Alter Ego #101 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Roy Thomas’ Foxy Comics Fanzine

7.95

No.101

In the USA

May 2011

WHO’S AFRAID OF

VICTOR FOX? STARRING: EISNER • IGER BAKER • FINE • SIMON • KIRBY TUSKA • HANKS • BLUM et al.

82658 27763

EXTRA! THE GOLDEN AGE OF

JACK MENDELSOHN

Edited by ROY THOMAS The greatest ‘zine of the 1960s is back, ALL-NEW, and focusing on GOLDEN AND SILVER AGE comics and creators with ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS, UNSEEN ART, P.C. Hamerlinck’s FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America, featuring the archives of C.C. BECK and recollections by Fawcett artist MARCUS SWAYZE), Michael T. Gilbert’s MR. MONSTER, and more!

2011 EISNER AWARD Nominee Best Comics-Related Journalism

Other issues available, & an ULTIMATE BUNDLE with all issues at HALF-PRICE!

ALTER EGO #90

ALTER EGO #91

DIEDGITIIOTANSL BL AVAILA

ALTER EGO #87

ALTER EGO #88

The sensational 1954-1963 saga of Great Britain’s MARVELMAN (decades before he metamorphosed into Miracleman), plus an interview with writer/artist/co-creator MICK ANGLO, and rare Marvelman/ Miracleman work by ALAN DAVIS, ALAN MOORE, a new RICK VEITCH cover, plus FRANK BOLLE, Part 2, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

First-ever in-depth look at National/DC’s founder MAJOR MALCOLM WHEELERNICHOLSON, and early editors WHITNEY ELLSWORTH, VIN SULLIVAN, and MORT WEISINGER, with rare art and artifacts by SIEGEL & SHUSTER, BOB KANE, CREIG FLESSEL, FRED GUARDINEER, GARDNER FOX, SHELDON MOLDOFF, and others, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #92

ALTER EGO #93

ALTER EGO #89

HARVEY COMICS’ PRE-CODE HORROR MAGS OF THE 1950s! Interviews with SID JACOBSON, WARREN KREMER, and HOWARD NOSTRAND, plus Harvey artist KEN SELIG talks to JIM AMASH! MR. MONSTER presents the wit and wisdom (and worse) of DR. FREDRIC WERTHAM, plus FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) with C.C. BECK & MARC SWAYZE, & more! SIMON & KIRBY and NOSTRAND cover! (100-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #94

BIG MARVEL ISSUE! Salutes to legends SINNOTT and AYERS—plus STAN LEE, TUSKA, EVERETT, MARTIN GOODMAN, and others! A look at the “Marvel SuperHeroes” TV animation of 1966! 1940s Timely writer and editor LEON LAZARUS interviewed by JIM AMASH! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, the 1960s fandom creations of STEVE GERBER, and more! JACK KIRBY holiday cover!

FAWCETT FESTIVAL! Big FCA section with Golden Age artists MARC SWAYZE & EMILIO SQUEGLIO, and interviews with the FAWCETT FAMILY! Plus Part II of “The MAD Four-Color Wannabes of the 1950s,” more on DR. LAURETTA BENDER and the teenage creations of STEVE GERBER, artist JACK KATZ spills Golden Age secrets to JIM AMASH, and more! New cover by ORDWAY and SQUEGLIO!

SWORD-AND-SORCERY, PART 3! DC’s Sword of Sorcery by O’NEIL, CHAYKIN, & SIMONSON and Claw by MICHELINIE & CHAN, Hercules by GLANZMAN, Dagar by GLUT & SANTOS, Marvel S&S art by BUSCEMA, KANE, KAYANAN, WRIGHTSON, et al., and JACK KATZ on his classic First Kingdom! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, STEVE GERBER’s fan-creations (part 3), and more! Cover by RAFAEL KAYANAN!

(NOW WITH 16 COLOR PAGES!) “EarthTwo—1961 to 1985!” with rare art by INFANTINO, GIL KANE, ANDERSON, DELBO, ANDRU, BUCKLER, APARO, GRANDENETTI, and DILLIN, interview with Golden/Silver Age DC editor GEORGE KASHDAN, plus MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, STEVE GERBER, FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), and a new cover by INFANTINO and AMASH!

“Earth-Two Companion, Part II!” More on the 1963- 1985 series that changed comics forever! The Huntress, Power Girl, Dr. Fate, Freedom Fighters, and more, with art by ADAMS, APARO, AYERS, BUCKLER, GIFFEN, INFANTINO, KANE, NOVICK, SCHAFFENBERGER, SIMONSON, STATON, SWAN, TUSKA, our GEORGE KASHDAN interview Part 2, FCA, and more! STATON & GIORDANO cover!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital edition) $2.95

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #95

Marvel’s NOT BRAND ECHH madcap parody mag from 1967-69, examined with rare art & artifacts by ANDRU, COLAN, BUSCEMA, DRAKE, EVERETT, FRIEDRICH, KIRBY, LEE, JOHN and MARIE SEVERIN, SPRINGER, SUTTON, THOMAS, TRIMPE, and more, GEORGE KASHDAN interview conclusion, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, and more! Cover by MARIE SEVERIN! (84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #96

Focus on Archie’s 1960s MIGHTY CRUSADERS, with vintage art and artifacts by JERRY SIEGEL, PAUL REINMAN, SIMON & KIRBY, JOHN ROSENBERGER, tributes to the Crusaders by BOB FUJITANE, GEORGE TUSKA, BOB LAYTON, and others! Plus an interview with MELL LAZARUS, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, and more! Cover by MIKE MACHLAN! (84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #97

ALTER EGO #98

ALTER EGO #99

The non-EC Horror Comics of the 1950s! From Menace and House of Mystery to The Thing!, we present vintage art and artifacts by EVERETT, BRIEFER, DITKO, MANEELY, COLAN , MESKIN, MOLDOFF, HEATH, POWELL, COLE, SIMON & KIRBY, FUJITANI, and others, plus FCA , MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, and more, behind a creepy, eerie cover by BILL EVERETT!

Spotlight on Superman’s first editor WHITNEY ELLSWORTH, longtime Krypto-editor MORT WEISINGER remembered by his daughter, an interview with Superman writer ALVIN SCHWARTZ, art by JOE SHUSTER, WAYNE BORING, CURT SWAN, AL PLASTINO, and NEAL ADAMS, plus MR. MONSTER, FCA (FAWCETT COLLECTORS OF AMERICA), and a new cover by JERRY ORDWAY!

GEORGE TUSKA showcase issue on his career at Lev Gleason, Marvel, and in comics strips through the early 1970s—CRIME DOES NOT PAY, BUCK ROGERS, IRON MAN, AVENGERS, HERO FOR HIRE, and more! Interview with 1950s Timely/Marvel editor AL SULMAN (“personal associate of STAN LEE!”), MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), and more!

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital edition) $2.95

Vol. 3, No. 101 / May 2011 Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck

Comic Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

Editorial Honor Roll Jerry G. Bails (founder) Ronn Foss, Biljo White Mike Friedrich

Proofreader

NOW WITH 16 PAG ES OF COLOR!

Rob Smentek

Cover Artist

Contents

David Williams

Cover Colorist Tom Ziuko

With Special Thanks to: Rob Allen Heidi Amash Bob Andelman Henry Andrews Ger Apeldoorn Jim Beard Robert Beerbohm John Benson Dominic Bongo Bill Bossert & Ulla Neigenfind-Bossert Glen Cadigan Dewey Cassell Mike Catron “Tim Comic” Chet Cox Al Dellinges Leonardo De Sá Michaël Dewally Jay Disbrow Don Marstein’s Toonopedia Jules Feiffer Michael Feldman Shane Foley Stephan Friedt Janet Gilbert Grand Comics Database Ernesto Guevara David Hajdu Jennifer Hamerlinck Heritage Comics Archives Daniel Herman/ Hermes Press

Allan Holtz/ “Stripper’s Guide” Sean Howe Bob Hughes Greg Huneryager Paul Karasik Denis Kitchen Richard Kyle Susan Liberator Edgar Loftin Jim Ludwig Richard & Pat Lupoff Bruce Mason Jack Mendelsohn Brian K. Morris Frank Motler Will Murray Jake Oster Ken Quattro Barry Pearl Matthew Peets Gene Reed Tony Rose Eric Schumacher Darci Sharver David Sim Desha Swayze Marc & June Swayze Daniel Thingvold Dann Thomas Dorothy Tuska Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Greg Whitmore David Williams cat yronwode

Writer/Editorial – A Fanzine Is As A Fanzine Does . . . . . . . . 2 The Education Of Victor Fox. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Richard Kyle’s acclaimed 1962 look at Fox Comics—and some reasons why it’s still relevant!

Superman Vs. The Wonder Man 1939 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Ken Quattro presents—and analyzes—the testimony in the first super-hero comics trial ever.

“Cartooning Was Ultimately My Goal” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Jim Amash commences a candid conversation with Golden Age writer/artist Jack Mendelsohn.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! The Mystery Of The Missing Letterer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Michael T. Gilbert begins his quixotic quest in search of classic Spirit letterer Abe Kanegson.

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #160 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 On Our Cover: Recently, alert reader Greg Whitmore sent us a commission drawing done for him by pro artist David Williams, who has drawn such features as Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight and X-Men: First Class (though not Spider-Man, as we mistakenly wrote last issue). Ye Editor contacted David, who was kind enough to pencil and ink a grouping of 1940s Fox Comics heroes for us, complete with a nice angle on the most aesthetically pleasing of the company’s logos. To contact David, see p. 74. [Blue Beetle & Phantom Lady now TM & ©2011 DC Comics; art of Wonder Man, The Flame, Samson & David, & Rulah ©2011 David Williams.] Above: Okay, so Blue Beetle and Phantom Lady are the longest-lasting heroes launched by Victor Fox’s 1940s line… and The Wonder Man raised the first super-hero brouhaha as early as ’39—but in the last few years it’s been the mysterious and unique artist Fletcher Hanks and his creations, especially “Stardust,” who’ve caused the biggest stir, seven decades after the fact—thanks to a pair of books by Paul Karasik (as noted on p. 17). So we decided Stardust belonged on our contents page. Thanks to Paul for this panel from Fantastic Comics #11 (Oct. 1940). Believe it or not, the hoodlum above was still alive in the next panel! [©2011 the respective copyright owners.]

Alter EgoTM is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: 32 Bluebird Trail, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Eight-issue subscriptions: $60 US, $85 Canada, $107 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. ISSN: 1932-6890 FIRST PRINTING.

writer/editorial

A Fanzine Is As A Fanzine Does M aybe, as we begin our second hundred issues, it’s finally time to answer the musical question: Exactly what is a “fanzine,” anyway—and does this third volume of Alter Ego really fit the description? Let’s start out with a trio of definitions:

Wikipedia: “A fanzine (portmanteau of ‘fan’ and ‘magazine’ or ‘-zine’) is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleasure of others who share their interest.” www.messageinabox.tacticaltech.org/glossary: “A small-circulation print publication of original or appropriated texts and images usually reproduced via photocopier on a variety of colored paper stock, made by people who are not professional magazine book publishers but want to communicate their passion for the subject.” Vet.com’s encyclopaedia: “Fanzine is slang for a cheaply produced specialist magazine.” Alter Ego certainly passes most (though not all) of those tests. “Nonprofessional”? We’ll have to get back to you on that one. “Nonofficial”? We’ve got that well covered. We’ve no axe to grind either for or with Marvel, DC, or any other company, past or present.

So why did I keep the word “fanzine” when reviving A/E in 1998?

Because I wanted to communicate that the spirit of a fanzine—a term coined circa 1940-41 by a nascent science-fiction fandom and adopted by comics fandom in the early ’60s—was alive and well. We think it still is— even if we try to combine that spirit with a genuine interest in historical scholarship beyond pure fannishness.

Look at Richard Kyle’s “Education of Victor Fox,” from a 1962 sf fanzine. He had nothing but his own memory and a few moldering Fox comics to draw on, yet made it far more than just a nostalgia piece, which is why it’s reprinted here—albeit with 2011 captions to relate a bit of what we’ve learned in the past half century. (And although it merely made me determined to carry a true Fox Comics history in A/E sometime soon!) As for Ken Quattro’s study of the 1939 DC-vs.-Fox lawsuit, I suspect few if any writers could’ve done a better job analyzing that case, providing context related to Victor Fox and other participants. Ken had also helped bring the testimony to light, yet he originally approached the subject as a fan of Will Eisner—and he published his first findings on his blog The Comics Detective, the online equivalent of a fanzine. And he did it without even the slight profit motive that TwoMorrows and I have.

“Fans of a particular cultural phenomenon”? Yep—of comic books in general—and heroic comics in particular.

(That’s another aspect of some definitions of “fanzine”: that it shouldn’t be intended to turn a profit. By those lights, A/E and indeed most comics fanzines lost their virginity back in the 1960s.)

“Small-circulation”? A relative term. The recent DC incarnation of Infinity, Inc. sold just a few times better than an average A/E issue.

So, with your indulgence—I think Alter Ego will go on using the appellation “fanzine” through issue #200.

“Want to communicate their passion for the subject”? Yeah, that’s us.

Bestest,

“[C]heaply produced”? Well, “cheap,” too, is a relative term. So A/E passes muster in most areas—till you get to that matter of “nonprofessional.” TwoMorrows, though a small-press publisher, sells some of its product in regular bookstores. And of course neither Michael T. Gilbert, Jim Amash, nor I can be considered “nonprofessionals” in the comics field.

P.S.: In light of the above, it’s ironic that we must offer our apologies to Bill Schelly that the conclusion of his interview with 1960s fan-artist Rudi Franke had to be delayed till next issue, due to the volume of Fox coverage. Our letters section, too, had to be bumped.

COMING IN JUNE

102

THE EMERALD SPOTLIGHT FALLS ON

GREEN LANTERN —TWICE!

• Cover featuring the Green Lanterns of two eras! Previously unpublished drawings by 1940 co-creator MART NODELL—and 1959 co-creator GIL KANE (inked by TERRY AUSTIN)! • MART NODELL tells his story in his own words, with unseen art (and no, we haven’t forgotten BILL FINGER & SHELLY MAYER)! WILL MURRAY relates the creation of the Silver Age GL by GIL KANE, JOHN BROOME, & JULIUS SCHWARTZ! • Rare GL art and artifacts by INFANTINO • REINMAN • HASEN • ADAMS, et al.! • JACK MENDELSOHN on Ziff-Davis, Panic, Mad, Jackys Diary, et al.—Part II of the interview conducted by JIM AMASH! • BOB (Archie creator) MONTANA & the model for BETTY COOPER—by SHAUN CLANCY! · Plus—FCA—MICHAEL T. GILBERT’s Comic Crypt—RUDI FRANKE Part II by BILL SCHELLY (at last!)—& MORE!! Edited by ROY THOMAS DC Green Lantern TM & ©2011

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The Education Of Victor Fox Number Eight In The Series “All In Color For A Dime” (1962) by Richard Kyle

A/E

Editor’s Introduction: As I stated back in A/E #20’s extensive coverage of Dick & Pat Lupoff ’s landmark science-fiction/comics fanzine Xero and its seminal comics history/nostalgia series “All in Color for a Dime,” Richard Kyle’s article “The Education of Victor Fox” in Xero #8 was in many ways the best of the lot. And that’s going some, since it had competition from “AICFAD” pieces written by Don Thompson, Ted White, Jim Harmon, and Lupoff himself, among others. Most amazing about Kyle’s piece was the way it carried you along with it even while, by his own admission, the author was making deductions on the fly about a little-known, long-defunct comics company and its enigmatic publisher. When I finished reading the article that day in 1962, I felt as if I’d been given a guided tour of both Fox Comics—and the devious mind of its somewhat shady head honcho.

In the second half of the ’60s, when I’d become a Marvel writer and editorial assistant, I learned from production manager Sol Brodsky that he had once worked for Victor Fox. I loaned him my copy of Xero #8 and suggested he read its article on Fox Comics. He did—and he told me a few days later that he felt Richard Kyle had captured what Sol felt was the essence of both seedy publisher and seedy comics company. It was high praise—for a considerable accomplishment. For all the reasons suggested above, I decided that, even though Bill Schelly had reprinted the vintage study in his trade paperback Comic Fandom Reader (Hamster Press, 2002), “The Education of Victor Fox” should be re-presented in the pages of Alter Ego, just as originally published— though with beaucoup art from the original comics, while the 1962 version was accompanied only by a few mimeographed drawings. It would be reprinted not simply as an example of primo comics nostalgia from nearly a half century ago—for I could easily add tidbits from the mound of information learned about Fox Comics since 1962—but as a blueprint of how to write stirringly and evocatively and even informatively about a comics line and its chief puppeteer— even if you have zero inside information and are simply inferring from a handful of decades-old comics to which you happen to have access. How to write that way, that is… if you happen to be Richard Kyle. —RT. 2011 Introduction by the Author: Sometime in late 1961, on a warm day in a small town on the edge of the California desert, a Post Office truck pulled up in my driveway. The driver beeped his horn, called out, “Got something for you, Richard!” and dropped a cardboard box in my arms. A couple of months earlier, I had seen a review of Xero, a new

The Quick Bruns Fox Victor Fox—or rather, his roman à clef dopplegänger “Vincent Reynard” in Will Eisner’s 1985 graphic novel The Dreamer—eyes a house ad from Mystery Men Comics #10 (May 1940) which showcases Fox Comics’/Bruns Publications’ brightest stars plus a few minor asteroids. As to which of these stalwarts is represented by “Heroman” on the poster behind Reynard, the answer is: none of the above. For his secret identity, see Ken Quattro’s article “Superman vs. The Wonder Man 1939,” which begins on p. 27. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [Dreamer art ©2011 Will Eisner Studios, Inc.; Fox art ©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

science-fiction fanzine that also published articles on old comic books, and had immediately sent off for a sample copy. It arrived with surprising swiftness. A subscription and a long fan letter to Dick and Pat Lupoff, its editors and publishers, were in the mail the next day. Until that copy of Xero 4 arrived, I had no idea of how much I missed comic books. Like a lot of adults, I’d stopped reading them after EC Comics closed up shop in the face of Comics Code Authority censorship. Now Xero had made me realize how much I’d loved them— trashy, sensational, or merely great. Dick’s response to my first letter was to ask for an article on the Fox Comics line—I’d reminisced about the early issues of Wonderworld

Richard Kyle’s Classic Study from Xero #8 (1962)

Comics with their covers and stories drawn by “Basil Berold”— and to arrange for Cleveland comics fan, collector, and dealer Bill Thailing to ship me all the Fox issues that he had in stock.

Barbecued Fox (Left:) Richard Kyle in 1961. Reprinted with permission from Bill Schelly’s 2010 study Founders of Comic Fandom. (Above:) Under the pen name “Jim Moriarty,” Richard provided several illustrations for “The Education of Victor Fox” in Xero #8 in 1962—including the above fanciful “Fox barbecue party,” which was accompanied by this legend: “Who’s who at the bar-b-cue: With Green Mask looking on, ‘News’ Blake (with pipe) and ‘News’ Doakes (with cigarette) decide who’ll be the Mask’s aide. Pipesmoking Blake clearly has the inside track. In the background, Samson and Joan Mason, Blue Beetle’s girl friend, return from a firewood hunting expedition. While Blue Beetle jealously awaits Joan, Domino (clutching a bottle of pop from a case he’s just filched at a deserted soft drink stand nearby), the Green Mask’s boy assistant, miffed because the Beetle has been upstaging them in Mystery Men Comics, tries to conk him on the head with his boomerang. As usual, it goes astray, and Green Mask is going to get it in the neck again. At the barbecue, the Flame, his Flame Gun set on full automatic, is attempting with little success to get the charcoal burning. Meantime, Rex Dexter of Mars, tempted beyond human endurance, prepares to give the Flame a hotfoot. That bright star shining above the Flame heralds Stardust the Super Wizard, who is travelling as usual on highly accelerated light waves. Stardust is in a quandary. He has perceived Dexter’s dastardly intent but he left his Hotfoot Extinguishing Ray at home, and his allpurpose Fire Extinguishing Ray would put out the barbecue as well. Decisions. What’s for barbecue? Fox, of course....” [Art ©2011 Richard Kyle.]

It was a curious experience, going through that box of comics. More than twenty years had passed since I’d seen a lot of them. Some I remembered with photographic accuracy. Some I didn’t remember at all. The drawing by “Basil Berold” (actually, the great Lou Fine) was everything I remembered and more. But then, I now remembered, he had left Fox Comics and “The Flame” after only a few issues, and a very different line of Fox Comics had emerged. And that left me with a problem.

For a time, I didn’t know what to write. Except for those earliest issues, I couldn’t write a nostalgia piece. And how did I tell about what I’d found in that box? Then, as I stared at the pile of yellowing magazines, I realized that I wasn’t looking at a stack of old comic books. I was looking at a man’s life. I’ve corrected a grammatical error, deleted two or three excess words, and fixed a few typos. Otherwise, “The Education of Victor Fox” is as it appeared in Xero 8 for May 1962. —RK.

omewhere among the backwaters and bayous of the comic world must stand an old false-fronted shack, roofless, broken-windowed, almost tumble-down now, overgrown with weeds and musty with decay. Hanging precariously above the sagging front door will be a faded and checkered sign: “Fox Feature Syndicate, Victor S. Fox, Owner & Prop.” If you go inside, pushing your way through the weeds and the empty cola bottles and mildewed premium coupons and broken cameras and rusty cap guns, you will find heaped against one of the far corners, and interrupted now and again by taller, wider, Esquire-sized magazines, a ragged stack of old comic books—none of them well preserved, not even the newest issues. In fact if you thumb through them, you will notice a peculiarity of the climate here. Only the older magazines are in passable condition, the newer ones are the ones that smell of decay. By now, you’ll probably have seen enough to satisfy you. You’ll edge your way back to the door and watching the sign doesn’t drop on you you’ll shake your cuffs and then you’ll go on your way You shouldn’t. You should stay a while. Something important happened here…

I. In April 1939, just a few days short of one full year after Superman had picked up his first automobile, Fox Publications, Inc., issued Wonder Comics, the pilot model of the Fox chain, shortly to become Wonderworld. By the end of 1941 Victor Fox was publishing a string of nine comic books, had placed one of his heroes on radio coast to coast, was competing monthly with Esquire in a men’s magazine featuring such writers as Jerome Weidman, Chester B. Himes, and Irving Wallace, and was energetically promoting a “new thrill” soft drink containing vitamin Bl. Offhand, you’d say Victor S. Fox was a success. Wonderworld certainly was, anyhow. At a time when most comic book art was cartoonish, Wonderworld’s feature, “The Flame,” was rendered with a skill and style that has seldom been surpassed—maybe it never has. And mixed in with the usual hack work of the period were such strips as “Yarko, the Great – Master of Magic,” “Spark Stevens – of the Navy,” and “Dr. Fung – Master Sleuth of the Orient,” all substantial secondary features. None of them were great characters, and only the Flame was a memorable one—but the other day, when I came upon them after an absence of more than twenty years, I recalled each one with a fidelity that nostalgia alone cannot evoke. A world that is gone came back to me. It was the eleventh issue, March 1940…. The cover, of course, was by

The Education Of Victor Fox

And, naturally, the cover caption reads: “Clinging to the wing-tip the Flame unleashes a blast of fire.” Well, they managed to be half-right this time, anyhow.... The back cover is almost as interesting. It’s the Johnson Smith & Co. advertisement. A lot of times that ad meant the difference between putting down a dime for a comic book or waiting a couple of weeks or a month and borrowing it from a friend, or—if he hadn’t bought it, either, because the ad was old or not there at all—trading for it two for one at Chick’s or Dave’s or Chester’s Magazine Exchange down on the avenue, where in that heyday of the pulps they had every kind of magazine you could name. (Including the Spicy series of pulps, which Chick or Dave or Chester wouldn’t let you look at.) DIVING U-boat SUBMARINE … Only $1.19 … Powerful … Dives or Rides On & Under Water … Adjustable Diving Fins … Ice Breaker Rudder … Adjustable Ballast Chamber … Realistic Gun … Conning Tower & Periscope … Grey Color with Trimmings … 10½ Inches Long… A real beauty … Zips Along On Top Of the Water, Will Dive or Raise Itself and Travels Under Water By Its Own Powerful Motor … All Metal... FIELD GLASSES … 25¢ … Live CHAMELEON … BUILD FLYING PLANE FROM CHEAP PARTS … Fly

A Fine Romance It’s well known today by aficionados that the “Basil Berold” who drew the “Flame” story in Wonderworld Comics #11 (March 1940), as well as this cover, was none other than the brilliant Lou Fine—who’s seen at right in a photo taken by his friend and fellow artist Gill Fox, circa 1942. In the early ’60s, however, few comics fans knew Fine’s name—but he’d long been a legend among his fellow professionals, though he had long since abandoned comics for advertising. Thanks to the Grand Comics Database (see ad on p. 78). For more on Fine, see especially A/E #17. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

the illustrator of “The Flame.” His name was given as Basil Berold, and because it is a curious name, it may have been his real one. (Most of the pseudonymously drawn Fox strips were signed by good old Americansounding names, no matter what the artists really called themselves. Floyd Kelly, Charles Nicholas, and Arthur Dean were, at one time or another, actually George Tuska, Larry Antoinette, and S.R. Powell.) As usual, the cover was marvelously complex and beautifully rendered. In the upper-left, the Flame, clad in his skin-tight yellow uniform and the distinctive red mask that fitted snugly over his eyes and head, his red, calf-length boots striding in the air, his red cape billowing behind him, dangles by one gauntleted hand from a chain thrown over the side of his speeding airplane as it roars through the logotype. In his free right hand, drawn from its red, cylindrical holster is the massive Flame Gun. It spews out a great comber of fire at two enemy soldiers and at the fanciful but grimly realistic cannon-sized weapon rearing up between them, its stubby muzzle trained full on the Flame’s chest and on the flame symbol there. One of the men, in the cap and brass of an officer, futilely levels a ponderous hand gun on the Flame’s mid-section; the other, crouching desperately below the searing fire, attempts—frantically—to manipulate the controls of the weapon. In the background, other soldiers, infantrymen, race toward him across the smoking, barbwired battlefield, rifles at the ready—and a metallic-blue enemy plane circles in toward the kill.

Live Chameleons, Anyone? This Johnson Smith ad took up the entire back cover of Wonderworld Comics #9 (Jan. 1940)—and the one Richard Kyle mentions from #11 wouldn’t have been much different. These ads lasted in comics for several decades. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert for the scan. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Richard Kyle’s Classic Study from Xero #8 (1962)

“Why? Because of Rodend’s fire cannons?” “Exactly! Nothing can stop them! Asbestos burns like thunder before them.” “I know just the one to stop them.” Maria clenches her fists. “The Flame!” “The Flame? What do you mean?” “Listen,” Maria says, “I’ll tell you his story....” Twenty-five years ago in the Chinese city of Ichang, close by the Yangtse River, a son was born to the Reverend Arnold Charteris and his wife. In season, the river became a flood, and Charteris, knowing the end was near, placed his son in a basket, put a small locket around his neck, and set his makeshift cradle upon the water.

I Just Want To Start A “Flame” In Your Heart Since, in his article, Richard Kyle is doing an exemplary job of recounting the “Flame” tale in Wonderworld Comics #11, we figured we’d show you “Basil Berold’s” splash panel from two months earlier: issue #9. The Grand Comics Base lists the scripter as future Spirit writer/artist/creator Will Eisner. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Your Own Plane! Books of plans telling how to build a low priced plane from junkyard parts. 10 lesson Flying Course Ground School. Price 25¢. Johnson Smith & Co would sell you anything your childish mind could conceive of. And in the very small print some things it couldn’t. DANCE HALL TO WHITE SLAVERY … Thousands of white girls are trapped into white slavery every year. Explains in vivid detail true stories of devilish schemes to lure innocent young girls. Price 25¢. LIVES OF HOTCHA CHORUS GIRLS … 10¢. Yes, the Johnson Smith & Co. advertisement was always in the back of your head when you plunked down your dime. A new ad must have been looked forward to eagerly by every publisher in the business.... The inside front cover listed the winners of a recent contest—the early Fox comics had contests at the drop of a beanie—and Norma Richerson, Box 86, Hardesty, Oklahoma, was the first-prize winner. Across from this announcement was the first page of “The Flame”…. “The Flame’s” flash panel, embellished with a medium-sized “The” in script and a huge “lame” in-a vaguely Eastern style of lettering, a noncommittal “by” and an Old English “Basil Berold”—as well as a minor forest fire of flames and a bust drawing of the Flame himself—contains the legend: “Greedy for power and territory, King Rodend, ruler of the tiny Balkan country of Kalnar, sends his forces against the peaceful kingdom of Dorna, an act that threatens to throw the entire world into war....” And then the story begins. It is not the usual Flame story of giant metal man-carrying spiders attacking New York and climbing through the city as though it were a collection of twigs, or of an invasion of supertanks capable of boring their way through any obstruction; this one tells of his origin as well—and even the eight-panel page of the time (today’s six-panel page was not yet standard) allows little elbow room for the usual dramatic complications. I’m going to tell it to you, however, for it could serve as a virtual template for the early Fox comics. And what fascinated us, in another time, should always interest us, now. At intelligence headquarters in the capital of Dorna two uniformed figures pace the floor: an elderly, white-burnsided man, tall and erect; and a young and beautiful blonde girl. Wearily, the man turns to his companion. “I’m afraid, Maria, that our forces haven’t a chance.”

After hours of tossing and bobbing on the swirling current, the tiny basket, swept swiftly along through the raging storm, suddenly disappeared into a small cavern opening. Into the murky depths it sped, finally coming to a country overrun with exotic flowers and plants growing in wild confusion. “I hear a baby’s cry! It comes from that basket in the river! By Tao! It’s a baby! Sent by the gods to succeed our recently deceased Grand Lama!” Picking up the foundling, the Buddhist priest hurried to his lamasery. “Look, Brethren! Heaven has given us a new leader!” The child grew into manhood. For hours, he jousted and wrestled with the other youths, strengthening his naturally powerful body; and in feats of magic, too, his prowess far excelled that of his teachers. One day, a band of explorers, one of them Maria, stumbled upon the Utopian valley. “May I see that locket you are wearing?” a visitor asked the High Lama. “W-why, it contains a picture of the Reverend Charteris! Remember him, James? He was drowned in the flood—say, this must be his son!” Two hours later, after they had spoken to the priest who found the child, young Charteris was called to the old man’s study. “Your place is in the outer world, my son! You must go! Tonight I will reveal to you my most potent secret of magic—tonight, you will be given the power over flame!” That night a great procession filed its way from the palace, led by the son of the Reverend Charteris, still clad in the blue robes of the High Lama. Behind him, at the head of the train of monks, the old priest walked, bearing a golden ceremonial cushion. Striding between two jade pillars, from whose crests burned twin white flames, they ascended to a broad marble dais lying at the feet of a massive, towering green Buddha. The priest kneeled upon the golden cushion and gestured, and as layers of smoke began to form in the air about them, young Charteris removed his robe of office and stood waiting for his trial and investiture. The old man raised his arms. Charteris—clothed in white fire, entwined in the layers of curling smoke—soared upward above the face of the huge idol. Transfigured, he grew larger and larger, until he dwarfed the priest below him. Green rays of energy burst from the staring Buddha, and for a time, Charteris became one with the flame. Then it was over. Power greater than any other man’s was his. He was the master of flame.... The next day the old man and his pupil exchanged farewells. “My son, you leave us armed with potent mystic powers—use them for good!” “It will be so!” Maria concludes her story, “So you see, the Flame is the one man who can help us! He will do as I ask....” Suddenly the door is thrown open and a tall, muscular man strides

The Education Of Victor Fox

“You rang, sire?” “Poke up that fire—it’s getting chilly in here.” As the old man stirs up the burning logs, the Flame, arms crossed over his chest, materializes from out of the crackling blaze. Rodend and his man-servant fall back in fright. “What do you want?” screams Rodend, drawing his heavy automatic pistol. “I have come to give you your due!” The Flame tears Rodend’s pistol from him as though he were an awkward child, and like a pneumatic hammer, his gauntleted fist pounds at King Rodend’s face. “Spare me! I beg of you. I will do anything you say, anything!” “All right, here’s what I want you to do....” Early the next morning at intelligence headquarters in Dorna… “Maria! Maria! King Rodend has ceased fighting and....” “I know—here’s a note from the Flame: ‘Glad to have helped. Don’t hesitate to call on me when you need help to overcome evil….’” And the story is over. In those nine Osterized pages, blending together chunks and pieces of Shangri-La, the story of Moses, the theory of reincarnation, technologically isolated super-scientific weapons, mythical European kingdoms, magic, and mysticism, are a whole dead world. The world before World War II. Today, the story seems uninspired and centuries away; then, it evoked an array of aging but powerful and contemporary symbols, our final compromise with the 19th century and its simultaneous belief in science and magic, democracy and autocracy, romanticism and realism— and in the symbol of the Flame it evoked, too, less gracefully, less felicitously than Jerry Siegel’s conception of Superman and his origin, the new and idealistic symbol of the 20th century.

A Brightly Burning “Flame” Actually, Berold/Fine had been good right from the get-go, as witness this page from Wonderworld #4 (Aug. 1939), also courtesy of our “Comic Crypt” maestro. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

It is easy to laugh at the superficial, paper-doll images of the men who

into the room. “Flame!” Maria cries. “I came as soon as I received your message.” Told of the power of Rodend’s fire cannon and Dorna’s inability to stand before them, the Flame agrees to help. Running out to his plane, he leaves for the front immediately. Small fire guns are brought up as he dives over the trenches, and the enemy attempts to burn him from the sky. The Flame passes through unharmed. Fastening a chain to the fuselage, he climbs out on the wing of his hurtling plane. “Here’s where you get a dose of your own medicine!” he cries, and grasping the chain, he goes over the side. The Flame hedgehops across the battlefield, swinging from the end of the chain, and Rodend’s soldiers begin to panic. The great Fire Cannon is brought into action: “Nothing can resist that!” The Flame dives toward it, and as the monstrous weapon roars, his own handgun looses a bolt of fire at its muzzle. And: “unable to find an outlet, the searing flames. expand, and the gun is blown to bits.” Landing in the midst of the smoking remains, the Flame lashes out with his fists. Rodend’s soldiers, dazed and frightened, cry for mercy, raising their arms in surrender. Soon the soldiers of Dorna take charge of his captives, and he wings his way toward the headquarters of the cruel King Rodend.... In his chambers, Rodend, a Hitlerian figure with a small mustache and a wild tangle of hair falling across his forehead, broods over his war maps. An aged servant enters.

C’mon, Baby, Light My Fire In the penultimate issue of Wonderworld (#30, Oct. 1941), the Flame finally got a partner—a female one. Eat your hearts out, Batman and Captain America! Art credited to Pierce Rice & Arturo Cazenueve. Thanks to Eric Schumacher. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Richard Kyle’s Classic Study from Xero #8 (1962)

Charlie Chaplin, in his most successful pictures, played a noble and honorable man who was a victim of circumstance. A king disguised by nature and a cruel society as a tramp, his low station in life and his inadequate body hid his real worth. The great pathos of those pictures was achieved by suddenly revealing that the wretched and laughable little figure on the screen was a man, just like you and me, who was doing the best he could in the shape and circumstances life had imposed upon him. City Lights, perhaps Chaplin’s finest motion picture, tells of his love for a blind girl, and of his efforts to obtain money for an operation on her eyes even though he knows that when she sees him she may reject him. For the blind girl only knows him for what he really is, for his kindness, his goodness, his innate nobility. She does not see the false picture of him the world sees and laughs at as he struggles through one ordeal after another to obtain the money her eyes need.

