Alter Ego #109 by TwoMorrows Publishing

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW EVERYTHING THERE WAS TO KNOW ABOUT THE

Roy Thomas’ Star-Bedecked Comics Fanzine

8.95

In the USA

No.109 May 2012

™

82658 27763

JUSTICE SOCIETY AMERICA!

Plus: SPECTRE & HOUR-MAN Co-Creator

BERNARD BAILY

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 #99

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

ALTER EGO #104

ALTER EGO: CENTENNIAL (AE #100)

DIEDGITIIOTANSL BL AVAILA

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

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

ALTER EGO #105

ALTER EGO #106

ALTER EGO #107

ALTER EGO #108

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!

See comic art and script BEFORE and AFTER the Comics Code changes, with art by SIMON & KIRBY, DITKO, BUSCEMA, SINNOTT, GOULD, COLE, STERANKO, KRIGSTEIN, O’NEIL, GLANZMAN, ORLANDO, WILLIAMSON, HEATH, and others! Plus: FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY, JIM AMASH interviews Timely/Atlas artist CAL MASSEY, and a new cover by JOSH MEDORS!

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! 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, TUSKA, SEKOWSKY, TALLARICO Part 3, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, cover by EVERETT & BURGOS, and more!

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

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

Vol. 3, No. 109 / April 2012 Roy Thomas

Editor

Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Associate Editors Jon B. Cooke

Design & Layout John Morrow

Consulting Editor P.C. Hamerlinck

FCA Editor

Michael T. Gilbert

Comic Crypt Editor Jerry G. Bails (founder) Ronn Foss, Biljo White Mike Friedrich

Editorial Honor Roll

Rob Smentek

AT LAST! ALL IN COLOR FOR $8.95!

Proofreader

George Pérez

Cover Artist Tom Ziuko

Cover Colorist With Special Thanks to:

Rob Allen Roger Hill Heidi Amash Allan Holtz Dave Armstrong Carmine Infantino Amy Baily William B. Jones, Jr. Eugene Baily Jim Kealy Jill Baily Kirk Kimball Regina Baily Paul Levitz Stephen Baily Mark Lewis Michael Bair Bob Lubbers Richard Beaizly Jim Ludwig Dominic Bongo Russ Maheras Chris Boyko Dan Makara Brett Canavan Bruce Mason Aaron Caplan Harry Mendryk Dewey Cassell Sheldon Moldoff Johnny Chambers Brian K. Morris Shaun Clancy Frank Motler Beau Collier Mark Muller Bob Cosgrove Will Murray Chet Cox Martin O’Hearn Al Dellinges Jake Oster Craig Delich Fern Peppe Mike DeLisa Michele Peppe Michael Dunne Lynn Potter Jackie Estrada Ken Quattro Michael Feldman Gene Reed Stephen Fishler Miriam Baily Risko Shane Foley Randy Sargent Stephan Friedt Pat Sekowsky Bob Fujitani Mitchell Senft Jeff Gelb Tony Tallarico Janet Gilbert Jeff Taylor Ron Goulart Dann Thomas George Hagenauer Dorothy Tuska Jennifer Hamerlinck Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Dave Hartwell Dr. Michael J. Vassallo John Haufe, Jr. Chris Ware Hurricane Heeran Hames Ware Heritage Comics Gregg Whitmore Archives Bill G. Wilson

This issue is dedicated to the memory of:

Bernard Baily, Al Sulman, & Stanley Morse

Contents Writer/Editorial: An All-Star Cast—Of Mind. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Bernard Baily: The Early Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Ken Quattro examines the career of the artist who co-created The Spectre and Hour-Man. The Roy Thomas/Michael Bair 1980s JSA retro-series that didn’t quite happen!

“Fairytales Can Come True…” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Hurricane Heeran imagines different 1940s JSA memberships—and rivals!

What If All-Star Comics Had Sported A Variant Line-up? . . . 25 Pages from that legendary “lost” Golden Age JSA epic—in color for the first time ever!

“Will” Power. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Jim Amash concludes his all-encompassing interview with artist Tony Tallarico.

“I Absolutely Love What I’m Doing!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Dewey Cassell talks about inker Mike Peppe with his daughter and three noted comics artists.

“[Mike And His Friends] Were Like A Band Of Brothers”. . . . 49 Body-builder Charles Atlas influenced more than 97-pound weaklings, says Michael T. Gilbert.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! The Atlas Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Bill Schelly showcases still more photos from the 2011 Reunion party held in San Diego.

Comic Fandom Archive: Fandom’s 50th Birthday Bash, Part 2.65 Tributes to Al Sulman & Stanley Morse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 73 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #168 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75 P.C. Hamerlinck presents a C.C. Beck essay—and an Ibis mini-epic by Marc Swayze.

On Our Cover: Still-superstar George Pérez was already an established artist thirty years ago—then setting the pace with his work on DC’s ultra-popular New Teen Titans—when editor Len Wein tapped him to draw the cover of Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #21 (May 1982). The bite-size mag reprinted, among other items, a Golden Age “Justice Society of America” adventure from All-Star Comics. George gifted the cover, some years back, to writer (and longtime DC publisher) Paul Levitz, who kindly scanned it for us so it could be printed, for the first time ever, at the size it had always deserved. To us, it’s as good as having a new Pérez cover! [© 2012 DC Comics.]

Above: Certainly the better-known of the two JSA members co-created by artist Bernard Baily is The Spectre—but we couldn’t resist printing this eye-catching “Hour Man” splash from Adventure Comics #70 (Jan. 1942). Script by Ken Fitch. Thanks to Jim Ludwig and Jim Kealy. [© 2012 DC Comics.]

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 China. ISSN: 1932-6890 FIRST PRINTING.

writer/editorial

An All-Star Cast—Of Mind

hen it became unfeasible to publish a follow-up book to the four TwoMorrows volumes of The All-Star Companion, which had been devoted to the first half-century of the Justice Society of America and its various offshoots, most of that material went on the shelf… for spaced-out inclusion in future issues of Alter Ego.

Well, why not? After all, much of the very first volume of the Companion, back in 2000, had been composed of items and information that had been gathered for publication in A/E, so in truth things have just come full circle. This issue’s JSA-themed material is truly an assemblage of the ages:

Hurricane Heeran (and no, if he has another, “real” first name, he’s never told us what it is—and we’ve never bothered to ask) prepared his fantasy study of the JSA and its potential imitators at least five or six years ago, and has patiently waited for us to find a chance to get it into print. The same is true for Al Dellinges’ and Mark Lewis’ intriguing art spots for same… although Shane Foley drew his own sterling contributions “only” in the past couple of years.

Ever since 2000, I’d intended to tell the detailed story of the Justice Society of America: Invasion from Fairyland project, as a footnote to the several JSA-related series I conceived that did come to fruition in the 1980s… but I didn’t actually sit down to type it out until deadline time for this issue of A/E loomed. Michael Bair’s exquisite art for same has languished partly unseen for the larger part of three decades… while the unpublished Martin Naydel art from the famous lost issue of All-Star Comics has waited nearly 70 years to appear in color!

As for the first part of Ken Quattro’s ongoing examination of the life and work of artist/entrepreneur Bernard Baily: it first saw the light of day (or at least of the computer screen) last year on his amazing Comics

Detective blog. Because of Baily’s co-creation of “The Spectre” and “HourMan,” two of the original eight members of the JSA, Ken generously gave us permission to reprint it here—though is it really a “reprint” if it’s never appeared in any kind of hardcopy before? Now we’ll all have to be content to wait to read the rest of the story on his blog; he’s working on it.

One piece of this issue’s four-color pie, alas, we decided to leave out at the last minute. Rebecca Wentworth had spoken with Richard Arndt about her father, John B. Wentworth, the writer/co-creator in 1939 of “Johnny Thunder” (among other features), and the interview was all set for inclusion this time around. Then, however, we learned it would be several months before we could get hold of any photographs or other non-DC artifacts related to Wentworth’s life… so we preferred to save that entry for the next JSA-oriented issue of Alter Ego.

And there’ll be one, never fear. The Justice Society, like Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, and a handful of other concepts of the Golden Age of Comics, cannot be exhausted by the thousand or so pages devoted directly and indirectly to it in a quartet of Companion volumes and in the occasional theme issue of A/E.

The JSA is still something like what the Overstreet Price Guide called it years ago:

“A breakthrough concept, second in importance only to the super-hero.”

Since the age of four and a half, long before the above words were actually written, I’ve instinctually agreed with those sentiments.

And I’ve never seen anything happen in the comics field to change my mind. Bestest,

COMING IN JUNE & ALL IN FULL COLOR!

110

THE SECRET ORIGINS OF

CAPTAIN MARVEL! Our Annual FAWCETT FESTIVAL Returns In A Burst Of Shazamic Lightning! • Brand new cover by Golden Age Fawcett artists EMILIO SQUEGLIO & JOE GIELLA! • FCA [Fawcett Collectors of America] Special! Captain Marvel’s classic debut in Whiz Comics #2, retold in prose by artist/co-creator C.C. BECK—ROY THOMAS & JERRY BINGHAM on their controversial retelling in Secret Origins (1986)—actor BURT (“Billy Batson”) BOYAR on the short-lived 1940s Captain Marvel radio series—plus MARC SWAYZE’s very first Phantom Eagle story! • Golden Age (and newspaper strip) artist LEONARD STARR talks to JIM AMASH about his career at DC, Fawcett, Hillman, St. John, Timely, et al.! 2 DC Comics. Shazam heroes TM & © 201

• MICHAEL T. GILBERT’s Comic Crypt-full of new/old Timely covers—BILL SCHELLY presents a star panel from San Diego’s 2011 Fandom Celebration—& MORE!!

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!

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Bernard Baily: The Early Years A Look At The Artist Who Co-Created The Spectre & The Hour-Man by Ken Quattro

Introduction

is work appeared in some of the most important comic books in the history of the medium. His comics studio was the breeding ground of legends. He drew some of the most memorable covers of the 1940s and ’50s. He was an artist, a writer, an editor, and a publisher.

And chances are you know little or nothing about Bernard Baily.

Two-Eighths Of The Justice Society Of America Bernard Baily (right) in the 1940s—and (above) the public’s initial look at the two JSA charter members (out of eight, not counting Superman and Batman) that he co-created. The Spectre appeared in costume on the cover of (but not inside) More Fun Comics #52 (Feb. 1940)—while the “Hour-Man” debut splash is from Adventure Comics #48 (March 1940). The photo, initially printed in 2000 in Vol. 1 of Roy Thomas’ All-Star Companion series of books for TwoMorrows, was courtesy of Mrs. Regina Baily & Mrs. Jill Baily. Most other images accompanying this article were provided by Ken Quattro, though when noted below, they were in turn sent to him by others. [Pages © 2012 DC Comics.]

Dr. Harold G. Campbell stood at the podium surveying the audience. Before him sat 228 graduating seniors of New York City high schools who had been chosen as the June 1933 recipients of the Cooperation-in-Government award. The award was given semi-annually to those who had performed an outstanding piece of public service and was considered to be the highest honor that could be bestowed upon a student.

A Look At The Artist Who Co-Created The Spectre & The Hour-Man

time, he resumed his vocation as a barber. If the story is true, Harry once again had a brush with history when he allegedly cut the hair of Leon Trotsky during the revolutionary leader's brief stay in The Bronx.

He Wanted Wings

Back in Russia, Jenny was a dressmaker, a gifted one who had her own business while still a young woman. But now, in America, the Old World paternalism of her husband wouldn’t allow her to work outside the home, even when times were tough. She had four children to raise; Bernard was the oldest.

Sheldon (“Shelly”) Moldoff, who sadly passed away just as this issue of A/E was going to press, was the second artist to draw “Hawkman” in Flash Comics, starting in 1940, but he swiftly set the standard for the Golden Age hero; he drew the first cover ever to depict Green Lantern. The vintage photo has appeared in many places, including on Kirk Kimball’s (“Robby Reed’s”) “Dial B for Blog” website. The 1994 color commission drawing may be from Shelly’s website, whereon many of his re-creations and other illos can be viewed and even purchased; if not, we apologize to the generous soul who sent us this scan, and we owe him/her a copy of this issue! [Hawkman, Green Lantern, & Solomon Grundy TM & © 2012 DC Comics.]

“Of the nearly 4,000 who have received the awards,” Dr. Campbell proclaimed, “not one has failed to make good.”i Practically a guarantee of success. “I congratulate you as supergraduates on the fact that each of you in your school has stood out as a person upon whom that school can put its stamp of approval.”ii

As the noble words of the Ephebic Oath were administered and recited by the eager young students seated about him, Bernard Bailynson had to be feeling good about his prospects. He was, after all, one of those “super-graduates,” one of only a handful representing James Monroe High School in The Bronx. Not bad for a child of immigrant parents. Not bad at all.

As family legend has it, Gershon Beilinsohn used to cut the hair of “Crazy Moyshe the Painter” back in their native Vitebsk, Russia. Moyshe eventually left Russia and changed his name to Marc Chagall when he reached Paris, while Gershon became Harry Bailynson when his name was Anglicized as he passed through Ellis Island in 1910.

Rumors were that Gershon was a deserter on the run from the czar's army, but that tale, too, remains unsubstantiated.

Harry had sailed to the U.S. aboard the T.S.S. Rotterdam—pride of the Holland America Line. Unlike the well-heeled First and Second cabin passengers that enjoyed their luxurious accommodations and the ocean breezes as they strolled the promenade deck, it's likely Harry spent his voyage crammed into steerage with some 2,000 other immigrants. Harry settled in the teeming ethnic melting pot of The Bronx. In

Harry also met a girl from his hometown of Vitebsk (a common occurrence in the tightly-knit Eastern European Jewish enclaves in New York City) and married her. While her given name was Zelda, she went by the more American-sounding “Jenny.”

Bernard Bailynson

Bernard Bailynson was born April 5, 1916, and accounts of his early years have mostly faded from memory. What is known is that by the time he reached James Monroe High School, Bernie had begun making his mark.

“I think he began drawing cartoons in high school,” wrote Bernard’s eldest son, Stephen, “possibly for the student newspaper. I also have a vague memory of him telling me that he sold his first cartoon while he was still in high school. I don’t know if he had any formal training.”

Stephen’s father never gave the full biographical interview that comic fans and historians glean for details. Perhaps he considered that part of his life private; perhaps it recalled bad memories. In any case, it was his sons Stephen and Eugene that I turned to in hopes of filling in the blanks.

Legendary comic creator Sheldon Moldoff (“Hawkman,” “Batman”), in an interview with Roy Thomas, remembered that Bernie “lived in the same apartment house I did in The Bronx. He was a few years older than me; he went to James Monroe High School, and he was also his school’s newspaper cartoonist. He was a good-looking guy, and I think he was class president.”iii President of the school's General Organization (G.O.), Baily called for a student walk-out over the questionable use of student

Bernard Baily: The Early Years

Wow, What A Long Time Ago!

dues paid to the group’s fund. His actions led to a brief expulsion in his senior year, but he apparently stayed in the good graces of the school’s administration, as they nominated him for the prestigious citizenship award.

Moldoff recounted his first meeting Bernie: “I was drawing in chalk on the sidewalk—Popeye and Betty Boop and other popular cartoons of the day—and he came by and looked at it and said, ‘Hey, do you want to learn how to draw cartoons?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Come on, I’ll show you how to draw.’ So we went across the street and sat on a bench in the park, and he showed me how to start with a circle, and how to make the body, and how to make a smile, and the proportions for cartoons. He said, ‘Keep practicing. I live on the fourth floor, and if you want to show me some of your work, I’ll be glad to look at it.’ So we became friendly, and I’d periodically go up and show him my stuff, and he would help me and criticize me.”iv Moldoff lost touch with Baily when the latter moved away. Bernie’s son Stephen picks up here: “[My father] told me that he was offered a scholarship to the Philadelphia Art Institute (or possibly it was a Boston art school) after high school, but that he turned it down because he was already selling his artwork.”

Eugene remembers a bit more: “I think my father went to City College, but my memory also suggested it might have been Columbia; it never went beyond the first year.”

City College of New York was a natural choice for Depressionera high school grads. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, coincidentally speaking before the January 1934 graduating class at James Monroe, urged the students to enroll at City College instead of entering the strained job market. More importantly, tuition was relatively cheap: $2.50 per credit hour.

Bernard Baily & Jerry Iger

While some questions remain about his education, there is little conjecture about the publication that hosted Bernie’s first comic book work. For reasons unknown, John Henle, Jr., wanted to be a publisher. He had inherited his family’s well-established shirt factory—a seemingly more secure venture than taking a flyer on the fledgling comic book industry. In any case, he set up shop in the front offices of his factory and hired a journeyman cartoonist, Samuel “Jerry” Iger, as his editor.

The first issue of Wow, What a Magazine! (cover-dated July 1936) contained some of Bernard Baily’s earliest professional work: a “Stars on Parade” page and a “Smoothie” gag page. They’re reproduced here from photos taken of a bound volume of the mag. [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

Iger’s task was simple, but daunting. He had to put together a staff. In a perverse way, the economic realities of the time worked in his favor. This was the nadir of the Great Depression, and virtually everyone was looking for a job, any job.

Located firmly at the lowermost end of publishing, the emerging comic book industry became the train platform of career opportunity. Aging illustrators and cartoonists would pass through on their way down, as would eager young neophytes on their way up.

Moonlighting painter Louis Goodman Ferstadt and illustrator Serena (a.k.a. “Serene”) Summerfield were a few of the veterans on staff besides Iger himself. Among the rest were Bob Kane (actually Kahn) and Bill Eisner—two kids from DeWitt Clinton High—Dick Briefer, who had the honor of drawing the cover to the first issue, and Bernie Baily. Each of them was young, talented, and ambitious; some with more ambition than talent.

The first issue of the immodestly titled Wow, What a Magazine! was dated July 1936. Baily’s contributions to this diverse mix of comics and text features were a “Smoothie” humor page (signed simply “Bernard”) and the factoid-bearing “Stars on Parade.” The latter strip was drawn in the photo-realistic style of Bob Ripley or Stookie Allen, and featured movie-star trivia accompanying illustrations of Shirley Temple and Fred Astaire. It was also the prototype for other Baily features that would follow.

Henle’s publishing venture was short-lived, as Wow! ended with its fourth issue. Whatever personal gratification Bernie gained from seeing his work published, it is reasonable to assume that financially his experience was much like Eisner’s, who once told an interviewer: “I ended up being owed money I never collected.”v Even Iger found himself on the street. “Iger was let go, of course. There’s no need for an editor at a shirt-manufacturing business.”vi

This shared dilemma led Eisner to approach Iger with a business proposal. Using Eisner’s modest investment (a very modest $15) to rent office space, the two of them opened their own comics studio. Their intent was to supply original content for the growing comic market. And they didn’t have to go far to find artists to fill their shop. From out of the ashes of Wow! came much of the first incarnation of the Eisner & Iger Studio.

A Look At The Artist Who Co-Created The Spectre & The Hour-Man

The Gilda Age

Eisner & Iger

At Eisner & Iger, Baily specialized in the “Stars on Parade” format he’d begun in Wow! “Screen Snapshots” debuted in “Busy” Arnold’s Feature Funnies #2 (Nov. 1937). Under the shop-name of “Glenda Carol,” Baily continued it as “Movie Memos” in Fox’s Wonder Comics #1 & #2 (May & June 1939) and early issues of its successor, Wonderworld Comics.

Breaking out of that mold, Bernie drew the Gilda Gay strip for Eisner & Iger's Phoenix Features Syndicate, circa 1938. Originally intended (and regionally distributed) as a newspaper daily strip, Gilda also found a place among the contents of Jumbo Comics #1 (Sept. 1938).

Following the life of a stylish career gal, Gilda Gay (based in name upon dancer Gilda Gray), the strip found new life in the mid-1940s when it was acquired along with other Phoenix Features material such as Eisner’s “Harry Karry” and “Stars on Parade” by strip remarketer International Cartoon Company. It’s likely that none of the artists involved in these strips, including Bernie, saw any remuneration for this secondary publishing of their work.

Another daily strip, Phyllis, was reportedly drawn by Baily for the same Keystone/Lincoln Features Syndicate, circa 1938-39, that published some of Jack Kirby’s early work. To this point, however, no example has been found.

In any case, sometime in 1938 Bernie Baily left Eisner & Iger.

Some early show-biz-inspired features by Bernie Baily. (Clockwise from left:) A Gilda Gay daily strip (circa 1938, as published July 21, 1943)—an unsigned “Movie Memos” from Victor Fox’s infamous Wonder Comics #1 (May 1939), signed as “Glenda Carol”—and a “Screen Snapshots” page from proto-Quality’s Feature Comics #16 (Jan. 1939) [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

It’s tempting to draw comparisons between Eisner and Baily. To begin with, they shared similar backstories: a couple of Jewish kids from The Bronx using their artistic talent to better their circumstances. Moreover, neither was inclined to simply make ends meet. With a business savvy that at least equaled his drawing ability, Eisner was among the first of his generation to capitalize on the opportunities afforded by the burgeoning comic book industry. Years later, he would tell interviewer Marilyn Mercer: “I got very rich before I was 22.”vii Bernie witnessed that success, and perhaps he looked at Eisner’s path as a template for his own career. He also had the drive, the intelligence, and the talent—how could he fail?

But he wouldn’t go far working within the confines of a comic shop. With that likely in mind, Bernie found work at Detective Comics (DC).

DC—From Fillers To “Tex Thomson”

Baily arrived at DC in early 1938, shortly after founder Malcolm WheelerNicholson went bankrupt and Nicholson Publishing Company’s assets were acquired by Harry Donenfeld. Under the editorship of Vin Sullivan, Bernie was

Bernard Baily: The Early Years

One Size Fitch All (Right:) Baily’s splash page for the first “Tex Thomson” story, from Action Comics #1 (June 1938)—and (above) a portrait of writer Ken Fitch from Syndicate Features #3 (Nov. 15, 1937), a promotional flyer for the Harry “A” Chesler Syndicate. [“Tex Thomson” page © 2012 DC Comics; Fitch illo © 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

assigned two regular features.

Debuting in More Fun Comics #32 (June 1938), “The Buccaneer” feature owed its existence to the popularity of such Errol Flynn film swashbucklers as Captain Blood and, perhaps more directly, Eisner’s “Hawks of the Seas.” Baily had the opportunity to see the latter strip in its earliest incarnation in Wow, What a Magazine! and then as it became the lead feature of the Eisner & Iger shop. In early appearances, not surprisingly, lingering vestiges of the Eisner & Iger shop style show through in Baily’s drawing. But gradually, he sheds the shop look and his own style emerges: a simplistic, edgy form of Mannerism.

The comic book industry of the time was a small world unto itself. There were still only a handful of publishers, and, invariably, career paths would intersect time and again.

“I was at National bringing in some filler pages for Vin Sullivan,” Shelly Moldoff recalled, “and in walks Bernard Baily! He looked at me, and he said, ‘Sheldon?’ I said, ‘Yeah, Bernie, how are ya?’ He said, ‘Well, you made it, huh?’ I said, ‘Yeah, yeah, thanks to help from you and other people, I’m a cartoonist!’”viii Bernie’s other feature was “Tex Thomson,” which appeared in another comic magazine cover-dated June 1938: Action Comics #1.

The strip, which followed the exploits of a wealthy globetrotting Texan, was the creation of veteran comic writer Ken Fitch. The first adventure, full of thick, black shadows and close-ups, exhibited the probable influence of film (and perhaps the Terry and the Pirates art of Milton Caniff) upon Baily; the contemporary setting was seemingly a more comfortable fit for the artist than the periodadventure “Buccaneer.” Fitch had a wide-ranging résumé—wandering from

longshoreman, to insurance salesman, to printing press operator—but what mattered in this case was that he had credits at DC (née National Allied Publications) going back to the company’s first comic book, New Fun #1 (Feb. 1935). He was also a stalwart of the Harry “A” Chesler shop, authoring such features as “Dan Hastings,” as well as editing four of Chesler’s comics.ix

Bernie had one more contribution to the premiere issue of Action—a filler page titled “Stardust,” yet another version of his “Stars on Parade” format. As apparent evidence that he was quickly learning the tricks of the comic book trade, Baily reused the image of Fred Astaire from Wow, What a Magazine! #1. Why re-draw what you can cut-and-paste? Perhaps Baily felt some remorse at the double-dip, since he signed the page anonymously as “The Star-Gazer.” Ironically, though, it wasn’t Baily’s own work on “Tex Thomson” (or his other strips) that would have the most lasting effect on his career. It was the success of another feature from that first issue of Action. As the sales figures came in, it was apparent that the cover feature was a winner—a character and concept that had been knocking around for years.

Although its creators were already fixtures in DC’s comics, it was only when a young assistant editor at the McClure Syndicate, Sheldon Mayer, suggested that his boss Max Gaines take another look at this frequently rejected comic strip that it finally saw publication. Unable to use the strip himself, Gaines took it to his clients at DC. Gaines had a discussion “with Mr. Liebowitz and Mr. Sullivan, the editor of the comic magazines for the Detective Comics group, and impressed upon him the fact that this would be a good idea and by all means to use it in Action Comics.”x However, even they had to be surprised at the immediate success of “Superman.”

Jerry Siegel had distilled most of the attributes people wanted in their heroes and poured them into the alter ego of Clark Kent. He was strong as could be, kind-hearted, and just.

Aware of his awesome power, Superman always pulled his punches. The same couldn’t be said of “The Batman.” Following

A Look At The Artist Who Co-Created The Spectre & The Hour-Man

less than a year on the red-booted heels of “Superman,” “The Batman” was the inspired creation of writer Bill Finger and artist Bob Kane. (Kane was someone Bernie knew well from their days at Eisner & Iger. Not surprisingly, Baily, like many others, was irritated by Kane’s ego and hubris. “I know he didn’t like Bob Kane,” Stephen Baily has written, “because he said so, often.”)

Unlike the Kryptonian who came by his powers by landing on the right planet, The Batman had to earn his cape. Driven to avenge the death of his parents that had occurred during a hold-up, Bruce Wayne resolutely forged himself into a crimefighting machine. Whereas Superman adhered to the boundary of law, The Batman was a shadowy vigilante who meted out his own brutal interpretation of justice. Finger had created a hero who, like many of the pulp heroes before him, viscerally satisfied the popular desire for unforgiving punishment of evil.

Siegel’s immaculate creation was above common vindictiveness. A curious decision on the writer’s part, as Jerry knew from personal experience that life doesn't always allow such nobility.

(Historian Marc Tyler Nobleman has found that Michael Siegel’s death was listed on the coroner's report as “acute dilation of heart” and “chronic myocarditis.” In short, he had heart disease.)

Whether it was thoughts of his father’s death or the popularity of “The Batman,” in any case, when it came time for Jerry to create another costumed hero, this one would be above all Earthly laws. And Bernie Baily would be the artist.

“The Spectre”

Although the oft-told origin of reincarnated murdered police detective, Jim Corrigan, was likely rooted in Siegel’s grief over his father’s death, his words in the splash panel of The Spectre’s debut appearance read as a simplistic reimagining of a far older Judaic entity, the Angel of Death.

This entity was so important that on the first day of Creation God granted, “Over all people have I surrendered thee the power”xi to take life. Like the Talmudic version of this angel, who was said to be “full of eyes,”xii doomed evil-doers can’t escape The Spectre’s stare.

A Coming Spectre-acular

On June 2, 1932, Michael Siegel, Jerry’s father and the owner of a Cleveland clothing store, was robbed by three men. While it’s not clear if any of the men possessed a weapon, during the robbery, the elder Siegel collapsed and died. Although the coroner’s report stated his death was due to heart failure, Jerry felt that the thieves had killed him.

Get A Grip! (Above:) In these panels from the second “Spectre” outing, in More Fun Comics #53 (March 1940), the hero actually sews his costume—though whether the white areas depicted were intended to be part of his outfit or ghastly skin tone is unclear. This art spot and the next are repro’d from DC’s hardcover Golden Age Spectre Archives, Vol. 1, but the coloring there closely follows the original comics. (Right:) The Spectre brings some criminals to a grisly but just end in More Fun Comics #56 (June 1940). [© 2012 DC Comics.]

The Spectre, a supernatural being whose mission on Earth is to stamp out crime and to enforce justice with the aid of such weird powers as becoming invisible, walking through walls and delivering death with a glance. —Introduction from the splash page of More Fun Comics #52 (Feb. 1940).

While a scriptural antecedent may have provided inspiration, and while Siegel’s words gave The Spectre purpose, it was Baily's drawings that gave him form.

