Alter Ego #119 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Roy Thomas’ On-The-Marc Comics Fanzine

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No.119 August 2013

A 100th Birthday Tribute to

MARC SWAYZE PLUS:

SHELDON MOLDOFF OTTO BINDER C.C. BECK JUNE SWAYZE and all the usual

82658 27763

SHAZAM! SUSPECTS!

BONUS FEATURE! ics. DC Com TM & ©

THE MANY COMIC ART WORLDS OF

MEL KEEFER

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 #109

ALTER EGO #110

DIEDGITIIOTANSL BL AVAILA

ALTER EGO #106

ALTER EGO #107

ALTER EGO #108

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, & DITKO/GIORDANO cover!

Big BATMAN issue, with an unused Golden Age cover by DICK SPRANG! Interviews SPRANG and JIM MOONEY, with rare and unseen Batman art by BOB KANE, JERRY ROBINSON, WIN MORTIMER, SHELLY MOLDOFF, CHARLES PARIS, and others! Part II of the TONY TALLARICO interview by JIM AMASH! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

1970s Bullpenner WARREN REECE talks about Marvel Comics and working with EVERETT, BURGOS, ROMITA, STAN LEE, MARIE SEVERIN, ADAMS, FRIEDRICH, ROY THOMAS, and others, with rare art! DEWEY CASSELL spotlights Golden Age artist MIKE PEPPE, with art by TOTH, TUSKA, SEKOWSKY, TALLARICO Part 3, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, cover by EVERETT & BURGOS, and more!

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital edition) $3.95

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

ALTER EGO #111

ALTER EGO #112

ALTER EGO #113

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!

SHAZAM!/FAWCETT issue! The 1940s “CAPTAIN MARVEL” RADIO SHOW, interview with radio’s “Billy Batson” BURT BOYAR, P.C. HAMERLINCK and C.C. BECK on the origin of Captain Marvel, ROY THOMAS and JERRY BINGHAM on their Secret Origins “Shazam!”, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, LEONARD STARR interview, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

GOLDEN AGE NEDOR super-heroes are spotlighted, with MIKE NOLAN’s Nedor Index, and art by MORT MESKIN, JERRY ROBINSON, GEORGE TUSKA, RUBEN MOIRERA, ALEX SHOMBURG, and others! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, more 2011 Fandom Celebration, and part II of JIM AMASH’s interview with Golden Age artist 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! Plus: the conclusion of our LEONARD STARR interview by JIM AMASH, FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

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ALTER EGO #114

ALTER EGO #115

ALTER EGO #116

ALTER EGO #117

ALTER EGO #118

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 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 (includes free 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!

JOE KUBERT TRIBUTE! Four Kubert interviews, art by RUSS HEATH, NEAL ADAMS, MURPHY ANDERSON, MICHAEL KALUTA, SAM GLANZMAN, and others, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, BILL SCHELLY’s Comic Fandom Archive, FCA’s Captain Video conclusion by GEORGE EVANS that inspired Avengers foe Ultron, cover by KUBERT, with a portrait by DANIEL JAMES COX!

GOLDEN AGE ARTISTS L.B. COLE AND JAY DISBROW! DISBROW’s memoir of COLE and his work on CAT-MAN, art by BOB FUJITANI, CHARLES QUINLAN, IRWIN HASEN, FCA (Fawcett Collector’s of America) on the two-media career of Captain Video, MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom history, Cat-Man cover by L.B. COLE!

AVENGERS 50th ANNIVERSARY! WILL MURRAY on the group’s behind-thescenes origin, a look at its first decade with ROY THOMAS, STAN LEE, JACK KIRBY, THE BROTHERS BUSCEMA, TUSKA, ADAMS, COLAN, BUCKLER, ENGLEHART, MERRY MARVEL MARCHING SOCIETY, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, FCA, Golden Age Blue Beetle artist E.C. STONER, unused Avengers cover by DON HECK!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

Vol. 3, No. 119 / August 2013 Roy Thomas

Editor

Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Associate Editors Christopher Day

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 William J. Dowlding

Proofreaders

Marc Swayze

Cover Artists Tom Ziuko

Cover Colorist With Special Thanks to:

Aron Laikin Heidi Amash Terrance Armstard Mark Lewis Alan Light Richard J. Arndt Richard Lupoff Mark Arnold Giancarlo Malagutti Paul Bach Brian K. Morris Bob Bailey Kevin Patrick Alberto Becattini Barry Pearl Judy Swayze Grey Ray Blackman Warren Reece Gary Brown Gene Reed Bernie Bubnis Charlie Roberts Aaron Caplan Jan Russell Nick Caputo Al Saltan Shaun Clancy Randy Sargent Nick Cuti Gary Sassaman Marvin DuBois Ramon Schenk Roni Eller Dan Sehn Shane Foley Mitchell Senft Janet Gilbert Desha Swayze Chris Green June Swayze Robert Gustavson Jennifer Hamerlinck Dann Thomas Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Anita Holye Mel & Joyce Keefer Hames Ware Lindsey Wilkerson Alan Kupperberg

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Marc Swayze, Fran Matera, Paul Laikin, & Monty Wedd

Contents Writer/Editorial: Marc Of A Gentleman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The Multi-Talented Mel Keefer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Alberto Becattini queries the artist about 40 years in comics, illustration, animation, & film.

Michael T. Gilbert showcases the influence of the legendary Harvey K. on other great talents.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! The Men Who Would Be Kurtzman! 29 Gary Brown throws a 2011 San Diego Comic-Con spotlight on A/E’s associate editor.

Comic Fandom Archive: Spotlight On Bill Schelly . . . . . . . . 35

re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 43 Tributes to Fran Matera, Paul Laikin, & Monty Wedd . . . . . . . . 49 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #178 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Our 100th-birthday salute to Fawcett super-artist Marc Swayze—plus other special features.

On Our Cover: Obviously, we wished to honor the late Marc Swayze on the cover of this issue commemorating the 100th anniversary of his birth—but how to do so? Two of the best of the illustrations of Captain Marvel he had done late in life had already been used as A/E covers (#18 & #41)—as had his paintings of his co-creation Mary Marvel. In the end, we decided we couldn’t do better than to print the very first interior illustration ever published that spotlighted Mary— along with Cap and Cap Jr., of course—from the splash of Captain Marvel Adventures #18 (Dec. 1942). You can’t improve on perfection. [Shazam heroes TM & © DC Comics.]

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Above: As it happens, artist Mel Keefer, who’s featured in our lead-off interview, depicted very few masked or costumed heroes during his days in comics—but he did draw one who, in many ways, helped inspire the whole darn genre! Alberto Becattini www.twomorrows.com sent us this fast-galloping panel from the story “The Well” in Dell/Western’s Zorro #10 (June-Aug. 1960). Without Zorro, there was probably no Superman—certainly no Batman—nuthin’! Scripter unknown. [©2013 Zorro Productions, Inc.]

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

Marc Of A Gentleman

hy didn’t I just hop in the car and start driving—and not stop till I reached Monroe, Louisiana?

It wouldn’t have been all that hard. After all, Louisiana was only ten or so hours away from South Carolina.

Every time I talked to Marc Swayze on the phone—an average of maybe 8-9 times a year for the first decade of this century—I made a silent (and occasionally stated) wish to visit him. He was effusive in his invitations, and I’ve no reason to doubt their sincerity. For, on the phone—and, P.C. Hamerlinck assures me, in real life as well—Marcus D. Swayze was the epitome of a Southern gentleman. The kind of person whose photo could be used on a poster extolling that oft-elusive quality, Southern hospitality. Our conversations were mostly business—going over corrections or changes Marc wanted made to his FCA column “We Didn’t Know… It Was the Golden Age!” based on photocopies I’d mailed him from the laid-out first draft of an issue of A/E. At the outset, Marc objected to a couple of my stylistic quirks, such as putting quotation marks around the name of a feature (“Mary Marvel”). In deference, I eschewed those quotes in his segment—and only in his segment. I remember well Marc’s comment after I acquiesced in this matter. “We’ll get along,” he said. I could hear him smiling over the phone lines… not with triumph (he wasn’t that kind of guy), but with the realization, I like to think, that I was someone open to his concerns.

I didn’t always accede to his wishes, but if he was ever truly annoyed about any of those minor (but uneven) battles that he lost, certainly none of that ever came through to my end. And his wife June, on the occasions we spoke, was just as gracious and friendly as her husband. She appreciated my (quite genuine) interest in her career as a singer in the swing era, and soon realized I was quite sincere in wanting her interviewed about it.

In the past few years, Marc’s hearing had become worse, and I had to be certain I spoke loudly and slowly… but other than that, I sensed no real diminishing of his faculties. From the beginning, I’d have loved to talk more with him… after all, he was the secondmost-important Captain Marvel artist in the early 1940s, had been key in the creation of Mary Marvel (one of the few successful Golden Age super-heroines), and had drawn the “Phantom Eagle” stories I’d read in Wow Comics. He had even known Jack (Plastic Man) Cole at Charlton after Fawcett discontinued its comics line. But somehow our conversations rarely lasted more than five or ten minutes. If I neglected to ask him about some arcane historical matter, well, he was likely to cover that in a future column, wasn’t he? And besides, there’d always be the next time. Until, of course, there wasn’t.

A couple of years ago, Marc stopped calling as his health declined. His daughter Desha sometimes phoned in Marc’s few suggestions, but increasingly, there was no response to the photocopies. And, for about the last year of his life, Marc’s powers of concentration were no longer sufficient for him to write those few hundred words for each issue. But I knew that, even so, he’d be poring over the issue when it arrived in his mailbox, and I’d hear about it, politely but firmly, if he felt anything had gone awry. And now that, too, has ended.

Marc Swayze has been, and P.C. and I are determined that he will remain, a part of Alter Ego and FCA. If Julie Schwartz, Gardner Fox, and Otto Binder were the unofficial “patron saints” of the 1960s Alter Ego, Marc became the one constant Golden Age presence in Vol. 3. He is likely to remain so for the indeterminate future… as a mark of our respect for his talent, and for his humanity. Rest in peace, Marc… but don’t go away. We still need you. Bestest,

# COMING IN AUGUST 120 THE X-MEN ’S FIRST DECADE! A Senses-Staggering Salute To The Merry Mutants’ 50th Year!

• The “rejected” JACK KIRBY/CHIC STONE cover done in 1965 for X-Men #10! • The X-Men’s first series (1963-70) surveyed by WILL MURRAY! The reprint covers of 1970-74—and the origins of the New X-Men! Plus—the startling original 1960s Kirby-style X-Men stories seen only in BRAZIL! Featuring art & artifacts by: LEE • KIRBY • ROTH • THOMAS • HECK • ANDRU • TUSKA • FRIEDRICH • DRAKE • BUSCEMA • STERANKO • ADAMS • O’NEIL • SEVERIN • KANE • COCKRUM & others! • The scintillating saga of the MERRY MARVEL MARCHING SOCIETY! • ED SILVERMAN, writer for Hillman (Airboy Comics, Real Clue Crime Stories) & ZiffDavis (Wild Boy of the Congo, Bill Stern’s Sports Stories, Weird Mysteries), talks to SHAUN CLANCY! Plus a reminiscence by Hillman/Z-D editor HERB ROGOFF! • Plus: FCA with OTTO BINDER, MAC RABOY assistant RED MOHLER, & Captain Marvel Jr.—BILL SCHELLY panel, concluded—MICHAEL T. GILBERT on “The Men Who Would Be Kurtzman – Part 2,” & MORE!!

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The Multi-Talented MEL KEEFER Forty Years In Comics, Illustration, Animation, & Movies Interview Conducted, Edited, & Annotated by Alberto Becattini

UTHOR’S NOTE: This interview was conducted primarily by e-mail on different occasions between May 2004 and September 2007. I have to thank Mel Keefer for the kindness and patience he showed in responding to all of my questions. I also have to thank Roni Eller, assistant to Joyce and Mel Keefer, for patiently typing Mel’s handwritten answers; Giancarlo Malagutti, for providing several illustrations as well as precious insights; and Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., the Who’s Who of American Comic Books, and the Grand Comics Database for helping with the checklist; and, of course, thanks to Roy Thomas for publishing it! Lastly, I warmly invite you to have a look at Mel’s great website (www.melkeefer.com).

younger sister Phyllis and I did many household chores, while my mother worked helping my father to deliver and pick up from the various dentists. I was 15 years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed and when we entered the war. I enlisted in the Navy prior to graduating from Los Angeles High School in 1944, and immediately went into service after graduation, where I remained from 1944 until 1946. AB: What were the comics you read as a kid, and who were your favorite artists?

—Alberto.

“I Received A Letter... From Norman Rockwell”

ALBERTO BECATTINI: Okay, Mel, let’s start with a simple one: Where and when were you born, and where did you grow up?

MEL KEEFER: I was born in Los Angeles, California, on July 2, 1926. I grew up in West L.A. in a middle-class neighborhood when Los Angeles was a relatively “small town”—a wonderful place for a kid to grow up in, even though it was during the Great Depression years. My father was a dental mechanic. He made false teeth and worked for dentists. He was very good at his work, and we have speculated that he may have been responsible for some of my artistic talents, as he had great “finger dexterity” and sculpted very artistic false teeth. My

Tell It To The Movies! In this 1980s self-portrait, Mel Keefer seems to be pondering two memorable moments from his comics career: his cover for Toby Press’ Monty Hall of the U.S. Marines #4 (Feb.1952)—and a lobby card from the 1965 film How to Murder Your Wife. Ignore stars Jack Lemmon and Virna Lisi in the foreground of the latter—those are Mel’s Brash Brannigan strips pinned to the drawing board, produced especially for the movie! (For a photo of Mel, see p. 20.) Unless otherwise noted, all art and photos accompanying this interview were supplied by Alberto Becattini and Mel Keefer. [Monty Hall cover & film lobby card ©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

Forty Years In Comics, Illustration, Animation, & Movies

KEEFER: As a kid I read the “funny papers,” as it was one of the main forms of entertainment in those days—before television. My favorite artists were Alex Raymond (Flash Gordon), Harold Foster (Prince Valiant and Tarzan), Al Capp (Li’l Abner), Warren Tufts (Casey Ruggles and later Lance), sports cartoonist Willard Mullin, Gus Arriola (Gordo), Fred Lasswell (Snuffy Smith), and Ham Fisher (Joe Palooka). Most of these were highly illustrated, and that obviously influenced my desire to become an illustrator. AB: Did you draw as a child, and when did you first decide that you would become a comic artist and/or an illustrator?

KEEFER: I always drew as a child. I copied Norman Rockwell’s pictures from the Saturday Evening Post magazines. I always drew World War I airplanes fighting air battles. I was much influenced by movies such as Beau Geste, Tarzan, and Gunga Din. I read adventure stories such as Wagon Westward and, like the character in the book [The Amazing Adventures of] Kavalier and Clay, I, too, read the book The Microbe Hunters by Paul DeKoof. AB: Did your family approve of your wish to become a professional artist?

KEEFER: Not really. In fact, there was a period in my years of growing up that I did very little drawing. I was very much into sports, playing football and track, and there was also the influence of my folks wanting me to become a dentist! As an added incentive, an uncle stopped by our house one day to have coffee with my mother and noticed one of my paintings on the floor where I did most of my drawing. He asked, “Who did this?” and my mother answered, “Oh, that’s Mel’s. He’s always drawing.” Unbeknownst to my mother, my uncle took the drawing and sent it to Norman Rockwell in care of The Saturday Evening Post. About two months later I received a letter, personally addressed to me from Norman Rockwell himself! He said that as a nine-year-old boy I showed a great deal of talent and encouraged me to keep drawing, and even if I didn’t become a professional artist I had been given a “God-given talent” and I should always appreciate and use my talent. Well, as a young kid who idolized Rockwell, that was a marvelous incentive! I had that letter during all of my growing-up days, but unfortunately it was lost during one of our moves to a new house. AB: I know that you spent almost 2½ years in the Navy. I wonder if that experience proved useful when you later drew war stories for comic books—I’m thinking of the “Monty Hall of the U.S. Marines” stories you did for Toby Press, in particular. KEEFER: Unfortunately, my experience in the Navy did nothing to inspire me to art. I spent over two years dressing battle wounds and attending to GIs back from the “Pacific war” who had contracted tuberculosis while fighting in the jungle. When I enlisted in the Navy, I spoke of having worked with my father in the dental technician business, and, without even informing me, I was promoted to First Class Hospital Corpsman and was sent off to Hospital Corps school. AB: Did you immediately go to art school after leaving the Navy?

KEEFER: Actually, after leaving the Navy I attempted to go to college to try to become a dentist, probably to please my parents. It took two years for me to realize that I was not cut out to study things that I had no understanding or feel for. So, after wasting two years of free school under the GI Bill, I decided to go to art school. When I quit university, it was after the new school semester had started. I decided to go to the Art Center School, which I had attended when I was a youngster of nine or ten years of age, on Saturday afternoons. A neighbor friend and I would take the streetcar and sketch live nude models from 9 A.M. until noon. My mother would come by at noon to pick us up and was flabbergasted when she walked into the class and saw me sketching naked ladies! That’s when I think they tried to discourage me—but I’m getting off the question here. I had had a wonderful teacher named Mr. Reckless. He was very encouraging about my talent and paid me a great deal of attention.

“From The Halls Of Montezuma...” Keefer’s Naval experience may not have provided any inspiration for his later work on Toby Press’ Monty Hall of the U.S. Marines, but he nonetheless carried it off with aplomb. This splash, like the cover on p. 3, is from issue #4 in 1952. The hero’s moniker, of course, was derived from the first line of the Marine Hymn, quoted above. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

Now, skipping back all these years that I previously described to my decision to go back to art school where Mr. Reckless was still teaching at the Art Center: when I applied to the Art Center School, the new semester had already started and I would have had to wait until the start of the next semester. I looked up Mr. Reckless, who still remembered me from those Saturday morning classes. He asked me to go home and do a drawing and bring it back after the weekend. I did, and I drew a card game that my father and his friends were playing in. On Monday I brought the picture to Mr. Reckless and upon seeing it he said, “Well, I see you can still draw” and said he’d allow me to enroll without waiting for the new semester to start, but I would still have to wait two weeks. The following weekend I went to the beach and met a cute little blonde who happened to be going to art school right there in Santa

The Multi-Talented Mel Keefer

Monica. She described it as small and intimate, where you received such extensive attention from a staff of outstanding professional art teachers, headed by Jefferson Machamer himself, a very “handson” teacher. Outside of the fact that this little girl was very cute, the school sounded very interesting, and upon visiting it I decided to forget the Art Center and go to Jefferson Machamer’s school. I often wonder what my career would have been had I gone to the Art Center instead.

“Looking For An Artist [For] Perry Mason”

AB: Machamer was a fabulous cartoonist! Tell me about him and his school, please. As far as I know, such comic artists as William Overgard and Frank O’Neal studied under him, too.

KEEFER: The school was small, situated in an upstairs floor of an office building on Second Street in downtown Santa Monica, a block from the beach. Jefferson Machamer was a character. He had been an extremely successful cartoon illustrator, working mainly for College Humor, a magazine that was the Playboy of its day—a little risqué but not nearly as extreme as Playboy—but definitely its predecessor. He had created “the Machamer Girl,” a very sexy voluptuous female that looked to be as tall as 6'1" with a very small, cute face and extreme dimensions everywhere else! His success was very profitable. This was in the early ’20s before [high] income taxes. He described his life as one big party after another, explaining that he could go days without ever getting out of his tuxedo. He had even been featured in a variety of short-subject movies, shown drawing his “Machamer Girls.” All of this came to a disastrous finish when the stock market crashed in 1929. Machamer and all of his cronies were wiped out financially! So after World War II he started an art school which in those days would be described as a GI (Government Issue) school. Machamer was a good-looking guy with a big handlebar mustache, slightly over the hill by this time and living in a big beautiful house in Santa Monica with his wife, who had been a minor actress in her day. Besides the artists that you mentioned, other students were George Crenshaw, who had a panel whose name I cannot remember [NOTE: Belvedere. – Alberto], and Frank Schroeder, who went on to become very successful in the advertising business in Philadelphia.

Machamer instructed each student to put her in a pose that would last for 20 minutes, with a rest period in between each 20-minute session. Each student put her into very difficult poses, and when it came time for me to instruct her pose I said, “Why don’t you find a natural pose that you’re relaxed and comfortable with?” This must have impressed her, but I didn’t talk to her after that. That weekend I went to the beach with my buddies. While I was lying in the sand, this girl comes by and kicks sand in my face and walks on. I got up and ran after her, only to find out it was the tall model, who recognized me and liked me for being considerate to her the day before with her modeling assignment. We got acquainted with each other at the water’s edge. I drove her home and the rest is history. We got married on July 29, 1951.

KEEFER: Sure. While I was going to Machamer’s school in Santa Monica, my wife was returning from an interview at a photographer’s studio. She was a six-foot beauty. She was walking by the school while Jefferson Machamer was smoking a cigarette at the front door of the studio. He spotted Rosanne walking toward him and he stopped her and told her she was the “typical Machamer Girl,” the type that he drew for College Humor. He asked her if she would model for his class (bathing suits, of course) for $10 an hour. She was looking for work and agreed. The next day she came to the school and posed for three hours.

KEEFER: I studied for two years with Machamer and was completing my portfolio in order to start looking for a job in the illustration field, which was incidentally “in the toilet.” Most major magazines were going out of business and advertising agencies were beginning to use photography rather than artwork for their “illustrations.” The perfection of the 35mm camera during WWII was the culprit! I had spoken with a few agencies without any luck, when a gentleman, a Mr. Bob Holdorf, came up to the school representing himself as an agent for the William Morrow Publishing Co. He stated that they were looking for an artist who might illustrate a comic strip based on the Perry Mason books, they

AB: I know that it was while you were studying with Machamer that you met your first wife Rosanne….

Girls And Gags Artist Jefferson Machamer was a noted early practitioner of what today might be called “girlie cartoons,” though exquisitely done—as per the color figure of a “Machamer Girl” at left. Machamer also drew the advertisement for his art school seen above. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

AB: How did you get to draw the Perry Mason syndicated strip?

Forty Years In Comics, Illustration, Animation, & Movies

“Shoo Her In, Darling... Shoo Her In.” The first two Perry Mason strips, dated Oct. 16 & 17, 1950. Art by Mel Keefer; scripts attributed—somewhat dubiously— to Erle Stanley Gardner. This caption’s heading is a quotation from the first page of Dashiell Hammett’s novel The Maltese Falcon—whose secretary Effie ushered in a younger and more attractive (but infinitely more treacherous) client than Perry encountered. But did Gardner actually write the strip? [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

being the publishers for Erle Stanley Gardner.

Coincidentally, I had just finished reading my first and only Perry Mason book, which belonged to my father. So I had an idea about the characters, and I submitted four strips. In those days comic strips were five-column [width] in the newspapers. I blew up an adventure strip proportionally and together with four other students submitted them to this agent and forgot about it. A month later I received a telegram informing me that I had been selected to draw the Perry Mason comic strip! It started on October 16, 1950.

AB: So that was your very first professional art job, right?

KEEFER: That’s right. Up until this time, Alberto, I had never thought of doing a comic strip and had no experience at all. Thayer Hobson was the president of the William Morrow Company. He sent for me to come to New York where he could work with me in a room near his office. I later learned that this “agent” Bob Holdorf did not work for the company. It was his idea to sell William Morrow on the strip, and he had done so successfully.

Needless to say, being a real beginner in the business and it being my first professional job, it was very traumatic! I had never drawn the character other than the strips that I had submitted, and learning to draw them in all different poses was exhausting! Well, it turns out that the publishers knew less than I did; they wanted to get it out as fast as they could, as I guess they had advertised it, and when I was not much further than a few weeks ahead of the publishing date it was released and was distributed by King Features. [NOTE: The copyright on the strip initially reads “Universal Syndicate, Inc.,” which was probably a subsidiary of King Features. — Alberto.] I later found out that you should be eight weeks ahead of the publishing date on the dailies and ten weeks ahead on the

Sunday strips. From that point on it was all downhill! I was working 18 to 20 hours a day trying to just keep up with the schedule.

I had worked myself into a state of exhaustion, and admittedly was not very sharp in conversations with the boss, who wrote a letter to Erle Stanley Erle Stanley Gardner. Gardner saying, “This Mel Keefer is the dumbest dolt I’ve ever met.” I saw this letter on his desk late one night. I had been taking a coffee break and walked into his office to look down onto Fifth Avenue. You can imagine how I felt as I read that line! A few days later I began to see artists going into the boss’s office carrying portfolios. The “dye was cast” [NOTE: Spelling pun intended. – Alberto] and I was replaced on January 20, 1951, after doing 2½ episodes. [NOTE: Actually, Keefer continued drawing the Sunday page, which had started on Dec. 3, 1950, until Feb. 11, 1951. –Alberto]. Charles Lofgren was the artist who took my place. [NOTE: Lofgren himself was soon replaced by Frank Thorne, and the strip lasted only until June 21, 1952. —Alberto.] And that’s how I got my “baptism under fire” in the comic strip business. AB: Do you remember if Gardner actually wrote the strip?

KEEFER: It was assumed, according to a Tom Mason, that Gardner wrote his own stories, but I’m not so sure. [NOTE: Tom Mason edited the Perry Mason comic strip collection Four Cases of Murder for Malibu Graphics in 1989. —Alberto.]

The Multi-Talented Mel Keefer

“The Whole Caplin Family Worked At Toby Press”

AB: After leaving Perry Mason, you started drawing for comic books. According to the Who’s Who of American Comic Books, your first comic book jobs were at Ziff-Davis on sports strips, and at DC on Strange Adventures, both in 1951. [NOTE: In fact, fellow comics historian Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., says that the Keefer credit at Ziff-Davis is probably wrong; he says those “sports strips” were actually drawn by John Mayo. —Alberto.] KEEFER: I can’t recall the things that I did for DC and Ziff-Davis. I remember that I was trying to get as much work as I could in order to come back home to L.A. When I did come back, I did a lot of freelance work, many jobs at one time, including doing the Clyde Beatty book [NOTE: Dated Oct. 1953. —Alberto], which, incidentally, I got through Bob Holdorf, who was back doing his agency thing. I had to go out to the circus and take pictures while Clyde Beatty was rehearsing his animal act. It was a very interesting job. He was “all business,” and there was not much of interest between the two of us. Commodore Productions was run by a Walter White, who did films and was like an agent for Beatty.

and the Shmoos, Kickapoo Joy Juice, and whatever by-products they made. Incidentally they grossed over a million dollars on the Kigmies and Shmoos. I believe they were the first to make these kinds of products that grossed that kind of money. AB: I gather that Toby was very much a “family affair”….

