Alter Ego #126 by TwoMorrows Publishing

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Edited by ROY THOMAS The first and greatest “hero-zine”—ALL-NEW, focusing on GOLDEN AND SILVER AGE comics and creators with ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS, UNSEEN ART, P.C. Hamerlinck’s FCA [Fawcett Collectors of America], MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY’S Comic Fandom Archive, and more!

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ALTER EGO #117

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MARVEL ISSUE on Captain America and the gang! MARTIN GOODMAN’s Broadway debut, speculations about FF #1, the INVADERS issue that never was, 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!

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ALTER EGO #119

ALTER EGO #120

ALTER EGO #121

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!

MARC SWAYZE TRIBUTE ISSUE, spotlighting FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America)! Salutes from Fawcett alumnus C.C. BECK and OTTO BINDER, interview with wife JUNE SWAYZE, a full Phantom Eagle story from Wow Comics, plus interview with 1950s Dell/Western artist MEL KEEFER, MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and a SWAYZE Marvel Family cover art from the 1940s!

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 MMMS 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, BOB OKSNER, HOWARD PURCELL, 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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ALTER EGO #122

ALTER EGO #123

ALTER EGO #124

ALTER EGO #125

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, M. THOMAS INGE on Communism and 1950s comic books, 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!

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Vol. 3, No. 126 / July 2014 Editor

Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout

Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor

P.C. Hamerlinck

Comic Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

Editorial Honor Roll

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

Proofreaders

Rob Smentek William J. Dowlding

Cover Artist Joe Kubert

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With Special Thanks to:

Mark Lewis Heidi Amash Jim Ludwig Richard Arndt Doug Martin Bob Bailey Robyn Dean Matt D. Baker McHattie Rod Beck Brian K. Morris John Benson Dr. Amy Kiste William Biggins Nyberg Bill Black Steve Perrin Jerry K. Boyd John G. Pierce Pete Carlsson Jay Piscopo Michaël Dewally Ken Quattro Gary Dolgorff Gene Reed Michael Dunne Randy Sargent Mark Evanier Peter Schiller Al Feldstein Vijah Shah Shane Foley Keif Simon Bob Furmanek (3-D Film Archive) Dann Thomas Fred Thompson Mike Gartland John Vadeboncoeur, Janet Gilbert Jr. Clizia Glussoni Jim Van Hise Jennifer T. Go Dr. M. Thomas Inge Hames Ware Lawrence Kaufman John Wells Steven Willis Jay Kinney Craig Yoe Pete Koch Henry Kujawa

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Nick Cardy & Carmine Infantino SPECIAL 3-D NOTICE: Many of the illustrations in this issue of A/E, like those in #115, are best viewed with two-color 3-D glasses. Print or digital readers can receive a pair of 3-D viewers by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope to: TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, NC 27614

Contents Writer/Editorial: Another 3-D-Lirium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Trials And Tribulations—In Three Dimensions! . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Ken Quattro details the 1953 legal dispute between EC & St. John Pub.—illustrated in 3-D!

My Comic Mom!!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 1940s Catholic comics artist Vee Quintal, remembered by daughter Robyn Dean McHattie.

Seal Of Approval: The History Of The Comics Code – Chapter 3 . . 43 Amy Kiste Nyberg on the 1954 Senate investigation of comic books.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! Inkspots! –Part Two . . . . . . . . . 55 More of Michael T. Gilbert’s first-ever comic strip.

Comic Fandom Archive: Steve Perrin –Part 3. . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Bill Schelly covers the 1960s fan-writer… and Perrin covers SF/comics pro Edmond Hamilton.

Tributes To Nick Cardy & Carmine Infantino. . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 70 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #185 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 P.C. Hamerlinck, John G. Pierce, and C.C. Beck on Golden/Silver Age artist Pete Costanza.

On Our Cover: For adventure-hero fans, there were really just two high points amid the 3-D comics of the 1950s: Joe Kubert’s prehistoric stalwart Tor, and Joe Simon & Jack Kirby’s Captain 3-D. Our first 3-D issue (#115) sported a Captain 3-D cover, so we thank the Kubert family (and Joe himself, who long ago gave us his okay to use any of his artwork in our mags, as long as we didn’t importune him to draw anything new!) for permission to adapt one of Ye Editor’s all-time favorite splash pages, from St. John Publishing’s 3-D Comics #2 (Sept. 1953), which was indeed the second 3-D comic book ever. Love this art in 3-D as Roy T. does, he’s happy it’s also been printed in color, most recently a few years back in DC’s Tor Archives series. [© Estate of Joe Kubert.] Above: On the opposing side from Joe Kubert, Norman & Leonard Maurer, and Archer St. John in a 1953 3-D-comics-related lawsuit were EC publisher Bill Gaines and one of his editors, Al Feldstein. So here are two famous panels from EC’s first 3-D effort, Three-Dimensional EC Classics #1 (Spring 1954)—from writer/editor Harvey Kurtzman and artist Wally Wood’s masterful collaboration “V-Vampires!” in Mad #3 (Jan.-Feb. 1953), as totally redrawn (and re-paced). Both versions were, like the title says, classics—illustrated! [© William M. Gaines, Agent, 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: $67 US, $85 Canada, $104 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

3-D

is back!

Another 3-D-Lirium

In the movies, at least, the achievement of threedimensional images seen by wearing special glasses has made a considerable comeback. And I love it—from the recent Marvel movies (especially The Avengers) through the Oscarnominated Gravity.

In comic books, however, there’s been nothing remotely like the brief 3-D craze of 1953—or even like the 3-D revival led by the late Ray Zone back in the ’80s. Still, in Alter Ego, we’re making a second stab at a 3-D-centered issue, a sequel to the focus in issue #115. Ken Quattro, who’s previously contributed several top-notch articles to A/E, recently researched and wrote, for his excellent thecomicsdetective blog, a piece about EC Comics’ [de facto] lawsuit against St. John Publishing Co., Joe Kubert, and Norman & Leonard Maurer over a patent on the 3-D illustration process. Zone had covered this in his article in A/E #115, but Ken got hold of additional documents, including letters exchanged between the lawsuit’s principals—and transcripts of both the trial itself and of a tape recording secretly made by EC publisher William M. Gaines of a conversation in his office between himself, editor Al Feldstein, and Kubert. These new discoveries flesh out the history of 3-D comics with a vengeance! (In the end, alas, the secret-tape transcript’s 40+ typed pages proved too long to print in full, so Ken did a masterful summary of it, with enough excerpts to give the flavor of the back-and-forth talk… but if you’d like to read the whole thing, you can download a PDF file of it on TwoMorrows Publications’ link www.twomorrows.com/media/3dconfab.pdf.) Ken’s article also gives us another chance to showcase art from those 1953 3-D comics, to illustrate the points made in the text. Our only problem was the 3-D reproduction itself.

Cox

We worked hard back in #115 to get the 3-D images right, and even went to the added expense (for no hike in cover price, unlike in the 1950s comics themselves) of including 3-D “glasses” with the

issues… only to have the printer accidentally reverse the red and green lenses, so that one needs to bend them backward to make the red lens cover the left eye, the way one read most 3-D comics of the ’50s (though not EC’s). But at least most readers probably figured that out for themselves with a bit of trial-and-error. A bigger problem—pointed out by John Benson and Jay Kinney in this issue’s “re:” section—was what John B. calls “showthrough.” Part of that problem is that the new lenses were red and green… while the images in some of the old comics were red and blue, which isn’t quite the same thing. Well, not much we can do about that now. If you can’t find the 3-D specs you used to read A/E #115, you can get a pair fast by sending a stamped, selfaddressed envelope to: TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. But they’ll be the same red-and-green ones we sent out last time. Part of the problem, too, may be, as JB and Jay believe, that A/E is printed on a slicker paper than the old comics. Yet another aspect may be that our reproduction was simply too good, and that a more “washed-out” printing job on the old comics pages, more closely matching the reproduction in the mags themselves, might’ve led to a better result. Publisher John Morrow tells us he checked out every single image for #115 on his own computer screen—“I got a headache from testing them as I was adjusting them all!”—and they looked fine there. “But,” he adds, “a computer screen displays light, while paper is ink, and the two don’t always coincide properly.” So, this time, John says he’s going to try a few additional tricks of the trade to see if some, if not all, of that “show-through” can be eliminated and readers can get a better idea of what people saw when they’d plunked down their quarter for a 3-D comic in 195354. We’re sure you’ll let us know how the experiment turns out. But even if there are still a few problems, we suspect you’ll agree that the story of the “Trials and Tribulations” related to the original 3-D comics is one worth telling. And illustrating. Bestest,

# COMING IN JULY 127 WILL EISNER & “BUSY” ARNOLD! The Early-1940s Colorful Correspondence Between Quality’s Two Leading Lights!

• Brand new hero-studded cover by JASON PAULOS & DANIEL JAMES COX! • “Letters of Quality!” 1940s missives (or maybe missiles) between WILL EISNER & “BUSY” ARNOLD (& JERRY IGER) about Quality’s comics, The Spirit comic section, story, and art—with some surprising revelations! Art by FINE • CRANDALL • COLE • ROBINSON • CUIDERA • CARDY • KOTZKY • NORDLING • TUSKA • McWILLIAMS, et al.! • “The Coming of the Comics Code—1955!” AMY KISTE NYBERG’s Seal of Approval continues! Plus: VEE QUINTAL, Part 2! • FCA • MICHAEL T. GILBERT with more “Now That’s a Fan!” • BILL SCHELLY—& MORE!!

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Trials And Tribulations —In Three Dimensions! The 1953 Legal Dispute Between EC Comics & St. John Publishing An Examination & Analysis by Ken Quattro

A/E

(Left:) Art from Three Dimensional EC Tales from the Crypt of Terror #2 (Spring 1954) by Joe Orlando. Thanks to Rod Beck. [© William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: Back in issue #115 (March 2013), Alter Ego carried a featurelength article by the late Ray Zone on the 3-D comics of the brief period in 1953-54 when, on the heels of a spate of 3-D movies beginning with Bwana Devil, St. John Publishing Co. launched a series of “three-dimensional” comics. The fad lasted, at the outside, only nine months… yet, along with phenomenal sales followed by spectacular returns of unsold copies, a true boom-and-bust mini-cycle, 3-D comics even managed to cause a colorful lawsuit between two major comic book publishers, one that also involved the patent-holder of a 3-D process. At this point, we’ll step aside and let Ken Quattro relate the story at length, while we content ourselves with illustrating the tale with images from the various companies that published 3-D comics, as well as a few key documents provided by Ken. We think you’ll find the whole bizarre yarn well worth the ride. (Oh, and because Ken typed them that way and they were too much trouble to change, quotations in this article will generally be in italics, just this once….)

Part I – Two Views Of 3-D Comics

n the physical world, seeing in 3-D is easy. Our brain combines the images projected onto the eye’s retina with various visual cues (such as perspective, shading, and relative size) allowing us to understand the world in its three-dimensional glory.

But to perceive a flat image three-dimensionally requires two eyes. The binocular disparity between our two ocular orbs perceives everything from a slightly different vantage point. Optimally, the brain takes these two differing views, combines them, and comes away with the perception of three dimensions. In much the same way, there are two differing views of the creative story behind 3-D comic books, and it takes both views to get a complete picture.

(Right:) Art from St. John Publishing’s 3-D Comics, Vol. 1, #2 (Oct. 1953). Thanks to Rod Beck. [Tor art © Estate of Joe Kubert.]

As the tale of 3-D comics was inexorably tied to St. John Publications, I covered aspects of it when writing “Archer St. John and the Little Company That Could” [a version of which can be found in Alter Ego #77]. Since my history was obviously St. John-centric, I began my research by contacting artist/writer/editor Joe Kubert and Leonard Maurer. Leonard (aka Leon or Lenny) was an eclectic, colorful, and somewhat eccentric individual. His lengthy bio listed accomplishments from musician to engineer, from philosopher to inventor. It was in that last role, and as the brother of comic book creator Norman Maurer, that Leonard is vital to the story of 3-D comic books. It is, in fact, his telling of that story upon which everything else herein hinges.

Through Leonard Maurer’s Eyes It began for Leonard Maurer when he and Norman, along with their pal Joe Kubert, happened to be driving by the Paramount Theater in Times Square, New York City. Joe, according to Leonard, looked up at the marquee touting its latest attraction, Arch Oboler’s 3-D exploitation epic Bwana Devil, and said, “Gee, wouldn’t it be great if we could make a 3-D comic book?” 1 It sounded simple enough. Kubert has stated on several occasions that the idea first came to him when he was in the Army, “in Germany (1950/51) and saw a 3-D (photo) mag. I suggested a 3-D comic book. Norm Maurer and I worked it out.”2 Norman Maurer elaborated: “We worked all night, and I’ll never forget how we waited on the street for Woolworth’s store in mid-town Manhattan to open, because we figured we could get red and green cellophane from lollipop wrappers. We bought two packages and made a funny pair of glasses which, believe it or not, worked perfectly.”3

The 1953 Legal Dispute Between EC Comics & St. John Publishing

Three Who Jump-Started 3-D (Clockwise from top left:) Leonard (“Lenny”) Maurer at a 1950s advertising trade show, promoting the 3-D Illustereo process he had developed. This photo appeared in Craig Yoe’s 2011 book Amazing 3-D Comics. Thanks to Craig Yoe & Clizia Glussoni. His ad for the Illustereo process; thanks to Ken Q. for this scan and the next. A short piece about Illustereo from a 1953 issue of Advertising Age magazine. [© the respective copyright holders.] Norman Maurer (seated) and Joe Kubert, as drawn by the former for St. John Publications’ The Three Stooges #1 (Sept. 1953), which came out one month before the 3-D comics craze took over. Thanks to Craig Yoe. [© Estates of Norman Maurer & Joe Kubert.]

But between the inspiration and the execution there was the critical technical process. That’s where Leonard Maurer came in. Following Kubert’s speculative musing in front of the Paramount, Leon had a revelation. “Later, while driving home to Queens over the Midtown bridge, the whole process [of] depth shifts suddenly popped into my head,” he told interviewer Ray Zone. “With the idea fully formed in my head, I immediately turned around, picked up some acetates, went back to Norm’s

hotel room, and explained the process to him. We then collaborated on a short, short story, and he went immediately to work with pencil, brush, ink, and paint following my technical instructions, while I did the opaquing. Around 2:00 A.M. we finished the real World’s First 3-D comic book page, entitled ‘The Three Stooges in the Third Dimension,’ starring Moe, Shemp, and Larry.”4

Trials And Tribulations—In Three Dimensions!

Certainly the concept wasn’t new. British physicist Charles Wheatstone put forth the idea in the 1830s and soon began producing reflecting-mirror stereoscopic devices that allowed the viewer to see his slightly offset drawings (and soon after, photographs) in apparent three dimensions. Not long after, in 1853, Wilhelm Rollmann of Germany described a technique using complementary colored images viewed through glasses fitted with red and blue filters to achieve the three-dimensional effect. Frenchman Louis Arthur Ducos du Hauron refined this anaglyphic technique for photographs, a technique that eventually provided the basis for the 3-D comic books. Was Leonard Maurer aware of any of the previous efforts using anaglyphs? Or did the idea come to him “fully formed” as his recollection suggested? In any case, the three men took their sample page to publisher Archer St. John, for whom they were already producing several titles. Norm Maurer recalled that St. John “almost fell out the window when he saw the drawings which literally popped from the paper.”5 St. John was on board, with a 25% stake in the new company named American Stereographic which brought with it a guarantee of a six-month exclusive license to their 3-D process. The comics were produced in secrecy to prevent anyone from stealing the process and beating them to the newsstand. When they were ready, the date was set. It would hit the stands on Friday, July 3rd, as the country was going into the holiday weekend. In the August 1953 Writer’s Digest, writer Aron M. Mathieu recounted the frenzy that accompanied the release of Three Dimension Comics #1, featuring Mighty Mouse. “The telephone switchboard of the Roxbury News Company flashed two red lights, and before the PBX operator inserted her first plug, two more lights beamed red at her. “Holy Cripes,” she sang out to the bookkeeper who was passing her board. “I bet you billed Glamour to all the newsdealers again and forgot to send the magazine. Now I listen to them raise hell.” “This is Stop 56,” said the first voice, Schultz’s by Main Street. “We’re outta 3-D. I can use 16 more.” “I’m Bellfontaine, your Stop 187,” said the next voice. “Finally you got something we can sell so you give me 4. I need 18 more 3-D right away.” But Stop 56 and Stop 187 didn’t get any more, for the nation’s craziest, zaniest fad, Three-Dimension Comics, had both kids and newsdealers by their ears as they fought to buy 40,000,000 copies in one month, with only a fraction of the desired supply available.6 While Mathieu’s number is a gross exaggeration, the excitement stirred up by the comic’s release was not. Others began to take notice. He continues: “The competition, Ace, Dell, Goodman, National Comics, Pines and all the others who missed the boat were burrowing into printing techniques trying to issue their own 3-D comics before the kids ran out of quarters or their parents raised hell because of eye strain.”7 “After terrific take-off of Mighty Mouse, 1st 3-D comic,” stated the July 31, 1953, edition of American News Company’s newsletter, The Lookout, “St. John is readying six companion pieces for August bow.”8

3-D-Licious! (Above:) This page of 3-D art may well be the very “Three Stooges in the Third Dimension” page that the Maurers and Kubert produced to sell publisher Archer St. John on the project! A/E reader Lawrence Kaufman, who worked on projects with the late Ray Zone, sent us the above scan. He says this page “was given to [Ray] by the late Leonard Maurer. Ray used it on his website. Ray was always convinced that was the first [sample] page, because Leonard had told him that in their conversation”—which, you’ve got to admit, is a point in its favor! Still, since this page doesn’t contain the try-out panel seen in Craig Yoe’s book Amazing 3-D Comics (and reproduced in A/E #115), maybe the 1953 trio whipped up more than one sample page? Thanks in part to the 3-D Film Archive website of Bob Furmanek, and to Lawrence Kaufman. [© Estates of Norman Maurer and/or Leonard Maurer.] (Left:) Archer St. John in the early 1950s. From a photo provided for A/E #37 by Fred Thompson & Matt D. Baker.

The August 28th issue of the same publication breathlessly noted the “Flood of 3-D titles to hit the stands in Sept. St. John’s Mighty Mouse leading the pack with a first issue sellout of 2,500,000 and starting 2nd issue with 2,300,000; additional 3-D Comics on the way are St. John’s Three Stooges and Whack!; Toby’s Felix the Cat; Archie’s Katy Keen [sic]; Fiction House’s 3-D Circus and Sheena… Independent coming out with Superman, a 3-D book, not a comic.”9 Throughout it all, Kubert maintained a pragmatic view. “We estimate that the first 40,000,000 comics we print will sell and then it will all be over,” he was quoted in the Writer’s Digest article. “Whoever gets his books out first wins. Publishers who

The 1953 Legal Dispute Between EC Comics & St. John Publishing

3-D-Mentia! (Above:) The Writer’s Digest (Aug. 1953) article in which writer Aron M. Mathieu related the then-emerging story of the 3-D comics fad. [© the respective copyright holders.] (Top right:) In A/E #115’s coverage of that craze, we printed the cover and all three “Mighty Mouse” splashes from Three Dimension Comics #1 (Sept. 1953)—so here’s the final page of “Men of Sola!,” the issue’s first story. The writer and artist are unknown, but the 3-D effects were done by editors Norman Maurer & Joe Kubert. Thanks to Rod Beck. (Right:) Norman Maurer’s wife Joan and their son Jeffrey Scott, reading TDC #1. Scott would grow up to become an Emmy-winning animation screenwriter. This photo first appeared in Craig Yoe’s book Amazing 3-D Comics; thanks to Craig & Clizia Glussoni.

come along next November will flop because of the 25¢ price and because many parents may say 3-D comics are hard on the kids’ eyes.”10 More money was to be made, they assumed, from licensing their technique. Then, amidst all of this good news arrived a letter, dated July 10, 1953, and addressed to American Stereographic Corporation. Gentlemen: I have just learned that you are engaged in the business of producing, selling and distributing certain three-dimensional

comic books employing a process invented and patented by me some years ago. Your said acts constitute an infringement upon my rights and I demand that you cease and desist from all such activity forthwith. This notice is without prejudice to the assertion of any and all claims for infringement that may lie against you. Very truly yours, Freeman H. Owens

Trials And Tribulations—In Three Dimensions!

Fellow Travelers Three early non-St. John 3-D entries, mentioned in the Aug. 28 issue of the American News Company’s newsletter, The Lookout, were: Katy Keene 3-D (1953), written and drawn by Bill Woggin. [© Archie Comic Publications.] Sheena 3-D (1953), writer and artist uncertain. [Sheena is TM & © Paul Aratow.] Three Dimension Adventures Superman (1953), whose lead story was penciled by Curt Swan (inker uncertain), adapted from a 2-D story published earlier with a script by Jerry Siegel. Full disclosure: This page is actually repro’d from Ye Editor’s copy of the 1997-98 reprint titled Superman 3-D. The scans were sent by Lawrence Kaufman. [© DC Comics.]

Through Feldstein’s Eyes The following is a transcript of a telephone interview with Al Feldstein that I conducted in January 2008. Unbeknownst to me, the late, great Ray Zone had already done an interview with Feldstein some time before; it was eventually published in Alter Ego #115. Although this interview covers much of the same ground as the one Ray did, it is essential to understanding the court case that resulted; thus it’s included here. Except for a few bracketed prompts from me, and some minor editing out of extraneous conversation, this is the raw, unexpurgated transcript of Feldstein’s story. I have also included some informational material, within brackets, to provide context. Here is Al Feldstein: Let’s see. The inspiration was that Bill [Gaines] and I, for some reason, got very fascinated with 3-Ds. He bought this Stereo Realist [camera], with a projector and a silvered

screen, a special screen, and had the polarized glasses. He’d go to Cuba. He liked to go to Havana. He photographed, with his Stereo Realist, the shows… know what I mean?... [laughs] and then he would show it to [me]. We got fascinated with it, and we wondered how… 3-D movies were out… you know, this was the ’50s. Early ’50s. We got fascinated with how we could put this into the comics. He had a bonus party once, in which he gave out one of those exotic 35 mm Konica cameras, which I loved; it was like $300-$400. I’d been using it prevalently. We had discovered some of these French [unintelligible] process… red and green process… I don’t know if it has a name or not… one of the two images is printed in red, the other is printed in green, and with these glasses that of the two superfluous prints to test your eye, and the other eye… and you could see 3-D. It was planar imaging. I figured, well, gee whiz, what we need to do is have two views of the

The 1953 Legal Dispute Between EC Comics & St. John Publishing

Two Sides To Every Story? (Left:) Freeman H. Owens’ first letter to St. John Publications, dated July 14, 1953, was written only four days after the one he sent to American Stereographic Corporation, whose text was quoted on p. 6 of this article. The text of the two letters was basically identical. Thanks to Ken Quattro. (Right:) You definitely got two sides to a story on this “3-D Blinky” page from an unidentified St. John comic, depending on which eye you looked at it with. Of course, that’s assuming you were wearing your “3-D space goggles.” Thanks to Lawrence Kaufman & to Bob Furmanek’s 3-D Film Archive site. [© the respective copyright holders.]

same art. That will do it. So I spent one day, all morning, producing a kind of stage show. Not a stage show, but a stage setting. I had a tree, I had a gal sitting on an ashcan, and a fence, a sidewalk, distant trees, etc., etc., and I set up my camera, and I turned one picture of it. It had depth, you know, like a stage setting. I set up my Konica and I took one picture and I moved it four inches, or so and I took another. Then I had it developed. I had black-&white film, which was high-contrast. I had the prints made and I got back a print of each of the two views that I took, and I said to Bill, “Let’s see what we can do with this,” and so sent it down to the engraver, I guess at our own expense, and had a proof pulled. They printed a photograph of one of the views on a red plate, and one of the views for a green plate, and they produced a 3-D picture! It worked! I mean, you could see these planar differences, you know. The tree was way up at the front, the girl was toward the back, the fence went away from the foreground to the background, the sidewalk went away from the foreground to the background, the house across the street was behind the bushes, etc., etc.

So, we look at this and I say, “Well, we achieved 3-D in a printed form, a comic book panel, but how could we ever have this for a book? What the hell! Are we gonna make stage settings for every panel? This is ridiculous!” So we abandoned it. I took it home and stuck it in with my memorabilia. Whatever. I had it framed.

On EC Street (Left:) A recent photo of Al Feldstein, early-1950s editor, writer, & artist of EC’s horror/crime comics, and, from 1956-83, editor of Mad magazine. (Right:) Al (on right) and EC publisher/managing editor William M. Gaines in a vintage 1950s pic.

Anyway, there was this guy from the School of Music and Art that I went to when I was a kid named Lenny Maurer. Lenny was… well, I don’t know why he went to the school as he really wasn’t into his art; he was an art student... he used to get on the subway at Franklin and I’d get on… I’d take the 88th at Flatbush… and we would play the harmonica together, play hooky, and go to the Paramount, see Benny Goodman, blah, blah, blah. He lived over on Carroll Street somewhere in Brooklyn and I lived in Flatbush, on Eastern and 1st Street, and after graduation he

Trials And Tribulations—In Three Dimensions!

went on to Brooklyn College and I went on and got out of touch with him.

Stereographic with Kubert. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: Both Freeman Owens’ 3-D patent and the also-expiring one for a textile “loom for weaving” were seen in A/E #115.]

Anyway, I went into the service. Then I came back. Then one day in my apartment, when I was working for EC, Lenny got in Now, this is all my conjecture. touch and wanted to visit. I I’m not sure if that’s exactly what thought, “That’ll be great!” You happened. know, my old best friend from So, we got to get to this high school. So, he came over to Freeman H. Owens and we can the house. Among other things we make 3-D comics without talked about, I was married, I’d American Stereographic. It was been married since the service, “I Think It Was About A Flying Mouse” very clearly laid out how it was living with my first wife in Mighty Mouse, to be exact—in the earlier-mentioned Three Dimension Comics #1, done. [unintelligible] …horizon Brooklyn in an apartment, and I the very first 3-D comic ever. Creative team unknown. was stationary, blah, blah, blah. showed him this proof. “Look at Thanks to Rod Beck. [© the respective copyright holders.] We got to find this guy. Bill says, this. 3-D comics!” He looked at it, “How?” I said, “Well, now that and he goes, “Gosh, it looks I’m thinking of it, let’s go up into the library’s telephone book collection great!” And I told him how we did it and the problem we had. and start looking to see if he’s in the area or see how we can do it.” OK. Skip ahead a couple of years. And so we look in the New York telephone book and like God was with St. John Publishing comes out with a 3-D comic book… I forget what us [laughs], here was Freeman H. Owens! [laughs] Down on 29th Street it was… I think it was about a flying mouse. God, there it was, 3-D! How or so. [unintelligible] Freeman H. Owens lived in a brownstone… and we the hell did they do it? We couldn’t figure it out. So I was desperate to go in and he greets us and we tell him this whole story. And he laughs, he put it out, a 3-D comic, because 3-D was hot. Movies were out, people, seems interested, and I said, “You know, it’s like your patent.” And Bill kids were fascinated with the glasses, in the theatres. And now with the says, “We want to buy it.” He said, “It’s expiring, in like 6 months or so; red and green pictures on the publications. We saw this was being patent 8 months.” And Bill says, “OK. We’ll just buy it for the balance, we want pending by American Stereographic. to have it, we want to own it so we can put out 3-D comics.” And Freeman said, “OK.” So, we got in touch with them and we had to come back with a legal disclosure. But Lenny Maurer and… uh, oh, God, I forgot the name of the Freeman later on became real friendly with us. Used to come to our artist... and Joe Kubert. So, they walk in and I’m shocked! It’s Lenny! Christmas parties and incidentally, he was quite a brilliant man. What the hell’s Lenny got to do with comic books? I remembered that he [Feldstein recounts a conversation in which Owens described a new told me he was with a textile business. Which was his father’s business, plastic camera lens.] That’s what he was. He was a great inventor, and but I’m not sure exactly what he did, he was not a clothing outfitter[?]… made patents, and that’s what he did until he died. I assumed he was doing nothing to do with [unintelligible], but he [INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: Freeman Harrison Owens had a long listened… so we listened to their spiel and they go through it, and the and storied history in the film industry. He was a cameraman in financial arrangements that American Stereographic demanded so that the Silent Era and has been credited with developing the synchrothey’d release to us their method, blah, blah, blah, and they left. nization of sound to film. He held around 2,000 patents in his And I said to Bill, “This stinks! Something‘s wrong!... [largely lifetime. He was also the plaintiff in several copyright infringement unintelligible part] “Something is fishy. Let’s go down to the library and lawsuits. You can read more about him in A/E #115.] look at patents.” But anyway, he sold us what was left of I don’t know what pushed us to do this. Bill and I were good friends, his 3-D patent. Of course, we didn’t have we were adventurous, we would go to games together, we would go to any claim on any prior commitments he had documentaries together. I pushed him into horror, blah, blah, blah. So we on any planar camera or anything like that. went into a nearby library and started to dig through patents. I got this We got it just for the use in this 2-dimenfeeling that I should look through patents that were expiring. That were sional printing process. Anyway, we went close to their 15-16 year limit. [EDITOR’S NOTE: Patents used to ahead and started to do the 3-D comics. We expire at 17 years.] told American Stereographic to go screw themselves. I don’t know how many other Anyway, I’m looking and looking and looking and there it is! My God! people they convinced with their patent A patent for green images or cels and moving the cels. It was designed for pending, but [unintelligible] when we found photographing animation films so that they had a 3-D effect. [Feldstein the copyright. And we did our 3-D comics. makes a side reference to Disney applications of the process.] And then I By then, the fad was dying. It’s now coming see that there’s an addition which Freeman H. Owens basically had added back. I don’t know how successful our 3-D for 3-D applications in other forms. Or something like that. I don‘t comics were. The Man Behind The remember. Patent To kind of explain. I went home, I lived I said to Bill, “There it is!” I turned the page back a full [unintelliFreeman H. Owens with a out in Hudson [unintelligible] and I made gible] and there was a[n] expiring patent, in a textile process…. I said, motion picture camera— drawing boards. You know, lap-type drawing “Son-of-a-gun!” Lenny Maurer was looking for something, for whomever probably not a 3-D one— boards with rings. We had a punch that at some time during the he was working for in the textile company—ran across this, and a bell made 3-hole loose leaf punches for paper, 1920s. rang. And so he, figuring it was expiring, I guess, formed American that were adjustable. I would make a set of…

The 1953 Legal Dispute Between EC Comics & St. John Publishing

at that time I had sheets of vinyl or whatever it was to draw on, it was treated for ink drawings. It was the same as the cels the animation studios were using. I got these cels. I made sets of these cels, I made six or seven of these boards, whatever, for the artists. I fixed it so the punch would change position of the sheet for the foreground was, I think we moved it, I think I was experimenting with almost a half-an-inch and then like, three eighths, then like a quarter, then like an eighth. We did, I don’t know how many sheets, I think it was four levels—I don’t remember exactly. [INTERVIEWER INTERJECTS: I think EC used six levels. That’s what I’ve read. You got down to six levels.] Six levels? I had five adjustable levels? I don’t remember; I really don’t. Check around on our 3-D comics, I think they still work. I made these things, and of course, we pay these artists extra because they had to draw these panels, then turn the sheets over and opaque the art, just like animators do. In black and white. And we put out, I think it was three 3-D comics… or two and we didn‘t print the third, I don‘t remember. You have to clarify that for me, too. [INTERVIEWER INTERJECTS: You put out two, and there was a third one made, but it was never published.]

