Alter Ego #8 Preview

Roy T Thomas homas’ Legendary Legendary Roy Comics F F anzine anzine Comics

Dan Adkins Michael T. Gilbert Roger Hill Bill Pearson & Bill Schelly

5.95

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In the the USA USA In

The Wondrous But Weird World of

No. 8 SPRING 2001

Dynamo, Dynavac, Iron Maiden ©2001 John Carbonaro; Daredevil ©2001 Marvel Characters, Inc.; New Art ©2001 Dan Adkins

Welcome You To...

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Total Control

Total Control A Brief Biography of WALLY WOOD

by Michael T. Gilbert

Wally Wood—in a photo taken Oct. 21, 1977, by artist Mike Zeck, in Derby, Connecticut—plus two of his best-known super-hero features: his cover rough for Daredevil #7, and the printed cover of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1 (both 1965). Thanks to Richard Pryor for the photo, and to David Applegate for the DD sketch. [DD and Sub-Mariner ©2001 Marvel Characters, Inc.; T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents ©2001 John Carbonaro.]

Wally Wood’s entire life was an endless struggle for control. His obsession with mastering every aspect of his chosen profession enabled him to reach heights few in the comics field have ever achieved. But his tragic inability to control his personal demons contributed to his death in 1981 at the age of 54—an age when many cartoonists are just reaching their artistic peak.

I. “Wally Wood Loved To Draw” Wallace Wood was born June 17, 1927, in Menahga, Minnesota.

According to comics historian Jim Steranko, Wood and his father Max, a lumberjack, often fought bitterly. In The Wally Wood Sketchbook Steranko notes that “both had strong egos, took criticism poorly, were self-centered and tenaciously stubborn.” The father disapproved of his son’s artistic leanings. Why couldn’t young Wally be more like his older brother Glenn, a strapping man like Max? Wally had other ideas.

Wally Wood loved to draw. His art must have been a source of

comfort and stability to the shy and introverted boy during his chaotic childhood. The Wood family continually moved from town to town, always in a state of upheaval. Nonetheless, his mother Alma encouraged the boy, and even sewed together pages of his cartoons into little “comic” books.

She was the creative half of the marriage: a teacher who loved to write stories and songs. It was probably inevitable that this oiland-water combination would clash. While Wally was still a teenager, his parents separated. Amid this strife, drawing was the one thing that he could control. He could create order out of the chaos surrounding him. And he could do it with pen and ink.

Wood was extremely talented, even as a teenager. Some of his early cartoons show great imagination and power. The raw ability was there, but it wasn’t enough for him. He studied and copied his cartoonist idols—Roy Crane, Hal Foster, Will Eisner, Milton Caniff, and Alex Raymond among them—as he worked tirelessly to learn the craft of cartooning from the bottom up.

A Short Biography of Wally Wood

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Comics. With that, Wally Wood was on his way!

If he assumed that talent and hard work would automatically be rewarded, he was in for a rude awakening. One of his first employers was Victor Fox, already legendary as a rat’s rat. A loud, obnoxious little man with a big cigar, Fox had a reputation as the quintessential sleazy publisher. Wood felt he and Harrison were cheated out of thousands of dollars by Fox. Wood learned early on not to trust publishers.

Fortunately, there were good publishers, too. He enjoyed working for Avon on such titles as Strange Worlds, Space Detective, and The Mask of Fu Manchu with another friend, Joe Orlando. The two met in 1950 and produced hundreds of pages together. Wood and his partners did fine work for Fox and Avon, but it was at EC—Entertaining Comics—that he finally found a company worthy of his talents.

A hot time at the ol’ WW spread! Wood (possibly assisted by Harry Harrison) drew this story for Trojan Magazines’ Western Crime Busters (!!!) #9, Feb. 1952. Harrison and Wood also churned out pages for Fox’s many love titles, including My Confessions, My Desire, My Experience, My Love Affair, My Love Memoirs, My Love Secret, My Past Confessions, My Secret Affair, My Secret Life, My Secret Romance, and My True Love. My, oh, my! [©2001 the respective copyright holder.]

Shortly after his parents’ separation, Wood joined the Merchant Marine and embraced the discipline and order that came with it.

Discharged in 1946, he joined the Paratroopers for two years, then returned to Minneapolis to live with his mother and brother. After a short stint at the Minneapolis School of Art and a series of odd jobs, he moved to New York. At last he was free to control his destiny!

II. “On His Way!” He soon got work lettering The Spirit for his idol, Will Eisner. The young man performed similar chores for George Wunder’s Terry and the Pirates, a strip created by Milt Caniff, another of his idols. But Wood could never be happy for long as anyone’s assistant. He had to be in control. He quickly graduated from lettering to drawing his own comic book stories.

At first he collaborated with another cartoonist, Harry Harrison. Initially, Harrison inked Wood’s pencils, but as Wood grew more confident in his inking skills, they reversed roles. Then, in 1949, his first solo story appeared in True Crime

Wood’s classic cover for Avon’s Eerie #2 on the left (Aug.-Sept. 1951)—and a censored “IW” (Irving Waldman) reprint version a decade later. Note the removal of the skeleton—and Wood’s signature—at the lower left! And see Roger Hill’s article, following, for more on the Avon Age of Wood! [©2001 the respective copyright holder.]

Both publisher Bill Gaines and editor Al Feldstein were fans as well as professionals. They loved Wood’s work and let him know it. EC treated their artists with respect, which was almost unique in the industry. The page rate was among the best in the business, and the editors encouraged artistic individuality.

Harrison and Wood were still a matched set during Wood’s earliest EC days, but at his editors urging Wood struck out on his own.

Harrison later became a successful science-fiction writer, while Orlando enjoyed a solo career at EC. Surrounded and challenged by the greatest writers and cartoonists in the comics industry, Wood thrived.

III. “In A Class By Itself” Alone now, Wood was finally in total control of his art. And, working alone at EC, the young artist quickly built a reputation for excellence. In the early 1950s he created page after page of exquisite, intricate artwork for Mad, Weird Science, Weird Fantasy, Shock SuspenStories, Frontline Combat, and the like.

Wood fearlessly tackled every genre in comics—whether sciencefiction, war, or historical—and mastered them all. In 1950 Wood married Tatjana Weintraub. In love, and fast becoming a superstar at EC, the young artist had never been happier.

A drawing from Wood’s early teen years. From Bill Pearson and Bill Crouch’s The Wallace Wood Sketchbook. [©2001 estate of Wally Wood.]

That joy showed in his work. Almost from the start, Wood’s sciencefiction art was in a class by itself. His gleaming rockets, intricate

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Total Control machinery, heroic men, lush women, and gooey monsters redefined the genre. He experimented with a wide variety of art techniques, all of which he quickly mastered. He often used craftint, rossboard, scratchboard— sometimes all in the same story!

Wood was always pushing his art to new levels. Always striving for control.

A prime example of Wood at his best!

Splash from “The Precious Years” from Weird Science #19 (May 1953). [©2001 EC Publications, Inc.]

Many still consider his EC work—drawn while he was still in his early twenties—to be the best of his amazing career. The sheer brilliance of his EC art makes it easy to forget that Wood was simultaneously producing reams of beautiful pages for Avon titles in his spare time.

Somehow he even managed to illustrate eight classic Spirit episodes for his former boss, Will Eisner.

That control was evident in all aspects of his art. His pen and brush lines were always crisp, clean, and perfect. He knew just when and where to place black shadows and white highlights for maximum effect. Zip-a-tone was plentiful, and always perfectly placed to add clarity to the panels. It was as if his art reflected an inner desire for order and reason.

The fans went wild over his work. Gaines and Feldstein were two of his biggest boosters. In fact, writer/editor Feldstein himself wrote one of Wood’s most famous stories. “My World,” in Weird Science #22 (Nov.-Dec. 1953), was a sixpage tribute to science-fiction artists—and to Wood in particular. Wood lovingly rendered each panel, and “My World” became an instant classic. A far cry indeed from his early days at Fox! When cartoonist/editor Harvey Kurtzman launched Mad as a fourcolor comic book in 1952, he tapped Wood as one of his top artists. The combination of Kurtzman’s dynamic illustrated scripts and Woody’s impeccable finishes was magic. Kurtzman’s layouts loosened Wally’s art, while Wood’s finishes gave Kurtzman’s layouts a polish and power that transformed them.

Wood’s ability to mimic other cartoonists was perfect for illustrating Kurtzman’s hilarious parodies of comic books and strips. The Kurtzman/Wood send-ups of Superman, Batman, Blackhawk, Terry and the Pirates, Flash Gordon, and Prince Valiant were wildly popular, and helped make Mad a runaway success.

More often than not, Woody’s Mad satires looked more exciting than the comics they were imitating!

In reality, Wood was now in such total control of his art that he could finally loosen up!

Wood drew the EC gang in “EC Confidential” in Weird Science #21 (Sept.-Oct. 1953). That’s Wally wearing the plaid jacket; publisher Bill Gaines has his hands on the shoulders of Wood and editor Al Feldstein, who scripted the story. [©2001 EC Publications, Inc.]

There was a downside to all this, of course. Wood’s backbreaking schedule came with a price. He was legendary for working days on end, often falling asleep at his drawing board. And, like many cartoonists, he used alcohol to fuel these marathon work sessions. Still, he had youth on his side, and an iron will. It was “pedal to the metal” for Wally Wood—and he was loving every minute of it!

This is not to say that everything was perfect. Even at EC, Wood sometimes felt unappreciated. Decades later, he expressed resentment that Harvey Kurtzman—his exacting editor on EC’s Frontline Combat and TwoFisted Tales as well as on Mad—would criticize some minor historical detail he’d gotten wrong. The unspoken message seemed to be, “Hey, Harvey—didn’t you notice how hard I worked to get everything else right?” Wood described his feelings about Kurtzman in an interview for EC Lives!, a magazine produced for the 1972 EC Convention:

In 1955 the Mad comic book was upgraded to the “I quit working for slicker Mad magazine. Wood Harvey twice... Harvey had a Wood’s sophisticated work for Mad magazine, reprinted in the Mad About the Fifties once again met the challenge. collection. [©2001 EC Publications, Inc.] very annoying way of critiHis art became even more cizing your work... He’s sophisticated, and the “wash” toning effects he mastered gave the entire never easy to work for... I like Harvey and I respect him, but he’s a hard magazine a more adult look. Kurtzman would soon leave Mad, but man... he’s a tyrant! He’s gotta have everything his way, which I suppose Wood’s art retained all the looseness and spontaneity that had made I admire in a way, too.” their early collaborations so wonderful. It was as if the artist had In Kurtzman, Wood finally met a greater perfectionist than himself. absorbed Kurtzman’s rough visual energy.

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Avon Calling!

Avon Calling!

A Fond Look at Wally Wood’s 1950s Non-EC Science-fiction Work

by Roger Hill Wood would have if Wood could have—so he did!

Two years before drawing himself in “My World” for EC (left), he was already producing dynamic science-fiction art for Avon and other comics publishers—in this case, a preliminary brush-andink wash drawing created as a cover idea for Space Detective! [EC art from Weird Science #22 (Nov.-Dec. 1953) ©2001 EC Publications, Inc.; sketch ©2001 estate of Wally Wood.]

I. The Origins Of Avon Even though Wally Wood’s name is most closely associated with the EC (Entertaining Comics) group, this talented artist—along with several assistants—actually turned out a wide variety of artwork for other comics publishers, as well, between 1949 and 1951.

One of these was the Avon Publishing Company, then located at 119 West 57th Street in New York City.

Avon was founded by pulp publisher Joseph Meyers in 1941 at the

request of the American News Company, which had lost one of its major paperback accounts to another distributor. Meyers, who had only a fifth-grade education, had an astute understanding of business practices and was the driving force behind the company during the early years.