Pay No Attention To That Artist Behind The Curtain! In Wonderworld #9 (Jan. 1940), the “Yarko” strip is credited to “Anthony Brooks”—that probably pseudonymous artist’s only credit in the Who’s Who in American Comic Books 1928-1999 website listings. The Who’s Who lists the writer as Audrey “Toni” Blum (seen at right); this prolific scripter for the Eisner & Iger shop that produced much of the early Fox comics product was discussed by her later husband Bill Bossert in A/E #99. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert for the “Yarko” scan, and to Bill Bossert & Ulla Neigenfind-Bossert for the photo of Toni Blum. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

ran around in public in their long underwear yelling “Up, up and away!” and “Shazam!” and other inanities at the top of their lungs or sniffing hard water formulas or driving Batmobiles around as though they were Model A Fords or living “in the caverns beneath the New York World’s Fair”—or hedgehopping battlefields dangling from the bellies of airplanes while trying to pot the soldiery with revolver-sized Flame Guns. But it is not so easy to laugh at the hearts of these paper dolls. Most, like Raggedy Ann’s, had “I Love You” written on them. It may be that the popular literature of the ’30s and early ’40s is unique in history, for from the pulp magazines’ The Shadow and Doc Savage, through to Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, and the Flame, the heroes fought for idealistic beliefs of justice and right, and not for personal profit. Not even the folk heroes of the past can make that claim—the taint of personal interest clings to almost all of them. And it is the simplified world of the comic strip where symbols can artistically replace representative realism more easily and convincingly than any other story-telling medium, in which the Idealist reached his flower. Idealists are sometimes funny. Idealism never is. The measure of those brightly costumed refugees from the Charles Atlas ads is not their preposterous appearance, but their symbol as men with the power to satisfy any desire, satisfying their desires by doing good. It was naive of them, perhaps. I don’t think it was childish. The costume heroes brought another unique thing to the kids sitting out on the back stoop at home—or in the shade of the school cafeteria at lunch time—while they read comic books and talked comic books: Liberation. Mythologies and fairy tales have always placed a penalty on the possession of supernormal powers by men. Icarus fell. Cinderella tripped. But Superman never fell—and if he did, what difference would it make? Billy Batson might trip, sure, but a quick “Shazam” would get him out of trouble. For the first time in mass literature, physical liberation from the confines of the ordinary brought reward to the hero, rather than disaster. Coulton Waugh, in his history of the comic strip, takes up the masked costume hero and wonders: Why in the United States of America should “justice be hooded”? Like many others before and since, Coulton Waugh missed the point.

Trash, too, can use the materials of art. It is no accident that The Shadow was Lamont Cranston, rather than Lamont Cranston The Shadow. Nor is it an accident that Clark Kent was really Superman in disguise. They were the prototypes of their kind and the most nearly perfect in conception, and their message was not that this ordinary man concealed an extraordinary man but that this extraordinary man concealed an ordinary man—that the world did not commonly see the real person behind Clark Kent’s glasses or Cranston’s urbane but not unusual appearance. The costume and the masks revealed the real individual by hiding the superficialities of his day-to-day aspect, just as the girl’s blindness revealed the true character of the little tramp. ‘The Flame” was not a great strip—it was Berold’s marvelous gift for anatomy and garish realism that sustained it—and in its attribution of mystic well as scientific powers to the Flame the symbolism was weakened; nonetheless, when you were not quite ten and the spirit of things counted far more than their styles or even their content, it was something you looked forward to. It is far easier to criticize art than trash. Art appeals to the emotions and the intellect; trash appeals to one or the other, but never to both. Yet the perennial success of the over-intellectualized trash that passes for “literary” fiction and the enduring popularity of the over-emotionalized trash of writers like Gene Stratton-Porter, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jack Woodford, Zane Grey, and Mickey Spillane (and Chester Gould and Jerry Siegel) demand understanding; for sometimes the spirit of first-rank trash is more important than the content of second-rank art. And since with trash it is the spirit of the thing that counts—in the end, the only thing that counts—the customary standards of art criticism can never apply. If we want to see “The Flame” and the others for what they really were, we must understand, as we understood then, what they tried to be, not what they actually achieved, nor what we believe art might have made of them.... Magicians were very big in those days, too. There was Ibis the Invincible in Whiz Comics, and Zatara in Action—and Yarko the Great, who came right after “The Flame” in Wonderworld. Yarko had a time of it. He was usually pretty well drawn himself, but he often had to associate with as ill-drawn a crew of rascals as you could find anywhere. Even the police were out of proportion in the March issue, and I imagine it really offended Yarko, a fastidious dresser and a man who clearly believed a gentleman’s right arm should be as long as his left (but no longer). Apparently, Yarko himself was drawn by one artist—a man

The Education Of Victor Fox

with a speaking acquaintance with anatomy—and the rest of the strip was filled in by whoever was handy. I’d guess it was a big month for Yarko when his own artist would illustrate the rest of the strip, too. Despite his name, Yarko was an American-looking fellow, tall, with agreeable but otherwise undistinguished features. He completely lacked the department store dummy appearance of Mandrake, or the reputed ugliness of Warlock the Wizard in Nickel Comics. As I said, Yarko was a fastidious dresser. He wore a white tie and tails, a red cape, and an ochre turban with a blood-red gem in the center of it. When he went to bed he took off the cape. He was a rather fastidious talker, too. In this episode, “Captain Debit of the Homicide Bureau” calls on Yarko, and Yarko says, “Hello. To what may I credit your unexpected visit?” Well, Yarko may have been a magician, all right, but he was no seer. It seems an East Indian Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is attempting to find two jewels—the Twin Jewels of Blood—whose possession will give him reign over all India. One of the stones is traced to a gang of American thieves. After three or four of them are found dead, Captain Debit decides it’s time to request Yarko’s help because “I am the laughing stock of the town.” Yarko takes a look at the bodies and goes home to bed. After he has taken off his cape and gotten under the covers, white tie, tails, turban, and all, and turned out the lights, two East Indians attack him. It appears the other Twin Jewel of Blood—the Ada-La-Hoda—is in his turban. Yarko kicks them out of bed, knocking one headfirst into a large vase conveniently located at the foot. Then, through magic, he turns the other one upside down and makes him spin like a top until the police arrive. A few months later the Seventh Son of the Seventh Son gathers his people together once again. He is no quitter. “The famed Yarko has sent us the Ada-La-Hida, but he still possesses its sister. We must get it!” Yarko, who had returned the Ada-La-Hida because the sight of it killed any but the rightful owner, suddenly appears in a vision. “True!” he intones. “You are the Seventh Son of the Seventh Son of the Order of Aribah, but you have erred in your ways, and so your sire hath given you only the Ada-La-Hida! He entrusted me with the other, which I wear on my turban. Were you to be given the Ada-La-Hoda, you would become very powerful.... Power turns the heads of men. There would be eternal tumult in India. Make no further attempts to gain it!”

almost eaten by a thirty-foot earthworm, saves himself by gulping a little of the professor’s Enlarger Fluid, busts out of Gnu’s laboratory, grows a mile high, is struck by lightning, and is rained on until he shrinks (that’s what Professor Gnu needed all that water for), and finally soars off in a glider presented in appreciation for his accomplishments (“Gee thanks,” says Shorty). “Patty O’Day – Newsreel Reporter” follows. It was a nothing strip: “Death to ze American!” “Come on, I’ll lick the bunch of you!” “He’s unconscious!” “Good! Too bad he has fallen down this well! Ha-ha!” “You murdering beasts!” “We only follow orders!”.... Then, on page 32, where the modern comic book peters out with an ad for a blackhead extractor or a genuine cardboard “Frontier Cabin big enough for 2-3 kids” ($1.00 a cabin, 5 for $4.00), Wonderworld presented “Dr. Fung – Master Sleuth of the Orient.” The credit says “Arthur Dean”; actually it was drawn by S.R. Powell, an old-timer who took over The Shadow comic strip from Vernon V. Greene and who is still active today. Dr. Fung was a small, bald man, with a white mustache and goatee, and glasses that fell down over his nose. He was aided by Dan Barrister, a blond American considerably taller than Dr. Fung, who wore calf-length boots, blue riding breeches and jacket, a white shirt and a black necktie. In this episode, Dan had quite a time with that necktie. Right after a tough fight he had to strip it off and open his collar at the throat—to show he’d really exercised (kind of like old time vaudeville dancers who used to throw off their coats and roll up their sleeves to indicate they really meant business)—and then get it tied again and that tough collar button fastened again before the next panel. “Invited by his old friend Alzea Rapkut to inspect a mysterious pit,” the flash panel reads, “Dr. Fung takes Dan Barrister to his house in ancient Persia….” Well, you’d know it. The hole’s been there for years, but the minute they look over the side, “By Allah’s beard!” (as Alzea Rapkut puts it) the earth heaves and cracks open, throwing Dr. Fung and Dan Barrister headlong into the pit. They fall for hours. Then: “Dan! We’re slowing up! We’re beginning to float down! Someone is behind this!” Finally they fall into an enormous glass jar and are seized by green, apelike creatures with

The Seventh Son of the Seventh Son of the Order of Aribah looks properly convinced. Maybe because the vision of Yarko is as big as a house. Actually, this is a rather tame Yarko adventure. He once took on an army of men conceived up out of mandrake roots, and wrestled to the death with the astral body of a black magician while they were both hundreds of feet tall. Unlike the other comic book magicians, Yarko dealt largely in the metaphysical and the mystic, rather than in “simple” magic, and if the content was not often distinguished, the spirit was.... After Yarko came “Shorty Shortcake.” “Shorty” was signed by “Jerry Williams,” who was actually Klaus Nordling, the artist for “Spark Stevens” later on in the book. Although Shorty was drawn in the animated cartoon style of the time—a huge head with coat button eyes and shiny Rudolf Valentino haircut, a tiny body, and arms and legs like lengths of garden hose—there is a liveliness that comes from an understanding of the comic book medium. (If Basil Berold had a major fault, it was that he was primarily an illustrator, rather than a comic strip artist.) Although you’d never guess it, Shorty is in Guatemala this month on the trail of Professor Gnu who is a very sore, if not actually mad, scientist. Gnu has invented an H2O magnet which draws all of the waters of the countryside to his door. Shorty, who doesn’t want to pay a dollar a glass for a drink, heists the magnet, nearly drowns in the flood that follows, is captured by Gnu’s oversized carrier pigeon (“Carrier Pigeon - 40 x Normal Size product of Professor Gnu,” the sign on the birdcage reads), is

My Back Pages In 1962 Richard Kyle believed that Klaus Nordling was the artist of both “Shorty Shortcake” and “‘Spark’ Stevens” in Wonderworld Comics #9—but both there and in #11, from which the above scan was sent by Michael T. Gilbert, the writer and artist of “Shorty” (as “Jerry Williams”) would seem to be none other than S.M. (Jerry) Iger, one of the heads of Eisner & Iger. (For more of Nordling, keep reading.) [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Richard Kyle’s Classic Study from Xero #8 (1962)

“Back to my own people at last!” says Rima, and then she clears up any doubts about her age. “I was only six years old when I fell down there fifteen years ago! How can I ever thank you?” “Your happiness is enough!” says Dr. Fung, who, despite his vigor, is apparently too old for the game. Barrister, however, is up on his addition, and knows what a girl’s talking about when she tells him she’s over eighteen. His hand reaches for her waist. A psychiatrist’s might reach for his notebook. “Ted Maxon, The Phantom Rider,” by Cecelia Munson, is next. The source of Miss Munson’s inspiration is revealed in the closing panels: “Who are you, mister?” “Who am I? I am the Phantom Rider, the friend of those in trouble! But my real name must always remain a secret.” The Phantom Rider adjusts his mask, and “with a ‘Hoof it, Streak!’ he is gone—to reappear when needed....” Tex was shortchanged all around. He didn’t even have a kemo sabe.... In those days almost every comic book ran a two-page humor strip. In Wonderworld it was “Don Quixote in Modern Times” and it was about Don Quixote in modern times....

Fung And Games In Wonderworld Comics #9, the benevolent Dr. Fung and his young American friend battle The Moth, predecessor of a Fox super-hero of that name who’d pop up a few months later—only to be promptly threatened with a lawsuit by DC Comics! (See p. 57 for details.) Art by Bob Powell, hiding behind the “Arthur Dean” pseudonym. Thanks to Eric Schumacher & Michael T. Gilbert. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.] Incidentally, Chet Cox tells us that, contrary to Richard Kyle’s recollections at the time, Powell did not take over The Shadow comic strip (though he did draw the hero in Street & Smith’s Shadow Comics), and that Vernon V. Greene was still the artist on the strip when it was cancelled, mid-story.

suckers for fingers and built-in unicycles for legs who bottle them up in glass cylinders and ship them through an overgrown department store pneumatic tube. At the end of the trip, standing before her throne is a good-looking blonde girl in red shorts and halter. “Earth people!! At last my prayers are answered!! Please take me back to the land where I was born. I’m sick of being queen of these horrible creatures!” Her name is Rima, and she fell into a seemingly bottomless ravine years before while exploring the Himalayas with her father.

Klaus Nordling, like most of the early comic book artists, was no wonder with a pen; unlike most of them, with his cartoonist’s feel for exaggerated action and foreshortening, he made up for his lack of finish. His strips moved. Although he was never in—say—Jack Cole’s league here, his comic book sense was superior to any other Fox artist, except, possibly, Dick Briefer. For Wonderworld (aside from “Shorty Shortcake,” which was done in his usual style), he drew “Spark Stevens of the Navy,” an adventure strip paralleling the service movies Hollywood had been making for years: two women-chasing, action-hungry, free-wheeling, light-hearted buddies who were always beating up on spies—when they weren’t beating up on each other over a girl. Nordling did the job well. And reading them today is much more pleasant than looking at Pat O’Brien and James Cagney on TV. Spark and Chuck seem like nicer guys. They were big guys, too. None of this Cagney fancy-dan stuff with the fists. Spark and Chuck were willing to take one to give one, and you could not beat them, not if there were a dozen of you, in anything like a fair fistfight. When they were taken out, they were taken out with a gun or a knock on the back of the head or some other unfair, un-American method. Chuck was bigger and blonder and had a heavier jaw. The jaw was a giveaway, of course; Chuck was stupider as well. Spark (although he had a hell of a punch, naturally) carried a normal sized jaw, so that meant he was the smart one of the two. Smart enough to get a strip named after him, anyhow.

“Can’t you speak louder, girl?” Dr. Fung asks. “I can hardly hear you!” She doesn’t dare to, though, because—although she can whisper in double exclamation points—the green things are very sensitive to noise. Suddenly: “Dan, look!” cries Dr. Fung, as the girl throws her arms around him for protection. A green creature twenty feet high rolls into the room on his organic unicycle. “It is ‘He’!” screams the girl. “‘He’ is angry! ‘He’ will kill you!” “Shout!” yells Dr. Fung. “Shout! Quick, man! Scream your loudest!” Dan screams. “He” claps his hand over his ears, and they race for the “suction elevator” that brought them—Rima is going to reverse the “gravitation machinery” controlling it. At the last second, “He” dives into the shaft, too, and is carried to the surface, unable to gain on them because “the pressure is even.” (That scream of Dan’s must really have shaken him up; otherwise “He” would have reversed the “gravitation machinery” himself.) As Dr. Fung leaps from the mouth of the pit he calls to his waiting friend Rapkut (a patient man, evidently) for a gun, and kills the monster as it emerges.

This month they’re “in the native quarter” of Guam, complaining bitterly about the scarcity of women. (Spark and Chuck spent all their time in the tropics, I guess, for they always wore whites, and no matter what happened, they kept them clean. Some guys have a knack.) Suddenly, a white girl calls, “Hsst! Say—” from a second-story window. A rough hand immediately claps over her mouth and she is snatched from sight. Spark and Chuck run upstairs, and one, two, three, four, knock out the red-suited, totally bald villain (no hero ever knocked out a villain with a fringe over his ears) and his three gorillas. The girl is “the Colonel’s Daughter”; and when she discovered the spies stealing military maps from government files, they “spirited” her to their hideout. While she has been talking and Spark and Chuck have been listening with both eyes, the inconspicuous man in the red suit has crept to the wall behind them. He presses a lever and a Murphy bed falls out, knocking Chuck and Spark unconscious. When the thugs finally wake up, they wonder: “Wot’ll we do with ’em?” But Red Suit has a solution: “Spider Cavern. Vit the dawn come also

The Education Of Victor Fox

the spider! Ha! Our two sailors vill never see the sun again.” Well, just as the night is lifting, the gobs manage to free themselves “by rubbing their bonds against the jagged rocks.” And just in time, too, for here come the spiders, and you’ve never seen anything like them. They skipped dinner the night before—and maybe the midday snack, too—and they are hungry. Spark and Chuck climb the walls of the cave frantically, but the spiders hurry after them in a mass so thick it looks like an overwrought shag rug. “Holy —! They’re gaining on us!!” says Chuck. “Gotta match?” asks Spark, coolly brandishing the blackened end of one of the clubs they have been fighting the spiders off with. “Lucky these guys left these oil-soaked torches behind....” Spark explains, and they hurl the burning torches into the writhing, hungry carpet crawling toward them. The spiders, who must have been on a heavy diet of high-test gasoline, ignite with a gusto that would have delighted C.B. DeMille, and Spark and Chuck, coughing and wheezing, follow the smoke (Chuck, the wit, calls it “Eau-de-garbage”) as it drifts to the entrance. There, they take cover behind a couple of boulders, and when Baldy and his pals show up to see how breakfast went at Spider Cavern, one, two, three, they capture the spies and herd them into the mouth of the cave. Spark hurries off to get help, and Chuck, intent on keeping the spies holed up in the cavern, does not see the menacing figure creeping up behind him. That’s when Spark proves the strip was named after the right hero. “I wondered where the fourth guy was!” he exclaims, whopping a rock on the spy’s head just as he was about to plug Chuck. (It proves, too, that Spark could count, and that was more of a rarity in the comic world than you might imagine—as was shown recently in “The Several Solders of Victory.”) The sailors rush back to the village to save the Colonel’s Daughter. But she has already been saved: “Lucky we came along and untied ya, or you could have starved to death in there,” two soldiers are telling the girl as she gazes up at them in rapt admiration. Hearts burst out of her balloon as she exclaims, “My heroes!” And Spark and Chuck—as their movie counterparts always did—lose the girl again. (In one episode, they saved two girls and double dated.

He’s Got That “Spark”! See? We told you we’d get to Klaus Nordling, who drew this “‘Spark’ Stevens” yarn from Wonderworld #9. Around this time, he also started drawing the Lady Luck feature in boss Will Eisner’s Spirit-headed Comic Section that was published as a weekly newspaper comics supplement. Nordling’s sole appearance at a comics convention, in 1966, was recorded for posterity and transcribed for A/E #60. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

They were dolls and it looked like the boys were home free at last, but then the girls got to gossiping and exchanging fashion news and recipes.) But next month they’ll try once more.... The last story in the book was “K-51 – Spies at War,” a middling strip drawn by Powell under the name of “Barron Bates.” It was all scrunched up in ten- and eleven- and even twelve-panel pages. You virtually needed to be Tiny Tim to read it. Page 64 closed the magazine on a note that would thrill any young sucker’s heart:

Absolutely free!

THE COMICSCOPE

Ride ’Em, Cowgirl—Or Cowboy—Or Whatever! There was lots of hiding in the “Tex Mason” strip. Firstly, Tex himself hid behind his alter ego as The Phantom Rider (in future issues, if not in Wonderworld #9). Secondly, and more interestingly, “Cecilia Munson”— curiously, a woman’s name in a field notorious for having female artists use masculine pseudonyms—was actually a male artist named Munson Paddock. Go figure! Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

reg u.s. patent office Not a toy but a real projector A New Amazing Invention. Show your own films at home—charge admission—run real new movie parties. Now you can screen comic strips in your own home and make them in any size and in full color and give a real movie show. Nothing to buy. Everything free. Well, almost free. You actually sent in three coupons (one from each of

Richard Kyle’s Classic Study from Xero #8 (1962)

The real answer is probably that Fox was a promoter. Promoters will promote things, even when there’s no money in them, just to keep their hands in—rather like Dr. Snaffleblocker, the Hollywood physician in one of Jack Woodford’s rare non-sex novels, who was discovered as the story opened performing an abortion on a chipmunk.... And finally, the back inside page carried ads for two new Victor Fox comic books, Science Comics and Weird Comics. Further along, we’ll take a brief look at them. This was the eleventh issue of Wonderworld Comics, March 1940.* A year earlier the competition hadn’t been as stiff. But now things had changed. Superman was appearing in a quarterly all his own. So was Batman. Captain Marvel was just getting off the ground. The Human Torch and Sub-Mariner (we called him “Submarine-er”) were going great guns. Jay Garrick had breathed the hard water formula and become the Fastest Man Alive. And yet, because of Berold and because in 1940 we still responded to fragments of the beliefs and feelings and attitudes of the 19th century that Wonderworld exploited, the book, if it had lost ground, remained far more thrilling and competitive than a present-day comparison with the other—the mainline—comics would seem to allow. We took Superman’s and Batman’s and the others’ way of looking at things with us (as they took ours). We didn’t take Yarko’s or K-51’s or Dr. Fung’s or even much of the Flame’s. But in its day, it was a good comic book. And it was the best of the Fox chain.

the Fox magazines at the time) and fifteen cents “to cover the cost of mailing.” A friend of mine tore the coupons out of magazines in a secondhand store, sold a grocer back some pop bottles he’d just pilfered from the storeroom, and sent away for the new amazing invention. He got his money’s worth. The “Comicscope” was a flat chunk of cardboard, brightly and crudely printed with pictures of the current Fox heroes, which could be folded into a small box; and a glass lens as lumpy as the bottom of a pop bottle, and a fourth the size, inserted into a short black cardboard tube. When the box was assembled there was a hole in the front for the lens and one in the bottom for a light bulb, and a slit in the side to push the sample Comicscope strips through. It worked—once you’d sealed up all the gaps in the seams of the box with masking tape and squeezed into the blackest closet you could find—but it was hardly worth it. The Comicscope strips were abominably drawn and printed; not in full color, but in red and black on a saffron background. You couldn’t use regular comic strips, naturally, because the printing came out backwards, and besides, who’d want to cut his comic books in little ribbons about two inches wide? Why Fox peddled the Comicscope is a puzzle. There was obviously no money in it—the fifteen cents must really have gone for handling and mailing costs—and although new Comicscope strips cost a fair amount, they were so crummy it is hard to believe Fox had any genuine expectation of selling them. The Comicscope must not have boosted sales for his comic books, either, for you almost never saw an old Wonderworld with one of the coupons missing. Of course, he may have used the names of those who answered for an advertisers’ sucker list, but the chain carried so little outside advertising even this seems unlikely.

* After this article was completed and in Dick Lupoff ’s hands, I discovered a letter by Ron Graham in Alter-Ego, a comic book fan magazine published by Jerry Bails of Inkster, Michigan, indicating that Wonderworld Comics had an earlier incarnation as Wonder Comics, and featured “Wonder Man” rather than “The Flame.” Neither my memory nor the great stack of Fox comics Bill Thailing had lent me were of any help. I asked for more information from Mr. Graham, and he referred me to David Wigransky of Washington, D.C. Here is Mr. Wigransky’s reply: “I had the first issue, May 1939, of Wonder Comics, which was also the first Fox Publications Inc. comic book. I lent it to Monte F. Bourjaily (head of the comic art studio which illustrated most of the Fox comics of that time: 1939-41) about six years ago, and he never returned it. The numbers and dates were consecutive, so that none were skipped when it became Wonderworld Comics and starred ‘The Flame’ rather than ‘Wonder Man.’ However, I don’t know the exact issue the change took place. “‘Superman,’ of course, began in Action Comics #1, June 1938, so I think ‘Wonder Man’ was the second superhero in comic books (or at least tied with ‘Batman’ which I think also began in May 1939 in DC’s own Detective Comics. “Bourjaily told me DC Comics filed suit against Fox Publications, claiming ‘Wonder Man’ infringed upon their character ‘Superman.’ And even though they were successful, I guess by the time the case was won there were so many and varied superheroes springing up that they decided any more suits of the kind would be ridiculous. “‘Wonder Man’ (or, I think, ‘The Wonder Man,’ with ‘The’ in fine print) was more of a ‘Superman’ imitation than the others, I guess, as his alter ego was also that of a newspaper reporter. He had blond hair, and an all-red costume (the belt may have been yellow). All I recall about the costume is a short cape, a little less than waist-length. The strip was illustrated by Will Eisner, though I’m sure he signed a pen-name, which may have been the phonetic ‘Willie Nerr’ (anyway, I do know he used ‘Willie Nerr’ at some time). ‘Wonder Man’ had about the same powers as ‘Superman,’ I should say—although they weren’t gone into as thoroughly, [Footnote continued on next page]

The Education Of Victor Fox

[Footnote continued from previous page] so perhaps he didn’t have all of them (such as x-ray vision). I hazily remember that Wonder Man had no ‘origin’; the series just began with his alter ego going overseas as a war correspondent, and then switching to his super-identity to fight a bunch of Nazi soldiers (they were called something else, of course, as we weren’t yet at war with Germany).” The change from Wonder to Wonderworld took place some time before the sixth issue, apparently, for I’ve seen a reproduction of this cover in Mystery Men Comics 3. Since it was common practice for distributors to require that three full issues of a new monthly magazine be printed before they would handle it, it’s very likely Wonder Comics lasted into the second issue—and perhaps as long as the fourth.

Wonder-ing Off The Wonder Man isn’t performing any Superman-style feat in these panels written and drawn by a pseudonymous Will Eisner—but he sure did plenty of them! You don’t have to take our word for it—read Ken Quattro’s analysis of the trial beginning on p. 27. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. In Xero #8, editor Dick Lupoff wrote a footnote at this point about Fawcett’s DC-offending Master Man, but it has been omitted here since that subject will be covered on p. 56. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Although Wonder Comics and “Wonder Man” founded Fox Publications, their influence on the Fox magazines and the comics field seems negligible. So Wonderworld Comics and “The Flame,” even though they came along a few months later, would still appear to remain the significant Fox Publications comic book

and character in the formative months of the company. But an interesting fellow, that “Wonder Man.” —RK

II. Wonderworld was an immediate success, and five months later Fox brought out Mystery Men Comics. It featured Fox’s most enduring characters, Green Mask and Blue Beetle; a science fiction strip by Dick (“Frankenstein”) Briefer called “Rex Dexter of Mars”; and Klaus Nordling’s “Lt. Drake – of Naval Intelligence.” Other than a two-page “Hemlock Sholmes and Dr. Potson,” by “Fred,” a remarkable cartoonist who did wonderfully wild and corny two-pagers for almost every comic book outfit in the business without ever (as far as I know) signing his name, the rest of the stories are without interest. There is the usual magician and the usual secret agent and the usual western and the usual Cecelia Munson derivation, this time from Fu Manchu. “Green Mask” and “Blue Beetle” were pretty usual, too. It is probably the secret of their success. In the beginning, “Green Mask” was drawn in a style halfway between “Reg’lar Fellers” and early “Red Barry.” Green Mask wore dark blue tights with a yellow stripe (down the side), skin-tight pale blue doublet and trunks, a massive, nail-studded leather belt, cavalry boots, a dark blue, crimson-lined cape—and a close-fitting dark green mask that covered his head and eyes and knotted in the back to fall in two trademarked streamers. The artist, variously called “Walter Frame,” “Michael Barrett,” and “Jerry Logan,” was obviously no reader of Esquire. (Berold, who did the marvelous covers for Mystery Men, or the color control man, even tried changing the color of Green Mask’s cape in an effort to devise something more compatible with that mask—but nothing came of it.) Aided by “the only man who knows the Green Mask’s real identity,” a reporter named “News” Doakes, he solved a number of uninteresting crimes that bored the police, rather than baffled them, into inaction. In later issues, under a variety of indifferent artists, he acquired an offstage identity as Michael Shelby, the son of a murdered senator who had opposed gangsterism; gained super-powers from a “Vita-Ray”; picked up a bumbling boy assistant named Domino, who—fittingly—threw boomerangs; took on a new aide named “News” Blake (“News” Doakes was probably too undistinguished a name for a Vita-Rayed superman to associate with); and finally lost most of his super-powers when it became clear his future lay in being Batman imitator.

We Hear They Had A Dog Named “Ski”! Splash for a “Green Mask” tale from issue #1 (Summer 1940) of his own title. Naturally, a guy with the word “mask” in his name had to have as a kid partner “Domino, the Miracle Boy”! The GCD says the art may be by Walter Frehm, who’d signed the very first “Green Mask” story as “Walter Frame.” Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Richard Kyle’s Classic Study from Xero #8 (1962)

In the summer of 1940, Green Mask acquired his own comic book, ultimately outlasting all the Fox heroes, except Blue Beetle, and many of his betters in other magazines as well. It is not only in politics and breakfast cereals that mediocrity has a certain staying power…. “Blue Beetle” began as a secondary feature in Mystery Men. Within a half dozen or so issues he opened the book. His own bimonthly magazine appeared in February 1940, and soon afterward he had a twice-weekly radio program. His durability was so great, he survived Fox Publications itself. We’ll come back to him. Dick Briefer was no science fiction artist. His spaceships looked like hot water heaters installed by a mad plumber. He was no science fiction writer, either: “Look, Dr. Harvey! Are my eyes deceiving me, or is that a cone shaped planet I see in the glass?” Yet, when he worked on it, as he did in many of the serious “Frankenstein” stories, Briefer had a certain way with horror and pathos that transcended his writing and illustrations.

The Green And The Blue The Green Mask was the original cover star of Mystery Men Comics, beginning with issue #1 (Aug. 1939). (No, that’s not him in the doctor’s smock; GM’s the guy climbing in the window, firing away with his pistol!) But starting with #7 (Feb. 1940), The Blue Beetle usurped the cover spot—so he got to climb in through the window with gun blazing! Thanks to the Grand Comics Database, which lists Lou Fine as the artist of the first cover, and Charles Nicholas (with a question mark, which indicates uncertainty) on #7. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

The first “Rex Dexter of Mars” strips display his early style at its best, before he began to splash the ink around in big, loose, broad, black strokes—and some of them display his talent for story, as well. Rex Dexter of Mars, “Here on Earth—2,000 A.D.,” helps save the planet from a terrible menace. For this he receives the acclaim of Earth. But two issues later, Dexter brings a huge, fright-maddened Kong-like creature to Earth for exhibition. When it runs amok, destroying and maiming, he is forced to kill it, stabbing into its brain through one of the half-human beast’s bulging, horrified eyes. Earth forgets its acclaim, it demands his death, and so Rex Dexter’s friend the President of Earth is forced to exile him. His fiancée, Cynde (pronounced “Sin-dee,” Briefer tells us), reavows her love and joins him as he ventures from planet to planet. Eventually, Earth forgives Rex, and he returns now and again to aid us. If you could look over the scientific absurdities, “Rex Dexter” was often an

Meet The Beetle This house ad at left from Big 3 Comics #6 (Nov. 1941) showed The Blue Beetle at the peak of his success, such as it was—as the star of comic books, a radio series, and even a newspaper comic strip. The short-lived latter (below) was drawn by none other than Jack Kirby—while actor Frank Lovejoy (seen below left, and previously of the hit radio series Gang Busters) portrayed the insectoid adventurer on the air waves. Blue Beetle strip repro’d from the hardcover Kirby: King of Comics by Mark Evanier (Abrams, 2008). [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

The Education Of Victor Fox

In November of ’39 Fox issued his third magazine, Fantastic Comics; the following January Science Comics appeared; and in March Weird Comics, the last monthly of this first series, was distributed. They were all out of the same stewpot—the meat picked off and the vegetables watered down—that Wonderworld and Mystery Men had been ladled from. Fantastic was outstanding in one way, though. It published the most preposterous and grotesque comic hero ever created. His name was Stardust. The feature character, however, was a reincarnation of Samson. “Out of the mist of history comes the mighty Samson.... Like his ancient forebear Samson pits his tremendous strength against the forces of evil and injustice....” Samson was a thick-muscled, old-fashioned, Middle Europeanlooking fellow with long blond hair, blue thonged sandals, and a pair of woolly trunks that looked more like a mass of pubic hair with delusions of grandeur. In later issues he put a belt on, but it didn’t improve the effect much. The early Samson stories were compounded out of Wonderworld’s greatest flaws. Rather than true comic strips, they were a series of tableaux; and where Basil Berold could rise above his weakness here, and make a virtue of it, “Alex Boon” could not. The nameless European backgrounds, the 19th century kings and rulers and iron men in their stiff-collared uniforms, the super-weapons that merely belched larger shells and more poisonous gasses, and had been invented in the last

Rex The Wonder Spaceman In 1980, artist Dick Briefer (seen in photo) painted this re-creation of his cover for Fox’s Rex Dexter of Mars #1-and-only (Fall 1940). With thanks to Dominic Bongo for plucking it for us from the awesome Heritage Comics Archives—and to Al Dellinges for the photo. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

entertaining strip. It was a popular one, too, and Rex had his own comic book for a while. He might have had it longer, but Briefer went on one of his periodic humor binges—and he wasn’t near as funny as he was later with the “Frankie” Frankenstein yarns…. Klaus Nordling of “‘Spark’ Stevens” signed “Lt. Drake—of the Naval Intelligence” as “F. Klaus.” Other than that, it was pure Nordling, a man who handled his blacks and his action a lot better than his anatomy. The stories were good fun, though, and his drawings improved steadily. Lt. Drake, a blond chap with a tickler-sized mustache, got around a lot, investigating trans-Atlantic gamblers, opium smugglers, and such—the kind of activities you’d think would make the Coast Guard jealous. Nordling must have had a thing about spiders, because a couple of months before Spark and Chuck had all that trouble in Wonderworld, Drake got mixed up with them, too. These didn’t come wall-to-wall, however. They came in little gelatin capsules that melted in your bedclothes while you slept, releasing an angry black widow…. Mystery Men Comics had a potential it never realized. Under an adroit publisher, “Green Mask” and “Blue Beetle” and “Rex Dexter” could have become outstanding: the material was there to be used. The success they achieved in their imperfection hints at the greater success they could have had. It was becoming increasingly evident that Victor Fox was a promoter, not a publisher. Nor an editor.

Five Alive! This house ad for Fox’s first five titles appeared in Wonderworld Comics #17 (Sept. 1940)—though Wonderworld itself had started life as Wonder Comics. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Richard Kyle’s Classic Study from Xero #8 (1962)

century by Robida or Verne or Wells—these could have been surmounted and advantageously used, as they were in Wonderworld, if as in Wonderworld, they had been tied to a contemporary symbol such as the Flame. Samson, standing there in his reincarnated carcass, hairy, natural-looking pelt, and shoulder-length hair, was hardly that symbol.

Maybe It’s A Good Thing Fox Didn’t Name This Hero “Goliath”! Alex Blum (seen in his younger days)—the father of comics scripter Toni Blum, both of whom worked for Eisner & Iger— was still drawing “Samson” as “Alex Boon” when the ol’ temple-razer got his own comic (left), with #1 dated Fall 1940. By #3 (Feb.-March ’41), the blond-tressed blockbuster had acquired a kid sidekick named David. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert for the comic art, and to Bill Bossert & Ulla Neigenfind-Bossert for the pic of Bill’s father-in-law. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Soon, the artwork was modernized—if not improved— and Samson took on a vaguely Anglo-Saxon appearance; the locales were moved nearer home, the villains Americanized, and Samson provided with a boy assistant, David, who, although he scarcely seemed adolescent, was similarly clad (beside Samson, who was always lifting him out of harm’s way, he looked about the size of a wet fox terrier). The improvements wangled him his own bimonthly magazine—but they didn’t cure the basic weakness, which was Samson himself....

