Alter Ego #134

Roy Thomas’ Jolly-Solly Comics Fanzine

STAN LEE’S “RIGHT-HAND MAN” IN THE 1960s!

SOL 8.95 BRODSKY $

In the USA

AND THE

No.134 July 2015

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All characters TM & © Marvel Characters Inc.

MARVEL AGE OF COMICS!

Featuring Marvel Colorist

(& Sol’s Daughter)

JANNA PARKER

Plus: Plus: Remembrances Remembrances By By His His Friends Friends Friends By

By His His Friends

JOHN JOHN ROMITA ROMITA STAN STAN LEE LEE HERB HERB TRIMPE TRIMPE STAN STAN GOLDBERG GOLDBERG DAVID DAVID A. A. KRAFT KRAFT ROY ROY THOMAS THOMAS

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 #125

ALTER EGO #126

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ALTER EGO #122

ALTER EGO #123

ALTER EGO #124

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!

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ALTER EGO #127

ALTER EGO #128

ALTER EGO #129

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

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

1940s WILL EISNER/”BUSY” ARNOLD letters between the creator of The Spirit and his Quality Comics partner, art and artifacts by FINE, CRANDALL, CUIDERA, CARDY, KOTZKY, BLUM, NORDLING, and others! Plus Golden Age MLJ artist JOHN BULTHIUS, more of AMY KISTE NYBERG’s History of the Comics Code, FCA, Mr. Monster, BILL SCHELLY, cover by DANIEL JAMES COX and JASON PAULOS!

CAROL L. TILLEY on Dr. Fredric Wertham’s falsification of his research in the 1950s, featuring art by EVERETT, SHUSTER, PETER, BECK, COSTANZA, WEBB, FELDSTEIN, WILLIAMSON, WOOD, BIRO, and BOB KANE! Plus AMY KISTE NYBERG on the evolution of the Comics Code, FCA, Mr. Monster, BILL SCHELLEY, and a new cover by JASON PAULOS and DANIEL JAMES COX!

Edgar Rice Burroughs adventure heroes in comics! With art by FOSTER, HOGARTH, MANNING, KANE, KUBERT, MORROW, GRELL, THORNE, WEISS, ANDERSON, KALUTA, AMENDOLA, BUSCEMA, MARSH, and YEATES—with analysis by foremost ERB experts! Plus, the 1970s ERB comics company that nearly was, FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

Cover by TOM GRINDBERG!

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TwoMorrows.

A New Day For Comics Fans!

ALTER EGO #130

ALTER EGO #131

ALTER EGO #132

ALTER EGO #133

CAPTAIN MARVEL headlines a Christmas FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) Fantasmagoria starring C.C. BECK, OTTO BINDER, MARC SWAYZE—and the FAWCETT FAMILY (presented by P.C. HAMERLINCK)! Plus: Comic book/strip star artist DAN BARRY profiled, MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom history, and more! Cover by C.C. BECK!

GERRY CONWAY interviewed about his work as star Marvel/DC writer in the early ‘70s (from the creation of The Punisher to the death of Gwen Stacy) with art by ROMITA, COLAN, KANE, PLOOG, BUSCEMA, MORROW, TUSKA, ADAMS, SEKOWSKY, the SEVERINS, and others!

Plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom history, and more!

75 YEARS of THE FLASH and GREEN LANTERN (a crossover with BACK ISSUE #80)! INFANTINO, KANE, KUBERT, ELIAS, LAMPERT, HIBBARD, NODELL, HASEN, TOTH, REINMAN, SEKOWSKY, Golden Age JSA and Dr. Mid-Nite artist ARTHUR PEDDY’s stepson interviewed, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom history, and more!

Gentleman JIM MOONEY gets a featurelength spotlight, in an in-depth interview conducted by DR. JEFF McLAUGHLIN— never before published! Featuring plenty of rare and unseen MOONEY ART from Batman & Robin, Supergirl, Spider-Man, Legion of Super-Heroes, Tommy Tomorrow, and others! Plus FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

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Vol. 3, No. 134 / July 2015 Editor

Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout

Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor

P.C. Hamerlinck J.T. Go (Assoc. Editor)

Contents

Comic Crypt Editor

Special 7-Part Section: “Sol Brodsky—Stan Lee’s ‘Right-Hand Man’”

Editorial Honor Roll

Writer/Editorial: Better Call Sol! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Michael T. Gilbert

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

Roy Thomas recalls his years at Marvel—and around the poker table—with Sol Brodsky.

“Dad Loved Comic Books!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Marvel colorist Janna Parker (formerly Janice Cohen) remembers Sol Brodsky—her father.

Proofreaders

“Sol Was A Great Company Man” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Cover Artists

A Eulogy By Stan Lee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Rob Smentek William J. Dowlding

John Romita, Sol Brodsky, Jack Kirby, John Buscema, & (perhaps) Carl Burgos

Cover Colorists

Stan Goldberg, et al.