In February of 1945 he decided to enter the lucrative field of comic book publishing with the release of Molly O’Day - Super Sleuth. For whatever reason, this title didn’t fare well on the post-World War II comic racks of America, and no other issues ever appeared. This comic book became the first in a series of many one-shot productions released

by Avon over the next fifteen years.

Avon published no additional comics during 1946; but in 1947 it returned to the market with several new titles, including a western title called Cow Puncher Comics; a one-shot venture titled Eerie #1 (now recognized as America’s first horror comic book); and Peter Rabbit Comics.

The funny-animal title turned out to be Avon’s longest-running comic, lasting from 1947 to 1956, some 34 issues in all.

Molly O’Day is on view in Jerry de Fuccio’s column in our flip section—but the next three comics published by Avon (all in 1947) were Cow Puncher Comics, Peter Rabbit Comics #1, and the original landmark Eerie #1. [©2001 the respective copyright holder.]

Although many of the Avon comics titles were short-lived, the company certainly attracted some of the better artists working in the field at that time, including Tex Blaisdell, Sid Check, Gene

A Fond Look At Wally Wood’s 1950s Non-EC Science-fiction Work Fawcette, Al Feldstein, Al Hollingsworth, Graham Ingels, Jack Karen, H.C. Kiefer, Everett Raymond Kinstler, Joe Kubert, Gerald McCann, Gus Ricca, John Rosenberger, and many others... including Wally Wood.

II. Wood Arrives Wally Wood came to Avon in 1950 after producing a lot of romance art for Fox Publications and not getting paid very much for it—or not getting paid at all. In 1949 he had connected with an art Circa 1950, Harry Harrison was a agent named Renaldo Epworth, comic book artist, but a decade who supplied art to Fox. Epworth later he was writing science-fiction would pay cash money for for Astounding, including his completed pages, but only at about famous “Stainless Steel Rat” series. half the rate Fox paid him. Apparently Epworth, as an agent, had a better chance of getting money out of publisher Victor Fox than did the artists themselves. Since Fox’s rate was only $5 a page, Wood pocketed only $2.50 a page when he sold art to Epworth. Out of that he had to pay anyone who had assisted him. This seems pretty minimal until you realize that, at the time, Wood shared an apartment with another artist for $3 a week. By this stage he had already worked with several other assistants or artists, including Marty Rosenthal, Moe Marcus, Maurice Gutworth, Ernie Bache, Jerry Kolden, and Harry Harrison.

As Harrison recalled in a 1973 (#15) issue of Bill Spicer’s Graphic Story Magazine: “We were a complete team; we did everything together. In the beginning I think he penciled and I inked. Then he got very good with inking and did heads and hands. He’d break down the pages very tight with the figures, and we’d pass the pages back and forth, each handling certain kinds of swipes. We were illustrating a lot of romance titles which were big then.”

genre ever since childhood, when he had doodled and created his own science-fiction worlds with a fountain pen. Although Harrison wasn’t destined to work with Wood on Avon sf projects that lay ahead, he and Woody together were instrumental in getting Bill Gaines interested in doing science-fiction comics. Harrison spoke about it briefly in Graphic Story Magazine, saying, “Somewhere along the line we talked Bill into trying to start a science-fiction comic, only instead of doing real sciencefiction, he copped out and called it Weird Science. I gave Gaines a lot of it to read. He was always open to suggestions, so Wally and I kept pushing and pushing. I’m sure Weird Science and Weird Fantasy didn’t do very well.”

Harrison may have forgotten that EC actually did present some fairly sophisticated plots in their two science-fiction titles, opting to stay away from the typical shoot-’em-up “raygun”-type stories regularly featured in Buck Rogers and Planet Comics during the 1940s. EC science-fiction stories, for the most part, were intelligent and wellplotted. After all, it was Gaines and EC who first brought the stories of Ray Bradbury to the comics.

III. A Guy Named Joe In late 1949 Wood met another young artist who would become a close friend and major collaborator for the next two years—Joe Orlando.

Years later, Orlando described his initial encounter with Wood in an interview in Greg Theakston’s The Wally Wood Treasury (1980): “I met Wally in Epworth’s office one day, and we got to be pals. I didn’t know it, but my work was being sold to Fox Comics. Wally was a step ahead of the game; he knew where our stuff was being sold and suggested we get a studio together. Wally was fascinated with how fast I could pencil something he could ink.”

Still in late ’49, Wood leased studio space on the second floor at West 64th Street and Columbus Avenue. Joining Wood there at periodic intervals were Orlando, Harry Harrison, Marty Rosenthal, Sid Check, Roy Krenkel, and a salesman by the name of Ed McLean. It was at this studio that the young artists juggled several accounts, including Avon, EC, Fawcett, Fox, Master, Quality, and Youthful. As Wood and Orlando formed a closer working alliance at

Working together as “Harrison and Wood,” the pair began to establish a track record of sorts, doing mostly romance comics. It was this work, and the frustration of low pay coming from Fox or Epworth, that eventually led the two men to the business offices located at 225 La Fayette Street, the home of good old EC Comics. In mid-1949 they met with publisher Bill Gaines and showed their samples to editor Al Feldstein, who hired them at $26 a page. Their work began to appear during the winter of 1949-50, mostly in EC’s romance titles. As Harrison remembered: “We had a carload of romance credits in those days at Fox. It was about all you could get: some crime, but Feldstein and Craig had the crime sewed up, doing most of it themselves.”

Harrison loved science-fiction and had been an active member in the New York Queens Science Fiction League since 1938.

Wood had also had a strong interest in the

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Behind this striking Gene Fawcette cover lurked the first page of Flying Saucers, today considered a classic and a benchmark of Wally Wood’s career. [©2001 the respective copyright holder.]

“A Dream Come True!”

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“A Dream Come True!”

A Candid Conversation with DAN ADKINS about WALLY WOOD and Other Phenomena Conducted by Roy Thomas

[DAN ADKINS, who was born in 1937, has been a comic book artist since 1965, when he began working for Wally Wood on the first issue of Tower Comics’ T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. We used his interview last year in our TwoMorrows sister publication Comic Book Artist (#7) as a getting-on point for this one. Our avowed purpose this time around was to concentrate on Dan’s work with Wood and his early career after he struck out on his own.]

ROY THOMAS: I believe you’ve said it was EC Comics, including Wood’s work, that first got you really interested in comics as a teenager.

Transcribed by Jon B. Knutson

ADKINS: That was just a made-up word. I was a draftsman in the Air Force at the time I met Bill. If a change was made to a building on the base, we’d have to update the blueprints. I also drew a lot of electronics stuff, engine corrections, etc. After I got a second stripe as Airman Second Class, I became an illustrator—from about eight months after basic training, for the remaining three years I was in the service. When I got out I was the equivalent of a staff sergeant.

As an illustrator, I had a whole room to myself with equipment to turn out posters to put in front of the base library or movie theatre. We also did a magazine where we’d list all the happenings. We had to spend a certain amount of money per month in order to get the same amount the next month. And I couldn’t come up with enough things to spend the money on, so I started a fanzine! [laughs] The Air Force paid for Sata.

DAN ADKINS: Yeah, the whole EC line, but especially the sciencefiction. We’d be looking for Wally Wood covers at the drugstore in our Dan Adkins (in ’95) and Wally Wood (in ’53) flank Dan’s recent re-creation of home town every Tuesday and the cover of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #2 (Jan. 1966), repro’d from the original Thursday; that’s when the comics art. Boy, Wally sure loved smashing through brick walls! used to come in. I got in around [Art ©2001 Dan Adkins; Dynamo & Dynavac ©2001 John Carbonaro; Weird Fantasy #11 or 12, just when Wood Photo ©2001 EC Publications, Inc.] RT: Did they know they paid for it? they really started getting good. I ADKINS: I had a civilian boss, and he knew it, yeah. It didn’t cost a don’t get that thrill no more! You can’t get back that enthusiasm you heck of a lot to put out a little dittoed fanzine. had when you were fifteen. I liked Williamson and Davis and Crandall and Evans... all the top guys were my top guys. I wasn’t into DC RT: When were you art director of the Robert E. Howard fanzine Comics or super-heroes at that time. Later on, I got into Kirby.

Amra?

RT: In this same issue of A/E, Bill Pearson talks about your joint fanzine Sata...

ADKINS: That was very early. We got drawings from Frazetta and Krenkel because I knew Roy Krenkel. That’s one reason they made me art editor! It wasn’t for my abilities; it was for who I knew!

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“A Dream Come True!”

RT: How much professional artwork did you do for the pro science-fiction magazines before you went to work for Wally?

ADKINS: I started doing that at nineteen; I was 28 when I started working for Wally. Besides the sf art, when I was about 24 I was an art director for American Druggist and New Medical Material, magazines put out by Hearst. We turned out 92-page biweekly medical journals. We had this big dummy room with all these shelves where we laid out every sheet; you had to order the galleys—what they called thumbnails, which is a block of print that’s a photograph. I learned a lot there. I quit after about three months and went into advertising, working for Advertising Super Mart, where I did paste-up mechanicals—then Le Wahl Studios.

That’s the last place I worked before I went to work for Wally.

RT: How did you meet Wally Wood?

RT: I met you in either the last week of June or the first week of July, very soon after I arrived in New York myself. You were already working for Wally—on the second issue, I recall.

ADKINS: Wally’s studio was around West 76th Street, about a block off Central Park. We had to walk up five flights of stairs. The first four pages of that first “Iron Maiden” story had to be done over. Wally didn’t like the artwork, which had been done by somebody else. He said, “Adkins, I’ll do a thing for your fanzine, but I’m really jammed up right now; I’ve got to do this last story over because it’s no good. If you’ll help me repencil and ink this story, I’ll do your drawing.” Of course, it was a year later before he did that drawing!

RT: And by then he’d taken over your magazine, which had become witzend. Wally became identified with Iron Maiden, Dynamo’s sexy arch-enemy, and yet at the time he might not have even wound up doing her initial story!

Dan during basic training, US Air Force, 1955... and with Jeanette Strouse in 1956, at age nineteen.

[Photos courtesy of Dan & Jeanette Adkins.]

ADKINS: I met him through Bill Pearson. I saw a letter of Pearson’s in Amazing Stories [sf magazine].

His address was Phoenix, Arizona, and I was stationed at Luke Field outside Phoenix, so I thought he might know some girls there! I was nineteen at the time. He didn’t really want to meet anybody; he was sort of a shy guy. But I went out and talked to him that night, and showed him my collection of fanzines.

Later, up in New York, I was doing art for the science-fiction magazines, but I couldn’t make enough money at it, so I worked in advertising while I was also drawing for Amazing and Fantastic and Infinity and Science-Fiction Adventures. Half of these were put out by Larry Shaw, who also published one of the first monster magazines, Monster Parade, ’way before Famous Monsters of Filmland. Part of Monster Parade was stories, for which we did illustrations. While I was doing all this, Pearson had moved to New York, too, and I guess he wanted to get into writing. He had this big apartment in the ’70s over near the river, and he got to meet Wally through Krenkel or somebody.

I went up to Wally’s with Pearson to get a full-page drawing from Wally for my fanzine Outlet. But Wally was too busy to do a drawing for me, unless—[laughs] Well, he offered me work to help him out! I had drawn nine pages of a war story, but I didn’t show him my science-fiction illustrations. Later on, I showed him my sf drawings, and he said that if I’d shown him those, he wouldn’t have hired me, because they weren’t as good as the war story, which was my latest work! [laughs] So anyway, I started working as Wally’s assistant, helping him on the first “Iron Maiden” story in the first issue of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. That was around June or July of 1965.