KEEFER: Very much, yeah. The whole Caplin family worked at Toby Press. A sister Madelyn did merchandising, a brother Jerry [NOTE: Jerry Caplin later wrote such syndicated strips as Ben Casey and Tales of the Green Beret. –Alberto] did publicity, and Elliot ran the company. It was a fun place to work. Once a month Al Capp would come to the New York office from his home in Boston. He had a deep booming voice that you could hear all the way down the hall before he even got into the office, and he swore a lot—a lot

AB: During 1952-53 you drew several stories for Toby Press–“Monty Hall,” “Fighting Leathernecks,” “John Wayne,” “Canarsie,” “Spike and Bat,” as well as romance and crime stories. What do you remember about these, and about Toby Press?

KEEFER: Back in Los Angeles, Rosanne and I were married, and when she was pregnant with our first child I decided to go back to New York, where I might get more work. We drove back and rented a house in Teaneck, New Jersey. I looked up my old friend Mell Lazarus, who now draws the comic strips Momma and Miss Peach. At the time he was the art director at Toby Press. He introduced me to Elliot Caplin, Al Capp’s brother, who was the editor of Toby Press—which, in addition to doing all of the Li’l Abner books, did all of the subsidiary products for Li’l Abner, the Kigmies

Setting Their Capps Two of three enterprising Caplin brothers: Al Capp (left), creator of the phenomenal comic strip Li’l Abner and the money/power behind Toby Press... and Elliot Caplin (right), who ran the comic book company. Brother Jerry Capp/Caplin wrote a number of popular comic strips over the years, as well.

Forty Years In Comics, Illustration, Animation, & Movies

of four-letter words! Incidentally, Mell Lazarus wrote a book about the Toby Press and his boss Elliot, in particular—a funny book about all of the antics that went on at the office. The book was titled The Boss Is Crazy, Too. AB: Did you work on staff or freelance at Toby? By the way, do you remember who wrote the stories you drew?

KEEFER: I freelanced there. I don’t remember any of the writers, as they all freelanced, also. What I remember is that I used Gregory Peck as a model for Monty Hall, Rocky Graziano as Canarsie. In today’s world, if I ever used their likenesses without their permission I’d be sued! Boy, how times have changed.

AB: I can see that it was during this period that your style became definitely realistic. Were there any artists in particular who influenced your style? By the way, I think it has something in common with Everett Raymond Kinstler’s…. KEEFER: If you remember, I said I never thought about being a cartoonist. I always drew realistically. I’d like to think I got better at my craft as I got more experience. I’m flattered that you compare me with Everett Kinstler. I don’t know him, but I admire his work. I think all of the artists that I have previously mentioned have had a great deal of influence on me. I went back to the Art Center years later and took some more color illustration classes. I had a couple of great teachers there. One was Joe Henninger and the other was John LaGatta. Both had been successful artists in their time. In addition to doing the Mac Divot strip at that time and other freelance jobs, I took

Toby Tidbits Two more by Keefer: “Spike and Bat” from Toby’s Danger Is Our Business! #1 (Dec. 1953)... and a page of original art from that company’s Great Lover Romances #18 (Oct. 1954). Scripters unknown. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

The Multi-Talented Mel Keefer

Let’s Read A Good TV Show! (Left:) Restless Gun was an NBC-TV series starring John Payne (not a typo for John Wayne!) as Vint Bonner. Dell/Western devoted five Four Color Comics issues from 1958-61 to the show; Mel Keefer drew the whole of #934 (Sept. 1938). Scripter unknown. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.] (Right:) The Swamp Fox, starring Leslie Nielsen, appeared as part of the Walt Disney Presents TV series. Keefer drew most of his comic book appearances for Dell/Western, including Walt Disney Presents #2 (Dec. 1959-Feb. 1960), from which this art is taken. Scripter unknown. [©2013 Disney Productions.]

off a day a week and went back to school at the Art Center. I know it was during 1963 because they called everyone out of class and announced that John Kennedy had just been killed. They closed the school and we all left.

“I Hardly Ever Turned Down A Job Offer”

AB: We’ll get back to Mac Divot later, whereas now I’d like you to talk about the comics you drew for Dell/Western Publishing—apparently on and off from 1953 to 1961. What do you remember about the people you worked with at Western?

KEEFER: I worked with Charles McKimson and his brother Tom McKimson, who were prominent in the animation business. Both of them worked for a number of studios before and after being editors at Western. I also worked for other editors whose names I have forgotten. Remember, I did work for Western Publishing at the same time that I was still doing many other freelance jobs. I hardly ever turned down a job offer, so remembering each editor that I worked for is too taxing for my old memory. As for the artists I met there, I remember Alex Toth, Hi Mankin (a fine comic book artist), and Sparky Moore, among others. AB: How did you get your assignments at Western?

KEEFER: Whenever a new TV program started, Dell (the publisher Western produced their comics for) would put out a comic book based on the new program. The TV program generally starred a well-known actor of the day. I did books that featured the actors John Payne (Restless Gun), Leslie Nielsen (The Swamp Fox), Jace Pearson (Tales of the Texas Rangers), Robert Taylor (The Detectives), and Guy Williams (Zorro). AB: Gene Autry was another character you drew. Was it for the comic books or the newspaper strips?

KEEFER: For a time I did the Gene Autry daily and Sunday comic strips. [NOTE: In 1955, according to my sources. —Alberto.] I think they were syndicated by General Features. I had no particular interest in cowboys and Indians—it was just a job to me. I look back on it now and realize that it was a learning experience for me, because before those assignments I hardly ever drew horses, so I learned on the job!

AB: Although you first drew Zorro for the Dell/Western comic books in 1960, about six years later you drew a few more “Zorro” stories which were only published overseas (we had them here in Italy, by the way). Did you do them for Western Publishing or directly for the Disney Studio? KEEFER: Western Publishing did them for the Disney Studios, but I don’t know who wrote them. [NOTE: Possibly Homer

Forty Years In Comics, Illustration, Animation, & Movies

Brightman. —Alberto.] As for the Zorro comic books, it was Alex Toth who first did them, and beautifully I might add. I don’t know if he had a falling out with Western or not, but again I was called in to do some stories. [NOTE: Other artists who worked on the Zorro comics were Warren Tufts and John Ushler. —Alberto.]

AB: At one time you joined the National Cartoonists Society. I guess you took part in their meetings and met a lot of comics V.I.P.s there…

KEEFER: I joined the National Cartoonists Society when I first went to work in New York, shortly after doing the Perry Mason strip. I worked in New York on and off for a period of five years. I attended meetings infrequently due to urgent deadlines. It would be safe to say that I was a member in the mid-’50s and ’60s. Then, when I came back to California, I hardly ever attended meetings. It was very exciting to meet all these legendary artists. It was always very entertaining to hear Ham Fisher, the creator of Joe Palooka, accuse Al Capp of stealing Li’l Abner from him when Al Capp worked for Ham Fisher as an assistant. Of course, Al would deny it, and the argument would get very interesting from that point on.

During that time I met all of the great ones. I met a lot of artists at a few parties I was invited to. There was a great camaraderie among these fellows, and they would tell me about places that I might get work at, and frankly, you probably know more about my career than I do, as I’m not very organized about dates and events. I have never been a “collector” of memorabilia. In my older age I’m sorry that I wasn’t, as I could have gotten originals from all of the great cartoonists and I would have a small fortune! But I didn’t, so dates, names of stories, times, and places are all kind of lost on me. For this I apologize. AB: Knowing that you love golf, I wonder if you ever played with other NCS associates at Fred Waring’s Shawnee Inn? I know Stan Drake, John Celardo, Bob Dunn, and several others did that quite often.

KEEFER: No, I never played in any of the cartoon golf tournaments at Shawnee Inn. I had met Stan Drake shortly before the car crash in which Alex Raymond was killed and Drake was seriously injured. I had never met John Celardo, but I had met and drunk with Bob Dunn at several NCS meetings. While living in New York I became friends with Mell Lazarus who, as I have already mentioned, at that time was the art director for Toby Press. There was a great fraternity of cartoonists that would meet each Wednesday for lunch at the Pen and Quill restaurant, where they would be making the rounds at all of the magazines to try and sell their cartoons. They would bring in their pencil sketches hoping to get an OK to finish their cartoons. If my memory serves me, I believe that the going price was between 75 and 100 dollars a cartoon! AB: In 1954-55 you drew the Dragnet strip for the Los Angeles Mirror Syndicate. Again, how did you get to draw the strip, and did you get any input from Jack Webb, who played Sgt. Joe Friday in the TV series?

KEEFER: I was contacted by Rex Barley, the editor of the Mirror Syndicate. There had been several artists before me that had drawn the strip, including Bill Ziegler, although I’m not sure if Ziegler was the one I replaced. [NOTE: It was—on January 11, 1954. — Alberto.] I’d guess, although I’m not sure of it, that Jack Webb was not happy with his image in the daily strips. I did a few sample drawings of Webb and the other characters. Evidently they were acceptable and I started doing the strip (the exact starting date I’m in the fog about!). It was written by a writer named Jack Robinson. He was one of the writers for the TV show. Jack Webb and Stanley Meyer headed up their production company. Each week I would have to go to Paramount Studios and have

The Zorro And The Pity Following Alex Toth and Warren Tufts as the artist of the Zorro comics was no easy task, but Keefer did a superlative job with the masked avenger who had been interpreted by actor Guy Williams in the Disney TV series. This page from Dell/Western’s Zorro #11 (Sept-Nov. 1960) also features Sgt. Garcia. Scripter unknown. [©2013 Zorro Productions, Inc.]

Stanley Meyer or Jack Webb okay my work. They were very strict about everything about the authenticity of the drawing and writing, because from their office I had to go to police headquarters and have an information officer approve of the strips. I had contact with Jack Webb each week for the period that the strip lasted. [NOTE: Keefer worked on Dragnet for a year and a half, as it ended on May 21, 1955. —Alberto.] He was all business when I saw him. He was a very “hands-on” actor/director type who used a lot of foul language during the shooting of each episode. In retrospect, I’d say he was a very frugal man. For a Christmas bonus I received a box of apples! I believe I was the last artist to do the strip. AB: Let’s go back to comic books for a moment. I know that a few war stories of yours—one, actually, I have in my collection—appeared in the Charlton comic Soldier and Marine Comics during 1955-56. I’m curious to know whether these were originally done for Charlton.

KEEFER: To the best of my memory, I was doing the war stories for Toby Press. Whether Charlton was a subsidiary of Toby Press I wouldn’t know.

“Timing And Luck Were Involved”

AB: No, it wasn’t. So these were either reprinted from the Toby Press books, or culled from the Toby Press inventory which Charlton had bought

The Multi-Talented Mel Keefer

to school at San Diego State University and had played on their golf team. Two of his teammates were to go on to Actor/writer/producer Jack Webb created become famous golfers, Gene Littler and Billy Casper. I had the Dragnet radio (and soon TV) series in always played golf and was interested when Jordan 1949. Seen here is the Dragnet daily comic suggested that we might work together and develop a comic strip by Keefer for August 13, 1954. The strip about golf. It seemed to us that there was an inkling of actual show never featured this kind of interest in golf from the reaction to this new golfer, Arnold action—not even in its celebrated late1960s TV revival. Script by Jack Robinson. Palmer, who had won his first tournament that year. Jordan [©2013 the respective copyright holders.] had some background in writing and I could copy photos of golfers from a variety of sources: books, magazines, etc. I out. Okay—let’s talk about Mac Divot now, which very much reflected developed the characters and Jordan wrote a premise. your love for golf. That is the strip you did for the longest time—1955 to We originally called the strip Links Driver. Links was a young 1973, if I’m not mistaken…. golf pro just starting his career, and his caddy was inspired by an KEEFER: Mac Divot—looking back on my career, I’m struck with old character actor named James Gleason, who always had the the many times that timing and luck were involved. I was friendly stump of a cigar in his mouth and always played a wise-cracking with Jordan Lansky’s brother Bernie, whom I had met while we type in his movies. By this time I was a much better artist and were both students at Machamer’s school. He introduced me to wiser than when I did the Perry Mason comic strip. I did a much Jordan, who had just gotten out of the Air Force. Jordan had gone more professional job in preparing the sample strips.

The First Webb-Slinger?

We were about to send the samples out to the various syndicates in New York when we learned that Jordan’s brother Bernie was going back to New York to try and sell his own comic strip that he had developed. He agreed to take our strip and show them to the variety of syndicates that he had planned to see. He left our samples off at the Chicago Tribune’s office (their syndicate was in New York with the New York Daily News affiliate) on a Friday afternoon. The president of

Divot-ing Up The Spoils An advertisement for the Keeferdrawn Mac Divot comic strip which appeared in the Chicago Daily Tribune, April 17, 1955—and the first Mac Divot daily, dated the next day. Written by Jordan Lansky. [© Tribune Media Services, Inc.]

Forty Years In Comics, Illustration, Animation, & Movies

a sanitarium away from my family. For a few months the Chicago Tribune Syndicate kept the strip going by using assistants to fill in for me until I was able to resume my drawing. Primarily the assistants would do the backgrounds while I did the characters.

AB: A weekly strip called Willis Barton, M.D. appeared in 1959-60, drawn in what looks very much like your style, although it was by-lined “Otto Graff” and “Orson.” Did you actually draw it?

KEEFER: Yes, I did. It appeared in a weekly comic supplement which was sold in Southern California supermarkets for a year Getting Keefer’s “Otto Graff” or so. It was produced by an outfit called A weekly Willis Barton strip from Sponsored Comics (1959), signed “Orson” and “Otto Graff.” The girl portrayed, Alberto Becattini feels, looks a bit like Juliet Jones (of Stan Drake’s contemporaneous strip The Heart of Juliet Jones)—except Sponsored Comics, run for the nose, of course! Script by Ellis Eringer. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.] by Zeke Zekley, who was a good friend of the syndicate, a Maurice Reilly, was in Chicago at a Board of mine. Zeke had been George McManus’ assistant for many many Directors meeting, where during their discussions it was suggested years. He had done the Bringing Up Father strip, almost entirely in that he be on the lookout for something about golf, as they felt the latter part of its life, particularly when George McManus there was a renewed interest in the sport and they had only a panel became ill and wasn’t able to participate fully. When McManus of golf in their sports pages. passed away [NOTE: On October 22, 1954. –Alberto], Zeke thought that King Features Syndicate would let him naturally take over the With this information in his head he came back to New York strip but was bitterly disappointed when they got someone else to and upon arriving at his office on Monday found our strip sitting take over. Consequently, he began to get into other enterprises, on his desk. Fortunately, he liked what we had to offer. He called including Sponsored Comics, and he asked me to illustrate the us and said if we would agree to a few changes he’d be very interBarton strip, which was similar to Rex Morgan, M.D. or that kind of ested in syndicating it. We agreed and he flew out to Los Angeles strip, as Barton was a famous surgeon, too. I’m not sure about my and we discussed and agreed with his changes. He wanted to have facts about the writer of the strip, but I have a vague memory of the caddy become the young pro’s father, he wanted the father to getting a friend of mine to write it. His name was Ellis Eringer, a be the pro at the Rolling Knolls Golf Club, a very nice private club, mutual friend of Zeke’s and mine. I was doing other work with my and his name would become Malcolm Mac Divot. Malcolm was “Mel Keefer” signature and thought it would be clever to make up born in Musselbury, Scotland, and his young son’s name would be a pseudonym and came up with what I thought would be a clever Sandy Mac Divot. I patterned Sandy’s career after those of Gene “funny name,” “Otto Graph” (autograph). That’s about all of that Littler and Billy Caspar and then whoever was the hot golfer of the chapter of my career that I can remember. day. We signed a contract and had a very nice relationship with Mr.

Reilly over the years. So, going back to my original statement about how timing and luck have played an important element in my professional life….

AB: You don’t seem to have drawn any comic book stories during 195658. Was that because you were too busy working on the Mac Divot strip?

KEEFER: Not quite. In 1956, ten years after I left the Navy, I came down with tuberculosis. The Navy refused to recognize my claim that it was a service-related disability, as disabilities are only acknowledged for up to seven years. This was a very trying time for me and for my family, as my wife was expecting our third child and I had just started working on Mac Divot. I spent ten months in

AB: In 1961-62 you drew yet another syndicated strip, Thorn McBride. I must confess that I know very little about it, so please tell me what it was all about….

KEEFER: For the life of me I can’t remember exactly how I got that job. It may have been suggested by Bernie Lansky, who was doing a political panel for the Copley News Press, a San Diego paper owned by James Copley. He had a string of smaller papers and they were interested in starting a syndicate, and Thorn McBride was a natural fit for this Naval-related city. I never met the writer. Everything was discussed over the phone. His name was “Blackie” O’Neal. I later came to find out that his son was a well-known actor named Ryan O’Neal!

The Multi-Talented Mel Keefer

A Thorn-y Situation Thorn McBride was a well-documented Navy strip, released by the Copley News Service from 1961-62. Above is one of Keefer’s 1962 dailes. At left is what Alberto calls a “dedicated drawing” of Thorn McBride. Scripted by “Blackie” O’Neal. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

The strip was about the adventures of Thorn McBride, a Naval commander of a U.S. atomic submarine. I had access to all declassified Navy photography and again, like on the Dragnet strip, I had to be pretty authentic in my details of Navy equipment, which again afforded me some very interesting research trips. I toured the atomic submarine, the U.S.S. Scamp, went aboard a conventional submarine in Hawaii, and toured the Naval submarine base escorted by Admiral Weise. I spent the summer in Hawaii, where our strip was very popular in the Honolulu Advertiser. All in all, it was a very interesting two years, but alas, the syndicate never really developed and the strip was dropped. AB: You have also illustrated several books. Please tell me about the golf book, It’s the Damned Ball (1961). And about the picture books you did for Whitman (e.g., Lucy and the Madcap Mystery in 1963). I wonder if you only did the pencil art on these, as you are credited along with Al Andersen, who usually did painted art.

KEEFER: Mac Divot was very popular in Texas. I got a call from a gentleman named Ike Handy, who wrote the book It’s the Damned Ball. He wanted me to illustrate it, and again we corresponded by mail and phone. It’s likely that I may have done just the penciling on those books, but in most cases working for Whitman I generally did the whole job. Later on, I

The Golf Wars Keefer’s covers for the 1957 book It’s the Damned Ball, which was written by Ike Handy—and for an issue of Golfing – The Club Players’ Magazine for March 1961. Note the article in the latter on Keefer’s strip Mac Divot. Mel also provided interior illos for the book. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

illustrated other books for educational publishing companies like the U.S. Historical Society.

“How To Murder Your Wife”

AB: One of the highlights in your career is the artwork you did for the Richard Quine movie How to Murder Your Wife (1965), starring Jack Lemmon as a comic artist and Virna Lisi as his spouse. What do you remember about that job? By the way, I’m sure you know that Alex Toth did a promotional strip based on that movie, Steve Bentley, Secret Agent, which ran in the Hollywood Reporter….

KEEFER: This episode is also a very interesting chapter. I don’t know if you ever asked Alex Toth if he knew me or what he would have said about me. All the years that I have known of him, I have hardly said two words to him or he to me. Except once, when I thanked him for affording me a nice living by accepting jobs that he walked out on. He didn’t take too kindly to that. There was a string of jobs that I took over from Alex. I’ll give one example. How to Murder Your Wife was Alex’s job. He was doing it for Friz Freleng. Friz was contacted by the producers of the picture to recommend an artist, and he asked Alex to do the strip of Bash Brannigan [the comic strip drawn by Lemmon’s character in the

Forty Years In Comics, Illustration, Animation, & Movies

Murder, He Drew! Four Bash Brannigan daily strips drawn by Keefer for How to Murder Your Wife. (Wonder if the “villians” spelling in the second one is a typo or an inside joke?) [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

The Multi-Talented Mel Keefer

“Limited” was no exaggeration! Besides Wildey, Alex Toth was part of the team. Also, Hi Mankin and Sparky Moore did some storyboards, I believe.

AB: Was it after you worked on the Jonny Quest series that you decided to move to Italy? How did that come to be?

KEEFER: I had resumed my working schedule after recovering from TB in 1956. I was right back into an 18-hour day schedule, doing the Mac Divot daily strip and working at Hanna-Barbera, when it occurred to both my wife and me that I had better take some time to “smell the roses.” I had the ability to do my comic strip anywhere in the world that I could mail it back to the New York office. We enjoyed traveling, and for our children we thought it would be a great educational experience.

You Bet Your Wife Jack Lemmon and Virna Lisi in a black-&-white still from How to Murder Your Wife (1965). Mel Keefer’s sketches and strips are visible on the drawing board. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

movie]. I don’t know what transpired between Friz and Alex, but I got a call from Freleng to come in to see him, and he explained that Alex didn’t want to work on it and they needed me to take over. I was happy with the money that I was offered and had a very pleasant association with everyone. I knew that Toth had done the promotional strip and I just went ahead in my own style. That was the last job that I had taken over from Alex, but it wasn’t the first! AB: Being Italian, I’m curious to know if you met Virna Lisi—one of our most beautiful actresses, in my opinion, even now that she is in her mid70s…. KEEFER: I had a few meetings with Quine and the producer and I met Jack Lemmon once, but unfortunately never had the privilege to meet Virna Lisi, but I agree with you she was gorgeous! I was very disappointed that she wasn’t around at the times that I was there.

“The Introduction Of What Was To Become Known As ‘Limited Animation’”

AB: Too bad. Okay, let’s go back to following our timeline. 1964 is when you first worked in the animation field… at Hanna-Barbera, right?

KEEFER: Exactly. [Artist] Doug Wildey called me and said he was recruiting artists that had comic strip experience. Hanna-Barbera was going to do the first adventure comic book-style animation show, The Adventures of Jonny Quest. I had never worked in an animation studio. The work that he described was “right up my alley,” and the money wasn’t too bad, either. We started doing character studies and then layouts. Joe Barbera was a very enthusiastic guy who wanted us to do dramatic, exciting drawings. So we started doing exotic camera angles, interesting lighting—all the things that make up a good comic book or strip. The artists who had to animate (or move) our characters were totally unable to draw or move those heavily dramatic drawings with all of the extreme camera angles, so it was made clear to us new artists that we had to adhere to the traditional moves of animation [NOTE: Mel here draws four connected arrows pointing north, south, east, and west. –Alberto], no more no less.

This “adventure” feature was the introduction of what was to become known as “limited animation.” Each scene had some kind of movement, whether it be a blink of the eye, or a finger or mouth moving, which, incidentally was the most common movement.

So we decided to live in Rome for a year, at 750 Via Flaminia Vecchia. I would do my strip and hopefully some fine-art painting, which was something I had always wanted to do but never had the time to do with my schedule. Getting all of the details together to make the trip possible would be another volume, so I won’t go into any of the details. We put the kids into Marymount International School in Rome. My wife Rosanne and I had so many frustrating and humorous experiences during that year that we were seriously going to write a book about our ventures. The title was going to be Once More around the Damned Piazza and I would have done the illustrations, but we never did it! AB: Did you do any work for Italian comics while in Rome?

KEEFER: No, but I did do some work for a British publisher at the tail end of my stay in Europe. In fact I was in Great Britain for twelve weeks before returning to the States. I worked for a company that I believe was the largest publishing company in Britain, if not the entire world! I worked on a strip about a superhero who carried an atomic dagger that was called a “dirk” [a Scottish type of dagger]. I just can’t remember the name of the lead character. I know I had hoped to continue working on that strip upon my return to the States, but it never worked out that way. AB: In 1966 you went back to the U.S. and to TV animation….

KEEFER: After having that wonderful year living in Rome and spending much more money than I had ever planned, I came roaring back to work in order to replenish my bank account! You have to understand the animation business. It is very seasonal. When you have finished all the shows that the company contracted for, there is an immediate layoff of

In Quest Of Jonny Quest Display art from the 1964-65 season of Jonny Quest. Mel Keefer did not necessarily contribute to this particular drawing from the Hanna-Barbera TV animation series. [©2013 Hanna-Barbera or successors in interest.]

Forty Years In Comics, Illustration, Animation, & Movies

personnel. So, if you’re in demand as an artist, you go off to another studio. I worked constantly during those years for one studio after another, and most of the details are all kind of blurred in my memory. I worked with so many of the same artists that we’ve mentioned at any one of those studios.

Grantray-Lawrence was a pleasant studio to work for. It was run by Bob Lawrence, Grant Simmons, Ray Patterson, and his wife June. It was like a family business, with their children involved— the same artists as mentioned before were there, too. We basically adapted the Marvel comic book super-heroes to what was very limited animation. AB: After Grantray-Lawrence went under in 1967, you went to work for Filmation Associates, where you apparently started on The Batman/Superman Hour TV series….

KEEFER: I worked at Filmation for about eight years, on and off. When the work was finished and the layoffs began, I was retained during that period of time to work on new developed projects. The last job that I did for Filmation was a storyboard for the animated series called He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. [NOTE: It was first released in September 1985. —Alberto.] Filmation was owned by Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott. It was a nice place to work. A fraternity of fellow artists that in the main got along well with each other, which was not the case in a lot of studios that I have worked in over the years; but that’s another book that could be written. AB: Then comes Pantomime Pictures, where you are credited with layouts on the Skyhawks series which aired in 1969-71….

