then-unknown artists like Clem Weisbecker and Harry Fisk, but more importantly, Wendell added names and information galore for the fledgling Who’s Who Jerry and I were trying to make the excellent reference it has become.

But one name that stood out on most of the mastheads was that of editor Wendell Crowley.

Thus, by the time I was a young adult and working with Jerry Bails as co-editor of The Who’s Who of American Comic Books, I was delighted to learn from Jerry DeFuccio, associate editor at Mad and a longtime fan of comics as well as a pro himself, that Wendell Crowley would be glad to hear from me if I wrote him.

Write I did, and thus began a wonderful personal correspondence with one of the finest individuals a person could ever have hoped to know— Wendell Crowley.

My early letters to him were filled with “Who drew this Spy Smasher?”— “Who drew Bob Swift?”— “Who’s the Captain Marvel Jr. artist who wound up at DC?”— and on and on and on.

And Wendell, kindly and patiently, answered every single question, referring me to other Fawcett compatriots when it was one he felt they could best answer. Wendell was held in esteem by every one of them.

Titles edited by Wendell Crowley— who clearly didn’t mind seeing his heroes in ludicrous situations: Captain Marvel Adventures #142 (March 1953, cover by C.C. Beck) and The Marvel Family #88 (Kurt Schaffenberger). [©2000 DC Comics]