With Special Thanks to:

David Anthony Heidi Amash Kraft Richard J. Arndt Mark Lax Mark Arnold Stan Lee Martin Asbury Alan Light Bob Bailey Jim Ludwig Mike W. Barr Glenn MacKay Sy Barry Nancy Maneely Alberto Becattini Robert Menzies William Biggins Mike Mikulovsky Bill Black Al Milgrom Gary Brodsky John Jackson Miller Robert Brown Frank Motler Bernie Bubnis Mark Muller Rich Buckler Dr. Amy K. Nyberg Susan Burgos Janna Parker Nick Caputo Barry Pearl Shaun Clancy Herb Rogoff Comic Book Plus John Romita (website) Bob Rozakis Jon B. Cooke Scott Rowland Vince Davis Randy Sargent Betty Dobson Alex Saviuk Peter Duxbury Vijah Shah Don Ensign Flo Steinberg Justin Fairfax Tenth Letter of the Jean-Michel Alphabet (website) Ferragatti Dann Thomas Shane Foley Mike Tiefenbacher Brent Frankenhoff Herb Trimpe Stephan Friedt Gerry Turnbull Bob Fujitani Dr. Michael J. Janet Gilbert Vassallo Stan Goldberg George E. Warner Grand Comics Database (website) Who’s Who of American Comic Dan Hagen Books 1928-1999 Phil Hurd (website) Dr. M. Thomas Inge Steven Willis Jim Kealy

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Sol Brodsky & Stan Goldberg

The late Stan Goldberg on “Jolly Solly,” a fellow Timely/Atlas/Marvel alumnus.

Sol's boss, collaborator, and friend wrote these words in 1984.

A Few Choice Words On Sol Brodsky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 John Romita salutes Marvel’s production manager… “Stan Lee’s top sergeant.”

“We Need A Lot More Guys Like Him” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Herb Trimpe says that the watchword of “Solly B.” was: “Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines.”

For The Love Of Sol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Writer David Anthony Kraft worked with Sol Brodsky at Marvel—and at Skywald.

Seal Of Approval: The History Of The Comics Code . . . . . . 40 Continuing Dr. Amy Kiste Nyberg’s 1998 book. This time: the updating of the Code, 1971.

Dan Barry & Flash Gordon – Part III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Continuing Alberto Becattini’s study of a controversial comic art talent.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! “Get A Clue! ” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Michael T. Gilbert spotlights the weirdly humorous covers of Hillman’s crime comics.

Comic Fandom Archive: The Super Labors Of Love . . . . . . 61 Bill Schelly’s tribute to G.B. Love and RBCC—part 2.

In Memoriam: Stan Goldberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 69 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #193 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 P.C. Hamerlinck presents Otto Binder’s final chapter—and Captain Marvel Jr. in France!

On Our Cover: Easily the most-often reproduced portrait of artist and production man Sol Brodsky is the masterful illustration drawn by John Romita for the cover of Marvel Age #22 (Jan. 1985), of which much more in this issue. It’s flanked here by cover art either penciled, inked, or both, by Brodsky: Fantastic Four #3-4 (March & May ’62) & Tales to Astonish #38 (Dec. ’62), all three of which he inked over pencils by Jack Kirby… Sub-Mariner #1 (May ’68), inked over John Buscema’s pencils… Astonishing #23 (March ’53), penciled by Sol and (maybe) inked by Carl Burgos… and Kid Colt Outlaw #28 (June ’53), penciled (and perhaps inked) by Sol. See most of these covers bigger and better in the pages that follow! [All art TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] Above: The final panel of the first episode of the Holyoke hero-feature “The Red Cross,” bylined “by Charles Nicholas & Sol Brodsky.” It’s from Captain Aero Comics #8 (Sept. 1942). Thanks to the Comic Book Plus website. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Alter EgoTM is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344.

Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: 32 Bluebird Trail, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices.

Eight-issue subscriptions: $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.

SOL BRODSKY — Stan Lee’s “Right-Hand Man” — Part I

2

writer/editorial

Better Call Sol! S

ol Brodsky was the second person I ever met at Marvel Comics.

by Roy Thomas

The first, over a Wednesday noontime in early July of 1965, was “Fabulous Flo” Steinberg, Stan Lee’s corresponding secretary. She came out from the inner offices to hand me the Marvel “writing test” that Lee had invited me (by phone) to have a go at, to wish me well with a smile, and to send me on my way.

The next day, when I showed up with the ballooned artwork and the dialogue I’d written for the four Photostatted pages of Jack Kirby Fantastic Four action, a fortyish man with shortish curly black hair and an equally ready smile came out to collect them. I don’t recall if Sol told me his name. I do remember him asking me, in a friendly manner, how it had gone. I said something noncommittal like “All right, I guess,” he said a polite goodbye and popped back inside. And I hotfooted it back the relatively few blocks from Madison Avenue to Lexington Avenue, stopping just long enough, in all probability, to gobble down a Nedick’s hot dog near the latter premises, where my present DC bosses (of nearly two whole weeks’ standing) held sway.

Not Together Again For The First Time!

If there’s a photo in existence of Sol Brodsky and Roy Thomas together at any time, A/E’s editor would love to know about it! In the meantime, we’ll have to settle for a circa-1965 snapshot of Roy and Flo Steinberg, at the latter’s desk… and the pic of Sol from the 1975 Mighty Marvel Comic Convention program book. Here he’s doing what he did a lot of, which was talk on the phone to artists, writers, engravers, et al. [Brodsky photo © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The next day, after Flo had furtively phoned me at DC and I’d once more nooned it over to Marvel and, to my great delight, been hired by Stan Lee ten or fifteen minutes after I met him, Stan took me out into the adjoining office—well, either then, or more likely a bit later in the afternoon when I returned, having been kicked out of DC by “Superman” editor Mort Weisinger—to introduce me more formally to Flo and Sol. From that moment on, Sol Brodsky loomed very large in my professional life for the next half decade… and our association, which became a friendship of sorts and, I think, a relationship of mutual respect, lasted at least until I moved west to California in mid-1976.

