Alter Ego #110 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Roy Thomas’ Thunderclap of a Comics Fanzine

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FOUR-COLOR FIST-FEST!

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No.110

ALSO:

LEONARD STARR

82658 27763

June 2012

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!

2012 EISNER AWARD Nominee Best Comics-Related Journalism

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

ALTER EGO: CENTENNIAL (AE #100)

ALTER EGO #101

DIEDGITIIOTANSL BL AVAILA

ALTER EGO #97

ALTER EGO #98

ALTER EGO #99

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

Spotlight on Superman’s first editor WHITNEY ELLSWORTH, longtime 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!

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 #102

ALTER EGO #103

ALTER EGO #104

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!

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!

(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

ALTER EGO #109

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!

Spectre/Hour-Man creator BERNARD BAILY, ‘40s super-groups that might have been, art by ORDWAY, INFANTINO, KUBERT, HASEN, ROBINSON, and BURNLEY, conclusion of the TONY TALLARICO interview by JIM AMASH, MIKE PEPPE interview by DEWEY CASSELL, BILL SCHELLY on “50 Years of Fandom” at San Diego 2011, FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, PÉREZ cover, 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. 110 / June 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

Proofreader

Emilio Squeglio (pencils) & Joe Giella (inks)

Cover Artist Tom Ziuko

Cover Colorist

Jack Adams Heidi Amash Ger Apeldoorn Richard Arndt Jean Bails Mike W. Bar Rod Beck John Benson Jerry Bingham Robert Bloomingdale Jared Bond Burt Boyar Chris Boyko Chris Brown Gary F. Brown Frank Brunner Bernie Bubnis Mike Burkey Aaron Caplan Dewey Cassell Mike Catron Chet Cox Roger Dicken Michael Dunne Don Ensign Shane Foley Doug Fratz Joe Giella Janet Gilbert Chris Green Walt Grogan George Hagenauer Jennifer Hamerlinck Carmine Infantino Jim Kealy Kirk Kimball James King Alan Kupperberg Richard Kyle Mark Lewis

Paul Levitz Barbara Levy Alan Light Jim Ludwig Dick Lupoff Pat Lupoff Will Meugniot Brian K. Morris Will Murray Jake Oster John G. Pierce Bud Plant John Powell Rob Powell Gene Reed Dave Reeder Derek Reinhard Francis A. Rodriguez Herb Rogoff Bob Rozakis Randy Sargent Buddy Saunders Tom Sawyer Jim Simon Tom Smith Emilio Squeglio Leonard Starr Martin Stern Darcy Sullivan Marc Swayze Jeff Taylor Dann Thomas Maggie Thompson Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Dr. Michael J. Vassallo Delmo Walters, Jr. Hames Ware John Wells Robert Wiener Derek Wilson

With Special Thanks to:

This issue is dedicated to the memory of:

Emilio Squeglio, Lou Cameron, Mick Anglo, Bill Benulis, Marvin Levy, & Joe Simon

Contents Guest Writer/Editorial: Emilio Squeglio (1927-2012) . . . . . . 2 “I Think I Worked For Every [Comics] House In The City”. . . 3 Part I of Jim Amash’s decades-spanning interview with noted comics artist Leonard Starr.

Continued from last issue, here’s the final pair of pages from the unpublished JSA chapter.

“The Will Of William Wilson” Lost Pages—In Color! . . . . . . . 23 Michael T. Gilbert reinterprets Simon & Kirby and Carl Pfeufer (or is it Bill Everett?).

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! The Covers That Never Were! . . 25 Comic Fandom Archive: The Golden Age of Fanzines Panel – Part I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Bill Schelly presides over a fan-stellar panel at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con.

Tributes to Lou Cameron, Mick Anglo, Bill Benulis, Marv Levy, & Joe Simon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 re: [comments & corrections on 3 issues of A/E] . . . . . . . . 47 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #169 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 P.C. Hamerlinck presents a double helping of Beck, Thomas, Bingham, Boyar, & Swayze!

On Our Cover: Neither Emilio Squeglio nor Joe Giella is an artist whose name springs to mind when somebody mentions Fawcett Comics—but both did work for the company. As revealed in past issues, Emilio did corrections (which included sometimes drawing Captain Marvel or other Fawcett stars) for quite a few years—and Joe, while more identified with DC Comics in particular, informed Jerry Bails some years back for the online Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999 that in 1946 he had also worked in Fawcett’s production department, and had done some inking and even a spot of penciling on at least one “Captain Marvel” story. So P.C. Hamerlinck (like we ourselves) was happy when they teamed up to draw this iconic Shazamic illustration especially to be this issue’s cover! [Shazam heroes & word “Shazam!” TM & © 2012 DC Comics.]

Above: Before he wrote and drew the comic strips On Stage and Little Orphan Annie—even before his DC artwork for “Ghost-Breaker” and “Pow-Wow Smith”—Leonard Starr inked the pencils of fellow future great Carmine Infantino on several “Heap” stories for Hillman Periodicals. These panels of the stalking swampman-thing are from Airboy Comics, Vol. 3, #5 (June 1946); script quite probably by Carmine. Thanks to Jim Ludwig. [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

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 in memoriam—guest writer/editorial

An All-Star Cast—Of Mind Emilio Squeglio (1927-2012)

it became to publish a follow-up book to the milio hen Squeglio was aunfeasible Fawcett Publications four TwoMorrows volumes Theearly All-Star Companion, which artist in the late 1940s of and production had beenmainly devoted the first Marvel” half-century of the Justice ’50s, working onto“Captain of America anddiscontinued its various offshoots, Society When stories. Fawcett its comicsmost in of that material went on the shelf… for spaced-out in future issues of Alter Ego. he began working forinclusion their magazine 1953, department, particularly on True magazine. Later, Well, why not? After all, much of the very first volume of the leaving Fawcett, he became art director for American Companion, back in 2000, had been composed of items and information Artist magazine and eventually a very sought-atter that had been gathered for publication in A/E, so in truth things have just book designer, working with many top artists and come full circle. This issue’s JSA-themed material is truly an assemblage of celebrities for several decades. He was one of the the ages: most beloved members of The Berndt Toast Gang, the Hurricane Heeranof(and if he has another, “real” first name, he’s Long Island chapter The no, National Cartoonists never told what it is—and we’ve neverEgo bothered Society. Ourusinterview appeared in Alter #41, andto ask) prepared his fantasy study of later the JSA and its an potential imitators P.C. Hamerlinck serialized interview with at least five or six years ago, in and patiently for us to find a chance to get it into print. him thehas FCA sectionwaited of this magazine. The same is true for Al Dellinges’ and Mark Lewis’ intriguing art spots for If Emilio was your friend—and he was friends with darn near same… although Shane Foley drew his own sterling contributions “only” everybody—he was your friend for life. He never forgot a kindness in the past couple of years. bestowed upon him. He was fiercely devoted to those he loved, and Everno since intended to tell Iftheyou detailed story of the Justiceyou wasted time2000, withI’d phonies or users. hurt one of his friends, Society of America: Invasion from Fairyland as his a footnote to the Emilio hurt Emilio. That was the quickest way toproject, fall from good graces. several tried JSA-related diddoubt, come to in the always to giveseries peopleI conceived the benefitthat of the so fruition it was rare for him 1980s… I didn’tYou actually sitwork downtotonot type outfriend, until deadline time for to dislikebut someone. had to beithis or at the very this issue loomed. Michael Bair’s happen exquisitevery art often. for same has least, crossofanA/E uncrossable line. It didn't languished partly unseen for the larger part of three decades… while the Emilio was generous to a fault. He drew many Captain Marvel pieces, unpublished Martin Naydel art from the famous lost issue of All-Star some he sold, many he gave away, as to Roy, Paul, and me, among dozens Comics has waited nearly 70 years to appear in color! of others I can attest to. He lived for his work and family and friends. To As for theof first of Ken Quattro’s ongoingfamily, examination thefelt lifethe Emilio, most hispart friends were really extended and weofall and work artist/entrepreneur Bernard not Baily: firsthim sawonce the you lightknew of day same way of toward him. It was impossible to itlove (or atAnd leastheofmade the computer screen) last year him. it very easy to know him.on his amazing Comics

W E

Detective blog. BecauseAn of Baily’s co-creation of “The Spectre” “Hourinveterate animal lover, Emilio lovedand dogs the Man,” two of the original members of thethe JSA, Ken gave most. eight I can still remember pain hegenerously felt when his us permission to reprint it here—though it really a “reprint” if it’s never beloved Buzzy passedis away a few years ago. Emilio appeared in any kind of hardcopy Now we’llhe allgrieved have toover be content never got over before? his death; in fact, every story his blog; he’srest working to wait to read the rest petofhethe had everonowned for the of his on life.it.A few months after Buzzy's passing, Emilio saw a dog that One piece of this issue’s four-color pie, alas, we decided to leave out at he just had to have. Jack became the apple of Emilio's the last minute. Rebecca Wentworth had spoken with Richard Arndt about eye, and helped fill the void created by dear Buzzy's her father, John B. Wentworth, the writer/co-creator in 1939 of “Johnny death. Jack and Emilio were virtually inseparable, and Thunder” (among other features), and the interview was all set for while Emilio was in the hospital these past few inclusion this time around. Then, however, we learned it would be several months, Jack continually stood guard by the back months before we could get hold of any photographs or other non-DC door, waiting for a master's return that was not to be. artifacts related to Wentworth’s life… so we preferred to save that entry for the next JSA-oriented of people Alter Ego. Ofissue all the I've interviewed, nobody was more grateful to be in Alter Ego than Emilio. He loved Emilio and Jack, And there’ll be one, never fear. The Justice Society, like Superman, Christmas 2009. the magazine and considered himself a part of the A/E Batman, Captain Marvel, and a handful of other concepts of the Golden family. He was thrilled to work on a cover with Jerry Age of Comics, cannot be exhausted by the thousand or so pages devoted Ordway (A/E #91), the only post-Fawcett “Captain directly and indirectly to it in a quartet of Companion volumes and in the Marvel” artist he respected. The very last piece of Captain Marvel art occasional theme issue of A/E. Emilio drew was inked by his close childhood friend Joe Giella, and graces JSA stillvery something Price Guide it the The cover of isthis issue of like Alterwhat Ego.the He Overstreet saw the colored proofcalled shortly years ago: before his passing on March 14, and was extremely pleased by how it was handled. “A breakthrough concept, second in importance only to the super-hero.” We will all miss him greatly. A person like Emilio enters your life like Since the age of four and a half, long before the above words were the kindest elemental force, and extends a loving heart for you to fill. And actually written, I’ve instinctually agreed with those sentiments. at the same time, he fills yours with the greatest gift there is—the gift of love. Some you ahappen piece ofintheir heart, but gavemy And I’vepeople never only seen give anything the comics fieldEmilio to change you every bit of his. Emilio was a mighty lion whose heartbeat, though mind. now stilled, will always be heard by those who knew him. Bestest, —Jim Amash

# ALL IN FULL COLOR!#111 COMING IN JUNE COMING IN& JULY 110

THE NEDOR SECRETSUPER-HEROES ORIGINS OF LI THE LIVE! VE! Black Terror, Fighting Yank, & CAPTAIN MARVEL!

Cornucopia Of Costumed Crusaders! OurA Annual FAWCETT FESTIVAL • Dynamic new cover spotlighting the Nedor/Standard heroes—an artful homage by Returns In A Burst Of Shazamic Lightning! SHANE FOLEY to the work of FRANK ROBBINS & JOHN ROMITA!

• Mike NEDOR COMICAge INDEX of the years 1940-1949—profusely BrandNolan’s new cover by Golden Fawcett artists EMILIO SQUEGLIO & JOEillustrated GIELLA! by MESKIN, ROBINSON, TUSKA, MOREIRA, BATTEFIELD, MAYO, WEXLER, SAAF, • BLUMMER, FCA [Fawcett Collectors of America] Special! Captain Marvel’s OKSNER, KINSTLER, FRAZETTA, SCHOMBURG, et al!classic debut in Whiz Comics #2, retold in prose by artist/co-creator C.C. BECK—ROY THOMAS & JERRY • Special feature on RICHARD HUGHES, co-creator Black Terror, FightingBURT Yank, (“Billy BINGHAM on their controversial retelling in SecretofOrigins (1986)—actor Adventures into the Unknown—& Herbie, showcasing unpublished ACG stories of Batson”) BOYAR on the short-lived 1940s Captain Marvel radio series—plus MARC the Fat Fury! SWAYZE’s very first Phantom Eagle story! •• Super-artist STARRstrip) at DCartist and LEONARD beyond—Part II of talks JIM AMASH’s interview! Golden Age LEONARD (and newspaper STARR to JIM AMASH about • FCA celebrates 70th birthday of St. Mary Marvel, with SWAYZE, BECK, TRINA his career at DC,the Fawcett, Hillman, John, Timely, et al.! ROBBINS—& OTTO BINDER’s stories of the Shazam Girl! Plus—MICHAEL T. GILBERT’s • MICHAEL T. GILBERT’s Comic Crypt-full of new/old Timely covers—BILL SCHELLY Comic Crypt—BILL SCHELLY presents Part II of the Fanzine Panel from ics. y. presents a star panel from San Diego’s 2011 Fandom Celebration—& MORE!! Com Fole DCne 20122Sha Art&©©201 Shazam heroes TM the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con—& 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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“I Think I Worked For Every [Comics] House In The City” Part I Of A Decades-Spanning Interview With Noted Comics Artist LEONARD STARR

A Starr In The Firmament (Above center:) Leonard Starr in a photo taken by Alan Light—surrounded by art from three noted stages of his distinguished career. (Above left:) The Heap goes into his trademark mute action in Airboy Comics, Vol. 5, #8 (Sept. 1948)—scripter unknown. [© 2012 the respective copyright holders]… (Above right:) A modern-Western splash page from Detective Comics #175 (Sept. 1961)—ditto [© 2012 DC Comics]… …and (right) the classic On Stage Sunday strip for April 5, 1959, in which Broadway star Mary Perkins encounters Maximus, Starr’s answer to The Phantom of the Opera. Starr himself wrote that one. [© 2012 Tribune Media Services.] Thanks to Rod Beck for the “Heap” sequence and to Gene Reed for “Pow-Wow Smith.” The Sunday is reproduced from Classic Comics Press’ admirable reprint series Leonard Starr’s Mary Perkins On Stage, which we highly recommend to all fans of exquisite comic art.

Interview Conducted by Jim Amash • Transcribed by Brian K. Morris he incomparable Leonard Starr was good from the beginning. He started out as a background artist at Funnies, Inc., quickly becoming an inker and then penciler/inker on several features, including Timely Comics’ “Sub-Mariner.” During the ’40s and ’50s, Leonard’s work appeared at many companies, including McCombs, Orbit, Parents Magazine Press, ACG, Avon, DC, Timely/Marvel, and St. John Publications, among others. He left comic books in 1957 to do the widely

acclaimed On Stage newspaper strip that he had created; later he drew the venerable and eternally young Little Orphan Annie, as Annie. Leonard’s work was stylistic and/or realistic, always adaptable to the subject matter at hand. He was and is a true illustrator who drew really well, never letting overly flashy graphics mute the potency of his storytelling. Special thanks to our mutual friend Tom Sawyer (whom I interviewed in A/E # 77) for giving me Leonard’s contact info. —Jim.

Part I Of A Decades-Spanning Interview With Noted Comics Artist Leonard Starr

was my very first experience with fickleness. I felt guilty because I had lost my love for Flash Gordon and gone on to something else. Terry and the Pirates had terrific drama. Terry was a little older than I was, I guess, when I started reading it. What year was Terry started?

JA: 1935. [ED. NOTE: Actually 1934.]

STARR: I was ten and Terry was about 12, I think, in the early strips. And of course, the adventures were good, I liked the drawing, and I wasn’t alone. [mutual laughter] Terry probably turned more guys on to doing comics than any other strip. Flash Gordon was too well-drawn, for one thing. Milton’s work was very good, but approachable. You could get the feeling of the thing without knowing a hell of a lot. It was simply more approachable.

JA: A lot of artists who gravitated towards adventure like you did. I know you’ve done humor work, but— STARR: Not a hell of a lot.

Flash-y Art A very young Leonard Starr found the art of Milt Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates comic strip “simply more approachable” than that in Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon. Seen aboveare Flash Gordon panels from Dec. 9, 1934 (the strip had debuted early that year)—below, a panel from the very first Terry Sunday, on the selfsame date. [Flash Gordon © 2012 King Features Syndicate, Inc.; Terry © 2012 Tribune Media Services, Inc.]

JA: I was thinking of Little Orphan Annie primarily, in regard to humor.

STARR: The funny thing is, I thought of Annie as a humor strip, but it was really a straight strip. Harold Gray was drawing it as well as he could, and trying to draw straight. Also, there was this whole period where Caniff’s work influenced Gray’s, and he went into heavy chiaroscuro.

JA: I’ve noticed, when I interviewed people who drew humor comics, that their favorite comics were almost always exclusively humor comics. When I interview people like you who did a lot of adventure, more realistic stuff, you were influenced by the more realistic artists.

“I Read The Comics When I Was A Kid”

JIM AMASH: When and where were you born?

LEONARD STARR: New York City in 10-28-1925. I read the comics when I was a kid, and I believe that most of us had reading skills before we entered school because of the comic strips. My favorite strip, early on, was Flash Gordon, and I just barely looked at a lot of the other stuff. And then my loyalties were sort of stolen by Terry and the Pirates, which was a more contemporary feature. It

STARR: Yes. To give you an idea about how humor works: I was working at Johnstone & Cushing [advertising art service] at the time, and a friend of mine, an insurance man, and his brother were moving their office. They asked me if I could do a drawing for a sign, just a mailing piece. It was supposed to be sort of funny, so I asked Dik Browne, who was also at Johnstone & Cushing at the time, if he could do a rough sketch for me. Man, he turned it out in about five minutes, and it was funny as hell. It was easy for Dik to draw. It was his area, cartooning. I really couldn’t go in that direction. [NOTE: Dik Browne later created the newspaper comic strip Hagar the Horrible. —Jim.]

JA: You went to the High School of Music and Art.

“I Think I Worked For Every [Comics] House In The City”

STARR: Yes, after junior high school, when the ninth grade was actually your freshman year of high school. I got in on the third term. I graduated in June ’42, so we go back three years and that makes it ’39 to ’42.

JA: What got you interested in making art your career?

STARR: The need to earn a living. I had a knack for it, and the thought of maybe making a living out of it was very scary, actually. I was very, very good in the sciences. I never did any homework. I did all my notebooks in class, and I never got less than a 98 on something. The Once And Future Princes And so my parents—God knows how, Carl Pfeufer at a 1968 reunion of the Jack because they were Russian Binder early-’40s art shop, and his immigrants—somehow got the money “Sub-Mariner” splash from Sub-Mariner #8 (Winter 1942). It was during this together to send me to medical school period, when Pfeufer was drawing at Cornell. I passed the boards, and Prince Namor’s exploits through the then I had two ways to go about it. A Funnies, Inc., studio after creator Bill friend of my mother’s had a son who Everett had been drafted, that Leonard was a cardiologist, so she says, “Go Starr met Pfeufer. Starr himself would speak to Meyer, and see what he says.” later draw “Sub-Mariner.” Photo He was good enough to see me after his courtesy of Marc Swayze; page from office hours, and he went through what Marvel Masterworks: Sub-Mariner Vol. it would take, how many years of 2. [Page © 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc.] school there was, and internship. It was mainly, and actually, it was astonishing the difference in how well a lifetime of peering into people’s orifices, and it didn’t sound all students drew after a year than when they came in, and that was that great to me, so I decided to take a chance [at art], and let’s say just from practice, just adjusting their light to the model. that my parents didn’t fight it.

I had won prizes in drawing, like the Wannamaker Prize, and there’s some sort of interscholastic school prize for posters and that kind of thing, and so I realized there was a chance for me to make it in that profession. Now don’t forget, we’re talking about the Depression, and the Depression in my memory is that the sun never came out for about ten years. [Jim chuckles] Really! Of course, it must have, but you just sort of went through it. I was a kid, and the other kids were pretty much in the same shape. I’m talking about the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

JA: What were your living circumstances at the time? Obviously, your family didn’t have a lot of money.

STARR: It was pretty much the story of first-generation Americans, and it was astonishing—well, probably not astonishing, because that’s who we were. Very many of the cartoonists of my generation were first-generation.

“Funnies, Incorporated… Needed Some Help”

JA: When you decided to pursue an art career, did you have comic books in your sights or newspaper strips? Or were you just going to take anything you could get?

STARR: Actually, it was kind of accidental. I thought by the time I got to Pratt Institute that the way to go was illustration. My experience at Pratt was not especially fortunate. They were doing all sorts of three-dimensional design, and God, I just wanted to know how to draw, and they didn’t teach that. The teachers who could teach it somehow didn’t, and that wasn’t much better than the High School of Music and Art. There was no foundation stuff in how to set up the figure or anything. It was just studio practice

Anyway, there was a notice at the school from Funnies, Incorporated, saying that they needed some help. The students came in, they would be interviewed, and so forth. Frank Bolle and I went to high school together. We were also both at Pratt, and we both went to Funnies, Inc. We got some work, first penciling backgrounds, and then inking them. And who did I do them for? The first one was for, oddly enough, Bob Oksner, and his work was terrific. Man, he just had this quick, loose, lively style. And Carl Pfeufer was there. He was a fine artist who was drawing “SubMariner” at the time, which I ultimately took over.

JA: What was Frank Bolle like in those days?

STARR: We were two kids interested in drawing; we had the same ambition. We spent a lot of time together, and we were very, very close buddies. We still are. At that point, I was thinking more in terms of illustration, and I think Frank was as well. The reason we went to Pratt is because when we went there, the hallways were full of Norman Rockwell oil sketches. And if that doesn’t discourage you from becoming an illustrator, I don’t know what the hell would.

I studied at Pratt for about a year, if that. I switched to evening school, thinking that maybe I could still learn something. But it was all so desultory that it wasn’t worth my while. They would teach me all sorts of things that had absolutely nothing to do with what I wanted to do. JA: Who hired you at Funnies, Inc.?

STARR: The editor then was a woman named Bobbie Ross, Roberta Ross, and she was terrific. She was very helpful and highly educated, knew her stuff, and I suppose she, too, during the Depression, was getting whatever work she could. I think her

Part I Of A Decades-Spanning Interview With Noted Comics Artist Leonard Starr

credentials probably would have allowed her to enter any number of other fields, and magazines or print. But this is where she settled.

People working there then were Carl Pfeufer; Chu Hing, who did nice work and boasted that he had studied with Harvey Dunn—but his characters’ eyes always looked Oriental when he drew them, no matter who they were; Harry Fisk, who had been an illustrator… he had done some paintings of the Civil War with a thousand soldiers, just devastatingly great. He was pretty well along in years at that time.

Edd Ashe was drawing Don Winslow. As a matter of fact, they took apart a store here in Westport, and he had done the mural. It may still be there now. The store’s now a Banana Republic, and so maybe I’ll drop in and see if his mural is still there, because his name was on it. I was very surprised to see it. Edd was a feisty sort of short guy; he made me think of Flip Corkin in Terry. He had that kind of demeanor.

JA: Before we go on to discussing other people, tell me more about Roberta Ross.

STARR: I would guess that she was in her early thirties at that time, and subsequently she and Warren King and I decided to put out a comic book called HiLite. We put out one issue, and boy, the returns were terrific. And then we were prohibited by the War Production Board after the war started, because we weren’t publishing before the war [World War II]. We couldn’t publish during the war because of all the paper shortages, and so there went my early fortune. Warren King went on to become the editorial cartoonist of The New York News, but that was much, much later. The name of our company was E.R. Ross Publishing. I remember we also did a few Blue Bolt comics, but we couldn’t get paper, so that ended, too. We made enough to pay the rent and quite a bit over. We were on our way to a fortune, because comic books—any comic books—were selling 98% of the print to the guys in the service.

JA: For HiLite, you drew a character called “M’sieu LePee.” [mutual laughter]

“Liquid” Assets? Leonard S. doesn’t recall drawing for a small company known as Consolidated. Online, alert reader Jim Ludwig found this Starr-signed splash page for an odd little science-horror yarn called “Liquid X,” listed as being from Consolidated’s Lucky Comics #1 (Jan. 1944)—and signed by Starr. Frankly, we’re kinda curious as to how the tale turned out…! [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

STARR: It was some other Leonard Starr. [mutual riotous laughter]

JA: For Consolidated, you did a story called “Liquid X.”

STARR: I have no memory of that at all.

JA: You also worked for a company called McCombs.

Living The Hi-Lite The Grand Comics Database has no hard information on E.R. Ross Publishing’s Hi-Lite Comics #1, the title that Leonard and fellow artist Warren King produced, except its cover date—“Fall 1945”—but at least it had an image of the cover. The artwork was probably the work of one or both men. [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

STARR: Yes. This was a guy who started a small comic book company. He was in a building— maybe it was the Flatiron Building, but I don’t remember it being that far down. That’s on 23rd Street. Frank [Bolle] might be able to remember it, but McCombs was in the absolute office point of the Flat Iron. He had this tiny little office, and he and his wife put out Crown Comics. Frank and I did a bunch of stories for him. Frank penciled and I inked them.

“I Think I Worked For Every [Comics] House In The City”

Crown Me! McCombs’ Crown Comics #13 (May 1948) boasted a cover penciled by Frank Bolle (photo top center) and inked by Leonard Starr—two “Vic Cutter” private eye yarns by the same team—and “Bart Stewart,” likewise signed by both men! Bolle is credited (by the GCD, perhaps based on the researching of Jerry Bails’ Who’s Who) with plotting all three stories, and Starr with doing the scripts—but the GCD scribes feel that Starr may have done full art on “Bart Stewart.” However the work was divided, Bolle and Starr were clearly a couple of busy young artists! [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

Part I Of A Decades-Spanning Interview With Noted Comics Artist Leonard Starr

JA: I have you there from ’45 to ’48. You think that sounds right?

publishers. We did work for Timely, we did work for several other publishers.

STARR: That’s too long. I’m not even sure about ’45. [chuckles] You have to remember, this is all days of yore. It was after Frank came out of the Army, and I know he continued to work there after I went on to something else.

JA: Lloyd Jacquet started in the pulps. He briefly had edited for a couple other small comics companies (including New Fun for Major Malcolm WheelerNicholson’s company which later became DC Comics, and Comics Magazine) before he launched Funnies, Inc.

JA: So you think you were there about a year, a year and a half?