ADKINS: He might’ve laid it out, might have done the breakdowns. I repenciled it at home, almost overnight, and then we inked it together at the studio. That’s why it’s a little awkward, because I don’t think I had the style or consistency with it yet.

Meanwhile, Wally was repenciling the first story in T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1. Do you remember the first four pages of the issue, that were like an introduction? These Agents are breaking into a building. Sam Schwartz [editor at Tower Comics] had recommended Larry Ivie to Wally, and Larry had penciled that story, but somehow Wally wasn’t satisfied with it, so he did it over while I did the back story. Wally penciled and inked four pages while I did ten or fifteen. [Note: See page 33.—R.T.] RT: Some time back, Larry sent me a copy of Scary Monsters magazine in which he mentions the cover of Daredevil #10—I think it’s the one you talked about in CBA #7—which had these beast-men and DD on a ledge.

Someone asked you if you drew it, because the Daredevil figure was a bit unusual for Wally. Larry says he did that cover, or nearly all of it.

ADKINS: I know Wally was finishing up his last Daredevil when I came to work for him. But I don’t know anything about Larry doing it. My assumption was that Bob Powell did it.

RT: A lot of people worked on the early Daredevil. [laughs] Stan must’ve been at his own wits’ end. Wally was just leaving Daredevil when I came to work at Marvel in early July of ’65. John Romita walked in two weeks after I did and immediately got the Daredevil assignment. The book had sold well under Wally, and sold even better under Romita. So, was your early work with Wally mostly on T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents?

ADKINS: No, there was a lot of stuff. We did Total War [also called M.A.R.S. Patrol] for Western or Dell; so we had to keep the word balloons an eighth of an inch from all the borders. [laughs]

Dan’s first job for Wally was to help re-do the story that introduced that ferrous femme fatale, Iron Maiden, in T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1 (Nov. 1965). Thanks to Jon B. Cooke. [©2001 John Carbonaro.]

RT: They did that at DC a couple of years later, too. It was a really bad idea.

A Candid Conversation With Dan Adkins

31

ADKINS: The balloons take up more space that way, and the drawing is affected by it. We also did Fantastic Voyage for them, which was mostly inked by Tony Coleman.

RT: You and Wally must’ve done a good Raquel Welch.

ADKINS: Oh, yeah, we got some stills from the movie. We got a full script, too, and I think somebody got to see the movie. [laughs] RT: It’s kind of ironic that the first story on which you received a credit for your work with Wally was called “Overworked!”

ADKINS: Yeah, that was around Creepy #11, I guess. Wally was working for Warren while he was also working for Tower and Harvey, as well as for Western.

RT: No wonder he needed a lot of help! Who were the other people working with him then? Was Ralph Reese there yet?

ADKINS: Yeah, Ralph was there a couple of months before me. He was only sixteen. And of course Wally’s wife Tatjana was a great inker, and a good colorist, too.

RT: You mentioned a name I didn’t recognize—Tony Coleman.

ADKINS: He was there about six months. He also worked on T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #2 or Dynamo #2, the one where he’s beating up a bunch of guys in army uniforms on a beach. Coleman was English; he came to Canada and couldn’t find work there, came down to America. Joe Orlando sent him up from DC to Wally.

He’d lost his portfolio somewhere between Canada and here, also his money, so he was working for freight money to get back to England. He was 34—Wally was 38.

After Coleman left, it was just me and Wally and Tatjana.

Ralph didn’t do too much except on the Topps Bubble Gum stuff. A lot of those were Ralph’s ideas, and Wally and I were just polishing them up. We did some creatures called “The Uglies,” people twisted into shapes. Wally and I did six record album covers—War of the Worlds, Invisible Man— remember those things advertised in the back of the Warren books? We did The Munsters for Western, too.

I did maybe eighteen or twenty “T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents” stories for Wally, including the “Dynamo” ones. He usually broke them down on typing paper, and I’d take it from there and do tight pencils. There were four stories for which I did the layouts myself, even the little breakdowns. The penciling on those was all mine, and those are the ones I got credit for.

Dan’s first shared credit with Wally, from “Overworked!” in Creepy #11 (1966). [©2001 Warren Publishing Co.]

I showed Wally where Steranko was doing “S.H.I.E.L.D.” over at Marvel, and he was getting credit.

Wally could see I was a little jealous [laughs] and he gave me credit that day! It said, “Adkins and Wood.”

Which led most people to think it

Dan informs us he penciled this page from T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #5 (June 1966), including what he calls its “terrible machinery.” It’s “all Wally inks,” he says, “except NoMan’s back in Panels 1 & 2—that was inked by Tony Coleman.” Ye Editor still thinks the agent called Weed looks a lot like Wally! Repro’d from photocopy of the original art, in the collection of John Harrison. [©2001 John Carbonaro.]

was penciling by Adkins and inking by Wood, but it was actually the other way around.

RT: Basically, your job was to make it look as if Wally had done it all, right?

ADKINS: Yeah. There was one story, “The Black Box of Doom,” which I penciled with no breakdowns from Wally. And Wally didn’t like it too well. [laughs] So it was inked by Chic Stone! If Wally and I had done it, it would’ve looked a helluva lot different.

You’ve got to remember that Wally was still the lead character there; his style was on everything. The jobs looked great mainly because of Wally, not because of me. There’s just that little extra bit that’s better.

When I went off and did my own stuff, like “Day after Doomsday” and other things I did for Creepy, then you get an idea what my talent was, but I don’t think anyone comes up to Wally.

RT: He was certainly a major talent. Was the Weed character in T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents based on him?

ADKINS: It looks like Wally, but that character’s based on Ralph, I

Comic Fandom Archive

37

Comic Fandom Archive

Bill Pearson The witzend Interview Conducted by Bill Schelly Transcribed by Jon B. Knutson

“One of Woody’s two-minute doodles, attached by Scotch tape. He often did these while talking on the phone.” This one sports an early, never-used spelling for the magazine that became witzend. [©2001 estate of Wally Wood.]

contact with Dan Adkins in the mid-’50s. What type of material were you reading?

BILL PEARSON: Mostly science-fiction. Dan saw a letter of mine that appeared in one of the digests, Fantastic or Amazing, I believe. He noticed that I lived fairly close to Luke Air Force Base, where he was stationed, and thought I might know some girls. That base is outside of Phoenix, where I got a job as a mechanical draftsman immediately upon graduation from high school. I was part of the nation’s work force, making real good money, designing valves and other parts for rockets.

Back then, I spent all my spare time writing and drawing—totally obsessed. I wanted to be a black-&-white illustrator like Virgil Finlay and Kelly Freas. I wanted to write science-fiction like the greats.

Bill Pearson says: “One day out of the blue [my commanding officer in the Army, Lt. Godwin] presented me with this caricature. It’s a pretty good likeness of what I looked like then, in 1962. I don’t know what became of Larry Godwin. For all I know, he’s an important gallery artist based in the South.” [©2001 Bill Pearson.]

[As time goes on, the significance of witzend (all-lower-case is correct)—the magazine founded in 1966 by Wally Wood and continued by Bill Pearson—grows ever larger. witzend was the first major publishing bridge between comics fandom and the professional comics industry, and (at least symbolically) began the “creator’s rights movement.” All this should not eclipse the brilliance of its contents, the uniqueness of its editorial policy (that of “no policy”), and its role as the first important “pro-zine.”

[Since Wood ended his own life in on November 2, 1981, after a series of eye and kidney problems, it has fallen to his best friend and literary executor Bill Pearson to shepherd his legacy. Bill was enthusiastic when I asked to interview him about witzend, and I discovered that he still has hopes of continuing the magazine in some form. He provided all the art that accompanies this interview.

[The roots of witzend reach back to 1956, when Bill and Dan Adkins published a fanzine called Sata...]

BILL SCHELLY: In the introduction to Woodwork you describe yourself as a seventeen-year-old bookworm when you first came into

BILL S.: How did you and Dan end up collaborating on a fanzine together?

PEARSON: Dan worked in an office on the base involved with communications that had its own printing press. Dan had access, and we were both eager to create.

BILL S.: What did the title Sata mean?

PEARSON: Nothing.

We just thought it looked spiffy as a logo.

I don’t think either of us realized it was one letter short of “Satan” until we’d done several issues. Sata consisted of pretty good amateur comic strips and artwork by Dan and

Dan Adkins’ cover for Sata #6. The fifth issue printed a short letter from Elvis Presley’s mother! [©2001 Dan Adkins.]

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Comic Fandom Archive

myself and several others, along with bad fiction by me, and miscellaneous articles and reviews. A typical sciencefiction fanzine.

Dan and I contributed to many others, too.

I’m trying to remember the sequence, but I guess Dan lost the use of the air base ditto machine. At some point I bought my own spirit duplicator.

Dan and I got quite creative “One year,” says Bill, “I got this birthday card from four of with it, my friends.” [©2001 the respective artists.] producing some interesting graphics. Then I realized offset wasn’t that expensive if we produced it at digest size, with letter-sized pages folded over. Then we could create fine line artwork, even publish photos.

BILL S.: How did you end up in New York?

PEARSON: Some major government contract had expired, and I lost my job about the time Dan got out of the Air Force. He was anxious to submit samples to the sf magazines, and I just naturally tagged along.

Five of Wood’s sketches, one of which was evidently considered as a possibility for a witzend cover. [©2001 estate of Wally Wood.]

most dangerous area of the city. Total skid row and decadence and crime. We were oblivious. A few days after we moved in, a man was killed and left on the stoop of our building, about a dozen feet from where I slept. We were still unfazed.

When Dan and I got to New York, with very little money, we shared a small room in a hotel on 43rd Street, a block from Broadway. We didn’t know it, but at that time this was the center of the

Dan met Larry Ivie on the street. Larry took us down to his apartment building on West 23rd Street, the old Chelsea district. Large old apartment buildings, but it looked like the suburbs compared to the dark alleys uptown.

Within a couple of days, we had a nice twobedroom apartment in the same building Larry lived in. Dan and I connected with all our fanzine friends. Met Archie Goodwin. He was just moving out.

Larry knew lots of people. In addition to him and Archie, Al Williamson and Roy Krenkel and a couple of others met weekly at a private house in the Village [= Greenwich Village] for a figure sketch session. Almost immediately I was part of the group, fortunately good enough at figure sketches that I was accepted as an artist. EC had expired a couple of years before. Al wasn’t married yet, and we were all young bachelors about town.

Cover of witzend #1, and Wood’s “Animan” splash therein. Editor Roy Thomas fondly remembers the night at his Manhattan apartment in 1966 when fresh-off-the-press copies of this issue were handed out

by Wally to his fellow pros. [Art ©2001 estate of Wally Wood.]

Except for Roy. He was a middle-aged bachelor about town—but the youngest in heart of all of us. Roy was one of the most exuberant, joyful characters I ever met. He became a lifelong friend. Always the center of attention, regaling us all with one funny story after another. Not at all like you would expect from his rather serious formal artwork.

46

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

Roy T Thomas homas’’ Primev Primeval al Roy Comics F F anzine Comics anzine

Plus:

5.95

$

In the USA

No. 8 Spring 2001

The Evolution of a Legend!