For Sol was the guy who made the Marvel trains run on time… greased with a combination of winning smiles and disapproving frowns. Gerry Conway mentioned, in his interview in A/E #131, that neither Stan nor I really acted as “managers” during the days he knew us at Marvel. If that’s true, and I suppose it is, in its way, it’s at least partly because Sol Brodsky, as production manager, kept all the balls in the air—handled virtually all the scheduling, the trafficking, the haranguing of late artists and writers—so that Stan didn’t have to. And when Sol moved on in 1970 to co-found Skywald, his successor John Verpoorten, whom Sol had trained for the task, carried on with those efforts, first for Stan, later for me (and after me, for Gerry, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, and Archie Goodwin). That freed the editors to concentrate on the creative side of things—matters about which Sol doubtless had an opinion from time to time, but which he rarely deigned to share with his co-workers.

As the over-all title of the seven reminiscences by a few of Sol’s colleagues in this issue, I chose “Sol Brodsky – Stan Lee’s ‘RightHand Man.’” That’s because, as I’ve often related, for the first several years of my tenure at Marvel, Stan would call both of us

into his office most mornings we were all there, and he would go over, often in great detail, whatever needed to be said about some script he (or I) might have written… or completed artwork that he had critiqued or proofread. For me, it was an ongoing lesson in writing and editing from a true master at the top of his form… for Sol, much (but not nearly all) of the workload he’d be dealing with on that particular day. Only partly because that’s where we invariably stood in relation to him at the podium where he placed the artwork day after day, Stan, on at least one occasion—maybe more—mock-seriously referred to Sol as his “right-hand man” and me as his “left-hand man.” Or, sometimes, Sol was his “good right arm,” and I was the other one. And that’s just what Sol Brodsky was for Stan, from at least 1964 and for most of the next two decades. (Elsewhere in this issue, you'll find Sol’s daughter Janna and artist/colorist Stan Goldberg using the same “right-hand man” phrase.)

The thing I remember most about Sol in those early days— which commenced when I was 24 and he was 42—is that, most days of the workweek, we went out to lunch together. Usually five days a week at first, a bit less often after I finagled the ability to write at my apartment two (or sometimes three) days a week. Sol initiated the practice by inviting me to accompany him, and thereafter it quickly came to be assumed that we’d lunch together unless one of us had prior plans. On quite a few occasions we were joined by the likes of Stan Goldberg (colorist and Millie the Model artist), John Romita (who returned to the bullpen about two weeks after I began there), sometimes one or two others. Stan— and even Jack Kirby, if he happened to be “in town” that day— joined us from time to time, but those were usually higher-end confabs, held at Schrafft’s restaurant or some such watering-hole.

Sol and I tended to opt for a diner around the corner, or occasionally a hot-dog joint or less expensive restaurant. Sure, to some extent Sol was shoring up his own situation with a guy who, as Stan’s editorial assistant, might be expected to rise in the

Better Call Sol!

company… just as I was not averse to schmoozing with the production manager, who still ranked me, insofar as there were ranks in those early days. But mostly, I think we just enjoyed each other’s company.

Our lunchtime conversations during those several years? I’ll be damned if I can remember! A lot of shop talk, I’m sure—and sometimes he’d quiz me about my past life as a high school English teacher or comics fan. I had a few questions for him, too, once I realized he’d been a working artist for much of his life, until, a year or so before I arrived, Marvel had become successful enough to hire a full-time production manager again. (Before then, he had been handling much of that work on a freelance basis.)

Sometime in the first few weeks after I came to Marvel, Sol invited me to dinner at his home, in an apartment building in Brooklyn, near Coney Island. He and his wife Selma were splendid hosts… I presume his son Gary and daughter Janice may have been there, but I just don’t recall. All I really remember is that, somehow, callow youth that I was, it never occurred to me to reciprocate by inviting them out to dinner, either in Brooklyn or in Manhattan. I’ll forever owe them both that dinner.

I remember once—though this happened, I think, in the offices rather than over lunch—Sol abruptly asked me if I’d ever heard of a comic book hero called The Red Cross. When I told him yes, that I believed he’d been in Captain Aero Comics, and that I’d read one or two of his stories, Sol smiled broadly. I forget the exact wording of his response—whether he said the exact words “I created that one” or not, I don’t recall—but that was the gist of it. So when I see credits that assume the words “by Charles Nicholas & Sol Brodsky” on the first three “Red Cross” adventures mean merely that Sol inked the yarns, I don’t believe it. Though, sadly, I didn’t ask him to elaborate, Sol must’ve done more than simply apply inks to someone else’s pencils on that strip, or he wouldn’t have said what he said.

On another occasion, Sol dropped into the conversation the tidbit that he had designed the Fantastic Four logo, saying it was based on a style of lettering that was popular in advertising around 1961. (Used, no doubt, by Don Draper and his Mad Men cohorts.) I don’t recall my asking, or his volunteering, what he might’ve had to do with any other early hero logos. And, oddly, I don’t recall his ever mentioning the fact—which would’ve been of interest to me, certainly—that he had inked the covers and stories in F.F. #3 & 4. And that means I never thought to ask him who had inked #1 & 2. (I’ll bet he’d have known, too! His words might have been the clincher that could make us stop putting the word “probably” before statements that George Klein embellished those first two outings.)

Sol and I made a few minor shopping excursions over those lunch hours, too. Around 1966, there was a fad in Manhattan for wearing Russian hats—you know, those things that look like a black, tailless beaver has leaped onto your head. We each bought one, ’cause New York winters are cold. Sol also got a kick out of the fact that, for a time, I wore a pair of alligator shoes—this in an era, of course, before they became associated with the attire of pimps, let alone constituted a threat to an endangered species. When I spoke with Sol’s son, Gary, as a run-up to this issue, Gary brought up the matter of those shoes, and said Sol had found them quite amusing. (Of what he thought of the Nehru jacket and matching pants and goatee I acquired circa 1968, there seems to be, thankfully, no extant record.)

