Alter Ego #105

Roy Thomas’ Code-Approved Comics Fanzine

No.105 Oct. 2011

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Spider-Man TM & (C) 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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CAL MASSEY

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 #94

ALTER EGO #95

“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!

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

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

ALTER EGO #99

ALTER EGO: CENTENNIAL (AE #100)

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, TEEN TITANS, HERO FOR HIRE, and more! PLUS: JIM AMASH’s interview with Golden Age Fiction House artist BILL BOSSERT, MICHAEL T. GILBERT in MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), and more!

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

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ALTER EGO #91

ALTER EGO #92

ALTER EGO #93

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!

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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 #101

ALTER EGO #97

ALTER EGO #98

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 Kryptoeditor 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!

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

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

ALTER EGO #102

ALTER EGO #103

A/E celebrates 100 issues, and 50 years, of ALTER EGO magazine in a double-size BOOK! ROY THOMAS interviewed by JIM AMASH about ALL-STAR SQUADRON, INFINITY, INC., ARAK, other DC work, and more! Art by PÉREZ, McFARLANE, BUCKLER, ORDWAY, MACHLAN, GIL KANE, COLAN, GIORDANO, and more, plus Mr. Monster, FCA, BUCKLER/ORDWAY cover!

Fox Comics of the 1940s with art by BAKER, FINE, SIMON, KIRBY, TUSKA, FLETCHER HANKS, ALEX BLUM, and others! “Superman vs. Wonder Man” starring EISNER, IGER, MAYER, SIEGEL, and DONENFELD! Part I of an interview with JACK MENDELSOHN, plus FCA, Comic Fandom Archive, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, and new cover by SpiderMan artist DAVE WILLIAMS!

Spotlight on Green Lantern creators MART NODELL and BILL FINGER in the 1940s, and JOHN BROOME, GIL KANE, and JULIUS SCHWARTZ in 1959! Rare GL artwork by INFANTINO, REINMAN, HASEN, NEAL ADAMS, and others! Plus JACK MENDELSOHN Part II, FCA, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, and new cover by GIL KANE & TERRY AUSTIN, and MART NODELL!

The early career of comics writer STEVE ENGLEHART: Defenders, Captain America, Master of Kung Fu, The Beast, Mantis, and more, with rare art and artifacts by SAL BUSCEMA, STARLIN, SUTTON, HECK, BROWN, and others. Plus, JIM AMASH interviews early artist GEORGE MANDEL (Captain Midnight, The Woman in Red, Blue Bolt, Black Marvel, etc.), FCA, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, and more!

(160-page trade paperback with COLOR) $19.95 US • (Digital edition) $5.95

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

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

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

Vol. 3, No. 105 / October 2011 Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout Jon B. Cooke

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 Artists Josh Medors [after Steve Ditko]

Cover Colorist Tom Smith

With Special Thanks to: Roy Ald David Allen Heidi Amash Richard Arndt Matt D. Baker Tim Barnes Robert Barrett Rod Beck Robert Beerbohm John Benson Steve Bissette Lee Boyette Christopher Boyko Frank Brunner Mike Burkey Glen Cadigan Shaun Clancy Gerry Conway Brian Cronin CSBG Archive Ray Cuthbert Al Dellinges Michaël Dewally Jerry Edwards Steve Englehart Don Ensign Jon R. Evans Danny Fingeroth Shane Foley Willi Franz Stephen Friedt Janet Gilbert Don Glut Glen David Gold Andreas Gottschlich Randy Graves George Hagenauer Grand Comics Database Jennifer Hamerlinck Alan Hutchinson Tony Isabella

Ben Kanegson Louis Kanegson Paul Levitz Jim Ludwig Mark Luebker Tim Marion Marvel Entertainment, Inc. Cal Massey Jim McLauchlin/ Hero Initiative Brian K. Morris Mark Muller Denny O’Neil Barry Pearl Matthew Peets Len Peralta Rita Perlin Richard Pryor Gene Reed David Reeder Charlie Roberts Fred Robinson Allen Ross Scott Rowland Cory Sedlmeier Anthony Snyder Desha Swayze Marc Swayze Jeff Taylor Dann Thomas Maggie Thompson Matthew Thompson Bob Toomey Paul Tumey Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Jim Van Dore Dr. Michael J. Vassallo Barry Windsor-Smith Marv Wolfman Thomas Yeates Frank Young

Contents Writer/Editorial: Baby, It’s Code Outside! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Tales From The Code. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 How the Comics Code Authority changed comics—literally!—from 1954 to 2011.

“You Have To Earn Your Talent Through Discipline” . . . . . . 55 Artist Cal Massey talks candidly to Jim Amash about his comics career in the 1950s.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! Abe Kanegson–Mystery Of The Missing Letterer–Part 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #164 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73 P.C. Hamerlinck, Marc Swayze, & Roy Ald—together again for the first time.

On Our Cover: See the whole story of artist Josh Medors’ fabulous homage to an iconic Steve Ditko cover on p. 30. [Spider-Man TM & © 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Above: German cartoonist Andreas Gottschlich, whose “maskot” drawings have appeared in a number of past A/E issues, drew this one for our “Code-disapproved” issue last Halloween, but it got crowded out there— so we were determined to fit it in this time—even if we don’t have a letters section! We like to think that Doc Wertham and Judge Murphy wouldn’t have condoned this one in a 1950s comic, either! [Alter Ego hero TM & © 2011 Roy & Dann Thomas; costume designed by Ron Harris; other art © 2011 Andreas Gottschlich.]

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.

2

writer/editorial

Baby, It’s Code Outside!

T

here are certain issues of Alter Ego that I always knew I’d do someday—and this spotlight on the Comics Code Authority, accompanied by a healthy sampling of the actual day-by-day changes it wrought in comic books from the turn of 1955 until quite recently, is definitely one of them.

“ooh-ing” and “ah-ing” and applauding and occasionally throwing ripe red tomatoes.

In fact, at least mentally, I’ve been preparing this issue for several years—ever since I asked my buddy Al Dellinges if he’d hand-design a special title for the article, which I referred to as “Tales from the Code” long before I knew who would actually write it, myself or someone else.

Al’s splendid logo, based on that of EC’s Tales from the Crypt, has been sitting in a drawer for quite some time now, just waiting for me to get my act together (or at least to find someone who could do so).

In one very real sense, that “someone” is Richard Arndt, who’s previously written about 1960s/70s mags such as Web of Horror and Reality (both comics with a high “weird” content).

In another sense, though, this issue is another proof positive that Alter Ego is a sort of freewheeling co-op venture, in which, yes, I do the planning and overseeing—but to which the contributions of a number of fans/researchers/historians are absolutely crucial. A look at the litany of names in the captions accompanying the art spots in “Tales from the Code” will underscore this. I may be the ringmaster, and there are some regular star turns in the various rings (Amash, Schelly, Gilbert, and Hamerlinck, not to mention Swayze), with lots of specialty acts on an issue-by-issue basis… but in this particular four-color circus, many of the folks sitting out there in the wings are doing a lot more than just

For instance, Richard Arndt himself provided many of the scans that decorate the next 52 pages. Steve Englehart and Michael T. Gilbert both pointed the path to the Code’s wayward ways with Harvey’s Dick Tracy reprints. From Australia, Shane Foley reminded me that a censored Conan the Barbarian panel had accidentally been preserved in the 1990s Conan Saga magazine. Jim Ludwig came through with numerous definite and probable Code changes, from a multiplicity of sources. George Hagenauer and Michaël Dewally and Dr. Michael J. Vassallo and Glen David Gold and Gene Reed and Scott Rowland and Ray Cuthbert and Stephen Freidt and various other names already familiar to A/E readers will be seen as helping us out yet again. Also as per usual, Barry Pearl provided invaluable scans from various Marvel comics, since many of those I own are in unusable bound volumes. There are also a few relatively new names among the contributors, such as Dave Reeder and Matthew Peets and David Allen and Matthew Thompson and Allen Ross—as well as Willi Franz, author of various innovative war series for Charlton. Nor does that count my late-Silver Age contemporaries Denny O’Neil and Marv Wolfman, who graciously came through with e-mail remembrances… or those who contributed to other articles and interviews in this selfsame issue… or those who’ve helped with past issues and will do so in future ones. And if you didn’t contribute this time—well, cheer up! There’ll another one next month!

For my part, all I can say is thanks—thanks to one and all!

Bestest,

P.S.: Our crowded-out letters section will return next issue!

COMING IN DECEMBER

#

106

DICK GIORDANO REMEMBERED! The Legacy Of One Of Comics’ Nice Guys—& Great Talents!

• Cover-featuring the offbeat action heroes drawn and/or edited by DICK GIORDANO at Charlton & DC through 1970—a montage of the art of STEVE DITKO, PETE MORISI, JIM APARO, & “Himself”!

• Spotlight on DICK G. in the 1950s & ’60s—his Charlton days, and the first time around at DC—with art by DITKO, APARO, MORISI, BOYETTE, McLAUGHLIN, GRAINGER, KANE, et al.— plus DG’s final Charlotte, NC, Heroes Con panel, shared with SKEATES & THOMAS! Also tributes from EVANIER, LAYTON, RUBINSTEIN, LEVITZ, BASTIENNE, TOLLIN, ANDERSON, BRENNERT, ISABELLA, LUSTIG, & SIENKIEWICZ! • Part I of JIM AMASH’s interview with comics artist TONY TALLARICO, covering Blue Beetle, Son of Vulcan, and The Great Society Comic Book!

• Plus FCA with MARC SWAYZE & ROY ALD—MICHAEL T. GILBERT & Mr. Monster—BILL SCHELLY’s Comic Fandom Archive--& MORE! Art ©2011 DC Comics Edited by ROY THOMAS • SUBSCRIBE NOW! Eight issues in the US: $60 Standard, $80 First Class • (Canada: $85, Elsewhere: $107 Surface, $155 Airmail). • NEW LOWER RATES FOR INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS! SAVE $4 PER ISSUE!

TwoMorrows.Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics.

TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

3

How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books— Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

by Richard J. Arndt The Comics Code Authority— Protecting Young Minds Since 1954!

(Above:) The CCA seal of approval—and the title logo designed especially for this article by Al Dellinges, as touched up by A/E layout wizard Jon B. Cooke.

T

he anti-comics crusade that forced the Comics Code on comic book publishers, writers, and artists in 1954 didn’t come from nowhere. It wasn’t even the first anti-comics crusade. It was actually the third.

The First Crusade The first arrived on May 8, 1940, in the pages of the Chicago Daily News. A book review of “Superman” by children’s author Sterling North—

(Left:) Because Photostats or photocopies of artwork changed at the behest of the CCA were seldom preserved in their original form, we rarely have the opportunity to examine both the “before” and “after” versions of altered material, but only the page that was actually printed. Fortunately, however, a number of examples of “before” art do exist. Near left, Judge Charles F. Murphy, the CCA’s first administrator, poses in front of blow-ups of both renditions of the old woman (whom the Code folks insisted be prettified) in the Joe Sinnott-drawn story “Sarah,” from Timely/Atlas’ Uncanny Tales #29 (March 1955).

Scripter unknown. This was surely one of the Code’s earliest forays in defense of American childhood.

Far left is the tale’s splash page as printed, courtesy of Dr. Michael J. Vassallo; incidentally, Doc reminds us that Marvel reprinted the Code-approved version in Dead of Night #6 (Oct. 1974).

[Page © 2011 Marvel Characters, inc.]

nowadays best known for his young adult novel Rascal—was prompted by his dismay at seeing how much time his sons were spending reading comics [see The Ten-Cent Plague by David Hajdu, pp. 39-45, and “The Effects of the Censorship of the 1950s on Comic Books,” Anne Seddelmeyer, p. 1; a full bibliography of this article follows it on p. 54]. North’s article

4

How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

described a wasteland of crudely drawn, badly printed, and brightly colored garbage that he felt was destroying children’s interest in reading books.

Particularly, one suspects, his books.

were cool— long before the word “cool” was cool. Cool in the sense that there was something special happening in comic books that adults didn’t get but kids did.

The tinge of badness, the smell of forbidden fruit, wafted up from every dust parHe also seemed to be very angry ticle created by turning the page. about the amount of money that comics Nowadays, this phenomenon is not unwere bringing in. In 1940, most children’s usual. Video games, music, some books novels (or, as we call them today, “young and book series, new applications for adult novels”) sold primarily to school or iPods and smart phones are media-based public libraries, not to the general public. products aimed directly at a teenage marThat limited the sales for many books to ket and are designed to have that cool around 5,000 copies, although North factor. Adults are used to knowing, from claimed sales of 30,000 for at least one of their own experience when young, that his books. The notion that comics were there are things their kids are crazy about selling hundreds of thousands of copies a that they will never get (and, as far as the month, were generating income four kids are concerned, shouldn’t get). But in times greater than the entire intake of Who Was That Masked Mammal?

1940, this was not the case. Most items, traditional children’s literature, and were Author (and comic book critic) Sterling North and friend. North’s particularly in media, were not marketed being sold, for the most part, directly to most famous work, Rascal, was about a boy and his pet raccoon. for a child to purchase but for parents to He didn’t care so much for masked entities in comics, though. children instead of to schools, libraries, buy for their children. This gave parents and parents seemed to infuriate him. a chance to keep a close eye on and control over what the child was getting, especially regarding reading material.

The comic book field was only five years old when North wrote his But comic books largely bypassed that parental control, since they could be newspaper piece, but the dislikes he touched on would become very purchased by any kid with a grubby dime. familiar complaints in years to come. He felt parents were not watching their children’s reading habits closely enough. He remarked on the extreme violence he found in comics and on the possibility that it could make children more violent. He disliked the political stance of comics, which he perceived to be left-leaning. His complaints got noticed, although not at this time by the government. This first run of anti-comics editorializing came not from parents or national, state, or local authorities, but from academia.

Teachers, librarians, and writers expressed their concerns about the new phenomenon of comic books, a form of communication that many simply did not understand. Some of this concern, particularly on the part of librarians, came from an educational belief popular in the 1920s and early 1930s that an excessive amount of fantasy, whether found in books, movies, or what-have-you, was not good for children, since it failed (according to the theory) to prepare the child for actual life. If you as a parent wanted your children to become responsible, productive adults, their indulging in fantasy stories or fairy tales past a very early age was a waste of valuable learning time. Comic books, both by their very nature and by their extreme popularity with children, were considered to be both childish and a major deterrence to reading “good” literature.

Adults were also confused by the fact that comic books, in and of themselves, were largely a new medium and were not the same thing as the widely popular newspaper comic strips, which tended to be more adultoriented and usually better drawn. Comic books were brash, enthusiastic, and, most important for the child, they

Studies were done examining whether reading comic books caused children to read fewer “real” books than before. The conclusion, which surprised many, was that comics seemed to have no adverse effect on readers at all. Kids who read a large number of books before comics came into existence still read a lot of books. They just read a lot of comics in addition to the books. Kids who weren’t major readers of books still weren’t major readers of books, but they, too, often read a great many comics. Comics didn’t seem to affect the reading of traditional books at all, although they certainly seemed to promote reading of a sort.

That fact seemed to perplex even the researchers who conducted the studies. More than one appeared to doubt the results of their own studies. It seemed to be a case of “comic books don’t hurt reading and, in fact, even seem to increase reading, but kids like them, so they must be wrong in some way, right?” Plus, they were in color.

It seemed that every adult who wrote about comics had a problem with the fact that, unlike the daily strips, they were in color. That color was always described as garish, although to my eyes the color in comic books of that era and the color in the Sunday comic strips seem to be either much the same, or else was actually a little duller in the poorly printed comic books.

Make Mine Marvel Mystery During World War II, as per this newsstand photo dated July 1, 1942, super-hero titles predominated. Thanks to Richard Pryor.

Regardless, the advent of World War II ended the first anti-comics campaign. With a horrific war taking place, parents, librarians, and teachers had a lot more to worry about than the effects of a comic book on children. It was after the war ended that the second

Tales From The Code

5

Give ’Em Hellions!

(Above:) In A/E #101’s coverage of Fox Comics, writer Richard Kyle described the lurid cover of Crimes by Women #3 (Oct. 1948). This is as good a place as any to actually show it to you. Artist unknown. Thanks to the Grand Comics Database; see GCD info on p. 66. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

(Right:) An overstuffed (and, untypically, roughly alphabetized) comic book rack in 1948. Even Crimes by Women might be lurking in there someplace! By now, crime comics were fighting it out with an ever-diminishing number of super-heroes (which were also crime comics, in their way) for space on the stands—but so were Westerns (likewise crime comics!) and funny animals and Archie-style teenagers and romance comics. Thanks to Richard Arndt.

anti-comics crusade began—and this one produced some characters who would have a dramatic impact on the third.

The Second Crusade In 1947-1948 comic books, particularly crime comics, were linked by some religious leaders and by psychiatrist Fredric Wertham to juvenile delinquency. Juvenile delinquency had begun attracting attention during the war, when such films as Val Lewton’s Youth Runs Wild had begun focusing on teenagers and their use and abuse of an increasing amount of free time. This free time came about for various reasons, including an exploding teen population (even before the postwar baby boom, one quarter of the U.S. population was between the ages of one and eighteen), a lack of parental oversight (fathers were in the military and mothers were working in the war factories), and the population move from rural areas, where chores and work for teens were commonplace, to urban centers where teens often had far less family work to do and far more money in hand. After the war, this concern with teen lawlessness only grew, as laws enacted to tighten social controls on teenagers caused crime statistics on them to soar [TCP, p. 84]. Parents, courts, and law enforcement searched for both explanations and easy fixes for this new problem. Comics were an easy target.

First, almost every kid read them, while most educated adults did not.

The wartime restrictions on paper were being eliminated, so new comic titles were proliferating and crowding the newsstands. In addition, though super-hero titles were beginning to wane in popularity, the crime genre,

which Lev Gleason and Charles Biro had pioneered in 1942 with Crime Does Not Pay, rapidly increased in popularity. Partly this was because the stories themselves were quite exciting and, at times, very well done, and partly, I suspect, because their creators, many of them newly returned from the war, found that real life and the more grown-up stories available in the crime genre were more interesting for them to write and draw then the banal silliness in which many super-hero comics had been mired during the postwar years.

However, crime comics had a hoop to jump through that other genres of comic book did not. Many states, particularly New York where almost the entire comics industry was based, had laws on the books prohibiting exploitive true-fact crime magazines, largely due to fears that such magazines encouraged rather than deterred crime. When reports of children either killing others or committing suicide were linked to comics, it wasn’t a big leap for authorities to attempt to transfer and to enforce onto comics the pre-existing laws that dealt with real-life crime magazines. Crime comics could even be considered especially vulnerable to these laws, because they often claimed to be based on actual crimes (although this claim was usually wildly inaccurate).

By 1948 a grassroots campaign led by religious leaders, newspaper editors, teachers, and children themselves had led to a comic book burning campaign in which school children were urged to go from house to house in their communities, collect all the comics, crime or otherwise, that they could find, and incinerate them in public bonfires. Soon national attention was directed at the supposed crime comics/juvenile delinquency problem that comics supposedly fanned, and for a time, a strong anti-comics hysteria seemed to be building. But then studies began coming out that seemed to indicate that reading comics and breaking laws weren’t that closely aligned. The public comic burnings began to get some bad press when people started to be reminded of the Nazi book-burnings of the 1930s, which had also started with children stationed front and center to do the

6

How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

The Doctor Is In-censed!

(Left:) Dr. Fredric Wertham, at an early stage in his anti-comics crusade, on the cover of the Saturday Review of Literature magazine for May 7, 1949.

Thanks to George Hagenauer.

(Right:) The first page of Wertham’s influential article for the Nov. 1953 issue of Ladies’ Home Journal. ’Course, it was doubtless the LHJ crew that placed a copy of an “objectionable” comic into those young hands. The panels reproduced in LHJ popped up again in Wertham’s 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent. Thanks to Barry Pearl and Scott Rowland. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

burning. One magazine editorial, for example, reminded readers that comic book burnings “partake of the very violence we deplore in bad comic books” [Senior Scholastic (Feb. 2, 1949), & Amy Kiste Nyberg, Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code, p. 26]. Finally, the crime comics themselves began to tone down some of their excesses, in part due to public pressure and perhaps in part because the books had begun to lose some of their popularity. By 1950 the second stream of anti-comics hysteria had run out of steam.

The Third Crusade Then in 1953 it came back strong, led by an inflammatory article in Ladies’ Home Journal by Dr. Fredric Wertham and by a Massachusetts legislator’s anger at a Christmas parody of the classic children’s poem “The Night before Christmas” that ran in EC Comics’ Panic #1. It certainly didn’t help that the first story in that selfsame issue spoofed best-selling writer Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer novel I, the Jury with a climax that revealed the murderous femme fatale to be a transvestite. Nobody in the Massachusetts state legal system seemed to find the stories funny or even seemed to realize the comic was a humor book. Wertham’s LHJ article posed violent scenes from various crime and horror comic panels, as well as photos of an enthralled boy and girl reading horror comics right alongside homey ads for cake recipes and pictures of parents and children having good clean fun at state fairs.

This time it really didn’t need a grassroots movement to start things off. Within a few months Congress had scheduled hearings on juvenile delinquency that included examples of what they considered to be dangerous comics, particularly horror and crime comics. While most comics

publishers tried to steer clear of the Congressional committees, EC publisher William Gaines decided to testify at the hearings, and the results were famously disastrous, for both Gaines and for the comics industry.

Within weeks, many cities and some states began to enact laws restricting the type of comics allowed to be sold within their jurisdictions. And the reasons to ban comics soon began to move beyond depictions of crime and horror. As Amy Kiste Nyberg explains: It is important to note that while crusades against comic books were often begun with the idea of eliminating from the newsstands those comics containing graphic violence and sex, the groups rating comics quickly expanded their goals, monitoring the cultural and moral values depicted in the pages. [SOA, p. 30]

Criticism of comics continued to mount. It became clear that the inhouse conduct codes that many of the publishers had already enacted were not enough to placate the public. Within a few months, Gaines organized a meeting of comic book publishers, engravers, printers, and distributors to enact an industry code intended to placate comics’ critics. Gaines, however, walked out of that gathering when it became obvious that his company, among others, was being directly targeted by the other publishers at the meeting, even if not by name.

The publishers who stayed behind formed the Comics Magazine Association of America, with John Goldwater of Archie Comics as president. They wrote up the formal language of what we know today as the Comics Code and hired New York City Judge Charles F. Murphy, who was considered something of an authority on juvenile delinquency, to oversee its enforcement on all publishers who belonged to the organization.

Tales From The Code

7

The Comic That Had Something To Offend Everyone The Al Feldstein-written, Jack Davis-drawn final panels of “My Gun Is the Jury” (below), and editor Feldstein & artist Bill Elder’s take on “The Night before Christmas” (whose script was the text of the poem) were enough to get EC’s Panic #1 (Feb-March 1954) banned in Boston— literally! Thanks to David Reeder. [© 2011 William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

Body Blows In 1955, the first year the Code’s existence, 1881 comics were submitted to the office of the CCA—and revisions were demanded of 946, or 50%, of those comics [unbylined article by Mark Evanier in Marvelmania magazine #4 (1974), quoted in Barry Pearl, The Essential Marvel Reference Project, p. 124]. It wasn’t only depictions of violence or crime that were objected to. Language was also considered a problem by the early Code enforcers, particularly the use of slang. Changes were also demanded to reflect more of what were considered to be the universal American moral values of the time. The Code also regulated the type of ads, products, and advertisers that were allowed.

Murphy (see photo on p. 3) would prove to be a strict and even zealous overseer, which may have been one of the reasons his contract was not renewed following his first two-year term [Nyberg, SOA, p. 111].

Only three major comic publishers declined to join the CMAA: Dell/Western, which published mostly child-friendly comics and accounted for probably a third of all comic sales and was not anxious to lump itself in with publishers it considered part of the problem [Nyberg, SOA, pp. 116-117]; Gilberton, publisher of the Classics Illustrated line, which had the fact that it published mostly adaptations of literary masterpieces to help it avoid massive criticism; and William Gaines’ EC Comics. Gaines soon had to join the CMAA, however, when it became clear that distributors were returning his comics without even sending them out to vendors, at least in part because the EC comics didn’t have the new Comics Code seal of approval on the covers.

All this, of course, is old news and perhaps familiar to many comic fans and readers of Alter Ego—but how, precisely, did the Comics Code affect comics? What does the Code actually say, and what rulings and reasons did those who ran the Code actually use to enforce it? That’s what we’re really here to discuss and demonstrate.

In 1956, the percentage of comics submitted that required revisions was still at 42%. Every year thereafter, the number of comics in which the CCA office demanded revisions declined, through 1961. That year, only 9% of comics submitted were deemed to have objectionable material. However, that was also the year of its first decade that the fewest comics issues were submitted to the CCA—1038 comics, to be exact. Between 1955 and 1961, the number of comics issues being published had declined by 45%. In six short years, the comics industry had been nearly halved. In 1962, the situation actually worsened, with comics sales down 56% from a decade earlier [Barry Pearl, “The Comics Code and a Clash With The Flash!,” unpublished article, p. 2].

I’ve Got A Head Code— Or Is It A Code Head?

John Goldwater, one of the founders of MJL/Archie Comic Publications and first president of the Comics Magazine Association of America, eyes a vintage Code sticker, sent to dealers to apply to their comics displays. Sorry we misplaced the name of the gent who provided the latter; we owe him a copy of this issue. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

This shouldn’t be surprising. In the early 1960s, Fredric Wertham observed with some glee that by 1958 exactly two dozen of the 29 companies that had initially formed the Comics Magazine Association of America, Inc., and had set up the Comic Code Authority to oversee their output, had either gone out of business or at least had shuttered their comics line. Those companies still surviving that continued to submit their comics to the CCA office were Archie, Harvey (these first two published only kid-friendly products at the time), DC, Charlton, American Comics Group (ACG), and Marvel. Dell, which did not submit titles to the CCA, would split in two in the early 1960s, with Dell and Gold Key (the latter a division of parent company Western Publications) splitting the old Dell titles between them. The Dell/Gold Key avoidance of the Comics Code seemed to particularly irk Archie

8

How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

blows that most print industries would have been hard-put to recover from.

First was the “boom and bust” aspect of comics that still manifests itself today.

Prior boom periods could be considered to be the comics’ beginning to feature original stories in 1936, the initial superhero boom of 1938-40, the war boom of 1942-45, the crime & romance boom of 1947, and the horror boom of 1949-53.

Each boom was followed by a bust period, usually but not always due to the various companies’ flooding the market with whatever was selling, until the public tired of those types of stories and quit reading them.

The second body blow was the anticomics hysteria that began in 1947-50 and rose to near fever pitch in 1953-54.

This hysteria targeted crime and (later) horror titles in particular but also found targets in the romance titles, particularly those which tried to be more than simple weepers, such as the Simon-&-Kirbyproduced books and the St. John titles.

There was also an outcry over the sexist “headlight” art that appeared in many titles and genres, often with no motivation provided by the storylines. Even after the Code arrived and blunted the force of the anti-comics hysteria, the stigma of reading comics that the hysteria had provoked remained. An easy shortcut in both movies and TV to quickly show how evil and common a dim-witted bully or henchman was, was to show him reading a comic book. A hulking brute reading a comic book was a sure mark of, not a crime boss, but a villainous cretin. Such images were also routinely used to demonstrate both mental retardation and mental depravity.

When the body of the last victim of Ed

Keeping Things Code (Above:) The CMAA’s first Comics Code, which remained in effect from late 1954 through 1971—juxtaposed with an example of the kind of thing it was designed to prevent: a Reed Crandall/Mike Peppe splash from Standard/Nedor’s Out of the Shadows #9 (July 1953). The frightful fridgeraider appeared on the cover of Greg Sadowski’s recent 1950s horror-comics anthology Four Color Fear (Fantagraphics, 2010). Writer unknown. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

publisher John Goldwater, who complained in interviews in both the 1960s and 1970s that those actions undercut both the effectiveness of the Code and the other comic publishers. Gilberton, publisher of Classics Illustrated and related titles, was still in business, but from the early 1960s relied for the most part on reprints.

Not all of this can be attributed to the anti-comics hysteria of 1953-1954 or the advent of the Comics Code. Comics had endured a series of body

Tales From The Code

Headlight Parade (Above left:) Many young boys in the pre-Code days (and older ones since) referred to mags like Fox’s Phantom Lady #18 (June 1948) as “headlight comics.” Personally, we can’t see why: where could the lady crime-buster possibly hide a set of car keys?

Art by the great Matt Baker. Thanks to Matthew Peets.