JOE KUBERT in the world of 1,000,000 years years ago ago 1,000,000 (also from 1941-200 1) (also from 1941-200 1) Plus Rare Rare Art and Plus Artifacts by: by: Artifacts

Joe Orlando Gil Kane Norman Maurer Jerry Ordway Carmine Infantino Chad Grothkopf Frank Borth Whit Ellsworth Kevin O’Neill Jerry de Fuccio John Severin Marie Severin Sid Check Larry Ivie Vaughn Bodé Peter Krause Marc Swayze C.C. Beck and a a speci special al and tribute to to tribute

Chic Stone

Tor ©2001 Joe Kubert

Vol. 3, No. 8 / Spring 2001

™

Editor

Kubert Tor

Contents

Roy Thomas

Associate Editor

The Tor Gambit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Bill Schelly

Design & Layout

No editorial! We jump right in with Mark Hanerfeld’s 1969 take on Joe Kubert’s caveman—and with the late-1950s Tor comic strip dailies prepared by Kubert and Carmine Infantino.

Christopher Day

Consulting Editors

Interview with Joe Kubert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

John Morrow Jon B. Cooke

Ronn Foss’ groundbreaking 1963 conversation-by-mail with a Golden/Silver Age great!

Production Assist

Eric Nolen-Weathington

The Over-extended Marvel Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Captain Marvel’s many, many imitators, chronicled by John G. Pierce.

Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck

Roy Thomas on the 1981 creation of the All-Star Squadron—and its 1940s forebears.

Comics Crypt Editor

Nuggets–from the Moat of Jerry de Fuccio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Michael T. Gilbert

A free-wheeling new column by an expert on the Golden Age of Comics.

Editors Emeritus

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

Cover Artists Dan Adkins & Wally Wood Joe Kubert

Cover Color Tom Ziuko, with special thanks to Scott Lemien

Mailing Crew

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

And Special Thanks to: Dan Adkins Jim Amash David L. Applegate John Austin Mike W. Barr Rich Buckler Bill Cain Pete Carlsson James D. Clark Dale Crain Les Daniels Glen Echelberger Chris Foss Jerry de Fuccio Al Dellinges Roger Dicken & Wendy Hunt Jeff Gelb Sam George Janet Gilbert Jennifer T. Go David G. Hamilton Ron Harris John Harrison R.C. Harvey Roger Hill Dave Holman Carmine Infantino Larry Ivie Russ Jones Gary Kato Gene Kehoe

FCA Section

Jon B. Knutson David A. Kraft Peter Krause Joe Kubert Jim Lawless Dan Makara Jean-Francoise Masse Kevin McDonnell Shelly Moldoff Rich Morrissey Kevin O’Neill Jerry Ordway Bill Pearson John G. Pierce Eric Predoehl Virginia Provisiero Richard Pryor Charlie Roberts Gary Robinson Tim Scotty John Severin Marie Severin Robin Snyder J. David Spurlock Flo Steinberg Jim Steranko Marc Swayze Greg Theakston Alan Waite Bill Woolfolk Link Yaco Mike Zeck

Chic Stone: A Rock-solid Professional. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 A remembrance by Bill Cain of his artist friend.

The All-Star Compendium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Additions and corrections to Roy Thomas’ All-Star Companion.

re:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Some informative letters from knowledgeable readers.

FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Another foray into Fawcettdom, conducted by P.C. Hamerlinck.

We Didn’t Know... It Was the Golden Age! . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Vintage artist/writer Marc Swayze on the art and artistry of Charles Clarence Beck.

Once in the Dear, Dead Days beyond Recall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 C.C. Beck on life during and after Captain Marvel.

“We’re All Part of This Brotherhood!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Jerry Ordway on The Power of Shazam!—plus a sidebar by Peter Krause.

Special Wally Wood Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About our cover: In 1969 Joe Kubert gifted the late Mark Hanerfeld with a particularly striking illustration of Tor and Chee-Chee, which became the back cover of Alter Ego [Vol. 1] #10. But, until now, it’s never been a front cover—or printed in color. We thought it was high time we remedied both situations. And a special gracias to Joe and his amiable assistant, Pete Carlsson, for their kind cooperation. [©2001 Joe Kubert.]

Below: From an ad that appeared in The Comics Buyer’s Guide, 1990. [©2001 Joe Kubert.]

© Alter Ego 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: $8 Postpaid ($10 Canada, $11.00 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $20 US, $40 Canada, $44 elsewhere. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in Canada.

FIRST PRINTING. TM

2

The Tor Gambit

Y

ou know the line I mean. I mean the one about how comic books can’t really be art because so many people are involved in the production of the thing. And how there are different pencilers, and inkers, and colorists, and how most of the stories are written by other people anyhow!

Yeah, you know the line! You almost always get it from the ones who like their opinions ready-made and pre-digested—although, at times, I have gotten it from people who should have known better. Whenever I get any of these people, I usually sit them down in a nice comfortable chair, and hit them with something I call...

Article by Mark Hanerfeld

©2001 Joe Kubert

(Edited & Abridged from Alter Ego, Vol. 1, #10, 1969)

Generally, it starts with my quietly explaining to them that just because more than one person is involved in the creation of a work of art doesn’t mean that work (be it literature, painting, or whatever) is any less valid as “art.” After all, didn’t many of the great painters of the Renaissance have their assistants help in finishing up those slightly less important details of a painting? And furthermore, is not the subject matter of many of those great paintings drawn directly from the mythology of the ancient Greek and Roman storytellers?

By the time I’ve finished haranguing my poor victim with words (and with illustrations, if I have my copies of the magazines at hand), he is customarily ready to grudgingly admit that, yes, some comic books can be art. No mean accomplishment, I assure you.

As old axioms die hard, this bit of analogizing usually leaves the poor victim flustered, especially if he’s never really given those axioms a second, or perhaps even a first, thought. That’s when I hit them with the clincher.

But chances are that, if you’re reading this, you already know all that because you already are a comics fan. However, if you’re a new fan, you may not have heard of, let alone actually seen, Tor. Well, let’s remedy that situation here and now!

I double back to their original qualifications and tell them all about Tor.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: At this point in 1969’s Alter Ego #10 were printed two weeks’ worth of dailies for a sadly unsold Tor newspaper comic strip, circa-1959, which had been written for Kubert by Carmine Infantino, generously supplied by Joe, and harking back to Tor’s boyhood. Although those strips were printed in color, with new art added, to form the basis of the first story in DC’s Tor #1 in 1975, it was our intention to reprint the dozen black-&-white strips as they originally appeared in A/E, where they were re-formatted to fit six magazine pages. However, due to a last-minute change of plans, DC is reprinting them in the first volume of a much-anticipated Tor Archives - Volume 1, only a few weeks from now; so, instead, we are here presenting the strips a bit smaller than in ’69, and using the extra space to toss in a couple of later Kubert Tor illustrations. We strongly urge all aficionados of the comic art form to pick up a copy of the Tor Archives - Vol. 1, which reprints the first three issues of Tor/One Million Years Ago! The following three pages of art are ©2001 Joe Kubert. —R.T.]

It goes something like this: Back around 1953, there was this enterprising comics group called the St. John Publishing Company, whose publisher, Archer St. John, had the foresight and daring to allow an artist to edit, write, pencil, letter, ink, color, and even own the rights to his own character. Why, the artist even got to share in the magazine’s profits! Unheard of!

The comic book was called Tor, and the artist was Joe Kubert.

Tor was a caveman adventure strip set in the world of one million years ago, and although the ecological balance was a bit jumbled for story’s sake, the strip had an air of reality about it that grew out of the powerfully-drawn characters and settings. Even though later issues

occasionally employed the writing talents of Bob Bernstein and the inking talents of Bob Bean, the strip still bore the distinctive stamp of a Joe Kubert creation: the product of one man’s thought and imagination.

The Tor Gambit

3

8

Interview With Joe Kubert

Interview With

Joe Kubert by Ronn Foss [EDITOR’S NOTE - 2001: This by-mail interview was the first ever to run in Alter Ego—in Vol. 1, #6, with a cover date of March A sketch of Joe Kubert (probably drawn by Norman Maurer) from the Comic Book Illustrators Instruction 1964. It was Course, 1954. For more on the first (and only) lesson of this ancestor of Joe Kubert’s World of conducted by artist/ Cartooning/Correspondence Course for Comic Books, see the 160-page volume Alter Ego: The Comic Book Artist editor/publisher Ronn Collection, now available. [©2001 Joe Kubert.]

Foss, and is presented here for its historical value.

It was also reprinted in the out-of-print 1997 $60 per page for artwork only. Story will vary from $8 to $12 per page.

Hamster trade paperback, Alter Ego: The Best of the Legendary The “lows” are pretty much set; the “highs” can vary—depending on Comics Fanzine. The only Kubert art that ran in the original publithe demand for the particular work (art, writing, lettering, coloring, cation was the Scandinavian reprint page of Tor re-presented here. what-have-you). When I started out, my rates were $6 per page.

We begin with a pair of paragraphs from Joe Kubert which were quoted by Ronn earlier in V1#6, referring back to the previous A/E. RF: Did someone other than you letter “Hawkman”?

—R.T.] KUBERT: The latest “Hawkman” scripts I did (circa 1963) were lettered “I was quite impressed by your

by Gaspar Saladino. However, when I zine—both in its quality and the did the strip “way back when”—I did amount of work/energy put into it. the lettering, and with a very shaky Incidentally, Ronn—only someone hand, I might add! who has had work reproduced in a RF: How much are letterers paid? mag (or any other form of printed matter) can know the thrill of seeing KUBERT: Rates are $2 to $5 per page. his efforts in published form. It’s a thrill you never lose, no matter how RF: Do you know if all DC artists long you’re in the business. It’s still work “twice-up” (double-size)? true with me, and I’ve been in ‘it’ KUBERT: As far as I know, yes. I going on 25 years. think, generally, it’s found that 1/2 “Unlike many people in the comic reduction tightens, cleans, and clarifies book business, I don’t feel myself original artwork. After a while, you find demeaned by working for comics. The that you work “for reproduction”—that fact is—I’ve always enjoyed this is, the artist will know what the printed medium—and I’ve always given what work will look like (which is most I felt is my best to it. I’m not ‘saving’ important)—rather than gauging full my ‘greatest works’ for painting, or effect from the original drawing alone. advertising art, or even ‘pop’ art! My RF: Who was your personal favorite of best efforts are what you see now!” all the characters you ever drew?

—Joe Kubert (1963) KUBERT: Tor was and is my favorite.

RF: Do you use a crow-quill pen?

RONN FOSS: What is the pay per page? How much more if you also write the script?

JOE KUBERT: I can’t tell page rates specifically, but they vary from $25 to

KUBERT: I use a pen similar to it, but very flexible.

Dinosaurs and Hawkman—two of Kubert’s main themes—were combined in this illustration for the 1977 Super Powers book. Thanks to Al Dellinges. [©2001 DC Comics.]

RF: Do you dilute your India (water-

Interview With Joe Kubert

9

was allowed the run of the place—to look over the artists’ shoulders and watch them work—and to ask their criticisms of my own work.

These guys were just wonderful— their patience and their helping hands did much to engender a desire in a very young boy to be a successful cartoonist—just as they were!

RF: Doesn’t DC allow the use of Zip-ATone? You used it so advantageously in Tor.

A page from “Black Valley” [Tor #3], taken from one of the many foreign editions which reprinted “Tor” stories. [©2001 Joe Kubert.]

proof) ink?

KUBERT: I “water down” my ink with tap water.

The cover of St. John’s Meet Miss Pepper #1, 1954.

KUBERT: Yes, [©2001 Joe Kubert.] they allow it— or anything else the artists wants to use—so long as the effect is a good one.

RF: What kind of paint is used to white-out a mistake?

KUBERT: Some white paint has a plastic base, so that ink will not dilute it. One is called ‘Sno-Pac.’ RF: How long does a brush last you; a pen tip, before it either spreads beyond usefulness or becomes caked up with ink?

RF: Do artists ever get original art back? Would you like any of it returned?

KUBERT: A brush will last through 30-40 pages; pen, only 2-3.