And, for a little while after one luncheon shared by Sol,

3

Stan, and myself, the three of us took to smoking small cigars with filter tips. “Cigarillos,” were they called? Anyway, I doubt if any of the three of us ever inhaled… and that interlude didn’t last long.

One noon, Sol told me he had to stop by the bank, and I accompanied him. This wasn’t Friday, when Marvel generally disbursed our checks before lunchtime, so I was curious. He (meaning we) had to stand in line for maybe 15 minutes of our 60-minute lunch break, and while we were “on line,” as New Yorkers put it, he revealed that he was there because of the discrepancy of something like 80¢ between the amount of money the bank said was in the Brodskys’ checking account and the amount of money that Selma Brodsky thought was in said account. Sol was philosophical about going to so much trouble over so little: it kept his wife happy, and that was that.

Sol used the friendliness that, I think, was a natural part of him in his day-to-day handling of writers, artists, and production people. When he started off a sentence with “Will you do me a favor?,” it was invariably not a real “favor” he was about to ask for, but something he’d like you to do as a part of your job.

Sometimes they were things he would’ve had every right simply to politely ask you to do, with every expectation that you’d do it… but he preferred the velvet glove approach, and it got him results.

The only time I can recall refusing to do something Sol suggested occurred only a few months into my job, when I was asked, in essence, to fire someone from a staff job… someone I had recommended for it. I told Sol that I clearly didn’t have hiring and firing authority, and it wasn’t my decision—it was, of course, Stan’s— and that I really did not want to do it. Instead of trying to argue me into it, or getting pushy about it, Sol nodded, said he totally

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

This emblematic World War II panel “by Charles Nicholas & Sol Brodsky” is from the origin of “The Red Cross,” in Holyoke's Captain Aero Comics #9 (Nov. 1942).

Who wrote or drew what in the story is uncertain.

Thanks to Jim Kealy & Comic Book Plus. [© the respective copyright holders.]

4

Writer/Editorial

understood… and he became Stan’s hatchet man, not for the first or last time. (I don’t say this to denigrate either Sol or Stan in any way. I believe in hiring and firing people. I just didn’t feel I was the one who should be doing the latter in this instance—the more so since I didn't even agree with the decision.)

Sol didn’t like to upbraid or dress down anyone in public.

Well, he could get mildly testy with Frank Giacoia or Bill Everett when one of those amiable worthies came in with his latest excuse for not finishing an assignment on time.

He forced Frank, once in late ’65, to come into the office and work right there in plain (if crowded) sight of him, in order to get a Millie the Model assignment. Frank did it—but before long, turning his head away from the page he was supposed to be inking, he asked me how many times I’d seen the movie Gunga Din. When I said I didn’t think I’d ever seen it, he announced that he’d seen it fifty times. He then proceeded to expound at length about the film's many virtues. After Frank left, Sol gently admonished me not to let Frank engage me in conversation whenever he was inking in the office: “He just wants to do anything else besides work, so don’t give him an excuse.” In the future, I didn’t.

Another such admonition came one day circa late ’65 when Steve Ditko dropped off some artwork at the office and, true to his usual style, strode at once for the doorway. He paused just long enough to say something to me like, “See you next month,” to which I responded lightly, “Oh, so there’ll be another one, will there?” After he left, Sol called me over and, in sotto voce, told me that I should avoid saying “things like that” to “a guy like Steve.”

When, genuinely puzzled, I asked why, he explained: “Well, you know, he might be halfway back home when suddenly he’ll stop and think, ‘Why did he say that? Does he know something?’” Since, as I already knew, Stan and Steve had ceased speaking to each other or even running into each other some months before I’d arrived, everyone was very careful not to say or do anything to which Steve might take offense. I took that advice to heart, too. Sol was probably being over-cautious… but, to a certain extent, that was his job.

Now It Can Be Told!

Popular inker Vince Colletta once crossed Sol—who retaliated by holding back a check of his for a couple of days. Pic of Colletta from the 1964 Marvel Tales Annual #1. [© Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Sol was a fair guy… and I only saw one (mildly) vindictive act from him in the half decade we worked just a few feet away from each other. Inker Vince Colletta was valuable to Marvel—and very popular with most readers of Thor, in spite of

“You’re A Better Man Than I Am, Frank Giacoia!”

Frank Giacoia didn’t worry about getting even his “Frank Ray” pseudonymous credit on the “Millie the Model” stories he inked over Stan Goldberg—so we’re reprinting his embellishing of Jack Kirby’s “Captain America” splash page from Tales of Suspense #63 (March 1965) to show just how good he could be!—but Frank waxed rhapsodic when talking about old movies he’d seen umpty-leven times on TV while working, such as Gunga Din. That 1939 movie classic starred Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., as swashbuckling British soldiers in Colonial India—and, oh yes, Sam Jaffee as the local title character, taken from Rudyard Kipling’s poem which had inspired the film.

Giacoia’s photo is from the 1975 Mighty Marvel Comic Convention program book. [Page & Giacoia photo TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; Gunga Din still © the respective copyright holders.]

what you might have heard—and, moreover, was on friendly enough terms with Stan that he could have gone directly to The Man if he’d had a beef. Still, once, Vinnie did something-or-other that really annoyed Sol—I wish to Crom I could remember what it was, but it was a scheduling/deadline thing, nothing personal, of that I’m dead certain—and when, soon afterward, a check came in that he probably should have let Vinnie know about at once, Sol instead stuck it into the bottom of his desk drawer and basically “sat on it”—though just for a few days at most. He told me at the time what he was doing, and why. Sometimes, you just have to get your own back, as they say in England.