(Above right:) When Ajax-Farrell Publications revived Phantom Lady, its first post-Code issue (#3, April ’55) still displayed the heroine’s figure and legs, even if her torso was covered up to a greater degree than in its earlier incarnation.

(Left:) By #4 (June ’55), however, she was abruptly attired in truly atrocious Bermuda shorts—as if there’s any other kind.

Thanks to Jim Ludwig for the ’55 scans. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Gein (the murderous inspiration of Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Silence of the Lambs, and other books and films) was being autopsied in December 1957, handwritten notes on the autopsy document by the stenographer, Cordelia Eigenberger, raised the possibility that Gein’s crimes were inspired or motivated by his reading comic books. Specifically she wondered if the seed of Gein’s murderous hobbies was “planted by crime comics and movies” [Harold Schechter, Deviant, p. 91]. While photos taken

by Frank Scherschel and published in Life magazine clearly showed that Gein had boxes of true-crime magazines such as Startling Mystery Magazine in his living room and bedroom, no comic books were ever discovered in his home. Yet the immediate suspicion that comics were involved showed how many adults regarded comic books, years after the Comics Code went into effect.

The third body blow was the Code itself, simply because its rules and regulations cut off a significant part of the potential readership—the older reader. When I was a kid in the 1960s, the comics you started off with (and which were frequently read to you by an adult) were the Harvey and Dell titles—Richie Rich, Little Lulu, et al.—then you began reading DC and Archie titles on your own, and from there moved on to Marvel titles because they were more character-driven and, compared to the other companies’ output, seemed to have more “real” situations and characters in them.

After Marvel—well, nothing. There wasn’t anything really there for a comics reader after you became “too mature” for Marvel. You were supposed to grow up around age 14-15, put aside childish things like comics, and become an adult.

9

That wasn’t the way it was before the Code. Then, there were plenty of adults who read comics.

Yes, to be sure, the main market and audience were children and young teenagers, but a lot of G.I.s read comics. And, although you’d never learn it by asking them, so did a lot of regular civilian adults.

My uncle Aldo, one of the kindest men I’ve ever met, worked as a city garbage-man and routinely rescued comics from the trashcans to bring home and read—not for his nieces or nephews, although he shared them with us, but because he liked reading them. I believe that the EC titles, whether they were horror or not, as well as Stan Lee’s Menace and some of the better titles from Harvey, Dell, and others, were building a new and somewhat older readership that, over time, would have built itself naturally into a mature, adult comic readership. The advent of the Code ended that prospect, completely and abruptly, for years.

In addition, there is at least circumstantial evidence that the Code, particularly in the early years under Judge Murphy, was used to indirectly squeeze smaller comics publishers out of business, especially those who’d supplied much of the crime, horror, and gore of the pre-Code days. This helped to not only eliminate potential competition but to free up newsstand space for the larger companies’ titles.

The fourth body blow came from television. In 1950, when the horror boom started, most children and teenagers didn’t have access to television.

By 1955 many, perhaps most, did. Time spent watching TV was time not spent reading comic books. Plus, what the Comics Code forced from the pages of comics often became readily available on TV. Perhaps not to the graphic degree of the more extreme of the horror or crime comics, but still there, even if only suggested. Between 1955 and 1961 children “graduated” not to a more adult-themed comic book but to a later-in-theevening TV show.

Fifth, the 1957 bankruptcy of comics’ premier magazine distributor— American News Company—gave the remaining distributors the ability to pick and choose titles rather than taking everything. Naturally, they picked those titles selling best and quit distributing the others. With this, the last of the small-time publishers bit the dust. Timely/Atlas (which was to become Marvel) had been publishing as many as 85 titles, yet shrank down to 18 in a single year, largely due to these distributor problems.

And finally, sixth: advertising profits in comics dwindled by 80% between the early 1950s and the early 1960s. This probably came about due to a combination of anti-comic hysteria, the actual Code regulations, and television. Many of the larger, more legitimate advertisers, such as breakfast cereal makers and toy companies, either declined to appear in the tarnished comic books or saw more bang for their buck in television ads. The Code rules blocked many pre-Code advertisers (toy guns, douches, etc.) from

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How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

Vini, Vidi, Video!

Perhaps the ultimate symbol of television as a strong new competitor to comic books was the sciencefiction hero Captain Video, who received his own Fawcett title with a Feb. 1951 cover date.

Or maybe it wasn’t—after all, the mag only lasted six issues, perhaps because not enough kids had access to TV, or at least to sets that would pick up the Dumont Network! [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

appearing. That left the often fly-by-night world of the somewhat tacky mail order companies— cheap products, much like the physical aspect of the comic itself, cheaply sold. Most magazines depend on advertisements, not readers, to make their magazines profitable.

Comics, from the 1950s on, were forced to rely on sales. Thus, by 1958, the comics industry as a whole, if not necessarily staggering or against the ropes, was certainly a pale shadow of the robust industry as it had existed in 1954.

The Initial Effects The Code made its cover appearances somewhat gradually on comics covers dated in the early months of 1955. Before examining the Code’s early effects, however, let’s consider the impact, as it were, of one of comics’ greatest stories. And “impact” is the right word, as “Master Race,” written

by Al Feldstein and illustrated by Bernard Kriegstein, made its original appearance in the first and only non-Code-approved issue of EC Comics’ Impact. William Gaines stalked out of the comics publishers meeting he’d set up, as he felt his company was being targeted by the other publishers. To get himself out of the line of fire, he publicly announced he was canceling his three horror titles and replacing them with titles the public should approve of. Gaines launched what he termed EC’s “New Direction” with six new titles—Valor (historical adventure), Aces High (war aviation— originally, World War I aviation, period), Impact (shock endings), Extra! (journalistic adventure), M.D. (tales of doctors!—perhaps inspired by the fact that many had comics in their waiting rooms for the kiddies to read), and Psychoanalysis (just what it sounds like: three patients who, issue by issue, discussed their mental problems with their analyst!). Piracy, an EC title often lumped in with these titles, is actually the last of the “New Trend” titles that had debuted in 1950.

In the 56 years since “Master Race” was first published, it has been raised to the heights of critical appreciation, both for its subtle, multi-layered story and for its dynamic, years-ahead-of-its-time artwork. It appeared two months before Gaines realized that simply toning down his comics’ violence factor was not going to save his company, so that he caved in, joined the CMAA, and began submitting his comics for Code approval.

Now, consider this fact: “Master Race” is a story that has been lauded, held up as an example of both of how good comic books can be, but also,

and even more importantly, as a promise of how good they could become —yet it would have been utterly unpublishable only two months after it appeared, under the rules of the Comics Code. Pages 2 & 3 of the story violate Code provisions regulating dialogue, religion, scenes of excessive violence, kidnapping, horror, depravity, sadism, gruesome scenes, disrespect for established authority, “[injuring] the sensibilities of the reader,” and on and on. In the story, Feldstein writes of the stench of burning bodies in Nazi crematoriums, of gruesome medical experiments conducted on inmates of concentration camps, the depraved use of Jewish skin and bone as pieces of furniture. These things are not told in any way that aimed to titillate the reader but in a completely dispassionate tone. Feldstein was simply saying, “This is what happened.” For his part, Kriegstein placed an unblinking eye on the violation of churches, mass murder, man’s inhumanity to man—all mind you, without showing a single gun being fired, a single drop of blood being shed, a single drawing of anybody being struck (we see the after-effects of such violence, but not the moment of violence itself). Yet none of it—not a single panel, not a single scene—would have been allowable under the Code. The greatest story EC Comics ever produced, and thus one of the comics industry’s greatest stories ever, almost immediately became something that, under the Code, would never have been allowed to be printed in the first place. In the post-Code world, “Master Race” was regulated into a blind alley, to become something that was to be hidden away from adults and children alike. Abandoned, destroyed, forgotten, and, much as some have done with the Holocaust itself, made to be as if it never happened.

And please note that it’s not just subject matter or the artwork that the Code eliminated. It’s also the style of storytelling that is used so well in that tale. That dispassionate stare at Nazism that Feldstein employed: “Here it is. Look at it.

Don’t turn away.

This is important. You, the reader, are old enough and smart enough to figure it out without me telling you how you should feel.”

This type of storytelling was something that those running the Code couldn’t abide. If something was truly

Tales Designed To Carry An… IMPACT The story “Master Race” in EC’s Impact #1 (March-April 1955) barely slipped under the wire before publisher Bill Gaines decided he had no choice but to submit his mags to the Comics Code Authority. Probably not a single panel on this page would’ve been green-lighted by Judge Murphy and his Valkyries. Thanks to Matthew Thompson & David Reeder. [© 2011 William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

Tales From The Code

11

“One Second He’s Alive And Running Beside Me, And Now He’s Dead!”

EC’s Aces High was hardly the only war comic to feel the effects of the new Code. In the first two (late pre-Code) groups of panels (above and at right), from “What Makes a Marine?” in Charlton’s Soldier and Marine Comics #11 (Dec. 1954), combatants on both sides in the 1950-53 Korean War die on-panel. Art attributed to Maurice Whitman; writer unknown.

However, in the tier below, from S&MC #14 (June ’55), the second issue to bear the Code seal, a U.N. bombardment causes North Korean weapons and flags to fly into the air—but no bodies are visible. This became more and more the standard, though the Code’s rules were applied somewhat inconsistently. Artists and writers unknown.

Sender Jim Ludwig says his favorite panel (right), though, is the one with the dog, from S&MC #13 (April ’55): “It is obvious that its bottom jaw was [re-]drawn above the arm, teeth blacked out and friendly tongue added.” [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

wrong, according to the Code and those interpreting it, then that wrongness had to be spelled out so even the most naïve child could figure out how society felt about it. And don’t tell the young reader about anything too wrong, or with too many shades of gray, because: “In every instance good shall triumph over evil and the criminal shall be punished for his misdeeds.”

Please use a sledgehammer, if necessary, to convey that point.

In “Master Race” the main character, a Nazi, escapes Germany, comes to the U.S., and has a comfortable life. He’s never caught or punished by the authorities. Indeed, his past isn’t revealed by or to anyone. His own innate guilt for his war crimes does him in, not any external force, authority, or moral code. Good doesn’t triumph in “Master Race.” It just doesn’t lose.

Still, even though he was cut off from both the story-telling style and forcefulness that had propelled his company to greatness, Gaines continued to publish comics for another year, submitting his stories for Code consideration and enduring massive amounts of Code required revisions. The Code refused to allow overtly Jewish names to be used for stories in both Psychoanalysis and Impact. Aces High, a war comic, shows planes exploding or crashing, but no dead bodies strewn about. Post-Code, we see smoking planes, trees (but not men) being shattered by shell fire, craters left over from bomb bursts—but we never see the debris of the men who were presumably struck by the shells that created the craters.

In EC’s other titles, the effects of unhappy marriages—infidelity, mean-

ness, abandonment, revenge—which had been a mainstay of pre-code EC storytelling, were now largely prohibited. Divorce, when it was mentioned at all, could not actually take place. The tale “Divorce” in the Code-approved Impact #2 relates the story of a young boy who runs away from home because he’s miserable about his parents’ upcoming divorce. When he’s finally found and returned to them, they are extremely sorry for “what [they’ve] done to [him]” and reconcile. The story is heavy-handed (to say the least) and sticky-sweet with sentimentality, but, for all that, it is an extremely rare post-Code examination of 1950s attitudes towards divorce (only selfish parents get divorced—staying together, if only for the children’s sake, is better than any reason you could possibly come up with for divorce). By the ending of “Divorce” you’re not sure if the mother in the last panel is sobbing because she has her son back or at the prospect of having to live the rest of her life with a man she clearly doesn’t love and who equally clearly doesn’t love her, just for “the sake of the children.”

Another part of the Code affecting EC (along with every other publisher who adhered to the Code) was the notion that the good guys weren’t to use weapons to enforce their will. In Incredible Science Fiction #32 (formerly Weird Science-Fantasy; although only the words “horror” and “terror” were specially banned by the Code, unofficially “weird” seems to have been banned, as well—every title that had displayed that word was either cancelled or changed), the story “Fallen Idol” depicts a post-atomic war world where mankind has reverted to cave-dwellers but still remember the days when they were the Earth’s masters. Technology is forbidden, but a young chief is determined to find and master the use of a machine to aid his people in regaining that position. On page 4 of the story he tries to convince his tribe to go to the “dead place” where machines may still exist. He is opposed by another tribe member and they battle to see which of them the tribe will heed. It’s clear that a hunting axe was drawn in the chief ’s hand when he threatens the man (it’s shown on the previous page), but it’s been whited out in the first and third panels to avoid the appearance of using force to get one’s way.

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How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

“Divorce”—Comics Code Style (Above:) Richard Arndt’s text contrasts the heartwarming finale of “Divorce” from Impact #2 (May-June 1955) with numerous pre-Code EC tales of dysfunctional marriages and families. Script by Carl Wessler; art by Jack Davis—repro’d from a Cochran color reprint.

Thanks to Dave Reeder. [© 2011 William M. Gaines Agent, Inc.]

Also in Incredible Science Fiction #32, there’s another example of Code interference in a story’s objective. Al Williamson’s classic “Food for Thought” was ordered to add an eighth page to the original story’s seven pages. The original ending concluded with Grock, an intelligent tree, killing all the Earthmen of an exploration team.

It’s a shock ending—something quite common in EC only a few months earlier. The CCA demanded that the original ending be modified with an extra page that shows the surviving men killing the tree and explains in several dialogue-heavy panels what the average EC reader had long since figured out [“Remarks” by Bill Mason, Incredible Science Fiction, Vol. 1, 1982].

(Right:) An early-1950s comic book burning. Thanks to Richard Arndt.

Back in Impact, “The Lonely One” from issue #4 (author unknown, but I suspect either Feldstein or, more likely, Jack Oleck) features a soldier who was clearly intended to be Jewish, but had his Jewish name changed at the Code’s insistence to the more generic ‘Miller’ (which may or may not be a Jewish name) [“John Benson on Impact” by John Benson, Impact, Vol. 1, 1982], while any overt mention of Judaism or, indeed, religion of any sort being the primary factor in his harassment by a bigoted fellow soldier named Benson is removed. Benson makes a big deal about Miller’s name, something that makes no sense unless the name had originally been more Jewish. He notes that Miller wasn’t born in America but in a “rat-hole in Europe,” indicating that Miller came to the U.S. either after or to escape the Holocaust. He makes a point of noting that Miller doesn’t attend Sunday morning church services, which a Jewish person, naturally enough, would not do.

The comics tale, which was clearly originally intended to be about bigotry and not simple harassment or bullying, was inspired by a 1952 Saturday Evening Post story by Vern Sneider, which was about harassment [ibid]. In Sneider’s original tale, a black soldier is bullied by both black and white soldiers, who think what they are doing is fun. In the EC version, however, the intent was obviously that Benson be a full-blown bigot who gets his comeuppance when he pulls a nasty little trick with a dummy grenade. He expects Miller, being from a “lesser” race, to run like a coward, but instead Miller leaps on top of the grenade to protect his buddies with his life. It’s a darn good little story, but its impact is considerably muted by the Code’s insistence that “ridicule or attack on any religious or racial group is never permissible.” The intent of that line in the Code was to get rid of or lessen the impact of racial stereotypes like the Blackhawk character Chop-

Chop or the racial slurs and caricatures then commonly used against the Asian races in war comics (and other races in other comic genres); but the actual result was to eliminate any mention or depiction, whether negative or positive, of racial inequalities. And so, domestic racial minorities largely disappeared from comics during a time period when Civil Rights activities were at their peak.

This brings us to probably the Code’s most memorable encounter with EC—the banning of the final story in the final issue of a four-color EC comic. By the end of 1955, Gaines was ready to throw in the towel. He had already moved Mad from a color comic to a black-&-white magazine (which wasn’t subject to the Comics Code, ’cause it was a magazine, not a comic, see?). The sales on his New Direction comics were terrible, and what he regarded as constant Comics Code interference on his stories was driving him up the wall. He’d decided to shut down his entire line of color comics. Incredible Science Fiction #33 (cover-dated Feb. 1956) was to be the last published EC comic book. The final story in that issue was another post-atomic war tale, entitled “An Eye for an Eye,” probably written by Jack Oleck (who wrote everything else in that final issue) and featuring Angelo Torres’ first (and last) complete EC art job.

Rather than simply asking for any revisions, Judge Murphy and the Code office informed Gaines that the entire story could not be published— period. The exact reasons are lost in time; but looking at the story, which was first printed (in its proper place) in the 1982 Russ Cochran b&w archive collection of Incredible Science Fiction, some reasons become immediately apparent. First, the story is concerned with mutants. While, a decade later and under a different Code head, Marvel based an entire comics series, The X-Men, on the concept of mutants living among us, the 1950s version of the Code office strictly forbade the use or concept of mutants born from human stock being used in a story—and the entire premise of “An Eye for an Eye” is based on that concept. There are humanlooking mutants, lizard-looking mutants, and dinosaur-looking mutants in this tale that revolves around racial purity, with each group attempting to wipe out the others in favor of their mutations. Page 2 not only shows us a smoking, nuked-out Manhattan Island (which implies that the U.S. lost the war—something the Code office might have allowed but would not have enjoyed) but also shows human males tearing a mutant baby away from its human mother in order to kill it and preserve the racial lines. For whatever reasons, the tale was completely bounced by the Code office, and Gaines inserted a reprint of a pre-Code story—“Judgment Day” from Weird Fantasy

Tales From The Code

13

“Food” And Closing The Al Williamson-drawn story “Food for Thought” in Incredible Science Fiction #32 (Nov.-Dec. 1955) turns out to be a rare instance where both the “before” and “after” versions of a story have been inadvertently preserved—in the same place! As per main text, the tale originally ended with the alien tree’s slaughter of the humans on page 7—but the Code insisted EC add an eighth page, with a more upbeat outcome (anthropocentrically speaking).

Subversively, scripter Jack Oleck (or editor Al Feldstein?) wrote a final panel which philosophically undercut the Code-mandated “happy ending.”

Thanks to Dave Reeder for the scan from a color reprinting. [© 2011 William M. Gaines Agent, Inc.]

#18 (Apr. 1953)—to take its place.

“Judgment Day” contains not a single act of violence. The story concerns a human ambassador visiting a world populated by robots. Since the air is not breathable by humans, he is completely encased within a bulky spacesuit for nearly the entire story; he’s there to judge whether the robot world is ready to join the Galactic Republic. He discovers the robots are classdivided, based on the color of their exoskeleton; in all other respects they are assembled exactly alike. The ambassador rejects their petition to join the Republic because the robots are practicing a form of racial prejudice that the Republic has moved past and abandoned. As the ambassador leaves the planet aboard his spaceship, he removes his helmet and we see that he is a black man, perspiring from his confinement within the suit.

The lights from the instrument panel make the sweat beads on his face glisten and twinkle “like distant stars….” [EDITOR’S NOTE: See p. 16.]

A bit heavy-handed, perhaps, but still a pretty good yarn, making its point clear and doing so in a rather poetic way. That last panel is particularly nice, and it’s what upset the Code office. According to most versions of the story, including Feldstein’s [in the Tales from the Crypt Archives], EC was informed they had to change the race of the ambassador. Since the fact

that he was black was the entire point of the story, both Gaines and editor Feldstein pointed out that the story called for racial tolerance and was not in any way in violation of the Code’s rule regarding ridicule of religious or racial differences. The Code office then changed tactics, stating that the beads of sweat on the man’s face in that last panel made the story unpublishable under the Code’s regulations.

Please note that nowhere in the Code is perspiration directly prohibited, although the Code monitors may have been thinking of artist Rudy Palais’ notable use of profuse sweating to indicate mounting terror in a character.

Apparently the Code was invoking the all-purpose section of “General Standards,” which stated that “All elements or techniques not specifically mentioned herein, but which are contrary to the spirit and intent of the Code, and are considered violations of good taste or decency, shall be prohibited.” This rule basically gave the Code office huge leeway to ban anything they damn well wanted to, whether it was reasonable or not.

According to legend, Gaines’ and Feldstein’s reaction was swift. The perspiration ban was simply ridiculous and everybody involved knew it.

Either the Code office was trying to nitpick minutia out of sheer spite, or they were reacting against the story based on some racist agenda of their

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How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

own. In all versions of the story, Gaines, on the phone, threatens to take them to court unless the story was published as is, and to let everyone know exactly why the Code office was objecting to this story (a statement that makes no sense unless Gaines believed a racial motive was hovering in the background of the attempted censorship). Then he told the Code office to go f*** themselves and slammed down the phone. The comic was published with “Judgment Day” unaltered— and the Comic Code seal prominently displayed on the cover. There are versions of the story in which Gaines placed the Comic Code seal on the cover even though the Code Office never did approve the final story [Nyberg, SOA, p. 123].

I bring up all three versions to note that some of the anecdotal retellings could be more legend than fact. In an early 1970s interview, printed in the 1982 Incredible Science Fiction reprint volume cited earlier, Gaines offers a much softer version of events. In it, the Code didn’t ban the story because of the race of the ambassador, although Gaines seems to indicate that they could have done that, simply because that’s how the Code office operated (again implying if not actually stating that the 1954-56 Code office was indeed racist in nature), but that they did object to the beads of perspiration on the black man’s forehead:

It should be noted that the Wikipedia entry on this incident is considerably more hyperbolic in tone. In that one, both Gaines and Feldstein are on the phone together (a conference call?) and they not only scream the obscenity at the person on the line but do it while jumping up and down in rage.

Yet a third version of the story was related by Lyle Stuart, EC’s business manager, wherein he stated his belief that Judge Murphy’s objection to “Judgment Day” was based on Murphy’s personal religious beliefs (which might also explain the anti-mutant bias). In the story the robots were intelligent, and Stuart says Murphy believed “that only man was granted a soul and the ability to think by his Creator” [a 1955 letter from Stuart to James Bobo, general counsel to the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Deliquency, quoted in Nyberg, SOA, pp. 122-123].

Maybe That’s Why They Call It A Hand-Gun! Perhaps, as Richard A. writes, the CCA interpreted the Code to mean “good guys weren’t to use weapons to enforce their will” (except, of course, in Westerns—and, oh yeah, in war comics), but at least the bad guys weren’t always allowed to use weapons against them, either! (Top left:) In Batman #88 (Dec. 1954), one Horace Hubert knocks out the hero with the butt of his pistol. (Top right:) But when “The Mystery of the Four Batmen!” was reprinted in Batman Annual #6 (Winter 1964), he apparently managed to kayo Batman with a mere fist. Script attributed to Edmond Hamilton; pencils by Dick Sprang; inks by Charles Paris. Thanks to Gene Reed.

In the center, a pair of Code-sanitized Timely/Atlas jungle-queen panels, both cover-dated May 1955: a spear has clearly been removed from the hands of Jann of the Jungle on the cover of Jungle Tales #5—and Lorna’s clenched fist no doubt originally held a knife as she took on a Red doppelgänger in Lorna, the Jungle Girl #13, JT art by Russ Heath; Lorna art by Jay Scott Pike.

Both art scans courtesy of Michaël Dewally. [© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.] And, at bottom: Michael T. Gilbert says of this Gene Colan panel from Hopalong Cassidy #100 (April 1955): “Looks like the Code took out the word ‘Sock’ in one panel, but didn’t tell the colorist. And in the next panel, ol’ Hoppy is being slugged by the invisible man.” Naturally, Michael knows that what really happened is that the color plate was already done, and the Code didn’t require that it be changed—only the line art. This was a consistent but puzzling policy on the part of the CCA. The Grand Comics Database (see ad on p. 66) attributes the script to France “Ed” Herron. [© 2011 DC Comics.]

This to them was a very distasteful thing. I refused to remove it and it became a cause célèbre [Gaines’ emphasis, not mine] for a little while. I threatened to take them to the Supreme Court and they relented and the story was printed. Then I sent them a letter and told them to go screw.

[Gaines, quoted in ISC, 1982]

For my part, I suspect that the underlying cause of the Code’s concern was the fact that the lead character was black, and that the stated distaste for and official objection from the Code office regarding his sweating was a cover for the real and much more ugly reason.

So Gaines prevailed in this battle, but the war was lost. EC Comics was gone, and the net result of this fairly well-publicized battle was that for the next five years almost no mention of racial inequality or of an ongoing Civil Rights struggle appeared in Codeapproved comics.

Tales From The Code

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Burma (Close) Shave In the Code-approved G.I. Combat #26 (July 1955) from the Quality Comics Group, the Burmese (both the Communists and their peasant victims) aren’t drawn as racial stereotypes, and that’s all to the good—but for some reason the Red soldiers are allowed to be shown being shot, as well as shooting defenseless villagers. And they say there’s no such thing as progress in the arts! Writer & artist unknown. Thanks to Jim Ludwig. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

come up with a reason to bring him back. Instead of bringing back Harvey Dent as Two-Face, they finally brought back Harvey Dent and Two-Face, with stories in 1948, ’50, and ’52 that featured other criminals merely pretending to be Two-Face. (See next page.)

Dent himself finally returned to the role in “Two-Face Strikes Again!” in Batman #81 (Feb. 1954), in which an explosion destroyed Dent’s plastic surgery and he resurfaced in all his old glorious, obsessive, coin-flipping insanity. Then he was gone again—for seventeen years.

It’s easy to see the reason for this huge gap. Under the Code, Dent’s origin, based as it was on violent crime, couldn’t be retold or represented without massive changes. The acid bath, the grim physical and mental results of that act, and Two-Face’s own violent crime sprees were all outlawed in by the 1954 Comics Code. The Joker’s origins as a homicidal maniac could be forgotten and his face explained away as make-up or even a mask; in fact, for much of the 1950s and ’60s The Joker was simply a ridiculous, silly clown—“The Clown Prince of Crime”! Two-Face, however, was massively scarred… a scary-looking, horribly maimed human being. If the Code was forcing facial changes to old hags and bald-headed mutants to make them less frightening, what would they have demanded be done to Two-Face?

A Two-Faced Threat It may come as a surprise to fans of the “Batman” comics, but Two-Face, one of Batman’s most enduring Rogues’ Gallery members, made only a few pre-Code appearances. Seven, to be exact—and only four of those featured Harvey Dent as the split-faced fiend (really only three, as Dent was called Harvey Kent in his first appearance—his name was changed to avoid confusion with Superman’s secret identity, Clark Kent).

Dent/Kent as Two-Face first appeared in a three-part story arc that began in Detective Comics #66 (Aug. 1942) and featured the now-familiar origin tale in “The Crimes of Two-Face,” in which Gotham’s hard-fighting D.A. was disfigured by a glass of acid thrown in his face by a hoodlum. His story continued in Detective #68 (Oct. 1942), “The Man Who Led a Double Life,” and concluded with the recovery of his face (via plastic surgery) and his sanity in Detective #80 (Oct. 1943) in “The End of Two-Face.” This original story arc was well-written (by Bill Finger, with art by Bob Kane and his assistants) and, frankly, seemed to tie up the Harvey Dent/ Two-Face story quite nicely.

Clearly, the powers-that-be at DC wanted more of the two-faced villain, but after such a fitting finale, the “Batman” crew really had to struggle to

So Two-Face simply vanished. It wasn’t until 1963 and Batman Annual #3 that a heavily altered Two-Face tale was reprinted. But it wasn’t even a Harvey Dent story; instead, it was a reprint of the second “Two-Face imitator” story. This time, however, a love triangle and the recap of the original Two-Face’s acid bath were dropped and new panels drawn that showed the imitator (one Paul Sloane) becoming Two-Face when a giant klieg light blew up in his face on a movie set!

An Eye For An Eye—For An Eye The final panels of “An Eye for an Eye,” the Angelo Torres-drawn yarn originally scheduled for Incredible Science Fiction #33 (Jan.-Feb. 1956) but totally nixed by the CCA. Why? Read the text—but these pictures may tell the story.

John Benson e-mails us that Grant Geissman’s EC-centered 2000 tome Tales of Terror! quotes sf/comics enthusiast Ted White’s 1950s fanzine Hoohah as saying that all ISF scripts were written by Jack Oleck—how’s that for an info chain? Repro’d from the Russ Cochran hardcover Incredible Science Fiction, Vol. 2. [© 2011 William M. Gaines Agent, Inc.]

16

How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

“Judgment” Call The final two panels from the final story in EC’s final issue of Incredible Science Fiction (#33, Jan.-Feb. 1956)—the very last color comic book Bill Gaines ever published, with this tale actually reprinted from a 1953 issue of Weird Fantasy. The reasons the CCA ultimately gave for rejecting this story in 1955 must be read (in Richard Arndt’s account) to be believed! Story by Gaines & Al Feldstein; art by Joe Orlando. From a color reprint, supplied by Dave Reeder. [© William M. Gaines Agent, Inc.] Seen at right are photos of goateed publisher/managing editor Gaines, editor/chief writer Feldstein, and a friend left over from Panic #1—and (far right) of Orlando from the “EC Artist of the Issue” feature in Weird Fantasy #12 (March-April 1952). [© 2011 William M. Gaines Agent, Inc.]