Then, we had to go to Buffalo, after we had the artwork back. We drove the engraver nuts ’til he understood what the heck we were doing when we said, “Now, you photograph this set”… it was a page… five times, that’s what you say we did…and I bound up the sets and they photograph that as one picture, through the set. Then, by shooting it through the cels and…I’m not sure whether the artist [unintelligible] turned in a distance one panel and I didn’t shoot it. Then they shot that again. And they had two black-&-white photographs. Just like when you pulled my proof, you pull a proof, and that’s how we got the whole book together. We were doing this, it was clumsy, it was time-consuming, it was really tough. But, it was better than making stage settings. Now wait a second… I sent boards with seven punch holes, and they did this one page, they did it with three different planes, I said, “Just figure out the planes,” and then I did the shoot. That’s what I remember. Anyway, with the engraving costs and the printing costs… I don’t know whether Bill made money or not. But I know we didn’t do the third one. Anyway, the next problem was after we had the proofs and it was all working, we had to have glasses made, you know, to bind into the covers, the issues. We had to go up to Buffalo, New York, where the Greater

EC In 3-D, See? Pages from EC’s two published comics: (Left:) The second page of “V-Vampires!” in Three Dimensional EC Classics #1 (Spring 1954), as redrawn by Wally Wood from Mad #3 (Feb-March 1953). This story led off EC’s first 3-D comic; we showed you its splash page in A/E #115. Script by Harvey Kurtzman. (Right:) The first splash page in Three Dimensional EC Tales from the Crypt of Terror #2 (Spring 1954—the EC Classics issue was counted as “#1”), as drawn by Jack Davis. Story by William M. Gaines, script by Al Feldstein. This yarn had originally appeared, in 2-D color, in Tales from the Crypt #25 (Aug.-Sept. 1951), but it, too, was redrawn from the ground up for the 3-D version. Thanks to Rod Beck for both these scans. [© William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

Trials And Tribulations—In Three Dimensions!

The Four Stooges? (Clockwise from top left:) Leonard Maurer’s first letter to William M. Gaines (7-14-53), offering him a chance to license the Illustereo process—his 7-17-53 reply to Freeman Owens’ letter which is quoted on p. 6 of this issue—plus Archer St. John’s reply that same date to Owens’ first letter to him. Ere long, the Maurer brothers, St. John, and Kubert must’ve felt like the Three Stooges (plus one) as seen in this 3-D splash from Three Stooges #2 (Oct. 1953)— i.e., waiting for someone to throw a pie (or worse) at their heads! Thanks to Ken Quattro for the scans of the letters, and to Rod Beck & Bob Bailey for the art scan. [© Estates of Norman Maurer.]

The 1953 Legal Dispute Between EC Comics & St. John Publishing

Buffalo Press was located, where EC was printing its comic books, to talk to them about how to print this and how to mix the paints… to print the inks, rather… to effectively work with our glasses, which we had, these green glasses, which they were making. It was all pretty wild. That’s my story of 3-D.

Dueling Letters Freeman Owens’ July 10th letter to American Stereographic set off a chain reaction. At the same time Kubert and the Maurers were trying to peddle their “3-D Illustereo” process, they became engrossed in an escalating war of dueling letters with Owens. Apparently unaware of Freeman’s relationship with Bill Gaines, Leonard Maurer sends the publisher a letter introducing him to their Illustereo process and offering him a chance to license it for his own comics. Meanwhile, Owens (through his attorneys) ups the ante by next sending a letter to St. John Publishing informing them of his claim of patent infringement. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: See p. 8.] Maurer reacts to Owens’ first letter by denying knowledge of any patent they may have infringed upon. He further requests that Owens send him the number and date of the patent he was referring to. Archer St. John gets into the action by parroting Maurer’s letter. He, too, asks for Owens’ patent number and its date. Owens responds to Maurer with his patent number and its date. Maurer acknowledges receipt of the patent information and informs Owens that he has ordered a copy. In the meantime, Maurer requests that Owens meet with him to discuss the matter. Owens sends St. John the same patent information he sent to Maurer previously. Owens (and presumably his attorneys) decide to swing for the fences. Their next letter goes out to the powerful distributor, American News Company. This cease-and-desist letter was likely designed to interfere with the newsstand distribution of the St. John 3-D comics.

The Monster From The Third Dimension Not all the stories in Three Dimensional EC Classics #1 were from comics written and edited by Kurtzman. “The Monster from the Fourth Dimension” was beautifully redrawn by Bernard Krigstein from the Feldstein-edited Weird Science #7 (May-June 1951), where the original drawings had been by Feldstein. Story by William M. Gaines, script by Feldstein. Thanks to Rod Beck. [© William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

Taking it even further, Owens contacts St. John’s largest advertiser—Lionel Corporation—and informs them of his patent claim. It’s unknown whether Owens knew that Lionel and Archer St. John had a longtime connection going back to his days as their advertising manager. Even after a month of ever-increasing threats from Owens, it appeared that Maurer was still unaware of the inventor’s connection to Gaines. A lawsuit seemed inevitable. But even if the Maurers, Kubert, and St. John were bracing for that likelihood, surely they never could have suspected what would occur on August 3rd.

Endnotes for Part I: 1 Zone, Ray, “Leonard Maurer: 3-D Comics Pioneer,” www.ray3dzone.com/LM.html 2 Kubert, Joe, letter to author, March 31, 2004.

3 Lenburg, Jeff et. al., The Three Stooges Scrapbook, pg. 119 (1982).

4 Ray Zone, op. cit.

5 Jeff Lenburg, et. al., op. cit., pg. 125.

6 Mathieu, Aron M., “3-D Comics Knock ‘Em Dead,” Writer’s Digest, Aug. 1953. 7 Ibid.

8 The Lookout staff, The Lookout, (July 31, 1953).

9 The Lookout staff, The Lookout, (Aug. 28, 1953). 10 Aron M. Mathieu, op. cit.

Additional general information obtained from the New York Times archives; Arkansas Biography: A Collection of Notable Lives by Nancy A. Williams and Jeannie M. Whayne; Selected Attempts at Stereoscopic Moving Pictures and Their Relationship to the Development of Motion Picture Technology, 1852-1903 by H. Mark Gosser; “Seeing in Three Dimensions” by Jonathan Strickland; “Anaglyphs Perfected” from Photographic Times, July 1896 issue. [Continued on p. 15.]

Trials And Tribulations—In Three Dimensions!

Let’s Give Everybody A Whack! Also on 7-29-53, Owens took a whack at American News Company, distributor of St. John’s (and others’) comics—just as ANC was sending out the first issue of Maurer, Kubert, and St. John’s Whack #1 (Oct. 1953). Cover art for the parody mag by Norman Maurer. Thanks to Ken Quattro for the scan of Owens’ letter, and to Rod Beck for the art scan. [Cover © Estate of Norman Maurer.]

“It’s Gonna Be A Train Wreck!” Freeman Owens even went after at least one advertiser in St. John’s 3-D comics, as per this 7-29-53 letter to the corporation that owned Lionel Trains! The ad for the toy locomotives appeared in several of St. John’s 3-D Comics dated Oct. ’53—though not in 3-D. Wonder if Owens also threatened Schwinn bicycles or Double Bubble gum, whose ads, as seen in A/E #115, were in 3-D! Thanks to Ken Quattro for the scan of the letter, and to Rod Beck for the art scan. [© the respective copyright holders.]

The 1953 Legal Dispute Between EC Comics & St. John Publishing

Spectator Sport—1,000,000 Years Ago! (Clockwise from top left:) On 7-24-53 Owens sent a letter containing the patent number on his 3-D process to Leonard Maurer at American Stereographic… on the 27th, Maurer responded (pardon the slightly warped scan), then sent another business-seeking letter to Gaines on 7-30-53, as if nothing had happened! Meanwhile, Owens wrote a second letter to Archer St. John (dated 7-29-53), announcing that he did indeed feel the comics company had infringed on his patent. Thanks to Ken Quattro. Joe Kubert, who’d drawn himself into 3-D Comics #2 (Oct. ’53), starring his caveman hero Tor, must have felt that he and his buddies were engaged in a life-or-death struggle with Gaines, Feldstein, and Owens that paralleled the one between the two carnosaurs! Thanks to Ken Quattro for the letters scans, and to Rod Beck for the art scan. [© Estate of Joe Kubert.]

Trials And Tribulations—In Three Dimensions!

[Continued from p. 12.]

Part II – Tale Of The Tape

s recounted above, there was a fundamental disagreement over who was the creator of the process that made 3-D comic books possible.

Leonard Maurer claimed it came to him “fully formed,” while inventor Freeman H. Owens swore it was based upon his 1936 patent. As at any time when money is at stake, a lawsuit was inevitable. But it wasn’t just Owens and Maurer who were involved. There were others—others with a financial interest, with a lot to lose and a lot to gain. On August 3, 1953, Joe Kubert was invited by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein of EC Comics Group to stop by their offices (Room 803 at 225 Lafayette Street in NYC) around noon for a meeting. Unknown to Kubert, their conversation was being tape-recorded. Their meeting ran to a bit over one hour and resulted in a long typewritten transcript. The latter is far too long (it runs over 40 typewritten pages with its back-and-forth and inevitable redundancies) to be printed in this issue, but you can download the full transcript of the conversation at www.twomorrows.com/media/ 3dconfab.pdf. What follows is my summation of the meeting—with a few excerpts to give the flavor of the proceedings. It began with an outward affable exchange of greetings, after which Feldstein and Gaines launched into an obviously planned interrogation of their visitor. Several weeks prior, Leonard (“Lenny”) Maurer had contacted Gaines and offered him a chance to license the so-called Illustereo process that Maurer and his partners in American Stereographic had come up with for producing 3-D comic books. According to Feldstein, that led to a meeting with Maurer that included a veiled threat. Here is the 8-3-53 exchange, slightly abridged (with material left out indicated by three- or four-dot ellipses): FELDSTEIN: In fact, Lenny was up here, you know. Lenny came up to see us…. GAINES: About three weeks ago, was it? FELDSTEIN: He was kind of cool. Quite frankly, his attitude was very belligerent. GAINES: Tell you why we wanted to talk to you alone, Joe. There are a lot of interesting developments, and in trying to figure out what was going on—for some queer reason, I assumed all along, that you’re an honest man—

GAINES: He said [American Stereographic’s attorney] Posnack has a civil suit all prepared to hit us with no matter what our process is…. KUBERT: Them’s pretty hard words…. GAINES: Yeah. Well, I think you’re going to be pretty surprised at what we have to tell you. If you’re not, ah, maybe—maybe you know. Feldstein claimed to Kubert that he had figured out the process used by American Stereographic. Kubert denied any direct knowledge of this counterclaim, as both he and Norman Maurer were uninvolved in the business side of the company. Gaines continued Feldstein‘s story. “It took me about an hour to figure out what I thought I could produce... a way I thought I could produce a book to look exactly like the book you had produced,” he boasted to Kubert. …“Al and Harvey [Kurtzman] were all excited. We came in and we told you at that time that we knew a process. And we said, ‘How do we know that we don’t have the same process as you have? Or maybe we have a different process. Why should we pay you $2,500 a book?’ Lenny said, ‘You tell me the process, and I’ll tell you if it infringes.’ So I told him the process; I said, ‘You make a drawing on cels, plane by plane; you take a picture, you shift the cels varying amounts, you take another picture.’ And he said, ‘That infringes.’” According to Feldstein, the implication from Maurer was that he had already applied for a patent on his process. Assuming that this was true, EC sent artist Bill Elder (like Feldstein, a former schoolmate of Leonard Maurer) to American Stereographic to learn the process. During his visit, Elder was apparently asked to sign a nondisclosure agreement by Kubert. Feldstein tells Kubert that that agreement was never signed by Elder. “Well, that can’t be,” Kubert disagreed, “because I remember telling Bill myself specifically that no one up in the office knows what the process is as yet and since he has signed these papers, he’s not to talk about it to anybody up in the [EC] office.” Both Gaines and Feldstein stated that it didn’t matter whether or not Elder had signed the non-disclosure agreement. Their reasoning for this came as a surprise to Kubert. “We feel that you’re going to get shocked,” said Feldstein, “We don’t know. You may be aware of this. Do you know you’re not going to get a patent?”

KUBERT: I’m flattered. GAINES: So figuring that you’re an honest man, we came to the conclusion that maybe you didn’t know some of the things we found out. So, frankly, I was curious to know whether you knew them, and if you don’t know them, I want to tell you. KUBERT: I’m all ears…. I would like to know, because… Leonard has pretty well kept us up on things happening…. FELDSTEIN: Well, Lenny said to us if we go ahead with 3-D, with our process, American Stereograph [sic] will sue us for unfair competition—fair trade or something like that. GAINES: Well, he didn’t say so in so many words. FELDSTEIN: Well, he said a civil suit, that’s what he said.

And In This Corner… (Left:) Bill Gaines (on left) and Al Feldstein at a nightclub back in the day. They made a formidable tag team in comics—and against a lone Joe Kubert. (Right:) Kubert in the mountains of Southern Germany in the early 1950s, not long before he returned to civilian life, comic books, amazing success with 3-D—and a whole mess of grief from Gaines, Feldstein, and Freeman H. Owens. Thanks to Bill Schelly and the Kubert family for this photo, which first appeared in Bill’s excellent 2008 book Man of Rock: A Biography of Joe Kubert.

The 1953 Legal Dispute Between EC Comics & St. John Publishing

The Voice Of The Turtle This dynamic double-page spread written and drawn by Kubert appeared in 3-D Comics #2 (Oct. 1953). A month later, Tor starred in a second comic also officially titled 3-D Comics #2, this one cover-dated Nov. ’53. Under its three changing titles—One Million Years Ago, 3-D Comics, and Tor—the six issues of this series represented some of the best work in 1950s comics. Thanks to Rod Beck. [© Estate of Joe Kubert.]

“Did you ever hear of a man by the name of Freeman Owens?” asked Gaines.

ately thought this applied to comic books, if it could be done in art work. I knew nothing of what problems it involved or anything else.”

They handed Kubert a copy of Owens’ 1936 patent and informed him that Owens had contacted American Stereographic that they had infringed it. The stunned Kubert answered that Archer St. John had hired attorneys Asher Blum and Emanuel Posnack to conduct patent searches, and nothing had come up that would interfere with their patent application.

Feldstein related to Kubert his story of how he had taken a three-dimensional photograph using a stage to simulate a comic book panel four years earlier. Leonard Maurer, he claimed, had seen that photo when he came by Feldstein’s apartment on a visit soon afterward.

This led to a lengthy discussion of how Gaines and Feldstein had come to find Owens’ patent in the first place and their suspicion that Leonard Maurer had come upon that very patent while doing an unrelated patent search for his previous employer, Supreme Knitting Mills. “We immediately started to wonder what is going on,” said Feldstein, “Is it a swindle or something? Four patent searches don’t turn up your process?” Kubert sounded shaken. But he corrected his interrogators as to the origin of the 3-D comics idea in the first place. “The idea of 3-D in comic books came from me,” he stated. “Leonard did not suggest it. It did not come from Leonard.” While he credited Maurer with coming up with the process of shifting planes to achieve the three-dimensional effect, Kubert detailed how the idea came to him: “I had an idea. I had suggested this to several people. I had talked it around a bit. The thing that gave me the idea originally was that I had seen several books, several magazines in Europe while I was overseas in three-dimensions, but they were photographs and I immedi-

“I don’t say he stole this idea, but 3-D in comics was imbedded in his mind from this,” Feldstein speculated. Then the conversation turned back to Owens’ patent. “If you look at the date of that patent, Joe, you see that it expires this October [13th], which means that it becomes public property,” Feldstein explained in noting the 17-year term that

Elders Of The Tribe Bill (often called Will) Elder, seen on right, in a caricature of himself and his frequent boss and collaborator, Harvey Kurtzman. The drawing resembles Elder’s work more than Kurtzman’s, and appears in the hardcover book Tales of Terror! by Fred von Bernewitz and Grant Geissman, copublished in 2000 by Gemstone Publishing and Fantagraphics Books. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Trials And Tribulations—In Three Dimensions!

patents had at the time.

this, Gaines added flatly, “…which I ain’t going to give.”

Gaines and Feldstein spend a lot of time trying to convince Kubert that somebody at American Stereographic had knowledge that their process was infringing on Owens’ patent.

Feldstein and Gaines both offered the opinion that all 3-D comic artwork produced prior to October 13th was infringing on the Owens patent and would have to discarded. Kubert was stunned by this suggestion. They further added that a judge might well rule that fraud was involved if no patent had ever been applied for by American Stereographic.

Feldstein tempered this charge: “That is pure speculation.” “We got fantasy minds, Joe,” offered Gaines. “Joe, Bill and I make plots all the time,” agreed Feldstein, “And they’re very weird.” All of this began to create doubt in Kubert: “Frankly… during [the] last week, I knew that something like this existed.” Feldstein implied that lawyer Posnack was aware of the patent infringement. This led Kubert to some speculation of his own: “The first thing St. John will do is sue Posnack, because he put down on that patent application that to his knowledge—that, as far as he knows, he sees no reason why this patent shouldn’t go through.” Kubert commented that “Posnack has made more money than anybody in this whole deal so far.” Gaines and Feldstein gave a little more detail about Freeman Owens. They claimed they found him in a hospital. “The man is so near to death,” said Gaines. “He’s had seven strokes. He’s an old man… a little old man.”

“I hope Lenny wasn’t in on this thing, too,” Feldstein mused. Kubert agreed. “I’m pretty sure. It may have been just a matter of circumstance.” “When we made all these conjectures,” explained Feldstein, “I lifted myself from being Lenny’s friend, and looked at it from a purely business point of view.” From that point, the conversation took on a friendlier tone, as Feldstein offered Kubert lunch and asked about the recent birth of his son. They soon returned to more serious matters, as the talk revolved around Posnack once again. The attorney was an obvious concern for Feldstein. Feldstein pumped Kubert about the production of the 3-D St. John comics.

Despite Owens’ dire shape, Feldstein states that the inventor was “sore as hell,” once he saw the first St. John 3-D “Mighty Mouse” issue of Three Dimension Comics: “He [Owens] hasn’t made a dime out of this patent since 1936.” At this point, Gaines dropped a bombshell: “We bought the patent.” This purchase, however, didn’t carry with it the right to sue. Owens retained that right for himself—a right he intended to exercise against anyone (including EC) who published a 3-D comic book before October 13, 1953. Kubert observed that DC, Timely, Avon, and “Disney” (he clearly referred to Dell/Western, which published the Disney comics), as well as St. John, had 3-D comics in the works. Feldstein claimed that all would be sued by Owens for infringement. When Feldstein stated that they had paid $300 for the exclusive assignment rights to Owens’ patent, Kubert replied that St. John would have paid $1,000. There was then a general discussion over the culpability of Leonard Maurer and the attorneys hired to do the patent searches. Kubert expressed hope for Maurer’s innocence, but he retained some doubt about Posnack’s culpability. “If anybody knew about it,” said Kubert, “there is only one man who could have known about it, and that’s Posnack himself. As I said before, up to date, this guy has made over $6,500 from us.” Kubert asked if Norman Maurer could be let in on the information being given to him by Gaines and Feldstein. They replied that he should already know, since a cease-and-desist letter had been sent to American Stereographic the week before. There was then a back-and-forth discussion about what would come out of all these revelations. Kubert believed St. John would contact Owens upon learning of his patent claim and offer to settle with him. Feldstein interjected that St. John would also have to get a license from Gaines, who held the exclusive assignment rights. To

Shake Your Rootie! In A/E #115, we ran a page from the 1953 “Rootie Kazootie” issue of 3-D-ell from Dell/Western, whose panels were composed of photos of the marionette star of a kids’ TV series—but that scan wasn’t in red-and-green and thus couldn’t be viewed in 3-D. This one, found by Lawrence Kaufman on the 3-D Film Archive website, corrects that problem. Writer unknown. [© the respective copyright holders.]

The 1953 Legal Dispute Between EC Comics & St. John Publishing

Go West, Young Kids! (Above:) Timely/Atlas published only two 3-D comics, one of which was 3-D Tales of the West (Jan. 1954), featuring one story drawn by Gene Colan (signed) and another penciled by Gil Kane. (Seen in A/E #115 was Al Hartley’s splash for a “Black Rider” oater therein.) Unlike most 3-D comics, Atlas’ sold for 15¢ instead of 25¢ and gave you two pairs of 3-D goggles, “in case you lose one!” Thanks to Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., & Rod Beck. (Left:) The other Atlas 3-D comic, 3-D Action (also Jan. ’54), contained tales of various kinds, including two war stories and this boxing yarn drawn by Sy Barry. All writers of the Atlas tales are unidentified. Thanks to Rod Beck. [© Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Kubert was open with the details: “The first run was to be 500,000, and after that, if it showed some sort of a sale return, he was going to run a second 500,000. I believe he had already called for it—if it hasn’t been printed already.” Despite Feldstein’s doubts, the print run of Three Dimension Comics #1 eventually exceeded 1,000,000 copies. After a bit more speculation on the consequences of Owens’ patent claim and likely lawsuits, Kubert seemed resigned to returning to tell Norman Maurer and the others “the good news.” He felt especially sorry for Archer St. John, who, he claimed, “went

Trials And Tribulations—In Three Dimensions!

Captains And The King

into the whole thing in good faith.” Feldstein commiserated with Kubert and offered that they would try to talk Owens out of a suit against the individual partners in the case that American Stereographic had no money. The meeting began to wind down as Kubert opined that St. John would likely fight any lawsuit, since he already has so much invested and couldn‘t afford to stop production of the 3-D comics. Feldstein replied jokingly, “I just hope he stops—for a while, as we can get our glasses.” As Kubert prepared to leave, he thanked Feldstein and Gaines for their confidence. He was no sooner out the door when Gaines is heard (on the tape, not by Kubert) calling out to his secretary to wait five minutes before bringing the tape to him. While the tape itself would be unheard in the subsequent court case, its words would hang heavily upon all who were in the courtroom….

Part III – Freeman H. Owens Vs. American Stereographic

he whole situation had gotten out of hand. It had started with an uncomfortable business meeting between old friends, schoolmates, suspiciously eyeing one another over a contract. Clandestine dealings and a month of contentious communications followed, capped by a surreptitiously tape-recorded interrogation/brainwashing. Smooth legalese soon tempered blunt accusations and elevated a Brooklyn street fight to a Foley Square courtroom.

The Dukes Of Palooka Even Harvey’s house ads made good use of 3-D, as per this one for its Joe Palooka reprint comic—which wasn’t even a 3-D title. Ham Fisher’s Palooka, of course, was for decades one of the most popular newspaper comic strips in the world. Thanks to Lawrence Kaufman and to the 3-D Film Archive site for this scan. Artist uncertain. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Perhaps the best 3-D comics of the era, in terms of rendering depth, were those produced by Harvey Comics, including Captain 3-D #1 (Dec. 1953) by the legendary team of Joe Simon & Jack Kirby, with some inking by the alsolegendary Mort Meskin. Seen here are Cap’s first emergence from the mysterious “Book of D”—after Danny puts on the glasses he finds in the “Book of D.” Writers uncertain. Scans from Ye Editor’s personal copies. [© Estates of Joe Simon & Jack Kirby.]

The 1953 Legal Dispute Between EC Comics & St. John Publishing

On Sept. 1, 1953, the attorneys for the opposing parties appeared before Judge Irving R. Kaufman at 10:30 a.m. to argue the case. Emanuel Posnack, who represented American Stereographic, the corporation formed by brothers Norman and Leonard Maurer, their friend Joe Kubert, and publisher Archer St. John, requested more time to prepare his case. Martin Scheiman, representing inventor Freeman H. Owens as well as Gaines, fought that request. Judge Kaufman heard both attorneys and granted a one-week delay. The case was rescheduled for the following Tuesday, after the Labor Day holiday. The attorneys next appeared before Judge Edward A. Conger on September 9, 1953, which was a Wednesday. In a quick hearing, Scheiman requested to be heard as soon as possible. It was indicated that Posnack could not make it the next day (Thursday). Court was adjourned and convened once more at 10:30 a.m., Friday, September 11th. Scheiman immediately asked the judge for permission to serve Posnack with additional papers. When the court asked why, Scheiman launched into a long story explaining how Posnack served him with papers late in the afternoon the previous Wednesday. Since it was so late in the day, and the following Thursday was a Jewish holiday, he wasn’t able to serve Posnack in turn. The judge cut Scheiman short and allowed him to serve Posnack with additional papers. The court briefly adjourned.

The Plaintiffs When court finally resumed at 12:15, Scheiman began. “If your Honor please, this is a motion for a preliminary injunction in connection with a suit for the infringement of a patent issued to one Freeman H. Owens, on October 13, 1936. The patent will expire on October 13 of this year.”1 “Then it will be moot on October 13th,” reasoned Judge Conger. Scheiman agreed, and after noting all the parties involved, he pointed out the uniqueness of Owens patent, “to provide a set of complementary stereographic pictures from a flat drawing.” Scheiman continued, “Lest your Honor be in any way misled by what I say, I want to impress upon you that no claim is made by the Owens patent or by the plaintiffs that Mr. Owens invented anything new in the sense of stereoscopy as a science, which has been long and well known for perhaps a hundred years or so; what he did do in his invention was to make it possible to make an ordinary drawing and by a unique

True Adventures In 3-D All four issues of the two great Harvey 3-D anthology titles, Adventures in 3-D and True 3-D, were drawn by Bob Powell and members (past and present) of his studio. Powell himself drew “Winged Prayer” from Adventures in 3-D #2 (Feb. ’54), and Howard Nostrand illustrated “Pony Express” for True 3-D #1 (Dec. ’53). Writers unknown. For several full stories from these titles, seek out Craig Yoe’s book Amazing 3-D Comics (see ad on p. 42). Thanks to Rod Beck for the scans. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Trials And Tribulations—In Three Dimensions!

Holy Holograms, Batman! A trio of splash pages from the 1953 Batman 3-D comic—well, actually, they’re taken from the 1966 reprint of same, which came out on the heels of the hit Batman TV series, but there wasn’t really any difference. Thanks to Gene Reed for the scans. (Clockwise from above left:) “The Fowls of Fate,” featuring The Penguin, came from Batman #48 (Aug.Sept. 1948), but wasn’t redrawn as the “Superman” 3-D stories had been. Scripter unknown; art by Jim Mooney & Charles Paris. This “Tommy Tomorrow” story was probably included because there wasn’t room to run a third “Batman” story in the issue. Adapted from Action Comics #127 (Dec. 1948). Script by Otto Binder; art by Curt Swan & John Fischetti. “The Robot Robbers,” with art credited entirely to Charles Paris and written by Batman co-creator Bill Finger, was reprinted from Batman #42 (Aug.Sept. 1947), with 3-D effects added. [© DC Comics.]

process convert that drawing into something which could be adapted to several forms of entertainment, advertising, and other purposes. “If you will examine the letters patent you will note that Mr. Owens illustrated his process in part by the use of certain panels cartoon-like in character depicting what might be termed a Tarzan-like scene. [NOTE: This art was printed in A/E #77, the St. John issue.] “The defendants have produced in the recent past a number of so-called comic books. Several of them are before your Honor. The first one which was produced by the defendant St. John pursuant to the process which I have referred to as the Illustereo process professedly invented by certain of the individual defendants, was on the New York newsstands approximately on July 3rd or July 5th. “It has been followed in rapid succession by a number of similar comic books employing the same process.

The 1953 Legal Dispute Between EC Comics & St. John Publishing

Scheiman further contended that the defendants’ application “to my knowledge has not been prosecuted beyond its initial stages, except that the defendants have alleged that they have made application for special treatment of that particular application.” The special treatment he referred to was the requested accelerated consideration and approval of the Illustereo application by American Stereographic. Clearly, they wanted to get their comics on the stands and start licensing their process as soon as possible. The 3-D fad was currently hot, and there were no guarantees on how long that would last.

Even In 3-D, Andy Gump Has No Chin! The Gumps, one of the earliest “story strips” and once one of the most popular, was getting a bit long in the tooth by 1953 (it would be discontinued in ’59)—but it kept up to date by dealing with 3-D movies in its Sept. 13th Sunday edition. The newspaper comic strip was written and drawn at this stage by Gus Edson, who had inherited it from originator Sidney Smith. Thanks to John Wells. [© the respective copyright holders.]

“It is the plaintiffs’ contention, and I don’t think there can be very much doubt of that in view of the affidavits that are now before this Court, that the defendants have, in fact, made use of the Owens process in the preparation and production of their comic books. “The defendants have attempted to explain their position by introducing the proverbial red herring in this matter in large quantity. I submit, your Honor, that most of those red herrings are so decomposed that they putrefy the atmosphere.” You should imagine that Scheiman here took a pause to let his colorful imagery sink in before continuing: “The defendants have attempted by the use of distortions and other media to create the impression that the Owens’ patent is not a patent relating to the conversion of an ordinary drawing into a 3-dimensional effect. That, your Honor, I submit is equally transparent and sham.” Scheiman then presented an affidavit from a retired chief examiner for the United States Patent Office named George Hanlin. Hanlin was the examiner who approved Owens’ original 1936 application, and Scheiman claimed that his affidavit “clearly and convincingly demonstrates that the Owens patent is beyond reproach, beyond criticism, as valid as any patent.” Scheiman noted the case being made by American Stereographic was “that the Owens patent constitutes in part prior art.” This claim, he said, undermined their own Illustereo patent application, which was made in May, 1953. Legally, prior art constitutes everything ever known publicly about an invention before a given date. In other words, if knowledge relevant to an invention is accessible by the public, it could disqualify a patent application. This is different from a trade secret, which is confidential information not readily available to the public and is not usually considered prior art.

situation, in my humble judgment.

After stating his opinion that this request would be denied, Scheiman said, “If the defendants knew about the Owens patent at the time they ‘jumped the gun,’ then they have committed a serious wrong, created an immoral

“If they did not know about the Owens patent existed at the time they filed their application, then they were guilty of inexcusable ignorance, because they professed in their papers to have made a laborious search through experts.” Asher Blum was an old-time patent attorney, and while it’s curious that St. John used him instead of Posnack to do the patent search, it’s even more interesting (as far as comics history is concerned) that Blum had been the lawyer for Victor Fox in the landmark copyright infringement lawsuit brought against him in 1939 by DC comics, Detective Comics, Inc. v. Bruns Publications [covered in my article in Alter Ego #101]. Scheiman went on. “It would be impossible, your Honor, for a patent of this nature to be overlooked in the ordinary course of such a search. But I shall not dwell upon the facts in that connection, because it is unnecessary to the attainment of the relief sought herein to prove knowledge on the part of the defendants or lack of it.” Once again asserting that the defendants had “usurped” Owens’ process, Scheiman pointed out “that the papers that have been interposed by the defense illustrate and clearly depict a steady retrenchment, a steady backward motion of the position originally asserted by the defendants as to their rights. “For example, in the original comic book published, the first one of this nature using the plaintiffs’ process and referred to in the trade and publicly as Mighty Mouse, there are clear indications that the defendants have published this book pursuant to a licensed process for which a patent application is pending. Gradually and steadily the defendants have obliterated, removed, and concealed any such assertions.” At this point, he picked up a comic book. “Yesterday, the book I hold in my hand, Little Eva, went on the New York newsstands for sale,

Trials And Tribulations—In Three Dimensions!

and it significantly omits any references to there even being a patent pending application for their alleged Illustereo process.”