And then there were the poker games.

Stan Goldberg talks about those in this issue (ah, good ol’ Stan G.—another good man gone from us), but I experienced them in my own way. I’d been playing in a weekly game with teacher-cumcomic-convention-meister Phil Seuling at Coney Island in Brooklyn (not far from the Brodsky digs, as a matter of fact) since soon after

Better Call Sol!

I’d moved to New York, and had ere long brought inker Mike Esposito into that game. Mike and Sol were longtime buddies, and I think it was not long afterward that Sol invited me to join the longrunning poker games that the two of them, John Romita, Stan Goldberg, one-time Timely editor Al Sulman, and a non-comics type named Carl Wershba held one Friday night a month. Before long, I was hosting the games in my Manhattan apartment, and did so until I moved west in ’76.

(Al Milgrom joined the group a year or two before that.) The bunch of us would have dinner at some Manhattan eatery—usually the Sun Luck, a reasonably upscale Chinese restaurant—and then take a cab or two up to my place. We even formed a stock-investment club for a year or so, whose meetings were conducted at those dinners before it was time to deal the cards. The general tenure and texture of those games, which were not high-stakes and usually broke up before midnight, are nearly as integral a part of my New York memories as my work at Marvel.

I was genuinely chagrined when, in 1970, Sol told me—after he’d told Stan, of course—that he was quitting to become co-publisher of a new company, to be called Skywald… with the “Sky” part coming from his name, the other half belonging to comics-reprint publisher Israel Waldman. We vowed to get together for lunch from time to time, though. (And the poker games continued unabated, of course.)

Boris Vallejo in a photo shot as model for a paperback cover, as reprinted in the Ballantine volume The Fantastic Art of Boris Vallejo (1978).

Thanks to Stephan Friedt. [© Boris Vallejo.]

The first time we “did” lunch after his departure, Sol wasn’t averse to asking me for advice about new features. We both knew we were skirting trouble here just a little bit, as Stan wouldn’t have taken kindly to my giving out any advice (whatever it might or might not have been worth) to a competitor, not even Sol. But I liked Sol, so I suggested that, since he was going to be doing black-&-white horror comics, he might try a revival of one of my favorite old-time characters, “The Heap.”

He remembered the character, thought it was a good idea, and by the second issue of Psycho, The Heap was rampaging anew. (I think this was slightly before Stan came up with the idea for “ManThing,” another clearly “Heap”-inspired creation… but it was after Herb Trimpe and I had swiped the essence of The Heap for our Glob monster, in a 1969 issue of The Incredible Hulk.)

When Sol came back to Marvel a couple of years later, it definitely wasn’t with his tail between his legs, for he and Stan had been on good terms when he’d left. Stan had understood that a guy might naturally want to strike out on his own. And Stan, knowing Sol could be a valuable asset to Marvel, was eager to have him back. There may have been, as someone suggests in this issue, a bit of bad feeling toward Sol on the part of Marvel publisher Martin Goodman, because—or so I’ve been told—an old Timely horror story or two had popped up in a Skywald (or earlier IW?) comic… but if so, that was clearly Waldman’s doing, not Sol’s. (I do seem to recall hearing, during this period, that Waldman came up to the Magazine Management offices for a meeting with Goodman, and the person who told me that said that when Waldman left he looked very much crestfallen.)

Sol and I, unfortunately, never crossed each other’s paths that

5

The Other “Boris” In Horror Mags One thing that Sol Brodsky literally “brought with him” when he returned to Marvel from Skywald was samples of the artwork of a new talent who signed himself “Boris.” Boris Vallejo had painted numerous outstanding covers for Skywald, including the one for the black-&-white horror comic Nightmare #5 (Aug. 1971). When publisher Stan Lee decided Marvel would enter that field, Sol arranged for Vallejo to meet with new editor-in-chief Roy Thomas; the first result of that encounter was the artist’s cover for Dracula Lives! #1 (1973), a painting that RT later purchased from Boris, and which still hangs in his office.

[Nightmare cover © the respective copyright holders; Dracula Lives! cover TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

often after he came back to Marvel, outside of the poker games. He was soon running his own department for Stan, which even during my 1972-74 tenure as editor-in-chief was getting into the business of reprinting Marvel’s stories in the United Kingdom. I wasn’t wild about the idea that any department wasn’t officially “under” me as ed-in-chief, but I knew I had enough to do just trying to ride herd on dozens of titles (and writers and artists) in any given month, without looking for more responsibility. Such few dealings as Sol and I had, in offices a corridor or two distant, were always friendly, though never as cozy as they’d been between 1965 and 1970.

Then came the day in very early 1976 when, because I’d been invited by Stan as publisher (and vetted by new Marvel president Jim Galton) to return for a second stint as editor-in-chief, Sol and I shared what was quite possibly our last lunch ever.

Sol had obviously been instructed by Galton to try to whittle me down from the $50,000 per year (which was a more princely sum then than it is today, especially around Marvel) that I was asking for if I returned with a new contract. At lunch, Sol pulled out a pencil and pad, and he proceeded to try to trim my price a bit. We sparred good-naturedly for a little while… Sol was never pushy, but we both knew what was happening here… and he would say things like, “Well, maybe if we paid you a slightly lower page rate,” to which I’d reply, “No, I won’t take a penny lower rate than any other writer gets”… so Sol would instantly abandon that tack and try another one. There was room for maneuver, since the 50 grand was not for editorial duties alone… it also included all scripting I would do, and it had already been agreed that I would continue as the “Conan” writer, handling both Conan the Barbarian and The Savage Sword of Conan. After Sol had tried several approaches unsuccessfully, I decided that he and I knew each other well enough, and liked each other well enough, that it was time to cut to the chase.