Bernard Baily: The Early Years

Two’s Company… (Far left:) An undated photo of Bernard and Regina Baily; photo courtesy of Eugene Baily. (Left:) At about the time they were wed, Bernard told author/interviewer Ron Goulart some years ago, he created the monstrous Gorrah for Action Comics #27 (Aug. 1940). Thanks to Bruce Mason. [© 2012 DC Comics.]

Based upon such work, one might think the portrayer of such Old Testament-minded retribution to be a misanthropic recluse, but nothing was further from the truth.

“Siegel came up with the feature ‘The Spectre,’” Bernie Baily told interviewer Ron Goulart. “The look of the character I created, the script he wrote.”xiii

Proving himself up to the challenge, Baily accomplished the remarkable task of modernizing the traditional depiction of Death. His was a brawny Grim Reaper, sans scythe. Along with the hooded cloak, life-stealing eyes, and blanched complexion expected of his ghastly position, The Spectre also unnecessarily sported boots, gloves, and tighty-whities (albeit green ones) in keeping with the already de rigueur super-hero fashion of the era.

(Actually, despite the “blanched complexion” noted above, The Spectre was initially depicted as being gray. My assumption— supported by two panels near the end of his origin story in More Fun #53—is that he was wearing a costume, which was later reinterpreted as his bloodless pallor. Furthermore, More Fun #52 had his cloak, gloves, boots, and shorts colored blue. This coloring suggests that DC wanted potential comic book buyers to confuse this ghostly newcomer with their current star, The Batman. To further complicate matters, the very first appearance of “The Spectre,” in the last panel of Baily’s final “Buccaneer” story, bizarrely depicts him as having a purple cape, blue shirt, and a green face!)

Baily’s drawing was equal to The Spectre’s grim charge. Terrified villains would visibly cower at his appearance, mouths agape, while his pupil-less eyes would send chills through the reader. As the Earthbound ghost was unapologetically remorseless, Bernie responded with appropriately graphic bluntness. In one memorable sequence from More Fun #56, The Spectre first crushes, then heaves, a car full of pleading criminals. Mercy be damned! Apparently nobody involved gave much thought to the incongruity of publishing The Spectre, “Spirit of Vengeance,“ in a magazine titled More Fun Comics.

Baily also proved to be a masterful cover artist. His striking rendition of a towering Spectre striding through a battlefield, wreaking destruction, on the cover of More Fun #54 (April 1940), ranks as one of the most iconic images of the Golden Age. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: See p. 16.]

When Bernie married the former Regina Rachinsky on June 24, 1939, he had already taken to using the truncated version of his last name, Bailynson. “He always said,” Stephen Baily told me, “the reason he did it was that there was a Mickey Mouse wristwatch he coveted when he was young in which you could substitute the letters of your name for the numbers—and Bernard Bailynson was four letters too long.” Then, too, the Anglicization to Baily wouldn’t hurt when looking for a job.

Regina, born Riva, emigrated to the U.S. from Russia with her family in 1923. While details of her grandparents’ courtship are lost, granddaughter Miriam (Baily) Risko recalled, “I heard they met in the Catskills.”

The young couple moved into a four-room apartment in a 13story high-rise at 22 Metropolitan Oval in The Bronx. The kitchen table in apartment 5H became Bernie’s de facto art studio.

At about the same time the Bailys were beginning their life’s journey, Bernie’s comics career was beginning to take off. While “The Spectre” replaced his “Buccaneer” feature in More Fun, Baily continued work on “Tex Thomson.”

“At the time,” Baily told Ron Goulart, “I feel everything was being geared to Superman, who’d become their big property. At the height of his popularity, in the beginning, I had my ‘Tex Thomson’ feature in Action. I created a Cyclops character called The Gorrah.

“Now, they had a contest at that time. The kids sent in the names of the characters they liked the best, and that character ran so close to Superman in popularity that they made me cut it out. Really.”xiv

In the same issue as the above-mentioned Gorrah story (Action #27, Aug. 1940), Bernie had the rare opportunity to display his humorous side, with the filler page “Mr. Pots.” His only other funny forays to this point appeared in Adventure Comics #52 (July 1940) and More Fun Comics #58 (Aug. 1940), as Baily contributed a “Farmer Doode” page to each issue.

Apparently, though, Editor Vin Sullivan had other plans for the “Tex Thomson” creative team, as he assigned them another feature, a new super-powered hero to headline Adventure Comics.

A Look At The Artist Who Co-Created The Spectre & The Hour-Man

“Hour Man” = “Our Man” —Get It? The “Hour Man” header from The Norwalk Hour newspaper which may have helped give DC a time-sensitive super-hero—juxtaposed with a page of the first “Hour-Man” exploit, in Adventure Comics #48 (March ’40). [“Hour Man” page © 2012 DC Comics.]

Now, that in itself may not matter much. What is interesting, though, is the name The Norwalk Hour gave to the anonymous reporter who wrote of Fitch's campaign.

“The Hour-Man”

While Jim Corrigan paid the ultimate price to transform into The Spectre, writer Ken Fitch didn’t expect Rex Tyler to make a similarly gruesome sacrifice to become The Hour-Man. He simply took a pill.

“Rex Tyler, a young chemist, discovers MIRACLO, a powerful chemical that transforms him from a meek, mild scientist to the underworld’s most formidable foe.... With MIRACLO, he has for one hour the power of chained-lightning—speed almost as swift as thought. But unless he performs his deeds of strength and daring within one hour the effects of MIRACLO wear off and the Hour Man [sic] becomes his former meek self....” —Introduction from the “HourMan” splash page of Adventure Comics #48 (March 1940)

Fitch was 13 years older than Baily, and his upbringing couldn’t have been more different.

Born and raised in Norwalk, Connecticut, Ken Fitch had deep familial roots in the Nutmeg State going back hundreds of years and an ancestry that boasted colonial governor Thomas Fitch. Another Fitch ancestor, the Governor’s son, Colonel Thomas Fitch, Jr., was the “Yankee Doodle.” According to the story, during the French and Indian War, that Fitch commanded a rag-tag troop of colonists attached to the British army. Elisabeth Fitch, the colonel’s sister, thought to dress up the uniform-less Norwalkers by giving them chicken feathers to wear as plumes in their hats. Upon seeing this, the British regulars ridiculed them unmercifully, prompting one of them to mockingly change the words to the then popular tune “Lucy Locket“ to what we now know as “Yankee Doodle.”

Before heading off to Pace College in New York and obtaining a degree in accounting, Ken Fitch was a member of the Young Men’s Community Club; an organization whose presidency he fiercely pursued. The battle between Fitch and his main opponent was dutifully chronicled in the Norwalk newspaper’s local news column.

This writer was referred to as “Hour Man.”

As a life-long Norwalk resident, Fitch was undoubtedly aware of this long-running column, but whether his appropriation of its writer’s nom de plume was intentional or based upon latent memory will never be known.

Baily’s depiction of Hour Man (soon increasingly spelled “HourMan”) was straightforward. Clothed head-to-toe in a traditional circus strongman's outfit, the Man of the Hour's added accouterments were his cape, mask, and a dangling hourglass to remind him of his time constraint. And if he forgot, small boxes counting down the waning minutes appeared at the bottom of every few panels to remind him—and the reader.

Although lacking “The Spectre’s” moodiness and opportunity for expanding Baily’s artistic horizons, it was “Hour-Man” that received the editorial popularity boost.

In Adventure #54, at the end of a tale involving his new young partners, The Minute Men of America (a bit of jingoist provincialism from Fitch— the Connecticut Yankee in Rex Tyler’s court), an announcement in the last panel informed readers of a contest that included a cash prize and an original piece of artwork from

You May Already Have Won… The pages announcing the Hour-Man contest in Adventure Comics #54 (Sept. 1940)—and the winner, in Adventure #57 (Dec. 1940); microfiche images retrieved by Jim Ludwig. [© 2012 DC Comics.]

Bernard Baily: The Early Years

reality, Liebowitz, while certainly a partner, was gifted that position by Harry Donenfeld, Detective Comics’ undeniably shady owner and the real money behind AA. The two companies enjoyed a special relationship, outwardly evidenced by reciprocal advertising and the publication of All-Star Comics. In 1945 Gaines would sell his share of AA to DC, as it became one part of the amalgamation of distribution and comic book companies under the umbrella corporation National Periodical Publications.

…And Many Others! The cover of All-Star Comics #1 (Summer 1940) spotlighted four prominent DC & AA heroes, among them The Spectre—but Hour-Man had to settle for his name at the bottom. [© 2012 DC Comics.]

Baily. The entries were read, the winners determined, and finally, in Adventure #57, their names were announced. Along with the $1.00 cash prize, the ten winners each received their personalized artwork.

Soon after their debuts, both The Spectre and Hour-Man would find themselves appearing in other venues.

When the New York World’s Fair opened for its second season on May 11, 1940, the kids in the crowd who were able to coax their parents into spending the exorbitant sum of 15¢ for a copy of New York World’s Fair Comics #2 were greeted by a cover featuring DC’s big guns— Superman and Batman and his young sidekick Robin—waving cheerily back at them. Not to be outdone, the newcomer Hour-Man had precociously secured a place on the inside for his own Fair-oriented adventure.

“The Justice Society Of America”

Virtually simultaneously (on May 24th, actually), All-Star Comics #1 (Summer 1940) appeared on newsstands, featuring both “The Spectre” and “The Hour-Man,” both illustrated by Baily.

The concept of All-Star was likely an outgrowth of the New York World’s Fair comics’ success. Instead of featuring its heavy hitters, though, DC and related publisher All-American chose to showcase their second-tier heroes in this new title.

All-American (AA) Publications was owned by Max C. Gaines and, ostensibly, Jack Liebowitz, DC’s “secretary and treasurer.” In

Along with DC’s “Sandman” and AllAmerican’s “Ultra-Man” and “The Flash,” Baily’s “Spectre” feature captured one of the coveted quarters on the cover of the first issue of All-Star. Meanwhile, “Hour-Man” was relegated to “Also Featuring” status in a blurb along the bottom.

The disparity continued on the interior as “Hour-Man” was given just six pages for his adventure, while “The Spectre” topped everyone with his ten-page tale. It’s worth noting that the “Spectre” splash page in All-Star #1 featured the debut of the classic “Spectre” logo, which was essentially a reworking of Baily’s More Fun #54 cover.

The Spectre’s cover presence percentage increased with the second issue. Gone was Ultra-Man; now only The Flash and the new Green Lantern shared up-front space with the Ghostly Guardian. However, more than cosmetic changes were on the way. While the first two issues of All-Star were anthology comic books made up of unrelated individual adventures, a radical new format was introduced in All-Star #3 (Winter 1940).

“I worked from the beginning with the Justice Society stories,” wrote famed writer Gardner Fox in a letter dated March 26, 1979, “though the idea of creating the Justice Society was Gaines’ (I

It’s Always Fair Weather… Baily-drawn “Spectre” and “Hour-Man” panels from All-Star Comics #3 (Winter 1940)—and the incongruous E.E. Hibbarddrawn panel which connected their two solo tales in the middle of a page of that first “Justice Society of America” full-lengther, as the two Baily heroes relate their yarns to party-crasher Johnny Thunder. In this panel, Hibbard (or his panel’s letterer) rendered the newer character’s name as “Hourman,” a spelling rarely seen in 1940s comics. [© 2012 DC Comics.]

A Look At The Artist Who Co-Created The Spectre & The Hour-Man

Plane Crazy Baily’s splash page for the “Spectre” chapter in All-Star Comics #9 (Feb.-March 1942), repro’d from a photocopy of the original art. This is one of the few very pages of early “Spectre” (or All-Star) work where the original art is known to still exist; it’s in the collection of Stephen Fishler, owner of Metropolis Collectibles. [© 2012 DC Comics.]

believe).”xv Roy Thomas has speculated that it was the aforementioned 1940 World’s Fair comic cover that inspired the concept of a super-team.xvi

Whatever the inspiration, the format premiered in All-Star #3 allowed the reader to see their favorite super-heroes (in all likelihood, as DC/All-American had more than anyone else at the time) meeting to swap stories of their exploits.

Each hero related his individual adventure in turn. When it came his time, The Spectre told of his battle with an interplanetary beast named Oom. Baily’s unique style was well-suited to depicting their cosmic rumble.

Unlike the other Justice Society of America members, who ended their tale in one panel before the next hero appeared in the following one on a new page, The Spectre and Hour-Man (spelled “Hourman” here) occupied one panel in a seamless segue. Curiously, even though it appeared in the middle of a Baily-drawn page, this entire panel was apparently drawn by E.E. Hibbard, who also provided the bracketing JSA sequences and the linking interludes between the individual adventures.

For his part, Hour-Man battled a gang of thieves dressed to look like him. In this case, Baily’s artistic versatility prevailed over a fairly pedestrian story.

Percival Popp, The Super Cop

By 1941, with two lead features, their additional All-Star stories, and his long-running “Tex Thomson,” Baily had established himself as DC's most reliable artist. He was also apparently given a greater say in the plotting of “The Spectre.”

“Popp” Goes The Easel Percival Popp, the Super Cop, quickly gained prominence in the “Spectre” feature, as per this splash page from More Fun Comics #81 (July 1942). Thanks to Bruce Mason. [© 2012 DC Comics.]

“The thing I created in ‘The Spectre’ was the sidekick, Percival Popp, the Super Cop,” Baily told Goulart. “An interesting thing is that in many cases the side characters became more popular than the main characters. For the obvious reason that you could do more with them.”xvii

While it’s difficult to see how anyone could have less need for a bumbling, self-deluding, wanna-be detective than the limitless wraith, Percival Popp not only became a part of “The Spectre’s” supporting cast; he eventually all but took over his feature. But introduction of Popp in More Fun #74 (Dec. 1941) wasn’t totally driven by creative possibilities. There were larger concerns.

In a Chicago Daily News article dated May 8, 1940, author Sterling North decried the fact that: “Virtually every child in America is reading color ‘comic’ magazines—a poisonous mushroom growth of the last two years.” North seized the moral high ground, royally noting: “we found that the bulk of these lurid publications depend for their appeal upon mayhem, murder, torture, and abduction….”

What likely resonated particularly at DC was North's scorn for “Superman heroics, voluptuous females in scanty attire, blazing machine guns, ‘hooded’ justice….”xviii The pointed mention of their franchise star made it apparent that they were a target. In likely reaction to North’s essay and the growing murmur of condemnation heard expressed by other concerned citizens, DC developed an in-house editorial code that mandated squeaky-clean behavior from its heroes, including the edict that none of them would ever knowingly kill. While this was a minor inconvenience for Superman, it was a gamechanger for The Spectre. By the summer of 1941, the company had also created an Editorial Advisory Board, populated with child-rearing specialists and other upstanding citizens. Goodbye death-staring

Bernard Baily: The Early Years

Spirit of Vengeance, hello clownish Super Cop.

The Spectre, I can’t help noting, became a ghost of his former self.

Meanwhile, even though the team concept in All-Star was proving to be a success, Hour-Man’s role in it was apparently not. He became the first original member of the JSA to leave, making his last appearance in issue #7 (Oct.-Nov. 1941).

What prompted HourMan’s departure is speculative (he was granted a “leave of absence” after the last page of the “JSA” story in this issue), but it resulted in Baily having one less story to draw every second month. And the loss of income couldn’t have come at a worse time for the young artist. Bernie’s son Stephen had just been born.

As with most who worked in comics at the time, Baily’s steady production hadn’t been enough to warrant special compensation. “When I was working for DC, I wasn’t on salary,” he said. “It was always page rates.”xix

It became obvious that Baily’s prospects at DC were limited. A growing family and a diminished workload were realities that couldn’t be ignored. Reasons enough for Bernie Baily to look elsewhere to pad his income.

Bert Whitman And “Mr. Ex”

It’s hard not to note the irony in Bernard Baily, artist of “The Spectre,” becoming a “ghost.” Exactly how he came to be an uncredited assistant on Bert Whitman’s “Mr. Ex” isn’t known, but his loss of the “Hour-Man” solo story work in All-Star (even though Rex Tyler’s solo feature carried on for another year and more in Adventure) closely corresponds to the ending of Whitman’s comic shop, circa the summer of 1941.

Bertram D. Whitman’s transient career as a cartoonist had taken him from Chicago to Los Angeles, from Detroit to Cincinnati. But like many of the young (he was born in 1908) artists eking out a living, he ended up back in his native New York City and the boomtown environment of the late-1930s comic book industry.

Although several sources give Whitman credit on New Fun #1 (Feb. 1935), this is unlikely. Not only was Whitman living and working halfway across the country at the time, but the feature credited to him—”Judge Perkins”—was probably drawn by Bert Salg, a veteran illustrator who died in 1938. Others speculate that

“Ex” Marks The Spot Artist Bert Whitman eyes a page of his newspaper-supplement feature “Mr. Ex,” as reprinted in A-1 Comics #2 (circa 1944). Maybe he’s not quite sure if it’s his work or not; Ken Quattro feels this tale was probably ghosted by Bernard Baily. Thanks for the 1961 photo go to Allan Holtz. [Page © 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

Whitman worked pseudonymously on such early Fox characters as “Dr. Mortal” in Weird Comics.

Frank Z. Temerson.

In any case, Whitman quickly followed the entrepreneurial lead of Harry “A” Chesler and Eisner & Iger by forming his own comic shop, circa 1939, with his primary, if not only, client being

Temerson was the former city attorney of Birmingham, Alabama, who had partnered with Irving W. Ullman in various business ventures going back at least to 1935. One such was the early comic publisher, Ultem Publications. Ultem folded in 1938, selling their titles to Centaur Publications. However, Temerson soon re-emerged with a new company, Tem (a.k.a. Nita) Publishing, at the same 381 4th Avenue address.

While Bert Whitman Associates packaged such comics as Crash and Whirlwind for Tem and Nita respectively, they also supplied the contents of the licensed Green Hornet Comics for yet another Temerson company, Helnit Publishing.

(The Temerson saga is an involved one that necessarily dovetails into a discussion of the quagmire surrounding such publishers as Holyoke and a plethora of small publishers with a possible, but indeterminate, relationship. As Bernie Baily was himself related to this discussion, I will return to it in a later installment of his story.)

Both Crash and Whirlwind failed quickly, off the newsstands by the fall of 1940. With his shop pretty much reduced to packaging Green Hornet, Whitman began considering other options. Although a proposed Green Hornet newspaper strip didn’t sell, Whitman continued to produce the comic book a bit longer, until issue #6 (Aug. 1941). He ultimately sold the publishing rights to the character to the new Harvey company (Ron Goulart wrote: “He later maintained that he made more money by selling the rights to

A Look At The Artist Who Co-Created The Spectre & The Hour-Man

Turning On The Fawcett This splash page from Fawcett’s Captain Marvel Jr. #2 (Dec. 18, 1942) is one that Ken Q. believes was drawn by Baily. Above is a Fawcett rate list dated March 29, 1943, which credits “Bernard Bailey” (sic) with drawing stories of “Captain Marvel Jr.” and “Spy Smasher.” Thanks to FCA editor P.C. Hamerlinck for the latter image. [Shazam hero TM & © 2012 DC Comics.]

The Green Hornet than anyone ever made off publishing comic books about him”xx) and closed up his comic studio.

In the meantime, though, Whitman had already moved on to another strip that did sell. In March 1940, the Chicago Tribune debuted their new Sunday supplement, the Chicago Tribune Comic Book, in a format similar to the better known Spirit supplement which was to come along in June of that year. Whitman sold the syndicate a strip about a secret agent, a master of disguise. And on January 19, 1941, “Mr. Ex” premiered in that supplement. Enter Bernie Baily.

It is difficult to ascertain exactly what strips Baily had a hand in. As with many “ghosts,” Baily’s own style virtually disappears in an effort to maintain visual continuity with Whitman’s. But Baily’s moody seriousness emerges at times in contrast to Whitman’s own lighter, cartoony style, as in the undated “Mr. Ex” strips that were reprinted in A-1 Comics #2 (1944).

New Ventures

Even though “Mr. Ex” ran until late June of 1943, Whitman continued drawing comic books. In Fawcett’s Master Comics #32 (Nov. 4, 1942), Whitman took up the art chores on the ongoing “El Carim” feature, introducing Balbo, Boy Magician, in the process. By the next issue, “Balbo” had taken El Carim’s spot in the Master line-up.

Coincidentally (or not?), an inter-office memo dated “Sept. 21” (without a year designated, but likely 1942) notes that Baily was also working for Fawcett. Comic historian Roger Hill, who shared the contents of this memo with me, reports that Baily is credited

with having completed a “Captain Marvel Jr.” story entitled “Once upon a Time.”

Armed with this information, I conducted a search of “CMJr.” stories and, though that didn’t show up as a title, it did appear as an opening line in a “CMJr.” backup tale, “The Pied Piper of Himmler,” in Captain Marvel Jr. #2 (Dec. 18, 1942).

To give the illusion that primary “CMJr.” artist Mac Raboy was drawing this back-up story as well, the artists assigned such work employed liberal use of pasted-up stock Raboy poses and CMJr. faces. Baily was no different, as he sublimated his own style (perhaps it is only his pencils under another artist’s inking) in this work in accordance with editorial policy. Unlike his DC art, this story is unsigned—not only in deference to his role as a “ghost,” but likely a job-saving consideration in light of DC’s discouragement of their artists’ freelancing, particularly with their main competitor.

Bernie’s moonlighting at Fawcett continued at least until early 1943. A March 29, 1943, artists’ rate list retrieved from the files of editorial director Ralph Daigh (and published in P.C. Hamerlinck’s 2000 book Fawcett Companion) indicates that Baily was still producing work for the company at that time. Note, too, that his credits also included artwork for the “Spy Smasher” feature.

Curiously, at the same time Bernie was turning out work for Fawcett, he was getting a helping hand on “The Spectre.” The helping hand of Pierce Rice.

The “Spectre” chapter in All-Star Comics #14 (Dec. 1942-Jan. 1943) has been identified as having been penciled by Rice, with Baily providing the inks. Furthermore, Rice also handled the art

Bernard Baily: The Early Years

needed something to fill their pages. This shallow need spawned the comic shops—low-paying, no-frills, grind-it-out art sweatshops. Bernie Baily had seen Jerry Iger, Will Eisner, and Bert Whitman profit from this business model. Why not him?

To Be Continued

Acknowledgments

This project has been long in development. I would like to thank the following kind individuals for their contributions, patience, and help. I couldn’t have done this without them:

Jim Amash, Ger Apeldoorn, Amy Baily, Eugene Baily, Stephen Baily, Shaun Clancy, Beau Collier, Craig Delich, Michael Feldman, Bob Fujitani, Ron Goulart, George Hagenauer, Dave Hartwell, Roger Hill, Allan Holtz, Carmine Infantino, Bruce Mason, Harry Mendryk, Frank Motler, Will Murray, Martin O’Hearn, Howard Post, Lynn Potter, Miriam Baily Risko, Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., Dr. Michael Vassallo, and Hames Ware. — Ken Quattro

Uncle Sam Wants—Spooks? The “Spectre” story in More Fun Comics #90 (April 1943) was allegedly ghosted by Pierce Rice. In this turning-point tale, Jim Corrigan leaves to join the military, with the result that, for the remainder of his solo feature (through the turn of 1945), The Spectre became only a disembodied ghost who’d give covert aid to Percival Popp. Somehow, though, Spec continued to be quite corporeal—if less and less supernaturally endowed—in “Justice Society” adventures during that same period. [© 2012 DC Comics.]

chores on the Ghostly Guardian's story in More Fun Comics #90 (April 1943).

At first look, it doesn’t add up. Why would an artist jeopardize his bread-and-butter job (and split his page rate) in order to pick up a few assignments elsewhere? It’s not like Baily was overwhelmed with work at DC. During this same time period— autumn of 1942—“Hourman” (who had lost his hyphen along the way) ended with Adventure Comics #83 (Feb. 1943). And Bernie’s contemporaneous “Two-Gun Percy” offerings in early issues of DC’s All Funny Comics surely didn’t require much of his time. So what was going on?

A clue can be found in a statement made by Bernie's son Stephen:

“From the time he was a kid, he preferred working for himself.”

Fate had positioned Baily perfectly. The burgeoning comic book industry was full of guys just like him: would-be entrepreneurs with little money, but a lot of moxie.

The marketplace demanded material; it was ravenous...and indiscriminate. At best, quality was an afterthought; publishers just

Here He Comes—“Mr. America”! As costumed heroes gained favor, Tex Thomson took on a secret identity as “Mr. America,” which became the new name of Baily’s oldest DC adventure feature—as seen in this splash from Action Comics #42 (Nov. 1941). Mr. A. even picked up a humorous sidekick—Fatman. But ol’ Tex wasn’t done metamorphosing just yet. Sometime after Pearl Harbor, the name of the strip (and masked hero) were changed to “Americommando,” and he took the war overseas to the Axis. [© 2012 DC Comics.]

i ii

iii iv v

A Look At The Artist Who Co-Created The Spectre & The Hour-Man

Endnotes

"228 City Students Are Honored by Civic Cooperation League" New York Times 25 June, 1933. Ibid.

Roy Thomas, “A Moon… a Bat… a Hawk,” Alter Ego, Vol. 3, #4 (Spring 2000). Ibid.

Tom Heintjes, The Spirit: The Origin Years #1-4 (Kitchen Sink Press, 1992). Ibid

vii Marilyn Mercer, “The Only Real Middle-Class Crimefighter,”

New York [magazine, Sunday supplement, New York Herald Tribune], p. 8 (Jan. 9, 1966).

viii Thomas, op. cit. ix

Syndicate Feature #3, p. 1 (Nov. 15,1937).

Tan. to Ex. xxxi. 18; ed. Stettin, p. 315.

“Detective Comics, Inc. v. Bruns Publications” transcripts, p. 133 (April 6, 1939)

xii Ibid.

xiii Baily, Bernard, interview by Ron Goulart, “Golden Age

Memories,” The History of DC Comics (1987), pp. 50-51.

xiv Baily, op. cit.

Cover Stories One of Baily’s most eerily classic “Spectre” covers was done for More Fun Comics #54 (April 1940)—while his final, signed “Hour-Man” cover graced Adventure Comics #59 (Feb. 1941). The first three Adventure covers showcasing Hour-Man are on view in the hardcover JSA All Stars Archives, Vol. 1, which reprinted the first five of his mini-epics; “Tick-Tock” Tyler appeared on a grand total of ten Adventure covers. [© 2012 DC Comics.]

xv Fox, Gardner, letter printed in Robin Snyder’s History of Comics,

Vol. 2, #2 (Feb. 1991).

xvi Thomas, Roy, “Seven Years before the Masthead,” The All-Star

Companion (2nd edition, 2004), pp. 13-14.

xvii Baily, op. cit.

xviii North, Sterling, “A National Disgrace,” Chicago Daily News,

May 8, 1940.

xix Baily, op. cit.

xx Goulart, Ron, Comic Book Culture: An Illustrated History (2000), p.

113.

Ken Quattro is a longtime comic fan who traces his interest in comic book history back to Jerry Bails’ The Panelologist. Over four decades, he has spent countless hours researching the seldom-explored corners of the industry and the lives of its creators. Eschewing the designation of comic historian, Ken prefers to think of himself as a comics detective. Coincidentally, that is also the name of his blog (from which the foregoing article is taken), which can be found at: http://thecomicsdetective.blogspot.com. He is currently at work completing his study of the life, times, and career of Bernard Baily.

“Fairytales Can Come True…” But This One Starring The Justice Society Took A Wrong Turn At Never-Never-Land! by Roy Thomas

ack in the 1980s, as can be seen by a perusal of Alter Ego #100 and the four fat volumes of The All-Star Companion, I was lucky (and assertive) enough to become the writer/editor of a number of series related to the Justice Society of America, my all-time favorite comics concept.

All-Star Squadron… Infinity, Inc…. America vs. the Justice Society… The Last Days of the Justice Society Special… The Young All-Stars… Secret Origins… all these were born, in whole or in large part, out of my love for the All-Star Comics I began reading (never really to stop) in 1945.

too beautiful to bloom forever unseen in the vast wasteland of abandoned comics projects.

I don’t really have a paper trail that would allow me to tie down all the details, but this much I know or can reasonably piece together:

Even so, back in the ’80s, there was The One That Got Away.