KUBERT: Artists may get their work back, upon request—frankly, I’ve never had any desire for it. The point here being that, once the publisher pays for work, it becomes his property. If the publisher feels he will have no further use for those originals, he disposes of them as he sees fit. At this time, the artist (writer, letterer, etc.) may request the originals.

RF: Do you always use a blue pencil to roughup (lay out) a strip?

KUBERT: Yes—a special non-reproducing blue.

Sometimes, just for a change of pace, I’ll switch to pencil. But then it’s back to the blue again.

RF: The photo of you and Norm Maurer in Tor #1 has you doing the Three Stooges while Norm appears to be working on Tor. Can you explain this?

RF: According to Archer St. John (Tor #1), you started drawing in 1941. Do you remember what character it was?

KUBERT: I did a strip called “Volton,” around 1941, when I was in my second year of high school or thereabouts. Prior to “Volton,” I worked for Mr. Harry “A” Chesler; this was in the early 1940s. I worked in his offices 11⁄2 hours a day after school, and he gave me $5 a week for my expenses. This, I believe, was one of my greatest “breaks” I ever had. He had a staff of men, among whom were Charley Sultan, Rube Moreira, Raphael Asterita, and George Tuska. I

KUBERT: We co-edited each other’s work.

RF: The comic Meet Miss Pepper—you inked it, penciled it, or what?

One of Joe’s earliest efforts was this “Volton,” published in Catman #11 (June 1942). For his very first “Volton” splash—and indeed, for a lengthy section on the many eras of Joe Kubert art, see Alter Ego: The Comic Book Artist Collection. [©2001 Holyoke Pub.]

KUBERT: I penciled Miss Pepper—a fellow named Bob Bean inked. Bob is now the guiding hand and power behind Wylde Studios here in New York—they produce live and animated ads for TV.

The Over-extended Marvel Family

13

The

O VER-

Extended Marvel Family

by John G. Pierce

The original Fawcett Marvel cast of characters at its most inclusive, from The Marvel Family #2 (June 1946). Art by C.C. Beck. [©2001 DC Comics.]

I. The World’s Mightiest Mold If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the original Captain Marvel could easily get a very swelled head.

But there have been numerous other characters who were in some measure derivative of the good Captain.

One such was developed by two former Fawcett men, Ken Crossen and Mac Raboy, for the former’s company, Spark, as they took the pulp character The Green Lama (in the pulps, something of a Shadow-type figure) and turned him into a post-World War II green-clad super-hero who resembled The Spectre. When Jethro Dumont recited his chant, “Om mani padme hum,” the words echoed from a lamasery in far-off Tibet and changed him into The Green Lama.

With the more serious style of story and Raboy’s artwork, it was as if Freddy Freeman had suddenly grown up and changed his name, religious affiliations, magic words, and the color of his costume!

Mac Raboy’s Green Lama #6 (March 1946) and the cover of Mort Meskin’s Golden Lad #3 (Feb. 1946). [©2001 Crossen/Spark.]

For, even though he himself began life as an imitation of Superman, he soon moved beyond his source of inspiration—and indeed, the World’s Mightiest Mortal has been one of the most imitated super-heroes of all time.

A lot of the earliest imitations came from his own publisher, Fawcett. Starting with the three Lieutenants Marvel, and proceeding on through Captain Marvel Jr., Mary Marvel, and Hoppy the Marvel Bunny, as well as the villains Niatpac Levram and Black Adam, Fawcett didn’t hesitate to exploit the Shazam mythos for commercial gain and/or story possibilities. (The two aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive.)

Scattered here and there throughout the Golden Age were various minor characters who were Captain Marvel takeoffs of one form or another.

One was Golden Lad, drawn by Mort Meskin, who was vaguely similar to Cap Jr.—and who was published by the same company that put out Green Lama, as a matter of fact.

14

The Over-extended Marvel Family Then there was a character who yelled the old circus cry for help, “Hey, Rube!” in order to change into Red Rube. (Honest!)

A Fly-Man (not to be confused with the later Archie Adventure hero) also made something of a magical transformation.

Major Victory (who actually outranked Captain Marvel!) responded to calls from a “Father Patriot” who had a touch Major Victory #3 (Summer 1945) was the of old Shazam about him. Major last issue; art by Charles Sultan. The Victory even had his own Major got his start in Dynamic Comics #1 (reprint) comic for three issues— (Oct. 1941). [©2001 Dynamic Comics.] and appeared in the pages of Marvel’s The Invaders #16-18 in 1977, as a comic book super-hero created by a young soldier named Biljo White, who was rescued from the Nazis by Captain America and company. Remember that name “Biljo White”—it will pop up again, later in this article.

II. Britain And Brazil An even more direct Cap imitation came in the form of the British character Marvelman.

When Fawcett went out of the comics business in 1953, as a result of the DC lawsuit and declining sales, its British publisher, L. Miller, simply changed the character’s name to Marvelman, with a redesigned blue uniform—changed Junior to Young Marvelman (in red)—and altered Mary, oddly, to the even younger male Kid Marvelman (in yellow). The magic word “Shazam!” was replaced by “Kimota!” (“Atomic!” misspelled backwards), and Miller kept right on going.

Imitation is the sincerest form of survival. By the way, British comics historian Denis Gifford was once a Marvelman artist. [Marvelman ©2001 the respective copyright holder.]

because of Marvel Comics’ trademark on the name “Marvel” (which in the ’70s had forced DC to call its own CM revival Shazam!), the names of the British heroes had to be changed to Miracleman, etc.

What is less well-known, however, is that Marvelman and Family also appeared in Brazilian comics through the 1950s, where they shared the pages of Captain Marvel’s own comic—which (as revealed in Alter Ego, Vol. 3, #1) outlasted the US version by some years with new, post-Fawcett stories. In fact, the Marvelman group often stole the cover away from Cap! On occasion even Cap’s magic word “Shazam!” was used rather than their own word “Kimota!” In Brazil, by the way, the heroes’ names were Jack Marvel and Jack Marvel Jr.—but I’ve never been able to discover the Brazilian name for Kid Marvelman (who did not appear that often).

While the stories had little of the whimsy and humor of the original, they were popular enough to be published weekly for several more years.

Many covers and panels were direct swipes from earlier Fawcett material.

As most modern-day fans know, the story doesn’t end there, since in the early 1980s a British magazine named Warrior brought back the Marvelman Family in a bizarre reworking of the original concept, with the writing of the yetto-be-famous Alan Moore. Not long afterward, the Marvelmen were After the final English issue of their Fawcett forebears, Cap and Junior brought stateside by metamorphosed into Marvelman and Kid Marvelman. The accompanying letter Eclipse Comics; but from the Editor appeared in the last Captain Marvel, wherein Junior often had the lead spot, with Cap Sr. bringing up the rear. Thanks to Roger Dicken and Wendy Hunt. [Captain Marvel Jr. ©2001 DC Comics.]

Also, we mustn’t forget that, in Alan Moore’s Miracleman stories, there were also a Miraclewoman and a Miracledog.

III. More Bundles From Britain But wait—there’s more!

Although I have not yet been able to track down the precise publishing history and dates, there was yet another, earlier British character actually called Miracleman... and he, too, was an imitation of the original Captain Marvel.

John Chapman, a young assistant to a police inspector, says the magic phrase “Sun Disc!”— while simultaneously touching a disk with concentric circles on his chest—to change into the adult super-hero Miracleman.

There are various coloring inconsistencies between the covers of the two issues I have, #11 and #13 (the interiors were black-&-white, remember); e.g., sometimes his arms and legs are bare, sometimes not.

In at least a few stories I’ve seen, this Miracleman had his own young assistant, a boy

The Over-extended Marvel Family who donned a special tuxedo, thereby gaining super-powers, and who went by the name of (I kid you not!) Supercoat! (DC’s evervigilant attorneys must have missed that one!)

Cover of Miracleman #11. [©2001 the respective copyright holder.]

It might be said that Captain Marvel had some sort of special resonance in both Brazil and Great Britain: in the former, because his career lasted over a decade longer than it did in the USA, and in Britain because so many imitations of him were published there.

Freddy Freeman, as Gifford reports: “Kind, elderly New York City newsboy Dan Watkins, formerly Fingers the arch-crook, has become Electroman thanks to a trip to the electric chair which went wrong.” All he had to do to change into a super-hero with

Besides Marvelman and Miracleman, there were a number of other English heroes who borrowed either his concept or artistic look—and I can’t promise that the list which follows is exhaustive:

According to Super Duper Supermen!, an early-’90s book from Britain’s Green Wood Publishing Company, with commentary by the late Denis Gifford: In 1951’s Masterman Comic (no “s”), the blonde do-gooder named Masterman, in his yellow-trimmed-in-black outfit, was “the only super-hero to wear a skirt.” He was actually “bespectacled schoolboy Bobby Fletcher,” who changed to the adult hero by rubbing his Ring of Fate to achieve “a loud ‘Pow!’” Art was by one Joe Colquhoun.

Captain Universe’s magic word “GALAP!” stood for Galileo (Master of the Galaxies); Archimedes (Master of Physics); Leonardo da Vinci (Master of Invention); Aristotle (Master of Philosophy); and Pythagoras (Master of Geometry). But somehow, “Galap!” never had quite the pinache of “Shazam!” [©2001 Arnold Book Company (London).]

Old Marvelman tales were redrawn as Captain Miracle exploits. [©2001 Mick Anglo Ltd.]

Captain Miracle, who had his own comic from Anglo Features circa 1960 (drawn by one Don Lawrence), was in reality Johnny Dee, the “youthful editorial assistant of the Daily Clarion.” Upon calling out the magic words “El Karim!” he changed into Captain Miracle. As Gifford phrased it: “If he had shouted ‘Kimota!’ he would have probably turned into mighty Marvelman, for Johnny was a reworking of old Fifties Marvelman strips.”

Masterman lasted twelve monthly issues before changing to Masterman Western; a few of his adventures were even printed in color. Incidentally, the “6d” (sixpence) price tag amounted to approximately one US dime... the same as American comics at the time. [©2001 United Anglo-American Book Co./Streamline (London).]

15

Captain Universe (“the Super Marvel”),

by Mick Anglo—a real name, or more likely a play on Michelangelo?— appeared in 1954.

Gifford again: “When Jim Logan of the United Nations Interplanetary Division... shouted ‘Galap!’ electronic impulses from outer space vibrated through him” and he became the super-powered “King of the Spaceways.”

Electroman, star of Electroman Comics circa 1951, was a switch on both Billy Batson and

electrical powers was to stick his finger into an electric socket! (And wouldn’t Fredric Wertham have had a field day with that one!)

There were far more characters named “Captain” in British super-hero comics than even in American ones, where that military title was easily one of the most popular components of a super-hero’s name. Gifford’s 1991-92 book also featured shots of non-CM-imitators Captain Crash, Captain Vigour (Strongman of Sport), and Captain Zenith. (In America, the most common color found in a hero’s name back in the Golden Age was green; some early fandom wag once suggested that the ideal 1940s super-hero would have been named The Green Captain!)

IV. Captain Of The Vacuum Tube And, speaking of captains, here’s an American one that most fans have never heard of: Former Fawcett executive Editor Will Lieberson later became a publisher himself. He exploited the growing popularity

Electroman’s art had a strong C.C. Beck influence. Denis Gifford reported that King-Ganteaume Productions, which packaged it and Masterman, was “a studio said to have been set up on their severance pay by two former GIs. Certainly, their storylines and dialogue teemed with authentic American comic-book slang.” [©2001 Scion Ltd. (London) and George Turton (London).]

Hail, Hail, The Gang’s All Here

23

Part II:

The

Hail Hail The Gangs All Here!