STARR: See, there weren’t that many companies at that time.

STARR: I would say. The owners were a quaint couple. I think McCombs did it to please his wife, to give her something to do. I guess he had some bucks, and my impression was that he was always there, though maybe he was looking for something to do as well. Only McCombs was sitting at his little desk, and occasionally his wife was there. It wasn’t a major publishing company. For all I know, Frank and I were the entire artistic staff. [mutual laughter] Well, there may have been others.

JA: Well, Comics Magazine Company only published a few comic books. Eventually Jacquet started Funnies, Incorporated, to package work for publishers. Harry Chesler had a shop, for instance.

STARR: I remember Harry. Harry had an original Winsor McCay. No frame, no glass. It was a shot of New York City with all those buildings, and a Tammany tiger sprawled across it. The art was just coiling at the edges and tacked to the wall.

JA: Here’s what I have you doing for them: “Buckskin”… a character called “Bart Stewart,” apparently….

STARR: Yes.

JA: “Voodah” was another feature you did for them, along with some crime and Western stories.

Who Do That “Voodah”? Some sources may credit Starr as the artist of “Voodah,” still another jungle lord contesting for Tarzan’s crown, and maybe he did draw that strip in some other issue of Crown Comics—but the GCD credits the story in issue #13 to writer Ken Fitch (co-creator of “Hour-Man,” et al.) and artist Anthony Cataldo, who also drew “Dynamic Man” for the company of that name. Nice lush work. [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

STARR: That doesn’t sound familiar, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I did them. They didn’t have that much going on. They just had the one book, as I recall. The “Bart Stewart” was a Colonial feature, and there was also a detective series, “Vic Cutter.” JA: You were at Funnies, Inc., for how long?

STARR: A year, maybe a little longer. I graduated from penciling backgrounds to inking the backgrounds, and then inking figures. I inked Bob Oksner’s figures and Edd Ashe’s. They gave me a job to do and I brought it in; they paid me. At least they gave me another job. I didn’t work in the office. Harry Fisk and Carl Pfeufer worked there, but Edd Ashe did not. For all I know, they had room for those guys to work there because they thought they had to. They were kind of amateurs in this themselves. How Jacquet decided to start this company, I have no idea, because they were not

JA: You know Winsor McCay’s son, Bob, worked for Chesler. That’s where the art came from. At one time, they tried to repackage Little Nemo in the comic books, and it actually briefly ran in comics and in newspapers. So that’s probably the reason you saw it there.

STARR: I see. [chuckles] Well, he certainly didn’t get a lot of respect. I would have loved to have watched McCay draw a Sunday page, and see how long it took him, or that particular editorial cartoon. I was considered fast, but there’s no way I could have turned out one of those Sunday pages in less than a month.

JA: Do you remember how much Funnies, Inc., paid when they hired you?

STARR: [chuckles] Very, very little. But of course, even a quarter went a long way in those days. A subway ride anywhere in New York was five cents.

See You In The Funnies, Inc., Papers! Few photos are known to exist of Lloyd Jacquet, the entrepreneur who launched Funnies, Inc.—so we just keep running this detail from a 1942 pic in the New York WorldTelegram newspaper. For the whole photo, see the Bill Everett coverage in A/E #22.

“I Think I Worked For Every [Comics] House In The City”

I was paid by the page. There was never a salary. Not in any place I’ve ever worked.

JA: When you brought work in, Roberta was the person you dealt with.

STARR: Yes, it was always Bobbie. JA: Would she criticize your work?

STARR: Occasionally, but the stuff that we did during the war was really, really rotten, and they didn’t encourage us to be any better because they were selling so well to the armed services. The big thing was to get as many books out as possible, and if you looked like you spent a lot of time on it, or were late, they were actually annoyed because the guys didn’t care what the hell they were reading. It was a quick read, and they were just relaxing in their bunks or the foxholes, or wherever. JA: Her full name was Edith Roberta Ross.

STARR: Well, that could very well be. She had two sisters, and I’m trying to remember what their names were. I guess Roberta didn’t like “Edith.” She was “Bobbi” to us.

JA: You told me off-tape that you met Lloyd Jacquet once and he was in uniform, so you didn’t really have any contact with him.

STARR: No, it was all Mrs. Jacquet, and she purported to know something about comics, which everybody dismissed. [Jim laughs] Truly, she was a nice woman, and she always wore her white shoes, no matter what the hell the season was, [laughs] kind of a good-looking woman. But let’s see, I was sixteen, and she was about 35. She would come in and tell us some stories. I

Passing The Torch (Right:) Those tireless Timely-Atlas art identifiers Dr. Michael J. Vassallo, Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., and Hames Ware believe that Starr probably inked this “Human Torch” tale from All Winners Comics #11 (Winter 1943-44)… so he’s credited in the hardcover Marvel Masterworks: All Winners Comics, Vol. 3. Only thing is—they’ve got no idea who the penciler might’ve been! Well, as comedian Joe E. Brown said somewhereor-other: “Nobody’s perfect!” [© 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“The Ammunition’s Exploded!” (Left:) Just to give all you artwork sleuths out there another shot at ID-ing whether the artwork in the “Bart Stewart” story in Crown Comics #13 was by the Bolle-Starr team or by Starr alone, here’s a climactic page from that Colonial-era potboiler. [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

don’t remember her making any professional comments at all.

JA: Would you say she was making sure the business was being run? STARR: Maybe she was. [chuckles] There was nobody there with a whip and a drum. We were there to do the job, and we did it and we learned very quickly. If we couldn’t do it quickly, we’d starve to death. JA: Was Jim Fitzsimmons there? He was supposed to be a production manager, but I know he was there in ’41 and ’42.

STARR: Maybe. Somebody had to be dealing with going out and getting the jobs from the comic book houses. Anyway, I finally started doing my own stuff, and maybe within the year, I was turning in complete jobs, penciled and inked.

“It Wasn’t Great Work”

JA: You rose up in the ranks rather quickly, then.

STARR: Yes, I was pretty facile, but as I say, it wasn’t great work. But it was clean and filled with panels, and told a story, which is all they wanted. They would check the pages to make sure I told the story. I don’t recall ever doing any corrections or going back over anything. I was happy to get a check and go on to the next job.

JA: What do you remember about Carl Pfeufer, who was drawing “SubMariner” when you started? Was he doing the complete job, pencils and inks?

STARR: Oh, yes. I remember he brought in something he was doing for a book jacket or a book cover, and it was done in scratchboard, which is a kind of paper [on which] you scratch stuff out with a sharp point. Anyway, it was this beautiful, fully-rendered head of Stonewall Jackson, and I was very, very impressed. He was also very interested in fine art. He sent me up to

Part I Of A Decades-Spanning Interview With Noted Comics Artist Leonard Starr

a Spanish museum, which was the first time I ever saw Joaquin Sorolla’s work, and various others. Pfeufer was an educated man, a very nice guy. So was Harry Fisk, who was kind of blustery and sort of a bon vivant of the old school.

“Pfeufer” Rhymes with “Lifer” We picked up this particular scan of Carl Pfeufer’s splash from All Winners Comics #8 (Spring 1943) not from a Marvel Masterworks but rather online, and it seems to be an image from an actual copy. But the fact that it’s hard to be 100% certain shows how far the Masterworks have come from that first hardcover volume of Marvel Mystery Comics not too many years ago! (DC’s Archives have improved, too.) But, for some reason, some Masterwork volumes spell Pfeufer’s last name the way he spelled it, while in others it’s rendered as “Pfeuffer.” [© 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

JA: Pfeufer was an important artist there at Funnies, and he took over “SubMariner” when [creator] Bill Everett was drafted.

STARR: I don’t know if Carl did anything else. Maybe he did a few “Human Torch” stories, but I did both “Sub-Mariner” and “Human Torch” subsequently.

something else.” He was very happy to have done the Stonewall Jackson cover I mentioned. That came in so he did it, and did it beautifully, and then he did a couple pages of “SubMariner.”

JA: Pfeufer was an interesting man. He was disappointed that he never became well known for his fine art, and didn’t want to be known for his comic book work, so he wouldn’t talk about it. That’s why I was interested in what you knew about him in terms of his attitude, in terms of his disposition.

JA: Did any of these people take you under their wing and try to help you?

STARR: I saw his paintings and, as I say, they were mainly about war scenes—particularly the Civil War—and very well done without too much glamor. I thought he might have done them for the National Geographic, but I’m not certain.

JA: Do you think Pfeufer liked doing the comics?

STARR: I think he was glad he was working, like all of us. I never heard him complain. I never heard him say, “I should be doing

STARR: No, not really. In terms of mentoring or giving lessons, the guy who spent time helping me was Herman Stackel, and that was not artistically. He had a wide range of intellectual knowledge and introduced me to various things, people to read, and stuff to look at. We used to spend hours and hours drinking coffee, and talking. He was at Funnies when I started, and was there after I left. He was a letterer. He was just a terrific guy, and I guess in his later life, work dried up or something. He was very bitter, and I was very, very sorry to hear that.

Ashes To Ashes? (Left:) In Marvel Masterworks: All Winners Comics, Vol. 2, Starr’s Funnies, Inc., cronies Harry Fisk and Edd Ashe are credited with the art on this “Human Torch” effort from All-Winners #8 (Spring 1943). Our hats are off to the folks who work at ID-ing these vintage tales. [© 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Right:) The artist of the four stories in Fawcett’s Don Winslow of the Navy #3 (April 21, 1943) is unidentified, but may have been Edd Ashe. Leonard says he did "backgrounds" for Ashe on Winslow—but maybe that included the battleship? The scripter, too, is unknown. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

“I Think I Worked For Every [Comics] House In The City”

JA: Was Stackel the only letterer there?

backgrounds on Don Winslow. Edd was very ebullient, and he was a nice guy. There was nothing specific about him like there would be about Harry Fisk, but Ashe was of a slightly older generation. He was twenty years older than me, but younger than Harry Fisk.

JA: When you did backgrounds for Bob Oksner, did you meet him?

“I Don’t Know How Long Funnies [Inc.] Lasted”

STARR: As far as I can remember, he was the only letterer there. He was forty and I was like seventeen, and so it was a whole world I was unfamiliar with, the world that he had experienced on his route to being forty, and he shared his experiences with me.

STARR: No, I didn’t. I met him much later, but not then. I don’t think it was just backgrounds; I’m thinking I inked his figures. I think maybe I inked the whole page, but I’m not altogether sure about that.

JA: What do you remember about Harry Fisk? You say he was an older man. I know he did some stuff for Fawcett.

JA: I’d like to throw out the names of some Funnies employees, and see if you’ll remember them or not. Nina Albright.

STARR: The name sounds very familiar, and I have absolutely no other recollection of her.

JA: George Kapitan.

STARR: Oh, yes. A nice guy. He worked at home, too, but we would go to lunch and did a lot of coffee talk and smoked a lot of cigarettes… that kind of thing. As a matter of fact, I think very often his work was just sent in.

STARR: I can’t remember his comics work at all. All I remember is him bringing in these large paintings, and they were full of figures, and sort of academically well-painted. His color sense was not vibrant, and JA: When you went out to lunch, at the time I thought they were was there a particular crowd that perfect. He filled the whole damn went out or was it whoever was canvas. [mutual laughter] Wow! He there? was friendly and very talkative, STARR: It was catch-as-catchwith a loud voice, sort of a bon Chu On This! can. vivant of the old school. I Funnies, Inc., artist Chu Hing is believed by the art ID-ers to have inked remember he would refer to Jimmy Thompson’s pencils on this sub-sea yarn from All Winners Comics JA: Al Bare. Sy and Dan Barry did somebody he didn’t like as being #14 (Winter 1944-45). Repro’d from Marvel Masterworks: All Winners some freelance for him about that “that part of a horse that goes Comics, Vol. 3. [© 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc.] time. I don’t think Dan did very over the fence last.” [Jim laughs] much, though. Ken Battefield. He was of that generation. Funny, you know, now that we’re talking about particular ages: in the Smithsonian magazine, I read STARR: Al Bare, no. Ken Battefield sounds very familiar, but I about Abraham Lincoln’s whole ordeal with the Emancipation don’t remember anything about him. Proclamation, and the various things that were written by Seward JA: Tex Blaisdell. and Smith, and the various guys around him, and they all wrote beautifully. The fact that Lincoln wrote a little better than them is STARR: Oh, sure, but save that for later. I don’t think Tex was at really astonishing. He had a gift for imagery. The point is, though, Funnies. every one of them was absolutely so literate and wrote so beautifully, and had such a command of language that it was natural that JA: There’s confusion about when he started at Funnies. he should have come out of that. It sounds like the rest of the guys STARR: Well, I don’t know how long Funnies lasted. were “dese,” “dems,” and “dose.” [Jim chuckles] So the part of the horse that went over the fence last was probably of his generation, JA: Funnies actually lasted until the early 1950s, believe it or not. because that’s the way they used profanity: creatively and colorfully. STARR: Then he may have put in some time there, but I didn’t meet him until much later at Hillman Publications. JA: What do you recall about Edd Ashe? JA: John Giunta. STARR: Just that he did some of the most traditional—he’s sort of in the Caniff class. His figures moved, and he imparted a particular STARR: I knew John, but I didn’t know him there. look to them. Don Winslow of the Navy was running in the paper, JA: Anything else about Chu Hing that you recall? but not by him. Edd drew the comic book. As a matter of fact, I think the very first thing that I did for Funnies was the STARR: He was very, very proud of himself, and I didn’t really

Part I Of A Decades-Spanning Interview With Noted Comics Artist Leonard Starr

What’s In A Name? Plenty! Starr doesn’t recall Gus Schrotter, a fellow Funnies, Inc., inmate who drew “Angel” stories for Timely—such as this one from SubMariner #12 (Winter 1943-44), rero’d from the hardcover Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Sub-Mariner, Vol. 3. [© 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc.] But Leonard definitely remembers Ernie Schroeder, who later drew (and probably wrote) this “Heap” story for Hillman Periodicals’ Airboy Comics, Vol. 7, #11 (Dec. 1950). Thanks to Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., for the scan. [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

want to spend a hell of a lot of time in his company, and not for any particular reason except because, as I said, his big boast was that he said he studied with Harvey Dunn. But you really couldn’t see it. I wish I had studied with Dunn!

JA: So do I! A lot of people studied under Harvey Dunn. Charlie Paris told me what a great teacher Harvey Dunn was, and how he’d influenced his whole life. [NOTE: Charles Paris was a major “Batman” inker at DC during the 1940s to the early ‘60s.]

STARR: I knew Jim, but not there. I met him later on at the Society of Illustrators. By that time, he was doing a newspaper strip called Dr. Bobbs. He was a good storytelling Irishman.

JA: Al Plastino.

STARR: I knew Al later. He was sort of the bane of the cartoonists because he was the best golfer. [mutual laughter] No, really. I don’t think anybody thought very highly of his art, but he would only show up for the golf tournaments, take the prizes, and go home. It really ticked everybody off, as you can imagine,

JA: Gus Schrotter. [NOTE: The German name “Schrotter” is pronounced “shro’-der,” basically identical to the Anglicized pronunciation of the name “Schroeder”; hence Leonard Starr’s answer that follows:]

STARR: I knew a Schroeder, and he was a terrific guy. Ernie Schroeder is the one I knew. He was just a wonderful guy. He may have been at Funnies. If not there, then someplace else in the comics business. He was always telling me about artists. He was working somewhere where the guy across the hall was putting out catalogues. He had a whole bunch of gnomes in there drawing breast pumps, and all sorts of little illustrations for the catalogues. He paid them miserably. The guy was Italian and wore a Borsalino hat, smoked with a cigarette holder, all of that. [chuckles again] Since Ernie didn’t work for him, he didn’t mind having lunch with him a lot. Ernie would say, “Why don’t you give these guys a working wage, for God’s sakes? They’re working very hard and you’re doing okay.” The guy says, Blair With A Flair “Let me tell you something about Writer Joe Blair shows a comely model a story he’d scripted for MLJ’s our office. If I locked any one of Jackpot Comics in a photo printed in the Aug. 1941 issue of that them in a closet for a month with company’s magazine Close-Up. Thanks to Mike Catron, that entire just an electric lightbulb, and photo feature was reprinted in A/E #82, our MLJ issue. [© 2012 slipped pieces of paper under the Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

STARR: That happened to me with Frank Riley from the Art Students League when I was about 28, 29. If I had just started with him instead of going to Pratt, like a fool, I might have wound up learning how to draw. [chuckles] JA: Jim McArdle worked at Funnies, too.

[laughs] because it’s the only time they ever saw him. As a consequence, they didn’t think much of his work, either. And as I remember, his work wasn’t really first-rate, although I may be misremembering. I’d have to see it again.

“I Think I Worked For Every [Comics] House In The City”

door, at the end of the month, I’d open the door and they’d all be dead, but there’d be drawings on those pieces of paper.” [mutual riotous laughter] That’s an Ernie Schroeder story.

JA: Well, I don’t think they made them better than Ernie. One of the dearest people I’ve known.

STARR: I would go along with that, and ours was a very brief acquaintance. Ernie was older than me, very friendly and funny, with a wonderful and interesting world view. If you knew him, you loved him. I wasn’t very colorful in those days. [Jim chuckles again] I became very colorful later.

JA: Irv Werstein.

STARR: Nice, energetic guy; I liked Irv a lot. He had a lot to say, and all of it was worth hearing.

JA: He was a writer, as you may remember. Died young, I heard. Does your memory on him extend any further?

“If [The ‘Sub-Mariner’ Art] Is Lousy, It’s Probably Mine”

JA: You said you did backgrounds on “The Human Torch.”

STARR: Carl Pfeufer was drawing “The Human Torch” at the time, and I forget how long he did it, but at one point, I was doing it. This was right after I did Don Winslow backgrounds for Edd Ashe. The only backgrounds I remember doing were on Don Winslow.

JA: When you were doing “The Human Torch,” when you started doing the backgrounds, were you doing his backgrounds?

STARR: I don’t think I ever did his backgrounds. Most of them I did for Edd Ashe, and then I inked a few jobs of Bob Oksner’s. From there on in, I think I went on my own.

JA: Any memory of how long you drew “Sub-Mariner”? Would you say it was maybe half a dozen stories?

STARR: There’s some talk about STARR: I guess. I know it was marriage and the difference created by Bill Everett, whom I never between the women that hang met. He was in the service. Pfeufer around your neck—”Do you love was doing it when I got there. me? Do you love me? I love you! I Close But No Cigar—Unless It’s A Soggy One JA: There were several “Sub-Mariner” love you!”—and the ones that sort Since we couldn’t positively ID any specific “Sub-Mariner” story as artists. What I’m trying to figure out is of took it for granted and looked having been penciled and inked by Leonard Starr, and because he whether, when you were doing the surprised if you told them you confirms he was following the style of previous artist Carl Pfeufer, we complete art on “Sub-Mariner,” you loved them. We’d have that kind of went again to Marvel Masterworks: All Winners Comics, Vol. 3—and were trying to follow Pfeufer’s style. conversation. [chuckles] There was a here’s the splash of the earliest Pfeuferesque Namor adventure in that writer named Joe Blair. He did comic that isn’t attributed to Pfeufer himself. It’s from All Winners STARR: Sure. quite a bit of stuff, and he was #12 (Spring 1944)—and the researchers we mentioned earlier don’t believe this is Pfeufer’s own work. Could it be Leonard Starr’s? probably the most charming man JA: While I’m on the subject, my editor [© 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc.] I’ve met. And a good-looking may send you a few “Sub-Mariner” young guy. An alcoholic who stories to see if you can possibly would miss all of his deadlines. If you happened to find yourself at identify any of it as yours. Would that be okay? the urinal next to his, you’d be out fifty bucks by the time you left STARR: Sure. But if it’s lousy, it’s probably mine. [Jim laughs] the men’s room. [mutual laughter] He had to feed his alcoholism. Funnies wasn’t very demanding. They just wanted something in JA: Do you remember what he wrote? the books.

STARR: I don’t remember, but he did a lot of writing at the time I was there. It turned out he owed everybody at Funnies a lot of money. And there was a guy who worked there that had worked for Disney. I don’t remember who that might have been, but he had been instrumental in organizing Disney, union-wise. One evening, he called a bunch of the guys that Joe owed money to up to the office and boy, he was absolutely steaming. He was, “Together, we’re going to get an injunction, we’re gonna get this guy, and he’s going to pay all of us,” and all of that. I liked Joe, and I didn’t like this guy. [mutual chuckling] So I told him to go piss up a rope, and left. Joe owed me three hundred bucks, a lot of money in those days, and three weeks later, I got a check for $300 from Joe, and I never heard of him again. It was a pity, because he was very clever and charming. This guy could have gone anywhere.

JA: Were the scripts you were given complete?

STARR: Yes. Everything was spelled out for me: dialogue, and whatever the characters were doing.

JA: Do you happen to remember who wrote your “Sub-Mariner” stories?

STARR: The only writers I remember there were George Kapitan, Ray Gill, and Joe Blair. For all I know, Bobbi wrote those stories. She was capable.

JA: When you did the complete art on “Sub-Mariner,” did you have to submit the pencils before you inked it? STARR: You know, I don’t remember. Herman Stackel lettered them after I penciled them.

Part I Of A Decades-Spanning Interview With Noted Comics Artist Leonard Starr

Pirates And Turtles—Not Necessarily In That Order Starr believes he may have written as well as drawn the “Black Buccaneer” series for Rural Home’s Blazing Comics #3 (Sept. 1944). The GCD lists this art as being by “Dick Briefer (?)”—which means its indexers were far from certain—and may well change the ID now that Leonard has outed himself. Sure doesn’t look like Briefer to us! Thanks to Rod Beck for the scan.

JA: Any memory of how much you got paid for a completed page?

STARR: Originally, it was like twelve, thirteen bucks a page for pencils and inks.

JA: Did you do any other characters for Timely then?

STARR: I don’t think I ever worked directly for Timely. If I drew any other characters for them, it was through Funnies. I only remember the “SubMariner” and “The Human Torch.”

“Do You Have Anything Like ‘The Black Buccaneer’?”

JA: Are there any other features you remember doing for Funnies, Inc., besides the ones we’ve mentioned?

STARR: There’s a pirate series that I did, and I think I may have written it or suggested it. I was very heavily into pirates at one point, because the movie Captain Blood dominated my earlier years. Do you have anything like “The Black Buccaneer”?

JA: Yes, for Rural Home.

STARR: I drew that feature for a short while. [NOTE: The character appeared in Blazing Comics #1-6. —Jim.]

JA: There’s another obscure publisher, and you might have done this through Funnies. They were called U.S. Camera, and the name of the book was Camera Comics. You did a feature called “Great Names in Photography” in 1944. Does that name sound familiar? STARR: [laughs] Not a bit. I must have done it through Funnies.

JA: You left Funnies after a couple of years, right?

The cover of Blazing #3, incidentally, is probably by the aforementioned Chu Hing. The Green Turtle, needless to say, was not one of the great super-hero success stories of the Golden Age of Comics. [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

STARR: I stayed there probably until Warren King, Bobbi, and I started doing Hi-Lite.

JA: Did you ever work for Harry Chesler?

STARR: I may have done something for him. At one time, I think I worked for every house in the city with the exception of Quality Comics. That may tell you something. [chuckles] I was a freelancer once I left Funnies.

JA: Here’s a company that you worked for—1948, maybe ’49— called DS Publishing. They had a book called Outlaws, and a book called Underworld. I have you listed as an inker.

STARR: It’s a strange credit. After Funnies, I very rarely inked for anybody.

JA: In 1948, you drew some stories for EC. One of the books was War against Crime.

STARR: That’s possible. I don’t remember War against Crime.

JA: The book didn’t last too long because EC, right after that, started doing the horror books. But you would have dealt with, perhaps, Al Feldstein. I think [editor] Sol Cohen was gone by that time.

STARR: Al Feldstein and I went to high school together, so I would have remembered working for him. I don’t remember working for Al or Sol Cohen.

Partners In Crime Bolle (penciling) and Starr (inking) got together again in EC’s pre-New Trend War against Crime #2 (Summer 1948). This epic, believe it or not, recounted the career of none other than Gen. Benedict Arnold! Thanks to Richard Arndt. [© 2011 William M. Gaines Agent, Inc.]

“I Think I Worked For Every [Comics] House In The City”

JA: Do you remember working for a company called Orbit in 1951? The editor/owner was Ray Herman. You’re credited as working there on crime comics.

STARR: I don’t remember her. I didn’t draw any regular features there, I’m sure. I’ve drawn so many stand-alone stories that I can’t place which ones were done for whom.

JA: Tell me about Al Feldstein.

STARR: He was energetic, and he was a presence. In school, I remember he ran for the G.O. The G.O. was “Government Organization” and guys would run for president and vice president, running scholastic affairs and everything. I had no interest in politics. I just wondered why these guys went to all this trouble. They made speeches and they made posters and all of that stuff. I don’t know if Al actually ran, but he was actually one of the students I remember among many.

“I Worked For Charlie Biro”

JA: In 1948, you drew stories in Crime and Punishment for Lev Gleason Publications. Charlie Biro was the man most people dealt with.

STARR: Yes, I worked for Charlie Biro mainly, and occasionally for Bob Wood. Bob came to a kind of a sorry end. I remember meeting him on 86th Street or someplace, a little studio that I had with Johnny Prentice while I was going through a divorce. Neither of us had a nickel. We were sharing digs around 1955. I ran into Bob, who had some kind of growth hanging from his ear, and he clearly

Say “Cheesy”! Pages 1 & 2 of a four-page bio of George Eastman that was apparently penciled by Frank Bolle and inked by Leonard Starr for Camera Comics #2 (1944; no month), an odd title put out by the U.S. Camera Publishing Corporation that somehow lasted nine issues. Scripter unknown. We described some of the series’ continuing features—all photographyrelated—in conjunction with Bolle’s interview in A/E #86. Thanks to Chet Cox, Rod Beck, & Dave Reeder. [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

looked hung over. He was looking for a cheap flat like ours. He was really riding high with Charlie Biro, and I know that Charlie absolutely was crazy about the fact that Wood was there with him, because they had been drinking buddies. Wood contributed nothing, and Charlie was splitting the money with him. A short time later, he [Wood] killed a woman in a drunken rage.

JA: What do you remember about the division of their labor?

STARR: Everybody knew that it was all Charlie, and that Bob was just sort of there. He would make comments and say, “This has to be changed...” that kind of thing. We knew that Biro was just carrying him. We didn’t know at the time that he was carrying him while muttering to himself. [Jim chuckles] But we knew that Charlie was The Man. JA: What was Biro like?