KEEFER: At Pantomime Pictures I was reassociated with Doug

Wildey, Sparky Moore, Mario Piluso, Herb Hazelton, and a lot of the same cast of artists that we have mentioned. I, however, don’t think I worked on the Skyhawks series for any length of time. Again, fault my memory, please. During that time, however, Doug Wildey was contacted by Ray Bradbury, who wanted to develop an animated version of The Martian Chronicles. Doug and I worked together doing some presentation pictures that unfortunately never came to life, but it was an interesting project.

“I Never Went Back To Filmation After That”

AB: You seem to have rarely drawn for the comics during the 1970s, apart from your contributions to Pete Millar Publishing’s and Petersen Publishing’s magazines, like Drag Cartoons and Hot Rod Cartoons….

KEEFER: I had actually started drawing for those magazines in the mid-1960s, but I continued well into the 1970s. Dennis Ellefson was the editor for Motorcycletoons and Bob Lemmon (also Jim Bonestell) the editor of Hot Rod Cartoons. I was introduced to them by mutual friends. One job led to another and it was a nice freelance association. They let me do whatever style I felt like doing. By the way, in the 1970s I wanted to do a newspaper strip of my own. It was about a janitor who worked in the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. It was going to be a “political satire,” well before Doonesbury, and well before it was acceptable in daily comic strips! Unfortunately, it was rejected by all of the syndicates. AB: From 1978-1981, you went back to drawing a syndicated strip with Rick O’Shay. This time, though, you were working in a semi-caricatural style. What was it like to draw that strip?

The Multi-Talented Mel Keefer

Gentlemen, Start Your Atomic Engines! Two of the six pages of the Keefer-illustrated Flash Gordon parody from Drag Cartoons (Feb. 1966). Note that the cast of Buck Rogers got into the act by page 3. Of course, it was a space hot rod that won the race. Scripter unknown. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

KEEFER: Shortly after Mac Divot sank into the sunset, when major newspapers began to sell advertising in place of features, overnight other newspapers began following suit, and our daily comic sports strip became history. As I mentioned earlier about timing and luck that has played a great part in my career, I have a recollection that shortly after the demise of Mac Divot I got another call from the Chicago Tribune Syndicate asking me if I thought I could take over the Rick O’Shay strip, as its creator, Stan Lynde, had abruptly quit over some reason and they were desperately looking for an artist to continue the strip. I tried a few strips in Stan’s style and they bought them and I took it over.

It seems to me that it was much earlier than 1978. I thought I had drawn it more like seven or eight years. My golf strip ended officially in 1973 but ran in newspapers in Ireland, Scotland, Australia, and Japan for a period longer, and my thoughts seemed to remember that there wasn’t too long a period between Mac Divot and Rick O’Shay. But who can argue with the Internet? They remember a helluva lot more than I do. [NOTE: Stan Lynde left Rick O’Shay in July 1977; the strip was then drawn by Alfredo Alcala for about six months. Keefer actually took over on January 9, 1978, on the dailies and on February 5, 1978, on the Sundays. —Alberto.]

Anyway, I came to find out that the syndicate was interested in getting [animator] Chuck Jones to do something for them (a comic strip of some sort), and he wanted Marian Dern to write the Rick O’Shay story, and I’m convinced that is why they used Marian, to entice Chuck Jones. At the time I met both Chuck Jones and Marian Dern, they weren’t married, but later on she became his second

wife. We didn’t have the most amiable relationship but carried on despite that. Chuck’s comic strip idea never quite got started, but I think he wrote a good deal of Marian’s stories.

AB: After Rick O’Shay was discontinued, you went back to doing animation layouts and character design, working once again at Filmation and Hanna-Barbera. Was this the last time you worked in the animation field?

KEEFER: As I said before, it seems to me that I worked for Filmation for about eight years on and off. I worked in the animation business for about twenty years. I always wanted to get out of the business, and for a period of about seven years I worked for two companies that produced books and filmstrips for public education schools. The illustrations that I did were incorporated into various lessons. Some of the schools used them for remedial students who would learn better by seeing pictures rather than the written text. It was a very satisfying period of time for me, as I had great latitude in whichever style or medium in which I chose to work. Eventually the company sold out to a conglomerate that changed everything, and our department was dissolved. This company became known as Canoga Industries. It was during that period when companies all over America were buying and merging. I like to call that time the “era of the conglomerates.” Then I worked for the U.S. Historical Society, a Chicago publisher that did the same kind of public education books and filmstrips. I penciled 24 books on the U.S. Presidents and completed in full

Forty Years In Comics, Illustration, Animation, & Movies

I Don’t Want No Rick O’Shay Romance Created by cartoonist Stan Lynde in 1958, Rick O’Shay was a fun Western daily and Sunday comic strip. Keefer drew it from 1978-81, from scripts by Marian J. Dern. These two examples are from December 1980. Note the Lee Marvin lookalike in the Dec. 13 daily. [©2013 Tribune Media Services, Inc.]

color 12 books. In addition, I did literally hundreds of other portraits of well-known people. I worked at Filmation doing a variety of series, but most of them were more the straight-type series.

As I told you previously, the last thing I drew for that company was the storyboard for He-Man. It was going to be a commercial advertising the coming TV show, but the network decided to delay optioning the show. Lou Scheimer decided to lay off the crew that was assigned to that picture, and it was a very bad time for me, as my wife was very sick with breast cancer. I didn’t take too kindly

to being out of work at that time. I never went back to Filmation after that. I got in touch with Iwao Takamoto, the art director I had worked with on the Jonny Quest show many years earlier. The following Monday I went back to work at Hanna-Barbera where I worked for about eight years until I retired in 1990.

Actually, when I think about it, I took a leave of absence with the blessings of Mr. Takamoto, as there was a dry spell of work at Hanna-Barbera at that time. I had an offer to do storyboards for the film The Exorcist III [released in 1990], directed by the author of the book, William Peter Blatty. It was a good job that lasted a few

Higher And Higher Education A pair of illustrations done by Keefer for educational books and film strips during the 1970s and ’80s. Don’t expect us to explain the one with the bald eagle! [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

The Multi-Talented Mel Keefer

months, as it was a bit more work than just storyboards. I also did projection sketches for a variety of background locations, etc. I never went back to Hanna-Barbera. For a brief time I had an agent, Phil Mittel, who got me many jobs doing storyboards for TV commercials, movie advertising, etc.—good jobs that always had the dreaded “I need it yesterday” term! Every job had an immediate deadline.

“There Will Always Be Kids Who Want To Draw”

AB: Please tell me more about your own family. Has any of your children followed in your footsteps?

KEEFER: I was married to my first wife Rosanne in 1951 and we had three children. Susan, the oldest, Linda, and Tom. We had all the adventures that I have described to you together. But let’s go back to the early 1950s. Part of the time I had gone to New York on my first job—the Perry Mason caper! When my wife got pregnant, we packed our new car and drove across country and rented a small apartment in Teaneck, New Jersey, and my first child Susan was born in Hackensack. She’s never forgiven me for having her born in Hackensack! Susan and her son Tyler have become artists. I always said to Susan, from the time she was a child, that if she ever showed any artistic talent I would “take a hammer and break her knuckles.” I always said it in jest, but there was a bit of truth in that statement, as I thought it was a tough way to make a living; but despite my warning she and her son are now artists. AB: I know that your second wife, Joyce, is a remarkable woman, and I’d like you to tell me how you met her and about her own career.

KEEFER: My first wife Rosanne contracted breast cancer about five years before she passed away on May 19, 1982. I was a bachelor for the next six years until I met my wife Joyce in 1988. Joyce was a widow, whose husband had passed away a few years earlier. We were introduced by mutual friends. Joyce was very involved in philanthropic activities. She was always attending charity dinners and wanted me to be her escort at these affairs. Invariably, whenever she asked me to go with her to an affair, I had a job that required me to get it done even if it took all night. Many times it

The Vice Of America Among Keefer’s many 1980s projects was this presentation painting for the Miami Vice stunt show at Universal Studios, Los Angeles. [©2013 Universal Pictures or successors in interest.]

did, and it was beginning to become a “bone of contention.” She urged me to retire with the threat of “I’ll just have to find someone else, if you can’t be available.” Without too much urging, I retired once and for all! I have a studio that I share with my daughter. I do occasionally paint and do a fair amount of artwork for some of the charities with which my wife is involved.

My wife Joyce and I [have been married for 23 years]. She’s nine years younger than I. She and her late husband were very much involved in charity work. She owns a building whose tenants are all fashion showrooms in downtown L.A.’s fashion district. She is involved with many different types of charitable organizations. The one that I’m most grateful for, and to have my name alongside hers, is the Joyce Eisenberg Keefer Breast Center. Located at St. Johns Hospital in Santa Monica, it is one of the finest centers of its kind anywhere in the world. It is headed by Dr. Armando Giuliano, one of the world’s most renowned oncologists. Joyce goes to work at her office three days a week, Monday through Wednesday. On Thursdays and Sundays she plays tennis, and almost all the rest of the time she sits on the boards of various charitable organizations. She’s cute, perky, and very much the “hands on” business lady who has a great deal of responsibility that she handles with great professionalism. We manage to travel a lot. We’ve been on many cruises around the world. All in all, I’m about the luckiest guy in the world. AB: What do you think of the comics field today?

KEEFER: What do I think of the comics of today? You must realize, of course, that TV has replaced the daily continuity strip and is now the main form of enter-

At Least This Version Didn’t Hunt Vampires! Keefer’s cover and a story page from the graphic novel Abraham Lincoln - An AllPictorial Presentation (1976) for a company called Davco. Scripter unknown. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

Forty Years In Comics, Illustration, Animation, & Movies

The Toni Awards Drawings done by Keefer in the 1970s for the Toni Holt TV show. The hostess, a writer, actress, and TV personality, would relate a yarn about movie stars and/or the film industry; Keefer’s drawings were “chroma-keyed” behind her as she told the story. Recognize these folks? Hint: One of them is Marilyn Monroe. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

tainment. I do miss the old full-page color Sunday and daily strips that were a minimum of five-column size. You didn’t need a magnifying glass to read them. The artwork in many of them was marvelous. Today the majority of daily strips are more political cartoons than old-fashioned humor. Most of them could easily be in the editorial section. In the L.A. Times, I see Zits, which has great characters beautifully drawn and written wonderfully. I love the panel Herman by Unger. He’s from the old school of funny comment every day. Johnny Hart’s Wizard of Id is great, but even he

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

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

gets political occasionally.

AB: What would you like to say to young would-be comic artists?

KEEFER: I don’t follow or read comic books too much anymore. They appear to be done in another method than when I did them. They now credit “colorist” and are produced much more sophisticatedly than before. I know if I were to try and work again I’d be S.O.L.! If you can’t operate or understand the computer, you’re not going to be able to work in the art field, animation, or just about anywhere. I’m a computer-not, don’t know a thing about them now, much to my regret. So the first thing I’d advise any up and coming artist would be to become computer-wise. There really isn’t much I could tell any young artist. There will always be kids who want to draw and will be copying the trends of their times, and they will draw despite themselves. If you are cartoon-oriented, I would say become aware of what the trends are. Read what’s happening in the world and learn to comment on daily life in your own personal manner. The better you are able to draw the human figure, the better a cartoonist you’ll become, especially in the animation world. After all, every animal that is drawn is a human figure dressed like an animal—so learn to do the human figure! AB: Thanks a lot for your kindness and patience, Mel. It was great talking to you.

KEEFER: My pleasure, Alberto.

Smiles To Go Mel Keefer and his wife Joyce in a 2001 photo.

The Multi-Talented Mel Keefer

The MEL KEEFER Checklist

[The following Checklist was prepared by Alberto Becattini, with Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr.... with additional information from Jerry Bails’ online edition of Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999, the Grand Comics Database, and Stripper’s Guide. Mel Keefer is the full artist on all material below unless otherwise noted. Key: (d) = daily (Monday-through-Saturday) newspaper strip; (S) = Sunday newspaper strip; (p) = page; (pp) = pages; (nn) = no number; (R) = reprint.] U.S. COMIC BOOKS, COMIC MAGAZINES, & GRAPHIC NOVELS: Abraham Lincoln – An All-Pictorial Presentation (Davco):

nn (1976) – “Abraham Lincoln: An All-Pictorial Presentation” (64 pp) [graphic novel]. Battle Stories (I.W./Super):

#12 (1964) – Monty Hall in a “Skirmish with Death ” (8 pp) [R Monty Hall #6]; Monty Hall in “The Wild Tiger Hunt” (8 pp) [R Monty Hall #6]; Canarsie in “Shore Leave Can Be Murder!” (9 pp) [R Monty Hall #6].

#17 (1964) – Monty Hall: “The Man-Eating Idol” (7 pp) [R With the Marines #2]; Monty Hall: “Kangaroo Court” (7 pp) [R With the Marines #2]; Monty Hall: “Marine Saves White Horse Hill” (8 pp) [R With the Marines #2]; Monty Hall: “Trojan Camel” (6 pp) [R With the Marines #2]. Best of Drag Cartoons (Rex Publishing Co.):

#1 (1/68) – “The Devil and Danny Webster” (4 pp) [R Drag Cartoons #4], “Dragaholic” (4 pp) [R Drag Cartoons #3]. Big Daddy Roth (Pete Millar Publishing): #1 (10-11/64) – unknown stories. CARtoons (Petersen Publishing):

#42 (8/68) – “Sound Idea” (2 pp).

Clyde Beatty Comics (Commodore Productions and Artists, Inc.):

#1 (10/53) – Clyde Beatty: “The Floating Jungle” (10 pp); Clyde Beatty: “Circus Killer” (8 pp); Clyde Beatty: “Big Magic” (10 pp); Clyde Beatty: “The Man from Hollywood” (8 pp); Clyde Beatty: “The Tamed Killers” (10 pp). Cycletoons (Petersen Publishing): #3 (6/68) – “Full Circled” (?).

Danger Is Our Business! (Toby Press):

#1 (12/53) – Spike and Bat: “Life on the Ocean Waves” (6 pp).

My Brilliant Korea A splash page by Keefer from Toby Press’ Tell It to the Marines #11 (Jan. 1955). These stories were reprints from the Korean War era of just a couple of years earlier. Scripter unknown. Thanks to Gene Reed. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

Danger Is Our Business (I.W./Super):

#6 (8/64) – “Showdown” (1 p); “Big Wheelie” (1 p).

Drag Cartoons (Pete Millar Publishing):

#24 (2/66) – “Crash Gordon” (6 pp) [R Drag Cartoons #2].

#9 (1958) – Spike and Bat: “Life on the Ocean Waves” (6pp) [R Danger Is Our Business! #1]. #2 (12/63) – “Crash Gordon” (6 pp); “Caroline’s Car Capers” (3 pp). #3 (3/64) – “The Dragaholic!” (3 pp).

#4 (6/64) – “The Devil and Danny Webster” (4 pp); “Spoils for the Victor” (2 pp) #5 (7/64) – unknown stories.

#8 (10/64) – “Shy’s Good Buy’s” (1 p); “A Worthy Opponent” (2 p); “Time for bed, squirt!” (1 p). Dream of Love (I.W. Super):

#2 (1958) – “Trip to the Farm” (7pp) [R Great Lover Romances #10].

Fighting Leathernecks (Toby Press):

#6 (12/52) – Cover; Fighting Leathernecks: “Errand of Mercy” (4 pp); Fighting Leathernecks: “Flight of Fancy” (14 pp); Fighting Leathernecks: “King of Hearts” (5 pp).

Forty Years In Comics, Illustration, Animation, & Movies

Foxhole (I.W./Super):

#17 (1964) – Monty Hall and “The Big Rhubarb!” (10 pp) [R Monty Hall #9]. Great Lover Romances (Toby Press):

#10 (6/53) – “Trip to the Farm” (7 pp); “My Rutabaga Romeo” (7 pp). #18 (10/54) – “Her Mother Hated Him!” (8 pp). #21 (4/55) – “The Poison Pen” (6 pp). He-Man (Toby Press):

#1 (5/54) – “Code of the Jungle” (10 pp); Frank Hodges: “Mr. Flatfoot ” (8 pp). Hot Rod Cartoons (Petersen Publishing):

#21 (3/68) – unknown stories. #22 (5/68) – unknown stories.

#26 (1/69) – “Miss Prints” (1 p).

Jace Pearson of the Texas Rangers (Dell/Western):

#4 (11/53-1/54) – Jace Pearson of the Texas Rangers (16 pp).

Detectives Comics—Minus Batman Keefer was one of the three artists (the others being Nat Edson and Warren Tufts) who drew the Dell/Western comic book based on the TV series The Detectives, which starred Robert Taylor as Captain Matt Holbrook. This art is from Four Color Comics #1168 (March-May 1961). Script by Eric Freiwald & Robert Schaefer. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

Four Cases of Murder (Malibu Graphics):

#1 (1/89) – Perry Mason (42 pp) [R daily strips 10/16/195001/20/1951]. Four Color Comics (Dell/Western):

#528 (1/54) – Dale Evans: “Dale Evans and the Heiress” (18 pp) [Keefer?]; Dale Evans: “Dale Evans and the Man in the Red Suspenders” (16 pp) [Keefer?]. #690 (04/1956) – “The Conqueror” (34 pp) [inks over Everett Raymond Kinstler, pgs. 1-14, 20-34].

#934 (9/58) – Restless Gun: “Outlaw Stage” (18 pp); Restless Gun: “Vengeance Valley” (14 pp).

#1027 (9-11/59) – The Texan: “Revenge in Rock River” (19 pp); The Texan: “Stage to Paradise” (13 pp); “Towns with Many Faces” (1 p); The Texan: “‘Invented’ Bandits” (1 p). #1168 (3-5/61) – Introductory page (1 p); The Detectives: “Shadow at the Window” (24 pp); The Detectives: “No Place to Hide” (8 pp); The Detectives: “Aristocat” (1 p); The Detectives: “Qualified” (1 p).

The Multi-Talented Mel Keefer

#5 (2-4/54) – “In This Thrilling Story…” (1 p); Jace Pearson of the Texas Rangers (24 pp).

#6 (5-7/54) – Jace Pearson of the Texas Rangers: “Lynch Mob” (12 pp). Jace Pearson’s Tales of the Texas Rangers (Dell/Western):

#12 (6-8/56) – Jace Pearson of the Texas Rangers: “Wildcat” (20 pp).

#14 (12/56-2/57) – Jace Pearson of the Texas Rangers: “Missing Mustangs” (10 pp). #15 (3-5/57) – Jace Pearson of the Texas Rangers: “The Double Double Cross” (17 pp). John Wayne Adventure Comics (Toby Press):

#14 (1952) – John Wayne: “Operation Peeping John” (10 pp). #15 (7/52) – John Wayne: “Bridgehead” (8 pp). Kojak Book and Record Set (Power Records):

#BR518 (1977) – cover; “Five Star Final” (9 pp); “A Question of Honor” (7 pp); back cover [3 panels from inside stories]. Maverick (Dell/Western):

#14 (1-3/61) – “Law of the Prairie” (4 pp).

Monty Hall of the U.S. Marines (Toby Press):

#1 (8/51) – cover; Monty Hall: “Boots” (10 pp); Monty Hall: “The Devil’s Mask” (? pp); “Monty Hall Meets Murder” (1 p) [Text story illustration]; Monty Hall: “The City of Flame” (7 pp). #2 (10/51) – Monty Hall: “Monty Hall and the Girl Photographer” (10 pp); Monty Hall: “Guerilla Warfare” (8 pp); Canarsie: “Tex Finds a Pal” (4 pp). #3 (12/51) – cover; Monty Hall: “Danger Below!” (8 pp); Canarsie: “The Flying Mare” (4 pp); Monty Hall: “Prisoner of War” (10 pp).

#4 (2/52) – Monty Hall: “Show Business” (8 pp); “Tex and the Jerk Patrol” (6 pp); Monty Hall: “The Puzzle of the Golden Idol!” (9 pp). #5 (4/52) – cover; Monty Hall: “Call of Courage” (10 pp); Monty Hall: “Behind Enemy Lines” (5 pp); Canarsie: “The Big Brain” (8 pp).

#6 (6/52) – Monty Hall in a “Skirmish with Death” (8 pp); Monty Hall in “The Wild Tiger Hunt” (8 pp); Canarsie in “Shore Leave Can Be Murder!” (9 pp).

#7 (8/52) – Monty Hall: “The Fireball Express” (8 pp); Monty Hall: “Peace, It’s Wonderful!” (7 pp); Monty Hall: “Avalanche Ambush” (7 pp). #8 (10/52) – cover; Monty Hall: “Tanks A Million” (7 pp); “Canarsie and the Minnie Marines” (7 pp).

#9 (12/52) – Monty Hall and “The Big Rhubarb!” (10 pp); Monty Hall: “Assignment for Danger” (9 pp). #10 (2/53) – Monty Hall: “The Little Black Book” (7 pp); Monty Hall: “Mabel and the Snorkel” (4 pp).

#11 (4/53) – Monty Hall: “Monju Island” (7 pp); Monty Hall: “The Swat Parade” (7 pp).

Strange Bylines Apparently, Mel’s sole assignment for National/DC Comics was penciling this tale for its science-fiction title Strange Adventures #12 (Sept. 1951). The story was inked by Bernard Sachs; besides regular DC writer Jack Miller, the splash page also credits a “John Braillard,” who, according to the 1970s Who’s Who of American Comic Books, has no other known comics credit. Maybe he was a friend of Miller’s who supplied the basic concept or some other aspect of the story? Thanks to Bob Bailey for the scan. [©2013 DC Comics.]

Motorcycletoons (Petersen Publishing): #? (1968) – “Wild One” (?). Never Again (Charlton):

#8 (7/56) – Monty Hall: “Call of Courage” (10 pp) [R Tell It to the Marines #11]. Pacific Presents (Pacific):

#4 (6/84) – Doc .44: “Take Two Slugs and Die” (10 pp) [inks: Ian Akin, Brian Garvey]. Sea Hunt (Dell/Western):

#7 (10-12/60) – “The Contest” (4 pp).

Seduction of the Innocent! (Eclipse Comics):

#4 (2/86) – “The Man Who Tricked the Devil!” (5 pp) [R Tales of Horror #7].

Forty Years In Comics, Illustration, Animation, & Movies

#6 (8/53) – “The Fiend of Flames” (7 pp); “Special on Beet Soup” (4 pp). #7 (10/53) – “The Man Who Tricked the Devil” (5 pp). #8 (12/53) – cover; “The Big Snake!” (8 pp) [R #3]. Tell It to the Marines (Toby Press):

#7 (5/54) – Monty Hall: “The Chinese Bugle” (8 pp) [R?]; Monty Hall: “Prisoner of War” (10 pp) [R Monty Hall #3].

#8 (7/54) – Monty Hall in a “Skirmish with Death ” (8 pp) [R Monty Hall #6]; Monty Hall in “The Wild Tiger Hunt” (8 pp) [R Monty Hall #6]; Canarsie in: “Shore Leave Can Be Murder!” (9 pp) [R Monty Hall #6].

#11 (1/55) – Monty Hall in “Guerilla Fighter” (8 pp); Monty Hall in “Call of Courage” (10 pp). #12 (3/55) – Monty Hall: “Tanks a Million” (8 pp) [R Monty Hall #8]; Monty Hall: “The City of Flame” (7 pp) [R Monty Hall #6].

#13 (5/55) – Monty Hall and “The Big Rhubarb!” (10 pp) [R Monty Hall #9].

#14 (7/55) – Monty Hall: “Assignment for Danger” (9 pp) [R Monty Hall #9]. Thomas Jefferson – An All-Pictorial Presentation (Davco):

nn (1976) – “Thomas Jefferson: An All-Pictorial Presentation” (64 pp) [graphic novel – Other illustrators are Steve Dobson, Carlos Norte, Robert Goldin, and Janice Saltz]. The 3-D Zone (Ray Zone):

#6 (11/87) – [R Big Daddy Roth #1].

U.S. Fighting Men (I.W./Super):

Soldier and Marine Comics (Charlton):

#12 (2/55) – Monty Hall: “U.S. Marines behind Enemy Lines!” (5 pp).

#13 (4/55) – “Canarsie and the Minnie Marines” (7 pp) [R Monty Hall #8]. Sponsored Comics (Sponsored Comics):

#1-10 (#5/4-10/59-#7/6-12/59) – Willis Barton, M.D. (10 pp) [signed “Orson,” “Otto Graff”; NOTE: Newspaper-style weekly tabloid supplement available in California supermarkets. It consisted of 16 pages—11 of which were color Sunday-style comic strips]. Strange Adventures (DC Comics):

#12 (9/51) – “Sideways in Time” (8 pp) [inks: Bernard Sachs]. Suspense Detective (Fawcett Publications):

#5 (3/53) – “The Blind Witness” (10 pp) [Keefer?]. Tales of Horror (Toby Press):

#3 (11/52) – “The Big Snake!” (8 pp).

#11 (1963) – Monty Hall: “Assignment for Danger” (9 pp) [R Monty Hall #9]; Monty Hall: “Mabel and the Snorkel” (4 pp) [R Monty Hall #10]. Wagon Train (Dell/Western):

#4 (1-3/60) – “To Win a Bet” (4 pp).

#7 (10-12/60) – “The Fugitives of Pine Canyon” (4 pp). Walt Disney Presents (Dell/Western):

#2 (12/59) – The Swamp Fox: “The Battle at Parker’s Ferry” (16 pp). #3 (3/60) – The Swamp Fox: “Redcoat Masquerade” (16 pp). #4 (6/60) – The Swamp Fox: “The Patriots’ Patrol” (16 pp). Walt Disney Showcase (Gold Key/Western):

#49 (3/79) – Zorro: “A Stroke of Luck” (16 pp) [R Zorro #11].

The Wildest of Drag Cartoons (Rex Publishing Co.):

#1 (1/69) – [Reprints].

With the Marines on the Battlefronts of the World (Toby Press):

#1 (1953) – Monty Hall: “The Devil’s Mask” (6 pp) [R Monty Hall #1]; Fighting Leathernecks: “Errand of Mercy” (4 pp) [R Fighting Leathernecks #6]; “Tex and the Jerk Patrol” (6 pp) [R Monty Hall #4].