Sometime in the middle of that decade, around the time things began to really go sour for me at DC with the coming of Crisis on Infinite Earths, I conceived the notion of following up the four-issue America vs. the Justice Society with another JSArelated limited series. It almost happened… but, in the end, it didn’t, and all that was left behind was a dozen-plus pages, roughly half of which I managed to utilize in a couple of stories, largely because I felt they were

In that mid-’80s period, I got it into my head to take a single, then-unreprinted “JSA” story from that wonderful 1947-48 period when All-Star Comics was in many ways at its creative and artistic height—and expand its nearly 40 pages into four, maybe even six issues of what we then called a “mini-series” (a term comics picked up from TV terminology).

The vintage “JSA” story was “The Invasion from Fairyland!” from All-Star #39 (Feb.-March 1948), and it had been the work of a bare handful of creators: editor Sheldon Mayer (or, more likely, by this time, it had been largely overseen by his story editor and soon-to-be heir, Julius Schwartz)… writer John Broome… and artist Irwin Hasen, who may or may not have inked the 38-page adventure and its cover as well as penciling them.

The Goblins Will Get You If You Don’t Watch Out! (Above:) Michael Bair’s cover for Infinity, Inc. #50 (May 1988), the issue that utilized story elements from (left) All-Star Comics #39 (Feb.-March 1948) and (right) Justice League of America #2 (Dec. 1960-Jan. 1961)—and much of the art prepared for Justice Society of America: The Invasion from Fairyland. The All-Star cover is by Irwin Hasen, probably both pencils and inks—except for the Hawkman head, which was clearly added by Joe Kubert—while the JLA cover was penciled by Mike Sekowsky and inked by Murphy Anderson. [© 2012 DC Comics.]

The Fairytale Starring The Justice Society That Took A Wrong Turn at Never-Never-Land

An All-Star Cast One of the few pages in All-Star Comics #39 which depicts The Lorelei and all seven JSAers (as well as Rapunzel and the Wise Woman)—repro’d from Roy Thomas’ bound volumes, not from DC’s All-Star Comics Archives, Vol. 9. The 1946 photo of writer John Broome (on left) and de facto editor Julie Schwartz playing horseshoes is from the Julius Schwartz Collection—while the pic of Irwin Hasen (on left) and fellow Golden Age artist Al Plastino at a 2008 mini-con is courtesy of Irwin’s buddy Dan Makara. [Comic page © 2012 DC Comics.]

future when I came up with the idea of the series I called Justice Society of America: Invasion from Fairyland.

That offbeat epic had been the very first time the JSAers had broken up primarily into teams, instead of each (costumed male) member going off on his own to battle a threat. It had assumed, with the ease that was part and parcel of the Golden Age of Comics, that Fairyland was a parallel dimension which, from time to time, would intersect and connect with Earth for a 24-hour period—and that there were schemers in both worlds who’d try to expand that point of contact into a full-scale invasion!

Despite (or perhaps because of) its double roots in children’s literature, All-Star #39 had been a well-realized comics story, with Broome skillfully weaving together numerous characters, both well-known and obscure, from fairytale and myth: The Lorelei from German yarns telling of a tempting female water spirit, the Teutonic equivalent of the Greek Sirens… a Good Fairy and Rumplestilskin and Rapunzel and Hansel and Gretel and Cinderella and her Prince Charming and the Tin Soldier and King Grizzly Beard from fairytales pure and simple, as related by the likes of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen… Gallifron the Ogre from the medieval legend cycle that had grown up around the very real 9th-century Frankish king Charlemagne… a basilisk and a griffin (or at least, creatures referred to by those names)… a Wise Woman and a dragon and several witches, all figures in the folklore of many times and climes… and a vicious “man-unicorn” I’d never encountered before (nor have I since). All this, plus a Cap of Knowledge (which I also haven’t run across elsewhere) and the Philosopher’s Stone (from musty tomes of alchemy).

Nowadays, if you want to read “The Invasion from Fairyland!” you have only to seek out a copy of DC’s All Star Comics Archives, Vol. 9. But that gorgeous hardcover was nearly two decades in the

Naturally, I took this concept, at least verbally, to DC’s managing editor, Dick Giordano, who agreed to it at once and told me to go ahead. Based on the fact that the art from the project exists in two separate stages, I can be fairly certain I was first advised to have an artist draw up a few pages to show Dick and the even-higher-ups what the series would look like. I’ve no recollection of what I committed to paper concerning the project (proposal, synopsis, or whatever); but I went to an artist I felt would bring something valuable to the series: Michael Bair, who, as Mike Hernandez, had penciled the second issue of America vs. the Justice Society and a bit of Infinity, Inc. Mike’s drawing style, a combination of detailed realism and lush illustration, was just what was needed, I felt, to make the Fairyland concept work for a 1980s audience that averaged out considerably older than I’d been when I’d encountered it at age seven.

Michael spent some time (but not an inordinate amount of it) putting together approximately eight pages that would summarize the whole 39-pager and give a good idea of what the finished series would look like. [See pp. 22-23.] I had assured Dick that we would also be making up some new events that hadn’t been seen in the published adventure, showing things had happened in between the pages printed in late 1947. I hadn’t elaborated those to Dick—because I had only a vague idea of what they were just yet— but he and I both knew I’d come up with some interesting amplifications of the story, and that Mike would draw the hell out of them.

The original story was positively pregnant with possibilities. Most obviously, the climactic invasion of the Earth by the more sinister inhabitants of the Fairyland dimension, which had been squeezed into just four or five pages near the end of All-Star Comics #39, would be expanded to fill the entire final issue. But there were plenty of fairytale mainstays who could’ve been brought in to spice things up: the wolf that menaced Red Riding-Hood… the Giant who chased Jack back down the beanstalk… Beauty and the Beast… the list is all but endless.

“Fairytales Can Come True…”

What’s more, Justice League of America #2 (Dec. 1960-Jan. 1961) had put that latter-day successor of the JSA into conflict with “Magic-Land,” which was clearly the Fairyland of the earlier comic under a new name and new management, ruled now by the Troll King, Simon Magus, and Saturna, Lord of Misrule, and populated with griffins (accurately-rendered ones, this time), manticores, “troll giants,” air sprites, dryads, etc.—even Merlin the Magician. I was toying with the idea of bringing some of them into the action in the new mini-series, as well.

At some stage—and I’m not sure whether it was after Mike completed the sample pages or while he was winding them up— we got the go-ahead to start the first issue. Don’t ask me what contractual paperwork was ever done on the series; far as I know, we were acting entirely on Dick’s say-so, his having presumably cleared it with publisher Jenette Kahn and others. Mike went to work on #1 of what (I believe) was going to be half a dozen issues, and would certainly have been no fewer than four. I had pushed for as many issues as we could get.

In the meantime, however, one roadblock had been thrown in our way. In the autumn of 1985, I limped, sporting a cane and bruises and bandages, into a comics convention in London that I hadn’t even been planning to attend; it was, I seem to recall, only a coincidence that it happened to be going on while Dann and I were in the first part of a three-week holiday in England and Scotland. However, a couple of days earlier, I had been struck full on by a motor-bike while crossing the only real road that runs through the city’s Hyde Park; and when I’d come down, I had wound up with much of the left side of my face scraped off by the rough road surface and with a small broken bone in my wrist, so that I looked like a combination of Two-Face, Quasimodo, and the Elephant Man. But the impact of the motor-bike—which I’m proud to say was totaled, although I’m even happier to say that the driver wasn’t hurt and was reimbursed by the state for his loss—was nothing compared to the bomb that my old friend (and currently Crisis on Infinite Earths scripter) Marv Wolfman lobbed at me. Well, first he told me that he had been to Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum that afternoon, and “didn't see anything there that looked as bad as you do.” Then, he felt he should tell me that DC had decided that, when the Crisis ended some months down the line, no one, including myself in All-Star Squadron or elsewhere, would be allowed to utilize the Golden Age Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman in a story. From then on, it would be as if those heroes and their various entourages had never existed in the 1940s,

A Fairyland/Magic-Land/Grimmworld Bestiary (Above left:) The Silver Age Green Lantern and the Martian Manhunter confront a raging manticore and griffin in “The Secret of the Sinister Sorcerers,” in 1960-61’s Justice League of America #2. Script by Gardner Fox, art by Mike Sekowsky & Bernard Sachs. Repro’d from Justice League of America Archives, Vol. 1. [© 2012 DC Comics.] (Above:) A sketch page penciled and inked by Michael Bair, suggesting possible entities that might have been used in the JSA: Invasion from Fairyland limited series. The ladies appear to be sea nymphs or mermaids— and hey, maybe that six-legged critter is the Ladybug who’s admonished in the nursery rhyme to run away home. Us, we’d take off running from it. [© 2012 Michael Bair.]

or indeed at any time until an indefinite handful of years before the then-present.

That decree, which (as I detailed in A/E #100) was in complete contradiction to what I had been assured by DC’s powers-that-be some months earlier, when Crisis had been in the preparatory stages and my cooperation and suggestions were being avidly sought, would wreak havoc on the Squadron, I knew. But it also had implications for JSA: Invasion from Fairyland. Because one of the seven JSA members who appeared in that late-’40s-set tale was, of course—Wonder Woman!

The Fairytale Starring The Justice Society That Took A Wrong Turn at Never-Never-Land

Still, when I got back home, I hoped that all was not (quite) lost. Working with various artists (including Mike Bair), Dann and I created a Young All-Stars monthly title to replace All-Star Squadron, not that the new group could ever hope to fill the shoes of the first for me. And one of the youngsters in YAS was a World War II-era Fury, who embodied whatever psychic energy had been sapped from the DC universe when the Earth-Two Wonder Woman had been retroactively erased from existence, and who was destined to be the mother of the Fury who was a cast member of Infinity, Inc.

Mike penciled the first five pages of JSA: Fairyland #1, most of which, beginning at the bottom of the second page, consisted of a flashback to events of All-Star Comics #38 (“History’s Crime Wave”), replacing Wonder Woman with the WWII Fury. This sequence illustrated the then-new connection between the seven JSAers and not-yet-member Black Canary, who’d first popped up in #38 when she’d come across a dying Johnny Thunder.

The two of us were just about to get into the “Fairyland” story proper, with the JSAers visiting an imprisoned Sally Barnes, who’s been convicted of using supernatural powers to murder a couple of people—when word came down that DC had changed its mind and there would be no JSA: Fairyland series. I don’t recall the reasons or the details—in fact, I’m relatively sure I wasn’t ever really given any of either. And I was too busy trying to shore up my situation at DC —with All-Star Squadron giving way to Young All-Stars, etc.—to dwell on it. Doubting Thomas that I proudly am, I’d have to see canceled checks to be convinced I was ever paid anything for my efforts to date on the mini-series, though I couldn’t swear that I wasn’t. Ditto re Mike Bair, who had put in considerably more hours of work than I had on the project.

Still, I hung onto the penciled pages, and just a couple of years later, in 1988, came the chance to use them, and to salvage something from the JSA: Fairyland fiasco.

Actually, I utilized those pages in two places, one right after the other.

First came the opportunity to do Infinity, Inc. #50 as a “doublesize anniversary spectactular”—although, technically, that 52-page comic was only 50% thicker than the usual 36-page issue. I decided that, if I couldn’t expand an old “JSA” yarn into a miniseries, I would bring Fairyland into the world of that seminal super-group’s sons and daughters! I had always loved the Sekowsky/Anderson cover for JLA #2—a gigantic clawed hand trying to force its way through a doorway in the sky while the heroes struggle to close the door—so I had Mike adapt that image for that of Infinity #50, as well. In the course of things, I changed the name of “Fairyland” to “Grimmworld,” utilizing the connotations of the last name of the Brothers Grimm—something I don’t believed I’d thought of (yet) in conjunction with the JSA series.

Hell Hath No Wonder Woman… (Clockwise on this & facing page:) Michael Bair’s pencils for the first five pages of the projected Justice Society of America: Invasion from Fairyland #1, most of which summarized the events of All-Star Comics #38 as a leadin to those related in #39. By the time Mike penciled these pages, the Golden Age Wonder Woman had been retroactively deleted from DC continuity, so the story had been adjusted to use the new Fury from Young All-Stars in her stead. As to how Roy T. intended to justify the fact that Fury is shown on page 3 manipulating machinery that will soon bring six “dead” JSAers back to life—he has no memory whatsoever! But he says he’d have managed! [Fury, Flash, Atom, Johnny Thunder, Dr. Mid-Nite, Green Lantern, Hawkman, & Black Canary TM & © 2012 DC Comics; other art © 2012 Michael Bair.]

“Fairytales Can Come True…”

Although the primary artists of #50 were regulars Vince Argondezzi (pencils) and Tony DeZuniga (inker), I had Mike ink his seven sample pages that summarized the story of All-Star #39 and I wrote captions for it, turning it into a flashback related by another old JSA foe, The Wizard, whom I’d teamed up with the vengeful Lorelei from “Invasion from Fairyland!” To see all seven of these pages at full size—as well as half a dozen other new pages by Mike, showing the JLA’s encounter with Magic-Land and how The Wizard teamed up with The Lorelei—you’ll have to dig up a copy of Infinity, Inc. #50, I’m afraid. But it’d be worth the effort.

There wasn’t any good way, at least at that moment, to utilize four of the five penciled pages of JSA: Fairyland #1… but I did find a use for the splash page, on which the seven 1947 JSAers were shown soaring high above Civic City, five of them being propelled by Green Lantern’s ring, while Hawkman flew point. Naturally, it should’ve been Wonder Woman riding on that big green triangle with Flash, Atom, Johnny Thunder, and Dr. Mid-Nite… but instead, Young All-Stars’ Fury was there as the Amazon’s postCrisis stand-in.

At least, she was when Mike penciled the page. But, through a reasoning process I no longer remember, I had decided in the interim that, while the WWII Fury would indeed be counted as the birth-mother of Infinity’s Fury, Lyta Trevor, it would be preferable to have Lyta be the adopted daughter of a couple named Lyle and Joan (Dale) Trevor—the latter being the civilian identity of the early-’40s Quality Comics Group super-heroine, Miss America. And so, a generic flashback page I worked into Infinity, Inc. Annual #2 (1988, replacing the June issue) spotlighted six male JSAers with Miss America—who had replaced Fury—who had replaced Wonder Woman. (And if you want to read how the late-’40s EC [continued on p. 24]

The Fairytale Starring The Justice Society That Took A Wrong Turn at Never-Never-Land

INTERLUDE:

Some Fairy Nice Artwork

When Justice Society of America: Invasion from Fairyland failed to make DC’s schedule, the six color pages on this double-spread—all drawn by Michael Bair and scripted by Roy Thomas—were printed with a seventh one as part of a Wizard-narrated flashback in Infinity, Inc. #50. Taken together, they make up a Reader’s Digest version of the story in All-Star Comics #39. Figures that were once rendered as Wonder Woman were changed to the Quality Comics heroine called Miss America. On p. 24, because Mike had inadvertently left Johnny Thunder out of the dragon encounter he shared with Green Lantern and Hawkman, Roy Michael Bair. asked DC to add JT. Some staffer simply stuck in a Photstat of the Johnny Thunder figure from the company’s Who’s Who Photo courtesy of the artist. series—which was a poor concept drawing, since Johnny’s wearing a hat and coat for what may well be the only time in his four-color life—and didn’t even follow through to make sure that it got colored!

In an eighth page of Mike’s samples, seen below and never printed before this issue of Alter Ego, Wonder Woman remained herself as she battled “giant mastiffs” conjured up by The Lorelei; that scene occurred between the two actions shown on page 23 of Infinity, Inc. #50, just before Black Canary got into the act. [© 2012 DC Comics.]

“Fairytales Can Come True…”

The Fairytale Starring The Justice Society That Took A Wrong Turn at Never-Never-Land

[continued from p. 21]

super-heroine Moon Girl nearly got into the act at one point, you’ll have to track down a copy of A/E #100. I’m not going through that again!)

Up In The Air (Above:) Michael Bair’s original pencil art for the splash page of Justice Society of America: Invasion from Fairyland #1 was seen on p. 20. Here is that page repro’d from a scan of the inked art before text was added for Infinity, Inc. Annual #2, 1988, with Miss America having replaced Fury. Inks by Tony DeZuniga. Writer/editor Roy T.’s hand-written note in the left margin (also printed at right, enlarged and enhanced as best we can get it), addressed to associate editor Mark Waid, says: “Mark: Tony accidentally drew Black Canary instead of Miss America, so I redrew it. Fix it if you feel it needs it. —Roy.” Clearly, Roy had asked inker Tony DeZuniga to ink Mike Bair’s Fury figure as Miss America—or at least, he had meant to do so. However it happened, Tony had inked her as Black Canary, instead. Fortunately, in those halcyon days, Ye Editor trafficked the original art rather than photocopies or scans; so ’twould seem he took pen and White-Out to paper and turned Black Canary into the Quality super-heroine as best he could. Roy preferred to make his own stab at re-inking, rather than take a chance that DC’s production department might not do the fix. (It’s quite possible that the botched job on Infinity, Inc. #50, p. 24, was fresh in his mind.) How much or how little the prod. dept. did to his re-inked figure is unknown, but it turned out okay in the end, which is what counts. Roy also instructed that the art should be printed so that it “bled” on all four sides. Thanks to dealer Mike Burkey for the scan. (Above right:) The same page as it appeared in the printed Annual. RT’s captions further the story by spieling events related to the time-traveling Per Degaton and having nothing to do with the art, which has now become simply a generic drawing of the post-Crisis 1947 JSA. Thanks to Chet Cox for the scan. [© 2012 DC Comics.]

And so ended the dream of expanding All-Star #39’s “Invasion from Fairyland!” into a severalissue limited series, with beautiful Michael Bair artwork.

The pages prepared for Justice Society of America: Invasion from Fairyland are scattered now, like the leaves of a book whose binding has come unglued so that they’ve been blown away by errant winds. And yet, in another sense, they still exist: seven of them in Infinity, Inc. #50… one in Infinity, Inc. Annual #2… and now the others, most just penciled but one inked, in this issue of Alter Ego.

And perhaps, in some third parallel world that is neither Earth-Prime nor Fairyland, back-issue bins and the occasional Mylar bag are laden with copies of the four proud, full-color, slick-paper issues of Justice Society of America: Invasion from Fairyland. No, make that six issues.

If we’re gonna dream, we might as well dream big.

What If All-Star Comics Had Sported A Variant Line-up? or—

Just Imagine: A Different Golden Age Justice Society! by Hurricane Heeran Coloring of Fantasy Covers & Panels by Randy Sargent

ans of comics often have a fondness for stories in which the established continuities of their characters are altered. This can range from having Superman land elsewhere on Earth (or on another planet or in another time) and/or be reared in a manner different from the upbringing given him by the Kents, to Lex Luthor being the father of the last Son of Krypton.

Call them “Imaginary Stories” or “Elseworlds”—have their titles begin with the words “What If” or “Just Imagine”: wondering what might have been or could have happened gives both writer and reader a new way to deal with established characters. And this process isn’t just limited to fictional characters, for enough “alternative-history” novels have been written to warrant a sub-section in some bookstores!

And that’s where this piece comes in. We’re going to take the real history of comic book publishing, make a few make-believe (but logical enough) changes, and ponder what the results might have been….

The “Big 8” Celebrations

Before we dive deep into the waters of make-believe, let’s review some very real facts of history. The following are the monthly anthology titles published by DC Comics and their various line-ups for January 1942 (character names listed in bold below also starred in their own solo title, or would by that summer): Action Comics: Superman, Congo Bill, Mr. America (nee Tex Thomson), Three Aces, The Vigilante, and Zatara.

Adventure Comics: Sandman, Hour-Man, Starman, Shining Knight, Federal Men, Steve Conrad – Adventurer, and Paul Kirk – Manhunter.

All-American Comics: Green Lantern, The Atom, Dr. Mid-Nite, Sargon the Sorcerer, Red Tornado & The Cyclone Kids, Red, White, & Blue, Hop Harrigan, and Mutt & Jeff.

Detective Comics: Batman, Spy, Crimson Avenger, Larry Steele, Steve Malone, and Slam Bradley. [Air Wave arrived in March, and Boy Commandos debuted later in the year.]

Flash Comics: The Flash, Johnny Thunder, Les Sparks, The King, The Whip, Minute Movies, and Hawkman.

More Fun Comics: Green Arrow, Dr. Fate, Radio Squad, Aquaman, Johnny Quick, Clip Carson, and The Spectre.

5—6—7—8—Who Do We Appreciate? This full-page house ad for DC/AA’s newly-expanded “Big Eight” lineup— i.e., its monthly anthologies published with a cover date of Feb. 1942— appeared in All-Star Comics #9 (Feb.-March 1942), emphasizing its Amazon ingénue, Wonder Woman. [© 2012 DC Comics.]

Sensation Comics: Wonder Woman, The Black Pirate, Little Boy Blue, Gay Ghost, Mr. Terrific, and Wildcat.

Star Spangled Comics: Star-Spangled Kid, Armstrong of the Army, Tarantula, and Captain X of the RAF. [Newsboy Legion & The Guardian, TNT & Dan the Dyna-Mite, and Robotman all debuted in April 1942. Liberty Belle wouldn’t debut until May 1943.]

Just Imagine—A Different Golden Age Justice Society!

All-Star Comics: The previous issue of All-Star (#8) had seen Dr. Mid-Nite and Starman become JSA members, replacing Green Lantern and Hour-Man (as representatives of All-American and Adventure). Doc and Starman remained in the line-up, as did Hawkman and The Spectre (from Flash and More Fun), while The Atom and Sandman departed—replaced by Tarantula (from Star Spangled) and Mr. Terrific (from Sensation). At the same time, Zatara (from Action) spelled Dr. Fate—while Bart Regan, from the feature “Spy,” would serve as a liaison of the US government (and a representative of Detective Comics) for the group. Ninth member Johnny Thunder left the JSA after issue #10.

Wonder Woman guest-starred in issues #11 and #13 (fighting Japan and being shanghaied into space with the rest of the JSA, before relinquishing her solo spot permanently to Mr. Terrific). Bart Regan departed after #12’s Black Dragons caper, with Detective’s Air Wave becoming a member in #14’s “Food for Starving Patriots!”

Things remained stable through 1943, though the title moved back to quarterly status for the duration of the war, due to paper quotas. A shrinking page count saw The Spectre, Zatara, and Tarantula take rotating byes on missions, with the latter gone for good after #21 (Summer 1944). When the All-American line split from DC Comics in 1945, the JSA’s line-up was changed to feature

Food For (Starving) Thought As per Hurricane Heeran’s fantasy reconstruction of the JSA lineup: If copublishers Donenfeld, Liebowitz, and Gaines had decided their premier group title must contain one hero from each of DC/AA’s eight monthlies, the cover of All-Star Comics #14 might’ve looked much like this, rather than the version now on view in All Star Comics Archives, Vol. 2. Joe Gallagher’s cover art has been amended by amiable Al Dellinges to display a lineup of (left to right) Dr. Mid-Nite, The Spectre, Wonder Woman, Hawkman, Starman, Tarantula, Mr. Terrific, & Zatara (the latter definitely in the style of a young Joe Kubert). But alas—we must've neglected to have Al add Air Wave! Our bad! [Heroes TM & © 2012 DC Comics.]

(The preceding list does not include trademark-purposed “ashcan editions” with very limited circulation, such as Superboy Comics, Superwoman Comics, and Old Glory Comics.)

DC began to promote its monthly titles as “The Big 8” (up from “The Big 6” and, very briefly, “The Big 7”). Now, let’s suppose that the company’s powers-that-were had decided that that concept and its promotion also needed to be reflected in its bi-monthlies and quarterly anthologies—the ones that ran a “Best of” sampler line-up.

Before we move on to a few other titles, we’ll start with All-Star Comics #9 (Feb.-March 1942)—and a JSA line-up that, as decreed in our imaginary timeline by co-publishers M.C. Gaines, Jack Liebowitz, and Harry Donenfeld, had to feature a character from each and every monthly title. Certainly that would have made sense as an alternative to All-Star’s original plan, which had been to feature two heroes each from the DC & AA titles More Fun Comics, Adventure Comics, Flash Comics, and All-American Comics:

Leading With Your Chin In HH’s alternate universe, de facto editor Mort Weisinger didn’t waste much time in adding dropped JSAers Johnny Thunder and The Atom to the “Seven Soldiers of Victory” roll call in Leading Comics #4 (Fall 1942). Mort Meskin’s cover art has been amended by Al Dellinges; you can view the Our-World version in Seven Soldiers of Victory Archives, Vol. 1. [Heroes TM & © 2012 DC Comics.]

What If All-Star Comics Had Sported A Variant Line-up?

You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby! Frank Harry’s wraparound cover for Comic Cavalcade #1 (Winter 1943) can be seen in the first (and thus far only) volume of DC’s Comic Cavalcade Archives. Above is that cover as it might’ve been rendered in a world where “The Ladies of Liberty” were the stars, with a few token males lagging behind. (L. to r.): The Ghost Patrol… Lois Lane… servicemen Red, White, and Blue… Sisty from Shelly Mayer’s “Scribbly & Red Tornado”… Inza Cramer (in a spare Dr. Fate costume), Wildcat, Catwoman, Wonder Woman, & Hawkgirl. With thanks to Al Dellinges. [Characters TM & © 2012 DC Comics.]

only AA characters. The Flash, Johnny Thunder, Green Lantern, Atom, and Wonder Woman rejoined the group and remained even after AA was sold wholly to Donenfeld, Liebowitz, and DC.

Leading Comics: Not knowing (or at least not caring) about the existence of newcomer Sensation Comics, new DC editor Mort Weisinger interpreted the dictum to use a hero from each monthly comic to mean that the Seven Soldiers of Victory should have members from each of “The Big 7.” When he learned Johnny Thunder and The Atom were being dropped from the JSA roll call in All-Star, he added them to his new team’s line-up, shortening the chapters to fit them in. (Since Speedy, Stripesy, and Wing were merely “sidekick” Soldiers, no one really complained.) When the “Big 7” quickly metamorphosed into the “Big 8,” Weisinger managed to keep the book down to seven leads by claiming that he already was a year ahead on scripts and art. And maybe he was.

As the page count shrank during the war years, Johnny Thunder was regulated to being the Seven Soldiers’ coordinator, monitoring their reports of success, often trying to take down the evil mastermind by himself and needing to be rescued by the others. When the big AA split occurred, he and The Atom quietly left the team. By the time the split was over, Leading Comics had become a humor title.

World’s Finest Comics: Superman, Batman, The Flash, and Green Lantern already had their own titles, so the latter pair joined the book’s two anchor characters, being no longer JSAers. It was believed that Wonder Woman would soon have her own mag (which she did, when the summer arrived), so she was added to the line-up. The Sandman was already part of the comic’s cast, and Dr. Fate swapped places with Zatara. So all that was needed to have an eighth character appear was the addition of the mystery pilot Captain X of the RAF. (When fall arrived, TNT & Dan the Dyna-Mite replaced Captain X.)

At first the eight characters simply starred in their own solo stories in World’s Finest. Then Gardner Fox was tapped to develop a second group, which he called the Justice Society Auxiliary, since most of the heroes in it had been associated with the Justice Society of America. Reportedly, two stories he wrote for All-Star’s JSA were rewritten for the new JSA lineup. When the All-American line split from DC in 1944-45, Green Arrow, Zatara, and the Boy Commandos were brought into the WF line-up; however, they partook in separate solo adventures. When WF #18 hit the newsstands for the summer of 1945, everyone was back to solo adventures as the war wound down.

Comic Cavalcade: This title debuted with a Winter ’42 cover date, and featured the Ladies of Liberty, whose ranks were made

Just Imagine—A Different Golden Age Justice Society!

New Blood For The JSA On “Earth-H” (for “Heeran”), the panels on this and the facing page might well have appeared in later issues of All-Star, as adapted here by Al Dellinges. (Clockwise from left, with all art & characters TM & © 2012 DC Comics:) #50—In this version, Johnny Quick handles the super-criminal Mr. Alpha while The Flash merely watches. #51—Green Lantern and The Atom have some help from Robotman in this rendition. #52—Here, Congo Bill has awakened the JSAers from a year of suspended animation. (So who else should’ve been prowling around the African jungles in a DC comic? Bwana Beast was still decades away!) #54—Robin—who’d once been a boy acrobat, after all—runs away with his buddies to join the Circus of a Thousand Thrills. #55—Alien invaders prove duck soup for Superman and The Atom. #56—Tommy Tomorrow comes from one future to prevent another. [Heroes & villains TM & © 2012 DC Comics.]

while inside all three had solo adventures, as did Mutt & Jeff and Hop Harrigan. up of Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl, Inza (Dr. Fate’s confidante), Catwoman, and Lois Lane. Catwoman was a wildcard ally at first, and later supposedly was working with the group in order to gain a pardon. Inza used an amulet created by Fate and wore a costume adapted from his. At first Lois Lane merely used her wits to hold up her part of the adventure; later she borrowed the Powerstone to briefly have powers similar to Superman’s, and took on the identity of Superwoman (thus nailing down DC’s trademark regarding a distaff version of the Big Red S).