Chronicles

by Roy Thomas [WRITER/EDITOR’S NOTE: Our premier installment, in V3#6, related how in 1980 I left my writer/editor position at Marvel Comics after fifteen years to become a contractual writer for DC Comics, with one of my first projects there being All-Star Squadron.

[Actually, V3#6’s offering was only the first half of the article I wrote. It had to be truncated to make room for other features, so this issue’s chapter is in truth the latter half of that chapter. At any rate, onward:]

I. If Three’s A Crowd, Then What The Hell Is This?

possible exception of George Pérez, who wants to draw everybody)?

There were good and sound reasons why super-hero groups to date had never contained more than eight or nine members, and usually seven or fewer.

To me, however, the above problems were merely challenges. I wanted to try something different—a comic where the concept and the group were more important than the heroes appearing in any individual story. As I’ve often said, I thought of All-Star Squadron from the outset as a tapestry, weaving together disparate threads of an epic story—some of which had been published before I’d been born.

I’m a bit fuzzy on details, but I believe I outlined most of the above to editorial director Joe Orlando on that first DC-related trip back to New York City. And I was basically told, “Fine, go to it.”

I suppose the sprawling concept of a group composed of any and all DC super-heroes appealed to me because, with the JSAers having been handled by various writers over the past nigh two decades, this was my chance to start something both old and new under the sun.

To the best of my recollection, I was originally told that Len Wein (who’d been my associate editor at Marvel, and had succeeded me in ’74 as editor of the color comics) would be my editor on the sword-andsorcery mag which became Arak, Son of Thunder, while Dick Giordano would edit All-Star Squadron.

Just as there had never been a real Timely/Marvel super-hero group during the World War II era until I’d dreamt up The Invaders retroactively in 1975, so there had never been a DC story or series in which so many heroes took part.

It’s fairly easy, of course, to see why there hadn’t been!

The number of potential heroes in such an assemblage was simply too large to be manageable, in the usual sense of the word.

DC Coming Attractions was a four-page promotional publication sent to retailers. #54 spotlighted R.T.’s two upcoming series, All-Star Squadron and Bloodwolf, Son of Thunder (changed at the last minute to Arak). The Rich Buckler-Dick Giordano splash art for Squadron (with Jerry Ordway inking the rest of the insert) would be printed in JLA #193, with an incongruous Shining Knight shown as a JSAer in December 1941, and Starman noticeably absent; in A/E V3#6 we showed a “corrected” version, inked by Ordway. Bloodwolf/Arak pencil art by Ernie Colon. [©2001 DC Comics.]

In the Real World, such a superumbrella organization as I invented for All-Star Squadron would make perfect sense. Soldiers in an army, after all, are often numbered in the millions, and no one complains except the enemy. But in a comic book, readers might well get so confused by the welter of names and costumes and super-powers that they’d find no one to identify with.

Besides, what artist would want to draw such a huge group (with the

Whether this remembrance is accurate or not, by the time things got rolling the assignments got switched around. Dick would edit my DC answer to Conan the Barbarian, and Len would oversee my WWII superhero comic. Which probably made more sense.

II. Captain Of My Fate

Much as I would have liked to be also the editor of the DC comics I was to write (I’d had some success in that area at Marvel over the past decade and a half, after all), I didn’t waste my breath arguing the point in 1980.

You see, over dinner with Jenette Kahn one night in 1975, soon after she’d become DC’s publisher, she had made her views clear to me: She

24

The All-Star Chronicles It couldn’t be put formally into a contract, I had been told, but I was assured before I signed on that the storylines and direction of the new sword-and-sorcery and Golden-Age-related comics would be basically under my control, and that the editors would be there to help me, not to tell me what to do. Having considerable respect for both Len Wein and Dick Giordano, I made no complaint.

Now, whether Joe or Jenette or coordinating editor Paul Levitz ever got around to filling in Len and/or Dick on this supposed unwritten limitation of their editorial prerogatives, I couldn’t say. Matter of fact, I hope to discuss precisely that point with them next issue. It wouldn’t exactly be the first time there was “a failure to communicate” in the comic book field, would it?

III. Who’s In, Who’s Out? And so I set to work developing All-Star Squadron.

Ye Writer/Editor does some All-Star Squadron “research” aboard a World War II submarine circa 1980-81. Roy’s friend Alan was producing a TV commercial to be shot on the sub, which was temporarily anchored some distance out in Los Angeles Harbor. So for an hour or two they rummaged about on the vessel, the only people on board. The TV commercial? ‘Twas for a submarine sandwich, what else? [Photo by & ©2001 Alan Waite.]

didn’t like the “writer/editor” situation then common over at Marvel, because, she said, nobody could do a good job both writing and editing a comic.

“Oh, I totally agree!” I’d replied cheerfully. “That must be why Stan Lee, Al Feldstein, Harvey Kurtzman, Simon and Kirby, Charlie Biro, Will Eisner, and so many other writer/editors produced such lousy comics.”

I had been too modest (yeah, sure) to point out that I had been both writer and editor of many of my comics stories she said she admired... and had been virtually a de facto writer/editor on many of the others, as she well knew.

I had explained to Joe that I wanted to get the JSA (including the four honorary members) and even the Seven Soldiers temporarily out of the picture at the outset of the series, so that the nucleus of the new group could be a handful of super-heroes who hadn’t appeared together before.

However, since “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,” I wanted two JSAers—Hawkman and The Atom—to be prominent in the Squadron.

Hawkman, after all, had been the Justice Society’s chairman for most of its original run, and was the only hero who appeared in all 55 Golden Age JSA stories. He was also my favorite member.

The Atom was right behind him, having missed only two meetings; besides, having been small as a kid, I’d always identified with the Mighty Mite, as I did with Quality’s Doll Man. Atom would be a lightweight in the Squadron, since his super-powers weren’t scheduled to kick in till 1948; Hawkman could at least fly, as long as he wore his belt of Ninth Metal.

Jenette and I had never discussed the topic again. It was a case of two different philosophies, and neither of us was ever going to persuade the other to his/her point of view.

Besides, I wanted a permanent “JSA presence” in the Squadron, and the two of them would give it. And, just because I always thought of him in conjunction with Hawkman and Atom, I added Dr. Mid-Nite to the first story arc, too. Green Lantern, Flash, Spectre, Dr. Fate, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, et al. would gravitate in and out of the comic, later, once the group was firmly established.

In 1980 she had offered me a three-year contract to write for DC—and I had accepted, because if I weren’t going to be allowed to be a writer/editor any longer at Marvel, due to policies and ambitions of the new regime, I might as well cast my lot with DC and see what happened. I had just turned forty, and still had a lot of productive years ahead of me. I might be a writer/editor again yet, for all I knew.

And anyway, the important thing to me was never whether my name, or Stan Lee’s, or whoever’s, was listed as “editor.” What I wanted, always, was simply the authority to guide the contents of comics I wrote, so I could tell the stories I wanted to tell and make certain that the artist—with as much leeway for creativity as I could give him/her—did a good job on the illustrations.

And in that respect, DC had done well enough by me.

Actually, DC would have preferred that I downplay Hawkman, Atom, GL, Flash, Wonder Woman, and any other JSAers who had Earth-One counterparts... not to mention Aquaman and Green Arrow. (“Dopplegangers,” they began calling them during the 1980s.) I was willing to go along with this dictate, at least until I could figure a way to get around it, but still I pushed for Hawk and Atom. And DC’s powers-that-be went along with me.

So, who else should be in the Squadron?

“Give me Liberty Belle—or give me death!” was Roy’s cry in 1980-81. This Chuck Winter-drawn splash is from her second adventure, in Boy Commandos #2 (Spring 1943). [© 2000 DC Comics.]

Well, I wanted (and probably needed) at least one female member, especially if Wonder Woman were to be de-emphasized.

All-Star Compendium

31

A Few More Corrections to the All-Star Companion Installment No.

by Roy Thomas

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Because it seems that errors minor and/or occasionally major will inevitably sneak into virtually any publication, no matter how hard one tries to bar the door, we’ll be dedicating a page or so in each of the next few issues of A/E to corrections to The All-Star Companion—and, in some cases, to addenda which are not corrections, but just additional information. Last issue listed the mistakes and omissions I myself noted before others had pointed any out to me in the printed copies. Here are a few additional errors and additions, mostly ferreted out by other eyes and hands. As before, this page has been laid out to match the style of the Companion, so that it can, if desired, be cut out and inserted therein for easy reference. Whether or not you then purchase a second copy of A/E to replace the mutilated one is a matter between each reader and his/her conscience. Page numbers below refer, of course, to the corresponding pages in The All-Star Companion. —R.T.] P. 12: Jerry Bails informs me he was 15 (not 13, as stated) when he drew the splash illo based on a Junior JSA message.

P. 18: Not a real error, but fan-historian Rich Morrissey says his colleague Martin O’Hearn (who analyzes writing styles in Golden Age comics) deduced that “The Secret of Hunter’s Inn” in Batman #18—one of the tales Mike W. Barr mentions as, er, borrowing liberally from an Ellery Queen mystery—was by Joe Samachson, who wrote many a DC story back then. Apparently even Samachson’s actual script turned up eventually! Just thought you might want to know.

P. 26: Rich also doubts that Ed Dobrotka actually inked Wayne Boring’s Superman strips, as stated, saying the inking often credited to him was done by a combination of Boring himself and Stan Kaye.

Anybody else know anything about this?

P. 26 (again): Rich (again): “I think the idea of Ben Flinton and Bill O’Connor ‘writing and drawing interchangeably’ was made up by someone too lazy to figure out which was the writer and which the artist.

Most of the other evidence indicates that O’Connor was the writer and Flinton the artist. I’ve never heard of any writer-artist team in comics ‘writing and drawing interchangeably’ (with the possible exception of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.)”

P. 35: Rich (yet again!): “A minor quibble... but while Batman’s butler on Earth-One was indeed Alfred Pennyworth, the Batman of Earth-Two... the one who was an honorary member of the JSA... had a butler named Alfred Beagle.” Good point, Rich!

P. 44: We forgot to mention that a second “Evil Star” would pop up as a Silver Age baddie in Green Lantern #37 back in the 1960s.

P. 54: Morrissey returns: “Not only was EC’s International Crime Patrol reminiscent of a non-powered JSA; it was produced mostly by the same people! Gardner Fox wrote all the stories Martin has seen, and the artists were largely JSA veterans Sheldon Moldoff, Stan Aschmeier, and Joe Gallagher... I wouldn’t be at all surprised if [publisher] Bill Gaines deliberately tried to keep together what had been a P. 23: Ulp! Charlie Roberts informs we misread his note on a 1926 cartoon he sent us from one of Major Wheeler-Nicholson’s magazines; the one we printed wasn’t by later All-Star editor Whit Ellsworth, and he has no idea who “Inky” was. But Ellsworth did draw the one pictured here! Didn’t he, Charlie?

Didn’t he? [©2001 the respective copyright holder.]

successful team at AA for the intended flagship of his new EC series.” While the foregoing doesn’t correct an error in our entry on the ICP, we share Rich’s view that it and the Fox-Moldoff Moon Girl deserve reprinting along with the EC “New Trend” and “New Direction” mags. But don’t hold your breath.

P. 58: As Rich also points out, we didn’t mention all the places where Wonder Woman’s origin from All-Star #8 has been We had hoped in the Companion to print at reprinted; but then, we were least one piece of art by every artist who ever worked on a Golden Age JSA story in concerned mainly with listing All-Star, but a few got squeezed out: Joe reprints of JSA material, and the Giella (who inked one chapter of #50); first WW tale had no connection Bernie Klein (Dr. Fate in #12); Arthur with the group. Since The AllCazeneuve (an inker in #18); Chad Star Companion came out, there’s Grothkopf (who probably drew Sandman in #3-4); Hal Sharp (Flash in #5); Pierce Rice even been a Millennium Edition (who penciled chapters in #14 and #18)— of All-Star #8! and Ed Dobrotka, who drew Starman in #15P. 61: Fan/collector Dan 16. Here’s a Dobrotka panel from the former. [©2001 DC Comics.]