A quasi-appearance of Two-Face occurred in World’s Finest Comics #173 (Feb. 1968). In “The Jekyll-Hyde Heroes,” Superman and Batman imagined themselves transformed into the villains they most feared. The choice of Two-Face as Batman’s nightmare doppelgänger was an inspired choice, although the story itself is only fair to middlin’. Still, Two-Face himself did not appear in this story.

Two-Face—the real Harvey Dent Two-Face—finally returned in Batman #234 (Aug. 1971)—a tale helmed by the famed team of writer Dennis O’Neil, penciler Neal Adams, and inker Dick Giordano. He was disfigured, insane, dangerous, and tragic. He’s appeared in many stories since.

What The--?

Some truly bizarre scenarios occurred over the next few years due to the Comics Code.

Its advent also caused any number of other pre-Code stories to be heavily altered when they were reprinted. A pre-Code tale from Plastic Man #46 (May 1954) has the rubbery hero sliced to ribbons by the arch-villain Reflecto, the Astounding Mirror Man. [EDITOR’S NOTE: See also our “Color-Coded” section in the middle of this issue.] In the original panels Plas is shown being sliced apart (no blood, though), then lying in a heap at the bottom of the panels, looking like he’d just gone through a paper shredder. In the Coderevised version (Plastic Man #63 for July 1956), the hero is redrawn in the first panel as merely taking a punch—and he’s been whited out entirely in more than one panel to hide his “shredded wheat” state! Dialogue has also been rewritten. In the original ending,

The Acid Test (Near right:) Pre-Code panels from “The New Crimes of Two-Face!” in Batman #68 (Dec. 1951-Jan. 1952) in which the origin of Two-Face is dramatized on TV, and a freak accident leads to another man taking on that fiendish identity. Script by Bill Finger; pencils by Lew Sayre Schwartz (with Batman and Robin figures by Bob Kane); inks

by Charles Paris.

(Far right:) When this story was reprinted in Batman Annual #3 (Summer 1962), the origins of both Two-Faces were altered.

Evidently the Code considered exploding klieg lights less frightening than hurled acid—although the effects were precisely the same.

Thanks to Gene Reed for both scans. [© 2011 DC Comics.]

Reflecto falls off a roof while Plastic Man’s sidekick Woozy moans “Oh! Oh! This building is sixteen stories high!”—a statement which clearly indicated that the Man of Glass has shattered on impact. In the revised Code version, Woozy says, “Right into the arms of the law! They have a net below!” Awfully good police response to an event they couldn’t even see [The Comics Buyer’s Guide #1347 (Sept.

1999), p. 30].

Another reprint demonstrates the 1950s Code Office’s aversion to both mutants and random murder. The original post-atomic war tale “Fog Was My Shroud” from Ajax’s Voodoo #16 (July-Aug. 1954) has an unknown author but was probably illustrated by Robert Webb. In it the hero is tied to a stake by bald mutants who debate whether the best method of execution is to burn him or stone him. In the revised Code-approved reprint version that appeared in 1957 or 1958, the bald mutants are pasted over, and newly drawn clean-cut citizens (with hair) wonder if there is a law to deal with the interloper.

There’s a famous series of 1955 photos (again, see p. 3 for one of them) showing Judge Murphy at a press conference displaying enlarged panels to demonstrate how the Code was “cleaning up” comics. A large blow-up of a Joe Sinnott-drawn panel from a Timely/Atlas comic depicting an old, haggish looking woman with broken teeth is displayed next to the same Code-altered version of the panel, with the old hag now transformed into a

Tales From The Code

17

A Self-Inflicted Wound?

As reader Allen Ross points out: while we can’t be 100% certain that the Code once applied its tender touch even to the very first “Batman” story, “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate” from Detective Comics #27 (May 1939), the fact remains that at the very least a knife in one panel (as well a hand holding it, in the next) seems to have been removed the first time DC reprinted the tale—and unfortunately, this butchered version has inadvertently become the standard.

Above left are two panels from the original version, as reprinted in 2000’s Millennium Edition: Detective Comics #27—contrasted with, at right, those two panels as they appear (altered) in Detective Comics #387 (May 1969—probably the source of the travesty); the Crown hardcover Batman from the Thirties to the Seventies; 1990’s hardcover Batman Archives, Vol. 1 (alas!); Detective Comics #627 (March 1991); the 2005 Batman Chronicles, Vol. 1, and the Batman Begins – Special DVD Issue in 2005.

Happily, besides in the Millennium Edition, Allen tells us the more accurate version is also on view in the 1974 Famous First Edition #C-28, in 1981’s A Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics, and in 2004’s trade paperback Batman in the Forties—oh, and of course in the actual original Detective Comics #27, if you’ve recently come into a sizable inheritance. We can only hope that DC gets back on track with this one—this butchery is (or should be) a real embarrassment! [© 2011 DC Comics.]

mildly worried-looking middle-aged lady. Please note (from the published page reproduced on p. 3) that nothing in the original panel, neither dialogue nor art, violates a Code regulation. It appears to be simply an arbitrary change to lessen the graphic impact of the panel, which does seem a little silly for a graphic medium. Is the story better for kids because she’s not old and ugly? During the same press conference, panels were shown that tamed a drawing of a threatening lion into a version of the MGM mascot.

Weapons that were seen in original panels vanished in whited-out, “corrected” pages [Nyberg, SOA, p. 115].

There are literally dozens of such accounts from editors, writers, and artists of the 1950s regarding the Code’s nitpicking on such subjects as reducing the size of women’s bosoms, eliminating the second breast line in profile drawings to take away the suggestion that women have two breasts, lifting a blouse’s neckline to eliminate any suggestion of cleavage (except, oddly enough, in comics intended for girls), and covering more of a lady’s legs.

Western characters could and did kill their enemies before 1955. After that, for much of the 1950s & ’60s they could only wound or wing their foes (i.e., shooting the bad guys in their shoulders, or even almost impossibly shooting the guns out of their hands). This was just plain silly. Kids routinely saw Western TV shows, some made for them and some intended for adults. The TV kid shows followed much the same format as the comics, but the adult shows often showed the actual effects of being shot—namely, pain and/or death. Besides, any kid who used a BB gun, let alone a real weapon, knew that being winged by a .45 bullet was nearly as deadly as a body shot. Plus, logically, shooting a pistol or rifle out of someone’s hand with a .45-caliber bullet from a Colt revolver would probably tear the trigger finger of the person holding the weapon right off. [NOTE: See p. 23.]

But, while it was apparently OK to maim the bad guy, post-Code Western heroes in comics simply didn’t kill people—or did they? On the odd last page of the lead story in Rawhide Kid #26 (Feb. 1962), the Kid appears to shoot every one of a gang of six outlaws in the shoulder—a remarkable display of marksmanship, to be sure! Then he’s wounded (also

“One Word: Plastics!”

When Reflecto the Mirror Man did some slicing-and-dicing in Quality’s Plastic Man #46, the hero wound up (as per the tier of panels above, compiled from pages 3 and 4 of that tale) looking like “Shredded Wheat.” When the story was reprinted under the Comics Code two years later, the censors let the non-bloody cuts in the final panel remain; but they removed the shredded Plas entirely from three panels of the aftermath of the (santized) attack. For both versions of the full-page battle between Plas and Reflecto that preceded these panels, see the special “Color-Coded” section in the middle of this issue. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [Plastic Man TM & © 2011 DC Comics.]

18

How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

The Great Cover-Up Nor were Quality’s love comics immune to the Code’s long reach. In these panels from two different stories in Brides Romances #14 (Nov. 1955), we’d bet a subscription to Cosmo that the lasses’ swimsuit and nightgown were added to at the top by order of the CCA, to display less skin. Thanks to Jim Ludwig. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Code Nine From Outer Space (Left:) This page from Harvey’s Witches Tales #21 (Oct. 1953) depicts the grim finale of a story inspired by rumors (and perhaps a fact or two) related to Orson Welles’ famed 1938 “War of the Worlds” broadcast, in which one or two people who mistakenly believed the radio dramatization to be a live news feed were said to have committed suicide. “The Invasion,” with its climactic murder/suicide, was little more than a TV version of that urban legend, drawn

by Bob Powell; scripter unknown.

(Right:) When the tale was reprinted first in Race for the Moon #1 (Sept. 1958), the year after Sputnik, the Code insisted its final four panels be completely rewritten and redrawn so the protagonist couple were merely fleeing. Thus, in panel 3, when the husband yanks open a drawer, it contains not a pistol —but clothes that he and his wife quickly pack. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert for both scans. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Tales From The Code

19

Tea And Sympathy Reader David Allen makes a salient point about the Code and the emergence of Marvel Comics in the early 1960s: “One of the signature moments [in The Fantastic Four #1, Nov. 1961] is the sequence in which we see how the Mole Man was persecuted by his fellow man, making us feel sympathy toward him. And yet the Comics Code states: ‘Crimes shall never be presented in such a way as to create sympathy for the criminal.’ Stan’s, and Marvel’s, great achievements include making people like Dr. Doom and the SubMariner sympathetic menaces and blurring the line between hero and villain. The Code, though, was very black and white on the matter of crime, good vs. evil, the police, etc. Seems to me that Marvel’s innovation could have been nipped in the bud by the Code before FF #1 saw print!”

We’d never really thought of it that way before, David—but we think you’re absolutely right. Probably The Mole Man’s eventual defeat got the story a pass. But hey—he doesn’t either die or get incarcerated for his crimes, does he? On the story’s final page, a word balloon (apparently from Reed Richards) says: “I left him behind—he’ll never trouble anyone again!”

The fact that that balloon is coming from the FF’s aircraft means Stan Lee had the option of writing Moley as being in custody on board—but he chose not to, and the Code let it slide. We’ll probably never know quite why.

Thanks to Gene Reed and Bob Bailey for scans from their personal copies of FF #1. Pencils by Jack Kirby; inks probably by George Klein. [© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

in the shoulder) by the gang’s leader. A bounty hunter shoots the head outlaw, who falls, also clutching his forearm. While artist Jack Kirby clearly attempts to show these wounds as non-life threatening, Stan Lee’s dialogue appears to indicate that the outlaws are actually dead. Either way, we then see one of the most callous displays by a hero ever. The Rawhide Kid bandages his own wound, then rides off, leaving the bounty hunter with either seven dead men to bury (or perhaps cart back to town for the bounty) or seven badly wounded men to patch up and somehow transport to safety.

The Kid apparently doesn’t care which! [EDITOR’S NOTE: For some Simon & Kirby Western ambushes by the Code, see pp. 33 & 34.]

Human Torch routinely threw fireballs in the 1940s and in his 1953-54 revival, Stan Lee was told by the Code Office in 1961 that the “Torch in The Fantastic Four could not throw fireballs. Another classic, nonsensical guideline by a censor.” I seem to recall that in the early issues of Fantastic Four the Torch threw flickers and ropes of flame around villains and created flame walls, but there was no throwing of actual balls of fire. He soon began shooting force bolts of flame from his hands, although no one ever seemed to get burned by them. [EDITOR’S NOTE: If Roy T. can believe accounts he heard from production manager Sol Brodsky circa 1965-66, the above story of Code “guidelines” for the reborn Torch is accurate.]

Steve Englehart, in an interview with the present author that appeared in Alter Ego #103, reports that post-Code comic book reprints of the Dick Tracy comic strip (which was often quite violent) had the black line art deleted (whited out) from any gun being fired, so that you could see the gunman’s hand and trigger finger, the flash of the gun firing, and smoke— but the gun itself wouldn’t actually appear! [EDITOR’S NOTE: See samples in color on pp. 36-37.]

I’m not positive that this story is actually true, but Mike DeLisa reports (on the Timely-Atlas-Comics online list) that, while the Timely/Atlas

Amazon Grace (Left:) What are they doing to this captive young Amazon in Charlton’s Hercules #5 (July 1968)? Richard Arndt explains it all to you on the next page. Script by Dennis O’Neil (as “Sergius O’Shaughnessy”); art by Sam Glanzman. Scan from Michael T. Gilbert & Gene Reed. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

(Above:) Mrs. Guy Percy Trulock (seated), the second Code administrator, with a CCA staff member—from a pamphlet published by the CMAA. Roy Thomas recalls that, when Mrs. Trulock resigned her position circa 1966, she was offered a free subscription to any Marvel comic she wished; corresponding secretary Flo Steinberg told Roy she chose Thor, because she liked its beautiful language. Her successor was Leonard Darvin, previously an attorney for the CMAA. Thanks to Barry Pearl. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

20

How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

A Clash Of Symbols This most famous of Code-censored Marvel pages was written and drawn

by Jim Steranko for Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 (July 1968). Along with a bit of whited-out cleavage in panel 1, the altered panels in the printed version at left are 9 & 11: a phone ringing unanswered was apparently deemed less suggestive than a phone off the hook—and a gun in a holster (Photostatted from panel 1) was favored over a passionate clinch.

The page’s original bottom row is seen below. See accompanying text for a fuller appreciation of such symbolic subtleties. Thanks for the scans both to Stephen Friedt and to the website CSBG Archive – “Comic Book Legends #291,” with Brian Cronin’s analysis of the page. [© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

erase the cleavage and put the phone back on the hook (but still ringing unanswered—which amounted to basically the same thing)… but the final panel didn’t need just art corrections but an entirely new image. But there wasn’t time to send the page back to Jim Steranko (who lived in Pennsylvania) and have him redo it. The book was due at the printers.

Sam Glanzman did a funny end run around the Code’s aversion to bondage scenes in Charlton’s Hercules #5 (July 1968). In the story the Queen of the Amazons is torturing one of her young subjects, who has dared to aid Hercules. Since the Code forbade showing women being tied up, let alone tortured, Glanzman drew the young girl standing on an iron ring that was suspended above a fire. There are chains holding the ring in place, but the girl is neither chained nor tied to the apparatus. All the elements are there for a bondage/torture scene, but the girl could jump to freedom at any time. It looked a little silly, but it got the point across without apparently violating the Code.

Don’t Yield—Back S.H.I.E.L.D! Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 (July 1968) contained a nearly wordless page illustrated by writer-penciler Jim Steranko that showed Fury and his gal pal/fellow agent Valentina having a romantic evening. The Code office had three objections to the page, the first being Val’s cleavage in the first panel, the second being a panel showing the phone off the hook, and the third being the final panel, which featured the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in an amorous clinch. The first two were art-corrected by John Romita to

Bringing Up The Rear Richard mentions the Steranko-drawn Madame Hydra’s whip being changed into a rope, while her skin-tight outfit was left untouched (at least by the Code). Earlier, though, in Strange Tales #168 (May ’68), as seen at near right, agent Val’s shapely derriere was blacked in to produce the less offensive panel at far right. As Roy T. recalls it, Jim was not happy with the change. Thanks again to Stephen Friedt, the CSBG Archive, and Brian Cronin. [© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

It was associate editor Roy Thomas (as he confirmed in an e-mail to the present author) who, with the deadline looming, noticed the holstered gun in the first panel on the page and suggested Photostatting that image and turning it into the final panel. It wasn’t until Steranko called him up to congratulate him on his cleverness in getting around the Code’s objection by replacing the clinch scene with a post-coital holstered gun that Thomas thought consciously about the sexual symbolism of a romantic interlude ending with a gun in a holster. According to Thomas, his panel replacement was just “an instinctual reaction to a desperate need. Still, I think in retrospect, as do many others, that the fix worked even better (both graphically and storywise) than the original panel.”

Tales From The Code

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Fightin’ Words A page of “The Partisans” from Charlton’s Fightin’ Army #88 (Nov. 1969)—and an original script page of same by writer Willi Franz. Art by Sam Glanzman.

Thanks to Richard Arndt & Willi Franz. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Another example of Code interference with Steranko’s work occurred during his 1969 threeissue stint with scripter/editor Stan Lee on Captain America. The Code office had some problems with the villainous Madame Hydra wearing a skin-tight green catsuit, but drew the line at showing her holding a whip. The whip was changed to a coil of rope, which made no sense [EMRP, Pearl, p. 164].

win’s Blazing Combat, and Glanzman’s solo work on his “U.S.S. Stevens” strip for DC. The Franz/Glanzman serials are underrated largely because they not only came from lowly Charlton, which rarely offered credits and even during its best days tended to produce mostly mediocre work, but also because they appeared during a period in comics (1968-1970) when editors and comic companies were skittish about the direction of war stories.

“Partisan” Bickering

Previous American wars, such as World War II and the Korean War, had seen war comics presenting stories dealing with ongoing wars.

However, that was not generally the case with Viet Nam War yarns. Warren, Dell, and DC all featured serials or comics dealing with Viet Nam between 1965 and 1967, but they all ceased publication, either due to active resistance from the military and possibly the distributors (Warren) or to dropping sales that may have been due to the reader resistance to gung-ho Viet Nam tales (Dell and DC) appearing during the course of an increasingly unpopular war.

Willi Franz was only a teenager when he created (with artist Sam Glanzman) not one, or two, but three separate series for the Charlton war comics. One, “The Devil’s Brigade,” was standard war stuff, but the other two—“The Iron Corporal” and “The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz”—were significant contributions to both war comics and the comics field in general. I believe that in both story and art they rank right alongside Harvey Kurtzman’s Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, Archie Good-

Captains Outrageous The Comics Code not only wouldn’t allow the 1961 Human Torch to hurl fireballs in the early days of Fantastic Four—but a few years later, when Marvel began to reprint (poorly-retouched) 1940s yarns in Fantasy Masterpieces, they insisted on quite a few changes there, as well.

Compare and contrast, for instance, the splash of this Red Skull encounter from Captain America #7 (Oct. 1941), repro’d at left from Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Captain America, Vol. 2, with that tale’s earlier “reprinting” in FM #6 (Feb. 1966). Perhaps the most Code-altered Golden Age reprint page was the splash from the “Fang” story in Captain America #6, as seen in that same issue of FM; to see both versions of that one, dig up a copy of Alter Ego #20! Thanks to Barry Pearl for the FM scan. [© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

22

How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

Taking Cover It’s only to be expected that the Code would take a special interest in covers. Here, repro’d from black-&white copies, are two Marvel examples that were altered to varying degrees: on Jack Kirby’s “Iron Man” cover for Tales of Suspense #55 (July 1964), The Mandarin’s right fist would be changed to an open hand, and his fingernails lose their clawlike aspect (i.e., long fingernails)… while Gil Kane’s cover for The X-Men #33 (June 1967) so unnerved the Codesters that they insisted the other-dimensional monster become the allegedly less scarifying Juggernaut.

Then, of course, there was the Kirby/Romita cover with Kang’s big bad raised fist on The Avengers #23 (Dec. 1965). and—well, let’s just say “quite a few others.” [© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

with Gentile several times before the issue went to press. He was assured that everything was fine. However…well, let’s let Willi [via an e-mail to the author] tell this part of it, shall we…?

The first 6½ pages were published as written but the rest of the story was a brutally butchered and hastily rewritten pile of WWII-style propaganda

by Joe Gill (anyone familiar with my work will recognize what little of my original [script] remained in the published finale). The new dialog did not even match the action [or sound effects] written by me and drawn by Sam Glanzman.

The Franz/Glanzman serials were the hardest-hitting war stories being published in 1967-70, featuring episodes that were dark, tough, and relentless in presenting a grim, hard-bitten perspective on war. “The Iron Corporal” revolved around an Australian infantry squad in a jungle nightmare on the island of New Guinea. “Willi Schultz” featured a German-American captain who was falsely accused of murdering a general’s son. Condemned to death, he escaped and fled behind enemy lines where, speaking flawless German, he concealed himself as a German tank driver.

Schultz would switch sides repeatedly over his nearly three years in print, and his agony in seeing the war from both sides of the conflict was a major story point. In stories dating from late 1969, Schultz had escaped from a German P.O.W. camp in northern Italy and attached himself to an anti-Nazi group of Italian partisans who had an American liaison officer with them. The 88th issue of Fightin’ Army, the Charlton title which hosted the Schultz serial, featured a story titled “The Partisans.” It has Schultz being used by the partisans to infiltrate the German army while disguised as a Nazi When Things Got Out Of Hand officer in a captured tank, and using the tank Marvel researcher Barry Pearl believes (and we suspect to literally blow a hole in German defenses in a he’s right) that Mrs. Trulock and the Code ladies—and battered Italian town. The ploy succeeds and most of the staffers were female, especially in the early the partisans round up the surviving Germans days—were responsible for the obvious changes in this in a churchyard, releasing a shaken Schultz Jack Kirby/Chic Stone panel from Fantastic Four #38 from the group. While Schultz leaves the (May 1965). Clearly, The Thing was originally drawn churchyard and removes his German uniform, playfully spanking Sue Storm, a.k.a. the Invisible Girl, in he hears the partisans open fire on the German the kind of scene common in movies like 1963’s prisoners, executing them one by one.

McClintock starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara. In Kept from trying to stop the killings by both the American liaison and his own Italian girlfriend, Schultz tears himself away and wanders down the street while German bodies pile up in the churchyard behind him. Franz knew the massacre subject matter would be sensitive to handle and was careful to have it approved by editor Sal Gentile in advance; he checked

Ben’s dialogue, the words “should I catch her for you?” are more crudely limned than the rest of the Sam Rosenlettered balloon—and chances are that the phrase “get out of my way” in Sue’s balloon is new, as well. Barry also feels The Thing’s awkward left arm has been redrawn, probably so it wouldn’t be holding Sue down.

The Code seems to have insisted that all verbal and visual references to spanking be eliminated. Script by Stan Lee. [© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

For the cover Sam had drawn a mob of angry Italian partisans pulling the Germanuniformed Schultz from the turret of a captured Tiger tank. One of the partisans had a small axe in his hand. The published cover showed no axe, only the partisan’s clenched fist. Sal Gentile said [the changes were the result of] the Comics Code.

I met with Mr. Leonard Darvin of the Comics Code Authority. He explained that they had changed nothing in the story or art, and that he’d received my horribly mangled “The Partisans” [just] as it had appeared in print.

Sooo… who should I [have] believed?

Was Sal Gentile just overworked and forgetful… or lying? Did Leonard Darvin merely wish to avoid an argument with an angry teenage writer… or [was he] telling the truth? I was 17 years old with a botched storyline to repair. I had done all I could at the time and had to let the matter drop.”

Mr. Franz was also kind enough to send the original script so we could compare it with the published story. [EDITOR’S NOTE: See 21.] Please note that the artwork and sound effects follow Willi’s plot of the massacre. It’s the altered dialogue that undercuts the story by removing all reference to a massacre. Note also that Franz’s script is used for more than 75% of the story, but the script credits read: “Story: Joe Gill.” And, finally, note that all of Franz’s serials were cancelled at the same time, less than 8 months later, after a draftee cited the influence of Franz’s

Tales From The Code

23

and Glanzman’s war stories as part of the reasons that he wanted to be listed as a conscientious objector. It would be two years before Franz had another story accepted at a comics company. After 1970 it would be 36 years before he and Glanzman would re-team for a Roman Legion story in the independent comic anthology title Negative Burn.

World’s Finest Comics #189 (Nov. 1969) featured a rather bizarre story in which Superman apparently dies and leaves his organs for transplants into the most worthy citizens of Earth. Luckily for doctors, he’s also left Kryptonian tools that will allow them to cut into his invulnerable body. Page 6 not only shows Superman’s funeral but depicts a censored panel. The entire panel is blacked out, although the dialogue balloons remain. From the dialogue you can tell that the doctors were holding various internal organs of Superman while they, Batman, Robin, and Supergirl discussed how best to conceal their existence until a proper recipient could be found.

Across the blacked-out panel are large white letters stating: “This scene censored by the Comics Code Authority.” Was it a real censored moment? It is certainly unlikely that the Code in 1969 would have allowed such an EC-

Blazing Samples (Left:) The Code’s inconsistent application of its strictures pushed creators into such far-fetched yet commonly visualized feats of gunplay as this Kirby-penciled sequence from Rawhide Kid #26 (Feb. 1962).

Script by Stan Lee; inks by Dick Ayers. [© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Right:) While the sequence from Bulls-Eye #6 shown on p. 33 is the most celebrated case of a post-Code combat in which blade weapons have been deleted, it was hardly unique. In the filler story “The Outcast,” drawn by Don Heck for Two-Gun Kid #60 (Nov. 1962), knives in the hands of two dueling Indians have been whited out, making for a most peculiar skirmish. Scripter unknown. From Photostat of the original art; thanks to Ray Cuthbert. [© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

flavored scene as this, displaying internal organs as well as (apparently) detached hands, ears, and eyes to be published. However, the author of the story is Cary Bates, who might just have been impish enough to tweak the Code with a scene he knew they wouldn’t allow and then using the power of suggestion to suggest something much creepier than anything the Code or DC would allow to be actually happening behind that blacked-out panel.

The 1971 Revision Of The Comics Code Towards the latter half of the 1960s, the still relatively small organized fan community began complaining about what they felt were the rigid and outdated rules of the Code. They cited the underground comix that had begun appearing in 1965, which proved there was an audience for more adult, non-Code-approved comics. In addition, the rapidly changing political and moral climate seemed to indicate that the rigid Code rules might be outdated.

Brotherhood Week In North Africa, 1942 Sgt. Nick Fury advises new recruit George Stonewell to choose his words a bit more carefully in Sgt. Fury #6 (March 1964). Script by Stan Lee; pencils

by Jack Kirby; inks by George Roussos. Thanks to Barry Pearl. [© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Horror comics were edging back into mainstream comics—first and most notably with the John Stanley-scripted Ghost Stories #1 (Sept. 1962) and the one-shot 80-page giant Tales from the Tomb #1 (Oct. 1962) from non-Code publisher Dell. Supposedly a backlash from parents quickly forced Stanley out of the writing seat, although that seems a bit odd since the much tamer Ghost Stories #2 came out on schedule, and in 1962 letter responses or complaints took a great deal more time to appear or have any effect.

24

How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

How The Comics Code Was Drug Kicking And Screaming Into The 1970s (Above:) The first page of the revised Comics Code of 1971, supplied and retyped by Barry Pearl. Wanna see the whole thing sometime soon? [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

(Right:) The Amazing Spider-Man #97, which helped spur the revision of the Code, has been reprinted in both Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 10, and Essential Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 5… so we needn’t print any of it here. Matter of fact, the Masterworks hardcover even showcases the above art—an unused (but colored) cover drawing by the story’s penciler, Gil Kane. Thanks to Glen David Gold for the scan. [© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

In 1964 Warren Publishing began issuing non-Code horror tales, often drawn by EC veterans, in its black-&-white magazine Creepy, soon followed by Eerie. Then, in 1966. lowly Charlton began publishing the Code-approved Ghostly Tales. Although Ghostly Tales was technically a “mystery” title (which the Code did allow) and was initially quite bland, it was clearly and recognizably a horror title that conformed to the Comics Code.

DC, under the editorship of EC vet Joe Orlando and former Charlton editor Dick Giordano, began revamping existing titles (House of Mystery and House of Secrets) as well as launching new “mystery” magazines (The Witching Hour) in 1968-69. Marvel followed suit with Tower of Shadows and Chamber of Darkness in late 1969. Horror, even if it couldn’t be called that, was back.

Then, in 1970, Stan Lee received a request from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare asking if he could use the wildly popular Spider-Man in a story dealing with the dangers of drugs. Lee thought it was a great idea. He’d been chafing under the constraints of the Code for a number of years.

In pre-Code days Lee had been an open opponent of the anti-comics crowd. Following DC’s 1961 introduction of the black soldier Jackie Johnson in the “Sgt. Rock” feature running in Our Army at War, Lee included a black soldier named Gabriel Jones in Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos title. In Sgt. Fury #6 (Mar. 1964) Lee wrote what may be the first fullfledged anti-bigotry story in Code-approved comics since EC’s pyrrhic

victory with “Judgment Day” in 1956. In this story one of Fury’s commandos, Dino Manelli, is injured and unavailable for an upcoming mission. His replacement, George Stonewell, is a bigot who dislikes Gabriel Jones just because he’s black, the injured Dino for being ethnic, and Izzie Cohen for being Jewish. He does like Reb, the Commando from the American South, since he assumes that Reb, a Southerner, is a bigot just like him. However, Lee had a problem. The Code still forbade negative or stereotypical images of minorities, even if the purpose of a story was to demonstrate that the negative, stereotypical impressions were wrong.