“Professor Fiend,” by “Boris Plaster,” was a two-pager that was four pages long. It was drawn by “Fred” of “Hemlock Sholmes and Dr. Potson” (who also drew “Billy Bounce, the Kid Detective,” occasionally, for Mystery Men, and—among a legion of others—“Mike the Mascot” and “Mortimer, the Monk,” for Columbia Comic Corporation’s Big Shot Comics). “Fred” was wild, and he wasn’t subtle (“Eureka! I’ve just invented a bladeless knife so people can’t cut themselves while slicing bread!”), but for some ungodly reason he was funny. He still is. It is “Stardust—the Super Wizard,” however, who will ensure immortality for Fantastic Comics. No commentary, no copy, can do him justice. You must sit face to face with the real thing. Anything else is like watching the last days of Pompeii with your eyes closed. “While a secret army of spies and murderous terrorists conspires to undermine business, and the government,” says the flash panel, “a distant radio call is picked up in America—a message transmitted from somewhere out in space!” Then, leering up out of the comic book page, we see these spies and terrorists, beetle-browed, incredibly prognathous, their short, thick, muscular necks seeming to reach up for their flat and receding foreheads to haul them even further down. Imagine Basil Wolverton, the creator of Lena the Hyena in Li’l Abner, doing a dead serious job. Imagine something worse. Now—perhaps—you have the villains of “Stardust” in mind. The story begins:

“Listen to this, you mugs! Stardust is coming to visit the earth! He’s the super crime wiz who is busting spy mobs on a lot of planets! Boy, will he be on our necks!!” The broadcasting companies fill their air with details that terrify even our big-shot public enemies— “Stardust, that mastermind of the universe, with a mysterious knowledge of criminals, and their plans, will arrive on our planet tonight. He is traveling at amazing speed, on highly accelerated light waves! At 9:45 his powerful light will be visible in the direction of Mars and at ten o’clock he will land someplace in the U.S.A. to begin a merciless clean-up of spies and grade-A racketeers….” The leaders of the secret army of spies and terrorists call an emergency meeting…. “His scientific use of rays has made him master of space and planetary forces,” their radio proclaims; “the gas of a certain star has made him immune to heat or cold.” “We must destroy him as soon as he arrives!” the terrorist leader shrieks. “Get him in the dark! Use the typhoid germs, and poison gas on him! Use our Hot-X Fusing Liquid on his apparatus! Take him apart with the atom-smasher! Turn the new shredding guns on him! Get him out of the way!” But then the radio goes on: “Stardust carries artificial lungs that enable him to breathe safely, under any conditions—he uses new spectral rays, that can make him invisible or as bright as the sun—he wears a flexible, star-metal skin, controlled through rays from a distant sun and rendering him indestructible by chemicals, or by electrical or violent force!” Well, that stops the terrorists: “He’s so superior we won’t be able to touch him! We had better lay off him for a while, and go on with our work. This is a night we’re scheduled to bump off the President—we ought to do the job before Stardust gets here. Let’s use our expanding bullets, and send our two best shots!”

The Education Of Victor Fox

“Stardust” Memories “Stardust – the Super Wizard” by artist/writer Fletcher Hanks: the unique vision of an underappreciated genius, or just spectacularly bad comic art? Or maybe both? You decide! And it’s a lot easier to examine that body of work now than it was in 1962, since cartoonist Paul Karasik has preserved virtually all of Hanks’ comic book output in two fabulous volumes from Fantagraphics: I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! (2007) and You Shall Die by Your Own Evil Creation! (2009). Clearly, even Hollywood took notice, as a Hanks/Stardust t-shirt was spotted by Paul in the 2010 film Rabbit Hole (see below). Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert for the above scans from Fantastic Comics #1 (Dec. 1939). And be it duly noted that, back in 1962, Richard Kyle predicted with considerable foresight that it was “Stardust” that “will ensure immortality for Fantastic Comics.” [“Stardust” art & movie still ©2001 the respective copyright holders.] Re Kyle’s reference to Hank’s art resembling wildman cartoonist Basil Wolverton “doing a dead serious job,” editor Dick Lupoff pointed out in a footnote in Xero #8 that Wolverton’s “Spacehawk” in Novelty’s Blue Bolt Comics was “a darned good space opera [that] ran for quite a while.” Not that Kyle had denied Wolverton had done “serious work.”

The two killers are about to plug the President when there is a sudden blinding flash; as it disappears, Stardust steps forth to say, “You are now in the power of Stardust!” Take a blond, long-necked, ten foot tall ectomorph—a thin ten foot tall ectomorph—and laminate him with great bulging muscles until his head pops up out of them, disproportionately small, like the head of a man wearing six overcoats, clothe him in a purple, square-necked, skin-tight uniform with a wide, red-spotted, yellow belt, and yank out every tooth in his head, replacing them with a set of choppers two sizes too small. You now have a duplicate of Stardust, the Super Wizard. Next, the terrorists send bombers over Washington with their new Liquid Flame Bombs. Stardust wipes out the planes with their own bombs, and turns his attention to terrorist headquarters.

his powerful Boomerang Ray, and the atom-smasher smashes itself.... The spies flee in panic.”

“Adjust the long-range automatic finder… get a focus and smash him into a fog!!” screams the leader, directing work on the huge atom-smasher, which looks like metal-spined red and blue boiler standing on an enormous pogo stick.

Stardust uses his “Magnetic Ray” to draw the spies and terrorists within reach. Then he picks them up and throws them out the window, using his “Suspending Ray” just before they crash on the adjoining rooftop. Then, releasing his “Secret Ray,” he brings in front of the terrorists the skeletons of the innocent people they have killed. Using another—unspecified—ray, he transports an office full of G-men to the

But: “When Stardust feels the finder being focused on him, he releases

Richard Kyle’s Classic Study from Xero #8 (1962)

“Oh, please don’t take me back! Those birds have wrecked our home and killed my parents!” “You must feel terrible! But isn’t there some place you’d like to go?” “I’m all alone in the world, but you’re so kind I’d like to be with you until I get over my fright!” “But I have duties to attend to!” “Oh, please take me with you! I’ll try not to be of any bother!” “Would you like to come to my private star for a while? It’s very restful there!” “Oh, Stardust! I’d be crazy about it!” Finally: “They arrive on Stardust’s star....” “This may be your castle as long as you wish!” “Oh-h! I can hardly believe it!” I can hardly believe it myself. If we can’t have primitive art, why can’t we have primitive trash? If Grandma Moses and Mickey Walker can become famous, why shouldn’t Fletcher Hanks?

Fred = Funny The antic, manic, and often hilarious “Fred” whose humor fillers so intrigued Richard Kyle was (as he’s known now for years) the late great Fred Schwab, whose cartoons would later grace the pages of DC, Fiction House, Ace, Novelty, Timely, and various other companies. This first page of a three-pager is from Mystery Men Comics #3 (Oct. 1939), courtesy of Michael T. Gilbert. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

rooftop to take the spies and terrorists into custody. “Above you are the leaders of the spy army, with my compliments! In five minutes they will drop! Good luck!” says Stardust, flashing away into space. The G-men’s eyes follow his vapor-trail until it vanishes. And then one says: “That’s Stardust! And we didn’t have a chance to thank him!” And: “In the next exciting issue of Fantastic Comics, Stardust battles Rip-the-Blood!” Wooosh! A year later, Stardust found love. Rushing to Earth to save the planet from enormous vultures a mad Venusian scientist named Kaos had unleashed—he got here, by the way, “in his tubular spatial, traveling at terrific speed on accelerated supersolar light waves”—Stardust arrives in time to rescue a girl the fiend has ordered up for himself. Evidently feeling it is no time to take chances with rays, Stardust rams the vulture carrying her head on, without even mussing a hair. The dead beast drops the girl and “the girl begins falling.” At the last moment, Stardust swoops down and saves her. Then: “Are you hurt?” “I think not. But I’m terribly upset and scared.” “Shall I take you to your home?”

(I can see Hanks now, standing proudly before his one-man show. He’d be blond, of course, balding probably—ectomorphs have fine hair and usually begin losing it fairly early; thin—there might be the suggestion of a pot belly, though, after these twenty years; tall, surely. And long necked. Those early maturing, hard muscled, strong jawed mesomorphs who made his teens miserable trouble him some yet; and even now Hanks may have difficulty talking to the prettier feminine patrons. And the dark… well… the dark still bothers him a little, and he always reaches around the corner to turn on the switch in the gallery washroom before he actually goes in.) Edmund Pearson once published Queer Books, a marvelous sampler from eccentric novels and speeches and stories. Today, he would have included “Stardust.” Science Comics and Weird Comics didn’t have a “Samson” or “Stardust” to leave to posterity. The title of some of Science’s strips tell the story: “The Eagle” (this was a few months after “Hawkman” appeared in Flash Comics), “Electro” (“Jim Andrews, electrical scientist, is working with a pair of giant electrodes … ‘Good heavens! There’s going to be an accident here!’”), “Cosmic Carson” (by Buck Rogers’ current artist, George Tuska, and fully as good), “Marga, the Panther Woman” (Van Dorf, a mad physiobiologist, escaped in the heart of the African jungle from an asylum. He had been confined there for attempting to produce a race of people with the blood of panthers fused into them. As hostage, he brought a beautiful, white, blonde nurse with him). Weird featured “Thor, God of Thunder,” a reincarnation of Thor, god of thunder; then, when this reincarnation didn’t go over, “The Dart,” a reincarnation of “the ancient Roman racket buster, Caius Martius.” Reincarnation-wise, Victor Fox was scraping the bottom of the barrel. In private life, the Dart was Caius Martius Wheeler, a timid high school teacher of Roman history; Thor was a guy whose girl kicked sand in his face. “Thor” mutated into Peter Thor, an explosives expert who was able to fly around in a red and blue costume as “Dynamite Thor” by periodically exploding little charges of “Dynamite pills.” Weird also carried another of Fox Publications’ alliterative “science fiction” strips, “Blast Bennett” (altogether, there were “Blast Bennett,” “Cosmic Carson,” “Perisphere Payne,” “Space Smith,” “Flip Falcon,” and “Sub Saunders”). There was “Birdman,” too, but he was no “Hawkman” copy: the feathers grew right out of his hide. Unless he knew a chicken plucker, it’s unlikely

The Education Of Victor Fox

Simon & Kirby At Fox Yep, the supreme action team of comics’ Golden Age did indeed work for Victor Fox—but not always as a twosome, at this stage in their young careers! Joe Simon drew the cover (among others) of Blue Beetle #3 (July-Aug. 1940)… while Jack Kirby reportedly both penciled and inked “Cosmic Carson” in Science Comics #4 (May ’40). And, if reports are correct, Simon and Kirby—or maybe Kirby and Simon—worked together on the “Wing Turner” story for Mystery Men Comics #10 (also May ’40). Thanks to Jim Ludwig for the scans. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

he had an alternate identity. As if to make up for all this, Basil Berold worked overtime on the early covers. They are some of the most well-drawn, damnedest comic covers ever printed. One—in the second issue of Weird—has remained in my memory for twenty-one years. In the center of the page— her flesh translucent below the neck, displaying her skeletal structure and the outline of her body—stands a beautiful blonde girl, eyes staring blankly ahead as though she is hypnotized. Before the girl, connected to a cabinet studded with dials and buttons and knobs, is a huge white crystal ball blazing with an orange corona. Its rays, apparently fluoroscoping the girl’s body, illuminate a garish laboratory crammed with bizarre vacuum tubes and insulators; they illuminate, too, the rectangular panel in the wall behind her, and the immense, swarthy man—his Eastern face hideously contorted—clad in a dark turban and robe with a figured red sash, who looms menacingly, massive arms reaching out as though he is about to mug or strangle her. Blue robes billowing in the right foreground, a totally bald, vaguely Mayan-looking man crouches over the controls of the crystal ball. On his head is a peculiar apparatus resembling a switchboard operator’s headphones, but from its top two calibrated structures are thrust and miniature arcs of lightning play between them. On the left is an open Egyptian mummy case. In that case, fully

Bird Thou Never Wert…? “The Bird Man,” by the probably pseudonymous “Arnold Mazos,” had real wings and feathers, putting him closer to modern-day Marvel’s Angel than to Flash Comics’ Hawkman, who had debuted half a year before. From Weird Comics #3 (June 1940). Thanks to Jim Ludwig. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

wrapped, except for his face and the right hand, is a husky man with distinctively English features. The free right hand holds a .45 caliber automatic pistol, and a shaft of fire leaps from its muzzle to the chest of the Mayan, whose gnarled hands are twisted in agony.

Richard Kyle’s Classic Study from Xero #8 (1962)

A Wall Of Weird Weird Comics contained a variety of features, a couple of them pretty—well—weird. (Clockwise from top left:) “Thor” from Weird #2 (May 1940), drawn by Pierce Rice & Arturo Cazaneuve, bore some resemblance to his Marvel successor; thanks to Michael T. Gilbert & Will Murray for the scan (and see Will’s extended coverage of the first four-color thunder god in A/E #74)… “Blast Bennett” drawn by Don Rico & “Typhon” (artist unknown), both from Weird #5 (Aug. 1940), were standard Flash Gordon wannabes… while Louis Cazeneuve’s “The Dart,” in the same issue, was a run-of-the-mill super-hero, complete with kid sidekick; with thanks to Jim Ludwig for these three scans and the next. Louis, by the way, was Arturo’s brother. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

The Education Of Victor Fox

The World’s Mightiest Dr. Mortal Richard Kyle mentions Lou Fine’s (well, Basil Berold’s) cover for Weird Comics #2 (May 1940) as having remained in his memory for 21 years—and that was just through 1962! So we thought we’d share it with you, as well. The pictured hero is Dr. Mortal, star of the issue’s lead feature. Hey, you gotta love any comics series that serves up features with names like “Dr. Mortal” and “The Sorceress of Zoom”! You couldn’t make up names like that! Well, okay… so maybe you could. In fact, somebody did. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

The caption reads: “The mummy stirred … a gun flashed and blasted the fiend into eternity.” The astonishing thing about all this is that it damned near looks real. The crazy picture looks almost convincing. The cover illustrates nothing inside, and for twenty-one years I’ve been trying—from time to time—to concoct a reasonable explanation for the scene. I haven’t had any luck.

III. A time of consolidation and expansion followed. New titles were issued, but all were based on established Fox Publications characters. Although Science Comics and Rex Dexter went under, Samson and Big 3 (Fox was always a promoter: the comic featured “Blue Beetle,” “Samson,” and “The Flame”) took their place. With these two, the four surviving parent magazines, and Blue Beetle, The Flame, and Green Mask, Fox had a stable of nine comic books by the end of 1940—not bad for a man who’d published his first one a year and a half before. Now, with comics taking up less of the publisher’s time, Fox magazines began to advertise something new. It was called “Kooba Cola.” It was “America’s Greatest Nickel Value,” “A New Thrill!” “The Long Tall Drink That’s Tangy and Cooling as an Ocean Breeze.” And the good-looking blonde said, “I’ll take Kooba with the new tang and extra zest—America’s favorite cola drink with Vitamin B1.” I’ve never met anyone who even heard of Kooba Cola, let alone actually drank the stuff. It must have been sold somewhere, though, for soon contests were started and a premium campaign began. (You could get a raincape for 195 Kooba bottle caps, although by that time you’d probably be so waterlogged you’d hardly need it; and a basketball. for 745 caps—after all, your grandchildren could play with it.) In July of ’41, while all this was at its peak, Swank Magazine (no relation to the current publication), “For the Man Who Knows,” ogled the newsstand customers for the first time. It was a tall, saddle-stitched, Esquire-sized magazine listing V.S. Fox as publisher, and packed with Esquire-style girlie cartoons (Michael Berry, Bill Wenzel), pin-ups (you’d never recognize Dinah Shore), articles (a chapter from Irving Wallace’s

Three To Get Ready… The cover of Big 3 Comics #6 (Nov. 1941) The mag’s covers showcased Blue Beetle, The Flame, and Samson—until the 7th and final one, on which the patriotic Fox hero V-Man replaced the golden-haired strongman. Artist unknown. Thanks to Jim Ludwig. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Richard Kyle’s Classic Study from Xero #8 (1962)

and The Flame died. Daylight was showing through the cracks in Fox Publication’s false front. The other magazines, badly dated now, went one by one, leaving only Green Mask and Blue Beetle.

Stand On “Zanzibar” Esteemed artist George Tuska as a young man—and panels from the “Zanzibar” episode in Blue Beetle #5 (Jan.-Feb. 1941). Thanks to Jim Ludwig for the scan, and to Dewey Cassell (author of the Tuska tribute in A/E #99) & Mrs. Dorothy Tuska for the photo. [Page ©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

recent The Square Pegs—the one about George Francis Train, who ran for dictator of the United States and posed for Phileas Fogg of Around the World in 80 Days—appeared in the January ’42 issue), fiction (Jerome Weidman, Chester B. Himes), and departments (Hy Gardner, Leo Guild, Caswell Adams—and the anonymously-conducted “From the Bachelor’s Bar,” which revealed, among the White Horse Whips and the Whiskey Collinses, the ingredients of a “Kooba Cooler”: “Fill a tall glass with ice cubes. Add juice of lime or lemon. Pour in one small whiskey glassful of Bacardi Rum and fill with sparkling Kooba Cola.”). It claimed a reader audience of 1,300,000. To the public, things must have looked good for Victor Fox.

IV. In the space of months Kooba Cola vanished, Swank collapsed, Blue Beetle left the air, and Fox’s comic book chain fell to pieces. Swank’s actual circulation was nearer 100,000 than 1,300,000. Fox was figuring ten to thirteen readers per copy. All promoters are optimists. Swank had its virtues, quite a few of them. But it had its faults. It was too cheap for the Esquire readers and too high-class for the people who say “high-class.” Fox tried to pump up circulation with cartoons that were a little startling for a mass circulation magazine twenty years ago: In September, a disheveled brunette smirks at the reader, “It always makes me feel better.” And a near nude blonde leers from the January issue, “…Then I said, I’m going as ‘New Year’s Eve’ … eating my apple won’t stop me.” Unlike Playboy’s nudes, the cartoons didn’t help Swank on the newsstands, and the only advertisers they attracted were peddlers of men’s girdles and elevator shoes. By March ’42, even the Kooba Cola ad had vanished. But then, by March ’42 Kooba Cola itself had vanished. Soon, Swank followed it into oblivion; unlike Playboy’s format, nobody ever successfully copies anything of Esquire’s. Maybe Kooba Cola had its good points, too. Perhaps a publisher with a healthier string of comics could actually have established a new soft drink through his magazines alone. But Fox’s magazines were sick, now. They could not even sell themselves, nor could the Blue Beetle radio program, for it, too, was gone. Berold had left “The Flame” and soon Wonderworld

By 1946 Fox had a whole new line of nine comic books, with Green Mask and Blue Beetle for the anchor men, but even though the new corporation name, Fox Feature Syndicate, sounded important, the new titles were weak: Cosmo Cat, Zoot, Wotalife, Jo-Jo the Congo King, Rib Tickler, Rocket Kelly, and All Top. None of them were monthly and titles changed frequently. Fox tried new promotions and new premium campaigns. Nothing would have helped but better art and better stories. Green Mask folded. In desperation he turned to crime-comic books: Murder Incorporated, Famous Crimes, and Crimes by Women. Even Blue Beetle was dominated by “true” crime yarns and the title character almost vanished from the covers. By 1948, the Fox magazines, despite excursions such as Meet Corliss Archer, a teenage comic, were leaning heavily on jungle queens and scantily clad costume heroines like Phantom Lady to do what only better stories and illustrations could do—and Corliss wasn’t above showing a little thigh, herself. Of all his original titles, only Blue Beetle was left. The character of the strip had been changed so many times it had virtually no buyer image at all. Fox was in deep trouble. In the beginning, Blue Beetle was probably an accident. Something to bolster up the Mystery Men title. The third issue, for example, leads off with a nine-page Green Mask yarn; Blue Beetle is buried in a four-pager toward the back of the book—he doesn’t even have the finishing spot. But there were no human relationships to bring life to “Green Mask” as they had to the comic book leaders, “Superman,” “Batman,” and “Captain Marvel,” and the others. Sure, Green Mask and “News” Doakes worked together, but the reporter was only a handy news source; Green Mask did without him easily enough—and Green Mask’s private life was so utterly anonymous you began to wonder what he was covering up. Without the mask, maybe he was Rin-tin-tin. Blue Beetle, however, needed his friends: Dr. Franz, who had devised his mailed costume, and helped him with disguises and scientific identification work; Mike Mannigan, his heavy-set, semi-comic—and unsuspecting—partner in his real identity as Dan Garrett, a rookie policeman; and, after the strip developed, Joan Mason, reporter and Garrett’s girlfriend. (Garrett dumped an equivalent of Green Mask’s “News” Doakes, a disheveled newshawk named Charley Storm.) Clichés they were, but they allowed plot development and reader identification and brought at least a semblance of “real life” to Fox’s magazines, where most of the heroes didn’t seem to have a close friend in the world. It’s no wonder Blue Beetle soon became Mystery Men’s most popular character. He wore a blue uniform of a special lightweight mail, a leather belt with a Blue Beetle symbol set into the center of the yellow buckle (which contained a secret compartment for skeleton keys and such), and a black domino mask. In costume, Garrett looked much like a medieval knight clad in his body armor. Garrett’s partner on the police force, Mike Mannigan, was convinced— no matter what heroics Blue Beetle performed—that he was a criminal, and although he frequently helped Blue Beetle capture crooks, when the work was done Mannigan tried to capture him, too. They hit each other

Ar The Education Of Victor Fox

Girls’ Night Out A clockwise sampling of Fox Feature Syndicate’s late-’40s lineup shows the way the comic book publishing winds were blowing—and whipping up a few skirts along the way: The giraffe-skin-wearing Rulah – Jungle Goddess (#22, Jan. 1949) hoped to give Sheena a run for her Jungle Queen crown; yeah, this is the same genre as the Jo-Jo – Congo King comic mentioned in the article, but Rulah’s a lot easier on the eyes. Art attributed to later EC artist Jack Kamen. Murder Incorporated #1 (Jan. 1948) was a heavy crime comic, with a bit of sexual titillation tossed in. Cover pencils attributed to John Forte. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert for this scan and the next. This yarn from Crimes by Women #12 (April 1950) might well have given residents of Washington State cause to consider emigration. Artist unknown. (The issue’s cover can be viewed on p. 54.) Meet Corliss Archer was based on a popular radio series. This splash panel is from #2 (May 1948). Artist unknown. Thanks to Jim Ludwig. Phantom Lady, of course, is by far the most notorious of the Fox titles, with many of the stories and covers—such as this one for #18 (June 1948)—being drawn by the fabulous Matt Baker. (See A/E #47 for lots more on him!) Thanks to Matthew Peets. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.)

Richard Kyle’s Classic Study from Xero #8 (1962)

I Don’t Recognize The Faces, But The Name Is Familiar Blue Beetle #35 (Oct. 1944) featured a gimmick designed to inspire brand loyalty: Some lucky reader(s) would be chosen to appear with the hero in one of his adventures, as per the house ad at right. The lead story this time featured Alvin, Esta, and David Kanigher of New York City—and since we know that budding comics writer (and future DC writer/editor) Robert Kanigher was scripting Blue Beetle around this time, it’s hard not to suspect this particular group of youngsters were kin of his. Still, there was at least one other “Blue Beetle” tale—maybe more—in which kids shared an exploit with the azure-mailed avenger. Main story art by Elmer Cecil (E.C.) Stoner. Thanks to Eric Schumacher. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

over the head so many times their skulls should have looked like scale models of the Andes. It was probably this gimmick that interested the radio producers. It gave the show the predictable, mechanical format they needed for broadcasting: Dan Garrett and Mannigan on patrol duty, a crime is committed, Garrett evades his partner and becomes Blue Beetle, solves the crime with the help of Dr. Franz or Joan Mason and the hindrance of Mannigan, and finally escapes Mannigan’s clutches to become Rookie Patrolman Dan Garrett—who missed the whole thing—once again. It should have interested them, anyhow, because this was substantially The Green Hornet’s format—and it was doing very well just then. By September of 1940, Blue Beetle was on forty-four stations from coast to coast, twice a week, including WMCA, New York, and KSAN, San Francisco. And like The Green Hornet, each episode was complete in itself, something of a novelty then when serials were still going strong. Then, like the rest of Fox’s paper empire, the Blue Beetle radio show went under.

Trying to find the right formula, Fox tinkered with the strip continually. The writing was never good—it never realized the inherent possibilities of the characters—but the anonymous artwork, crude in the beginning, improved under an artist of some skill and style—and then declined again at the hands of the likes of Larry Antoinette (who also drew “Sub-Zero Man” for Blue Bolt Comics) and others. For a time, possibly inspired by Tick-Tock Tyler, “The Hour Man,” Dr. Franz came up with “Vitamin 2-X” for Garrett, a concoction that gave him temporary “super-energy.” By the winter of 1945, however, Blue Beetle was quarterly, drawn with astonishing ineptitude by a cartoonist named Stoner (the “official” name of the artist was “Otis,” and it endured through several cartoonists, just as had the original “Charles Nicholas,” and, a little later, “Walter Swift”). Fox had come up with a new circulation gimmick: readers sent in their photographs, and each issue a boy and girl were selected to accompany Blue Beetle on his adventure. The strip had given up resemblance to the original; Blue Beetle now had super-powers, including flight, and only Joan Mason remained of the original format—she was the kids’ chaperone.

The Education Of Victor Fox

The gimmick, as usual, didn’t pay off. But Fox had a new one by late ’46: “Green Premium Coupons.” They were printed in every issue of Fox comics, and they were really a bargain, a lot better the S&H Green Stamps. If you saved every coupon from every Fox magazine published, you could have gotten—free—a pair of boxing gloves after only seventeen years, or a magic set or wallet after twelve and a half. The only disquieting note was that Fox Feature Syndicate reserved the right to withdraw without notice any or all of the premiums at any time. By now, Blue Beetle had lost most of his super-powers and was making his living again as a rookie patrolman. Stoner was still at work, and the drawings were worse than ever. But Blue Beetle was bimonthly once more; maybe the premiums gimmick worked for a while. Less than two years later, those kids saving up for boxing gloves discovered they should have sold short. Fox was pushing crime comics now, and Blue Beetle had moved up to a monthly. A new “Blue Beetle” artist—a considerable improvement on Stoner—was at work and the strip had returned to something resembling its original format. Then the bottom dropped out. Sales fell off and Blue Beetle went bimonthly again. Fox, who had sexed up stories à la Fiction House to raise circulation, now went a step further in an effort to stay in business. And with the instinct of a man in the wrong business, he did the thing that has destroyed marginal publishers again and again and again. What Victor S. Fox did led directly to the establishment of the Comics Code Authority. His magazines were not the only ones, nor was he principally responsible, but without Fox and the publishers like him, the Code would never have come into being. Censorship of adult literature is an evil thing. Censorship of a child’s literature, by someone other than the parents, is not a good thing—but it is a better thing than the license that permitted Victor Fox to publish as he did. The Fox Feature Syndicate and Blue Beetle turned toward the sadomasochists, the fetishists, and the other hangers-on in the borderlands of sexual neuroticism. The May 1948 issue began with a story about a beautiful, long-haired, blonde who had devised “the biggest plan in the world” for making money. Clad in a filmy leotard, cut to the thigh on either side, and a halter with shoulder-length, fingerless gloves—typical fetishist costume—she begins a campaign of murder. On page two, she drives a knife into the throat of “the debutante of the year,” just after the girl has undressed for bed, and drops her calling card, a miniature sphinx, in the blood that runs out upon her breast. On page three, she plants another knife between the breasts of a strip-teaser dressed in bra and panties. The girl she murders on page eight shows only a bit of thigh as she takes a knife in her throat. Why did the killer do it? “They think I’m mad, eh? Just wait’ll I’ve killed a half a dozen prominent women...as the Sphinx! Then I start snatching them and their friends will fall over themselves to pay ransom! They’ll know I mean business!” In the next, July 1948, issue:

Am I Blue? Blue Beetle had a checkered history, being published by Phelps, then Holyoke, instead of Fox for a few years in the mid-1940s, then returning to Fox. By the time of Fox’s Blue Beetle #57 (July 1948), the cover reveals how the hero was being de-emphasized in favor of crimes by (and/or against) women. Its lead story, featuring the villainous Black Widow, is covered by Richard Kyle in the text. Fox was a thrifty outfit; they often began an issue’s lead story on the inside front cover and therefore colored the splash page only one color besides the black plate (in this case, fittingly, blue). Cover art attributed to Jack Kamen; but art expert Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., tells us the interiors are probably by Robert Webb and the Iger comics shop, maybe including David Heames. Thanks to Henry Andrews for the scans. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

“Seamen perished in plastic webs! Such was the nightmare woven with the skill of the spider by a somber team who hoodwinked justice until BLUE BEETLE himself decided to become entangled in the case which was plotted by a twisted brain, then fulfilled by a mistress of murder, ‘THE BLACK WIDOW!’” That first line would fascinate a psychiatrist. The Black Widow’s dress, supported by two narrow straps, plunges to the waist in the front and back, and at the sides it is slashed from waist to hem, revealing her thighs and hips. The bra cups, with her nipples as the center, are two spider webs. She wears French heels. Virtual duplicates of this costume may be found in the most extreme fetishist drawing and photographs. The Black Widow carries a device that ejects filaments of plastic similar to spider webs. She sprays the faces of her victims with this goo, and as they strangle to death before her, she leaves her sign, a dead black widow spider, upon their bodies. Why? “...I have quite a score to settle with the Navy! One stupid seaman left me at the church... and forty years ago my father was disgraced with a dishonorable discharge! No... we hold no love for the Navy... neither of us!” Ultimately, she and her father, the mastermind, capture Mike Hannigan and Joan Mason, and take them to the cellar of their home, where, against one wall, an enormous plastic spider web is woven. In the concluding scene, the Black Widow deliberately kills her father with the plastic spray gun as he dangles from the center of the web, obstructing her clear shot of Blue Beetle. You do not have to be a Fredric Wertham to read the meanings of these stories and their words. Nor even know much about sex symbolism. These stories were sold to boys and girls. They were sold to children without sexual experience, searching for the meanings and relationships

Richard Kyle’s Classic Study from Xero #8 (1962)

of sexual experience. The Black Widow and the Sphinx must have helped them in their search.

success with Ray Bradbury’s “The Fireman,” published in book form as Fahrenheit 451, and Kornbluth and Pohl’s “Gravy Planet,” which Ballantine Books issued as The Space Merchants. And then Galaxy—and much of the rest of science fiction—went out with the tide and came back in with selfrevilement and despair.

I don’t know how much longer Blue Beetle was published. Fox Feature Syndicate went on. Later that year, the third issue of Crimes by Women appeared. The cover displays four attractive women, guns in their fists, their clothes in tatters, attempting a jail break. They are trapped on the top of the prison wall, and the guards are machine-gunning them. “You asked for it... sister!” a guard yells as he shoots a blonde down. The brunette, her eyes bulging, cries “Aaagh! My leg!” The redhead fires back at the guard tower. “Here’s one fer luck!” she screams. And the other blonde, the best looking one, kneels in the foreground, a blazing sub-machinegun cradled in her arms. “Try this in ya belly ya louse!” she says.

It has been suggested that, beyond her nature as a person and as a sexual symbol, woman symbolizes the world to man. Perhaps this is so. If it is, it may explain the hatred of woman in our post-war, Cold War literature (and life), for we have surely hated the world we live in. Perhaps it explains the success of Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, and Ian Fleming’s James Bond stories, and the countless other, similar stories of “detection.” In any case, the post-war detective story has mirrored our disillusionment, too.

Eight years before, the Flame’s foster father had sent him out into the world from the pages of another Fox magazine. He had said, “My son, you leave us armed with potent mystic powers—use them for good!” Victor Fox had come a long way.

“We Don’t Want No Insects In The Family!” – Archie Bunker, 1970s

Blue Beetle made his final appearance in the mid-1950s. The Fox Feature Syndicate was dead at last, and Blue Beetle was headlined in a special issue of Space Adventures, a Charlton Publication. His performance in costume was only a token one, irrelevant to the story, and Dan Garrett—still a rookie cop—solved the crime in his other blue uniform, the one with the badge on it.

When Richard Kyle wrote in 1962 that Blue Beetle’s final appearance came in a few mid-1950s issues at Charlton, Xero editor Dick Lupoff added an asterisked footnote: “Well, not quite. There was yet another appearance of the Blue Beetle in an ‘IW’ reprint comic in 1961. The comic was called, for some reason, The Human Fly, and lasted only one issue. As with all IW comics to date, distribution was spotty at best. The material, also as in all IW comics, was reprinted without copyright credit.” (That cover is seen above left.)

It was a sign of the times that he spent almost a page trying to figure out a way to get rid of Mike Mannigan and into costume. In the old days he’d have told Mannigan there was a lead he wanted to follow up; by ’54, he wrecked the patrol car— “realism” was in.

The very next year (1963), a second Human Fly issue— officially “#10”—put out by IW’s (Israel Waldman’s) successor company Super Comics, reprinted more 1940s “Blue Beetle” stories, behind a cover penciled by Ross Andru & inked by Mike Esposito. In that ’63 comic, probably because Fox’s lead yarn had begun on the inside front cover, IW/Super apparently had no access to its splash page, so they simply started the tale with its second page—no splash! Talk about in medias res! Of course, in 1964-65 Charlton brought out a new Blue Beetle, with Dan Garrett now inheriting super-powers via an Egyptian scarab—in ’65 Steve Ditko launched yet another Charlton version—DC had taken over that rendition by ’86—and they tell me a new and more insectoid version is mandibling along even as we speak. Not too shabby, for a concept that owed its whole genesis to the moniker of The Green Hornet! [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

The decline of the idealistic super-hero, and the ascendance of the all too mortal herovictim and hero-villain—culminating in the Feldstein EC comics—was inevitable. When America entered World War II, our eyes had been turned inward for a decade; Steinbeck, Saroyan, and Caldwell, each an idealist, were our leading writers. We carried that homegrown idealism into the war, and, at war’s end, we discovered it had not been enough. We discovered, too, that some of it had been false. Saroyan, who depended so much on his personal vision, cracked wide open in The Adventures of Wesley Jackson; Caldwell became an aimless hack; Steinbeck a more conscientious one. As a nation we turned first to disillusionment, then to self-examination and self-criticism, then to self-revilement and despair and apathy. Our literature followed us. And our popular literature, of course, did, too. In science fiction, Galaxy appeared on the scene as the last wave of disillusionment ebbed, and rode the tide of caustic self-criticism to

War or no war, however, the decline of the super-hero was inevitable. The rhythm of idealism, disillusionment, self-criticism, self-revilement, despair—and then, when the emotions have exhausted themselves, the founding of a new optimistic realism on the sound principles of the old idealism, followed by the creation of a new idealism, is an inevitable one itself. Already, in the comic world we are seeing, perhaps, in the revival in somewhat altered forms of the costume heroes of the past, the first signs that the cycle is making a full turn. Maybe even Blue Beetle will come back once more.... The decline of Victor Fox and his magazines was inevitable, too. He began with a remarkable artist, Basil Berold, and a seller’s market for the comic book costume hero. But popular fiction and trash mirror their times; they do not—like art—create them, and Fox, by 1941, was a man out of his times. Whatever his age, he was born twenty-five years too late.

Even so, he might have survived as others have. But Fox was always a promoter, never a publisher or editor. Like all promoters, he could never understand that you can’t sell people entertainment—not with prize contests and premiums—they have to buy it. Nor could he understand what every good editor and publisher knows, and what the bad ones seem never to believe—despite the bleached bones of too many magazines to count—that you can always sell sex, but you can never sell depravity, not in the long haul, not in the competitive market. The public only pays for what it wants. And most people have a mean streak of decency in them. This was Victor S. Fox’s education. He began his career in his best blue suit, standing in line for a high school diploma. He ended it, blue jeans gaping at the knees, being drummed out of kindergarten.