“The evidence before the Court is replete by admissions by the defendants that it was their intention to glut and flood the market….”

Scheiman then made another accusation. As soon as American Stereographic had applied for their patent in May, “They immediately licensed the St. John Publishing Company under that so-called Illustereo process.

The gushing publicity that was so welcomed by St. John and the others just weeks before was being used against them. “It was a publisher’s dream come true,” wrote Aron Mathieu in the August issue of Writer’s Digest, “enough sales of one issue of one magazine to call it quits and retire... or bat out a dozen imitations for three months before the onrush of 50 hurried and harried competitors swamp the field.”3

“I submit, your Honor, that the evidence before this Court suggests strongly that the defendants never intended in any way or manner to license anybody else. But they were pretty sly. They knew what they might be confronted with should they confer upon St. John an absolutely exclusive right, and they profess to offer such license to competitors of St. John. They did this, mind you, some time after they had given Mr. St. John the opportunity to be the first ‘infringer.’” Hyperbole aside, there was some truth to Scheiman’s accusation. Years after the fact, Leonard Maurer told interviewer Ray Zone, “We gave St. John a 25% partnership in our licensing company, along with a 6 months’ head start for his publishing company in exchange for financial guarantees for Norman and Joe as editors, and myself, as supervising producer....”2 Scheiman went on: “But, in the course of the next succeeding months or weeks, they proffered self-styled standard licensing agreements to the plaintiffs in this action, and presumably to other comic book publishers in the City of New York and perhaps throughout the country. “These contracts, those self-styled license agreements, are so unfair, your Honor, that if time permitted I believe I could convince you from the bench to agree wholeheartedly with me that it was never the intention of the defendants to license anybody other than St. John.” Scheiman claimed that “[I]n the course of the negotiations had by the defendants with the plaintiff corporations, it became quite obvious to the plaintiffs and their counsel that the defendants had nothing to license, nothing to sell, and they were asking quite a price. In the course of those negotiations, because of the suspicious inclusion and/or exclusion of necessary clauses in the license agreement, the plaintiffs became suspicious. “They undertook to make a search of their own. They discovered the Owens patent. They negotiated with Mr. Owens and secured a license agreement under the Owens patent and have been endeavoring since obtaining that license in July to publish 3-dimensional comic books for sale to the public.” Scheiman continued: “Now, your Honor should bear in mind that the comic book market today is highly competitive, that the introduction of 3-dimensional comic books was considered a great scoop. Mr. St. John has admittedly done a wonderful job filling his coffers with profits and in enhancing his prestige in the industry. “The inventors admit in certain releases that the market for 3-dimensional comic books is necessarily a limited one in respect of time, that in the course of a few months succeeding the introduction of the epic Mighty Mouse, it would be highly probable that millions of this one comic book would be flooded throughout the United States and elsewhere, perhaps, so that comic book publishers who undertook to sell their own comic books at a later date would find it virtually impossible to gain a ready and successful market.

Scheiman opined that, however the defendants learned of Owens’ patent, “they knew the Owens patent would expire, and whether they learned it when Mr. Owens sent letters to them is immaterial. Those letters were sent in July. It has not stopped the defendants from releasing for publication three or four more of the same kind of books, employing the very same infringing process. “What cared they? They made their investment and they were going to protect it. But, in an effort to conceal, to confuse, to obscure the rights of Mr. Owens and the plaintiffs in this dispute, they have resorted to skullduggery and roughism such that I have never confronted in my life.” When Judge Conger asked for an example of distortions claimed by Scheiman, he directed the jurist to Leonard Maurer’s affidavit. When Scheiman went on at length to point out an observed discrepancy between Maurer’s affidavit and Owens’, the judge finally cut him off: “I don’t see anything so frightful about that. I don’t see that there is any great or deliberate or terrible distortion.” Scheiman made one more attempt. He pointed to Norman Maurer’s affidavit which attempted to show the differences between the Illustereo process and Owens’ patent. “By the Owens process, several months are required to produce a 3-dimensional comic book,” Maurer claimed, “whereas by the Illustereo process, the production can be completed in 14 days.” Scheiman saw this as a purposeful distortion on behalf of the defendants: “The matters pertaining to the placing of a book on the market are far beyond the process used. There are many things that follow the use of this process, the making of photographic plates, the printing on the plates, the assembling of the book, the putting of the covers on the books, the stapling of the books, the placing of the finished product in the hands of the distributors, and the like. It is now obvious, transparent and clear that the defendants were attempting to delude the plaintiffs and they were attempting to delude this Court when they uttered those remarks.” This drew no comments from the judge this time, so he launched right into another claim: “I realize full well that the Owens patent has not been adjudicated before. The defendants are relying

The Mouse Says, “Duck!” A panel from Three Dimension Comics #1—and the “space goggles” that came with the issue. Because the “Mighty Mouse” material had been prepared before it was re-scheduled to become the company’s first 3-D entry, Maurer and Kubert had to use every chance they got to adjust the art so that things were flying out at the reader, just like in the movies. Thanks to Rod Beck. [© the respective copyright holders.]

The 1953 Legal Dispute Between EC Comics & St. John Publishing

Captain 2-D As Ken Quattro writes, in September of 1954 “there were no guarantees on how long [the 3-D fad] would last.” Case in point: Harvey never published the second issue of the Simon-&-Kirby-created Captain 3-D. Seen here, clockwise from above left, are rare glimpses of what would have been: A Mort Meskin-penciled page (the sixth one) from a story whose 9 pages were preserved and printed (in 2-D) in AC Comics’ Golden Age Men of Mystery #15 (1999). It’s still available; see AC Comics’ ad on p. 62. Publisher Bill Black, who’s done pro work for Marvel, et al., inked the top 2/3 of the page, but left the pencils for the bottom panel un-inked. A Meskin-penciled page (marked-up for turning into 3-D) from the “King Solitaire” story that had been advertised to appear therein. A page from a third story, this one by an unidentified artist; the writers of all three stories are unidentified. For more of the “lost” Captain 3-D #2, as well as info on why we owe thanks for the latter two scans to Jim Van Hise, John Morrow, Pete Koch, & Mike Garland, see A/E #115. [Art © Estates of Joe Simon & Jack Kirby.]

strongly on the fact that, because the Owens patent has not been adjudicated, they can go on freely and merrily selling their books, preventing the plaintiffs from having the possibility of enjoying a fruitful market, and in that respect they estimate that whatever penalties they may have to pay in the future for their infringement will only be a fraction of the prestige they have gained by being self-professed pioneers in an industry that at the present time is one of great proportion. “Your Honor knows that the 3-dimensional craze has seized this country in its grip. Your Honor knows that while there is a tendency on the part of all of us to enjoy a fad or a fashion, these books will sell.” Then, obviously referring to Joe Kubert’s statements in the Writer’s Digest article, Scheiman went on: “But Mr. Kubert, one of the inventors, said in a press release that by November there will be nothing left in the market. They are going to be sure that theirs are sold,

Trials And Tribulations—In Three Dimensions!

A License To Print Money? (Right:) The first page of American Stereographic Corporation’s licensing agreement, sent to applicants who wanted to use the company’s 3-D process. Sorry this carbon copy is a bit fuzzy! Thanks to Ken Quattro.

and not their competitors’, that their competitors will not have a free and equal chance to make a reasonable and proper profit.” After acknowledging the fact that he is not a patent attorney, Scheiman concluded that the defendants’ argument is “so much balderdash and nonsense....” Once again, he referred to Hanlin’s affidavit. It came from “a man whose integrity is clearly beyond reproach, and I point to the contents of that affidavit as completely and significantly demonstrative of the fact that the Owens patent is entirely valid.” He was much less impressed, though, by an affidavit supplied to the defendants by animator Paul Terry. In addition to being owner of Terrytoons Studios, Terry also licensed St. John to publish comic books based upon his cartoon characters. Including Mighty Mouse. This affidavit was what Posnack’s office presented to Scheiman late the preceding Wednesday. Scheiman asserted “that the only thing that impresses me in this affidavit is Mr. Terry’s residence, which is the Westchester Country Club, Rye, New York, and I envy him that.” Despite Scheiman’s flippant dismissal of Paul Terry’s affidavit, there was no denying his animation credentials. Starting out in the

EC Street Cross-referencing house ads for EC’s two 3-D comics, drawn by Joe Orlando and Johnny Craig, respectively. Thanks to Rod Beck. [© William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

The 1953 Legal Dispute Between EC Comics & St. John Publishing

studio of J.R. Bray and Earl Hurd, Terry had been witness to many of the earliest innovations in the industry. Bray had patented the method of making cartoons on translucent paper, a method cited by Terry as a predecessor of Owens’ process. “The affidavit is offered in a suggested attempt to demonstrate that the process described in the Owens patent was well known as far back as 1915. The affidavit,” claimed Scheiman, “was drawn in an inartistic attempt to convey the impression that one reading its contents would be impressed that such a process was indeed known to the animated cartoon industry in 1915.” Scheiman disputed this by noting that “Mr. Owens’ patent states in its disclosure and in its specifications that its process involves the tracing of drawings on cels, which, in Mr. Owens’ language, is a wellknown process employed for many years in the animated cartoon industry.” Scheiman stated that “the defendants, either through ignorance, or, again, in an attempt to delude someone or some persons, suggested that that old process of tracing used in the animated cartoon industry is the Owens’ process. Nothing is further from the truth, and a close reading of Mr. Terry’s affidavit indicates that he said no such thing.” Scheiman then quoted Terry’s affidavit at length: “As a result of my long experience, I am thoroughly familiar with the methods, processes and devices employed in the production of composite pictures having a stereoscopic, 3-dimensional effect.” After granting that Terry is indeed familiar with such processes, Scheiman read on: “Since 1915, I have actually used in my various businesses and am still using a process relating to the creation of 3dimensional effects from a drawing, whereby the final product, whether viewed through a stereoscope or some similar device, produces a final picture with a 3-dimensional or multi-planar effect.” Scheiman then made a lengthy argument disputing Terry’s affidavit. He claimed that Bray-Hurd patents referred to by Terry had been examined and contained no similarity to Owens’ except for “the simple expedient of tracing characters on transparent sheets.” He again noted Owens’ acknowledgement of that particular technique in his patent and refuted the defendants’ argument that it constituted “prior art,” a claim which, if proven, would devalue Owens’ patent. His counter-argument once again was Hanlin’s affidavit, which, Scheiman asserted, “states that if there had been any such prior art he never would have granted the Owens (application) letter.” Scheiman finished with: “There is nothing 3-dimensional about the Bray-Hurd process referred to by Mr. Terry. As I say, the affidavit is utterly insignificant, and if read in conjunction with the answering affidavits, the transparency of the argument is quite obvious.” This closed Scheiman’s presentation and the judge recessed the court until 2:15.

The Defendants William Gaines had good reason to be concerned about Emanuel Posnack. The man knew his stuff. Not only did American Stereographic have a top-notch patent attorney representing them; he was an inventor himself. Putting the engineering degree he acquired to good use, Posnack had

This Boomerang Won’t Come Back! Animator Paul Terry (official creator of “Mighty Mouse” and other TerryToons animated cartoon characters) and a “Terry Bears” page from Three Dimension Comics #1. Perhaps this filler strip was prepared especially for the 3-D comic, giving a chance for the unidentified artists (or Kubert & Maurer) to work in the panel in which a boomerang seems to be flying out of the page toward the reader. Thanks to Ken Quattro for the photo, and to Rod Beck for the art scan. [© the respective copyright holders.]

patented everything from desk accessories to a stapling machine. He had even invented an exhaust system for industrial furnaces. When court resumed in the afternoon session, the defendants’ attorney, Posnack, presented his case. “Your Honor, this motion is based upon a simple cause of action for patent infringement,” he began. “In such a case there are only two issues: the issues of infringement and validity. In the trial of a patent infringement suit the burden of proof as to infringement is, of course, upon the plaintiff.” As Posnack started into a description of what is necessary to prove a plaintiff’s case in such matters, Judge Conger cut him short. After a discussion of several similar cases, Conger then asked Posnack a question. “Any injunction that I might issue here, would that go beyond October 13th?” “It becomes a moot case,” replied Posnack.

Trials And Tribulations—In Three Dimensions!

“I can only grant an injunction for a short time,” stated the judge. “Up to October 13th. The question of damages is something else,” Posnack points out. As the judge pondered the usefulness of such a short-termed remedy, Posnack began his attack on Scheiman’s arguments by noting that there had been not “one word describing or comparing the process of the defendants with the claims of the patent, and I know of no other way in which infringement can be proven except by that comparison.” He stated flatly, “We have a defense of non-infringement, we have a defense of invalidity.” Referring to the Bray patents, Posnack continued, “Our defense of invalidity is based upon prior art which we have discovered, which the Examiner (Hanlin) has never seen. “And we have even better. We have an affidavit from one of the world’s most famous cartoonists, who swears he uses the very same process which is described and has used it since 1915. Now, assuming that the affidavit of Paul Terry raises a doubt with respect to validity, I think that doubt is completely dispositive of this motion for a preliminary injunction.” But dismissing the validity of Owens’ claim was not Posnack’s whole case. “Up until the spring of this year the printing industry had never been able to produce a 3-dimensional effect from a drawing. Stereoptican pictures are old. Your Honor may remember the old stereoscopic arrangement that was known and practiced at the turn of the century.” “That was 3-dimensional,” noted Conger. “Yes, but that was taken from a photograph,” Posnack answered. “There were two pictures, and when you looked through the stereoscope you saw a single picture, giving the effect of real depth.” “Yes, my grandmother had one,” interjected the judge. “It dates back as long as my grandmother’s time,” agreed Posnack. “Now, never has anyone been able as a practical matter to take a drawing on a flat sheet and give a multi-planar effect, as we call it. They tried it. And while they produced some effect, it was impossible to produce it on a mass production basis so that it could be printed. “The defendant St. John Publishing is one of the oldest and most reputable publishing companies in this country,” Posnack stated emphatically, but with more than slight exaggeration. Although he had once been a crusading newspaper publisher thirty years earlier, Archer St. John’s comic book company had only been in existence about six years. The judge inquired, “Are they responsible and reliable?” “Most reliable,” assured Posnack, “and I don’t think it is questioned by the plaintiffs. Two of the employees, two of the artists who had been doing work for St. John, had together with another party developed and perfected a new technique for making 3-dimensional pictures for printing purposes. They presented this to the employer of two of them, St. John, and when he saw the process he was impressed, impressed to the point of putting in, in the last few months, close to a million dollars in the production of publications showing this 3-dimensional effect. “Success was instantaneous and dramatic. I was the attorney for the inventors, as well as for the St. John Publishing Company. I was instructed to file patent applications and to file a petition to make the case a special one so to expedite the consideration. That was done. Patents are now pending. Your Honor knows it takes time for a patent to issue.” Posnack continued: “In the meantime, since St. John had decided to

expedite this, a company was formed, the American Stereographic Corporation, whose main objective was to do this, to help in the perfection of the process, to supervise licensees in their use of the process, and to license others. Licenses were offered to all.” Then Posnack made one of his main points: “Included among those who were interested was this very plaintiff Gaines and all his corporations that are producing various publications. At the time they negotiated with the St. John Publishing Company or with American Stereographic Company, they did not know and did not have the Owens patent, which is the patent in suit.” The judge seems surprised. “I did not hear that,” he stated. Posnack goes on. “At the time the plaintiff Gaines was negotiating with the defendants for a license under the defendants’ Illustereo process, Gaines did not have the patent in suit; it was only after the negotiations fell through that he sought and found this patent.” “Was he an assignee of the patent?” Judge Conger asked. “He became an assignee either of the whole patent or certain rights,” Posnack replied uncertainly. “I did not get that clear.” “Since that date,” he went on, “the St. John Publishing Company has published many more of the 3-dimensional comics, and intends to publish more, under this new special technique. The plaintiffs have not as yet published a single 3-dimensional book. “What was Gaines offered in his negotiations with the defendants? He was offered, just as every other publisher in the country was offered, a license to practice a secret process under a confidential disclosure. Gaines refused to accept certain of the obligations of a licensee with respect to confidential disclosure and, as I said, the negotiations fell through. “In the motion papers, Gaines is now challenging the defendants to disclose the process, which they refuse to do. That is the general background picture.” Posnack was well aware of the disclosure language in the licensing agreement. He wrote it. By signing the agreement, a licensee was legally required to keep the Illustereo process a secret. At the time of this trial, Gaines still didn’t know for sure what that process entailed, making the claim that it infringed upon the Owens patent difficult to prove. “This patent has never been adjudicated,” Posnack continued. “For almost 17 years of its entire life it has never been commercially exploited or used. It is known in patent parlance as a paper patent, unknown, unused, unadjudicated. The plaintiffs now wave this piece of paper at the Court and over the heads of these defendants and their proposed licensees and seek to destroy the terrific investment made by the

And Let’s Not Even Talk About Stereophonic Sound! An old-fashioned, hand-held stereoscope and one of the stereograph cards it was used to view. Stereographs, which date from the 1840s. consisted of two photographs taken from slightly different angles (which is basically the way human eyes see things), which were then observed through the stereoscope, designed so that each eye saw a different one of the photos. This was very much like the 3-D movies of a century later— but quite different from the process used for 3-D comics.

The 1953 Legal Dispute Between EC Comics & St. John Publishing

defendants. “We say, in the first place, that because the patent has not been adjudicated, there is no basis whatsoever for a preliminary injunction.... “It seems to me that Mr. Scheiman, plaintiff’s counsel, was a bit naïve when he referred to the very Examiner [Hanlin] who passed upon the patent as proof of the validity of the patent. I think if an examiner’s word was sacred not a single patent would ever be adjudicated by the courts.” Posnack went on to make the point that Hanlin was unaware of other prior art that would have never allowed issuance of Owens’ patent. Although he didn’t go into all of the aspects he claimed were similar between Owens’ patent and the method used by Paul Terry, he did point to one similarity: “All of the affidavits of the plaintiff indicate that the Owens patent relies upon a shifting of the cellophane sheets. First, a stack of sheets are placed one upon the other, being transparent, and a picture is taken. Then there is a shifting of these sheets relative with each other. The picture looks different. Another photograph is taken. From that a combined effect is obtained which is 3-dimensional. Mr. Terry swears that that same series of steps which he sets forth in detail has been used by him. I rely upon that.” Posnack then confronted the claim of infringement; a claim he dismissed out of hand: “There is not a single statement made by the plaintiffs in the affidavits

which indicates that anyone has seen the defendants’ process, which is held secret.” “Never seen what?” Conger asked. “The defendants’ process,” Posnack replied. “In other words, the plaintiffs charge that the Illustereo process infringes the patent. In order to prove infringement they must know the process. Not one of the affiants has stated that he saw the process in actual use. What did they say? The first group of affiants looked at the final product, which is not the patented process, and deduced it was made by this process, which is utterly inadequate for any suit.” “Two days ago a new witness was obtained by the plaintiffs,” Posnack continued, in reference to an affidavit sworn to by artist Bill Elder. “He set forth in detail conversations he had with one of the defendants. Some steps he states he saw. Others he states he heard about. I submit, your Honor, it is utterly unfair and unjust and inequitable to decide a patent infringement suit in favor of the plaintiffs based upon such hearsay testimony without a single bit of evidence to show what the process consisted of. “There is no actual proof of infringement. There is, on the other hand, positive evidence of non-infringement. The patent has never been adjudicated. The patent is invalid by the evidence which we have in our affidavits. For almost 17 years of the patent’s existence it has never been commercially exploited or used. The affidavits on behalf of the defendant

Classics Re-Illustrated Two redrawn-for-3-D stories that would soon appear in Three-Dimensional EC Classics #1. The World War I tale “Frank Luke” was scripted by Harvey Kurtzman (originally for Frontline Combat #13, June-July 1953) and was redrawn by George Evans—while “Mr. Biddy… Killer!” had been written by Gaines (plot) & Feldstein (script) for Crime SuspenStories #5 (Oct.-Nov. 1952), with lush new art now provided by Graham “Ghastly” Ingels. Thanks to Rod Beck. [© William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

Trials And Tribulations—In Three Dimensions!

The Strange Couple Of Versions Of “The Strange Couple” (Left:) Al Feldstein wrote and drew (as well as edited) this story for The Vault of Horror #14 (Aug.-Sept. 1950). Repro’d from the Gemstone hardcover EC Archives: The Vault of Horror, Vol. 1. (Right:) Bill (aka Will) Elder redrew it in late 1953, using Feldstein’s original script, for Three-Dimensional EC Tales from the Crypt of Terror #2. Thanks to Rod Beck. [© William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

American Stereoscopic [sic] Corporation indicate that a patent application for its process has been filed, and in order to expedite the issuance of the patent an application therefore has been made special. “The defendants have been the first to exploit, popularize, and make successful 3-dimensional comics. The plaintiffs are utter newcomers in the field of 3-dimensional publications and are seeking unfairly to profit from defendants’ successful pioneering efforts. “I submit for these reasons that this suit for preliminary injunction be denied.” With that, the plaintiff’s attorney Scheiman requested a rebuttal: “There is an affidavit before the Court given by Mr. Elder, who states that at the defendants’ offices on a particular day the defendants instructed him in the very process employed by them, step by step, making use of demonstrable exhibits that were employed by the defendants in the production of their first 3-dimensional book, Mighty Mouse. There is absolutely no question of hearsay evidence. There is no question of incomplete knowledge. There is direct proof by the defendants to this affiant stating what the process is. There can be no question with respect to identity of the process.” Scheiman refuted Posnack’s test of validity by first agreeing with its necessity: “I agree with Mr. Posnack that it is necessary to prove a valid patent. I think that the proof of that validity is encompassed in the affidavits before this Court. There is no proper attack upon the

validity of the patent in any of the answering patents.” Continuing, Scheiman pointed out that “the prior art referred to in the Terry affidavit is,” as he stated earlier, “related to animated cartoons in the two dimensions. Mr. Terry never produced prior to 1936, when the Owens application was filed, any 3-dimensional animated cartoons. I am prepared with exhibits and demonstrable apparatus in this courtroom to show this Court exactly what Mr. Terry has done. I realize time does not permit of any such demonstration at this moment. But I would gladly and happily proffer it.” Having avoided subjecting the courtroom to a showing of Farmer Al Falfa cartoons, Scheiman went on: “The Terry affidavit is self-serving, confusing in its contents, and by reference to motion picture patents goes clearly beyond the field of art that is in purview here, at least with respect to the process here, which was never employed by Mr. Terry at any time in the production of any of his motion pictures.” Scheiman averred the originality of Owens’ patent as “a unique process whereby a drawing just like the drawings that were used in the defendants’ publications could be traced onto separate cels, photographed so as to create the image as would be seen by one eye; the cels would then be shifted laterally with reference to each other and for a background view so that a photograph could then be taken with the other eye. “By use of Mr. Owens’ process the two complimentary pictures were obtained. These complimentary stereoscopic pictures are then available for

The 1953 Legal Dispute Between EC Comics & St. John Publishing

Owens patent, showed him that the Mighty Mouse itself was merely the product of the use of that process and the wonderful invention of printing that has existed for hundreds of years.” After once again pointing out that the defendants “do not have any patent application that can be granted at any time with respect to the process used by them to create Mighty Mouse,” Scheiman asserted that “it will be established beyond any doubt that the defendants have unlawfully, or at least, improperly usurped to themselves profits and rewards of the Owens invention that have no business being in their pockets. While, as I stated before, your Honor, they will be held responsible for pecuniary damage at the proper time, it is extremely unfortunate that while the defendants are reaping their rewards, the plaintiff is put in the position of having to meet this competition of the defendants. “The plaintiff hopes to have its publication reach the newsstands during this month, probably about September 20th, and that is being issued in the wake of a flood of Illustereo products, comic books, five or six in number, the last of which hit the New York newsstands yesterday.” In actuality, EC didn’t come close to that September date. Their first 3-D comic, Three Dimensional EC Classics #1, was released late in 1953, with a Spring 1954 cover date. “So great is the marketing of the defendants’ products that the plaintiff corporations will have a very, very difficult time obtaining any financial return from their substantial investment.

Marilyn Monroe It Ain’t! Artist Russ Heath drew two dinosaur “pin-up” pages for the “Tor”-starring 3-D Comics #2 (the first one), which were then rendered into 3-D. Thanks to Rod Beck. [© Estate of Joe Kubert.]

reproduction and were available for reproduction when Owens invented the process.” To counter Posnack’s contention that Owens’ invention was merely a “paper patent,” Scheiman offered, “There is no doubt that Mr. Owens did not publish a 3-dimensional comic book in the form of Mighty Mouse. The papers, his own affidavit, indicate that when he in 1936 attempted to exploit his invention, the people whom he approached were no longer interested in printing 3-dimensional material because there was no market for it at the time.” While making a point comparing Owens’ patent to the pending Illustereo process, Scheiman parenthetically mentioned “that the defendants have never shown us that application,” in an effort to cast doubt that it had even been subjected for patent consideration. Scheiman once again asserted that nothing Posnack presented in any way cast doubt upon the patent’s validity. And secondly, “[T]he proof of the infringement lies in the affidavits on file, particularly the affidavit of William Elder, served upon the defendants a couple of days ago, in which he states under oath that on June 18, 1953, at the office of American Stereographic Corporation, with an address given in that affidavit, that the defendants, two of the inventors of the so-called process, there having been three in the first instance, instructed this Mr. Elder in the exact technique employed by them to create the Mighty Mouse publication. “The affidavit states that they showed him the artwork that was involved in the creation of that Mighty Mouse, showed him the several cels, explained to him how they were assembled after they were created, explained to him the unique shifting technique that is the heart of the

“I think that on an application for a preliminary injunction the equity should be regarded from both points of view, not from the defendants’ point of view alone. If they made a mistake or if they were corrupt, whichever it may be, and made improper use of an invention, they should not be permitted to go along for the ride, they should not be permitted to continue on indefinitely, capitalizing on an improper and immoral act. “Bear in mind, your Honor, that these are competing companies. The plaintiff companies were in existence long before the defendant St. John; the plaintiff companies were the pioneer of comic books. These companies were founded by the plaintiff Gaines’ father, and the prestige which the St. John Company is now attempting to achieve through this immoral, improper, and illegal act is being denied the plaintiffs. What good will come to the plaintiffs at a trial later on? The damage will have been done by illegal, improper, and unlawful distribution of 3-dimensional comic books to a point where it will be virtually impossible, according to the defendants’ own statements attached to the motion papers, to sell these books.” Once again Scheiman cited Kubert’s comments in the Writer’s Digest article: “The defendants said that by October or November it will be practically impossible to do any business in that field. This is a passing fad, a passing fancy. The plaintiffs are being denied it merely because they proceeded in an honorable, in a proper, in a lawful manner to operate under the patent of an inventor who licensed them for that purpose. “These defendants have no color of right; they have no title; they have no authority; they are usurpers; they are newcomers; they are the ones who have achieved and are achieving the fruits and labors and rewards that belong to Owens and his licensees. “Mr. Posnack suggests that every one of the comic book publishers in the City of New York or elsewhere was given the opportunity to have a license. The fact remains, Judge, that St. John is the only one who has a license under this so-called Illustereo process. “Nobody else took a license because of the terms. I suggest to your Honor, as the moving papers show, that the defendants never intended any such license agreement to be accepted by anybody.” With that, the court adjourned to await Judge Conger’s decision.

Trials And Tribulations—In Three Dimensions!

The Decision On September 30, 1953, Judge Conger handed down his decision. What follows is an abridged version thereof: This is a motion for a preliminary injunction restraining the defendants from making and distributing three-dimensional comic books or magazines produced by a certain “3-D Illustereo” process upon the grounds that said process infringes United States Letters Patent No. 2,057,051 issued to plaintiff Owens on October 13, 1936. The plaintiffs have filed various exhibits as well as a number of affidavits in support of their motion. According to the affidavit of the plaintiff Gaines, the corporate plaintiffs are well known publishers of comic books and he is well acquainted with the efforts involved in the production and knowledge of stereoscopy and the aspects of its production through the medium of photography; he is the assignee of the Owens patent and has made a study of it. He sets forth his analysis of the patent which is entitled “Methods of Drawing and Photographing Stereoscopic Pictures in Relief.” The Owens patent technique embraces according to Gaines the following production steps: “(a) analyzing the drawing and breaking it down into the desired number of planes; “ “(b) copying each plane, either by hand or photographically, on to a separate sheet or transparent cel (acetate, celluloid or the like) or a combination thereof, and, in the case of transparent cells [sic], opaquing the areas covered with white where and if desired;” “(c) superimposing the sheets and/or cells in register to simulate the original drawing and then copying photographically;” “(d) shifting the sheets and/or cells laterally with reference to the background so that each sheet or cell is shifted slightly more in reference to the preceding one, which shift distances may be varied in amounts and in proportion to each other, and then copying the composite result photographically;” “(e) the photographic copies produced or obtained through steps (c) and (d) above described are then reproduced for visual observation.” “Reproduction for visual observation is achieved in the following manner: plates are made from each of the two photographic copies referred to in the process outlined above; one being usually inked in red and the other in green, and a printing is then made with the impression of each plate superimposed. When viewed through color filters of the same two colors that the said plates were respectively inked in, a three dimensional effect is obtained through the application of well-known and, concededly [sic], not now patentable principles of `stereo-anaglyph’ viewing.” He reminds the Court of the “3-D” craze and the profits to be reaped, and he describes the efforts of the defendants in marketing the “World’s First Three Dimension Comics” under a so-called secret “Illustereo” process for which patent application is pending; he further describes his negotiations with defendant for a license to employ the process in his own publications and his refusal to accept the same because of the conditions imposed therein; he charges that the defendants actually never had intention of licensing anyone other than St. John Publishing Company and that defendants are out to corner the market in 3-D comic books; he cites an announcement in a trade magazine by one of the defendants and inventors, Kubert, to the effect that there will be an immediate but shortlived market for 3-D comics and “then it will be all over”; the announcement also refers to the problem of acquiring glasses for the comic books because of the limited supply of acetate in New York; this points up the difficulty because it takes Gaines’ companies several months to

W-Werewolves! The final page of the Harvey Kurtzman-scripted, Wally Wood-drawn story “V-Vampires!,” redone from Mad #3 for Three-Dimensional EC Classics #1, which came out in late 1953. By then, the 3-D craze had already run its course; but this comics gem deserves reprinting in Dark Horse’s revived hardcover EC Archives series—or somewhere! Thanks to Rod Beck. [© William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

produce a 3-D comic book. Mr. Gaines’ affidavit further goes on to relate his discovery, during the course of the license negotiations, of Owens’ patent, that he became absolutely convinced the defendants were employing the Owens process; and he is equally convinced the defendants infringe the Owens patent since the “naked eye tells the story”; he studied defendants’ work and can’t think of any method other than Owens’ that might have accomplished the result. Mr. Gaines’ affidavit winds up by “challenging” defendants to admit or deny the use of certain practices in their production and pleads the necessity of the relief sought, because of the defendants continuing publication despite full notice of plaintiffs’ rights, the limited (in time) market, the limited source of supplies created by defendants’ activities and the fact that the Owens patent expires October 13, 1953. The affidavit of plaintiff Owens recites, among other things, his invention, his belief that defendants infringe, his failure ever successfully to promote the patent, or to receive one penny from it, his experience as an inventor, his introduction to the defendants’ claimed infringing production, the receipt of a visit from plaintiff Gaines and subsequent conversations with the latter after which he assigned his patent to Gaines, his notification to defendants of infringement and various replies. He has no doubt that defendants use his technique in their productions, for the

The 1953 Legal Dispute Between EC Comics & St. John Publishing

defendant Kubert and plaintiff Gaines and plaintiff corporations’ employee Feldstein at Gaines’ office in August of this year. It appears that Kubert was invited to Gaines’ office by Gaines and/or Feldstein for a little chat and, unknown to Kubert, the conversation was tape-recorded—70 pages in all. I read the entire transcript. Without giving consideration to its propriety or admissibility—plaintiffs have filed a memorandum in support of the submission—I can only conclude that it completely establishes that Kubert was innocent of any wrongdoing in connection with Owens’ patent and the publication of defendants’ 3-D comic books. Further, I regard it as worthless in establishing any impropriety on the other defendants’ part. The conversation consisted mainly of Gaines’ and Feldstein’s relation to Kubert of what they had learned, suspected, speculated, and otherwise. Kubert was astonished by some of the revelations, but he was unaware of wrongdoing on his own part or anybody else’s, except possibly, if what he was told was true, a certain lawyer’s part. The defendants have filed affidavits in opposition to the application. Leon (Leonard) H. Maurer, general manager of the defendant American Stereographic Corporation, states that he, in conjunction with Norman A. Maurer and Joseph Kubert, invented the process whereby defendants produce 3-D comic books; that a patent has been applied for along with a petition for “special” attention in order to expedite the application; that defendants sought to license Gaines and his companies but the latter would not agree to the conditions in connection with secrecy of the process; he states that Owens’ patent has no relation to defendants’ process; he is of the opinion, after study, that the Owens patent is and always was invalid in view of the prior art which he purports to cite; that the St. John Publishing Company has invested threequarters of a million dollars in the project and the plaintiffs have yet to produce a comic book.