So Lee wrote a script about bigotry that couldn’t explicitly mention that Stonewell hated Gabe Jones’ black skin, Dino’s Italian/Catholic heritage, or Izzy’s Jewishness. The story circles all around the subject and When In Doubt—Black It Out! manages to make its point Young readers (or rather, their parents) while still telling a good can’t be offended by what they don’t see— story (with the able help of such as the totally obliterated panel from artists Jack Kirby and World’s Finest Comics #189 (Nov. 1969).

George Roussos), yet withSee the text for what we were all spared! out violating the Code’s Thanks to Richard Arndt. [© 2011 DC Comics.]

Tales From The Code

25

End Runs Around Wertham Ironic as it may seem, ’twas holier-than-thou Dell Publishing (then a mere shadow of its former self after the breaking away of Gold Key/Western) that launched the first post-Code color horror comic, with Ghost Stories #1 (Sept.-Nov. 1964) and its uncredited cover painting [© 2011 the respective copyright holders]… followed chronologically by this trio of titles, each the first new title in the genre from its particular company: Warren Publishing’s Creepy #1 (1964 issue), with cover by EC great Jack Davis [© 2011 New Comic Company LLC]…

Charlton’s Ghostly Tales #55 (May 1966—actually the first issue), with cover by Rocke Mastroserio [© 2011 the respective copyright holders]… …and the revamped (or should we say re-revamped?) House of Mystery #174 (May-June 1968), which dropped the “Dial H for Hero” series and returned to its supernatural pre-Code roots under the skillful editorship of EC alumnus Joe Orlando. Cover usually attributed to Nick Cardy, probably from a layout by Carmine Infantino (though A/E layout guru Jon B. Cooke would bet the farm it was drawn by the selfsame Joe Orlando). [© 2011 DC Comics.]

restrictive rules. It’s quite skillfully done, and the Lee/Kirby/Roussos team deserves a big pat on their collective back for cracking the door back open on this subject. Ironically, both DC’s Jackie Johnson and Marvel’s Gabe Jones were shown joining integrated Army units in World War II, an era when such units were strictly segregated. It wouldn’t be until the Korean War that President Harry Truman ordered unit integration in the military.

In reality, neither Johnson nor Jones would have been assigned anywhere near either Rock’s or Fury’s 1940s commands.

There were rumors that the original 1962-63 six-issue run of The Incredible Hulk was cut short not only by weak sales but by problems, or fears of problems, with the Code. The Hulk was an anagram of Frankenstein’s mon-

ster and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (neither of whom was allowed to appear or be mentioned in Code-approved comics), mixed with a modern science-hero origin. Those early issues of Hulk were as split in personality as the character himself, with usually 14 pages of each story being a brooding, modern version of a split-personality monster tale, while the remaining 9 or 10 pages dealt with a silly science-fiction or super-hero story that was difficult to care about. The scenes with Rick Jones sitting exhausted before a heavy steel door which an angry Hulk is both imprisoned behind and banging on is as scary as any straight horror comic that my then 8-year-old mind had ever read. Because, you see, Jones knows that door is not going to hold for long, and he’s so tired he can’t think of anything he can do to stop the monster behind him. [EDITOR’S NOTE: Read more on p. 33.]

Bound And Determined Bondage, an old theme in 1940s “Wonder Woman” stories, returned—especially on covers—in the early ’70s, around the time the Code was revised. The cover of Wonder Woman #196 (Sept-Oct. 1971) is by Mike Sekowsky & Dick Giordano—that of #199 (March-April 1972) by Jeffrey Jones.

Richard A., who sent these cover scans, says that recently, in reading the trade paperbacks that reprint the saga of this de-powered, Diana Rigg-style version of Wonder Woman, “I came across an issue that the Code should have jumped all over but apparently didn't. It's a Sekowskywritten epic in WW #185 (Dec. 1969) with a plot seemingly lifted from any number of porn novel clichés. It features Diana Prince rescuing a young female teen runaway from three older Lesbians who have stolen her clothes and money, given her a cast-off set of men's clothing, routinely call her ‘slave,’ whip her with an umbrella, and force her to wear a dog collar! The title is (no fooling) ‘Them!’ The three villainesses order Diana to put the dog collar on them, as well. There’s nothing in Conan the Barbarian that comes close to this fevered tale!” [©2011 DC Comics.]

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How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

Back to 1970, when Lee had to sheepishly admit to the government representative that he couldn’t comply with his perfectly reasonable request because the Comics Code wouldn’t allow him to mention drugs, even in an anti-drugs story. Lee presented the request to the Code office and, for possibly the first time since 1955, the Code office and the various publishers officially discussed whether the time had come to change the Code. They did agree to have each of the CMAA publishers submit possible revisions, but in the meantime they rejected Lee’s request for an exception for the government-requested “Spider-Man” story [Nyberg, SOA, pg. 139-140].

Lee, with the approval of publisher Martin Goodman, decided to run the story anyway, without the Code seal on the cover. In The Amazing Spider-Man #97 (June 1971), Peter Parker discovers that his best friend Harry Osborne is abusing what appears to be speed, although the actual drug is never identified. Once again, Lee had to write around what the actual drug was, probably to placate his critics.

An interesting tidbit is the original unused cover for the non-Codeapproved Amazing Spider-Man #97 (sent to us by Glen David Gold). The pills on the cover would have been absolutely counter to the Code’s rules, as were the same depictions of Harry Osborne’s pill addiction within the book—and, in fact, the Code Authority rejected both of them. It is unknown if the revised cover (depicting Spider-Man and The Green Goblin with no mention of the ground-breaking event within) was an attempt to appease the Code requirement before Goodman and Lee decided to drop the Code Seal from the cover, or if it was a case of Marvel not wanting to rub the Code Office’s nose in the fact that they were publishing a comic without the Code Seal, or simply because Goodman and Lee decided that showing the pills wouldn’t help sales.

In any event, the issue drew a great deal of favorable press; and, at almost the same time as the issue was published, the Code was finally revised.

Restrictions on depictions of drugs and crime were relaxed. Vampires, werewolves, and ghouls could now be used in comics, as long as they were “handled in the classic tradition”—although zombies were still prohibited.

The words “horror” and “terror” could now be used in stories, although not in titles. Rape was still forbidden, but some amount of seduction could now be openly suggested. [NOTE: See printing of the first page of the 1971 Code on page 24.]

“Beware The Wrath Of The Code!”

In the last panel of the lead story in Conan the Barbarian #10 (Oct. 1971), the Code insisted on considerable rewriting after the Cimmerian had slain a rogue priest who’d caused Conan’s fellow thief to be hanged. Conan was already destined to be depicted in a jail cell at the start of #11, but the Code insisted the final panel of #10 spell out that he would pay for his crime. Roy made the explanation as poetically obscure as he could under the time pressure… and the Code let it go. But then, Code administrator Len Darvin once told Roy that he let things pass in Conan that he wouldn’t have in most comics, because of the “quasi-mythological” and slightly more mature nature of the material, coming from outside comics—and Roy concurs that he and the artists could’ve gotten a lot more grief from the Code than they did! [© 2011 Conan Properties International, LLD.]

Read today, Amazing Spider-Man #97 seems relatively tame, even a little timid, but the gutsy move to publish without Code approval by Goodman and Lee opened the door for DC and the Denny O’Neil/Neal Adams/Dick Giordano team to deliver the far more powerful anti-drug story that appeared in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85-86 (Sept.-Nov. 1971), allowed the birth of Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula comic and the excellent Marvel adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein by Gary Friedrich and Mike Ploog, greatly expanded the Code-approved horror genre, and ushered in a new age of comics maturity. Plus, DC got to use the word “Weird” in a half dozen titles or so.

Everybody Into The Pool!

(Left:) The pre-Code version of panels from “The Song of Red Sonja” in Conan the Barbarian #24 (March 1973), as illustrated/co-plotted by Barry Smith and scripted by Roy Thomas. It’s repro’d from Jon B. Cooke’s Comic Book Artist, Vol. 1, #2.

(Right:) The same panels after Barry made the changes required by the Code, with Sonja’s mail-shirt strategically placed in panel 1 and Conan’s hands even more strategically placed in panel 3. The symbolic “explosion” in the page’s fifth panel, however, must’ve flown right over the Code folks’ head; how about yours? (And if the Code folks had known what the word “wank” is slang for in England, Marvel would have had to change that word in the issue, as well—but at the time, Roy didn’t know either; he just used it at Barry’s suggestion, after the young Brit assured him that it wasn’t a dirty word across the pond. Live and learn.) [© 2011 Conan Properties International, LLD.]

Tales From The Code

27

Jawin’ Away In 1974 Martin Goodman, who’d sold Marvel to a conglomerate half a decade before, launched a new company, Atlas/Seaboard, to challenge the one he’d founded in 1939. In this pair of panels sent Richard Arndt’s way by Scott Rowland from Ironjaw #1 (Jan. 1975), the hero—a Conan-style barbarian with a metal overbite—is romancing a young lass, as per the panel above left.

However, under that pasted-up panel on the page of original art, we see (above right) the panel as it was originally written and drawn—with both Ironjaw and the lass lying on the grass together, and with dialogue that, as Richard says, seems to indicate his motives are less than pure and that the girl is not there entirely of her own will. Script by Michael Fleisher; pencils by Mike Sekowsky; inks by Jack Abel. [© 2011 Nemesis Group, Inc.]

The Frost Giant’s Daughter’s Naughty Bits In 1971 Roy Thomas and Barry Smith (later Windsor-Smith) adapted Robert E. Howard’s poetic and sensual tale “The Frost Giant’s Daughter” for the first issue of Marvel’s black-&-white magazine Savage Tales.

Howard’s yarn tells of a young Conan’s encounter with the aforementioned lovely in the aftermath of a battle in the frozen northlands. The ill-clad maiden acts as a siren to the young Cimmerian, luring him into an ambush set by two of her gigantic brothers. Savage Tales, being a b&w magazine, was not subject to the Code, so the glimpses of nudity drawn by Smith caused no major stir. [EDITOR’S NOTE: See our “Color-Coded” section.]

In fact, two “Conan” stories were actually prepared for Savage Tales— “The Frost Giant’s Daughter” and an original adventure called “The Dweller in the Dark,” the latter intended for Savage Tales #2. However, Savage Tales was temporarily cancelled after #1, and “The Dweller in the Dark” wound up appearing in the slightly older four-color comic Conan the Barbarian (#12, Dec. ’71). Code requirements regarding nudity forced Smith to alter panels in which the female protagonist’s figure was either fully or partially nude or too suggestive of nudity. Some months later, when Smith decided to leave the color comic, he and Thomas decided that his final issue, CTB #16 (July 1972), would reprint “The Frost Giant’s Daughter” with a new cover and a splash page which expanded the original 11-pager to 12 pages. Smith would personally color the story.

As in “Dweller,” the nudity in the non-Code version of “The Frost Giant’s Daughter” would have to be altered. The Code also demanded a number of dialogue changes, since some of the original script (based on Robert E. Howard’s original short story) clearly indicated that Conan’s motive in pursuing the mythic maid was a desire to rape her. Luckily for us, and thanks to writer Steve Englehart, we have the actual typed changes demanded by the Comics Code office. At the time, Steve was a Marvel editorial assistant, and he thought the changes ordered by the CCA were so silly that he’s saved those demands for 39 years. It’s to be expected that the Code notes would object to the nudity, and they do—repeatedly. However, some of the dialogue and caption changes they mandated seem more than a little prudish. Please note the demanded removal of such supposedly suggestive lines as “my ice-pale body” (she’s a blonde Nordic-type Ice Maiden, whose skin is supposed to be frosty pale in appearance!), “the girl slips from Conan’s arms,” the word “desire,” and the like.

The uncensored version of “The Frost Giant’s Daughter” has only appeared twice—in its original appearance in Savage Tales #1 and in a reprint in the first issue of the non-Code b&w magazine The Savage Sword of Conan (Aug. 1974). All other reprints of this story, both by Marvel and

by the current Conan comics publisher Dark Horse, have used the altered, 1972 Code-approved version. A pity.

What The--? – Part 2 When Marv Wolfman started out, he had the distinction of becoming the first credited writer on DC’s mystery line because an upcoming story that was written by him was highlighted by fellow writer Gerry Conway (scripting one of that comic’s mystery-host intro pages), with the host saying that the upcoming story was told to him by a “wandering Wolfman.”

The Code at the time specifically forbade the depiction or mention of either vampires or werewolves; thus, demands were made that the mention of a Wolfman be removed. DC let the Code office know that the Wolfman in question was Marv Wolfman’s real name, so the Code insisted that he be given a credit on the story to show he was a real person and not a mythical monster. Once Wolfman got a script credit, the other writers wanted one, too, and soon credits began appearing for all writers and artists working on the DC mystery line.

Swamp Thing #3 (Feb.-Mar. 1973) was to feature hypodermic needles that were used as a weapon—but they were whited out before publication.

In the story the villain Arcane stabs The Patchwork Man (a Frankenstein’s Monster type) with a knockout drug. By removing the hypodermic needle as well as Arcane’s arm from the panel, what we’re left with is the suggestion that a very old man has somehow knocked out a seven-foot monster, appar-

Swamped!

As per the main text, the Code had a hypodermic needle—and in the second panel, Dr. Arcane’s hand and arm, as well—removed from Swamp Thing #3 (Feb.-March 1973), leaving the reader to wonder just how the villain put The Patchwork Man to sleep. Repro’d from the trade paperback volume Swamp Thing: Dark Genesis (1991) by writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson. [© 2011 DC Comics.]

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How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

“Like Dawn Running Naked In The Snows” Thanks to stainless Steve Englehart, who was an editorial assistant at Marvel at the time Conan the Barbarian #16 (July 1972) was submitted to the Comics Code, we have both Code administrator Len Darvin’s letter and his staffers’ notes re changes they insisted be made to the story “The Frost Giant’s Daughter” before it could be reprinted from the black-&-white Savage Tales #1 (May 1971). Other “before” and “after” panels from this yarn are on view in our “Color-Coded” midsection—and above we see a primo panel of Atali looking to Conan “like dawn running naked on the snows” (a Robert E. Howard phrase that the Code, bless ’em, allowed to stand in the very next panel—maybe by accident)… while to its right is that panel as amended for the four-color comic.

While artist Barry Smith and writer/associate editor Roy Thomas hated to see even Photostats of their handiwork altered (even some of the wording had to be rewritten)—well, the cover of Savage Tales #1 had proclaimed that the mag was “rated ‘M’ for the mature reader,” while clearly the color comic was meant for mature and immature alike. Sadly, though, the non-Code version hasn’t been reprinted since 1974! [Conan material © 2011 Conan Properties International, LLD.]

Tales From The Code

ently by using the mighty wind generated by swinging his aged fist.

From Tony Isabella comes the tale of a three-pager for DC’s humor title Plop! The story, edited by Isabella and written by Steve Skeates, was a series of bad jokes that depicted an experienced cartoonist showing his eager young assistant how to draw flies, how to draw a check, etc. The punchline was the assistant showing his boss how to draw a gun—and then shooting the cartoonist.

According to Tony [via e-mail to the present author]:

29

Al Milgrom with the stat of the Code seal so they could alter it. They didn’t actually get in any serious trouble for the switch, but Starlin was told quite firmly never to do that again.

The last issue of Marvel’s Son of Satan featured an inventory story by writer Bill Mantlo and artist Russ Heath. Page 14 of that tale was rejected by the Code, apparently due to the heavy religious symbolism in both the script and artwork which depicted hero Daimon Hellstorm seeing himself hauling a cross and being crucified. The offending artwork was replaced by a one-panel splash writThe Code wanted us to change the ten by Archie Goodwin and illustrated by John ending because the cartoonist had Romita. Both Heath and Romita are great comics not committed a crime and didn’t artists, but their styles are vastly dissimilar. deserve to die… and because his Besides, the book was called Son of Satan. Relikiller was going to get away with it. gious symbolism would seem to be pretty much They somehow failed to note the silly a given. Luckily for us, the original page was nature of Plop! Joe Orlando and I told the finally printed in the trade paperback Essential Code rep that if they made us change the Marvel Horror, Vol. 1, in 2006. Marvel’s Essential volumes ending, then I was going to replace those have irritated me over the years by censoring panels with a text editorial on how cluethe volumes that feature stories that origiMorbiusesque Maskot less the Code was. They blinked first and nally appeared in black-&-white magazines, The ever-trustworthy Shane Foley provided a “maskot” illo the story ran as intended.” mostly to cover up nudity that was apparfor this issue’s “re:” section—but then, alas, our letters got ently OK in 1973 but not today. However, crowded out by the long Comics Code coverage.

Still, his Tony was also one of the co-conspirators printing that beautiful Mantlo/Heath page is Alter Ego homage to a panel from Amazing Spider-Man in the Marvel “Warlock” cover (Strange Tales #102 goes with mention of the 1971 revisions of the Code, a big step in the right direction. #179) that replaced the required Comics

Code seal with a fake seal that read “Approved by the Cosmic Code Authority.” Isabella was the gent who supplied artists Jim Stalin and

which allowed writer Roy Thomas and penciler Gil Kane to do the first vampire story at Marvel since 1954! [Alter Ego hero TM & © 2011 Roy & Dann Thomas; costume designed

by Ron Harris.]

Frank Brunner reminds us [via an e-mail to the author] of the Code requirement that forced a panel from Howard the Duck (Jan. or Mar. 1976) that depicted the satirical fowl sharing a bed with his gal pal Beverly to be redrawn, with Howard moved out from under the covers and standing on the bed.

Bob Toomey sends us [via an email to the author]

“With Great Power There Must Also Come— Great Big Heavy Machinery!”

Since Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man title was of such importance to the Comics Code’s being rewritten in 1971, Ye Editor felt that a reimagining of Steve Ditko’s cover for ASM #33 (Feb. 1966), with a Code seal appended to the crushing machinery, might be a good cover for this A/E. But we had no idea how good a cover—until we saw the penciled art (seen at left, minus the seal not yet added digitally) by illustrator Josh Medors (photo above). Josh, of course, has drawn such comics as 30 Days of Night, Runes of Ragnan, et al. [Art © 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.] After the cover had been drawn via arrangements made through the Hero Initiative (see its ad on p. 77), that non-profit comics industry charity’s administrator, Jim McLauchlin, suddenly had a brainstorm: What if Josh’s stunning Ditko homage were also turned, prior to publication of A/E #105, into a limited edition print, with proceeds going to offset Josh’s medical expenses related to his rare form of spinal cancer?

Marvel Entertainment generously agreed to this plan; and so, with its and A/E’s blessing, 250 individually numbered prints of the inked/colored art were printed.

Fifty of these were autographed by both Josh and Stan Lee (scripter/editor of the original story as well as Spidey’s co-creator) for a selling price of $100 each; the remaining 200, autographed by Josh alone, sell for $20 each. Prints are still available at PackRatComics.com. Jim says another good bet is to Google “eBay,” then search “seller: Hero Initiative.”

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How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

Crying “Fowl!”

Despite the Code’s decrees, which earlier on this same page forced Howard the Duck to be redrawn standing on the bed rather than under the covers with Beverly, it sure looks to us like a very nude Howard is turning off the lights as he gets in bed with his ladyfriend in the final panel on this page from Howard the Duck #2 (March 1976). Script by Steve Gerber; pencils by Frank Brunner; inks by Steve Leialoha. Thanks to Barry Pearl. [© 2011 Marvel Characters, inc.]

the tale of an attempted edit by the Code on the pilot story that launched the “Green Lantern Corps” series. In the story “The Trial of Arkkis Chummuck: Indictment,” drawn

by Alex Saviuk and Augie Scotto, Toomey had the title character kill a birdlike Green Lantern in an effort to end an interplanetary war. The dying Green Lantern finds that Arkkis is the one on his planet most worthy of using his ring, so Arkkis becomes a new Green Lantern. After ending the war, Arkkis returns the ring to Oa and is put on trial for misusing it. The final lines in the first installment (of three) were as follows: Prosecutor: “What did you do with the Green Lantern’s body?”

Arkkis: “I ate him, of course.”

In the second installment it was revealed that devouring the body was a sign of immense respect on Arkkis’s world. The Code didn’t agree and rejected the story on the grounds that cannibalism was forbidden under its guidelines. Apparently no one at the Code office was aware that cannibalism only applies to eating your own species. When movie aliens conquer Earth and eat humans, it isn’t cannibalistic behavior but merely carnivorous behavior. It’s the same thing when two aliens from different species eat each other, regardless of whether both are intelligent species or not. The story was delayed when DC insisted that the dialogue be changed and Toomey refused, stating that the change would seriously damage the storyline. A few months later someone new took over at the Comics Code office and the story was resubmitted. It passed with no problem and was

Double-Cross (Right:) The original 12th page of Son of Satan #8 (Feb. 1977) was totally rejected by the Comics Code—and wasn’t printed anywhere until the black-&white trade paperback Essential Marvel Horror, Vol. 1, in 2006!

Written by Bill Mantlo; drawn by Russ Heath.

(Far right:) The reportedly Archie Goodwin/John Romita panel/page that replaced the original p. 12 was likewise included in that volume.

Apparently the Dreaded Deadline Doom caused it to be printed in black-&-white even in the original color comic! Thanks to Barry Pearl. [© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

published in Green Lantern #130 (July 1980) exactly as Toomey wrote it.

Swamp Thing Dumps The Code (Gotta Revolution!)

In issue #29 of Saga of the Swamp Thing (Oct. 1984), there was a twopage spread to which the Code office initially objected because it featured flies buzzing around rotting zombies. When DC pointed out that movies ads for recent films included the same elements and were displayed in newspapers, the Code office apparently decided to actually read the issue [“Bissette And Veitch: Old Monster, New Tricks” by Dan Johnson, Steve Bissette, & Rick Veitch from Back Issue #6 (Oct. 2004), p. 55]. That’s when they noticed that Alan Moore’s storyline had Swamp Thing’s girlfriend Abby in bed with her dead husband, who’d been possessed and re-animated by her dead uncle. The combination of nudity (non-explicit but still there), incest, necrophilia, and rotting zombies led the Code office to reject the entire issue. This happened after the book had been written, penciled, lettered, and inked.

New editor Karen Berger had less than a week before the book was to go to press, and there simply wasn’t time to fix or alter everything the Code office was complaining about. She and her immediate superior Dick Giordano (who as DC’s managing editor was also a member of the Comics Code Board at the time) decided to run the issue without the Code seal. According to Bissette [ibid]: “The end result was, they ran the issue without the Code because there wasn’t time to fix it.”

Running the book without the Code seal made a lot of news throughout the industry and fan community at the time. Such an event hadn’t happened since the Spider-Man drug issues in 1971 which had forced the revision of the Code. In addition, during the nine or ten months that the writer/artist

Tales From The Code

31

It’s All A Matter Of Taste The final two panels from Green Lantern #130 (July 1980), as the magazine was slowly moving toward its eventual retitling as Green Lantern Corps. As Richard A. relates, this story took several months to get itself printed. Story

by Bob Toomey, art by Alex Saviuk & Augie Scotto. [© 2011 DC Comics.]

team of Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, and John Totleben had been on Swamp Thing, the sales had taken off on a steady climb and the book was the talk of the industry. Certainly Giordano and Berger must have suspected that running the book without the Code seal would upset the powers-that-be at the Code office and cause them to take a much closer look at the title than they’d apparently been doing. This could cause a lot of expensive delays and revisions on a title that had already had more than its fair share of production problems. There was also the financial consideration of the new, more relaxed market opened by the then largely new direct-sales-only comic shops and the independent comic companies. Swamp Thing,

P E R S O N A L

especially a non-Code Swamp Thing, seemed to be the DC title that could make a real inroad into that market.

C O D E

S I D E B A R

# 1

ROY THOMAS Writer & editor in comics since 1965 hile additional “before” and “after” pages from Conan the Barbarian #12 & 16 are on display in our “Color-Coded” section, here’s one anecdote related to that title that Roy Thomas (caricatured at right) wishes to tell, related to CTB #58 (Jan. 1976), at a time when he was both writer and contractual editor of all Marvel’s Conan mags:

W

“I happened to drop by the offices one day right as production manager John Verpoorten received notice of two changes the Code wanted made on the final page of #58, which adapted the first part of Robert E. Howard’s story ‘Queen of the Black Coast.’ In panel 2 they insisted the phrase ‘the mating dance of Bêlit’ be altered… and, in panel 5, Conan’s legs were to be redrawn so the she-pirate isn’t depicted between them as she slithers toward him on her belly. Hating to see REH’s phrasing and John Buscema’s drawing changed (hey, we’d already kept clothes on Bêlit, where she danced naked in the prose tale), I phoned Code head Len Darvin to try to talk him out of them. We always had a good relationship, especially after he graciously took my first wife Jeanie and me out to dinner at a comics convention, right after we returned to New York following our elopement. [NOTE: Darvin is seen on the left in the two-man photo, next to comics fan/researcher Don Thompson, on an EC panel at John Benson’s 1966 New York comic-con. Thanks to Maggie Thompson.]

“When I couldn’t budge Len on the changes, I asked if he could suggest any phrasing for the panel 2 change, to avoid a possible second turn-down by the Code. He amiably offered that ‘the love dance of Bêlit’ would be acceptable.’ Impishly, I asked him why. ‘Well,’ he replied, ‘“love

dance” can mean almost anything—but “mating dance” is very specific.’

How could I argue with logic like that?

“Fortunately, as regular contributor Shane Foley recently reminded me, both ‘before’ and ‘after’ versions of panel 5 have been preserved! The one at top is the Code-approved rendition printed in CTB #58—while the pre-alteration panel (below it) first saw print in the 50th issue of the b&w reprint mag Conan Saga (May 1991). Probably by accident, it was the non-Code version, showcasing Conan’s offendingly separated lower limbs, that had been preserved on the proofs used 15 years later for the reprint. Please don’t look if you’re under 18! Oh, and the inking is by Steve Gan.” [Conan pages © 2011 Conan Properties International, LLD.] The pic of Roy at top left as a barbarian is by artist Len Peralta, who caricatures a different pop-culture figure every seven days for his “Geek a Week” website; this drawing appeared for 9-20-10. [© 2011 Len Peralta.]

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How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

P E R S O N A L

C O D E

S I D E B A R

# 2

MARV WOLFMAN Writer & Editor in Comics since 1968

O

n June 20, 2011, Marv Wolfman (seen below in recent photo) wrote, in answer to our query about Code anecdotes:

“First off, the Comics Code was actually more flexible than I expected. Although I got notes on virtually every issue of Tomb of Dracula, once I moved Dracula into a deconsecrated church, Leonard Darvin, the Code administrator at the time, give us a lot more leeway than he did other comics. We talked about it and he said—astutely, I think—that the name of the book immediately warned the audience about the material inside, and therefore readers and parents would know in advance it was not suitable for kids. So he allowed us to do many things I never could have done when I was also writing Spider-Man.

“But I used to get comments every issue when Dracula would rail against the portrait of Christ that was hanging in the church. My view was that Dracula was admitting weakness in the face of Christ, actually admitting he was helpless. But Leonard would want me to cut back on the dialog. It got to be that, knowing I’d get pulled back, I started to go over more overboard so we could cut it back to what I actually wanted. From time to time, I actually showed the script to some Christian friend to see if I was being tasteless, but they all felt it was fine.

But as I once said to Leonard, we were two Jews arguing about how Christians would react to Dracula admitting Jesus was more powerful The die was cast. Swamp Thing became the first regularly published non-Code-approved comic since 1955 to have newsstand distribution (as well as direct sales) from a mainstream publisher.

Art Unsuitable For American Audiences In the mid-1980s Brits Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill teamed up for a 12-page “Green Lantern Corps” tale, intended as a backup story.

“Tygers” revolved around the temptation of Abin Sur (the Green Lantern who had earlier crash-landed on Earth and, dying, given Hal Jordan his

than he was. I have to admit I found the irony amusing, even back then.”

The entire Marv Wolfman/ Gene Colan/Tom Palmer Tomb of Dracula oeuvre is on view in three huge Tomb of Dracula Omnibus hardcovers, collecting what is perhaps the finest ongoing horror-hero comics series ever… so we’ve chosen to display a 1990s commissioned pencil drawing by Colan, sent by art dealer Anthony Snyder (see his ad on p.

77). [Marvel Dracula TM & © 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

ring) by a character called Qull of the Five Inversions. Qull answers three questions that Abin Sur asks, the answers of which have the effect of destroying Sur years later and, thus, creating the Green Lantern of Earth.