Makara asks: “Has anyone noticed that [the Hawkman figure on] the cover to All-Star #11 (June-July 1942) is actually a re-pasted photocopy of the [figure on the] cover of Flash Comics #27 (March 1942)? On the former Hawkman bops a Japanese soldier; on the latter it’s a thug. Same pose.” A photocopy—or perhaps artist Sheldon Moldoff simply used the same pose.

P. 73: “Shelly” Moldoff himself informs us: “The Hawkman splash panel [in All-Star #17] was done by me, pencil and ink... and exactly as it is reproduced. It drove [editor Sheldon] Mayer nuts when I deviated from the script and broke up the pages, or combined panels. [Gardner] Fox loved my handling of his scripts, but Mayer did not appreciate being usurped. Walking around the office in his riding boots and carrying a crock... Mayer’s personality is something that has nothing to do with his accomplishments in the early days of the comic book. However—don’t underestimate M.C. Gaines’ influence in comics.” Thanks, Shelly. Still, if you squeezed what had to have been written as at least a 6-page “Hawkman” chapter into four pages in #17, it almost certainly had to be at Mayer’s direction, because the magazine’s page count had abruptly dropped by a signature (16 pages) from #16. Otherwise, a 4-page

32

All-Star Compendium

is a playing card, and/or the “Hawkman” chapter in #17 name of the actor in the role, would never have been done!

Jack Nicholson.”

(We’ve written Shelly asking P. 172: Mike W. Barr him if he recalls anything noticed that we spelled the more in this connection. name of the famous fictiWatch this space!) tious detective Inspector P. 98: Reader John Austin Maigret two different ways queries by e-mail: “Could on this page.

And Rich the ‘Gurney’ [a title on a Morrissey rears his head a magazine rack in the “Atom” [©2001 DC Comics.] final (but welcome) time in chapter of All-Star #29] be Page 138: On the final page of All-Star #36 there’s mention of a drug called “habis this “All-Star Compendium” the Gurney Seed Catalog? I indica” which is blamed for “deadening a man’s conscience.” to add the info that, “ironigrew up visiting my grandLink Yaco e-mails us: “There is a drug with a similar name; however, it is not cally enough, [All-Star #57 parents, who always had a terribly rare. CannABIS INDICA is the Asian variety of marijuana. Is it possible that author] John Broome would copy of a Gurney catalog Gardner Fox was a bohemian hipster? I can’t picture him listening to jazz and ‘blowing in a few years have the lying about. Catalog and vetch’ (as the slang of the era had it), but if he lived in New York, it would have been opportunity to write the company have been around hard for him not to have bumped into at least some fragments of Greenwich Village adventures of the ‘real’ for 130 years.” Perhaps sub-culture. Every music club in town in those days featured musicians who were sneaking puffs of cannabis backstage.

Charlie Chan... in a shortartist Jon Chester Kozlak lived DC title” and “would was a gardener as well as a “Ten years previously, in 1937, marijuana had been criminalized. There was a also chronicle another fishing enthusiast? government-sponsored publicity campaign to spread awareness of the dangers of the drug. In those days the South American variety—Cannabis Sativa—was not distinfamous detective of fiction, P. 103: Back to the guished from the classical variety, Indica, so all publicity referred to it as ‘Cannabis Nero Wolfe, in a licensed ubiquitous Rich Morrissey: Indica.’

Consequently, it is possible that Fox picked up the phrase as a youth.

His newspaper strip.”

“Gardner Fox’s records may encyclopedic mind seemed to retain anything of obscure and exotic interest. The P. 181: This isn’t really be safe and secure, but a botanical Latin name for the newly illegal drug from Asia might have made an an error, either, but Jim friend who visited the Fox impression.

Lawless informs us that the Collection [at the University “Incidentally, ‘indica’ is an old Latin modifier meaning ‘of or pertaining to India.’

1942 Hawkman JJSA code of Oregon in Eugene] a year One must bear in mind that in the classical world India and Asia were synonymous. message given there from or so ago couldn’t find That convention of naming stuck for millennia, which is why Indo-China was used for All-Star #14, when decoded, those index cards.” the area around Vietnam, and why the American inhabitants were named Indians. To this day we have collections of islands named the West and East Indies, which have reads: “YOU CAN ALSO P. 109: Contrary to Fox’s nothing to do with India.

Indonesia also derives its name from the convention of HULP WIN THE WAR BY letter reproduced only six calling all things exotic and far-eastern...

INDICA.” COLLECTING SCRAP pages earlier, “November Lots to ponder there, Link—although it still seems at least as likely to have been METAL AND RUBBER.” 1945” is given here as his John Broome (or even Robert Kanigher) who scripted that part of All-Star #36 as it The “HULP,” Jim opines, date for writing “The Will was Gardner Fox. More on that on page 34! “must have been deliberately of William Wilson,” rather misspelled in order to throw off the Nazis!”

Clever, that Shelly Mayer! than the correct September of ’45. I somehow got it mixed up with the P. 185: Jerry Bails points out a credit boo-boo: “While many JLA date he gave for “The Peril of the Paper Death.” covers in the 1960s were penciled by Sekowsky and inked

by Anderson, P. 121: Due to a last-minute glitch, the famous Bettmann Archive, there are also some (particularly JLA #21) that are Murphy all the way.” source of our Genghis Khan illo, got misspelled “Bettman.” I knew Sniffle!

I never had seen much Sekowsky in that supposed “Sekowskybetter, honest!

Anderson” cover art; but I relied on a source that had it down wrong— P. 134: Rich the Morrissey tells us that writer Cary Bates once gave and even repeated the goof last issue in A/E! Never again, Murph, I The Wizard’s real name as “Frederick P. Garth,” in a story that revealed swear it! how Superman and Lois Lane had gotten married. That has no bearing P. 189: In JLA #123-124—covered also in A/E V3#7—we said the on whether, in 1946-47, Gardner Fox intended “W.I. Zard” to be the “evil Cary Bates” forced the Injustice Society to kill the JSA. Actually, villain’s real name or merely an alias, of course. he forced the JLA to try to kill the JSAers, who were disguised as the P. 148: We accidentally typed “Kanigher” for the writer of the AllInjustice Society at the time. A small but real distinction, pointed out by Star #40 page depicted there; we should have said “Broome,” as duly Tim Scotty. credited on the preceding page.

P. 197: The same eagle-eyed Tim reminded us that Adventure Comics P. 168: Also, while concurring that Prof. Napier in All-Star #36 was wasn’t cancelled after #466 (not that we said it was); it merely shrank to probably named after Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Carson (Napier) of Venus, Rich M. asserts that both writers could have taken the name from “Jack regular thickness and dropped the JSA, among other features. Adventure Napier... the actual name of the Scottish mathematician who invented stuck around till #503, with its last thirteen issues printed digest-size. logarithms and a calculation device with the delightfully Jokerish name P. 200: Glen Echelberger e-mails us that the JSA appeared in John of ‘bones.’” Rich points out that The Joker was named Jack Napier in the Byrne’s Wonder Woman #130-133, not #131-134.

1989 Batman movie and the 1992 cartoon series, “but that name more likely came from the word ‘jackanapes,’ the fact that a Jack (like a Joker) Be here next issue for another “All-Star Compendium”!

in this issue...

no. 67

Jerry Ordway

Plus:

Marc Swayze C.C. Beck Peter Krause

*

*

Pencils: Jerry Ordway / Inks: P.C. Hamerlinck / Mary Marvel Š2001 DC Comics

We Didn’t Know... It Was The Golden Age!

39 but a year at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts translates to this mind as university-type freshman coverage of the basics. Five years’ experience as a member of a large art department in a top publishing house is not to be sneezed at, but the magazines were not comics. In the 1930s there were no comic books as we know them, save for a few that cropped up near the end of the decade. Singlepanel gag cartoons used in some Fawcett magazines were generally purchased from independent specialists, not from staff.

So it appears that Captain Marvel got his start at the hands of writer/editor Bill Parker and a young family man with somewhat unimpressive training and experience... in a brand new, untried field of publication.

by (c) mds

[Art & logo ©2001 Marc Swayze; Captain Marvel ©2001 DC Comics]

[FCA EDITOR’S NOTE: From 1942 to 1953, Marcus D. Swayze was one of Fawcett Publications’ top comic book artists. Marc was the first to bring Mary Marvel to life on the drawing board, but he was primarily hired to illustrate (and write) Captain Marvel stories. After returning from military service in World War II, he freelanced from his Louisiana home, where he produced art and stories for The Phantom Eagle in Wow Comics and a wealth of material for Fawcett’s romance comics; he also drew Bell Syndicate’s Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip, created by his mentor and friend Russell Keaton.

Marc’s ongoing professional memoirs have been an important part of FCA since his first column appeared in issue #54, 1996. Last issue he provided his thoughts on the earliest Captain Marvel art, the Tom Tyler-Captain Marvel connection, and the art style of Charles Clarence Beck. In this issue, Marc further discusses the Captain Marvel art before he came on board at Fawcett, and Beck’s style and simple approach to storytelling. —PCH] It’s funny... for about four of his most formative years, I wrote and drew stories and illustrated magazine covers featuring the super-hero Captain Marvel. Yet only recently did I see for the first time the story of his origin by Bill Parker and C.C. Beck, as published in Whiz Comics, February 1940, by Fawcett Publications.

I’ve been reviewing that story, and others that appeared in Special Edition Comics #1 in the summer of that same year, hoping to learn more about the 1940 C.C. Beck and his art style.

Toward that end I have been fortunate in having had on hand reproductions of those stories, beautifully printed on quality paper and likely re-colored by the publisher, in Shazam! From the 40s to the 70s (1977) and The Shazam! Archives, Vol. II (1999, from DC Comics).

The selection of Parker would have been made by executive editorial director Ralph Daigh.

When time came to choose an artist, Daigh would have turned to the director of the Fawcett art department, Al Allard. I’ve read where Parker and Beck were introduced when the partnership was formed.

“Captain Marvel slamming a sedan into a brick wall is about as humorous as anything...” 1940: The First Issue of Whiz Comics, art by C.C.!Beck [©2001 DC!Comics]

It may be a mistake to label C.C. Beck’s training as limited,

I wonder what Beck thought of all this. Having been yanked off a movie magazine for this project meant he had been arranging page layouts, the same as the rest of the art department.

Film mags used photos, not drawings. Now he was on an assignment that meant nothing but drawing. Was he happy?

My money says yes. He had the God-given talent to draw... and he knew it. It was, he has said, the one thing he knew he could do best. His love of drawing is Cover of 1940 Special!Edition Comics #1, C.C. of such evidence that, in that Beck’s Classic (Recreated by C.C. in 1981) first story, I’m confident that [©2001 DC!Comics] when he got the job going hot and heavy, you couldn’t have dragged him from the drawing board with a bulldozer. Believe me... C.C. Beck was happy!

Although Whiz Comics of February 1940 opens with the origin of Captain Marvel, my quest concerns the origins of the Beck art style.

Why, and how, when publishers, editors, and schools must have been looking right and left for the likes of Foster and Raymond, did this artist emerge with the kind of drawing that might have come along with the Katzenjammer Kids?