Jaws—1,000,000 Years Ago! The Kubert-drawn climax of a beautifully choreographed fight between Tor and a T-Rex (or a close relative thereof), from the first 3-D Comics #2 (Oct. 1953). Primitive adventure doesn’t get any better, or more powerfully drawn, than this! Another page from this sequence appeared in our Kubert tribute issue, A/E #116. Thanks to Rod Beck. [© Estate of Joe Kubert.]

same reasons Gaines gives. One Feldstein, a commercial artist and employee of the plaintiff corporations, also expresses the opinion that “only one of the methods invented, taught and detailed in the Owens patent could have been used in the production of that [Mighty Mouse] comic book….” Further, one George Hanlin files an affidavit in support of the application. Hanlin is no less than the Government patent examiner, now retired, who examined and allowed the Owens patent in 1936. It is his opinion that the Owens patent was and is valid in every way. This opinion results from a refreshed recollection and further study by Mr. Hanlin. He is further of the opinion that if defendants use certain processes in producing their comic books, they infringe the Owens patent. One [Bill] Elder, a commercial artist, formerly a freelancer, but now employed by the plaintiff corporation, relates that he visited the offices of American Stereographic Corporation in June of this year and that defendants Kubert and Norman Maurer explained to him the process by which defendants’ comic book Mighty Mouse had been produced. He is of the opinion that it “is undoubtedly the process invented and taught by Mr. Owens.” One exhibit is a transcript of a tape-recorded interview between

Archer St. John relates his part in the production, his substantial investment, the great success of the venture, his belief after investigation that his process infringed no patent, among other things.

Norman A. Maurer states that he is a coinventor of the Illustereo process; that it is different than the disclosures of the Owens patent; and that such Owens process is not capable of producing a product of the quality of defendants’ comic book. Paul Terry, a producer of well-known animated motion picture cartoons, states that he has used, since 1915, a process relating to the creation of 3-D effects from a drawing which process is described in many old patents, which he cites. I believe I have given the highlights of the various affidavits and I have considered the exhibits. I am convinced that the plaintiffs have not made a case for the relief sought. I shall assume for the purposes of this application that the Owens patent is valid. It is plain from all the circumstances, however, that defendants’ infringement of the Owens patent is not reasonably clear, if at all. Only Elder among the affiants in support of the application has any knowledge of defendants’ process. Gaines and others cannot think of any method other than disclosed in the Owens patent to do the job. Hanlin says in effect that if the defendants use the Owens method they infringe the Owens patent.

Trials And Tribulations—In Three Dimensions!

Trophy Life (Right:) The macabre finale of the lead-off story “The Trophy” from ThreeDimensional EC Tales from the Crypt of Terror #2, as drawn by Jack Davis and written by Bill Gaines (plot) & Al Feldstein (script). See p. 10 for the splash page of this yarn. Thanks to Rod Beck. [© William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

Elder’s affidavit remains practically unanswered. Of course, in general the defendants deny using the Owens patent, aver that the Owens method has no relation to their own, and have their own invention for which they seek a patent. But they do not deny that their method was explained to Elder nor do they counteract Elder’s opinion that it is the Owens method. This circumstance along with others raises a suspicion that the defendants may have appropriated Owens’ work. I do not, however, regard it as clear proof of infringement in view of defendants’ denials and averments, and particularly since defendants have seen fit to file their own “invention” in the patent office. This doubt coupled with the fact that the plaintiffs will not be irreparably damaged by defendants’ continued production compels me to deny this application. There appears to be no question that the defendants are financially secure and well able to compensate plaintiffs if and when they are successful in this suit. It may well be three years before it reaches trial, yet the patent will be in the public domain within a month. Even assuming that the defendants saturate the market within a short time, it may not be said that they are sole contributors to this circumstance since it appears that at least one other company is in the field. The application is denied.

The Aftermath With the Sturn und Drang past, when the dust settled, in the end, nobody really won.

After The Verdict Was Read As Ken Quattro points out, the end was near for the Kubert-&-Maurer titles, and indeed the comics lines of both St. John and Gaines. Kubert’s Tor #5 (Oct. ’54, really the 6th issue counting the two 3-D Comics issues) and Maurer’s The Three Stooges #7 (Oct.’54) wound up their series—while The Vault of Horror would be discontinued by Gaines with #40 (Dec. 1954-Jan. 1955; cover by Johnny Craig), at the same time that his other horror and crime comics were, in an attempt to get the censors off his back. [© respectively Estate of Joe Kubert, Estate of Norman Maurer, and William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.] However, the five comic book principals in the lawsuit would go on to considerable success: Kubert for decades as a legendary artist, editor, and writer, mostly at DC Comics, and as the founder of a still-going-strong school for aspiring cartoonists (see ad on p. 34)… Maurer as the producer of a string of Three Stooges movies and projects in the 1960s and as an animation writer and producer for some years after that… St. John by continuing his magazine empire… Gaines by turning the already-bestselling color Mad comic book into a black-&-white magazine in 1955… and Feldstein as Mad’s editor from 1956 to 1985, playing a major role in turning it into one of the great publishing phenomena of the 20th century. Al, at least, is still among us, living in the wilds of Montana and painting up a storm—but the legacies of all four men will endure.

The 1953 Legal Dispute Between EC Comics & St. John Publishing

Despite their loss, Gaines and Feldstein eventually published their two 3-D comics. Despite their win, American Stereographic eventually folded—from lack of customers for their process and because of the predictable fading of the 3-D fad. Although Archer St. John probably lost as much as he had made on this debacle, he didn’t go out of business. While his comic book company withered, along with the rest of the industry at that time, his other publishing ventures did well, right up to his death by drug overdose on August 13, 1955. In addition to his continued success as a patent lawyer, Emanuel Posnack wrote several books on economics. His 1956 book World without Barriers proposed a theory of a global economy that presaged events decades later. William Gaines would go on to other battles, including an illadvised one with the Senate subcommittee investigating juvenile delinquency. A lesser skirmish with a lesser foe was fought by his attorney in December of 1953. Massachusetts Attorney General George Fingold, citing the depiction of Christmas in a “pagan” manner and Santa Claus as being divorced, had copies of EC’s Panic #1 pulled off the stands. Gaines’ lawyer, Martin Scheiman, decried the “wanton damage” suffered by his client, inflicted by people who had “come to the rescue of a wholly imaginary, mythological creature rarely believed to exist by children more than a few years old.”4 He would go on to represent Gaines in far more serious cases, including a copyright infringement suit over the image of Alfred E. Neuman and Irving Berlin’s attempt to prevent Mad from using his songs in their parodies. Scheiman, who counted Gaines cohort Lyle Stuart and radical

One Good Stooge Deserves Another Look familiar? This is the splash page of a 3-D story from The Three Stooges #2 (Oct. 1953) which was printed on p. 11—only here, Shemp has been redrawn to become the earlier (and even more popular) Stooge, Curly. Much of Norman Maurer’s Stooges 3-D work was adapted this way during the 1980s for comics published by Ray “3-D” Zone. Thanks to Lawrence Kaufman and to the 3-D Film Archive site of Bob Furmanek. [© Estate of Norman Maurer; 3-D effects © Estate of Ray Zone.]

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publisher Paul Krasner among his clients, would be found dead in the Time-Life Building in 1966, an apparent suicide. And Freeman H. Owens, the inventor who, Gaines had told Kubert in 1953, “is so near to death. He’s had seven strokes. He’s an old man… a little old man,” continued inventing until he died at age 89 in 1979.

Endnotes for Part III: 1 All quotes of Martin Scheiman and Emanuel Posnack come from the court stenographer’s notes for Owens v. American Stereographic Corp., et. al., United States District Court S. D. New York, Sept. 1-11, 1953. 2 Zone, Ray, “Leonard Maurer: 3-D Comics Pioneer,” www.ray3dzone.com/LM.html 3 Mathieu, Aron M., “3-D Comics Knock ‘Em Dead,” Writer’s Digest, Aug. 1953. 4 “Santa Claus Cartoon Damages Are Charged,” Palm Beach Post, Dec. 28, 1953.

My Comic Mom!!

Golden Age Artist VEE QUINTAL PEARSON Remembered by Robyn Dean McHattie

A/E

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: Despite all the types of comics—even just “heroic” comics—with which Alter Ego has dealt in these past 126 issues of Volume 3, one area we had not yet touched on was the comic books and related magazines published under the auspices of the Catholic Church, Vee Is For Victory! especially in the 1940s and 1950s. (Left to right:) Artist Vee Quintal Treasure Chest was familiar to me Pearson, the artist who is the subject from the late 1940s at least, since a few of this article, as photographed in 1944 by Lester Mattison—a 1979 photo cousins we visited were Catholic, and I of Vee and her daughter Robyn Dean always enjoyed reading copies of TC at McHattie, author of this piece—and their home; we plan an article on them her cover for Catholic Publications’ in the future. But the other comics color comic book Heroes All - Catholic published by and primarily for Action Illustrated, Vol. 4, #14. All Catholics—such as Topix Comics, photos and artwork accompanying mentioned and depicted recently in our this article were provided by Robyn. serialization of Amy Kiste Nyberg’s [© the respective copyright holders.] history of comics censorship and related matters—were pretty much a complete explorers! Anything with noble actions, spirited horses—plus unknown in these quarters. Ditto the comics material contained in broadswords and armor–that was the adventurous landscape on magazines such as The Catholic Boy, The Catholic Miss, et al.—and, my mother’s drawing board. far more surprisingly, the full-scale color comic book titled Heroes All, which ran for the larger part of a decade. Thus, when I established contact Virginia (Vee) Quintal Pearson was born in 1918 in Minneapolis, with Robyn Dean McHattie on the subject of her artist mother Vee Minnesota. Her last name is French, and you say it: Quinn-TELL. Quintal Pearson, I was happy to offer her space in A/E for what amounts Not until long after her death in 1998 did I take complete stock of to an abridgement of her recent ebook My Comic Mom!! (See end of the comics she’d left behind. Stored since 1950 in a battered article next issue for more about this ebook.) At this point, we’ll let Robyn suitcase, the aging printed work held little interest for us as speak for herself… and for her mom…. children. But in the summer of 2012, when I began to sort and catalog the work she had saved, I discovered rarely-boasted-of y mother is so glad she is dead. Trust me on that. details of my mother’s commercial art career that spanned the ’40s. When her comic book career ended as her publishing The sheer volume of eight- and sixteen-page color comics, most house closed in 1948, she surrendered the next running several different stories per issue—plus the sudden twenty years of her time to raising four children—and I wouldn’t promotion at the animated film studio she worked at—revealed say she was happy about it. near super-human feats.

During the Golden Age, Vee worked within a unique fantasy world, as the illustrator of swashbuckling action comic book stories. Roman gladiators! Christians thrown to the lions! Knights and maidens! The Spanish Inquisition! Seafaring New World

The earliest photo I have of Vee is sitting on her Uncle Ade’s motorcycle, three little girl cousins seated in the sidecar. Sgt. Eckstrand was the newest form of mounted policeman. The date: 1926. That made my mother eight years old. Pudding-bowl haircut,

Golden Age Artist Vee Quintal Pearson

early female figures, the angular Marlene Dietrich made an impression on Vee—and on Caniff. (Ms.) Dale Messick’s Brenda Starr Reporter’s glamorous dames were clearly also a source for Vee to practice from. Copying is a nice way to spend the afternoon, but probably isn’t going to develop many folks into career-track artists. Vee took the next step. Vee studied lessons from real art professors at the Washington School of Art in Washington DC, via the post box. Their tiny “CAN YOU DRAW ME?” ad appeared on matchbook covers of the time. Vee’s family pulled together and got her the postage stamps. This must have been about 1936, because her figure drawings marked January 1940 are the result of a lot of training and practice.

The Wild One Vee Quintal at age eight, 1926, seated in her policeman uncle’s motorcycle, complete with a sidecar-full of cousins.

knee pants. Not some flimsy girl, my mother. An athletic tomboy. Adventurous. Dauntless. Following the Stock Market Crash in 1929, the four Quintals took up residence in a garage at 3711 Penn Avenue in North Minneapolis. They squeezed into the one room, where they entertained each other acting out scenes from movies. And that love of Hollywood films is key to understanding Vee’s visual influences and creative imagination. In 1936, when a 25¢ matinee ticket allowed a person to stay through all shows until closing, Vee clocked in at 32 viewings of Rose-Marie. Her favorite leading men and ladies would soon be starring in cameo roles in Vee’s comic illustrations. Like many young artists of the era, the new animated films and serial comic strips in the newspaper influenced Vee’s artwork. Her earliest drawings were enlargement sketches of Donald Duck, Lil’ Abner, and her own colored pencil interpretation of a masked cowboy, dated 1934. Not the Lone Ranger himself, but the first sparkle of her own creative work. A large stack of original pieces dates back to Vee’s high school years, before her training. Her art materials, humble stuff. School notebook paper, the backs of typing practice pages, and even printed circulars hold Vee’s early work. Like many at the time, she clipped newspaper photos of movie stars for a scrapbook, used them for drawing practice as well.

The course work consisted of four booklets of instruction, perhaps 48 pages each, if memory serves. There were lessons on perspective. Lettering. Advertising layouts. Proportions of the human figure. Heads and facial features. Hands. Feet. Even lessons on drawing caricatures, exaggerating features, using ink to create shading using only cross-marks. The first lesson I recall vividly: draw a book, in perspective. Opened. Closed. Then, a stack of books. The work returned with red pencil marks everywhere you might improve, along with helpful comments like: Good. A lot of budding artists would be satisfied with working through to the last lesson, and stopping. Not Vee. She drew every minute and probably dreamed of it in her sleep as well. Evidence: every cover of everything printed on paper that she owned, she embellished with shadowing, cartoons, etc. In this way, she perfected the practice by putting herself through additional paces. How would this same figure look from behind? Or if you saw him below your window on the street? Running? Sitting? Shorter? Fatter? Older? Wearing a different costume? Her earliest art portfolio consisted of costume studies, most dated from Winter 1940. Dancing gals in green and lavender leotards and diaphanous skirts. Cowboys and Indians also twirl about. Uniformed soldiers from all eras, even some futuristic caped space travelers. And especially curvy gals in sailor outfits or riding gear, dashing men in tuxedoed eveningwear.

Anyway, her start was awesome, even on scrap paper. Most dabblers will copy printed art, and Vee did her share of study that way. In an interview for Trina Robbins and Catherine Yronwode’s book Women and the Comics (Eclipse Books, 1985), Vee cited influence from the usual suspects: Alex Raymond’s gorgeous men, Milton Caniff’s heavy use of black, and especially Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant, which Vee described as “so much fuller, greatly detailed, beautiful faces and scenery, more like a painting.” As for Vee’s

Scalping & Scuttlebutt Two of Vee’s early “costume studies”—cowboys, Indians, and a cutie in a sailor suit. This portfolio dated from Winter 1940, when she was about 22. The “gouache gal” on the right was done in 1939. [© Estate of Vee Quintal Pearson.]

My Comic Mom!!

First Art Job As a clerk at the Ben Franklin store near her home in North Minneapolis, Vee soon worked on signage, painted window displays. Around 1939, an interested customer gave her the tip to apply to the new publishing offices over at 25 Groveland Terrace.

Father Benz And The Catholic Publications Company The offices at 25 Groveland Terrace were a big deal. The illustrated magazines and eventually comics of the Catholic Publications Company went each month, and more often later on, into classrooms full of kids in most English-speaking Catholic schools in the U.S. That’s huge. A photo in the May 1936 Catholic Boy boasts new subscriptions nearing 60,000. The first actual comics (all brilliantly done by Roman Baltes) would arrive, beginning September 1941, eight pages each issue, and be popular enough to generate a new 16-page all-comic publication, Heroes All— Catholic Action Illustrated, beginning in September 1943. Father Francis E. Benz’s Catholic Boy magazine celebrated its third anniversary with Vol. IV, No. 1, for January 1936. Their first offices were at 4th and Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis, then the Foshay Tower, then to 25 Groveland Terrace just prior to September 1941. In 1948, control of the publication of Catholic Boy changed over to the Holy Cross Fathers of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana. Anytime we drove anywhere near Groveland, Vee had pointed out the Romanesque-style mansion with its steep, green frenchtiled roof and fanciful turrets. The 1894 former residence of architect Franklin Bidwell Long must have inspired Vee in her drawings of medieval settings as well. No surprise then that Vee used the house for a model in a few of her comic panels.

Starting Out Beginning in 1939, Vee was assigned fill-in illustrations for the range of magazines Benz had developed for ages six through seventeen. Vee inherited only pre-established column features until she developed a style of her own. She started out doing story illustrations and various “find-it” puzzle pages for the primary school reader Mine Magazine. If she’d been limited to these sweet drawings of realistic, gentle children, the perfect Mom and Dad, and the mischievous household pets for the rest of her career, Vee might have become a children’s book illustrator—much to her chagrin. No blood and guts? Pointless, from Vee’s perspective, but better than nothing. Personally, it is hard for me to even recognize this innocent and tranquil family as Vee’s work. The goofy smirks on “The Funny Kittens, Ding and Dong,” bear all the marks of Vee’s style. The nearly maniacal gleam in their eyes makes them not at all cute and fluffy. Lots of children are afraid of cats; kittens have razor-sharp little claws, in fact. Vee added a chilling sub-text of her own to the drawings, and may have chuckled at the thought of renaming the strip The Deranged Kittens.”

“I’ve Got Pups That Jingle, Jangle, Jingle…” One of her earliest sales was the “Jingle and Jangle” full-page comic strip in pages of Mine Magazine. [© the respective copyright holders.]

“Susan Says,” a page of illustrated poetry usually related to monthly weather or holiday themes. Nevertheless, it was the “History Jigsaw Puzzles” that gave Vee her first workout in costume drawing, recreating scenes of famous moments in U.S. history, in ink-etching style. Each of those assignments paid $5 per page. The high school’s Catholic Miss of America Magazine (its full title on its own in 1941) first put Vee on their “how-to” illustrations. Line drawings for things girls could make, ways to stretch everything during Depression shortages, and later, during Wartime rationing, confined Vee to two-inch squares. Somehow, she still managed to squeeze in an entire coach with two horses onto an unused glass chair leg coaster in the April 1943 issue. Get the magnifying glass! And lookie! Vee’s illustration of “An attractive pair of book ends” you could make yourself (May 1943 issue) enclosed a set of books that are right out of Vee’s Washington School of Art how to draw a stack of books lessons.

The fun-loving puppies, “Jingle and Jangle,” enjoy full page, four-color high-jinx, and grew into the funny animal comics. When the first real dialog balloons appear in Vee’s work, the words are typed in. We won’t see Vee doing lettering until the narrative comic assignments.

Wanting to plunge directly into comics, nevertheless, Vee had to take what was available. The entire artist staff took turns with “Jest for Fun,” a page made up of several single-panel visual gags for jokes students sent in. If chosen for use on the page, the student won a $1 War Bond. Ironically, getting her wish, she picked up Miss’ full-page strip, “Sugar-n-Spice,” fluffy twin girls in ribbons and bows, pulling scores of dumb-blonde antics. And then she was stuck with them! Throughout The Catholic Miss, Vee signed her work as Virginia Quintal.

The Catholic Student for middle-schoolers (1940) started Vee on

Vee penned herself ‘Vee’ from the start for the majority of her

Golden Age Artist Vee Quintal Pearson

Vee described the managing editor of production, John Gibbons, as a serious, orderly sort of wet blanket. She loved mimicking Gibbons’s laconic attitude, especially his highest praise for her work: “It’ll do.” And that, she had to wring out of him. No matter, the personalities on the art floor felt free to enjoy their games and jokes during the workday, and often went together to the movies or dancing at the Marigold while off duty. And in 1943, fresh out of high school, Vee’s little sister Shirley (raised a Lutheran! and a spunky Lindy Hopper) got a typing and dictation job there, while managing the mailing bundle index cards. Groveland Terrace employed a young and nearly exclusively female staff, according to photos, partly due to the drain of men into the armed forces. True, Vee’s suitcase full of comics contained primarily her own work, but as I culled through, the majority of the other layouts on reverse pages are unsigned. Was Vee the only one bold enough, or common-sense enough, to sign all her work without reserve? I couldn’t explain it without asking each one, but I wish the others had more credit for their work. So, Vee started illustrating in 1939. By 1942 my mom, bringing home $1,000 per month for her illustration work, set about making up for tough times at the Quintal house. She bought her dad a car; she bought fur coats, one each for her mother, her sister and herself. Vee even drew one of the coats for Mine Magazine: “What can be made from seals?” Kind of sets your teeth on edge today, but there it is in print, capturing the era.

Gouache And Wear This gouache painting done by Vee Quintal to illustrate the short story “Tallapoosa Bill” (author unknown) should reproduce here in Alter Ego considerably better than her daughter Robyn says it did in The Catholic Boy magazine. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Catholic Boy assignments. Vee picked up Sugar-n-Spice’s smirking counterparts—“Salt and Pepper”—at Catholic Boy, but only when Roman Baltes, whose brushwork originated some really cute little twin boys, was drafted in 1943. Vee’s “Salt and Pepper” appear at a model airplane rally, with a super-realistic B-17 Bomber buzzing the field, on the only Vee-drawn Catholic Boy cover (March 1944) in her collection. At The Catholic Boy, the similar student-sent joke page was called “School Daze.” She also saved a very few story/text illustrations from Catholic Boy, including her earliest printed illustrations for the short story “Tallapoosa Bill” (June 1942). The original gouache painting, unfortunately, lost most of the volumes of its flouncing capes in the halftone screen print. At Groveland, as her extensive sketchbooks show, Vee used the library for research. There are detailed notes of what Vee needed to look around for from the very beginning of the History Jigsaw illustrations and even unto the comics “Peter the Hermit” and “St. Rose of Lima.” Numerous volumes on stage costumes, fine arts and history served as guides. For part of her Catholic Publications career, Vee went to the office, her working style: fast and intensive. Her view down Hennepin from the big round front room displayed the Minneapolis Basilica, a perfect model reference for any churchy tales set in Spain.

Life At The Office Whereas Father Benz’s lively character shows in his editorials,

The kind of concentration Vee had when drawing did not foster all-day, carefree interaction on the job. For Vee, chit-chat— especially nonstop, girlie chit-chat—probably became an irritating interruption. At some point at Groveland, she decided to work from home. She negotiated to be paid by the board, not hourly, and she completed storyboards faster than blue blazes. So similar pay and probably more free time, as well. Her research sketchbook noted that per board she received $45 and thus $180 total for a four-page narrative comic. This shift to working at home allowed her a detour to an important opportunity. In the fall of 1941, Vee took on a second art job over at the University of Minnesota for a 10-minute animated film, Paul Bunyan. Under the art direction of animation pioneer Karel Dodal, a Czech refugee, Vee did celluloid inking and

Seal Of Disapproval After a newly flush Vee Quintal bought seal fur coats for herself and others in her family, she even drew one of the coats for Mine Magazine. Her daughter Robyn suspects she wouldn’t do the same today. [© the respective copyright holders.]

My Comic Mom!!

Babe’s In Arms Although animator Karel Dodal did an earlier (book?) version of the story of Paul Bunyan and Babe, the Blue Ox (as seen above), he didn’t stick around to see the finish of the 10-minute animated Paul Bunyan film he began at the University of Minnesota— So Vee Quintal and nine young female artists had to continue the job, with Vee as production director. She’s seen on the left with several of the other “girl artists” in the photo. Alas, a little thing called World War II interfered with the film being finished. At right is a production drawing or cel of Babe. Whether Vee did this particular drawing is not known. [© the respective copyright holders.]

painting as well as airbrushed backgrounds for the one-reeler film, which would require more than 14,400 individual pictures. After eight or nine weeks when Dodal left, Vee suddenly succeeded to production director to complete a $20,000 film that was exactly half finished. She then originated and “keyed” sketches for the animated characters, continued air-brush work on the large 12x14 background scenes, and directed a staff of nine girl artists and a photographer. The Paul Bunyan project art itself is worth noting for its bright colors, especially oranges and reds. The gorgeous watercolor and airbrush landscapes backgrounds. Dark lavender shadows under logs sliding over turquoise river rapids. Paul’s red tunics, often with rows of brass buttons and epaulettes, follow the lines of Karel Dodal’s familiarity with his native Czech-area folk tales. The film was never completed; the Rockefeller Foundation visual education grant funding ran out when the War began. Having verve, talent, and now experience, Vee applied to Disney Studios. Naturally, my mom was hopping mad about receiving a rejection letter—but she didn’t get hired, along with thousands of others. She was bitter about it for decades. But! Action, action, action! at the lumberjack camp must have thrilled Vee’s outgoing athletic nature... especially being relegated to puppies and kittens at her magazine job.

REAL COMICS Begin Here Sometime around June 1942 (handwritten on the “Stradivarius”

story), Vee drew her first multi-page comics for The Catholic Boy, The Catholic Miss, and The Catholic Student, all of which first appeared in print simultaneously for September 1942. The very first is easy to spot, the heavily inked black-&-white story: “St. Peter the Hermit, Herald of the Crusades” in The Catholic Boy. It opens with a tiny, one-eighth-page rectangle title splash panel. Each page is crowded with drawings in eight discrete boxed panels. The narration in clunky boxes at the top and bottom of each panel is tough to sort out from the dialog balloons due to inconsistent handling. This early lettering used a much broader pen nib than her mature work, perhaps due to originating the boards at 100% (same) size instead of drawing at 200% (double) size. “Peter” totals eight pages over the next three issues; the September issue is the blotchiest. Roman Baltes inked the story on the reverse (page 21) of Ferdinand de Lesseps coming up with a plan for the Suez Canal; at that juncture, his brush danced arabesques around Vee’s on her first outing. By the way, Vee would draw her own rendition of the de Lesseps story, “On to Suez,” in the Sept. 1943 Heroes All Volume I, Number 1. Why? Turns out Father Benz had authored a book on the history of the Suez Canal, and was glad to put it into illustrated action, by another artist, just a year after this initial showing. Vee’s multi-page comics in The Catholic Miss began September 1942 as well, with “Sister of the Sacred Cross, St. Rose of Lima.” It looked similar to “Peter,” though under a plain, horizontal title band at top. The St. Rose story suffers from the same inconsistencies in lettering texts. The fresh energy of Vee’s research sketches didn’t carry over into the inked work on these first stories. Particularly, the drapery of the clothing gets very starchy. She may have overworked her first two assignments, in something akin to

Golden Age Artist Vee Quintal Pearson

A Nice Catholic Boy (Above:) Vee’s first published comics-style story was the black-&-white “St. Peter the Hermit, Herald of the Crusades,” published in the Sept. 1942 issue of The Catholic Boy magazine, which contained comics as well as other types of features. Story bylined David Glenn. (Top right) The March 1944 issue of Catholic Boy sported a cover by Vee Quintal. [© the respective copyright holders.]

opening-night jitters. By April 1944, however, the scrappy little street fighter Catarina in “Girl of the Grand Canal” in The Catholic Miss reflected every bit of Vee’s ability to research, sketch, ink, as well as infuse her own personality into a comic character, as eight-year-old Catarina pommels the bullying boy while she grips him in a nice headlock. From the Sept. 1942 to June 1943 issues of The Catholic Student, Vee used her cousin’s nickname, “Bing Kelley,” for narrative stories that ran back-to-back in each issue with her Virginia Quintal signatures. She soon tired of this legerdemain, but “Bing” also hit the right gender-neutral note for the energetic tomboy, Vee. This is the only time that Vee ever penned under a different name. During January 1943, Vee had two stories running concurrently in the same Miss issue, two in Boy, and two in Student. No slacking on the job, there!

It’s Delightful, It’s De-Lovely, It’s De Soto! (Right:) A dramatic page from the story of Spanish explorer Hernando De Soo, in the Sept. 1943 issue of Catholic Boy. (Sorry about the heading—but Ye Editor couldn’t resist tossing in a line from an old Chrysler De Soto TV ad, which cannibalized a Cole Porter song, doubtless with permission and a bit of money changing hands.) [© the respective copyright holders.]

My Comic Mom!!

Catholic Misses—And Hits “St. Rose of Lima” appeared the same month—Sept. 1942—in the related Catholic Miss magazine. Robyn Dean McHattie contrasts that early effort with her work a year and a half later (on the April 1944 issue) on the well-researched “Girl of the Grand Canal.” [© the respective copyright holders.]