The completed story was submitted to the Code office, and that’s when the trouble began. According to O’Neill [interview conducted by Douglas Wolk, online-Feb. 10, 2010, Part 3 of 5]: The editor of the book, Andy Helfer, rang me up and said, “There’s a problem with your ‘Green Lantern Corps’ artwork… there’s a problem with the Comics Code. I asked them what could be done [to correct the problem] and they said, “There’s nothing you can change—the [art] style is unsuitable!”

The Code didn’t just reject the story. They didn’t reject certain panels of artwork. They rejected O’Neill’s art in total as unsuitable for American audiences! With no chance for Code approval, the story was shelved until it appeared in a 1986 Green Lantern Corps Annual that appeared with no Comics Code seal on the cover. Since its initial appearance, “Tygers” has ironically become one of the cornerstones of Green Lantern Corps history, while Moore and O’Neill have continued working together—most notably on the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series of graphic novels.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: See art on p. 50.]

Article continued after color section, on pg. 49

Mucking Around For reasons covered in the main text, The Saga of the Swamp Thing #29 (Oct. 1984) became the first post-1954 DC comic to be published without the Comics Code seal on the cover. The sky didn’t fall— but the Code soon would. Pencils by Stephen R. Bissette; inks by John Totleben. With thanks to the Grand Comics Database. [© 2011 DC Comics.]

Tales From The Code

33

S P E C I A L A LT E R E G O C O L O R S E C T I O N

Color-Coded!

16 Pages of “Before” & “After” Goodies Submitted To The Comics Code Authority Over The Decades Notes by Roy Thomas (with a bit of help from his friends) This issue’s “before-and-after” theme seemed to cry out for a special color section, so here it is—annotated by Ye Editor and several other pros and students of the form.

One of the first Comics Code-related anecdotes I recall hearing at Marvel after I went to work for Stan Lee in mid1965—either from Stan himself or from production manager Sol Brodsky, and quite possibly from both—was that one reason for the cancellation of The Incredible Hulk after six issues in 1962-63 was the sheer number of changes “requested” in the stories and art by the Comics Code Authority. It seems hard to imagine nowadays that the mere spectacle of a snarling green-skinned Frankenstein/Mr. Hyde hybrid so aroused the Code’s wrath, but apparently it did. Even so, lagging sales were no doubt the main factor in publisher Martin Goodman’s decision to discontinue the title.

And I recall a lunch in Manhattan—probably at the well-known Schrafft’s restaurant—on one of the latter-’60s days when artist Jack Kirby ventured into the city from his Long Island home. I’m not sure if Stan was there, though Sol Brodsky and John Romita surely were. The talk turned at one point to Code censorship, and Jack remarked ruefully about his and partner Joe Simon’s fabled Bulls-Eye, starring the bow-wielding Western hero on whose chest an enemy had long ago branded a target. Jack said (and this is virtually verbatim): “They kept taking the tomahawks out of the Indians’ hands, and leaving me with a bunch of smiling Indians!”

[©2011 Joe Sim on and estate of

Jack Kirby.]

The page at right, from Bulls-Eye #6 (June 1955), is undoubtedly one of the instances he was talking about.

Prepared for Joe & Jack’s doomed Mainline company, it wound up being published by Charlton. Personally, I wonder how the name “Scalp Taker” slipped by the Code! Thanks to Scott Rowland for the scan; thanks also to Jim Van Dore. [© 2011 Joe Simon and estate of Jack Kirby.]

Oddly, reader Jim Ludwig tells us that Bulls-Eye #7 (Aug. 1955), the second S&K Charlton issue, “is pretty violent, with lots of tomahawks present.”

Orientation Alert!

Because so many of the “Color-Coded” examples require comparing one page or set of panels with another, we’ve deemed it best to print the remaining 15 pages of this segment sideways. You have been warned!

34

Talk About “Vanishing Americans”!

At roughly the same time that Code tweezers were removing tomahawks from Native American fists in Simon & Kirby’s Bulls-Eye #6, the CCA folks were also turning an eagle eye and white-out liquid onto reprints of the team’s Boys’ Ranch #5 (June 1951) published by Harvey Comics (and apparently inked by Mort Meskin). [© 2011 Joe Simon & estate of Jack Kirby.]

How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

s and Wild, Wild Page 6 of “Bandits, Bullet dy Graves. comic, with thanks to Ran

the original Women!” From a scan of

to the short-lived successor n Tales #30 (April 1955), whites’ the not t (bu In Harvey’s Witches Wester ves kni s’ ian the word “Die!” and the Ind the the pre-Code Witches Tales, or in panel 6, even though . But note the residual col out on. ins tch Hu n Ala to s pistols) have been whited ank Indian has been deleted. Th black line art depicting the

Mirror, Mirror…

The pre- and post-Code versions of the third page of the story of "Reflecto the Astonishing Mirror Man," reportedly penciled by Andre LeBlanc and inked by Alex Kotzky—first as originally seen in Plastic Man #46 (May 1954) from the Quality Comics Group, then as reprinted in toned-down form for its PM #63 (July 1956). Scripter unknown. See the aftermath of this battle—both pre-Code and Code versions—on pg. 18. [Plastic Man TM & © 2011 DC Comics.]

Tales From The Code 35

36

(Above:) As Steve Englehart pointed out (in Richard Arndt’s interview with him in A/E #103), Harvey’s Dick Tracy comics, because of the violence in the Chester Gould strips being reprinted, often had to be clumsily “fixed.” E.g., in these panels from Dick Tracy #111, circa the late ’50s, in which a gangster is physically threatening a little girl, the 2nd panel shown here was printed with no color, to soften the fact that he’s hurling a lamp at her (assuming the lamp didn’t actually strike her in the original version and have to be redrawn, as well)—in the 3rd panel, the hood’s gun has been whited out—not that that stops him from firing it in the 4th, even though neither the gun nor its black-line bullet trail can be seen!

(Above:) In Dick Tracy #112, supporting character Diet Smith is shot in the second panel depicted—though again the bullet’s trail is whited out (that vertical white line in that panel must be just a printing glitch). The “BANG” in the second tier is left white, perhaps to de-emphasize it (yeah, that’ll work!)—and in the second-from-last panel, it seems a woman’s corpse has been removed and her red-coated arm simply elongated to painful proportions in order to fill that space.

Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert for both scans. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

See Dick Run—Out Of Black Ink!

Can You Hear The Violence Playing?

Tales From The Code

(Above:) The color-up—er, we mean, the cover-up—continues, as the bottom tier of this page from Dick Tracy #115 must’ve featured a panel (at right) that showed the body the cops found in the well. Apparently the Code found this page so offensive that there was no way for the Harvey editors to satisfy it but to Photostat and repeat the preceding panel—which they didn’t bother to re-color! And yeah, we could’ve gone trolling for the original versions of the censored panels in Gould’s original newspaper strips, some of which had previously been reprinted by Dell or Harvey (in pre-Code days) without any changes… but we figure you get the point.

(Above:) In Dick Tracy #117, a heinous hoodlum is really oppressing poor little Marge—so much so that his hand has probably been redrawn in the third panel shown so that it now merely lightly touches her hand; in the original version, it was probably gripping her strongly, maybe even twisting her arm. A pair of blacked-in silhouettes and a panel whose art has been totally whited out except for a single hand completes the transmutation of this violent page.

Thanks again to Michael T. Gilbert for the scans. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

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(Above:) Two different versions of four panels from the Barry Smith-drawn “Conan” story “The Dweller in the Dark,” which was originally prepared in 1971 for the second issue of Marvel’s non-Code black-&-white magazine Savage Tales. The two panels seen at left are in sequence and show the young Cimmerian with the servant girl Yaila; the latter two (at top right) show him in difference sequences with evil Queen Fatima. Repro’d from Comic Book Artist Vol. 1, #2, as provided there by Barry Windsor-Smith; the non-Code version was printed in the b&w Savage Tales #4 (May 1974), but never since. Script by Roy Thomas.

How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

Won’t These Women Catch Cold In Those Drafty Palaces?

Since publisher Goodman abruptly canceled Savage Tales after its first issue and it wasn’t known at the time if #2 would ever see the light of day, “Dweller” was utilized in the color Conan the Barbarian #12 (Dec. 1971)— which necessitated a number of Codedictated art changes, seen directly above.

Thanks to Barry Pearl. [© 2011 Conan Properties International, LLD.]

“A Trip To The Moon On Gossamer Wings” (Far left:) In these two panels from Marvel’s legendary Savage Tales #1 (May 1971) adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s story “The Frost Giant’s Daughter,” artist Barry Smith treated the Valhalla-sent Atali’s quasi-nudity in a way that suggested at both innocence and overt sexuality.

The Code preferred the panels as altered at near right. Script

by Roy Thomas.

Tales From The Code

(Bottom:) The note from the Comics Code Authority which listed the changes on which they insisted if the story were to be reprinted in the four-color Conan the Barbarian #16 (July 1972) were seen on p. 28, along with other panels from the adaptation. The changes involved not only dropping the nudity and rearranging Atali’s gossamer gown, but even altering a few of the Cimmerian’s lines. [© 2011 Conan Properties International, LLD.]

39

40

Do, Do That Vooda That You Do To Me!

How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

When the Ajax-Farrell horror title Voodoo became Vooda and starred a Sheena wanna-be, it reprinted stories from the Universal Phoenix Features (i.e., Iger Studios) title South Seas Comics—but it had to alter them to fit the Code. Compare the “cover-up” between the splash pages from SSC #5 (Aug. 1946) and Vooda #22 (Aug. 1955, actually the third issue as Vooda)—followed by, clockwise from top right, the changes in both weaponry and additional, explicatory, less sanguinary dialogue from those two issues—plus, during a knife/no-knife fight, Vooda’s stocky female opponent becomes a male! Thanks to George Hagenauer, who says the art may be the work of Al Feldstein, Howard Larsen, or others. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

”The Dirty Little Coward(s) Who Shot Mr. Howard…”

Tales From The Code

(Above left:) Avon Periodicals’ Jesse James comic boasted superlative artwork by Everett Raymond Kinstler in pre-Code days, but fell into the Code’s clammy clutches when Avon tried to reprint stories of the famed outlaw. The splash from JJ #8 (Aug. 1952) lost several lines of copy when it was reprinted in #24 (Sept-Oct. 1955, above right)—and as for some of the story art, fuhgeddaboudit! But then, as Michael T. Gilbert, who supplied the scans on this page, says: “Of course, one might question why the Comics Code would allow a title dedicated to a killer in the first place.”

41

(Right:) The single multi-panel page from Jesse James #24 at right (by someone other than Kinstler—perhaps Howard Larsen) should suffice to illustrate our point: three dialogue balloons have been totally dropped (guess they were too vile even to try rewriting!)… others have had half their wordage deleted… the first panel has lost a rifle and a bullet trail (but not their leftover preCode coloring)—while for some known-only-to-God reason, panel 5, which seems innocuous enough, has been left wholly white! Nor is that untypical of pages we’ve seen from the issue.

Wouldn’t you have loved to be a fly on the wall when that issue came galloping into the Code’s offices? Of course, for Avon—and for the other comics companies—it was a serious, life-and-death matter. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert for these scans. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

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BONUS! AN ENTIRE 6-PAGE STORY—PRE-CODE & POST-CODE VERSIONS! Roche Motel On their Comic Book Attic website, researchers Frank Young & Paul Tumey document the “before” and “after” versions of an entire 6-page horror story set during World War II—and they’ve given us their blessing to present an edited abridgement of their article. Thanks to Stephen Friedt for the art scans. Below are the covers, by unidentified artists, of the two comics which featured that twicetold tale (sorry, Michael T. Gilbert!), both of them published by Ajax-Farrell Publications and © 2011 the respective copyright holders: From this point on, we’ll let Young & Tumey tell this tale—twice:

Paul recently chanced upon a story—rather, a pair of stories—that exemplify the “before” and “after” impact of the Code’s harsh strictures. It’s a gruesome horror story from the infamous Ajax-Farrell imprint, and its post-Code, much-altered reprint version. It is inexplicable why this story was chosen for a Code-approved revision at all. Everything about its 1953 version is an affront to the tenets of the Code.

)— #11 (Sept. 1953 Haunted Thrills

rewritten And the heavily n. 1958). for Strange #5 (Ja

version, retitled

“Fair Exchange”

“Out of the Grave,” first published in Haunted Thrills #11 (Sept. 1953) is the work of the Iger Studios. Ruth Roche, Jerry Iger’s partner, is listed as editor; she may or may not have authored “Out of the Grave.” As with other stories written or edited by Roche, this is a blend of the loony and the compelling.

Its theme is brutal, even for a 1953 horror comic. It is no masterpiece; neither is it hackwork. The writer grappled with largerthan-usual themes for a horror comic, but didn’t have the space—or the chops—to do much with these controversial themes. Still, it appears he/she tried… as will be seen on the following six pages….

How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

The pre-Code story is a bizarre, dreamlike concoction of horror at the inhumanity and cruelty of the Holocaust—a rare, unflinching stare at the “true” horror of the concentration camps in comic books of the period. (The famous EC story “Master Race” in Impact #1 [March 1955] by writer/editor Al Feldstein and artist Bernie Krigstein is another, much better-known, and considerably more artful and accomplished example.) The post-Code version is also unique for its sheer nuttiness and dreamlike logic breaks.

Tales From The Code

The captions and dialogue of the anonymously-drawn 1953 “Out of the Grave” largely speak for themselves. Colonel Eric von Grimm, stationed in Nazi-occupied Italy (evidently after the Allies invaded Sicily and later the mainland itself in 1943), delights in torturing, killing, and hounding “the poor unfortunates who were not of the master race”… yet he can’t afford a pair of new boots. His current pair are worn out; they hurt his feet.

43

“Fair Exchange” is a different story... though with virtually the same artwork. The splash panel’s text introduction is completely rewritten, is more concise, and is generally well-written, save for one sentence fragment. The tortured prisoners are replaced with a hastily daubed-in brush, colored pink like cotton candy. Now, instead of an eagerness to kill partisan rebels, Col. von Grimm expresses passive frustration: the naughty Italians won’t behave! It’s really quite vexing! And the soldiers in panel 2 no longer fire their weapons. The rifle in von Grimm’s hand is now the tool of an empty gesture.

44 How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

The Colonel’s status-conscious wife Helga demands the nice things in life, including a lampshade made of human flesh. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: On the historical accu-

racy of the latter point, the authors quote a Billy Wilder-directed 1945 film documentary whose narration states that among the items found at a liberated concentration camp was “a lampshade made of human skin, made at the request of an SS officer’s wife”; this was probably the inspiration for the story. The film shows footage of these items. See p. 10 for a thematically related scene from the later “Master Race” story in EC’s Impact #1.]

In the revamped 1958 version, the lampshade is merely furniture. Though Helga says it is stamped with a swastika, the Code censors must have nixed the inclusion of the swastika on the lampshade—wrecking the re-writer’s attempts to keep it there.

Helga’s face has been extensively smoothed out, de-wrinkled, and glamorized [A/E

EDITOR’S NOTE: As happened with the Sinnott-drawn Timely/Atlas story noted on the p. 3 of this issue.]. Col. von Grimm muses about his wife’s desire for “imported goods,” rather than for human-skin accessories.

Tales From The Code

On page 3, continuing from the previous page, Col. von Grimm complains about the sorry state of his boots. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: “Out of the Grave” may have been

merely a story cranked out by the Iger shop for bottom-feeding Ajax-Farrell Publications, but the writer took the care to give even a Nazi officer human motivations and true-to-life problems.]

45

Panel 2 changes the emphasis from dead bodies to surplus boots. Instead of von Grimm killing a prisoner for the use of his skin, he spares a life and confiscates footwear. The cobbler is given a beauty makeover similar to Helga’s. Good guys have no facial blemishes in post-Code comics; von Grimm retains his shadowy furrows, as he’s the bad guy. In the final panel, the, er, “leather” is now just boots—but they look suspiciously unlike boots in the soldier’s bundle, which was unaltered from the ’53 original.

46 How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

On this page, in panel 3, the cobbler Angelo is horrified to recognize the human skin as that of his own Nazi-murdered son—and he begins to plot his revenge.

In the ’58 rewrite, page 4 takes on a fairy-tale aspect. Instead of seeing telltale tattoos on the skin of his son, Angelo recognizes his own cobbler handiwork.

Now, his emotional connection is even further removed: it’s no longer his son, but his nephew. As well, the rewrite’s admirably absurd new shock ending comes into play. Now, Angelo’s thoughts are no longer of “a pair of boots than can strike and kill.” Now, the boots “can tick off the end of a career.”

Tales From The Code

[A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: Page 5 is one of those from the original story “Out of the Grave” whose art, at least, did not need to be changed much—because it is primarily a page of explanations.]

On page 5, feces meet fan blades. Angelo is no longer rewarded with death, but with imprisonment and deportation. In the final two panels, he no longer sweats or spits. Once again, his face is shorn of blemishes as he meets a much softer fate.

47

48 How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

Page 6 sums up much of what was wrong with the Comics Code, and how negatively it impacted comic book storytelling. There is crude poetic justice in the ’53 original, with the explosives set in the Nazi emblems, which the Colonel will inevitably click together in salute to a superior. As with the other, more complex ideas attempted in “Out of the Grave,” this is telegraphed, and loses much of its effectiveness.

In the 1958 rewrite, the first three panels are unaltered; even Helga’s wrinkles remain. In panel 5, the one entirely new frame of this re-make, she now looks like a prom queen. The climax of “Fair Exchange” is laughable—and must have seemed so 53 years ago. A ticking clock can be annoying, but is it just cause to end a military career? This absurd twist is made sorta poetic in the story’s closing panel, whose run-on sentence is worth savoring. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: For the full article/analysis by Young & Tumey, go online to www.comicbookattic.com.]

Tales From The Code

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Article continued from pg. 32

The End Of The Comics Code After Swamp Thing dropped the Code and continued to be a success, the Code and its approval became more and more irrelevant to the industry, even though comics and comic publishers continued to be threatened or at least believed themselves threatened with outside censorship. By the early to mid-1980s, with only Marvel, Archie, and DC still publishing new material (Charlton was all reprint at this point, Gold Key dropped newsstand distribution in 1981, and Harvey ceased publication in 1984), new “independent” publishers such as Pacific, Eclipse, First, Comico, and others cropped up. Most of them sold their product through distributors that moved their titles directly to the rapidly expanding comic shops, bypassing the newsstands and, thus, not requiring (or even wanting) the Code seal displayed on their titles. The contents of their comics were often considerably more adult in nature than what the mainstream publishers were used to dealing with. Plus, they sold comics, a lot of them. To compete with the new publishers, Marvel and DC had to loosen up their internal guidelines and produce titles that didn’t rely on newsstand distribution or Code restrictions, either.

That’s not to say that the lessening of the Code’s impact on mainstream comics or the huge market for non-Code-approved books caused threats of censorship to lessen. Even without the Code, comic sellers proved to be squeamish about such things as “women problems” (as they were referred to in my household). Non-Code approved books such as Swamp Thing #40 (Sept. 1985) by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, and John Totleben and a “Morrigan Tales” backup story by Charles Vess from Sabre #1 (Aug. 1982) caused problems because they dealt with or mentioned menstruation, a topic that apparently caused a lot of men a lot of distress. Most of the women I knew at the time thought the I-don’t-want-to-know-about-that-sort-of-thing reaction was more than a little on the silly side. Sabre #7 (Dec. 1983) by Don McGregor & Billy Graham and Miracleman #9 (June 1986) by Alan Moore and Rick Veitch each devoted an entire issue to childbirth, which also caused heated debate, even though both artists had relied on the famous photos from the 1940s “Miracle of Birth” issue of the relatively conservative Life magazine for their reference guides.

The non-Code Swamp Thing continued to be the lightning rod of controversy throughout the decade, however, as DC pulled an entire issue (#88) after it had been approved, written, penciled, and lettered, and for which inking had been begun by Tom Sutton when someone in editorial got nervous over the plotline involving Swamp Thing,

The Inhuman Condition Writer Gerry Conway (photo) served as Marvel’s editor-in-chief for only a few weeks in 1976, but it was long enough for the above exchange of letters/notes with Code head Len Darvin over phraseology in The Inhumans #6 (Aug. ’76). Interesting that by now the Code was willing to accept the wording “hang him by his neck,” as well as the “hang him!” that actually got printed (see top of page)— but not an interrupted harangue that would’ve left unspecified the precise part of Black Bolt’s anatomy by which he might be hanged. Script by Doug Moench, art by Gil Kane & Frank Chiaramonte. Thanks to Barry Pearl & the generous soul who sent us the note exchange; we regret we misplaced your name. [Marvel art © 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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who was undergoing a journey through time and meeting many of the historical DC characters, becoming the wood for the cross of Jesus Christ. There is speculation that the conservative Christian response to the then-current film The Last Temptation of Christ was a factor. DC pulled the entire issue, even though by this time they’d already published equally graphic (if not more so) material dealing with violent murder and rape in Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, the infamous beating/ crucifixion scene of Black Canary in Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters, the rest-stop mass murder scene in the first Sandman arc, and more.

As publishers took two giant steps forward and then one back in the quest for what was appropriate in the moral climate of the day, the Code came to be seen as more and more irrelevant, as each publisher searched for consistent ways to police its own titles, whether Code-approved or not.

Still, the Comic Code Seal of Approval continued to appear on most newsstand comics throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

2008 or 2009. DC and Archie, the last two publishers who were still subscribing to the Code and displaying its seal on their covers, dropped it in favor of their own internal selfpolicing systems in 2011. A few of DC’s February 2011 and Archie’s April 2011 titles were apparently the last to display the Code seal.

Some Lasting Effects The Comics Code was probably necessary and likely saved the comics industry at a time of extreme political and social pressure in the mid-1950s.

However, that act of salvation came at extreme cost. The most mature and adult leaning publisher, EC, soon stopped publishing four-color comics.

Atlas/Marvel, although not immediately affected in terms of quantity, saw its more mature titles dropped, including the excellent Menace, which was a title that combined social commentary with horror and shock stories in the EC vein; the stories written by Stan Lee, in particular, were nearly as strong and hard-hitting as EC’s celebrated tales. The crime genre vanished completely. So did most of the horror genre, although the Code still allowed the much tamer “mystery” stories to appear.

The Code was revised for a third and last time in 1989. Oddly enough, the initial opportunity to make further revisions in the Code was The Western genre became even prompted by the knowledge that the more childish than it might have origprinted copies of the 1971 revision inally seemed, at exactly the same An Art Style To Make You Turn Green were running out. The publishers time as both film and TV Westerns One of artist Kevin O’Neill’s pages for Green Lantern Corps Annual #2 were requested to consider any started seriously reaching for more (1986)—a comics story that had been rejected months earlier because of changes to the Code that they might its allegedly “unsuitable” art style; see p. 32 text. Script by Alan Moore. mature themes, spelling the genre’s want to make before reprinting the Thanks to Richard Arndt. [© 2011 DC Comics.] eventual doom. The romance genre Code regulations [Nyberg, SOA, p. was gutted. Nothing that resembled 146]. By this time most of the independent publishers were bypassing Code anything a real teenager might experience was allowed anymore. Even approval. Both DC and Marvel published titles that were non-Codethough the lovers in the stories looked like full-grown adults, most of these approved. The 1989 version of the Code placed much less emphasis on characters seemed to have no clue whatsoever on how to deal with an crime and horror comics, which had been the main focus of the 1954 and actual relationship. No comics that tried to show real problems and possible 1971 versions. The concern in the late 1980s and early 1990s was extreme solutions to them were allowed under the Code, and although the genre violence and sex, possibly brought on by the wave of “dark” mainstream stumbled along until the mid-1970s, it eventually withered and died. comics that cropped up in the wake of Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen and Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. The initial Code As for real horror, the genuine article that EC, Atlas, Harvey, Fawcett, revision was rejected, however, since some publishers considered it too libCharlton, Standard, and a dozen or so other publishers delivered before the eral and others disliked the fact that it was still specifically banning certain Code, it vanished from comics for a decade. Oh, it popped up here and topics. A second version was completed that offered guidelines but did not there. As mentioned earlier, John Stanley wrote two excellent 1962 horror include lists of specific things that could or could not appear in comics. comics—Ghost Stories #1 and the 80-page Tales from the Tomb #1—through Apparently, a second section of the guidelines was intended for the eyes of Dell, which didn’t adhere to the Code. Most of the artwork is terrible, but the publishers only and was not included in the new booklet. In that section Stanley’s stories still stand up and at least one tale—“The Monster of Dread the publishers were reminded that comics displaying the Code seal were End”—is a genuine classic of the genre. However, when Ghost Stories #2 intended to be the equivalent of the motion picture industry’s “G” rating came out, Stanley was gone and the stories considerably neutered. and that publishers should take care on which titles they intended to have Atlas/Marvel published some fun monster stories by the likes of Stan Lee, the Code Seal appear [Nyberg, SOA, pg. 150-151].

Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Don Heck, but they weren’t really scary, with the exception of some of the Lee/Ditko tales, and that more because of Marvel dropped the Code in 2001 over strong objections from the other Ditko’s eerie, moody drawings, rather than the actual story. “Mystery” tales remaining members of the Comics Magazine Association of America. appeared from both Code (DC, Charlton, ACG) and non-Code publishers Nothing earthshaking happened, either to Marvel or in public opinion.

(Dell and Gold Key), but they were usually tame to the point of boredom. It Although the seal continued to appear on covers, the practice of submitting wasn’t until 1964, when James Warren bypassed the Comics Code Authorpages to the Code office for approval appears to have stopped sometime in ity by publishing the black-&-white magazine Creepy, that horror returned

Tales From The Code

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More Crosses To Bear Rick Veitch’s cover for and a penciled panel from the neverpublished Swamp Thing #88, which would have been coverdated July 1989. Richard Arndt informs us that “a substitute #88 was published, coverdated Sept. 1989, with a new writer and artist, so there was a three-month gap between Rick Veitch’s last published issue and the Doug Wheeler/Tom Yeates #88.” But this one, as the text reveals, you can’t blame on the Comics Code! [© 2011 DC Comics.]

to comics on a regular basis.

Warren’s success led to first Charlton, beginning in 1966 (and with some excellent moody stories by Steve Skeates circa 1967-1969), then DC (under editors Joe Orlando and Dick Giordano) in 1968, and finally Marvel, in 1969, beginning to produce “mystery” stories that were actually horror stories— even if you still couldn’t use the

P E R S O N A L

C O D E

S I D E B A R

# 3

DENNIS O’NEIL Writer & Editor in Comics since 1965

I

thought I had a lot of Code stories, and maybe I did, once, before my brain turned to smegma, but I can’t seem to recall most of them. The one that still stands up and shouts happened way back when I was still working for you and Stan. An “Iron Man” story: a huge—I mean, tenement-tall—giant was raising hell and stomping on a police car. The cops were heroic, standing their ground, firing at the monster, being everything good NYPD employees should be. The Code objected to the destruction of the damn car; presumably, as a symbol of authority, it should have been inviolable. I thought, and still think, that this was carrying respect for authority too far, into fascist-land, maybe. I also dimly recall having to change a corrupt judge into a pretend-judge in a Western.

And in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85, I’m pretty sure Neal had to redraw the last panel, which originally showed Speed injecting himself, because that showed in detail how a felony could be committed. Maybe Neal could confirm this.

I also recall having some kind of public debate with Len Darvin —maybe at an ACBA [Academy of Comic Book Arts] meeting? By the way, I kind of liked Len; he seemed to consider the promotion of the medium as much a part of his job as censoring it, and so, although we disagreed, I could respect him.

I’m sure I had run-ins with the Code during my “Batman” days, but nothing too horrendous. My nastiest bout with wanna-be censors didn’t involve the Code; the NYC consumer advocate—a government job, I think—accused me of consorting with Big Tobacco because, way in the background of a shot of Bats on a rooftop, there was a billboard that may have carried a cigarette ad. This happened after we’d done a long continuity involving Commissioner Gordon’s kicking the tobacco and after I’d written an anti-smoking PSA.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Denny is seen above in a recent photo. Also shown is that final panel from Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85 (Aug-Sept. 1971). Is there perhaps an even more sinister scene lurking in this panel, whited out by opaquing liquid? Thanks to Bob Bailey for the scan, either way.]

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How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

Feed A Code, Starve A Fever (Far left:) The first page of the 1989 Comics Code, retyped and supplied by Barry Pearl. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

(Near left:) The revision kept Marvel in the CCA for only a little more than a decade longer, though. Amazing Spider-Man #32 (Aug. 2001; second series, of course) was one of the last Marvel comics to carry the Code seal. After a few months of blank space on its covers, its place was taken by the notation “Marvel PG.” Art by J. Scott Campbell & Tim Townsend. [© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

It should be noted that comics didn’t lose the stigma that Wertham and the anti-comics crowd branded comics with just because the Code arrived.

word “horror” to describe them.