STARR: He was a big, good-looking guy. He claimed to have fought—not in the ring, I guess, but sort of sparred with one of the major prize fighters at the time, Lou something-or-other. There’s no

1 16

Part I Of A Decades-Spanning Interview With Noted Comics Artist Leonard Starr

Let The Crime Fit The Punishment Although Leonard speaks at length of drawing for Charlie Biro & Bob Wood’s popular title Crime and Punishment, by deadline time a search had turned up only one Starr story at Gleason Publications. Due to a misreading of Starr’s signature, this yarn was apparently misidentified for years as being by an otherwise unheard-of artist named “Stapp”! At right is its splash page, from a scan furnished by Michael T. Gilbert. Scripter, alas, unknown. The photo of Biro and caricature of Wood were seen in A/E #73. [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

reason not to believe it, but there’s also no reason to believe him because Charlie was prone to exaggeration. JA: Was he easy to work with?

STARR: He was and he wasn’t. Biro would tell you he had to change the characters’ faces. He would push his nose up and say, “See? All of a sudden, I’m a different guy.” And what he looked like, of course, was Charlie Biro with his nose pushed up. [laughs] This is one of his ways of instructing his guys how to change the look of characters. And it’s true that comic book guys—well, cartoonists—have their own matrix for drawing faces. And so changing them into different characters is very difficult. I have that myself. But anybody who walked into my studio later in life got into the strip. But who’s great at that was Bill Overgard. [Continued on p. 19]

Flying High Starr seems to have employed his best Milt Caniff-influenced style on these nicely rendered “Flying Fool” splashes from Hillman Periodicals’ Airboy Comics, Vol. 5, #12 (Jan. 1949), and Vol. 6, #1 (Feb. ’49). Thanks to Rod Beck. [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

Scene Of The Crime Oh, what the hell! Since Michael T. took the trouble to send us all five pages of the Starr-drawn saga from Crime and Punishment #3, and we don’t have any other Biro-related Starr art on hand, we figured we might as well show you the rest of the tale, as well. Enjoy! [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

Part I Of A Decades-Spanning Interview With Noted Comics Artist Leonard Starr

“Heap” Big Montage Carmine Infantino (insert) and, clockwise from top left, four pages from a trio of “Heap” stories from Vol. 5 of Airboy Comics that he scripted and penciled and which were inked by Starr (even though Starr’s name appears first in some of the bylines): the splashes of #3, #4, and #7 (April, May, and Aug. 1948), and a story page from the latter on which the ol’ Swampster is actually seen. Infantino, of course, would enter the pantheon of major comics stars in the 1950s and ’60s as the original artist and co-creator of the Silver Age Flash. Thanks to Jim Ludwig. [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.] The photo is a detail from one printed, courtesy of the artist, in the TwoMorrows interview book Carmine Infantino: Penciler, Publisher, Provocateur. It showed him amid some artist colleagues on a National Cartoonists Society tour of West Germany in 1956. Thanks to Jim Amash & Eric Nolen-Weathington—and Carmine.

“I Think I Worked For Every [Comics] House In The City”

“Heap”-ing It On The first and 4th pages of the Starr-crossed “Heap” story from Airboy Comics, Vol. 5, #8 (Sept. 1948). As was so often the case, the fearful forerunner of Man-Thing and Swamp Thing didn’t appear on the story’s splash page. For another page from this tale, see the beginning of this interview. Thanks to Rod Beck. [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.] Last-Minte Bulletin! Ye Editor has become “series consultant” to the English company PS Artbooks, publishers of the recent quality hardcover reprinting of ACG and Harvey horror comics, and the first book scheduled under a “Roy Thomas Presents” banner will be a volume of classic Heap stories from the 1940s by the likes of Starr, Infantino, and Peddy & Sachs! Watch this space—or Google “PS Artbooks” and view their online catalog!

[Continued from p. 16]

He just drew them out of mid-air. I had to have a lot of research.

For a long time, I had a whole collection of the movie stills of various actors. What I would do is trace a Gary Cooper, for instance, trace about ten head shots, and then I’d draw him from memory. I wouldn’t have the exact likeness, but at least I would have a different head shape for a character. The worst at it, I think, was George Wunder. He drew the same head for everybody with different eyebrows and hair. And even then, it was almost impossible to disguise it. I’m glad he’s not here to hear me say that, because I was very fond of him.

JA: I heard he was a nice guy, but I didn’t think he was that great a cartoonist or an illustrator.

STARR: Well, when he took over for Milton Caniff on Terry and the Pirates, we were rather surprised that he was as good as he was. And little by little, his own quirks came into his drawing. But he drew Terry for almost thirty years, so it was okay. George was always a very nice guy; he would talk about his drawing, and the fact that he drew very well. That’s the way he saw it. Others found that there were certain lacks in his work; his particular clichés sort of overpowered the good stuff that he did.

JA: You worked for Biro for about a year.

STARR: That sounds about right. Bill Overgard did a lot of work for him, too. He was a very close friend of Biro’s.

JA: Those scripts were very copy-heavy. Did you ever have a feeling about that?

STARR: Generally, it wasn’t considered a good idea when I got to do newspaper syndication. Up until then, nobody said anything about if a writer only left a quarter of an inch at the bottom of the panel for drawings. But generally, an artist never complained. They gave you the job and the story would be okay or not okay. As a matter of fact, I don’t believe we really paid a hell of a lot of attention to the stories. The fact that, all of a sudden, they’ve become a cult medium is very surprising to guys of my generation. We thought we were drawing disposable art. The work was printed on newsprint, and if you leave it alone long enough, it crumbled. For syndicated strip artists, the line was, “You’re out fishing the next day.” JA: You didn’t tailor your art to copy-heavy scripts?

STARR: No, but Biro had his letterers working very small. Charlie had artistic aspirations. The books were doing so great that he knew he was doing something right, and of course, when books are selling well, you are doing something right. Would you say that the lettering in his books was smaller than in most other books?

Part I Of A Decades-Spanning Interview With Noted Comics Artist Leonard Starr

JA: Yes, I would.

STARR: And so Charlie gave the reader a little more to read because a lot of his comics were based on true criminals and true crimes. I guess he had certain literary aspirations, and wanted to make his books a literary treat. You remember Tops magazine? That was an outshoot of Biro’s success. I guess he talked Gleason into financing it. It was a terrible flop, of course. I didn’t work on it. I probably didn’t rate high enough for it. [mutual laughter] No, I mean it. JA: Did you ever meet Lev Gleason?

STARR: No, I didn’t. But I never met Martin Goodman, and I never met Harry Donenfeld. Stars In Their Flight [Gleason’s firm] looked (Left:) “Fred [Kida] was terrific on ‘Airboy,’” says Starr. Case in point: Kida’s dynamic cover for Air Fighters Comics, Vol. 2, #2 like any other comic (Feb. 1943), which introduced Airboy’s greatest foe, Valkyrie. Thanks to the Grand Comics Database website (see p. 22). house, although it (Right:) Next issue, Jim’s interview will deal with Leonard Starr’s later comic book career at DC and elsewhere, and with seemed to me that his entry into the world of newspaper comic strips. Above, showing Starr’s increasing mastery of the art form, is his working in there, there “Ghost-Breaker” cover for Star Spangled Comics #127 (April 1952); thanks to Jim Kealy. [© 2012 DC Comics.] was a gate. Charlie sat behind one of the STARR: [chuckles] Doing work for Ham Fisher was penal. He’d drawing boards. I don’t remember if he did any drawing of his done something wrong and God got him. [NOTE: Leonard was own, do you? referring to the famous disputes between Fisher and Al Capp. In the aftermath of that, Ham Fisher committed suicide, as Morris Weiss related JA: Yes, he did, but by this time, he mainly drew covers. By the way, they in Alter Ego #43. —Jim.] had a staff letterer there named Irv Watanabe.

STARR: Irv worked for everybody. I only knew him from Johnstone & Cushing, but that was probably later. Irv was a nice guy. Some guys stand out more than others, you know. At Johnstone & Cushing, the guy who stood out was Dik Browne, and that’s because he was funny and he loved to make observations. He would work sideways at the desk. He would draw with his arm crossing his body, addressing the assembled onviewers. [mutual laughter] He was just a delightful guy. Dik Browne spent his entire life as everybody’s favorite person.

“It Was A Job”

JA: I’ve gotten that impression. I’m sorry I never met him. You also worked for Hillman, and your editor there was Ed Cronin. What do you remember about him?

STARR: Very nice guy, sort of elderly to the field. He was a much more hands-on editor than a lot of guys, especially when it came to the scripts. I don’t know that he gave too much instruction to the artists, but he was very, very involved in the stories.

JA: He was a writer. He worked for Ham Fisher in the 1930s. Then he was an editor at Quality Comics, and then he became an editor at Hillman.

JA: Cronin has always been described to me as a very particular type of individual. Here’s the description I’ve heard of how he counted the pages; let’s say you brought in a five-pager. He’d say, “One, one, one; two, two, two; three, three, three; four, four, four; five, five, five.” And then he’d start all over again. Do you remember that?

STARR: Yes, I do. That’s an editing device, actually. At Johnstone & Cushing, when they were checking the copy, Al Stenzel and Bob LeRose would do it together. They’d say, let’s see, I’ve got a paper here, “On on, weekends weekends, Tobias Tobias, Averki Averki ,” like that. So I guess he came out of that tradition. I didn’t get to know him personally; it was all business.

JA: For Hillman, I have you doing backup features in Airboy Comics.

STARR: Maybe. I don’t think I drew “Airboy.”

JA: I have you doing crime stories, and a character called “The Flying Fool.”

STARR: [chuckles] God, I may have done twenty crime stories. I drew “The Heap,” too. I did one of the few inking jobs I ever did on that character. Carmine Infantino had penciled it. I think just one story. His pencils were very precise. Carmine had a beautiful pencil style, kind of like Jack Kirby’s pencil style. There was an

“I Think I Worked For Every [Comics] House In The City”

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www.twomorrows.com JA: Did you like doing “The Heap”?

aura to it that just didn’t say “drawing,” you know. I don’t know if Carmine ever inked his own stuff.

JA: Yes, later he inked some stuff. He inked “Elongated Man” and “Detective Chimp” for DC and occasionally, he would ink a Western. But they wouldn’t let him ink The Flash. He had a very loose inking style. I loved it.

STARR: I don’t think I ever saw it, but it sounds good.

STARR: It was a job.

he die of cancer?

JA: Yes, he did.

STARR: I think that might have been the progenitor, but I thought about it after I heard he died from cancer. I think he went very quickly once he got it. Too bad. He was a nice guy. I liked Ed.

JA: I’ve heard him described as being old-fashioned in dress and in manner.

STARR: Yes. There was a sense of a previous generation about him, but that was perfectly okay with me. Who could probably give you more on this is Fred Kida. I met Fred when he was helping Johnny Prentice in Johnny’s last years. Fred was terrific on “Airboy,” and he drew a sequence with rats that just made me tired looking at it, but it was very, very good. That was the kind of thing that Ed would do. A word that was associated with Ed was “irony,” and he pushed that kind of ideal in his stories. But again, as you can imagine, it was for the writers rather than the artists. Artists don’t do ironic drawings.

Jim Amash’s interview with Leonard Starr will continue next issue.

JA: I have you working for Hillman for about two years. Anything else about that company that comes to mind?

STARR: No, I just remembered that, at one point, Ed’s breath was sort of sickly sweet, and I think it might have been—did

The

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Special A/E Interlude—“The Will of William Wilson” Last issue, we printed pp. 1-3 of the group-intro chapter of this mostly-lost, never-printed mid-1940s “Justice Society” story, as written by Gardner Fox, drawn by Martin Naydel—and colored especially for A/E by Randy Sargent. Here are pp. 4-5 to complete the “JSA” introduction of that AWOL epic.

Special A/E Interlude—“The Will of William Wilson”

More “Will of William Wilson” in color one of these fine issues!

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

The Covers That Never Were! by Michael T. Gilbert

ack in 2007, Roy Thomas and Peter Sanderson produced The Marvel Vault for Running Press publications. This book was a brief historical overview of Timely/Atlas/Marvel Comics that included faithful reproductions of rare Marvel comic book ephemera.

This delightful book included treats like a 1957 John Severin drawing of himself carousing with fellow 1950s Marvel mainstays Joe Maneely and Bill Everett. There were also miniature reproductions of watercolor postcards sent by SubMariner creator Everett in 1956 to his young daughter Wendy, plus a replica of the classic 1960s Merry Marvel Marching Society kit.

But what really caught my intention was a series of unpublished Marvel cover sketches drawn in the 1940s, faithfully reproduced on imitation cheap pulp paper to look like the originals. (Roy recently reminded me that these sketches had first seen print right here in Alter Ego, in issue #49, the Carl Burgos special—by courtesy of comics researcher Robert Wiener.)

“Eat Cold Fist, Ratzi!” (Left:) One of the unused-in1942 Sub-Mariner layouts by Carl Pfeufer or Bill Everett. (Above:) The finished Gilbert cover. (Lower right:) The published cover to Sub-Mariner #6 (Summer 1942) by Golden Age great Alex Schomburg. [© 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The Covers That Never Were!

In any case, the caption in the Marvel Vault book described them:

“Sketches, 1941-1942. Original drawings by artists in the Funnies, Inc., stable. Much of the Sub-Mariner work is likely the product of Carl Pfeufer, who succeeded Bill Everett as the hero’s major artist. Some of the sketches include typed captions telling more about the scene and magazine for which it was intended, and many were obviously done as possible splash pages for the fifty-page Torch/Namor battle that would appear in The Human Torch #8.”

Recently there has been speculation that the Namor drawings were actually done by Bill Everett himself, possibly right before he reported for military service in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. Whether by Everett or Pfeufer, these striking cover sketch reproductions really fired my imagination. It seemed a shame that they were never completed. “Why not fix that?” I asked myself.

One Huge Fight! (Bottom Left:) Alex Schomburg’s published cover of Human Torch # 8 (Summer 1942). (Above:) Gilbert converted the unused sketch related to that issue into a Marvel Mystery cover! (Bottom right:) The Funnies, Inc., sketch. The note at top reads: “Suggested page one for HT. VS SM - #8 Summer 1942 issue.” Another note on the bottom says: “Huge Torch grabbing life-size SM as Toro scurries up pier posts. City background.” [© 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Get The Point? (Above & left:) The Gilbert version, based on Pfeufer’s or Everett’s layouts. Looks like ol’ Hitler’s got his in the, uh, end! (Above right & right:) The same artist laid out a proposed SubMariner ad. Gilbert converted it into a Subby cover (right). [© 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The Covers That Never Were!

Why not, indeed? So, in my spare time, I drew a series of four covers based on those sketches, adding classic Timely logos to all. My pal Tom Smith provided the wonderfully garish colors. (In case you’re wondering, my black-&white Torch, Marvel Mystery, and Sub-Mariner #6 covers are for sale at $500 each. End of plug!)

Another cover was added later when a fan commissioned me to create a new Golden Age Captain America illustration. This one was based on my own design, not a previous version. It’s hard to beat the original Simon & Kirby cover for Captain America Comics #9, but I gave it a shot!

Cap Vs. The Zombies! (Right:) Simon & Kirby’s published cover to Captain America Comics #9 (Dec. 1941). Nowadays, you can see it in the hardcover Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Captain America, Vol. 3. (Above left:) Gilbert’s “new” Golden Age cover, with stunning Tom Smith colors. [© 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

That’s it for now, art lovers. We hope you enjoyed these Twice-Told-Timely covers. And don’t be surprised if you see DC spotlighted in a future column—like maybe next issue! Till next time…

The Comic Fandom Archives presents…

Fandom Reunion 2011: The Golden Age of Fanzines Panel Introduction

s photographically demonstrated in Alter Ego #108 & 109, Fandom Reunion 2011 at the Comic-Con International in San Diego was a well-attended, rousing success. Almost 160 fans attended the “Meet and Greet” party for members of the early days of comics fandom, celebrating half a century since the first issues of seminal comics fanzines Alter-Ego and Comic Art, both of which arrived in fans’ mailboxes in spring of 1961. But, though this culminating event was a thrill for all concerned, the special events to commemorate fandom’s 50th birthday leading up to the Saturday night party were special in their own way.

Now Alter Ego returns to the “kick-off” event on that theme, the Friday, July 22nd, panel which put the convention’s special BILL SCHELLY: My name is Bill Schelly and I was a fanzine publisher. However, my fanzine, Sense of Wonder, was not a groundbreaking fanzine. What we have for you today are the editors and publishers of genuinely groundbreaking fanzines. I believe this is a historic aggregation. I don’t think these people have ever been on the same panel together.

ROY THOMAS: I’ve never met any of these people. [audience laughter]

MAGGIE THOMPSON: I don’t think I’ve ever met Richard Kyle.

BS: Really?

THOMPSON: Seriously.

PAT LUPOFF: A senior moment. [audience chuckles]

BS: We’ve got Roy Thomas who, with Jerry Bails, launched the fanzine Alter-Ego in 1961. And with us, representing Jerry, is his wife of 38 years, Jean Bails. [audience applauds] Next, we have the editor of a fanzine called Wonderworld. It started out, actually, as Graphic Story World. Its editor and publisher—who invented the terms “graphic story” and “graphic novel” in 1964—Mr. Richard Kyle. [audience applauds] Then we have a panelist who, though he has had a few accomplishments over the years, will always be remembered for publishing The Comic Reader, Paul Levitz. [audience applauds]

guests of honor on the dais to talk about the fanzine phenomena of fandom’s formative years: Maggie Thompson, Richard Lupoff, Patricia Lupoff, Richard Kyle, Paul Levitz, Roy Thomas, and Jean Bails. All except Jean (who sat in for her late husband, Jerry Bails) had been editors of early, highly influential amateur publications, and this was a unique opportunity to hear from them on the subject.

It was my honor and good fortune to moderate this panel of literary lions and lionesses, and Brian K. Morris provides the transcription of this 90-minute event. I hasten to add that the length of the text and accompanying photographs and illustrations required that we split this feature into two parts. Here’s Part One. —Bill Schelly.

DICK LUPOFF: Never heard of him.

BS: And of course, we have the editors of the fanzine Xero, which first appeared in September of 1960—Richard and Pat Lupoff. [audience applauds] And last, but certainly not least, we have one of the editors of Comic Art, which debuted in spring of 1961, Maggie Thompson. [audience applauds] Any fanzine story should begin just like any good comic book story, with an origin. So I’d like to ask the panelists—let’s start with Maggie on the end—to tell us how your fanzine got started. How did Comic Art come into existence?

THOMPSON: I met my late husband Don at a science-fiction picnic in 1957, and one of the things we talked about all that day was comics. It was sort of, “Well, who does comics and they’re sort of anonymous and what the heck is all that about?” The first

The Bill Comes Due Author and Alter Ego associate editor Bill Schelly doing his best as the panel’s moderator. As most A/E readers surely know by now, fanzines are one of Bill’s favorite aspects of comics fandom, and he says: “I was just as interested as the substantial audience which showed up to hear these Big Name Fans recount their experiences as pioneers in that fannish field of dreams.” Bill is currently working on several new books concerning comics and fandom history. Above is the event’s ID tag, designed by Gary Sassaman. Photos by Aaron Caplan.

NOTE: This is the third 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

(Above:) The late Jerry Bails, original editor of Alter-Ego, pictured in 1960. Jerry was with the fandom panel in spirit, so we wanted to add him here. Photo courtesy of Jean Bails.

Seven Soldiers Of Fandom (Left to right across two-page spread made up of two separate photos:) An historic aggregation of panels, beginning with Jean Bails and Roy Thomas (Alter Ego), Richard Kyle (Graphic Story World/Wonderworld), Paul Levitz (The Comic Reader), Pat and Dick Lupoff (Xero), and Maggie Thompson (Comic Art). Photos by Aaron Caplan. As for what these folks have been up to since: Jean Bails has become known on Facebook as an astute political commentator… Roy Thomas has been a writer and often editor in the comics field since 1965… Richard Kyle continues to write but uses a pseudonym that he declines to reveal… Paul Levitz, after a long stint as publisher and president of DC Comics, has recently returned to his original love, comics writing… One-time IBM exec Dick Lupoff is editorial director of Surinam Turtle Press, an imprint of Ramble House, and his next publication should be a police procedural novel, Rookie Blues, from Dark Sun Press of Virginia... his wife Pat works for Dark Carnival Bookstore, managing their Children's Department… and Maggie Thompson is senior editor of The Comics Buyer’s Guide.

contact that we had after we had spent that day talking about comics as well as other things was when Don sent me a foldedover comic book in a #10 envelope. He said, “I don’t know if you’ve seen this, but you might find it interesting.” It was Humbug #1.

So it actually was an initial contact that way, but it wasn’t until 1960 Worldcon in Pittsburgh that the costume competition involved, among other people, the two sitting next to me here. I’m sure you can imagine them now, posed heroically dressed as Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel. [audience applauds] Beautiful costumes, really gorgeous, home-made—oh, yes—you couldn’t buy them factory-made at that point. And so the next night was the banquet, and we sat there with Hal Lynch and Bill Thailing, science-fiction fans. Bill was also a pulp dealer and looked around and said, “What is it with comics and who writes them? Who draws them? And by the way, what about magazine cartoons? And what about animated cartoons and doing newspaper strips and who does all that? Do the people who sign their names—Walt Disney—really do the comic books?” [audience chuckles]

And so, that fall, we sent out a one-page flier to all the sciencefiction fans we knew addresses for and said, “We’re going to do this fanzine about comics.” Bill Thailing put us in contact with the Lupoffs, and that spring, it was comic book time—it was comic book fan time, because there had been other little-bitty starts—EC fandom, satire fandom—but there had not been an amateur magazine devoted to all aspects of comics and there had not been an amateur magazine devoted to all aspects of capes and secret disguises and super-powers.

And so, virtually simultaneously, Alter-Ego and Comic Art #1 came out. Our experience was in the science-fiction world; their experience, Heaven knows—more power to Jean and to Jerry Bails, to Roy Thomas, to that little coterie who all by themselves handgrew their own publication. We had the example of others; they were just great pioneers.

DICK LUPOFF: Right. The term “fanzine,” as I understand, was invented in the late ’30s or early ’40s by a non-hearing fan named Louis Chauvenet.

THOMPSON: Probably. I didn’t know how to pronounce his name until this very moment. [NOTE: Pronounced “sho-vuh-NAY.” — Bill.] BS: Let’s have the Lupoffs tell us how Xero got started.

DICK LUPOFF: Firstly, I have to claim credit as the world’s first male seamstress. I made those costumes. [audience applauds] The Captain Marvel suit was a set of men’s long red underwear with a yellow lightning bolt that I cut out of a piece of cloth that was stitched on. The golden sash was a yellow scarf that I borrowed from Pat. The golden boots were a pair of long yellow socks, no shoes under them, and the white cape was a pillow case. [audience chuckles] That was the costume. And Pat’s costume was essentially

Hanging Out Their Shingle— And Then Hanging On Comic Art is certainly an allencompassing title—if only Maggie’s caricatured self can get the “T” on there before new hubbie Don falls off the masthead! Art by Maggie Thompson. Comic Art #1 was published in spring (apparently April) of 1961; Bill Schelly’s “Comic Fandom Archive” took a close look at it and its creators in A/E #10-11. [© 2012 Maggie Thompson.] The 2011 panel’s audience (opposite page bottom), for its part, was enraptured by Maggie’s recounting of the origin of the Thompsons’ pioneering fanzine. Photo by Aaron Caplan.

Fandom Reunion 2011: The Golden Age of Fanzines Panel

a man’s long t-shirt with other accessories. Somebody took a photo of us in those costumes, and it has been circulating for the past fifty years. PAT LUPOFF: I have a copy, but I don’t know if I took it.

DICK LUPOFF: Charlie Brown took it. [NOTE: Charlie Brown was a prominent science-fiction fan and convention-goer. —Bill.]

PAT LUPOFF: Excellent, so he must have sent us a print. See how it works? This was the Internet before the Internet. [audience laughs again]

DICK LUPOFF: Charles Brown, the editor and publisher of [the sf newszine] Locus, took that picture. He only confessed that to me about a week before his death. [audience chuckles] But anyway, yeah, we did this first issue of Xero; it was designed just for fun. This morning over breakfast, Pat asked, “Why did you write that article about Captain Marvel?” [NOTE: Dick’s article “The Big Red Cheese,” about Captain Marvel, was the lead feature in Xero #1. —Bill.] And I said, “Because nobody else would.” [audience chuckles]

Nobody else was writing about comic books. There was a certain amount of literature about newspaper comic strips. Not a great deal even of that, but some. There were two or three books and an occasional newspaper feature about Skeezix [Gasoline Alley] or Smilin’ Jack or Dick Tracy, but nobody

(Above:) The late Don Thompson, original co-editor of Comic Art, was also with the panel in spirit. Photo courtesy of Jean Bails.

was paying any attention to comic books. I thought that this was a seriously overlooked area of popular culture, and as the late Lin Carter used to say, “If you want to read a book and it doesn’t exist, you have to write it.” And that’s where “All in Color for a Dime” got its beginning. That’s my story.

Oh, one more thing: I remember that convention in 1960 in Pittsburgh. I had a stack of copies of the first issue of Xero in my arms and I was literally running down the hallway, chasing people, trying to get them to take free copies. [audience laughs] And I remember people running away from me. [more laughter] I don’t know what one of those would be worth today. I imagine it would be substantial.

From Xero To ’60 The more famous of the two photos taken of Dick and Pat Lupoff as Captain and Mary Marvel at the 1960 Worldcon was seen in color in A/E #108. So at left is the cover of Xero #1, which was distributed by Dick and Pat at that same sciencefiction convention; the image by “Joe Sanders & co.” is of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Xanadu, left over from when that X-word was briefly slated to be the fanzine’s title, before the Lupoffs learned that another science-fiction zine was already using it. The World’s Mightiest Mortal appeared on the title page of Dick’s landmark article “The Big Red Cheese”; that art was last seen in A/E #100. Incidentally, for the most comprehensive coverage ever of Xero, see A/E #18. [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

Comic Fandom Archive

A Case Of The Sniffles Pat Lupoff speaks with special fondness of “Mary Jane and Sniffles”—so here’s the cover of Dell’s Four Color #402 (June 1952), starring same. The little girl became the same size as her mouse-friend when she spoke the incantation: “Magic words of poof, poof, piffles/Make me just as small as Sniffles!” Art by Al Hubbard. Image from the Grand Comics Database. [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

90 copies of Xero #1 were distributed. —Bill.]