Once Liberty Belle debuted in Star Spangled Comics #20 (May 1943), she was added to the Ladies of Liberty line-up in Comic Cavalcade #4 (Fall 1943).

Along with the Ladies of Liberty, solo adventures of The King and Sargon the Sorcerer ran in Comic Cavalcade. When the AA split occurred, the “Ladies of Liberty” feature was dropped, and Wonder Woman shared the cover with Green Lantern and Flash,

Hey, Kids—Comics!

In Detective Comics #76 (June 1943), the Boy Commandos met the Newsboy Legion as well as Sandman and Sandy during “The Invasion of America.” (Yes, this really did happen in our reality, too—now on to the speculation:)

When the fourth issue of Boy Commandos came out for autumn of that year, it contained a sequel of sorts to the above story, which saw Sandy teaming up with the Newsboy Legion for an adventure. This was followed by a series of team-ups done with young heroes such as Robin, Little Boy Blue & the Blue Boys, and even The Cyclone Kids.

In addition, during the AA/DC split, Wildcat replaced The Atom, so that the Sensation Comics title was promoted, while the Mighty Mite vanished, since his spot in All-American Comics had been cut. Later on, The Atom was revived with a new costume and atomic strength.

What If All-Star Comics Had Sported A Variant Line-up?

A Different JSA For 1950 (And Beyond)

Before we go off into additional speculation, let us check the reality of DC Comics as 1950 dawned. Excluding the humor titles, there were four monthly anthology titles, and three bi-monthly anthology titles, plus the bi-monthly World’s Finest Comics to act as a sampler of the eight anthology titles. The titles and their line-ups (with the monthlies listed first, then the bi-monthlies, with characters having their own bi-monthly books by that time again listed in bold lettering): Action Comics – Superman, Tommy Tomorrow, Congo Bill, and The Vigilante.

Adventure Comics – Superboy, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Johnny Quick, and Shining Knight (though Johnny Quick would soon be dropped).

Detective Comics – Batman, Impossible but True, Robotman, and Pow-Wow Smith, Indian Detective.

Star Spangled Comics – Robin, Captain Compass, Manhunters around the World, and Tomahawk (with Tomahawk getting his own bi-monthly title by the end of the year).

All-American Western – Johnny Thunder, Minstrel Maverick, Overland Coach, and Foley of the Fighting Fifth.

Sensation Comics – Woman Woman, Dr. Pat, Romance Inc., and Headline Heroines.

Western Comics – Wyoming Kid, Rodeo Rick, Nighthawk, and Cowboy Marshal.

World’s Finest Comics – Superman, Green Arrow, The Wyoming Kid, Zatara, and Batman.

Now that we’ve established what was reality and history, let us speculate how

things might have been had DC Comics taken a different approach to All-Star Comics and the JSA.

• A Different 1950s Lineup: Johnny Quick would substitute for The Flash, and Zatara replaced Green Lantern, as Robotman (by now having moved to Detective Comics) took over for The Atom, while Black Canary got new solo adventures in Sensation Comics.

• A Parade of Guest Stars: Starting with All-Star #50, the seven regular members of the JSA would share their adventure with a guest star who would serve as an eighth member of the team and who, at the end of that tale, would become an honorary member of the JSA:

Just Imagine—A Different Golden Age Justice Society!

#57: No memberships, honorary or full, were handed out at the end of “The Mystery of the Vanishing Detectives”; however, that tale featured four crime-fighters who were appearing in the “Manhunters around the World” series.

Sadly, the experiment didn’t boost All-Star’s sales as hoped. Nor did DC see any sales spike among its remaining monthly titles in which the guest stars regularly appeared.

• A Lean to the West(ern): Starting with #51, The Vigilante and Pow-Wow Smith took over for Dr. Mid-Nite and Black Canary. The new Western-style JSAers appeared on the cover of that issue and #54, causing debate as to whether they would speed up or delay a full-issue flip to cowboys-and-Indians fare.

• The Big Change of Issue #58: In our world and history, #58 heralded the first issue of All-Star Western, as the JSA went into retirement and the Western surge rolled on, at least for a time. But what if a different change had occurred, such as:

Johnny Peril became a full-time member of the JSA, with his story pages added to the lead feature to give more room for the story and characters. However, it was a case of “too little, too late,” and issue #61 still saw a switch to a lineup of purely Western heroes.

The Big Eight—Fawcett Style (Above:) Mary Marvel didn’t come along till a little later, but we couldn’t resist calling the group which Hurricane calls America’s Champions by the name The Crime Crusaders Club—a moniker which in our world was once used by the gathered heroes of Master Comics (while, over in Wow Comics, Mary, Mr. Scarlet & Pinky, et al., very occasionally styled themselves The Crimson Crusaders of Justice, since all of them had red in their costumes). Artists Mark Lewis (pencils) and P.C. Hamerlinck (inks) have done Fawcett up proud in this homage to E.E. Hibbard’s iconic cover of 1940’s groundbreaking All-Star Comics #3! [Characters TM & © 2012 DC Comics and/or the respective copyright holders.]

#50: Mr. Alpha’s plans for defeating the JSA were undone, thanks to the assistance of Johnny Quick and a former college classmate of Jay Garrick’s.

#51: Robotman gave a needed assist to the JSA in stopping the “Invaders from the World Below.”

#52: Congo Bill located the suspended-animation JSAers in Africa and helped them prevent “The Secret Conquest of the Earth.”

#53: Vigilante joined the JSA’s search for “The Gun That Dropped through Time.”

#54: Already an honorary member of sorts, Robin aided the JSA against “The Circus of a Thousand Thrills,” since he, too, had a circus background.

#55: Superman fought alongside the JSA against “The Man Who Conquered the Solar System.”

#56: Future cop Tommy Tomorrow was brought into the 31st century along with the JSA in “The Day the World Ended.”

Pulp Fiction—Pulp Heroes (Above:) The World’s Warriors—they could almost have been called the Worlds’ Warriors—is the group Heeran posits for an alternate Earth whereon the heroes of Fiction House banded together to battle Mars, god of war (who, like Auro, Lord of Jupiter, could be found in that company’s Planet Comics). Shane Foley adapts Frank Harry’s cover for All-Star Comics #15 (Feb.-March 1943), which originally spotlighted The Brain Wave. [Characters TM & © 2012 the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

What If All-Star Comics Had Sported A Variant Line-up?

A trip through American history, as a relic passed from Tomahawk (of Star Spangled Comics), to The Wyoming Kid (Western Comics), then to Johnny Thunder (All-American Western), to the pre-WWII 20th century with Superboy (Adventure Comics), then to the present with Vigilante (Action Comics), and Pow-Wow Smith (Detective Comics).

The Justice Coalition of America: During the late 19th century, a group of heroes found a great threat poised to strike at an expanding United States in its Western territories. The JCA was made up of Nighthawk, Johnny Thunder, The Wyoming Kid, and Strong Bow, an Indian character who didn’t yet appear elsewhere. After a year, the JCA concept was dropped, although Strong Bow stayed on to have a solo series, as did the new Trigger Twins.

All The Way With MLJ (Above:) This time, Shane Foley shows us what an MLJ hero-group might’ve looked like, before teenager Archie Andrews put ’em all out to pasture. Note that the abbreviation of “Marshals of Law and Justice” is “MLJ”—the company name, which reflected the initials of the first names of its original owners. (Clockwise from top left:) Hangman, Shield, Blackjack, Steel Sterling, Roy the Super Boy, Mr. Justice, Dusty, The Wizard, Black Hood. Based on Arthur Peddy & Bernard Sachs’ cover for All-Star Comics #54 (Aug.-Sept. 1950). [Characters TM & © Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

Something Different, But The Same

Give Me Liberty (Above:) Victor Fox’s Liberty League, as rendered by Shane Foley, in a scene inspired by Hibbard’s cover for All-Star Comics #4 (Spring 1941). In the USA of the so-called Real World, there actually was a Liberty League (or, at least, an American Liberty League, often called by the shorter phrase) from 1934 to 1940. It was made up of conservative, anti-FDR Democrats such as 1928 Presidential candidate Al Smith, and opposed Roosevelt on grounds that he was leading the country toward a fascist dictatorship. (Incidentally, Roy Thomas was unaware of that historical Liberty League when he first used “The Liberty Legion” as the name of no less than two of his fancreation super-groups in the 1950s; he would later utilize that name in the mid-1970s for a WWII-era Marvel Comics assemblage which nearly got its own bi-monthly title.) [Blue Beetle TM & © DC Comics; other characters TM & © 2012 the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Despite how the history of American comic books suggests that, if one company stumbles into something that proves to be successful, other companies generally fall over themselves trying to duplicate that success, for some reason the Justice Society was rarely imitated by DC’s rapacious rivals. Fawcett’s Marvel Family and Timely’s All Winners Squad were the rare exceptions, since the Blackhawks don’t quite count.

Yet, if other comics companies had tried to do something similar to the JSA, we might have gotten the following type of titles, groups, and lineups: Originally conceived as a “Best of” anthology, with its second issue America’s Greatest Comics became the home of Fawcett’s team, christened America’s Champions. As it tapped heroes from each of its monthly titles, the group’s line-up consisted of Captain Marvel and Spy Smasher (from Whiz Comics), Bulletman and Minute-Man (from Master Comics), and Mr.

Just Imagine—A Different Golden Age Justice Society!

Quality Goods (Left:) Oddly, in our reality, there never was a title from the Quality Comics Group named Quality Comics—but maybe there should have been! And wouldn’t it have been great if it had co-starred the super-heroes listed in Heeran’s speculations, years before Len Wein posited the Freedom Fighters? Art by Shane Foley, imaginatively adapting Frank Harry’s cover for All-Star Comics #22 (Fall 1944)—though Blackhawk’s plane must be behind that big American flag! [Heroes TM & © DC Comics.]

Due to the financial troubles into which Victor Fox had gotten by 1942, only one issue, labeled as “Late Winter,” appeared, in January of that year.

MLJ’s heroes gathered together as The Marshals of Law and Justice in Jackpot Comics. The team’s membership was made up by The Shield and Hangman (from Pep Comics), Black Hood and The Wizard (from Top-Notch), and Steel Sterling and Black Jack (Zip Comics), along with a couple of kid sidekicks just to flesh out the numbers.

The various heroes of “Busy” Arnold’s Quality Comics Group would assemble as The Patriots Patrol in a new comic titled— what else?—Quality Comics. The Patrol started out with a sevenman membership of The Black Condor (Crack Comics), Doll Man (Feature Comics), Stormy Foster (Hit Comics), Blackhawk (Military Comics), Uncle Sam (National Comics), Firebrand (Police Comics), and The Ray (Smash Comics)—one member from each of seven titles. The third issue saw Plastic Man replace the fastfading Firebrand. This quarterly title ran until 1944, when Quality began to distance itself from doing super-heroes. “But I have taken the road less traveled, And that has made all the difference.” —Robert Frost.

Scarlet (from Wow Comics). Issue #6 saw Captain Midnight guest-star, while Don Winslow of the Navy made a brief appearance in the following issue.

For Fiction House, it was easier to create an anthology title utilizing the “Best of” format than to assemble a team, since its featured stars were so diversified, many of them existing on other planets and/or in different eras. Even so, a team called The World’s Warriors was cobbled together for World War Comics #1, with a line-up consisting of Captain Fight (Fight Comics), Sheena (Jumbo Comics), White Panther (Jungle Comics), Auro, Lord of Jupiter (Planet Comics—in which Earthman Chet Edson was living in Auro’s body), Tiger Man (Rangers The Standard-Bearers Comics), and Phantom Every week in the 1940s, the radio series Your Falcon (Wings Comics). Hit Parade worked in a “Lucky Strike Extra” This quarterly title lasted that wasn’t a current top-10 sales-leader in for six issues. records, sheet music, and radio play—so we

The Liberty League was the name of the group inaugurated by Fox Comics, in a mag with the latter title. It featured the Blue Beetle and Green Mask (from Mystery Men Comics), The Flame and U.S. Jones (from Wonderworld Comics), and V-Man (from V Comics).

figured nobody’d mind too much if we (meaning mostly artist Shane Foley, at Ye Editor’s behest) sneaked in a cover for a fantasy group not covered in Hurricane Heeran’s piece. Namely, a combo consisting of heroes of the Better/Standard/Pines/Nedor lineup, which sure missed a bet (as did most other Golden Age companies) by not assembling its own JSA challengers. Shane based this one on Irwin Hasen’s cover for All-Star Comics #34 (April-May 1947), that introduced The Wizard. [Heroes TM & © 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

“Will” Power Three Pages Of The First Chapter Of That Legendary Lost “JSA” Story—In Color! Introduction by Roy Thomas

y now, if you’ve been a long-time reader of Alter Ego or of the four volumes I edited of The All-Star Companion for TwoMorrows, you’ve seen most or all of the original art that has turned up over time of the never-published Golden Age “Justice Society of America” story titled “The Will of William Wilson.”

I won’t relate yet again all the detective work that, over the years, has gone into tracking down info about that particular story, except to say the quest was set off in 1965 when “JSA” co-creator and first writer Gardner Fox told founding A/E editor Jerry G. Bails that “Will” was one of four “JSA” exploits he had scripted that appeared not to have been published—or else, he suggested, might have seen print under different names from those he’d given them.

From his personal records, Fox gave the date of his scribing that particular AWOL epic as “September 1945.” However, later reconstructive work proved decisively that the adventure had once contained no less than 48 pages, which is the length of “JSA” yarns produced no later than 1943. This is just one of several anomalies related to “Will” and the other three “lost” Fox-written “JSA” stories which have yet to be fully resolved.

From around 1969, after burgeoning comics writer and intern staffer Marv Wolfman heroically rescued numerous tiers (thirds of pages) of DC original art that had been sliced up for easier fitting into the company incinerator, his friend Mark Hanerfeld was in possession of many of the surviving fragments of “Will’s”pages, until he sold his entire cache to me circa 1990. Other tiers (and one uncut splash panel) turned up over time in the collections of Jerry

Bails (via trade with Mark), Ethan Roberts, Dominic Bongo, George Hagenauer, Dan Makara, science fiction/mystery/pop-culture author Ron Goulart, comics writer and editor Len Wein, and Marv himself—and Stephen Fishler.

In 2001, Stephen, who is the owner of Metropolis Collectibles (both store and mail-order business) in New York City, came into possession of the original art for the five-page “JSA” opening chapter of “The Will of William Wilson,” as drawn by Martin Naydel. These pages, unlike nearly all the work liberated by Marv Wolfman in 1969, had never been sliced into thirds, but had survived intact for over half a century. In answer to my request, Stephen generously mailed me full-size photocopies of those pages, which were printed for the first time ever in The All-Star Companion, Vol. 2 (2006).

Still, there were a few lettering and paste-up elements related to the chapter’s splash page that had gotten lost over the years, if indeed they had ever existed. These lacks were remedied by a combination of fan-artist Al Dellinges (who lettered the story’s MIA title), layout man Christopher Day (who placed JSAers’ cameo heads over the seven solid black [!] circles along one side of the page and also Photoshopped in a “Justice Society of America” logo and a roll call from published issues of the same period), and publisher John Morrow (who replaced the handwritten/cursive wording of Wilson’s will with the look of cold, hard type, as an editorial note in the margins had decreed be done). The “corrected” splash to the tale saw print in The All-Star Companion, Vol. 3. Even so, that restored five-page chapter still lacked one important element that it had never had—but would have, if it had been published in the mid-1940s as originally intended: Color.

Enter Randy Sargent, who has helped us out with a couple of specialty coloring jobs over the past year or so (including the preceding piece in this very issue). He agreed to take a stab at coloring the introductory section in the bright colors that had been the comics industry standard seven decades ago— and we think he really caught the feel of it.

The Once And Future “King” Among the various stories that were slated for total, never-to-be-published destruction in 1969 was a circa-1947 “Flash” story that dealt with reawakened knights of King Arthur’s Round Table. It was penciled by a young Carmine Infantino, who would one day become editorial director and even publisher of DC Comics. Thanks to the Heritage Comics Archives, as retrieved by Dominic Bongo. Inker & scripter unknown. [Flash TM & © 2012 DC Comics.]

Thus, on the following three pages, we re-present a portion of the first chapter of “The Will of William Wilson,” with script by Gardner Fox and art by Martin Naydel… as it should have been seen in 1946:

Three Pages Of The First Chapter Of That Legendary Lost “JSA” Story—In Color!

“Will” Power

Three Pages Of The First Chapter Of That Legendary Lost “JSA” Story—In Color!

[Look for more colored pages from “The Will of William Wilson” in future issues of Alter Ego.]

“ I Absolutely Love What I’m Doing!” The Conclusion Of Our Four-Part Interview With Artist TONY TALLARICO NTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: In previous installments, longtime artist Tony Tallarico and I discussed the early days of his career working for Avon, Youthful/ Story, et al, and the years he spent working for Charlton, often in collaboration with his friend Bill Fraccio. Thanks to our mutual friend Stan Goldberg for putting me in touch with Tony. —Jim.

Conducted by Jim Amash

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris

“I’ve Done DC’s Work, But Never Through DC”

JIM AMASH: Did you have a least favorite genre?

TONY TALLARICO: Not really. By the way, Charlton, at one point in the late ’70s, wanted to do coloring books based on the Hanna-Barbera characters, and they knew I had done coloring books for other publishers. [Editor] Sal Gentile said, “We’ll do some with you.” I said, “I don’t want to do some. If you want me to do coloring books, I want to do all of them.” So I did them all. I wrote them, too. They paid better than comic books.

I also did a Batman coloring book for Grosset & Dunlap. I started doing book work for them. They really that kept me busy doing that. I wrote and drew all kinds of books for them, including Superman and Wonder Woman.

JA: Did you have help on these?

TALLARICO: No. When I stopped doing comic books, I did not have help from anybody. I stood or fell on my own.

O Pioneer! On May 20, 2005, Tony Tallarico received the Pioneer Award from Temple University in Philadelphia for his creation of Lobo, the first fictitious African-American hero to star in his own comic book. Also seen above is his cover art for the neverpublished Lobo #3. As to why the series was canceled so quickly—read the final installment of his interview! Thanks to Tony for both items. [Art © 2012 Tony Tallarico.]

JA: How did you feel about doing the Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman books, since they were DC Comics characters, and you couldn’t get a job there when you tried?

TALLARICO: That’s true. [laughter] DC approved it, and the people who were there when I couldn’t get a job were no longer there, so it didn’t matter. I never worked for DC. I’ve done DC’s work, but never through DC.

JA: Did you ever try to get work from Marvel Comics?

TALLARICO: No. The only work I ever did for Marvel Comic was in their humor magazine, Crazy, in 1978. Paul Laikin was the editor.

The Conclusion Of Our Four-Part Interview With Artist Tony Tallarico

away, and I’ll come out. Otherwise, I’m not coming out.” But he was good to work with. I also drew “Jigsaw” and “Dr. Yes” for him at Harvey Publications. Jigsaw was a good character, though it was really a knock-off of Plastic Man.

The pay [on Sick] was good. I think it was thirty-five a page, no lettering. It didn’t last. Angelo Torres told him that I wanted to do some things in the humor magazine, and that’s how I got the first few jobs out of Joe. Then, when he packaged those books for Harvey, he asked me if I was willing to do [something]. I said, “Sure.”

JA: Tell me about Angelo Torres.

TALLARICO: In high school, he was the best natural artist I ever saw. He could draw anything, really anything. He was a quiet guy. We became good friends, and have been for sixty years.

Angelo was in the National Guard, and first he was stationed on a beach near Coney Island with an anti-aircraft battery to ward off the Koreans from attacking the East Coast. They would be attacked every day when the neighborhood school would let out, and all the kids would run over and they couldn’t stop them. So that was #1, which was pretty funny. Then he was going to be shipped to Korea. He was placed on a boat and he went all the way down the East Coast of South America, picking up other U.N. forces. And then he came back up, went through the Canal, went down on the West Coast, picking up a dozen here and 12 there; came back up, finally arrived in Korea. By that time, his time was up. He must have been there a month, and then he came back home. That was his war experience.

“I Was Deadly Afraid Of Going [To Joe Simon’s Place]”

“[Classics Illustrated] Were Very, Very Fussy”

JA: You had drawn some stories for Sick magazine, which Joe Simon was editing.

TALLARICO: Yes. My kids were about seven years old, and I would walk them to public school. Right across the street were the offices of the Cracked publisher, and about that time [my bestselling comic book] The Great Society was out. I went in there one day with some samples and was hired. Bob Sproul was the owner/publisher, and he liked the idea that I was a neighborhood guy and could do something for him if he was in a pinch.

JA: You did Cracked in 1970. That same year, I have you as doing some work in Web of Horror, which was a Warren type of magazine, and Sproul was its publisher. You and Bill Fraccio are credited as “Alfred Payan.” It doesn’t ring a bell at all, does it? TALLARICO: Not at all. But Payan was the name of the street I lived on.

JA: What was it like to work for Joe Simon on Sick?

TALLARICO: I was deadly afraid of going there, because Joe had three dogs that were man-eaters, and he kept them loose in his yard. [Jim chuckles] I would stay in the car, blow my horn, and Joe would come out laughing, “Ha ha ha ha!” I said, “Put them

In school, we always used to play Slap Ball at lunchtime. And in my senior yearbook, he wrote, “To one of the finest Slap Ball umpires in the U.S.” [mutual laughter] So I don’t have to be an artist for a living. I can be a Slap Ball umpire. [more laughter] [NOTE: See photo of Angelo Torres in A/E #106.] JA: As long as we’re taking an interlude away from Charlton Comics, I want to ask you about working for Gilberton—Classics Illustrated. You did some World around Us, How Fire Came to the Indians, in the early ’60s. You also did Right Foods and Food of the Gods. Was this for Roberta Strauss?

TALLARICO: No, it was for Lenny Cole. When he was let go at Gilberton, he went to Dell. JA: Gilberton was known for being very nit-picky. TALLARICO: Oh, boy, I’ll say! Now

Is A Puzzlement! The cover of Jigsaw #1 (Sept. 1966), drawn by Tony Tallarico. The hero was apparently conceived by editor/packager Joe Simon, but the scripter is uncertain. Thanks to Stephan Friedt. [© 2012 Harvey Comics or successors in interest.]

“I Absolutely Love What I’m Doing!”

TALLARICO: I didn’t. Somebody else came in there—a former art director of an ad agency—and for him I did How Fire Came to the Indians. I actually colored that book, besides doing the art and everything else. It was really fun. And then he did some other things, like World War One, and then they closed shop. But I did other things. I designed crossword and word search covers for them, just like I did for Charlton.

JA: What led you to color that story? You weren’t normally coloring.

TALLARICO: It was a different kind of a story as far as I was concerned, and I thought, “Gee, they’ll use the same old crap color.” So I asked this art director if I could do this. He said, “Sure. It A Classical Approach only pays a dollar a (Left:) A page from Tony’s work for How Fire Came to the Indians in Classics Illustrated Junior #571 (1961). William B. Jones, page.” I said, “I’m not Jr., in his authoritative Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History (expanded second edition, published by McFarland Books, 2011), doing it for the money. I reports that “Tallarico’s brighter style signaled a new direction in the Junior line.” would like to color it.” (Right:) Classics Illustrated #160 (Jan. 1961) adapted H.G. Wells’ science-fiction novel The Food of the Gods. Tallarico, Jones He gave me the silver says, supplied “a subversively light touch for a deeply unsettling tale” of a race of giants possessed of “growth that goes on prints, and I colored forever.” Thanks for both, Bill. John Haufe, Jr., says the adaptation was scripted by Abner Sundell. [© 2012 First Classics, Inc.] them; it took forever, but I think it was worthyou’re bringing back memories. They were very, very fussy. They while. The American edition did not do justice to the coloring job, had a staff of editors, all college pros, and they went over the stuff. but they had a German edition that I have seen. It was beautiful. I remember doing a Mayan Indian piece. It was only a four-pager, Nice paper, and the reproduction was nice. and I drew it in the style of Mayan Indians, and they loved it, but then they started picking. “Oh, they wouldn’t do this” and “They JA: Let’s talk about Lenny Cole. wouldn’t do that.” TALLARICO: The thing was—and this never affected me whether I did a Women in History or a few pages in that, about a it was at Charlton, whether it was at Dell or Gilberton—I’ve heard ballerina. I went to the library, and I got a picture of her, and I from many, many people that he was on the take. He never asked knocked off the picture. I didn’t do anything original, I just copied me for kickbacks, though. I wouldn’t have given it to him, anyway. the picture. I brought it in; they said it was wrong. So I went back And when we went out to lunch, he was the first to pay. I mean to the library, I took the picture out, I brought it down there, and you couldn’t get your hand out of your pocket. stuck it under their nose. And they all shut up. Ridiculous! I don’t JA: Why was he different with you? know what they were trying to do.

TALLARICO: The pay was 35 a page. That wasn’t bad, except that you had to go through leaps and bounds. But the thing is, you got a 48-page book.

TALLARICO: I have no idea. The few times he was interviewed, he listed a bunch of people that he thought were great comic artists, and I was always on that list. I couldn’t figure out why, because I don’t think of myself as a great comic book artist. I see myself as somebody who struggled through comics. I learned a hell of a lot, and when I started doing book illustrations and books, it all came in handy.

TALLARICO: No.

TALLARICO: Oh, yes. He talked a lot. He lied a lot.

JA: They were being nit-picky for nit-picky’s sake. They drove Lou Cameron crazy. He worked for them before you did. He worked for Roberta Strauss, and he told me the pay was very low.

JA: Do you remember who wrote this stuff?

JA: Why did you quit working for them?

JA: Was he easy to get along with?

JA: What would he lie about?

The Conclusion Of Our Four-Part Interview With Artist Tony Tallarico

Dance, Ballerina, Dance This panel depicting famed ballerina Margot Fonteyn as a teenager was part of a twopage feature on “Famous Teens” drawn by Tony for Gilberton/Classics Illustrated’s The World around Us #33 (May 1961)—and is mostly likely the case in point he discusses on the previous page. Thanks to John Haufe, Jr. John reminds us that quality reprints of the original Classics Illustrated series are available from Jacklakeproductions.com or directly from John himself at 620 Wiltshire Blvd., Apt. #4, Kettering, OH 45419-2734. We highly recommend them. [© 2012 Frawley Corporation and its exclusive licensee First Classics, Inc.]

TALLARICO: Everything! He said he had a lake that his father had: Brant Lake. Other people said, “Eh, it’s a mud hole. He probably owns the property around there, so it’s nothing.” One time Lenny was in a cab with Norman Nodel and pointed at a building and said, “That’s one of my father’s buildings.” They drove up a little further: “Oh, yeah. That’s another one of my father’s buildings.” Well, it turned out that his father was into real estate. He rented real estate for the owners. But Lenny’s attitude was that his father owned these buildings.

JA: What would he usually talk about?

TALLARICO: Everything, from what was on TV last night to what he ate last Thursday.

JA: Was he very political?

TALLARICO: No.

JA: So you always felt that he was straight with you?

TALLARICO: He was straight with me. D.J. Arneson, who was his assistant at Dell, took Food For The Gods—And Lenny’s job when For Thought Helen Meyer fired L.B. Cole in a photo taken him, though I don’t while he was at the helm of know why she did. Dell Comics in the early 1960s,

JA: Were you in touch with him afterwards?

TALLARICO: He was in touch with me. He wanted me to do some other things for him. He was doing some visual aids, but

after its connection with Western Publishing had been severed—plus the cover he painted for Classics Illustrated #152 (Sept. 1959). Thanks to William B. Jones, Jr. The photo of Cole appeared in Comic Book Marketplace #30 (Dec. 1995). [Art © 2012 First Classics, Inc.]

the price was ridiculous. Like if I drew half a figure, it was a dollar; if it was a quarter of a figure, it was 25¢. I said, “Come on, what is this? A shopping list? I can’t do this.”

JA: Outside of Gilberton, did you find Cole to be a demanding editor?

TALLARICO: No. He liked what I did. I tried to do the best job that I could for him at Dell. I was impressed by being asked to work for Dell, and I never had problems.

“[Helen Meyer] Was In Charge of Dell”

JA: Tell me about Helen Meyer.