The EC style horror vanished from comics but it cropped up in a new place: movies. For most of the 1950s the B-movie genre churned out dozens of black-&-white horror films. Some were good, some were bad, and many were grade-Z terrible, but they were there, and some of the best (and worst) of them had moments that were heavily influenced by the banned horror comics. This use by film of the comics’ horror motifs cumulated in Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller Psycho. What is Psycho if not an EC comic come to life?

The early scenes with Janet Leigh stealing the money and going on the run make up a Johnny Craig-illustrated tale. The scenes of Anthony Perkins (and doesn’t the young, skinny Perkins look like a Jack Davis drawing?) and Leigh in the Bates Motel with all those stuffed birds and the powerful shower sequence are straight out of a Graham Ingels effort, while a George Evans style illuminates the later scenes with Martin Balsam, Vera Miles, and John Gavin, big, wide eyes and all. Jack Kamen could provide the lengthy psychiatrist sequence at the end, while the final scene of a motionless Perkins receiving a relentlessly moving close-up reverts back to Johnny Craig. Psycho is the perfect EC-style movie.

Dozens of comic creators who worked during those days have left interviews behind describing how they had to hide what they did for a living at parties, or among passing acquaintances. Admitting you were a comics creator in the 1950s was akin to admitting you were a child molester today.

“How can you live with yourself?” was a common response. What must that response have been like for an artist or his family? It was considered simply shameful, regardless of the type of comics one wrote or drew, to admit to being a comic book writer or artist or editor. For comics creators who worked and lived through the 1950s, this duck-and-hide attitude lasted long after the anti-comics hysteria abated.

While David Hajdu’s generally excellent book The Ten-Cent Plague has been criticized for his claim that the loss of dozens, if not hundreds, of comic creators that took place in 1955-1958 was directly due largely to anticomics hysteria, he does makes some strong points. I agree with those critics who state that the anti-comics hysteria and the advent of the Comics Code were not the only reasons for this flight, but it could easily be proven that they were crucial in numerous cases.

A Cure For The Common Code Jim Ludwig located for us what seem to be the last Code-approved issues of comics put out by the last companies still subscribing to it: DC’s kiddie-comic Cartoon Network Action Pack #55 (dated Feb. 2011) and Archie’s Betty #190. Jim says the indicia date of the latter is “April 2011”; the alternating next issue of Veronica came out a month later and didn’t carry the Code. By this time, there was no outline on the Code seal; it was deliberately blended into the cover so as to be almost unnoticeable.

Quite a change from the heady days of 1955!

[Covers © 2011 respectively by DC Comics and Archie Comic Publications, Inc.] Paul Levitz, comics writer who for years was publisher of DC Comics, e-mailed us, in answer to our query, that “the longest-serving folks [after Leonard Darvin retired as Code administrator] were Dudley Waldner and Holly Munter. They each worked for a trade association management company and handled the CMAA as one of several clients, because the CMAA gave up having independent staff along the way, probably in the mid-’70s.”

Tales From The Code

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In Conclusion Finally, I’d like to point you to a subversive little post-Code tale called “The Elixir.” The author is unknown; the artist is Steve Ditko. The story comes from the much-maligned Charlton and its title Strange Suspense Stories (#36, March 1958).

In it a tired old salesman named Ezra, drawn to look like the sweetest old gent you ever saw, leaves on a sales trip. His bitter sister, Cora, berates him for having to take such a trip during bad weather. In this short sequence one can see the effects of the Comics Code. Cora was obviously originally intended to be Ezra’s wife, but because of events that occur later in the story which the Code guidelines wouldn’t allow, she has become his sister. Just ignore the sister angle—everything the two say or do about each other says they are married and have been for a long time.

Anyway, Ezra gets stuck in a snowdrift on a lonely back road in Michigan.

I’m not sure if Ditko ever visited Michigan, but I lived there as a child and he nails the lonely, desolate winter back roads in just a few short panels. The old gent struggles through the snow to the only house showing a light. Inside he finds a group of alien explorers who are also waiting out the storm. They give the old man a drink, which has the effect of taking 30 years off his age. Ezra swipes the bottle containing the liquid while the aliens are preoccupied with preparations for leaving Earth. This is the only truly negative thing Ezra does during the story, but even that is not simply selfishness (after all, he’s already received the effects of the marvelous alien fluid). He does it to assure the fortune that Cora has always wanted him to make and that he hopes will “stop her carping” at him.

Ezra disguises himself to appear as he did when he was older and sets up a meeting with potential investors to show them the effects of the miracle drink. He leaves the actual drink with Cora, who’s as bitter as ever, with instructions to hand it to him when he reaches the “Eureka!” part of his sales spiel. However, the drink, which he’d intended to share with the investors, does nothing for them. Cora has dumped what she believed to be mere murky water into the sink and substituted plain water for the miracle drink.

Ezra breaks into laughter as he peels off his disguise and Cora realizes the magnitude of her meddling. The young Ezra leaves her even though she swears she’ll never meddle again. Ezra’s reply is that he “won’t give you the chance anymore! I never really wanted to be a millionaire. I’ve got something more precious than that, Cora… my youth! And I’m going to make the most of it!”

To me, this is a post-Code story that sums up the Code experience and the reasons for its eventual obsolesce better than any other tale I’ve read. The meddling, puritanical, bitter Cora ignores completely Ezra’s genuine liking for his life on the road and the joy he gets from doing his job well, regardless of the monetary rewards. Ezra is a decent, average hard-working man who, after decades of listening to Cora’s demands, complaints, and degradations of him, decides that enough is enough and leaves, not as the put-upon old man he was but as a younger, wiser version who decides that freedom is better than having his every move monitored, his every motive suspected. I don’t think Ezra is going to change his job. He loves to sell. He loves the traveling. I think he’s just decided to do it on his own terms, using his own judgment. The Code demanded that he couldn’t leave a wife, since that would be showing marriage in a bad light, so Cora becomes a sister who acts in every single way and word as a hateful wife.

So, too, the Code wasn’t really a censorship board but an advisory board, even though its every word and deed was to censor any attempt by a publisher, writer, or artist to be too free in telling a story, to be too open in their entertainment.

Personally—I’m with Ezra. Whether I read something or live something, whether I’m a kid or an adult, I’d rather it be my own wisdom or experience that tells me whether a story, in whatever form it appears, is right or wrong for me or, when necessary, for my children. I’m perfectly willing that advice could come from a good friend or parent or librarian, just not an anonymous governing board that is essentially saying that I’m too stupid to figure it out for myself.

Elixir In Wonderland Me, you, each of us acting as either the creator or the reader—that’s who Richard Arndt cites the Steve Ditko-drawn story “The Elixir,” from Strange should make the choice. That’s where a person’s responsibility, wisdom and Suspense Stories #36 (March 1958) as an example why the Code eventually true youthful outlook lies. grew obsolescent. See his text. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

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How The Comics Code Authority Changed Comic Books—Literally!—From 1954 To 2011

Appendix Besides the various comics referenced in this article, the following titles were also consulted: Barker, Martin, A Haunt of Fears: The Strange History of the British Horror Comics Campaign, 226 pp.

Information was also provided from personal interviews and e-mails sent to the author by Steve Bissette, Frank Brunner, Steve Englehart, Willi Franz, Tony Isabella, Barry Pearl, Bob Toomey, Marv Wolfman, and Thomas Yeates—and to Roy Thomas and Marv Wolfman and Dennis O’Neil—as well as via news items that appeared on various comics news websites, such as bleedingcool.com, newsarama.com, comicscontinuum.com, the Timely-AtlasComics group at yahoo.com, and others.

Bissette, Steve, “Introduction: Cursed Earth & Uneasy Riders,” Saga of the Swamp Thing, Vol. 3, pp 6-10.

Cold Cole Grave L.B. Cole’s painted cover for Dell’s Tales from the Tomb #1 (Oct. 1962). [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

Comics Buyer’s Guide #1347 (Sept. 1999) Evanier, Mark, “Approved by the Comics Code

Authority,” Marvelmania #4 (1974) Gaiman, Neil, “Foreword: Love And Death—An Overture,” Saga of the Swamp Thing, Vol. 2, pp 8-9.

Geissman, Grant, Foul Play! The Art and Artists of the Notorious 1950s EC Comics!, 272 pp.

Goulart, Ron, The Assault on Childhood, pp. 177-211.

Hajdu, David, The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, 434 pgs.

Johnson, Dan, Steve Bissette, & Rick Veitch, “Bissette and Veitch: Old Monster, New Tricks,” Back Issue #6 (Oct. 2004), pp. 48-66.

Nyberg, Amy Kiste, Seal of Apporval: The History of the Comics Code, 208 pp.

Pearl, Barry, “The Comics Code and a Clash with The Flash!,” Ditkomania #81 (Sept. 2010), pp. 12-13.

Pearl, Barry, The Essential Marvel Reference Project (privately published), pp. 138-166.

Rogers, Vaneta, “Archie Dropping Comic Code Authority Seal in February,” Newsarama (Jan. 21, 2011).

Seddelmeyer, Anne, “The Effects of the Censorship of the 1950s on Comic Books” (Seddelmeyer Historical Paper— online).

Schechter, Harold, Deviant: The Shocking True Story of Ed Gein, The Original ‘Psycho,’ pp. 90-91.

Wertham, Fredric , A Sign for Cain: An Exploration of Human Violence, pp. 194-228.

Wertham, Fredric, Seduction of the Innocent, 400 pp.

Wertham, Fredric, “What Parents Don’t Know about Comic Books,” Ladies’ Home Journal (Oct. 1953), pp. 50-52, 214-220.

Wertham, Fredric, The World of Fanzines, 144 pp.

Helluva Party!

You might know it’d be Comic Crypt-keeper Michael T. Gilbert who had the last word on these “twice-told tales” from the Code era. Besides reminding us that many of the preCode Atlas horror stories were altered by the Code when they were reprinted in the early 1970s, he sent us this Steve Ditko-drawn page from the story “Masquerade Party” in Strange Tales #83 (April 1961), in which a woman goes out dancing and husbandhunting… and finds one. Michael feels that “the last panel was clearly changed at the last minute by the Code, so she wouldn’t wind up in Hell. Ditko didn’t have a chance to draw [the new panels], though possibly [Paul] Reinman did.” Thanks as always, Michael! [© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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“You Have To Earn Your Talent Through Discipline” Artist CAL MASSEY Talks Candidly About His Comics Career Conducted by Jim Amash Transcribed by Brian K. Morris

I

NTERVIEWER’S INTRO: Cal Massey’s comic book career, like many others of the 1950s, was cut short by the decline of the medium.

He worked for Cross Publications, Lev Gleason, St. John, and Timely before moving on to the advertising world and book illustration. He was also the first medal designer for the Franklin Mint, and eventually settled into a career in fine arts. His paintings have been widely exhibited in many galleries. Still active as a painter, Cal Massey reaches out to his audience with thought and power during these difficult times, his message as potent as ever. —Jim.

“You Probably Have Heard Of Him —Joe Maneely “ JIM AMASH: Well, I’ll start with the easy question, which is when and where were you born?

CAL MASSEY: I was born February 1926 in Morton, Pennsylvania, which

is a small town outside of Philadelphia. When I was four years old, I discovered the Sunday newspaper comics. My mother told me they were drawn, so I took the Sunday comics, put them up in the window, and let the sun come through pages so I could trace them. [chuckles] Of course, I got all the images from both sides of the paper, and it was a mess. So my mother said, “You stupid fool, you have to earn your talent through discipline.” And that’s how I got interested in drawing.

The next step was just trying to learn to draw. While I was in high school, I met these two incredible twins who could draw with both hands.

They were ambidextrous. I wanted to be as good as them. Then I found out that they were idiot savants. After graduating from high school in 1944, I went into the Air Force during World War II for two years; I was a pre-flight mechanic and radio mechanic . Then I came out of the service, and I met a guy named—well, you probably have heard of him—Joe Maneely, whom I met at the Hussion School of Art. JA: When you went to art school, did you have a goal in mind of what kind of artist you wanted to be?

MASSEY: I knew I needed to go to art school; I had to learn how to draw. My goal was to be a comic book illustrator, and I met a wonderful teacher, Leonard Nelson. He separated me from the rest of the students and gave me split-hair criticism. It got to a point where I was kind of sick of it, you

Cal Massey In War And Peace The artist—flanked by his cover for Timely/Atlas’ War Action #6 (Sept. 1952) and one of his later paintings, this one depicting an angel. Scans of the photo and painting were provided by Cal; thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo for the cover. [Cover © 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.; photo & painting © 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

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Artist Cal Massey Talks Candidly About His Comics Career

Go West, Young Maneely Joe Maneely as a young Navy artist in the mid-1940s, a year or three before his first comic book work in 1948—and panels from a “Kid Colt” story provided by Dr. MIchael J. Vassallo. Before his untimely death in 1958, Maneely produced a decade’s worth of skilled and oft-spectacular comic art. Thanks to daughter Nancy Maneely and Doc V. for the photo, and to Doc for the art scan. [Panels © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

know? I asked him why he stayed on me, and not anybody else. Mr. Nelson said, “You’ve got a rare gift. So rare, I don’t want to see you lose it.” And then I understood [why he was tough on me]. I knew he was what I was looking for. He would clip out the best comic strip features, like Alex Raymond’s Rip Kirby and Will Eisner’s Spirit, among others. He told me, “These guys can draw, but all your answers are in my class. You can’t draw a shoe unless you know what the foot looks like.” The average student would get one day of life drawing. I got three days of life drawing, one day of composition, and one day of illustration. Mr. Nelson and another teacher, Mr. Hussion (who owned the school), designed a course for me.

Instead of getting all the other things like lettering and layout, they gave me the course structure I previously mentioned.

most beautiful drawings . He had total recall. He could draw a .45 without reference. My contact with him was limited. We talked off and on about the comic book business, and it was Joe who recommended that I talk to Stan Lee at Timely. Many of the students were very jealous of him, because he not only drew so well, but he was already making a living in the comic book business. He was the star! I remember talking to him when I was turning work in at Timely, and we’d talk shop, we’d talk about World War II and current events. I was shocked when I heard the news of his death.

Each year, one student won an award for best draftsmanship. I won it in 1948, ’49, and ’50. I graduated from the school in 1950, but in ’49, I started

“Maneely…

Suggested I Go Visit St. John” JA: Tell me about Joe Maneely.

MASSEY: Oh, he was really suave. Joe Maneely also had a studio in the same building that the art school was in, and he was an incredible artist. Joe was working for Magazine Management, which owned Marvel [then known as Timely].

He was on the G.I. Bill, like most of the rest of us were. He’d come to work in a white shirt and a tie, while the rest of us wore t-shirts. He’d go into the life drawing classes with his sketch pad and do the

A Cross To Bear Massey’s first comics work seems to have appeared in Cross Publishing’s The Perfect Crime, for which he drew both generic cops-androbbers yarns and the series “Steve Duncan.” Above are splashes from issues #3 (June 1950) and #27 (Aug. ’52).

Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo & Jim Ludwig, respectively. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

“You Have To Earn Your Talent Through Discipline”

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working for Cross Publishing Company. I did that work through an agent.

But it was Mr. Nelson who taught me how to become a better comic book artist.

and so I visited him at his apartment on the sixth floor of the building he lived in. Matt lived in a nice section of Brooklyn.

Matt and John were both working, and since John was closest to the door when I knocked, he answered.

JA: Who was the agent?

MASSEY: He was an accountant in Philadelphia, and saw my work when he JA: Was John inking was doing my taxes. He Matt’s work? knew someone at Cross MASSEY: No, John was Publishing and agented my cooking. It was hot when I work for them. He convisited, and I remember vinced me that there were no “The Milton Berle Story” Matt was shirtless. He was black comic book artists in In these Massey-drawn panels from a biographical episode in Cross’ Uncle Milty #1 (Dec. a very handsome man, the business, and said he’d 1950), the comedian who became TV’s first real super-star gets a leg up on his rivals at a enough so that he could agent me so the company young age, thanks to the machinations of his mother—who, till the end of her life, remained have been model or an would not know I was black. his biggest fan. Thanks to Cal M. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.] actor. There was another And I fell for that. He was person there—a Caucasian—who was pulling materials out of Matt’s referstealing money from me. He was getting $35 a page for pencils and inks, ence files. Matt was penciling a story, and I was amazed at his ability. He and paying me $12 per page. I went up to Cross after graduation, and spent quite a bit of time with me that day, discussing brushes, pens, how to that’s how I found out he was cheating me. From then on, I worked diput together reference files, other companies I could get work from, and rectly for them. But I got the agent to do my taxes for free for one year bebasically talking to me about the pros and cons of the business. fore he left his job and disappeared.

I don’t recall who I met at Cross, but my contact was limited because I sent my work in by messenger. For Cross, I drew “Steve Duncan” and Perfect Crime. And after that, I went to work for St. John Publications. Joe Maneely, who moved to Flushing, NY, and was working on staff at Timely, suggested I go visit St. John [Publishing].

JA: Who lettered what you did for Cross?

MASSEY: A guy named Dick Marsden. He was fantastic. I’d hand him blank pages, and he’d return them with the panel borders ruled in and all the lettering done. Then I drew the story. Dick was not a fulltime letterer; he worked in some kind of boiler factory outside of Philadelphia. He would take the train to deliver the work to me. He was dependable, and like a brother to me. He lettered for me at Cross, Lev Gleason, and Timely. I tried to get him to go to New York and get work, but he got married, and I think his wife didn’t want him to do that. Stan Lee liked his work, and would have given him a full-time job if Dick had wanted it.

He was quite talkative. He talked about his earlier work, like “Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.” He asked about my work, and I told him I had drawn “Steve Duncan” for Cross, and that I had just done my first job for St. John, which was a romance story. I told Matt I was having trouble drawing pretty women, and he gave me pointers on how to do that. He had a happy disposition, laughed some, and reminded me of my teachers at the art school. I was there for four hours, and left feeling very good about myself and the business. Matt treated me like a equal, a fellow comic book artist.

JA: How much did St. John pay you a page?

MASSEY: $45 for pencils and inks.

JA: What do you remember about their offices?

MASSEY: The offices were very small. The art was laid out in the room, where I could see it.

JA: Was your editor at St. John, Marion McDermott?

MASSEY: It could have been her; I’m not certain. Here is where I met Matt Baker. He was drawing for St. John and lived in Brooklyn with his brother John. This was in July of 1951. I was not yet working at St. John. I asked the editor if there were other black artists in the business, and she told me about Matt The Golden Age of Comic Phantom Baker. She called him at home and Matt Baker with a noteworthy (notorious?) panel of his from Fox Comics’ asked if he would see me. She was Phantom Lady #18 (June 1948). The splash was printed, with only red & having a very good time talking to black plates, on the issue’s inside front cover (which you can view in its him on the phone; he was taking a entirety on page 9 herein). Thanks to Fred Robinson and Matt D. Baker—the nap when she called around ten that artist’s half-brother and nephew, respectively—for the photo, which morning. By the tone of the converoriginally appeared with our extensive Baker coverage in A/E #47—and to sation, I could tell they knew each Matthew Peets for the PL scan. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.] other very well. Matt said he would,

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Artist Cal Massey Talks Candidly About His Comics Career

JA: Did you ever see Lev Gleason while you were there?

MASSEY: No. JA: You did “The Little Wise Guys.” Did you have any empathy towards these characters?

MASSEY: No. I did it to make a living, and I could draw it quick. It was easier than drawing the more dramatic stuff.

JA: So you left Gleason, and you went to Stan Lee. MASSEY: Yes. JA: Before I ask you about that, I have a couple of credits here, and I want to find out if they’re accurate or not. I have you in 1955 working for a company called Story Comics on “Crimson Avenger” and “The Masked Ranger.”

MASSEY: No, I didn’t do those. I never worked for Story Comics.

JA: Did you ever work for Street & Smith or Superior Comics?

Don’t Call It A Teen-Age Crush!

Cal Massey at his comics drawing-desk, in a vintage photo he sent us, plus a hearth-throbbing page he illustrated for St. John Publishing: a splash signed by “Cal” for Teen-Age Romances #34 (Nov. ’53). The scripter is unknown, and has not been identified as being Dana Dutch, the writer who scribed so many of St. John’s more intelligent love comics, as detailed in John Benson’s 2007 study Confessions, Romances, Secrets, and Temptations: Archer St. John and the St. John Romance Stories. John says that, between 1950 and 1953, Massey drew a total of six romance stories for St. John. Thanks to John B. for the scan, and to Cal for the photo. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

“Charles Biro… Was Quite A Showman” JA: Were there any other people in the office?

MASSEY: Just the receptionist. It was a small operation. I only drew three stories for them before I went to Lev Gleason, and worked for Charles Biro. He was quite a showman. He was heavily interested in sports. He had a big ego and wanted you to think he was a great artist, but he was nowhere near the level of the artists whom he hired: Bob Fujitani, Fred Kida, and George Tuska.

JA: Did you see Bob Wood there? He was Biro’s partner.

MASSEY: Bob Wood? I vaguely remember him. I dealt with Biro. One time, I delivered a penciled story at 9 a.m., and Biro asked me to ink it in the office, so I stayed and worked all night to get it done. The offices there were shabby, no real design; just an office. I do remember [that] down the hall were the offices for TV’s Your Hit Parade. In fact, on the day Biro called me in to work, he left the office for the evening, and when I had taken a break for coffee (along with a letterer whose name I have forgotten), the letterer told the people at Your Hit Parade that I was a jazz pianist.

They asked me to play, and I did so for the next hour and a half. I met Bob Fujitani that day, and we worked back to back in the office to get this book out for Biro, which was running late. There was another artist working there that day, too, but I no longer recall who it was.

I drew the “The Little Wise Guys” in Daredevil. I drew “Boffo the Clown,” which was inked by Hy Fleischman, who ruined my work. He inked rather mechanically and took the life out of my pencils. And I drew two crime stories for Crime Does Not Pay, and one four-page Western story. I believe I got $35 a page.

MASSEY: No, I didn’t.

“[Stan Lee Asked:] ‘How Many Stories Can You Turn Out A Month?’”

JA: Did you know the company as Timely, or did you know it as Magazine Management?

MASSEY: I knew it as Magazine Management. Do you know a writer named Don Rico? I met him the first day I went to get a job from Stan Lee. We were sitting in the reception room. There was another black artist there named Swanson, too. The receptionist would take our portfolios and take them back to Stan. At some point, Rico started laughing and told me, “Haven’t you noticed that you were the first one here, and all the other guys’ portfolios were returned to them, but Stan still has yours?” Stan was telling these people that there was no work, but Rico said there was plenty of work, because he was turning in two stories. Then the receptionist told me to come back and go to office #13.

I walked into the room and Stan Lee said, “Massey’s in the cold, cold ground.” I sat down, and he said, “Messy Massey.” Then I got up and started to leave, when Stan asked me where I was going. I said, “I thought New York had grown past this sort of thing. Have a nice day.” Then, Stan said, “Massey, get your ass back here. How many stories can you turn out a month?” Of course, after that, he could say anything to me. [mutual laughter] JA: Explain to me the “Massey’s in the cold, cold ground” reference.

MASSEY: Stan was making a play on the lyrics of a song from the South that was written during slavery times, and I didn’t like it. He explained that to me, saying, “I just wanted to see what kind of character you had.” I accepted his explanation, and wanted to see how much work he was going to give me. Stan gave me a war story that appeared in Battle Action, and when I returned with the art, Stan gave me another job. He wanted to see the pencils first. When he saw my inking, that’s when he hit me with heavy criticism. “There’s something wrong with the work. I can’t tell you what it is, but I want you to figure out what it is.” So he sent me to another room where artwork was stored, and I looked through the piles stacked up there.

“You Have To Earn Your Talent Through Discipline”

Then I returned to his office, and Stan asked what took me so long.

I showed the work I pulled out of the stacks, and Stan said, “You picked out my best artists,” meaning Fred Kida, Bob Fujitani, George Tuska, and a couple of other artists.

Stan told me to take the pages home and study how they were inked.

Which I did.

59

JA: I’m going to give you a list of some of the things I have you as doing.

You did war comics, crime comics, romance, horror, some science-fiction and some sports comics, spy stories, and Westerns.

MASSEY: Right. I did so many Battle and Battle Action stories that I told Stan that I was getting battle fatigue , and he gave me some weird supernatural stories, then Westerns and detective.

JA: Did you have a favorite genre that you worked in there?

Two weeks later, I MASSEY: The war stories, because returned with an assignI’d been collecting tons of reference ment he had given me, on various wars: the Civil War, the and Stan was so impressed First World War, etc. I also did one that he offered me a staff with Teddy Roosevelt and the job at $400 a week. I told Spanish-American War. Stan Lee him I couldn’t move to New wanted authenticity, and I made York. It was three times sure everything was correct. The more expensive than Philly. other genres didn’t need as much Then he turned around, and research material. he scared me. He said, “Okay, I don’t want to see “Massey, you up here anymore. You can just stay home.” I said, It’s A Business!”

“You mean you don’t want to JA: The stories that Don Rico give me any work?” He said, wrote for you—were those war “You kidding? I’m going to stories, or were those horror keep you so busy, nobody’s stories? gonna be able to give you any work. You won’t have time. You MASSEY: He wrote all kinds send your work up by bonded of stuff. He was a great writer. messenger, I’ll send you the checks down by bonded mesJA: I take it that after your senger.” He didn’t trust the Post initial appearances up there Office. That’s when he said, you didn’t go into the Don’t Be A (Little) Wise Guy! “I’m going to give you a Timely offices any more. hundred a page,” which Splash page by Cal Massey for Lev Gleason Publications’ Daredevil #127 (Nov. 1955), after the MASSEY: No, I just worked included pencils, inks, Little Wise Guys had kicked the original two-toned Daredevil out of his own mag (behind the right from my studio in scenes, of course). Thanks to Rod Beck. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.] lettering and mailing Philly. charges. I had to pay Dick Marsden out of that $100. We were quite busy in those days.

JA: You didn’t really make any friends in the business then, did you?

But I didn’t put all my eggs in one basket, so I continued to work for MASSEY: No. I wanted to get to know Matt Baker more, but I just didn’t Lev Gleason and Cross. But we were all nervous because of the Senate get up to New York enough.

Investigations into comic books, which forced many companies, including Cross and Lev Gleason, out of business. I was worried, but I was really JA: I heard the nickname for Joe Maneely, because he was so fast, was busy because I was working for Stan. All of a sudden, Stan Lee came back “Joe Money.” and dropped my page rate to $50 a page, and then a couple of months later, MASSEY: Yes, I heard that. But he got the name when he was in Philadeldown to $35, and finally down to $18 a page. phia, not in New York.

JA: That’s what everybody who worked for him told me.

JA: Do you remember any of the other writers who wrote your scripts?

MASSEY: I overheard Don Rico telling another artist that Stan was stockMASSEY: No. Rico was the most impressive one, because his scripts were piling work at the cheaper prices. At this point I called Stan: “I’m sorry, I’m so neat. Stan wrote most of the stories. He had picked ten of his favorite getting out of the business.” Stan tried to get me to stick with it, that prices artists to work with, and I was one of them. He figured we would do the would come back up, and things would get better. I said, “No, I can’t make job that he was looking for. any living at this. At these prices, you still want the same quality work. I can’t do it. I’m going into book illustration and advertising work.” And he JA: Why do you think Stan was testing you the first time you met? just said, “All your work is going to look like comic strips.” I said, “Stan, have a nice day. And now, goodbye.” That was that. And then I went into MASSEY: I think one of his reasons was [that] it was his first attempt to advertising. use a black artist, because he would put me to the test: Are you as good as

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Artist Cal Massey Talks Candidly About His Comics Career

MASSEY: No. JA: When your rates were cut, who informed you? Was it him or his secretary?

MASSEY: It was Stan.

JA: For the most part, though, your physical presence with other artists— not just at Timely, but all the companies—was minimal. You didn’t get a sense of being treated different because of your skin color, did you?

MASSEY: No. JA: Did you draw any of writer Hank Chapman’s stories?

MASSEY: I remember Hank. He wrote a lot of stories. I met him, just fleeting, because he happened to come into the office when I was there.

JA: What percentage of stories would you say Stan wrote that you drew?

MASSEY: I’d say 75% of them were Stan’s.

JA: I’ve heard that Stan sometimes wrote the stories full-script on yellow legal paper, and I’ve heard that he would also type them out.