The Multi-Talented Mel Keefer

Parting Is Such Sweet Zorro (Left:) Keefer supplied the artwork for Dell/Western’s Zorro #10 (June-Aug. 1960). This panel is from the story “The Well.” Scripter unknown. (Above:) In 1966, he also drew a number of “Zorro” tales especially for the overseas market. Seen here is one panel of the original art, minus the word balloons; presumably these were added later in various languages. [©2013 Zorr Productions, Inc.]

#2 (3/54) – “The Man-Eating Idol” (7 pp); Monty Hall: “Kangaroo Court!” (7 pp); “Marine Saves White Horse Hill” (8 pp); Monty Hall: “Trojan Camel” (6 pp).

Thorn McBride (Copley News Service): (d) Jan. 23, 1961-Dec. 29, 1962.

Zorro (Dell/Western):

#10 (6-8/60) – Zorro [introductory page] (1 p); Zorro: “A Bar of Gold” (17 pp); Zorro: “The Well” (9 pp); Zorro: “The Innkeeper’s Lesson” (1 p); Zorro: “Don Felipe’s Busy Night” (1 p); “Druggist for the Dons” (1 – fact page). #11 (9-11/60) – Zorro [introductory page] (1 p); Zorro: “A Stroke of Luck” (16 pp); Zorro: “The Hunted” (10 pp); Zorro: “Too Many Zorros” (1 p); Zorro: “The Jest” (1 p); “The Mustangs” (1 p). Zorro (Gold Key/Western):

#6 (6/67) – Zorro [introductory page] (1 p) [R Zorro #11]; Zorro: “A Stroke of Luck” (16 pp) [R Zorro #11]; Zorro: “The Hunted” (10 pp) [R Zorro #11]; Zorro: “Too Many Zorros” (1 p) [R Zorro #11]; Zorro: “The Jest” (1 p) [R Zorro #11]. NEWSPAPER STRIPS:

Dragnet (Los Angeles Mirror Syndicate): (d) Jan. 11, 1954-May 21, 1955. Gene Autry (General Features): (d)(S) June 1955-Nov. 1955.

Mac Divot (Chicago Tribune): (d) April 18, 1955-Sept. 29, 1973. Perry Mason (Universal Feature Syndicate): (d) Oct. 16, 1950-Jan. 20, 1951. (S) Dec. 3, 1950-Feb. 11, 1951.

Rick O’Shay (Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate): (d) Jan. 9, 1978Feb.2, 1981; (S) Feb. 5, 1978-March 8, 1981.

Keep On Stripping! (Above:) The Mac Divot daily for March 2, 1962. Script by Jordan Lansky. (Below:) Another Willis Barton weekly page done for Sponsored Comics. Written by Ellis Eringer. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

Forty Years In Comics, Illustration, Animation, & Movies

A Saturday Morning Lineup For A Parallel Earth Not every series makes it onto the small screen! Here’s some Keefer concept art for projected Hannah-Barbera shows that didn’t make it to TV: Camelot 3000 (based on the DC mini-series by writer Mike W. Barr and artist Brian Bolland—Ye Editor wonders how far H-B got with this one before they realized that at least one of its more adult themes was gonna cause them problems on a Saturday morning show!)... the awkwardly named Great American Cartoons Show (apparently set to star Superman, The Flash, Wonder Woman, and perhaps other DC heroes)... Eddie Murphy, probably after the Saturday Night Live comedian had emerged as a movie star... and Tarzan, in which H-B and its artists seem to have been trying to decide whether the series would star an adult Tarzan or a teenage one. [DC material ©2013 DC Comics; Tarzan material ©2013 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.; other material ©2013 Hanna-Barbera or successors in interest.]

The Multi-Talented Mel Keefer

ANIMATION WORK:

HANNA-BARBERA PRODUCTIONS (1964/1981-90)

Lucille, Come On Back Where You Belong! A Keefer interior illustration for the “Lucy and the Madcap Mystery” in Whitman’s Authorized TV Adventure #1505 (1963—a regular series published by Whitman, of course). At that time, comedienne Lucille Ball was starring in The Lucy Show, several years after the end of the phenomenally successful I Love Lucy of 1951-57. Also pictured is her on-screen buddy Vivian Vance, who co-starred in both series. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

OVERSEAS COMIC BOOK STORIES: [Unknown Title] (D.C. Thomson): c.1965 Zorro (Disney/Western):

#S 66073 (1966) – Zorro: “The Swimming Sergeant” (8) [first published in France, 1968].

#S 66077 (1966) – Zorro: “The Quarantine” (9 pp) [first published in Italy, 1968]. BOOK & MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATIONS:

Adventures of Jonny Quest (TV series, Oct. 16, 1964-Jan. 14, 1965) – layout artist (3 episodes); The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley (TV Series, Sept. 10, 1988-Dec. 3, 1988) – character & prop designer (13 episodes); Daniel and the Lion’s Den (1986) – layout artist; David and Goliath (special, 1986) – layout artist; The Dukes (TV series, Feb. 5, 1983-Oct. 29, 1983) – character designer (20 episodes); Galtar and the Golden Lance (TV series, 1985) – layout artist; GoBots (TV Series, Oct. 29, 1984-Nov. 2, 1984) – character designer, layout artist (5 episodes); Jetsons – The Movie (July 6, 1990) – key background designer; Jonny Quest (TV Series, Sept. 14, 1986-Mar. 1, 1987) – character designer (13 episodes); Jonny Quest (TV Series, Sept. 14, 1986-Mar. 1, 1987) – character designer (13 episodes); Joshua and the Battle of Jericho (special, 1986) – layout artist; The Little Rascals (TV series, Sept. 11, 1982) – character designer (1 episode); Moses (special, 1986) – layout artist; The Little Troll Prince (TV movie, Nov. 27, 1987) – layout design; Moses (need date); The Nativity (special, 1987) – layout artist; The New Scooby and ScrappyDoo Show (TV series, Sept. 10, 1983-Dec. 10, 1983) – character designer (13 episodes); Noah’s Ark (special, 1986) – concept art, layout artist; Samson and Delilah (special, 1986) – layout artist; Shirt Tales (TV series, 1982) – character designer.

[NOTE: Keefer’s work for Hanna-Barbera also included concept art for unrealized TV series including: Camelot 3000, Doc Savage, Eddie Murphy, Flash Gordon, The Great American Cartoons Show, Man at Arms, Tarzan, Treasure Island, Whoopi Goldberg.]

GRANTRAY-LAWRENCE (1966):

Marvel Super-Heroes (TV series, 1966-1967) – layout artist.

FILMATION ASSOCIATES (1966-68/1969/1973/1980/1984):

The Batman/Superman Hour (TV series, Sept. 14, 1968-Oct. 19, 1968)

The Do-It-Better Book (Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1981). Interior art.

Golfing – The Club Players’ Magazine (3/61). Cover and interior art (Mac Divot and Son).

It’s the Damned Ball—A New and Different Approach to Better Golf (Twentieth Century Press, 1961). Cover and interior art. “Lucy and the Madcap Mystery,” in Whitman’s Authorized TV Adventure #1505 (Whitman, 1963). Interior art.

Nurses Three—A Very Special Girl (Whitman, 1963). Interior art.

Pictorial Encyclopedia of American History, Vol. 20: “Exploring the Moon-Fighting Inflation on Earth”; Vol. 21: “Crusading for Peace—Election Upholds Goals”; Vol. 22: “U.S. Leaves Viet Nam—VicePresident Resigns under Fire” (United States History Society, 1971-73). Interior art in all.

Uncle Martin, the Martian Cut-Out Coloring Book (Golden Press, 1964); Golden Funtime Coloring Book. Interior art.

Story Ark A concept drawing by Keefer for the animated Noah’s Ark. It and the other Bible-related H-B specials were all part of its 1986-88 series The Greatest Adventure. [©2013 Hanna-Barbera or successors in interest.]

Forty Years In Comics, Illustration, Animation, & Movies

Celebrity caricatures for various TV shows.

Illustrations for Adventures on the Planet Photog comic/transfer series, 1970s. Drawings for the Toni Holt TV show, 1970s.

Color pictures for film strips – U. S. Historical Society publications, 1970s-80s. Color pictures for educational books and film strips – Pied Piper Productions, 1970s-’80s.

Presentation painting for Miami Vice stunt show – Universal Studios, 1980s. Movie posters – Soniger Co., circa 1980s.

Film storyboards – The Exorcist III, released Aug. 17, 1990.

Trailer Storyboard – Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, released Dec. 6, 1991. Appeared in TV series, Bob (Episode: “You Can’t Win,” January 29, 1993) together with Jack Kirby, Sergio Aragonés, Bob Kane, Mell Lazarus, Jim Lee, and Marc Silvestri.

Smile! You’re On Candid Comic Book! A page from the Adventures on Planet Photog project on which Keefer worked in the early 1970s. Each one-sheet issue, Alberto Becattini informs us, had a comic page on one side, while on the other was a color transfer to be ironed onto t-shirts. Writer unknown. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

– layout artist (3 episodes); Blackstar (TV series, Sept. 12, 1981-Dec. 5, 1981) – character designer (13 episodes); The Hardy Boys (TV series, 1969) – layout artist; He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (TV series, 1985) – storyboards; The New Adventures of Gilligan (TV series, 1974) – layout artist; Journey to the Center of the Earth (TV movie, Sept. 9, 1967) – layout artist; Sabrina and the Groovie Goulies (TV series, Sept. 12, 1970-Dec. 26, 1970) – layout artist; Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure (TV series, Jan. 1, 1967-Dec. 2, 1967) – layout artist (3 episodes); The Tarzan/Lone Ranger Adventure Hour (TV series, 1980) – layout artist; The U.S. of Archie (TV series, 1974) – layout artist. PANTOMIME PICTURES 1968:

Skyhawks (TV series, 1969) – layout artist. DE PATIE-FRELENG (1978):

Spider-Woman (TV series, Jan. 1, 1979-Sept. 29, 1979) – character modeler (16 episodes). MISCELLANEOUS:

Bash Brannigan, Secret Agent – comic strip for movie How to Murder Your Wife, released Sept. 20, 1965.

(Far left:) Harvey Kurtzman’s art graced the cover of Two-Fisted Tales #28 (July 1952). [©2013 William M. Gaines Agent, Inc.] (Above:) Russ Heath’s cover to Timely/Atlas’ Battle #6 (Jan. 1952).This story was actually published before TTF #28, but Heath's art was influenced by earlier Kurtzman covers. [©2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Photo:) Harvey in the early 1960s. From The Art of Harvey Kurtzman (Abrams Publishing, 2009). [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

The Men Who Would Be Kurtzman! by Michael T. Gilbert

arvey Kurtzman cast a long, hilarious shadow over pop culture.

Filmmaker Mel Brooks fell under the spell of Harvey’s irreverent “borscht belt” humor, as witness films like Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. Brooks actually contributed to Kurtzman’s Trump magazine in the late ’50s and later posed as a cover model for Kurtzman’s Help! On a similar note, the popular Airplane! movies of the ’80s also had a distinct Kurtzman feel, which was even remarked on in reviews at the time. Underground comix legends Robert Crumb and Art Spiegelman readily proclaim their debt to Kurtzman.

Kurtzman wasn’t limited to humor, however. Harvey’s whimsical scifi stories for EC’s Weird Science and Weird Fantasy are delightful gems, and his gritty war comics were groundbreaking. Most modern documentary-style comics, from Art Spiegelman’s Maus to Joe Sacco’s Palestine, follow in the footsteps of Kurtzman’s meticulously researched historical stories for EC. His comics even influenced other comic book publishers in the ’50s––especially Atlas, the forerunner of Marvel.

The Atlas Connection

In the early ’50s, publisher Martin Goodman, always one to jump on a bandwagon, decided that war comics were the latest fad to imitate. And if you’re going to steal, why not swipe from the best? So if Harvey Kurtzman’s Frontline Combat and Two-Fisted Tales were selling well for EC, what was to stop Timely/Atlas from pumping out Battle, Battle Action, Battle Brady, Battle Cry, Battlefield, Battlefront, Battleground, and dozens of similarly original titles? Nothing! And so Atlas copied Harvey’s brilliant writing and layouts. They even imitated Marie Severin’s coloring and Ben Oda’s dramatic EC lettering. Ironically, by baldly swiping Kurtzman, the overall quality of the Atlas war comics dramatically improved. Writer Hank Chapman can take some credit for this. His downbeat anti-war stories were among Atlas’ finest, and fully in the spirit of Kurtzman’s own scripts. Hank had been working for Marvel since 1940, producing hundreds of stories. He then moved to DC’s war comics 1954, but his Atlas work remains his most inspired.

Take Chapman’s “Truck Convoy,” for example. His script captures the feel of a typical Two-Fisted Tales story, especially as realized by Russ Heath’s meticulous art. Actually that’s not surprising. Russ was also on Kurtzman’s wavelength and would eventually work with him on Mad, Humbug, Trump, and Little Annie Fanny.

Russ’s sense of drama and attention to detail made him ideal for illustrating war comics. Heath later became a major player at DC, drawing stories for All-American Men of War, Our Army at War, and G.I. Combat. He also drew stories for Warren’s Blazing Combat, another magazine directly inspired by Kurtzman. So why did Harvey use Russ only for a single war story, in Frontline Combat #1? Alas, that’s one question whose answer we may never know. In any case, Atlas didn’t stay on the Kurtzman bandwagon long. Their war titles quickly degenerated into the typical lighthearted “war is fun” titles typified by Ziff-Davis’s G.I. Joe

The Men Who Would Be Kurtzman!

series. But for one brief moment the company strived for something better... thanks to Kurtzman.

Ironically, Harvey had been producing humorous fillers for Stan Lee at Atlas, before he began working at EC. If Lee and Atlas publisher Goodman had had the vision of Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein at EC, Kurtzman could have created Frontline Combat, Two-Fisted Tales, and even Mad for Atlas. Instead we had to be content with ersatz Kurtzman comics such as these and Atlas’ Mad knockoffs Crazy, Wild, and Riot!

The Kurtzman Connection

Young Russ! (Above:) Sixteen-year-old Russ Heath, as seen in the 1945 Montclair [NJ] High School yearbook.

In the wake of Mad’s meteoric success in the ’50s, everyone seemed to be trying to be the next Kurtzman. Artist Howard Nostrand (whom we featured in Alter Ego #95), did pitch-perfect imitations of Kurtzman’s Mad and Two-Fisted Tales for Harvey Comics––channeling Kurtzman collaborators Jack Davis and Wally Wood in the process. But there was one artist who pulled off a dead-on copy of Harvey’s own style: Charles Stern.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Pushing The Envelope! (Above left & right:) Charles Stern illustrated the Kurtzman-esque “The Envelope” for Mister Mystery #2 (Nov. 1951). However, a different artist may have drawn the host, Mister Mystery. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

Stern primarily worked for Stanley Morse’s bottom-of-the-barrel comics company Key Publications from 1951 to 1954 . He produced thirteen stories for them for Mister Mystery, Weird Mysteries, Weird Tales of the Future, and Battle Cry. The only other story with which the Grand Comics Database credits him is a six-page “Skyman” story signed “Chollie Stern” in Columbia’s Big Shot Comics #53 in February 1945.

Most of Stern’s stories have at least a slight Kurtzman feel to them, but two in particular go much further than that.

“The Envelope” in Mister Mystery #2 has young Hank Antor about to embark on a world tour vacation. A friend gives him a gift––a business card with strange writing on it. “Just present it at any hotel and you will be well received. It’ll get you the finest treatment and service they can offer!”

But when he does, the results are just the opposite. When Hank shows the card to a clerk in France, the man calls the gendarmes, who deport him to Germany. Hank is perplexed.

“I wonder what made them so angry? I wish I could read this card!” He barely has time to ask the question when he is arrested and almost shot. All because of the card!

The Kurtzman Version! (Right:) Kurtzman wrote and drew “Jivaro Death” for Two-Fisted Tales #19 (Jan. 1951). The main character’s name, by the way, is Charlie. Not Stern, we hope! [©2013 EC William M. Gaines Agent, Inc.]

The Men Who Would Be Kurtzman!

Hank gets deported to Italy, where he asks another vacationer to translate the message. The smiling fellow reads it, then turns livid, and almost stabs Hank to death! The stress finally drives poor Hank mad. But what was on the card? At story’s end we see the writing, which reads: “Ma Nish Tano Halilo Hazeh.”

For you goys out there, that’s the phonetic spelling of the Jewish Passover prayer that asks the question: “Why is this night different from all other nights?”

It’s unknown if the lettering on the card was in the original script or whether the artist added it, rather than drawing some meaningless gibberish. Either way, it’s an amusing “shaggy dog” story, as well as a very funny “in” joke about Jewish persecution––and fully in the spirit of the Yiddish humor that was Harvey Kurtzman’s stock in trade. Charles Stern’s art on this story is an impressive imitation of Kurtzman.

Terror TV!

Another Stern story, “Television Ghost,” from Mister Mystery #1, is an even closer replica of Kurtzman’s art and storytelling style. In fact it directly references “The Mysterious Ray from Another Planet,” another TV-themed Kurtzman story in Weird Fantasy’s fourth issue. The protagonists from “Television Ghost” (vanishing body and all!) are taken directly from the EC story... though not directly swiped. Instead we have a completely new story based on Kurtzman’s visuals. The tale is such a complete

The Kurtzman Version! (Right:) Kurtzman’s “The Mysterious Ray from Another Planet“ from EC’s Weird Fantasy #16 (Nov. 1950), actually the fourth issue. Compare Kurtzman’s character with the protagonist in Stern’s “Television Ghost…” which appeared a year and a half later! [©2013 William M. Gaines Agent, Inc.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

re-creation of Kurtzman’s style that at least one former Kurtzman student, cartoonist Batton Lash, believes Kurtzman himself drew it. If so, could this be a “lost” Kurtzman story? While unlikely, it’s not impossible. You see, Charles and Harvey were old high school chums, and in the late ’40s the two cartoonists formed a studio with Bill Elder. The Charles William Harvey Studio, as they called it, lasted until late 1951 (though comic historian John Benson states that Stern was long gone by then). Regardless, if Charlie was having deadline troubles, he might have asked Harvey for help.

That Old Gang Of Mine! (Above:) Fellow artist (and future war-comics great) John Severin drew Charlie Stern (on right) talking to a customer at the Charles William Harvey Studio around 1949. [©2013 Estate of John Severin.] (Right:) Charlie’s and Harvey’s 1941 photos from the High School of Music and Art, where the pair were classmates. Charlie’s the one on the left. From Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle’s 2009 book The Art of Harvey Kurtzman. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

However, it’s more probable that Charlie drew both stories as a tribute to Kurtzman. Regardless of whether Harvey himself was involved, both “The Envelope” and “Television Ghost...” have the indelible Harvey Kurtzman stamp to them. And in these instances at least, Charles Stern, Hank Chapman, and Russ Heath were... the men who would be Kurtzman! Oh, and special thanks to Al Salton. ‘Till next time...

35 Fandom Archive Comic

Spotlight On BILL SCHELLY Alter Ego’s Associate Editor Talks About His Fannish Past, The Origins Of Hamster Press, & His Recent Books Panel/Interview Conducted by Gary Brown

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris

[Part I of the conclusion to A/E’s coverage of the 50th Anniversary of Fandom Celebration and related festivities at the July 2011 Comic-Con International: San Diego]

Introduction by RICHARD LUPOFF LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, MAY I PRESENT...

...Bill Schelly.

Yes. Introducing Bill Schelly is like... well, let me put it this way: Bill Schelly is a comic book fan. Specifically, a comic book fan historian. That’s like saying Maria Callas could hit the high notes. Babe Ruth could hit home runs. Albert Einstein could solve problems. Yes. No. Maria Callas wasn’t just a soprano, she was the soprano of her generation. Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat. Albert Einstein was the deep thinker of the ages. And Bill Schelly is the historian of comics fandom.

This is the man who stumbled across comics fandom when it was a chaotic, squalling, new-born organism, growing and learning at a furious rate, like all healthy infants. Without Bill’s works, I suspect that the history of fandom would never have been written. Or it would have been written half a century hence by a candidate for an academic degree, who would have got half his facts wrong and sucked all the joy and all the exuberant energy out of the other half. Instead, Bill Schelly has given us a living portrait of a stillyoung, living, breathing, singing, dancing, shouting organism.

1964, so I’m not listed in The Who’s Who of Comic Fandom. I missed the deadline by about three months. [audience chuckles] GB: Well, you ended up in Seattle, where you live now.

SCHELLY: Right. I moved there in 1974 after graduating from college. GB: What do you do now, besides write books about fandom?

SCHELLY: I work for the U.S. Small Business Administration. [NOTE: Bill retired at the end of 2011.] GB: What was your first comic book?

SCHELLY: I don’t think I can remember my first comic book, because I had to have gotten comics before I was eight. I know I had to. But the first one I remember was that first Superman Annual in 1960. I distinctly remember reading it on a train trip where I could focus on it fully without distractions, and... I got so sucked into it. I remember there was a panel in one of the stories where it [said] something about Superman’s “mighty mind,” when he’s really concentrating on remembering something, and I remember

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present—Bill Schelly!

—Dick Lupoff

GARY BROWN: We’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of comics fandom, and I’d like to introduce you to an author who is a fan historian extraordinaire, and all-around good guy, Mr. Bill Schelly. [audience applauds] BILL SCHELLY: Hi, everybody.

GB: Bill, let’s do some vital statistics first. Where were you born, when, and—?

SCHELLY: I’m actually a Washington State native. I was born in 1951 in Walla Walla, Washington, but I grew up in Pittsburgh. The people that knew me in fandom in the ’60s would probably think of me [as being] from there. But then in 1967 I moved to Lewiston, Idaho, so the last five years of my fanpublishing was from there. I got into fandom in

Comic-Con Comets (Left:) Richard and Pat Lupoff, who were, like Bill Schelly, Guests of Honor at Comic-Con in 2011. The Lupoffs and Bill met for the first time in person on that occasion. Dick kindly offered to write the intro for this piece. (Above:) Gary Brown (on our left) and Bill on the dais for the Bill Schelly panel. Photo by Aaron Caplan. Seen at top right is the guest badge for the 2011 Comic-Con, designed by Gary Sassaman.

Comic Fandom Archive

Annual Magnetism (Left:) Superman Annual #1 (June 1960) was a milestone comic book for the Baby Boomers who were just getting into comics—including Bill Schelly. Art by Curt Swan (Right:) Panel from “Superman’s First Exploit!” by Edmond Hamilton (writer), Wayne Boring (penciler), and Stan Kaye (inker), reproduced from the 1998 reprinting in that first Superman Annual. [©2013 DC Comics.]

thinking, “Wow, what would it be like to have a mighty mind? What does that mean?” I just got into it fully. Then, later, I realized that most of the stories in that annual were written by Otto Binder; and I ended up, not just coincidentally, writing a biography of Otto. So, in a way, Otto Binder was the one who really pulled me into comics. GB: Who were your favorite characters and writers and artists at first?

SCHELLY: Comics themselves, just as a medium of story and pictures together, appealed to my imagination.... At first I was really into Superman and those related comics. Without knowing the names of the artists, there were some I liked better than others. I really liked Wayne Boring’s Superman and also Curt Swan’s, less so the others. My Dad would bring them home to me, and then I was buying them on my own. I also liked Batman when I was nine and ten years old. The first Marvel comic book that I bought—I may have read a few that friends had—was Amazing Spider-Man #7 with Spidey fighting The Vulture, which came out in September 1963. Then I became a Marvel fan, and of course Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko were my favorite artists after that. I was mostly into the super-hero stuff through the 1960s. When I was in college, I started branching out and appreciating “Sgt. Rock” and EC comics. GB: At some point, you got your first fanzine. What was it and how did it change your life? [chuckles]

SCHELLY: Well, obviously it did have a huge effect. [audience chuckles] There was a plug in an issue of Justice League of America, I think #30, that was responsible for about 400 people getting into comics fandom. I was one of them. I wrote to G.B. Love in Florida, and got a flyer advertising the Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector. He was also selling something called Fighting Hero Comics with a

character called The Eye. And I remember showing them to a buddy, asking, “What is this? Are there comic books that don’t come to Pittsburgh?” He was obviously smarter than me... He said, “You idiot, these are amateur publications that people are doing. They’re not like Marvel or DC. You have to send away for them.” And I went, “Ah, that’s cool,” and I ordered a few of those things right away. When I saw RB-CC and some others, I was instantly drawn into fandom, just the same way as other people were. It wasn’t the fact that you could order back issues that got me, though. The minute I saw a fanzine, it was like I was seized with the urge to publish. I don’t know where it came from... but the first thing I wanted to do was publish one. I hadn’t read more than a half dozen of them before I was planning to do one. GB: I know mine was Batmania, and the minute you saw it, one of the things was, “I’m not alone! There are others like me out there.”

SCHELLY: Same here. There were a couple of neighborhood kids [who] had comics, but I had just one buddy who was into them like I was. When you think about it, there was no support whatsoever for anybody who was into comics back then. If you were into it as a teenager, you didn’t have anybody saying, “Oh, that’s cool.” If you admitted it at all, you had people wondering why, or just outright making fun of you. So when I saw the fanzines and realized that other people were into comics, it was great finding out that there were people who also saw that comics had other qualities and weren’t just children’s material. Of course, with the Comics Code, the comics were

A Marvel Moment

The first Marvel comic book Bill ever bought (his actual copy). Note the blow-up insert of the actual on-sale-date stamp barely visible at bottom right. Despite the mag’s Dec. 1963 cover date, “Sept. 17, 1963” is the day, or at least the week, when he officially became a Marvel fan. The art, of course, is by Steve Ditko. [©2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Spotlight On Bill Schelly

generally geared toward a younger audience for a while there. But then along came Marvel, and things started changing. GB: What were your favorite fanzines that you got at the beginning?