TALLARICO: She was a very hostile person, but she was straight. She told you what she thought. I went with her to see several screenings of films that they licensed, and she always wanted my opinion. I don’t know that she did that with everybody else that she took to these things, but I always gave it to her straight. If I didn’t think something was appropriate, I would say so. One film—I can’t remember what it was—they wanted to license it, and I said, “Gee, I wouldn’t license it if I was doing it.” She didn’t license it. I don’t know if it was because of what I said, but she would listen to me. I might lose a job doing that, but it’s better to lose a job than to screw up something. I got along with her fine.

She was about my height. She was short, about five-two; she wasn’t particularly pretty. An older woman.

JA: I’ve heard that people were afraid of her. But you were not.

TALLARICO: No, because I just came in, I did my job, and I left.

JA: Would you say she was imperious?

TALLARICO: Yes! She was in charge of Dell. The Delacorte Brothers, who owned Dell, were just making money out of it. They would show up, and then they wouldn’t show up for a while. They had places all over, in Spain, in South America; they were very wealthy. She was in charge. JA: I take it you didn’t ever meet the Delacortes, did you?

TALLARICO: Yes, I did. One day, George Delacorte was just going by and he stopped into—I don’t know if it was Lenny Cole or D.J. Arneson’s

“I Absolutely Love What I’m Doing!”

office—and just chatted, and I was introduced to him. That’s all. Their offices were very nice, very clean, and big. The pocket book division alone was an entire department. In fact, every department was separate from [the others]. Later on, I did some black-&-white illustrations for their detective magazines. They were on Third Avenue at the time. I think it was 375 Third Avenue on around 47th Street and Third. JA: Did they have much of a bullpen for their comic books?

TALLARICO: They had one person who was—I can’t think of his name; he lived out here on the Island, too—not a production guy, but he made changes, did layouts and mechanicals. He didn’t take care of plates and timetables and things like that. The production was done by a production department.

JA: Arneson wrote a lot of scripts. Who else do you recall?

TALLARICO: Paul Newman did a bit of work. He was a blowhard. I didn’t work with him. He wrote a script and he gave it to D.J., who edited it—he really did edit it—and turned it over to me. I had nothing to do with [Newman] personally.

JA: How good an editor was Lenny Cole?

TALLARICO: Well, he didn’t contribute much to the overall picture. JA: So Arneson had a firmer hand than Cole?

TALLARICO: Yes, he knew what he was doing. Lenny knew art. D.J. Arneson did not know art, but he did know writing. He was a college grad, and all that.

JA: How involved were your conferences with Arneson?

High Society

TALLARICO: Well, we’d have lunch. If there was a new book coming out, he’d ask if I wanted to do it. We became friendly.

JA: And were they paying thirty-five a page, too?

TALLARICO: Yes, no lettering. With lettering, it was $37.50, so I had D.J. contact Ray Burzon, and Ray worked directly for him.

JA: Did you have to turn in the pencils first?

She Who Must Be Obeyed Helen Meyer, the reportedly imperious chief executive who ran Dell Comics from the 1950s through its end in 1976.

TALLARICO: No. I did the pencils, got them to Ray to letter, who would get them back to me; then I would ink the job and bring it in. Danger Man was the first book I did for them. I think it was the first book that they did themselves. Before that, Western Publishing was doing them, and I wasn’t with Dell then.

The Great Society Comic Book & Lobo

JA: Let’s get to Lobo. How did it come about?

TALLARICO: You’ve got to go back in time before Lobo. It was one evening in 1965; the phone rang about 7 o’clock. D.J. Arneson was on the other end. He was the editor at Dell. He said, “I have an idea for a political satire comic book,” and he explained what it was. He said, “I need a cover by tomorrow morning to show it to our publisher. Can you do it?” I said, “Sure,” and I did it that night . The book was The Great Society Comic Book. D.J. showed it to his vice president, Helen Meyer. She was a tough, tough cookie, but she knew what she was doing. She was the first female president of a major publisher.

(Left:) Super-LBJ and Wonderbird in action in the best-selling 1966 Great Society Comic Book, which poked mostly goodnatured fun at President Lyndon Baines Johnson, his wife Claudia Alta (“Lady Bird”),” et al., in the era when LBJ was exhorting America to wage a War on Poverty and create “the Great Society.” (Right:) The front cover of TGSCB was seen in A/E #106. Here’s the back cover, with its (modified) mid-’60s catch-phrases and super-hero caricatures of Attorney General Robert (“Bobman”) Kennedy and his “kid sidekick” Teddy; Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara; 1964 Republican Presidential nominee Barry Goldwater; Vice President Hubert Humphrey; the temporarily retired Richard Nixon; and a number of other politicos who would’ve been instantly recognizable back in the day. Tony and writer D.J. Arneson share a byline, but Tony acknowledges that he sub-contracted the pencils to his longtime colleague Bill Fraccio. TGSCB would spawn a sequel (see cover in #106), though it wouldn’t prove as popular as the original. [© 2012 D.J. Arneson and Tony Tallarico.”]

He showed it to her, and she liked it, but she said, “No, it’s not for us. It’s political. We don’t do things like that.” So you have to think back: this is in the same day. That afternoon, he made a contact with an up-and-coming new

The Conclusion Of Our Four-Part Interview With Artist Tony Tallarico

publisher, and the next day, we both went there and we sold the idea. It became a best-seller. We were interviewed on all kinds of television and radio programs.

Trashing The Great Society Tony says these two Fracciopenciled pages of the “Wonderbird” chapter spoofing Lady Bird Johnson’s high-profile campaign to beautify America were considered “too mean” by the editors of TGSCB, and its script and art were not used. It may be a bit tricky to read some of the lettering because of the unerased penciling under it. [© 2012 D.J. Arneson & Tony Tallarico.]

About four years ago, I got a letter from Lucy Baines Johnson, the daughter of LBJ, saying that the library had acquired a copy of my book, and it’s in the permanent exhibit of their Presidential Library in Western Texas. She wanted to know if I had anything further that I could donate to them. I had a poster that Simon & Shuster did for the book—for some reason, they were involved in it— and I sent it to them. She wrote me back a really sweet letter and said, “I hate to presume this, but could I have a copy of the book?” [mutual laughter] I said, “Sure.” So I sent her off a copy, and she sent me an autographed picture of herself.

Anyway, three months after we did The Great Society Comic Book, I had an idea for Lobo. I called D.J. Arneson—“I have an idea. Can I show it up there?”—and told him about the character. He said, “I like that idea. Do you need some writing on it?” I don’t know what kind of salary D.J. made there, but he was always grabbing comics stuff to write. The majority of Dell’s comics, at the time that he was editor, were written by him. I said, “Sure.” I explained the character, what he was going to do, and he gave me a script for the first story.

We showed it to Helen Meyer, who liked it and gave us the “goahead.” My original title was actually Black Lobo, but the word "Black" got dropped as being too provocative. I rewrote the script

on the first issue, because it was not what I had in mind, which was perfectly okay with D.J. Now, nothing was printed yet. Usually, it took three issues before you found out how the first one was selling. Well, two issues passed and I got a call from D.J. saying, “Stop! We’re getting flack from that book.” I went in to find out what the heck the flack was. The flack was that their distributors were not even opening the bundles of comics. They were just sending them right back, because they found out that Lobo was a black hero, so that was the end for the series.

We did two issues, and I have a cover and a couple of inside pages for the third one. It was a disaster. It really hurt Dell because of the unopened bundles that the distributors returned. Lobo wasn’t picked out of a bundle and thrown back— they threw back the entire company’s output. Well, that was the times.

JA: But Dell had such prestige and clout.

TALLARICO: They had no clout with distributors, none. Comics were penny-ante stuff. They would rather not even have them. Dell liked comics because they got into the area of younger children, and they could create a fan base for the company, so as the kids matured, they would read Dell’s other magazines. Their comics, to them, were just stepping stones to other magazines. JA: What gave you the idea for Lobo?

“I Absolutely Love What I’m Doing!”

TALLARICO: I lived in a mixed neighborhood. I felt comic books did not reflect the neighborhood I lived in. When I was thinking up ideas for a new series, it occurred to me that the black friends I had did not have a hero of their own. That led me to creating Lobo. I wanted to create a black character who was not a stereotype, something far away from what I had seen in the comics of my youth.

“If You Mentioned To Someone You Were Doing Car 54, It Was An Impressive Thing”

JA: You also did The Incredible Mr. Limpet, The Littlest Snowman, Mouse on the Moon, Raggedy Ann and Andy. You worked for Dell up until about ’67, ’68, but you worked for Charlton until the early, mid1970s. You obviously liked the scripts at Dell much better.

TALLARICO: Yes. If you mentioned to someone you were doing Car 54, it was an impressive thing. And Dell was great with supplying reference material for the TV- and movie-based comics.

JA: Did you watch the TV shows?

TALLARICO: Oh, sure. Angelo Torres taught me how to photograph pictures from the television, because there’s a trick to it. It was a great help. Photography was a hobby of mine, and of Angelo’s, too. He drew lots of TV parodies for Mad magazine, so taking those photos were necessary for him.

another piece of board, but he didn’t. He went over every damn line that he had put down and made it darker. And that was the last job I ever gave him.

JA: He must have been hard up. What do you know about his personal life?

TALLARICO: He was married, he had a son. I never met his family, and I don’t know anybody who did. Norman Nodel really knew him well, because they lived in the same area of Queens, and he had the same feeling. He didn’t really know much about him, except that he constantly lied.

JA: How well did you know Norman Nodel?

TALLARICO: He did a lot of stuff for Charlton for me—romance, mystery—you name it. We visited at his home; he was over here with his wife, and the kids would always come over when he came to deliver a job. But towards the end, he never set foot in the house because he had such bad arthritis, as I told you earlier. I felt bad for him. I would wait for him—I knew what time he would come—

Lobo In Black-&-White (Below:) Tallarico character sketches for Lobo. [© 2012 Tony Tallarico.] (Left:) His original cover art for Lobo #1 (Dec. 1965); the printed cover was seen in A/E #106. Both art spots courtesy of TT. Due to publishing realities, Lobo #1 hit the newsstands before the earlier-conceived Great Society Comic Book. [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

JA: Did you find the layouts restrictive? It seemed like most of their pages were three tiers, two panels on a tier, most of the time.

TALLARICO: Yes, but that was okay. It worked for the kind of scripts they wrote. JA: Wouldn’t they allow you to deviate?

TALLARICO: Yes, they did. I could have.

JA: I know Charlton didn’t care what your layouts looked like.

TALLARICO: That’s right, [mutual laughter] as long as they could print them. That reminds me of something. Lenny Cole approached me. He was out of the comic business, he was out of a lot of things, and he called. He knew I was doing some things for Charlton, and he wanted to do a short story that he could make a few bucks on. I said, “Sure.” I owed him, you know. I knew he wasn’t that bad an artist. He was perfect for Charlton, so I sent him a story. He came a few weeks later with the finishes, and he must have watered down his ink, because it was gray. I said, “Len, I don’t think they can reproduce this.” He said, “Oh, yeah, they can.” And I said, “Okay, I’ll tell you. I’ll show it to him, but if there’s any—” He said, “Don’t worry about it. I will go over it.” And he did. I mean the ink was like a 40% gray. Charlton couldn’t print it, as bad as their presses were. I thought he was going to do it on a lightbox and re-ink it on

and I would go out, and meet him at his car.

JA: In 1964, some of your stuff was reprinted by Israel Waldman for IW Publications.

TALLARICO: I know of Izzy Waldman because he was a con man. I got a call, maybe twelve years ago, from an editor that he had, asking if I’d do something for him. I turned it down. I didn’t want to have anything to do with him. But whatever he printed of mine, it must have been gotten through Charlton, and I did not receive any payment on it. I didn’t know about it until later.

The Conclusion Of Our Four-Part Interview With Artist Tony Tallarico

“[Jim Warren Was] The Hugh Hefner Of Horror”

JA: How did you hook up with Jim Warren?

TALLARICO: Through Angelo Torres. Most of what I did was with Bill Fraccio, but some of it was just mine.

JA: Who did the ink washes on the stories?

TALLARICO: Probably so. He got more money: we split the thirty-five so he got $17.50 a page. We had the ability to change things, to do a weird layout, which Bill seemed to enjoy. Jim Warren liked that, too.

TALLARICO: That was all mine. I used India ink and markers, depending what effect I was trying to get. I found that the markers were the best, because they reproduced exactly the way you put them down. But Warren didn’t print on the best paper, and the reproductions were not the greatest.

JA: The layouts were much more dramatic, more lively, and it looked like you guys were having more fun.

JA: How many painted covers did you do?

TALLARICO: Oh, lots. For Charlton, it was for that Real West [magazine]. It was a monthly, and I did some for their men’s magazine—I can’t think of its name. Joe Gill packaged that whole magazine; he asked me to do the covers, and that’s about it, as far as magazines are concerned. I’ve done painted covers for puzzle books, and books with Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.

JA: I want to finish up with Warren. What was Jim Warren like to work with?

TALLARICO: We were. It was really the tail end of comics. We didn’t know that… but Jim was okay to work with.

JA: Did you deal with him, or did you deal with an editor?

Convening The Warren Court 1960s/70s horror-mag publisher James Warren eyes a splash page by “Tony Williamsune”—an amalgamation of Bill Fraccio’s pencils and Tony Tallarico’s inks—from Creepy #29 (Sept. 1969). The artists achieve an expressionist effect with the sky that keeps the black-&-white art from seeming empty minus color. The script is by Buddy Saunders, who a few years earlier had been one of comics fandom’s celebrated Texas Trio. Today the first few dozen issues of Warren’s Creepy and Eerie are available in handsome hardcover editions from Dark Horse, and early Vampirella in more of the same from Dynamite. [© 2012 New Comic Company, Inc.]

TALLARICO: Oh, he was a pleasure. He had tons of girlfriends who were all his secretaries, but it didn’t bother me. I mean, who cares?

JA: He was trying to be Hugh Hefner, wasn’t he?

TALLARICO: That’s right, the Hugh Hefner of Horror. [Jim laughs] I still get a Christmas card from him.

JA: I don’t think you wrote anything for him, did you?

TALLARICO: No, I never did. I got a script and turned in a complete job—$35 a page. As usual, Ray Burzon lettered my stories. I supplied my own paper. JA: Did any company supply your paper?

TALLARICO: I think Charlton did towards the end, I’m not positive. Otherwise, no.

JA: I thought Bill’s pencils for Warren were better than his Charlton work.

TALLARICO: No, I dealt with him. I don’t remember an editor. JA: Why did you quit working for Warren? TALLARICO: I didn’t quit. He stopped publishing.

“I Was Either Going To Do Comics, Or I Was Going To Do Children’s Books”

JA: Well, just briefly, because Warren published reprints for a little while. But when they started using new material again, you weren’t working for them.

TALLARICO: I was probably too busy doing books, and at that point, I had to split the thing. I was either going to do comics, or I was going to do children’s books, which paid better. And in the ’80s, things really worked very well for me. I met a guy through Norman Nodel who was going to start a small publishing company. It was Tuffy Books, and he had a patent to do a book with a handle on it. His name is Phil Mann, and I must have done 125 books.

We even went to Italy for the Bologna Book Fair, the German Book Fair in Frankfurt... we really did a lot. We sold a lot of books to other publishers overseas. From Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Holland—you name it—they were sold all over because of going to those book fairs. I did very well with him.

“I Absolutely Love What I’m Doing!”

Storm Warnings For Derby, Connecticut Tony really turned himself loose on these three pages for a story being done for Charlton—but it was never printed, because the company ceased publishing comics in 1985, and went completely out of business in 1991. Scripter unknown. [© 2012 Tony Tallarico.]

JA: When you were doing licensed work, whether it was for Charlton or whether it was for Dell, did you ever hear from any of the actors or anybody?

TALLARICO: A couple times, somebody would want a page, and if I could get it back from the publisher, I would gladly send it out. It did happen occasionally.

JA: Do you remember anyone specifically?

TALLARICO: Sly Stallone. I did a children’s book based on him, and he liked this one particular drawing in it. He wrote me a note asking, could he have it? I gave it to him.

JA: For three months in 1969, you drew some Davy Jones dailies.

TALLARICO: I did it for the United Features Syndicate. Sam Leff was the writer. He owned the feature, and the guy who was drawing it wanted out, so Tom Gill recommended me. I couldn’t stand it. I could not stand it. It didn’t fit me. It was three months, but it felt like three years. And Sam got Winslow Mortimer to do it.

JA: I know Wayne Boring had drawn it, too.

TALLARICO: Yes, and then it died. It was the tail end of the story adventure strips.

JA: It’s time to talk about Treasure Chest. You worked for them from ’68 to ’72, on history and science features.

TALLARICO: A good outfit, the Pflaum Company. I think they were in Ohio. I did all kinds of stories for them. I did one complete issue for them, and

The Conclusion Of Our Four-Part Interview With Artist Tony Tallarico

lots of five-, ten-page stories. $35 a page, and Ray Bruzon got $2.50 a page for lettering. I remember one story about how chocolate was brought to the New World. I did another one on the person who invented potato chips. It was an accident in the White House. He was bringing potatoes in and he tripped, and they fell into boiling oil, and he let them fry. And that was it. [mutual laughter] The books were distributed in Catholic schools for years. The comic folded because Catholic schools didn’t have the money for them after a while.

Treasure Chest—Near The End Of Its Rainbow Tallarico drew this cover for Treasure Chest, Vol. 27, #5 (April 1972)—real #493, according to the Grand Comics Database!—plus a 30-page comics story inside. Alas, the long-running Catholic comic book died just three issues later. [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

JA: I remember seeing them on the newsstand as a kid for a brief while.

TALLARICO: Yes, I think the 48-pager I did made it to the newsstands, because 39¢, I think, was the price ticket on it. But the stores didn’t want comics, either. If a kid stole one comic book, that was 20¢. That took a bite out of their profits. I mean, they were working on pennies. The stores would rather put in a Playboy that was $3, and they made a buck and a half on it. It was strictly an economic thing.

JA: Once you were out of comic books, how long did you work for Joe Gill on the Charlton magazines?

TALLARICO: I think I did about six, seven, maybe eight issues. It was a bi-monthly, so I did about a year’s worth. I was just too busy with other projects. I’ve been doing a series that I came up with about twenty years ago. Are you familiar with Where’s Waldo? It’s the same idea, except the characters have dialogue. There’s a bit of a learning process in it. The American Library Association said that Waldo was illiterate, and that mine wasn’t. In fact, I’m doing one right now as I talk to you.

JA: How many books do you think you’ve done?

TALLARICO: My wife did a count several years ago, and it was close to a thousand then. A lot of them are repackaged. They’ll take something from one book, put it into another book, flip it around, and come up with a new title, but it’s over a thousand now.

“[Doing Comic Books] Was A Necessary Evil”

JA: Overall, how do you look back at your time doing comic books?

TALLARICO: It was a necessary evil. There was no other work. Before that, an artist could do pulp illustration, but by the time I came along, the pulps were gone. Comics was the only way you could draw and make a living, and I liked comics in the beginning. I didn’t mind the low rates and the tight deadlines, and all that, but after a while, enough is enough and I could see that it just kept

going down and down, when it was down to $16 a page for Charlton. Hey, it’s time to really look around.

JA: When did they start cutting your rates there? It was after Dick Giordano’s time, wasn’t it? Probably more around late ’60s than the ’70s.

TALLARICO: Yeah, that’s the way it works out.

JA: If the pay had not been cut, would you have stayed or would you have still left?

TALLARICO: I think I still would have left, because after doing The Great Society We’re Looking For People Who Comic Book, I was very busy Like To Teach People To Draw in the book field. I was Tony has a special fondness for his howalways doing little jobs for to-draw books. In recent years, for Grosset & Dunlap, but after Dover, he has produced the Tony that book, I sort of became Tallarico’s Quick Draw series, including this edition on drawing animals. [© 2012 a star for a short while. I Tony Tallarico.] was doing a lot of projects, mostly the licensed things that they had, like Soupy Sales. I did every book of his. Oh, there were a lot of things like that. JA: Of all the things you’ve done, what is your favorite work?

TALLARICO: The I Can Draw series for Simon and Shuster. There were 18 books in the series, and I got the rights back because they stopped publishing them about two years ago. The new publisher is Dover Publications… titled Tony Tallarico’s Quick Draw series.

I would like to say a little bit more about Tuffy Books. This would never happen in comics. I was working for Phil Mann. He liked what I did; he made me a partner in the company. Have you ever heard of a comic book place doing that?

JA: No.

TALLARICO: Well, there you are. And when we sold the business, in fact, we sold it to Grosset & Dunlap. It’s funny the way things go. I got a hunk of the sale money. I didn’t ask for it; Phil gave me a piece of it. And luckily, at that point, I started to do things for Kids Books, Inc. They were just about starting publishing at that point. This is about 20 years ago now. They had a way of selling a bunch of activity books, and I had a bunch of activity books that I had done for Simon & Shuster. They said, “If you can get the rights back, we can really start off with a bang.” Well, I got the rights back, and they sold them and I get a royalty on everything I do.

The man at Kids Books, Dan Blau, was the salesman for other publishers. He and Vic Cavallaro started Kids Books, Inc., and I started with them. The first twenty books that they published were all my activity books for which I got the rights back. We put on new covers, and they sold them to the educational market.

JA: What keeps you working?

TALLARICO: I absolutely love what I’m doing, and I’m not exhausted at the end of the day, like I was doing comics, because it was a long, tedious plowing along. I’m way past the retirement age, but I’m not going to retire.

“I Absolutely Love What I’m Doing!”

TONY TALLARICO Checklist

[NOTE: The following checklist is adapted from information on the Who’s Who of American Comic Books (1929-1999) website, established by Jerry G. Bails.

Names of features below which appeared both in comics with that title and also in other comics are generally not italicized. Key: (a) = full art; (p) = pencils

only; (i) = inks only; (S) = Sunday newspaper comic strip; (d) daily newspaper comic strip.] Name: Alfred Anthony (Tony) Tallarico (b. 1933) (artist; writer)

Pen Names: Alfred Payan; Alfred Tallarico. (Shared with Bill Fraccio:) Tony Williamson, Tony Williamsune, Anthony Williamson, Alfred Payan

Education: Brooklyn Museum of Art School, Brooklyn, NY; School of Industrial Arts, New York City

Influences: Frank Robbins; Ken Bald; Roy Doty; Stan Drake; Milton Caniff

Member: National Cartoonists Society, past member

Family in Arts: son, Tony Tallarico, Jr. (writer of syndicated features 1990+); daughter Nina Tallarico

Print Media (non-comics): artist (adverTony’s true pride and joy is his family. (Back row, left to right:) daughter Nina Reyes, who’s also written tising) for J. Walter Thompson, Xerox, some comics… son-in-law Manny Reyes… Tony… wife Elvira… son Tony J. (Front row:) granddaughter Maria Reyes… grandson Christopher Reyes… and daughter-in-law Cathy Tallarico. Pan-Am, U.S. Government; artist (books) 1959 Teen Tales, How-to books 1992; MAINSTREAM U.S. COMIC BOOKS: Drawing and Cartooning Monsters (date uncertain); juvenile books 1960-99 (Soupy Sales & the Talking Turtle 1965, Puff & the Magic Avon Periodicals: covers (a) c. 1953-54 (modified from paperback Dragon 1965; Astronut & the Flying Bus 1965; over 1,000 others; covers) magazines: Dude (a) 1957, Grin (a) 1972-73; poster 1966 promoting

The Great Society Comic Book; penciler or inker of juvenile books (with Bill Fraccio); late-1950s/early 1970s coloring books; How & Why Wonder Book of Science 1960 Honors: Pioneer Award: Lifetime Achievement in the Comics Industry 2006 (for Lobo)

Syndication: Davy Jones (d) (ghost a) 1969 three months for United Feature Syndicte; Nancy (ghost a, dates uncertain); Trivia Treat (a) early 1980s to mid-’90s, lasted 17 years, done with daughter Nina; Zap the Video Chap (a) (dates uncertain) for McNaught Syndicate

Creator: Lobo, first black hero to have his own title in U.S.

Promotional Comics: Advertising comics (a) 1960s for Pan-Am, Ford, et al.; 1969 for insurance company; Ringling Bros.; 32-page catalog for Maco Toys 1960; cover (a) of Wild Bill Hickok for Blue Bird Comics 1960; Popeye for King Features Syndicate Career Awareness Program c. 1975

Assisted: Frank Carin 1950-51; Sol Cohen, editor at Avon 1951-52

Tallarico’s World

Charlton Comics: 1776 (a) 1973; Abbott and Costello (a) 1969-70; AllAmerican Sports (a) 1967; Army Attack (a) 1965; Army War Heroes (a) 1964-65, 1968-69; Attack (a) 1965; backup features in Billy the Kid (a) 1958 & 1966, Blue Beetle (i) 1966, Cheyenne Kid (a) 1963, 1965-68, Gunmaster (a) 1965, Jungle Jim (a) 1969, Jungle Tales of Tarzan (i) 1966, Kid Montana (a) 1965; Battlefield Action (a) 1958, 1964; Billy the Kid (a) 1963, 1973; Black Fury (a) 1959, 1965-66; Blondie (a) 1970; Blue Beetle (i) 1964, 1966; Bobby Sherman (w)(a) 1972; Bugaloos (a) c. 1971; Charisma Kid (w)(a) 1971-72; Cheyenne Kid (a) 1958-59, 1965-66; covers 1965-70; Cynthia Doyle (a) 1963; D-Day (a) 1963; Drag ’n’ Wheels (a) 1968-69; Fightin’ Army (a) 1960, 1966-70; Fightin’ Marines (a) 1964; Fightin’ Navy (a) 1964-66; fillers (a) 1964-65, 1969; The Flintstones (a) c. 1971; Geronimo Jones (w)(i) 1971-73; Ghost Manor (a) 1973; Ghostly Tales (a) 1968-69, 1974; Grand Prix (a) 1968; Gunmaster (a) 1964-66; Haunted (a) 1974-75; Hee Haw (a) 1971; Hollywood Romances (a) 1968; Holt Wilson (a) 1955; Hot Rod Racers (a) 1965; Hot Rod Talk (a) 1953 (54 cartoon fillers); I Love You (a) 1966, 1968; Ken King (a) 1969-70, Kid Montana (a) 1958; Lawbreakers Suspense Stories (a) 1953; Love Diary (a) 1965, 1968; The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves (a) 1968, 1974-77; Marine War Heroes (a) 1964-65; Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds (a) 1959-71; Outer Space (a) 1968; Outlaws of the West (a) 1966; Popeye (a) 1973; Racket Squad (a) 1958; Rocky Lane (a) 1960; Romantic Secrets (a) 1963; Sarge Steel (i) 1964-65; Sick (a) 1970; Six-Gun Heroes

The Conclusion Of Our Four-Part Interview With Artist Tony Tallarico

Food of the Gods (a) 1961; How Fire Came to the Indians (a) early 1960s; The World around Us (a) 1960-61

(a) 1965; Son of Vulcan (i) 1966; Strange Suspense Stories (a) 1968; Submarine Attack (a) 1964-65; support (lettering) 1968-75 (on his own art); Surf ’n’ Wheels (a) c. 1970; Surf Kings (w)(a) 1969-70; Sweethearts (a) 1965, 1969; Teen Confessions (a) 1969; Teen-age Love (a) 1959, 1968-69; Tex Ritter (a) 1959; Texas Rangers (a) 1958-69; Texas Rangers in Action (a) 1958-69; Thunderbolt (i) 1966; Time for Love (a) 1968; Top Eliminator (a) 1968; War at Sea (a) 1961; War Heroes (a) 1965; Wild Bill Hickok (a) 1960-61; World of Wheels (w)(a) c. 1969; Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal (a) 1964, 1966-67 Dell Publications: adaptations (a) 1963-64; Ali (w)(a) 1972; Bewitched (a) c. 1965-68; Bozo the Clown (a) c. 1962-63; Car 54, Where Are You? (a) c. 1962-65; covers (a) 1966-67, 1972; Danger Man (a) 1961; Dracula (i) 1966-67; F-Troop (a) c. 196667; fillers (a) 1966-67; Frankenstein (i) 1966-67; gags (w)(a) 1972; The Incredible Mr. Limpet (a) 1964; The Littlest Snowman (a) c. 1963-64; Lobo (plot)(a) 1965-66; The Mouse on the Moon (a) 1963; Raggedy Ann and Andy (a) c. 1964-66; Sinbad Jr. (a) 1966; Thirteen (a) 1962; Werewolf (i) 1966-67; Wolfman (a) c. 1964

Harvey Comics: covers (p) 1966; Dr. Yes (p) 1966; Jack Q. Frost (a) 1966; Jigsaw (a) 1966-67; Pirana (a) 1966; Spyman (p) 1966; Unearthly Spectaculars (a) 1966

I.W. Publications: Strange Mysteries (a) 1964 reprint Major Magazines: Cracked (a) 1970; Web of Horror (a) 1970

Marvel Comics: Crazy Magazine (a) 1978

Parallax Comic Books: Bobman and Teddy (a) 1966; The Great Society Comic Book (i) 1966

Heeding The Siren Call Of Comic Books Let’s go out on a classic! Tony Tallarico’s cover for an edition of Classics Illustrated #81 (The Odyssey) for Spring 1969. Thanks to Chet Cox. [© 2012 First Classics, Inc.]