MASSEY: No, everything was all penciled, all pen and ink, like ballpoint pen. He would take an 8½" x 11" sheet of paper and draw a line straight

Masked Memories (Above:) Cal Massey’s memory must’ve temporarily failed him re the company called Story Comics (a.k.a. Premier) and its comic The Masked Ranger, since he feels he never did any work for it—’cause we’ve seen several Story stories definitely signed by him. One, from issue #4 (Oct. 1954), stars “The Crimson Avenger,” an ongoing Amerindian hero (long after DC’s super-hero of that name had gone to the Happy Hunting Ground)—while in #9 (Aug. ’55), Massey drew The Masked Ranger himself.

Thanks to Michaël Dewally. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

the white artists?

JA: Did you feel like there was any prejudice there?

MASSEY: No, not with Stan. Everything was like business, including Stan’s attitude about the original art. Why they treated all of that beautiful artwork the way they did was beyond me. All that dirt and fingerprints on the pages. And they just stacked the pages up, and eventually destroyed them.

I asked Stan about it and he said, “Massey, it’s a business!”

JA: When you weren’t going to the offices, did you talk to him on the phone very often?

MASSEY: The only time I talked to him was when he had a new story, or when he wanted to talk about scheduling. One time, he said, “Can you do it in ten days instead of two weeks?” Things like that. Everything was business. But Stan did respect my work.

JA: He wouldn’t make much small talk, then.

(Jean) Vail Of Tears Massey’s splash page for Timely/Atlas’ Love Tales #48 (Sept. 1951); with thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo. [© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“You Have To Earn Your Talent Through Discipline”

61

do covers.

JA: But the only way you could do covers was to do them on staff, right?

MASSEY: Yeah.

JA: That’s why you didn’t do covers, then.

MASSEY: Oh, you mean freelance. No, I didn’t get any covers at all to do, just the stories.

First In War… Stan Lee (seen at left in a pic dated 1951) clearly liked what he saw in Cal Massey’s work, since he immediately put him to work. Cal says his first assignment from Lee was a story for Battle Action; if so, it would’ve had to be the 5-pager titled “The Good Guy,” from issue #1 (Feb. 1952). Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo for the scan, which shows that Massey’s style was fully polished when he arrived at Timely. The photo, a detail of one that appeared in The New York Times Real Estate Magazine for Sept. 9, 2007, is reprinted with Stan’s permission; the full photo spread is also on view both in A/E #74 and in the exciting new TwoMorrows tome The Stan Lee Universe, edited by Danny Fingeroth and Roy Thomas. [© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

down the center, and then two equal lines and make six panels. He wrote in the word balloons, and then put the descriptions of the work itself. He had a code which said, “Use your own discretion.” He wanted you to be the creator without him, suggestions from the story, all from the balloons. In the panel boxes, he’d set the scene, but he was able to direct the stories with his simple code, which I preferred that because he seemed to be getting more out of the artist that way.

JA: Well, you had more liberty to be yourself. Was there anybody else that ever wrote like that for you?

MASSEY: No, everybody else wrote a fully typed script.

JA: Did you ever feel the need to change the layout that he would give you?

MASSEY: Oh, yes. Sometimes, instead of six panels, I thought only four were needed. When I felt that a scene needed a big panel, I did that.

JA: Did you ever take it upon yourself to put something in there that wasn’t in the script, or leave something out of a script?

MASSEY: No. That’s why I liked Stan’s scripts, because the other ones seemed like they would have everything just as they wanted. You weren’t supposed to change it. But with Stan, you had a lot of freedom to tell the story your way.

JA: On the splash pages, would Stan give you more of an indication of what he wanted?

MASSEY: No, he’d leave it right up to you. That’s why he wanted me to

Battle Diary (Right:) Splash to the Hank Chapman-scripted story “Outnumbered” from Battle #11 (Aug. 1952). Cal must’ve liked this story, as tearsheets of all seven pages were among the items he mailed us for possible inclusion in this issue. Many Atlas aficionados such as Dr. Michael J. Vassallo consider Chapman to have been one of Atlas’ best writers, with an especial feel for war stories. [© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

JA: You had to buy your own paper, didn’t you?

MASSEY: Yes, though Biro would supply paper sometimes.

JA: Did you ever deal with an assistant of Stan’s, or an assistant editor?

MASSEY: No. JA: You worked up until ’57, right?

MASSEY: Right.

JA: And you were making eighteen a page at the end there. So you left comics, you’re out of a job. What do you do?

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Artist Cal Massey Talks Candidly About His Comics Career

Horrors!

Timely/Atlas writer (and sometime artist and editor) Don Rico,at left, who Cal says turned in scripts he liked drawing— plus some Massey horror-comics art, which may (or may not) have been scribed by Rico: (Above left:) A splash from Spellbound #19 (Feb. 1954), sent by Doc V.— (Below:) A black-&-white photocopy of the splash page (minus the title) from a tale that Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., had ID’d as being from “Look Out for Lakoonda,” in Adventures into Terror #29 (June 1953). Cal sent us this art, but had forgotten its specific origins.

(Above right:) The final page of the story “The Girl in the Grave” from Uncanny Tales #4 (Dec. 1952). We’ve printed the tale’s clever ending. Thanks to Cal and to Jim Ludwig. [© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

MASSEY: Well, I got into advertising art. I didn’t know that much about it, but I met a guy who asked me to rent a space in his art service, and I would be the resident illustrator. I did every kind of illustration you could think of: photographic renderings, fashion art, men’s fashions…. I did all kinds of stuff.

JA: Since you were almost always inking your stuff, how tight were your pencils?

MASSEY: My pencils were tight, very tight.

JA: I didn’t know if you might be a little looser because you knew you were going to ink it.

MASSEY: No. Now, Bob Fujitani drew stick figures. You should see what he did with a stick figure when he got through with it. He did a lot of the drawing with a brush. That’s why he was so fast. He didn’t have to labor over his pencils. Same with Joe Maneely.

“You Have To Earn Your Talent Through Discipline”

JA: But did you not feel comfortable working that way?

to Bataan on the “obverse,” which was the front part of the coin which was the portrait. The back is called the “reverse,” and MacArthur was walking in the water up to the land. I had to do this photographic rendering that looks just like a coin. By the way, they discovered me from working in the art services.

MASSEY: No, because I was too regimented into the authenticity of the drawing, especially when I was drawing historical stories.

JA: Did you ever want to write any of your stories?

I quit in 1976. I went back to advertising and book illustration, children’s book illustration, and actually something else. Joe Siegel was there before he sold his share of the Franklin Mint, and other people took over. Joe put on a fine art show of his prestigious sculptors, and I won first prize. I did a painting of an African woman called “The Ashanti Woman.” Well, I got the bug, I quit the Mint, and I’ve been a fine artist ever since.

MASSEY: No.

“Joe Siegel Was The Creator Of The Franklin Mint” JA: How long were you in advertising?

MASSEY: Several years. And I met Joe Siegel. Joe Siegel was the creator of The Franklin Mint, and I designed their very first medal in 1960. From then on, I designed almost 400 medals over a period of seven years.

JA: Did you ever happen to meet a guy named Ernie Schroeder? [NOTE: Ernie was a long time comic book artist, interviewed in A/E #42. —Jim.] MASSEY: Yes, I did. He was an illustrator. I saw him at the Franklin Mint, but I didn’t get to know him.

He did seem to be a great guy.

“Old Soldiers Never Die… They Just Fade Away” This medal designed by Massey and honoring General Douglas MacArthur was struck by the Franklin Mint not long after the military hero’s death in 1964. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

“I’d Love To Do Some Comics, Just To Be Back Into It Again” JA: How tough has it been to make money out of fine art? Because we know it’s not easy.

MASSEY: It’s rough. As a matter of fact, I’d love to do some comics, just to be back into it again.

JA: You did a lot of promotional comics. Who did you do those for?

JA: He was, at one point, the Chief Sculptor for the Franklin Mint.

MASSEY: I did one for a beer company; it may have been Pabst. I worked for art services that got those accounts. I illustrated magazines, too, like the Philadelphia magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, Jack and Jill, and church publications.

MASSEY: Yes, he was, until an Italian sculptor named Caesar Rufo came in. By the way, after working for about nine years as a designer, Joe Siegel wanted me to come in to learn sculpting.

So I was a combination designer/sculptor.

JA: And you recently finished illustrating a book.

MASSEY: It’s a children’s “black history” book, My Name Is Oney Judge, which was written by Diane D. Turner, who is the curator of the Black History Library at Temple University, Philadelphia.

[NOTE: It is available on Amazon.com. —Jim.] I’ve also done The African-American Historical Calendar, which I’ve illustrated every year since 1970. I’ve always done the portraits and originally did the illustrative continuity for the calendar. I also designed a medal for the United States Mint which commemorated the 1976 Olympics.

JA: So you were there how long?

MASSEY: On staff for three years, but I freelanced for nine years before that. Being the only AfricanAmerican sculptor and designer, there was some prejudice there when I went on the staff, because the rumor had spread that I designed the very first coin for The Franklin Mint. They didn’t want to believe that. So they very cleverly tried to dig it out of me. They had certain people who would befriend me, people who all of a sudden would want to have lunch with me, and they’d very cleverly ask me about it.

JA: Did you ever do any teaching?

MASSEY: Oh, yes. I taught Illustration and life drawing at the Hussion School, the same school I graduated from. That was in the mid-60s.

I got pretty mad about it. We had this big room, 30 artists in a booth. I stood up and said, “Go to the library and take the first annual report and turn to page ten.” [mutual chuckling] Then it got dead quiet. You know, you usually hear conversations going on. And then they found out what I had done. I mean, all the people that congratulated me and showed me some gratitude were the women. The others were just sick and tired that a black man designed the first medal.

And I have the report right here.

JA: There’s no accounting for the way people act.

Do you happen to have a photograph of that medal?

MASSEY: Yeah, I do. It’s MacArthur coming back

63

JA: And is there a part of your career we haven’t mentioned?

MASSEY: No, that’s about it. I’m a fine artist now. If Stan Lee saw my work today, he wouldn’t believe it.

“Ashanti Woman” Massey says that, after doing this painting in the 1970s, he “got the bug” to be a fine artist. [© 2011 Cal Massey.]

JA: [laughs] Did you ever catch any flack, or did you tell people that you did comics, like your friends, your neighbors?

MASSEY: During the time I was doing them, I was known as a comic book illustrator. The people who liked comics were very impressed. But

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Artist Cal Massey Talks Candidly About His Comics Career

JA: You’re going to continue doing the calendars, and I assume you’re going to continue doing fine art and illustration.

Do you ever see yourself retiring?

then a lot of the artists, the fine artists, would put it down until I would tell them, “Do you know it takes to be a comic book illustrator? Can you draw an M-1 rifle out of your head?” Their response was general embarrassment until I explained that a comics artist needed to draw out of his head, and had to file away the knowledge of how things look, because he never knows when he will need that information.

I gained people’s respect after that discussion.

MASSEY: [chuckles] How can you retire when you’re an artist? Your arms, your fingers, and your mind’s working… you don’t retire.

JA: Do you ever doodle just for fun?

JA: Did it ever bother you that you didn’t get any of your original artwork back?

MASSEY: Yes, it did.

JA: Would you ever ask for it?

MASSEY: No, I never asked for it, but I wish I had. I assumed the companies owned it. I did collect the books my work appeared in. I would clip out the story I did and put it in a file.

Judging A Book By Its Cover If we do, this one looks worth picking up! The cover for this children’s book was done by Massey, with numerous Massey illustrations inside; it was published by Scholastic in 1992. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

JA: Did they give you copies, or did you have to go out and buy them yourself?

MASSEY: The companies didn’t give me any copies.

JA: If you had asked, do you think they would have given you any of your art?

MASSEY: I think Stan would have done it, since he gave me all those originals to study.

Tales To Astonish A Massey splash page from Astonishing #13 (May 1952)—juxtaposed rather incongruously with a photo of Cal playing the piano, something he apparently does rather well. Indeed, he’s even accompanied comedian Bill Cosby’s act on occasion. Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo for the art scan. [© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

MASSEY: I’m always doodling. I paint women. A lot of artists can’t paint women.

They can’t paint pretty women. If they paint them, they’re ugly. But I like drawing patterns, like dress patterns. I’m kind of fascinated with the Oriental rugs. I love the intricacy. I love architecture. I put myself in the category of being able to illustrate life.

The fine art business is very slow, and it’s nice to have a commission every now and then. I do the paintings, and then I have to wait for the galleries to sell them or wait for a show to exhibit them in. The economy’s so bad these days, so I’m looking for more commissions to do paintings.

JA: If you were doing comics today, what kind of comics would you like to do?

MASSEY: I’d like to do adventure stories. I look at today’s artists. What I see is well done. Heavy Metal has the best artists I’ve seen. Those guys are masters. I’d like to do the involved stuff where it’s a challenge, where the illustration demands perfection. I don’t want to do anything that’s just cheaply produced, and not interesting.

“You Have To Earn Your Talent Through Discipline”

65

CAL MASSEY Checklist [NOTE: The following Checklist is adapted from information contained in the online Who’s Who of American Comic Books (1928-1999), established by Jerry G. Bails; see notice below. Names of features below which appeared both in comics with that title and also in other comics are generally not italicized.

Some corrections have been made, based on this interview; Thomas Lammers made some additions in 2006. The Who’s Who made no real attempt to catalog Massey’s work outside comic books. Key: (a) = artist; (p) = penciler only.]

Name: : Calvin Massey (b. 1926) (artist)

Story Comics [imprint: Premier]: Crimson Avenger (a) 1955; The Masked Ranger (a) 1953-55

COMIC BOOK CREDITS (Mainstream U.S. Publications): Cross Publications: The Perfect Crime (a) 1949-51; Steve Duncan (a) 1949-51; Uncle Milty (a) c. 1950 Lev Gleason Publications: Boffo the Clown (p) (dates uncertain); Crime Does Not Pay (a) (dates uncertain); Little Wise Guys (in Daredevil) (a) c. 1955; Western (a) (dates uncertain) Marvel/Timely/Atlas: Battle (a) 1951-53, 1957; Battle Action (a) 1956; Battlefront (a) 1955-56; crime (a) 1951-52, 1956; filler (p) 1951; Girl Comics (a) 1951; horror (a) 1951-54; Love Tales (a) c. 1951; Man Comics (a) 1952-53; Marines in Battle (a) 1956; mystery/occult (a) 1956; Navy Tales (a) 1957; romance (a) 1951; science-fantasy (a) 1951; Spellbound (a) 1954; sports (a) 1952; spy (a) 1951-52; war (a) 1951-53, 1956; War Comics (a) 1952, 1957; Western (a) 1952; Young Men (a) 1952; St. John Publishing: romance (a) 1952-53; Teen-Age Romances (a) c.

1953

Street & Smith Comics: various features (a) late 1940s [NOTE: Cal Massey believes he did not draw for this company.]

Superior Publishers: crime (a) 1949-51 [NOTE: CM believes he did not draw for this company.]

The WHO’S WHO of American Comic Books (1928-1999) Online Edition Created by Jerry G. Bails FREE – online searchable database – FREE www.bailsprojects.com – No password required

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This Man's War In the early 1950s, Timely put out so many Korean War comics with the words "War," "Battle, "Navy," and "Marines" in the title that the overflow had to be shoehorned into a mag named—Man Comics! Here's a Massey splash from Man #18 (Sept. '52). Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo. [© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Hardboiled detective Steve Duncan lands a punch in The Perfect Crime #27 (Aug. 1952). Art by Cal Massey. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

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67

68

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

The Mystery of the Missing Letterer—Part 4

by Michael T. Gilbert

O

ver the course of Alter Ego #101-103, we solved a 60-year-old mystery. Abe Kanegson, the man whom Will Eisner considered his greatest letterer, left comics around 1951 and seemingly vanished.

Even Eisner couldn’t track him down, despite his best efforts. But in 2010 a record surfaced on eBay, a memorial record album (remember them?) with Abe’s name and photo. It was Abe’s only record, issued in 1969, five years after his death.

The album’s liner notes filled in a number of blanks on his pre- and post-comics career. After leaving the Will Eisner studios around 1951, Abe became an accomplished square dance caller and folk singer. Leukemia had ended his life prematurely in 1965, and he left behind a wife and two sons. I was unable to secure an interview with Abe’s son, Andras. However, his brother Ben agreed to be interviewed—as did Abe’s sister Rita Perlin.

We’ll start with Ben Kanegson:

Ben Kanegson Interview (10/14/10) MICHAEL T. GILBERT: I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about your father, Ben. BEN KANEGSON: OK, I’ll do my best. I don’t have a lot of information for you, but I’ll do my best.

MTG: First of all, I wanted to ask if you were aware of his comic book career?

KANEGSON: Uh, yes.

Kanegson Sketches!

Abe Kanegson 16” x 24” drawing, late ’40s. [© 2012 Rita Perlin.]

MTG: Then you know he worked on The Spirit? You might be interested to know that there’s a Jules Feiffer book that came out just this year, Backing into Forward, and he talks about Abe glowingly. He was one of his best friends back then.

KANEGSON: I didn’t know that.

MTG: You might want to check that out. It’s a very interesting book.

What can you tell me about your father? You were quite young when he passed on, right?

KANEGSON: Yes, it was just before my 7th birthday, so I was 6. But he had been sick for a long time. He traveled a lot. We didn’t address each other in the normal way, because he knew he was going to die at the time of my conception. So he took more of the role of a friend, though he knew he was my father. He did act as my father, also, but a little more distant than with the other kids, and in the last month, I think, he was at home a lot and he was drawing, and I remember some of the things he was drawing at the time.

MTG: What kind of things was he drawing? At that point, as far as I know, he wasn’t…

KANEGSON: I was about in second grade, so it was right towards the end… he was doing a record album cover. I tried to imitate him, and found that I couldn’t really draw the way he could and kind of gave up on it for along while because of that. I can tell you that particular album had a bunch of grapes on it and a flute.

MTG: Interesting. I didn’t realize he was still doing artwork at that point….

KANEGSON: He did that consistently.

MTG: Did he sign his work? Do you have any examples?

KANEGSON: I know that my Aunt has a bunch of signed work in her house. Some on the wall, some in boxes. Not all from that period. Some paintings, drawings, all that stuff.

MTG: Wow! What was he like? I realize he was ill much of the time and you were young, but still…

KANEGSON: I never knew him. In the normal sense. It was not visible to me other than he would be home at times when other people were out working and stuff. But that doesn’t necessarily mean illness, either, because I do the same thing. I work in the motion picture business and have an odd schedule myself, which is why I couldn’t talk to you yesterday. I was out scouting a job. He was a very pleasant guy, puzzles and curiosities; he would take me walking in the woods, which is why to this day I have a love of walking in the woods. He would show me rocks and, you know, explain things of the Earth and trees, and he was a very good-natured, gentle kind of person.

MTG: He sounded like he was well liked at the Eisner studio. Has your mother ever talked about Will Eisner and the time back then?

KANEGSON: Not in depth. Her personal story was that he had the Village Folk Dance studio on Bleecker Street. She was young and she started working there and that’s how they met. He must have been in his late 30s then, and she was about 20 or 21. On one of his records they sing together.

MTG: Well, I think it’s on the memorial album. Among other things there was a song they sang together. That’s how I discovered your name and number and such… because I saw there was an Abe Kanegson album on eBay, and I had to do a lot of tracking down to figure out if it was the same Abe Kanegson.

KANEGSON: [laughs] I had no idea such a thing would be on eBay.

The Mystery of the Missing Letterer—Part 4

MTG: Yeah, it actually was. I won a copy and was thrilled. It’s very interesting, because your father was very highly regarded in comic book circles as a letterer. He left the Eisner studios and for 60 years after that Will Eisner was curious what happened to him and kept going to comic conventions and asking if anyone knew what happened to him, so it was this big mystery. So it’s fascinating to finally find something.

KANEGSON: According to my cousin Ken Perlin, who is very big in his industry, which is multi-media, particularly computer graphics, Abe basically invented, or revolutionized, what we know today as the modern way of lettering a comic book. In other words, he influenced the style of the way it is done from his time forward. I don’t know, exactly, but that’s what Ken asserts.

MTG: Well, he certainly took it to a new level. Eisner considered him one of the greatest letterers ever, and I would have to agree with that. I think he was just fabulous.

KANEGSON: I just wanted you to know he always wrote in pen and ink.

You know, fountain pen at home. Not even the type with a reservoir, but the type you dip into an ink bottle. That was his mode of writing at all times, pretty much. I’m sure he would use a pencil sometimes, but he would commonly write that way. Sorry to interrupt, but I’ve got to go back to work. I’ve been on my lunch.

MTG: Sure. One other question before I go. I’ve been trying to contact your mother. Is there any special way to do that?

KANEGSON: No, she’s kind of reclusive. Even I can’t get to her.

MTG: Well, one final question: Do you know why he quit the Eisner studios, or why he left?

KANEGSON: No, I don’t have that history. Before my time.

69

MTG: Yeah, that’s why I’d love to talk to your mother. If there’s any way you can think of that I can contact her, please let me know.

KANEGSON: All right. I’ll try to raise her myself, but it’s not easy. I’ve actually gone to New York several times and not been able to see her while I’m there, and then get home and after the trip she’ll call and say, “Were you looking for me?” [Michael laughs] I’ve gone to knock on the door, literally, and not been able to get her. So I’ll give it a shot and let you know how it works out.

MTG: Any last thoughts about your dad you want to share before we go?

KANEGSON: He often would pick up a magazine or newspaper and draw in captions and dialogue, cartoonist style, putting humorous words in the mouths of the models in the ads. Even as a small child, I found that very amusing. And he was very into health food way back in the early ‘60s. He juiced, made yogurt in a jar wrapped in a towel inside a box in the kitchen cabinet. He would lie on the couch with a garlic clove on his nose and inhale it. He lived with leukemia as an adult for at least 7 years, at a time when a leukemia diagnosis was normally a death sentence within several months. The yogurt box in the cabinet was next to my piggy bank, into which I got a dime a day. That was real money back then... the cost of a ride on the subway or a slice of pizza. Later, my mom raided it, out of a necessity I didn’t understand at the time.

MTG: She sounds like a remarkable woman! Thanks, Ben. Thanks to Ben’s efforts I was eventually able to contact and interview Abe’s widow. That piece will appear later. But now, let’s hear what Abe’s younger sister, psychologist Rita Perlin, has to say. Aside from a very informative interview, Rita also provided us with a wealth of unpublished Abe Kanegson art and photos, for which we are extremely grateful.

Rita Perlin Interview MICHAEL T. GILBERT: Mrs. Perlin, my name is Michael Gilbert and I’m doing an article on Abe Kanegson. I’ve been trying to find some information, and I was wondering if you’d be able to help on that.

RITA PERLIN: I will try.

MTG: Wonderful. Abe has been something of a mystery man in the comic world. He’s highly regarded as a letterer in the 1940s for the Will Eisner studios.

PERLIN: Unfortunately, Will Eisner gave Abe a bound [hardcover] copy of The Spirit, that he had signed, and when my parents moved, that whole carton got lost, so I was very devastated.

MTG: Oh, that’s a shame. Could you tell me a little more about that?....

Will had it made just for him?

PERLIN: He may have. But it’s gone a long time. Maybe 50 years ago we had it. What can I tell you?

MTG: Actually, all the Spirit Sections have been reprinted in hardcover editions now. So they have 26 volumes of the material…. [Abe lettered the strips] roughly from 1947 to 1951.

PERLIN: Probably the case, yes.

MTG: I’m sure you are familiar with Jules Feiffer. He wrote a book just this year, sort of a history of his whole career, and he talks glowingly about Abe...

“Lonesome Cool!”

PERLIN: When I was a kid, [Jules Feiffer] lived across the street from us… well, the block across the street—you know, the same block. He used to come and visit. My brother Abe admired him very much.

Eisner and Kanegson’s virtuoso lettering for The Spirit Section of Dec. 18, 1949. [© 2012 Will Eisner Studios, Inc.]

I should get the book, I know, because he always admired Abe. My

70

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

brother was a very talented guy.

MTG: He really was, I think, one of the best letterers in the business. Do you know why Abe left Will Eisner studios?

PERLIN: 1951? Let me just see... how old would he have been? Because I know he got sick at some point, and I don’t know if it was then or not….

Or he got sick after that. I really don’t know why he left.

MTG: [His son] Ben said he got sick about the time that Ben was conceived, so...

PERLIN: That would have been like in 1957, ‘58, something like that. You don’t think that it was mutual between him and Will Eisner?

MTG: I recall reading an interview with Eisner in which he said Abe had asked for a raise, and when Will refused, Abe quit.

PERLIN: It’s possible. I don’t know those details. He didn’t share that with me.

MTG: It might also have been the fact that The Spirit itself was winding down. By 1952 it was gone. And Abe hadn’t lettered the strip for about a year by that time.

PERLIN: I’m sorry I don’t know the answer to that. Otherwise, I could go on forever about Abe. He was multi-talented, you know. He sang.

MTG: Right. I have his album.

PERLIN: He stuttered. And he sang in any language, like a native. People would walk up to him and ask him if it’s Portuguese or whatever he was singing. And he did have a TV show.

“Lonesome Cool!”

Eisner and Kanegson’s virtuoso lettering for The Spirit Section of Dec. 18, 1949. [© 2012 Will Eisner Studios, Inc.]

MTG: He had a TV show?

season, and then he got very ill.

PERLIN: Yeah. It was about just before he—right after he got very sick. He was young. He went across the United States in a boxcar. He had many kinds of experiences. He worked for Macy’s for two weeks as a custodian.

Early in the morning. And just before he started working for Will Eisner, I guess, he went across the country in a boxcar. You know, like with the bunks. And he went to visit a friend of his who also lived in the neighborhood, who had married and moved away to middle America, I don’t remember exactly, maybe Indiana… and he went to stay with him and on the way.

I don’t recall all the details. It must have been 1947, or something.

MTG: He got leukemia, right?

PERLIN: Yes. He already had it when he was doing this. Obviously, because he was very busy, he didn’t know that he had it…. It was a tragedy.

I don’t know if he told you, my brother was also square...

MTG: A square dancer, yeah.

He took a test, like an aptitude test. And he did extremely well, and actually what I found out later [is that] it was like a mechanical aptitude test, and the person told him he had never seen anybody put this together so quickly. He used those kinds of things that you would find on a mechanical aptitude test, was the best I could put it together…. Because I’m a psychologist, so I figured later what it was.

MTG: Well, he really was. I mean, he was a wonderful letterer and he also did inking on some of the Spirit stories.

PERLIN: Yeah. I think before that my mom told me that when he was just finishing high school, he went to a job that was competitive as a draftsman. Like a thousand applicants. She said about fifty people got the job, and he had never taken a course in drafting.

And he would draw this on the TV show. He wore like an artist’s smock, and people would try to guess—see, he kept on filling in the items, then two people would guess what it was, some kind of mechanical tool, something like that. And he pantomimed the entire thing, because he couldn’t speak without stuttering. I remember that; it was amazing.

But I know he was sick because he had lost, by that time, about 50 pounds, so it was like in the late ‘50s.

MTG: Do you know the name of the show?

PERLIN: Nope. Maybe my brother Louie does. I have a brother in Florida. But he was there like one

PERLIN: And he was very—he was an excellent dancer in any kind of dance. Any dance that I couldn’t dance with him as a lead, I’d never do it again with anyone else. Very light on his feet. He was an excellent dancer. He was a very gifted person.

MTG: Did he have any art education, or were there any other interesting art jobs that he did before or after that?

PERLIN: You know, that was also in that box. One of the things he did was [that] he did, like at the conventions, where you see these drawings of, like, juries or of the proceedings...

Backward… March!

Cover to Jules Feiffer’s 2010 autobiography, Backing into Forward. [© 2012 Jules Feiffer.]

MTG: Right, sure. Court sketches.

PERLIN: Unfortunately, that was lost. But he did those kinds of drawings. He did painting. I have paint-

The Mystery of the Missing Letterer—Part 4

71

ings of his at home. Self-portraits and stuff like that. My brother may have the self-portrait. He maybe has given one to Ben. He used to do a lot of painting at home. I think my brother has one or two. I don’t know what happened to the rest of it. Some of it got lost. But he was always interested in painting since he was a very young guy.

second child. That I knew of. There may be have been others between that I didn’t know. There was about eight years between Abe and my eldest brother Mack, and then I think there was another child that was born before and died of polio, but I don’t know that kid. We grew up as us four. My oldest brother was Mack, deceased about 12 years already, and then Abe, [then] my brother Lou who is only two years older than me, and myself. There were four of us. Parents came to the United States around 1922. He was a year old.

MTG: Did he have any formal education?

PERLIN: I don’t think he did. I think he started City College, but I don’t think he even finished. He finished high school at 15 and a half or something. Then he started college, but I don’t think he finished.