For all the comic narrative pages in Catholic Student, Catholic Miss and Catholic Boy—as well as all the future Heroes All comic book scripts—Vee worked in the complete script style used at other houses like National and DC Comics. Her initial write-up included all dialog and narration; she then penciled the page layouts by following a page-by-page description provided by the editorial staff. Benz then approved Vee’s actual layout drawings, or marked them for revision, before she proceeded to inking and lettering each page. According to Vee’s handwritten notes, layouts were often inked up to three months prior to publication—or compiled as last-moment as two weeks before appearing in print. For these narrative strip series, Vee did the pencil layouts, inking, and lettering, which would have been unusual—all aspects by one artist—from a newsstand comic book publisher. A second person did the color breaks on the two-color assignments. Vee graduated to two-color with “St. Laurence,” in The Catholic Boy (March 1943), “St. Agnes,” in The Catholic Miss (April 1943), as well as her first in The Catholic Student (Sept 1942), “Adventure in Enamel, Bernard Palissy Pottery Artist.” Liberal use of the second color, unfortunately, often obliterated many of the images, particularly on the thirstier newsprint of The Catholic Boy, as in “The Hernando de Soto Story” (Sept and Oct 1943). Laying over 100% red for a fight scene, or dark blue to indicate “under cover of night”—when those troublesome pagans, heretics, and infidels most often attacked, don’t you know—lost much of the black-inked figure definition.

The tally of types of assignments, compiled from only the ones Vee saved, shows history titles in the vast majority, with saints and miracle stories running a distant second, a smattering of modernsettings pulling up last. The opening frames of the modern high school senior year, “The Band Needs Flavoring” (Nov 1943), feature some Vee self-portraits worth noting. In my estimation, the generous portion of history narratives offset the faith-based tales. “William the Conqueror,” “Nathan Hale,” “General Rosecrans of the Union Army” are just a few of Vee’s comics, which is why her work cannot be dismissed solely under the “religious” demarcation. Also, remember that Vee was never the story originator or script writer, so the “faith” text elements of less than a third of her total assignments should never stand for the bulk of her work. The scripts: who exactly wrote them? Father Benz chose whom the features would be about, then assigned them to a writing and research staff, though Vee never mentioned the writers. Maybe they worked upstairs, away from the frivolity of the art production floor? Then, for the September 1943 debut release, Vee would take over the lead artist position for the exciting new four-color comic book, Heroes All, which began as a monthly publication, as well.

Next: Heroes All!

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Seal Of Approval:

The History Of The Comics Code Chapter 3 Of DR. AMY KISTE NYBERG's 1998 Work On Comic Book Censorship

Chapter 3 The Senate Investigation

A/E

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: We continue our presentation of the full text (with added art and photos) of the 1998 work Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code by Dr. Amy Kiste Nyberg, Associate Professor of Communications in the Department of Communication and the Arts at Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey.

As we’ve said before: Seal of Approval is extensively “footnoted,” in the ALS style which lists book, article, or author name, plus page numbers, between parentheses in the actual text; e.g., “(Hart 154-156)” refers to pp. 154-156 of whichever work by an author or editor named Hart appears in the bibliography… which will be printed at the conclusion of our serialization, a few issues from now. When the parentheses contain only page numbers, it is because the other information is printed in the main text almost immediately preceding the note. (In addition, there are a bare handful of footnotes treated in the more traditional sense.) We have retained such usages and spellings from the book as “superhero,” an uncapitalized “comics code,” “E.C.” and “DC,” etc.; in the captions we have added, however, we have reverted to our own style. Those captions, naturally, do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Dr. Nyberg or the University Press of Mississippi, the original publisher of the book—the original print edition of which can still be obtained from UPM at www.upress.sate.ms.us. Our thanks to Dr. M. Thomas Inge, under those general editorship the volume was originally published as part of its Studies in Popular Culture series… to William Biggons and Vijah Shah, acquisitions editors at the U. Press of Mississippi… and to Brian K. Morris for retyping the text on a Word document for Ye Editor to edit. Last issue’s chapter deal with the attempts at censorship of comic books made by various hands—personal, religious, and occasionally governmental—up to the spring of 1954. At that time, in the aftermath of a rising tide of opinion against sexy, horrific, and particularly crimeoriented comic books, and the publication of Dr. Fredric Wertham’s book Seduction of the Innocent, a Senate subcommittee was convened with great public fanfare to look into the matter of this alleged “horror in the nursery”…

he Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency conducted its investigation of the comic book industry in the spring of 1954.* [See footnote on next page.] The committee held three days of hearings in New York City (the location selected because most of the comic book publishers were based there), called twenty-two witnesses, and accepted thirty-three exhibits as

Exhibit A—For “Awful” (Clockwise from top left:) The Comics Code seal of the Comics Magazine Association of America… Dr. Amy K. Nyberg, 2014… and a photo taken during the 1954 hearings of the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, with some of its “thirty-three exhibits”—recent comic books that were deemed offensive. Note that, although so-called “crime comics” were indeed the principal focus of criticism at the time, roughly half the titles pinned up on the board would now be called “horror comics”— underscoring the A/E editor’s contention that the public mind at the time basically lumped them together—and one of them is a war comic. There are no comics shown of the third kind objected to, those with sexual themes or at least displaying a lot of cheesecake/“good girl” art. Thanks to AKN for the personal photo, and to Lawrence Kaufman and Richard Arndt for the 1954 photo.

evidence. When it was all over, the comic book industry closed ranks and adopted a self-regulatory code that is still in effect today in modified form. The driving force on the committee was Sen. Estes Kefauver. Sen. Robert Hendrickson was the chairman of the Senate subcommittee during the period in which the committee held its comic book hearings, but the committee is often referred to as the Kefauver committee, and when the 1954 elections returned control of Congress to the Democrats, Kefauver was given the chairmanship of the juvenile delinquency subcommittee. Under his direction, the committee wrote its report on the comic book industry, issued in March 1955, and continued its examination of violence and sex in the mass media with hearings on film and television. Kefauver, a Tennessee lawyer who was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1939, ran a successful race for a Senate seat in 1948. He rose to national prominence for his investigation of organized crime in the United States beginning in 1950 (Gorman 74). That investigation attracted a great deal of public interest and acquired a prestige probably unequaled by any other Congressional probe, and Kefauver used the publicity in his bid for

Chapter 3 Of Dr. Amy Kiste Nyberg's 1998 Work On Comic Book Censorship

crime comic books were not readily available to children? (Organized Crime Committee, Committee Print I)

The Washington Senators Play Away Two of the most prominent U.S. Senators in the spring 1954 comics investigations, which actually took place in New York City. (Left:) Senator Estes Kefauver, who is seated between Senators Langer (on left) and Mitler. (Right:) Senator Robert Hendrickson.

the Democratic presidential nomination. While he lost the 1952 nomination to Adlai Stevenson, Kefauver hoped that the hearings on juvenile delinquency, a much less politically sensitive issue, might provide a platform for another try at the presidential nomination (Gorman 84). It was during the course of the Senate investigation of organized crime that Kefauver first turned his attention to comic books, gathering information on the comic book industry from a survey sent to judges of juvenile and family courts, probation officers, court psychiatrists, public officials, social workers, comic book publishers, cartoonists, and officers of national organizations who were interested in the issue. That survey was sent out in August 1950. The questionnaires were drawn up with the assistance of psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, who was acting as a consultant for the Senate committee. The survey included seven questions: 1. Has juvenile delinquency increased in the years 1945 to I950? If you can support this with specific statistics, please do so. 2. To what do you attribute this increase if you have stated that there was an increase? 3. Was there an increase in juvenile delinquency after World War II? 4. In recent years have juveniles tended to commit more violent crimes such as assault, rape, murder, and gang activities? 5. Do you believe that there is any relationship between reading crime comic books and juvenile delinquency? 6. Please specifically give statistics and, if possible, state specific cases of juvenile crime which you believe can be traced to reading crime comic books. 7. Do you believe that juvenile delinquency would decrease if *Information on the Senate hearings was drawn from a number of sources. In addition to secondary sources as indicated, I used the following: U.S. Congress Juvenile Delinquency (Comics Books): Hearings before the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency; 83d Cong., 2d sess., 21-22 April 1954 and 24 June 1954 (designated “Senate Hearings” in the text and followed by a page number); archival records, U.S. Congress, Senate, Records of the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency, Committee on the Judiciary, 1953-1961, National Archives (designated “Senate Records” in the text); the report on comics compiled by the committee on organized crime, U.S. Congress, Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, A Compilation

Of those responding to the survey, nearly 60 percent felt there was no relationship between comic books and juvenile delinquency, and almost 70 percent felt that banning crime comics would have little effect on delinquency. Since the report failed to make a strong case against comics, it was issued with little fanfare and the committee took no further action. Despite the fact that the earlier Senate investigation failed to produce any recommendations or action, it provided a starting place when the judiciary subcommittee on juvenile delinquency turned its attention to the mass media. As is the case with most congressional hearings, staff members for the juvenile delinquency subcommittee conducted an extensive background investigation before the actual hearings began. The groundwork for the comic book hearings was done by Richard Clendenen, executive director of the subcommittee. He was the chief of the juvenile delinquency branch of the United States Children’s Bureau and the bureau’s leading expert on delinquency. Prior to his position with the Children’s Bureau, Clendenen worked as a probation officer in a juvenile court and was an administrator at various institutions for emotionally disturbed children and delinquent children. In 1952, the new director of the Children’s Bureau, Martha Eliot, made juvenile delinquency her priority and created a Special Delinquency Project that Clendenen headed. Eliot loaned Clendenen’s services to the Senate subcommittee, partly because the subcommittee was underfunded and partly to give her agency a voice in the investigation; Clendenen joined the staff in August 1953 (Senate Hearings 4; Gilbert 57-58, 149). Clendenen began by requesting from the staff of the Library of Congress a summary of all studies published on the effects of comic books on children. He also sent several prominent individuals samples of the comic books under investigation and solicited their opinions on the effects of such material (Senate Hearings 10). He was aware of the work done by the New York joint Legislative Committee to study comics and that done by the Cincinnati Committee on Evaluation of Comic Books, and their reports were included in the committee’s records. The Post Office Department was given an extensive list of comic book titles, along with the names of publishers, writers, and artists, to investigate. The purpose of the Post Office investigation was to determine whether any of the titles listed had ever been ruled “unmailable” and whether any of the individuals listed had come under Post Office Department scrutiny (Senate Records, ‘List of Names”). Postal regulations were sometimes used as a censorship tool by the federal government. The Post Office investigation failed to turn up any violations, and that line of inquiry was dropped. The subcommittee staff also conducted interviews with various publishers in order to learn more about the operation of the comic book industry. Publishers were asked to provide copies of the titles they published and circulation figures for each publication. In of Information and Suggestions Submitted to the Special Senate Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce Relative to the Incidence of Possible Influence Thereon of So-Called Crime Comic Books During the Five-Year Period 1945 to 1950, 81st Cong., 2d sess., 1950, Committee Print (designated “Organized Crime Committee, Committee Print” in the text and followed by a page number); Estes Kefauver, Papers, Hoskins Library, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TV; and the report issued by the Senate Subcommittee, U.S. Congress, Senate, Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency, Interim Report: Comic Books and Juvenile Delinquency, 84th Cong., 1st sess., 1955 (designated “Senate Report” in the text).

Seal Of Approval: The History Of The Comics Code

addition, the staff was interested in finding out about how a comic book was “processed” from the creation of the story idea through its execution, and who reviewed the manuscripts and artwork (Senate Records, “Routine Interview”). Once the preliminary investigations were complete, staff members drew up a list of witnesses. The list was finalized on Wednesday, April 21, shortly before the start of the hearings, and the staff provided committee members with brief background statements for each of the major witnesses, spelling out the position each was expected to take on comic books and delinquency and suggesting the direction that questioning might take. Among the witnesses were experts on juvenile delinquency, including psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, comic book publishers such as William Gaines, and a If You’re Going To Frisco Mary… number of distributors and retailers who were to One extended example was the “Frisco testify about the distribution and sale of comic Mary” story in Ace Periodicals’ Crime Must Pay the Penalty #3 (Aug. 1948), books. The committee also heard from witnesses as drawn by Warren Kremer; writer who had been active in other investigations of comic unknown. Seen here are the scene in books, including James Fitzpatrick, then chairman of which she “empt[ies] her submachine the New York committee to study comics, and E.D. gun into the body of an already Fulton, who engineered a ban on crime comic books wounded police officer”—and the in Canada. story’s final panel, in which, after her gang is gunned down, Mary is duly The hearings opened with a statement from executed… in a caption. Thanks to the Senator Hendrickson, who outlined the purpose and ComicBookPlus website. [© the goals of the committee. Hendrickson announced that respective copyright holders.] the hearings would be concerned only with crime and horror comic books, acknowledging that authorMary leads her gang in a bank robbery, and their crime is interities agreed the majority of comics were “as harmless as soda pop.” rupted by the arrival of the sheriff. The lawman is shot by the gang He argued that freedom of the press was not at issue and that his member in the getaway car, and Mary steps up to finish off the job committee did not intended to become “blue-nosed censors.” And in the slide Clendenen presented, where she remarks: “We could he claimed the committee approached the issue with no preconcephave got twice as much if it wasn’t for this frog-headed rat! I’ll tions; rather, the task of the committee was to determine whether show him!” She is chided by a fellow gang member for being too crime and horror comic books produced juvenile delinquency trigger-happy. After some careful detective work, police discover (Senate Hearings 5). the gang’s hideout. The police take Mary and her husband, Frank, into custody. The rest of the gang, afraid that Frank will “rat them The testimony of the first witness, committee staffer Clendenen, out,” break him out of jail and shoot him down. The police then set the tone of the hearings. He began his presentation by showing shoot the gang members, remarking, “Well – that finishes the examples of the crime and horror comics under investigation by Fenner gang – and saves the state the cost of a trial.” Mary, the sole the committee. He had originally prepared a show of twenty-nine remnant of the gang, is tried and executed in the gas chamber. slides to accompany the plot summaries of several comic book stories, but due to time constraints he discussed only seven comic Clendenen’s account of the story was as follows: book titles, accompanied by thirteen slides (Senate Records, “Stories Used”). The slides consisted of both comic book covers One story in this particular issue called “Frisco Mary” and sample panels from individual stories contained in the books. concerns an attractive and glamorous young woman who Clendenen told the senators his examples were “quite typical” of gains control of a California underworld gang. Under her crime and horror comics, but in fact he deliberately selected comic leadership the gang embarks upon a series of hold-ups book titles that had already been singled out for criticism by marked for their ruthlessness and violence. Our next picture Wertham and others. In addition, the plot summaries written by shows Mary emptying her submachine gun into the body of Clendenen emphasized the violence. With most of his examples, an already wounded police officer after the officer has Clendenen included a count of how many people died violently in created an alarm and thereby reduced the gang’s take in a the comic book. bank holdup to a mere $25,000. Now in all fairness it should

For example, while discussing “Frisco Mary,” a story from Crime Must Pay the Penalty (March 1954), Clendenen showed two slides, the cover of the comic, which had nothing to do with the story, and a single panel taken from page five of the story, which Clendenen described in his prepared statement as, “Shot of Frisco Mary using submachine gun on law officer” (Senate Records, “Stories Used”). The story is about Mary Fenner, known as “Frisco” Mary, and her gang. Rather than being the victim, like many women depicted in the crime stories, Mary takes charge of the gang and commits much of the violence in the story. In the scene Clendenen selected,

be added that Mary finally dies in the gas chamber following a violent and lucrative criminal career. (Senate Hearings 7)

This story is a good example of the type of crime comics that critics found objectionable. The lead character, Mary Fenner, is extremely violent and kills without hesitation or remorse. Her victims are innocent, unarmed men who are foolish enough to get in her way. There is always a big monetary payoff for the crime, and the gang members escape unscathed (until the end of the story). The police, too, are violent men who do not hesitate to shoot the fleeing robbers in the back and then gloat. This story, like many,

Chapter 3 Of Dr. Amy Kiste Nyberg's 1998 Work On Comic Book Censorship

justifies the violence by making sure the criminals are punished in the end. But Mary’s fate is buried in a caption, without any illustration, at the end of the story, finishing with, “She breathed out her life in a California gas chamber—discovering, but too late— that crime must pay the penalty!” After nine pages of glorifying the violence and rewards of the criminal life, the short tag at the end of the story seems almost inconsequential. Next, Clendenen introduced the survey of literature on comics and juvenile delinquency compiled by the Library of Congress, noting that the expert opinion and findings of the studies reflected a diversity of opinion regarding the effects of crime comics on children. The four experts testifying before the committee reflected that diversity. Two experts who took the position that crime comics were harmful were Harris Peck, a psychiatrist and director of the Bureau of Mental Health Services for the New York City Children’s Court, and Wertham, who of course had been campaigning for years for laws against comics. Two experts who asserted that there was little evidence of harm caused by the comics were Gunnar Dybwad, the executive director of the Child Study Association of America, and Lauretta Bender, a senior psychiatrist at Bellevue Hospital. One other group was invited to testify about effects of comics—the comic book publishers themselves. The committee heard from four industry representatives: William M. Gaines, publisher of the Entertaining Comics Group; William Friedman, publisher of Story Comics; Monroe Froehlich, Jr., business manager for Magazine Management Company, publishers of Marvel Comics; and Helen Meyer, vice president of Dell Publications. The two witnesses whose testimony received the most attention were Wertham and Gaines. In many ways, these two personified the struggle over comic books in postwar America. Wertham played a central role in the comic book controversy, beginning with his attack on comic books in 1948. His credentials were impressive, and he was quickly embraced as a leading expert in the field of comics and juvenile delinquency and was often asked to testify in cases in state and federal courts. Wertham’s book summarizing his case against comics, Seduction of the Innocent, was published just before the Senate began its hearings on comics, and it was this material on which Wertham based his testimony. Gaines, who

inherited his comics publishing business after his father died in a boating accident in 1947, was the most outspoken of the comic book publishers, and the media frequently interviewed him when they needed a quote from an industry representative. Gaines’s company, called Educational Comics in I947, was publishing “kiddie comics” with names like Bouncy Bunny in the Friendly Forest. Gaines began to introduce new titles, and by the end of 1949 was publishing six love, crime, and western comics. In 1950, he changed the company name to Entertaining Comics and issued what became known as the “New Trend” comics, launching such horror titles as The Crypt of Terror and The Vault of Horror. The new titles sold well, and within a year E.C.’s financial problems were over. It was these titles that attracted the attention of critics such as Wertham and, as a result, the subcommittee (Jacobs 60 – 64; Kurtzman 28). Wertham testified on the afternoon of the first day of the hearings, followed by Gaines. Gaines originally had been scheduled to appear in the morning, but other witnesses apparently ran on longer than expected, pushing Gaines’s testimony until after lunch. After the committee reconvened, however, Wertham appeared to testify, and the committee moved him ahead of Gaines. Gaines later contended that the postponement of his appearance adversely affected his testimony. According to his biographer, Gaines was taking diet pills, and as the medication began to wear off, fatigue set in. Gaines recalled: “At the beginning, I felt that I was really going to fix those bastards, but as time went on I could feel myself fading away… They were pelting me with questions and I couldn’t locate the answers.” (Jacobs 107). The committee took a very respectful tone with Wertham, allowing him to make a long statement before beginning its questioning; moreover, most of the questions were meant simply to clarify, rather than challenge, any of his testimony. Wertham began by noting that his was the only large-scale study of comic books, and that he never received a subsidy for his work, nor had he ever accepted a fee for speaking about comic books. Wertham then challenged the subcommittee’s definition of the crime and horror comic, arguing for a more encompassing view. For Wertham, it made “no difference whether the locale is western, or Superman or space ship or horror, if a girl is raped she is raped whether it is in a space ship or on the prairie.” Wertham singled Superman out, noting that the comic books aroused in children “phantasies [sic] of sadistic joy in seeing other people punished over and over again while you yourself remain immune.” Wertham called it the “Superman complex” (Senate Hearings 82, 86). Much of his testimony was anecdotal evidence of the harm of comic book reading drawn from his book or from articles, with Wertham describing how children imitated the violence they read about in comic books. For example, he told the senators of this incident in New York State: “Some time ago some boys attacked another boy and they twisted his arm so viciously that it broke in two places, and, just like in a comic book, the bone came through the skin” (Senate Hearings 85).

For What It’s Wertham Dr. Fredric Wertham (at far right in photo) testifies before the Senate subcommittee at the Federal Courthouse in Manhattan. Behind him is the wall-full of crime and horror comics covers seen on p. 45. Thanks to Michaël Dewally for this photo.

Wertham also used the hearings to clarify his stand on the effects of comics, stating without any doubt or reservation that comic books were “an important contributing factor in many cases of juvenile delinquency.” Even Wertham, whose position on the effects of comic books was more extreme than that of his colleagues, did not say they were the only cause of juvenile delinquency. “Now, I don’t say, and I have never said, and I don’t believe it, that the comic-book

Seal Of Approval: The History Of The Comics Code

with a crowbar, Sen. Thomas Hennings halted that line of questioning, observing, “l don’t think it is really the function of our committee to argue with this gentleman” (Senate Hearings 103).

I’m Ready For My Closeup, Mr. Kefauver!

factor alone makes a child do anything,” he said. Other environmental factors were at work. But, he added, he had isolated comics as one factor of delinquency and his was “not a minority report” (Senate Hearings 87-90). Underlining where he differed from his colleagues, however, he contended the kind of child affected was “primarily the normal child… the most morbid children that we have seen are the ones who are less affected by comic books because they are wrapped up in their own phantasies [sic]” (Senate Hearings 83).

EC publisher Bill Gaines in front of the subcommittee—and the infamous Johnny Craig cover he clumsily attempted to defend: Crime SuspenStories #22 (April-May 1954). While Nyberg quotes Gaines (see first column, below) saying that he felt the art was in sufficiently good taste “for the cover of a horror comic” (technically, of course, CSS was probably better classified as a “crime comic”), she doesn’t add that when Kefauver asked his follow-up question of precisely what would constitute poor taste, Gaines responded: “A cover in bad taste, for example, might be defined as holding the head a little higher so that the neck could be seen dripping blood from it and moving the body over a little further so that the neck of the body could be seen to be bloody.” This observation was not of much help to the comic book industry. [Cover © William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

Despite Wertham’s reputation, it was Gaines’s testimony that was given wide play in the media—including front-page coverage in the New York Times—primarily due to an exchange between Gaines and Kefauver that served to demonstrate in the minds of many the absurdity of the comic book industry’s defense of what they published. Asked to defend his stories, Gaines stressed they had an “O. Henry ending” and that it was important that they not be taken out of context. When Chief Counsel Herbert Hannoch asked if it did children any good to read such stories, Gaines replied: “I don’t think it does them a bit of good, but I don’t think it does them a bit of harm, either.” He maintained throughout the hearings that comics were harmless entertainment. Then Herbert Beaser, Hannoch’s assistant, asked Gaines: “Is there any limit you can think of that you would not put in a magazine because you thought a child should not see or read about it?” Gaines said, “My only limits are bounds of good taste, what I consider good taste” (Senate Hearings 103). With that statement, Gaines set himself up for the famous exchange with Senator Kefauver over a comic book cover. While questioning Gaines, Kefauver held aloft a comic book featuring a cover drawn by artist Johnny Craig for a comic titled Crime SuspenStories and remarked: “This seems to be a man with a bloody ax holding a woman’s head up which has been severed from her body. Do you think that is in good taste?” Having just said that he would publish anything he felt was in good taste, Gaines had no choice. He answered, “Yes, sir, I do, for the cover of a horror comic.” When Kefauver held up another cover showing a man choking a woman

But the damage was done. Historian Maria Reidelbach notes that public sentiment turned decisively against the young publisher, as television and print news reports widely quoted the “severed head exchange” (28). The front-page story in the New York Times emphasized that testimony and carried the headline: “No Harm in Horror, Comics Issuer Says.” Such reports helped to confirm what comic book critics had been arguing all along—that comic book publishers were a decadent group out to make a profit at the expense of children, with little regard for the impact their crime and horror comics had on the youth of America. Common sense dictated that full-color comic book covers with gruesome illustrations were definitely not in good taste for children’s reading material.

While the “severed head” exchange received the most publicity, it was the discussion of the E.C. story “The Whipping” that really points to the essential difference between the positions that Wertham and Gaines took. In his testimony, Wertham accused Gaines of fostering racial hatred by using the word “spick” several times in one story. The story Wertham summarized for the senators was published in Shock SuspenStories No. 14, 1954. In it, a Mexican family has moved into the neighborhood. One man, Ed, becomes enraged when his daughter Amy becomes involved with the son of the Mexican family, Louis Martinez. His efforts to turn his neighbors against the Martinez family fail, so Ed stirs up the men in community by telling them the boy had tried to rape his daughter. The men put on hoods and break into the dark house, putting a large sack over the head and body of the person they find inside, whom they then drag outside and beat to death with a belt. In the next-to-last panel, Louis comes racing into the yard, calling the girl’s name. In the last panel, the men learn that they have mistakenly killed the girl, whom the boy had secretly married. Wertham summarized the story, beginning with the statement, “I think Hitler was a beginner compared to the comic-book industry… They teach them race hatred at the age of four before they can read.” He then offered “The Whipping” as an example, noting that in New York City the integration of Puerto Ricans was a “great social problem.” He pointed out that in the story, a derogatory term for Puerto Ricans was repeated twelve times. He commented: “It is pointed out that a Spanish Catholic family moved into this neighborhood—utterly unnecessary. What is the point of this story? The point of the story is that then somebody gets beaten to death. The only error is that the man who must get beaten to death is not a man; it is a girl” (Senate Hearings 95). Gaines was angry at the way Wertham had represented the story, especially since Wertham had to have read the story “to have counted what he said he counted.” Gaines told the committee: “Dr. Wertham did not tell you what the plot of the story was. This is one of a series of stories designed to show the evils of race prejudice and mob violence, in this case against Mexican Catholics… This is one of the most brilliantly written stories that I

Chapter 3 Of Dr. Amy Kiste Nyberg's 1998 Work On Comic Book Censorship

EC Takes A “Whipping” Racial prejudice and lynch-mob “justice” were the focus of the EC story “The Whipping” in Shock SuspenStories #14 (April-May 1954). Art by Wally Wood; writer uncertain—either Al Feldstein (from a plot by Gaines) or Jack Oleck. Thanks to Steven Willis. [© William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

have ever had the pleasure to publish. I was very proud of it, and to find it being used in such a nefarious way made me quite angry” (Hearings 99). Wertham clearly did misrepresent the story in his testimony. One tactic used effectively by many critics was to take panels and dialogue from comic book stories out of context in order to illustrate a point. But Wertham’s misreading of the story may not have been deliberate, because there are actually two stories being told in “The Whipping,” one through the images and the dialogue in the word balloons, and another in the captions that accompany the story. The social message about the evils of racism is conveyed by the omniscient narrator through the use of captions. But if Wertham’s reader skips the captions and skims the dialogue, a much different story is told, where the racism seemingly is justified by the attempted rape of Amy; the fact that it is a trumped-up charge is explained only in the caption. The ending, then, rather than being read as a punishment for racist thinking, simply becomes an ironic twist of fate—a father has been tricked into killing the very daughter he has sworn to protect. But no one reading the entire story would construe it as one preaching racial hatred. The surprise ending, common in the E.C. stories, was intended to shock the reader with the consequences of racism. The text makes clear the wrongness of intolerance based on different colored skin, facial features, accents, and unfamiliar religions. The whipping also becomes a metaphor for all victims of intolerance. Amy’s bound and gagged body is meant to symbolize

victims’ helplessness, a symbolism made explicit in the caption: “a victim unable to defend himself against that fantasy… unable to cry out… unable to be heard… a victim like all victims of intolerance.” While Wertham emphasized the beating in his summary, there is actually very little violence depicted in the seven-page story. In one panel, Ed strikes his daughter after she tells him she will continue to see Louis. On the final page, we see one of the hooded figures who objected to the continued beating struck across the face with a belt by Ed. In the last panel, Louis cradles the body of his dead wife, Amy. The blows struck by Ed are suggested, rather than shown. Instead, the violence in this story is found, not in the images, but in the words that accompany the drawings. The beating, which takes place across four panels, is described this way: “The strap… rose and fell… again and again… Savage, wild, angry angry strokes fell upon a gagged victim… and the victim fell beneath the onslaught and lay still and unmoving in the cool grass.” The conventions of graphic storytelling invite the reader to fill in the action between the panels, as the words work with the images to create a sense of brutal violence that neither words nor pictures alone could invoke. If this story indeed had a social message against racism, with little graphic violence, why was it singled out as an example of a “bad” comic? Much of the protest had to do with the way the moral of the story was delivered. Rather than depicting “good” behavior being rewarded, “The Whipping” and other stories like it

Seal Of Approval: The History Of The Comics Code

showed “bad” behavior, which was only punished in the very end of the story. Comic book critics believed that the only tales suitable for children were those providing positive role models, heroes whose behavior was above reproach. In “The Whipping,” the protagonist was flawed. He appears normal, a lonely figure standing below a streetlamp, described in the caption as a middleaged, balding man, a typical American father. But the image is deceiving; the narrator explains Ed has been corrupted by racial hatred. As a father, he is a figure of authority; but his eighteenyear-old daughter has defied his authority, and he can only reestablish his power over her by striking her, as shown in the two flashback panels on the first page and in the image repeated in reverse angle on page four. Also disturbing is the image of Amy – blonde and shapely – that serves to emphasize the “whiteness” of her character. Her full figure radiates a sexuality that heightens the tension, not between Louis and Amy, who are almost never shown together, but between father and daughter. The girl’s mother, shown in only one panel, cooking at the stove, is a plump, matronly woman who does not evoke any sexual feelings, unlike Amy. The contrast between “white” and “nonwhite” and the sexual tension are reinforced on the next page with this caption: “All the way home, his rage had seethed within him. He’d kissed her! He of the olive skin and the raven hair had dared to touch his white white daughter.” What made this comic objectionable to the adults who read it was not the violence, nor the racist language, but the suggestion that the evil was perpetrated by a figure of authority whom children have been taught to respect, and that the innocent are made to pay for the actions of the ﬂawed protagonist. The incest subtext, which may have been lost on the young readers, was almost certainly another aspect of the story to which its critics were reacting, whether or not they consciously acknowledged the sexual feelings aroused by the daughter.

despite Wertham’s claims to the contrary. But common sense was on Wertham’s side in the debate. The senators and the American public were inclined to accept Wertham’s argument at face value that the mayhem and monsters found in the pages of comic books simply could not be considered appropriate reading material for children. After the exchange about comic book covers and about the “messages” contained in comic books, the committee turned its attention to a full-page E.C. advertisement entitled “Are You a Red Dupe?” The ad, introduced by Clendenen earlier, further eroded Gaines’s credibility with the committee. It depicted the censorship in Russia of “Panisky Comicskys” (clearly a reference to Panic, a comic book published by E.C. that had been banned in Massachusetts) and showed a man being hanged for publishing comic books. Below this illustration, the ad stated that there was a movement in America to suppress comic books. In bigger type, the ad claimed: “The group most anxious to destroy comics are the communists!” As evidence, the ad quoted a story from the Daily Worker dated July 13, 1953, about the way comic books were “brutalizing American youth, the better to prepare them for military service in implementing our government’s aims of world domination….” At the bottom of the ad was the following call to action: “So the next time some joker gets up at a P.T.A. meeting, or starts jabbering about the ‘naughty comic books’ at your local