Or, To Put It Another Way—DC Comics Vs. Victor Fox by Ken Quattro When Titans Crash Superman and The Wonder Man about to meet head-on—a symbolic representation of the April 1939 court battle between Detective Comics, Inc. (DC), and Bruns Publications (soon to be known as Fox Comics) and its two distributors. Thanks to Shane Foley for ably adapting the Ernie Chan/Frank McLaughlin cover of Justice League of America #137 (Dec. 1976). Of course, except for The Batman, who’d debuted in Detective Comics only a couple of months before the hearing, none of the colorful stalwarts seen in Shane’s masterful re-rendering even existed when the DC/Fox case was heard and decided. [Superman, Superman logo, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and now Blue Beetle & Phantom Lady TM & ©2011 DC Comics; Wonder Man, The Flame, & Samson TM & ©2011 the respective trademark & copyright holders.] Anxiously watching the looming smash-up above are Billy Eyron & Vince Reynard on the right (caricatured stand-ins, respectively, for writer/artist Will Eisner and publisher Victor Fox), and Donny Harrifeld and “Jake” on the left (stand-ins, respectively, for DC publisher Harry Donenfeld and his business manager and future co-publisher Jack Liebowitz). These four heads—and the thinly disguised names—are from Will Eisner’s The Dreamer, the Spirit creator’s 1985 graphic novel roman à clef recounting his early days in the comic book industry. With thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [©2011 Will Eisner Studios, Inc.]

DC Comics Vs. Victor Fox

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” — Oscar Wilde

Fox had taken note of the spectacular sales of Action Comics and, hoping to catch the coattails of the monthly magazine’s lead feature, he contracted the Will Eisner/Jerry Iger comics shop to produce an imitation Superman. As the story goes, Eisner had his misgivings. He told interviewer John Benson for his 1979 fanzine Panels (pp. 10-11):

Author’s Introduction Will Eisner is my hero. The above statement will surely come as no shock to anyone who has spoken to me about comics for more than five minutes or read any of my many articles or posts related to the man. To me he was a Promethean figure: creative, farsighted, and flat-out brilliant. The fact that he was one of the few comic book creators to come out of the Golden Age financially well off says as much about his business savvy as his artistic instincts. I’ve admired, too, his apparent honesty. In a time when the comic industry was dominated by publishers with shady—if not criminal—pasts, Eisner played it straight. Nothing spoke more to his integrity than the story of his testimony in the groundbreaking lawsuit officially known as Detective Comics, Inc. vs. Bruns Publications, Inc., Kable News Company, and Interborough News Co.; but, more to the point, it was DC Comics vs. Victor Fox.

Iger made a very convincing argument, which was… that we were very hungry. We needed the money badly. When the first sequence was finished, Fox decided he wanted to put the title on and he called it, strangely enough, Wonder Man…. I suppose, when you’re young, it is easier to adhere to principles. At any rate, when I did get on the stand and testified, I told the truth, exactly what happened. According to his version of events, Eisner’s confessional testimony led to DC winning the suit and Fox subsequently punishing the Eisner & Iger shop by failing to pay them $3,000 for the work they had produced for him. This inspirational story fascinated me and prompted me to search for the transcript of the case. For years I tried contacting sources in New York City, where the case was heard by District Judge John M. Woolsey on April 6 and 7, 1939. I even imposed upon a Manhattan lawyer to see if he had access that I couldn’t get. All to no avail. The transcript was apparently lost forever. Then, out of nowhere, I received an e-mail from a person who

Will Wonder Never Cease! (Left:) Eisner’s cover for Bruns Publications’ Wonder Comics #1 (May 1939) shows The Wonder Man stopping a diving aircraft. Superman, incidentally, had been depicted similarly halting an enemy aircraft on that of Action Comics #10 (March ’39), only a couple of months earlier, although by the time it went on sale the Wonder #1 cover might have already been drawn. Oddly, the hero wasn’t depicted wearing his mask on the cover. Thanks to Heritage Comics, Michael T. Gilbert, & Chet Cox. The entire “Wonder Man” story from Wonder #1 was reprinted in A/E #48, the Will Eisner issue. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.] (Right:) The first page of the “Transcript of Record,” the court publication from which all testimony that follows is taken. Note that this late-1939 document reprints the April ’39 testimony in connection with Bruns Publications’ unsuccessful appeal of the earlier verdict. In the appeal, Bruns was the primary plaintiff and DC the defendant; in the original trial by judge, of course, DC had been the plaintiff, and Bruns the principal defendant. The job of the appeals court was simply to rule on whether the original hearing had been properly conducted, not on the evidence presented therein. Based on the handwritten identification on this page, it appears that Asher Blum, one of Bruns’ attorneys, paid Photostatting expenses of 50¢ for the copy on Nov. 10, 1939, no doubt the approximate date of the appeal.

Superman Vs. The Wonder Man 1939

You May Say I’m A Dreamer (Left:) Part of the first page of the March 16, 1939, affidavit of Jacob S. (Jack) Liebowitz in the case of Detective Comics, Inc., vs. Bruns Publications, Inc., Kable News Co., Inc., and Interborough News Co. The full 10-page affidavit is on view at Ken Quattro’s blog The Comics Detective; see info in his Introduction. (Above:) In this panel from Will Eisner’s The Dreamer, Bang Comics publisher Donny Harrifeld (i.e., DC’s Harry Donenfeld) and his right-hand man “Jake” (Liebowitz) enjoy the fleeting moment in early ’39 when their mags boasted the only two real costumed super-heroes in comic books: the year-old Superman and the spanking-new Batman. It was a monopoly that wouldn’t last. Eisner’s graphic novel is still in print and belongs in every comics aficionado’s library. [©2011 Will Eisner Studios, Inc.]

had read my online article “Rare Eisner: Making of a Genius,” telling me that he had obtained a copy of the transcript and asking if I’d like to see it. I could hardly type my affirmative reply fast enough. In short order, my benefactor (who has requested anonymity) sent me a PDF file of transcript. For the next couple of hours I pored over the contents—and was stunned. It was like sitting in the courtroom listening to history. In my opinion, this transcript is one of the most important documents related to comic book history ever to come to light. It is also a confounding maze of crook deals, hidden agendas, and mind-boggling business relationships. What follows is my attempt to provide a historical context and guide through this collection of Dickensian characters and their motivations.

Notes And Acknowledgments Due to the historic value of this transcript, I have endeavored to use the exact words of testimony whenever possible. In a few slight instances, I (or Alter Ego editor Roy Thomas) have made corrections to obvious typographical errors in spelling and punctuation that occur in the original document. In addition, to avoid confusion, I have printed the names of the various participants, instead of the descriptive nouns used in the original, such as “The Witness” and “The Court.” Also, as per the A/E house style (and generally accepted practice), such magazine titles as Action Comics and Wonder Comics have been differentiated from the always-italicized testimony, while the character name “Wonder Man” has been rendered as two words, as per the feature’s actual title, rather than as “Wonderman,” as written by the court reporter, who was only hearing the name, not reading it. (The actual title of the strip was “The Wonder Man,” although the “The” was rarely used in the court proceedings.) The full testimony from this transcript can be viewed on my blog The Comics Detective at http://thecomicsdetective.blogspot.com. Please note that, in my original presentation of the transcript, I ran the testimony of

Will Eisner and the other defendants out of the order of their actual appearance at the trial. This was done both to feature Eisner’s historychanging words first—and to discourage direct copying from my blog. In addition to my own research, I had the help of many knowledgeable and unselfish people. I am very grateful to all of the following: Bob Beerbohm, Mike Feldman, Michael T. Gilbert , P.C. Hamerlinck, Allan Holtz, Frank Motler, Barry Pearl, and Susan Liberator of the Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library. I’d especially like to once again thank the generous benefactor who discovered this stunning piece of history and allowed me to share it with everyone.

The Prologue Jack Liebowitz, as a top executive at Detective Comics, Inc. (now DC Comics), wasted no time in responding to Fox’s publication of Wonder Comics #1, which was cover-dated May 1939. According to his affidavit given March 16, 1939, he had obtained a copy of the offending comic only a day earlier—two days before it was to hit the newsstands. Immediately, DC filed their suit against Bruns Publications and the distributors handling the publication, Kable News and Interborough News. The attorneys on all sides got busy. Exhibits were filed, affidavits taken, and on April 6 and 7, Honorable John M. Woolsey heard testimony. This was definitely not a case of “justice delayed.”

The Participants Witnesses (in order of appearance) — Jacob S. Liebowitz, witness for plaintiff — Jerome Siegel, witness for plaintiff — Warren A. Angel, witness for plaintiff — William Eisner, witness for defendant — Samuel M. (“Jerry”) Iger, witness for defendant — Victor S. Fox, witness for defendant — Max Charles Gaines, witness for plaintiff — Sheldon Mayer, witness for plaintiff — Harry Donenfeld, witness for plaintiff

DC Comics Vs. Victor Fox

Attorneys — Horace S. Manges, attorney for the plaintiff Detective Comics, Inc. — Asher Blum & Raphael Koenig, attorneys for defendant Bruns Publications (Fox) — Samuel Fried, attorney for co-defendants Kable News Co. and Interborough News Co.

The Testimony Of JACK LIEBOWITZ

Manges: And when was that? Liebowitz: About January of 1938. Manges: And thereafter did you enter into a contract with Mr. Siegel and Mr. Shuster?

Fittingly, Jack Liebowitz led off for the plaintiffs, asserting in answer to attorney Horace Manges’ questions that he had been secretary and treasurer of “the plaintiff corporation” (DC/Detective Comics, Inc.) since its “date of organization,” December 30, 1936. The former accountant had worked his way up through Harry Donenfeld’s organization. Hired as a business manager, Liebowitz was now secretary-treasurer for Detective Comics, Inc., and M.C. Gaines’ partner in the Donenfeld-funded AllAmerican Comics, Inc., venture. He was also chief guardian of the “Superman” franchise.

Liebowitz: It [“Superman”] was originally submitted by Mr. Siegel to the McClure Newspaper Syndicate and they couldn’t use it at the time. We, being on good terms with them—and they knew that we were looking for some features for a new magazine—they submitted that strip to us for consideration. We decided to publish it.

Liebowitz: Yes. Unknown to all at the time, this contract would have implications stretching decades into the future. Manges: I show you this paper and ask if that was entered into between Detective Comics and Messrs. Siegel and Shuster on or about March 1st, 1938 (handing witness paper)?

Just the previous year, 1938, Harry Donenfeld himself had been the defendant in a copyright infringement suit brought by rival publisher Frank Temerson. Like Donenfeld, Temerson was not only engaged in the emerging comic book industry, but also in the sordid world of “smut” publishing. In the case of Ultem Publications vs. Arrow Publications, Temerson sued one of Donenfeld’s many companies over use of the word “Stocking” in the title of its The Stocking Parade, an apparent imitation of his Silk Stocking Stories. The somewhat perplexed judge considered that, since “neither one caters to the stocking trade and neither one is recognized or considered by the trade to be a trade paper,” no infringement was involved. But, lesson learned; Liebowitz hurried to protect DC’s cash cow. It was Liebowitz’s affidavit that set out DC’s complaint against Fox and detailed his perceived infringements. Some were admittedly incidental: “Each bears the notation of the price 10¢ upon the cover.” Others are convincingly suspect: “The ‘SUPERMAN’ (March 1939, p. 12) is portrayed running toward a full moon dashing ‘off into the night.’ The ‘WONDER MAN’ (p. 13) is portrayed running toward a full moon ‘off into the night.’” The sum of DC’s complaint, though, is contained in this paragraph: “The ‘WONDER MAN’ is endowed with the same general characteristics of the ‘SUPERMAN.’ He also is endowed with superhuman strength and speed. The ‘WONDER MAN’S’ appearance is precisely identical to that of the ‘SUPERMAN,’ for he also is portrayed in a skin-tight acrobatic appearing uniform with the letter “W” (instead of “S”) emblazoned on his chest. All that has been changed is the color of the ‘WONDER MAN’S’ uniform which is red, whereas the color of the ‘SUPERMAN’S’ uniform is blue.” Once on the stand, Liebowitz’s testimony was mostly about the business practices of comic book publishing. At first, the attorneys led him through prosaic descriptions of the physical aspects of comic books themselves and details about the copyright process. Then the questioning turned to the acquisition of the “Superman” feature:

Liebowitz: That is right. Judge Woolsey: By this document, signed by both of them, they gave you exclusive rights to this creation of theirs called “Superman.” Both the author and the cartoonist signed it. That is the beginning. That, in effect, is an assignment of a common law copyright by both of these people. It is hard to conceive of just what you would call it, because these comic strips become almost entities and, I suppose, one would call that an assignment. Manges: Yes, sir; of all their proprietary rights in and to the comic strip. To further back up this claim, Manges offered up more evidence. Manges: I offer in evidence a check dated March 1st, 1938, of Detective Comics, Inc., to Messrs. Siegel and Shuster for $412, including the first item of $130. The “first item” referred to was the total amount paid to Siegel and Shuster for the “exclusive right to the use of the characters and story, continuity and title of the strip contained therein, to you and your assigns, to have and hold forever…,” as stated in their contract with DC. If Jerry Siegel, sitting in the courtroom awaiting his turn to testify, wasn’t already simmering over the embarrassing details of the contract he’d signed being made public, this passing comment to the court made by the plaintiff ’s counsel surely brought him to a boil: Manges: I wanted to get into the record the fact that there is a very serious license question that we are trying to protect and must protect. If these people plagiarize, of course we cannot keep up the license which is of immense value. This confirmed what Siegel suspected, and what Liebowitz and Donenfeld already knew: “Superman” was a money-maker, even though the first comic book totally devoted to the hero (Superman #1, Summer 1939) was only then going on sale. Getting his fair share of that money would be another matter. The ongoing debate between Siegel and Liebowitz regarding compensation had prompted this response by Liebowitz just a few months earlier, in a Sept. 28, 1938, letter to Siegel: Now in reply to your letter. Frankly, when I got through reading it, it took my breath away. I did not anticipate when I asked you to come to New York to discuss this matter of newspaper syndication, that you would want to take advantage of this visit and try to boost up your price on ‘Superman.’ You must bear in mind, Jerry, that when we started Action Comics, we agreed to give you $10.00 a page, which is $4.00 a page more than anyone else is getting for any feature in any of our four books.

Superman Vs. The Wonder Man 1939

Tear And Compare These three pages of “Exhibit I” were attached to Liebowitz’s 3-16-39 affidavit; they’re also on view in Ken Quattro’s Comic Detective blog. Their purpose was to show that drawings and text in “Wonder Man” were copied— i.e., stolen—from earlier “Superman” yarns. For good measure, DC tossed in a Wonder Comics figure allegedly swiped from an Action Comics cover. [DC art ©2011 DC Comics; Fox art ©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Eventually the questioning in court got around to establishing Fox’s opportunity and means of acquiring the sales figures of—and consequently, the motivation to copy—“Superman.” After establishing the close proximity of Bruns to DC (both were in the same building, two floors apart), the plaintiff ’s attorney reveals a deeper relationship: Manges: Is Mr. Donenfeld the president of your company? Liebowitz: He is. Manges: And did Mr. Donenfeld at one time have a 50 percent interest in the Bruns Publications? Liebowitz: Yes. Wheels within wheels. Not only was Donenfeld owner of Detective Comics, Inc., and its distributor, Independent News, but he was also Fox’s one-time partner in Bruns. Meanwhile, Liebowitz, secretary-treasurer of DC, served in a similar capacity for Independent News, of which Fox was a customer. It was as a client of that distributor that Fox had had access to the sales figures of Action Comics. Judge Woolsey: Were they things that anybody could look at in the Independent News Company? Liebowitz: No. Mr. Fox was anxious to know how his magazine was selling and I was anxious to know how Action Comics was selling and

our other comic magazines were selling, too, and in the morning before— Judge Woolsey: What day? Liebowitz: Well, almost every day; the cards would come in daily. Before they were actually assorted according to state or city, I would be looking at the cards and he would be looking at the cards. It seems that Fox would make a daily trip to the offices of Independent News to check the sales of his own World Astrology Magazine. While flipping through the unsorted “pick-up” cards, he had the opportunity to

DC Comics Vs. Victor Fox

value” of the character to the company. Yet DC—specifically Liebowitz— had repeatedly told him and Shuster quite the opposite: As I have pointed out to you many times, our company has very little to gain in a monetary sense from the syndication of this material. [Liebowitz letter to Siegel, ibid.] Even the question of a poll run in the first issue of Action Comics to determine its most popular feature received a different response in court than it had in correspondence: Manges: Mr. Liebowitz, did your company run a contest to determine the most popular of the features of the magazine?

The Wonder Year Victor Fox’s trademark registration of the Wonder Comics logo, dated Feb. 20, 1939. This comes, Ken Quattro relates, from The Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office, July 1939 (Vol. 504), p. 25.

Liebowitz: Yes, sir. Manges: And did “Superman” win that contest? After a bit of cross-talk and legal wrangling, Liebowitz answered:

see the astounding sell-through rate of Action compared to the meager sales of World Astrology. Liebowitz: …I might say that the World Astrology Magazine was a magazine that sold around 33 percent of the total copies distributed and Action Comics enjoyed sales of 80 or 85 percent. These figures would certainly be incentive enough for anyone to contemplate duplicating such success. The thought obviously occurred to Victor Fox, as well. Under further questioning, Liebowitz made reference to a comic book proposed to him by Fox in February, 1939: Manges: Did you have a conversation with Mr. Fox during the month of February, 1939, with respect to a comic magazine? Liebowitz: Yes. Manges: Will you tell his Honor what was said by Mr. Fox and what was said by you, to the best of your recollection? Liebowitz: Well, he was up to see me at one time at the office, I think it was around five o’clock. A part of the conversation was to inform me he was going to publish a comic magazine and that the issue was being prepared in about two weeks.

Liebowitz: Out of a total number of 542 replies tabulated on “Superman,” 404 preferred “Superman” as the first feature; 59 shows it as the second; 22 as the third; 21 as the fourth; 17 as the fifth; 19 replies show no indication at all, making a total of 542. And yet, in his scolding 9-28-38 missive to Siegel, Liebowitz had written: As far as the popularity poll is concerned, we have approximately 500 letters in reply to this contest. If you are so observant, you may have seen that the majority of these letters have not been opened as yet and I don’t know whether ‘Superman’ heads the list or ‘Zatara’ or any other feature carried in this book…. As a matter of fact, we have today opened the other mail in the poll and have found that about 25% indicate ‘Zatara’ to be their favorite feature, 20% like ‘Pep Morgan,’ 15% like ‘Tex Thompson,’ and only 30% designate ‘Superman’ as their favorite…. Despite being the creator (along with artist Joe Shuster) of “Superman,” Siegel suffered the ignominy of knowing he was just the hired help. Instead of being the aggrieved parties, the ones suing for damages for copyright infringement, Siegel and Shuster had signed away all rights to the character:

This turned out to be Wonder Comics, the comic book featuring “Wonder Man,” the character at the center of this lawsuit.

The Testimony of JERRY SIEGEL What was going through Jerry Siegel’s mind as he approached the witness stand? He had just listened to DC’s lawyer declare that the plagiarism of “Superman” had to be stopped due to the “immense

Jerry, Joe—And A Pair Of Jacks (Photo:) “Superman” writer/co-creator Jerry Siegel attending Superman Day at the New York World’s Fair on July 3, 1940. Thanks to Michaël Dewally for the screen capture. (Right:) Panels from an Oct. 19, 1947, Sunday sequence of Al Capp’s hard-biting comic strip Li’l Abner. In the one at right, caricatures of “Superman” creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster are browbeaten by Rockwell P. Squeezeblood, head of the Squeezeblood Comic Strip Syndicate, into signing a, shall we say, disadvantageous contract. In the top panel, in one of Capp’s trademark comic-strips-within-a-comic-strip, their super-hero creation “Jack Jawbreaker” goes into action. Jack was flawlessly depicted as a literal “flying fist”—a muscular arm powered by a propeller. With thanks to Leonardo De Sá—as well as to Michael T. Gilbert, Bruce Mason, Tony Rose, and Denis Kitchen for their help in tracking down this three-week satire inspired by Siegel & Shuster’s 1947 lawsuit against National/DC. [Li’l Abner panels ©2011 Capp Enterprises, Inc.]

Also bear in mind, that we own the feature ‘Superman’ and that we can at any time replace you in the drawing of that feature and that

Superman Vs. The Wonder Man 1939

Faster Than A Speeding Barrister Exhibits 12 & 13 in the original court case were copies of Action Comics #1 (June 1938) and #7 (Dec. ’38), as drawn by Joe Shuster. According to the Transcript of Record, copies of Action Comics #1-11 were submitted in evidence by the plaintiff (DC), along with a copy of Wonder Comics #1 and several examples of what it called “Superman strips”—probably a reference to original art from the pasted-up story in Action #1. Thanks to Ken Quattro. [©2011 DC Comics.]

without our consent the feature would not be syndicated and therefore you would be the loser in the entire transaction. [Liebowitz letter to Siegel, ibid.] Still, with the court date for the Fox hearing just days away, DC had needed Siegel on their side, as Liebowitz had bluntly told him in a telegram: TRIAL FOR INFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT OF SUPERMAN IS DEFINITELY SCHEDULED FOR THURSDAY OUR ATTORNEY WANTS TO USE YOU AS A WITNESS PLEASE MAKE ARRANGEMENTS TO GET IN THURSDAY MORNING WITHOUT FAIL [Jack Liebowitz telegram to Jerry Siegel, April 3, 1939] In court, the plaintiff ’s attorney made sure everyone knew that Siegel’s role in testifying was, by design, very specific.

After getting Siegel to acknowledge familiarity with The Phantom, the defense attorney tried to pin him down with details: Blum: How was that character, The Phantom, dressed; in what costume?

The only “proof ” Siegel could provide were his own words:

Siegel: Well, when I first saw the book [a Phantom Big Little Book] I was startled to see how similar it was to the Superman features.

Manges: Mr. Siegel, when did you conceive the idea of “Superman,” approximately?

What seemed to be an admission of imitation soon proved to be something else entirely:

Siegel: Six years ago.

Siegel: However, there is one other thing I would like to mention—I mean in connection with my having seen this book.

Manges: I only bring on this witness because they plead as a separate defense lack of originality.

Manges: And you have been the only one that has written the script for “Superman” appearing in Action Comics magazine, have you not? Siegel: Yes, I have. And further on:

Blum: Go ahead. Siegel: When I saw this book I went over to the artist’s office, and I wondered whether our Superman had been lying around the King Features Syndicate.

Manges: In writing up your script do you copy anybody else’s work?

Judge Woolsey: You went over to an office? Whose office?

Siegel: No.

Siegel: Joseph Shuster. We had submitted our script and strip first to Central Press and the Central Press Syndicate, which is owned by King Features—

Manges: Is it original with you? Siegel: Yes, it is. This line of questioning must have been in anticipation of what was to come next. In his cross-examination, the defense attorney asked Siegel about his familiarity with a particular newspaper comic strip which predated the first appearance of “Superman” in print: Blum: Did you ever hear of a comic strip called The Phantom? Siegel: Yes, I have heard of it recently. Blum: When was the first time you heard of The Phantom? Siegel: It may have been about a year ago or a year and a half. Blum’s strategy was to imply that the common source for both “Superman” and “The Wonder Man” was Lee Falk & Ray Moore’s King Features strip The Phantom, thereby undercutting Siegel’s claim to the originality of his creation. In reality, however, The Phantom was not the first costumed hero, either. Preceding him in the comic strips was the far less-known Phantom Magician, who had briefly appeared in the newspaper strip The Adventures of Patsy in 1935, a year before The Phantom premiered. Of course, popular literature had a long history of such heroes going back to Zorro, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and The Gray Seal. The introduction of The Phantom into the court proceedings was likely due to the current popularity of the character.

At first blush, Siegel’s (obviously prearranged) implication that The Phantom may have been copied from his earlier submission of Superman in newspaper strip form to King Features seems to be a preposterous statement. There is, however, the fact that, in 1930, Hearst/King Features bought out the Cleveland-based Central Press Syndicate. And for some time after, it continued to operate out of that city. Judge Woolsey interrupted to ask Siegel if he recalled the date of his submission to Central Press. Siegel replied that he might be able to find it among his correspondence back home in Cleveland. As he sidestepped the judge’s request of him for more detail, Siegel restated his claim: Siegel: That won’t be necessary, but I wish to say that Superman was submitted to the King Features Syndicate quite a while before I saw this book and possibly before they distributed it. As unlikely as it seems, it posed an intriguing, if perhaps unanswerable, question. Was the idea of a costumed hero, depicted by two young amateurs, passed on to the home office of King Features and, in turn, given to established pro writer Lee Falk? In any case, the comment drew a move to strike by the defendant’s attorney (which was denied by Judge Woolsey). The defense counsel then attempted to pin Siegel down by asking for evidence of Superman’s creation, eliciting a somewhat surprising response:

DC Comics Vs. Victor Fox

Blum: Do you have with you the very first drawing that was made of the Superman? Siegel: I do not. That strip was redrawn a number of times. Even Judge Woolsey found it curious that no drawing of Superman prior to the publication of Action Comics #1 existed. Judge Woolsey: That is the earliest thing you have got to show? Siegel: Yes.

this interesting tidbit established what may well have been the very first submission—and rejection—of Superman.

The Testimony Of WARREN ANGEL As Vice-President and General Manager of Kable News, Warren A. Angel was a co-defendant in this case, but was called as a witness for the plaintiff. While Angel willingly answered Manges’ questions, he didn’t provide the damning proof of copyright infringement that Manges hoped Fox had divulged to him:

While Siegel never did produce a drawing of Superman that preexisted its publication in Action Comics—odd, since such drawings have turned up since—the plaintiff ’s lawyer did satisfy the Court with a letter submitting the strip to Frank Armer, editor of Super Magazines, Inc.:

Manges: Did you ever have any conversation with Mr. Fox as to the similarity of Wonder Comics with Action Comics?

Manges: Mr. Siegel, in your letter of June 20, 1934, Plaintiff ’s Exhibit 30, you state: “You may be interested to know that a strip of mine entitled Superman may be syndicated in the daily newspapers in a half a year or so.” Now, on the date that you wrote that letter were there scripts of Superman in existence?

Manges: You and he never discussed the question of similarity of these two magazines?

Siegel: Yes.

Angel: No, sir.

Armer, once a publisher himself, was editor of the “Spicy” line of magazines—Spicy Detective Stories, Spicy Western Stories, and SpicyAdventure Stories among them—which featured comic strips along with their other “spicy” pulp fare. Not stated, but known to at least some of those in court that day:

Manges: Did you ever discuss the question of such similarity with any other person?

Super Magazines, Inc., was a company owned by Harry Donenfeld. Parenthetically, in a passing reference, Siegel mentioned that one submission of Superman that even pre-dated the Super Magazines letter was to “Mr. La Farve [sic] of the La Farve Syndicate.” The Arthur J. LaFave Syndicate was a one-man operation from Siegel and Shuster’s hometown of Cleveland, whose bestknown strip was Napoleon and Uncle Elby. It makes sense that the duo would start locally with their submissions, and

Angel: No, sir, I did not.

Angel: Are you talking of contents? Manges: Any kind of similarity.

Angel: No, sir. Even more specific questions followed: Manges: Was there any conversation concerning the character “Wonder Man”? Angel: No, sir, there was not. Manges: Or “Superman”? Angel: No, sir. (At one point, Manges handed Angel a promotional poster printed with the cover to Wonder Comics #1 on the front side and copy announcing its release on the back, and

The Golden Age Of Comic Phantoms (Above left:) While Siegel and Shuster were trying out different versions of their “Superman” concept as early as 1933, it’s hard to be certain that any art showing their fully-developed character in costume was drawn earlier than the 1936-birthed comic strip The Phantom. Seen here is the first panel in which The Phantom appears—in the fifth daily, dated 2-21-36. Script by Lee Falk; art by Ray Moore; reprinted from Hermes Press’ The Phantom: The Complete Newspaper Dailies: Volume One 1936-1937. (Above center:) The front cover and spine of the first Phantom Big Little Book, dated 1936. This, according to Jerry Siegel’s testimony, was the first he ever saw of The Ghost Who Walks. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert—also to Jim Ludwig, Chet Cox, & Ernest Guevera. [Phantom material ©2011 King Features Syndicate, Inc.] (Above right:) Just to complete the confusion, as Ken Q. relates, the super-powered Phantom Magician (well, he could fly, anyway—via a magic cloak) had debuted in 1935 in Mel Graff’s comic strip The Adventures of Patsy. The above daily (apparently misdated 1934 by the syndicate) was reprinted in The Comic Strip Century, Vol. 2, edited by Bill Blackbeard & Dale Crain (Kitchen Sink, 1995). “Don Martstein’s Toonopedia” website reports that The Phantom Magician even beat Superman into comic books, since a Patsy episode in which he appeared was reprinted in Famous Funnies #32 (March 1937). Thanks to Leonardo De Sá. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.] And, as Leonardo points out, none of the above takes into consideration “the first übermensch in comics, Hugo Hercules, a Sunday page drawn by W.H.D. Koerner… between Sept. 7, 1902, and Jan. 11, 1903”—an example of which was seen in A/E #37. And let’s not forget Popeye!

Superman Vs. The Wonder Man 1939

asked him if it was sent out at the same time as the comic itself. Angel confirmed the timing. At least one example of that poster has since surfaced with a penciled date of “3/17/39” on the reverse side, indicating that both the poster and the comic were distributed on that day.) In an odd twist, Kable’s own attorney, Samuel Fried, used his crossexamination of his own client in place of re-calling Angel later for direct questioning. The one point he wished to make was made in this brief exchange: Fried: Did Kable News Company have any knowledge of the contents of Wonder Comics magazine? Angel: No, sir. Fried: Did it have anything to do with the manufacture of “The Wonder Man”? Angel: No, sir. According to Angel, Kable was distributing, “about 175 or 180” titles per month, in the range of 7 to 8 million total copies. The 230,000 firstissue print run of Wonder Comics #1 accounted for less than 3% of that total. Not a huge part of Kable’s business, but still most likely profitable. While Angel’s testimony wasn’t particularly damaging to Fox, it was clear he hoped to provide some distance between his company and Bruns. Why would he do this? A closer look at Kable and Warren Angel himself may provide some clues. Kable was a long-established Illinois printing company that had entered the independent magazine distribution business in 1932. Similarly, so had Harry Donenfeld. Says noted publishing historian Michael Feldman, in an e-mail dated Aug. 2, 2010: They [Kable] were trying to become the viable alternative to Donenfeld and Co. But one has to realize that as independent distributors they all had shared interests in breaking the American News Co.’s domination of periodical distribution with their monopoly on train stations and key urban retain outlets. So competitive but cooperative simultaneously. Just as Fawcett fought DC over legal issues but they worked together on distribution fronts. I’m guessing Angel was in an awkward position of having to defend his client, Fox, but really not being on board otherwise. There was also another consideration. Warren’s wife, Evangeline Ludlum Angel, was listed as a co-owner of Centaur Comics along with Joseph Hardie and Raymond Kelly in owner’s statements circa 1939. By 1940, she would be named (as would Warren himself eventually) as an owner of Ace Publications, as well. In a very real sense, as a publisher (albeit, one-step removed through his wife), Angel was competing not only with DC, but with Fox, too. One more thread in the tangled web of intertwined relationships that defined the comic book industry of the era.

The Testimony Of WILL EISNER Blum: State your age, residence and occupation? Eisner: I am twenty-two years old. I am an artist. I live at 2564 Creston Avenue, Bronx, New York. Blum: Are you engaged in business for yourself? Eisner: I am. Blum: What is the nature of that business? Eisner: We supply comic material for newspapers and magazines. Blum: Who is the other person who is associated with you in that business?

It’s A Bird… It’s A Plane… It’s “Superhuman”! The backside of the March 1939 promotional poster which was reportedly handed by witness Warren A. Angel to attorney Horace S. Manges at some point during the former’s testimony. Though hard to read here, the arrival dates “3-17-39” and “3-21-39” are penciled in at top and bottom. The front of the ad was a reproduction of the cover of Wonder Comics #1. Note that the capitalized word “Superhuman” appears right below the name “The Wonder Man”; it’s repeated, hyphenated, later in the same ad. Sadly, we have no photo—or even caricature—of Kable News’ Warren A. Angel.

Eisner: Mr. Iger. Will Eisner was the first defense witness and necessarily its most important one. He was the artist and writer of “The Wonder Man,” and, ostensibly, his creator. Virtually at the outset of Eisner’s testimony, Judge Woolsey stopped Blum’s line of questioning and asked him where he was going with it. After some back-and-forth discussion, Blum summed up the defense’s position: Blum: I want to prove this: that before the plaintiff ’s magazine was published this man and his associate had produced the drawings and part of the script which is complained of in issue without the slightest knowledge of any work that might have been done by plaintiff ’s writer and by plaintiff ’s artist at that time; that the material was then submitted to the Bruns Company prior to the time of publication of the plaintiff ’s magazine; that this man derived his knowledge of this figure, this man in skin tights, from The Phantom which had been a wellknown comic strip running in the daily papers for about three years prior to that. To which Judge Woolsey responded with his position:

DC Comics Vs. Victor Fox

Judge Woolsey: I don’t know whether a man in tights can be copyrighted. The question is whether a whole thing, which you see here, whether one is a copy of the other. When Blum’s questioning continued, he handed Eisner the apparent original artwork for the first page of the “Wonder Man” story. Blum: I show you a sheet of drawings and call your attention to the fulllength figure, which I will designate with a capital X, and ask you when you made the first drawing of that figure?

Blum: What part of 1938? Give us the month as best you can. Eisner: Approximately January. A bit later on, Blum asked a more specific question: Blum: At the time that you made the drawing marked with a capital X had you in any way known or heard of the plaintiff ’s character “Superman”? Eisner: No, sir. Blum next tried to ask Eisner if he knew of the comic strip The Phantom, a question obviously anticipated by the plaintiff ’s attorney, who quickly objected. After Eisner affirmed that he knew of the character, the defense counsel narrowed his focus once again: Blum: When for the first time did you designate your figure as “The Wonder Man”? Eisner: When I first presented the sketch that is marked with the X to Mr. Fox.

Eisner: That was in January of last year, 1938. Blum: What month of 1938? Eisner: January of 1938. Blum: …[A]t the time you thought of the phrase or words “The Wonder Man” had you at that time ever heard or had you ever known of “The Superman,” which is the plaintiff ’s character?

In a published conversation with Joe Simon (one of his legendary “Shop Talks”), Eisner stated what was at stake: I refused to lie on the witness stand for Fox. So I told the truth: that he—Fox—set out to imitate Superman. His defense disappeared. As a result, Fox refused to pay Eisner & Iger about $3,000 he owed us. An absolute fortune at the time. [The Spirit Magazine #37, p. 38 (Oct. 1982).]

Eisner: The first drawing of that figure was made early last year.

Judge Woolsey: And when was that?

the way he wanted him in a handwritten memo. Obviously, a complete imitation of Superman.” Eisner agonized about what he’d say at the trial. Finally, he decided that he couldn’t commit perjury and, when called to the witness stand, he testified that Fox literally instructed Eisner & Iger to copy Superman.

A thinly disguised fictional version of these events even made it into Eisner’s graphic novel roman à clef, The Dreamer. In reality, Eisner’s testimony was in lock-step with both Iger and Fox, which becomes evident in their subsequent appearances on the stand. Contrary to the image of the idealistic young artist risking his financial well-being on principle, it appears Eisner succumbed to the urgings of his partner and their client. As he made clear in his earlier statement to the court, Blum intended to show that The Phantom was a prevailing influence on Eisner and an antecedent to Siegel’s creation. When a question of source material was asked and appeared headed into a recitation of mythical prototypes, an irritated Woolsey limited Eisner’s response with: “Confine yourself to The Phantom, or whatever it is.” Obligingly, Eisner replied: Eisner: I was influenced by “The Phantom,” who defended poor people and wore a skin-tight costume. A follow-up question drew an objection from Manges and was sustained by Judge Woolsey’s weary “I don’t need any more of this,” concluding Blum’s direct questioning. Immediately, Manges went after Eisner aggressively in his cross-examination. He started by trying to pin Eisner down on when he first saw Action Comics: Manges: Mr. Eisner, when is the first time that you ever saw copies of the magazine Action Comics? Eisner: I don’t recall it definitely.

Eisner: No, sir.

Manges: You don’t recall?