My brother Mack did a lot of different things. He had been in sales, but most of his life he worked with my father on the soda truck. He also worked during the war, along with my brother Abe, in the shipyards building ships for the Army, for the war. He was there for quite a number of years during World War II.

MTG: What kind of art training did he get?

PERLIN: I have no idea if he had any art training, but he dabbled….

He used oils and other things; I don’t where he learned how to mix the oils.

My brother Lou is a professional fundraiser. He’s retired.

MTG: Did he get a job at different art studios before Eisner so he learned how to letter?

MTG: What were your parents’ names?

PERLIN: To my knowledge he did that just on his own.

MTG: Amazing!

PERLIN: He learned piano and guitar on his own. See, nobody ever taught him that. My parents could not afford to provide him any lessons. So he plays the piano by ear since I could ever remember, and later on he plays the guitar and he learned that, as well. So he plays both instruments.

He could pick up anything in that way….

MTG: Wow. Could you tell me a little bit about your family?

PERLIN: Let’s me just see— he was the

Draw Like A Pirate Day! This unpublished Will Eisner/Jerry Grandenetti cover from 1948 sports a swashbuckling Kanegson logo. [© 2012 Will Eisner Studios, Inc.]

PERLIN: David was my father, and my mother was Esther Kanegson.

And they immigrated here. In fact, my husband got a copy of the manifest from their trip to the United States. I think they lived on the Lower East Side for a while and finally moved up to the Bronx.

MTG: Did Abe ever talk to you about Will Eisner and the Will Eis-

ner studios?

PERLIN: I knew Will Eisner was his boss. He may have spoken more to my brother Lou, because he’s two years older than me and they shared a room. My brother Louie was very interested in writing. He has written a couple of books and stuff like that, so he may have more intellectual communication with him than he did with me. Abe was 11 years older than him and 13 older than me. Abe was much closer, you know, than he was with me in certain ways, so my brother Lou may know some of these things.

MTG: What was it like in the last years of Abe’s life?

PERLIN: It was terrible! He lived pretty much at home. He survived longer than expected with leukemia, about eight years, through alternative diets and things like that. And my brother Louie, who is two years older than me, helped support him and his wife then. Very, very devoted.

MTG: Ben said he was he had been drawing record albums covers at that time, also.

A Tree Grows In The Bronx!

Abe drew this (and an unsigned companion piece), in the late 1940s. [© 2012 Rita Perlin.]

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

PERLIN: Yeah. I have a lot of old cartooning stuff away someplace that he had drawn lots of.... He was an amazing cartoonist. I have to tell you, I used to be fascinated because when he would start to draw something... you never knew what it was going to be. And very often what he started with was the toenail on a big toe.

And then, he would go right up from there. I was very impressed, because he had a visual knowledge of all details without having to research anything. He would just draw it. He did a lot of pen and ink drawings, a lot of pen and ink stuff. I could dig them out from someplace [for you].

MTG: It would be wonderful if you could. Like I say, I’m doing a multi-part article, and there’s almost nothing known about Abe, and he’s such an important figure.

more than I do. Why are you doing this article?

MTG: This is for a magazine called Alter Ego, a magazine devoted to comic book creators of the 1940s and ‘50s primarily. As a psychologist, I know you’ll appreciate that name. [laughs] Well, thank you so much for your help.

I really appreciate it.

My next call was to Abe’s younger brother, Louis Kanegson. Lou surprised me when he mentioned that he’d been a die-hard comic book fan, beginning in the late 1930s! But we’ll discuss that when we continue our Kanegson series... next issue!

Till next time...

PERLIN: I’ll be happy to lend it to you.

And you might also want to talk to my brother Lou, because he may know

Say Cheese!

[Suicide Squad TM & ©2011 DC Comics.]

(Left to right:) Abe’s older brother Mack, father David, Abe (on lap) and mother Ester, probably around 1925. [© 2012 Rita Perlin.]

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75

Introduction by P.C. Hamerlinck

I

nside a torch-illuminated, stone-blocked underground dwelling, an elderly, Biblical-looking figure, holding an ancient scroll confidently gazed upon the three prodigious mortals positioned boldly before him. The majestic scene—the first ever interior panel to depict all three members of the Marvel Family together—was captured with profound solemnity, epic brilliance, and applied with cinematographic artistry… and, to this day, perseveres its emotive power as much as it did when I first fixed my eyes on it at eleven years of age.

[Art & logo ©2011 Marc Swayze; Captain Marvel © & TM 2011 DC Comics]

[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 No. 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 concluded the final installment of John G. Pierce’s discussion with Marc from Comics Interview #122 (1993). This time around, I talked with Marc about my all-time, unparalleled favorite Swayze illusration.

—P.C. Hamerlinck.]

Twenty years before I owned my well-read copy of Captain Marvel Adventures #18 (Dec. ’42), I had first assimilated its lead story—“Captain Marvel Introduces Mary Marvel”—judiciously reprinted within the pages of Shazam! #8 (Dec. 1973). As an overwhelming majority of our readers are already familiar with that memorable origin tale, I won’t go into specifics; I will say that—super-heroics notwithstanding—Billy Batson’s pivotal reunion with his long-lost twin sister remains one of the more poignant and moving moments in the rich Shazam mythology. After further cogitating this compelling chronicle, there was another equally extraordinary aspect about it… its illustrations… and that mesmerizing aforesaid opening panel! Whose drawing board did it spring from?

I was a perceptive-enough kid in ’73 to know that, with some similarities aside, it wasn’t the work of C.C. Beck. I would soon immerse myself in initial interviews in Steranko’s History of Comics (as well as in an early FCA) of a man who later referred to himself as “the most forgotten of the unknowns, or the most unknown of the forgottens.” I had found my mystery artist!

Flash-forward to August, 1994. After tucking in my 10-month-old son, I dash a letter off to Mr. Marc Swayze. Would he join forces with me in my mad mission to resurrect FCA? A lot of correspondence (and “We Didn’t Know…” memoirs) have taken place since, with the artist appreciative of my “patience” in continuing to write to “the worst correspondent ever to pick up a pen, as Rod Reed said, and Wendell Crowley concurred.”

Making A Splash Marc Swayze’s momentous and venerable opening artwork for “Captain Marvel Introduces Mary Marvel” from Captain Marvel Adventures #18 (Dec. 1942). When the landmark Marvel Family drawing was first reprinted in 1973, it made a significant and permanent impression on the FCA editor. [Shazam heroes TM & ©2011 DC Comics.]

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FCA [Fawcett Collectors of America]

Style Show Marc Swayze conscientiously implemented the art style of Russell Keaton when assisting on the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip and C.C. Beck’s style on “Captain Marvel” during his early period with Fawcett, but otherwise had always illustrated in his own personal style, first epoused years before his associations with both artists and with his friend Mac Raboy. Seen clockwise are Raboy’s cover for Master Comics #28 (July ’42)… Beck’s cover for Whiz Comics #10 (Nov. 1940)… and Keaton’s Flyin’ Jenny “Style Show” paper doll art from a water-colore proof of the 6-14-42 Sunday strip (dug up from the out-of-print book The Aviation Art of Russell Keaton). [Shazam heroes TM & ©2011 DC Comics; Flyin’ Jenny TM & ©2011 The Bell Syndicate or subsequent respective copyright holders.]

During one of our Pony Express dialogues, I finally got around to inquiring about the eminent and momentous Marvel Page “splash” panel from CMA #18… and how he skillfully amalgamated the art styles of C.C. Beck and Mac Raboy with his own. Marc was quick to point out my misinterpretation: MARC SWAYZE: I didn’t do that, Paul.

I drew in the style of Russell Keaton on Flyin’ Jenny during my apprentice years, and C.C. Beck’s style on “Captain Marvel” during that period with Fawcett… because that was what the jobs called for. Otherwise, I drew in my own style… adopted and used before I knew Keaton, Beck, or Raboy. It was my own style I used on the three covers I did featuring Mary Marvel in 1942—with the exception of the “Santa Claus” cover for Captain Marvel Adventures #19 (Jan. 1943); by that time I probably realized I wouldn’t be doing the Mary Marvel strip, so I went the Beck route on that one.

My own style may have been an influence of the slick magazine illustrators of the ’30s and ’40s… a bit more realistic… or less cartoony than Keaton’s or Beck’s… but modified to this extent: I made it a point that the style was in accordance with the work I was committed to… the comics.

And, in my view, a career in that field that did not permit the style of my friend, Mac Raboy.

I then asked Marc if the Captain Marvel Jr. artist’s meticulously detailed art style was truly problematical for Raboy to meet deadlines, as previously documented?

SWAYZE: Mac was slow, as we all know, Paul. We all have… and had… our “personal deadlines”… Mac may have hated ’em, but he made ’em!

[Marc Swayze’s reminiscences continue next issue!]

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78

“ Is This What I Want To Do For The Rest Of My Life?”

The ROY ALD Interview, Part 2

by Shaun Clancy Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

R

oy Ald was an editor and writer for Fawcett Publications’ comic books from 1946 to 1953, applying his talents to such titles as Wow Comics (featuring Mary Marvel, The Phantom Eagle, Commando Yank, Mr. Scarlet, and his comical creation “Ozzie and Babs”), Captain Midnight, Don Winslow of the Navy, This Magazine Is Haunted, Captain Video, Life Story, and Strange Suspense Stories, as well as developing the groundbreaking Negro Romance comic and Fawcett’s early graphic novel experiment Mansion of Evil before editing various Fawcett magazines after the publisher terminated its comics line. Ald later moved on to other noteworthy publishing ventures with various companies, and also authored dozens of books—predominately in the health and fitness fields. Remarkably, the now 90-year-old Ald has himself maintained a high level of physical prowess and aptitude over the years.

Crowley and Will Lieberson (including reminiscences of Will’s fleeting Broadway play), artist George Evans, and the creation of the Fawcett Gold Medal book Mansion of Evil. We pick things up here with interviewer Shaun Clancy and Ald’s illuminating background to his Fawcett comic innovation, Negro Romance, and one of that title’s African-American artists, Alvin Hollingsworth.

—PCH.

Last issue, Roy Ald brought us back to his time in the military, memories of first coming to Fawcett Publications and of editors Wendell

SC: A.C. Hollingsworth? I talked to him over ten years ago; he has since passed away. He also happened to be African-American.

SHAUN CLANCY: What can you tell me about Fawcett’s Negro Romance comic book?

ROY ALD: I started the romance comics at Fawcett, including Negro Romance.

SC: It lasted for only three issues.

ALD: I remember doing more than that… maybe about seven issues. I had an artist on that series by the name of Dr. Alvin Hollingsworth.

The Roy Ald Interview—Part 2: “Is This What I Want To Do For The Rest Of My Life?”

79

going to turn into such a great painter?

Colorblind Comics ALD: No, since he wasn’t the greatest comic book artist. And just because you have a comic art background doesn’t mean you’re going to make it as a painter.

Roy Ald (seen in recent photo, which was printed in full last issue) was instrumental in Fawcett’s entry into the highly-popular romance comics field—which included creating (with artist Alvin Hollingsworth) the ground-breaking title Negro Romance. Shown on opposite page are the covers of issues #1-3 of the Fawcett run (June., Aug., and Oct. 1950) and the single 1955 Charlton issue, which reprinted the contents from Fawcett’s second issue. Ald, who edited the book and wrote most of its stories under an alias, firmly believes there was more NR material produced beyond the three documented Fawcett issues. [© 2011 the respective copyright holders.]

SC: Were there any other African-Americans working for Fawcett?

ALD: No, Alvin was the only one. He did have two assistants with him while he was working for Fawcett who were also AfricanAmerican men… an older gentleman, Al Sargent, and the younger one, Charlie Ferguson.

SC: Do you remember who wrote the stories in Negro Romance?

ALD: I wrote most of them.

SC: How did the idea for the series come about?

ALD: That’s correct. When he was a 16-year-old kid, he came up to Fawcett and wanted to be a comic book artist. At first, he’d come to visit Wendell [Crowley], but since he couldn’t use him, Al eventually came to me. He was the only kid I recall ever hanging out at the office and showing off his work. I became interested in him a little later, and Al got to know me very well … so when I started the Negro Romance comic, he became a very busy young man.

SC: Who actually suggested doing the comic, you or Hollingsworth?

SC: When I had called Hollingsworth, he didn’t want to talk about comics.

SC: Was it a tough sell to the Fawcetts?

ALD: That’s because he was a fine artist… a painter. He innovated blacklight painting. I remember once introducing an art gallery showing for him. I can’t remember the name of the gallery, but I believe it was owned

by Frank Epperson, inventor of the Popsicle stick.

SC: Was Hollingsworth a gofer or assistant at Fawcett when he first started out?

ALD: It was because of Hollingsworth that we did the series.

ALD: It may have been created between the two of us, but most likely it was because of my liberal attitude that I initially suggested it… in fact, I’m almost certain of it.

ALD: No, not at that time. And the fact that it had sold well was all that mattered to them.

SC: Yet it only lasted three issues.

ALD: No, no, no … that can’t be.

SC: There have only been four issues acknowledged; the fourth one was published by Charlton and merely reprinted Fawcett’s second issue.

ALD: No. As a kid, he’d just sketch from home. He was an intellectual and ALD: There’s something wrong with that, because I don’t remember that excelled in college, and eventually got a doctorate in education and later comic being discontinued so fast. Fawcett wouldn’t have cancelled it so became an instructor at a New York university. I had written a book, The quickly, because it was selling. It was a hot thing at the time.

Case for An Afterlife, and in order to give the book some authenticity I had used the name Doctor Hollingsworth in it. One day, I got a call from Alvin saying, “I wish you had told me you were going to use my name in a book!” [laughs] Future Fine Artist SC: Did you know early on that Hollingsworth was

Juxtaposed with a late’40s/early-’50s sample of his work is teenager Alvin Hollingsworth, seen here swashbuckling around on a New York City rooftop; the photo was taken around the same period that the aspiring artist was paying regular visits to Fawcett comics editors Wendell Crowley and Roy Ald—the latter of whom eventually hired the young man. After working in comics for various publishers during the ’40s and 50s, the Negro Romance artist would later become a renowned expressionist painter, college professor, television personality, and prominent voice in the 1960s Civil Rights movement. Watch for Shaun Clancy’s in-depth look at A.C. Hollingsworth’s career in a future FCA section.

80

FCA [Fawcett Collectors of America]

SC: The three Fawcett issues documented are dated June, August, and October of 1950… but you feel there were more issues produced?

ALD: Definitely.

SC: Do you think that maybe it abruptly ended because the newsstands didn’t want to carry it?

ALD: The only thing the Fawcetts cared about was that it was selling. And that’s all that would have mattered to the distributors, the newsstands, and everyone else.

There’s something wrong with there only having been three issues of it… that doesn’t seem right.

SC: Did you pitch new titles for comics, or were they assigned to you?

ALD: I would come up with them. Willie [Lieberson] would come to me when the assignment called for anything creative… anything that needed an idea.

SC: Will Lieberson once told FCA that you were one of the most creative people he had ever worked with. The Negro Romance comic was wellwritten and could appeal to either black or white audiences.

Seeing Stars As editor of Wow Comics, Roy Ald remembers working longdistance with Marc Swayze on several of the books he edited, including Life Story. Above is the splash panel for the Swayzedrawn lead story from LS #24 (March ’51). The Wow #52 (Mar. ’47) cover, featuring cover star Mary Marvel flying past her co-stars, was drawn by Jack Binder. [Life Story art © 2011 the respective copyright holders; Shazam heroine TM & © 2011 DC Comics.]

SC: Was using Swayze for comic book work while he lived in Louisiana ever a problem?

ALD: No. We had quite a quite a few freelance people working for us with similar situations, and everything arrived in time.

SC: Were there editorial meetings with the other editors?

SC: Do you recall the day you heard about the National vs. Fawcett lawsuit?

ALD: There were no open editorial meetings at all. Writers would submit a 2-page synopsis, which would then be brought to Willie Lieberson, and if he liked it, he would tell me to have the writer go ahead with it, and that’s all there was to it. Wendell Crowley had his own team on “Captain Marvel,” and I had my own, and occasionally we’d tell each other what we were doing. Other than that, there were no open exchanges of ideas or anything like that. Everyone did their own thing.

ALD: It wasn’t like it happened one day. Everyone saw it coming.

SC: Were there any storylines you had to reject?

SC: Were tensions high within the office over it?

ALD: I never rejected anything, because the synopsis would’ve already been approved.

ALD: I made sure of that myself. I treated African-Americans the same way I treated everyone else.

ALD: It didn’t have any effect on the working environment. The mindset at the office was that it was just a frivolous lawsuit. No one from our staff even testified; the Fawcett lawyers never even talked with us. The only reason the case was lost was due to the ineptitude of the attorneys.

Somewhere there are briefs on the case to be researched. I believe the trial would make for a great movie.

SC: Wasn’t Captain Marvel outselling Superman?

ALD: Not really, although he was giving him a run for his money.

SC: In your opinion, was there anyone you were working with at Fawcett that you felt was being held back from better things in life by working in comics?

ALD: There were a few individuals, like C.C. Beck, but for the most part, no.

SC: Did you collect comics when you were growing up?

ALD: Yes I do. He didn’t work in the office, but when he came in from his studio, he was very personable.

ALD: I didn’t collect them, but I would read all the comics that were available when I was a kid. The only person I recall ever collecting comics was Wendell. Not only did he collect all the Fawcett comics, but he also collected ones from the other outfits.

SC: Do you recall Marc Swayze?

SC: Did you follow comics after you left Fawcett?

ALD: Yes, I do remember him. He drew for some of books I edited [Wow Comics; romance comics].

ALD: No. I was interested in other things. There was a lot of other writing that I wanted to do.

SC: Do you remember “Captain Marvel” artist C.C. Beck?

[Continued next issue!]

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BACK ISSUE #52

BACK ISSUE #53

BACK ISSUE #54

• Digital Editions available: $2.95-$3.95!

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Bronze Age Mystery Comics! Interviews with BERNIE WRIGHTSON, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, GERRY TALAOC, DC mystery writer LORE SHOBERG, MARK EVANIER and DAN SPIEGLE discuss Scooby-Doo, Charlton chiller anthologies, Black Orchid, Madame Xanadu art and commentary by TONY DeZUNIGA, MIKE KALUTA, VAL MAYERIK, DAVID MICHELINIE, MATT WAGNER, and a rare cover painting by WRIGHTSON!

“Gods!” Takes an in-depth look at WALTER SIMONSON’s Thor, the Thunder God in the Bronze Age, “Pro2Pro” interview with TOM DeFALCO and RON FRENZ, Hercules: Prince of Power, Moondragon, Three Ways to End the New Gods Saga, exclusive interview with fantasy writer MICHAEL MOORCOCK, art and commentary by GERRY CONWAY, JACK KIRBY, BOB LAYTON, and more, with a swingin’ Thor cover by SIMONSON!

“Liberated Ladies” eyeing female characters that broke barriers in the Bronze Age: Big Barda, Valkyrie, Ms. Marvel, Phoenix, Savage She-Hulk, and the sword-wielding Starfire. Plus a “Pro2Pro” interview with JILL THOMPSON, GAIL SIMONE, and BARBARA KESEL, art and commentary by JOHN BYRNE, GEORGE PEREZ, JACK KIRBY, MIKE VOSBURG, and more, with a new cover by BRUCE TIMM!

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THE BEST IN COMICS AND LEGO MAGAZINES!

ALTER EGO #104

ALTER EGO #106

ALTER EGO #107

ALTER EGO #108

DRAW! #22

Celebrates the 50th anniversary of FANTASTIC FOUR #1 and the birth of Marvel Comics! New, never-beforepublished STAN LEE interview, art and artifacts by KIRBY, DITKO, SINNOTT, AYERS, THOMAS, and secrets behind the Marvel Mythos! Also: JIM AMASH interviews 1940s Timely editor AL SULMAN, FCA, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, and a new cover by FRENZ and SINNOTT!

DICK GIORDANO through the 1960s—from freelance years and Charlton “Action-Heroes” to his first stint at DC! Art by DITKO, APARO, BOYETTE, MORISI, McLAUGHLIN, GIL KANE, and others, Dick’s final convention panel with STEVE SKEATES and ROY THOMAS, JIM AMASH interviews Charlton artist TONY TALLARICO, FCA with MARC SWAYZE and ROY ALD, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, BILL SCHELLY, GIORDANO cover, and more!

Big BATMAN issue, with an unused Golden Age cover by DICK SPRANG! SHEL DORF interviews SPRANG and JIM MOONEY, with rare and unseen Batman art by BOB KANE, JERRY ROBINSON, WIN MORTIMER, SHELLY MOLDOFF, CHARLES PARIS, and others! Part II of the TONY TALLARICO interview by JIM AMASH! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

1970s Bullpenner WARREN REECE talks about Marvel Comics and working with EVERETT, BURGOS, ROMITA, STAN LEE, MARIE SEVERIN, ADAMS, FRIEDRICH, ROY THOMAS, and others, with rare art!

DEWEY CASSELL spotlights Golden Age artist MIKE PEPPE, with art by TOTH, ANDRU, TUSKA, CELARDO, & LUBBERS, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, cover by EVERETT & BURGOS, and more!

Interview with inker SCOTT WILLIAMS from his days at Marvel and Image to his work with JIM LEE, and PATRICK OLIFFE demos how he produces Spider-Girl, Mighty Samson, and digital comics. Also, MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ “Comic Art Bootcamp”, a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work by BOB McLEOD, art supply reviews by “Crusty Critic” JAMAR NICHOLAS, and more!

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LEE & KIRBY: THE WONDER YEARS (KIRBY COLLECTOR #58)

Special double-size book examines the first decade of the FANTASTIC FOUR, and the events that put into motion the Marvel Age of Comics! New interviews with STAN LEE, FLO STEINBERG, MARK EVANIER, JOE SINNOTT, and others, with a wealth of historical information and Kirby artwork!

(128-page tabloid trade paperback) $19.95 (Digital Edition) $5.95 • Ships Nov. 2011 (Subscribers: counts as two issues)

KIRBY COLLECTOR #59

BRICKJOURNAL #17

BRICKJOURNAL #18

BRICKJOURNAL #19

“Kirby Vault!” Rarities from the “King” of comics: Personal correspondence, private photos, collages, rare Marvelmania art, bootleg album covers, sketches, transcript of a 1969 VISIT TO THE KIRBY HOME (where Jack answers the questions YOU’D ask in ‘69), MARK EVANIER, pencil art from the FOURTH WORLD, CAPTAIN AMERICA, MACHINE MAN, SILVER SURFER GRAPHIC NOVEL, and more!

LEGO SPACE WAR issue! A STARFIGHTER BUILDING LESSON by Peter Reid, WHY SPACE MARINES ARE SO POPULAR by Mark Stafford, a trip behind the scenes of LEGO’S NEW ALIEN CONQUEST SETS that hit store shelves earlier this year, plus JARED K. BURKS’ column on MINIFIGURE CUSTOMIZATION, building tips, event reports, our step-by-step “YOU CAN BUILD IT” INSTRUCTIONS, and more!

Go to Japan with articles on two JAPANESE LEGO FAN EVENTS, plus take a look at JAPAN’S SACRED LEGO LAND, Nasu Highland Park—the site of the BrickFan events and a pilgrimage site for many Japanese LEGO fans. Also, a feature on JAPAN’S TV CHAMPIONSHIP OF LEGO, a look at the CLICKBRICK LEGO SHOPS in Japan, plus how to get into TECHNIC BUILDING, LEGO EDUCATION, and more!

LEGO EVENTS ISSUE covering our own BRICKMAGIC FESTIVAL, BRICKWORLD, BRICKFAIR, BRICKCON, plus other events outside the US. There’s full event details, plus interviews with the winners of the BRICKMAGIC CHALLENGE competition, complete with instructions to build award winning models. Also JARED K. BURKS’ regular column on minifigure customizing, building tips, and more!

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FALL 2011 EDITION Hype and hullabaloo from the company celebrating the art & history of comics, LEGO®, and other fun stuff

Big Book Update You can always check our website for updated release dates of items you see listed in our full Catalog, but here’s some more specifics on some of our most highly anticipated new items: LOU SCHEIMER: CREATING THE FILMATION GENERATION We’re close to finished with this one, and hope to have it out by the end of 2011. Stay tuned!

MODERN MASTERS: DARWYN COOKE Perhaps the most asked-about book we ever announced but haven’t yet produced, this was originally scheduled to ship a couple of years ago. We’re happy to announce that, as of this writing, we’ve just completed the last of the interviews with DARWYN for the book, and are close to announcing the new release date for it. Watch our home page for ordering info!

THE QUALITY COMPANION Co-authors MIKE KOOIMAN and JIM AMASH are working feverishly to make the planned October release date for this look at the history of the classic Golden Age comics publisher!

MATT BAKER: THE ART OF GLAMOUR This lavish book is progressing nicely as ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON’s schedule has cleared up, and you should see it out for the holidays!

Please stay tuned to our website (www.twomorrows.com) for current release dates on all our upcoming items, and thanks for your patience.

by publisher John Morrow

THE LATEST & GREATEST!

By now you’ve seen ALTER EGO: CENTENNIAL, the 100th issue of ROY THOMAS’ acclaimed magazine, which we produced as a double-size BOOK instead of the usual magazine format (complete with extra color pages). You’ve also encountered BACK ISSUE #50, which for the first time presented all 80 pages in FULL-COLOR (with a corresponding $1 cover price increase, but no extra cost for subscribers). We’ll be adding more color pages to our mags (with some issues completely full-color) over the next year, as the subject matter (and reader preference) demands.

Speaking of Roy Thomas, he and Bill Schelly are working on a follow-up to their book ALTER EGO: BEST OF THE LEGENDARY COMICS FANZINE. It’ll feature the “Best of the Rest” of the original 1960s and ‘70s run of A/E, and should be out in 2012 from TwoMorrows.

KEITH VERONESE lets you get PLUGGED IN, in our new book on comics greats who work in the video game industry. It features GERRY CONWAY, ROY THOMAS (him again!), and ELLIOT S! MAGGIN candidly talking about the early days of Atari along with comics pros JIMMY PALMIOTTI, CHRIS BACHALO, MIKE DEODATO, JOSHUA ORTEGA, and RICK REMENDER discussing their work on the current generation video game hits!

There are interComics Professionals Working in the Video Game Industry views with other artists and writers who made the leap to working in video games full time, including an in-depth interview with TRENT KANIUGA (CreeD) about working as one of the architects of the long awaited Diablo III! Look for PLUGGED IN in early 2012.

New (& Old) Digital Editions Coming! Back for a limited time:

We’ve made available economically-priced Digital Editions of most of the back issues of our mags, but haven’t gotten to the first 49 issues of ALTER EGO yet. Going back and recreating each issue in digital form is taking more time than we anticipated when we produced our 2011 Catalog, but we should have those final ones posted later this year, so stay tuned! Also coming soon are new and improved Digital Editions of sold-out books in our Catalog, like TRUE BRIT, MR. MONSTER VOLUME ZERO, and others. We’re working on adding additional pages and MORE COLOR than in the original print versions, and those should be up soon as well. And now available are Digital Editions of two sold-out MODERN MASTERS volumes, on ARTHUR ADAMS and WALTER SIMONSON! Stay tuned for even more in the coming months.

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All characters TM & ©2011 their respective owners.

TwoMorrows News Today

EISNER DOC ON DVD & BLU-RAY NOW! Our old buddy JON B. COOKE and his brother ANDY of Montilla Productions have produced the award-winning documentary WILL EISNER: PORTRAIT OF A SEQUENTIAL ARTIST. It’s the definitive look at the life and art of the godfather of the American comic book, which premiered at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival. It includes interviews with KURT VONNEGUT, MICHAEL CHABON, JULES FEIFFER, ART SPIEGELMAN, FRANK MILLER, STAN LEE, GIL KANE as well as the never-before-heard “Shop Talk” audio tapes featuring JACK KIRBY, HARVEY KURTZMAN, MILTON CANIFF, NEAL ADAMS, JOE KUBERT and others! It’s 96 minutes with plenty of bonus features, and TwoMorrows is proud to be able to offer it to our customers! The DVD is only $20, while the Blu-ray is $26, and both are available now at our website.

Pros@Cons!

In 2011-2012, you can find us exhibiting at these conventions: COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL (San Diego, CA, July)

A distributor just discovered a couple of boxes of two of our sold-out books: THE ART OF GEORGE TUSKA by DEWEY CASSELL and the acclaimed JUSTICE LEAGUE COMPANION by MICHAEL EURY. If you missed either, now’s your LAST CHANCE to order the print editions, available at www.twomorrows.com.

2011 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: (with FREE Digital Editions)

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$23.70

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