Not all of Gaines’s stories offered such a direct social message, and Gaines tried to draw a distinction between the “messages” that were deliberately incorporated into the stories and the suggestion on the part of the committee that children might be picking up on other unintentional messages about the use of violence to solve problems. In defending his story “The Orphan,” where an abused child kills her father and frames her mother for the murder in order to go live with a kindly aunt, Gaines said: “No message has been spelled out there. We are not trying to prove anything with that story. None of the captions said anything like, ‘If you are unhappy with your [mother], shoot her’” (Senate Hearings 101). The key here is that these unintentional messages found in the comics—messages about violence, the victimization of women, or the making of criminals into heroic figures—lay at the heart of the dispute between Gaines and Wertham. While no one comic book told children what to believe, Wertham argued that the exposure over time to the same types of messages built up a social context in which children learned to accept, if not to imitate, the violence. Wertham argued that learning did not take place only in the schoolroom, but painlessly through the entertainment children absorbed daily. Gaines, on the other hand, truly felt his comics offered harmless entertainment that had little lasting impact on the children who read them. Wertham, he suggested, simply failed to understand the conventions of horror and the delicious thrill of being frightened by a comic book story. In his testimony, he remarked: “Some may not like them. That is a matter of personal taste. It would be just as difficult to explain the harmless thrill of a horror story to a Dr. Wertham as it would be to explain the sublimity of love to a frigid old maid” (Senate Hearings 98). There was—and still is—no empirical evidence to prove either point,

Better Dead Than Read This EC “public service announcement” appeared in EC comics dated July 1954—just about the time the Senate subcommittee was meeting, in fact— so it became a hot-off-the-presses exhibit. It was, as Nyberg says, “the brainchild of [Bill] Gaines and EC business manager Lyle Stuart.” The Senators were not amused. Michael T. Gilbert and Mr. Monster ran this page a bit bigger (and more legible) two issues ago, in the Comic Crypt section on Communism and comic books. [© William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

Chapter 3 Of Dr. Amy Kiste Nyberg's 1998 Work On Comic Book Censorship

candy store, give him the once-over. We’re not saying he is a communist! He may be innocent of the whole thing! He may be a dupe! He may not even read the ‘Daily Worker’! It’s just that he’s swallowed the red bait … hook, line and sinker!” The ad was the brainchild of Gaines and E.C. business manager Lyle Stuart. Said Gaines later: “It was all pretty dopey. I made the ad out of devilishness. It was supposed to be a spoof, but it didn’t come off that way.” The ad ran in all of E.C.’s comic books, and Gaines sent a tearsheet of the ad to anyone who wrote him attacking his comics (Jacobs 104-5). (What Gaines could not have known at the time he created his ad was that in Britain, the Communist Party would later become the leading organizer of the campaign against American crime and horror comics [Barker 23].) Clendenen, in his testimony, interpreted the ad as saying that “anyone who raised any question whatsoever about the comics was also giving out Red-inspired propaganda” (Senate Hearings 59). Kefauver, more than the other committee members, reacted very negatively to being accused, however indirectly, of being a Communist. At the time of the hearings, Kefauver was beginning his campaign for reelection, and charges were being made by his opponent in the Senate race that Kefauver was “coddling Communists,” charges that received heavy media play around the country (Gorman 176). Gaines left the hearings knowing that he had done more harm than good for the industry. His biographer noted that Gaines was “in a state of shock” and “took to his bed for two days with a painfully knotted stomach, most likely psychosomatic” (Jacobs 110). The comic book industry’s case was not helped by the experts selected by the committee to present the other side and testify in defense of comic books, Dybwad and Bender. Dybwad began his testimony by noting that the Child Study Association of America had conducted a study of comic strips in 1937 and surveys of comic books in 1943 and 1949. When Herbert Beaser, chief counsel to the subcommittee, asked Dybwad for an opinion about the effect of crime and horror comics on children, Dybwad refused to take a stand. He felt widespread distribution of such literature was symptomatic of larger problems within society, but he could say little about individual effects. He personally knew of no case where reading comic books had been linked with a criminal offense, and while he wouldn’t deny that there might be a connection, “so far I have not seen the clinical evidence” (Senate Hearings 127). Bender, considered an expert on emotionally disturbed children, was the final witness to testify about the effects of comics. Unlike many others, she did not find the horror comics shocking, but rather “unspeakably silly.” She added: “The more an artist tries to show horror and the more details he puts into the picture, which most poor artists do, the sillier the thing becomes, and the children laugh at it.” Children who identified with comic characters would discard a comic if it caused them anxiety (Senate Hearings 153). But Kefauver discredited the testimony of both Dybwad and Bender by pointing out that the comic book studies for the Child Study Association were done by Josette Frank, who was also employed as a consultant by National Comics, a leading comic book publisher, and that Bender worked for that same publisher. The National Comics Editorial board had been in operation since around 1941, and members were chosen for their professional standing and personal integrity. The practice of including such experts on an editorial board was common among comic book publishers, who used the credentials of their board members to demonstrate their adherence to high editorial standards (Organized Crime Committee, Committee Print 151). While some comic book companies used these editorial boards to deflect criticism of their publications, National published none

Hey Kids—Real Books! Dr. Lauretta Bender in 1956, in her office at Creedmoor State Hospital, Queens, New York City. Dr. Wertham, of course, found sinister intent even in even that, labeling her merely an “apologist” for the comics industry. You couldn’t win with that guy—or with the subcommittee. Thanks to son Peter Schiller for the photo of Bender. Josette Frank, the other DC Advisory Board member attacked by Wertham, was depicted in A/E #124. [Comics page © DC Comics.]

of the material under attack by the critics. It was the oldest comic book publisher in the country and one of the largest, and its bestknown characters were Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. The company published two crime comics, Gang Busters and Mr. District Attorney, that were adaptations of popular radio shows, and one horror comic, House of Mystery. All three titles were so tame that they continued to be published even after the Comics Code of 1954 went into effect; censors could find nothing offensive about them (Benton, Comic Book 104). While National may have used their experts in an attempt to defend the type of comics they published and distance themselves from publishers of crime and horror comics, it is doubtful that National had any interest in defending publication of crime and horror comics. Frank had initially been contacted by National in 1941 to write reviews of children’s books, reviews that National published in its comic books. Frank said she was chosen because of the publication of her book What Books for Children in 1941. She reviewed approximately three hundred children’s books and was paid what she described as “the usual review rates.” National dropped the book review feature when wartime paper shortages forced publishers to cut back. In addition to reviewing children’s books, Frank occasionally was asked to comment on upcoming projects. She suggested the formation of an editorial advisory board, and that board worked out a “statement of standards” for National’s writers and artists. Frank noted she was also paid a fee for serving on the editorial board (Organized Crime Committee, Committee Print 187). Bender had been a member of the board since 1944 “with the full knowledge and approval of New York University,” receiving a monthly fee of $150 for her services. She wrote to the New York Academy of Medicine to check on the appropriateness of serving on National’s board and was told that her services were “entirely in conformity with the rules and regulations” of the academy. The executive secretary of the academy, Dr. Iago Galdston, added: “I personally think that you are in a position to render a valuable public service by supervising these comic magazines” (Organized Crime Committee, Committee Print 184). The exposure of Frank and Bender as “paid apologists” for the industry was the focus of press coverage for the second day of the hearings. The headline in the New York Times read: “Senator

Seal Of Approval: The History Of The Comics Code

Crime On My Hands Another scene from the Senate subcommittee hearings—maybe that’s executive director Richard Clenendon who’s holding up a copy of EC’s Crime SuspenStories #4 (April-May 1951), already a vintage issue by that time. Seen at right, so that we can all be corrupted, is Johnny Craig’s cover from a closer POV. [© William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

Charges ‘Deceit’ on Comics.” The story summarized Kefauver’s charges that the Child Study Association of America deceived the public in presenting reports on comic books by failing to note that some of the experts it employed were at the same time being paid by the comic book publishers. The Times coverage continued: “Senator Kefauver charged that reports on comic books—which opposed censorship but urged self-regulation by publishers and more active interest by parents—had ‘minimized’ the crime and horror book problem. He contended this was the effect of publisher retainers” (Kihss 29). The subcommittee could have called numerous experts to testify, so the selection of these two witnesses suggests they were deliberately included to give the committee the opportunity to discredit the defenders and strengthen the argument that comic books were harmful. The committee also worried about the credibility of their “star” witness, Wertham. The background statement prepared by the Senate staff noted that Wertham represented the “extreme position among the psychiatrists” (Senate Records, “Background Statement”). The staff recommended careful questioning of Wertham to bring his views more in line with the moderates who criticized comic books. Clearly, this task would be aided by making sure the opposing view lacked legitimacy. Wertham himself probably had a hand in engineering the exposé of Frank and Bender. Hendrickson had contacted Wertham in late 1953, when plans were first being formulated for hearings on comics. At that time, Wertham asked to be subpoenaed, and historian James Gilbert noted the request was “probably so he could make charges against comic-book consultants” (150). And Wertham attacked both Frank and Bender in his book Seduction of the Innocent. The final publisher to testify, Helen Meyer of Dell Comics, used the hearings to distance herself from other publishers. Dell had never published crime and horror comics, was anxious to publicize that fact, and denied any association with the publishers who did (Senate Hearings 198). Meyer pointed out that Wertham was ignoring the “good” comics in order to make a stronger case against the bad comics. She denounced the Association of Comics Magazine Publishers, saying the organization intended to use Dell Comics as “an umbrella for the crime comic publishers.” She concluded: “We abhor horror and crime comics. We would like to see them out of the picture because it taints us.” Most of the rest of the testimony concerned distribution. Seven

people involved with distribution, ranging from distributors to wholesalers to retailers, testified. In fact, the two-day hearing in April was extended to a third day in June because the committee was dissatisfied with the information about distribution and the problem of so-called tie-in sales, by which retailers were forced to carry unwanted publications in order to get their shipments of desired titles (Senate Hearings 200). Distribution was explained in great detail in the subcommittee’s 1955 report. Comic publishers were represented by one of thirteen national distributors, each handling different lines of comics. The distributor coordinated activities with the printer to assure that the correct number of copies would be shipped to appropriate wholesalers. The wholesalers, in turn, took publications received from distributors and sorted them into bundles that would be distributed to newsstands, drug stores, and other retail outlets. The retailer might return unsold copies to the wholesaler, who in turn shipped them back to the distributor, who then returned the comic books or their covers to the publisher for credit (Senate Report [1955] 5-7). As noted in chapter 2, one technique of the anti-comic book crusaders was to persuade retailers not to carry objectionable titles. Often, the campaigners were told that the retailer had no choice in what he sold. Testimony by retailers and newsdealers indicated that tie-in sales were a common practice in the industry. Distributors and wholesalers, however, denied that such practices existed, insisting that no retailer ever had to sell a comic book that he or she did not want to handle. The subcommittee also was interested in what self-regulatory and legislative measures had been taken and how effective such measures were. Schultz, executive director of the industry trade association, described the industry’s effort to regulate itself beginning in the late 1940s. As noted earlier, that effort had failed, largely due to the expense of a prepublication review process and the lack of support by many of the major publishers. Testimony on legislative measures were given by two witnesses, E.E. Fulton, a member of the House of Commons of Canada, who discussed the Canadian law banning the sale of crime and horror comics, and James A. Fitzpatrick, who was chairman of the New York legislative committee to study comic books. Fulton noted that the law to ban the sale of crime and horror comics had proven ineffective in Canada. After it passed, that type of comic was replaced by what Fulton termed “salacious” material, and within the year, the crime and horror comics were back on the stands as well. Canadian law enforcement officials proved reluctant to prosecute retailers and distributors under the law, and the publishers were American and therefore not subject to Canadian law (Senate Hearings 160-61). Fitzpatrick called upon the subcommittee to consider federal regulation against comic books as the most effective way to prohibit the sale of such material to children. He also suggested strengthening postal regulations (Senate Hearings 208-11). Senator Hendrickson concluded the third and final day of testimony by noting that the committee would continue to collect information about comic books and would study the issue carefully before drawing up conclusions and recommendations. The thrust of the subcommittee’s report was foreshadowed by Hendrickson’s closing remarks: “I think I speak for the entire subcommittee when I say… [a] competent job of self-policing within the industry will achieve much” (Senate Hearings 310).

Chapter 3 Of Dr. Amy Kiste Nyberg's 1998 Work On Comic Book Censorship

In fact, the intention of the hearings from the beginning was to force (or frighten) the publishers into adopting a self-regulatory code like that of the film industry. While declaring itself neutral in the debate over media effects, the committee looked for evidence to challenge the contention by experts that comics had little or no effect on most children; this it did through a very selective examination of the material and by discrediting those who testified in defense of comics. This tack was in keeping with the pattern of other congressional investigations, where the committee perspective was determined before the actual work began and the investigations served as little more than a dramatization of the committee’s point of view (Moore 242). Gorrnan sees a strong parallel between the crime hearings and the hearings on juvenile delinquency. He writes that both featured a “parade of witnesses” who were seeking a solution to “an extremely complicated problem by attacking what seemed to them to be a few simple causes” (198). The Senate committee clearly never intended for its investigation to be a fact-finding mission. The legislators were more interested in appearing to do something about a problem that had captured the public’s attention than in truly exploring issues of media effects. And from the beginning, the senators and their staff realized that no legislation could possibly result from the hearings. Any government attempt to pass censorship laws would be met with the same constitutional questions faced by state lawmakers. The only possible solution to the problem was to encourage the publishers themselves to take responsibility for the problem and to act. What was lost, quite deliberately, in the hearing process was the defense of comics presented by Gaines and others. One argument that fell flat with the committee was that comic book publishing was a business, providing consumers with what they wanted. The comic book industry, publishers argued, did not “seduce” readers away from more wholesome fare by some secret process, but simply put on the market what readers were interested in buying. Monroe Froehlich, business manager for one of the publishers, argued that the industry did not create the demand for weird comics. He concluded while his company would like to produce comics with “worthwhile” editorial matter, “nobody would buy such comics” (Senate Hearings 175). Gaines made the argument that children, like adults, should have freedom of choice. He asked:

Duck And Cover! Helen Meyer, editorial head of Dell/Western’s comics division, who reportedly ruled that roost with an iron hand—and Carl Barks’ cover for Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories, Vol. 14, #4 (Jan. 1954), published shortly before the hearings. [Cover © Walt Disney Productions.]

“What are we afraid of? Are we afraid of our own children? Do we forget that they are citizens, too, and entitled to select what to read or do? We think our children are so evil, simple minded, that it takes a story of murder to set them to murder, a story of robbery to set them to robbery?” (Senate Hearings 98). Fears about media effects, however, had long centered on the vulnerability of the young audience, and Gaines’s argument failed to persuade the committee. Gaines also argued that violence in comic books was no different from the violence described in newspapers, which also were available to children, and he pointed out, “Once you start to censor, you must censor everything” (Senate Hearings 100). Publisher William Friedman followed up on Gaines’s argument, suggesting that by targeting comic books, the senators seemed to be making “a whipping boy” out of comics and ignoring other forms of media violence (Senate Hearings 149). Finally, Gaines’s strongest argument, that there was no real evidence that comic books did any harm, was buried in the exchanges over comic book covers and Communists. The Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency issued its interim report in March 1955. The delay between the end of the hearings and the publication of the report was partly due to the elections of November 1954. It was also due to disputes between the Kefauver subcommittee and the committee that controlled printing of congressional reports over the use of illustrations. Although illustrations were not usually included in Senate reports, members of the subcommittee felt that the subject matter required illustrations and they met with the Joint Committee on Printing in August 1954 to get approval for the proposed illustrations (Kefauver Papers, “Report on Comic Books”). A draft of the report was initially submitted to all subcommittee members on November 13, 1954, and revised at a meeting of the subcommittee on November 26. The report was approved at the end of December and sent to the printer on December 29. At that time, the committee staff was notified that the illustrations Kefauver and the others wanted included in the report were “unsuitable for reproduction in a Senate document” and the matter would have to be taken up by the Joint Committee on Printing, even though approval had already been granted. The request for illustrations was delayed until the new Joint Committee on Printing was appointed. The Government Printing Office was instructed to go ahead with the printing job without illustrations; they could be inserted after the galley proofs were checked (Kefauver Papers, “Report on Comic Books”). In a letter to the chairman of the Joint Committee on Printing, Kefauver wrote, “I understand that there is some reluctance to depart from precedence and publish a report which includes illustrations.” He added that without illustrations, the report on comic books would be very difficult to follow “and would fail to accomplish its desired end, of leading toward an improvement in the type of comics which all of our children now are subject” (Kefauver to Jenner). The chairman of the Joint Committee on Printing, Sen. William Jenner, replied that the matter would be scheduled for the next meeting of the committee “sometime” in February. It is not clear whether the Joint Committee on Printing denied Kefauver’s request or whether the Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency elected not to wait for the printing committee’s decision, but the report was published in March without illustrations. Kefauver edited the third section of the report, which included specific examples of material dealt with at the New York hearings, to provide more detail in the descriptions of the individual stories. For example, the last two sentences describing the plot of a story titled “With Knife in

Seal Of Approval: The History Of The Comics Code

Hand” originally read: “The doctor then commits suicide by plunging a scalpel into his own chest. His wife also dies on the operating table for lack of medical attention.” Kefauver changed the text to read: “The scene then shows the doctor committing suicide by plunging a scalpel into his own abdomen. His wife, gasping for help, also dies on the operating table for lack of medical attention. The last scene shows her staring into space, arms dangling over the sides of the operating table. The doctor is sprawled on the floor, his hand still clutching the knife handle protruding from his bloody abdomen. There is a leer on his face and he is winking at the reader, connoting satisfaction at having wrought revenge upon his unfaithful spouse” (Kefauver Papers, Galley Proofs). By adding the more descriptive, graphic language, Kefauver hoped to compensate for the lack of illustrations. Illustrations had been used by comic book critics to draw attention to their case, and the Senate report was not as powerful a document without them.

The interim report was written by Kefauver, who had replaced Hendrickson as chair of the committee at the end of 1954, and despite the report’s emphasis on the violent nature of comic books, it reflected the inconclusive nature of the testimony about direct links between comic books and juvenile delinquency. “Surveying the work that has been done on the subject, it appears to be the consensus of the experts that comic-book reading is not the cause of emotional maladjustment in children,” the report said (Senate Report [1955] 16). While citing the need for further research, the report called for immediate action without waiting for further evidence, concluding that the nation “cannot afford the calculated risk involved in the continued mass dissemination” of crime and horror comics to children. It added that the absolute right of the comics industry “to produce what it pleases unless it is proven ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ that such a product is damaging to children are unjustified.” The report ended by calling for “precautionary measures” until more research could be done (Senate Report [1955] 23-33). With that settled, it remained only for the report to make recommendations for solutions. The senators did not call for federal censorship. Rather, the committee placed responsibility for censoring comic books primarily on publishers. The report stated: Within the industry, the primary responsibility for the contents of each comic book rests squarely upon the shoulders of its publisher… the publishers of children’s comic books cannot discharge their responsibility to the Nation’s youth merely by discontinuing the publication of a few individual titles. It can be fully discharged only as they seek and support ways and means of insuring that the industry’s product permanently measures up to its standards of morality and decency which American parents have the right to expect. (Senate Report [1955] 29) Although the senate subcommittee came to no conclusion about comic books and juvenile delinquency and failed to propose any legislation, the hearings themselves prompted the industry to do what several years of criticism and threats at the local and state level had failed to do—adopt a strict self-regulatory code to which most of the publishers would adhere. The industry formed the Comics Magazine Association of America in fall 1954 and implemented a code. As will be discussed in chapter 5, the publicity generated by the Senate hearings prompted the comic book industry to put into place a vigorous program of self-censorship and that program, combined with pressure from the distributors, wholesalers, and retailers, brought sweeping changes. One immediate effect of the comics code was that crime and horror comics disappeared from newsstands, thus helping diffuse anticomic book sentiment among the public.

With Typewriter In Hand! Senator Kefauver (seen in photo) wanted to include illustrations in the subcommittee’s final report, but, for reasons uncertain, that did not happen. Thus, he was forced merely to describe with words the final page of the story “With Knife in Hand!” from Timely/Atlas’ Strange Tales #28 (May 1954), as drawn by Jack Katz and written by an uncredited writer. Thanks to Betty Dobbs (via Pmack) and Glenn of Australia for the scan. The good Senators, Dr. Wertham, et al., would be astonished to encounter this next sentence: If you want to read the entire story, sixty years on, it’s readily available in the hardcover Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Strange Tales, Vol. 3—which will set you back sixty bucks, retail. Poetic justice, anyone? [© Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Forcing the comic book industry to police itself had been the goal of the Kefauver committee from the beginning, but the development and implementation of a comics code was due in large part to the efforts of Fredric Wertham, whose campaigns against comics put the controversy on the national agenda. There were many comic book critics, but Wertham’s credentials as a psychiatrist made him a credible, high-profile source capable of generating and sustaining national attention for his cause. Our serialization of Amy Kiste Nyberg’s Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code will continue next issue.

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Inkspots! (Part 2)

by Michael T. Gilbert

tick around long enough and everything becomes history. Take my Inkspots! strip, for instance. Here’s part two of that bit of history, continued from last issue.

As previously discussed, after graduating college in ’73, I scored my first art job at Vizmo studios in New York City’s Rockefeller Plaza, drawing graphics for NBC News, located right across the street from the NBC studios. It was great while it lasted, but a few months later NBC started its own in-house graphics department and I was out of a job. I scored another one designing advertising gee-gaws (key chains with company logos, letter openers, and such) for HIT Sales and made friends with the other artists. One of them, Edgar Bacellis, eventually quit HIT Sales to find fame and fortune in California. This was in late ’74. By then, I’d already published two issues of my underground, New Paltz Comix, and the thought of exploring the Bay Area comix scene intrigued me. If Edgar could make the move, why not me? I’d lived in New York all my life, but I was 23, single, and ready to try something slightly crazy. So I said goodbye to friends and family, stored my comics with some pals, and began a trip to California on a hippie-style “Grey

Rabbit” bus—complete with working woodstove. A week later, I arrived in San Francisco with $200 and four duffle bags stuffed with clothes and comics. I called Edgar when I arrived, and he invited me to crash at his cousin’s house in Santa Rosa, about an hour away from San Francisco. From there I hitched to the city every day searching for a cheap room to rent.

Flower Child! I was still looking when Edgar and I decided to check out Berkeley, counterculture capital of the universe. Stepping off the BART train, we were greeted by a young hippie chick straight from central casting. After introducing herself as “Evie Eden,” she gave us each a small flower. Then she invited us to a free meal that night in a large commune house a few blocks away, courtesy of something called the “Ideal City Project.” Hey, never let it be said that Michael T. Gilbert turned down a free meal! We had a few hours before our feast, so we walked a few blocks to the office of the notorious underground paper, The Berkeley Barb. The Barb had been publishing underground cartoonists, and I thought I’d stop by and see if I could get my foot in the door. Some layout guy working there told me about the Barb’s loosey-goosy approach to submissions. Cartoonist Larry Rippee, who worked for them beginning in 1974, recently described it: “I file my working with the Barb as one of my better cartooning

Inkspots! (Part 2)

experiences. I liked the casual offhand approach to the Barb. Nobody got uppity with me (that changed later). You could drop off your work in a basket, and if it was printed you could drop back by for check. In the cartooning game this was a tragically rare experience. My first stuff was all half pages they used as filler in the massage parlor section in the middle. I did these purposely “to size” [NOTE: the actual printed size] after noticing they sometimes

ran out of ads and would stick cartoons there. I got $50 for those pages (who needed Undergrounds; I was making twice the page rate!). Filler seems to have been my thing even in the UG comic books—I often thought of myself as the Henry Boltinoff of the Underground.” After we left the Barb, Edgar and I checked out the Comics and

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Comix store on Telegraph Ave and explored the campus. The hippie vibe was fascinating, with vendors everywhere selling jewelry, hash pipes, and other trinkets. Later we returned to grab our free feast at the Ideal City Project. Our feast turned out to be mostly lettuce, beans, and rice. For dessert they provided a film extolling the virtues of the imaginary Ideal City (donations gratefully accepted!). After dinner they invited us to a weekend campout on their Booneville farm, and even offered to lend us sleeping bags. A camping trip sounded like fun, so I signed on. After all, I’d moved to California for adventure, and here it was! Besides, without a job or an apartment, what did I have to lose? Who knows, maybe the Booneville farm could be my new home. That night, me, Edgar and a handful of other twentysomethings shacked up in trailers (ladies and gents separately). Food remained mostly rice and beans. Edgar went home after the weekend, but I was determined to stick it out. The weekend turned into a week, and then two. I’d brought a few comix with me, but was told that if I had to read them, to do so away from the group, lest they be a bad influence. Shades of Wertham!

We sang songs, listened to spiritual lectures, and did some light work on the farm. Sometimes we built mini-terrariums, which other members hawked, supposedly to fund The Ideal City Project. However one of us eventually discovered that our group was really a front for the Reverend Sun Myung Moon’s notorious Unification Church. Yow! I was outta there! A couple of years later, the San Francisco Chronicle ran an expose of the Moonies. One former member who’d been there for years described the posttraumatic stress she suffered after leaving the Moonies. Her name? Evie Eden—the flower child who had invited me to dinner!

Escape From The Moonies! Shortly after my Moonie adventure, I scored a room in an apartment near Daly City’s Cow Palace arena. My housemates included a charming 35-year-old Lando Calrissian look-alike, his pale, anorexic girlfriend, and a balding Communist. How very California! They urged me to sign up for Food Stamps and MediCal, California’s free medical coverage. That helped a lot, but I was still having no luck finding work. I

Inkspots! (Part 2)

drew some American Splendor-style “Diary” one-pagers about my experiences in San Francisco, which I’d hoped to sell to local magazines or newspapers—but I struck out. My feeble attempts to get design or layout work also led nowhere. Just before my money ran out, I saw an ad an elderly professor and his wife had posted on the Berkeley college bulletin board offering free room and board in return for fifteen hours of house and garden work a week. The couple, Everett and Lauramay Dempster, lived in a lovely house in upscale Orinda, about half an hour away from the city. This lucky break allowed me to survive while pursuing a comic book career. Which brings us back to Inkspots!

The Ground-Under Cartoonists!

Matchless Cartooning! Michael experimented with color overlays for his late-’70s imitation matchbook business card. Sometimes the printing didn’t line up, giving new meaning to the term “Matchless Cartooning!” [© 2014 Michael T. Gilbert.]

Last issue we discussed The Berkeley Barb’s weekly comic strip section, “Friday Funnies.” Its revolving list of contributors included cartoon pioneers Kim Deitch, Justin Green, and Joel Beck, as well as various up-and-coming talents. I joined the group after the Barb printed my first Inkspots! strip in May 1975. Thrilled, I dropped more off at the Barb offices. From then on, every Friday I’d march to a vending box in town that sold The Barb, plunk down a quarter and see if any had been published. When they did, I was $25 richer. When they didn’t, well, back to the ol’ drawing board. By now I’d met other local comix artists, most notably Art Spiegleman, Larry Todd, Kim Deitch, and Trina Robbins. That’s around the time I met my pal Larry Rippee, who was renting a room in Trina’s Mission District Victorian flat. Ripp was four days younger than me, a big fan of Golden Age comics, and also had cartoons published in the Barb. As Ripp remembers it… “I recall first meeting you at the Claremont Hotel during the first Bay Con in 1975. While making the rounds, Kevin Brady, Kevin East, Marc Miyashiro, Roger The Artist As A May, you, and me all met up and ultimately Young Boy went to the hotel bar (where Roger was Cartoonist Larry caught stealing the waitress’s tip tray). We Rippee, age 5, peers agreed at the bar that we should meet again into an uncertain future. at Brady’s place in the Sunset district (probably because he was the only one of us who actually lived in a house).”

The group called itself the “Ground-Under Cartoonists,” a wry variation of underground cartoonists. “Ground under” was also an accurate description of how we cash-strapped creators often felt. Every week or so I’d ride the BART train from Orinda to Kevin’s place. Most of us were third-generation underground cartoonists, hoping for our big break. We’d gab and jam together. Mostly we were just happy to have someone to show our work to, and maybe hear about some new comic looking for submissions. Our everchanging roster included Kevin Brady, Kevin East, Roger May, Marc Miyashiro, Dot Bucher, Shelby Sampson, and our most famous member, underground legend Trina Robbins.

In later years, Roger May gained fame converting art and comic books to 3-D. Trina graduated from drawing comics to writing books about them. Rippee continued cartooning and recently had a fine art exhibit of his work. Melinda Gebbie was also part of the group. Decades later, she and future husband Alan Moore would produce their acclaimed Lost Girls series. But we knew her when!

Pounding The Pavement Meanwhile, I was busy schlepping my portfolio around to underground publishers, most notably Last Gasp Publishing’s Ron Turner. Last Gasp was located in a large old San Francisco warehouse, its shelves bulging with underground comix. In addition to his own titles, Turner also distributed comics and magazines from other publishers. Ron looked at my art samples, but didn’t have any work for me. Undiscouraged, I pulled out copies of New Paltz Comix, hoping he’d buy some back issues. Instead, he offered to trade boxes of my comix for anything in the warehouse. I came home far richer that day—in comics, at least! Later, I did manage to sell Turner a story for his Slow Death anthology. Gary Arlington was another comix personality I approached. Gary published and edited the San Francisco Comic Book series, as

#1 EC Fan! Bob Crumb’s illo of underground publisher Gary Arlington from San Francisco Comic #1 (Jan. 1970). [© R. Crumb.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

well as the esoteric Nickel Library (which we spotlighted in Alter Ego #29 & 30). Gary also opened one of the country’s first comics-only shops way back in 1968. Arlington, an EC fan-extraordinaire, took great pride in the fact that he owned two copies of every comic the company had published! Gary’s small Mission District shop, filled top to bottom with undergrounds and rare Golden Age comics, was a gathering place for comix artists, many of whom lived in walking distance. One of them, Roger Brand, helped out at the store. In return, Gary paid the rent for Roger’s small apartment nearby.

“Bon Voyage! Chump!” Schmoozing with cartoonists was fun, but I still needed to pay the bills. I drew some short stories on spec, most of which didn’t sell until years later. I also taught small cartooning classes to make ends meet. For a while the Barb continued to run Inkspots!, publishing about eight in all. However, my stint there came to an abrupt end after I drew a special strip to celebrate the paper’s 10th anniversary. The Barb was known for its irreverent humor. I was curious to see how they’d react if the joke was on them. I should have known the answer. My cartoon featured their skeleton-on-a-skeleton-horse mascot thanking the readers for their support on their 10th anniversary and vowing to “continue the hard-hitting political commentary that made The Barb famous!” However, the background showed two, er, excited readers poring over the latest issue, with actual clips from the paper’s classified sex ads pasted in their thought balloons. High-minded politics notwithstanding, I knew what actually paid the bills.