Feature Comics: Sick (a) 1966

Fitzgerald Periodicals: Alexander Pushkin (a) 1972; Black Inventors (a) 1971; covers (a) 1971-72; Drugs, the Way It Is (a) c. 1970; Roy Wilkins (a) 1970

Gilberton (Classics Illustrated): Bright Boots (a) early 1960s; The

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Story Comics: horror (a) 1952-56; Dark Mysteries #22, 1965; Western (a) 1952-56

T.S. Denison & Co.: Treasure Chest (a) 1968-72 (history and science features)

Trojan Comics: Beware (a) 1955; war (a) 1953

Warren Publications: Creepy (a) 1968-71; Eerie (a) 1968-71; Vampirella (p)(i) under byline Tony Williamsune (backup features)

Youthful Magazines: horror (a) 1952; Masked Marvel (a) 1950-51; Stamps (a) 1952

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

A quarter of a million records, covering the careers of people who have contributed to original comic books in the US.

“[Mike And His Friends] Were Like A Band Of Brothers ” Concluding Our Spotlight On Golden & Silver Age Artist/Inker MIKE PEPPE NTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: (adapted and abridged from previous issue): Mike Peppe, whose inks embellished the pencils of such legendary artists as Alex Toth, Steve Ditko, John Celardo, Bob Lubbers, and George Tuska, was born in New York City in 1921. In 1944 he gained employment at Jerry Iger’s comic shop, whose clients included Fiction House; by 1945 he joined the staff of the latter company to receive more pay and better working conditions.

Interview Conducted & Transcribed by Dewey Cassell

In 1948 he went to work for Standard Publications, where he eventually became art director, alongside editor Joe Archibald. In addition, the comic art Alex Toth penciled and Peppe inked set the pace for the Standard adventure and romance style.

As a freelancer after 1954, he also inked for Timely and St. John, and assisted fellow artist Mike Roy on newspaper strips such as Ken Weston and Nero Wolfe. Beginning in the mid-1950s, Mike worked predominately for Dell (and later for Western Publishing). Later he also embellished for DC Comics. After his last assignments for Western and DC in the early ’70s, he did little other comics before his untimely death in 1982.

The first installment of this study, last issue, consisted of a somewhat longer overview of Peppe’s career and style, a checklist of his work, and an interview with his widow, Fern Peppe. In this final part, we talk with his daughter Michele and with three noted comics artists who knew him well: John Celardo, Bob Lubbers, and George Tuska. Sadly, both John and George have passed away since this interview was completed two or three years ago. —Dewey.

Setting The Standard Mike Peppe, in the self-portrait at left, contemplates the first and last pages of “Images of Sand,” one of the classic Alex Toth-penciled tales that Peppe inked at Standard/Nedor. The final page from that story in Out of the Shadows #12 (May 1953) is repro’d from a scan of the original art, courtesy of the Heritage Comics Archives, as retrieved by Dominic Bongo. All images accompanying this piece, unless otherwise noted, were provided by Dewey Cassell; the photos were sent to him by Fern and/or Michele Peppe. A photo of Alex Toth was seen last issue. [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

Concluding Our Spotlight On Golden & Silver Age Artist/Inker Mike Peppe

Interview With Michele Peppe

One of the few surviving pieces of Mike’s artwork that Fern Peppe has is a small pencil sketch of their daughter Michele that was done when she was about fourteen years old. It sits in a frame on the dresser in Fern’s bedroom. In this interview, conducted over the telephone in March 2006, Michele Peppe talks about her special relationship with her father. Michele copy-edited the interview.

DEWEY CASSELL: What are the earliest memories you have of growing up with your father?

MICHELE PEPPE: I have memories from when I was just a little toddler. My mom went to work and my dad worked at home. I had a very strong connection with him, right from the very beginning. I remember him always being at his drawing board. That was something that was just part of growing up with a dad who was a cartoonist. When I was little, I sat on his lap while he drew, many times. I shared a lot of time with him. He was an unbelievable father, probably my best friend in the whole world. He was very patient, very loving, always offering a way to explain things about what’s going on the world differently than anybody I’ve ever known.

DC: Where did you grow up?

PEPPE: I was born in Queens, and we lived in Queens until I was almost five years old. Then we moved down to Hauppauge, out on Long Island. When we lived in Queens, we lived in a two-bedroom apartment in Jackson Heights, and my dad’s drawing board was in our apartment. When we moved to Long Island, we got a bigger home, and downstairs in the basement there was a room. It was a finished basement with a family room, and a fourth bedroom. That’s where his studio was and that’s where my desk was as well. We shared the studio. I drew pictures and I had all my

paints and crayons and markers and pastels all laid out. When I came home from school, I went straight to my dad’s studio. I knew he was there.

DC: I understand he did not work traditional business hours?

PEPPE: Absolutely not. He was just getting up when I was getting home from school. He made me my snack and we did homework together and we had our visit. And when I went to bed at night is when he started doing his work, mostly. And then he would get me off to school in the morning and go to bed. He slept in the daytime, most of the time. There are nine years between myself and my brother. The first nine years of my life, that was my dad’s schedule. DC: Did he enjoy working at night?

PEPPE: I think he preferred it. The It’s Raining Frog(men) house was quiet. Mike Sekowsky—and a SekowskyThere weren’t any interruptions. penciled, Peppe-inked splash He would have his nighttime from Dell Comics’ The Frogmen #11 shows on, like Johnny Carson, and (Dec. 1964-Jan. 1965). Scripter that was his quiet time. He got a unknown. Photo courtesy of Pat lot more done. The phone didn’t Sekowsky. [Page © 2012 the respective copyright holders.] ring. There was no knock on the door. The house was still. I think he really enjoyed that time of day. He was a bit of a night owl. DC: Your mom said he probably knew more about Johnny Carson than anyone around.

PEPPE: Dad was pretty smart. He was one of those guys that, when you watch Jeopardy with him, he knew all the answers. I think a lot of that just came from watching television. If he were alive today, he’d be a History Channel junkie.

“[Mike And His Friends] Were Like A Band Of Brothers”

They Say It’s Your Birthday One of the perks of being a comic book artist’s kid, Michele Peppe discovered, was birthday cards drawn especially for you by your father's friends. (Below:) A card from artist/editor Joe Archibald. (Far right:) A photo of Mike Peppe (holding a ruler and compass) and Archibald (taking notes) pretending to interrogate an unidentified suspect, maybe posing for a cops-and-robbers comic. (Right:) A birthday card from Jerry Fasano, whose verified art credits at Prize, Hillman, Quality, Lev Gleason, and Eastern Color all fall within the calendar year 1950. Thanks to Michele & Fern Peppe. [Art © 2012 the estates of the respective artists.]

DC: What was it like having a father who stayed at home to work?

PEPPE: It was awesome. Back in the ’50s, most moms didn’t work unless they were schoolteachers or nurses. Of all of my girlfriends, I probably had the only mom who didn’t stay home and the only dad that did. So, it was a little bit different, but it was great. You’d go to school and everybody would talk about what their dads did for a living and their dads were businessmen or firemen or whatever and it was just so cool to say, “My dad draws comic books.”

And, on my birthday every year, that was always awesome, because all the kids knew that Michele would bring comic books in for everyone in the classroom. Fernie would bake the cupcakes and my dad would bring me to school and we would have a party after lunch. I think that’s still kind of a tradition. One of my grandsons is five years old and when it was his birthday, they brought cupcakes to school. But it was a huge deal when it was my birthday at school, because all the kids knew that they were going to get comic books.

When I was in school plays, my dad always painted all the props and scenery, kindergarten through middle school. One year, I was an astronaut and he did spaceships and he did all of the stars and the planets. One year, I was the Cheshire cat and he did the tree. He used to come to school once a year and do a “Chalk Talk” in my classroom. You could bring a guest to school and I always brought my dad. He would tell the kids to come up, one by one,

and he would have them draw five squiggle lines on a big drawing paper and then he would say, “Okay, what do you want me to make out of this?” Whatever they would say — a car, whatever — he would make out of the five squiggle lines. It was very cool.

DC: When he was working with Alex Toth, your father used to put his name somewhere in the background of the art….

PEPPE: Yeah. Another thing he did that not a lot of people know about was that when he was doing the inking for comic books, he would hide mine and my friends’ names in places in the inking. When the comic book would come out, we would wait for it. It was really cool to know that if his deadline was at the end of the month, like six weeks later that particular comic book would come out and my friends would have to go through it and find their names in a bush or something, like Hide-A-Word. You would look in the pebbles on a street and in it, really tiny, it would say my name. Anything that was done in the ’60s, obviously not every issue, but every now and then he would do something like that for all my girlfriends in second and third grade, and it was a big deal. It was a lot of fun.

DC: Were you always interested in comics growing up?

PEPPE: As a kid, I was. I had quite a comic book collection at one point that my mom got rid of when I left home. At this point in time, I think I have finally forgiven her. But I’ve always been interested. The first thing I pull out of the Sunday paper is the comics.

DC: I understand you have some artistic ability of your own?

PEPPE: People think I do. I’m taking watercolor classes now. My daughter got married last year, and as a gift for all of the bridesmaids and groomsmen, I did an original painting of the bed and [continued on p. 53]

Concluding Our Spotlight On Golden & Silver Age Artist/Inker Mike Peppe

Recollections of Bob Lubbers

Bob Lubbers and Mike Peppe became friends while at Fiction House. Lubbers is perhaps best known for his work on Tarzan, where he succeeded Burne Hogarth. I contacted Bob through e-mail in March 2007 and he recalled some great times at Fiction House with Mike and the gang:

y first day at Fiction House in 1941 opened a new world. A room full of other artists... all experienced, each of them inspiring.

By the time I left to serve in World War II, I’d become good friends with Mike, John Celardo, Frank Doyle, Nick Cardy, and Artie Saaf. We found common ground in our love of cartooning and in socializing outside the bullpen. We’d have lunch at the Faison d’Or, where the food was good and the bowling game in the rear of the place took the heat off the grind. Or we’d roam over to Broadway and the pastrami on rye at Roth’s deli. We’d walk up to the Central Park Zoo and play charades with the chimps. Sometimes we’d bring along a sketchbook and tune up for the Jungle Comics features we did. Then came the war. Three years of it.

We picked up on the fun when we came back from the war. Frank and Johnny and Mike and I became fast friends. On Fridays at noon, we’d cash our paychecks at Manufacturers Trust and then spend the rest of the afternoon at Alexandra, a neat little restaurant and bar on East 49th Street. We put our noses to the grindstone, though, when we got to our drawing boards each day. All those pages. We were devoted, but had a few laughs with it all. For most of the artists, there was a feeling of brotherhood and a loose, cheerful attitude to get us through.

Mike’s brother Buster, a light heavyweight prizefighter, got a shot at Sanders Cox, a big-time contender, and Mike, Johnny Celardo, Frank, and I went up to St. Nick’s Arena to cheer Buster on. He was building up a strong lead and Cox did something about it. He tied Buster up and whacked away at his kidneys round after round. The ref didn’t call him, and Buster was worn down and lost the fight. We hollered our lungs out, thinking the fix was on. It was a tough night. But there were plenty of good ones.

Fiery Art From Fiction House Photo of Bob Lubbers during his Fiction House years—his cover for that company’s Firehair #1 (Winter 1948)—and a 1953 Tarzan Sunday strip (his first big post-Fiction House gig). [Firehair page © 2012 the respective copyright holders; Tarzan strip © 2012 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.]

One Saturday night, Mike and Fern and Grace and I drove to Staten Island for an eight-course Italian dinner at Johnny and Julia Celardo’s house on Staten Island. For openers the martini pitcher was 15 inches tall with a three-inch diameter and no rocks. Hours later, after Julia’s marvels and several wines, an unending stream of laughs, and Sambuca in the espresso, at one o’clock we headed for home. Disembarking from the Ferry at the Battery, on the way to drop Mike and Fern off at their place uptown, we hadn’t gone a block up the FDR Drive when Mike tapped me gently on the shoulder and said, “Bob, you’re in the Downtown lane.” Just like Mike. Then Monday, we met again to do our stuff at the drawing boards none the worse for wear.

Mike did a slew of “Jungle Facts,” and inking with Frank and others on many features. [NOTE: One of these was seen in our previous issue.] He had a nice style and was a key player in the pen. There were twenty or more artists there, from Murphy Anderson to Dan Zolne ... Nick Cardy (Viscardi), Doolin, Astarita, Ingels, Evans, Renee, Hopper, Saaf, Sultan, Tuska, Whitman, and Walker.

Mike’s other brother, Joey, managed a strip joint up on 52nd Street, and Buster was a bartender there. To top off National Cartoonist Society meetings, Mike, Johnny, and I would drop in now and then and always had a table up front. Then we’d move a

“[Mike And His Friends] Were Like A Band Of Brothers”

couple of doors up, to Jimmy Ryan’s, and listen to Zutty Singleton and all that jazz. Remember, this was shortly after World War II had ended, and for some of us it took a while to adjust and rejoin civilian life.

It’s All Happening At The Zoo (Left:) A stroll through the New York City’s Central Park Zoo, 1946. (Left to right:) Bob Lubbers, Mike Peppe, John Celardo, and Frank Doyle. Thanks to Bob Lubbers. (Right:) Nick Viscardi in the late 1940s—today known as Nick Cardy, noted for his long stint on Aquaman and other DC titles.

[continued from p. 51]

breakfast where the wedding was. I had it matted and framed and gave it to everybody. They thought that was kind of cool. It was a more personal gift and it was fun having the project. I work so hard, I don’t focus on my art as much as I would like to. I always said when my kids grew up, I would get more involved in it again, but I have to take a class to actually discipline myself to paint. My mom is an interior decorator. She doesn’t draw, but she has artistic ability, a good eye for color and texture and line. So, I was blessed by both parents with that creativity.

DC: Did your father encourage your artistry?

When I moved on to follow Hogarth on Tarzan, I became hermitized so as to handle the heavy schedule and meet deadlines. I missed the fellowship of the Fiction House bullpen. Mike helped me out for a bit when I took over Secret Agent X-9. But the years passed and I was deeply saddened to learn of Mike’s death. He was a committed artist and carried himself with grace throughout his career.

godfather. I remember my mom and dad going away for the weekends to the Poconos to play golf with them every now and then. I have a lot of memories of Joe Archibald. Every summer growing up, I would spend two weeks there with Joe and Dorothy Archibald at their home.

DC: How far away from you did they live?

PEPPE: We were out on Long Island and they lived in Port Chester, New York, so it was probably about an hour and a half drive. It

[continued on p. 55]

PEPPE: Absolutely. I think I had a crayon in my hand before my first birthday.

DC: Do you recall any interactions with other artists?

PEPPE: Most of these fellows, they were kind of like the Rat Pack, so to speak. Between Mike Sekowsky and Frank Giacoia, and of course George [Tuska] and Johnny Celardo and Joe Archibald and Alex, they were like a band of brothers. They had such a connection because of what they did for a living. They also had a special kinship, in addition to that. I called them all “Uncle.” They were like family. George is my brother’s

Hiding In Plain Sight While inking Alex Toth pencils, Mike Peppe signed his own name as the artist on the avant-garde painting in the panel above left from “The Hands of Don José,” and on the side of a truck in “Murder Mansion,” in Standard’s Adventures into Darkness #5 & #9 (Aug. 1952 & April 1953, respectively). Scripters unknown. [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

Concluding Our Spotlight On Golden & Silver Age Artist/Inker Mike Peppe

S ohn Celardo also met Mike Peppe while working at Fiction House. Celardo later followed Bob Lubbers on Tarzan. John and Julia Celardo became good friends with the Peppes, and their friendship endures to this day. In this interview, which was conducted through the mail in January 2006, John Celardo talks about his relationship with Mike:

Interview With John Celardo

Tarzans Blond And Black-Haired

DEWEY CASSELL: How did you come to meet Mike Peppe?

JOHN CELARDO: In the mid1930s, after graduating from high school with a major in art, jobs were hard to come by. I would seek freelance work from pulp magazines, illustrating in black and white. I did fairly well. Eventually, they began producing comic books and I was offered a staff job with Fiction House in 1938. In January 1941, I was drafted into the Army. What, ostensibly, was to be a one-year training period turned into five years of war in Europe. During this time, I did not touch a paintbrush, but became an Army captain. Though I was rehired at Fiction House in

Celardo and Peppe In The House! (Above:) John Celardo (at drawing table) with Mike Peppe, at Standard, after they met at Fiction House. (Left:) Peppe inks over Celardo pencils for DC’s House of Mystery #187 (July-Aug. 1970), repro’d here from black-&-white copies of the art; scripter unknown… while, over in sister mag House of Secrets #84 (Feb.-March 1970), Peppe inked Dick Dillin’s pencils for a tale written by Len Wein, at right. [Pages © 2012 DC Comics.]

John Celardo at Fiction House, and the jungle heroes that were a specialty. His work on the “Kaänga” feature, as per the cover of Jungle Comics #113 (May 1949), helped lead to his 1954-68 stint on the Tarzan newspaper strip. The latter is illustrated by a panel from a Sunday page. [Jungle Comics cover © 2012 the respective copyright holders; Tarzan panel © 2012 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.]

January 1946, I had trepidations. I was seated next to Mike and he made things very pleasant. He was employed on the staff. DC: What was the working environment like at Fiction House?

CELARDO: We had a wonderful bunch of people on the staff, none of whom had been there when I left. In fact, it was a larger group. But we all helped each other and my fears were soon dispelled.

DC: What other people do you remember from Fiction House?

“[Mike And His Friends] Were Like A Band Of Brothers”

CELARDO: At this point in my life, there are few names I can remember. I can place their faces and gender (we had several girls), but that is all: Bob Lubbers, Charlie Sultan, Joe Doolin.

DC: Did Mike ever ink your pencils?

CELARDO: Yes, many times. He wasn’t too proficient at figure drawing, although we would block in backgrounds and he would finish those. More often than not, I did my figures.

DC: What did you think of Mike’s inking style?

CELARDO: It is very difficult to develop individual style in inking. Drawing the original pencils made it easier to recognize the artists’ works. DC: Did you and Mike work together again at Standard?

CELARDO: After about three years at Fiction House, the comic book business began to slow down. We were all placed on a freelance basis, so we could work wherever we wanted. I stayed in touch with Mike and Fern because my wife Julia and I just loved those two people. We were several years older, but our social lives fit beautifully. I saw Mike professionally when he was on staff at Standard. Things were slowing down at Fiction House, so it was fortunate that I was able to get a great deal of work from Standard. [continued from p. 53]

was wonderful. It was a very special relationship that both my mom and dad had with them. They were very kind people. My dad was a very conservative, reserved man, but when he was around his buddies, he was the comedian. My father could do voice impersonations and tell jokes probably better than anybody you’ll ever know. All of his nieces and nephews, their memory of my dad is that he was very funny. That’s something I’ll never forget, too. He was witty with a great sense of timing. He could remember a hundred jokes. You know the guy at the party that has everybody laughing? That was my dad. DC: I understand that he was also a very sharp dresser.

DC: What kind of things did the Celardos and Peppes do together socially?

CELARDO: As far as our social life, we loved Manhattan. In the ’40s and ’50s, we could go to theatres, restaurants, and dancing for much less than you might think. We could never do it today.

DC: Why do you think Mike didn’t do more penciling?

CELARDO: Mike, as I found out, loved to draw, but never had any training. He realized it, and worked very hard to be the best he could with what talent he had, without an inferiority complex.

DC: Did Mike seem to enjoy his work?

CELARDO: First of all, Mike was a lover of people. He had a great joie de vivre that carried through to his work. There aren’t enough adjectives to describe him.

DC: Did you keep in touch with Mike and Fern?

CELARDO: Eventually, Julia and I had two children and weren’t able to see them very often at all. I also started working at home, so I seldom got into town. Julia and I were distraught when he passed away at such a young age, since we hadn’t seen him in such a long time. PEPPE: Oh, yeah. He definitely was. In addition to being very handsome, he was a very dapper dresser. He loved gardening. Our house in Long Island had a beautiful yard. He had a rock garden on the side of the house that was gorgeous, and we had a vegetable garden. And he built a brick patio with a barbeque in the back yard. He loved working in the yard very much. That was probably his favorite pastime.

DC: Did your dad enjoy drawing just for fun?

PEPPE: He loved what he did, but I don’t remember him doing that much drawing for fun. He drew our Christmas cards every year. He loved doing caricatures of people. For leisure, he played golf. He had a fabulous singing voice. He never sang professionally or in front of people, but with the radio in the car or around the house, he would do his Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. I think he could have been a bit of a Renaissance man. He was very wellread, very educated. It was important to my dad not to have too strong of a New York accent. He himself did not have an accent even though he was born and raised in Greenwich Village and Brooklyn. He was proud to be from New York, but having proper grammar was very important to him. He would say, “It is important to speak with the King’s English so that you can speak to Kings and paupers alike; because if you speak like a pauper you can only speak to paupers and the Kings will not listen to you.” It wasn't a judgment on his part, just something important to him.

DC: What kind of Christmas cards did he do?

“Misty, Watercolor Memories…” You’ll see pics of Mike Peppe with “Rat Pack” buddies John Celardo and George Tuska on pp. 54 & 56,, but above is a color photo of Mike and Joe Archibald, taken in later years. As noted last issue, Archibald, being older, was a mentor of sorts to Peppe. And at right is Mike with wife Fern and son Joey. Thanks to Fern P. for the photos.

PEPPE: There was one in particular that he did while he was a superintendent in New York City. He did the card for everybody in the building. There were like 250 apartments in the building. He did a caricature in a wreath of each of the fellas, like the porter and the doorman and everybody that worked in the building. That was fabulous. When my kids were born, he did their birth announcements. When

[continued on p. 57]

Concluding Our Spotlight On Golden & Silver Age Artist/Inker Mike Peppe

Interview With George Tuska

eorge Tuska, recognized for his work on Crime Does Not Pay and Iron Man, among many other comics, worked with Mike Peppe at numerous publishers, including Fiction House, Standard, and later at Dell, where Mike inked many of George’s pencils. Over the years, the Peppes and Tuskas became close friends. On one occasion, they were enjoying each other’s company at the Tuska home and Dorothy Tuska suggested that the men go paint something on the bedroom wall. By this time, Mike and George had consumed a few libations and were well “lubricated.” They made their way up to the Tuska master bedroom, where they carefully laid out the paints on a newspaper on the floor and proceeded to paint a huge brown tree with white flowers above the bed. They would stand back from the painting periodically to survey their work through their inebriation and then add (or remove) a flower here and there. George says the finished work was hideous, but Dorothy says it stayed above the bed for some time, until they later wallpapered the room.

In this interview, conducted through the mail in January 2006, George discusses his longtime friend and colleague.

DEWEY CASSELL: How did you meet Mike Peppe?

GEORGE TUSKA: I met Mike in the early ’40s. Mike worked for Jerry Iger after I left to work for Harry Chesler. I worked with Mike at Fiction House, along with John Celardo, Lou Fine, Toni Blum, Charlie Sultan, Nick Cardy, Rafael Astarita, Bob Lubbers, and George Appel. DC: Did Mike get you involved with Standard?

Of Frogs And Men A photo of pals Mike Peppe (on the left) and George Tuska, some years back— and a splash page from Dell’s The Frogmen #11 that was penciled by Tuska, inked by Peppe. [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

TUSKA: Mike was art director at Standard. He asked me to work there. I was freelancing at that time and he gave me office space.

DC: Mike inked your pencils on occasion. What did you think of Mike’s inking style?

TUSKA: Mike was a great inker. I was happy when he inked my work. I wish he could have done more of my work.

DC: How did you and Dorothy get to be such good friends with Mike and Fern?

TUSKA: I ran into Mike a few years after I married. We lived about three miles away from each other. He invited Dorothy and I to meet his wife Fern and have dinner with them. We have been close ever since.

DC: What kind of things did the Tuskas and Peppes do together for fun?

TUSKA: Mike and I used to go fishing and golfing together and the girls would go shopping. We were part of a “club” of ten couples in the neighborhood that the Peppes joined as well. The women in the club would get together once a month for lunch. We spent many nights playing pinochle. The girls always won. (We think they had signals and cheated.) When we had our first child, Mike and Fern were godparents. DC: So who was the better golfer—you or Mike?

TUSKA: We played golf quite a few times. He enjoyed the game,

but became very frustrated when he didn’t play well. One day he got so mad with his game that, on the spur of the moment, he sold his whole set of clubs and bag to the next foursome. I couldn’t stop him—otherwise I would have bought them and then given them back to him when he cooled down. It was too late. Needless to say, the foursome left the course immediately.

DC: Why do you think Mike didn’t do more penciling?

TUSKA: I have no idea why he didn’t do more pencils. (I didn’t know he did pencils.) He was very good and fast at inking. Maybe he felt more comfortable inking. Mike did enjoy inking and he got great pleasure out of his work.

DC: Why do you think Mike quit doing comics?

TUSKA: Mike got an offer for a steady job and he took it, but he also did inking jobs for artists in his free time. He loved to draw for his kids.

DC: I understand you remain close with Fern…

TUSKA: We have been very close with Fern since Mike passed away. In fact, every February we visit Fern in Florida and in the summer she visits us in New Jersey. She is a wonderful person.

DC: What did you admire most about Mike?

TUSKA: Mike was a very friendly person. He had a great personality and was interested in everything I did. We had great times together. He was a true friend. We still miss him.

“[Mike And His Friends] Were Like A Band Of Brothers”

[continued from p. 55]

my son Rocco was born, at that time there had only been two Rocky movies out, so we did a little play on it, “Now presenting Rocco III,” like Rocky III. It was “Directed by Rocco, Produced by Michele” and then it had the grandparents as something else. It was really cute the way he did it. DC: There was a point in time when your dad decided he didn’t want to do comics any more.

PEPPE: I think his eyesight had probably more to do with that than anything. It was getting harder and harder to do. He had the thickest glasses that you can wear. It Super-Greetings! was hard for him to A Christmas card (missing its upper left corner) see the details. It was drawn by Mike Peppe during his later years, about the point in his when he’d become a building superintendent. life when he would That’s Mike at the top, flanked by caricatures of probably have started the staff. Thanks to Michele Peppe. [Art © 2012 to enjoy doing art more estate of Mike Peppe.] for leisure. Unfortunately, he passed away two years later, so he never really did get to enjoy that time in his life when he could have been having fun with his art instead of just always under a deadline. But you know, he had an opportunity to manage an apartment in New York City, and because of that, he was very comfortable the last couple years of his life financially. I think he

realized he had gotten to the point where being able to see the detail in the comics was something that was just too hard for him. I think it wasn’t as much fun anymore. That’s how I remember it. That’s about the time I left home, in the mid-’70s.

DC: What sort of impression would you like to leave people with about your father?

PEPPE: The first thing that comes to mind is that he was an amazing father. Him being a cartoonist was always a lot of fun to brag about, but it didn’t really define him. His friendships that he formed by being a cartoonist were more important to him. He was a good friend and a good brother and a good person. He was very giving, very funny, very honest, always wanting to share what he had with people. He was the one person I would turn to. My mom and I got close after my father died. Up until then, I always loved my mom, but we seldom had a conversation about anything that was important in life. Whereas with my dad, it was deep conversations about how the world was formed and did I believe in God. I think I got my core belief system from my dad, even though it was my mom that made me go to church on Sunday.

END NOTE: Mike Peppe was a skilled and accomplished comic book inker. When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, though, the most lasting and important legacy that we leave behind is the lives we have touched along the way. Whatever impression Mike Peppe made with his artwork, he had an even more profound impact on his family and friends.

(Sincere appreciation goes to Fern and Michele Peppe, George and Dorothy Tuska, Bob Lubbers, and John and Julia Celardo for the interviews, Jim Vadeboncoeur and the late Jerry Bails for help with the research, and Mark Paten, Karl Mattson, Jerry Deli, Dave Karlen, and Heritage Comics for scans of artwork.)