It was a gradual development. Things were tried and changed and kept or abandoned... the obvious indecision between the pen and the brush, for instance. The

Marc Swayze &!C.C.!Beck, Fawcett Art Department, Paramount Building,!New York City, 1942. (Entire photo published in FCA #54, 1996)

42

Once In The Dear, Dead Days Beyond Recall

Art ©2001 estate of C.C. Beck; Comics Characters ©2001 DC Comics

Once In The Dear Dead Days Beyond Recall

by C.C. Beck Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck [FCA presents another previously unpublished essay by Captain Marvel’s chief artist, C.C. Beck. It was written in January 1987 at his residence in Gainesville, Florida. By that time, illustrating proved to be quite difficult for C.C., as his eyesight had diminished greatly; he began devoting even more time to writing and penned a great deal of material throughout most of the ’80s up until his death in November 1989.

Many of these unpublished works by C.C. Beck will continue to be featured in each edition of FCA. —PCH] Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if people lived for hundreds of years instead of for just a few decades. We then might be entertained by seeing on our televisions an interview with Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo.

They would be asked to demonC.C. Beck at the 1982 Orlando Con. strate how they created the Mona Lisa or the Pieta by whipping out a five-minute recreation of their masterpieces for viewers, starting with a blank canvas or a block of marble and, like gourmet chefs, ending with the completed project, perfect in all details.

They would be greeted with loud applause and cries of wonder and delight from the studio audience.

I have been at comic conventions where Jack Kirby, Carl Barks, and other old professionals of comics (including myself) have been forced to stand on a stage with a magic marker and re-create on a sketch pad (placed on a wobbly easel) our most famous comic characters. Needless to say, none of us did ourselves much of a favor; our drawings were pretty horrible. The public never wants to be told that comic characters can not be dashed off with a few quick strokes of a pen but must be slowly and carefully worked out with pencil and eraser, brush and India ink, and with a great deal of thought and planning. The public also does not want to hear about all the years of experience and hard work, luck, and the help of many others that go into the creation of successful comic characters.

Again and again I have been asked how I created

Captain Marvel, the World’s Mightiest Mortal, back long ago in those dim, legendary years of the Golden Age. When I explain that I didn’t create him but only brought him into visual form, they’ll ask, “Then who did create him?”

“Captain Marvel was really created by Fawcett, his publisher,” I explain. “Bill Parker wrote the first story featuring Captain Marvel, and I supplied the illustrations. The story and the drawings were made to specifications given to us by our editorial department and art directors at Fawcett.

Neither Parker nor I received any credit at all at the time. Parker and most of the others involved have now faded into obscurity, leaving only me alive to tell the true tale of Captain Marvel’s birth and untimely death a few short years later.”

“What killed Captain Marvel?

Was he put to death by Superman’s publisher?” people ask.

A preliminary sketch for a 1980 cover re-creation painting of Whiz Comics #4 by Beck. [Captain Marvel ©2001 DC!Comics]

“Not directly,” I reply. “The super-hero comic characters had

“We’re All Part Of This Brotherhood”

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“We re All Part Of This Brotherhood” Jerry Ordway interviewed by P.C. Hamerlinck [The Power of Shazam! graphic novel and subsequent same-named, short-lived series of the ’90s by Jerry Ordway marked the return of the Marvel Family and the revival of many old Fawcett characters. A professional in every sense of the word, the artist and writer provided me with the background and creative processes that went into The Power of Shazam! —PCH] PC: How did your involvement begin with Shazam!?

JO: It began with my desire to do a self-contained project with some sort of shelf life. At the time, DC’s Jonathan Peterson had already gotten John Byrne to commit to a quarterly Shazam! book, but Byrne quit after a dispute.

PC: And that’s when you expressed interest in doing a Shazam! graphic novel?

JO: Yes. DC was anxious to get the character back into comics, having recently purchased all rights from Fawcett of their characters. (DC now has free reign to do what they want with the Fawcett characters, including not publishing them!) When I got the Shazam! assignment, Peterson wooed me with the idea of painting the book, as well as packaging it as a hardcover.

He loaned me a copy of the Captain Marvel 1941 Republic serial, and then I was really hooked! I watched the serial several times before I started laying out the graphic novel, and I ran it on the TV in my studio while I was working on the book. I wore out the tape!

my approach with the C.C. Beck/Otto Binder material. I just felt that I didn’t want to try to walk in Beck’s shoes, as others had tried. Beck’s work was very pure, and had a life to it that was truly amazing. He was a very well rounded artist. He embraced a cartoony style that Roy Crane and others popularized in the thirties, and I love that stuff. I never had any illusions about Beck liking my own approach to Cap. I had to accept that right away and do my own thing.

I knew that despite my stylistic difference, I could produce a product that would, in all modesty, make the Captain look good. While I am sympathetic to the past, my goal was to modernize the concept, from a ’40s Fawcett comic to ’60s-era Marvel Comics (which I read as a teen and where I was inspired by the works of Joe Sinnott, John Buscema, Jack Kirby, and many others). I was later thrilled to learn that Stan Lee himself said he really loved the graphic novel.

PC: So when you came up with your Shazam! proposal to DC, the Republic serial influences were already present, as well as the art deco look that you incorporated?

Ordway’s title page for the 1993 graphic novel, done in the style of an old movie poster. [©2001 DC!Comics]

PC: The serial’s influence showed in the first part of the graphic novel.

What aspects did you enjoy about the Republic serial?

JO: I liked Republic’s handling of the superheroics. I liked the fierceness in Tom Tyler’s portrayal of Cap. Tyler had the right look, and the stunts were great.

PC: Did C.C. Beck’s original version of Captain Marvel ever come into play while you were conceptualizing the project?

JO: I needed a source for Captain Marvel that wasn’t C.C. Beck’s version, which I wasn’t capable of emulating, nor did I want to. I liked the character ever since I saw him in the Steranko’s History of Comics, Vol. 2, and later the revival in 1973, but I never thought I could mesh

JO: DC gave me permission to dump everything and start fresh. The graphic novel was to be a complete story, and structured like a movie of Captain Marvel, with four acts. The first act was inspired by the serial, set in Egypt.

The art deco aspect came from my own interest in the style, as well as a logical way of establishing Fawcett City and creating a city frozen in time.

PC: Let’s cover the techniques used for the graphic novel. The cover and inside title page were painted—the interior was painted yet outlined in black ink. What led to the decision of combining the two mediums and how did you go about it?

JO: It would have taken way too long for me to paint the entire story in opaque. I combined linework with watercolor dyes because it was the look I wanted: comic drawings, with color shading. I first drew all the art in ink, then made copies of the art before I painted the watercolors on the original pages. That way, if DC wanted to, they could later release it in a cheaper, standard comic format for those who couldn’t afford the hardcover edition. (Instead, DC went with a trade paperback format for the more affordable reissue, keeping the interiors the same but adding a different cover). Incidentally, the very first thing I did on the graphic novel was the title page, which I had hand-lettered to look

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Jerry Ordway Interviewed something like an old John Wayne movie poster.

starring other heroes such as Plastic Man, Batman, etc., in an attempt to beef up Power of Shazam! sales?

PC: Did you have some favorite Golden Age Fawcett stories prior to working on the graphic novel?

JO: I wanted to use those guest-stars because I enjoyed the way Captain Marvel played off them. Also, I wanted to show DC how Cap should be an integral part of their universe.

JO: I liked the first Black Adam story from Marvel Family #1, and the Capt. Marvel/Spy Smasher crossovers from Whiz Comics.

“I liked the fierceness in Tom Tyler’s portrayal of Cap.” Tom Tyler as Captain Marvel, Nigel deBrulier as Shazam in Republic’s 1941 movie serial The Adventures of Captain Marvel, an important influence on Ordway when starting work on the Power of Shazam! graphic novel.

[Captain Marvel ©2001 DC Comics]

PC: Did you have any favorite DC versions of Captain Marvel?

JO: C.C. Beck and Kurt Schaffenberger were the best Shazam! artists. Don Newton was very good on the later stories. I’m still not sure about Alex Ross’ version. As for writers, I thought E. Nelson Bridwell had a good handle on the characters. I actually liked what Denny O’Neil did too, despite what Beck felt. Elliot Maggin, however, was horribly miscast. I liked Roy Thomas’ “Shazam!” stories which he did in DC Comics Presents.

PC: Many purists were annoyed by some of the cosmetic changes you made, such as Mary’s costume changing from red to white, the diamond designs on Captain Marvel’s cape, and Captain Marvel Jr. referred to as “CM3.”

JO: Mary’s costume changed to white as sort of a tribute to her mother’s costume from the alternate universe story. I felt changing it to white would give her more of her own identity. Junior’s name was an attempt to give him something he could mouth without causing his transformation. As for those diamonds, Joe Quesada had drawn Cap’s cape like that once and I kind of liked it.

PC: I know old fans were happy to see Mr. Tawny again, but were surprised to see him drinking beer. Also, there were some who didn’t care for Ibis portrayed as such a bored old fellow.

Billy meets the Stranger (who turns out to be his father, C.C. Batson) at the subway prior to receiving The Power of Shazam! Art by Ordway, from the graphic novel.

[Billy Batson ©2001 DC!Comics]

JO: Originally Mr. Tawny was going to be handled utilizing the Calvin and Hobbes concept, but when it was time for the series, I used the movie Harvey as a template, making Dudley the Jimmy Stewart character in that film. Who better to see a talking tiger than someone who’s had too many beers? Since I grew up in a tavern (my mom owned one when I was a youngster) I was able to use stuff from my memories in the background. As for Ibis, my take on him was that, in theory, he was the most powerful of the JO: After writing the scripts, I had bunch, with that Ibistick of his. plenty of time to spend on each of With those great powers, why the covers. Normally, I’d spend a hadn’t he done more? He was an week on each, but not full days. I underachiever who grew bored had the luxury of tinkering with with all the power, so he would them until I was happy. The Statue hibernate for years on end, waiting of Liberty cover printed horribly for things to change enough to be dark. The one with Billy and Mary interesting to him again. I know on their parents’ backs was a Ordway wrote the animated-style Captain Marvel adventure this didn’t sit well with some of the “The Scarab Necklace” for Superman &!Batman Magazine #4, Spring 1994. favorite of mine too, though easily older fans, but I thought it was a Art by Mike Parobeck &!Rick Burchett. [©2001 DC Comics] the one that gave me he most valid way of portraying an trouble; I wound up doing that immortal. mostly in opaque paints, because I painted over the watercolor parts I PC: I appreciated your homages to the Marvel Family creators of the didn’t like. Again, I had time to fiddle with each cover. I tried to get DC past, with their names popping up in the background on buildings, to do a card set or a poster book of the covers, but it fell on deaf ears. street signs, etc. Were these last minute additions, or did a script say, for Their marketing department was focused elsewhere. DC always does example, to put “Raboy” on the side of a truck? things to the exclusion of everyone else. That’s just the way things are.

PC: The Power of Shazam! series was noted for your exquisitely painted covers. I particularly enjoyed the great cover featuring your ode to Master Comics (Power of Shazam! #8), the fine Raboy-like cover depicting Captain Marvel Jr. flying past the Statue of Liberty (Power of Shazam! #14), and the outstanding cover of Billy and Mary on the backs of their parents (Power of Shazam! #26). How long would it take to create a cover, or did it vary?

PC: Were there any Shazam! stories that you wrote which you are especially proud of?

JO: Penciler Peter Krause added a lot of those, but occasionally I would specify them.

JO: My favorite one was the alternate universe story where the Batson parents were alive and part of the Marvel Family.

PC: Comment briefly on the talent who worked with you on Power of Shazam!.

PC: Was it an editorial decision, or your decision, to write scripts co-

JO: Peter Krause is a great guy, and one of those artists who can draw