There was no equivocation on his part. Eisner took full credit for creating “The Wonder Man” months before Action Comics #1 hit the newsstands, without any knowledge of “Superman” himself and without Fox’s prompting. This statement is in stark contrast to Eisner’s later versions of his testimony. Years after the fact, Eisner told a detailed version of his testimony to writer Bob Andelman, which was recounted in the latter’s posthumous biography of Eisner, A Spirited Life (pp. 44-45): “It’s simple. Go into court and say you thought up the idea and that’s it,” Iger said. “They can’t sue you because you were paid for it.” “I can’t do that,” Eisner said. “It’s not true. Victor described the character exactly

Eisner: No. I have seen it from time to time. Manges: From what time to what time? Eisner: Well, I have seen it on the newsstands. Manges: How long ago? Eisner: Several months ago.

Eisner Had Spirit Will Eisner in 1941 (seated at left), with his ace artists Nick Viscardi (later Nick Cardy) and Bob Powell. By that time, Eisner had already spent many months producing the weekly color Comics Section (later called The Spirit Section), which was distributed with Sunday newspapers. For it, Eisner wrote and drew The Spirit, Viscardi Lady Luck, and Powell Mr. Mystic. This photo appeared in the 1982 Kitchen Sink volume The Art of Will Eisner. [©2011 Will Eisner Studios, Inc.[

Manges: How many months ago? Eisner: I don’t recall. Manges: One month ago or eleven months ago? Eisner: Between that time; about eight months ago. Manges: Don’t you follow the comic magazines as they come out?

Superman Vs. The Wonder Man 1939

Trials And Tribulations (Above:) In Eisner’s graphic novel The Dreamer, he relates a conversation between Billy Eyron (Eisner) and Vincent Reynard (Victor Fox) concerning the creation of “Heroman” (read: “The Wonder Man”). (Right:) This page from The Dreamer showcases Eyron’s testimony, which conforms with Eisner’s relating of events in later years, if not with the Transcript of Record. [©2011 Will Eisner Studios, Inc.]

Eisner: I am aware as they come out. Manges: Isn’t that your line of trade? Eisner: That is true. Manges: If you were selling a Chevrolet car would you watch the Plymouth? Eisner: Well, naturally. Manges: If you saw a new magazine come out in April, 1938, Action Comics, would you look at it then or not? Eisner: I didn’t know the exact date when it did come out.

At this point, Manges began grilling Eisner to explain specific details resulting from comparison of the competing characters:

Aware that this exchange was going nowhere, Judge Woolsey curtailed it—“He said he doesn’t remember when he first saw it. He couldn’t possibly see it before it came out and it came out in April, 1938”— compelling Manges to alter his questioning a bit:

Manges: And when you did read “Superman,” did you see the clause “Champion of the Oppressed” repeated several times?

Manges: When for the first time did you ever read the comic strip “Superman”?

Manges: You think you have seen it?

Eisner: About several days after our comic book came out.

Eisner: I think I have seen that.

Eisner: I am not sure. It was mentioned several times. I don’t know.

Eisner: Referring to a lawsuit.

When Manges asked a similar question regarding the line, “Foe of evil and injustice,” the judge stopped him to determine where he was going with his inquiry. Manges replied that he was trying to establish Eisner’s credibility, and further, “I would like to go over the list of some of these things and see what position he is going to take with reference to them. Some of these may refresh his memory.” Satisfied, Woolsey allowed the line of questioning and Manges continued, each perceived infringement culled from those outlined in Liebowitz’s affidavit:

Manges: And until you heard of this lawsuit, you, the creator of “Wonder Man,” never read the strip “Superman,” is that right?

Manges: The “Superman” and “Wonder Man” are dual characters, are they not?

Eisner: That is true.

Eisner: What do you mean, dual, two characters, two different characters?

Judge Woolsey: Why did you read it then? Eisner: Because I was informed by Mr. Fox that some sort of action was being taken. Manges: Referring to this lawsuit?

What at first seems to be a disingenuous answer (assuming Eisner’s later statements are true) can be parsed to read that Eisner told Manges the truth. Fox may well have directed Eisner to copy “Superman,” but Eisner may not have actually read the story, perhaps basing “The Wonder Man” on a cursory visual approximation and a backstory provided by Fox in his memo. It’s impossible to know what was going through Eisner’s mind at the time, but by employing such verbal gymnastics, he could have circumvented Manges’ question while assuaging his conscience at the same time.

Manges: Aren’t they in the character of an ordinary person and then they both, when they take off their ordinary garments, they assume the character of a person with superhuman attributes; isn’t that so with respect to both of them? Eisner: Well, as for “The Wonder Man”… Manges: Yes or no? Eisner: I don’t know. I don’t know whether the “Superman” refers from

DC Comics Vs. Victor Fox

one to the other or from the other to one.

Eisner: It depends on the story.

Manges: You did read the November 1938 issue of Action Comics, did you not?

Manges: Is that right?

Eisner: I don’t remember what that issue looked like. I don’t remember the exact date. If I see a copy… Manges: I refresh your recollection that at page 8 it states: “Outside the night club, he sheds his garments and glasses and stands revealed in the Superman uniform.” Do you remember having read that? Eisner: I have seen that. Manges: And do you remember in your issue at page 4: “Alone on the deserted field a transformation takes place. Fred Carson removes his outer garments and becomes the Wonder Man, mightiest human on earth”; do you remember that in yours? Eisner: Yes, sir. Manges: Is it not true then that both “Superman” and “Wonder Man” have a dual personality? Judge Woolsey: An ordinary man who wears glasses and a man who takes his clothes off and becomes incredible, that is what he means. Eisner: Well, he does. He wears civilian clothes as a disguise. He is essentially “The Wonder Man.” He only wears those clothes to disguise the fact that he is a “Wonder Man.”

Eisner: It depends entirely on the story. I cannot state a rule. Manges: Do you recall a drawing that you did of Wonder Man running toward a full moon and using the phrase “Off into the night”? Eisner: I do. Manges: Do you remember seeing a copy of Superman also running into a full moon and using the phrase “Off into the night” in the caption? Eisner: A lot of words including that. At this point, the defense attorney stepped in, hoping to stem the flurry of body blows directed at Eisner. To his credit, Eisner held his ground. None of his answers was particularly damaging, and he even scored a couple of minor—if likely unrecognized—points when he corrected Manges’ assertions that The Phantom lacked a “dual personality” (in other words, a “secret identity”) and that it was the changing of clothes that empowered both Superman and Wonder Man. Manges resumed his questioning along a slightly different path. At this juncture, he tried to find a crack in Eisner’s testimony concerning the timeline of the drawing of the first “Wonder Man” story.

Manges: Is not that fact also true with respect to “Superman”?

Manges: You say you created the cover of Wonder Comics in 1938, do you not? Eisner: Yes. Manges: You swore to an affidavit in this action in opposition to a motion for a preliminary injunction, did you not?

Eisner: From what I read in that issue, yes. Manges: That is not at all true with respect to The Phantom, is it?

Eisner: I did.

Eisner: It is true. He wears civilian clothes to disguise his person.

Manges: You swore to that on the 20th of March, 1939?

Manges: Isn’t The Phantom just one personality’?

Eisner: I did. Manges: Do you remember swearing to this effect at that time: “ … that he (meaning you) created the cover with respect to Wonder Comics in January, 1939”?

Eisner: No. Manges: In the strip The Phantom there is no occasion where an ordinary man becomes superhuman through a change of costume, is there?

Eisner: Now you mentioned it, I must have.

Eisner: Well, he doesn’t become superhuman because he changes his costume at all.

Manges: Which is correct? Eisner: Well, it was over a period of time. The reason I mentioned that is because I presented a sketch of the cover and then the final drawing was made. There were two stages: one is the pencil sketch of what the cover would be like and then the second is the inked drawing that goes in.

Manges: And there is not the dual personality that there is in the case of “Superman” and “Wonder Man,” is there? Eisner: The fact that “Wonder Man” changes his costume does not make him superhuman. Manges: But he is never superhuman until he takes off his ordinary garments, isn’t that right?

An Action Hero Figure? The Wonder Man smashes through a wall, breaks a rifle in two with his bare hands, lifts a man over his head, and rebuffs bullets—all actions which, DC’s lawyers contended, proved that the Bruns/Fox hero was an imitation of and copyright infringement on “Superman.” Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert & Chet Cox. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Manges then referred Eisner back to the artwork for page 1 of the “Wonder Man” story. Manges: With respect to

Superman Vs. The Wonder Man 1939

Who Was That Masked Man? (Above:) The Wonder Man changes back into Fred Carson, mild-mannered reporter for IBC, the International Broadcasting Company. Guess he wasn’t already enough like Superman—his alter ego had to have a similar job, to boot! Fawcett, of course, would later waltz down that same vocational path with young radio reporter Billy Batson in “Captain Marvel.” Couldn’t one them have been, like, a doctor or lawyer? [©2011 the respective copyright holders.] (Top right & below:) The Phantom’s two “secret identities.” Originally, as many readers doubtless guessed from the daily for March 12, 1936, writer/creator Lee Falk intended to eventually reveal that the mystery man was actually playboy Jimmy Wells. But then, as pop culture maestro Ron Goulart relates in the first volume of the excellent new Hermes Press reprint series, Falk decided to make him instead the latest (24th!) in a 400-year line of Phantoms, an identity passed from father to son, and not Jimmy Wells at all. From that point on, like The Lone Ranger, The Phantom was a masked man without a real civilian life—though his birth name was Kit Walker. [©2011 King Features Syndicate, Inc.]

Eisner: That saves considerable time, yes, sir. Judge Woolsey: And this first page here of this “Wonder Man” is practically that same drawing there, isn’t it? Eisner: Except for the fact that it had color. Judge Woolsey: This has color and that hasn’t got the title on the top which it did have in the first place? Eisner: That is right. Defendant’s Exhibit B for Identification I call your attention to the fact that the top of it is roughened. Was there anything taken off of that? Eisner: Yes, there was the title of the story, “The Wonder Man.” That was taken off the drawing. Manges: Why was that taken off before it was presented here? Eisner: Because we saved the title to place the title on future drawings in order to save the job of redrawing the title. The questioning that followed makes it apparent that at least one of the legal minds in the court had difficulty understanding the processes used in putting a comic book together. Judge Woolsey: You mean that is cut off? Eisner: No, it was not cut off just before I brought it here. Judge Woolsey: You cut the drawing when you make the title? Eisner: It is page 1. Judge Woolsey: As shown on page 1 in volume 1 of Wonder Comics in order not to have to draw and redraw the same heading? Eisner: Exactly. Judge Woolsey: You just cut off that part of it?

Second-Story Man According to Will Eisner’s testimony, the “Wonder Man” logo was sliced off the splash panel of the initial story so it could be used on the second one, thus saving the trouble and expense of Photostatting it. But the original art for p. 3 of the hero’s second story—later autographed by Eisner—is all that remains of the tale prepared for Wonder Comics #2… and, thanks to the lawsuit, that adventure was never published. Note the reference to “television,” a new invention that would’ve probably come into its own in the 1940s instead of the ’50s, if not for a little diversion known as the Second World War. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Judge Woolsey: Then you took it off to use on the next number, is that it?

DC Comics Vs. Victor Fox

Eisner: That is right. On subsequent numbers we used it.

Judge Woolsey: Have you got a nom de plume which you use?

Manges resumed questioning Eisner’s timeline. Referring again to the original artwork to the first page of the “Wonder Man” story, Manges inquired about a paste-over drawing (insert X) in the first panel:

Eisner: I do it under several nom de plumes.

Manges: You say the insert X is the only part of Defendant’s Exhibit B for Identification which was completed before January, 1939, is that right?

Eisner: “Will Erwin” and “Renze” [sic; that’s the court reporter’s spelling; Eisner wrote it “Rensie,” his last name written backwards] and “Edwin P. Willis.” We put nom de plumes on these drawings because I do so many of them I can’t possibly…

Eisner: That is right.

Judge Woolsey: Which ones?

Judge Woolsey: You don’t remember your own name?

The plaintiff ’s attorney continued to press and Eisner remained consistent:

Eisner: It doesn’t sound like my own name.

Manges: For what use did you draw the insert X back in 1938?

Judge Woolsey: You have got what looks like “Crown Willis” on this.

Eisner: That was to show to Mr. Fox the idea of the character.

Eisner: It is “Erwin.” It is very, very small.

Manges: Of what character?

Judge Woolsey: What you meant was “Erwin Willis”?

Eisner: Wonder Man.

Eisner: Yes.

Manges: Did you first use the expression “Wonder Man” on any drawing after conferring with Mr. Fox?

Judge Woolsey: And that is one of your nom de plumes?

Eisner: I don’t understand. You mean after January, 1938?

Judge Woolsey: Why do you use a nom de plume? The only way to get a reputation is to come out straight on your own. I don’t see why you use a nom de plume.

Manges: No. At any time did Mr. Fox suggest to you calling the figure “Wonder Man”?

Eisner: Yes.

Manges: And was that thought expressed by you after Mr. Fox had given you an order to do any art work?

Eisner: Because I do so many if I signed my right name to each piece—I use a different style on some features than I use in others and in some places I draw what is called a straight illustration and in some I do goop comics.

Eisner: That was expressed by me when I first presented the sketch in January, 1938.

Judge Woolsey: You mean a straight illustrator does not want to be associated with goop comics, is that the idea?

Eisner was unshakable. If Fox had any chance of prevailing, the defense had to be united on this key point, and Eisner held up his end of the bargain. However, not all of his testimony had such serious implications. The increasingly exasperated jurist strove to understand one of the arcane practices of comic book artists, resulting in an exchange that reads like an Abbott and Costello comedy routine:

Eisner: No; it is better business, because the publishers who buy the stuff feel that it is not good when one man is doing the entire book, all the features.

Eisner: No, it was my thought.

When Manges resumed cross-examination, he asked for more information about the origin of the insert X paste-over. Told by Eisner that it came from a larger sheet of paper since destroyed, the judge interrupted again with a question of his own: Judge Woolsey: What did it contain? Eisner: It contained a preliminary sketch for a magazine that we first presented to Mr. Fox in January, 1938 called Kid Comics. This passing reference is a revelation. To my knowledge, this is the first mention of this heretofore unknown proposed comic book. Finding little traction in knocking Eisner off his timeline, Manges became increasingly contentious: Manges: Mr. Eisner, how long after you read “Superman” did you begin to use a W in a circle on the breast of “Wonder Man”? Eisner: I used the W in a circle on the breast of “Wonder Man” before I saw that ‘Superman.” It was part of the original idea. Manges: In other words, Mr. Siegel has copied all of this from you, is that it?

Splish Splash Will Eisner testifies that “Insert X”—a “paste-over drawing” of the hero which was added to the “Wonder Man” splash panel in Wonder Comics #1—was basically the concept sketch he’d showed publisher Victor Fox in January 1938. Judge Woolsey misread Eisner’s bylined pen name “Erwin Willis” as “Crown Willis.” Could happen to anybody. Thanks to Ken Quattro. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Eisner: I haven’t claimed that. Manges: Don’t you think it is a rather unusual coincidence? This tact and further attacks on Eisner’s credibility drew objections and resulted in nothing of consequence. However,

Superman Vs. The Wonder Man 1939

one tidbit remained. As Eisner’s lengthy testimony drew to a close, his response to a question from the defense counsel revealed a few more tantalizing details about Kid Comics:

shop to grow its staff and to develop features. These features were then re-used in later American publications, proving to be profitable twice over. This strategy worked. By 1939, the Eisner & Iger shop was providing material for not only Victor Fox, but for Fiction House’s Jumbo Comics and “Busy” Arnold’s Feature Funnies/Feature Comics. The shop had become successful, to the point that Eisner would remark years later to interviewer Marilyn Mercer: “I got very rich before I was 22.” [“The Only Real Middle-Class Crimefighter, “ New York magazine in the New York Herald Tribune (Jan. 9, 1966.)]

Blum: And what was this Kid Comics that you have mentioned; what nature of publication was that? Eisner: It was supposed to be a comic magazine larger than the ordinary type of magazine. It was supposed to be of tabloid size, soft paper cover, to be sold for five cents. From this brief description, Kid Comics sounds quite a bit like Dell Publishing’s oneshot The Funnies from a decade earlier or, more likely, J.B. Powers’ Editors Press overseas tabloid Wags. Not insignificantly, the latter is the publication on which the nascent Eisner & Iger shop cut their eyeteeth, and it is entirely believable that they hoped to duplicate that success with a similar product for the American market. One point not brought up during the trial, but one which Eisner himself frequently mentioned: he was one of the editors who had rejected Siegel & Shuster’s Superman strip before DC bought it. From Andelman’s A Spirited Life, p. 43:

Kids! What’s The Matter With Kids Today? Ken Q. postulates that the tabloid-size Eisner & Iger Kid Comics would probably have resembled the 1936birthed Australian/British publication Wags. Repro’d here from Ken’s Comics Detective blog is the cover of Wags, Vol. 2, #13 (1937), which he believes to be Eisner’s work—some of his earliest. The E&I shop, he says, produced seven new pages for this issue, including Eisner’s own “Hawk of the Seas”; the rest was reprints of American comic strips, including the cover-featured Moon Mullins. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

One day Eisner received a letter and sample art from two Cleveland kids, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. They were peddling two comic strips, one called “Spy,” the other “Superman.” “The truth of the matter is that when I saw their stuff, I didn’t think that any of our customers would buy it, and I was right,” Eisner said.

Of course, if true, this story derails Eisner’s plausible deniability of having read Siegel & Shuster’s Superman dailies before he created “Wonder Man.” If the plaintiff ’s lawyers had known about his prior knowledge, or if Siegel had recalled his submission, it could have made Eisner’s testimony far more uncomfortable.

The Testimony Of JERRY IGER

Coming as it did in the midst of the Great Depression, this burgeoning success would seem to have been enough for both partners. But underlying it was the current of jealousy that Iger had of Eisner. Though 13 years older and several years more experienced in publishing, Iger didn’t have the same creative drive as Eisner, a deficit fairly apparent to outsiders. In the not-too-distant future this would lead to the dissolution of the partnership. In the early months of 1939, though, they were still a team. And even though he was the senior partner of the shop, Jerry Iger was more than likely quite content, at least this once, to let the younger artist have the spotlight. With Eisner doing most of the heavy lifting with his testimony, Iger was left to add support.

Blum: At the time this drawing referred to by the red X was made was it designated by any word or words? Was it called by any name? Iger: Yes. Blum: What was the name? Iger: “The Wonder Man.” Blum: Do you know who made the drawing referred to by the X? Iger: My associate, Mr. Eisner.

Although he never would have admitted it, the best thing that had ever happened to Jerry Iger was his partnership with Eisner. His career had been spectacularly unremarkable until he’d hired Eisner during his editorship of Henle Publications’ Wow, What a Magazine! in 1936. Edited from Iger’s office in the Mohawk Building, the comic was shortlived, but from its ashes arose their fledgling “studio.”

Blum: Were you there when the drawing was made?

Cobbled together at the start from other artists who had worked on Wow, the shop had scratched for clients and had tried to build the business by out-hustling its competitors. Adolphe Barreaux and his Majestic Studios had an established working relationship with Donenfeld’s pulps, while Harry Chesler’s shop seemed to be everywhere. Eisner & Iger, with few artists and little operating capital, side-stepped direct competition when they signed on Joshua B. Powers as their first major client.

The direct questioning of Iger hoped to bolster the defense’s contention that Eisner had created “Wonder Man” months before the release of Action Comics #1 and had presented his rough sketch to Fox at that time. This was crucial to their case.

Powers had founded Editors Press Service with the intention of recycling American comic strips to overseas readers. To fill out his publication (titled Wags), he hired the nascent Eisner & Iger shop to supply new material. This work not only provided a steady income; it allowed the

Iger: I was. Judge Woolsey: When was it made? Iger: That was made prior to January, 1938, possibly a week prior.

The implication that The Phantom was a common source for both “Superman” and “Wonder Man” was offered and just as quickly dismissed by Judge Woolsey, who was clearly losing his patience. Judge Woolsey: Are you claiming you are going back to what is a common source? Blum: That is correct.

DC Comics Vs. Victor Fox

As with much of the testimony in this trial, there may be a modicum of truth to this. The shop of Eisner & Iger was an idea factory. and it is quite plausible that “a modern Samson idea” was one that they bandied about. In actuality, they hadn’t produced one yet in the previous two years of their shop’s existence, and the likelihood that The Wonder Man’s creation was coincidental to Superman’s is a stretch. Iger got off relatively easy, as opposed to the grilling that Eisner had received. Things got a bit more interesting, though, when Victor Fox took the stand.

Iger, Iger, Burning Bright… Jerry Iger in 1942—and the sequence in The Dreamer in which Will Eisner recounted his 1936 meeting with Iger (caricatured here as “Jimmy Samson”). Thanks to Golden Age artist Jay Disbrow for the photo from his 1985 book The Iger Comics Kingdom (which is reprinted en toto in A/E #21), and to Michael T. Gilbert for the Dreamer art. [Dreamer panels ©2011 Will Eisner Studios, Inc.]

Judge Woolsey: You don’t want to put in a lot of strips of The Phantom. He is putting on a coat to go out here. [referring to a submitted example of the strip] Blum: If Mr. Manges wants… Judge Woolsey: I don’t want it. I don’t want to bother about it. Reading between the lines, it would seem the witness’ ego was a bit bruised at the attention (albeit, unwanted) given to his partner. Iger was willing to credit the drawing of Wonder Man to Eisner, but he also made sure to mention his part in the artistic process:

The Testimony Of VICTOR FOX Victor Fox was no stranger to the legal system. Questions about his business practices dated back to at least 1920. Fox was owner of the World Costume Corporation (specializing in “outfits” for aviators) when he took advantage of a US government program during World War I to purchase ships that had been commandeered for the war effort. Under the auspices of the United States Shipping Board, he was one of about 50 “War Babies,” so called because they were generally “men who knew nothing of ship operation”* but who had succeeded in getting ships allocated to them, many under suspicious circumstances. Fox and the others were able to buy these ships for a down payment of 2½% of their purchase price. *[Hearings Before Select Committee On U.S. Shipping Board Operations, p. 1848 (1920)] Fox had bought the steamship Yellowstone, and per his agreement, at his own expense he made changes in its engines that would increase its speed to meet federal requirements. The conversion supposedly cost Fox

Manges: Did you have anything to do with the pasting of this insert X upon Defendant’s Exhibit B for Identification? Iger: You mean actually pasting on or did I have someone do it? Manges: Either one? Iger: Well, I suggested using the original because it was the truest thing to the one that we had submitted to Mr. Fox in 1938. As the nearest thing to it I figured if we showed that he would be able to get a true picture to it [sic] for from the first series on. That was my suggestion; Mr. Eisner had not mentioned it. The plaintiff ’s attorney, trying to find an exploitable fracture between Eisner and Iger’s testimonies, elicited this humorously coy response: Manges: When did you first read the script “Superman” in Action Comics? Iger: After the question of whether we had copied the character in Action Comics called—what do you call him? I don’t recall. As a matter of fact, I very seldom read—I don’t read all the comic books. We do read the comic books that we supply. And, continuing along the same path of obliviousness… Manges: When for the first time did you talk about the character “Superman” with Mr. Eisner? Iger: I wouldn’t know the exact date. It was prior to the time I even met Mr. Fox. We talked about a superhuman type of a thing, a modern Samson idea. Manges: When I referred to “Superman” I was talking about the “Superman” of Action Comics. Iger: Well, I don’t know much about the “Superman” other than what I read recently.

“A Modern Samson Idea” Once “Wonder Man” bit the dust, Fox, Iger, and (perhaps) Eisner got busy fast, and with a quite literal turn of mind, on what Iger had referred to on the witness stand as “a modern Samson idea.” The “Samson” feature debuted in Fantastic Comics #1 (Dec. 1939)—and ere long the big fella with the long blond locks had his own title. This splash from Samson #1 (Fall 1940), in which the hero re-enacts the ultimate Biblical feat of his nomenclatural predecessor, was drawn by Alex Blum under a rather transparent pseudonym. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Superman Vs. The Wonder Man 1939

$270,000, but failed to achieve the necessary goal. Fox then attempted to bill the government for the failed conversion; a claim that was rejected outright: We were informed by Mr. McKinely, his [Fox’s] auditor…that his figures were not correct, that they were inflated, that he did not spent that much money to change the ship…. The reason the Shipping Board took back the ship was to protect the Shipping Board’s interests, because it was understood Mr. Fox was in bad financial shape. [Ibid., p. 1897, testimony of government investigator John F. Richardson in subsequent hearings into the practices of the Shipping Board.] There were other ships and more scandal, but undeterred, Fox expanded into the selling of stocks. To that end, in April 1928, Fox founded Allied Capital Corporation. In the waning months of 1929—in the midst of the turmoil of the Great Wall Street Crash—Fox and his cronies were indicted for several “sell and switch” schemes that involved the high-pressure selling of legitimate stocks to unsuspecting buyers and then “…persuading customers to exchange good stocks for bad.” [New York Times, Nov. 28, 1929] While the firm went bankrupt, it’s not clear whether or not the mail fraud charges brought by the Federal government resulted in a conviction. In any case, in a few years, Fox was involved in yet another business venture: Blum: Mr. Fox, you are the President of the defendant Bruns Publications, Inc.? Fox: I am. Blum: For how many years have you been in the publishing business? Fox: About three. Actually, about a year less. Fox apparently took the plunge into publishing with the first issue of World Astrology, cover-dated March 1937. That same month, on March 4th, he opened the offices of Bruns Publications at 480 Lexington Avenue, the same building hosting the offices of Detective Comics, two floors above.

A Fox In The Henhouse

Blum: Who showed it to you?

Will Eisner’s graphic novel The Dreamer illustrated the oft-repeated but probably apocryphal tale of Victor Fox having earlier worked as a bookkeeper for DC. But if Fox had kept accounts for Harry Donenfeld, wouldn’t that point have come up at the 1939 hearing? Here staffer Vincent Reynard interacts with Donny Harrifeld & Jake—then scurries off to found his own publishing company. Since Eisner had known Fox, albeit some decades before, this may be the closest we’ll ever come to knowing what Victor Fox looked like. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [©2011 Will Eisner Studios, Inc.]

Fox: Mr. Eisner, of Eisner & Iger, came to my office and solicited me on putting out a comic magazine. He showed me this among some seven or eight features in a magazine called Kid Comics, or the dummy of a magazine.

with publishing a comic book? The answer likely lies in the earlier Liebowitz revelation that Fox and Donenfeld had been partners in Bruns at one time. As historian Michael Feldman wrote in a 9-26-10 e-mail to the present author:

Once again, Fox reiterated the defense position that he first saw a drawing of Wonder Man when it was presented to him in January 1938:

At his attorney’s request, Fox elaborated: Blum: Did you take up this matter of this Kid Comics magazine with Mr. Donenfeld of Independent News Co., Inc.? Fox: I did. Blum: And what did you suggest to Mr. Donenfeld? Fox: I suggested to him that I would manufacture a so-called tabloidsized comic magazine which would be twice the size of those ordinarily sold by other publishers of 28 or 32 pages, I don’t recall which, and I submitted this dummy to him and I said, “I want you to put this out for five cents, as a five-cent seller. There is no other one in the market for five cents. I would like you to distribute it for us.” He said, “Let me have the dummy. I will talk it over with my associate and we will let you know.” If true, this testimony generates the question: If Fox was already a publisher himself, why would he go to Donenfeld—a competing publisher, as well as owner of distributor Independent News—for help

Donenfeld most likely took a share of Fox’s small line in exchange for a deferred payment on printing bill or distribution cut. This was a common practice in those days with this crowd. Donenfeld liked cutting deals, as it extended his reach and control of the marketplace. He became “partners” with dozens of start-up wholesale operations, new publishers, printers, etc. In addition to World Astrology, Fox published a short-lived tabloid (later 1937/early ’38) entitled See (“The World in Action”). The magazine—actually published by “V.S. Fox” under the imprint of “See, Inc.”—was a classic scandal sheet, with bare-breasted women on the cover, photos and stories of gangsters and sports inside. And all this for the price of five cents. In other words, See was the same tabloid format and price as the Kid Comics comic book he proposed to Donenfeld. Donenfeld had made a lot of money off similarly sleazy material. A Time magazine article of July 31, 1933, noted that he was part-owner of “five of the smuttiest magazines on the newsstands,” so having a piece of See would seem to be right up his alley. But a new-format comic book could be formidable competition in a still-emerging market.

DC Comics Vs. Victor Fox

See-Sick

Man” that Fox claimed to be in the Kid Comics dummy.

We weren’t able to score an image of Fox’s World Astrology—but here, from an eBay auction site, is the cover of Vol. 1, No. 1, of his magazine called See, dated Nov. 1937. Reportedly, the covers got racier later on in the mag’s brief life. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Blum: What reply, if any, did you get from Mr. Donenfeld about distributing this magazine Kid Comics?

Just enough truth to make his testimony believable; just enough fiction to hopefully create some doubt in the judge. During cross-examination, plaintiff ’s attorney Manges attempted to undermine Fox’s credibility by casting doubt upon the amount of money he claimed to have committed to the printer for publication of Wonder Comics. Seeing no point to it, the judge curtailed this line of questioning quickly. Judge Woolsey: I don’t want to hear any more of this. This is just silly. Back on re-direct, the defense counsel brought up Kid Comics once again in order to make a surprising allegation: Blum: Just a minute, please, I am replying to the Court. He [Fox] verifies this affidavit in March, 1939, and he says, “I find that a number of ideas that were embodied in the dummy of Kid Comics which I left with Donenfeld are being used in a number of Donenfeld’s comic magazines; to wit, Action Comics,” and then he referred to two other magazines.

Judge Woolsey: In other words, your position is switching around and claiming that in effect Mr. Donenfeld’s organization was plagiarizing something that they saw—I don’t know the names of the people that were on the stand yesterday—that were drawn and submitted to you; that is what you are claiming? Blum: That is correct.

Fox: About two weeks after I submitted the dummy to him he told me that he couldn’t distribute this magazine because it would be in competition with his line of comic magazines.

This startling accusation was apparently just a ploy to put the DC on the defensive. Nothing other than Fox’s words supports the claim; and to this date, no dummy copy of Kid Comics has yet been found.

Fox then made an assertion which would come back to haunt him later in the trial:

The Testimony Of MAX C. GAINES

Judge Woolsey: What date was this? Fox: In January of 1938. I would say the latter part of January, 1938. Failing to sell Donenfeld on the Kid Comics proposal, Fox no longer had need of the dummy. Blum: When you got this dummy back from Donenfeld, what did you do with it then? Fox: It stayed in my office for several weeks and then either Mr. Eisner or Mr. Iger called me up and said they wanted to know what disposition I was going to make of putting out the magazine. I told them I was not prepared to do it at that time and they asked me if they could have their dummy back and I sent it over to their office. Assuming again that there is some truth to Fox’s story, sometime in February 1938 Eisner and Iger regained possession of the dummy for Kid Comics. Logic dictates that they continued to shop this proposed comic around, and a reasonable conclusion is that it became the basis for Fiction House’s tabloid-sized Jumbo Comics, which debuted with a September 1938 cover date. Later testimony in this trial supports this hypothesis. Notably absent from Jumbo, though, was the appearance of “The Wonder

Like many of the participants in this trial, M.C. (“Charlie”) Gaines was a man with a checkered past who had achieved success through the comic book industry; a man who would become a legend in that industry. A legend that he had a hand in creating. In a 1943 article about the production of comic books, Gaines wrote a brief history of the format: The discovery was pure accident. While inspecting a promotional folder published by the Ledger

Jumbo-laya The cover of Fiction House’s oversize Jumbo Comics #1 (Sept. 1938). Ken Q. suspects that at least some of the contents for the proposed Kid Comics found their way into Jumbo, whose contents were produced by the Eisner & Iger shop. But, though Jumbo #1 did introduce the long-reigning “Sheena, Queen of the Jungle” drawn by Mort Meskin—what happened to the “Wonder Man” feature that had reportedly been a part of the Kid proposal in January of ’38? But then, Fiction House never really did go in for super-heroes, not even after the documented success of “Superman.” [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Superman Vs. The Wonder Man 1939

Syndicate in the early 1930s, in which four-color Sunday comic pages were shown in 7 by 9 inch size, it was suddenly realized that pages of those dimensions could be economically produced on a four-color newspaper rotary press…. [Print, A Quarterly Journal of the Graphic Arts, Vol. 3, #3 (Fall 1943)]

…throwing out some old Sunday newspapers and found himself reading the comics. An idea took hold. If he enjoyed reading old comics, there were probably a lot of other people who would, too. [Frank Jacobs, The Mad World of William M. Gaines (1972), p. 54.]

Setting aside the fact that comic books had been produced for years in various sizes with varying degrees of success, and that the “7 by 9 inch” size Gaines mentions was the standard magazine size of the time, it should be noted that he never says anything about his own involvement in the format’s “discovery.”

Whatever the truth to that claim, it is indisputable that M.C. Gaines was uniquely positioned to know people on each side of this lawsuit.

Yet, the introduction to an earlier piece entitled “Narrative Illustration, The Story of the Comics,” which he wrote for the same magazine, dubs him as being “Originator of the comic book in its present form,”* a claim that did not sit well with his former boss, Harry I. Wildenberg. *[Print, A Quarterly Journal of the Graphic Arts, Vol. 3, #2 (Spring 1942).] Wildenberg was sales manager at Eastern Color Printing, the Waterbury, Connecticut, printer that also employed Gaines and another future comic book mogul, Lev Gleason, on its sales staff. All were there when the first successful monthly newsstand comic book, Famous Funnies, debuted in early 1934.

Manges: Mr. Gaines, do you know Mr. Iger? Gaines: Yes. Manges: How long have you known him? Gaines: I had business contacts with Mr. Iger for a period of three years or so. Manges: When was the last time you saw Mr. Iger, Mr. Gaines? Gaines: In the latter part of April, 1938. Based upon this testimony, it appears that Gaines knew Iger either through McClure or as far back as Eastern Color. The latter seems more likely.

If Eastern Color based the future of their experimental newsstand comic book solely upon the early issue sales of Famous Funnies, which reportedly lost money, it likely would have suffered a stillborn fate. If that had been the case, nobody would have bothered claiming it as their invention. “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.” Gaines left sometime in 1934 (fired, for reasons never explained), before the comic returned a profit, and ended up at the McClure Syndicate, where he headed up their comic book and color printing divisions. During this time he packaged the competing Popular Comics title for Dell and eventually packaged several of Donenfeld’s comic books. Wildenberg, meanwhile, left the publishing business circa 1939 to pursue his own painting career and eventually ended up in south Florida as the owner of a cigar store. By the mid-1940s, with the fragile comic industry he once knew now an established publishing force, Wildenberg began making his own case. In one instance, he was credited by reporter John R. Vosburgh in a 1949 article as having “invented the comic book back in 1932 when he was a 45-year-old sales manager for Eastern Color Printing Company.” The story that follows depicts Wildenberg as a visionary: [He] was idly folding a newspaper in halves, then in quarters. He was racking his mind for something to fit the color presses which printed 32,000 eight-page sections per hour. Hence, he had to think in multiples of the standard newspaper page. As he looked at the twice-folded paper it occurred to him that it was a convenient book size. “Why not a comic book?” he reflected. [“How the Comic Book Started,” The Commonweal (May 20, 1949), p. 148.] Vosburgh then dutifully notes that: Wildenberg does not begrudge the success of his former colleagues but he does resent the claim of any of them to being the inventor of the comic book. [Ibid.] Succeeding decades have only added layers of fanciful myth to the forgotten facts. In recent years, Gaines’ biographers have nostalgically depicted him in his mother’s attic…

Comics To The Max (Left:) Max Charles Gaines in a 1942 photo, printed in the DC-produced magazine The Amazing World of DC Comics #5 (March-April 1975). (Above:) “Chuck Maxwell” serves as the stand-in for M.C. Gaines in Eisner’s The Dreamer. Gaines, by various accounts, seems to have been the man who suggested to Donenfeld and Liebowitz (and/or their editor Vin Sullivan) that Siegel & Shuster’s unsold Superman newspaper strips might make good fodder for DC’s upcoming Action Comics #1. [©2011 Will Eisner Studios, Inc.]