Dewey Cassell is a regular contributor to TwoMorrows publications as well as author of the book The Art of George Tuska. He is currently working on a book about Marie Severin.

Inks By Peppe (From left:) Morris “Mo” Marcus penciled “The Battle for Baldy” for an uncertain issue of Standard’s This Is War, which ran for five issues in 1952-53. Repro’d from black-&-white photocopies of the original art; Of similar vintage is this splash from Standard’s New Romances #18 (Oct. 1953), repro’d from b&w copies of the Alex Toth pencils; Don Heck penciled this creeper for Gold Key’s Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery #23 (Sept. 1968). Oh, and this “Mephisto” pre-dates the Silver Surfer’s archfoe by three months! [Pages © 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

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NOW ON SALE! FIRST ALL-NEW ISSUE OF THE ALTER EGO COMIC BOOK IN 25 YEARS—BY ROY THOMAS & RON HARRIS! In #1-4, Alter Ego fought World War II alongside comic book super-heroes! Now, he’s trapped in the world of LATE-1940s CRIME COMICS—and this might just be his FINAL STAND! #1-4 previously released in special 25th-anniversary edition—still available.

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

The Atlas Effect! by Michael T. Gilbert

ast issue we explored the history of muscleman Charles Atlas, possibly the greatest comic book huckster since Stan Lee.

Pick up any comic book from the ’30s through the ’80s and you’ll probably find a Charles Atlas ad with a muscle-bound thug yelling, “Hey, Skinny! Yer Ribs Are Showing!”

Most readers probably thought the insult was hurled directly at them, but it was actually aimed at a poor schmoe named “Joe” (real name withheld).

Depending on the ad, the bully would then proceed to humiliate “Joe” by shoving him or kicking sand in his face, as Joe’s bodacious girlfriend watched with sheer contempt. What’s a hottie like her doing with this loser anyhow?

It’s not until the bag of bones bulks up with the Charles Atlas course (“In only 15 minutes a day!”) that he pummels the bully and wins back the fickle femme. Lucky him.

Charles Atlas knew his customers. Many comic book readers were shy, flabby kids who dreamed of looking like their favorite steel-sinewed heroes. If they had a body like Superman, maybe that cute girl in math class would notice. As if!

Regardless, we comic fans owe Mr. Atlas a huge debt. Just think about how many comics his ads subsidized over the decades. Whew! And how did comics repay him? Why, with numerous parodies, of course!

One of the best was Harvey Kurtzman’s “Man and Superman!” The story actually begins with a twist. Rather than the strongman kicking sand in the face of Niels, a nerdy scientific genius, muscleman Charlemagne instead asks for his help—and discovers

What Hath Atlas Wrought? (Above & below:) Writer/artist Harvey Kurtzman’s “Man & Superman!" from Weird Science #6 (March 1951) features an amusing takeoff on the ubiquitous Charles Atlas ads. [© 2012 William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

that Niels has invented something that will make him a comic book super-hero. How’s that for the old switcheroo?

Using Niels’s invention, Charlemagne makes his mass so incredibly dense that he becomes a real-life Superman. At one point a crook makes the mistake of pumping some bullets into the strongman’s impenetrable skin. “Look at me, Niels!” says Charlemagne as he slugs the crook halfway to Brooklyn. “Bullets bouncing off me! I’m a real comic book character!” But poor Charlemagne expends so much energy doing super-feats that he eventually fades away to nothing! Leave it to Kurtzman to show scientifically why actually being Superman would never work. What a buzz-kill.

Earlier, Kurtzman has fun with a beach scene showing Charlemagne kicking sand in some skinny slob’s face. Humiliated in front of his girl, skinny Sheldon vows revenge! “I’ll gamble a three-cent stamp and send away for a physical culture course! I’ll show him!” Er, good luck with that, Sheldon.

While muscular super-heroes generally fared well in the comics, strongmen in other genres often came to bad ends. Two different Marvel sci-fi stories featured arrogant bullies who dreamed of becoming Mr. Universe… literally!

The Atlas Effect!

“Welcome to Pluto” was a 1953 story featuring Bruto, the greatest bodybuilder in the far-flung future of 1993. But he’s also rotten to the bone. Big bad Bruto even kicks a poor kid on crutches, right on the splash page! Ouch!

A page later, a Plutonian visitor makes Bruto an offer he can’t refuse. He’s invited to compete in a real Mr. Universe contest, matching his brawn against the toughest killers in the solar system. Following a quick trip to Pluto, brutal Bruno quickly crushes the competition!

After breaking Mr. Mars’ neck, snapping Mr. Saturn’s back, and crushing poor Mr. Uranus (don’t ask where!), a gloating Bruto is crowned Mr. Universe. “Well done!” exclaims the Plutonian emperor. “Prepare Mr. Universe for the banquet!” Bruto’s not impressed. “I wonder what they eat on Pluto? I hope it won’t interfere with my strict health diet!”

Bruto didn’t have to worry. In the last panel, he’s tossed into a roaring oven and discovers that when the Emperor said “well done” it was actually cooking instructions—with Bruto the main course! Say, didn’t Rod Serling use that gag later on?

A decade later, Stan Lee recycled a similar idea in a story titled “Mr. Universe.” The tale begins with muscular bully Karl Kragg shoving a skinny guy, as the fellow’s girlfriend looks on. How humiliating! Hmmm! Sounds like a Charles Atlas ad, doesn’t it?

From there we have the same basic plot. Ruthless, arrogant Karl easily defeats the greatest warriors in the universe. But at story’s end, instead of getting the trophy, some space gizmo turns Kragg into a solid gold living statue! It turns out everyone except Karl knew what the prize was, and wisely took a dive!

Those Martians must’ve had some pretty exciting contests, what with everyone falling over themselves trying to lose!

As you can see, comic book writers really had it in for Charles Atlas-type bullies. Take “The Scarecrow,” for instance.

We start with Tim Blake, the quintessential “before” version in the Charles Atlas ad. Or as he says, “I’m Tim Blake… you don't know me, but you know my type… the typical skinny, undersized runt, the kind that always gets bullied and shoved around. Scarecrow! Always that name hounded me! In fact, I made my living posing as the human ‘scarecrow’ in

Two Mr. Universes! (Above:) Bruto wins the Mr. Universe title in “Welcome to Pluto,” drawn by Joe Sinnott, in Strange Tales #23 (Oct. 1953). Writer unknown. (Left:) And Karl Kragg took the honors in Amazing Adult Fantasy #10’s “Mr. Universe” (March 1962), illustrated by sturdy Steve Ditko and scripted by Stan Lee. [Both pages © 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

On a lighter note is “Battle of the Babes” from Marvel’s Combat Casey #15. As our story begins, muscle-bound Sgt. Pulaski flexes his pecs for a bevy of babes as puny Private Penny glumly watches.

“Wow! What a man!” sighs one gal who ogles the Sarge. “Look at those muscles!” opines another. “That’s the kind of man every girl dreams of!” gushes a third beauty, her heart aflutter.

those well-known health ads!”

Holy cow! Tim’s a famous comic book personality! Nonetheless, he desperately wants a physique like the “after” version—minus all that nasty exercise. Luckily someone sells him a magic potion. One swig and our scarecrow turns into Superman!

Unfortunately, Tim becomes a bigger bully than the bullies who used to bully him. He forces his affections on another fella’s gal, and when the guy objects, muscleman Blake decks him. Nice, huh?

Frankly, I always suspected that the Charles Atlas scarecrows would do the exact same thing, once they tasted power. After all, what do they always do after developing muscles? Why, punch someone weaker, of course!

But Blake gets his. In an ending reminiscent of Kurtzman’s “Man and Superman,” Tim’s mass keeps increasing until he’s so heavy he plunges “through the bowels of the earth!” Or as Tim says in the final panel, “Nothing is strong enough to hold my muscles… nothing… AAAAAAAA!” I have the same problem, Tim!

“Ya dog-faces haven't got a chance with them dames as long as I’m around! They like a big guy with muscles… not a pipsqueak that looks like Penny!” boasts Sarge, pointing to poor Private Penny, the runt of the litter.

Sarge then offers to show the guys how to get his muscles—for a price. The privates all pony up ten bucks—except puny Penny. He already blew his dough on a correspondence course. Pulaski gives him the horselaugh as Penny slinks out. “Ha! He’s always improvin’ his education… but he ain’t never learned that the gals want brawn in their men…

The Atlas Effect!

Oh, Baby! Robert Q. Sale drew “Battle of the Babes!” for Combat Casey #15 (April 1954). This was published under Timely/Marvel’s Atlas imprint. I’m surprised Charles Atlas didn’t sue! Scripter unknown. [© 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

not brains!”

Penny can’t argue. He looks at his bony body in the mirror and sighs, “Gosh! I… I look like the ‘before’ character in those musclebuilding ads!”

Meanwhile Sarge’s “secret exercises” are nothing but ordinary G.I. chores like laundry, wood-chopping, and latrine-digging. No one even notices Penny, who stays in his tent, studying his correspondence course. What a loser!

Or is he? In an amusing twist, the girls run Sarge ragged. He winds up carrying their heavy trunks, burying their garbage, and mopping their floors. Real manly stuff. But it’ll soon pay off, right? Wrong!

After he finishes the girls’ chores, shocked Pulaski sees a line of lovely ladies in front of Penny’s tent. Penny has finally earned his diploma—as a hairdresser! Now he happily coifs the cuties in his very own Beauty Shoppe.

“Oh, Penny, you’re a darling!’ says one shapely nurse. “We all love you for this! We haven’t had our hair done in months!”

Sarge’s students agree. “Phooey on the Sarge an’ muscles! Penny’s got the right way to a gal’s heart!” Smart boy, that Penny! And a neat turnaround on the Charles Atlas formula that the “puny” readers must have loved.

And so we end this episode. I wish we had time for more, but I need to go crack the books. Only three more lessons until I graduate from the Acme Hairdressing Correspondence Course. Sure beats liftin’ weights!

Till next time…

Comic Fandom Archive

Fandom’s 50th Birthday Bash! Part 2: More Photos From The 2011 Reunion Party by Bill Schelly n Alter Ego #108, we began our multi-issue coverage of the “50th anniversary of comics fandom” events at the 2011 Comic-Con International in San Diego, with a cornucopia of photographs generously contributed by a team of fans and collectors who made sure there was an ample visual record of said event. These included Dave Armstrong, Aaron Caplan, Bob Cosgrove, Jackie Estrada, Jeff Gelb, Batton Lash, Russ Maheras, and Bill G. Wilson.

In fact, the event was so big that it inspired more photos than we could fit into one issue, and so we happily offer more images of a gathering that qualified as an historical event even before it happened.

In addition to depicting a goodly number of the participants, Alter Ego wants to recognize each and every person who showed up, so we offer the following list of attendees, which is as complete as we could make it. It was constructed by starting with the names in the Guest Book (thoughtfully provided by Sturdy Steven Fears), which was then augmented by folks such as Jackie Estrada and Aaron Caplan.

The list contains 157 folks, including some "plus 1's" whom we hope to identify. Naturally, it isn't perfect, so I ask that additions and corrections be sent to me at: hamstrpres@aol.com. Some of the handwriting in the Guest Book was a bit difficult to decipher, and there must certainly have been a few people who wandered in after things were underway who are unlisted.

We sadly note that Richard Alf, one of the founders of the San Diego Comic-Con, found himself in the hospital during the year-end holidays. Alas, he passed away in January of 2012, while this issue was in production. We salute him and dedicate this feature to him.

Now—onward to the revelers, featuring this time the cutting of the 50th Reunion Cake, kindly supplied by the folks of Comic-Con International. The Reunion program was designed by Gary Sassaman.

REUNION GUESTS: Richard Alf + 1 • Frank Alison • David Armstrong • Jean Bails • Kirk Bails • Astrid Bear • Greg Bear • Bob Beerbohm • Larry Bigman • Harry Broertjes • Lorraine Broertjes • Gary Brown • Dr. Juan Camacho • Aaron Caplan • Jeff Caplan • Suzi Carr • Mike Catron • Jon Chadwick • Johnny Chambers • Dave Clark + 1 • William Clausen • Mark Clegg • Ed Cormier • Bob Cosgrove • Jamie Coville • Nichola Cuti • Lou Deroy • David Ealy • John Ellis • Jackie Estrada • Mark Evanier • Steve Fears • Tracy Ford • Bob Foster • Doug Fratz • Tom Galloway • Jeff Gelb • Robert Gluckson • Gary Groth • Rob Gustavson • Richard Guy • Michael D. Hamersky • Peter Hansen • R. C. Harvey • Eugene Henderson • Mary Henderson • Jennifer Hussey • Jon Hussey • Alan Hutchinson • Bob Ingersoll • George Clayton Johnson • Peter Jones • Cathy Sea J. Jones • Anthony Keith + 1 • Jane Kenealy • Chris Kettler • Denis Kitchen • Greg Koudoulian • Richard Kyle • Steve Lake • Stan Landman • Batton Lash • Jim Lee • Steve Leialoha • Paul Levitz • Marc Levy • Laura Lozano • Sonja Luchini • Alex Luciano • Claire Luciano • Dylan Luciano • Mark Luciano • Sherry Luft • Russ Maheras • George R. R. Martin • James McClinchey • Pat McGreal • Clayton Moore • Ken Moreno • Spencer Nodell • Michelle Nolan • Paul R. Norris • Rick Norwood • David Oakes • George Olshevsky • Mike Pasqua • Steve Perrin • Michelle Pincus • Richard Pini • Wendy Pini • Paul Power • Mike Raub • Trina Robbins • Mike Rossi • Mike Royer • Arthur Salazar • Jim Salicrup • Rob Salkowtiz • Paul M. Sammon • Gary Sassaman • Tina Lo Sasso • Buddy Saunders • Conan Saunders • Jenny Saunders • Judy Saunders • Bill Schelly • David Scroggy + 1 • David Seidman • Barry Short • David Siegel • Jerome Sinkovec • Dennis Smith • Scott B. Smith + 1 • Jared Souza • June Spano • Mark Spieller • Frank H. Stack • Joe Staton • Lynn Stedd • William Stout • Hugh M. Surratt • Peter Svensson • Tom Syden • David E. Tabbtu • Dann Thomas • Roy Thomas • Maggie Thompson • Valerie Thompson • Anthony Tollin • Katrina Tollin • Mike Towry + 1 • John Tripp • Mike Tuohey • Michael Uslan • Mark Verheiden • Eunice Verstegen • Bob Wayne • Mark Wheatley • Jack White • Steve Wilber • Alan Williams • Adam Wills • Beth Wilson • Bill G. Wilson • Marv Wolfman • Noel Wolfman • Eric Yockey • Matt Yockey • Craig Yoe

NOTE: This is the second installment of our extended, multi-issue coverage of the "50th anniversary of comics fandom" events at Comic-Con International 2011 (San Diego).

Comic Fandom Archive

Circle Of Friends (Above:) Bob Cosgrove (publisher of Champion) with Valerie and Maggie Thompson (Maggie and her late husband Don launched Comic Art and Newfangles), Jeff Gelb (Men of Mystery), and Hugh Surratt (contributor to many fanzines in the 1960s, such as Intrigue, Bombshell, and Comic Comments). Photographer unknown.

Button, Button, Who’s Got The Button? Official Fandom reunion button, designed and paid for by Aaron Caplan. A free button was given to each attendee. Commemorated are the first three regularly published fanzines to spotlight comics material: Dick & Pat Lupoff’s Xero (Sept. 1960; basically a science-fiction fanzine with a department on comics nostalgia/history)… Jerry G. Bails’ Alter-Ego #1 (March 1961; oriented toward current and past super-hero comics)…and Don & Maggie Thompson’s Comic Art #1 (April 1961; potentially dealing with any and all comic books and comic strips). [Art © 2012 the respective copyright holders.] Gary Sassaman’s stunning design for the program book was also used as the basis of the ID tags, which are seen on the previous page.

Buttons And Bows (Rhymes With “Pows”) (Above:) Jackie Estrada, chairperson of Comic-Con International and organizer of the Reunion along with Yours Truly (a.k.a. Bill Schelly). The latter proudly sports a “Comicon 1964” button—a rare souvenir of the very first comics convention, given to Bill by its host, Bernie Bubnis, not long before the Reunion. Thanks, Bernie—you were here in spirit if not in the flesh! At right is a blow-up of the button. Photos by Jeff Gelb.

Festive Fans (At left, from l-to-r:) Prominent fans (and, in some cases, Comic-Con personnel) Gene Henderson, Richard Alf, David & Rosemary Scroggy, Paul Sammon, Clayton Moore, Denis Kitchen, and Greg Koudoulian. But who's the attractive blonde lady in front? (Thanks to Aaron Caplan for helping identify some of the folks here.) Photo by Bill G. Wilson.

Making A Display Of Oneself (Top:) Original art for special displays was loaned to Dave Armstrong by Buddy Saunders, Mike Vosburg, and others. This one features some of the best work by two of fandom’s top artists in the 1960s, Ronn Foss and Biljo White; these stories saw print in Star-Studded Comics and Voice of Comicdom. (Above:) This display shows additional art, photos, and fanzine covers from fandom’s Golden Age (the 1960s to early ’70s), also assembled and photographed by Dave Armstrong. Dave’s hard work on these exhibits added immeasurably to the atmosphere of the Reunion and also served to honor fellow fans who, for one reason or another, weren’t able to join us. Original art in this grouping is by Ronn Foss, Mike Vosburg (Masquerader), Grass Green ("Xal-Kor the Human Cat"), Buddy Saunders (Star-Studded Comics, et al.), and Bill DuBay (Yancy Street Journal, later an artist/writer/editor for Warren Publishing).

Comic Fandom Archive

Trio Mio (Above, l. to r.:) Jeff Caplan (son of fanzine collector Aaron), Robert Gluckson (publisher of the fanzine Guts), and Terry Stroud (longtime comics dealer, and once co-owner of the American Comic Book Company in the L.A. area). Photo by Aaron Caplan.

Over My Shoulder Artists Gratia Artis (Left:) Bob Foster, at left, contributor to Graphic Story Magazine in the 1960s and ’70s (and later “Moosekind” writer/artist for Marvel’s Crazy Magazine, among many other credits) with Mike Royer, Kirby Inker Supreme! Photo by Dave Armstrong.

(Above:) John Ellis, who assisted G.B. Love on RBCC in the late ’60s, edited and published his own fanzine Fulcrum (1970) and contributed artwork to later issues of The Collector. Isn’t that former Marvel editor (and now Tales from the Crypt publisher) Jim Salicrup behind his right shoulder? Photo by Aaron Caplan.

A Few More Fans Who Made Good (Above:) Wendy and Richard Pini, of Elfquest fame, listen with rapt attention to a pronouncement by Mark Evanier, who started out circa 1970 as Jack Kirby’s assistant and has gone on to successful careers in both comics and show-biz. Photo by Jackie Estrada. (Left:) A bit later (or earlier), Mark E. and Tom Galloway exchange anecdotes with Roy & Dann Thomas. Roy, in case someone doesn’t know, was the official “co-editor” of Jerry Bails’ Alter-Ego fanzine when it was launched in spring of ’61; he and Dann have written quite a few Marvel, DC, and other comics tales together since they met in the late ’70s. Thanks to Russ Maheras.

Fandom’s 50th Birthday Bash—San Diego 2011!

That Was Then—This Is Now (Right, l. to r.:) Bill G. Wilson (The Collector) and Gary Groth (Fantastic Fanzine—and, in years since, The Comics Journal) are reunited in front of that famous group photo from the 1969 New York Comic Art Convention, wherein their teenage selves are seen in the very front row. Photo by Jackie Estrada. The inset closeup from that 1969 con photo was taken by Aaron Caplan.

Brownie Points (Above, l. to r.:) Aaron Caplan and 1960s fan-artist Alan Hutchinson listen as longtime fan-reporter Gary Brown makes a point. Photo by Bob Cosgrove.

A Trip To The Alter (Above:) A generous Mike Touhey presents his pristine copy of the March 1961 Alter-Ego #1 as a gift to an uncharacteristically speechless Roy Thomas, seen at right—while Dick & Pat Lupoff look on. Photo by Jackie Estrada.

If I Knew You Were Coming… (Above:) Harking back to the 1965 New York comicon hosted by David Kaler, Comic-Con International provided a very special cake to commemorate fandom’s 50th anniversary. It was decorated with Gary Sassaman’s brilliant program design. Photo by Jeff Gelb.

(Left:) Having received that surprise gift from Mike, Roy points out the still-vivid printing on the multi-colored cover of that classic issue—and an old bugaboo of his, the very dim green arc of Lean Arrow’s shaft heading for Martian Manhandler’s tailbone, which didn’t print at all on many copies. Photo by Jeff Gelb.

Comic Fandom Archive

Having Your Cake And… (Above:) The Comic-Con’s special fandom guests collectively cut the first piece of the Reunion cake. (L. to r.:) Bill Schelly (author of the 1995 history The Golden Age of Comic Fandom), Maggie Thompson (Comic Art, 1961), Richard & Pat Lupoff (Xero, 1960), Richard Kyle (Graphic Story World, Wonderworld, in the 1960s and ’70s, valiantly attempting to join hands with the others), and Roy Thomas (Alter-Ego, 1961). Photo by Jackie Estrada.

…Did Kyle And Gimble In The Wabe (Above:) Richard Kyle (the 1960s fan-writer who coined the terms “graphic story” and “graphic novel”), on left, stands next to Greg Bear, a founding member of Comic-Con and a Nebula Award-winning science-fiction writer. Photo by Jackie Estrada.

Dinosaurs And Other Wonders (Left:) Johnny Chambers (Ymir, FANtastic, and later writer & artist of the early-’70s underground comic The Adventures of the Little Green Dinosaur) talks with Richard Kyle (whose first fandom venture was the “All in Color for a Dime” article “The Education of Victor Fox” in 1962’s Xero #8, as reprinted in Alter Ego #101). Photo by Jeff Gelb.

M&Ms (Above:) Comics historian Michelle Nolan (author of the authoritative Love on the Racks: A History of American Romance Comics) with Mike Touhey, publisher of Super Hero and assistant to Jerry Bails on Alter-Ego #2 & 3. Michelle’s late-’60s Nedor Index will be reprinted, with tons of color images, in A/E #111. Photo by Jackie Estrada.

Game Of Fanzines (Left:) George R.R. Martin (contributor to a number of early fanzines such as Star-Studded Comics) and Yours Truly (best known, back in the day, for his zine Sense of Wonder). Nowadays, George is celebrated as the author of the novel Game of Thrones and for the popular TV series based on it. Photo by Jeff Gelb. (Above:) Johnny Chambers was Martin’s first publisher, including of a story featuring George’s original character Manta-Ray in Johnny’s fanzine Ymir. Photographer unknown; page from Ymir (with Johnny’s art) courtesy of JC. [Art © 2012 Johnny Chambers.]

NEXT ISSUE: More on the Comic-Con’s Celebration of Fandom’s 50th Birthday— beginning with a star-studded panel on 1960s fandom!

In Memoriam

Al Sulman (1918-2011) “The More We Talked About His Life, The More Pride He Seemed To Take In What He Had Done” by Jim Amash

lbert Sulman set out to be a novelist and short story writer, Winners Comics, Sub-Mariner, Blackstone the Magician, Namora, and majoring in English literature and American literature at Sun Girl. All Select Comics became Blonde Phantom with issue #12, Yale University in 1940. His intended career was and lasted until #22 in 1949, but she never really caught on with sidetracked when his cartoonist brother Joseph asked him the readers (though Marvel revived her many years later). write a few comic book scripts for features he was When I contacted him in 2009, Al was very drawing. Al wrote “Biff Bronson,” “Caveman Curly,” surprised that anyone would care about him or his “Socko Strong,” and “Zatara” (all published by DC comics work. His former poker-playing buddy Roy Comics), and “Eustace Hayseed” (published by Timely) Thomas sent Al a few copies of Alter Ego, which he for Joseph, not for the companies who bought the enjoyed. It was then he consented to an interview. work. Since he was slowed by failing health, I only had Needing a job, and already having a foothold in the two chances to conduct the interview. By all comics business, Al secured employment at Timely as a accounts, Al was supposed to be a humorless man, staff script writer and a story editor who could buy but by our last phone call, he had warmed up to me quite and edit stories for the crime, Western, and super-hero a bit, and I even got him to laugh a few times. Another books. Except for a stint in the Air Force during World former poker-playing buddy of Al’s, Stan Goldberg, said War II, Al worked at this job until 1950, to me, “You might be the only man on the when Timely fired most of their staff. Al planet who ever heard Al Sulman laugh.” quickly got a job at Ace Publications as a Former Timely writer/artist Al Jaffee script editor and art director for a year or concurred. Al was happily surprised that so, before returning to Timely as a script Stan, Roy, Al Jaffee, and John Romita editor until 1958. After that, he moved were interested to reconnecting with over to the men’s magazine division of him—and Roy did write a friendly note Magazine Management, the parent when he sent him the magazines—but for company of Timely Comics, as a whatever reason, Al declined. He wasn’t production editor, until he retired in his well and was connected to an oxygen early ’60s. Al also spent several years in tank, so I assume health was the cause, the late ’50s and early ’60s editing though I did not ask him why. Humorama for Abe Goodman, the brother Unfortunately, that was the last time I of Magazine Management owner Martin spoke with Al. When next I tried to call Goodman. him, I discovered his phone had been A number of Timely staffers remember disconnected. I mailed him a letter, which Al doing some magazine work in the produced no response. I was never able to 1940s, but Al denied this. His work station find him, never able to finish our was in the section next to the comics interview. So many questions will be people and with some magazine editors, forever unanswered, but I did the best I which probably accounts for the could with what I had recorded (see Alter confusion. He has sometimes been Ego #104). I wish we could have done credited as the post-WWII editor of him the justice his career and life Captain America, which he also denied. In deserved. I enjoyed talking with Al, and addition to his script-editing job, Al also even if he wasn’t a joke-teller, he was bought and wrote some of the two-page more humorous than he was given credit text fillers that publishers inserted into the for, as well as being very smart and wellcomics to secure second class mailing read. I got the feeling that, the more we privileges. talked about his life, the more pride he It Was Al All The Time… To supplement his income, Al wrote seemed to take in what he had done. Al Sulman, as caricatured by Dave Berg (we’ve never scripts for the “Sub-Mariner” and “Captain I hope so. I hope he left this world seen a photo of Al)—and a page from Blonde Phantom America” features. When Stan Lee wanted with a feeling of accomplishment. He #15 (Fall 1947) scripted by Sulman and drawn by Syd a female super-hero to compete with DC’s might not have been one of the better Shores. The caricature, as well as the script and the Wonder Woman, Al responded by creating poker players (by his own b&w art for that story, were all printed in Stan Lee’s and writing “Blonde Phantom.” “Blonde admission), but Al was a 1947 book Secrets behind the Comics. [Sulman Phantom” appeared in the following nice man who was good at caricature © 2012 Stan Lee; Blonde Phantom page © Timely Comics: All Select Comics #11, All 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc.] what he did.