BS: Yes. [NOTE: It’s estimated that only about

PAT LUPOFF: The reason I got into comics was—as a child, I was raised with comics, by my mother and my father, who’d always bring me papers and read me the colored kids’ comics. When I was very little, my favorite wasn’t a super-hero, it was… oh, who’s the little girl?

RICHARD KYLE: Little Lulu, wasn’t it?

PAT LUPOFF: No, it wasn’t. “Mary Jane and Sniffles”! [audience

applauds] Then I was like a sub-teenager; I was eleven. I was an only child. And I’d run downstairs; I would leave the door unlocked. I lived in Manhattan, on 88th Street, and it had an elevator. I took an elevator—ran past the doorman—and right across the street was a stationery store. I had my allowance, and I’d buy all the new comics and I’d sneak upstairs. And one night, I snuck upstairs and the door was locked. I couldn’t get in the door. Oh, my God! So I thought, “Okay, don’t panic. Go and see the elevator man, he’ll let you in.” Well, there was my father. He said, “Where have you been?” I said, “I’ve been out shopping.” [audience chuckles] He said, “Shopping? There’s plenty of food for you. Where have you been?” And I showed him the comics. He said, “Okay, next time, please go get them before we go out to dinner, because I don’t think it’s a good idea,” etc.

Anyway, when I met Dick, comics was one big, huge thing that we had in common, and we both discovered that we loved Captain and Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel, Jr.

BS: Thank you. Next we have Paul Levitz, who took over the helm of a fanzine that started in 1961, The Comic Reader. Paul, tell us what it was like to come in later and try to do justice to that title.

PAUL LEVITZ: Well, the origin for me begins with Maggie. I had seen a couple of fanzines, some of the earlier issues of Comic Reader in a period where it was called On the Drawing Board... but Don and Maggie’s Newfangles, the successor to Comic Art—the skinnier successor, I guess—was the last remaining [comics] news-magazine being published, and they were starting to, like, have grownup lives, I imagine, and were becoming preoccupied by that. But they didn’t want to go to all the trouble of returning the nickels and dimes that we’d all sent, so they announced a year in advance that they were going to give up publishing, and you could subscribe to

A New-Fangled Comic Reader On The Drawing Board, Etc. Paul Levitz’s tenure as editor and publisher of The Comic Reader had these newszine precedents: On the Drawing Board was the original name of that fanzine, which grew out of a department of Jerry G. Bails’ earliest issues of Alter-Ego (OTDB #7 was published for Jan. 13, 1962) but soon changed its name to The Comic Reader… Newfangles was published by Don & Maggie Thompson (#3 announced the birth of their daughter Valerie, in its July 1967 edition)… And Levitz & Kupperberg’s Et Cetera #1 (Jan. 1973) was inspired by Newfangles, and later inherited the title The Comic Reader. Clear now? The cover art on OTDB #7 is by Harry Thomas—that of Newfangles by Maggie Thompson—and that of Et Cetera by future Legion of Super-Heroes/X-Men artist Dave Cockrum. [Green Lantern & Superman TM & © 2012 DC Comics; Jaguar TM & © 2012 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.; Human Torch TM & © 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Newfangles art © 2012 Maggie Thompson; Et Cetera art © 2012 Estate of Dave Cockrum.]

Fandom Reunion 2011: The Golden Age of Fanzines Panel

When Things Got Graphic Despite Aaron Caplan’s camera angle, which picked up Roy Thomas’ name-plate, this photo depicts panelists Richard Kyle (on left) and Paul Levitz. Also displayed are the covers of issues #3 & #8 of Kyle’s Graphic Story World, the publication which was in many ways an expansion of his “Graphic Story Review” column from Bill Spicer’s Fantasy Illustrated and Graphic Story Magazine. The title of GSW was soon to changed to the more inclusive Wonderworld, which also became the name of Richard’s fabled bookstore in Long Beach, California. [Spirit TM & © 2012 Will Eisner Studios, Inc.; other art © the respective copyright holders.]

as many issues as were left if you hadn’t fully paid up. But that was it: we’re getting the hell out of Dodge.

I’m sitting around my living room in Brooklyn, age 14, with my friend Paul Kupperberg, who was a year older, and we’re saying, [desperately] “We’re not going to know what’s going on!” [audience chuckles] And with the foolish courage that that age permits, we scraped together sixteen bucks and we called Marvel and we called DC, got a little bit of information, and DC sent us one of the flyers for the newsstand dealers that had a couple of pictures of upcoming covers, and we put together an incredibly amateurish-looking magazine called Etcetera that, if I show young people today, they kind of inquire exactly how retarded we were. [audience laughs] Of course, they’re viewing through the eyes of a world of desktop publishing, and we were using stone chisels and other such tools. [audience chuckles]

Maggie and Don were kind enough to say some kind words about it. Never been entirely sure whether that was on the grounds of it looked okay or just “Oh, thank God, someone’s doing it, so we don’t have to feel as guilty, so please send your money to them instead of begging us to stay in business.” Attracted a few more subscribers, and then Mark Hanerfeld, who was I guess was the

fifth editor of The Comic Reader and had allowed it to lapse, was working as an assistant editor at DC. I got to know him, and after I’d put out, I guess, about six months worth of issues—my friend Paul had copped out by that time— Mark came to me one day with this giant manila envelope full of coins and a stack of rubber-banded index cards and said, “Here, you’re already sort of doing it—why don’t you take over The Comic Reader name and fulfill all this so I don’t have to feel guilty about having all these nickels and dimes?” And suddenly I was doing The Comic Reader and I had a real circulation and it was a real fanzine.

BS: Now, Richard [Kyle], you started contributing to fanzines well before you launched your own. Is that correct?

RICHARD KYLE: Yeah. In fact, if it hadn’t been for Dick and Pat Lupoff, I wouldn’t have done anything. I was a great science-fiction fan. I subscribed to several science-fiction fan magazines, or fanzines, and I read this review of Xero, which was a new science-fiction fanzine, but it did have something about comics in it. And I realized that I was absolutely in love with comics and that I missed them. I’d forgotten how many years it had been since the Comic Code Authority came in and blanded the comics into nowhere.

But anyway, I sent a quarter off or whatever it was, and I got this issue of Xero. It seemed like it was almost instantaneous. I fell in love with the magazine quite aside from the comics material. Dick and Pat created a remarkable magazine—forget fanzine or anything. It was an absolutely remarkable magazine for its time, because it embraced everything that became significant in pop culture and introduced a lot of it, or helped to promote it, from comic books to Robert E. Howard to the Fu Manchu stories, book reviews when science-fiction was finally becoming serious. I started subscribing and I wrote a long letter, it must have been to Dick, [about] just how much I enjoyed the magazine, and he asked me if I would write an article about the Fox comic books and arranged to have a whole box of Fox comics sent to me.

Well, the thing that he didn’t really tell me about it was that, unlike the other articles about comics from Jim Harmon and some others that were about nostalgia and for good reason, Fox was... a really miserable magazine company. They were tightwads, they were thieves, they were despicable, and as the condition of their magazines declined, why, they started publishing kind of sadomasochistic soft-core porno! They started publishing that stuff, and these really were for little kids! I mean, you know you really ought to consider your audience, which Fox never did. He always believed that he was a sharper, and he applied it to the publishing business. I wrote the story from beginning to end, about taking out of this box of loaned comics that went from starting off idealisti-

Comic Fandom Archive

cally with beautiful artwork and then ending up with artwork and abominable stories. And that got me interested in comics again. [audience laughs]

DICK LUPOFF: That’s quite a statement there.

KYLE: Before that, I hadn’t paid any attention to—I mean, I loved them, but I hadn’t thought about them, you know. I hadn’t given them any thought.

Altered Alter-Egos

DICK LUPOFF: If I may, Richard Kyle’s being too modest. He wrote this brilliant essay called “The Education of Victor Fox.” He sent us the manuscript, we typed up stencils, and somebody—I don’t know who it was—stenciled illustrations to go with it. We ran them off, and the illustrations didn’t come out very well. We sent Richard, in essence, a proof set, and he saw how badly we had done the artwork. So, without saying anything to us, he personally retyped all the stencils, restenciled all the artwork, ran off however many copies—a hundred and fifty or 200, whatever our circulation was—and mailed us his article, all set to be collated and stapled into the fanzine. And he never complained about it, he never claimed great favor or anything; he was just that dedicated to what he was doing.

Roy Thomas (on left) declaims while Richard Kyle looks on. Photo by Aaron Caplan. Roy drew the basic covers of Alter-Ego #1 & 2 (March and June 1961, respectively), although editor/publisher Jerry Bails traced them off onto spirit duplicator masters, making changes particularly to the first cover as he did so. Roy feels it’s as if he were the penciler, and Jerry the inker, of these covers. [Spectre TM & © 2012 DC Comics; other art © 2012 Roy Thomas.]

BS: So, Richard, let’s just jump ahead now. What inspired you to start Graphic Story World in late 1969?

KYLE: Well, actually, Bill Spicer did this somewhat earlier. He got in touch with me, I think, because my address was in Xero.

BS: But I mean your own fanzine.

KYLE: Well, that’s it. He got in touch with me about it, and I knew nothing about the mechanics of printing. But Bill worked it out, the advertising, and he understood how to put a magazine together—I mean, and make it look good, make it look professional. So he was starting an amateur comic book called Fantasy Illustrated, and that eventually turned into Graphic Story Magazine. And I wrote a column about comics from kind of a serious, over-serious—I mean I pressed, you know—but pretended that I was an actual book reviewer. So, with the knowledge and the help of Bill, I was then able to produce the copy for Graphic Story World fanzine, but it was completely dependent on Bill. If I hadn’t run to him, I didn’t know anything about printing, and I didn’t want to do the mimeographed ones because I discovered that that was not my forte.

BS: These are stories I’ve never heard before, so this is great. I don’t know if there’s a story about the founding of Alter-Ego that I haven’t heard before, but let’s see if we can hear one. Roy, how about that?

THOMAS: Well, I don’t know. I’ve probably told them all a million times, but we’ll do the short version. I had written just a handful of letters, really, by that stage to Julius Schwartz, who was the—well, actually, I wrote three letters the first time. I wrote one to the editor

of Justice League of America, which had just come out, one to the editor of The Flash, and one to the editor of Green Lantern. Of course they all went to Julie Schwartz’s desk, and he answered me. I hadn’t bothered to check the indicia; that would have taken too much maturity, I suppose, to figure out. I was only pushing twenty. [audience chuckles]

And he gave me Gardner Fox’s home address. He gave me the information, which I did not know and almost no one did, that Gardner Fox had written many of the “Justice Society” stories that I’d said I had liked so much years before. Now he was writing Justice League, so [Julie suggested] I should maybe drop him a line if I wanted to try to get hold of some old All-Star Comics, which was partly what I wanted to do, as well as thanking him for his work. And Gardner Fox said, “I sold my bound volumes, the first thirty or so issues, to this guy who was in Kansas City, but he now lives in Detroit.”

So I sent [Jerry] a letter in November of 1960. I was just turning twenty. I got a letter back a few days later from Dr. Jerry G. Bails of Wayne State University, Detroit, who was like a whole seven years older than I was. He’d just moved there to start his teaching career,

Fandom Reunion 2011: The Golden Age of Fanzines Panel

A Comic “Uber” Fan In the panel’s audience, Buddy Saunders holds up Aaron Caplan’s copy of Buddy’s Comic Fan #1 (Oct. 1962), whose printing was so light that in the photo its cover almost looks like a blank page. So we’ve provided a close-up of that cover; the issue introduced Buddy’s memorable ama-heroes Deadman, Graviteer, and Stun-Man; it also featured the debut of his well-known Demon. (Even on our close-up, the word “Comic” is too faded to reproduce; that green ditto printing always faded faster than the other colors.) Photo by Aaron Caplan. [Art © 2012 Buddy Saunders.]

and was also a Missourian and a huge All-Star Comics fan, obviously a few years longer than I had been. He didn’t want to sell those bound volumes, but he sent me a little present: the semicomplete fourth and sixth issues of All-Star Comics—and a copy of the fifth issue that was complete and in good condition. This was the first I had seen them. I hadn’t known that Green Lantern and Flash had been members and then been kicked out and then came back again and all that stuff, so I became fascinated. We exchanged a lot of letters and we were enthusiastic.

Jerry had this idea for a six-inch guy called The Atom. He had already sent a letter to Julius Schwartz about it, which Julie later claimed he didn’t remember; but somehow, they got a six-inch Atom at DC out of it [a few months later]. And then, a couple of months later, a weird accident happened. Jerry got invited—and I think this was important—to speak at a Long Island, New York, college [in February 1961], so he thought he’d use that excuse to just drop by the DC offices and meet Julius Schwartz and maybe a couple of these other people.

At that time, he’d begun to think about doing a newsletter on a spirit duplicator, which was about a step down from mimeograph. You know, really primitive. And he had a great name for it—The JLA Newsletter—because the idea was to encourage people to subscribe to Justice League so it would be a big hit. He also wanted to get Justice League done as a big comic with separate chapters like the old All-Star.

By the time he came back from New York, he had come up with the name Alter-Ego as a hyphenated word; he never told me how he arrived at it. It was just a perfectly wonderful title. [By now] Jerry had expanded his JLA Newsletter idea, partly because Julie, being an old science-

I Dream of Jeanie— But I Can’t Actually See Her! A long shot of the panel. This would be our chance to emphasize speaker Jean Bails—except that, from this angle, she’s hidden behind the podium. Better turn back to p. 32! Photo by Aaron Caplan—who of course was just taking yet another shot of the grouping.

fiction fan since the ’30s, if not the ’20s, had shown him several fanzines. I’m not sure if it was anything besides the first two or three issues of Xero—it was probably just that. And of course they had the comic book articles in them. Jerry had already had the idea, but once he saw the issues of Xero, it went from a newsletter to a fanzine, a term that neither he nor I, or 99.99% of the American public had ever heard.

And then he loaned me Julie’s copies of Xero, and they were a big influence. Of course, Don and Maggie were already working on Comic Art before Jerry and I were on Alter-Ego. [Comic Art] came out maybe a week later, but it was actually in the works rather longer, and it was a whole separate [thing]. Ours was all based on the revival of the super-hero, and reminiscing about the old ones from the ’40s and so forth. We were open to other things, but it was mostly about the super-hero and gradually expanded into other areas. And of course Don and Maggie had a different franchise, which was everything.

So together, we covered a lot of territory. But the more I think of it as time goes on, and it does have a way of doing that, the more I realize how much Alter-Ego owed to Xero, and then later to Comic Art after it came out, because those, when I was writing or editing, were the standards I was trying to reach for, because I considered both of them, and Xero with its broad reach of science fiction, popular culture, and so forth, to be just one of the most extraordinary publications that I ever ran into. And I still believe that. They were very influential on Alter-Ego, and Alter-Ego in turn was influential on a bunch of other fanzines and eventually helped launch me into a comic career, so it did all right for everybody, I guess. [audience chuckles]

Comic Fandom Archive

BS: Thanks, Roy. One of the things about Alter-Ego was that it was designed to promote comics fandom and to get fans together to support not only the Justice League, but the whole Silver Age comics that were happening. And I wanted to ask Jean Bails, what was Jerry’s relationship like with the fans? I mean, he obviously valued their input; he wanted to bring them together.

JEAN BAILS: I met Jerry mostly when he had finished his fanzines involvement. He had handed them off to other people before I met him—or maybe during, I’m not quite sure. Anyway, he didn’t talk to me too much about fanzines, but I know we had to sneak off at night and go down to the university and use the mimeograph. Probably to print The Panelologist. [laughs] He’d say, [whispers] “Don’t tell anybody—” I thought it was cool. I mean, I enjoy conventions, I enjoyed Alter-Ego, but he didn’t talk too much about his fanzines. What he did talk about was the fans, and he had three things in mind. One was a strong desire to bring back the Justice Society. THOMAS: I heard that, yeah.

Two For the Road—And For The Panel For a good shot of Maggie Thompson, see p. 33. Meanwhile, among the audience were these two early fanzine publishers (l. to r.): Doug (Comicology) Fratz and Gary (Comic Comments) Brown. Photo by Aaron Caplan.

BAILS: Did you hear that? [audience chuckles] And one was to make comics more fan-friendly, to have fans as a consumer group pressure the editors to do what the fans wanted. And then the third thing was to get fans themselves involved with pros, giving them recognition. [NOTE: This led to Jerry’s pet project, his Who’s Who of American Comic Books. —Bill.] Jerry was a very private kind of person, but he did have people over, looked at their portfolios, and told them who they should talk to in New York to get a job, and I guess he made recommendations. And that’s why a lot of people from Detroit got involved in comics as pros coming from fandom.

BS: Thank you. Jerry, of course, is somebody who should be on this panel if he was with us now, and we’re happy to have Jean. Likewise, Don Thompson is somebody whom we miss very much. He actually had conceived—now tell me if I’m wrong, Maggie—I believe he had conceived the idea of starting a comics fandom in a conversation with Hal Lynch in 1960. Is that correct?

Up An’ Atom Larry Ivie’s cover for Xero #5 (July 1961) illustrated his own concept for a Silver Age revival of The Atom, as a short astronaut. The better to fit into those space capsules, don’t you know? Ivie’s version kept the Mighty Mite’s original costume. This issue of Xero, like all the others in the Lupoffs’ classic pop-culture fanzine, was crammed full of “relativisitic Dadaism.” [Atom TM & © 2012 DC Comics.]

THOMPSON: Yes, that was the banquet at the PittCon held the day after the costume competition. Don was already a member of the Science Fiction Fan Club at Penn State University and they were doing a science-fiction fanzine called Ballast, because the last thing you need on a spaceship is ballast. And so, yes, the idea being, the way you find out about something is to find people who know about it and spread the word and so forth. We did not get Xero at the Pittsburgh convention, but Bill Thailing, who was seated at that table with Hal Lynch and us, recommended Xero to us and we managed to get a copy of the first issue later. We thought it was fantastic.

By the way, another note about Xero that hasn’t been mentioned is that it won a Hugo Award for being the best fanzine, with its

Fandom Reunion 2011: The Golden Age of Fanzines Panel

final issue. By its last issue, the contributors were professional writers, they were editors taking readers behind the scenes, what was going on in science-fiction, what was going on in popular culture, etc. The only way you could get a copy was if you contributed to it in some way, wrote a letter of comment, or whatever. People kept trying to buy copies, and it was too good to be sold for mere money. [audience chuckles] I mean it like that!

When we sent Comic Art to DC Comics, Julie Schwartz said to us, having popularized Alter-Ego and giving readers the address where you could contact [its publisher], he offered us the same deal, and we said, “For Heaven’s sake, no!” It was the old gag, we lost money on every issue, but we made up for it on volume. [audience chuckles.] We didn’t need the volume.

BS: By the way, am I wrong, Pat, or are you the first woman to ever win a Hugo Award? I think that’s true. How did that happen?

turned to when an issue came in.

PAT LUPOFF: Thank you.

DICK LUPOFF: My favorite letter that we ever received was from a very, very politically active fan named Mark Castille.

BS: Who?

DICK LUPOFF: Mark Castille or Castillo, take your pick—who took us to task for wasting good paper and ink on trivial things like pop culture instead of making revolution. [audience laughs] He accused us of publishing a fanzine of “relativistic Dadaism.” I was so enchanted with that phrase that we adopted it as our official slogan. [audience laughs] “Xero, the fanzine of relativistic Dadaism.” [more laughter]

PAT LUPOFF: Well, I won the Hugo because I did…

BS: As a matter of fact, if you’ve seen in the program guide the feature on fanzines, that’s the issue we reproduced of Xero, that has that slogan on the cover by Larry Ivie.

PAT LUPOFF: I’m the co-editor, and I guess I was the—I mean, I was completely blown away by that. I didn’t think much of it. I thought, “Well, I won because Dick and I had fun doing this fanzine.” [chuckles]

To be continued in the next issue of Alter Ego, as the fanzine editors talk about the central “missions” of their publications, and about the fanzine phenomenon in general!

BS: Because you were co-editor.

BS: That’s amazing. You’re a pioneer!

PAT LUPOFF: I suppose so.

THOMAS: Pat ran one of the great letter columns of any publication in fandom. She had wonderful people in it, and did a marvelous job editing it and keeping it going. It was really a wonderful thing to read that letters page. That was the first thing I

End of Part 1

NOTE: For those who would like to learn more about the lives of 90 people who helped found comics fandom in its first decade, including most of the panelists featured in the foregoing nine pages, may we recommend Bill Schelly's recent book Founders of Comic Fandom. Copies are still available at www.mcfarlandpub.com, or through amazon.com or eBay. ’Nuff said!

In Memorium

Lou Cameron (1924-2010) “The Smartest And Wisest Man I’ve Ever Known” ou Cameron was born in San Francisco in 1924 to vaudevillians Lou Cameron, Sr., and Ruth Marvin Cameron. As a child, Lou appeared on the vaudeville stage with his parents, meeting a number of famous people, but the only one he’d admit to was Western star William S. Hart (Lou didn’t like to namedrop, so this was virtually the only person I could get him to mention). After his parents separated, Lou lived in several places, including a ranch in Colorado. He’s been referred to as having been a “cowboy” in a few biographies, but he told me, “I wasn’t a movie-cowboy type. I just worked on a ranch.” He also worked as a truck driver, among a few other jobs. Lou had a tough childhood, living with various relatives, including an aunt and uncle who, along with their maid, treated Lou as an adult, exposing him to various kinds of literature. They also impressed upon him the value of tolerance and equality in racial issues, political and religious thought, and encouraged his interest in art and writing.

by Jim Amash

Lou served in the U.S. Army 2nd Armored Division in the European Theater during World War II, eventually becoming a Master Sergeant. He was wounded in battle and won a number of medals, though, like many servicemen, he didn’t talk much about it. “Too many guys spent their lives reliving the war because it was the only thing they did in life that mattered. I knew too many who also liked to build up their war résumé, and I could always spot a phony story.” Lou generally preferred not to talk about his WWII experiences—partly out of modesty (“I was not a hero. I was a guy doing what was asked of me.”)—but also because “I’ve written so much about World War II in some of my books, where I mixed what happened to me with fictional episodes, to the extent I have to think about what I really did [compared] to what I wrote about.” I suppose Lou really believed that, but he told me so many stories in such vivid detail that I had to question that statement. When I did, he just laughed it off. No matter what he said about his service memories, the Lou Cameron I knew never mixed fantasy with fact in real life, and possessed a photographic memory.

After the war was over, Lou turned down the opportunity to re-enlist for the Korean War. “It’s a good thing I did, because the outfit I would have been assigned to was completed wiped out to the last man in Korea.” Lou was making a small living as an artist in Brooklyn when a friend named Marvin tipped him off to Pat Masulli, who was coloring and packaging stories for small comic book companies. That quickly led to Lou freelancing for publisher William Friedman’s company [Story, among other names], where he became one of the company’s star artists, drawing mainly horror and crime stories, as well as romance and Westerns, for titles such as Fight against Crime, Dark Mysteries, and Mysterious Adventures.

While working for Friedman, Lou worked for Ace Publications on titles like Baffling Mysteries, The Beyond, Crime Must Pay the Penalty, The Hand of Fate, and Web of Mystery. Throughout most of the 1950s, he drew primarily crime and horror stories for St. John Publications, Charlton, Crestwood, Timely, ACG, Famous Funnies, and Fiction House. Lou remembered drawing several splash pages for existing romance stories so that packager and comics legend Joe Simon could pass them off as new stories. Drawing in other people’s styles, Lou was never sure where or if these stories saw print, but if they were used, it was likely for Harvey Publications.

An Army Ace Lou Cameron in 1945, in a photo taken for the armed services’ Yank magazine (the reason he’s sporting a German officer’s cap and P-38 pistol is related in A/E #79)—and one of his imaginative pages from Ace’s Web of Mystery #24 (May 1954). Thanks to Chris Brown for the latter; the photo was courtesy of the artist. [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

For many, Lou’s greatest claim to comics fame was his stellar work for Gilberton’s Classics Illustrated, including The Time Machine, War of the Worlds, The Bottle Imp, The Count of Monte Cristo, Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, among others. These novel-length stories involved a bit of research, and Lou enjoyed making his work accurate (a trait that served him well in his writing career). His artwork on these books influenced a number of artists, notably Joe Staton, and helped set the tone for others who worked for Gilberton. He had several conflicts with line editor Roberta Strauss, which eventually drove him away from the company. Lou finished his comic book days in 1958 at DC Comics on Gang Busters, House of Mystery, My Greatest

In Memorium—Lou Cameron

Adventure, Tales of the Unexpected, and House of Secrets.

In the meantime, Lou started writing and illustrating short stories and articles for men’s magazines for several companies, including St. John, Volitant, and Sterling Publications. By 1960, having abandoned his art career, Lou was writing paperback novels for many different companies, his first being Angel’s Flight for Fawcett Publications. He wrote crime, adventure, mystery, and detective fiction, television and movie adaptations (None but the Brave, California Split, Sky Riders, How the West Was Won with Louis L’amour, etc.), and romance novels (as Mary Manning and Julie Cameron). His favorite genre—and the one for which he was most famous—was Westerns. Besides stand-alone Western books, Lou was the creator and writer of the Stringer series, the Renegade series (as Ramsey Thorne), and his biggest success, the Longarm series (as Tabor Evans). Lou wrote over 100 of the 350 Longarm paperbacks. In 1976, he won the prestigious Golden Spur Award for The Spirit Horses. A few of his books were made into movies—some legitimately and some plagiarized. I asked him how many books he’d written, and Lou responded “How many girls have you kissed?” Lou didn’t know how many books he’d written and didn’t care, but I estimate the number is between 200 and 300. Lou retired from writing in 2006, and only occasionally missed it.

Lou had a rich full life beyond his military career. He was a Scotsman who sat at bars with members of the IRA [Irish Republican Army] as they—not he—planned rebellion. While not a private detective in the conventional sense, he did his share of it when asked. He was married more than once and fathered several children. He was a distant cousin to actor Lee Marvin (something he asked me not to mention in our interview, because “I don’t want to trade on his name”). Lou was well known enough in New York to merit mention in famed gossip columnist Earl Wilson’s column. In 1967, he ghostwrote two spy novels for the actress Dagmar.