SCHELLY: Batmania was one of my favorites, mainly because of Biljo White. That guy never drew a wrong line in his life. He just knew how to create an illustration that was simple and beautiful. Maybe he wouldn’t have made a good comic book artist, but I still think he was a great artist for what he did. I also liked The Yancy Street Journal. Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector—we all got into it because then it was like page after page of ads for old comics. I couldn’t afford them, but it was fun and educational to look at the ads. When I first saw Alter Ego, I was blown away. Alter Ego #7 was the first issue I saw, with the article by Roy Thomas about The Marvel Family, “One Man’s Family.” That article inspired me to buy my first old comic book, Captain Marvel Adventures #91. And again, it was like Otto Binder again saying, “Hey, Bill!” I also got the Texas Trio’s Star-Studded Comics and loved the amateur comic strips a lot. I had some art ability and I started creating my own characters and strips. Anyway, those were the main fanzines I liked the best. GB: So here’s Bill Schelly, cranking on the ditto and the mimeo, or whatever you had. SCHELLY: Yeah, yeah.

GB: Talk about some of your fanzines. What was the first?

SCHELLY: [chuckles] Well, you know I was thirteen in 1964... and at thirteen, what do you have to say? I didn’t have anything to say ... but that didn’t stop me. [audience chuckles] My first fanzine was called Super-Heroes Anonymous. Why that title came to me, I have no idea. When I realized how dumb that was, I changed it with #3 to Incognito, which was my take on Alter Ego. Those early ones were very crude—what people called crudzines. A couple of years later I did something called Fantasy Forum, and that was a little better. Then I did something that a lot of people seem to remember called The Irving Forbush Gazette, a fanzine about Marvel Comics. Forbush was a crazy fanzine because Marshall Lanz, who was the co-editor, was absolutely out of his mind, and he was one of the funniest people I’ve ever known. Marshall lived across town. We found each other through the fanzines and became pals. We had so much fun... and we did Forbush together.

Then, in 1967, I did Sense of Wonder, which is the fanzine that was published through the end of my period in fandom up to 1972. It was my first attempt to seriously apply myself to having the best possible contents. It started out like the early ditto issues of StarStudded, all amateur comics... and gradually became more of an article fanzine. The last two issues of Sense of Wonder in 1971 and 1972 published the first major articles on Will Eisner and his career that ever appeared anywhere. It ended with #12 in 1972. GB: Who were some of your correspondents through the mail?

SCHELLY: I exchanged long, long letters with a popular fan writer named Dave Bibby. I also corresponded with a guy named Steve Johnson who had a fanzine called Sanctum, which became a very good fanzine in later years. In the early 1970s, Louis Morra and I exchanged a lot of letters. Those were the ones I exchanged long letters with. There may have been some that I’ve forgotten.

GB: At some point, you kind of strayed from fandom like many of us have done at a certain age or for certain reasons. What pulled you away and what pulled you back in?

SCHELLY: Well, at the end of my fanzine period, I was finishing college, and that’s when I decided to see if I could break into pro comics as an artist. After graduation in 1973, I worked up some sample pages. DC had announced something called their “New Talent Program,” and I figured this was my big chance. I did a Batman page, a Martian Manhunter page, and one other, so I had just three pages—plus some miscellaneous stuff—in my portfolio when I went to the New York Comicon that summer, the big summer con put on by Phil Seuling. My dad, who was a railroad executive, got me a free pass on the Burlington Northern, and it was a big adventure. I got there, and had a great time at the con.

When it came time for the DC editors to look at portfolios, it seemed like there were 100 or more in line, though my memory might be playing tricks on me. But even if there were 30 or 40 people, it was a lot. My portfolio was examined by one of the more thoughtful, considerate men in comics. Vince Colletta was the guy who passed judgment on me, [audience chuckles] with Julius Schwartz standing in the background, kibitzing and making comments. I think I got about two minutes with Mr. Colletta... and was rejected. “Go back and practice some more, kid.” It was really crushing. Julie threw in some negative comments on my work, too. Many years later, when I got to know Julie a little, I told him about the experience, and told him, “You kept me out of pro comics.” (Actually it was Colletta, but Julie had a part in it.) He said, “Well, I was right, wasn’t I?” I had to think about it for a

Comic Fandom Archive

Fanzine Artists Not Anonymous Bill at 15 (in a school photo), surrounded by: The original art of his cover for Super-Heroes Anonymous #1, his first fanzine, featuring his character The Immortal Corpse. Unfortunately, much to his chagrin, the solid black areas of this art printed mostly as a washed-out gray, due to limitations of the early Xerox reproduction process. [©2013 Bill Schelly.] With #3, the fanzine’s title changed to Incognito. But, contrary to what Incognito #4’s cover/logo artist David Eads apparently believed, Bill says he hadn’t gone by the name “Billy” for years at the time of this March 1966 issue. [Green Arrow & Speedy TM & ©2013 DC Comics.] Fantasy Forum #2 featured this fine cover conceived by Alan Hutchinson, whom Bill met in person for the first time at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con. In a comic book reality, of course, a footrace between The Flash and Marvel’s Quicksilver would’ve been no contest. [Flash TM & ©2013 DC Comics; Quicksilver TM & ©2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.; other art ©2013 Alan Hutchinson.]

Spotlight On Bill Schelly

minute but had to say, “You know what? You were right.” [laughs] I would have been a lousy comic book artist. I didn’t have what it took. That’s not to say that if I’d had an opportunity to assist another artist, or work under someone who could teach me some things, that I couldn’t have done some competent work. I did have some ability, but never really applied myself. But the rejection by DC was a turning point for me. GB: So that’s when you left fandom?

SCHELLY: Yes. I wasn’t going to be a comic book artist... I was done with college. Now it was time to go out and earn a living. At what, I had no idea. I had a teaching degree, but a bad studentteaching experience turned me off to that, at least in the short term. It took me a lot of years before I felt like I was ready to think about comics again. I’d look at the stands in the 1970s and nothing looked good to me. That’s not really a comment on the quality of what was being published, because there are always good things coming out. But there was a lot of junk, too, and the times I glanced at a comic once in a while, nothing seemed to appeal to

Dark Days With The Dark Knight (Above:) The Robin page from Bill’s 1973 portfolio, which received opposable-thumbs-down from reviewer Vince Colletta, with DC editor Julius Schwartz hovering in the background. “I wasn’t good enough, but this page still doesn’t look bad to me,” Bill comments today. [Robin TM & ©2013 DC Comics; other art ©2013 Bill Schelly.] (Top left:) Years after the “portfolio incident,” Bill and Julie Schwartz met on friendlier terms than during the “DC New Talent” review process.

me. Master of Kung Fu looked kind of interesting, but I was preoccupied with other things. I was in my twenties, living in Seattle away from my parents for the first time, and I was really into rock music, going to concerts, and partying. Also I was (and still am) very into film. But that was sort of a bleak period for me, too. Looking back, I think I was missing comics and fandom. GB: Didn’t you write a book about the movies?

SCHELLY: Uh-huh, my first book. I wrote a biography of a silent film comedian whom you’ve never heard of named Harry Langdon. And I’m the author of the only biography of Harry Langdon, who was compared to Chaplin in his day.

Forbush & Friends (Above:) Alan Hutchinson’s cover for The Irving Forbush Gazette #1 (Jan. 1967), which Bill put out in concert with his friend Marshall Lanz, around the same time Bill did Sense of Wonder #1 on his own. (Right:) Marshall Lanz in later years—with a close friend. Photo courtesy Jan Russell.

GB: What brought on the Harry Langdon book? I mean were you a big fan? SCHELLY: Well, I’m a movie fan, and what happened was... before there were videotapes and DVDs, there were theatres that ran

Comic Fandom Archive

repertory programs of old movies. Other than Silents, Please! late-night television, that’s how you saw old (Right:) Cover of the movies. Those repertory programs would show expanded edition of Bill’s a new double feature each day. In 1980, a biographical study Harry program came to Seattle called The Silent Clowns. Langdon: His Life and Films, It was all movies starring Charlie Chaplin, published in 2008 by McFarland Publishing. Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Harry Publicity photograph of Langdon, who were the four classic silent Langdon circa 1927 (David comedians. A friend of mine was really taken Kalat Collection). [Background with Buster Keaton at that time and, while like ©2008, 2013 Shutterstock.] Keaton, too, I was fascinated with Langdon, who was extremely strange [chuckles] and a very odd comedian, to say the least, but very talented. When I realized there wasn’t a book about Langdon, I started writing one. It was very difficult without the Internet. You know, his widow wouldn’t talk to me because she had her own book that was imminent. Her book never came out, and she’s long since passed away. Anyway, I wrote Harry Langdon, which was published by Scarecrow Press in 1982. After that, I tried other writing projects, but I just didn’t know what to do. I had ideas rejected by publishers, and so I was kind of thrashing around. GB: How did you get back into fandom?

SCHELLY: Let’s see…. Somehow I heard about the Crisis on Infinite Earths comics and visited a comic book retail store for the first time. I started reading them again, things like The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen. Also, I got some of the back issues I used to own. I slipped easily into regularly reading comics again and even

The Fandom Empire The covers of the first and second editions of his fannish opus The Golden Age of Comic Fandom. Bill himself illustrated the cover of the original 1995 book, while Michael T. Gilbert drew that of the second, expanded edition, which was published in 1998. Both came out with Bill’s Hamster Press imprint; the latter is still in print. [Art ©2013 Bill Schelly & Michael T. Gilbert, respectively.]

Spotlight On Bill Schelly

collected in a small way. But I was doing it more or less as a solitary thing. In 1989, I got a job at the Small Business Administration, and about a year later, on Halloween, one of the men came dressed in a Batman costume. I said, “Hey, that’s cool, I’m kinda into comics.” His name was Glen Moss. He said, “Really? I’m in Xapa and this and that” and I told him I used to be in CAPA-alpha. He knew of K-a. He said, “If you’re interested, I can get you their roster.”

off my turf. I’m doing one.” Sometimes that’s what happens now when I get an idea for a book. [chuckles] You know, you think, just for example, I think I’ll write a biography of Frank Frazetta. Well, I’d find there was someone who was already doing that book.

Anyway, when I got in touch with the people, everyone was so pleased to hear from me. They realized I was really into it all (maybe because I was a small part of it) and were very I thought it would be a way to get cooperative. The thing just kind of in touch with some people I used to caught fire. There was just one know, and that’s what happened. I got obstacle: nobody wanted to publish it! the list and there was a guy on it Kitchen Sink didn’t want to publish named Jeff Gelb, who had contributed the book, Dark Horse didn’t want to to Super-Heroes Anonymous #2 when he publish it, so I started my own was living in Rochester, New York. I company called Hamster Press and got him on the phone and said, “This self-published it. The first printing Guest Who’s Coming To Dinner! is a voice from your past.” He was was actually financed by advance Bill as Guest of Honor of Comic-Con 2011. He says, “It was so surprised to hear from me, to put it orders from the fans I was writing surreal being up there at my own spotlight panel. It looks like mildly... but he did remember me. So about, because I wasn’t confident I’m thinking, ‘Who spiked the water?’” Photo by Aaron Caplan. Jeff, being the friendly guy he is, enough to try to go through a helped me hook up with fandom again. It could have been you, distributor at that point. I was unapologetically a self-publisher. Gary, since your name was also on that list and I remembered you, That led to my philosophy, which is, if you want to make but for whatever reason I called Jeff. something happen, you can figure out a way to get there if it’s important to you. GB: [chuckles] So you’re back in fandom and you start writing The Golden Age of Comics Fandom. GB: And there were two editions of that book, right? SCHELLY: Right, right.

GB: How did the idea come about? How did you decide to become a historian, so to speak?

SCHELLY: Well, I was enjoying CAPA-alpha, and a guy named Richard Pryor ran reprints of things from the fanzines of the 1960s, and suddenly all those memories came flooding back. I found there wasn’t a major source or a book about the history of fandom, so on a very modest scale I started doing some things that were run in CAPA-alpha. I managed to get in touch with Ronn Foss, Jerry Bails, and Biljo White, and began doing some interviews by mail. This was before the Internet was big. It expanded more when I went to the 1992 comicon in San Diego, and met Jeff [Gelb] and Roy Thomas in person. Roy was very friendly and helpful. So, gradually, the thing built up until I realized there should be a book about the fan movement of the 1950s and 1960s, and I decided to do one.

If you think about it, the Langdon book was kind of a historical thing, looking back at someone’s career in the 1920s and 1930s. I just naturally like writing about the history of things. I was feeling, “So many of the old-time fans have been completely forgotten.” In San Diego, it really hit me, because here’s this whole mammoth comicon, but comicons started with a handful of fans who loved comics and had an idea. They did so much to create comics fandom, and who’s giving them their due? There was no book because, I figured, there wasn’t any money in it. That’s what I thought it came down to... but I had a pretty good job and wasn’t interested in it to make money. I was just interested in giving the fans from that formative period some recognition. And I was a bit of a frustrated writer, and it was fun to have a creative project to work on. You know, because there wasn’t money in doing that kind of book, I wasn’t competing with other people who said, “Get

SCHELLY: Right. What happened was—this happens with everything that I’ve ever done, after it comes out—a bunch of information you wanted but didn’t have suddenly starts coming in. People asked, “But Bill, why didn’t you include stuff about this?” A few people complained to me, “You left me out.” And I realized, “I did leave out some people who should have been in there.” The first printing was sold out. There were only 1,000 copies printed, maybe a few over that. (It was a signed and numbered edition.) I thought, “Okay, there’s a reason to re-issue it with additional information and added chapters,” and that’s what I did. The revised edition, with a new cover by Michael Gilbert, came out in 1998. That one was sold through Diamond Distributing and some other distributors. Then, when that printing sold out, I did a third printing in 2003. So I’d say there’s about 3,000 copies out there somewhere, counting all three editions... plus 200 to 300 left in the Hamster warehouse. [chuckles] For me, personally, writing about the history of fandom has been a wonderful thing in my life. I got to re-discover my own roots and meet so many of the fans I admired from that period. And I got to write about the subject that I loved best, so it’s been perfect. It’s been a real blessing.

END OF PART I

Next issue, Bill talks about writing his other fandom history books, about branching out to write biographies of Otto Binder and Joe Kubert, and about contacts with Dr. Fredric Wertham.

Coming soon in the Comic Fandom Archive: interviews with writer Steve Perrin and artist/fan Al Dellinges, followed by a multi-part series about G.B. Love and the Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector. Plus “Two Flashes vs. the Purple Slag Heap” by Landon Chesney and “Harmony,” the precursor to “All in Color for a Dime” by Jim Harmon, and much more. If you would like to get in touch with Bill, you can email him at: hamstrpres@aol.com

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re:

#1! He gazed at the cover as he had done at the July convention, and remarked, ‘That book has a mystical quality about it’…. The collector who was with me on my third visit to Carl Burgos was Jerome Tepper, not Topper…. [By the way,] I have an audio tape of ‘Jack Kirby’s 70th Birthday.’ The broadcast was on Earthwatch, a WBAI program hosted by Robert Knight. I was in the studio with Max Schmid, host of The Golden Age of Radio [program]. We got Jack and Stan on the phone [together]. I caught a lot of flack from Jack and Roz because of Stan’s extended presence, but it was history….” Indeed it was, Warren. Likewise, you—or someone— also mentioned that the Herb Trimpe Incredible Hulk cover rough shown on p. 11 would indeed have fit an issue around that time that had featured Mole Man, contrary to what I scribbled in a caption.

Bernie Bubnis: “Gosh, Warren Reece is an interesting soul. True, it was not a typical A/E lead article, but it sure captured the intensity of a ‘collector.’ Maybe it was his writing style, but his recounting of his pro meetings painted him as a bit innocent. I really did enjoy his self-portrait. He loved collecting those comics. Some folks spend a lifetime and they love nothing. I have been a collector my entire life, but I have never had that much passion. Good for him….

“Mike Peppe! Wow, another talent locked in a box. His wife knew just about everything about his career. Almost like Mike talking from beyond, except his wife knew him better than he

bove is the tribute by artist Shane Foley and colorist Randy Sargent to the late and highly esteemed Marc Swayze— especially the “maskot” figure of Captain Ego, based on one of Marc’s most-reprinted (and most-C.C.-Beck-like) covers of Fawcett’s Captain Marvel Adventures (#16, June 1942). [Alter & Captain Ego TM & ©2013 Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly; characters created by Biljo White.]

And now, moving on to remarks on A/E #108, we begin with a comment from the author of its lead article, which dealt with that eventual Marvel staffer’s 1960s/70s encounters with Timely/Marvel legends Bill Everett, Carl Burgos, et al. A link to the entirety of his article, which was way too long for inclusion even in the space allowed, was given in #108, and that is referred to below. As per our recent style for this section, to save space till (if) we get caught up on our letters pages, our own editorial comments are written in italics….

Warren Reece: “I [mostly] liked your modifications to my article… and if the Internet version is identical to my original work, then folks can see my personal approach for themselves…. Your editorial was kind and generous beyond my expectations, for I didn’t expect to be in one…. Upon re-reading [my article], I noticed that, in editing, you described dealer Roger Nelson as ‘elderly.’ [It was] his assistant [who] was elderly…. When you cut [the article], something was lost that the readers should’ve seen in the segment concerning my trip with Gary Lipton to the meeting with Perry Albert, Phil, and the Long Island guys. You cut the part concerning what Gary was guarding. I brought along Marvel Comics #1! Even Perry, who had all those specimens from #2-10, had never copped

[correspondence, comments, & corrections]

some publication, be it MPFW or, for that matter, Marvel Comics #1. That said, it doesn’t mean that Warren and the late Ed Lahmann may not still be proven right, in the long run—if anyone is ever proven “right” about that particular controversy.

A Marvel Mystery In A/E #108 we reproduced the final two panels of the 8th page of Bill Everett’s “Sub-Mariner” story as printed in the black-&-white 1939 Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1, and as they were reprinted—with different words inserted by editor Roy Thomas into the “caption box”—in The Invaders #20 (Sept. 1977). But #108 didn’t depict those panels as they’d appeared in Marvel Comics #1 (Oct./Nov. 1939), where they were followed by four additional story pages that aren’t in MPFW #1. So here are those panels from the very first Timely comic ever—or at least, from that comic as reprinted (and rather well, too) in the Golden Age Marvel Comics Omnibus, Vol. 1. [©2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

knew himself. Great interview [by Dewey Cassell]!.... ‘Fandom Bash’ was super-cool. Schelly wearing my old ‘Comicon 1964’ button put me there in spirit. These circus cons seem a little over the top for me….

“Roy Ald [interviewed by Shaun Clancy in the FCA section over several issues] is pretty amazing. Some pioneer. Great interview.” Glad you seem to have enjoyed the entire issue, Bernie. Of course, your article on your role (key as it was) in staging the first comics convention ever, in New York in 1964, was featured last issue—and the ’64 Comicon button you gave Comic Fandom Archive proprietor Bill Schelly a few years back is again on prominent display therein.

Barry Pearl wrote in concerning Ye Editor’s statement in #108 that I didn’t recall any instances of Bill Everett inking anything Marie Severin had penciled. I was thinking (foolishly) only in terms of stories, not of covers—and, as Barry says, he has a section in an online book devoted to noting all the cover artists in the general era of the “Marvel Age.” Here’s his listing for covers penciled by Mirthful Marie and inked by Wild Bill, as per Barry’s Essential Marvel Age Reference Book, 1961-1977: “Astonishing Tales #1, Chamber of Darkness #4 & 6, Daredevil #67, Iron Man #29 & 30 & Annual #1, Marvel Super-Heroes #28, Marvel Tales #26 & #28, Tower of Shadows #5, Where Monsters Dwell #3.” His EMARB study, which is truly exhaustive, is available online at http://forbushman.blogspot.com Thanks, Barry—and thanks to Mitchell Senft, Hames Ware, and several other folks who wrote in to point out one or more of the above Severin/Everett covers, which often sported the credit “7-EV.”

Nick Caputo: “Warren Reece’s article had many interesting anecdotes about Everett, Burgos, and others… although I found some of his conspiracy theories about why he wasn’t elevated to a higher position at Marvel and his constant complaint about Motion Picture Funnies Weekly to be annoying.” That may be, in part, because I edited that section less heavily than I did some other parts of Warren’s article in the process of abridging it, Nick. But admittedly, Warren is

Chris Green: “Warren Reece makes an interesting stab at claiming the chronological precedence of Marvel Comics #1 over Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1, but I, for one, remain unconvinced. The order in which Golden Age fan Ed Lahmann received his copies of those two titles is largely irrelevant. What matters is when the comics were published and distributed. Who can say how long the MPFW languished in a distributor’s warehouse or the movie theatre manager’s storeroom before it ended up in Ed’s lucky bag? Admittedly the absence of a copyright notice on MPFW is of interest, but such omissions were not unknown in the often hasty and slapdash world of comic book publishing up until fairly recent times. None of this constitutes ‘overwhelming evidence.’ It’s just circumstantial.

“The most compelling evidence remains that blank caption box on page 8 of the ‘Sub-Mariner’ strip in Marvel Comics #1. There is no reason for it to be there, unless the material was reprinted from elsewhere with the lettering deleted. Warren needs to account for the inconvenient matter of that caption box before he can claim his version of events is proven ‘beyond any reasonable doubt.’” I’ve said much the same thing to my old friend Warren, Chris. At the very least, it seems to me that the first eight pages of that first “SubMariner” story were almost certainly prepared as a separate entry for

Have Yourself A 7-EV! Two Marie Severin/Bill Everett covers, out of apparently a dozen that the pair did together: Tower of Shadows #5 (May 1970) and Iron Man Special #1 (Aug. 1970), the latter being the cover title of what Barry Pearl lists elsewhere on this page as “Iron Man Annual #1” and whose indicia, amazingly, refers to it only by the simple title “Iron Man.” You probably can’t see their joint “7-Ev” signature—the letters “EV” superimposed over a larger “7”—on the bucket near the makeup man’s leg on the former. Thanks to Nick Caputo for both scans. [©2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

re:

The Way We Were In A/E #108 Warren writes about his father bringing him, in 1968, a newspaper article about the upcoming SCARP-Con, the first comics convention in which Brooklyn high school teacher Phil Seuling was involved as a co-host instead of merely as a dealer… and the accompanying photo that showed another dealer, Henry Keller, with Phil’s young daughters Gwen and Heather. Well, as it happens, for at least a decade now, Roy (and usually wife Dann) Thomas have been having dinner twice a year with Carole Seuling, who helped then-husband Phil with all his early conventions. She migrates in a small van with her dog and cat on Highway 95 between winters in Florida and summers in Pennsylvania, which brings her within twenty minutes or so of the Thomases’ home, so they meet at a certain restaurant. And, for the past couple of years, her daughter Heather Seuling Antonelli has been accompanying Carole on these treks. A year or so ago, over dinner, when Roy gave them copies of the just-out A/E #108 and mentioned Warren and that newspaper story he referred to in his article, Gwen immediately chimed back that she remembered Warren well, adding: “Somebody just sent me that picture a couple of days ago!”—probably after reading the issue. She swept her fingers over the screen of her smartphone and voila! there was the photo! Later, she e-mailed Ye Ed a scan of both article and photo from the July 6, 1968, edition of The New York Daily News—and here it is, complete with its iconic headline of the standard gosh-wow type used from that day to this! Heather, the younger daughter, is the one on our right. Warren says he’s really looking forward to seeing the pic of the girls and his old friend Henry Keller after all these years. [Article & photo ©2013 New York Daily News or successors in interest.]

passionate about the Motion Picture Funnies Weekly argument—and I must admit that, considering how others have touted MPFW #1 as “the first Marvel comic” and have thus helped steer that black-&-white giveaway to astronomical prices (and historical prominence) that it may or may not deserve, I’m sympathetic to his concern. So I basically stood aside while he gave the matter a major airing in A/E #108—but I don’t plan to do revisit the matter at length if I can help it.

Alan Kupperberg was mentioned prominently in #108 as a young artist whom Warren met, so he wanted to add his two cents’ worth about one reference to him therein: “Thought I’d clarify a point in Warren Reece’s article. On page 22, Warren relays an incident, reported to him by Gary Friedrich, that I had ‘made some kind of harsh remark about Johnny Romita’s artwork.’ Here’s the whole story: I was in [early-’70s staffer] Mimi Gold’s receptionist cubicle. Mimi showed me the cover proofs of Tower of Shadows #9, drawn by Bernie Wrightson and featuring the likenesses of Bernie and Alan

Weiss. Mimi pointed out to me that Alan’s face had been redrawn by John Romita. She didn’t seem too pleased about that. I clucked sympathetically and, referring to the amended drawing, I said, ‘Yeah, those are John Romita’s stupid lines.” Not very nice, I admit, and certainly uppity. Marie Severin was in the Bullpen on the other side of the partition from Mimi and me. Marie swore she heard me say ‘John Romita is a lying son-of-a-b****’… [which wouldn’t have made any sense in that context]. From that day forward, Marie carried on a vendetta against me, until 1980 when Sol Brodsky told her to lay off me after a particularly snide comment from her badly upset me. I learned a lot from Marie about making good drawings, and we worked together on Marvel Books projects in the years after that. However, though she held her tongue, she never liked me.” Alan concludes, “Finally, I’ve always loved Johnny Romita’s art and valued his friendship.” I’ve never heard Marie’s take on this longago dispute, Alan, and only heard about it from a distance… but I figured you deserved a chance to have your say. Sounds to us as if it’s all water

[correspondence, comments, & corrections]

under the bridge at this point, and happily so, no doubt, for both of you… a pair of talented professionals.