DC Comics Vs. Victor Fox No. 9

Gaines then described the following scene: Judge Woolsey: Did he leave anything for you to look at? Gaines: He did not leave any material at the time. However, he did ask me, “What magazines are you getting out now, Mr. Gaines?” I said, “I am now getting out five magazines, three for the Dell Publishing Company; the Popular Comics, The Funnies, and another comic magazine and I am printing the insides of two for the Detective Comics organization; Detective Comics and Action Comics.” He said, “Could I have a copy of those magazines?” I turned to my assistant, who was sitting in the same office, and I said, “Sheldon, give Mr. Iger one issue of the five magazines we are producing” and Mr. Mayer, my assistant, went to the various files containing these five magazines, picked out one copy of each, and handed them to Mr. Iger. Mr. Iger then said good-bye and left.

How To Be Very, Very Popular (Left:) M.C. Gaines testified that he put together the first issue of Dell’s comic-strip-reprint title Popular Comics, dated Feb. 1936, which starred the likes of Dick Tracy, Mutt & Jeff, Tailspin Tommy, Terry and the Pirates, et al. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.] (Right:) If Gaines and Dell had responded favorably to Siegel & Shuster’s submission of the Superman strips and had talked the boys into letting it be printed in a comic book instead of a newspaper, by the time of Popular #9 (cover-dated Oct. ’36), it might’ve been Dell, not DC, that would’ve had a tiger by the cape! One wonders—would they have made of it the success that Donenfeld, Liebowitz, and company did? [Superman art ©2011 DC Comics.]

Gaines’ next words would be the most damning: Manges: And one of these copies was an issue of Action Comics, you say? Gaines: At that time we had already produced the first issue of Action Comics. Manges: That was the June, 1938, issue?

Jerry Iger’s first comic book work appeared in Famous Funnies #10 (May 1935). Although Gaines was let go by Eastern in 1934, it’s quite possible that he purchased Iger’s first “Pee Wee” and “Bobby” strips and that they didn’t see print until after he had left. It’s possible, too, that Iger kept in contact with Gaines when he moved over to McClure. Iger longed to get both of the above features into syndication, and Gaines may have been one of the editors he approached while trying to peddle these strips. Gaines proved to be the most loquacious witness in this case. His answers to questions provided details only vaguely mentioned in previous testimony. Manges: Now, will you tell us and his Honor what conversation you had with Mr. Iger at that time? Gaines: In the latter part of April, 1938, Mr. Iger called me on the phone and told me he would like to discuss a very important proposition. I invited him to come down to see me. He came down either the same day or the following day and said that he was interested at that time in coming out with another comic magazine. He had a lot of material available and could get other material and he wanted help from me to finance him in a comic publication. I told Mr. Iger at the time that I thought the market was so overcrowded with comic magazines— An objection from Blum was quickly overruled and Gaines resumed: Gaines: (continued) —I told Mr. Iger I thought the field was so overcrowded and glutted with magazines that a new magazine would not have a chance. However, he insisted that he had some very fine material. So I said, “All right, Mr. Iger, send down what you have got and I will look it up and I will give you an answer in a couple of days.” I understand he came down several days later while I was out of the office.

Gaines: That was the June, 1938, issue, and that was handed to Mr. Iger with the other four books. By verbally placing an issue of Action Comics #1 in the hands of Iger, Gaines not only provided the means for the potential copyright infringement, but cast substantial doubt on the entire defense claim of ignorance of the publication initially. A query from the bench asked for clarification on another matter: Judge Woolsey: Did Mr. Iger refer to this thing called Kid Comics? Gaines: No, he did not. He did not refer to any one dummy of any kind at all. He said he had sufficient material and he was anxious to get in the comic field, in the publication field, and could I work with him and help finance the proposition. Still, this wouldn’t be the last mention of Kid Comics, as it came up again in later testimony. The plaintiff ’s counsel handed Gaines four pages of artwork and then began a line of questioning about his first encounter with a particular strip submission: Manges: Who is the first person that submitted them to you? Gaines: After I had— Manges: Who was the first person? Gaines: The Dell Publishing Company. Manges: When and under what circumstances? Gaines: Early in January, 1936, I had made a visit to the Dell Publishing

Superman Vs. The Wonder Man 1939

Company, for whom I had just finished producing and printing the first issue of a comic book known as Popular Comics. These four drawings in slightly different form— by “different form” I mean when they were submitted—were turned over to me by the Dell people in the form of daily strips, six daily strips. Manges: Of the same drawings? Gaines: But the same drawings which were rearranged into this page form for use in Action Comics. Together with these drawings and some additional drawings on [sic] “Superman,” a letter addressed to the Dell Publishing Company by Mr. Shuster and Mr. Siegel of Cleveland was turned over to me at the same time together with a 16-page dummy of a comic tabloid magazine. The substance of the letter was to the effect— A quick objection from Blum briefly interrupted Gaines’ testimony which detailed his acquisition and subsequent presentation of Superman to DC. This constitutes perhaps the earliest contemporaneous relating of those events; a historic moment likely lost on all in that courtroom.

Although Gaines’ idea of a weekly comic tabloid was hardly original (e.g., The Funnies of 1929-30), his plans went nowhere. However, others in the courtroom may have been taking mental notes. Victor Fox published samples of his own weekly comic tabloid dated May 12, 1940, entitled Free Weekly Comic Magazine, less than a month before “Busy” Arnold and the Register and Tribune Syndicate came out with Eisner’s The Spirit newspaper supplement. Gaines’ testimony continued, seemingly without taking a breath: Gaines: He sent on these drawings again with some other material which he wanted me to make use of. I kept them for a period of about three or four weeks until I found out definitely that the idea that I was working on was not feasible at the time for newspaper syndication. During that three or four week period the Detective Comics people, for whom I had been printing one magazine, Detective Comics, told me that they want(ed) to come out with another book called Action Comics, that they already had the title registered; did I have any material available which they could use in a hook of that nature? I said, “Yes, I have got some here from Siegel which I think is very good and which should be a natural,” to use a colloquialism, “for that type of book, depicting action according to the title,” and as forth. So, I submitted to Mr. Liebowitz about January of 1938—Mr. Donenfeld was not available at the time—these strips, these daily strips, six of which involving full week daily continuity, were completely inked in and three or four weeks or two or three weeks in pencil, part of which were inked in and part of which were left in pencil. I had further discussions during that period or shortly afterward with Mr. Liebowitz and Mr. Sullivan, the editor of the comic magazines for the Detective Comics group, and impressed upon him the fact that this would be a good idea and by all means to use it in Action Comics. They agreed that it was a good thing, with the result that I wrote Mr. Siegel that inasmuch as the newspaper idea I was working on at the time when I wrote him to submit the stuff was not feasible I had taken the liberty of turning over to Mr. Liebowitz and Mr. Sullivan this material for use in Action Comics and that if he had any objections to let me know immediately. Evidently he had no objections because we put it in Action Comics No. 1.

Gaines: (continued) When this material was turned over me together with the letter by the Dell Publishing, it was turned over for the purpose of ascertaining at that time whether we could make use of this material in the Popular Comics magazine and I was requested by the office of the Dell Publishing Company, who turned the material over to me, to get in touch with those people and advise them whether or not we could use their material. A day or two later I wrote to Mr. Siegel in Cleveland advising him that the material had been turned over to me, that I would keep it for a while and give it consideration and then let him know whether or not we could make use of it in Popular Comics. I had three or four letters from Mr. Siegel in a period of two or three months following that. I finally decided at that time I didn’t have use for it and I returned these drawings, which were completely inked in, in daily strip form to Mr. Siegel, advising him that I would bear them in mind and if at any time I could make use of any of his material, including these drawings, I would let him know. The next time I saw these original drawings, also in daily strip form, was a little over a year ago. In fact it was last December, December 1937, while I was still with the McClure Syndicate, I had an idea of getting out a certain weekly tabloid containing a certain type of comic strip form for newspaper syndication and I wrote to Mr. Siegel and asked him if he still had available the material which he had sent me several years ago and which I had returned and to please “This Is A Cut-And-Paste Job For—Superman!” forward it immediately, as I might Reportedly, these panels labeled “1” to “9”—which make up the first page of have some use for it. the “Superman” story in Action Comics #1 (June 1938)—were pasted together This particular intention for the Superman comic strip feature has rarely, if ever, been discussed.

in comic book page format out of the cut-up dailies of the newspaper strip which Siegel & Shuster had long been trying to sell. M.C. Gaines said on the witness stand in April 1939 that he had seen Superman strips “early in January, 1936.” Repro’d from the hardcover Superman: The Action Comics Archives, Vol. 1 (1997). [©2011 DC Comics, Inc.]

Max Gaines’ exhaustive testimony corroborates long-told stories about the journey of Superman from proposed comic strip to published comic book. Ignoring the advice given by every lawyer in every trial situation, Gaines couldn’t help but to extemporaneously include one final bit of detail: Gaines: I might mention, while we are waiting for those exhibits to be marked, that I was so impressed with this strip when I first got it

DC Comics Vs. Victor Fox

over three and a quarter years ago that I made an effort at that time to have it used for newspaper syndication, but my organization, McClure Syndicate, at the time did not feel they were ready to go into any additional promotion for a daily feature. Subsequently, however, after the feature got started in Action Comics it did go into newspaper syndication and started syndicating to newspapers in January of this year and is now appearing in about twelve different papers throughout the country.

we told them to take the daily strips, cut them up, paste them together in this form so we could reduce them to give us the proper size for the magazine. I can make the distinction here between the first week continuity which was submitted to me originally and the drawings here that were submitted to me originally partly in ink but mostly in pencil because on the first week’s continuity Mr. Siegel has drawn them on a certain type of drawing paper which, when chemically treated, brings out certain Benda [sic] dot effects.

At this point, Judge Woolsey asked a question that had the normally talkative Gaines noticeably careful about his wording:

Judge Woolsey: What is Benda?

Judge Woolsey: You are not connected with either party in this case? Gaines: I print Action Comics and Detective Comics for the Detective Comics organization. Judge Woolsey: But I mean you are not employed by any of them? Gaines: Yes. Judge Woolsey: You have business relations? Gaines: I have business relations but I am not employed by them. Judge Woolsey: You are no longer employed by the McClure Syndicate? Gaines: No, I am a New York sales representative for the Greater Buffalo Press, Buffalo, New York. We print comic sections for newspapers and magazines. In addition to that I get out two comic magazines of my own.

Gaines: Benda is a process of making a tone over white, and after the drawing is made on that chemically treated paper and the drawing is finished, then the chemical is applied to the paper which brings out these half tone dots. Gaines’ description of Joe Shuster’s (not Jerry Siegel’s, as he actually states) use of Ben-Day—which is misspelled “Benda” in the transcript— on the first week of Superman strips is one of those little things that probably went unnoticed by most in court that day, but is fascinating to comic fans some 70 years later. From his words, though, it seems that Gaines was describing Craftint, then in vogue due to its use by Roy Crane on his Captain Easy strip. This is the process in which a chemical developer is applied to a treated paper bringing out the desired pattern, as Gaines’ describes. Ben-Day differs in that it is a uniform dot pattern transferred from prepared overlay sheets of paper to a surface by use of a burnishing tool. When it came time to cross-examine Gaines, defense attorney Blum wasted no time and few words in establishing a connection between the witness and the plaintiff:

What the judge suspected—what Gaines was dancing around—would be addressed further under cross-examination. Greater Buffalo Press, Gaines’ current employer, had some intriguing, circuitous connections to others involved in this lawsuit. Along with the Sunday newspaper comic pages that were its meat and potatoes, the company was the printer of J.B. Powers’ aforementioned Wags tabloid, the first major venue for the Eisner & Iger shop. Until recently, its vice-president had been Everett “Busy” Arnold, a former printing press salesman who had sold machinery to Eastern Color Printing and the McClure Syndicate— Gaines’ previous employers. At the time of this trial, Arnold’s Comic Favorites, Inc., was one of Eisner & Iger’s clients, and he would eventually become Eisner’s business partner on The Spirit, the Sunday section of which was itself printed by Greater Buffalo Press. Gaines returned to his verbose ways when he began describing the steps taken to transform the Superman strip drawings into a page format: Judge Woolsey: (referring to the top right panel of page 1) That little baby tossing around a large chair, is that it? Gaines: Yes, sir. You see, in order to get this material which we needed for the first issue of Action Comics, instead of having Mr. Siegel redraw an entire 13-page continuity

Blum: Are you the part owner and managing editor of All-American Comics? Gaines: Yes. Blum: Is any company owned by Mr. Donenfeld the remaining owner of AllAmerican Comics? Gaines: No. Blum: Who is the remaining owner of AllAmerican Comics? Gaines: Mr. Liebowitz. Blum: Is that the Mr. Liebowitz who is associated with the plaintiff in this case, the man you mentioned? Gaines: That is correct.

Max Charles Gaines—All-American! When Gaines told the judge that he had “business relations” with “the Detective Comics organization,” he was back-pedaling till cross-examination brought out the fuller truth. April 1939—the very date of the DC vs. Bruns hearing—was also the cover date of All-American Comics #1, the flagship title of his new All-American Comics line which was affiliated with DC. And since comics in those days were dated ahead, that means AllAmerican #1 had gone on sale two or three months before the trial; thus, Gaines had been “in business” with Detective Comics several months longer than that. That made him hardly a disinterested witness—though it doesn’t necessarily mean he wasn’t also telling the truth on the stand. Thanks to the Grand Comics Database. [©2011 DC Comics.]

Blum: How about Movie Comics; is Mr. Liebowitz also interested in that? Gaines: He is personally. Blum: Is he personally interested in AllAmerican Comics? Gaines: He is. Any suspicions that Judge Woolsey harbored about Gaines’ relationship to the plaintiff were confirmed; any question of his impartiality in this case was answered.

Superman Vs. The Wonder Man 1939

The Testimony of SHELDON MAYER Sheldon Mayer had already spent almost his entire comic book career in the shadow of Max Gaines, so it was only fitting that his testimony directly followed his employer’s. Manges: Mr. Mayer, were you the assistant of Mr. Gaines?

Gaines packaged Detective for Donenfeld, it is a reasonable assumption that Mayer’s Don Winslow strips were known and condoned by his boss— as well as further proof that Gaines’ ties to Donenfeld ran even deeper than he was disclosing to the court: Manges: I show you these exhibits, being Plaintiff ’s Exhibits 36 to 47 [the pages of the first “Superman” story], inclusive, and ask you if you have ever seen them before [handing witness]?

Mayer: [I] was. Mayer: I have. Manges: And during what period? Mayer: From January of 1936 till the present day. Mayer, like Will Eisner, had precociously entered the comic book industry while still in his teens. Having previously worked for Fleischer Studios—at around the same time as a young Jacob “Jack Kirby“ Kurtzberg—as an opaquer, Mayer’s first professional comic book work had appeared in New Comics #1 (Dec. 1935) in the form of two humor strips, “The Strange Adventures of Mr. Weed” and “J. Worthington Blimp.” (Both series also appeared in the first couple of issues of The Comics Magazine, along with Siegel & Shuster’s “Dr. Occult”/”Dr. Mystic” feature and a Walt Kelly page or two. How and why artwork meant for Wheeler-Nicholson comics ended up in a Comics Magazine Company publication is a tangled and shady story for another time.)

Manges: Will you tell his Honor when for the first time you saw them and under what circumstances? Mayer: Mr. Gaines showed these to me in daily strip form when they were sent to him by the Dell Publishing Company. Judge Woolsey: What time? Mayer: In January of 1936. Manges: And was that just after the first issue of Popular Comics had come out?

Like many aspiring comic artists, Mayer made more than one stop when trying to break into the professional ranks. “I had been up to see him [Gaines] the previous summer,” historian Ron Goulart quoted Mayer, “and a half year later he gave me a call and offered me a few days’ pasteup work.” [Ron Goulart, Comic Book Culture (2000), p. 16.] Mayer found that the hands-on work required of putting a comic book together included reviewing the material intended for publication: It was a schlock operation. We bought the material for practically nothing and slapped the books together. Max wasn’t concerned with the literary or entertainment part of it. I had to argue to get him to run story strips like Terry and the Pirates in chronological order. [Frank Jacobs, The Mad World of William M. Gaines, pp. 55-56.] While working as Gaines’ assistant, Mayer introduced his longrunning semi-autobiographical feature about a young comic book artist, “Scribbly,” in Popular Comics #6 (July 1936). In his National Cartoonist Society profile, Mayer mentions that, in his “minor editorial capacity” at McClure, he “ghosted George Storm’s Bobby Thatcher [strip] as part of the job.” What he doesn’t mention, though, was his brief work for Merwil Publications’ Don Winslow of the Navy pulp. In the two issues that this pulp lasted, Mayer contributed two comic book-style stories for each. “Jupiter Jones” and “Captain Colorful” were both signed with the pseudonym “M. Sheldon,” and were unmistakably Mayer’s work. Did he use a fictitious name so Gaines wouldn’t know he was freelancing? Or were these strips also “part of the job” he had at McClure? The second possibility seems most likely, as several not-so-obvious connections are to be found. Merwil was one of the shell companies owned by Donenfeld. Perhaps not coincidentally, the Don Winslow pulp debuted with the cover date of April 1937, one month after Detective Comics #1, the first comic to come from the coerced partnership of Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson and Harry Donenfeld (albeit with Jack Liebowitz in the latter’s stead). As Gaines said in his testimony, he provided material for Detective while at McClure. Since

Weeded Out (Above:) By around 1945 when the photo at left was taken, AA editor Sheldon Mayer was no longer technically a “boy cartoonist” as he’d been in the early days of the All-American Comics group—or even earlier, when he had banged out the two-page feature “The Strange Adventures of Mr. Weed” for New Comics #3 (Feb. 1936). The first page of the strip was seen in A/E #88; thanks to Greg Huneryager. The photo appeared in Amazing World of DC Comics #5 in 1976. [©2011 DC Comics.]

DC Comics Vs. Victor Fox

that we were connected with. Among them was Action Comics. Manges: And what did you do? Mayer: I picked one out of each and, as I said, I gave them to Mr. Iger. Manges: At that time? Mayer: At that time. Manges: And are you certain that Action Comics was one of the five? Mayer: Absolutely. Manges: That was the first issue of Action Comics? Mayer: That is right. When the defense attorney began his cross-examination, he asked for further details about that same visit. Blum: What day in the month of April, 1938, did Mr. Iger come to your office? Mayer: Well, I can’t say the date exactly but I do know that it was toward the end of April. I can positively prove that. He came back about a week later after he saw Mr. Gaines with the drawings that he had promised to show Mr. Gaines, his own stuff, and Mr. Gaines wasn’t there and after some little conversation Mr. Iger and I went out to lunch and we were going to have oysters but it was too late in the season, so that I know it was just at the end of April. For what it’s worth, oyster season is generally considered to be the months of September through December, when the water temperature drops below 70 degrees and their flavor is at its peak. Blum: Mr. Iger at that time did show you some drawings? Mayer: He did.

By Jupiter! As “M. Sheldon,” Shelly Mayer had also written and drawn “Jupiter Jones” for Merwil Publications’ pulp magazine Don Winslow of the Navy in 1937. Thanks to Ken Q. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Mayer: That is right. Manges: And Popular Comics had come out about December 20th, 1935? Mayer: That is right. Given Gaines’ purported disdain for such details, it seems unlikely that he would remember, not to mention suddenly request, a discarded submission eighteen months after first seeing it. Something—actually, someone—was left out of Gaines’ eloquent testimony regarding the acquisition of Superman for publication in Action Comics. In another place and context, Mayer said of Siegel & Shuster’s strip submission: I went nuts over the thing. It was the thing we were all looking for. It struck me as having the elements that were popular in the movies, all the elements that were popular in [pulp] novels, and all the elements that I loved. I thought it was great. [Ron Goulart, Over 50 Years of American Comic Books (1991), p. 75.] However, any slight that Mayer may have felt for not being acknowledged as the one who identified the potential of the Superman strip didn’t factor into this case. What was pertinent was his 1938 meeting with Jerry Iger: Mayer: Mr. Iger came into the office and after a discussion with Mr. Gaines. Mr. Gaines asked me to get one copy each of all the magazines

Blum: Do you remember the drawings Mr. Iger showed you sometime in April? Mayer: I do. Blum: What were they? Mayer: They were a series of—well, several series. As a matter of fact, they were photostatic copies of drawings and if I am not mistaken most of them were used in the Jumbo Comics. Blum: What characters were there in these drawings that Mr. Iger showed you? Mayer: Oh, there was an aviation strip and a spy strip. I don’t recall the names of the characters because they didn’t impress me very much at the time. If Mayer’s recollection was correct, Iger may have been showing him Photostats of Les Marshall’s “Modern ‘Planes” and Eisner’s “ZX-5” spy features. Both were proven strips from the Eisner & Iger shop that had seen publication in Jumbo Comics and could well have been part of any proposal Iger showed Mayer. Even though Mayer doesn’t specifically mention the name Kid Comics, it’s likely that was the same proposal Iger ran by Fox in January of that year. And if the accused publisher was to be believed, it was the same proposal Fox claimed to have shown Donenfeld.

The Testimony of HARRY DONENFELD Blunt. To the point. Harry Donenfeld wasted no words. Manges: Mr. Donenfeld, you are the president of the plaintiff corporation?

Superman Vs. The Wonder Man 1939

Donenfeld: I am, sir. Manges: Did Mr. Victor Fox ever submit to you a dummy for a magazine Kid Comics? Donenfeld: No, sir. Manges: Did Mr. Fox ever submit to you any dummy with the “Wonder Man” character on it? Donenfeld: No, sir. Despite the obvious acrimony between the two, Donenfeld and his adversary Fox had noticeably similar beginnings. In some ways, it could be said, they were cut from the same cloth. Born six months apart in 1893, both had come to the U.S. as immigrants: Fox from England (as the son of displaced Russian Jews), while Donenfeld’s roots went back to the Jewish community in Jassy, Roumania. Fox enjoyed the advantages of a middle-class upbringing as the son of a women’s clothier. Donenfeld’s father, too, reportedly sold clothes, but he has been more coarsely described as “both a peddler and clothes dealer.” [Gerard Jones, Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book (2004), p. 3.]

submission of a dummy to you took place in the month of January, 1938. Will you tell us where you were during that month? Donenfeld: Around the latter part of December I took a cruise on the Holland-American Line and it landed me in Havana New Year’s. I spent New Year’s Eve in Havana and a few days subsequent to that and then about the first week in January I went to Miami and spent the entire month in Miami up to about the 2nd or 3rd of February. I was away from New York from the latter part of December until the early part of February. Judge Woolsey: Mr. Fox didn’t fly down by airplane and submit this to you or anything like that? Donenfeld: No, sir. Manges: Did you meet Mr. Fox in any part of your cruise or trip? Donenfeld: No.

Around the same time that Fox was selling outfits to aviators, Donenfeld was selling shirtwaists to women. Neither stayed that course, for when Fox was working his ship scams, Donenfeld (according to Jones) joined his three brothers in the printing business. The Donenfelds’ Martin Press evolved into Donny Press, from which Donenfeld derived the income to move into magazine publishing and distribution. By the ’30s, somehow the paths of the ship owner/stockbroker and the printer/distributor/publisher crossed. The partnership in Bruns Publishing and the ensuing distribution deal were the apparent results. How and why they came together aren’t known, but they couldn’t have been any further apart at the time of this trial. Manges: Mr. Fox stated that this

We Kid You Not! Two of the features apparently offered by Eisner & Iger as part of Kid Comics were probably “Modern ’Planes” and “ZX-5 – Spies in Action.” Here are samples of that pair, courtesy of Ken Q., who feels that the stories in the Kid dummy might not have been the exact strips that ended up in Fiction House’s Jumbo Comics #1: (Above:) This page of “Modern ’Planes” by Les Marshall comes from a circa-1937 issue of the British/Australian weekly Wags, discussed earlier, and is probably the “aviation strip” mentioned by Sheldon Mayer, since that feature appeared in Jumbo #1 in summer of ’39. (Right:) Four pages of “ZX-5” by “Morgan Thomas” (alias Will Eisner) would later pop up in ’39 in Jumbo #1; these were repro’d (poorly, alas) in Blackthorne Publishing’s 1985 book Jerry Iger’s Classic Jumbo Comics No. 1—so Ken preferred to showcase here the first page of “ZX-5” from Jumbo #2. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Manges: Did you see Mr. Fox from the time you left New York until the time you returned? Donenfeld: No, sir. Proving that Donenfeld was out of town at the time that Fox supposedly approached him with the proposal for Kid Comics would help paint Fox as an untrustworthy witness. With this in mind, the plaintiff ’s attorney attempted to support his case with documentation. Manges: I show you this paper and ask you if it is a check which you cashed on the Statendam [Donenfeld’s cruise ship]

DC Comics Vs. Victor Fox

on the 23rd of December, 1937? Donenfeld: Yes. Manges: Does that refresh your recollection? Donenfeld: Yes, sir. I purchased some stuff in Cuba. Judge Woolsey quickly interceded and deemed such proof unnecessary in direct questioning. At this point, Blum began his cross-examination. Blum: Did you see Mr. Fox in the early part of February shortly after you return[ed] from Miami? Donenfeld: Yes, I might have. Blum: I didn’t hear you. You might have? Donenfeld: Yes, I might have then. Blum: Was it in the early part of February that Mr. Fox showed you Kid Comics? Donenfeld: He never showed me Kid Comics. Though prying from Donenfeld the minor admission that he may have met with Fox upon his return to New York, Blum couldn’t tie him to the Kid Comics proposal. In an attempt to catch the witness off-guard, Blum suddenly shifted his line of questioning: Blum: Have you ever been convicted of any crime? Donenfeld: Yes, sir.

Parisienne, La Paree, Pep. They consist of sleazy stories, drawings and “art study” photographs of undressed females. Mrs. Hersey edits them. [Time magazine, “Barber’s Bible,” July 31, 1933.] Merle Williams Hersey supplied the truncated name and public face of Merwil. Her background as the daughter of a Methodist minister and her previous career in a series of governmental positions was in stark contrast with her current role as the editor of “smut” magazines and provided the kind of irresistible hook that reporters love. She also kept the spotlight off Donenfeld. Touting the new Police Gazette in a 1933 newspaper article, Hersey promised “lots of sex, underworld stuff with a sex angle, and plenty of pictures of semi-nude night club girls.” She well could have been describing the formula for the majority of Merwil’s output. [Pittsburgh Press, “Here’s Good News Aplenty for the Barber Shop Literati,” July 30, 1933.] Hersey became acquainted with the Donenfelds at about the time they decided to become publishers. As the Time article stated: “Following a few sporadic efforts at magazine writing and editing she joined the Donenfelds in 1929.” She worked as editor on their first entries in the world of smut, Hot Tales, and the similarly titled Juicy Tales. Digging a bit deeper, there is yet another link to be found. According to the above-cited Pittsburgh Press piece, Merle Williams Hersey was once “married to Harold Hersey, also a pulp publisher, but hasn’t been for the last ten years.” In addition to being a legendary pulp editor, publisher, and early influence on Donenfeld, Harold Brainerd Hersey held editorial positions with comic publishers Enwil, Charlton, and H-K Publications, the parent company of Centaur Comics.

Blum: How many times? Donenfeld: I wasn’t convicted; I pleaded guilty in General Sessions for publishing magazines and paid a fine. If he was caught off-guard, Donenfeld didn’t seem to show it. It’s entirely possible that he was prepared for such a question and had a ready answer. The judge, however, was a bit taken aback and asked for more detail.

As Blum continued to push Donenfeld for details about his criminal past, the witness’ controlled demeanor gave way to irritation. Blum: Haven’t you pleaded guilty in the Federal Court recently for sending obscene matter through the mails? Donenfeld: No, sir, I was never involved in any Federal Court action.

Judge Woolsey: What was it supposed to be, an improper magazine?

Blum: I would like to have you search your memory because I want the correct answer, if you remember it. Haven’t you pleaded guilty in the Federal Court recently?

Donenfeld: It was supposed to have been magazines which I have discontinued about 1934.

Donenfeld: Do you think I am going to perjure myself?

Judge Woolsey: Was it improper?

Blum: I don’t know.

Donenfeld: Yes. Judge Woolsey: Lewd or something like that? Donenfeld: Snappy magazines, snappy stories. In fact that was the title of it, Snappy Stories. Snappy Stories was yet another publication from the Donenfeldowned company, Merwil Publications. But what—or who— was Merwil? Last week the new owner and the future of the Police Gazette were revealed. The owner is Merwil Publishing Co., consisting of Irving & Harry Donenfeld and Mrs. Merle Williams Hersey. Merwil Publishing Co. issues five of the smuttiest magazines on the newsstands—Snappy, Spicy, Gay

A Little Touch Of Harry (Left:) DC publisher Harry Donenfeld at his desk, in a photo take by son (and future DC co-publisher) Irwin Donenfeld. (Above:) In panels from Eisner’s The Dreamer, Donny Harrifeld and his cohort Jake confer with Chuck Maxwell (M.C. Gaines) in a sequence that reflects Gaines’ later account that it was he who had convinced Donenfeld and Liebowitz to stick “Superman” in Action Comics #1. Of course, as Ken Q. theorizes, it’s not unlikely that Gaines’ memory was stoked by the youthful enthusiasm of his longtime assistant, Sheldon Mayer. [©2011 Will Eisner Studios, Inc.]

Superman Vs. The Wonder Man 1939

Donenfeld: I have made a definite statement that I was never indicted, never had any business with any Federal authorities or any Federal courts; never been indicted and never pleaded. Is that clear? Blum: That is clear. Donenfeld: O.K., sir. The judge stepped in at this point to admonish the defense attorney for his badgering of the witness, scolding: Judge Woolsey: I think you should apologize to the witness for talking to him in that way when he said definitely he had not been indicted in this court. Blum: I would not have asked that question except that my hearing is getting worse. I am very sorry I asked that question. But was Donenfeld telling the truth? He had had several documented brushes with the law over the content of his magazines. In 1934, a complaint by the Society for the Suppression of Vice head, John S. Sumner, led to obscenity charges against Donenfeld and two others. This case, however, was heard in a local and not a Federal court. Donenfeld countered by asking for an injunction against the sweeping order by the New York City commissioner of licenses which proclaimed that “anyone in his jurisdiction who was caught selling dirty publications would be put out of business.” [Time, “Smut Suppression” (March 12, 1934).]

Spicing Things Up Our reference works on pulp magazines didn’t turn up any covers for Merwil Publications’ Snappy Stories—so here’s an H.J. Ward cover for a vintage issue of Spicy-Adventure Stories, a similar mag, which Harry Donenfeld says he also published. Doubtless pretty mild stuff compared to Hustler and its ilk today—but “spicy” and “snappy” enough to get Donenfeld in a bit of legal hot water, probably around election time. Ward later painted a classic Superman portrait that hung in DC’s outer offices for years. Repro’d from the study Danger Is My Business by Lee Server (Chronicle Books, 1993). [© the respective copyright holders.] As per Ken Q., editor Merle Williams Hersey, seen in photo, supplied both the “truncated name and public face” of Merwil Publishing. Still, as related in earlier issues of A/E, it was Donenfeld’s flunky Herb Siegel, not Mrs. Hersey, who served a short prison term for overseeing “obscene” magazines. It was a different time. Ken says the photo of Mrs. Hersey “ran in the Pittsburgh Press [newspaper], July 30, 1933, at the time Merwil Publishing (Donenfeld) purchased The Police Gazette.”

Claimed Donenfeld, as quoted in that article: Take books like God’s Little Acre and Ulysses. The courts have maintained that there’s nothing obscene in them. They really describe life. A girl just out of school—she’s the most easily ruined. But after she’s read our magazines she knows sex. She knows life. She’s better able to protect herself. The injunction was ultimately refused by New York Supreme Court justice Albert C. Cohn, since Donenfeld and the other accused had willingly removed the offending publications from the newsstands. Meanwhile, on March 21, 1934, Magistrate Alfred Lindau ruled in the case against Donenfeld. The outcome is unclear, and this may be the guilty plea Donenfeld acknowledged in his testimony. Still, no Federal conviction is known. In this instance, Donenfeld may actually have been innocent when he responded with the rhetorical question, “Do you think I am going to perjure myself?” Next, it was the co-defendants’ attorney Samuel Fried’s turn at Donenfeld. The point of his first question—about the number of magazines published by Donenfeld—seemed a bit confusing until the judge asked him to rephrase it. Fried: Mr. Witness, how many magazines are published by yourself or any companies in which you are interested? I don’t want you to enumerate them; tell me the number.

Fried: What relationship is there between these three companies and Mr. Liebowitz, if any? Immediately, Manges objected. Manges: I think this should be limited to the plaintiff corporation. I don’t see where we are going to get with other corporations that have nothing to do with this action. Judge Woolsey disagreed and allowed the question. Donenfeld: Mr. Liebowitz is employed by me as general manager of all my businesses. Fried: Who owns the stock? Who is the actual owner of the stock in AllAmerican that is in the name of Liebowitz? Donenfeld: I have nothing to do with the All-American. Fried: Will you please answer my question? Again, Manges objected. Aware that Fried is drawing uncomfortably close to the revealing Donenfeld’s silent financial backing of the Gaines/Liebowitz partnership in All-American Comics, Inc. (thereby discrediting Gaines’ impartiality), he moved quickly to curtail that line of questioning. Manges: I object to that.

Donenfeld: I will; ten.

Judge Woolsey: Do you know a thing like that?

Fried: And how many companies publish these ten magazines?

Donenfeld: I have nothing to do with the All-American.

Donenfeld: Three.

Judge Woolsey: Do you know?

DC Comics Vs. Victor Fox

Donenfeld: Mr. Liebowitz is part owner of it, I know, and Mr. Liebowitz is part owner of Movie Comics and All-American [Comics].

Fried: I move that that answer be stricken out as not responsive. Judge Woolsey: I will let it stay there. I believe in having things sound like sense. I will let it stay in that way.

Fried: Didn’t Mr. Liebowitz endorse in blank the shares of stock he owns in All-American Company?

Fried: What was the day that you finally returned to New York?

Manges: I object to that. Judge Woolsey: I think you have gone far enough. Start on something else.

Donenfeld: The early part of February. Fried: Do you know the exact day?

Fried changed course. He began asking the witness for details about his previously mentioned Caribbean cruise.

Donenfeld: The 3rd or 4th of February. With that, Fried ended his cross-examination. The plaintiff ’s attorney expended the total of his re-direct presenting Donenfeld with cancelled checks written by him in various locales around Havana and Miami in January, 1938. Manges’ intention was to prove that Donenfeld was not in New York during the time Fox claimed to have spoken with him. This time, at least, the facts were on Donenfeld’s side.

Fried: This cruise that you started off on, Mr. Donenfeld, in December, 1937, was it? Donenfeld: That is right. Fried: How many days’ cruise was it? Donenfeld: A seventeen-day cruise. Fried: What stops did it make? Donenfeld: All through the South: Curacao, Caracas, the West Indies, and the last stop on the way back was Havana. The ship got to Havana the 31st of December. Fried: Did the cruise continue hack to New York? Donenfeld: It did. Fried: You tell us now that you didn’t come back to New York, is that right?

Spicy Crimes By Women In the 1930s Donenfeld published Snappy Stories and Spicy Mystery magazines—and in the late ’40s and early ’50s Victor Fox published Crimes by Women comic books. Were they really so different, after all? The artist of the cover of Crimes by Women #12 (April 1950) is unknown—or maybe it’s simply that the names were changed to protect the guilty. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Donenfeld: Surely. Fried: With that cruise? Donenfeld: That is right, I did not come back to New York. Fried strove to find a crack in Donenfeld’s itinerary and was repeatedly frustrated. Fried: You tell us there was not an intermission between the time you concluded your cruise and the time you went to Miami? Donenfeld: I have a check here that I issued— Fried: I am not asking you about a check. Judge Woolsey: Just answer that. Donenfeld: Repeat the question. Fried: [Read] Donenfeld: I stopped in Havana in between. Fried: And you didn’t come back to New York before you went to Miami?