I came into Lou’s life when I called for an interview in 2003. Having been burned a time or two by others, he was initially suspicious of another stranger wanting to chronicle his story. But he liked me. If he hadn’t, there would have been no interview. One thing Lou did not do was waste his time or suffer fools gladly. I was suitably prepared by his lights regarding the subject matter. I just had to win his trust. That took a little time. After our interview was published, Lou admitted he had told me certain things to test my integrity and credibility. “How did you test me?” “Oh, it doesn’t matter,” he laughed. “You passed.” I never got an answer to my question, but I did win his trust. His phenomenal memory of

Lou Cameron’s War Lou Cameron (seen on right in photo) and Jim Amash are shown enjoying an in-person moment instead of a phone conversation for a change—juxtaposed with a dramatic twopage spread from what is probably Lou’s most celebrated comic book assignment, his adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds for Classics Illustrated #124 (1955). Script by Harry G. Miller. This and others of Lou’s CI tales have recently been reprinted by Jack Lake Productions, Inc., though in War the hand-lettering has been replaced by “typeset”-style lettering. [© 2012 First Classics, Inc.]

creators who long since left the comics scene with unsigned work provided historians like Hames Ware and Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., with a wealth of information to help fill the gaps in our knowledge of the industry’s personnel.

What Lou needed—and I provided—was a friend he could trust to say anything to, a friend who would listen to any subject he cared to discuss, and give the same in return. That was no small task, because everything interested Lou. In me, he found a kindred spirit. There was no subject I ever found that Lou wasn’t an expert on. He was an agnostic who knew the history and teachings of all the world’s religions. “I’d be an atheist, but you never know when you might need an ‘out,’” he said, half seriously, half kiddingly. He was obviously an expert on the Old West in addition to the entirety of American history. Lou knew the history of all the European and Asiatic nations, too. He was well versed in geography, science, philosophy, math, entertainment, and world politics, not to mention biographies and fiction. He could take theoretical thought and boil it down to extreme practicality, e.g. Einstein’s theories regarding time travel: “If Einstein’s math says that time travel is achievable, then his math is wrong. We can’t go back in time.”

Continued on p. 46

In Memorium

Mick Anglo (1916-2011) Farewell To The Wizard by Roger Dicken n October 31st, All Hallows Eve, of last year, Maurice Anglo—“Mick,” as he was known—a wiz of the English comic world and a man who was involved in the publishing industry from the 1930s until the 1980s, passed away, aged 95, after some months of ill health.

Born in Bow, London, on June 14, 1916, he was the son of a Jewish tailor. As a youth he won a scholarship to the Sir John Cass Art School in Aldgate and was destined to lead a very busy life in publishing. His artistic career started slowly in the 1930s when he drew illustrations for the advertising world and designs for the women’s fashion industry. At the outbreak of World War II, he enlisted in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers—and also married his childhood sweetheart, Minnie. He served in the Far East, being stationed in Sri Lanka as a cartographer at the headquarters of Earl Mountbatten’s topographical outfit. His talents were utilized for the Forces Paper The S.E.A.C., for which he created clever and topical cartoons that helped keep up morale.

After demob, he drifted into the British comics industry, working freelance on such publications as Happy Times, Jolly Times, and Happy Yank Western, and doing artwork for several small independent publishers. Eventually becoming involved with the Miller Publishing Company of Hackney, he formed his legendary Gower Street Studios. Here he drew together the talents of a number of older established artists as well as new young guys on the block to produce in 1954 what was basically a clone of Fawcett’s famous (and recently discontinued) comics character Captain Marvel. Teenage newspaper copy boy Micky Moran likewise transformed in a flash of smoke—to become Britain’s Marvelman and sort out villains and head-bangers—when he shouted his mystic word “Kimota!” This was “atomic” spelt backwards, but utilizing a “K” for impact, in the spirit of Cap’s classic “Shazam!”

Very soon Mick Anglo had created a Marvelman family of super-heroes. His timing was certainly spot on, as in American-comics-starved postwar Britain, his trio of costumed crime-fighters (Marvelman,

Marvelman Jr., and Kid Marvelman) caught on like wildfire with youngsters and ran well into the 1960s, giving Mick a somewhat luxurious lifestyle with all the trappings of success. Familyrun publishers Miller made an absolute fortune as they also introduced ubiquitous fan clubs, and Brit schoolboys’ one-off pocket money membership fees undoubtedly helped to swell the coffers. This was further assisted by Anglo’s series of space-hero comics and a massive selection of American comic reprints, including Westerns, horror, funnies, etc. At their height, Millers were selling one million comics per month plus the Annual books every year. Despite rewards envied by many working in the medium, in his old age Mick was somewhat disparaging regarding his background in the field; but, contradictorally, he was extremely pleased with my interview with him, which was published in Alter Ego #87.

Besides the foregoing, he was tremendously versatile and prolific and during his career produced a diverse and mammoth amount of material. This included a series of war comics, the likes of Can Can and Flix film magazines, a series of Johnny Decker, Private Eye pulp novels, as well as books such as Man and Myth: The Story of General Custer of the West, Man Eats Man (all about cannibalism), three Spotlight books on the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s, and many others.

A man who loved cats, his all-time abiding passions were, however, the subjects of war and boxing, the latter a sport in which he evidently engaged as a lightweight in a non-professional capacity before and during his time in the services.

He is survived by son Brian, a psychiatrist who resides in Spain.

Today, reprints of the Anglo studio’s Marvelman and Marvelman Family adventures have recently been produced by Marvel Comics, re-created from the superb collection of He Was A Real Marvel, Man! fellow Brit Derek Wilson, who has every issue (721 copies in (Above:) Mick Anglo in an off-duty moment as a soldier in Asia during World total for the War II—and the cover of the 1957 Marvelman Annual, drawn by Roy Parker. Thanks to Derek Wilson for the cover scan—and to Roger Dicken for the photo he Marvelman gang) took of a photo of Anglo at the latter’s digs a few years back. Sorry about the except for reflected light. [Marvelman art © 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Marvelman #28.

In Memoriam

William A. Benulis, Sr. (1928-2011) “I Wasn’t Doing Anything Remarkable” by Shaun Clancy ill Benulis passed away on May 30, 2011, at age 82, while living in Fort Pierce, Florida, with his wife Loretta. I spoke to him just twice by phone and found him to be extremely open and friendly, though a bit puzzled as to why anyone would care about his career in comics. He told me more than once that he didn’t think his work that good, and he referred me to other artists’ work for better examples. “When I look at Hal Foster and Milton Caniff and then I look at my work,” he said when I complimented him on one particular panel, “I don’t know how you could compare the two. They were much superior to anything that I did. I tried to make my drawings as perfect as I could, but there were many times that I would be unhappy with something and I would do it over because I didn’t like it…. When I was drawing, I wasn’t doing anything remarkable.”

Bill often used likenesses of famous people such as Marilyn Monroe, Burl Ives, etc., in his artwork, and we went through several Timely/Atlas comics to clarify who was the model for whom in them. I was impressed with how vivid his memory was on these stories. His career in comics lasted only four years, due to the Comic Code Authority taking its toll on the industry in 1955 and 1956, since Bill’s specialties had been science-fiction and horror. After a short stint at Terry-Toons as a colorist and doing a few miscellaneous book illustrations, including one for an L. Ron Hubbard book, he went to work for the U.S. Post Office as a letter carrier for the next 34 years. There he met his future wife Loretta; they married in 1958. Bill was an avid reader of both World War II and science-fiction books; he admired sf writers and was in awe of WWII vets.

When we were nearly finished Benulis was with the interview, born in Brooklyn, Bill made a New York, on statement about Nov. 5, 1928, and his late sister that I retained his believe summed Brooklyn accent up his outlook on his entire life. He life: “You’ve said a attended the lot of nice things Cartoonist and about me today, Illustrators School but one of the (later renamed the things I treasure School of Visual most was when Arts). One of his she [my sister] teachers was Jerry once told me that I Robinson, and a never hurt The Four-Year Itch fellow classmate anybody. This may (Above:) Bill Benulis, some years back—and specimens of the science-fiction and horror art that were his was Steve Ditko. not be true, specialties during his 4-year comics career: from Fiction House’s Planet Comics #73 (Winter 1953)—the final Although Bill had because how could issue of that title—and from Timely/Atlas’ Strange Tales #30 (July 1954). The blonde in the latter was clearly polio, he was able you go through based on photos of Marilyn Monroe. Incidentally, in both issues Benulis’ story was the lead tale; writers to walk without life without unknown, alas. Thanks to Shaun Clancy. the use of a cane hurting anybody? [Pages © 2012 the respective copyright holders & Marvel Characters, Inc., respectively.] until late in life. But she believed Polio did not hinder his ability to get work at both Fiction House that… and that was the proudest thing that I’d ever heard.” Bill and Timely/Atlas. Timely was his first professional art job in 1952; had never been contacted by anyone previously for a few years he teamed up with Jack Abel as his inker. He also concerning his comics career, so I was honored to be worked briefly as an assistant at the studio of Arthur Peddy and the one who humbly thanked him for his work, Bernard Sachs. He once told me, “I went to Fiction House to have a which I had admired while growing up. second place in case I couldn’t get work at the first place.”

In Memoriam

Marvin Levy (1925-2012) “One Damned Good Cartoonist” by Herb Rogoff hen I heard about Marvin Levy’s death at 87, I was surprised that, at two years his junior, I wasn’t occupied with my own mortality. Instead, all I thought of were the years I’ve known Marv and enjoyed working with him. Jim Amash’s first-rate interview with him, published in Alter Ego #75, told it all. It was aptly titled, “I Think I Always Knew I Wanted to Be a Cartoonist,” and clearly exclaimed, “You made it, Marv!” We can all agree that Marv certainly turned out to be one damned good cartoonist.

I was deeply saddened by Marv’s death. We grew up in the same section of Brooklyn (two city streets apart), attended the same high school, and worked together on two major projects.

In 1952, as an editor at Ziff-Davis, I was assigned to write and edit a comic book version of the Danny Kaye movie Hans Christian Andersen. Planning how I could translate Frank Loesser’s fetching songs of Andersen’s fairy tales into art, my first thought was to have cartoon illustrations that would be in a style widely different from the bulk of the book. I sent for Marv and, right away, he knew what had to be done; he created the cartoons for three classic tales—“The Little Match Girl,” “The Little Mermaid,” and “Thumbelina”—and the effect was exactly what I wanted. They helped set the pattern for the entire book.

Almost immediately after the artistic success of the Andersen comic book, Marv, Jim Miele, and I combined our talents to create a comic strip that was patterned to run in newspapers between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The Snowman’s First Christmas, based on an original story by Jim, rewritten by me, and beautifully illustrated by Marv, was distributed by the George Matthew Adams Service. It ran for three years and became a classic, due largely to Marv’s sensitive, endearing illustrations, brilliantly kicked off by his opening panel of a small village in a snowstorm.

Marv Levy was born in Albany, Georgia, on February 21, 1925. Sometime after that, his family moved north. After graduating from the High School of Music & Art, Marv enlisted in the Army and was part of the D-Day invasion of Normandy in 1944. Returning to civilian life when the war ended, he studied at Pratt Institute to further his education and start a career in the field of art.

He enjoyed a long career in comics, which was followed by his entry into the field of advertising. His experience in product packaging developed into his own studio, Marvin Levy

The Snowman’s Last Christmas Strip Marv Levy in uniform at age 18, September 1943—and the final daily from The Snowman’s First Christmas, the seasonal newspaper strip he drew and Herb Rogoff wrote, which was first published in 1955, based on a Ziff-Davis comic script written by Jim Miele. As Marv and A/E editor Roy Thomas discussed shortly before Marv’s passing, his never-before-published 1942 super-hero comics story “Bill of Rights and Liberty Belle” will see print, in full color, in a nearfuture issue of Alter Ego, by special permission of Marv’s wife Barbara. [© 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

Advertising Art. He remained in advertising until his retirement form BBD&O, one of the top shops on Madison Avenue, where he functioned as an art director.

Marv Levy died on Friday, January 13th, and was buried two days later in a graveside military service at Wellwood Cemetery in Rockville Centre, New York. He is survived by his wife of more than fifty years, three children, and three grandchildren.

In closing, I have to say that, in all of my years in the fields of publishing, writing, editing, and cartooning, when tempers, especially during deadlines, have a way of getting frayed and edgy, I had never seen Marv Levy really lose it. He was the most compassionate, gentle man I have ever known.

Herb Rogoff was, among many other things, a comic book editor at Hillman Periodicals from 1949-52 and at Ziff-Davis from 1952-56. He was interviewed in depth in Alter Ego #43.

In Memoriam

Joe Simon (1915-2011) “I’ll Never Know Another Person Like Him” by Jim Amash became a Simon & Kirby fan when DC reprinted their “Boy Commandos,” “Newsboy Legion,” “Sandman,” and “Manhunter” features in the back of Jack Kirby’s 1970s Fourth World comics. By the end of their lives, I became very good friends with both men, and learned to appreciate each for their strengths and weaknesses as creators and as human beings. I also learned to think of them not only as a duo, but as individuals whose contributions helped shaped the comics medium as we know it, and as men who influenced me personally and professionally. Joe had a number of friends he confided in, and I was privileged to be counted in that number. But I had one up on the others. I was Joe’s appointed cigar guru! He’d call me whenever he had a question about cigars and humidors. Since Joe died, I’ve spent a lot time reflecting on our friendship—what he meant to me, what we learned from each other, and the fun we shared. This may disappoint some of you, but perhaps the conversations I enjoyed the most were our cigar talks. “Jim, I’m thinking about trying Hoyo De Monterrey Excalibur cigars. Have you ever smoked them?” I told him I had been smoking them for a few years. Joe bought a box, and for two or three years it was his favorite brand. Joe smoked cigars almost until the day he died. What else do I think about when I think about Joe? Obviously, the great comics he did, from Blue Bolt to co-creating Captain America, to the various DC series I mentioned, Stuntman, Young Love, Young Romance, Fighting American, Boys’ Ranch (his personal favorite), his crime (Justice Traps the Guilty , etc.) and horror books (Black Magic, Strange Worlds of Your Dreams), and let’s not forget Sick magazine. I wish I could list all the series Joe worked on, but I’ve only a very limited space to talk about him, and most of you know already what they were, and doubtless own quite a few of them yourselves. And don’t get me started on how innovative he was, because you already know that, too. Even when Joe was following a trend, what he produced or co-produced was often

Early Morning Joe Joe Simon in 1939—and his cover for Fox’s Mystery Men Comics #11 (June 1940), drawn before he and fellow artist Jack Kirby had become a team. Joe and son Jim sent the photo for use in A/E #76. Thanks to Jim Ludwig for the cover scan. [Art © 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

superior to the competition’s product. Why was that? I say it was because Joe kept his creative fingers on the pulse of the zeitgeist. He was a well-read pop-culture devotee who recycled what he saw in commercially viable products. There were a few missteps, like the often maligned Brother Power, the Geek series that most of us—including Joe himself—have joked about for decades, even though Joe claimed those two issues sold. I thought some of his best comics writing was in Prez, though it only lasted four issues and never got a chance to develop. In retrospect, Joe was proud of his writing on that book, but admitted that his choice of the Jerry Grandenetti/Creig Flessel art team probably doomed the series. Beyond his insightful views on what the public liked, Joe was the consummate professional. There was nothing—and I mean nothing—he couldn’t do and do well. He wrote, he drew, he lettered and colored, and was an editor/packager that others respected and admired. Simon & Kirby even published their own books (Mainline) for a while. Joe was a great layout man who created compelling cover designs and logos. He knew how to tell a good story with words and pictures. He could mimic other drawing styles, as evidenced by the covers he did for Harvey Publications’ Joe Palooka and Dick Tracy comics in the 1950s. You don’t believe me? Read his two books, The Comic Book Makers and Joe Simon: My Life in Comics. And, I immodestly add, my careerspanning interview with Joe in Alter Ego #76, which both Joe and his colleague/confidant/art restorer Harry Mendryk described as

In Memoriam

the best interview Joe ever gave. And read a bunch of Joe Simon’s comics while you’re at it. Oh wait… you’ve already been doing that, haven’t you? Lord knows, there are a lot of them around, both in their original publications and in the Titan, DC, and Marvel hardcover reprints of the past few years. In many ways (the recent Captain America: The First Avenger movie, for example), Joe had become more popular today than he ever was, and he absolutely loved that. In my last conversation with Joe, this past December, he told me he wasn’t sure he was going to live to make his 100th birthday. He wasn’t feeling well. “Joe, you have to, because I want to call and sing ‘Happy 100th Birthday’ to you.” Joe replied, “No, Jim, I want you to come up here and smoke a cigar with me that day. My treat!” Unfortunately, he died eight days later, but I do know one thing for sure: In my heart and in the world of comics and beyond, Joe Simon will live forever. We’ll never see another career like his

The Captain And The Kids (Left:) A color sketch done by Joe, re-creating an early Simon & Kirby Captain America pose, for the son of “Martin Burton [= Burstein], who helped create Captain America in 1939.” (Actually, of course, Cap debuted in late 1940.) Thanks to dealer Mike Burkey, whose ads appear elsewhere in this issue. [Captain America TM & © 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Above:) Joe Simon (on the right) and Jim Amash, just hangin’, a few years ago. Joe was young at heart, right to the end.

again. And I’ll never know another person like him, either.

A Joe Simon Checklist was printed in Alter Ego #36; Jim did a lengthy interview with him, which many consider one of the best interview Joe ever gave, in issue #76.

Continued from p. 41

all its forms without illusion of any kind. I never knew him to give bad advice, and I never knew him to lie. Seldom judgmental, always understanding, Lou encouraged his friends, dispensed straightforward, practical advice with warmth and understanding, and cared more deeply about people than he would admit. Lou despised pretension and dishonesty, and, as long as you were genuine, he was your friend.

Lou was the most talkative man I ever knew, and was as colorful in speech as in deed. He dominated at least 80% of our conversations, which is saying quite a bit, considering how much I talk. I never minded. We seldom had a phone conversation where I didn’t learn something new, and we talked several times a week for years. Nothing seemed to escape his notice. Whenever I knew more about a subject than he did (which wasn’t often), Lou wasn’t satisfied until he drained every ounce of knowledge from me. To better inform himself, Lou would research what I imparted to him, and we would discuss it further. I did the same when he threw something new my way, which led to many sleepless nights studying shared subjects on the computer. I learned more from Lou than any person I’ve ever encountered.

Possession of all this accumulated knowledge did not rob him of his social skills, as it so often does with intellectual giants. Lou was down to Earth enough to relate to everyone he met. He never acted like he was smarter than other people, and hated condescension. As a writer and humanitarian, he understood the human condition in

Lou encouraged me to be more than I am. He cared about my failures and successes. At the time of his death, we had begun working on a detective series that I was to write, which I still plan to do. I didn’t see him as a father figure, but he treated me like a son and as an equal. He was the incorruptible pillar of strength in the lives of those who knew him. He was the smartest and wisest man I’ve ever known; one of the most influential people in my life. There are very few truly great people, but I knew one. Lou Cameron.

No Hyde-ing His Talent Panel detail from Lou Cameron’s tour de force in Classics Illustrated #13, the adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s horror novella Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. [© 2012 First Classics, Inc.]

Jim Amash’s interview with Lou Cameron was serialized in Alter Ego #79-80.

Prior to the series going into full production, I was offered a chance to work on Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends for Marvel’s new animation company, and I took it. I kept freelancing for Filmation that year, though, doing storyboards with Larry Houston and Rick Hoberg on the Zorro series, which was animated in Japan by TMS. Prior to that, I’d been a storyboard supervisor for Filmation on Flash Gordon, Tarzan, Sport Bill, and The Lone Ranger.

e’re going for broke this time—covering comments on no less (but actually more) than three issues of Alter Ego this month: #97, 98, & 99, beneath the playful C.C. Beck homage by Shane Foley featuring our Marvel-ous “maskot” Captain Ego—as colored by his chromatic cohort Randy Sargent. Thanks guys! [Captain Ego TM & © 2012 Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly; created by Biljo White.]

Before we get to missives re #97, though, we have two communications left over from A/E #96 to slip in, since somehow they got mislaid last time around. One of these is detailed in the art and caption on the following page—while comics artist and animator Will Meugniot sent the following e-mail about points covered in an article in #95-96 by fellow animator Darrell McNeill to FCA editor P.C. Hamerlinck, who in turn forwarded it to us:

Hi, Paul,

I always enjoy your articles in particular and Alter Ego in general.

While I didn’t do the Shazam models [for the 1981 Filmation animated TV series], I did do some black-&-white comic-style pictures for the presentation used to sell the series and also had a hand in designing the series’ stock animation. The bulk of Filmation’s presentation art, including the big color art for Shazam, was done by the amazing Bob Kline. The series models would have been supervised, and largely drawn, by Herb Hazelton and Carol Lundberg—with an assist from other members of the layout department, which included Mel Keefer, Russ Heath, and Dave Stevens at that point.

Will Meugniot

Ye Editor was gratified, Will, to see that Filmation’s crew contained the names of several talented folks I’ve worked with in comic books… and both P.C. and I appreciate your sharing that information (and the drawings seen below) with us.

Now, on to remarks re Alter Ego #97, beginning with this one from Darcy Sullivan:

Editor,

Lawrence Watt-Evans’ article on horror comics was entertaining and educational—both the E’s in EC, in other words. I was also delighted to see the cover of Horror Comics of the 1950s, as I got that book when it came out and it’s one of my all-time favorite collections.

Here’s a terrifying, shocking, appalling (etc.) fact: Horror comics are still banned in the UK.

Well, not exactly. However, when my family and I moved to England this summer, we were of course given the list of items prohibited for import by UK customs. [On the list, along with

Faster Than A Speeding Bullet, Man! Maybe artist Will Meugniot (whose best-known comic book work, perhaps, is his 1980s co-creation The DNAgents) didn’t draw the 1981 TV-animation Shazam models attributed to him in Darrell McNeill’s FCA article; but he definitely has drawn some Fawcett heroes from to time: to wit, his own rendition of a Bulletman cover for the early-1940s Nickel Comics… a model sheet of sorts featuring Bulletgirl… and Mary Marvel introducing a faux-Fawcett star Tiger Woman (who could’ve given Nyoka the Jungle Girl a run for her money!). [Bulletman, Bulletgirl, & Shazam heroine TM & © 2012 DC Comics; other art © 2012 Will Meugniot.]

[correspondence, comments, & corrections]

Tell Us A Story Chris Boyko, whose interview with Jim Mooney appeared in A/E #107, writes re issue #96: “I enjoyed Jim Amash’s interview with Mell Lazarus. I always thought Miss Peach was a really funny strip and love Mell’s dry wit. In the interview, [artist] Milt Story is mentioned. Milt (1914-2002) was the subject of an article I wrote in 2004 for the late, lamented Comic Book Marketplace (#112). Mell even wrote a short note of fond remembrance and thanks to Milt to go along with it. Milt worked for Al and Elliot Capp/Caplan at Toby Press before there even was a Toby Press office in 1948. [EDITOR’S NOTE: See vintage photo at top left of Story with shmoo merchandise.] “Milt later worked for Walt Kelly after he left Toby Press when the comics line shut down in 1955, but he lasted less than a year because, well, Walt was not an easy person to work with. Milt then started working for himself, designing premium items, many of which were given away free with boxes of Raisin Bran, Pep, and Sugar Pops. However, his best-known premiums today are probably the Captain Crunch hand puppets from the early 1960s. [EDITOR’S NOTE: See photo at top right.] “Also, in his interview, Mell is asked about John Wayne, and perhaps his modesty prevented him from mentioning his personal encounters with Wayne, but I have a picture of Mell, Milt, and the Duke to prove [they existed].” [EDITOR’S NOTE: Left to right in photo: John Wayne, Mell Lazarus, unknown, and Milt Story.] Chris also sent a copy of a Red Feather promotional comic depicting Al Capp’s famous Fearless Fosdick, though minus the hero’s usual Dick Tracyesque chin (see above left). He says the comic “is actually credited in the indicia as being done by Milt Story.” In the CBM piece Chris mentions, Story’s daughters Nadia Marconi and Vida Story are credited for much of the memorabilia. [Captain Crunch art © 2012 the respective copyright holders; Fosdick page © 2012 Capp Enterprises, Inc., or successors in interest.]

re:

“firearms,” “drugs and narcotics,” “counterfeit currency,” etc., was:] “Pornographic material and horror comics.” I groaned when I saw this, knowing the rule must have been in effect since the 1950s. It was: it’s the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955. The law is covered in Martin Barker’s book A Haunt of Fears.

Holy Crikey! Jeff Taylor, after commenting on other features in A/E #97, wrote: “Got a kick out of Michael T. Gilbert’s article on evil comic book clowns. Unlike him, I’ve always liked clowns both good and bad (one of my favorites fright flicks is Killer Klowns from Outer Space), so I will definitely be hunting down my own copy of Mike Hoffman’s Super Clowns. Thanks, Mr. Monster, for bringing it to my attention.” Re the issue’s FCA section, he went on: “Crikey!, the British equivalent of Alter Ego which covers the United Kingdom’s long history of comic characters, had on the back cover of their 16th and unfortunately final issue, as part of an ad for the English comic book shop Blasé Books, a reprint of the cover of a 1948 Spanish reprint edition of Captain Marvel called El Capitan Marvel en La Hora del Radioyente that was originally one of those crossover stories Fawcett was so proud of. “However, since the local editor obviously felt that his readers would neither know nor care who Golden Arrow, Spy Smasher, or Ibis the Invincible were, he had an artist redraw them as The Lone Ranger, The Phantom, and Mandrake the Magician. The Big Red Cheese’s usual flabbergasted ‘Holy Moley!’ facial expression on the cover certainly takes on a whole new meaning!” Fortunately, Jeff managed to track down that image in time to send it to us, and we’ve reprinted it above. Jeff added: “Please notice that The Phantom is wearing a red outfit, the color his costume was throughout most of the non-English-speaking world rather than the purple we know over here.” [Shazam hero TM & © 2012 DC Comics; Phantom & Mandrake TM & © 2012 King Features Syndicate, Inc.; Lone Ranger TM & © 2012 Lone Ranger Television, Inc., or successors in interest.]

I called my mover in the UK, who laughed and said, “That’s odd, isn’t it?” I replied that I had several boxes of what anyone would consider horror comics, including books like the EC one noted above. Although the movers have to state that you are not importing any prohibited items, they said that no one is enforcing the horror comics prohibition. One mover even told me, “If we see a box labeled ‘Horror Comics’ and we open it and it’s full of horror comics, we won’t care.”