Artist/writer Nick Cuti is mentioned by Warren, as well, so he dropped a line to Comic Crypt keeper Michael T. Gilbert, who forwarded it to us: “I was stunned to see my photo and my character Moonchild (now “Moonie”) in the article in Alter Ego written by Warren Reece. It was a very pleasant surprise, and I remember Warren from my early days in comics. In fact, the New York convention where I met Warren was the first comic book convention I had ever attended. His claim to be my first fan is probably true. If possible, please pass my greetings and my thanks on to him.” Consider them passed, Nick. Good luck with your project for a Moonie movie! Hames Ware, one of comicdom’s foremost researchers, e-mailed us: “Just wanted to note that, on p. 31, that Strange Tales #16 cover looks to my eyes to be by Harry Anderson, rather than Carl Burgos (though Burgos may have done the side-panels). Harry Anderson was one of the least-reported-on yet best artists ever to have drawn for comic books. Jim V[adeboncoeur] met his son not too long ago. Maybe someone can track him down and do a piece on Anderson. Lord knows he was prolific, and everything he drew was top notch.” Chris Green, quoted above, also pointed out that the Strange

Tales #16 cover which Warren sent us to reproduce as a sample of Carl Burgos’ humor/horror work was at least primarily by Harry Anderson. Alberto Becattini, Italian comics expert whose interview with Mel Keefer graces this very issue, sent in a few additions to the Mike Peppe Checklist in #108, saying that they should read as follows: “Syndication: Buck Rogers (d)(i) 1958; Robin Malone (d)(S)(asst i) 1968 (2 weeks); Terry and the Pirates (d)(S)(i) 1961. “COMIC BOOK CREDITS (Mainstream U.S. Publishers):

“Western Publishing (a.k.a. Gold Key): Daniel Boone (i) 1965-69; I Spy (i) 1968; Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp (i) 1971-73; Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (i) 1964-65.”

Robert Gustavson is a guy whom, until the Fandom Celebration cocktail party at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con, I hadn’t seen since my L.A. days, when among other things he interviewed me for The Comics Journal about the reasons I quit Marvel in 1980. So it was good to hear from him—even if it was about a mistake in identification in the photos from that fannish gathering that were printed in #108: “Regarding the bottom of page 66 in Alter Ego (a fine zine, by the way): The person talking to Mark Evanier is [my friend Robert] Gluckson, not me. There is a photo of my back—I’m wearing a suit (light color) up and to the left with Paul Power’s hat at my back, facing away…. Good seeing you at the Fandom Reunion. I did copublish Graphic Illusion in 1971. Later worked with Alexander & Stroud at American [Comic Book Company store on Ventura Boulevard in L.A.], where I threw autograph parties.” Indeed you did, Rob. That was a great gathering place in the ’70s. I myself first met aspiring artist Scott Shaw! on the premises— not too difficult, since he, too, worked there at the time.

Ruby Friday Cartoonist Batton Lash, who supplied the above photo, e-mailed Ye Editor to comment on a particular aspect of “With the Fathers of Our Heroes” and thereby added another tidbit to comics-related history: “Warren Reece’s reminiscences were fascinating and quite candid. He makes mention of [a store called] My Friend’s Bookstore, which brought back a flood of memories. Long before there were comic shops, comic book fans in Brooklyn got their fix for back issues and maybe some comics shop talk and gossip while browsing and milling about My Friend’s. I don’t think there’s a comics fan—or pro—of a certain age who grew up in Brooklyn who didn’t haunt that second-hand bookstore for old comics to fill out their collection! The store was run by a fellow named Ruby [seen in photo] and a woman named Dot (an employee? partner? not sure!). Both Brooklyn characters! I remember going to the store in the late ’60s, when it was on Clarendon Road, off Flatbush. Later it moved to Flatbush Avenue proper. Fond memories… even if Ruby priced recent comics on the upper right hand corner (over the Comics Code stamp) with a black magic marker! FYI, I recall Ruby and one of his workers boasting that they played poker with you.” I responded to Batton that Ruby and his sometime employee Chester Grabowski (whose likeness was used for an enemy agent by artist Gray Morrow in the very first ‘Man-Thing’ story, in 1971’s Savage Tales #1; see A/E #50) were indeed members of the poker game held most Friday nights during that era at comics dealer/conventioneer Phil Seuling’s Coney Island apartment. I was a latter-1960s addition to that game—as was inker Mike Esposito. But, for the life of me, I couldn’t remember Ruby’s last name, to which Batton responded in another e-mail: “Ruby’s full name was Reuben Auerbach. I believe he passed away in the early ’80s. It’s nice to know, after all these years, that Ruby wasn’t yanking a young and impressionable teen fan’s chain by trying to impress him that he played cards with Roy Thomas.” And I with him, Batton. And I with him!

Dan Sehn [sent to Michael T. Gilbert]: “As a comic reader who eventually became a pro drug-free bodybuilder, I have to credit those Charles Atlas ads as my first exposure to the idea of muscle building. I can’t begin to count how many times I reread that ad, and I appreciated all the details revealed about the course and Angelo’s life. Great article! While I did

re:

NYC-area residents (and TV-watchers) in the 1970s got that ‘The Most in the Poconos’ gag. Do you write the caption headlines?” Guilty as charged, J.G. Since A/E has never been intended as a massmarket magazine (not that we’d turn away any mass-market-type big bucks, you understand), I tend to subscribe herein to Woody Allen’s thesis that it’s not necessary that everybody understand each and every reference in a movie, TV show, or magazine. Making a stab for universal accessibility is what turned network TV, in particular, into a creative graveyard years ago, from which the medium only began to escape with the coming of cable and satellite, which could aim for more specialized audiences. Even CBS eventually saw the light, with the wonderful Big Bang Theory! Toss verbal bouquets and/or rotten tomatoes re Alter Ego at:

Roy Thomas e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com 32 Bluebird Trail St. Matthews, SC 29135

Oh, and speaking of the Alter-Ego-Fans chat list as I was above, I’ve just realized that for the past couple of issues I’ve forgotten to mention it—and it’s a good place to learn about what’s on the minds of one’s fellow A/E readers and comics-history aficionados, as well as about future plans for this mag’s contents. You can connect up with it at group.yahoo.com/group/alter-ego-fans. If you have trouble getting on board at first, simply contact Web co-overseer Chet Cox at mormonyoyoman@gmail.com and he’ll walk you through it. Alter-Ego-Fans is where the Golden and Silver Ages still live!

Wild Bill’s Hiccup Roy T. has pretty much given up on the notion that the late-’60s Bill Everettwritten-and-drawn humorous Western story that he and Gary Friedrich both mention in #108 was ever published—small wonder, perhaps, since editor Stan Lee took a real aversion to it. Or, at the very least, it must’ve been altered so that the hilarious panel Roy remembers was deleted. Recently, comics researcher Nick Caputo posted a blog/study of Everett’s Western work for Marvel during the 1960s, which includes “The Medicine Man, or The Parable of the Pitchman,” a backup tale in Two-Gun Kid #91 (June 1968). Its third page, panel 5, features the same kind of exuberance that Roy recalls being in the other story—and he’s still convinced that it was a totally different story, now lost to comics history. Thanks, Nick! [©2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

read the ad repeatedly as a kid, I never did actually order the course (though I studied about isometric exercises to see what ‘Dynamic Tension’ was all about). Muscle Builder (the predecessor of Muscle & Fitness) magazine was my formal introduction to weight training technique.”

A reader who prefers to be ID’d only as “J.G. Book” posted comments on the Alter-Ego-Fans online list about #108’s installment of Jim Amash’s interview with artist Tony Tallarico: “Bobby Sherman’s TV platform from which he scored the hit records and TV exposure to become a teen idol in the late ’60s was the also-David-Soul-starring series Here Come the Brides, not the later Getting Together, which attempted to extend his sixteen minutes [of fame]… and went up against a little series called All in the Family and was wiped out after half a season. It was the basis of the Charlton Bobby Sherman comic book, however. Also, Roy, I wonder how many people who were not

See? No Evil! Since Hames Ware and Chris Green seem fairly certain that the “Carl Burgos” cover we ran in A/E #108 as an example of “horror mixed with humor” was actually the work instead of artist Harry Anderson, we’ll try again. Above is Burgos’ (we hope!) cover for Mystery Tales #36 (Dec. 1955)—some months into the Comics Code era, so with less overt “horror” but still with a touch of humor in the rendering, if not in the situation depicted. Thanks to Stephan Friedt. [©2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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In Memoriam

Fran Matera (1924-2012) “Fran Always Liked To Draw” by Jim Amash

ran always liked to draw, and by the time he was in high school, it was obvious he had the ability to be a professional artist. He contacted Charlie Chan newspaper strip artist Alfred Andriola, who saw Fran’s potential and steered him toward Quality Comics, where Fran worked for eight months before enlisting in the Marines in 1943. During this time, Fran drew “Doll Man,” “The Clock,” and “Poison Ivy.” At the suggestion of Jay Chesler (Harry’s son, who worked in the Quality offices at the time), he went to see Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, who gave him nine pages of a “Boy Commandos” story to ink. He also took correspondence art courses. For a short time, Fran was in Chicago, taking life drawing classes at the Chicago Art Institute, and then World War II beckoned.

Have Some Matera, M’Dear Fran Matera at the drawing board—plus a 2004 commission drawing of Doll Man and (on the following page) a two-page feature for Sick magazine #109 (Feb. 1976). The photo is courtesy of the Matera family; thanks to Paul Bach and Ramon Schenk, respectively, for the art. [Doll Man TM & ©2013 DC Comics; Sick material ©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

Fran was not in the shooting part of the war, but spent his time in public relations and then as staff artist at Paris Island, drawing, among other things, the Ship to Shore strip for the Marines newspaper. He was on the ship Augusta as an honor guard to President Harry Truman when Truman announced that America had dropped an atomic bomb on Japan. He drew a portrait of Truman that the President liked and autographed to Fran. As much as he talked about it, I’d say that was his favorite piece of art, and Fran was rightly proud of it.

After his time in the service was over, Fran returned to comics, drawing and occasionally writing double-page splashes for Heroic Comics, in addition to some romance stories. He also ghosted five weeks of the Kerry Drake newspaper strip for Alfred Andriola, and took over the Dickie Dare strip from 1947 until 1949. He also drew comic book stories and a few covers for St. John Publications (Fightin’ Marines), a lot of stories for Charlton Comics (Fightin’ Marines, Speed Demons, Sunset Carson, etc.), romance stories for Ziff-Davis, and a couple of small jobs for Dell and Gilberton. In the meantime, he was busy drawing newspaper strips, too. With writing partner Chad Kelly, he drew Mr. Holiday and Young Ray Bold, ghosted on Little Annie Rooney in 1951, and drew Nero Wolfe for a short time. In 1960, Fran began a twelve-year association drawing for

In Memoriam

the Treasure Chest comic book, which was distributed to Catholic schools. He drew filler pages, and had a long run drawing the “Chuck White” feature. He also did some ghost work for Al Stenzel Studios on the Boys’ Life strips “Tracy Twins,” “Pee Wee Harris,” and “Scouts in Action.” In 1978, he returned to comic books as an inker for Marvel on Tarzan and The Incredible Hulk. He wasn’t happy doing piecemeal work, so he concentrated on newspaper strips for the rest of his career.

Fran also drew more newspaper strips: he ghosted Rex Morgan, M.D. in the mid-late ‘70s, a job he found tediously labor-intensive and, judging from his tone when we discussed it, lucrative but unfulfilling. For short stints, he drew The Legend of Bruce Lee, Can You Solve the Mystery, and Salty. In 1985, he began drawing Steve Roper and Mike Nomad and took over the writing a year before he decided to retire the strip and himself in 2004.

He was a fun-loving guy who enjoyed life and took seriously what needed to be, but he was laid back about the rest with good humor. I enjoyed our phone chats and appreciated the drawings he did for me, not to mention the Steve Roper strips he gifted me. I had told him that a local friend of mine was a fan of his, so Fran told me to give my buddy one of the dailies, which I was happy to do. A devoted family man, Fran Matera was a kind and generous soul, always willing to enjoy the company of friends and friends yet to meet. He was a good cartoonist, proud of his profession, and was liked by all who knew him.

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In Memoriam

Paul Laikin (1927-2012) “He Literally Wrote For Every Black-&-White Humor Magazine” by Mark Arnold

he world of humor owes a big debt to Paul Laikin,who passed away on May 12, 2012, of Non-Hodgkins lymphoma at age 84. He literally wrote for every major black-&-white humor magazine, including Mad, Cracked, Crazy, and Sick, and most of the minor ones, including Thimk, Frantic, Frenzy, Loco, Zany, and even Wildest Westerns for Warren Publishing. Taking over the reins of Help! magazine when creator Harvey Kurtzman left it, Laikin even went on to become editor of Cracked, Crazy, and Sick at various intervals—and was also editor of Wacko.

Scaduto, Ray Billingsly, John Langton, Arnoldo Franchioni, Murad Gumen, son Aron, daughter Eden, and many others.

One of the consistencies of Paul Laikin was his loyalty to his artists. Wherever he seemed to go, be it Cracked, Crazy, or Sick, Laikin’s cronies were there. Said Laikin, “I hired my own people. If I had any trouble or if they didn’t return my phone call, I’d never call them again.” So, many of Laikin’s productions featured people such as Tony Tallarico, Walter Brogan, Kent Gamble, Bill Burke, Al

I first encountered the name “Paul Laikin” while reading Marvel’s Crazy Magazine in 1976. While I tended to like his writing and editing at the time, I did find much of it quite corny, especially in comparison to the more sophisticated Mad, and ultimately was dismissive of his work.

He also wrote for Milton Berle, Jackie Gleason, and Ed Wynn, and later worked for Topps Chewing Gum in creating some of the stickers for the Wacky Packages and Garbage Pail Kids series.

Mad About Paul Laikin

Said Brogan upon Laikin’s passing, “He gave young artists a break into the field and let them learn while working, to see how your work looked in print. I will miss Paul; a great guy. RIP.”

Later, I discovered his other pedigrees and reversed my opinion of the man and his work, especially after interviewing him on May 4, 2009, for my two-volume work If You’re Cracked, You’re Happy: The History of Cracked Magazine. Yes, he was repetitious. He apparently published a parody of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If” on at least three different occasions for different publications. He did numerous coloring-book parodies and joke books, but overall, corny or not, he was consistent and at times very, very funny.

Laikin got into the black-&-white humor magazine business by answering an ad placed in The New York Times by new editor Al Feldstein, who was looking for new writers and artists upon the departure of Harvey Kurtzman and most of his artists at Mad. Laikin turned out to be one of the first new men hired to write for Mad at roughly the same time as long-time Mad writer Frank Jacobs. Laikin’s first piece for Mad was “The Bad Seat,” a parody of the movie version of the novel The Bad Seed that appeared in Mad #57 (April 1957), with artwork by Bob Clarke. Laikin went on to write for the other humor magazines as they came out. He said, “All I had to do was see the first issue and I went over there. I couldn’t write it with Mad’s level of criteria. My own level of humor was sustainable in these magazines, and there was no one there to question it. The readers didn’t care. Just change your name, which I did.” Laikin wrote under many pseudonyms, including Paul Lamont and Pula Kinlai. He wrote for the various humor magazines for over 30 years and then worked with son Aron at The Creativity Zone in recent years, producing all types of multimedia advertising. In addition to writing his history of Cracked, Mark Arnold long published a magazine celebrating Harvey’s humor comics. See his website http://harveycomics.50webs.com

In Memoriam

Monty Wedd (1921-2012) “[He Had A] Lifelong Interest in Australian History And Historical Artifacts” by Kevin Patrick ontague (“Monty”) Thomas Archibald Wedd, one of Australia’s most revered comic strip illustrators, died at a retirement home in Fingal Bay (New South Wales) on 4 May 2012, aged 91. He had been born on 5 January 1921.

Studying art under Oswald Brock and later at East Sydney Technical College, Wedd worked as a commercial artist for a furniture manufacturer, before enlisting in the Australian Army with the onset of World War II. He subsequently transferred to the Royal Australian Air Force, where he attained the rank of Leading Aircraftman (34 Squadron). Discharged from active duty in 1946, Wedd wrote and drew a French Foreign Legion comic book serial, “Sword and Sabre,” which he sold to Syd Nicholls’ Middy Malone Magazine. At Nicholls’ urging, Wedd developed an Australian-themed series, “Captain Justice” (appearing in Fatty Finn’s Comic), which was set in Colonial-era Sydney, for which Wedd undertook considerable historical research, thus sparking his lifelong interest in Australian history and historical artifacts.

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Wedd became a prolific and sought-after comic book illustrator and commercial artist. In addition to developing new series of Captain Justice comic books for New Century Press and Calvert Publishing, he wrote and drew The Scorpion, starring a criminal anti-hero, which arguably ranks amongst his best work and remains one of the best-drawn Australian comics of that era. Recording sales in excess of 100,000 copies, The Scorpion was banned from sale in Queensland by that state’s Literature Board of Review in 1955, which prompted Gordon & Gotch to cease distributing the title throughout the rest of Australia. Wedd also worked extensively as a cover artist on numerous “pulp fiction” novelettes issued by such firms as Malian Press, Action Comics Pty Ltd, and Whitman Press throughout the 1950s.

When an economic downturn afflicted Australia’s comic book industry in the late 1950s, Wedd turned to educational comics projects, including the “Stamp Oddity”column for Stamp News, as well as contributing comic strips to The Australian Children’s Newspaper, before being appointed in 1958 as editor of The Australian Chuckler’s Weekly, a children’s magazine based on the “Charlie Chuckles” supplement from Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper. In 1964, Wedd was commissioned to produce a new weekly comic strip version of “Captain Justice” for Woman’s Day

Monty Wedd & Friend Monty Wedd and his cover for Captain Justice #7 (1963). With thanks to Kevin Patrick for the art scan, and to Grey Ray for the photo. More art by Wedd can be seen in Alter Ego #51’s coverage of the Australian comic book industry, written by Michael Baulderstone. [Art ©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

magazine; it ran until mid-1965. At this time, he embarked on a new career in cartoon animation, working as a production designer on various series for Artransa Park Studios, including Rocket Robin Hood (1966), and later as a layout artist for Eric Porter Studios, where his credits included Marco Polo versus the Red Dragon (1972). One of Wedd’s most publicly recognized works from this period was the cartoon mascot “Dollar Bill,” which he devised on behalf of the Decimal Currency Board as part of the public information campaign about Australia’s switch to decimal currency in 1966. Wedd’s ongoing interest in Australian history found renewed expression in a comic strip biography of the Australian bushranger “Ned Kelly” for Sydney’s Sunday Mirror newspaper in 1974. Its success led in 1977 to a further bushranger serial, “Ben Hall,” for the Sunday Mirror. His last comics project, “The Making of a Nation,” developed to coincide with Australia’s bicentennial celebrations in 1988, was syndicated to several newspapers, and was later issued as a two-volume book (self-published by Wedd) in 1988. He was a frequent guest on Australian television programs throughout the 1960s, when he often displayed items from his extensive collection of Australian artifacts. His collection was eventually relocated in 1998 to the purpose-built Monarch Historical Museum in Port Stephens (New South Wales), which he operated with his wife Dorothy. A recipient of the Australian Cartoonists’ Association’s Stanley Award for “Adventure/Illustrated Strip Artist” in 1987 and 1989, Wedd was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 1993, in recognition of his service to the community as an historian, writer, and illustrator. Kevin Patrick’s contributions to Australian comics research can be seen at http://comicsdownunder.blogspot.com

Illo by Marc Lewis

Excepts From A Book By Captain Marvel Master Writer OTTO BINDER Abridged & Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck tto Oscar Binder (1911-1974), the prolific science-fiction and comic book writer renowned for authoring more than half of the Marvel Family saga for Fawcett Publications between the early 1940s and 1953, wrote Memoirs of a Nobody in 1948 at the age of 37, during what was arguably the most imaginative period of the Captain Marvel repertoire.

I presume by this time you, the reader, are a bit startled. You thought this was going to be a dramatic novel of love and life, didn’t you? But that was just a little device to get you started on

Save for some brief moments of factual particulars, Binder’s capricious chronicle unfortunately resembles very little in the way of anything that is truly autobiographical. Unearthed several years ago from Binder’s file materials at Texas A&M University, Memoirs is described by its author as “ramblings through the untracked wilderness of my mind.” His potpourri of stray philosophical beliefs, pet peeves, theories, and anecdotes were written in freewheeling fashion and apparently without much of a plan other than allowing his mind to flow freely with no interfering fundamental theme or concise conclusion. That said—as we begin running this condensation of Otto’s unpublished manuscript in a series of installments beginning with this issue of FCA—what will follow on these pages will nonetheless give us glimpses into the idiosyncratic and fanciful mind of Otto Binder.

“If this book must have a purpose,” Binder revealed, “… I’m going to try to entertain and divert you, if you have any troubles…. [I]f you have a toothache, this book is the lesser of two evils.” —P.C. Hamerlinck.

Nancy Faces Life Nancy’s hesitation was over. Holding up her head defiantly, she marched toward the front door of Ramblings Manor. But there was a sudden noise behind her, of a wheezy car, and then a shout from a maddened figure that dashed out toward her, and stopped stricken. It was Johnny. Johnny Heissenwasser. “Nancy!” he yelled. “I saw you heading this way. I followed. Don’t go into that house, Nancy. Come home with me.” At the same time, the front door opened and the slim, suave figure of Bosworth Goulden appeared, smiling invitingly. “Well, Nancy?” he said. Nancy stood halfway between the door and the outer drive. Halfway between Johnny and Bosworth. Halfway between honor and dishonor.…

Surprise!

Well, now that I got our heroine in a nice tidy trap, let’s leave her there. Do her good. Besides, I don’t particularly care just what she does. Do you?

The Non-Missing Link Before comic books became his livelihood, Otto Binder was a prospering pulp science-fiction writer. Above is the cover of Amazing Stories, Vol. 13, #1 (Jan. 1939), featuring “I, Robot”—the first installment of Binder’s popular Adam Link series. The “Eando” name stands for “Earl and Otto”—but by this time Otto was no longer working with his brother, though he kept the pseudonym because it was already established. That issue also featured a tale by Binder’s colleague and fellow future “Captain Marvel” writer, Manly Wade Wellman; the cover was illustrated by one of Otto’s high school chums, Robert Fuqua. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

Memoirs Of A Nobody

Yes, that’s who I am—nobody. Just plain nobody. Is that clear? And I’m writing my memoirs. All famous people seem to get around, sooner or later, to writing their memoirs. Why not a nobody for a change?

What am I in real life, is probably the next logical question that comes to your somewhat bewildered mind. Am I a butcher, baker, candlestick maker, suddenly turning to writing? Well, there’s a surprise. I actually am a writer by profession. A freelance writer. I’ve been writing for some fifteen years, making a living at it, but again, the stuff I’ve written is also “unknown.” To make it clearer, my writing has consisted of the “pulps” and “comics.” They’re widely read, decently paid for, but one does not achieve fame doing them. So that, in a nutshell, is who I am, plus a few details I might add such as that I’m 37, married, and live in a five-room house in New Jersey, across the George Washington bridge from New York City. So much for that. Now, another question pops into your mind. Just why am I writing this book? Who am I to think that the mouthings and stray thoughts I’m putting down are of any importance or interest to anybody? I’m writing this because it’s something I want to write. Something that’s been simmering in me for a long time and needs an outlet. Something that’s been singing and dancing through my being and inspiring my busy fingers to create, and to express myself. In short, a labor of love. So that’s straightened out. Now, one more final question bubbles up in your mind: Just what in thunder is this book going to be about? Just more of this same drivel?

Dime Marches On This very first Otto Binder-written “Captain Marvel” story for Fawcett Publications actually wasn’t a script for a comic book, but a piece of prose entitled “Return of the Scorpion” for the Captain Marvel Dime Action Book (formatted similarly to the popular Big Little Books); cover by C.C. Beck. The story, which Binder wrote in August of 1941—and the "Captain Marvel" tale "The Temple of Itzalotahui" which C.C. Beck wrote and illustrated for Whiz Comics #22 (Oct. 1941)—were both essentially sequels to Republic Pictures’ Adventures of Captain Marvel movie serial that had been released earlier that same year. [Shazam hero TM & ©2013 DC Comics.]

this book. And sex is one of the best ways to attract attention and get a story read.

And now comes the confession. This book isn’t going to be a novel at all. I don’t know what it’s going to be myself, by the time I’m done. It’s just going to be a wandering of words… aimless mutterings out of my mind… anecdotes and experiences out of my life… things I’ve always wanted to put down on paper for a long time. In short, it’s going to be the memoirs of a nobody. Namely, me. Now you see where the true title of this book comes in.

First of all, you wonder who I am… who the author is. Who he is, indeed. Ask Walter Winchell. Or go to George Bernard Shaw. Better yet, try Clark Gable… Albert Einstein… Jack Benny… Bob Hope.

But why go on? The list is endless. None of those people knows me.

Junior League Another inauguration into what would be his extensive and indispensable association with the Marvel Family characters was Otto Binder’s first-written “Captain Marvel Jr.” story, appearing in CM Jr. #2 (Jan. 1942); art by Al Carreno. Watch for special coverage of Cap Jr. in our next issue. [Shazam hero TM & ©2013 DC Comics.]

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

it.

Memoirs Of A Con Man A cropped snapshot of Otto Binder at the 1965 New York Comic Convention; photo from Bill Schelly’s magnificent (and long out-of-print) biography Words of Wonder: The Life and Times of Otto Binder.

That, friends, is exactly

Maybe I can pin it down a bit more. I intend to keep on filling the pages ahead with all stray thoughts… pet peeves… anecdotes… monologues… theories… denunciations… drolleries… that come tumbling out of my mind from day to day. It’s going to be a potpourri, I warn you. It’s not going to have any plot, or any basic theme, or any conclusion or moral at the end. You won’t be a bit more wise, at the end, than at the start.

If this book must have a purpose, let’s say I’m going to try to entertain and divert you, if you have any troubles. For instance, if you have a toothache, this book is the lesser of two evils. Now, how am I going to entertain you? Not by being brilliant, or full of breathtaking narrative. Just by being myself, and putting down on paper my own personal thoughts and ruminations. You see, when a writer writes a novel, he takes a “character” preferably from life, and tries to give you an insight into that person’s soul, as nearly as possible. But it seems to me simpler and a lot more direct to put down for you my inward mental process without any framework or subterfuge or dressing-up in novel form. They say the best and most entertaining novels are about real people. That’s where I come in. If, in volunteering myself as a mind to be self-dissected, instead of by another observer-writer, I give you a clear-cut human being in all his complexities, I’ve achieved a purpose. I’ll just spill out my mind and if the whole thing sums up into a purpose, so be it.