6

Writer/Editorial

“Look, Sol,” I said, “the point isn’t that I’ll write this much or I’ll edit that much. To me, the whole point is the $50,000. That’s what I want… that’s all I’ll accept. I’ll write a little more for the money, if Stan and Galton really think I need to… but if the monetary offer isn’t $50,000… even if it’s $49,999… I’ll walk away. Period.”

Sol put away his pencil and paper. He accepted that I wasn’t bluffing, wasn’t maneuvering. So we enjoyed our lunch and didn’t discuss the salary again. (Of course, as it happened, I wound up moving to Los Angeles instead of going back to that job… but before I did, Marvel had accepted my terms. I don’t think they even asked me to do anything more for the money. Sol had made them understand.)

I wish to God that I’d stayed in closer touch with Sol after 1970… even after 1976. But we were both very busy in those days… the once-a-month dinners and poker games gave us just enough inter-face time through mid-’76 to keep our relationship alive… and we didn’t really have too much in common, anyway.

We just… got along.

I was genuinely saddened, as well as surprised, when I heard, out in California in 1984, that Sol had passed away. Like most people, I hadn’t known anything about the sudden deterioration of his health. I was glad when Marvel took a goodly portion of the 22nd issue of its self-produced promotional magazine, Marvel Age, to celebrate his life and career. After all, it wasn’t like he was an artist or writer whose name was instantly recognizable to most Marvel readers; the company didn’t have that much to gain, really, by having John Romita draw an excellent likeness of Sol and making that the cover of the issue. But it was a recognition that not all the people important to a company’s success are in the creative end… any more than they’re all at the very topmost executive levels. After his return to Marvel, Sol was, despite his Vice-

Presidential status, at some vague mid-point between those two extremes—and, because of his background as a co-publisher as well as an artist, writer, and production man, was able to talk with authority to both levels. And he used those abilities, those skills, to do good work. He richly deserved that cover spot.

He was a good man… and I never think about him without wishing he were still around to talk to… and to play poker with.

Bestest,

P.S.: I very much regret that, after initially agreeing to be interviewed for this issue (and being advertised as such), Sol’s son Gary then elected to become incommunicado by either phone or e-mail.

I’ve no idea why. But anytime he changes his mind, I’ll run yet another interview about Sol Brodsky. Meanwhile, it has meant a lot to me that his daughter Janice (now Janna Parker) talked with Richard Arndt for this tribute issue, and that Stan Goldberg and Herb Trimpe, not long before their own untimely passings, also shared their thoughts for this edition. The briefer comments of John Romita and Dave Kraft are also appreciated, as is Stan Lee’s permission to reprint the short elegy he wrote in 1984 to be read at Sol’s funeral. We all miss Sol, and we always will. And now we miss Stan G. and Herb T., as well.

P.P.S.: Also—with this issue, because of my own considerable commitments, publisher John Morrow and I have reluctantly agreed to decrease the frequency of Alter Ego from eight to seven issues per year, for the immediate future. A/E #135 will come out in August… #136 in October… and #137 in December. And next year? We’ll see how it goes. Me, I’m still hoping to return to eight times a year… just like all those DC “monthlies” of a few decades back!

COMING IN AUGUST LEN WEIN

114

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—OFF & RUNNING!

The Co-Creator Of Swamp Thing & Wolverine Talks About His Early Years At DC & Marvel!

• Classic Justice League of America cover by DICK GIORDANO—with BERNIE WRIGHTSON’s Swamp Thing tossed in!

• LEN WEIN tells RICHARD J. ARNDT about the late ’60s and the first half of the ’70s in the comic book writing-and-editing biz—which includes the above plus Teen Titans, The Human Target, The [New] X-Men, The Incredible Hulk, Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-Man, Batman, etc. Featuring awesome art by WRIGHTSON • CARDY • ADAMS • TRIMPE • APARO • INFANTINO • HEATH • SIMONSON • NOVICK • THORNE • WEISS • KALUTA • the SEVERIN Siblings • MAROTO • BUSCEMA, et al.!

• More of AMY K. NYBERG’s Comics Code history & ALBERTO BECATTINI’s artbiography of DAN BARRY! • Plus FCA—MICHAEL T. GILBERT with more of those crazy Hillman crime covers— Art TM & © DC Comics BILL SCHELLY carries on the story of G.B. Love and RBCC—& MORE!!

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SOL BRODSKY — Stan Lee’s “Right-Hand Man” — Part II

7

“Dad Loved Comic Books!”

SOL BRODSKY Remembered

By Daughter JANNA PARKER, aka JANICE COHEN Interview Conducted & Transcribed by Richard J. Arndt NTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: Janna (aka Leorah Sky) Parker was born Janice Brodsky, daughter of artist Sol Brodsky. She has worked as a colorist for Marvel, First, Topps, Eclipse, Mirage, Pacific, and Disney. She has also worked as an actress, on both stage and screen.

Today she is the colorist for the Spider-Man Sunday newspaper strip, paints acrylic abstracts, and does commissioned interpretive drawings for individuals.

The signature “Leorahsky” used on the interpretive drawings is a tribute to both of her parents—the “sky,” of course, referring to her father and the Leorah a tip of the hat to her mother.