All my horror comics made the journey safely. So, unlike all the stories in them, mine had a happy ending. Darcy Sullivan

Glad to hear it, Darcy. To get everything in, we’ve truncated the remainder of the letters we’re printing re #97, but rest assured there were plenty of them, mostly wildly favorable—and as always we’ve emphasized those which add a bit of info to the mix, with our comments (if any are needed) placed as usual in italics:

Don Ensign: “I just finished reading Lawrence Watt-Evans’ rather breezy survey of 1950s horror comics. I appreciate his mythbusting approach. On page 30, he mentions that Dr. Wertham fled Germany in the 1930s. However, according to an online bio (http:www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Fredric-Wertham), Wertham was born in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1895, graduated from the University of Würzburg in 1921, moved to the United States in 1922, became a U.S. citizen in 1927, and moved to New York in 1932. This was all well before the Nazi takeover of Germany in January 1933.”

George Hagenauer: “The Eerie Adventures cover painting on p. 16, I am pretty sure, is by Alan Anderson. Basically, three artists (Norman Saunders, Alan Anderson, and Clarence Doore, who were

[correspondence, comments, & corrections]

Mike W. Barr: “Random observation of A/E #97: publishable, though not too interesting. The most interesting portion of Lawrence Watt-Evans’ article on ‘The Other Guys’ was the revelation, on page 33, that the liquidation of American News Company whittled down the number of publishers. I never heard this…. Because I’m sometimes a dumb guy, let me ask: The entire article on the ‘EC Horror Postage Stamps’ was a fake, right? Not just the ‘retraction’ on page 37? It was certainly written with a voice of authority. Now I know, in a way, how the people who listened to Orson Welles’ 1938 Halloween broadcast felt…. I began the ‘Hand of Doom’ article fully expecting to hate it. I was pleasantly surprised by the way Gary Brown combined facts with humor, and am delighted to admit I was wrong… though I’m surprised HOD didn’t mention the cover to Sensation Comics #109. Maybe that was his brother?”

all close friends) did all or almost all of the Ziff-Davis painting covers.”

Martin Stern: “A/E #97 lots of fun— well done! But one caption said the EC hardcover Horror Comics of the 1950s, which came out in the 1970s, was the first-ever collection of EC horror comics. There were actually a few paperbacks from Ballantine Books in the 1960s, one reprinting [stories from] Vault of Horror, the other Tales from the Crypt, and there was also a Ray Bradbury comics paperback with horror and sci-fi EC comics (and one paperback just of EC science-fiction).”

Hames Ware: “Thoroughly enjoyable issue. Just a few minor notes: (P. 24:) The Ghosts cover is by the superb and sadly neglected Maurice Whitman. (P. 26:) The Voodoo cover is by the justifiably neglected (but still fun for his sheer ubiquity) Ken Battefield. (P. 30:) The Tormented cover is by Bob McCarty, an excellent artist whose Westerns were of the E.R. Kinstler school and quality. [Also:] Raymond Perry keeps getting short shrift from all those DC potentates (less so by George Kashdan in Jim Amash’s excellent interview). He drew virtually every text page illo for DC that was worth looking at. He had an oldfashioned but wonderful illustrative style, and I’d love to see some of his full feature work when you reprint more of the Nicholson pre-DC era.”

Bernie Bubnis: “I am fighting windmills my whole life and believe Mr. Watt-Evans is doing just that with EC and its fan base. It’s a slippery slope of proving who was first with a horror comic book. I will accept that EC got it right, even if they were not the real firstest.”

Schnapp, Crackle, & Pop! Mike Catron was one of several Hawkeyes who informed us that we had confused two legendary comics letterers, mislabeling a photo of Milt Snappin as one of Ira Schnapp. Mike writes, “I’ve yet to see a photo of Schnapp, although there’s a drawing of him by [longtime DC production chief] Jack Adler on the old Dial B for Blog website.” [See above.] Bob Rozakis, a DC writer and staffer for years, added in seconding that correction: “Milt was still on staff for a number of years after I got there, running the film library. I don’t think I ever met Ira.”

David [no last name given]: “Just finished reading the October Alter Ego. It’s not clear to me if the article on EC comics covers on U.S. postage stamps was really legit or just one big joke. If it is on the level, I can’t fathom the stamps being destroyed because of protests by a handful of book-burners. Enlighten me, please.” It was indeed a joke, David—but one that writer Alan Hutchinson played as straight as could be. More than one person wrote to say he/she at least had to read the piece twice before catching on. Read on:

Will Murray: “Re that ‘Hand of Doom’ feature: The first two examples—Shadow covers—were of course Walter Gibson. So was one of the DC versions! I guess Walter pioneered that concept, in a way.”

James King: “Roy Thomas is surprised that DC would reprint ‘Dial H for Hero.’ Jim Amash bemoans the series’ ‘truly terrible characters.’ No doubt, like George Kashdan, they wonder ‘who bought that comic [?].” I bought that comic. As a kid, I loved that comic. As an adult, I have nostalgic memories of that comic. Were the characters terrible? I thought they were wild and wacky and fun! But even if the characters (or the stories) really had been bad, there was still the art of Jim Mooney to recommend ‘Dial H for Hero.’ I would contend that anything Mooney drew was worth buying. Naturally, Roy, you and Jim are as entitled as anyone to express your opinions; but it seems to me that essentially dismissing a comic as worthless is not in keeping with the spirit or the mission of your fine magazine. Please remember that every comic book is, or could be, loved by someone. P.S.: Please tell Jim that you can see Alpha Centauri from Earth’s Northern Hemisphere if you’re far enough south—Texas, for example. But hey, who can blame him for taking the word of a certain science major named Julie?” Jim and I—and for that matter George Kashdan—were probably too hard on “Dial H for Hero,” James, but our opinions were all sincere, despite our admiration for artist Jim Mooney. Still, such feelings would never prevent

We blush to admit that we got the two not-dissimilar names confused, guys. Matter of fact, we’ve been hoping to run Kirk Kimball’s Dial B for Blog essay on Ira Schnapp in Alter Ego… so thanks for reminding us! [Caricature © 2012 estate of Jack Adler.]

P.C. Hamerlinck: “Thanks for popping that page from Captain Marvel Adventures #14 into the Beck article. However, I doubt Otto Binder wrote story, based on OOB’s own meticulous records of all the comic book scripts he wrote. The Grand Comics Database is wrong on this one, too; they also didn’t list the correct cover artist for CMA #14 (it was Dave Berg, not Beck). My guess for the story’s author would be Rod Reed or Joe Millard. Also, the artwork shouldn’t have been credited merely to Beck, but to Beck’s CM art staff. There’s actually little, if any, pure Beck art in that story, aside from maybe a redrawn head or two.”

Gary F. Brown: “After my interview [with Hand of Doom] first ran in CAPA-alpha, I had people send me covers of giant hands that were not included in the interview. Some he had forgotten. Others were either fake giant hands or his moonlighting cousin. We have to accept only the original Hand of Doom hands!”

re:

us carrying all the info we could about that fairly long-running series. Matter of fact, I (Roy) seem to recall my then-partner Gerry Conway and myself, back in the early 1980s when we were selling screenplays in Hollywood, trying to interest a producer in optioning the series, so we certainly believed in its potential.

at Independent News, the DC-owned distributor of that company’s comics and many other comics and magazines:

Dear Roy:

I regret I have not written sooner on your issue #98, as I am hitting the 100 age mark and all that goes with it. As you know, I was part of the DC organization, having print order meetings with Jack Liebowitz. We set each print order every month for each magazine.

Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. [re a letter printed in #97 about #81]: “Alberto Becattini (or whoever added the credits to the Everett Raymond Kinstler list) is incorrect I was struck, in attributing Kinstler art impressed, and pleased to The World around Us: to read the excellent Pirates and WAU: description and detail on Hunting. He’s in neither. Whitney Ellsworth, and I The only Four Star ERK must say I agree in every Jack Of All Trades credit I know of (a part. Whit was, in my Along with his 2010 letter (a portion of which is printed at right), longtime Independent News couple of text illustraopinion, accurately executive Jack Adams sent a black-&-white photocopy (perhaps of a display from that tions, which I do not described in all phases of distributor’s house magazine Independent News) of the various publications distributed by believe are by him) is in IN. Note that, along with numerous magazines and the DC/AA comics lines (the latter sporting his attitude, work, and its separate “AA” bullet at this point before M.C. Gaines sold all of his titles except Picture Captain Flight #9, and personality. With so Stories from the Bible to DC), Independent also distributed the Prize comics group (Prize that’s 1945, not 1946. Ray many interests (the Comics, Headline Comics), Creston/proto-ACG (Giggle Comics), and Rural Home (Cannonball was pretty much focused movies, etc.), he wore Comics, Laffy-Daffy Comics). A tiny bit of the art was trimmed at right in the photocopy that on pulps in most of 1945 himself out. He was the Jack sent. [Art © 2012 the respective copyright holders.] and all of 1946. I have quiet type of editor. No copies of his payment doubt he had some very books for each year…. All of the St. John ERK credits should be aggressive and competent contributors who could be troublesome noted as Ziff-Davis reprints…. Was there an actual comic book with their ideas and pressure. Liebowitz, other than listening and titled Overseas Comics, or is that merely a category in the on-line making some suggestions, pretty much left it to Whit. Who’s Who, as I believe? If the latter, then it’s quite possible that Mort Weisinger was probably tops in his department. Sheldon there were some non-U.S. reprints of ERK Zorro art in 1963, and it Mayer, Murray Boltinoff, Jack Schiff, I recall, all reported to Whit. would be a mistake to eliminate it. Is Alberto crediting this to [Mel] He played an important part in getting and holding DC as the Keefer due to the date or because he has actually seen the leader in the field and, as an aside, doing it in a good clean way via material?... If the A/E list is intended to be complete, you left off DC’s editorial policy. tons of Better/Nedor material that was present in the original I became a personal friend of Mort Weisinger. In fact, he gifted listings. Ray worked there for three or four years from 1942-45. Oh, me with a case of gin because of a story I gave him dealing with and [re the Roy Ald interview in FCA] the Flying Jenny cover is public schooling of blind kids in Tacoma, Washington. Mort wrote much more likely to be Jack Kamen and Al Feldstein than it is to be and sold an article [based on it] to Redbook magazine, which helped Matt Baker…. I think that’s it.” my Tacoma friend get a program developed for blind children in John Benson [responding to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo’s letter in #97’s Tacoma. “re:” section]: “The stories attributed to ‘Donald Norman’ in the Jack Adams Warren mags are definitely the work of Norman Nodel. At the time they were coming out, I usually talked to editor Archie Goodwin I’ve much appreciated your letters and packages of comics-related about each issue, and he told me that ‘Norman’ was Nodel. You’ll tidbits over the past decade, Jack. Michael Feldman and Gerard Jones also see those stories credited that way in The Warren Companion. were, I know, talking with you to gather information for forthcoming So the Who’s Who is correct that Nodel did use the name ‘Donald publications, and I look forward to them. As they know, I wish one of Norman.’ I would guess that the Web of Horror art with that name them would interview you for Alter Ego! is Nodel, also.” This next letter was sent to us by Francis A. Rodriguez, and was Dr. Michael J. Vassallo [responding to John Benson via e-mail]: “I just written by the late veteran “Superman”/”Batman” writer Alvin pulled out Alter Ego #81 to re-look at what I was seeing back then, Schwartz, who was interviewed by Jim Amash in A/E #98. It was and I’m sure you are correct. It still looks Burgos-esque to me, but evidently posed to Francis is answer to his question, “Did you work on it’s just a coincidence. I think seeing Syd Shores’ and Bisson’s something called The Magazine with [literary author] William Carlos comments are what made me leap before looking!” Williams?”:

Now on to critiques concerning A/E #98, commencing with a rare and welcome letter from Jack Adams, who for many years was an executive

I was in my mid-teens when I met Williams—still going to DeWitt Clinton High School—but the older sister of one of my

[correspondence, comments, & corrections]

Atomic Comics Three more dailies from the April-June 1945 Superman comic strip sequence relating the atomic-energy tale which was apparently aborted by special request of the U.S. government, as detailed in A/E #98. (We printed five other dailies from the story there.) Though these strips do not depict the Man of Steel, they are of course equally important to the story. Script by Alvin Schwartz (under the “Jerry Siegel” byline); pencils by Wayne Boring; inks probably by Stan Kaye. Thanks to Jared Bond. [© 2012 DC Comics.]

close high school friends invited us to a meeting of the NYU [New York University] poetry club and so I found myself there before the meeting began, chatting amiably and endlessly with a very charming old man about all sorts of literary and political matters until a series of frowns and dour looks managed to alert me to the fact that I was hogging the guest of honor—Williams himself. In fact, that’s how I met him.

Some few years later, when I was editing a literary magazine (just barely getting out of high school), Williams was contributing to it and I got to know him much better. He was always generous with his correspondence and easily reached. I still remember his old address at the time where he was practicing medicine—9 Ridge Road, Rutherford, New Jersey. This was long before I had any interest in comics, which I only got into finally because it seemed a reasonably good way of making a living. This was deep Depression time, you know. And there were worse job than writing Superman and Batman, which I just turned out to be very facile at. Alvin Schwartz

Once more, we’ve truncated and excerpted other remarks on #98 below—not that that makes them, we think, any less important and/or interesting:

Jake Oster: “I especially enjoyed Joyce Kaffel’s reminiscences about her father, Mort Weisinger, the Alvin Schwartz interview, and Will Murray’s piece on Whitney Ellsworth. A couple of (minor) quibbles: On p. 8 it states that Ellsworth created “Congo Bill” with artist Fred Ray, but I was under the impression that George Papp drew all Bill’s appearances in More Fun Comics (June 1940-May 1941) and Ray took over with the switch-over to Action Comics (June 1941). On p.15, Will Murray retells the story Jim Mooney had told about himself and “The Moth” and “Batman”—but since he also drew ‘The Lynx and Blackie’ for Fox, which featured heroes so much like Bruce and Dick that their last names could well have been Wayne and Grayson, perhaps Mr. Mooney had been misremembering and confused the two characters.” I’ve wondered the same thing, Jake, especially since images of both “The Moth” and “The Lynx and Blackie” were included back in issue #101’s Fox coverage—but Jim repeated the “Moth” version numerous times, so we’ll probably never know. And it does seem that DC objected to both Fox series.

Don Ensign: “In Jim Amash’s interview with Alvin Schwartz, the writer mentions that he was a Trotskyite and [DC editor] Jack Schiff was a Stalinist. Did Schiff change his views in later life, after the enormous crimes committed by Stalin were catalogued in Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago, Robert Conquest’s various works, and the Soviet archives that have been released? I’d like to see the interviews delve a little deeper into the thought processes that went into creating these old comic book stories.” Jim generally digs about as deep as his interview subjects are willing to go, Don. But of course he then must edit down the talks to some extent, and often the unproductive exchanges get deleted. Besides, it’s far from certain that George Kashdan was privy to Jack Schiff’s innermost thoughts and opinions.

Delmo Walters, Jr.: “You really hit a Trifecta this issue with articles on Ellsworth and Weisinger and an interview with Alvin Schwartz! I’m glad all three gave you an excuse to print more Superman dailies, especially the atomic energy sequence. It’s not really a mistake, but I think Will Murray should’ve noted that it’s not so much that ‘Ellsworth decided to replace the first season [TV] Lois Lane, Phyllis Coates, with Noel Neil’ as that Phyllis Coates left the show after the first season because she was going to do her own series, which, unfortunately, didn’t sell. I did enjoy Alvin Schwartz’s ‘warts and all’ interview, though he does come off as a bit of an elitist, a bit full of himself.”

re:

Syndicate Man

Richard Kyle: “A/E #98 is exceptional, especially for Will Murray’s piece and Jim Amash’s Alvin Schwartz interview. Totally interesting stuff, although Schwartz can be a bit much. His remarks about Kane and Siegel and Shuster taste like sour grapes, especially for a guy who thinks a Superman who flies is more realistic than a Superman who jumps. I did notice a couple of inaccuracies: P. 26,, 2nd column of [Weisinger’s article] ‘Fortunes in Funnies’: In this article Mort Weisinger gives a more or less phony story about Siegel and Shuster’s sale of ‘Superman’ to comic books, just to satisfy the premise of his article. And we know the number of writers and artists working outside New York was far less consequential than Weisinger claims—again, just to satisfy his premise. P. 27: Weisinger never edited Amazing Stories. Amazing was first edited by Hugo Gernsback, then T. O’Connor Sloane; during Weisinger’s time, it was a Ziff-Davis pulp edited by Raymond A. Palmer. The reference is probably to Startling Stories, the companion to Thrilling Wonder Stories. P. 36: 2nd column, 3rd paragraph, 4th line should read ‘a famous art school,’ not ‘the Famous Artists School.’ The Famous Artists School we know was not formed until after World War II. Also, Kane drew ‘Peter Pupp’ (two ‘p’s’ in “Pupp,” not one) for Jumbo Comics, then an oversize comic book from Fiction House, not DC. For DC he drew a pleasant little-girl one-pager whose title I can’t recall. ‘Dottie’?”

Alan Kupperberg [re the Superman drawing penciled by Neal Adams on p. 23, listed as appearing in the program book of the 1971 New York Comic Art Convention]: “Neal did three pencil drawings for this ad. Full size, 10"x15". Two were rejected. He gave me one and I inked it (second image). Been wondering what they were for. Thanks for the answer!”

John Wells: “I want to applaud you on your call for better attribution of quotes from this point forward. Coincidentally, Michael Eury [editor of TwoMorrows’ Back Issue] forwarded a letter to me just this week from a reader who commended me on the fact that I identified the source of my quotes in my recent Green Lantern/Green Arrow article. I’ve always strived to do this, but his remarks and your own editorial have made me conscious of how many do not.

(Clockwise from above:) A George Tuska-drawn Scorchy Smith daily strip—a panel from another Tusk Scorchy daily (dates of both unknown)— and the Buck Rogers Sunday strip for June 7, 1959. Seeing these strips, well-done as they are, Ye Editor is reminded of the fact that, when Tuska came back to work at Marvel in the latter 1960s, he told Stan Lee that all the dynamics which his old boss was pushing him to put into his stories there were the very things that his newspapersyndicate editors had been squeezing him to delete from the strips. [Scorchy Smith TM & © 2012 the respective copyright holders; Buck Rogers strip © 2012 the Dille Family Trust.]

Let me also compliment Jim for his ongoing series of A/E interviews. He (and you) are performing a valuable service in documenting the oral history of a fading generation of comics creators. I was delighted as well to find the article by Mort Weisinger’s daughter in #98, providing a muchappreciated point of view. On a less heavy note, you were correct in identifying the Murray Boltinoff illo on page 44 as being by Jim Aparo. It originally appeared in The Brave and the Bold #124, the oddball story where terrorists tried to force Boltinoff, Aparo, and Bob Haney into writing a story where they won and Batman died.”

P.C. Hamerlinck: “Noticed a flub in the Jared Bond article. Somehow the Captain Marvel Adventures #4 cover never got replaced with a CMA #6 cover, as was intended at one point, so the caption doesn’t match up.” Our error, Paul—a somehow botched communication between myself and then-layout man Chris Day.

And now, re A/E #99, we begin with a long letter from Dutch fan (and often A/E contributor) Ger Apeldoorn:

Hi, Roy,

Issue #99 of Alter Ego was another winner. I was particularly looking forward to the article about George Tuska, a great artist whose work I have always admired. Although the article was wellwritten by Dewey Cassell (as was his earlier book on Tuska, which I highly recommend), I was sad to see that it lumped together a large part of Tuska’s early career, the period between the mid-1950s and the early ’60s. I know I am a bit obsessed with the ’50s, but I have always found it a problem that America’s obsession with super-heroes has meant that the period when they weren’t around has gotten less attention than the periods of their birth and revival.

Although Dewey mentions Tuska’s work for [Lev] Gleason, he seems to throw it all together with anything up to and including his work on the Buck Rogers comic strip. Artistically, Tuska developed a whole new inking style when he left Gleason for the first time in the late ’40s. I don’t know if it was the influence of

[correspondence, comments, & corrections]

[presumed to be] linked to the Timely “implosion” and purge of the late ’50s, but that does not suit the facts. As the article rightly states, Tuska started drawing Scorchy Smith in 1954, long before the newly founded Atlas distributor had its troubles. This seems yet another example of the Marvelmindedness of most fans. The fact that Stan Lee and Martin Goodman had to scale down in the late ’50s was just a coincidence. In fact, the whole comics industry had been scaling down since the Kefauver [Congressional sub-committee] meetings in 1954. Many companies folded around that time, including many that Tuska worked for, so that may be the drought he was referring to.

As a sidenote, I would like to mention that the Scorchy Smith he did deserves a full write-up of its own. Dewey doesn’t mention the fact that it had been turned into a science-fiction strip in the years before that. Tuska continued that line of writing but seems to have toned it down. I agree with Dewey that the later Buck Rogers strip has some of Tuska’s best artwork, but it must be noted that Scorchy Smith was just as good (and maybe even better, since it seems to have been drawn at a larger size). The only thing that differentiates them is the fact that Scorchy Smith had no Sunday page; at least, I think it didn’t. The artist before Tuska, A.C. Hollingsworth, did do a Sunday page, but it may have ended with him. I have put up a storyline from this strip on my blog and invite everyone to come read it. Knowing it was written by Tuska as well makes it extra special. I have written [on my blog] that Tuska’s bold and clear way of drawing may in fact have helped editors in deciding that the strips could be sized down. He always had a sort of more graphic vision of Milt Caniff’s style, which was easily readable at any size. Although his Buck Rogers is not as much fun to read [as his Scorchy Smith], it is certainly worth a look and, dare I say it, a book. Ger Apeldoorn

Group Shots (Above, from l. to r.:) Dorothy & George Tuska, Joan & Stan Lee, several years back. Photo courtesy of Dewey Cassell. (Right:) Iron Man and some of his most prominent foes. A commission piece, courtesy of Chris Boyko. [Iron Man & villains TM & © 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Mike Peppe at Standard or the work he did for Stan Lee in the first half of the ’50s. This move toward a more solid and Milt Caniffinspired inking style is also seen in his progress at Timely. He starts out doing an imitations of his Gleason work, but slowly we see a change coming in. Since I was not raised on Marvel’s super-heroes and have no sentimental attachment to them, I find these stories from the early ’50s represent Tuska’s best-realized artwork. Those who know Tuska mostly from his later super-hero work may be surprised by the strength and boldness of his work of this period.

The second question raised by viewing this period is Tuska’s quoted remark that he went looking for the Scorchy Smith assignment “when the amount of available work dropped.” This is

Roy—

Since this is indeed the Golden Age of Comic Book (and Strip) Reprints, Ger, all things are possible—and if it happens, I’ll be lining up to purchase a copy! Next, this personal remembrance by reader Derek Reinhard seems to sum up the affection and admiration felt by many, from the veriest fan up to Marvel head honcho Stan Lee, about George Tuska:

I was lucky enough to meet George Tuska once and I will never forget it.

When I started reading comics in the ’80s, Iron Man quickly became a favorite, so I started buying back issues. At the time I didn’t really pay attention to the credits, but I did start noticing that some of the older issues had a certain look that keep me searching for more of those back issues. It wasn’t until years later that I realized the artist I couldn’t get enough of was some guy named George Tuska.

Jump forward a few years (to 1997?), at the San Diego Comic-

re:

A Colorful Crew A color ad for the World’s Greatest Superheroes comic strip—probably at a time when DC was considering calling it Justice League—and Tuska’s pencils for two unpublished dailies from the feature, spotlighting Superman & Green Lantern. There are a number of the latter which could be utilized if DC ever did reprint that comic strip, as Delmo Walters, Jr., suggests in his e-mail. Thanks to Dewey Cassell. [© 2012 DC Comics.]

I proceeded to tell him how much I loved and appreciated his work and how if it wasn’t for his artwork I probably would have given up on comic books before I had ever got started. I think I shocked him a little bit. I was one of the “Image Generation,” but I knew his work. His eyes started tearing up. He tried to stand up. I remember Dorothy helping him up and then telling me he had just had surgery or else been sick (not sure which). George reached out, shook my hand, and said, “Thank you.” I remember thinking, I can’t believe he’s thanking me for all the hours of enjoyment he’s given me.

In the 20+ years of going to San Diego, I can honestly say that meeting George Tuska is my greatest moment at Comic-Con. In my eyes George Tuska will always be one of the greatest artists, and articles like the one in A/E #99 will hopefully help newer comic book readers understood his greatness, as well. Derek Reinhard

Plus these brief comments about items in #99:

Con. I was doing my usual walk through Artists Alley reading name badges to see if I recognized any names. Most of the artists had quite a few people standing around their tables. One particular group was blocking an aisle, so I cut through a section where an older couple were sitting at a table all by themselves, not a single fan within twenty feet of them. I thought it was a little strange. As I walked by, I happened to look at the gentleman’s name badge and it said “George Tuska.” I walked another ten feet or so before I realized what I had just seen. I stopped in my tracks. My girlfriend (now wife) asked what was wrong. My wife is not a comic book person—she’s never read a comic in her life and probably never will—but she says, “The Iron Man guy you like? Go talk to him.”

Having lived in California most of my life, I’ve met comics creators, celebrities, musicians, and I’ve never been star-struck. But I was nervous about talking to George Tuska. I walked up to his table. George had his head down and was sketching Iron Man on a pad. Dorothy [Mrs. Tuska] looked up at me and smiled. I looked at George and told him how much a fan I was of his work. Dorothy said to me, “He’s hard of hearing.”

She tapped George and he looked up at me. Now, here’s the thing: at the time I was a youngish 20-something-year-old “long hair,” with my hair almost to my knees, so I probably didn’t look like your typical old-school comic enthusiast.

Bud Plant: “I just read the first part of the interview with Rudi Franke, a great piece by Bill Schelly. Rudi was a fellow San Jose fan; in fact, he was the only one of my comic friends who lived on my side of town. My Mom would have to take me over to our Friday night meetings at first; then the (slightly) older Tom Tallman or Al Davoren would pick me up, until I got my driver’s license in ’68 or ’69. Rudi wasn’t as active in our group, because, as he says, he was teaching full-time. He did sell his complete EC collection, mentioned in Bill’s interview, around 1967-69. He was asking $600 ($2 each!), which was far beyond my reach, being just a high school student. Tom Tallman bought it and immediately began selling off parts of it to myself and others. I ended up with a bunch of Rudi’s ECs in my collection and may still have some. I was also buying his early fanzines from him, the great Corben Voice of Comicdom issues, etc., for sale in our 1968-70 comic shops and in my mail order business, beginning in 1970.” Thanks for sharing that with us, Bud… and may we reiterate our regret that Bud Plant Books is finally closing down after decades of service. You’ve long been an important part of comics fandom—and of comics history. Glad you’re still around for the present!