One more thing. They say people reading a book subconsciously identify themselves with the main character. They almost feel their emotions and go through all that they do, vicariously. Maybe in reading this, you too will identify yourself with me—one of the two billion souls living on this earth. Maybe you’ll find you have some of the same errant thoughts, and silly fancies, and the many confusions I have about life in general.

Ottobiography

Pun intended. And I’m not going to say “Excuse me, heh, heh, heh” or “pardon the pun.” Why do people always act guilty when they make a pun? Somebody once said a pun is the lowest form of wit, and since then, like sheep, we’ve all believed him. I think a pun is fun. Especially when you think of it first.

But getting down to names—which this chapter is going to be about (I think)—I dislike my first name immensely: Otto. And since I am telling all, my middle name is even worse: Oscar. And I think given names are very important. They have a subtle power for good or bad, in molding a person’s personality and future fortunes. My contention is that both “Otto” and “Oscar” are bad names. Each alone is bad enough. But the two together, as in my

case, is simply dreadful. Both those names are soul-wilting in childhood.

In later life, of course, a name is not nearly so damaging to the psyche as in youth. When you’ve made your mark, any name will do, even Pierpont Saxon Snodgrasshopper. But the damage is already done by then, as far as your own personality goes. A name that brought many wincings, during the sensitive period of childhood, has already left its scratchings on your brain-pan. And psychologists say the childhood impressions are the most important. You overcome it all, yes, but you’ve jumped an extra hurdle that didn’t need to be there in the first place. Parents should take extreme care in choosing names for their offspring. So, if you are about to name a newborn child of yours, speak the name aloud and then see if you can face yourself in the mirror. Remember, you may be blighting a life, you cad.

I suppose when you have an odd name like Otto Oscar Something, people are more liable to remember it than plain John Thomas Brown or Mary Joan Smith. Remember, folks, give all your kids distinctive and odd names to help them achieve fame and fortune. When it comes to last names, luckily, mine is not in the unwieldy class. If anybody reading this is named Dinkelgobbler or Hoppapoppadoppolus or Chlomedneywaughstonedump you have my sympathy and apologies both. Or, to put it on a legal basis, any similarity to names actually existing is purely miraculous. Next: The Modern Pied Piper

“A Job Is A Job” SHELDON MOLDOFF’s Final FCA Interview Conducted by P.C. Hamerlinck heldon “Shelly” Moldoff (1920-2012)—the industrious comic book illustrator best known for his early work on “Hawkman” and as one of Bob Kane’s primary ghost artists on “Batman”—in due course emerged as one of the central figures in comics history, with an extensive body of work that included stories and covers for Fawcett Publications during the 1940s and ’50s. While FCA featured Sheldon in a brief article years ago, I felt that a slightly more extensive interview emphasizing his output for that company was long overdue. My thanks go out to David Siegel, who put me back in touch with the gracious and amiable artist, whom I interviewed via telephone and mail ten months before “Shelly” passed away. —P.C. Hamerlinck.

Moldoff At Midnight The above image from the 1993 San Diego Comic-Con depicts (left to right) Sheldon Moldoff, fellow “Batman” artist Dick Sprang, Golden Age fan David Siegel, and Vincent Sullivan—who as DC editor bought the first “Batman” story from young Bob Kane in 1939. [Photo ©2013 Charlie Roberts.] (Right:) Moldoff’s cover for Captain Midnight #16 (Jan. 1944)—identified by the artist to FCA as his work. He drew the radio-spawned aviator before and after serving in the military during World War II. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

P.C. HAMERLINCK: It was long believed that your first job for Fawcett Publications was in 1945 (“Capt. Marvel Jr.”). However, in my book Fawcett Companion (2001, TwoMorrows), I reproduced an old Fawcett freelance artist rates sheet, originally from the files of editorial director Ralph Daigh and executive comics editor Rod Reed. Among the artists listed on the sheet is “S. Moldoff,” receiving $15 per pen and ink page. The memo is dated March 29, 1943.

SHELDON MOLDOFF: I did some “Captain Midnight” stories for Fawcett before I was drafted into the service. After the war, I got a “Captain Marvel Jr.” job, and then went on to do a lot more “Captain Midnight” as well as some “Don Winslow of the Navy,” “Tex Ritter,” and others. I got the jobs mostly from chief editor Will Lieberson and editor Ginny Provisiero. I became good friends with Will. PCH: Were you still strictly on a freelance basis with Fawcett at the time?

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

MOLDOFF: Yes, I always was; I did the work from my home in the Bronx.

PCH: Do you recollect anything about drawing “Captain Marvel Jr.”?

MOLDOFF: No, other than [that] Mac Raboy had a clean, beautiful style on the character. Unfortunately, I don’t think that look was powerful enough for super-heroes.

PCH: It’s difficult to identify which “Captain Midnight” stories and covers you drew. I know that, throughout your career, you had demonstrated an ability to adapt your artwork to pre-established styles.

MOLDOFF: I’ll try to spot some of my “Captain Midnight” work for you. Before I started on the character, Fawcett editor Stanley Kauffman gave me some Captain Midnight comics to study so that I would stick with the same art style of the book. One More Moldoff At of my talents was to keep the look of characters exactly the Midnight same. I was able to ink in any style where it would be hard Two more Moldoff’s covers to tell the difference between my art and that of the origifor Captain Midnight nators. Later, when I inked Curt Swan’s pencils on which he ID’d as his work: “Superman,” Mort Weisinger told me that my inking always #19 (April 1944) & #37 (Feb. 1946)—and the splash maintained the integrity of Swan’s pencils… but he said page of his “Captain when other artists like Murphy [Anderson] or [Joe] Kubert Midnight” story from CM inked Swan they’d turn it into their own style. When I did #36 (Jan. 1946). Unlike the “Batman” stories, I preserved the original style. But most other Fawcett heroes, when I originally drew “Hawkman” and Hawkgirl, I took an Midnight never appeared Alex Raymond approach to it. in any title except his PCH: Who was your favorite inker?

MOLDOFF: Charles Paris, on the “Batman” stories.

PCH: Did working on the Batman syndicated strip [1966-67] differ much from producing regular comic book pages? MOLDOFF: No, not at all. A job is a job.

PCH: Your story “Robin Dies at Dawn” [Batman #156, June ’63] proved that serious/solemn subject matter could still be effectively handled in a traditional cartooning/comic art style. MOLDOFF: The artists of today are taking out all of the fun in comics without the use of cartooning; most of these guys are very good illustrators… but they’re not cartoonists by any means! PCH: Do you recall drawing early “Kid Eternity” stories for Quality Comics?

MOLDOFF: The only thing I recall about “Kid Eternity” was that they decided to try out other artists after I did it. I have a better memory [of] doing plenty of issues of The Black Terror [Better/Standard], who was a very popular character. PCH: Let’s return to discussing your Fawcett work during those postwar years. What led you to go back to Fawcett after the war?

MOLDOFF: Well, after I returned to New York, I went up to see [DC Editor] Sheldon Mayer, but he turned me away from any more work there, so I began hunting for freelance jobs, starting first with Fawcett. When I went up to their offices, Will Lieberson was more than glad to give me plenty of “Captain Midnight” stories to do, as well as a few for “Don Winslow of the Navy.” I later created and sold horror titles to Fawcett [This Magazine Is Haunted, Worlds Beyond/Worlds of Fear, et al.]; I drew most of the covers and lead stories for them. Dealing with Fawcett was very different from working with the other publishers; Fawcett was less big business and more like one big happy family. The editors—Will Lieberson,

“A Job Is A Job”

Ginny Provisiero, Roy Ald, Dick Kraus, Stanley Kauffman, Wendell Crowley—were all enjoyable and great to work with. Will ran a tight ship over there. PCH: Tell me more about your camaraderie with Will Lieberson.

MOLDOFF: We socialized often, went out for dinner, and became very good friends. But his true love was the theatre and Broadway, not comic books. After Fawcett discontinued their comics, Will referred me to several Jewish organizations, and I did several weekly comic strips for them.

PCH: You mentioned before working on Tex Ritter. Did you do any other cowboy comics for Fawcett? MOLDOFF: I did some of their Western movie adaptations [Copper Canyon; The Missourians (Monte Hale); Pioneer Marshal]. The editors would give me photo references from the films to work from. PCH: How did you sell Fawcett on the idea of publishing horror-genre comics?

MOLDOFF: I presented This Magazine Is Haunted to Fawcett before anyone else, but they weren’t quite ready to leap into horror comics just yet. I showed the book to Bill Gaines, and then I went

Worlds Of Fear—And Beyond Worlds of Fear (originally titled Worlds Beyond) was another Moldoffcreated concept—and another Fawcett entry into horror genre comics. Above is the artist’s cover for WOF #5 (July 1952). [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

back again to Fawcett, who finally bought it after they saw the horror trend starting to grow. I also came up with Worlds Beyond [changed to Worlds of Fear with the second issue] and Strange Suspense Stories. I saw that the super-heroes were losing their punch and horror as the next big thing. Of course, EC Comics ended up stealing some of my concepts after I had presented my ideas to them. PCH: What did you think of the hysteria caused by the Kefauver Committee hearings during the 1950s?

MOLDOFF: The whole thing was complete nonsense! If you’re a fan of horror comics and want to read them, that should be your business!

PCH: Fawcett’s horror stories weren’t as gruesome as what EC and some other publishers were dishing up back then.

This Magazine Is Profitable Sheldon Moldoff was responsible for creating several horror comics titles and for selling Fawcett Publications on the idea of entering the thenflourishing field, beginning with This Magazine Is Haunted—featuring Moldoff’s horrid story host, Dr. Death, seen here on the artist’s cover for issue #8 (Dec. 1952). [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

MOLDOFF: Fawcett just wanted to test the waters with them, and Will Lieberson was always very careful not to go too far with anything. PCH: What was your perspective of the National vs. Fawcett court battles? MOLDOFF: That was another fiasco! Superman and Captain

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

Marvel have a lot more differences than they do similarities. Actually, I believe Captain Marvel was totally different than Superman… and “Captain Marvel” was by far the better strip of the two. It was ridiculous that Fawcett had to stop publishing the character. PCH: Did you ever get a chance to speak with C.C. Beck?

MOLDOFF: I met Beck and Pete Costanza once out at their studio in Englewood, New Jersey. Beck’s art was excellent on “Captain Marvel”—a terrific style!

PCH: I’ve always wanted to ask you about the circumstances of your involvement in the two 1979 NBC-TV Hanna-Barbera super-hero specials [Legends of the Superheroes] that included Captain Marvel. I understand that you originally conceived it, but when the shows were finally aired, was it anything at all like how you initially envisioned it? MOLDOFF: I had presented my storyboard proposals to Sol Harrison over at DC. Then, soon afterwards and without my knowledge, he took all of my concepts with him to Hollywood; he made a deal and took credit for it! I sued him and DC, and I won… but by then he had already screwed up the whole thing.

Didn’t Fawcett Publish A Captain Besides Captain Midnight? An undated Captain Marvel specialty/commissioned piece by Shelly Moldoff. The artist believed that “Captain Marvel” was a “better strip” than “Superman,” and that C.C. Beck’s art on the World’s Mightiest Mortal was “a terrific style.” Scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions. [Shazam hero TM & ©2013 DC Comics.]

PCH: Will Lieberson once said that, in essence, Fawcett was never really even all that interested in publishing comics in the first place, which, consequently, made for one of the reasons why they were as good as they were, due to the comics department receiving minimal interference from management. As a result, the comics were predominantly shaped and bent to the comics staff’s whims. Would you agree with Will’s hypothesis? MOLDOFF: Absolutely! Working with Fawcett was always straightforward and trouble-free… and Will always gave me total creative freedom.

Get the Best of the Rest of the Original ALTER EGO!

THE BEST OF ALTER EGO, VOLUME 2 is the new sequel to ALTER EGO: THE BEST OF THE LEGENDARY COMICS FANZINE, which presents more fantastic features from the fabled mag begun in 1961 by JERRY BAILS & ROY THOMAS—covering undiscovered gems from all 11 original issues published between 1961 and 1978! Editors ROY THOMAS and BILL SCHELLY uncover never-revealed secrets about the first super-hero fanzine ever published, with vintage articles about TOR, HAWKMAN, THE SPECTRE, BLACKHAWK, THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, THE ALL WINNERS SQUAD, ROBOTMAN, WONDER WOMAN, THE HEAP, THE LENSMEN/GREEN LANTERN CONNECTION, and so much more! Plus rarely-seen comics stories by JOE KUBERT (a gorgeous, unsold “Tor” newspaper strip), RONN FOSS (“The Eclipse”), and ROY THOMAS and SAM GRAINGER (adapting Gardner Fox’s novel “Warrior of Llarn”), as well as Roy’s entire “Bestest League of America” parody, collected for the first time ever! There’s even a never-before-reprinted 1977 interview with JEAN GIRAUD (“Moebius”), plus special sections on Bails’ adzine THE COMICOLLECTOR and on “the A/E #10 that almost was”! It’s all behind a classic cover of GARDNER FOX and his greatest creations by then-future Marvel artist SAM GRAINGER! (160-page trade paperback) $19.95 • (Digital Edition) $6.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-048-9 • Now shipping! STILL AVAILABLE: ALTER EGO: THE BEST OF THE LEGENDARY COMICS FANZINE • (192-page trade paperback) $21.95 • ISBN: 978-1-893905-88-7

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Advice For Young Artists by C.C. Beck [Written February 18, 1978] Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck s I travel around the country attending conventions, I meet countless young artists with bright, eager faces and shining eyes. They all want advice from me about getting into the art business.

I have been an artist for more than fifty years. My once-shining eyes are dim with age and my face looks about like that of an old mud turtle. Inside, of course, I’m still as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as I was when I started out, but nobody can see this today. Nowadays I’m called “feisty” and “opinionated” and “an old curmudgeon.” One reporter wrote that I was a “miniature Colonel Sanders mouthing obscenities into his beard.” Others have been less kind.

So, my first advice to young artists is grow a skin like a rhinoceros. You’ll need it to fend off remarks like “Why don’t you forget this art business and get an honest job?” and “I don’t know nothin’ about art but I know what I like,” and such. Above all, you’ll need a thick skin to be able to put up with art directors who can’t draw, editors and writers who don’t know beans about editing and writing, and big-business types who look on all artists as effeminate weirdos akin to dancers or interior decorators.

Magic At His Beck And Call Next, I tell young artists, you must develop a strong back. You’ll need this in order to sit hunched over a Is that the old wizard Shazam, or Captain Marvel’s co-creator Charles Clarence Beck, imparting wisdom to youngsters in the Twin Cities at the 1982 Minneapolis Comic Convention? drawing board for days, months, years. You can forget Photo by Alan Light. about health spas, jogging, bowling, tennis, and such. Artists work days, nights, weekends, and vacations I did this in late 1939. I created, with the help of a very able with no let-ups. When deadlines approach, artists work 24 or 48 or writer named Bill Parker, the comic book character known as 96 hours in a row to meet them. Their bosses may be playing golf Captain Marvel. Hailed as “The World’s Mightiest Mortal,” or relaxing at luxurious resorts, but the artists are hunched over Captain Marvel went on to great heights and still continues today, their work tables like monks in a medieval monastery. although I have nothing to do with the character now. Today, his The third requisite is learn everything you can about everything. publisher doesn’t need creativity; they want only to just keep him Being able to draw well is just a start, about as important as being going forty years after he started. able to type well is to a writer. There are many fine typists The last thing I tell young artists is never prostitute yourselves. around—every office building is filled with them—but very few Believe in what you’re doing, do it in spite of stupid editors and writers. There are many fine draftsmen and color separators and publishers and clamorous fans. Don’t give in to demands for production people around, but very few artists. nudity or blood-and-gore or weird layouts and eye-catching, outAn artist must be able to draw anything and everything on demand. of-this-world techniques. That way lies oblivion. In my own career I have drawn automobiles and furniture and Remember 3-D movies with stereophonic sound? Remember buildings and “pie-charts” and graphs. I have painted signs and wrap-around slide shows and Smell-O-Vision? Probably not. They lettered show cards; I have made drawings of everything, from were phony, producer-ordered tricks not worthy of the money vast real estate developments to fruit can labels. I have designed invested in them. The artists who went this route went down the logotypes, and I have made hand-painted lampshades. drain with their products. You see, an artist is a very special kind of person. He is the It’s much better to be remembered fondly for having created person people come to as a last resort when they can’t find a something fine in the way of art than to have people say, “Oh, was pattern or a plan or a “paint-by-numbers” design already in he the idiot responsible for that monstrosity? Yukkk! He ought to existence. He must create, out of nothingness, a new pattern for have been strangled in his cradle!” others to follow.

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

The following is a list of those not remembered fondly by yours truly:

1) The comic book artist who first made a page out of a dozen or more panels all tipped and weirdly-shaped and overlapped and jumbled together. 2) The imbecile who first came up with the idea that comic book heroes must be monstrous, invulnerable, mindless, raging characters who blunder about knocking everything down and killing everyone in sight. 3) The moron in comics who first filled his story with tipped perspectives, startling viewpoints, and weird sound effects instead of with honest drawing. 4) Anyone who believes in taking short-cuts, using tricks, and cheating their way through life. You can become very rich and famous that way, but everyone will hate you sooner or later.

I’d rather be poor, honest and loved by all, wouldn’t you? Or, if you must be hated by a few, let it be by those whose opinions nobody trusts anyway.

Throwing Their Weight Around In 1939, writer Bill Parker and artist C.C. Beck created “out of nothingness, a new pattern for others to follow” in the form of the soon-to-be-immensely popular character, Captain Marvel. Whiz Comics #3 (March 1940), actually the second issue since #1 had been an “ashcan edition” intended solely for trademarking purposes, marked the Captain’s second-ever appearance; artwork by Beck. [Shazam hero TM & ©2013 DC Comics.]

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“Wishing Will Make It So” An Interview With JUNE SWAYZE Conducted by Richard Arndt

Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

NTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: June Swayze, the wife of artist Marc Swayze, was never directly involved in comics themselves, but was very supportive of them. In addition, she and her husband were highly active in a musical career that ran concurrently with Marc’s years with Fawcett Publications. This interview was conducted July 20, 2012, only a few days after Marc’s 99th birthday and, sadly, only about three months before his passing. —Richard.

RICHARD ARNDT: To start off, where were you born and raised? JUNE SWAYZE: In southeast Arkansas, in Desha County. One of our daughters is named Desha. Not because of the county, though. It’s a family name.

RA: Where did you get your initial experience in music?

JS: I was born into a very musical family. Everybody loved classical music. That’s what I was taught all my life. I learned to play the piano… classical piano. I sang in high school and I majored in voice and minored in piano when I went to college here in Monroe at Northeast Louisiana State. RA: How did you get your start as a professional singer?

Singing For Her Supper June Swayze (center) singing with the Charles “Collie” Fontana Combo at the Frances Hotel in Monroe, Louisiana, during the 1940s. (Left to right:) Drummer Jack Gatlin, Harry Shifflet, unidentified standup bass player, June, Fontana (with saxophone), and Marc Swayze on piano. Daughter Desha Swayze, who sent the IDs (made by June, who is recovering from a fall) says she's "not crazy about the mustache" her dad sports here. Photo courtesy of Judy Swayze Blackman.

JS: One night I was at a dance at the Frances Hotel [in Monroe, LA]. They had a real big dance floor on the top floor of the building. I was dancing with my date and he spoke to the band director—Milton Coverdale—about me. After we danced, I was surprised when this boy asked me if I would sing [with the band]. I did and sang a pretty song called “Wishing Will Make It So.”

After I started to sing, I noticed that somebody had come up beside me to sing with me, which was pretty bold. It was this goodlooking guy who played the guitar. It turned out to be Marc. It really kind of irked me that he’d gotten up and started singing with me. I remember, at the break when the band went backstage, he made a pass at me! I scorned him, of course. RA: I guess it was fortunate for the two of you that Marc was a little brash and stepped forward to sing with you.

JS: Yes! Anyway, I ended up singing with that band, The Milton Coverdale Band, for I don’t know for how long. I was going to college at the time. I didn’t really sing with any of the big bands of the day. Later on, though, I sang with a combo—and this was with Marc, too. The band was fronted by Charles “Collie” Fontana. Collie’s son was Carl Fontana, who was a world-famous jazz trombonist. Carl got his start with his dad and he used to play with us all the time. Marc had a little trio at the time as well. I played piano and sang for that, too. RA: Did Marc’s trio have a name?

JS: No, I don’t think so. I played piano, Marc played guitar, and Carl Fontana played sax. There were probably other musicians who sat in, but we three were the regulars.

Take Five June and Marc Swayze and the rest of the Collie Fontana Combo take a break during a 1940s gig on the rooftop of the Frances Hotel. (L. to r.:) Harry Shifflet, June, Marc, Collie Fontana, and Vic Chaplin. Photo courtesy of Judy Swayze Blackman.

RA: Carl would have been a teenager at the time?

JS: He was. A young teenager! If he hadn’t been with his daddy, I think [most parents] would not have let him do it. Carl had a brother who came along shortly after that. We called him Bootsie. He’s a dentist down in Houston now,

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

RA: How long did you work with the various bands and smaller groups?

JS: Oh, for several years… the last part of the war years, and then when Marc and I were married up to the time when we started a family. Nobody wanted a pregnant singer. Marc and I met during the war, but the singing was mostly after the war. I only ever sang or played when Marc was in the band. After Milton Coverdale was killed in the war, his band was mostly taken over by Collie and it included Marc and me. But, like I said, I stopped singing when the children came along. RA: Was Marc already working in comics at this time?

JS: He was working in comics before I met him. He was doing both. He was brought up in a musical family, like I was. I started with the classics and I had to change my whole voice to sing the jazz and swing songs. I was a soprano. and I had to change my voice to sound something like Peggy Lee. I continued to sing with the band for a while after the children came, on weekends, when my mother babysat. We worked at a real nice place called the Showbar. We were up on a platform behind the bar.

My mother just could not stand it—that I was playing up there! We were very strict Baptists and she just didn’t believe in it. She used to say “Honey, if something happened to you up there, I wouldn’t come there and claim your body!” She had a friend who

The Crooner And The Cartoonist Marc Swayze performing with Bing Crosby during World War II, while Swayze was in the Army and stationed at Ft. Oglethorpe, Georgia. Does it have to be said that, at that time, Crosby was the foremost pop singer in the world? Photo courtesy of Judy Swayze Blackman.

and I think he still plays some. Collie, Carl and Bootsie’s dad ended up playing professionally all over the country. RA: Did you travel over the country with Collie, too, or were your engagements strictly in Monroe?

JS: It was usually just in Monroe, at the Frances Hotel roof. I only recall one out-of-town gig. Marc and I were married by then.

Marc And His Sweethearts (Left:) Marc at the drawing board in the late 1940s with June and their first daughter, Judy. This pic also appeared in Alter Ego #101. Photo courtesy of Judy Swayze Blackman. (Above:) Marc’s inventive splash page for the lead story in Fawcett’s Sweetheart Diary #13 (Nov. 1952). [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]

“Wishing Will Make It So”

officer had to come down there and get him to come along. [laughs] Bing did a show and Marc accompanied him on guitar. Bing was doing a regular radio show at the time, and the next week on his show Crosby mentioned that he met this great guitar player at Marc’s base. Marc was kind of proud of that. RA: Is there anything else you’d like to add about your singing career?

The Swayze Family, 1987 (Left to right:) First son Marc (in background portrait painted by his father; Marc, Jr., passed away in 1975); first daughter, Judy; daughter Desha; son Chris; Chris’ wife Sandy; June; daughter Courtney; and Marc. One of Marc’s steamboat paintings is displayed above the mantle. Photo courtesy of Judy Swayze Blackman.

told her, “Now, she’s right up there beside her husband. Doesn’t that beat sitting in an office taking notes for a boss with the door closed?” Mama said “Yeah, that’s true.” Still, I never played anywhere where Marc didn’t play. RA: That’s nice!

JS: He watched me like a hawk, and everybody else, too!

RA: I saw a picture of you from that time period and I can’t blame him. [laughs] JS: Oh, thank you! What picture did you see?

RA: There’s a picture of you in Alter Ego #101, with your daughter Judy and Marc at the drawing board working on a comic page.

JS: My parents lived right next door to Marc, but we didn’t know each other. He had been up in New York, and it was a surprise to learn we were neighbors. He had two sweet sisters, too, who were not married, but they were older than I and I didn’t know them, either. His father was there but his mother was deceased. Marc invited me over one night to play Chinese checkers with him and his sisters. [chuckles] I didn’t even know how to play Chinese checkers and I was bored to death, but his sisters went back into their own quarters and I forget what happened after that. I guess nothing! [laughs] I didn’t really know it at the time, that first night, but Marc and I fell in love instantly!

JS: Most of it was with Marc’s combo. Like I said, my early singing days were strictly classical, and I had to kind of feel my way into singing jazz and standards. I think Collie Fontana could have been just as famous as his son—he was that good. After our kids started to get older, I didn’t sing professionally anymore. I remember we played at Louisiana Tech with their big collegiate band. A friend of Marc’s had asked us to come and play with them because they didn’t have a piano player. We really enjoyed that date. The kids had a great time, and I really enjoyed singing for that group. Marc and I have been married for 65 years. RA: Wow, that’s impressive!

JS: We still kiss each other good night. Marc celebrated his birthday the other day. He’s 99 years old. Marc and I have had five children… three daughters and two sons. We lost one of the boys at a young age. Our youngest son is a doctor; he played trumpet in his high school band but his interests lay elsewhere. My oldest daughter is married to an attorney and she has a beautiful soprano voice… a different type of soprano from mine, though. Another of my daughters is an outstanding flute player; she played in college and still plays at her church. My third daughter took piano lessons but she didn’t really want to; she has other activities that she likes. The family was the best part of our lives, and playing in the bands and the combo was also a wonderful part of it. But the best thing about our life was that we, Marc and I, are still very much in love.