I

Looks Like Kid Colt Could Use The Red Cross!

Sol Brodsky from Marvel Tales Annual #1 (1964)—framed by comic book work he drew more than twenty years apart: the “Red Cross” feature he co-created with Charles Nicholas, seen here in its second outing from Holyoke’s Captain Aero #9 (Nov. 1942), though precisely who did what on it, including scripting, is unknown… and Sol’s dynamic cover for Kid Colt Outlaw #28 (March 1963); inker uncertain. Thanks for the art scans to the Comic Book Plus website and Steven Willis, respectively. [Kid Colt cover TM & © Marvel Characters, inc.; Red Cross page © the respective copyright holders.]

RICHARD ARNDT: First, I’d like to say thank you for the interview. I’d like to start off by finding out what you know about your dad’s early life.

JANNA PARKER: Thank you for the chance to talk about my dad. Dad was born on April 22, 1923. He grew up in Brooklyn. That’s where he met my mom. Brooklyn’s what he always talked about. Dad was the eldest in the family. Then came Fay, my absolute favorite aunt. Next was Leonard. He’s passed away. Then, ten or thirteen years later, came Ted. He’s still living and we talk on Facebook.

RA: Would you happen to know the school your dad attended in Brooklyn?

PARKER: That would be Pratt Institute in Queens, where he studied art.

RA: You mentioned he met your mother in Brooklyn. Do you happen to know the story behind that?

PARKER: I do. He met her at a dance. She had gone to it alone.

She was checking in with her mom, standing in a phone booth, and he made the motion at her—“Do you want to dance?”—from outside the phone booth. So they danced and they obviously hit it off very well. That’s interesting, because my father and mother, who’s also now passed on, were very, What’s In A Name? very different types of people. I guess they (Far left:) Marvel colorist balanced each other. At home, my dad was really Janice Cohen, nee Janice quiet. A very quiet person.

Brodsky, as per the rogues’ gallery of staff photos in the 1975 Mighty Marvel Comic Convention program book.

(Left:) Janna Parker today.

Courtesy of JP.

He worked a lot at home when I was little. I remember his desk covered with Big Boy artwork.

He worked on the promo comics that Big Boy used in their restaurants. That’s imprinted in my brain. Dad was introverted. My mom, on the

8

Sol Brodsky Remembered By Daughter Janna Parker, aka Janice Cohen

other hand, was always the talker. If someone needed scolding, it was her job.

The punishments were her job, too. To tell the truth, though, the worst of any punishment was to be sent to your room.

Just in general, she was very outgoing.

Selma Brodsky Photo courtesy of Janna Parker.

Dad loved comic books! He was also very family-oriented. Every Sunday he took us all on drives. It was a family thing. He was very loving in that regard. Very there in that regard. Still, he was a quiet person.

Mom was the one who loved reading novels, and I take after her there. It was Mom who was very outgoing and talkative.

If you balanced the scales, it would be me and my dad on one side and Mom and my brother Gary on the other in terms of personality. Dad did pass on the ability and passion of art to both my brother and myself. That came from Dad. He loved that, too.

RA: Now do you do anything with art yourself? Well, obviously you do, because you’re a colorist.

PARKER: Yes, I do hand colors. My dad gave me my first job. He trained me and then turned me over to Marie Severin. Dad trained me, but I basically worked with Marie and, later, Glynis Wein, who became a good friend of mine. I colored lots of Marvel comics back in what is now called the Silver or Bronze Age. I started with Millie the Model. That was my tryout: Millie the Model, Rawhide Kid, Kid Colt. Dad inked those titles and did a lot of corrections on them. He did a bit of everything. He trained me mostly in coloring. He tried me as an inker, and I did one “Archie” page with a lot of his help, and it was just not my milieu. I colored at Marvel until I moved out to California in 1977 or 1978.

I still worked in comics, though. I did coloring for First Comics, Topps, and Disney. I worked with Mark Evanier on The DNAgents for Eclipse. At the time, that one was my best-paying job. I also worked with Mark on Groo the Wanderer when it was at Pacific.

One of the nicest things that happened during that stage of my career was when I worked on a graphic novel of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I got that job as a last-minute colorist, and after the job was done, I got a bouquet of flowers from the [creators]—Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. Usually the colorist is the last on the food chain and the work is grabbed from your hands and sent to the printer with barely a nod. So it was awesome for my work to be

You’re A Big Boy Now! Sol Brodsky’s cover for Adventures of the Big Boy #43, a comic book produced for and distributed free by the sizable restaurant chain. Date unknown, but the series started in 1957. Courtesy of Janna Parker. [TM & © the respective copyright holders.]

acknowledged that way.

I’m still coloring today, but it’s hand-coloring. If Dad were alive, he would have made sure that I learned computer-coloring. Even though I’m much more expressionistic as an artist than he was, he would have done that. Dad was very practical. His art was very practical. Mine is not as commercialized or practical. But Dad would have made sure that I made that transition.

Since he wasn’t around, I didn’t make it. I’m really grateful to Stan Lee. He lets me hand-color the Spider-Man Sunday pages. I don’t know if anybody else in the business still hand-colors. I do, though.

RA: Is Stan still writing it? I think Stan’s brother, Larry Lieber, is drawing it.

Apple Of His Eye (Left:) Janice Brodsky and her father at the former’s “sweet 16” party in June 1968.

(Right:) Sol and his daughter in 1982, a few years after she had moved to Los Angeles. Both photos courtesy of Janice, now Janna Parker.