This was a kindness on Gary’s part. Unfortunately, Roger was a Who’s Paranoid?! sweet guy with a bad drinking The Berkeley Barb with skeleton mascot problem, one that eventually killed I thought it was funny, but the Barb had the last laugh. from August 22, 1969, art by Brown. him. Brand, who apprenticed under When I picked up the 10th anniversary edition on Sept. 12, The paper folded on July 3, 1980. [© The both Gil Kane and Wally Wood, Berkeley Barb or successors in interest.] 1975, my strip wasn’t in it. In its place was a reprint of a could have taught a Master’s Class 1930s Alex Raymond Secret Agent X-9 newspaper strip in Golden Age comics. On the day showing the hero being thrown off a cliff. The strip originally had Rippee introduced us, we strolled over to Brand’s place to drool the villain saying, “See you in Hades, flatfoot!,” but a clever staffer over his collection. Inside Roger’s spare apartment were scrapbooks of early-’40s Lou Fine “Ray” and “Black Condor” tear sheets and vintage “White Indian” stories by Frazetta. As Larry later explained it, Roger purposely tore the stories out from the comics so that he wouldn’t be tempted to sell them for booze. The books themselves were worth a small fortune, but only with the stories still intact. Ripped out, they were worthless to the Mylar crowd. But to rabid comic fans like us, the stories were priceless.

Barbed Humor! (Right:) Alex Raymond drew the top half of the art from the Berkeley Barb, Sept. 12, 1975, for his Rip Kirby strip. [© King Features.] (Below:) This Inkspots! strip, satirizing the Berkeley Barb on their 10th anniversary, never saw print. Wonder why?! [© 2014 Michael T. Gilbert.]

Inkspots! (Part 2)

lived humor magazine, under the title Michael T. Gilbert’s Comic Strip (a name I quickly, mercifully, dropped!). I drew a few more between paying assignments, even after I moved from California to Texas in 1979. But when I relocated to Ohio in ’82 to work on Elric of Melniboné (and later, Mr. Monster) for Pacific Comics, I finally called it a day. I’d had a lot of fun with Inkspots!, but I was ready for the next phase of my career. Looking back at these strips, I’m tempted to call Inkspots! a failure, especially since most of them remained A Rose By Any Other Name... unpublished until now. But, in fact, Inkspots! got Bull magazine #8 (Oct. 1975), based in St. Petersburg, Florida, reprinted four Inkspots! strips. me my start professionally, and the flexible format Michael experimented with a new title for the series, but quickly decided he liked the old allowed me to experiment with art and writing one better. [© Michael T. Gilbert.] techniques that came in handy later. More importantly, I had fun doing these, even if the gags had changed it to “Bon Voyage! Chump!” sometime fell flat. But, as the great Bob Crumb once said, “It’s only Perhaps I was just paranoid and the “Chump!” cartoon had lines on paper, folks!!” nothing to do with my strip. But I’ve always suspected it was The Barb’s fond farewell to Inkspots! I do know that none of my strips Postscript: ever appeared after that. Rummaging through my files for these articles for the first time Undeterred, I kept trying to sell Inkspots! Though the Barb in decades was like digging up ancient history. It was also a lesson wasn’t interested, I actually got a few reprinted in Bull, a shorton how time and technology has altered the comic book landscape—not to mention my art itself. My Inkspots! originals were almost 40 years old, and showed it. Craftint shading on some panels had faded, rubber cement had turned yellow, and misplaced overlays had to be found. Some strips had been copied and reformatted for magazines or papers that never got off the ground. Frankly, it was a mess! But, with patience, I was able to reconstruct the strips using 21st-century technology straight out of “Tommy Tomorrow.” Photoshop’s “clone” brushes repaired faded Craftint, while the program’s “magic wand” and “delete” features quickly removed pesky glue stains. More importantly, for the first time Photoshop allowed me to see full-color versions of strips I’d drawn decades earlier. Back then, my strips were all hand-separated, using black-&-white overlays, in contrast to more expensive photographically-separated art. The big drawback with hand seps was that you could only see the full color art when it was actually printed, unless relatively expensive proof sheets were made. In the ‘70s, those were out of my price range, so I had to guess how the colors would align with the black, and pray they weren’t too far off-register. But now I was able to scan the art and convert the various color plates to whatever hue I chose, before merging them with the black plate on my computer. And when I needed an entirely new color plate (as was the case with strip #11, which I’d never gotten around to shading), I quickly and easily created one in Photoshop. Anyone who suffered through the tedious cut-and-paste methods of the ‘70s will appreciate what a miracle that is! One final thought. Just weeks after completing this article, The Comics Reporter on January 17, 2014, posted the sad news that Gary Arlington, age 75, had passed away. Gary was a sweet guy, and I’d like to dedicate this column to his memory. Till next time...

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Title Topline Comic Article Fandom Archive

STEVE PERRIN – Part 3

A Potpourri Of His 1960s Writings—Including His Profile of SF/Comics Writer EDMOND HAMILTON

or the last two issues, we’ve run my interview with Steve Perrin, along with images to illustrate the points being discussed: his introduction to fandom, meeting the Golden Gate foursome, collaborating with Ronn Foss to create “The Black Phantom,” and quite a bit more. Unfortunately, a sidebar and samples from other pieces got squeezed out—until we decided to spend one more issue with Steve. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to present his profile of sciencefiction and comics writer Edmond Hamilton, which was conducted at the 1964 World Science Fiction Convention in the San Francisco area. It appeared under the heading “Meet the Pro” in Voice of Comicdom #3 (Jan. 1965), the same issue that featured a brief “Meet the Fan” profile of Steve himself. In addition, we thought a least a page of Steve’s article on Fighting American from Harvey’s Silver Age reprint Fighting American #1 (1966) ought to be shown, though we decided not to reprint it all, rife as it is with typing errors committed by someone on Harvey’s editorial staff. (It originally appeared in Mike Tuohey’s fanzine Super-Hero #2 (1962). In addition: several years ago, Bill Spicer sent along Steve’s unused script for a second “Black Phantom” strip, titled “Death Trap in Harlem.” Unfortunately, it wasn’t adapted by Ronn Foss or any other artist at the time. However, we thought this would be a great opportunity to reproduce a page of the script, just for fun, featuring as it did an African-American super-hero some time before Marvel’s Black Panther, let alone Luke Cage. Enjoy! —Bill Schelly.

Meet The Pro – EDMOND HAMILTON by Steve Perrin

(From Voice of Comicdom #3 [Jan. 1965]

n the second day of the World Science Fiction Convention in Oakland, I caught Edmond Hamilton for a moment, and after discussing his past and present science fiction work for a few brief moments, I asked for an interview later in the day, a request he affably granted. “Later” turned out to be within the next couple of hours, as I spied my coeditor of Mask and Cape, Margaret Gemignani, talking with Mr. Hamilton, and I speedily joined them. Mr. Hamilton, a very pleasant gentleman, seemed happy to talk about his work with the Superman family of magazines, perhaps as a relief from the “straight” science fiction he had been discussing the whole day. Through Mr. Hamilton we got an

We’ll Always Have Perrin (Left to right:) Fans Steve Perrin, Bill DuBay, and Johnny Chambers in a photo printed (very small!) in Voice of Comicdom #2 in September 1964. Bill, an artist, would go on to edit the James Warren magazines for some years, while cartoonist Johnny Chambers was later published in the Comics Buyer’s Guide and elsewhere.

interesting portrait of Superman editor Mort Weisinger, an old time friend of Hamilton’s who, in fact, helped to bring Hamilton and his wife, Leigh Brackett, together. Mr. Weisinger is very conscientious about the continuity in the Superman stories and is constantly working at

[Continued on p. 66]

Science Says You’re Right If You Believe That... (Left:) Edmond Hamilton (1904-1977, in a photo from Voice of Comicdom #3) began writing magazine science-fiction in 1926, and eventually became a prolific writer of what could be called interstellar space opera—but good interstellar space opera. He also contributed to Weird Tales in its heyday. (Above center:) His wife Leigh Brackett, seen with him here, in addition to writing lyrical science-fiction prose herself, was a credited screenwriter on such major films as The Big Sleep, Rio Bravo, and The Empire Strikes Back. Thanks to Bill Schelly for both scans. (Above right:) The cover of the 1977 collection The Best of Edmond Hamilton— edited by Leigh Brackett. Painting by Don Maitz. Thanks to Bill Bailey. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Comic Fandom Archive

Back To The Future, Captain! The Standard/Thrilling pulp magazine Captain Future, Vol. 1, #1 (1940) introduced Hamilton’s best-known science-fiction character, who became the author’s template for at least two DC comics series heroes he would later cocreate and write, as per this clockwise triptych: “The Adventures of Chris KL-99” beginning in Strange Adventures #1 (Aug.-Sept. 1950), drawn by Howard Sherman— A later tale of that nigh-clone of Captain Future from SA #9 (June 1951), with art by Murphy Anderson— —and “Space Ranger” in Showcase #15 (July-Aug. 1958), the latter scripted from a plot credited to Gardner Fox. Art by Bob Brown. Thanks to Jim Ludwig & Bob Bailey for the comics scans, and to Bill for the pulp scan. [Captain Future cover © the respective copyright holders; other pages © DC Comics.]

Steve Perrin — Part 3

What’ve You Done Lately? (Above left:) Superman #172 (Oct. 1964), featuring Hamilton’s 3-parter referred to on the cover as “The Tyrant Superman!,” was the issue on newsstands when he was interviewed by Steve Perrin for VoC. Art by Curt Swan & George Klein. Thanks to Bob Bailey. (Above right:) Action Comics #318 (Nov. ’64) featured Superman’s return to the Luthor-friendly planet Lexor in “The Death of Luthor!” Art by Swan & Klein. Thanks to Steven Willis & Doug Martin. [© DC Comics.]

A Fighting Chance At Prodom In a way, Steve broke into pro comics—when Harvey Comics reprinted one of his fanzine articles in Fighting American #1 (Oct. 1966), though adding their own typos, as seen at far right. The issue’s cover (near left) is, of course, by the dream team of Joe Simon & Jack Kirby. Lucky for us, the entire Fighting American canon from the 1950s and ’60s has been reprinted in hardcover a couple of times. [Article © Steve Perrin; Fighting American material © Estates of Joe Simon & Jack Kirby.]

Comic Fandom Archive

[Continued from p. 63] them, despite the results shown in the resulting Superman stories. In fact, Mr. Hamilton was awakened in the early hours by a phone call while he was in Chicago a while back. It was Weisinger, who was calling from his hospital bed! He was in the hospital for operations on ulcers, and had gotten an idea for a Superman story, so nothing could do except he had to tell Hamilton. After the story discussion, Mort mentioned that his wife was in the next room. She had been so upset over her husband’s hospitalization that she piled up her car on the freeway!

The Fandom “Phantom” (Left:) The impact of Steve Perrin & Ross’ Foss’ “battlers against bigotry” led to one of their “Black Phantom” pages from Fantasy Illustrated being reprinted in the “CoFanadicts” column in the movie-monster magazine Castle of Frankenstein #10 (Feb. 1966). [© Steve Perrin & Estate of Ronn Foss.] (Right:) Unfortunately, Perrin’s follow-up “Black Phantom” script, “Death Trap in Harlem,” never made it into illustrated form. Such were

Unlike most the vagaries of fanzine publishing. Foss became much less active in comics fandom at this time, as did Perrin; Bill Spicer’s Fantasy of the comic Illustrated changed its title to Graphic Story Magazine and didn’t publish more costumed-hero stories. book writers, [© 2014 Steve Perrin.] Edmond Hamilton does comics were even started, but there are few to take their places. not live close to the offices of the comic company he works for. Some of the new blood that is there comes from the TV and movie Since he is also, and perhaps mainly, a straight science fiction field, but salaries are far too high in the visual mediums for the writer, he is not bound to one area. In fact, he rarely sees Weisinger comic companies to entice very many away. The current science more than a few times a year. As a rule, assignments are carried fiction writers find straight fiction much more profitable. So where out by mail or, as was mentioned above, by phone. Because of this, are the new writers coming from? The fans are the only possible he has never met Jerry Siegel, although they both have worked on source, so let’s start pounding those typewriters! Superman for two decades and Siegel is one of Hamilton’s biggest fans. I found Mr. Hamilton to be a sincere practitioner of his art, and conscientious in his efforts, with both science fiction and Currently, Mr. Hamilton works on Superman and the Legion of Superman. His stories have been among the best to Super-Heroes, and perhaps the World’s Finest stories (this was not come from the Superman family, and I know that all made clear in the discussion). He does not do the Lois Lane stories, join me in a “toast” to a master of science fiction and although he tried one. That one was the reason he no longer does comic books, Edmond Hamilton. them. “I just don’t have the ‘feel’ for them,” was his comment. He very rarely does Superboy, although he wrote the original Coming Soon to the Comic Fandom Archive: Jim Harmon Superbaby story. Mr. Hamilton does not like the current incarposthumously introduces our re-presentation of his landmark nation of the Super-tyke, considering its language too childish. 1957 article “I Remember Comic Books,” a sort of precursor to Perhaps the subject of most interest to fans was the dearth of the legendary “All in Color for a Dime” series in Xero. If you writers for comics. Mr. Hamilton and others came into the field at wish to share comments with Bill, you can email him at its start, brought into it by friends among the new editors, like hamstrpres@aol.com or contact him through Facebook. Several editors Weisinger and Schwartz. Now, these firstcomers are getting of his Hamster Press books are still available. old, many having spent several years in science fiction before

In Memoriam

Nick Cardy (1920-2013)

“Those Who Appreciate Fine Art Will Treasure His Work Forever”

by Mark Evanier

icholas Viscardi, aka Nick Cardy, was born October 20, 1920. He was 18 when he went to work for Will Eisner’s studio in the dawn of comics. He’d studied at the Art Students League, and Eisner always said that, when Nick walked in with his samples, he was an instant hire. His drawing was that good. He did many jobs for Eisner, but was probably best known for drawing and usually writing the “Lady Luck” feature that ran as a back-up in Eisner’s famous newspaper comic sections of The Spirit. Nick signed some of his early works “Nick Cardi” before settling down to “Cardy.”

He served in World War II and won two Purple Hearts for injuries which, he would later joke, were nothing compared to what he endured working for some editors. Once home from the war, he worked in advertising and in newspaper comics (including a stint illustrating the Tarzan daily) before he began drawing in 1950 for DC Comics, an association that would last 25 years. His artistry was seen in dozens of different comics, but he’s probably best remembered for a long stint drawing Aquaman and for shorter but memorable runs on Teen Titans and a wonderful Western comic called Bat Lash. In the early ’70s, DC used him as one of their main cover artists across most of the line. He drew unusually handsome heroes and extraordinarily attractive women, and you could tell the work was always done with great care and pride. Nick later said he left comics because he was bored with the form and eager to try new areas and to paint. Some of us recall his departure as being due to business disputes he later chose to forget. Whatever the reason, he went back to “Cardi” and enjoyed great success as a commercial artist, painting posters for many hit films, including Movie Movie, California Suite, and Apocalypse Now. For a long time he shunned comic books, but was eventually lured back into the field to do a few covers. He was also lured onto the convention circuit, an honor he had long declined. In 1998, after refusing for years, Nick finally agreed to be a Guest of Honor at the Comic-Con International in San Diego. Nervously, he set down all sorts of conditions: His table had to be near the table of his friend, Colleen Doran; he had to be free to flee

the autograph area if the crowds got to him, etc. He balked at doing a panel/interview but finally agreed on the condition that others would be up there so they could talk if he froze in front of the audience. I was his interrogator and brought Colleen, Sergio Aragonés, and Marv Wolfman up there with him… needlessly, it turned out. Once Nick got talking, you couldn’t shut him up and the audience loved every word he said. Nick had the best time in San Diego that year. He always had a long line of folks eager to meet him and to thank him for all the great comics, and a lot of those who queued up were top professionals who thanked him for the inspiration. He was the kind of man who cried if you told him you loved his tie, so there were a lot of happy tears that weekend. Thereafter, he attended San Diego and other conventions whenever his health and budget would allow. He called me to chat every month or two, and when he did, I always knew I’d be on the phone for at least an hour and that I’d love every minute of it. Those who appreciate fine comic art will treasure his work forever… and those of us who knew him will never forget that dear, sweet man. This tribute has been edited slightly from its appearance on Mark Evanier’s website www.newsfromme.com. Mark is a television and comics writer of long standing and much talent. Nick was interviewed by Jim Amash for Alter Ego #67, and the book The Art of Nick Cardy by the artist and John Coates was published by Vanguard Productions in 1999.

The Nick of Time Nick Cardy (at top), plus two panels from a “Lady Luck” story in an early-1940s The Spirit comic section—and a pencil drawing of Aquaman that he did a few years back for collector Michael Dunne. [Lady Luck art © Will Eisner Studios, Inc.; Aquaman TM & © DC Comics.]

In Memoriam

Carmine Infantino (1925-2013) “Comic Book Icarus”

A Personal Tribute & Appreciation by Jim Amash

hough he was born in 1925, Carmine was essentially a child of the Great Depression. The era he grew up in forever marked him with insecurities often felt by survivors of the period. He fought against the emotional scars inflicted by the times to make himself a success. He had to prove and improve himself time and again as he worked to gain a foothold in the comic book business. His first published work was a 1941 “Jack Frost” story for Timely editor Joe Simon, inking over pencils by his friend Frank Giacoia. It wasn’t the last time Carmine worked for Joe. Later, in the 1940s, Carmine was part of the Simon & Kirby studio, where he formed a lifetime, often boisterous friendship with Simon. Rejected from military service in World War II, Carmine worked for many companies and a few studios, usually penciling, and sometimes inking his own work. I question the writing credits he claimed on Hillman Publications’ “Airboy” and “Heap,” because I have doubts as to their being solo efforts, knowing how editor Ed Cronin worked with his freelancers. Artistically, his Hillman work signaled a building maturity that Carmine carried on to his DC work in 1947 on “Black Canary” (co-created with writer Robert Kanigher), “Green Lantern,” and the first of two stints on “The Flash,” among a great many other features and covers for them and other companies. His style was still heavily influenced by Milton Caniff, but the storytelling improved as rapidly as his drawing. In the 1950s, Carmine realized he needed help if he was ever to advance his work beyond its present form. Taking classes at The School of Visual Arts and Art Students League—where he came under the tutelage of William NcNulty and Jack Potter—Carmine began to understand the potential of the design aesthetic, forsaking accurate draftsmanship in service to that cause. It became his raison d’être, elevating him above many of his contemporaries and past influences, though he never totally purged himself of the Caniff influence.

His watershed moment arrived in 1956 when DC editor Julie Schwartz picked Carmine to draw the revamp of “The Flash.” Carmine shed his past thoughts about the character, and created a new costume for the character, along with a matured approach to depict conception of super-speed on a flat, unmoving one-dimensional surface. It wasn’t just the way he drew the figures. It was also how he designed individual panels in service to the story, and to the entire page as a seamless unit of art. Panels were shrunk and expanded horizontally and/or vertically, occasionally partly borderless to enhance Carmine’s newfound approach of deep space indication within panels. He used the white of the page to further the effects he wanted to achieve. And if the figures needed to be artfully changed

Flashing A Smile “You don’t see many pictures of Carmine laughing, which is a shame,” says Jim Amash. “He had a very hearty laugh that I don’t think enough people heard.” Case in point: this photo of Carmine (on right) and Jim at the big New York convention in 2008, taken by Keif Simon. Infantino drew the Golden Age “Flash” in such titles as Comic Cavalcade #24 (Dec. 1947-Jan. 1948)… and designed and co-developed the Silver Age speedster, seen below in The Flash #159 (March 1966). He penciled both splashes, with inking by Frank Giacoia and Joe Giella, respectively. CC #24 scripter unknown; Flash #195 scripter Gardner F. Fox. Thanks to Bob Bailey for the latter scan. [Pages (© DC Comics.]

beyond human capability to amplify movement, he unhesitatingly and willfully did so. From “The Flash” to “Batman” to “The Elongated Man,” “Deadman,” and everything else he would later envision on paper, design and storytelling were all that artistically mattered now. His cover designs were infused with strikingly strong iconic images that generated fan interest and sparked high sales. Who could resist buying The Flash to see what Gorilla Grodd did to him, since all that seemingly remained was an empty costume? Was the Scarecrow really going to throw Batman off that cliff? And if one only had a jet-pack like Adam Strange’s, one could soar above the Earth and be majestically heroic in the fight for justice. Peril after danger on every cover emblazoned in full color made Carmine’s work became a focal point of the company style. It all temporarily came to a halt when Carmine went into management, first as a cover editor, and then as president and later publisher of DC Comics. His reign at the helm has always been a source of controversy among fans, historians, and creative personnel, but Carmine did his best to shape and change the company as he was mandated to do. He worked hard at his job,

In Memoriam

believe he ever doubted the importance and quality of his work, Carmine harbored many doubts about how his legacy was viewed by the public. He was very protective of that legacy, and would fight to defend it when besmirched in any way. Many proclaimed that he was oversensitive, and Carmine often admitted to me that he sometimes was. But this proud, feisty, and determined man would not apologize for it, nor would I suggest he ever should have. How one fights one’s own battles is an individual decision. The loner came out to the public to embrace the love and admiration of the fans, but the wall of privacy seldom showed a crack in the bricks. Those (Left:) Infantino’s first cover for Marvel’s Star Wars of us who grew close to him faced the full comic: issue #12 (June 1978). Inks by Terry Austin. [© Lucasfilm or successors in interest.] complexity of his obsessive/compulsive emotions, for good or ill. I saw him be petty and vindictive, (Above:) Carmine doing a sketch of Batgirl at a 2009 and I saw him be extremely generous, caring, and comics convention. Photo taken by Jim Amash. thoughtful. Highs and lows were all he ever felt, making many innovative decisions and a few bad ones, too, but always wearing his emotions on his sleeve. Carmine had his always in dedicated service to the company. DC experienced many demons and his secrets as all humans do, but what he kept inside exciting changes during his tenure: new book formats, hiring Jack never allowed him to fully trust others. He tried to, but uncondiKirby from Marvel, spearheading the development of new heroes tional trust was something he never managed to grant. and revamping old ones, though most of them did not last for I know I’ve painted a fairly bleak portrait of Carmine, and have various reasons. Some decisions were thrust upon him by the skirted around a number of issues about his personal life. He was distribution arm of DC, some were of his own gut feelings and very good to me for the most part. I considered him a friend, and personal taste. Carmine had to fight against the weakening distrilistened to him when he needed me to, and offered advice whether bution system and industry-wide falling sales, occasional clueless he solicited it or not. He did the same for me. For years, we talked ownership, and back-room disrespect from several quarters. He anywhere from once to five times a day, every day, though we began drinking in the mornings to strengthen his resolve to fight eventually had a falling-out. But that didn’t stop him from contindaily battles. And then, he was abruptly fired in January of 1976. ually checking on how I was doing through mutual friends, and on Heartbroken, despondent, his self-esteem carved into pieces, a few occasions, he had one friend ask me for a couple of favors, Carmine never did emotionally recover from the fall. The weapons which I was happy to fulfill. of the art trade he thought buried in his past had been sold to Joe As difficult as he could be at times, there was happiness in his Kubert years before. Carmine had to rebuild his studio from life, more than I’ve made it seem. He wanted to love and be loved scratch. He had to spiritually rebuild himself in order to persevere (who doesn’t?), but there were always conditions attached that once again as a comic artist, an undertaking that ate at his self often prevented his relationships from being what they could have image. But he had to earn a living. He went on to draw horror been. He had several lifelines that he could reach out to, and I’d stories for Warren Publications, and many books for Marvel, say his sister-in-law and two nephews were the people he cared including Spider-Woman, Star Wars, The Human Fly, The Incredible most about in the years that I knew him. Shortly before he died, he Hulk, among others. He returned to DC, where he reunited with his told fan Keif Simon, “If I had a son, I’d want him to be just like signature character, The Flash, as well as drawing features such as you.” Keif was probably the only non-family member Carmine “Supergirl,” “Red Tornado,” “Danger Trail,” and Detective Comics. didn’t having a falling out with at some point in their relationship. While a lot of the work was very good, Carmine never regained It may seem strange to some that a man of Carmine’s abilities his former standing as a popular artist in the business. Increasingly, couldn’t enjoy those talents for what they were. He was the comic his work became as uninteresting to the readers as they were to book Icarus who fell to the sea after flying too close to the sun that him. He knew it, too, but he couldn’t turn back the clock to the was DC’s parent company Time-Warner. Though he didn’t die time when he believed he could find his way as an innovative when he fell as Icarus did, the burns he suffered from the heat artist and as a force in the industry to which he devoted his life. were never healed by the cooling water of his craft or the praise of The fall from greatness, power, and respect affected him more his fans. I knew him, I cared about him, I kept some of his secrets. I deeply than he would admit to most people, though it was obvious wished more joy for him than he allowed for himself. We spent to all who knew him. He was always a loner, and what was left for more time laughing together than we did talking about the him was enough to sustain his finances, but not his heart and soul. negative. Carmine loved playing Abbott to my Costello, and I Those lines he made on paper did not soothe the blows of enjoyed the role cast to me. Carmine mostly treated me like an misfortune. He wanted to be known as a businessman more than equal. We often made fun of each other and told lots of jokes, and as an artist. He loved being in charge of DC almost as much as he had genuine affection between us. I’ll remember him more for the loved his own life. Once that became his identity, he couldn’t get good times we had and the heartiness of his laugh. It ended all too over the loss of it. soon. So did his life. So did his joy, what he had of it. But what After many years of avoiding comic book conventions and internever dies is the vast legacy he brought to comics. What his talents viewers, Carmine finally started facing the public. I don’t know bequeathed to us remains vital and unending, as will his presence how much he needed the money, but I know that selling art and in the lives of those who knew him. books were a factor in going to conventions. Seeing how popular Jim Amash is the author (with Eric Nolen-Weathington) of he was with fans, many of whom showered him with great Carmine Infantino: Penciler * Publisher * Provocateur reverence and respect, was very good for Carmine. While I don’t (TwoMorrows, 2010).

A Star Is Re-Born

that myself, but decided not to comment. The next writer did, though— and very eloquently, on that and a number of 3-D-related subjects: John Benson: “The entire issue A/E #115 is an example of why the 3-D comics phase was over so quickly. Unless they’re printed just right and the glasses are made perfectly and match the printing, they don’t work! Every example in the issue has show-through; most have strong show-through. Of course, you had little control—you were working with scans from multiple sources, and most of them seem to have been worked on with Photoshop. The glossy paper makes the ink too dark, too. At least some of those examples never worked properly even in the original comics, I’m sure. The glasses in my bag were folded backwards, incidentally. Oh, one image worked perfectly in 3-D: the photo of Ray Zone on page 50.

“My biggest disappointment is the Bob Bean art on page 41. Ever since Bean told me about this drawing in 1990, I’ve wanted to see it. And now, here it is, and—although you get a vague sense that the guys are in the background even with the show-through— her suit top just isn’t floating in the air at all. Sigh.

y happy coincidence, this issue’s coverage of the 3-D comics of the 1950s—and in particular of the legal battles over them— coincides with a letters section devoted to Alter Ego #115, our first 3-D issue! So it worked out especially well that Shane Foley drew, and Randy Sargent colored (now that his computer problems are a thing of the past), the above illustration of our “maskot” Captain Ego—in the style of Joe Kubert’s hologram image done for the cover of Craig Yoe’s 2011 book Amazing 3-D Comics. [Captain Ego TM & © Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly; created by Biljo White.] So, let’s get started… and, as per usual of late, we revert to first person (“I” instead of “we” or “they”) and to printing editorial responses in italics after the excerpted comments from communications we received on our earlier 3-D thrillfest. Most readers were happy to see an entire issue on the 3-D craze, but there were a few problems, touched on in the missives below….

Henry Kujawa: “I just read the main article on 3-D. (The sidebars will have to wait; those things drive me crazy.) It’s a bit difficult, because I’m four years overdue on new reading glasses, and I’m having to use a magnifying glass. Not being able to fold the magazine open is an added challenge. Look at this—so many technical problems, and I didn’t even put on the 3-D glasses!... I find Bill Gaines’ ‘business’ behavior to be contemptible. Instead of beating his competition by producing and promoting superior product, he goes about it in an underhanded way. What a surprise to learn that not only did he succeed in helping to drive Archer St. John out of business (and the poor guy died shortly thereafter), but in some way it also led to driving both Harvey Kurtzman and Bill Elder off Mad magazine! This is the first I’ve ever heard of this. I suppose Gaines felt it was totally acceptable, in light of how EC was pretty much driven out of the comics industry by the misguided and contemptible actions of others…. St. John’s attempts to expand and corner the market, of course, didn’t help him at all.”

You got an even closer, more extended look at the 3-D business dispute between Gaines’ EC and Archer St. John’s company in this issue, Henry. As for Leonard Maurer’s statement about a possible connection between that set-to and Kurtzman and Elder leaving Mad—well, I didn’t buy into

“Ray Zone’s comments in the caption on page 19 are wrong from start to finish. He seems to be describing how he made 3-D comics from existing 2-D comics years later. This page is the finished version of a page that was done exactly the way St. John and EC did their 3-D pages, only it’s missing the celluloid sheet that had the panel borders (with the areas in between the panels opaque). These images were not ‘ultimately’ put on in layers; what we’re seeing here is already layers, the image of four celluloid sheets stacked on top of each other over the back board. On the right are stickers labeled B, 1, 2, 3, and 4, which are stuck onto the various layers. 3-D comics of the ’50s often used Craftint for the bottom sheet. Craftint, as you know, fades, so in the ’50s the art on that back page was darker. The shapes weren’t outlined in ink because it wasn’t necessary, and leaving the background pure Craftint would make these crowded panels less confusing. (Note that there are modulated Craftint cloud images with no inked lines in the page shown on the previous A/E page.) Stats were not applied to these celluloid sheets—you can readily see at the edges of the panels that these sheets have been opaqued on the back, so they were inked right on the front of the celluloid. (And I don’t think PMTs existed back then, did they?) You do ‘actually have originals’ here, in this case five original pieces of art for the one page. This is definitely not an FPO image (who would use expensive Craftint paper for that?)—and an FPO image isn’t really needed for the way 3-D comics were made in the ’50s. The panel border sheet may have been intentionally left off when this was shot, because some art has to be hidden when the celluloid sheets are shifted. Leaving the panel border sheet off allows you to see all the art—or at least all the art that isn’t hidden by other art on higher sheets.

“I also don’t agree with Ray’s statement in the sidebar on page 2 that the Harvey 3-D comics had any discrete right- and left-eye drawings. Harvey would occasionally tilt an image on a special cel when the page was photographed the second time, so that the object would appear to go continuously from one planar level to another. If you look at the two images in those instances, you’ll see that they are the same drawing. “The caption on page 31 and the sidebar on page 41 state that the Disney 3-D Cheerios comics were placed in Cheerios boxes. Not so. You had to send away for them. I remember that, but you can also check your Overstreet for details. There was a 3-D giveaway in cereal boxes at the time, though. The cardboard layers between the Nabisco Shredded Wheat biscuits had 3-D pictures of wild animals printed on them for a while. These being photos, I guess they don’t really relate to the A/E feature.