RA: What do you recall about the time Marc played a show with Bing Crosby during the war?

JS: Bing came to his Army base. I don’t think it was a USO show but perhaps just a regular tour. Marc was out on the shooting range and he got word that the colonel wanted to see him. He thought it was somebody pulling his leg, so he didn’t go up there right away. The soldier said, “Come on, Bing Crosby is here!” and Marc didn’t believe him. I think an

Yet Another Sweetheart Diary June and Marc Swayze—sweethearts forever! Photo taken by Jennifer Hamerlinck on Memorial Day, 2005.

The Phantom Eagle’s Last Flight MARC SWAYZE’s “The Flight Of The Bee” From Wow Comics #69 (Aug. 1948) Introduction by P.C. Hamerlinck

rom Wow Comics #30 (Oct. 1944) through #69 (Aug. 1948), Marc Swayze created complete story art on all “Phantom Eagle” stories in that magazine for Fawcett Publications, as well as writing a good portion of the stories; all the lettering was done by his sister, Daisy Swayze. (NOTE: There were no Swayze “Phantom Eagle” stories in Wow # 54 & 56, but the artist did two “PE” stories in issues #42 & 43.)

And, even when Marc didn’t write the “Phantom Eagle” story he’d happen to be illustrating, he would still go in and judiciously modify the scripts to his liking. Fawcett comics editor Wendell Crowley and Marc used to laugh about how one of the writers simply left descriptions blank on his “PE” scripts because he knew that Marc was going to depict the story the way he wanted to anyway. In 1999, Marc reminisced about working on “The Phantom Eagle”: “I didn’t even know the kid. When asked recently why I chose ‘The Phantom Eagle’ from all the Fawcett comic book features, it was necessary to go to the research shelves to find out about this Mickey Malone. “There wasn’t much to be learned. Seems he first appeared in Wow Comics in mid-1942, about the same time as ‘Commando Yank’ and slightly before ‘Mary Marvel,’ and was overshadowed by both from the start. For about a year he wore black goggles and thus resembled many masked heroes of the era. Very little is known about ‘The Phantom Eagle.’ In the sources available, there is nothing about who originated the concept, who wrote the first story, or who drew the first character sketches. Before I took over ‘The Phantom Eagle,’ various artists had drawn the character, including Bert Whitman and Charlie Tomsey of the Jack Binder Shop. “So why would I have wanted to

write and draw ‘The Phantom Eagle’? Perhaps it was out of sympathy. Here was a character as mired in obscurity as I was. With no criticism of the work that had gone before, I felt that the feature was in need of help and maybe I was the one to provide it.

“Whatever the reason, I drew ‘The Phantom Eagle’ and wrote many of the stories as I had time for, until Wow Comics closed the store in 1948. And it was a fun job. The characters and environments were easy to draw and the stories easy to write.

“By the time it was all over, I got to where I really liked the kid… even more than Captain Marvel or Mary Marvel. I guess ‘The Phantom Eagle’ was my all-time favorite comic book work.” We’re proud to present in its entirety the tale that marked the final appearance of The Phantom Eagle, and consequently Marc Swayze’s concluding work on the character, from the last issue of Wow Comics #69 (Aug. 1948). It's not know if Marc wrote the story—but he drew it, and that's enough for us.

The Phantom Eagle’s Last Flight 67

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

The Phantom Eagle’s Last Flight

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

The Phantom Eagle’s Last Flight

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

The Phantom Eagle’s Last Flight

A 100th-Birthday Tribute to MARC SWAYZE FCA EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: Our respected friend and cherished colleague, Marc Swayze, graced hundreds of pages of this magazine with his enduring chronicle, “We Didn‘t Know… It Was the Golden Age!” Marc’s continuous, regularly-published memoirs were unprecedented amongst his peers, but the humble artist viewed himself the unsung hero, “the most forgotten of the unknowns… or the most unknown of the forgottens,” as he used to say. He never sought the spotlight, but I firmly believed that such a gifted and treasured individual as Marc duly deserved a destiny that was more than just a faded footnote. While our beloved comrade may have left us on October 14, 2012, at the age of 99, rest assured that his presence will continue to live on here in our publication. For the moment, in honor of what would have been his 100th birthday this month (July 17th), let’s dust off and open up the Marc Swayze photo album and celebrate his golden, extraordinary life....

—-P.C. Hamerlinck.

Portrait Of The Artist As A (Very) Young Man Marcus Desha Swayze was born July 17, 1913, the fourth and youngest child of Mildred Turner and steamboat captain Lewis Herbert Swayze. Marc had two older sisters, May and Daisy— the latter would later letter his comics stories—and one older brother, Lewis Herbert. Photo courtesy of Judy Swayze Blackman.

Play A Simple Melody Marc Swayze plays a melody on January 20, 2011—with his framed Alter Ego #18 cover on top of his piano. Special thanks to Lindsey Wilkerson of the University of Louisiana at Monroe Office of Public Information; photo by Terrance Armstard. Check out the feature on Marc by the ULM Alumni Association at: www.ulm.edu/alumni/features/swayze

A 100th-Birthday Tribute To Marc Swayze

“You Should See The Other Guy— Name Of Sivana!” Marc in the 7th grade with broken arm and black eye after a scrap with a neighborhood boy. Photo courtesy of Judy Swayze Blackman.

Graduation Day From 1940-42 Marc Swayze was a staff artist at Fawcett Publications, assigned to draw “Captain Marvel” stories and covers. In addition, Marc co-created Mary Marvel with writer Otto Binder, and also wrote several “Captain Marvel” stories—and he continued to write them on a freelance basis while serving in the U.S. Army from 1942-44. Above is a Swayze-drawn panel from “The Training of Mary Marvel” (Captain Marvel Adventures #19, cover-dated Jan. 1943). [Shazam heroes TM & ©2013 DC Comics.]

Music, Maestro, Please! There was great camaraderie amongst the Fawcett comics crew. In this 1942 snapshot, guitarist Marc jams with his friend/comics editor and writer Rod Reed and an unknown accordion player at a weekend party at Reed’s residence in Malverne, Long Island, NY. Photo courtesy of Judy Swayze Blackman.

When Romance Was In The Air—And On The Drawing Board Marc is seen here working on a romance comics story in the ’40s after he had returned back home from New York City. Marc freelanced for Fawcett from Monroe, Louisiana, where he illustrated “The Phantom Eagle” and drew the Flyin’ Jenny Sunday newspaper comic strip for Bell Syndicate—and added the feature’s daily strip after his mentor/FJ creator Russell Keaton passed away in 1945. From 1948 to late 1953, Marc worked exclusively on Fawcett’s romance comics, producing approximately 80 stories for such titles as Sweetheart Diary (which sold near the two-million mark each month) and Life Story (with a circulation of over 700,000.) Picture taken by Marvin DuBois. Photo courtesy of Judy Swayze Blackman.

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

Farewell To Comics Family man Marc Swayze was elected to his local school board in 1953. He would soon phase out his comics career and accept an art director position at the Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation, where he worked for the next 25 years until his retirement. Photo scan courtesy of Judy Swayze Blackman.

Three Generations Of Swayzes Marc, with his first daughter, Judy, and Marc’s father, Captain Lewis Herbert Swayze, at home in 1948. Photo courtesy of Judy Swayze Blackman.

At Home With The Swayzes A mid-’60s shot of Marc and June Swayze in the living room of the house where they lived for over 50 years. Photo courtesy of Judy Swayze Blackman.

The Not-So-Old Masters Marc and June Swayze—both with Masters in Art—enjoying some portrait-painting time together out on their patio in 1964. June is working on a portrait of the couple’s daughter Desha. Photo courtesy of Judy Swayze Blackman.

A 100th-Birthday Tribute To Marc Swayze

Pop Go The Easels More family painting time, with (right to left) Marc, June (who’s working on a portrait of daughter Courtney), and their first son, Marc (who bears a remarkable resemblance to Mickey Malone—a.k.a., The Phantom Eagle!). Marc, Jr., passed away in 1975. Photo courtesy of Judy Swayze Blackman.

Let The Art Lessons Begin! Marc in his “pool room” (decorated with his paintings) locating some paper for his first granddaughter, DeSha, to draw on. Photo courtesy of Judy Swayze Blackman.

Hold That Pose—And That Painting! Marc preparing for his one-man art show at Northeast University during the ’70s… with his self-portrait on his left! This was just one of Marc’s many gallery showings of his paintings. Photo courtesy of Judy Swayze Blackman.

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

Scarfs Away! (Right:) Marc painted his favorite Fawcett comic book character, The Phantom Eagle, in this 1999 portrait. Photo courtesy of Judy Swayze Blackman. [Phantom Eagle TM & ©2013 the respective copyright owners.]

In Shining Armor Marc painted this gallant knight during his retirement. Check out whose cape the hero borrowed! Photo by Jennifer Hamerlinck.

A 100th-Birthday Tribute To Marc Swayze

A Second “Marvel Family” Marc with super-hero grandchildren John, DeSha, and Becky. Photo courtesy of Judy Swayze Blackman.

Marc Makes Mary (Above:) The artist, surrounded by some Mary Marvel paintings he rendered in the late ’90s. Photo courtesy of Judy Swayze Blackman.

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

Headliner Marc frequently made the headlines in the local newspaper. This one was published May 3, 1985, in the Monroe News-Star. Photo scan courtesy of Judy Swayze Blackman. [©2013 Monroe News-Star or successors in interest.]

A Memorable Memorial Day (Left:) “This is my favorite picture of Marc,” says the FCA editor. “During our visit with the Swayzes on Memorial Day, 2005, my wife asked Marc to strike a ‘Captain Marvel pose’ before she snapped the picture of us, and here’s the result. Long live The World’s Mightiest Friend—Marc Swayze!” Photo by Jennifer Hamerlinck.

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Former COMIC BOOK ARTIST editor JON B. COOKE returns to TwoMorrows with his new magazine! #1 features: An investigation of the treatment JACK KIRBY endured throughout his career, ALEX ROSS and KURT BUSIEK interviews, FRANK ROBBINS spotlight, remembering LES DANIELS, WILL EISNER’s Valentines to his beloved, a talk between NEAL ADAMS and DENNIS O’NEIL, new ALEX ROSS cover, and more!

JOE KUBERT double-size Summer Special tribute issue! Comprehensive examinations of each facet of Joe’s career, from Golden Age artist and 3-D comics pioneer, to top Tarzan artist, editor, and founder of the Kubert School. Kubert interviews, rare art and artifacts, testimonials, remembrances, portraits, anecdotes, pin-ups and miniinterviews by faculty, students, fans, friends and family! Edited by JON B. COOKE.

NEAL ADAMS vigorously responds to critics of his BATMAN: ODYSSEY mini-series in an in-depth interview! Plus: SEAN HOWE on his hit book MARVEL COMICS: THE UNTOLD STORY; DENYS COWAN on his DJANGO series; honoring CARMINE INFANTINO; Harbinger writer JOSHUA DYSART; Part Two of our LES DANIELS remembrance; a big look at WHAM-OGIANT COMICS; ADAMS cover, and more!

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JACK KIRBY: WRITER! Examines quirks of Kirby’s wordsmithing, from the FOURTH WORLD to ROMANCE and beyond! Lengthy Kirby interview, MARK EVANIER and other columnists, LARRY LIEBER’s scripting for Jack at 1960s Marvel Comics, RAY ZONE on 3-D work with Kirby, comparing STEVE GERBER’s Destroyer Duck scripts to Jack’s pencils, Kirby’s best promo blurbs, Kirby pencil art gallery, & more!

LEE WEEKS (Daredevil, Incredible Hulk) gives insight into the artform, YILDIRAY ÇINAR (Noble Causes, Fury of the Firestorms) interview and demo, inker JOE RUBINSTEIN shows how he works, “Comic Art Bootcamp” with MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS, “Rough Critique” of a newcomer by BOB McLEOD, and “Crusty Critic” JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews art supplies and software! Mature readers only.

MEDIEVAL CASTLE BUILDING! Top LEGO® Castle builders present their creations, including BOB CARNEY’s amazingly detailed model of Neuschwanstein Castle, plus others, along with articles on building and detailing castles of your own! Also: JARED BURKS on minifigure customization, AFOLs by cartoonist GREG HYLAND, stepby-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and more!

X-MEN SALUTE! 1963-69 secrets, rare ‘60s BRAZILIAN X-MEN stories, lost ‘60s XMen “character sheet” by STAN LEE, ROY THOMAS on the 1970s revival, art and artifacts by KIRBY, ROTH, ADAMS, HECK, FRIEDRICH, and BUSCEMA—plus the MARVELMANIA fan club story, interview with Golden Age writer ED SILVERMAN, FCA, Mr. Monster, BILL SCHELLY, and JACK KIRBY’s unused X-Men #10 cover!

GOLDEN AGE JUSTICE SOCIETY ISSUE! Features on JOHN B. WENTWORTH (Johnny Thunder), LEN SANSONE (The Atom), and BERNARD SACHS (All-Star Comics inker), art by CARMINE INFANTINO, PAUL REINMAN, MART NODELL, STAN ASCHMEIER, BEN FLINTON, and H.G. PETER, plus FCA, Mr. Monster, and more! Cover homage by SHANE FOLEY to a vintage All-Star image by IRWIN HASEN!

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“Bronze Age B-Teams”! Defenders issue-byissue overview, Champions, Guardians of the Galaxy, Inhumans, PETER DAVID’s X-Factor, Teen Titans West, Legion of Substitute Heroes, an all-star chatfest of Doom Patrol interviews, plus art and commentary by ROSS ANDRU, SAL BUSCEMA, KEITH GIFFEN, TONY ISABELLA, PAUL KUPPERBERG, ERIK LARSEN, GEORGE PÉREZ, BOB ROZAKIS, cover by KEVIN NOWLAN.

“Bronze Age Team-Ups”! Marvel Team-Up and Two-in-One, Super-Villain Team-Up, CLAREMONT and SIMONSON’s X-Men/New Teen Titans, DC Comics Presents, SuperTeam Family, HANEY and APARO’s Batman of Earth-B(&B), Superman/Captain Marvel smackdowns, plus art and commentary by BUCKLER, ENGLEHART, GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, GIFFEN, LEVITZ, WEIN, and a classic GIL KANE cover inked anew by TERRY AUSTIN.

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“1970s and ‘80s Legion of Super-Heroes!” LEVITZ interview, the Legion’s Honored Dead, the Cosmic Boy miniseries, a Time Trapper history, the New Adventures of Superboy, Legion fantasy cover gallery by JOHN WATSON, plus BATES, COCKRUM, CONWAY, COLON, GIFFEN, GRELL, JANES, KUPPERBERG, LaROCQUE, LIGHTLE, SCHAFFENBERGER, SHERMAN, STATON, SWAN, WAID, & more! COCKRUM cover!

TENTH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE! Revisit the 100th, 200th, 300th, 400th, and 500th issues of ‘70s and ‘80s favorites: Adventure, Amazing Spider-Man, Avengers, Batman, Brave & Bold, Casper, Detective, Flash, Green Lantern, Showcase, Superman, Thor, Wonder Woman, and more! With APARO, BARR, ENGLEHART, POLLARD, SEKOWSKY, SIMONSON, STATON, and WOLFMAN. DAN JURGENS and RAY McCARTHY cover.

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Ambitious new series documenting each decade of comic book history!

AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES: 1960-64 & The 1980s

JOHN WELLS covers comics in the 1960-64 JFK and Beatles era: DC’s new GREEN LANTERN, JUSTICE LEAGUE and multiple earths! LEE and KIRBY at Marvel on FF, SPIDER-MAN, HULK, and X-MEN! BATMAN’s “new look”, Charlton’s BLUE BEETLE, CREEPY #1 & more!

AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES: The 1950s

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THE STAR*REACH COMPANION

Complete history of the influential 1970s independent comic, featuring work by and interviews with DAVE STEVENS, FRANK BRUNNER, HOWARD CHAYKIN, STEVE LEIALOHA, WALTER SIMONSON, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH, KEN STEACY, JOHN WORKMAN, MIKE VOSBURG, P. CRAIG RUSSELL, DAVE SIM, MICHAEL GILBERT, and many others, plus full stories from STAR*REACH and its sister magazine IMAGINE. Cover by CHAYKIN! MATURE READERS ONLY.

KEITH DALLAS documents comics’ 1980s Reagan years: Rise and fall of JIM SHOOTER, FRANK MILLER as comic book superstar, DC’s CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, MOORE and GAIMAN’s British invasion, ECLIPSE, PACIFIC, FIRST, COMICO, DARK HORSE and more!

BILL SCHELLY tackles comics of the Atomic Era of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley: EC’s TALES OF THE CRYPT, MAD, CARL BARKS’ Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge, re-tooling the FLASH in Showcase #4, return of Timely’s CAPTAIN AMERICA, HUMAN TORCH AND SUB-MARINER, FREDRIC WERTHAM’s anti-comics campaign, and more!

DAN SPIEGLE: A LIFE IN COMIC ART

Documents his 60-year career on DELL and GOLD KEY’S licensed TV and Movie adaptions (LOST IN SPACE, KORAK, MAGNUS ROBOT FIGHTER, MIGHTY SAMPSON), at DC COMICS (BATMAN, UNKNOWN SOLDIER, TOMAHAWK, JONAH HEX, TEEN TITANS, BLACKHAWK), his CROSSFIRE series for ECLIPSE, DARK HORSE’S INDIANA JONES series and more, with rare artwork, personal photos, and private commission drawings. Written by JOHN COATES.

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JASON SACKS & KEITH DALLAS detail the emerging Bronze Age of comics: Relevance with Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’s GREEN LANTERN, Jack Kirby’s FOURTH WORLD saga, Comics Code revisions that opens the floodgates for monsters and the supernatural, Jenette Kahn’s arrival at DC and the subsequent DC IMPLOSION, the coming of Jim Shooter and the DIRECT MARKET, and more!

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NEAL ADAMS vigorously responds to critics of his BATMAN: ODYSSEY mini-series in an in-depth interview! Plus: SEAN HOWE on his hit book MARVEL COMICS: THE UNTOLD STORY; MARK WAID interview, part one; honoring CARMINE INFANTINO; Harbinger writer JOSHUA DYSART; Part Two of our LES DANIELS remembrance; a big look at WHAM-O-GIANT COMICS; ADAMS cover, and more!

RUSS HEATH career-spanning interview, essay on Heath’s work by S.C. RINGGENBERG (and Heath art gallery), MORT TODD on working with STEVE DITKO, a profile of alt cartoonist DAN GOLDMAN, part two of our MARK WAID interview, DENYS COWAN on his DJANGO series, VIC BLOOM and THE SECRET ORIGIN OF ARCHIE ANDREWS, HEMBECK, new KEVIN NOWLAN cover!

DENIS KITCHEN close-up—from cartoonist, publisher, author, and art agent, to his friendships with HARVEY KURTZMAN, R. CRUMB, WILL EISNER, and many others! Plus we examine the supreme artistry of JOHN ROMITA, JR., BILL EVERETT’s final splash, the nefarious backroom dealings of STOLEN COMIC BOOK ART, and ascend THE GODS OF MT. OLYMPUS (a ‘70s gem by ACHZIGER, STATON and WORKMAN)!

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BRICKJOURNAL #26

BRICKJOURNAL #27

KIRBY AT DC! Kirby interview, MARK EVANIER and our other regular columnists, updated “X-Numbers” list of Kirby’s DC assignments (revealing some surprises), JERRY BOYD’s insights on Kirby’s DC work, a look at KEY 1970s EVENTS IN JACK’S LIFE AND CAREER, Challengers vs. the FF, pencil art galleries from FOREVER PEOPLE, OMAC, and THE DEMON, Kirby cover inked by MIKE ROYER, and more!

JOE JUSKO shows how he creates his amazing fantasy art, JAMAR NICHOLAS interviews artist JIMM RUGG (Street Angel, Afrodisiac, The P.L.A.I.N. Janes and Janes in Love, One Model Nation, and The Guild), new regular contributor JERRY ORDWAY on his behind-the-scenes working process, Comic Art Bootcamp with MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS, reviews of artist materials, and more! Mature readers only.

CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL with builders SEAN and STEPHANIE MAYO (known online as Siercon and Coral), other custom animal models from BrickJournal editor JOE MENO, LEGO DINOSAURS with WILL PUGH, plus more minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, AFOLs by cartoonist GREG HYLAND, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and more!

GUY HIMBER takes you to the IRON BUILDER CONTEST, which showcases the top LEGO® builders in the world! Cover by LEGO magazine and comic artist PAUL LEE, amazing custom models by LINO MARTINS, TYLER CLITES, BRUCE LOWELL, COLE BLAQ and others, minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, AFOLs by GREG HYLAND, & more!

(100-page FULL-COLOR mag) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Ships Dec. 2013

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships Oct. 2013

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships Sept. 2013

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships Nov. 2013

BACK ISSUE #71

BACK ISSUE #72

BACK ISSUE #73

BACK ISSUE #74

“Incredible Hulk in the Bronze Age!” Looks into Hulk’s mind, his role as a team player, his TV show and cartoon, merchandising, Hulk newspaper strip, Teen Hulk, villain history of the Abomination, art and artifacts by SAL BUSCEMA, JOHN BYRNE, PETER DAVID, KENNETH JOHNSON, BILL MANTLO, AL MILGROM, EARL NOREM, ROGER STERN, HERB TRIMPE, LEN WEIN, new cover by TRIMPE and GERHARD!

“Tryouts, One-Shots, & One-Hit Wonders”! Marvel Premiere, Marvel Spotlight, Marvel Feature, Strange Tales, Showcase, First Issue Special, New Talent Showcase, DC’s Dick Tracy tabloid, Sherlock Holmes, Marvel’s Generic Comic Books, Bat-Squad, Crusader, & Swashbuckler, with BRUNNER, CARDY, COLAN, FRADON, GRELL, PLOOG, TRIMPE, and an ARTHUR ADAMS “Clea” cover!

“Robots” issue! Cyborg, Metal Men, Robotman, Red Tornado, Mister Atom, the Vision, Jocasta, Shogun Warriors, and Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, plus the legacy of Brainiac! Featuring the riveting work of DARROW, GERBER, INFANTINO, PAUL KUPPERBERG, MILLER, MOENCH, PEREZ, SIMONSON, STATON, THOMAS, WOLFMAN, and more, behind a Metal Men cover by MICHAEL ALLRED.

“Batman’s Partners!” MIKE W. BARR and ALAN DAVIS on their Detective Comics, Batman and the Outsiders, Nightwing flies solo, Man-Bat history, Commissioner Gordon, the last days of World’s Finest, Bat-Mite, the Batmobile, plus Dark Knight’s girl Robin! Featuring work by APARO, BUSIEK, DITKO, KRAFT, MILGROM, MILLER, PÉREZ, WOLFMAN, and more, with a cover by ALAN DAVIS and MARK FARMER.

“Bronze Age Fantastic Four!” The animated FF, the FF radio show of 1975, Human Torch goes solo, Galactus villain history, FF Mego figures… and the Impossible Man! Exploring work by RICH BUCKLER, JOHN BUSCEMA, JOHN BYRNE, GERRY CONWAY, STEVE ENGLEHART, GEORGE PÉREZ, KEITH POLLARD, ROY THOMAS, LEN WEIN, MARV WOLFMAN, and more! Cover by KEITH POLLARD and JOE RUBINSTEIN.

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships Jan. 2014

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships March 2014

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships April 2014

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships June 2014

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships July 2014

ALTER EGO #122

ALTER EGO #123

ALTER EGO #124

ALTER EGO #125

ALTER EGO #126

Farewell salute to the COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE! TBG/CBG history and remembrances from ALAN LIGHT, MURRAY BISHOFF, MAGGIE THOMPSON, BRENT FRANKENHOFF, “final” CBG columns by MARK EVANIER, TONY ISABELLA, PETER DAVID, FRED HEMBECK, JOHN LUSTIG, classic art by DON NEWTON, MIKE VOSBURG, JACK KIRBY, MIKE NASSER, plus FCA, Mr. Monster, and more!

DENNY O’NEIL’s Silver Age career at Marvel, Charlton, and DC—aided and abetted by ADAMS, KALUTA, SEKOWSKY, LEE, GIORDANO, THOMAS, SCHWARTZ, APARO, BOYETTE, DILLIN, SWAN, DITKO, et al. Plus, we begin serializing AMY KISTE NYBERG’s groundbreaking book on the history of the Comics Code, FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), Mr. Monster, BILL SCHELLY and more!

We spotlight HERB TRIMPE’s work on Hulk, Iron Man, S.H.I.E.L.D., Ghost Rider, Ant-Man, Silver Surfer, War of the Worlds, Ka-Zar, even Phantom Eagle, and featuring THE SEVERIN SIBLINGS, LEE, FRIEDRICH, THOMAS, GRAINGER, BUSCEMA, and others, plus more of AMY KISTE NYBERG’s Comics Code history, “Sea Monkeys and X-Ray Specs” on those nutty comic book ads, FCA, Mr. Monster, and more!

Golden Age “Air Wave” artist LEE HARRIS discussed by his son JONATHAN LEVEY to interviewer RICHARD J. ARNDT, with rarely-seen 1940s art treasures (including mysterious, never-published art of an alternate version of DC’s Tarantula)! Plus more of AMY KISTE NYBERG’s exposé on the Comics Code, artist SAL AMENDOLA tells the story of the Academy of Comic Book Arts, FCA, Mr. Monster, and more!

Second big issue on 3-D COMICS OF THE 1950s! KEN QUATTRO looks at the controversy involving JOE KUBERT, NORMAN MAURER, BILL GAINES, and AL FELDSTEIN! Plus more fabulous Captain 3-D by SIMON & KIRBY and MORT MESKIN— 3-D thrills from BOB POWELL, HOWARD NOSTRAND, JAY DISBROW and others— the career of Treasure Chest artist VEE QUINTAL, FCA, Mr. Monster, and more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships Dec. 2013

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships Feb. 2014

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships April 2014

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships May 2014

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships June 2014