Walt Grogan: “The ‘Shaz-URRK!’ sidebar in the ‘re:’ column in #99 seems to suggest that the Jim Aparo [Captain Marvel] cover on The Comic Reader #101 was never published and that it finally saw print in TCR #172. The #101 black-&-white Aparo cover (dated November 1973) was indeed published. The ‘National News’ section of that issue announced that ‘Bob Oksner, as of issue #10 of Shazam!, will be handling the penciling end of the strip, with an occasional fill-in job by Kurt Schaffenberger,’ after ‘C.C. Beck left due to a disagreement between himself and National Publications of how the Shazam! book should be written and illustrated.” Thanks

[correspondence, comments, & corrections]

intended for a split-feature book along the lines of Strange Tales, et al., which were running 11-page segments at the time of their cancellations.” This matter was discussed recently on an online list I belong to, Chris, and it seems (was it even formally announced somewhere at the time? I forget) that at one point Marvel did indeed plan a “Hercules”/“Angel” anthology title; it never came to fruition, so stories prepared for it wound up being printed elsewhere. Jerry Siegel had written the three “Angel” yarns while he was on staff at Marvel for about half a year circa 1966-67, before he moved to California so his daughter could attend university inexpensively there, and they sat on the shelf for several years. Speaking for myself, it always served my purposes (and, I think, Stan’s) to keep The X-Men, whose title had been cancelled in 1969, before the eyes of the public until we could find a way to bring them back. And boy, did we bring them back—eventually!

Delmo Walters, Jr.: “I’m surprised that DC hasn’t collected The World’s Greatest Superheroes strip he did. I did find one mistake— the Tuska Checklist failed to list what was probably George’s last comic book work: variant covers for the Death-Defying ’Devil #2 and Black Terror #2 published by Dynamite Publishing in 2008.” Readers are urged to check those out, Delmo. Meanwhile, you’ll see some vintage late-’40s ‘Black Terror’ art by Tuska in our very next issue, when we cover the Standard/Nedor super-heroes!

Hames Ware: “The un-ID’d cover artist on page 41 is Bob Hebberd. [Also:] Does anyone know exactly what Dave Glazer did at the Chesler shop, etc.? I noted that Al Plastino recalled a guy named Dave as being the one Tuska got into a scuffle with. Maybe it was Dave Glazer?” Perhaps, Hames. And here’s another suggestion:

Jake Oster: “The Chesler shop artist referred to by Al Plastino as ‘Dave Something’ in Dewey Cassell’s article on George Tuska might have been David Moneypenny, who worked for a time as staff artist for the New York newspaper PM.”

Tuska On A “Terror” This microfiche image of a George Tuska splash from America’s Best Comics #29 (Jan. 1949) foreshadows all the “Black Terror” art that will accompany next issue’s lead feature, a lavishly illustrated reprinting of Mike Nolan’s 1969 Nedor Index. Need we say more? Thanks to Jim Ludwig. [Art © 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

for the info, Walt—and your fellow reader Scott Rowland added in a separate e-mail that, when that Aparo art was reused (this time in color) as the cover of TCR #172, an explanation inside indicated that the Aparo/CM drawing seems to have been “just a nice piece of art they sort of fit the big news they had” for #101, which had been the first issue of the newszine published by Street Enterprises “(a.k.a. Jerry Sinkovec and Mike Tiefenbacher).”

Chris Green: “I thoroughly enjoyed the coverage of the badly underrated George Tuska. I grew up reading his ‘Iron Man,’ and in my mind the Goodwin/Tuska/Craig version is definitive. I have always been curious about the Tuska-drawn ‘Angel’ strip which appeared as a back-up in the otherwise reprint Ka-Zar quarterly of 1970 and in Marvel Tales #30 in 1971. I have never figured out where these strips, plus the ‘Hercules’ story from Ka-Zar #1, were originally intended to run. I would disagree with Dewey’s contention that the ‘Angel’ strips were intended for The X-Men, as the ‘Origins’ series which ran in that title from 1967-69 were only five pages long, whereas as ‘Angel’ strips under discussion were all eleven pages. It seems to me that, as the ‘Hercules’ story was also eleven pages, it was intended for the same publication at the ‘Angel’ strips. My guess is that these strips were originally

John Powell [son of comic book great Bob Powell] says of a photo of his father and a young lad which was reprinted in conjunction with Jim Amash’s interview with artist Bill Bossert: “On page 47 there is a photo of my dad and, it says, of me. That is my brother Rob, taken in California when Dad was still in the service. In fact, he’s in uniform in the picture. Thanks for sending the magazine. I wish I had known some of Dad’s contemporaries, as I find all this history fascinating.”

SPECIAL NOTE: As some of you may already know, our cover colorist Tom Ziuko, who has also been a longtime professional colorist, has had some health problems which led to financial difficulties. A lifelong friend of his has started a Facebook page for him in order to try to raise a bit of cash to assist Tom in getting back on his feet, at the link http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003266694678a. If you scroll down to the bottom, you’ll see the friend’s posting explaining everything Tom has been through in the past year, as well as a Paypal account to which one can donate. We hope you’ll give it a look.

We did it! Three issues of A/E—covered in a single bound, if not necessarily faster than a speeding bullet! Send any relevant regurgitations on this issue to: Roy Thomas e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com 32 Bluebird Trail St. Matthews, SC 29135

FINAL 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 web-co-overseer Chet Cox at mormonyoyoman@gmail.com and he’ll lead you right to it! Alter-Ego-Fans is where the Golden and Silver Ages still live!

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

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

COLLECTOR PAYING TOP DOLLAR FOR “ANY AND ALL” ORIGINAL COMIC BOOK AND COMIC STRIP ARTWORK FROM THE 1930S TO PRESENT! COVERS, PINUPS, PAGES, IT DOESN’T MATTER! 1 PAGE OR ENTIRE COLLECTIONS SOUGHT! CALL OR EMAIL ME ANYTIME!

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The Storyteller’s Story Official Selection in over 25 film festivals worldwide “A great companion to the book ‘Kavalier and Clay.’” Alison Bailes, NBC’s Reel Talk

“An essential doc for comics fans, ‘Portrait’ will also enlighten the curious.” John DeFore, Austin American-Statesman

“Entertaining and insightful. A great film about a visionary artist!” Jeffrey Katzenberg Arguably the most influential person in American comics, Will Eisner, as artist, entrepreneur, innovator, and visual storyteller, enjoyed a career that encompassed comic books from their early beginnings in the 1930s to their development as graphic novels in the 1990s. During his sixty-year-plus career, Eisner introduced the nowtraditional mode of comic book production; championed mature, sophisticated storytelling; was an early advocate for using the medium as a tool for education; pioneered the now-popular graphic novel, and served as inspiration for generations of artists. Without a doubt, Will Eisner was the godfather of the American comic book. The award-winning full-length feature film documentary includes interviews with Eisner and many of the foremost creative talents in the U.S., including Kurt Vonnegut, Michael Chabon, Jules Feiffer, Jack Kirby, Art Spiegelman, Frank Miller, Stan Lee, Gil Kane, and others.

Available Now on DVD & BLU-RAY • www.twomorrows.com

[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

Wow, What a Start! Marc Swayze’s debut of drawing the “Phantom Eagle” feature—which he did until the end of the strip’s run in 1948— took place in Wow Comics #30 (Oct. ’44). Jack Binder’s cover depicted second-fiddle heroes Mr. Scarlet, Pinky, Commando Yank, and Phantom Eagle trying to keep up with cover starlet and Shazam girl Mary Marvel. The issue’s “Phantom Eagle” story—reprinted in its entirety herein—costarred the Eagle’s “Phoenix Squadron,” an international support team of six young flyers from Axis-conquered countries that assisted the Eagle during World War II. Swayze later deemed that the extended lineup only weakened its main character, as well as the feature itself, from a narrative standpoint; the Squadron was eventually phased out in the post-War years. [Shazam heroine TM & © 2012 DC Comics; all others TM & © 2012 the respective copyright holders.]

Publications, where he ended his comics career in the mid’50s. Marc’s ongoing professional memoirs have been a vital part of FCA since his first column appeared in FCA #54 (1996). Last time we reprinted, in its entirety, Marc’s one and only story of “Ibis the Invincible” from 1944. This time around, we re-present the very first Swayzedrawn “Phantom Eagle” adventure, from Wow Comics #30, October 1944, entitled “The Phantom Eagle and the Black Mace” (written by Otto Binder and edited by Mercedes Shull) in which Mickey Malone, on his never ending quest for the long-lost “Golden Mace”—a staff formerly in the hands of his ancestors which contains the priceless inscription of Merlin’s magic formula for world peace and prosperity—learns of a far different and ominous scepter during an escapade that takes place in Nazi-occupied Holland. —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

We Didn’t Know… It Was A Golden Age!

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

We Didn’t Know… It Was A Golden Age!

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

More of Marc Swayze in future issues of A/E, too!

Speak My Name! The Origin of Captain Marvel Bill Parker’s Story Adapted by Original Artist C.C. Beck • Afterword by Paul Hamerlinck t was night in the city, almost midnight by the clock high on a dark tower. A cold rain was falling and only a few people were to be seen wearing raincoats or carrying umbrellas as they hastened past a lighted subway entrance where a small boy was selling newspapers.

Editorial Assistance: Jennifer Go

Suddenly a strange subway car, with headlights gleaming like a dragon’s eyes, roared into the station and stopped. No one was driving it.

“Have no fear, everything has been arranged,” the stranger said, ushering the boy through the car’s single entrance. The moment its passengers had been seated the car hurtled through the pitch-black tunnel at tremendous speed, then stopped at the end of the line. The boy and his phantom companion stepped out onto a platform resembling the mouth of a weird, subterranean cavern.

“Paper, sir?” asked the boy as a stranger approached him.

“Why aren’t you home in bed, son?” the stranger asked.

Mustering his courage the boy followed his guide, who led him into an ancient underground hall carved out of solid rock, grotesquely lighted by flaring torches. Ranged along the side of the hall were monstrous statues, each with flames at its feet. In huge letters hewn from the granite wall above the statues were the words THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS OF MAN.

“I have no home, sir. I sleep in the subway station. It’s warm there,” the boy answered. The stranger, whose face was hidden by the upturned collar of his black coat and by his big hat’s downturned brim, beckoned toward the subway entrance.

“Follow me!” he said in a deep voice.

The boy and the mysterious stranger went down a stairway to a subway platform. “Where are we going?” the boy asked as the two waited on the deserted platform.

“Wait and see,” was all the stranger would say.

Captain Billy’s Big Bang (Left:) The founder of Fawcett Publications, Wilford H. Fawcett, known worldwide as Captain Billy, the man behind the periodical that launched his publishing empire, Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang, is seen here in a 1923 photo—a year before the summer Olympic Games in Paris, where he was “Captain” of the American trapshooting team. The following decade, Fawcett’s youngest son, Roscoe, urged the Captain to enter the world of comic books, not too long before his death in 1940. (Center:) An ultra-rare (if low-resolution) glimpse of Bill Parker, creator of Captain Marvel (in addition to Spy Smasher, Ibis the Invincible, et al). He’s the one on the right of this photo. After writing the earliest “CM” tales, Parker, who was a National Guardsman, left to join the armed forces early in the 1940s. When he returned to Fawcett after WWII, he was made editor of Mechanix Illustrated and unfortunately had nothing further to do with the comics; he passed away in 1964. (Right:) Captain Marvel co-creator and the character’s chief artist C.C. Beck, seen in a 1946 photo, is no stranger to FCA’s pages, including via essays such as the one on these pages—and even serving as FCA's editor for several years. The three photo-images surround a detail from a 1970s cover re-creation by Beck of the comic book wherein the word “Shazam!” was first heard. [Shazam hero TM & © 2012 DC Comics.]

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Once again Shazam spoke, “For 3,000 years I have used the wisdom, strength, stamina, power, courage, and speed the gods have given me to battle the forces of evil which every day threaten to extinguish man from the face of the earth,” the old man explained. “THREE THOUSAND YEARS!” Billy gasped.

“Yes, son, and during that time I have seen everything, known everything, that happened throughout the world from the highest to the lowest,” Shazam said with a kindly smile. Then he clapped his hands once and shouted, “THE HISTORAMA!”

Miraculously the historama, a super-television screen capable of depicting past, present, and future events appeared on the wall. Billy saw himself as a very young boy being driven away from home by his wicked uncle.

At the end of the hall, sitting on a marble throne and surrounded by scrolls, a large old book, a globe of the world, and a tripod bearing a container of flaming oil, was an old, old man. “Welcome, Billy Batson,” said the old man as the boy and his guide approached.

“Through this historama I have watched you from the moment you were born, Billy,” Shazam said. “On this screen I saw your wicked uncle drive you from his house to make your own way in the world after your parents died, leaving you in his care. I know that he got rid of you in order to get possession of the money and bonds your father willed to you.”

Directly above Shazam’s head a massive granite block weighing tons hung from a slender, frayed thread. If the thread broke, the granite would

“H-how did you know my name?” the wondering boy stammered.

“I know everything,” said the old man. “I am…SHAZAM!”

A huge black cloud, a blinding lightning flash, a deafening peal of thunder formed out of nowhere as the old man spoke his name, and simultaneously a curious inscription explaining Shazam’s name appeared magically on the wall: SOLOMON wisdom

HERCULES strength ATLAS stamina ZEUS power

ACHILLES courage

MERCURY speed

crush the old man to powder, and the reader could see that the thread was almost worn through. Old Shazam continued his speech. “All my life I have fought injustice and cruelty,” he said sadly. “But I am old now—my time is almost up. You shall be my successor. Merely by speaking my name you can become the strongest and mightiest man in the world—CAPTAIN MARVEL! Speak my name!”

“SHAZAM!” shouted Billy. BLAM! Came a huge black could and a flash of magic lightning and the boy, Billy, disappeared and a powerful man, dressed in a tight red uniform trimmed with gold appeared in his place.

“Captain Marvel, I salute you,” said Shazam. “Henceforth it shall be your sacred duty to defend the poor and helpless, right wrongs, and crush evil everywhere.” The Seven statues… suitably ugly, beguilingly peculiar. [Shazam characters TM & © 2012 DC Comics.]

“Yes, Sire,” replied Captain Marvel.

“To become Billy Batson again, also speak

Speak My Name!—The Origin of Captain Marvel

my name,” Shazam went on. “And now I must go. Captain Marvel, speak my name!”

“You can’t see him. Get out or I’ll throw you out!” the receptionist sneered. But Billy ran past him and into President Morris’s private office, where the receptionist caught him and held him fast.

“SHAZAM!” cried Captain Marvel, and through the blinding flash of the lightning he saw the granite block falling on Shazam with a crash. Moments later Billy found himself standing at his old post outside the subway entrance. Shazam, Captain Marvel, and the weird underground cavern had vanished.

“It’s all right, Hammond,” said the president. “Let the boy stay. Well, son, what is it?”

Excitedly, Billy told how he had trailed the suspicious-looking strangers to the apartment building where he was willing to bet they were going to meet the phantom. The radio official ridiculed Billy’s suspicions and advised the lad to leave before he lost his temper.

“Gee! It all seems like a dream,” the boy murmured to himself. The tower clock now indicated one o’clock in the morning, and Billy was all alone on the deserted street. It was still raining.

“All right, I’ll go!” declared the plucky youngster. “But if I find the phantom’s laboratory, will you give me a job as a radio announcer?”

The next morning, as A single-panel demonstration of Shazam’s extraordinary capabilities. the tower clock read 8:00 [Shazam characters TM & © 2012 DC Comics.] AM, Billy was again “I’ll give you anything selling newspapers. you want if you find this madman!” Morris declared. “Now get out! I “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” he shouted, holding up a newspaper can’t waste any more time listening to nonsense!” with huge headlines saying, “MANIAC SCIENTIST THREATENS U.S. RADIO SYSTEMS; DEMANDS That night Billy went back to the $50,000,000; AIR OFFICIALS apartment house. “How am I going ALARMED.” to get in there without being seen?”

he wondered. “Maybe if I go up in the tower of that office building over there…”

“Gimme a paper, kid,” growled a dapper-looking man wearing a double-breasted jacket and smoking a slim cigar.

The office building’s elevator quickly took Billy to the observation tower and the boy said, “This is a job for Captain Marvel! SHAZAM!”

“Wanta read about the boss, eh?” chuckled his companion, a short, pudgy fellow with a broken nose.

“BOOM” sounded the magic thunder and lightning and miraculously Billy became Captain Marvel. With a mighty leap the Captain easily spanned the yawning chasm between the buildings and landed on the apartment’s roof. He peered through a penthouse window. “What luck! This must be the phantom’s laboratory,” he thought.

“Shut up, you fool. Come on, let’s get going,” hissed the dapper man as the two walked away.

“I wonder what they meant? Gee, maybe the ‘boss’ is the phantom scientist! I’d better follow them,” Billy said to himself. He trailed the two men to the Skytower Apartment building but was unable to get past the doorman. He then went to the offices of Sterling Morris, radio head, to tell him what he had discovered.

“I’ve got to see Mr. Morris. It’s important!” Billy said to the male receptionist.

As Captain Marvel watched through the window he saw one of the two men he had trailed pull a draw-curtain, revealing a television screen. “Master Sivana, are you there?” he said to the screen.

Suddenly on the television screen appeared the face of a bald-headed,

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

evil-looking old man wearing heavy horn-rimmed glasses. It was Sivana, the mad scientist who had threatened to destroy radio unless he was paid $50,000,000!

“The fools!” Sivana snarled. “They wouldn’t pay what I demanded. In a few moments it will be midnight and we will drive every radio station from the air---FOREVER!”

Crashing through the window, Captain Marvel raced toward Sivana’s diabolical machine and with not a second to spare hurled the dapper man into it, smashing the radio silencer into smithereens.

Marvel with a courtly bow. Then he turned to confront the scheming scientist, who had watched everything through the television screen.

“Well, Sivana, that’s the end of your radio silencer,” he said to the screen.

“But not the end of me! We will meet again, Captain Marvel!” the old scientist swore, shaking his clenched fists in anger.

“Well, I guess that ought to hold our friend Sivana for a while,” Marvel said. “And now, SHAZAM!”

The other man raced for the private elevator, entered it, and slammed the door behind him. Flexing his powerful muscles, Marvel pulled the door open, gripped the elevator cable in steel-like hands, and hauled the car back to the penthouse. Then he knocked the pudgy villain silly with a punch to the side of the head.

Lightning split the air and Billy resumed his normal shape. Picking up the phone, he spoke cheerfully into it.

“Mr. Morris? This is Billy Batson. Come right over to the Skytower Apartment penthouse, I’ve got something to show you,” he announced.

In another moment both of Sivana’s terrified assistants were securely bound with tubing ripped from the radio-silencer. “Wh-who are y-y-you?” one of them quivered. “I am Captain Marvel, gentlemen,” smiled Captain

“Yes, Sivana, we will meet again, and when we do, you’ll be behind prison walls…OR DEAD!” Captain Marvel shouted, smashing the television screen to bits.

A half hour later Billy had told Mr. Morris everything---except about Captain Marvel. “And that’s what’s left of the radio silencer, sir,” he said,

Speak My Name!—The Origin of Captain Marvel

gesturing to the tangled mess of broken panels, bent tubing, and tangled wiring.

“It doesn’t seem possible that you did this all by yourself,” said the radio chief.

“You’ve got to promise you won’t tell anybody,” Billy cautioned. “I’ve still got to capture Sivana and it will be easier if nobody knows who I am. So now I’ll get out of here and you can call the police.”

“By the way,” he added, “how about that job you promised me? Do I get it?” Mr. Morris smiled broadly as he answered the boy’s query.

“The job is yours! From now on you are Billy Batson, BOY RADIO REPORTER!”

“Billy Batson, radio reporter! Boy, oh boy!” cried the happy lad. “Here’s where we go to town! Me and…”

“You and who else, son?” asked Sterling Morris.

“Er…nobody, sir. Just me and the microphone, that’s all, sir, just me and ‘Mike’!” laughed Billy.



Wilford “Captain Billy” Fawcett, the founder of Fawcett Publications, lived long enough to see the first issue of Whiz Comics in print, but would miss out on enjoying the ensuing phenomenon of its star attraction. Captain Marvel’s consequential success after that initial outing took many people by surprise, including his own publisher, who never expected him to amount to much, according to the artist who co-created the character.

C.C. Beck always downplayed his own importance in the Captain’s eminence, pointing out that he “merely brought him to life in picture form.” Beck unassumingly viewed his role as simply illustrating the scripts placed before him—which he unquestionably did in his distinctive, straightforward, and genuine approach.

After a false-start concept vis-à-vis a team of six heroes, writer Bill Parker instead took a singular hero and based his powers on King Solomon and figures taken from Greek and Roman mythology. The story’s rudiments were inspired workings of classic literature and fairy tales, collectively layered with the raw sentiment connected with Billy Batson’s quandary—a factor often lost within the concept’s basic wish-fulfillment principles.

Parker’s story, in harmony with Beck’s drawings, was clear-cut and wasted no words. “Parker’s script supplied only the dialog and a few transitional captions,” Beck recalled of his collaborator’s opening “Captain Marvel” adventure. “Everything else was in the pictures.” Beck had regularly reiterated that the basis of Marvel’s look

came from actor Fred MacMurray. Moreover, the artist’s formation of the character’s attire made for one of the most preeminent and distinctive designs of any hero then or now. Beck primed Marvel’s threads with an operetta soldier’s uniform emulated from The Student Prince, a sash and jacket-like top with salient icon, tight pants (not tights, insisted Beck), and a medium-length, braid-trimmed cape tossed over one shoulder. “Such a costume was worn by drum majors, doormen, or ushers,” Beck said. “It wouldn’t have been out of place even on the streets in those days.” Marvel’s perceived “armbands” were, in fact, sleeve marks representing the rank of Captain… while another costume component recurrently misinterpreted were the Captain’s decorations on his cape, which were not “flowers” but the ornamental buttons and braiding of military outfits.

When it came to Shazam, Beck had stated that Parker’s first script contained no description of the Egyptian wizard. The artist decided to draw him “as a combination Moses-Merlin magician figure… a benign semi-Biblical character.” And, it seemed to have flown past practically everyone that Beck drew the ancient Shazam simply as an elderly version of Captain Marvel.

When the team crafted the story in 1939 under the orders of editorial director Ralph Daigh, both Parker and Beck were already skilled and seasoned professionals, and their adeptness is surely evident in their clever weaving of folklore distinctions within a contemporary boy’s journey—elements which made it a durable daydream for the young and young at heart.

Beck had once noted that some traditions from the classics had been manifested within the characters themselves: “Billy Batson was the standard penniless boy hero of all children’s stories… Sivana was the evil sorcerer of folk tales, but now wearing a white laboratory jacket instead of a long robe and pointed hat… Shazam was the ancient keeper of hidden lore that has appeared in stories all over the world for thousands of years; I drew him to look like Moses or some Old Testament figure on purpose, knowing that he would be instantly recognized by readers everywhere as a kindly guardian of mankind.”

In the origin’s opening panels, the plight of a lone, destitute child is effortlessly conveyed by Beck’s subtly-rendered trembling of Billy’s lower lip. Despite the forsaken boy’s generally upbeat demeanor, those early panels made for deep, poignant moments.

By the time Billy and the stranger reach the subway’s platform, the youngster is concurrently astounded but accepting of a train on auto-pilot, emblazoned with peculiar symbols, and en route to a place where clearly a different set of laws must exist. Beck’s

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numinous subway train with dragon-eyed headlights is an enchanting art-deco delight—something an inquisitive child would enthusiastically hop onto as they would a new ride at an amusement park.

The flame-lit sculptures of the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man found in the underground hall are an aptly arcane, atmospheric addition to the surroundings and proceedings. Beck drew the statues suitably ugly, as well as beguilingly peculiar.

ration in the subway had concluded, Beck’s building clock in the background notified us that the duration of the enigmatic event had lasted only 65 minutes.

After the heart of the origin was fulfilled, the remainder of the tale was intrinsically maneuvered into more conventional territory, with Captain Marvel defeating Sivana’s radio scheme. Parker created the moniker of the Captain’s foremost opponent by coalescing the name of the Indian god Siva with nirvana, followed with Beck modeling the scoundrel after a short-tempered, white lab coat-wearing pharmacist he had once encountered.

As Billy stood before the ancient and venerable Shazam, the wizard’s limitless knowledge from “the highest to the lowest” Retrospectively, and dignified Parker never appearance are further endeavored to communicated by manufacture something Beck’s accompanying grandiose with Captain drawings of basic Marvel… instead, he objects with internal resourcefully combined denotations: a marble old familiar practicalthrone for noble rightities in pure and imagieousness… a native ways. The laying luminous, fire-lit down of such sturdy brazier symbolizing groundwork has given eternal wisdom and his efforts amplified understanding… an lasting value from an enormous old tome epoch that produced within whose frayed hundreds of mostlypages are the secrets forgotten characters. behind the superBeck adhered to natural powers and standard illustration the authority which fundamentals when he commands it… the brought the first story huge globe, suggestive and characters to life… of Shazam’s (and soon and—as within the full to be Billy’s) unmitiSpeak My Name repertoire of his work— gated responsibility of Captain Marvel’s origin was also skillfully utilized in later stories, such as Otto Binder’s “The Plot he conveyed the stories bringing an end to “the against the Universe” (Captain Marvel Adventures #100, Sept. 1949). Art by C.C. Beck and Pete clearly and judiciously, Costanza. [Shazam characters TM & © 2012 DC Comics.] forces of evil which never setting out to every day threaten to impress his audience extinguish man from the face of the Earth.” with a modus operandi of arty experimentation. The scope of Shazam’s infinite capabilities were also effectively Captain Marvel’s origin was an intermittent point of reference shown by Beck within a single panel wherein a huge dark cloud throughout the character’s 14-year run, and was periodically used instantly hovered above the wizard and produced a strike of as a plot device during the Wendell Crowley editorial era for such lightning. You can almost feel the force of the hit yourself as the treasured stories as “A Twice Told Tale” (Capt. Marvel Adventures brazier’s flame flickers violently and Shazam’s weary eyes squint #80, Jan. 1948) and Otto Binder’s “The Plot against the Universe” even further from the glare of the deafening bolt. (CMA #100, Sept. 1949). After kids are treated to Billy’s first incredulous transformation Nonetheless, C.C. Beck always believed that the child chosen to into Captain Marvel, they are equally stunned by the consequential speak Shazam’s name and become heir to his power was really the stone-block demise of Shazam… but Beck conscientiously illustrue hero of all the Captain Marvel stories, from the first to the last, trated the occurrence with restraint and as much perspicacity as and that “[W]ithout Billy… Captain Marvel would possible. As to why Shazam affirmed that he “must go” to his have been merely another overdrawn, one-dimensuccessor, no further elucidation was necessary; Parker’s exclusion sional figure in a ridiculous costume …” of this and other unexplained specifics in the origin only added to

the mysteriousness of the fantasy in which, after Billy’s inaugu-

The Secret’s Out! Roy Thomas & Jerry Bingham’s ’86 Shazam! Redux by John G. Pierce Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

he world of adventure fiction has given us many memorable and classic origin stories for its various and sundry heroes: the English boy who grew up to become “king of the jungle” … the sole Texas Ranger who survived an ambush … the single survivor of an extinct planet who grew up on Earth “with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men”… the boy who witnessed his parents’ brutal murder, and thus dedicated his life to crime-fighting … the Army reject who was turned into a super-soldier … the high school science student bitten by a radioactive spider … and, among so many others, the orphaned newspaper boy who was led into a subway tunnel and an encounter with an ancient wizard who gave him fantastic powers.