While not presented at this trial, the manifest listing of the Statendam’s passengers for the cruise still exists. Having left New York on December 18, 1937, the ship returned to the city on January 2, 1938. This apparently meant Donenfeld was back in town well within the time period sworn to by Fox. Except that Donenfeld wasn’t on board for the return voyage. A typed notation at the bottom of the manifest reads: “No. 16 Mr. Harry Donenfeld cancelled, landed at Havana.” Just

as he had testified. Unfortunately for Donenfeld, this supportive piece of evidence was never entered. So while the pile of cancelled checks seemed to favor his version, Fox would have one more chance to testify otherwise.

The Testimony Of VICTOR S. FOX (Recalled) Victor Fox had a lot riding on placing Donenfeld in New York in January of 1938. If the conversation in question occurred after that time, it wouldn’t support his claim that Superman was copied from his presentation of Kid Comics (and “The Wonder Man”) to Donenfeld before the publication of Action Comics #1. Blum: Mr. Fox, did you hear the testimony just given by Mr. Donenfeld? Fox: I did. Blum: State to the Court whether to your knowledge Mr. Donenfeld was in New York before he went to Miami in January of 1938? Judge Woolsey: You mean was he ever in New York or was in New York after he went on his cruise, between the time when he went on his cruise and the time he was in Miami? Blum: That is right. That is the question.

Donenfeld: That is right, I did not come hack to New York. Fried: And you didn’t speak to Fox in New York in January? Donenfeld: Definitely not. On the 3rd of January I paid the bill at the National Hotel in Havana.

Fox: I recall distinctly that he was in New York. We had a conversation where he had a lot of trouble with some of his magazines and he was trying to get himself straightened out. He had to break his cruise short. Manges: I object to this.

Superman Vs. The Wonder Man 1939

Judge Woolsey: He says he had a conversation. Where was the conversation? Fox: The offices of the Independent News Company were on the same floor with my offices, our company’s offices, and we were talking outside of the door of their offices. I recall this, distinctly, because he was in a hurry to get away. Manges: Can we have the date fixed?

Victor Fox wasn’t about to accept this easily. He appealed the decision, perhaps as much out of spite to Donenfeld as hope to change the outcome. For its part, soon after this trial, DC quickly moved to solidify its result by copyrighting “Superman by Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster” on May 18, 1939. In effect, DC owned the copyright not only on the character, but the names of his creators. [Catalog of Copyright Entries (1940), p. 649.]

There was a little wiggle room here. The cancelled checks presented in evidence by Manges had a gap between January 10th and 28th of 1938. But an exasperated Fox, with no evidence to support his claims, knew how this would end, and he could barely conceal his anger.

Fox’s appeal was eventually heard on April 29, 1940. Judge Augustus N. Hand of the Federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals handed down his opinion (111 F. 2d 432). This time around, Bruns’ attorneys claimed that the powers shared by their “Wonder Man” and “Superman” could be found in “prototypes or analogues among the heroes of literature and mythology”—therefore, so their argument went, no copyright was violated.

Manges: Have you any proof at all besides your word that you saw Mr. Donenfeld in New York between January 10th and January 20th, that those dates are correct, in 1938?

There was some logic to this contention. As comic book editor/fan/historian E. Nelson Bridwell wrote in his introduction to the Crown hardcover Superman from the 30’s to the 70’s (1971):

Fox: I was unprepared for the question, but if I have the time—I keep memorandums of all my conversations with Donenfeld because I found that they were not always according to Hoyle.

Ancient Greence knew countless superbeings, including Herakles (Hercules to the Romans). Indeed, the crew of Jason’s ship, the Argo, was made up largely of heroes who had most of Superman’s powers among them. Besides Herakles, there was Zetes and Kalais, who flew; Euphemos, the super-speedster; Kaineus, who is invulnerable; and even Lynkeus, who, we are told, could see things underground—yes, X-ray vision.”

Fox: I would say I cannot give you the precise date, but it would be between January 10th and 20th, 1938.

Manges: I move to strike out the answer. Judge Woolsey: Strike it out. Fox: (continued) And I have in my files undoubtedly a memorandum of the conversation between me— Manges: That is all.

Summation After closing arguments, the trial ended. On April 13, 1939, Judge Woolsey rendered his decision. It was as unsurprising as it was anticlimactic: “I have gone through all the plaintiff ’s magazines and the defendant’s magazine, and I find that in the one copy of the defendant’s magazine which has come out—the May, 1939, number of the magazine called Wonder Comics—there has been unfair use by the defendant of the plaintiff ’s copyrighted pictures and unfair paraphrase of the plaintiff ’s text accompanying its pictures. “Consequently, in my opinion, infringement has been shown both textually and pictorially.”

Judge Hand, however, quickly dismissed Bruns’ argument, although, in doing so, he seemed to have written his opinion at arm’s length with one hand, while holding his nose with the other: “…[T]he author of ‘Superman’ has portrayed a comic Hercules, yet if his production involves more than the presentation of a general type he may copyright it and say of it: ‘A poor thing but mine own.’ Perhaps the periodicals of the complainant are foolish rather than comic, but they embody an original arrangement of incidents and a pictorial and literary form which preclude the contention that Bruns was not copying the antics of ‘Superman’….”

He then added succinctly: “Short of ‘Chinese copies’ of the plaintiff ’s ‘Superman’ strip, the defendant could hardly have gone further than it has done.” It was also necessary for the judge to order a remedy, which in this case, he deemed had two parts: 1. For a permanent injunction forbidding the further publication by the defendant Bruns Publications, Inc., of its cartoon character, “Wonder Man,” in such form as it will make that cartoon character trespass in any respect on plaintiff ’s cartoon character, “Superman.” 2. For a recovery by the plaintiff from the defendants of the plaintiff ’s damages and profits which I have fixed under Section 25(b) of the Copyright Act at Fifteen hundred dollars ($1,500). Additionally, Bruns was ordered to pay the plaintiff ’s legal fees and court costs. Kable and Interborough, as co-defendants, were held only “secondarily liable” for damages and costs in case Bruns was unable to pay.

Special Delivery? Maybe Victor Fox needed to prove that Superman—or even The Wonder Man, as per this Eisner page from Wonder Comics #1—had helped Harry Donenfeld be in New York and on a cruise to Cuba at the same time. On the other hand, since this page shows The Wonder Man smashing a crook and leaving an imprint of his ring in his flesh—well, maybe The Phantom should have joined forces with Superman and made it a class action lawsuit! Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

DC Comics Vs. Victor Fox

You’ll Wonder Where The Wonder Went… After Judge Woolsey’s decision went against Bruns Publishing and its distributors, Wonder Man vanished forever from the fourcolor world. Wonder Comics #2 (June 1939) somehow managed to come out only a month or so after the first issue, but its cover now depicted another Eisner-created hero, Yarko the Great, although the magician was drawn here by an anonymous Lou Fine. Maybe it was Yarko who made Wonder Man disappear? By the third issue, Wonder Comics itself had vanished, replaced by Wonderworld Comics. The judge hadn’t decreed a name change for the mag, but maybe Fox just wanted to forget all about Wonder Comics! [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

An obviously pleased Liebowitz informed Siegel of the outcome: This morning we received the decision from the Court of Appeals on the case which Fox took to a higher court. The verdict was altogether in our favor and the decision from the lower court was sustained. We are now in the process of examining other competitive magazines for any infringement of Superman, whether in costume or in deeds. [Jack Liebowitz, letter to Jerry Siegel, May 2, 1940.] Victor Fox, whose courtroom travails continued both within and without the comic book industry, had one final encounter with DC in the case of Detective Comics, Inc. v. Fox Publications.

2, 1940, shortly after the August number came out, but did nothing about it and went on with their publication in the September issue.” [Detective Comics, Inc. vs. Fox Publications, 46 F. Supp. 872 (1942).] “The defendant Fox Publications,” he wrote with a touch of sarcasm, “does not seem to have profited by its experience in the case of Detective Comics, Inc. v. Bruns Publications, Inc….” Judge Bright concluded that his comparison of “The Lynx” with “Batman” “convinces me there has been a deliberate copying by the defendant of drawings and cartoons of the Batman and his companion Robin….” [Ibid.] Bright’s decision paralleled that of the earlier trial, as Fox was once again found in violation of DC’s copyright and told to pay them $2,000, plus legal fees.

Emboldened by these decisions, Liebowitz moved to stop other publishers from similarly infringing upon their franchise character. Most notably, this meant challenging the more formidable foe of Fawcett Publishing, first over their “Superman” doppelgänger “Master Man” (in Master Comics), and then, in June 1941, over “Captain Marvel” [in Whiz Comics, soon in Captain Marvel Adventures, et al.]. Interestingly, Fawcett at the same time was pursuing its own copyright infringement lawsuit against Elliott Publishing, an action instigated by this small publisher’s rebinding of remaindered copies of Wow Comics #2 into its Double Comics publication in 1941. The court in that instance ruled that no copyright infringement was found, since Elliott had “merely resold the plaintiff ’s [comic] under a different cover,” and had not attempted to copy it in any manner. [Fawcett Publications v. Elliott Publishing Co., 46 F.Supp.717 (1942).]

Incredibly, in light of the recent result of the first trial’s failed appeal, Fox defiantly (foolishly?) published in Mystery Men Comics #13 (Aug. 1940) the feature “The Lynx with Blackie the Mystery Boy.” Likely relishing the thought of dragging Fox back into the court, DC sent him a ceaseand-desist letter for the perceived infringement of “Batman and Robin.” In laying out the case, Judge John Bright noted that Fox had been “warned of the claimed infringement by letter on July

The Soon-To-Be-Missing Lynx DC sued Bruns/Fox again over “The Lynx with Blackie the Mystery Boy” in Mystery Men Comics #13 (Aug. 1940)—this time as imitations of Batman and his new Boy Wonder companion Robin. The similarities don’t seem all that damning: Batman and Robin couldn’t fly, for one thing, but The Lynx and Blackie could (never mind the ludicrousness of a flying lynx!). Even so, Fox lost again. Thanks to Chet Cox, Gene Reed, & Darci Sharver for the scans. Incidentally, the spacing in various balloons and captions suggests that the adult hero was originally named something other than “Lynx.” [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

With far deeper pockets than Victor Fox, Fawcett was able to keep DC tied up in court for years in what is popularly referred to as the “Superman/Captain Marvel lawsuit.” This epic battle has been recounted extensively elsewhere, and it is beyond the purview of this article to detail it again. Suffice it to say that it ended in 1953 with Fawcett found guilty of violating DC’s copyright on “Superman” and with the two publishers settling damages out of court. Whatever effect Detective Comics, Inc. vs. Bruns Publications had legally is heightened by the subsequent lives of the individuals involved. Reading through this transcript, I can’t help but recall a quote from Orson Welles as he reflected upon his role as Harry Lime in the film The Third Man: “Every sentence in the whole script is about Harry Lime—nobody talks about

Superman Vs. The Wonder Man 1939

and finally boil over when he and Joe Shuster sued their employer, the first time being in 1947. Although that initial case found mostly in the publisher’s favor, decades later Siegel’s heirs would realize some financial recoup by regaining a portion of the “Superman” copyright. Meanwhile, Will Eisner would sell his part in Eisner & Iger to his partner, form his own shop, and begin work on The Spirit within a year of this trial’s end. And Jerry Iger never got over it. Iger’s underlying jealousy (if not outright animosity) was apparently evident to others. In a letter dated December 26, 1941, “Busy” Arnold wrote to Iger:

A Moth-Eaten Yarn (Above:) Before all was said and done, DC had yet another beef with Victor Fox, though this time it apparently stopped short of an actual hearing. Donenfeld’s firm reportedly objected to the Fox feature “The Moth” as yet another imitation of “Batman.” Ye Editor is hard pressed to see any special similarity to the (again) non-flying Dark Knight in The Moth’s debut, as drawn by Jim Mooney for Mystery Men Comics #9 (April 1940)—but copyright infringement, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Scripter unknown, of course. Thanks to Eric Schumacher. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.] (Right:) In later years, Jim Mooney told the story (repeated by Will Murray in A/E #97) of how, when he applied for a job drawing “Batman,” editor Whitney Ellsworth asked him what made him think he could draw the DC star. Mooney reminded him of DC’s complaints against his “Moth” art several years earlier as being similar to “Batman”—and he got the job. One of Mooney’s earliest “Batman” tales appeared in World’s Finest Comics #27 (March-April 1947); a detail of its splash is repro’d here from the hardcover Batman: The World’s Finest Comics Archives, Vol. 2. Writer unidentified. [©2011 DC Comics.]

anything else for ten reels.” [Orson Welles, et. al., This Is Orson Welles (1998), p. 220.] Replace Lime with Donenfeld, and Welles could have been referring to this trial. Donenfeld’s presence was felt throughout, whether he was the subject of testimony or looming in its background—much in the same way that he operated within the industry itself. There was a particular acrimony, though, when it came to dealing with Victor Fox that went further than business; it was personal. Historian Mike Feldman has told me of a conversation he had with Jack Adams, who in the 1940s was General Manager of Independent News and a Donenfeld protégé. Feldman wrote:

And please don’t tell me again that you personally developed every top-notcher in this business including Bill Eisner. He was largely responsible for the success of Eisner & Iger as you well know. Bill always was a swell artist with a flair for writing interesting plots and nobody helped develop him except Wm. E. Eisner, a lot of natural ability and plenty of good hard work. (Arnold also sent a copy to Eisner, and he was obviously aware the reaction it would have on Iger. On Eisner’s copy he hand-wrote: “Bill—Maybe you better send Jerry some smelling salts and flowers. Is paragraph #5 on page 3 okay or did Jerry really develop W.E. Eisner?”) One result of reading the above court transcript was that I felt compelled to go back and take another look at long-believed anecdotal evidence. Even called into question was the supposed raison d’être for Eisner’s moral conflict. While it is quite believable that Victor Fox threatened to withhold payment to Eisner/Iger of money he owed them unless they played along with his defense strategy, certain facts don’t add up. If indeed Fox stiffed them after the disappointing results of the trial in April 1939 (and before appeals were heard), he did so despite his demands being met. After all, as the transcript has shown, both Eisner and Iger did go along with Fox. Furthermore, chances are the shop hadn’t even produced $3,000 worth of work for Fox by that time. An even better question: why did they continue to produce material for his comics? In fact, circumstantial evidence seems to indicate that they did so until about November of ‘39. Work from the shop last appeared in Fox comics cover-dated April 1940 and released early in that year. Meanwhile, a “help wanted” ad from December 2, 1939, placed by Fox, includes the request: “Would especially like to hear from the original artists of the following features: Samson, Rex Dexter, Space Smith, Stardust, Blast Benet [sic], Sub Saunders, Spark Stevens.” The features named were mostly products of the Eisner &

Jack recalled in detail a dust-up with Donny [Donenfeld] punching out Fox in a hallway at a distributors’ convention, with younger guys having to pull them apart. Donny put in the word to regional wholesalers not to display upstart Fox material, and this contributed to his circulation problems. The realignment of partnerships and allegiances that would eventually occur lends an air of irony to the alliances held during this trial. While Donenfeld and Liebowitz would stay joined at the hip to the end, their partnership with M.C. Gaines would dissolve. His bitter arguments with Liebowitz led to Gaines’ selling his portion of AllAmerican to his partner(s), which in turn was merged with DC to form National Comics in 1945. When Gaines departed the offices at 480 Lexington Avenue, left behind was Sheldon Mayer, his assistant of nearly a decade. Mayer continued as editor of the All-American line of National/DC titles until he returned to freelance cartooning circa 1948. Jerry Siegel’s anger over the agreement he had with DC would simmer

The Fox Knows Many Tricks… By Dec. 2, 1939, when he placed the above ad in The New York Times to try to lure away Eisner & Iger’s artists, Victor Fox had taken to calling his company Fox Publications, rather than Bruns. Thanks to Ken Quattro.

DC Comics Vs. Victor Fox

See You In The Funny Pages! However successful or un- Victor Fox’s newspaper ad to lure artists away from Eisner & Iger may have been, these ads, which ran in a trade publication (probably Newsdealer), soon ballyhooed Fox’s new Sunday comics supplement—eight features in 4 pages, spearheaded by The Blue Beetle—more or less along the lines of the Spirit Comics Section that would debut in June of ’40. Clockwise from above left, the ads appeared on Oct. 21, ’39; Nov. 4, ’39; and Jan. 6, ’40. Unlike the ten-year run of Eisner’s comics insert, the Fox section didn’t last long. Thanks to Allan Holtz (and his “Stripper’s Guide” website) & Ken Quattro. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Iger shop, so this was an apparent appeal to their artists. This attempt to recruit the departing shop’s creators is a sure sign that a split had occurred, and most likely, not amicably. Given all of this, it’s probable that a dispute—probably over money owed and not paid—led Eisner and Iger away from Fox. But not in April 1939, and probably not due solely to the outcome of the trial. In any case, Iger and Fox resolved their differences to the point that Iger became the main provider of material for Fox’s comics throughout the several incarnations of his company, nearly to its end in the early 1950s. While, on his own, Eisner, in a strange twist, would find himself years later at the plaintiff ’s table in another copyright infringement case. Eisner had left the newsstand comic book field, and The Spirit was becoming a mere sideline when he formed his American Visuals Corporation to produce promotional comics in the late ’40s. In 1952, AVC created Killer in the Streets, a proposed giveaway comic about auto safety aimed at the insurance industry. A salesman for American Visuals named Frederick Holland took copies of the dummy of this comic to an insurance convention, but was unable to secure any agreements. Holland quit his position soon afterward and started his own publishing company. He was then contracted by one of those insurers to produce a giveaway comic similar to the American Visuals proposal. Holland hired Sam Schwartz, the Archie Comics stalwart who had until recently been the art director at Eisner’s company, to draw his own automobile safety booklet, It Can’t Happen to Us. This comic was published and 319,000 copies were distributed throughout the insurance industry, resulting in a tidy profit for Holland. Eisner found out about the comic and sued in June 1954 for copyright infringement and misuse of confidential information. The case went to trial, Eisner prevailed, and Holland subsequently appealed. “Schwartz admitted that on his deposition he had testified that he saw Killer in the Streets while he was working on It Can’t Happen to Us, the booklet sold and copyrighted by Holland,” noted the appellate decision of December 12, 1958. Schwartz’s words and the Court’s opinion that “From the beginning to the end of each booklet the points of similarity are continuous and striking” resulted in a judgment that awarded Eisner $5,000. [American Visuals Corp. vs. Holland, 261 F.2d 652 (1958) ] American Visuals was eventually merged into the Koster-Dana Corporation, and on January 17, 1964, Eisner became president of its Bell-McClure Syndicate. In perhaps the ultimate irony, one of the properties he oversaw at Bell-McClure was the Superman comic strip.

Afterword It was my admiration of Will Eisner that initiated my quest of this trial transcript, and it was his apparent fall from grace that has garnered the most attention since its discovery. What was understandably pragmatic and possibly heroic testimony that day in 1939 is viewed far less charitably today. From the distance afforded by time, it is easy to be shocked at Eisner’s aplomb and consistency on the stand, in apparent contradiction of his later remembrances. But it is obvious that Eisner was just a part of the story. When the transcript is considered as a whole, questionable testimony occurs throughout. The one inarguable truth that comes from reading this document is that nearly every name on the witness list had a lasting effect on the history of the industry. All were present in the nascent years of a new medium, and chances are that none of them knew at the time that it would evolve into an art form. This was a business—the lowest end of the publishing industry—and it’s likely that few of them viewed it as anything more than a way of making money. That was something all of the participants could agree upon. From our perspective, it’s hard to separate the legends that surround these men and the fact that they were only men—susceptible to pressure, to telling half-truths, to blatant lying. No better, nor worse, nor different than anyone else. Just men. Not a Superman among them.

“Cartooning Was Ultimately My Goal” Part I Of A Candid Conversation With Writer & Artist JACK MENDELSOHN Conducted by Jim Amash

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris

ack Mendelsohn certainly has had a variety of jobs in his professional career as a writer/artist! From the 1940s through the 1960s, he wrote humor comics at Archie, DC, Dell, EC [Panic and Mad magazine], Quality, Tower, Standard, and Ziff-Davis. Among the many things he has written for which he did not receive official credit were comic book stories scripted for his close friend and former studio mate, the late Howard Post (whose interview will be printed in an upcoming issue of Alter Ego). His newspaper strip credits include Felix the Cat and the fondly remembered Jackys Diary. His animation writing includes The Beatles, The Impossibles, Milton the Monster, Wacky Races, “Fearless Fly,” and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; he also co-scripted the movie Yellow Submarine, among other cartoon features. In addition, he wrote for The Carol Burnett Show, Laugh-In, Three’s Company, Chico and the Man, and Carter County, as well as many other television series.

As is our usual wont, we focused on Jack’s comic book days and the people with whom he worked then—but we did not neglect the other parts of Jack’s career, and, judging by the quality of the stories he told me, you’ll be glad we didn’t. Special thanks to David Hajdu (author of The Ten Cent Plague) for giving me Jack’s phone number a few years back. And thanks to Jack for his patience in granting such a long interview, and waiting for us to get this into your hands! —Jim.

Jacky In Wonderland Jack Mendelsohn wrote and drew the Jackys Diary Sunday comic strip (seen at left) for Feb. 21, 1960—and he scripted the above “Alex in Wonderland” tale from Prize’s Wonderland Comics, which was drawn by his longtime pal Howard Post. The latter may be from issue #7 (Oct.-Nov. 1946); Ye Editor couldn’t be sure from his coverless copy. Thanks to Jack for the mid-1950s pic photo at top left; unless otherwise noted, all photos accompanying this interview were provided by the writer/artist. [Jackys Diary ©2011 Jack Mendelsohn; “Alex” page ©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

A Candid Conversation With Writer & Artist Jack Mendelsohn

“You Couldn’t Be A Writer [at Hanna-Barbera] Unless You Did Storyboards” JIM AMASH: I always start out with the most entertaining question of all, which is “When and where were you born?” JACK MENDELSOHN: Brooklyn, November 8th, 1926; a pure Scorpio. I wanted to be a cartoonist from the age of five. I was always fascinated by comic strips and animated cartoons, and my father encouraged me. He sent away for a correspondence course in cartooning, to which I assiduously devoted myself. I was maybe ten or eleven. I thought it was very helpful, but the style that they taught was so old-fashioned; full of crosshatches and corny symbols. I didn’t know any better and I copied them. So I was very influenced by that old, old school of cartooning. Later in life, when I was doing comic books, I discovered that I was very fast when it came to writing, but very slow when it came to drawing, because I was never happy with the finished drawing. I was always changing it, correcting it, cutting it. I wasn’t doing any of the actionadventure super-hero. That never interested me. I was strictly what they used to call a “bigfoot cartoonist.” I was always interested in writing cartoons, and I did draw them in the sense that, when I was hired by Hanna-Barbera, I storyboarded my cartoons. I didn’t have to be

Rembrandt, but I did enough that a director could recognize what I had in mind, whether it was a close-up or a full figure or whatever. Every writer did that; it was kind of a given that you couldn’t be a writer there unless you did storyboards. Part of the reason was that Joe Barbera didn’t like to read scripts. He was used to reading storyboards. You know who Mike Maltese was, right? The man was a genius. His storyboards were incredible because they were literally stick figures. He couldn’t draw, but that was acceptable enough, I guess, because he was Mike Maltese. I don’t know if they would have accepted stick figures from anyone else. The training was excellent because it trained me to think visually. Words are easy to write; you can say, “A crowd of ten elephants come charging on the screen.” But the reality of it is that it costs a fortune, so you better not write it. If you start to draw it, you realize how much drawing is involved, and that translates into money. I always prided myself when I was writing cartoons that I would think like a producer. When you write animation, you have to practically be a director in your instructions. It’s easy to write, “A car pulls up, a gang of crooks step out of this big, black sedan and go to the hero’s headquarters.” But the thing is, when you storyboard it, you realize the simplest way is you cut to the hero who says, “Boy Wonder, I hear a limousine.” You cut to an overhead POV, and you see this limousine pull up. Then you cut back to our heroes, you hear a door slam, and the hero says, “Uh-oh, they’re getting out of the car.” It’s almost like a voiceover. And the next thing you know, they’re in the building, and by doing that, you’ve already saved like $500. I think a lot of producers appreciated what I was doing because I would do a lot of their work for them, because another writer would have written an entire scene, especially at Hanna-Barbera, because they were not Disney. Money-wise, everything was low-budget rent-a-cartoon. JA: But when you didn’t write something like “all the elephants” because it would cost money, did you feel like that would inhibit your creativity? MENDELSOHN: No, just the opposite. It was a challenge. If a director is given a hundred million dollars to make a movie, he goes into paralysis. [chuckles] “What do I spend it on first?” But if he’s given $12,000,000 to make basically the same movie, he has to be very creative. He has to suddenly think about the best and most economical way to do this. I admire people who think of the bottom line because it tests all of your creativity. You now have borders in which you have to work. You can’t just go crazy and say, “We’ll do this and we’ll do that,” and still tell a good, exciting story. It’s the same thing with the cartoons. JA: Your father, Irving Mendelsohn, was an agent for Winsor McCay, and possibly a co-owner of McCay Features? MENDELSOHN: No, he wasn’t co-owner. He was an agent for McCay, strictly in animation films. It was something he did on his own. He wasn’t a professional agent; it’s just that he was such a fan that he somehow contacted McCay. McCay was a nice man and said, “Sure, run with it.” He made a trip out to Hollywood to try to get studios to finance bigger animation projects, which he could never get going. He was involved with smaller projects. One of the saddest things ever: My parents lived in an old house in Great Neck, New York. He had all the Winsor McCay films, all his 16 mm films, all his animation, and many of his Sunday pages, Little Nemos, etc. They were stacked in the attic, which had a leaky roof. Every time it rained, another layer or two of those originals would get destroyed. So my father just threw them away, because they didn’t have any value in those days. It was just original drawings and they had already made copies, so who needs it? When you use them, you just throw them away.

The Real McCay The above poster advertised the general theatrical release of Winsor McCay’s animated film Gertie the Dinosaur in November 1914, nine months after it had been introduced as part of his vaudeville act. As seen in the hardcover Winsor McCay: His Life and Art by John Canemaker (Abbeville Press, 1987).

The saddest things were McCay’s animated films that my father owned. He had them stored in New York at his own expense in a film library storage place. But they were the old nitrate film stock, and they were melting. The Fire Department came around and said, “We’ve got to destroy these films because they’re threatening other films.” So they

“Cartooning Was Ultimately My Goal”

destroyed them. A lot of those films have never been seen by anyone but maybe me and a dozen other people. I remember them. You read the chronology of films that McCay did, and it’ll say, “No prints available” and I’ll think, “I saw that! I saw that!” It was run on our little projector at home. And years later, they were all ruined. But my father did have some transferred at his own expense, and they were handed over to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Gertie the Dinosaur and a couple of other things that he did—but the rest are gone forever. Publisher William Randolph Hearst commissioned McCay to do an animated cartoon about the sinking of the Lusitania, which eventually brought us into World War I, but there was no newsreel footage of the event. McCay said, “Don’t worry, I’ll replicate it.” He did a six-minute animated film in black-&-white of the Lusitania being attached by a German sub, and sinking. Many of the people who saw it back then thought it was real footage, that’s how realistically he did it. He was in vaudeville, and was a famous personality. An incredible man, but you didn’t call to talk about him.

Post Time!

“Alex Toth Left A Strong Impression” JA: [laughs] When you started your career, what did you want to do? MENDELSOHN: Cartooning. My first job in that profession was with Paramount Studios in New York—Famous Studios, it was called. I was an opaquer. All the cels were hand-painted, which was very tedious work. We’re talking 1943. I was out of high school. Textile High in New York, which was a trade school. Paramount was where I met Howie Post, and we became close friends. We lived together, we shared a studio together, we did comic strips and comic books together. I used to write for him. He was working for DC, and I was writing all of his comic book stories. Howie Post was, for a couple of years, head of Paramount Cartoon studios. He headed it up after Seymour Knietel died. Knietel was the son-in-law of Max Fleischer. Anyway, Howie was in charge. In fact, when we did Jackys Diary for Paramount—I did two shorts—Howie was the head of the cartoon studio at that time. Our lives came around full circle. Howie was the kind of guy that, when people would find out I was a friend of his, and worked with him, they would say, “How can you stand that guy? He’s so arrogant, he knows everything.” But other people were in love with him. Howie had an opinion about everything, and was not shy about expressing it. It rubbed people the wrong way, sometimes. Howie was the most generous guy in the world. He would gift total strangers with things. He was making a lot of money for a kid. When we were working together, we were both about 18, and he was supporting his entire family. He had a younger sister, a mother, a father, and a grandmother, and himself, and he was supporting them all. In those days, he was probably making maybe five hundred a week, which was a

Jack M. (on right in photo) with his friend and oft-collaborator Howard Post (on left)—and jazz guitarist and bandleader Eddie Condon, in 1947. Also shown: the splash page of the Post-drawn, Mendelsohn-scripted “Jimminy and the Magic Book” from More Fun Comics #124 (July ’47); with thanks to Bruce Mason. [Art ©2011 DC Comics.]

tremendous amount of money. But it all got eaten up, and what didn’t went out for gifts for people. He was a complex guy, and I can see why some people kinda found him very irritating, because there wasn’t a subject that he didn’t know about. And he was a wonderful mimic. He did voice impressions. JA: You shared a studio with him. MENDELSOHN: Yes, after the war. He really advanced as a cartoonist, and I never did. I was very limited as an artist. By the time I got home from the war, Howie was drawing comic books. He was like a star at DC, and so many other companies. A marvelously talented artist. We shared studios all over New York. Probably over a period of two or three years in different places and once, we shared a studio with Joe Kubert and Alex Toth around ’47 or ’48. There was a guy who became a first-rate caricaturist, and he moved out: David Levine. We were good friends. We worked together in an animation studio, too. We were like gypsies—stay a couple of months in one place and you’d get thrown out, or one guy would leave and you couldn’t pay the rent so you’d have to move out. We were just sort of drifting all around different places. Alex Toth left a strong impression. He was an angry old man when he was 19 years old. He was one of the angriest, surliest, anti-social guys I ever met in my life. I know he hasn’t changed. I mean, I’ve been with him recently. In fact, I hired him to do a project of mine. I have not lost touch

A Candid Conversation With Writer & Artist Jack Mendelsohn

couple of days later, and he says, “Where did you find this guy? All he wanted to do was pick fights with me, argue with me. He may be talented, but I don’t have time for this.” So that was the end of that career. Alex had so many doors opened for him, and then they’d close. JA: I once told Alex that he was better than Caniff, and he really brushed that off. He didn’t want to think about it, because he admired Caniff so much. When you were around the young Alex, what would he talk about? MENDELSOHN: I don’t remember him talking about anything very much, to tell you the truth. He was a kind of morose guy. He was sort of a grump, like a little hornet’s nest. [chuckles] If you didn’t need to go in for some honey, you just didn’t go near him. Whether he was there for a month or whether it was for six months or two weeks, I can’t tell you, because as I said, we were like gypsies. None of us were bullpen people. [NOTE: To read even more of Jack’s memories of Alex, see the Toth tribute issue, Alter Ego #63. —Jim] I really want to say something about Lew Sayre Schwartz, because Lew drew “Batman” but he was not allowed to tell anyone. He worked in the King Features bullpen, and they wouldn’t have liked the idea that he was freelancing. So he did it anonymously. JA: Also, the fact that he was ghosting for Bob Kane, whose name was the only one that was going to be on “Batman” at that time. So he was being paid to keep quiet and be a ghost. MENDELSOHN: Yes, but in later years, everyone found out about it.

A Toth-temonial Alex Toth—the erratic artistic genius that Jack Mendelsohn feels was “better than Caniff”—and a specimen of the early superhero work that Toth himself later disparaged, but that fans ever since have venerated: a “Green Lantern” page from Comic Cavalcade #28 (Aug.-Sept. 1948). This is the work he was turning out during the period when he and Jack met. Script attributed to Robert Kanigher. [GL page ©2011 DC Comics; Toth self-portrait ©2011 Estate of Alex Toth.]

with Alex, but he’s really destroyed himself, because he was very wellsituated in Hanna-Barbera when I was there. He was just priceless to them, and he picked a fight with Joe Barbera and got himself fired. It’s like he’s working on raw nerves, and all his nerve endings are exposed. But I’ve got to tell you, I think he’s brilliant, absolutely brilliant. It doesn’t take much to piss him off. But I think it had to do with his mother. As I recall, his mother was a really domineering type, and she would start the day by making him angry, and he’d never lose it during the day. [NOTE: Obviously, this interview was conducted before Alex Toth’s passing in 2006. —Jim.] I think Alex is the most talented graphic artist I have ever met, and that includes Milton Caniff. I think he’s better than Caniff. He’s better than every one of them, and it’s only his personality that’s kept him from being a superstar in whatever industry he works in. When I was living in Sherman Oaks, my across-the-street neighbor was Lawrence Kasdan, the movie director. He wrote Star Wars [NOTE: Actually, The Empire Strikes Back.] and all those major motion pictures. In fact, he was working on them when he was my neighbor. We sort of stayed in touch, and one day Alex told me that he would love to do movie storyboards. Kasdan was into that because he was influenced by Spielberg, who always used storyboards. Kasdan was doing his first movie, and wanted a storyboard artist, so I immediately arranged for Alex to meet with him. Kasdan called me a

One of the things that astounded me: Joe Kubert, as a joke, to demonstrate his facility in drawing, would start drawing a figure from the toes up. I thought, “This is impossible. [chuckles] This is like defying the laws of gravity, because everyone starts at the top of the head, and works their way down.” Joe could, if he had to, draw it upside down, and it would be perfect. The problem I had with Joe—we were both single and there was a girl I was after, or he was after—I forget who introduced her to our group. We actually got into a fistfight over her, and boy, I was scared because he used to work out with barbells. JA: And he probably still does. Who won the fight? [mutual laughter] MENDELSOHN: I think someone broke it up, luckily for me. He was like Hercules. But I’ve got to tell you a funny follow-up. I was living in San Diego and went to the Comic-Con. I see Joe signing books at a table. I got in this long line of people, and I got up to him. He was working hard, signing and signing and signing books. I said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Kubert, I don’t have a book, but would you sign my business card?” He looked at the business card and said, “Jack Mendelsohn?” He looked up at me, and I swear to you he had tears in his eyes. He’s a very emotional guy. He said, “Jack, my God!” It was a very touching moment. I had adventures with all of these guys. Frank Frazetta was in that group. I can’t give you even a word picture of Frank Frazetta, because he was a very quiet guy, and I don’t remember having much to do with him. It was like ships that pass in the night. He was in the studio for a while, and then he was out, and I don’t think we said five words to each other. JA: You were in the service when? MENDELSOHN: 1944 ’til 1946, in the Navy. JA: You were a summer intern at the Jerry Iger Studio. MENDELSOHN: Yes, in 1942 or ’43, I think. JA: How long did you work for Paramount?

“Cartooning Was Ultimately My Goal”

Just A Perfect Blendship (Left:) Since artists/friends Joe Kubert and Norman Maurer are both mentioned in the course of this interview, we’re re-showcasing the above photo of them as partners at St. John Publishing Co. in the 1950s. It appeared on the inside front cover of One Million Years Ago #1 (Sept. 1953), which Joe edited and mostly wrote and drew—and in The Three Stooges #1 (Sept. 1953), on which Norm performed similar duties. (Below:) Mendelsohn and Kubert worked together at least once—on a several-page parody of U.S. colonial history that appeared in the black-&-white “photo humor” mag Cockeyed (#5, date uncertain but sometime in the late ’50s) from Whitestone Publications. Ger Apeldoorn, who provided this piece, says it may be material left over from the defunct Lunatickle, Whitestone’s earlier, two-issue attempt to duplicate the quick success of Mad after it switched a color comic to a b&w magazine in 1955. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

MENDELSOHN: Not long at all, maybe three months.