[comments & corrections]

“As I’m sure you’ve noticed, the image at the top left of page 13 is from a Harvey book, not a St. John book as the caption states

“I would disagree with you that the Frank Bolle art in the Magazine Enterprises books ‘was pretty much ACG’s Truevision with white gutters.’ Bolle’s panels were pretty flat except for things sticking out of the panel borders. Harry Lazarus really tried for an in-depth effect by highlighting perspective in shapes and architecture, and using shadows, with and without Craftint. I think his had a markedly more 3-D effect than any of the other 2-D attempts, with the illusion of things receding inside the panel as well as things sticking out. I have to agree with you, though, on the Toth attempts; my reaction was exactly the same as yours—and I first saw them years later. “As to Leonard Maurer’s comments, they are interesting, and I’d guess his narrative of how 3-D was created for St. John is more accurate than Kubert’s. Of course, you know that Kurtzman and Elder left EC about 2½ years later, and for reasons unconnected with the 3-D debacle. It would have been nice to footnote that. As to St. John going bankrupt and the 3-D mess resulting in his death, I doubt that, too. The St. John company never stopped publishing comics until 1958 and didn’t go out of business until son Michael sold it some years after that. Before the three 3-D months, the company was averaging about 12 issues a month; afterward, it averaged about 10 a month. In early 1953, St. John had started Manhunt, a very successful publication that sold very well through 1953, 1954, an 1955, and continued for a number of years. Did St. John go through some sort of Chapter 11 bankruptcy? I’d be interested to know for sure, but I kind of doubt it. It’s important to remember that, although he lost a lot on the 3-D debacle, he also made a lot initially. Archer St. John himself died in August 1955, again considerably after the 3-D debacle, on the eve of launching a major new initiative, Nugget magazine. The 3-D debacle may have hastened his death, but again that’s rather problematical. “Still, a fascinating issue, which I read from cover to cover!”

Whew! You had us worried till that last part, John. But seriously, folks—we pretty much agree with everything John says above. As I said back on page 2, publisher John Morrow and layout chief Chris Day have made an effort to get rid of whatever they can of what JB calls ‘showthrough’ in the 3-D images in this issue, but if not—well, we did our best. Either way, we think you’ll still find Ken Quattro’s text and the art examples well worth your time. Jay Kinney: “I just pulled out the A/E 3-D glasses again and tried them on an old St. John 3-D Three Stooges comic. They worked quite well, so I don’t think the problem is with the glasses as such. Perhaps it is that the red-and-blue tones in the A/E issue weren’t ‘washed out’ enough to work well with the glasses. The inks were definitely darker in A/E than in vintage 3-D comics. And I suspect the white-coated glossy stock of the A/E paper had something to do with it, too. I wonder if there would have been the same problem if the issue were printed on matte paper. It seems to me, subjectively, that the red ink was too dark to be successfully pushed back by the red lens, and the blue ink too dark to be pushed back by the blue lens. So one sees double lines with both eyes, suppressing the 3-D effect.”

Like we said above, Jay, we’re taking another shot at it this time. This is quite possibly our last try at a real ‘3-D issue,’ but we’ll continue to print images from 3-D comics in Alter Ego when the situation calls for it, so hang onto those cardboard ‘glasses’ for a few years, okay?

Jerry K. Boyd: “I just finished reading the 3-D A/E (wonderful issue!), and it was Johnny Craig who did the ‘directions for the 3-D comics’ art on page 44.” Thanks, Jerry. I assume this info is confirmed by the Grand Comics Database or in some historical tome on EC?

Maybe We Should Add A Soundtrack By The Fifth Dimension? Another Bernard Krigstein-drawn page from “The Monster from the Fourth Dimension” in Three Dimensional EC Classics #1 (Spring 1954); plot by Bill Gaines, script by Al Feldstein. Thanks to Rod Beck. [© William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

Hames Ware: “Issue #115 was like old-home week for me—seeing Bill Spicer and Richard Kyle in photos taken around the time I got out to California, and then my actual home town of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, being prominently mentioned in the article relating to Freeman Owens, who was from there and already a legend in our small Southern Arkansas town. He was the classic inventor, filled with ideas, and even though referred to by some in the article in 1953 as ‘about to die,’ happily he lived another 25 years and probably kept right on inventing till the end.

“Some addenda: Ray Thompson is the long-time ‘Fleer’s Funnies’ artist, signing every one of ’em ‘Ray T’ (he also did some comic book work). In the interview with Al Feldstein are mentioned some of the great artists who’d been at Eisner & Iger: Lou Fine and Ray Rita. I feel reasonably sure the latter was a typo for Raf Astarita, who was indeed one of the giants. The ‘Bill Hughes’ mentioned is one I’ve not seen mentioned before. Perhaps more will be learned. None of the ‘Mighty Mouse’ art is ID’d, but one of the primary artists on ‘MM’ was Art Bartsch, and perhaps his work is there.” Always great to hear from one of the real experts on the comic book artists of the Golden Age, Hames.

Bill Black: “Just glanced through the 3-D ish of A/E. Nice job! FYI: Feldstein’s ‘Creekmore Curse’ was published in AC’s Crypt of Horror, Vol. 11, in crisp, sharp black-&-white line art…. And Powell’s 3-D story ‘Sand’ was published in sharp, clear b&w 2-D in

re:

COH 16. Earlier Harvey stories got the same treatment in previous volumes of COH. I was thrilled to learn there was a ‘Black Rider’ story in Atlas’ 3-D Tales of the West. I’ll start hunting for that book today!” In case some readers don’t know it, Bill, I should mention that you’re the publisher of AC Comics, source for thousands of public-domain Golden Age stories. We recommend your mags highly; interested parties should see your ad on p. 62. Send your lauds and lambasts to:

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

This is the place where we tell you not to forget to sign up with the AlterEgo-Fans online chat list at group.yahoo.com/group/alter-ego-fans. If you have any problems getting on board, contact amiable overseer Chet Cox at mormonyoyoman@gmail.com and he’ll walk you through it. It’s a great place to discuss Golden and Silver Age comics in a friendly atmosphere—and sometimes get some advance news about Alter Ego, as well!

Jet Pup-py Love Jim Ludwig, ultra-frequent finder of images for this mag, writes: “I wanted to let you know of an error in A/E #115. I am the one who brought the Jet Pup 3-D and asked that it be scanned [for you]. I would not have known the book existed from a company that had nothing else published, but I needed it for my one-from-every-Golden-Age-company collection.” Sorry, Jim—we were juggling so many things in that issue that we somehow put James Cassara’s name on that file instead of yours. We’ll rectify that mistake by printing another page from that super-rare comic, which of course we owe to you and dealer Gary Dolgorff. (In the meantime, though, A/E’s own Michael T. Gilbert came up with scans from that issue from another source. When it rains, it floods!) [© the respective copyright holders.]

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#186 July 2014

thing objectively, I guess.

I can’t do that, all the time. I find myself getting too enthused over something, and then comes the dawn and the brown taste of disillusionment. Or conversely, some little problem faces me, and right away the end of the world is coming, and my nerves do the Jitterbug.

Part VII

Abridged & Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

One of the toughest things for me is making a decision, even a little one. I know it’s neurotic. The normal person would firmly make up his mind one way or another and then carry out his decision with single-tracked enjoyment. Period. Not me. I always have two desires and conflictions. I know, I’m a dual personality. There are two of me, and each hates what the other one likes and they’re always quarreling.

tto Oscar Binder (1911-1974), the prolific science fiction and comic book writer renowned for authoring over half of the Marvel Family saga for Fawcett Publications, wrote Memoirs of a Nobody in 1948 at the age of 37 during what was arguably the most imaginative period within the repertoire of Captain Marvel stories.

It occurs to me that everyone is neurotic, one way or another. Don’t we all have our little foibles and mental twists? I’m glad I’m not normal. I’d stick out like a sore thumb.

Aside from intermittent details about himself, Binder’s capricious chronicle resembles very little in the way of anything that is indeed autobiographical. Unearthed several years ago from Binder’s file materials at Texas A&M University, Memoirs is self-described by its author as “ramblings through the untracked wilderness of my mind.” Binder’s potpourri of stray philosophical beliefs, pet peeves, theories, and anecdotes were written in freewheeling fashion and devoid of any charted course — other than allowing his mind to flow with no restricting parameters. The abridged and edited manuscript—serialized here within the pages of FCA—will nonetheless provide glimpses into the idiosyncratic and fanciful mind of Otto O. Binder.

There is one thing in the world that is absolutely sure and positively certain. I can give you this soul-saving touchstone in one word. The only sure and safe and certain and eternal thing in the universe is … change!

In this seventh excerpt, Otto executes some self-examination in a chapter he titled “Confessions of a Neurotic.” —P.C. Hamerlinck. Are all writers neurotic?

Am I a neurotic? Are you a neurotic? Is that good? Is that bad? Don’t expect help from me. That’s your problem.

Yes, change. “And this too shall pass away.” You can bet your bottom dollar that the one thing you can rely on never to change is that all things will change. The sins of one generation are the virtues of the next. The ideals of one age are the stupidities of the next. But what’s that got to do with neuroticism? Oh well, how do you expect a silly neurotic like me to stick to the subject anyway? Next: THE EGO AND I

It would seem that most wordflingers are not “normal” or “average.” And that would include artists, too. And let’s toss in musicians just for good measure. Putting it on a broader basis, are all creative people somewhat on the neurotic side? Well, I can’t answer that question. I’m only God when creating stories. But in the process of some years of soul-searching and self-analysis, I can surmise that I am a neurotic. What is a neurotic? As I gather, it’s a person who lives in a dreamworld, or at least applies too much imagination to real life. The normal person, I suppose, takes life exactly as it comes, with quiet joy and strength, and is not to be deceived into using either rosecolored glasses or black paint … [with] a knack of looking at every-

A Fear Of Phobias (Left:) Self-confessed neurotic Otto Binder had Captain Marvel’s alter ego display some neurotic behavior in “Billy Batson’s Phobias” in Captain Marvel Adventures #84 (May 1948). In this story in which Captain Marvel appeared in just four panels, Billy’s unusual conduct was actually the result of Dr. Sivana’s Phobia Ray Projector—what else?! Art by C.C. Beck. (Right:) Did writer Binder’s dual persona emerge when he wrote “Captain Marvel Unites a Split Personality” for CMA #86 (July 1948)? Art by C.C. Beck and Pete Costanza. [Billy Batson, Dr. Sivana, & Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics.]

Three For Pete’s Sake

A Triple Spotlight On Golden Age Fawcett Artist PETE COSTANZA I. A Brief Biography of Pete Costanza by P.C. Hamerlinck

eter Anthony Costanza was one of the main artists at Fawcett Publications during the Golden Age of Comics. Born May 19, 1913, in Manhattan to Benedict and Elvira Costanza, Pete was the only son and oldest of four children. His father worked in New York City as a tailor and the family resided in Bayonne, New Jersey.

After graduating high school in 1931, Costanza attended the Art Students League at the Grand Central Art School in NYC and studied with illustrator Harvey Dunn. Three years later he was creating interior illustrations for numerous pulp magazines, including Thrilling Adventures, Western, Action Stories, Super Sports, The Lone Ranger, Popular Detective, Dime Western, Sports Winners, Ace-High, Texas Rangers, Complete Northwest, and Famous Western. In the autumn of 1939, Fawcett Publications’ art director Al Allard hired Costanza to assist with the drawing for their new comic book line launched with Whiz Comics. With his experience illustrating Western stories, Costanza was the first artist assigned to “Golden Arrow”; he later took over drawing another Whiz feature, “Ibis the Invincible,” and also drew the “Jungle Twins” strip in Nickel Comics. 1940 continued to be a busy year for Costanza as he began to assist Captain Marvel’s chief artist and co-creator, C.C. Beck, with inking and drawing backgrounds on “Captain Marvel” stories. The collaboration would endure for many years, eventually evolving into a full-on business partnership. In 1941 Costanza married Yolanda Scarinci. That same year, upon Al Allard’s suggestion, Beck opened up his own studio to produce all of the “Captain Marvel” artwork for Fawcett. With the rising amount of “CM” story art needed by the publisher, Beck brought a few of the artists with him, including Costanza, to a small office space he rented on Broadway and 40th in NYC. As World War II intensified, Costanza entered the U.S. Army in June of 1942. He produced various military posters and publica-

tions while stationed at Fort Hood, Texas. Having served in the armed forces for less than a year, he was honorably discharged in May, 1943. Returning to civilian life, Costanza went back to work at Beck’s studio, which had expanded with more artists working there. Besides churning out “Captain Marvel” art each month, the team landed other accounts, including the creation of the “Captain Tootsie” Pete’s Panoramic Views comic strip advertise(Above:) 27-year-old Artist Pete Costanza, seen ments for Tootsie here in 1940, made the jump from pulps to comic Roll, “Mini-Gym” ads books when he joined Fawcett Publications in the for eminent fall of ’39… a career in comics which lasted over weightlifter/ 30 years. stuntman Joey (Below left:) Costanza’s first assignment at Bonomo, program Fawcett was drawing “Golden Arrow,” as witness booklets for famed his crude but dramatic last panel to the Western stage magician/ hero’s origin tale from the first issue of Whiz illusionist Harry Comics (numbered #2, Feb. 1940). Script by Bill Parker. [Art © the respective copyright holder.] Blackstone, and packaging Vic Verity Magazine and Don Fortune Magazine. (We’ll have more on these B-C side ventures in future issues of FCA.) Beck and Costanza also took on training a group of Canadian artists to draw Fawcett comics characters for Toronto publisher Anglo-American. In early 1944, with the augmented workload, Beck opened a second shop, The Beck-Costanza Studio, in Englewood, New Jersey. Costanza supervised the Englewood shop, reporting in to Beck, who continued running operations at the NYC studio. (The Beck-Costanza studio’s artists over the years included Ken Bald, Dave Berg, Jack Bowler, Victor Dowd, Ray Harford, Ed Robbins, Kurt Schaffenberger, Irv Steinberg, Charlie Tomsey, Ernie Townsend, and several others. Even Jack Binder spent a couple of post-war years at BeckCostanza as a sales manager after his own shop disbanded, as did near-future “Captain Marvel” editor Wendell Crowley.) During this time, Pete and Yolanda relocated to Hasbrouk Heights, New Jersey, where the Costanzas raised two sons, Edward and Peter.

FCA [Fawcett Collectors of America]

After Fawcett, Costanza briefly drew “White Indian” for Magazine Enterprises and did several adaptations for Gilberton’s Classics Illustrated (Captains Courageous, The Golden Fleece, Sleeping Beauty, The Mutineers). He was kept busy during the ’50s with commercial art as well as providing spot illustrations for such magazines as Double Action Western, Famous Western, and Future Fiction. For the next twelve years or so, he worked for Richard E. Hughes’ American Comics Group (ACG), where he helped cocreate supernatural super-heroes Magicman and Nemesis and drew numerous mystery-suspense tales in Forbidden Worlds, Unknown Worlds, Adventures into the Unknown, and Midnight Mystery. In the mid-’60s (on Otto Binder’s recommendation to Mort Weisinger), Costanza began working for DC Comics, mainly on Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen, as well as on “Legion of SuperHeroes” and other features, until a stroke he suffered in 1971 put an end to his career in comics. With the stroke paralyzing the use of his drawing hand, Costanza taught himself to oil paint lefthanded. In his closing years, he produced hundreds of paintings and taught oil painting to those with disabilities. Pete Costanza passed away on June 28, 1984, in Hackensack, NJ, at the age of 71. C.C. Beck remembered his old friend and business partner as a “fine artist”… that their work “complemented each other nicely”… and that Pete “never gave up.”

II. “Never Read Them, Only Worked On Them”

See Spot Run… From The A-Bomb! As Fawcett was about to close the doors of its comics department, Costanza was already seeking work elsewhere. His first stop was at Gilberton, where he did several Classics Illustrated adaptations as well as a few educational comics, including Picture Parade #1 from 1953, in which a young dog owner received lessons on atomic energy and radioactivity. [© Frawley Corporation and its exclusive licensee, First Classics, Inc.]

By late 1947, the Beck-Costanza Studios had downsized considerably. Costanza continued to collaborate with Beck for several more years on “Captain Marvel” before he began to freelance solo on Fawcett war titles (Battle Stories, Soldier Comics), an adaptation of the 1952 Jimmy Stewart film Carbine Williams (Fawcett Movie Comic), and some romance stories, until Fawcett ceased publishing their entire comic book line in early 1954. Having started off as Golden Arrow’s first artist, it was fitting that some of Costanza’s final work for Fawcett was on Bob Steele Western. Fawcett artist Marc Swayze (in his column from FCA #58, 1997) remembered that Costanza was “fun to have around… [a]ffable, talkative, humorous, completely unaffected,” as well as his “positive effect of his presence on the morale of the group.” Marc Swayze also made note of the vast amount of work Costanza was able to produce: “I’d have to go along with the opinions of the Binders, Otto and Jack… Pete could have been better. He could have, but he was satisfied, apparently. He was very fast and thus capable of a tremendous output, but the layouts, rough penciling, and inking he did as Beck’s assistant suggested he may have been too fast.”

Pete Costanza Interviewed by John G. Pierce, 1977 [FCA EDITOR’S NOTE: In 1977, interviewer John G. Pierce had the privilege of conducting a by-mail interview with Pete Costanza. At that point, the artist had been robbed of the use of his right hand due to the misfortune of a stroke six years earlier, so his answers were transcribed by his wife, Yolanda. A significantly-edited version of the interview originally appeared in FCA/SOB #2 (FCA #13), June 1980 (C.C. Beck’s second issue as FCA editor). The following is the first time the interview has been published in its original, fully-intact form. —PCH.]

Getting In Deep Though C.C. Beck co-created (with writer Bill Parker) and drew the early “Ibis the Invincible” stories in Whiz Comics, Costanza soon took over art chores on the feature. This captivating Costanza scene is from Whiz #13 (Feb. 1941); script by Bill Woolfolk. This early panoramic panel exemplifies the artist’s capabilities… and that there was more to his talents than that of a mere supporter. [Golden Arrow and Ibis the Invincible TM & © DC Comics.]

Three For Pete’s Sake

feature? PC: Beck was a cartoonist, while I was a straight illustrator. I started illustrating “Golden Arrow” and later “Ibis.” At that time there was too much to do at Fawcett, so [art director] Al Allard told Beck to collaborate with me to do it on our own. JP: That led to the formation of the Beck-Costanza Studio at that point?

American’s Greatest Comics Before finishing his comics career with DC Comics, Pete Costanza spent more than a dozen years working on American Comics Group (ACG) mystery and suspense titles, as well as co-creating their two supernatural super-heroes, Nemesis and Magicman, with ACG publisher Richard Hughes. Above left, Costanza and Hughes (the latter under the pseudonym Zev Zimmer) personally introduce their tale in Midnight Mystery #6 (Sept. ’61). Beside it is the cover of Forbidden Worlds #134 (March-April ’66), signed by Costanza—but actually drawn by another former Fawcett artist, Kurt Schaffenberger, who bylined it that way to keep DC editor Mort Weisinger off his back (since KS was also drawing for DC at the time). Kilkenny, the character Magicman is about to rescue, was a recurring character in the stories drawn by Costanza … and was the splitting image of Pete himself. [© the respective copyright holders.]

JOHN G. PIERCE: Tell us how your art career began. PETE COSTANZA: I became interested in art at about 11 years old. When I was 15 years old, I studied under Bridgeman, the anatomist, for three years. At 18, I worked on pulp illustrations for a number of years. Then I was fortunate enough to study under Harvey Dunn as a straight illustrator for more than three years.

PC: We opened our own studio with a staff of 15 artists. We did Captain Marvel Adventures, Whiz Comics, The Marvel Family, and other magazines. A paper shortage stopped the big production, [but] Beck and I had enough to do that we worked out of our homes, as lived near each other. We also did “Captain Tootsie” [advertisements]. JP: Who originated “Captain Tootsie”? PC: It started at the McCann/Erickson Advertising Agency. Beck and I took it over and had a lot of fun doing it. JP: You were in the Army, correct? PC: In 1942, I entered the Army, and after 10 months I was discharged because of high blood pressure. JP: Did Beck train you in his style of art, or did your own style evolve gradually into something resembling his? (He once stated that your styles were “indistinguishable.”)

JP: What were your major artistic influences?

PC: Beck and I combined both our talents.

PC: Harvey Dunn and his students Dean Cornwell and Harold Von Smith, Mark Clark and Benton Clarke. I was always interested in straight illustration.

JP: Was Beck the one who assigned the jobs at the Beck-Costanza Studio?

JP: Do you recall your first meeting with C. C. Beck? PC: I began working at Fawcett in 1939 [and] Beck and I struck it off. He was doing cartoons for Fawcett. I was an illustrator. In 1940 Al Allard told Beck and [me] that Fawcett was going to expand and wanted us to draw “Captain Marvel,” which was at the time called “Captain Thunder.” JP: You were the one who came up with the new name, weren’t you? PC: Before the first issue of “Captain Marvel” [i.e., Whiz Comics #2] was published, the name had to be changed, and all the writers and artists were asked to submit a new name. I was the one that came up with the name Marvelous. Since there were too many letters in it, it was reduced to Marvel. JP: Was your first work with Beck on “Captain Marvel” or on a non-CM

PC: Both Beck and I decided how the work was to be divided. JP: Do you recall any of the artists at the studio? PC: I don’t remember. JP: What did you think of “Captain Marvel” stories as compared to others? PC: “Captain Marvel” wasn’t as serious as “Superman.” JP: You made a cameo in a 1940 “Captain Marvel” story, as a football player at Marvel College (Whiz Comics #11). Did you have a hand in drawing that story? PC: I think I did, but I’m not sure. JP: When drawing “Captain Marvel,” did you ever try to inject humor, as Beck did?

FCA [Fawcett Collectors of America]

Costanza Cameos C.C. Beck sometimes drew Costanza into the “Captain Marvel” stories, which Pete himself inked. Above left, Costanza is a member of the Marvel College football team in Whiz Comics #11 (Dec. 1940); script by Bill Parker. At right, Pete’s become a department store salesman in Whiz #17 (May 1941), during a lighter moment from Captain Marvel’s multi-part clash with Spy Smasher. The scripter of the latter is unknown. [Billy Batson TM & © DC Comics.]

PC: I didn’t like to inject humor à la C. C. Beck. I did it only in my approach. JP: What path did your career take after Fawcett pulled the plug on their comics line? PC: When “Captain Marvel” had ended, Beck moved to Florida, and I only saw him again once in 1956. [INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: According to Beck himself, the last occasion was in 1955, at Beck’s daughter’s wedding.] I started working for other publishers, [including] Classics Illustrated and American Comics Group [ACG]; I also illustrated children’s books and some scientific books.

DC era? PC: I was more of an illustrator with “Superman.” JP: Out of all the features on which you worked, which would be your favorite? PC: I liked “Captain Marvel” and “Superman” and the other books for the companies I worked for. JP: In regard to the scripts you received, which comics writers did you admire the most? PC: Bill Parker, Rod Reed, Otto Binder.

JP: What did you do for ACG?

JP: Did you ever read comics?

PC: Forbidden Worlds and others that I don’t remember.

PC: Never read them, only worked on them.

JP: When did you go to work at DC?

JP: Is there anything in particular you could share about the group of people who worked on the comics at Fawcett, such as Otto and Jack Binder, C.C. Beck, Bill Parker, Rod Reed, Wendell Crowley, Will Lieberson, Mac Raboy, Kurt Schaffenberger, or others?

PC: In 1965. I illustrated “Jimmy Olsen,” “Superman,” “Batman,” and a number of other books. I worked under Mort Weisinger, a man with a heart of gold who enjoyed appearing gruff. [INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: Among the other features Costanza worked on at DC was “The Legion of Super-Heroes” in Adventure Comics, for which he illustrated some scripts by fledging writer Jim Shooter. Two of these stories—“The Chemoids are Coming!” and “Black Day for the Legion,” from #362 and 262, respectively—featured a villain named Dr. Mantis Morlo, who looked suspiciously like a pseudo-realistic version of Captain Marvel’s formidable foe, Dr. Sivana. Both stories, plus Pete’s other “LSH” story, “The Revolt of the Super-Pets” from #364, are reprinted in Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 7.] JP: Did it seem odd to be drawing “Superman” after having worked on his biggest rival for so many years? PC: Since I was an illustrator, I didn’t feel strange drawing “Superman.” I could draw anything. JP: How had your drawing style changed from the Fawcett days to the

PC: My reflections are of a good, positive nature about all of them. JP: You mentioned Mort Weisinger earlier. What about his assistant (as well as Captain Marvel fan), E. Nelson Bridwell? PC: Bridwell was easier to communicate with. JP: How long did you work for DC? PC: I worked for National Publications until I had a stroke in June, 1971. I lost the use of my right hand, but was trained to use my left hand by a therapist. About six months later, I realized I could draw again. I couldn’t sketch, so my natural instinct was to paint, and use the talent that had been instilled when I studied with Harvey Dunn. I paint many types of illustration. I use very vivid colors. About three years ago, I became a volunteer at a post-stroke victims center. I teach a class once a week, and believe me it has done a lot for these people. The stroke was the worst thing that

Three For Pete’s Sake

could happen to me—and now I feel it’s the best thing that has happened, since I’m enjoying painting for myself and others. JP: You have a great attitude toward life, Pete. What phase of your career did you enjoy most? PC: Undoubtedly now! JP: Have you ever seen any fanzines? PC: Yes, once in a while I get one in the mail. JP: What did you think when you heard about Captain Marvel’s revival at DC? PC: I was glad to hear it. JP: Would you ever have wanted to draw comics again? PC: Not anymore, given that I’m extremely happy with my painting.

III. A Conversation With PETE COSTANZA

CCB: Yes, the cartoon magazines on which I had been working were dying, too, at the time. We were both glad to see the comic books come along. It was easy for me to switch to the comics. Was it hard for you? PC: No, not at all. I have always been an illustrator, and comic books were just illustrated stories, at least in those days. Most of them weren’t too comic, anyway. CCB: No, but even “Golden Arrow” and other Fawcett comics had touches of humor in them. Later, “Captain Marvel” became quite humorous, even slapstick at times. PC: But he had serious stories now and then. He really wasn’t a big buffoon, as some people believe. We always drew him pretty straight—at least I did. CCB: So did I, Pete. Some of the other artists we had working for us drew him in slapstick style, but I never did. The other characters—Sivana and the various monsters and villains—were comic, though. PC: And Hitler and Mussolini and Tojo were comic characters, as were Mr. Mind and Mr. Tawny. And Captain Tootsie, which you and I drew for the Tootsie Roll people, was pretty funny, too.

Conducted by C.C. Beck [Originally published in the Beck-edited FCA/SOB #14 (FCA #25), June-July 1982] [INTRODUCTORY NOTE: Pete Costanza was the first artist Fawcett hired to assist me when the comics took off in 1940. He came from the Western pulps and was hired to draw “Golden Arrow” in Whiz Comics. Pete always considered himself to be a “straight” illustrator, not a cartoonist. When he became my partner, he learned that about the only difference between a serious illustrator and a cartoonist is that the cartoonist illustrates funny stories while the serious illustrator handles unfunny stories. When Pete left his “straight illustration” work and got into Captain Marvel and Captain Tootsie, he turned out to be a remarkably fine cartoonist with a great sense of humor. Few suspected that underneath his gruff exterior beat the heart of a jolly humorist. —C.C. Beck.] C.C. BECK: Pete, we both go back to the very earliest days of the Golden Age of Comics. You were one of the first artists hired when Fawcett started expanding its comic department, remember? PETE COSTANZA: Oh, yes, I remember. CCB: You had been a Western story illustrator. We hired you to draw “Golden Arrow” because you knew how to draw horses. I’ll bet you don’t know what really convinced Al Allard to hire you, though, do you? PC: No, what? CCB: He said to me, “This guy is almost as fast as you, Beck.” Speed was important in comics. Do you remember the first comic book we worked on together? PC: A special edition featuring “Captain Marvel.” [FCA EDITOR’S NOTE: The first Beck-Costanza collaboration was on the Fawcett oneshot Special Edition Comics. —PCH.] We got paid extra for that, didn’t we? CCB: Yes, the magnificent sum of $10 a page. PC: Well, that was good money in those days. The pulp magazines were dying and work was hard to get.

Toot, Toot, Tootsie—Hello! Here he is—tucked within the pages of Captain Marvel Adventures #48 (Aug.-Sept. 1945): Captain Tootsie, the first (and perhaps only) male superhero to carry a purse, in one of his many one-page adventure advertisements frequently seen in 1940s comic books. The ads were originally created by Beck and Fawcett writer/editor Rod Reed; then Beck and Pete Costanza took over the ads for several more years (starting with this one), before losing the account to Bill Schreiber in the 1950s. A couple of the strips even featured an evil scientist named Dr. Narsty, a semidoppelgänger of Captain Marvel foe Dr. Sivana. [Captain Tootsie TM & © the respective copyright holders.]

FCA [Fawcett Collectors of America]

CCB: Do you know that “Captain Tootsie” strips are valuable collectors’ items today, Pete? PC: That’s nice. At least we got our names on them. CCB: You and I were partners for a good many years, Pete. During the peak years, you ran our Englewood [NJ] studio and I handled our New York office. PC: Yes, and we ended up together in the ’50s, doing our own work with no assistants, just the way we started out. CCB: I used to get a laugh out of people when I quoted Billy De Beck’s saying that all he did was put the dots in Barney Google’s eyes during the peak years of that strip. But Captain Marvel didn’t have dots for eyes. PC: No, but Billy Batson did. Orphan Annie had no eyes at all. CCB: Neither did Sivana and Mr. Morris. I guess we saved lots of ink— and time—when drawing those characters, eh? PC: Oh, we had other shortcuts, too. I used to use a trick I learned when doing Westerns. I’d draw a sign on the wall saying, “No smoking in this…” and then add “garage,” “library,” or whatever. CCB: And you taught me how to indicate a setting with a simple prop—a cow’s skull for a desert, a starfish for a beach, and so on. Do you ever wish those golden days had never ended, Pete? PC: Well, it would be nice to be thirty years old again, Beck. Now we’re both old has-beens, I guess. CCB: Better has-beens than never-weres, Pete. Everyone today remembers Captain Marvel. PC: They do? How many remember Beck and Costanza? CCB: Quite a few, Pete, quite a few. Our names may go down in history.

Under The Hood Many years before DC’s current Shazam-dude-in-a-hoodie appeared, the original Captain Marvel briefly hid himself under a hood before foiling the “Gamblers of Death” in Special Edition Comics #1 (1940), the one-shot forerunner to Captain Marvel Adventures; script by Bill Parker. The comic’s artwork marked the very first Beck-Costanza collaboration. [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics.]

PC: Well, that’ll be something. We never had any fame during our working years. Or fortune, either, for that matter. CCB: No, but we had a lot of fun, right? PC: Right!

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A WORK OF ART

DON HECK remains one of the legendary names in comics, considered an “artist’s artist,” respected by peers, and beloved by fans as the co-creator of IRON MAN, HAWKEYE, and BLACK WIDOW, and key artist on THE AVENGERS. Along with STAN LEE, JACK KIRBY, and STEVE DITKO, Heck was an integral player in “The Marvel Age of Comics”, and a top-tier 1970s DC Comics artist. He finally gets his due in this heavily illustrated, full-color hardcover biography, which features meticulously researched and chronicled information on Don’s 40-year career, with personal recollections from surviving family, long-time friends, and industry legends, and rare interviews with Heck himself. It also features an unbiased analysis of sales on Don’s DC Comics titles, an extensive art gallery (including published, unpublished, and pencil artwork), a Foreword by STAN LEE, and an Afterword by BEAU SMITH. Written by JOHN COATES.