In the mid-1980s, DC published a book devoted specifically to retelling the starting-point stories of characters whom it owned from the beginning, or had acquired from other publishers. That book, Secret Origins, actually had a rather intriguing secret origin of its own, as it was conceived in part thanks to the 1984 Summer Olympics. In order to escape the congestion caused by the event, then-Los Angelenos Roy Thomas and his wife Dann took a 6,000-mile drive around the Western United States. During that trip, Roy developed the idea of a new title devoted to origin stories, but with a difference: “Why couldn’t we redraw

and re-dialogue—and even, where necessary, re-think—those fabled stories from the late 1930s and 1940s? That would avoid the stigma associated in some readers’ minds with simply reprinting old stories.”

DC managing editor Dick Giordano and his superiors liked Roy’s ideas, but with one stipulation: that one out of every three issues should spotlight a hero from the Silver Age or later. As Roy reported in The All-Star Companion, Vol. 4: “All I really cared about was to be allowed to follow my original plan for the series—which was to present the 1930s-40s stories in chronological order. This DC generally allowed—though (like me) they felt that we needed to start not with Siegel & Shuster’s Dr. Occult from mid-'30s More Fun Comics, but with Superman. And, after a discussion, Dick and I also agreed that one other early hero origin—that of Fawcett’s original Captain Marvel—would come before that of The Crimson Avenger, who was the second DC costumed hero.” “Captain Marvel was one of the most important characters of the Golden Age, right up there with Superman and Batman,” Roy commented recently. “He was also one of the earliest, coming out in late 1939, and it was my intention to publish the origins primarily in chronological order.”

ReCAP Artist Jerry Bingham (left) and writer Roy Thomas surround the cover to Secret Origins #3 (June 1986), their magical modern-day re-creation of the original Captain Marvel’s starting point. Jerry supplied this fairly recent photo; Dann Thomas took the pic of hubbie Roy in the Irish countryside in 1988, perhaps carousing with an icon of one of the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man. [Cover © 2012 DC Comics.]

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come up with comic [workrelated] anecdotes. I used to feel like I was working in a vacuum most of the time and moving from one job to the next, and they kind of blend together in my dotage. But I do remember enjoying the work on that one [Secret Origins #3]; I liked the cover, so I was happy you liked it as well. Naturally I, like many of my peers, was (am) a big fan of yours [RT] and, after many painful jobs, you made this one easy for me.”

When asked about how much direction he had given to Bingham, Roy replied that “Mostly Jerry was just instructed to redraw the story. I suspect he understood that he could flesh it out with room for Cap and Billy to be thinking about their predicament, and to give Billy more scope for being amazed and puzzled at his first exercise of Get Real Cap’s powers, etc. I was content, The first true realistic-style rendering of Captain Marvel’s origin came in the form of a 2-page preamble to the for the most part, to work with a character by future comics professional—and Marvel Family artist—Don Newton. The strip appeared in G.B. Love’s fairly straightforward telling of fanzine The Rocket’s Blast Special #8 in 1970. [Shazam heroes TM & © 2012 DC Comics.] the original tale… and I was delighted with Jerry’s take, both Assigned to draw the re-told “Captain Marvel” origin, based on in terms of storytelling and basic drawing.” the original from Whiz Comics #2 (Feb. 1940), was Jerry Bingham, an artist whose style was dramatically different from that of Secret Origins #3, by the way, was only the second time that Marvel’s artistic co-creator, C. C. Beck. The job of inking Jerry’s Captain Marvel’s beginning had been drawn in a pseudo-realistic pencils fell to Steve Mitchell, the only part of the enterprise that style, as opposed to Beck’s original approach. In 1970, the Science Roy now regrets. “Steve Mitchell’s inking had too weak and Fiction Comics Association (SFCA), viz., fanzine editor/publisher scratchy a look for my tastes,” Roy said recently. “I don’t recall G. B. Love, had published The Rocket’s Blast Special #8, with a twohow he came to be chosen, but I probably had a hand in it—I page atmospheric retelling of the origin’s essence by fanzine artist suspect at Steve’s and future professional request. He and I both Don Newton. Several played poker (probably years later, beginning in at that time) in an L.A. the last issue of DC’S group that also consisted Shazam!, Newton would of Marv Wolfman, Len assume the artistic chores Wein, Marty Pasko, on his beloved hero, in a Mike Barr, and Jerry style which was not only Bingham.” dramatically different from that of Beck and Sometimes the secret others who had operated origins behind the stories in Beck’s style, but also are fascinating, somewhat different from sometimes they are his own earlier approach rather prosaic, but to the characters. they’re almost never boring! From the Dissimilar to The Olympic games to a Rocket’s Blast Special poker game—who would version, SO #3 recreated have thought? the entire origin—not only in a different artistic A short while ago, style, but with added when Roy asked Jerry dialogue and thought Bingham about their balloons, as Roy “Shazam!” origin story, attempted, as he You’ve Got To Change Your Evil Ways the artist responded: “It’s commented, to “ get Captain Marvel’s first foe, Dr. Sivana, was as evil as ever in 1986. [© 2012 DC Comics.] always difficult for me to inside the head (heads?)

The Secret’s Out!

of Captain Marvel and Billy.” In addition, the original tale had run only 13 pages, but Roy had 22 pages to fill, and this obviously entailed adding some details, some of them largely extraneous ones, to the story. One of these was the attempt by a WHIZ radio station employee to intercept Billy as he boldly made his way towards the office of Mr. Morris… while another showed a lady’s frightened reaction as Marvel zoomed past her window. These were in addition to the earliermentioned explorations of Billy’s thought-processes and verbalized remarks about what was happening to him— items which hadn’t been bothered with in Bill Parker’s original story.

story, but he would become Captain Marvel’s foremost writer within a few years. This was not the first time that a latter-day “CM” scripter would include Otto in a story as a tribute. The first new tale of the DC handling of the character, in Shazam! #1 (March 1973, but actually published in Dec. 1972), as written by Denny O’Neil, had also contained a brief appearance by a “Mr. Binder.”

In the 1939-40 origin, when Billy asks Mr. Morris if he will give him a job as a radio announcer if he can locate the “phantom’s” laboratory, Mr. Morris readily agrees; but in the revision he is much more generous. “A job? I’d give you the station, if you could find that madman!” Fortunately for Morris, Billy didn’t remind him of the offer.

But besides all of those elements, there are some other intriguing differences in the retold version. On page 6 of the original story, and page 11 of the Thomas-Bingham version, Billy is seen hawking newspapers. The headline of the original reads “Maniac Scientist Threatens U.S. Radio System; Demands $50,000,000,” but the revised version labels him a “Phantom Scientist,” and the demand is only for $5,000,000. Incidentally, the final panels on each of these pages, which show two of the scientist’s henchmen buying a paper from Billy, are fairly similar, even down to the color of the suits the two men are wearing. Additionally, in the immediately preceding panel of the second version, there is a tip of the hat to long-time Captain Marvel writer Otto Binder, as Billy has a brief conversation with a “Mr. Binder” who is obviously a regular customer. Otto, of course, was not yet associated with Captain Marvel at the time of the first

In the Whiz story, Billy, although at first he’d thought that his encounter with Shazam might have been a dream, doesn’t seem to have such doubts when it comes time to turn into Captain Marvel, whereas in the revision, he still thinks of it as not having been real, until he shouts “Shazam!” and does indeed turn into Marvel.

In a slight bit of historical revisionism, Sivana refers to Captain Marvel as “you Big Red Cheese,” something he wouldn’t have said in the original stories until a while later. Another alteration, and arguably an improvement over the original, has Billy giving full credit to Marvel for the smashing Sivana’s equipment, whereas in the original Billy asks Mr.

New Old Beginnings Roy Thomas’ supplementary dialogue, and Jerry Bingham’s dramatic staging and atmospheric artwork, gave a new feel to an old tale. Inks by Steve Mitchell. Of course, only a year or two later, Roy (with wife Dann) and artist Tom Mandrake would tell Captain Marvel’s origin yet again, as a one-big-Earth follow-up to the events of the 1985-86 Crisis on Infinite Earths—and, not long after that, writer/artist Jerry Ordway would take his own crack at it. All three of those retellings would probably have more in common with each other than with the bare-bones essence of Bill Parker & C.C. Beck’s 1939 original—yet Roy, Tom, and both Jerrys all revere the tale as related in the first issue of Whiz Comics. [Shazam hero TM & © 2012 DC Comics.]

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Morris “to promise you won’t tell anybody that I smashed the radio silencer”—an improbability which Mr. Morris doesn’t question.

Comics historian Dick Lupoff once proposed a “First Great Days” thesis, viz., that the first six months to a year of a character’s comics life constituted a time period during which his/her attributes were revealed not only to the readers but also to the editors, writers, and artists. Thus, while the earliest tales are fascinating The Calm Between The Storms as history, it should be Captain Marvel co-creator C.C. Beck (on left) and Roy Thomas share a friendly moment on a panel at the 1976 San Diego noted that, in most cases, Comic-Con. Though this was one of only perhaps two in-person encounters (both occurring in San Diego), the pair’s the subsequent stories relationship even by long distance was an oft-stormy one. In 1986, Beck scribed a negative, one might say hostile improved over time. analysis of Roy and Jerry’s version of Cap’s origin, which was just plain too long and vitriolic to be printed here. Consequently, retold origin But, hey—maybe if enough aFCAnados want to read it sometime…! Thanks to Gary Sassaman & Comic-Con International. stories often improved upon the originals; one a huge betrayal or distortion of the original. And Roy thinks, for instance, of many later retellings of the Superman origin Thomas was too much of a fan of the original Captain that fleshed out Jerry Siegel’s initial bare-bones tale. Marvel to do that! Thus, revisiting the past, as was done in Secret Origins, should not be something to be rejected out of hand, unless what is done is

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The Boy Who Was Billy Batson The Captain Marvel Radio Show Mystery by P.C. Hamerlinck n ephemeral moment from the far-away past… a cry of “Shazam!” heard over the crackling of fading airwave static… ultimately fading forever from the collective consciousness. The likelihood of there having been Captain Marvel broadcasts during the Golden Age of Radio has by and large been dismissed as fanciful daydreams and the wishful thinking of castle-in-the-sky mythmakers. But now, at last, the time has come to turn the dial and tune in to unravel what we can about this radio mystery….

Fawcett Inquiries

With Republic Pictures’ imminent release of The Adventures of Captain Marvel into theatres in 1941, Fawcett Publications proudly displayed full-page advertisements for the 12-chapter movie serial inside their comic books.

Logically, if a Captain Marvel radio show were likewise due to be added to the World’s Mightiest Mortal’s mounting franchise, Fawcett would have certainly made a point to inform everyone about it, as they did with most other Captain Marvel product from their repertoire. That being said, there were a pair of Captain Marvel radiorelated announcements that did indeed appear in print, in Fawcett’s popular comics line.

The first notice appeared in Captain Marvel Adventures #16 (Oct. 1942). After the

(With gratitude to Burt Boyar and Shaun Clancy)

issue’s second story (which unsurprisingly concluded with Billy Batson doing his radio broadcast at station WHIZ) there appeared an advertisement which showed Captain Marvel soaring from a radio speaker to the delight of young listeners below, and with the headline: “WOULD YOU LIKE TO HEAR CAPTAIN MARVEL ON THE RADIO?”

The readers were asked to fill out and mail the coupon which requested their name, address, and age, and to finish this line: “Dear Captain Marvel, I would like very much to hear you on the radio over my favorite radio station, which is: ___ .” As an appealing incentive, the first 500 responses to the ad were promised a free copy of America’s Greatest Comics, but participants were cautioned to “be sure to name the radio station over which you’d like to hear Captain Marvel, or your entry won’t count! Don’t Boy Broadcaster Billy Batson/Burt Boyar wait—send your coupon in now!” Boy broadcaster Billy Batson … and Burt Boyar, who, as a child radio With the implementation of their actor during the 1940s, portrayed Billy Batson on the very-short-lived urgent brand of market research, Captain Marvel radio serial. This cropped photograph (full pic below) Fawcett obviously had an was taken during the 1960s while Boyar was doing his best Al Jolson undeniable desire to get Captain impression for his wife and his good friend, the legendary entertainer, Marvel over the airwaves as soon Sammy Davis Jr., who snapped the picture. The photo appears in its as possible. entirety in the highly recommended book Photo by Sammy Davis Jr.,

complied and annotated by Boyar, the late star’s biographer, and just one of a number of top-selling books by Boyar. [Shazam character TM & © 2012 DC Comics; Photograph TM & © 2012 Estate of Sammy Davis Jr.]

Irrespective of Fawcett’s gentle bribery of a complimentary comic book, response to the ad proved to be quite successful. Coming right after the first story in Captain Marvel Adventures #19 (Jan. 1943) was a follow-up message that depicted Captain Marvel buried in a heap of letters and with the headline: “WOW! THERE SURE ARE A LOT OF YOU WHO WANT TO HEAR CAPTAIN MARVEL ON THE RADIO!” The declaration was accompanied with a handwritten thank-you note from Captain Marvel

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Radio Free Batson The inquisitive minds at Fawcett Publications wanted to know how badly the readers of Captain Marvel Adventures wanted to hear audio-adventures of their beloved hero. The radio-related ad above appeared in CMA #16 and Whiz Comics #36 (both Oct. 1942)… followed by second notice (below) that reported the tremendous response they received from the earlier ad, which turned up in CMA #19 (Jan. ’43). Puzzlingly, besides these two announcements, there was no further mention found in the comics of the World’s Mightiest Mortal’s imminent flight over to the airwaves. [Shazam hero TM & © 2012 DC Comics.]

himself for the “thousands of cards flooding into Captain Marvel’s office in New York …!”

However, after this second communiqué, there was no further mention by Fawcett of Captain Marvel getting on the air.

Historian Findings

In 1998, I received correspondence from the late Jim Harmon, prominent old-time radio historian and author of The Great Radio Heroes (1967). Harmon’s letter, published in FCA #59 (1998), spoke

of his then-most-recent book, Radio & TV Premiums: A Guide to the History and Value of Radio and TV Premiums (Krause Pub.), which he elucidated was to “cover the history of many radio characters— including Captain Marvel….”

Harmon was completely certain that Captain Marvel had definitely been a broadcasted radio serial—albeit ever so briefly— around the 1943 period. He based his convictions on conversations he had shared with old-time radio fans like the late Lynn Hickman, who claimed to have actually heard the broadcasts firsthand, as well as discovering Captain Marvel in the daily program listings

The Boy Who Was Billy Batson

published in old issues of Radio Guide (the publication that would later become TV Guide). Yet, as with multiple other radio broadcasts from that era, no recordings of the show—or any further documentation regarding it—have ever surfaced. Thus, even in the face of Harmon’s conscientious research, Captain Marvel’s transmitted exploits seemed eternally destined to be no more than a genuine radio mystery, inescapably lost amongst the living, and swept away on a breeze through the mists of time… …until Billy Batson himself was found!

Billy’s Broadcast

Burt Boyar was born in 1927 of Lillian and Benjamin A. Boyar, in New York City. His father was Broadway producer Max Gordon’s Triple Play general manager, and young Teen radio actor Burt Boyar’s performances during the ’40s included portraying Archie on Archie Andrews, Dexter on Meet Burt found himself brought Corliss Archer, and Billy Batson on Captain Marvel. Here are examples of the comic book counterparts of each program: up in the theatre. By late Archie #4 (Sept.-Oct. 1943) with a radio show cover by Harry Sahle; Meet Corliss Archer #1 (March ’48), published by Fox, 1939, Boyar had become a with artwork by Al Feldstein; and lastly, Captain Marvel Adventures #59 (April ’46), with C.C. Beck’s cover depicting Billy child radio actor, with at his radio job, and the Captain flying from the station WHIZ building. [CMA cover © 2012 DC Comics; Archie cover © 2012 ongoing parts in commerArchie Comic Publicaitons; Meet Corliss Archer cover © 2012 the respective copyright holders.] cials for Superman, The Goldbergs, Pepper Young’s Family… appearing frequently on The Aldrich Family and Cavalcade of America, as well as portraying Archie on Archie Andrews, Dexter Franklin on Meet Corliss Archer, and… Billy Batson on Captain Marvel!

The on-the-air jobs kept Boyar so busy during his teen years that he never finished high school, but fortuitously, he always had a knack for writing.

With his radio days behind him, Boyar landed a job at a New York publicity firm writing column items and jokes, before he and an associate opened up their own publicity office in the early ’50s. He soon met college student Jane Feinstein and they were married a year later.

Boyar began writing a weekly newspaper column, which opened the door to a syndicated daily Broadway column that reached millions of readers; in addition, he wrote a weekly column in TV Guide, as well as feature articles for Esquire and New York Magazine.

With his wife, Boyar co-authored the commercial and critical triumph Yes I Can (1965), an autobiography of their close friend Sammy Davis, Jr.; the duo would later collaborate again with the famed singer on a follow-up autobiography, Why Me? (1989). The couple also wrote the tennis novel World Class (1975) and, while living in Spain, wrote Hitler Stopped by Franco (2001); the latter book’s publicity concerning the authors mentions Burt Boyar’s Captain Marvel connection. In 2007, Boyar complied and annotated Photo by Sammy Davis Jr., showcasing through iconic imagery the renowned performer’s talents behind a camera. In total, the Boyars’ books have sold over 10 million copies, have been translated into 15 languages, and have topped the New York Times Best Seller lists. In 2011, FCA contributor Shaun Clancy, while researching the Archie Andrews

radio show, contacted Burt Boyar to discuss his time as a radio actor… and to inquire about his involvement with the short-lived Captain Marvel radio program:

SHAUN CLANCY: Has anyone ever contacted you on your radio career before? BURT BOYAR: No. Never.

SC: I understand that you portrayed Dexter on Meet Corliss Archer. BOYAR: Yes, I used to walk across the hall at Mutual after doing commercials on Superman to go work on Archer.

SC: When you worked on Superman, did you meet Bud Collyer, the actor who voiced Clark Kent/Superman?

BOYAR: Yes, I knew him very well. I think he was a few years older than me. We were cordial with each other, but we weren’t close friends or anything. Sometimes we would hang out together on the third floor at NBC between jobs. In fact, I had no real friends in those days, although Jackie Grimes was sort of a friend… but the fact was that we were all very busy with our shows, and then—still being young kids—we’d all go home at the end of the day. I wasn’t really on the Superman show itself; I was just performing on the commercials for it every day, and in a studio separate from the Superman cast.

SC: Did you do the commercials live on-the-air every day?

BOYAR: Oh yes, we did them all live. This was when the show was done in New York at WOR [NOTE: 1940-41]. John Reed King was the announcer, before Jackson Beck took over when the show moved the California. I remember John Reed King vividly because we would clown around with him in the studio. One day, when we were going live on the air, King was standing at the microphone, script in hand, reading the sign-off signature, when we lit his script on fire. But, being the great professional that he was, he just let the script-in-flames drop to the linoleum floor and continued to recite his sign-off without the

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slightest interruption or change of tone! [both laugh]

SC: What do you remember about the commercials themselves?

BOYAR: They were for Kellogg’s Pep cereal, and I played the president of the aviation club.

SC: I see you also played Archie on the Archie Andrews radio show.

BOYAR: Yes, that was in 1943 [on the Blue Network]. I believe I was the first to play Archie.

SC: Bob Hastings, who also played Archie, thought you were one of the first, if not the first, to portray the character. Do you recall how long you were on Archie Andrews?

BOYAR: Not for very long… just that first year. I remember the two sponsors when I was on it were Swift and Kraft Foods. SC: Do you recall the rest of the cast?

BOYAR: I only remember Cameron Andrews as Jughead.

SC: Do you remember how you got the job on Archie? BOYAR: I was a child actor at the time and just got a call for it. I started performing on radio when I was 12, and I think I was 14 or 15 years old when I worked on Archie.

SC: Did you know about the Archie character from the comics before you did the radio role?

BOYAR: Oh, yes! I read the comic books, but never collected them.

SC: Did you ever do any public appearances as the Archie character?

BOYAR: No, but I do remember doing just one publicity shot at WOR where I was holding a big juicy steak out to a hungry lion. That was the only publicity thing I ever did during that time.

Serial Thriller A couple of years prior to the ever-sobrief broadcast of the Captain Marvel radio show, the Big Red Cheese starred (in black-&-white) in the fondly recalled Republic serial The Adventures of Captain Marvel. Here are a poster and a shot of the star, Tom Tyler. [Shazam hero TM & © 2012 DC Comics.]

The Boy Who Was Billy Batson

SC: Archie Comics recently released Archie Marries Veronica/Archie Marries Betty. Seeing as how you portrayed Archie, do you have any inclination as to which girl he would have chosen?

around for a month in New York before the sponsor moved it to Chicago. I am so sorry that I can’t remember much else about it, other than shouting “Shazam!”—and that wasn’t for very long, because the show was moved way from New York. I was a child then, so I never kept any scripts of any shows. Of course, now I wish I had, but that was over seventy years ago and my interests are very different today than they were back then.

BOYAR: As a kid playing Archie, my choice might have been the morewholesome-bobbysoxer-saddle-shoewearing Betty … but, as an adult, I would be more interested in the more-sensual Veronica.

SC: Did you actually listen to any programs during the period when you worked in radio?

SC: Can you tell me what station Captain Marvel was broadcast on?

BOYAR: I wish I could remember. But I do recall that I worked principally at WOR Mutual (1440 Broadway) and at NBC … so it was almost surely one of those.

BOYAR: Oh, yes. The Lone Ranger and Jack Benny were ones I followed.

SC: Have you stayed in contact with anyone from your days in radio?

BOYAR: I know very few people from that era and haven’t seen them in many years.

SC: What were some other shows you performed on?

SC: When did you stop working in radio?

BOYAR: Around the age of 17 or 18, I became very interested in riding horses. I used to go over every day to the stables on 67th Street. I began turning down new roles just so that I could be at the stables. I was young and naive at the time and was just more interested in working around horses than being on the radio. So, little by little, I rode myself right out of radio.

BOYAR: I was on Let’s Pretend, a CBS series directed by Nila Mack, and did Coast-to-Coast on a Bus for Madge Tucker on NBC.

SC: Were your parents also your agents?

BOYAR: No, but my mother took me down to my very first audition, which was for Madge Tucker. During the audition I was asked to cry. I did such a bad job at it, but Madge taught me how to do it right, and I ended up learning a lot from being on her show. Once I auditioned for a movie part at 20th Century Fox for How Green Was My Valley [1941], but I was a little too heavy for the role. They told me that if I could lose a few pounds they’d give me the part. I wouldn’t do it, so they gave the part to 12-year-old Roddy McDowell, his first movie role. SC: Do you have any brothers or sisters?

BOYAR: I have two brothers—one older and one younger—and they couldn’t have cared less about radio acting. My younger brother was too young to know any better, and my older brother wasn’t interested in it at all because he was going to school. My father was Max Gordon’s general manager for his very successful Broadway shows. I grew up with show business around me.

SC: Were you pressured by your parents to pursue acting?

BOYAR: No, but my mother did lightly push me towards it. I became a very busy radio actor as a teenager. I would travel from one show to the next and average about 25 shows a week; I would do 3 or 4 shows a day.

SC: I read that you portrayed Billy Batson on a briefly-aired Captain Marvel radio show—a program about which very little is known. What can you remember about it?

BOYAR: After being on Archie Andrews and Meet Corliss Archer, I worked on Captain Marvel. I was the first Billy Batson on the radio. I remember I used to shout “Shazam!” and turn into Captain Marvel. I don’t recall who played Marvel. The program was only

SC: But you stayed connected to show business later with your writing career.

BOYAR: Yes, I became a syndicated newspaper columnist in New York, wrote for TV Guide, and co-wrote the Sammy Davis, Jr., book Yes I Can, in 1965. The book was a “small” success… it sold 10,000,000 copies! [both laugh] SC: What kind of guy was Sammy?

BOYAR: He was a very happy guy who knew exactly who he was.

SC: Have you gone back and listened to any old recordings of radio shows you were on?

BOYAR: [laughs] No… and I also don’t go back and read my pieces of writing or books, either. I’m funny that way. Listening to old radio programs will not bring back memories. That part of my life was finished and mostly forgotten over half a century ago.

Signing Off

One rational theory over why the Captain Marvel radio show’s life consisted of conceivably only a handful of airings may have been that the network dropped it due to Fawcett’s legal entanglements with National/DC over copyright infringement of Superman.

And, while so many unanswered questions continue to surround Captain Marvel’s radio broadcasts, we at least now have another piece of the puzzle—beyond Fawcett’s palpable aspirations and Jim Harmon’s industrious investigations—that corroborates the program’s brief existence—as imparted by one of its actors who was there, in front of the microphone… shouting “Shazam!”… the boy who was Billy Batson.

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.

Order it online, only at www.heroicpub.com/alterego [Alter Ego is a trademark of Roy & Dann Thomas.]

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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!

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

(176-page trade paperback with COLOR) $24.95 • (Digital Edition) $7.95 • ISBN: 9781605490427 • Ships July 2012

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

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