“I Really Would Like To Talk About Norman Maurer” JA: Then what did you do? Did you go to Iger then? MENDELSOHN: Let me explain how it worked. In those days, you’d go to the art supply store and you’d buy some Bristol board, and you’d sit down and write and draw a story. You’d go to a comic book publisher, and the guy there would say, “Oh, this isn’t bad. Okay, I’ll give you $8 for that.” “Eight dollars? Are you kidding? I could go across the street and get ten.” He’d say, “Okay, I’ll give you nine.” [Jim laughs] It was sort of like an auction, and he’d write a check eventually for like $40, or something like that. You’d take the money and go to an art supply store. You’d buy more Bristol board, and you’d come up with another story to sell because there were a lot of those minor markets. That’s not the way it worked at, say, DC or any of those other places, but I’m talking about Jerry Iger and other packagers. I had an experience that really ticked me off, because when I’d write my stories, I’d write them on legal-size paper, do all the balloons and the characters and whatnot. I remember showing it—and it could have been Iger or one of those slick operators like Iger who said, “Well, I can’t pay you for the artwork, but I’ll just buy the script.” Like $3 a page or something like that. [chuckles again] A few months later, I swear to you, I saw my story. He had hired someone to just ink it exactly, line-for-line, and the dialogue had not been changed. I was very mad, but that’s what the game was in those days. I can’t tell you all the different companies I worked for. They were very small operators. Before we get further into this, there’s someone I really would like to talk about: Norman Maurer. Norman and I were the same age. We were brought up together in Brooklyn in an apartment house. He lived in the next apartment, and I knew him since we were both around twelve years old. When we were all outside playing stickball, he would be up in his apartment, writing and drawing Boy Comics for Charles Biro. Lev Gleason was the publisher. Norman couldn’t have been more than fourteen, fifteen years old. And every week, he’d get on the subway with his artwork, and take the subway to New York. He’d get a check, and then he’d come home and start working on his next assignment. I do remember that he was making twice the money that his father was making. He was only a kid, and he lived with his parents. Then years later, he married the daughter of [one of] the Three Stooges [Moe Howard], and he called me. We had kinda missed each other. The war came, and afterwards I moved

to Mexico. I lived there a number of years, then I moved from there to California, so we sort of lost touch. But the next thing I know, he was living out here. I was writing Laugh-In, and he saw my name in the credits. He wanted to do a kind of a comedy screenplay. We spent two years on it. Norman was like a Renaissance man. He could do everything: paint, draw, write, direct, produce... he was a photographer, he built his own cameras. He’d go hunting and make his own guns and own ammunition. I’d never met a guy like that, so self-contained and so confident of himself in every area, and very successful at it. He told me once he was invited to the San Diego Comic-Con as a guest, and people said, “You can’t be Norman Maurer. Norman Maurer’s got to be 80 years old.” He said, “I was 14 when I was doing [comics].” People didn’t realize he had started at so young an age. He loved Joe Kubert. He loved Charlie Biro, who was his mentor. They used to go out, and Charlie would get drunk. Charlie Biro, whom I never knew or worked for, apparently was a really wild man. JA: So was his partner, Bob Wood. MENDELSOHN: That’s right! But Norman never mentioned the name “Wood” to me. I am such a fan of Norman, and the saddest thing... he literally smoked himself to death. He died of lung cancer. I lived with him for two or three years when we were working together. He would light a cigarette in the morning with one match, and that was the last match he’d need. It was terrible. He tried everything to stop. He went through all kinds of programs, and nothing worked. It took at least 20 years off his life, and eventually killed him. That’s a guy I really admire and miss and I wanted to tell you that. I knew him longer than I knew anyone in the world.

A Candid Conversation With Writer & Artist Jack Mendelsohn

All The World’s A Stooge The most celebrated grouping of The Three Stooges—if “celebrated” is the word for the madcap stars of zillions of Columbia short subjects from the ’30s through the ’50s—is the one shown on the screen title below: Moe, Larry, and Curley. The zany Curley (Moe's brother, often written “Curly”), though he had left the group in 1947, was still drawn as one of the crew when Norm Maurer launched a twoissue Three Stooges comic at St. John (seen at left on the cover of #2, 1949)—but he had passed away by the time the second series was begun in 1953. Seen at right is the cover of that series’ second issue (Oct. ’53), one of St. John’s early 3-D offerings, with Moe, Larry—and Moe’s other brother Shemp, who had also been a Stooge before Curley and joined again during his sibling’s long final illness. There were other Stooges comics series later, from other companies, all arranged by Maurer. Thanks to “Tim Comic” for the cover of the 1949 mag. [Three Stooges material ©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

JA: Did you get to meet any of the Three Stooges? MENDELSOHN: The only one I met was Moe, because he was Norman’s father-in-law. Moe was a very quiet guy. The Three Stooges were like the Three Little Pigs in the fairy tale, because they were totally different. Curley had several exwives, girlfriends, and he was always broke because of alimony and child support. Shemp was the other brother. Larry Fine, although he wasn’t related, was considered part of the family. He lost all his money gambling and was always playing the horses. Moe was really the sensible one, but lived very conservatively. He drove a ten-year-old car and lived in a little cottage. He had money, he just never flaunted it. He wasn’t that type. He was very moderate in his needs. As for my Three Little Pigs analogy, Moe built his house of brick, and the others didn’t. That’s the only thing I remember about him. The family had an estate sale when Moe died. As a hobby, he made ceramic dishes, and I’m so sorry now that I didn’t bid on them. I think they were gone by the time I got there, but they were beautiful. The guy was an incredible ceramicist. Isn’t it amazing the talents that some people have that they keep hidden? He made the dishes for his own family. He had a little kiln in his basement. Norman became the Three Stooges’ agent and manager, and he worked a lot of good deals for them.

When “C.B.” Didn’t Stand For “Citizens’ Band”! Whether “Story by Charles Biro” meant Biro actually wrote the script or merely gave a springboard idea to another scripter or just edited the mag, the titles at Lev Gleason Publications (Boy Comics, Daredevil, Crime Does Not Pay) were more adult fare than most comics of their day. In Boy Illustories #47 (Aug. 1949), the talented Maurer had 22 pages to visually tell the story of a boxer who was going blind. During this era of growing public concern re “crime comics,” Biro and his cohorts basically banished both words from Boy Comics by coining the interesting word “Illustories”—and abbreviating their hero Crimebuster’s name to “C.B.” and never again bothering to tell anybody what it stood for! This page is repro’d from the Canadian edition. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

“Cartooning Was Ultimately My Goal”

Cartooning was ultimately my goal, always. That’s why I liked gag cartooning. I knew I was never going to be an animator because it was too restrictive. I just didn’t like that. JA: For DC Comics, I have you working there from ’42 to ’45, but that’s incorrect, isn’t it? MENDELSOHN: That’s incorrect. Those are practically the years I was in the Navy. I did work for DC in the post-war period, but mostly in collaboration with Howie. JA: At DC, I only have a couple of credits for you, but apparently there are more. I have you as being the writer/artist on Animal Antics. MENDELSOHN: I wasn’t the artist, just the writer. JA: I guess Howie Post was drawing that, right? MENDELSOHN: Yes, but there was another book that we did together. It was called Alex in Wonderland. I wrote all of those, however many stories they were. They were all fantasy comedies, and Howie was at his most brilliant, art-wise, there. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: The mag’s actual title was Wonderland Comics.]

Only 994 More To Go And We’ve Got An Issue! This page by Mendelsohn appeared in a 1950 issue of the Dell magazine 1000 Jokes, edited by Mort Walker (near-future creator of Beetle Bailey, no less). Ger Apeldoorn, who posted this page (and the one on page 63) on the website The Fabulous Fifties, says: “Magazines such as 1000 Jokes often grouped cartoons together around a theme, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that some enterprising cartoonists started assembling their own themed pages.” [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

JA: In fact, Norman and Joe Kubert did the Three Stooges comic books in the ’50s. MENDELSOHN: Norman was such a genius. He invented the 3-D comics. JA: Are there any other stories of him that come to mind? MENDELSOHN: His father resented him because Norman made twice as much money as he did. Norman was certainly not an athlete, but he was always working with his hands. He was always doing something. His son Jeff is an animated cartoon writer, a very successful one, and I think Jeff inherited a lot of his drive, and a lot of the multi-talents Norman had. Norman was not quiet. He was a talker, a fast talker, but not comedic. It was sort of like get-down-to-business talk, nuts-and-bolts talk. Here’s a story about him. He would go hunting, and bring home pheasant. His wife would cook it, and we would go over for pheasant dinner. He loved his exotic animals. He’d kill deer, and strip them and eat them. He prided himself on the fact that he’d never kill an animal unless it was to eat them. He loved hunting and camping trips. For three days, he’d stalk deer, then he’d finally close in on them because he’d have them trapped. He said he’d put them in his sights of his rifle, and then he’d just go click! He wouldn’t even carry ammunition. He just knew he could kill this thing, but he was beyond killing all those animals for sport.

“You’d Sell To Whoever Would Buy Your Stuff” JA: When you came back from the war... MENDELSOHN: I wrote comic books, and I did gag cartoons.

JA: I also have you as writing and drawing “Jimminy Crockett.” [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: The feature was actually titled “Jimminy and the Magic Book.” See p. 61.] MENDELSOHN: I did not draw, Howie did.

JA: Do you remember who your editor was at DC, or did you work directly with Howie? MENDELSOHN: I worked with Howie, but I remember editors. JA: Let me throw a few DC editors’ names towards you. Larry Nadel. Is there anything about him that you recall? MENDELSOHN: No, not really. JA: And the other editor doing humor comics was Shelly Mayer. MENDELSOHN: I never worked with Shelly, but I was a big Shelly Mayer fan. His comic strip, boy cartoonist “Scribbly,” was just brilliant. And then he did this thing called Sugar and Spike. I know what he looked like, so I must have spoken to him at some period, but he never edited us. Our editor was Larry Nadel. JA: You worked for Howie, but you were paid by DC, correct? MENDELSOHN: Yes. I remember being paid from DC, because once they sent me a check, and I had a moment of self-introspection. It was for like $10,000, believe or not. It was only supposed to be a hundred dollars. I was thinking, “Could I just cash it and go off to Argentina? It’s their mistake, not mine.” But I didn’t. I turned it in, and they said, “Oh, yeah. Thank you, yeah.” [mutual chuckling] I also remember that when you signed a check from DC, literally half of the back of the check was a waiver that you were signing to endorse it, that signed away any claims, any rights, anything you may claim later on. For writing, I was paid maybe ten bucks a page. JA: Also, in the ’40s, you wrote for Quality Comics. You wrote Candy, late ’40s to mid-’50s.

A Candid Conversation With Writer & Artist Jack Mendelsohn

MENDELSOHN: Yes, I wrote most of their teenage books like Candy. They had a lot of titles. JA: Was Marmaduke Mouse one of them? MENDELSOHN: I know the book, but no, I never worked on Marmaduke. JA: Maybe you wrote some of the fillers for the title? MENDELSOHN: Possibly. I wrote Buster Bear. The others, I do not remember. JA: Are the dates right, late ’40s to mid-’50s for Quality? MENDELSOHN: Well, by the mid-’50s, I was already living in Mexico. I was working for Mad magazine at the time, and I just chucked it all. Too much work. JA: I also have you here for Archie Publications, about ’48 to about ’49, [chuckles again] so I guess they weren’t sure of when you wrote for them. MENDELSOHN: Archie, sure. I’d say that’s about right. JA: Around 1948 and ’49, I have you writing Archie and Super Duck. There again, maybe you did fillers in the Super Duck book and maybe not “Super Duck” himself? MENDELSOHN: I could have. I remember writing for “Archie.” I always

Eye Candy Splash page from Quality’s Candy #1 (Autumn 1947), which was probably scripted by Jack Mendelsohn. Thanks to Chet Cox. Artist uncertain: The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide lists one-time Timely “Angel” artist Paul Gustavson as having some work in the issue—and the cover of #8, the only early issue indexed by the Grand Comics Database, is signed by one-time “Human Torch” (and later “Archie”) artist Harry Sahle. You pays yer money…. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

wanted to write animation, because it’s easier than coming up with a real story. But I remember publishers saying to me, “Well, anybody could do that. We need you for the hard stuff.” They didn’t pay any more for the hard stuff than the easy stuff. Sometimes, I’d wheedle an easy assignment out of them, but you’d go along with it like kind of a package deal. JA: Did you ever write any romance stories? MENDELSOHN: No, never. JA: Is there anything about Archie Comics that you recall? Harry Shorten was the main editor. MENDELSOHN: Sure. Harry Shorten left to form his own company, and I worked for Harry Shorten. I did tons of teenage comic books for him. JA: For Tower Comics. But you don’t remember him from the earlier time? MENDELSOHN: No, but he obviously remembered me, because he tracked me down to work for Tower. I did a lot of writing for Harry.

Frantic Antics Perhaps Jack also wrote other series in DC’s Animal Antics, such as the coverfeatured “Raccoon Kids”—but it’s even more likely that he scripted “Presto Pete, the Magic Bunny” in #9 (July-Aug. 1949). No doubt about it—Howie Post had a way with funny animals! Thanks to Jim Ludwig. [©2011 DC Comics.]

JA: I have you working for Standard on Supermouse and Little Angel. They were also known as Better Publications.

“Cartooning Was Ultimately My Goal”

Super Is As Super Does!

COMICS’ GOLDEN AGE LIVES AGAIN! BLACK TERROR • AVENGER AMAZING-MAN • BULLETMAN PHANTOM LADY • CAT-MAN DAREDEVIL • CRIMEBUSTER CAPTAIN FLASH SPY SMASHER • MINUTE MAN SKYMAN • STUNTMAN THE OWL • MR. SCARLET COMMANDO YANK PYROMAN • GREEN LAMA THE EAGLE • IBIS

(Above:) Super Duck Comics—or “Super Duck the Cockeyed Wonder” as the title read on covers—was a long-running Archie mag, though its hero lost his super-powers after the first few issues and became simply one of the closest Donald Duck dopplegängers anywhere. His little brother looked a lot like Huey, Dewey, and/or Louie… and his galfriend Uwanna could’ve been Daisy’s twin. All “Super Duck” stories in issue #18 (Feb. 1948) were drawn by Al Fagaly, later of newspaper panel There Oughta Be a Law fame. It’s not known if Jack M. scripted any actual “Super Duck” stories—so we tossed in a “Cubby the Bear” tale from the same issue, to double our chances. The “Cubby” artist is “Red” Holmdale. [©2011 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

MENDELSOHN: I remember writing that stuff, [but no details come to mind].

The above is just a partial list of characters that have appeared in AC Comics’ reprint titles such as MEN OF MYSTERY, GOLDEN AGE GREATS, and AMERICA’S GREATEST COMICS. Virtually all issues published to date are available at $6.95 each. To find over 100 quality Golden Age reprints, go to the AC Comics website at <accomics.com>. AC COMICS Box 521216 Longwood FL 32752 Please add $1.50 postage & handling per order.

JA: I also have you writing for Dell, EC, Whitestone Publications, and Ziff-Davis. Is there a company that I’ve missed? MENDELSOHN: I don’t know who Whitestone is. [chuckles] I mean, you used to bang around in those days, and you’d sell to whoever would buy your stuff. JA: When you did a script, did you submit a synopsis first, or would you do a whole script? MENDELSOHN: I would do a script in a storyboard form. I’d take a sheet of legal-size paper and I’d fold it three times, mark off my panels, and then I’d just sketch in the balloons and the dialogue, but I was also writing the story. Next issue: Ziff-Davis (and Jerry Siegel)—and a whole mess of animation!

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The Mystery Of The Missing Letterer

The Mystery of the Missing Letterer! by Michael T. Gilbert “I had a fellow named Abe Kanegson, who was one of the great letterers of all time. I credit Abe for an awful lot of what was turned out in The Spirit.” —Will Eisner, from a 1973 interview, printed in John Benson’s Panels #1, 1979.

or sixty years, little was known of this talented mystery man. The Who’s Who of American Comics states that Kanegson lettered for Eisner Studios and that his work appeared in Quality publications in the ’40s (most likely in Spirit reprints). He also lettered other Eisner projects, most notably Fiction House’s “Dr. Drew” series. The Who’s Who also noted that Kanegson was a guitar player and folk singer.

Not much to go on. Abe worked on The Spirit from 1947 to about 1951, taking the expressive Eisner-designed lettering to a whole new level. There were other talented artists lettering The Spirit before and after Kanegson—Martin De Muth, Sam Schwartz, and Ben Oda among them. For that matter, Eisner himself laid out The Spirit’s lettering throughout much of its twelve-year run. But in Will’s eyes, Kanegson was clearly in a class by himself. Eisner discussed their relationship in a panel transcription that appeared in NMP’s Golden Age of Comic Books #2. The event took place in July 1982, at a Chicago-Con panel with Will Eisner, Maggie Thompson, cat yronwode, and former Eisner ghost Andre Le Blanc. Here, Eisner discusses how he and Kanegson planned out the lettering: “I was telling Maggie, we would discuss problems. I came in one day and would say, ‘You know what I’d like to see if I could do… I’d like to get sound.’ You know, a fellow like Glenn Miller looking for the sound… Glenn Miller always looking for the sound. Remember we tried to get another dimension and we’d talk about it and I’d say, “Well, couldn’t we make it like a large ‘Boom!’?” and Abe would say ‘I’ve got the solution; we got big balloons and little letters. When people are far away the letters are smaller. I’ll try that.’ And he would come back and he would do it. Or I had this idea for a comic only in poetry, you know, the entire one was in verse. And Abe said, ‘You can’t do regular comic book lettering. Let me

work up a lettering style.’ So he would develop the lettering. So we all worked together.“ But Abe was valuable to the Eisner Studio beyond lettering. He became a trusted mentor to a young Jules Feiffer. In his book Will Eisner: A Spirited Life, Bob Andelman writes: “Abe Kanegson, Will’s staff

Lose Eyesight! (Above & right:) According to Jules Feiffer in an interview published in 1979 in John Benson’s Panels, Abe drew as well as lettered these phony ads that appeared in The Spirit Section for April 25, 1948. He may have written them, as well. The art on the previous page is from the same story. [©2011 Will Eisner Studios, Inc.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

letterer, helped Feiffer develop quality control standards. Kanegson and Feiffer both came from the Bronx and both went to James Monroe High School. Feiffer would show Kanegson a ‘Clifford’ cartoon (Feiffer’s one-page filler in the Spirit Section) and Kanegson would say, ‘You can do better.’ Feiffer, whose ego may have been more fully formed than his art skills at that point, would grouse at Kanegson, but that’s how he learned to make demands of himself.” “Abe was a lefty, as many of us were,” recalled Feiffer, whose liberal politics marked much of his work, “but he was hard left, doctrinaire. And quite a stutterer. It would be painful to hear him get a sentence out. But he was well read, quite smart. As a response to his stutter, he took up and became quite good at singing Gilbert and Sullivan songs.” When Jerry Grandenetti left the studio, Kanegson took over as background artist for the Spirit stories.

Big Balloon, Little Letters! From The Spirit, Jan. 23, 1949.

[©2011 Will Eisner Studios, Inc.] Kanegson left Eisner and comics, possibly after a pay dispute. Years later, both Eisner and Feiffer tried to find their old friend, without success. The following exchange occurred at a 1982 Chicago-Con panel that included Eisner, his former assistant Andre Le Blanc, and comic historian cat yronwode.

EISNER: So I roughed out the story idea, and Andre [Leblanc] took over. And then I came back and I inked some figures. We passed it back and forth. Abe Kanegson, was he still in the shop then? And he’d do the lettering. LE BLANC: He was great. I remember. EISNER: Fantastic. Wherever you are, Abe, we want to talk to you. CAT: This is the usual Will Eisner panel request. If anyone ever runs into a man named Abe Kanegson or anyone who has the last name Kanegson, please have him call home. EISNER: Please come home. We have chicken soup on the fire.

CAT: The man disappeared in 1952 and we’re looking for him. I regularly, every city I go to, I ask the telephone operator for anyone named Kanegson.

EISNER: That’s right. I believe Jules Feiffer actually called… he [Kanegson] had been active with the union and also he was doing square dances. And Jules Feiffer—remember he had a guitar in the shop? In the afternoon he played. It was a wonderful shop, wonderful. He played the guitar in the afternoon and we talked. Jules, I think, said that he called— that he knew somebody down in Washington in the FBI who tried to locate him—had the Federal Bureau try and locate him … all kinds of things. CAT: All of this for a lowly letterer. This is how much these guys value their letterer…

The Mystery Of The Missing Letterer

But Eisner, up until his death in 2005, never located Kanegson. For decades, Abe’s post-comics career remained a mystery. But in the course of researching this article, the mystery has finally been solved. We’ll discuss how shortly. First, let’s hear what his fellow creators Horrible! had to say about Kanegson lettered this June 8, 1947, Spirit story in which Abe Kanegson, he was caricatured as a monster. Brrrr! [©2011 Will Eisner Studios, Inc.] starting with Cerebus creator Dave Sim, who chatted with Eisner at the 2004 Toronto Con. In his article “My Dinner with Will & Other Stories,” published in After Cerebus #4 (May 2005), Sim asked Eisner about Kanegson: “Abe Kanegson. Yes, he was a wonderful letterer. He was a tall fellow with frizzy red hair. He used to bring a guitar to work and play it and sing songs on his breaks. He had a very strong social conscience, very much on the side of the downtrodden and very much on the side of labor. “We got along fine. In fact, he used to fix my writing. I would rough in the captions and the dialogue, and he’d bring a page back and point to a caption and explain that there was something wrong with the grammar, or that the phrasing was redundant, and ask me if I minded if he changed it. I’d say, ‘No, that’s fine. Go ahead.’ In fact, after a while I just told him to fix them. He didn’t have to bring it back for my approval.”

(Above:) Eerie Kanegson lettering on the first “Dr. Drew” story, in Rangers Comics #47 (June 1948). Art by Jerry Grandenetti, script by Marilyn Mercer. (Below:) Abe’s ad from the Sept. 18, 1949, Spirit Section. [©2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Sim asked Eisner what happened to Kanegson after The Spirit, and Eisner replied that he didn’t know. This caused Sim to consider the implications:

Cell Mates! Another Kanegson Karicature (right) as well as Jerry Grandenetti (on the top bunk at left), and Will Eisner (with pipe). From the Slippery Eeal story first printed on Nov. 30, 1947. Abe was known as Bellows in this prisonbreak story. [©2011 Will Eisner Studios, Inc.]

“It was the down side of being a capitalist. He had paid Abe Kanegson to do a job, and when the job was over, their relationship was over. He had learned enough about lettering from seeing how Kanegson did it that he could do a more-than-passable imitation and would use the style all the way through his years of illustrating the PS Magazine he produced in cooperation with the Pentagon and through his own pioneering graphic novels. There was no way to trademark or copyright an artistic “look.” All artists are magpies. Neither Will nor I ever paid Abe Kanegson a cent in royalties for what we used of his. Nor, I assume, would Kanegson have expected us to. He had—with his sharp, squared-off boldface lettering to denote emphasis, squared-off boldface lettering that would tilt anywhere from

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

slight to crazy angles as a means of conveying calibrated degrees of emotionalism—designed and then perfected an ideal calligraphic ‘voice’ capable of imparting great subtlety to comic-book narrative.” Kanegson, the lefty, and Eisner, the consummate capitalist, made an odd pairing. But their talents were a perfect match, and Kanegson quickly became Eisner’s friend and trusted confidante. Jules Feiffer was another pal of Abe’s at the Eisner Studios. Feiffer’s first cartooning job was assisting on The Spirit circa 1946, eventually becoming the primary writer through the strip’s end in 1952. Feiffer recalled Kanegson when interviewed on March 24, 2010, at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art: “When I first worked for Will there was John Spranger who was his penciler and a wonderful draftsman; better than Will. There was Sam Rosen, the lettering man. Jerry Grandenetti came a little after me and did backgrounds, and Jerry had some architectural background. His drawing was stiff but loosened up after a while, but he drew backgrounds and inked them beautifully. And Abe Kanegson, who was my best friend in the office, was a jack-of-all-trades but mostly did lettering and backgrounds after Jerry left. Abe was a mentor to me.” Jules Feiffer’s 2010 autobiography Backing into Forward: A Memoir provides the most detailed information on Kanegson to date. Feiffer was in his late teens during the time he worked with Kanegson, with the letterer a few years older. Feiffer describes himself as an insecure, arrogant kid with severe mother issues and terrible stomach aches:

‘’Abe Kanegson… was the left intellectual of the office, which also included Marilyn Mercer, Eisner’s business assistant and secretary, and Jerry Grandenetti, Eisner’s background man. I enjoyed an active and bantering relationship with my boss and the others in the studio, but I was closest to Abe, with whom I had developed a big brother-kid brother relationship. Abe played utility infielder at the office: he lettered, he inked background, he finished inking Eisner’s half finished figures. And he came from the Bronx, actually not more than four blocks away, on East 172nd Street, a block from James Monroe High.” Feiffer described his friend: “He was five years older than I, big, burly, very hairy, a dark, wry, sardonic Russian Jew who lumbered as he walked. A strong presence, but oddly, for all his impressiveness, without charisma. Maybe it was the stutter. Abe had a quick mind and wit and forceful opinions expressed in a rumbling resonant baritone undermined by the worst stutter I had ever heard.” Feiffer describes how Kanegson talked in “tortured fragments,” and how young Jules would chomp at the bit waiting to hear Abe’s insights. According to Feiffer, Kanegson leaned far to the left politically, and was something of an amateur psychologist—a kindly man who helped Jules come to grips with some painful psychological issues. So what did become of Kanegson after he quit comics? And where is he today? It was one secret even The Spirit couldn’t solve. But we will reveal all—next issue! Till next time...

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and were surprised to learn that our families were nextdoor neighbors. Marc did most of his work at night, and when he wasn’t writing or laying out a story, I would read to him during the late hours. My mother didn’t appreciate this. For that matter, she didn’t appreciate Marc, this young artist/musician from New York who worked at home all night. So we eloped. In time, the love my mother and father felt for my husband was unquestionable.

[FCA EDITORS NOTE: From 1941-53, Marcus D. Swayze was a top artist for Fawcett Publications. The very first Mary Marvel character sketches came from Marc’s drawing table, and he illustrated her earliest adventures, including the classic origin story, “Captain Marvel Introduces Mary Marvel (Captain Marvel Adventures #18, Dec. ’42); but he was primarily hired by Fawcett Publications to illustrate Captain Marvel stories and covers for Whiz Comics and Captain Marvel Adventures. He also wrote many Captain Marvel scripts, and continued to do so while in the military. After leaving the service in 1944, he made an arrangement with Fawcett to produce art and stories for them on a freelance basis out of his Louisiana home. There he created both art and stories for The Phantom Eagle in Wow Comics, in addition to drawing the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip for Bell Syndicate (created by his friend and mentor Russell Keaton). After the cancellation of Wow, Swayze produced artwork for Fawcett’s top-selling line of romance comics, including Sweethearts and Life Story. After the company ceased publishing comics, Marc moved over to Charlton Publications, where he ended his comics career in the mid-’50s. Marc’s ongoing professional memoirs have been a vital part of FCA since his first column appeared in FCA #54 (1996). Last time we re-presented in the pages of Alter Ego Marc’s interview from FCA #11 (Nov. 1978). And now, for another A/E first, June Swayze, Marc’s wife, takes center stage with her warmhearted essay, “He’s My Man”—reprinted from FCA #58 (1997). —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

I knew virtually nothing about the comics … but Marc and I had music as a common interest. I had studied voice and piano and Marc played in various musical groups. It wasn’t long before I was playing and singing with them. When we moved into our first home, the new neighbors must have thought we were subversives, what with all that night-time activity. Our schedule was not exactly in accordance with the customary 9-to-5 routine. Marc’s artwork had to be supported by cardboard when it was wrapped for mailing, and we often had to scrounge around behind department stores after hours for corrugated boxes. On one occasion, we had to explain to a night policeman that we weren’t vagrants or robbers. Then he held his flashlight for us. The night staff at the post office came to know us by name and helped us with information about late plane schedules. We felt like we were teaching everybody the importance of publication deadlines! As one might suspect, our lifestyle changed somewhat when the children, five, began to come along. I dropped out of the music groups, there not being much demand for pregnant vocalists. When Judy, our

was in college when Marc and I met briefly before he entered the military. I couldn’t stand him! I thought he was fresh, rude, and conceited. Then, when he came back, I thought he was wonderful! Still conceited, perhaps, but maybe he had a right to be, I thought.

It was in the mid-’40s and Marc was drawing the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip and the “Phantom Eagle” for Fawcett’s Wow Comics. He said that he had come home for good. We didn’t recall having met before

On The Wings Of Love (Above:) June & daughter Judy by Marc’s side as he works out of their Louisiana home in the late 1940s. Thanks to the Swayzes for the photo. (Left:) Swayze-drawn “Phantom Eagle” panels from Wow #42 (April 1946). While the Eagle’s partner Jerry may have had difficulty seeking the romantic interests of young Mickey Malone, such was not the case with Marc and June Swayze after the artist had returned from the military and headed back home with art assignments—one of them being the “Phantom Eagle” feature for Fawcett’s Wow Comics. [Phantom Eagle TM & ©2011 respective copyright holders.]

Fawcett Collectors Of America

first, was learning to read, her teacher asked her to tell the class about the comics her father did. Her reply was, “My parents don’t allow me to look at comic books.” We did, really, had she wanted to. We had settled down. I was in the PTA and Marc was on the school board. Of course, there were down times, too, but we don’t look back at them. Some of our most memorable days were when Rod and Kentuck Reed, or Wendell Crowley, or C.C. Beck and his wife Hildur, on separate occasions, came to visit us. They were always fun and our children loved them. Their visits gave the children an opportunity to learn something about their father’s career in comics. I once overheard Wendell talking to our son, Marc, Jr., “Your dad,” he was saying, “was a journeyman pro. He could do it all. We could send him a story that we really didn’t think much of, and when the finished job came back, it would be great. One of our writers rarely bothered with descriptions of the action in the panels because he knew your dad would change it to suit himself.” Wendell Crowley was a wonderful friend, a loyal supporter of my husband, and we will never forget him, or the others. In our home there is a Captain Marvel drawing that was presented to Marc when he left the Fawcett offices for the military. On it is inscribed: “To Swayze from Beck, the best pair of drawers Fawcett ever had.” I agree with that, although Marc has always insisted that Mac Raboy should have been included.

He’s My Man—And She’s His Lady Real-life sweethearts Marc and June Swayze in their Louisiana home. Photo by Jennifer Hamerlinck, taken on Memorial Day, 2005.

Somehow it was not disturbing when Marc decided to leave the comics. We had just spent a year in Connecticut and were waiting for the publication of Marc’s syndicated strip, The Great Pierre, when an international chemical corporation suggested he consider joining them as art director. We talked about it at length, and finally I said, “Whatever you want to do.” And that was that! Marc Swayze’s memoirs will continue next issue!

Sweethearts The splash page from Sweetheart Diary #13 (Nov. 1952), illustrated by Marc Swayze. When the “Phantom Eagle” strip ended with the demise of Wow Comics in 1948, Swayze moved over to Fawcett’s romance comics. June Swayze was never a big comics reader, but she described her husband’s artwork for the romance comics to the FCA editor as “beautiful.” [©2011 respective copyright holders.]

How To Talk Without Saying Anything by C.C. Beck Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck [From PCH’s Charles Clarence Beck archives comes a previously unpublished 1983 essay by Captain Marvel’s co-creator and chief artist.]

pictures were mere adjuncts, that is, things added to but not necessary parts of the essential story.

This way of regarding the illustrations in comic books was due to our having grown up reading the syndicated comic strips in the newspapers. I had myself worked as a lettering man for a syndicated comic artist; Marc Swayze and some others had also worked with syndicated cartoonists. I had spent the better part of six years at Fawcett as a “spot cartoonist” drawing single-panel cartoons before I was assigned to “Captain Marvel.” Pete Costanza had been an illustrator of Western pulp stories, in which

veryone is familiar with the person who is unable to describe the simplest object or event without using ten thousand words or more—the number of words used being in inverse proportion to the importance of the object or event. Many of these long-winded individuals are found, after their conversation, speech, or manuscript has finally ended, to have said nothing at all, so far as the rest of us can figure out. Artists do not deal in words but in pictures. Forgetting that “a good picture is equal to a thousand words,” according to some ancient philosophers, some artists make very bad pictures, each one of which is equal to ten thousand words at a minimum count. Not content with overloading each picture with irrelevant details and meaningless trivia, some of these artists turn out hundreds of bad pictures in sequence, calling their finished product a comic book. Back in the Golden Age, some artists, such as Mac Raboy, spent many hours lovingly feathering their lines, adding shadows and textures everywhere, and showing in minute detail all the muscles, tendons, bones, veins, arteries, eyelashes, and teeth of their figures. Other artists, such as Pete Costanza, Marc Swayze, Ed Robbins, and myself, who had worked on “Captain Marvel” used a simpler drawing style which is now commonly referred to as “cartoony” or “cornball.” Never mind; we “cornball” cartoonists could turn out three pages of camera-ready art while the fine artists like Mac were still drawing one panel. “Captain Marvel,” we believed, was designed to be read, not to be admired as art. To us, the

Beautiful Chaos World War II— and the World’s Mightiest Boy, as depicted by the gifted Mac Raboy, from Master Comics #25 (April 1942)— where, incidentally, the artwork also served as that same issue’s front cover. C.C. Beck, in a 1979 interview with the FCA editor, referred to his fellow Fawcett artist Mac Raboy as “a rebel” and “always upset with the world… so he drew everything beautiful….” While Beck’s philosophy on what constituted good storytelling art clashed with Raboy’s meticulous work, the “Captain Marvel Jr.” illustrator was still unquestionably one of the finest masters of the medium, in the opinion of FCA’s editor. [Shazam hero TM & ©2011 DC Comics.]

Fawcett Collectors Of America

Drawing Conclusions “Captain Marvel” artist (and our straightforward essayist) C.C. Beck talks shop and creates a sketch of the devious but delightful Doctor Thaddeus Bodog Sivana for fans at the Phoenix Nostalgia Convention at Arizona State University’s Saguaro Hall, June 1972. [Snapshot courtesy of Alex Jay.]

The WHO’S WHO of American Comic Books (1928-1999) Online Edition Created by Jerry G. Bails Back To The Basics The title page to the sixth installment of the “Captain Marvel” saga by writer Bill Parker and artist C.C. Beck, from Whiz Comics #6 (July 1940). The Fawcett artists who had worked on the World’s Mightiest Mortal followed Beck’s lead by employing basic cartooning art fundamentals to the strip, with the shared belief that the adventures were designed to be read and not cherished for the drawings, which were to contain only the bare essentials to move the story along. [Shazam hero TM & ©2011 DC Comics.]

one or two drawings were added to the typeset copy simply to break up the monotony.

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Most of the syndicated comics of today retain this off-hand, simplified way of illustrating the copy—although the more over-verbose will go on and on without ever getting anywhere. The writers of these latter comic strips can run for twenty years or more without accomplishing anything. One of the simplest plots used in romances is “boy-meets-girl, boyloses-girl, boy-regains girl.” This plot served Edgar Rice Burroughs for many years, enabling him to turn out all his Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, Pellucidar, and other stories. It is to be noted that a single illustration, as a front piece, was considered sufficient for each of Burroughs’ books when they were first published. In later years, when other producers turned the Burroughs books into movies and comic strips, thousands of pictures were used and the basic plot was forgotten. There seems to be a law governing the production of illustrated copy that says, “The more pictures you add, the less story you will tell.” Today’s comic books are almost one hundred percent picture, with only a minute, feeble, meaningless amount of story … or perhaps none at all.

Shane Foley’s drawing of our “maskot” Captain Ego, done for our sadly omitted “re:” section in homage to Will Eisner’s cover for 1939’s Wonder Comics #1. [Captain Ego TM & © =2011 Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly; created by Biljo White.]

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