In Memoriam

Stanley Morse (1918-2011) “All The While, Stanley Was Still Archie Comics’ Accountant” by Shaun Clancy tanley Pershing Morse passed away at Archie off and on as a bookkeeper) on Dec. 30, 2011, in Islandia, New wanted to get into the magazineYork, at age 93. Stanley had a lengthy publishing industry, so he put them in and colorful career in publishing, and touch with Andru and Esposito. When Mr. always had a positive outlook on life. Publications failed, the Morse brothers About two years ago, his estranged wife, bought its inventory and comic book titles Diane, was kind enough to put me in touch and began publishing comics themselves with Stan at the rest home where he was as of January 1952. The first comic under staying. In spite of my numerous attempts the new owners was to be Mr. Universe #4, to reach him, Stan was a very active senior whose title and direction they changed to and was always going to facility activities, Mr. Universe Goes to War. so I managed only a handful of chats They had hired Ray Gill to be their by phone. Every time I would ask how managing editor, and their cousin he felt, I would always get back the Harry Kantor to be the editor. After Gill same reply: “In the pink.” left in the 1960s, they hired yet another Stanley Morse was born on Sept. 28, MLJ/Archie professional, Abner 1918. In the late 1930s, he worked as a Sundell, to edit their magazines. They freelance Certified Public Accountant even used the same distributor (Kable for several publishing companies. One News Co.) as Archie Comics. The many of the first people with whom his uncle comic book companies that the Morse helped put him in contact was Maurice brothers launched during their careers Coyne, then working for pulpwere Stanmor Publications, Aragon magazine publisher Hugo Gernsback; Publications, Key Publication, Gillmor that is also how he met Louis Publications, Media Publications, and Silberkleit. When Silberkleit and Coyne S.P.M. Publications. started up MLJ Publishing with John Many an up-and-coming comic book Goldwater in 1939, they needed a CPA, artist worked on one of their numerous because Coyne had never taken his titles. Steve Ditko’s first professional CPA test, so they hired Stanley to sign work appeared in Daring Love #1 in off on the legal matters; Stanley rented 1952 under the Gillmor banner. The office space from them, from which he horror titles were some of the Morses’ could work with his other clients. That top-selling comics, and were singled was the beginning of a lifelong out in Dr. Wertham’s 1954 book relationship with John Goldwater. Even Seduction of the Innocent. Stanley Morse when Goldwater retired, Stanley was called to testify at the ’54 Senate remained his personal accountant. I hearings. Seeing the handwriting on interviewed Morse extensively about the wall, he ceased publishing horror Archie Andrews for my upcoming comics, persevering with magazines book, and he was able to recall precise and a few Code-approved comics titles details surrounding both the creation of (the latter lasting only a year before Archie and the company’s name also being canceled). One of the comics, change from MLJ Publishing to Archie Battle Cry, was also published as a Comics in 1946 when Bob Montana remen’s magazine and was their bestThe Morse Code entered the comic scene after serving in selling single comics title. For two Stanley Morse at age 90—and the cover of Weird Chills #2 the military. years in the early 1970s, Morse also (Sept. 1954), from Key Publications. The Gerbers’ massive In late 1951, artists Ross Andru and published a horror reprint line. All the Picto-Journal Guide to Comic Books calls this a “classic cover.” Shaun Clancy says that Morse, in anticipation of his Mike Esposito were publishing several while, Stanley was still Archie Comics’ obituary being published, specifically scanned this cover comic books under the Mr. Publications accountant. for him. Morse asserted that he and his brother would aegis, including Mr. Universe and Mister Thus, Stanley Morse’s comic book continually push the limits of gore, trying to top EC Mystery. Writer Ray Gill was producing publishing career was Comics. The cover artist, coincidentally, is Bernard Baily, scripts for them while still working at over in four years… but whose early comics career is covered on pp. 3-16 of Archie. He knew that Stanley and his the impact of those four this issue of Alter Ego. [Cover © 2012 the respective brother Michael (who was also working years lives on even today. copyright holders.]

no use! We just couldn’t see our way clear to cover two issues of A/E this time around, in our Sisyphian effort to catch up our letters sections. But at least we’ve managed to print many of the missives we received about Alter Ego #96, which spotlighted Will Murray’s study of Archie Comics’ 1960s super-hero revival. Thus, beneath Shane Foley’s “maskot” drawing done as an homage to Joe Kubert’s one and only ‘Dr. Fate’ splash panel, in All-Star Comics #21 (1944), as colored by Randy Sargent, in honor of this month’s JSA focus, let’s at least plunge into what we did manage to squeeze in—minus any editorial comments except those shown in italics, done, so to speak, on the Fly! [Alter Ego hero TM & © 2012 Roy & Dann Thomas; character designed by Ron Harris.]

Also, regarding Shane Foley’s take on Paul Reinman’s depiction of The Shield on the cover of Mighty Crusaders #1, I also thought it was a riff/homage/swipe of Kirby’s depiction of Captain America on the cover of The Avengers #4 or of the splash from Tales of Suspense #59. I think the thought process over at Archie was, well, why don’t we hire Kirby’s inkers to get a Kirby feel to our books? The same might be opined over at ACG, where Richard Hughes hired Chic Stone to pencil “Nemesis.”

Hi Roy—

Brett from Canada here. Really enjoyed Alter Ego #96, the Mighty Crusaders issue. I actually bought some of those books when they came out in the ’60s and had a near-complete run when I became a collector in the ’70s.

An interesting irony is that Jerry Siegel’s pastiche for Archie/Mighty was more Marvel-like, to my recollection, than the “Angel” story he later wrote for Marvel which, again to my aged recollection, was awfully turgid—atypical for late-’60s Marvel, to say the least.

As everyone likely knows, Archie Comics published digests, which they continue to do to this day. In 1970 they published Archie’s Super Hero Special, with stories of “Pureheart,” “Superteen,” “Captain Hero,” and such, but also “The Black Hood,” “The Jaguar,” “The Web,” and, more importantly, “The Double Life of Private Strong” by Simon & Kirby! In 1979, another followed with “Steel Sterling,” “The Fly,” [etc.] What’s interesting to note is that not all the material was reprint, per se. One of the “Black Hood” stories was by Gray Morrow, the other written by Gray but drawn by Neal Adams & Dick Giordano. A third story was drawn by Alden McWilliams. Two of the stories in your wonderful issue are also reprinted, the first appearance of Kim Brand (who would become Fly Girl) in “The Lady and the Monster” and “The Fly Meets The Cat Girl”…. Gentlemen:

Roy—

Mitchell Senft

Will Murray’s article neglected to mention Mike Sekowsky’s work for the ’60s MLJ revival. I am pretty certain he penciled either issue 2 or 3.

Roy—

It was nice to see so many pages devoted to The Mighty Crusaders, but I personally would have preferred that it had been written by someone with a bit more affection for the series than Will Murray. He was far too dismissive, I think, of the Simon & Kirby version of The Shield….

As for the later “Mighty Comics” stuff, I want to go on record as saying that I liked the campy humor Jerry Siegel brought to his stories. He proved before, after, and even during this time period (e.g., the early stories he wrote for The Spider for the British market) that he could do serious material for the comics page, but here he just decided to cut loose and have fun and let his imagination soar to insane heights, which is what I really appreciate about these books.

Brett Canavan

As in the past, it is a thrill to see one of my commissions used as a cover to Alter Ego. Especially since Alter Ego is directly responsible for my involvement in collecting original art.

Michael Dunne

Practice Makes Perfect? This splash page for The Mighty Crusaders #2 (Jan. 1966), penciled by Mike Sekowsky and inked by Paul Reinman, proved that it wasn’t only The Avengers and The X-Men that kept in shape by practicing! Script by Jerry Siegel. Thanks to Gregg Whitmore. [© 2012 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

And while Murray sneers at the problems that Siegel came up for with his revived heroes, in a lot of ways I find them more realistic than the ones Stan Lee was coming up with for Spider-Man and the rest of the Marvel crew. I mean, Murray may dismiss The Web’s wife for being a nagging shrew for objecting to his return to his crime-fighting career after so many years—but darn if she wasn’t right! Professor John Raymond was a middle-aged, out-of-shape man trying, like so many modern Baby

[correspondence, comments, & corrections]

Boomers, to recapture the glories of his youth, endangering his life and risking his marriage and reputation every time he snuck out of the house and left the poor woman to worry that she might end up a widow at any minute.

capture likenesses made him WDL’s leading artist, and most of the annuals had Howarth covers. He also produced interior illustrations for stories, features, endpapers, contests, and puzzle pages. Walt illustrated the first five Dr. Who Annuals (1965-70) and in the early 1990s illustrated four “Batman” stories for the small format series Ladybird Books. He retired in 1993. A selection of his cover artwork is on view in his myspace site.

As for Siegel having former good guys go bad, even as big a fan of The Wizard as I am, super-heroes are exposed on an almost daily basis to large piles of wealth not seen outside of a Scrooge McDuck comic, so having him and The Hangman (loved that magical “living rope” of his, by the way… a great visual!) in a moment of weakness give in to temptation and become villains added a touch of emotional realism to the over-the-top weirdness of the stories, and made the other heroes seem even more heroic for not doing the same.

And despite what anybody says about Paul Reinman’s art, I will always love it for its clunky, clean-cut charm that will always say “Silver Age Superheroes” to me. It is certainly superior to anything that once top-of-the-chart figures like Rob Liefeld and his ilk ever drew.

Anyway, sorry I went off on a bit of a rant there. I really did enjoy the issue. Jeff Taylor

Roy,

Re Toby Press artist Medio Iorio (mentioned in the black box in the lower right-hand corner of page 50: Medio Iorio also did some Western comics for Charlton in the late 1950s., e.g., “Wild Bill Hickok and Jingles” in Cowboy Western #67 (March 1958). It looks like all his pencil art was in conjunction with Sal Trapani inks, so it’s entirely possible that he did indeed pencil (at least) the first issue of Nukla (Oct.-Dec. 1965) for Dell.

The Web Of Crime, Too, Bears Bitter Fruit

Dear Michael,

Jeez, well, that’s some pretty impressive scholarship. I actually have not seen “Amazing Man” before, but I wish I had. At this point, I think about three dozen cartoonists have drawn middleaged schlubs in super-hero costumes, and they all more or less end up looking pretty much the same. All of the Shuster steals are correct, however. C.C. Beck was another one I admired, probably even more, because his drawings have a little bit of that “eternal frozenness” that Bushmiller and Feininger got so well.

Mostly, your article only drove home what a terrible, unoriginal artist I am. I should be ashamed of myself! I blame art school, if the statute of limitations hasn’t yet expired. Anyway, thanks for your kind review, and all your flattering words. Chris Ware

The British cover on page 40 (John Wayne Adventure Annual) [in the Mell Lazarus interview] was drawn by the king of British covers, Walter J. Howarth (1928-2008). He painted covers for comics and annuals issued by World Distributors Ltd., Manchester. Walt worked for Industrial Art Services, one of whose clients was WDL. His first commission for WDL was John Wayne #81, and he drew 77 in all, so your cover was the first one. Walt’s ability to

Roy—

Jake Oster

You called Lou Cameron “Don” at the beginning of the letters page. I think it safe to say that Lou would rather be called “Mussolini” before being called “Don.” Also, Alberto Beccatini sent additions to Lou’s credits, and some are wrong. Lou didn’t start doing comics until 1951 (as he said in our interview), and those 1940s credits for DC and EC are not accurate. Lou was in World War II, so he couldn’t have done the DC Bible work, and went back in the service in 1947, so he wasn’t around New York to do the EC work. Alberto must have looked at Jerry Bails’ list, which at one time had those erroneous credits.

This “Web” splash from Fly Man #38 (July 1966) may not depict the hero’s shrew of a wife, but it does display Paul Reinman’s artistic craft. Script by Jerry Siegel. Thanks to Gene Reed. [© 2012 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

Chris Ware, whose 1994 The Acme Comic Library #1 was lovingly dissected by Michael T. Gilbert in #96’s Comic Crypt and whose “SuperMan” character therein Michael felt was inspired by a one-shot “Amazing Man” in Superboy #54 (Sept. 1957), wrote to Michael upon seeing the issue:

Dear Roy,

Richard Beaizly [if we read signature a-right]

Incidentally, Lou remembered the fact that Walter Johnson had an artograph and would wholesale swipe panels from other people’s work, so there’s no surprise to see the Matt Baker swipe John Benson sent you. Jim Amash

And that pretty much does it for mail, both e- and otherwise, re Alter Ego #96—except for a letter from Chris Boyko that we couldn’t quite squeeze in and which will lead off next issue’s “re:” section. Send comments on this one to: Roy Thomas e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com 32 Bluebird Trail St. Matthews, SC 29135

SPECIAL NOTE: For advance news and informed discussion concerning features in Alter Ego, check out the Alter-Ego-Fans chat list at group.yahoo.com/group/alter-ego-fans. Or, if you have any problems getting on board, simply contact webco-overseer Chet Cox at mormonyoyoman@gmailcom and he’ll lead you right to it! Alter-Ego-Fans is where the Golden and Silver Ages still live!

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illustrated from his hotel room until he was invited by Mac Raboy to draw at the latter’s 42nd Street studio. Marc worked there until he left NYC later that year.

[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, Marc gave his perspective on commercial art and fine art. In this issue we reprint, in its entirety, Marc’s one and only “Ibis the Invincible” story, published in 1944. —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

arc Swayze had almost become the chief illustrator on “Ibis the Invincible.”

It was just a little over a week after being discharged from the Army, and Marc was back in New York City, residing at a Times Square hotel. He made his way over to his old employer, Fawcett Publications, where editor Mercedes Shull handed him a “Mr. Scarlet” story (“The Spectre of Death in the House of Beauty,” for Wow Comics #29, Sept. 1944), which he took back to his hotel room to illustrate. C.C. Beck had offered him the use of a spare drawing table at his shop in Manhattan, but that arrangement didn’t work out. [See Marc’s column in A/E V3#3 for details.]

After dropping off the “Scarlet” job, he next picked up an Otto Binder script: “Ibis the Invincible Makes a Pact with the Devil,” which he also

While Marc enjoyed the energy of the Big Apple, he knew deep down that it was now “time to go home.” He went up to the south end of the 22nd floor at Fawcett to talk to editorial director Ralph Daigh about getting a regular assignment that he could produce out of his home in Louisiana. Marc already knew that the freelancers Fawcett used were all in close proximity to the editors, but his pitch was persuasive enough that Daigh immediately sent him over to executive comics editor Will Lieberson to essentially get whatever he wanted.

And what did Marc want? He was no longer interested in “Captain Marvel” or “Mary Marvel.” Nor did he want a masked hero whose facial expressions were mostly hidden. And, while taking pleasure in the one “Mr. Scarlet” story he had recently done, he didn’t want to deal with any more knit-suited, booted superheroes.

What about “Ibis the Invincible,” a character he had just finished working on for a single outing? Marc thought the Prince, garbed in a contemporary suit, was an interesting enough character and was easy to draw. And, even though he could stir up superpowers with a simple invocation and a effortless wave of his Ibistick, he tended to overcome his opponents in a proficiently brisk, almost gentlemanly manner… much like Marc—a “prince” of a guy himself—would do if he had his own Ibistick!

The artist was also intrigued by Ibis’ devoted and amorous colleague Taia, and had never forgotten her long legs in an eyecatching see-through dress that he had once noticed in an early issue of Whiz Comics.

Another selling point for Marc on “Ibis” was that the strip appeared in Whiz, edited at the time by Mercedes Shull. Marc had known her from back when he first joined Fawcett, and knew that she wasn’t fussy and would be easy to work with.

However, due to the wartime paper shortages, the secondary characters’ stories had been squeezed into fewer pages, meaning less money for artists, so Marc would need at least one more feature to bring back home to the South.

With One Magic Ibistick Before considering “Ibis the Invincible” as a long-term assignment, Marc Swayze recalled once taking notice of the Prince—and his dazzling partner Taia—in an early issue of Whiz Comics, #13 (Feb. 1941), from which this Bill Woolfolkwritten/Pete Costanza-drawn panel is taken. [Ibis the Invincible TM & © 2012 DC Comics.]

Marc decided to snap up “Ibis” and “The Phantom Eagle” as his two regular Fawcett freelance assignments… but before going home, Marc met with the Bell Syndicate, where the artist—a former Russell Keaton assistant—agreed to take on the Flyin’ Jenny [comic strip] Sunday page. Either Prince Ibis or the Phantom Eagle had to go… and Ibis went.

But at least we have that one Swayze-drawn “Ibis” story from Whiz Comics #59 (Oct. 1944), which we now bring back to light on the following pages … —PCH

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

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FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

The Bad Magicians by C.C. Beck Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

A previously unpublished essay from 1981 by Captain Marvel’s co-creator & chief artist good magician performs his feats by controlling and directing the attention of his audience. Successful ventriloquists do the same. They direct your attention away from what they’re actually doing and toward what you imagine is going on. A ventriloquist doesn’t “throw his voice”; if you look at him instead of at his dummy you will see quite plainly that he is doing the talking. But nobody looks at a ventriloquist if he is any good; we all look at his dummy.

A good cartoonist, like a good magician or ventriloquist, never calls attention to himself. By careful composition of his pictures he directs the viewer’s attention to certain things he wants them to look at, while he keeps attention away from other things such as panel outlines, backgrounds, props, wrinkles, shadows, and so on. He does not want the viewer to be conscious of the hidden wires and the mirrors he uses in his magic act and, above all, he does not want a reader of his cartoons to be reminded that a human being— himself—is behind everything.

Bad cartoonists, like bad magicians, draw attention to the wrong things. They put all sorts of tricks in their drawings as if saying, “Look, isn’t this wonderful? See how beautifully I shaded this portion? How about this perspective view—isn’t it marvelously done? I’m a wonderful artist, see?”

Comic books of today run long lists of credits, telling who penciled and who inked and who wrote and who edited and who lettered and who colored everything. This may help sell comic books, as readers have their favorite “magicians” that they admire, but it does not help the stories. The attention is too much drawn to the ventriloquists, at whom the audience should not look.

The Good Magicians In this issue, artist C.C. Beck deplores the acts of bad magicians… but, during the Golden Age of Comics, he and writer Bill Parker had created Ibis the Invincible, a good gentleman who always had a trick or two ready to unleash with the support of his Ibistick, as in the two panels, at left, from his first appearance in Whiz Comics #2 (Feb. 1940). Another Parker/Beck creation, Captain Marvel, derived his power by magical means, and as in this Otto Binder-written/C.C. Beck-Pete Costanza-drawn sequence (above) from Whiz Comics #71 (Feb. 1946), Billy Batson sometimes had to use those powers literally! [Ibis the Invincible & Shazam hero TM & © 2012 DC Comics.]

Cartoon characters, like ventriloquists’ dummies, should not be human-looking. Magicians use rabbits, doves, scarves, glasses of water, and other non-human props in their acts. The magic is in making the audience imagine that these things appear and disappear mysteriously, as if controlled by magical forces, not by a man. The ventriloquist’s dummy is always an outrageously caricatured thing who seems to have a life of his own. The dummy can be disrespectful, stupid, smart, or even wicked. He can be a monster, or he can be a head in a box, or simply the manipulator’s hand in a glove.

Nobody wants to see perfectly normal-looking people doing magical, impossible things. Super-heroes who look like high school athletes dressed in long-johns and swinging on wires are pitiful. The stories in which they appear are not only nonsensical; they’re stupid and dull. They’re like bad magic acts, than which nothing is worse.

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SUMMER 2012

WHE N YO ORD U ONL ER INE!

THE BEST IN COMICS AND LEGO MAGAZINES!

• Digital Editions available: $2.95-$3.95! • Back Issue & Alter Ego now full-color! • Lower international shipping rates!

KIRBY COLLECTOR #59

BACK ISSUE #58

BRICKJOURNAL #20

PATRICK OLIFFE interview and demo, career of AL WILLIAMSON examined by ANGELO TORRES, BRET BLEVINS, MARK SCHULTZ, TOM YEATES, ALEX ROSS, RICK VEITCH, and others, 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!

LEGO SUPERHEROES! Behind-the-scenes of the DC and Marvel Comics sets, plus a feature on GREG HYLAND, the artist of the superhero comic books in each box! Also, other superhero work by ALEX SCHRANZ and our cover artist OLIVIER CURTO. Plus, JARED K. BURKS’ regular column on minifigure customization, building tips, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions, and more!

(104-page magazine with COLOR) $10.95

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95 • Ships July 2012

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships July 2012

SUBSCRIBE AT: www.twomorrows.com (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships May 2012

BACK ISSUE #57

DRAW! #23

“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!

BACK ISSUE #59

BACK ISSUE #60

BACK ISSUE #61

JENETTE KAHN interviewed by ROBERT GREENBERGER, DC’s Dollar Comics and unrealized kids’ line (featuring an aborted Sugar and Spike revival), the Wonder Woman Foundation, and the early days of the Vertigo imprint. Exploring the talents of ROSS ANDRU, KAREN BERGER, STEVE BISSETTE, JIM ENGEL, GARTH ENNIS, NEIL GAIMAN, SHELLY MAYER, ALAN MOORE, GRANT MORRISON, and more!

“JLA in the Bronze Age”! The “Satellite Years” of the ‘70s and early ‘80s, with BUCKLER, ENGLEHART, PÉREZ, and WEIN, salute to DICK DILLIN, the Justice League “Detroit” team, with CONWAY, PATTON, McDONNELL, plus CONWAY and GEOFF JOHNS go “Pro2Pro” on writing the JLA, unofficial JLA/Avengers crossovers, and Marvel’s JLA, the Squadron Supreme. Cover by McDONNELL and BILL WRAY!

“Toon Comics!” History of Space Ghost in comics, Comico’s Jonny Quest and Star Blazers, Marvel’s Hanna-Barbera line and Dennis the Menace, behind the scenes at Marvel Productions, Ltd., and a look at the unpublished Plastic Man comic strip. Art/comments by EVANIER, FOGLIO, HEMPEL and WHEATLEY, MARRS, RUDE, TOTH, WILDEY, and more. All-new painted Space Ghost cover by STEVE RUDE!

“Halloween Heroes and Villains”! JEPH LOEB and TIM SALE’s chiller Batman: The Long Halloween, the Scarecrow (both the DC and Marvel versions), Solomon Grundy, Man-Wolf, Lord Pumpkin, Rutland, Vermont’s Halloween parades, and… the Korvac Saga’s Dead Avengers! With commentary from and/or art by CONWAY, GIL KANE, LOPRESTI, MOENCH, PÉREZ, DAVE WENZEL, and more. Cover by TIM SALE!

“Tabloids and Treasuries,” spotlighting every all-new tabloid from the 1970s. Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, The Bible, Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles, The Wizard of Oz, even the PAUL DINI/ALEX ROSS World’s Greatest Super-Heroes editions! Commentary and art by ADAMS, GARCIA-LOPEZ, GRELL, KIRBY, KUBERT, MAYER, ROMITA SR., TOTH, and more. Wraparound cover by ALEX ROSS!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95 • Ships June 2012

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95 • Ships July 2012

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95 • Ships August 2012

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95 • Ships Sept. 2012

(84-page TABLOID with color) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships Nov. 2012

ALTER EGO #111

ALTER EGO #112

ALTER EGO #113

ALTER EGO #114

ALTER EGO #115

GOLDEN AGE NEDOR super-heroes, MIKE NOLAN’s Nedor Index, art by MESKIN, ROBINSON, TUSKA, MOIRERA, SHOMBURG, and others, unknown facts about ACG writer/editor RICHARD HUGHES, with photos and never-published Herbie scripts! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, more 2011 Fandom Celebration, and part II of JIM AMASH’s interview with LEONARD STARR! Cover by SHANE FOLEY!

SUPERMAN issue! PAUL CASSIDY (early Superman artist), Italian Nembo Kid, and ARLEN SCHUMER’s look at the MORT WEISINGER era, plus an interview with son HANK WEISINGER! Art by SHUSTER, BORING, ANDERSON, PLASTINO, and others! LEONARD STARR interview Part III—FCA—Mr. Monster—more 2011 Fandom Celebration, and a MURPHY ANDERSON/ARLEN SCHUMER cover!

MARV WOLFMAN talks to RICHARD ARNDT about his first decade in comics on Tomb of Dracula, Teen Titans, Captain Marvel, John Carter, Daredevil, Nova, Batman, etc., behind a GENE COLAN cover! Art by COLAN, ANDERSON, CARDY, BORING, MOONEY, and more! AL FELDSTEIN interviewed by JIM AMASH about his pre-EC Comics work, FCA, Mr. Monster, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

MARVEL ISSUE on Captain America and Fantastic Four! MARTIN GOODMAN’s Broadway debut, speculations about FF #1, history of the MMMS, interview with Golden Age writer/artist DON RICO, art by KIRBY, AVISON, SHORES, ROMITA, SEVERIN, TUSKA, ALLEN BELLMAN, and others! Plus AL FELDSTEIN Part II, FCA, MR. MONSTER and BILL SCHELLY! Cover by BELLMAN and MITCH BREITWEISER!

3-D COMICS OF THE 1950S! In-depth feature by RAY (3-D) ZONE, actual red and green 1950s 3-D art (get out those glasses!) by SIMON & KIRBY, KUBERT, MESKIN, POWELL, MAURER, NOSTRAND, SWAN, BORING, SCHWARTZ, MOONEY, SHORES, TUSKA and many others! Plus FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY, and more! Cover by JOE SIMON and JACK KIRBY!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95 • Ships July 2012

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95 • Ships August 2012

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95 • Ships Oct. 2012

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95 • Ships Dec. 2012

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95 • Ships Feb. 2013

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An exhaustive look at a prolific Golden Age publisher! THE QUALITY COMPANION documents the history of Quality Comics, which spawned a treasure trove of beautiful art and classic characters in the 1940s, including the “Freedom Fighters”—UNCLE SAM, PHANTOM LADY, BLACK CONDOR, THE RAY, HUMAN BOMB, and DOLL MAN—plus PLASTIC MAN, BLACKHAWK, and others now at DC Comics! • Reprints—in FULL-COLOR—nine complete original stories from the 1940s from such rare collector’s items as FEATURE COMICS, SMASH COMICS, POLICE COMICS, NATIONAL COMICS, and CRACK COMICS! • Features Golden Age art by LOU FINE, REED CRANDALL, JACK COLE, WILL EISNER, JIM MOONEY, and others! • Compiles the first-ever A-Z in-depth character profiles of every Quality costumed super-hero! • Provides coverage of character revivals at DC, and more! Written by MIKE KOOIMAN with JIM AMASH!

The ultimate collection of Stan Lee rarities!

(288-page trade paperback with 64 COLOR PAGES) $31.95 • ISBN: 9781605490373 • Diamond Order Code: AUG111218

THE STAN LEE UNIVERSE features interviews with and mementos about Marvel Comics’ fearless leader, direct from Stan’s own archives! Co-edited by ROY THOMAS and DANNY FINGEROTH, it includes: • RARE PHOTOS, SAMPLE SCRIPTS AND PLOTS, and PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE! • Transcripts of 1960s RADIO INTERVIEWS with Stan (one co-featuring JACK KIRBY, and one with Stan debating Dr. Fredric Wertham’s partner in psychological innovation and hating comics)! • Rarely seen art by legends including KIRBY, JOHN ROMITA SR. and JOE MANEELY! • Plot, script, and balloon placements from the 1978 SILVER SURFER GRAPHIC NOVEL, with comprehensive notes from Lee and Kirby about the story, plus pages from a SILVER SURFER screenplay done by Stan for ROGER CORMAN! • Notes by RICHARD CORBEN and WILL EISNER for Marvel projects that never came to be, and more! (176-page trade paperback with 16 COLOR pages) $26.95 • ISBN: 9781605490298 • Diamond Order Code: APR111201 (192-page hardcover with 32 COLOR pages, foil stamping, dust jacket, and illustrated endleaves) $39.95 • ISBN: 9781605490304 • Diamond Order Code: APR111202

In June: Modern Masters spotlights ERIC POWELL! ERIC POWELL is a sick, sick man. Sick... but brilliant. How else would he have been able to come up with a concept like THE GOON—a smarter-than-he-looks brute raised by carnies, who runs the city’s underworld while protecting it from being overrun by zombies? How could anyone not love that idea? Now’s your chance to take a look inside the sick mind of this Modern Master, courtesy of co-authors JORGE KHOURY and ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON. Through a career-spanning interview and heaps of fantastic artwork, including rare and unseen treasures from Powell’s personal files, this book documents his amazing career and details his creative process—it even includes a gallery of commissioned pieces in full-color. Experience the work and wonder of this master of modern comic art in MODERN MASTERS VOLUME 28: ERIC POWELL!

And in July: it’s MARIE SEVERIN, The Mirthful Mistress of Comics!

MARIE SEVERIN colored the legendary EC Comics line, and spent thirty years working for Marvel Comics, doing everything from production and coloring to penciling, inking, and art direction. She is renowned for her sense of humor, which earned her the nickname “Mirthful Marie” from Stan Lee. This loving tribute contains insights from her close friends and her brother JOHN SEVERIN, as well as STAN LEE, AL FELDSTEIN, ROY THOMAS, JOHN ROMITA, JACK DAVIS, JACK KAMEN, TONY ISABELLA, GENE COLAN, JIM MOONEY, JOE SINNOTT, MARK EVANIER, and others, plus extensive commentary by MARIE herself. Complementing the text are photographs, plus rare and unpublished artwork, including a color gallery, showing her mastery with a painter’s pallette! (176-page trade paperback with COLOR) $24.95 • (Digital Edition) $7.95 • ISBN: 9781605490427 • Ships July 2012

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TwoMorrows—A New Day For Comics Fandom! TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • Visit us on the Web at www.twomorrows.com

(120-page trade paperback with COLOR) $15.95 • (Digital Edition) $4.95 ISBN: 9781605490410 • Ships June 2012