PARKER: Stan’s still writing it, but the art is a little complicated. The Sunday strip is drawn and inked by different people than the daily strip. But Larry does work on the strip. [NOTE: Currently, Lieber pencils the daily strip, with inks by Alex Saviuk, while Saviuk pencils and Joe Sinnott inks the Sunday strip.

And, as Stan himself has stated, Roy Thomas works with him on the strip.]

Oh, I just remembered something that might be

“Dad Loved Comic Books!”

9

Alex Saviuk Photo courtesy of Bob Rozakis.

(Left & below:) Photos of Stan Lee and Joe Sinnott from the 1969 Fantastic Four Annual.

Color Me Colorful (Top left:) Janna was the colorist on The DNAgents, the Eclipse comic series written by Mark Evanier and drawn by Will Meugniot. Seen above is the cover of issue #1, cover-dated March 1983.

[TM & © Mark Evanier & Will Meugniot.]

(Above:) Stan Lee’s Amazing Spider-Man newspaper strip is replete with Marvel guest stars, such as this segment with Iron Man for Aug. 22, 2010. Pencils by Alex Saviuk; inks by Joe Sinnott; colors by Janna Parker, who has been applying hues to the strip since 1981-82. Thanks to Peter Duxbury.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

interesting. During the war, Dad was in the submarine service, and they had him working on maps—charts and territories or islands where Marines might land—so he was using his artistic skills when he was in the service, too.

RA: Yeah, that is interesting. If I talk to some of his old cronies, I’ll have to ask them if they know about that. Now, when did your Dad actually first have you working in the Marvel bullpen?

PARKER: Wow! I started in New York in 1973 or 1974. I worked at home at first, but came into the offices eventually.

The Son (As Well As The Niece) Also Rises Causing a bit of confusion from time to time is the fact that several once and future Brodskys and Cohens also worked at Marvel during the time Sol was there: Sharon Cohen, seen here from the 1969 Fantastic Four Annual, is a cousin of Janna/Janice’s… and no relation to the latter’s ex-husband.

Gary Brodsky, Sol’s son (and Janice’s brother), has published his own comics and magazines from time to time. Seen at right are Rich Buckler’s portrait of Gary from the cover of one of the latter’s “Solson” enterprises, plus a GB-penciled, Joe Sinnott-inked cover for Marvel UK’s 1979 Hulk Annual. [Portrait TM & © Solson Productions; Marvel UK cover TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] Incidentally, Allyn Brodsky, who circa 1969-71 was a staff editorial assistant and writer at Marvel (on Iron Man, etc.), was not related to Sol, Janice, and Gary. Sure wish we had a vintage photo of Allyn, though!

RA: I’d like to get back to that in a few minutes, but first I’d like to ask about a period of his life that came just before you started working at Marvel. Sol was the production manager at Marvel from 1964 to 1970.

PARKER: Actually, I think he did those production things even before he had the title. He dealt with the artists even when Marvel was very tiny in terms of office staff. Dad was good with production work and dealing with artists, especially with getting

10

Sol Brodsky Remembered By Daughter Janna Parker, aka Janice Cohen

your work in on time. I was pretty young at that time, though, and don’t know the exact years involved.

RA: Well, he actually started at Marvel when it was still Atlas, in the early 1950s. He did art for them as well as production work until 1957 or 1958, when Atlas lost their distributor and suddenly had to shrink their output by at least 75%. Everybody was fired except Stan and maybe a couple of artists. Afterwards, as things eased up, Stan had work for others, but only in bits and pieces.

I’m told that Sol did a lot of the background work in the last days of Atlas and the first days of Marvel, as far as production needs went, as well as penciling and inking, all on a freelance basis while he worked for other companies. He inked a lot of Stan Goldberg’s work on Millie the Model.

Logo-Motion When Marvel devoted much of its promotional magazine Marvel Age [#22, Jan. 1985] to a tribute to Sol Brodsky shortly after his passing, it reproduced two of the cover logos he had designed in the early 1960s. We wouldn’t be surprised if he’d had a hand in the logos of The Amazing Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, The X-Men, and/or Daredevil, as well. [Logos TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

PARKER: Unfortunately, I have only two pages of original art from Dad. My mother dumped all of that. [laughs] He used to sign his name as “Solly B.,” so it reads “by Stan Lee and Solly B.” That’s

how they read, even if he just did the inking. I think it was a way to protect Stan Goldberg from Archie or somebody from getting angry at him for working for Marvel.

You know, I was born Janice Brodsky, and then I got married [and became Janice Cohen]. When I got divorced, I decided I was going to make a new start, and I re-named myself Janna Parker.

The Parker comes from Peter Parker, because I color the Spider-Man Sunday strip. Well, Dad used different names, too. Besides “Solly B.,” he’d sometimes use just “Brod” or “Sky.” I think that sort of thing came about when you were working for two different companies at the same time. One name for one company and another name for a different company.

Dad also inked a couple of the early issues of the Fantastic Four [#3 & 4], and he designed the original logo for that book. It’s also possible that he co-designed the logo for Amazing Spider-Man. He hid in the background, which would be a big difference between him and myself. He’d created that original [F.F.] logo, but it’s not like he’d come home and talk about work. Later on, when I was married and working at Marvel, we didn’t talk about work. We just didn’t do that. It was very, very quiet.

He corrected a lot of stuff for Stan in those years. Art touch-ups and corrections. The art would get delivered to him, and if it wasn’t 100% OK, he’d fix it. Or if Stan wanted something fixed after the final art was turned in, Dad would make the corrections, but he never got credit for that. I don’t think Dad really cared about that. He just did it. He colored, he drew, he inked. I know that he wrote, also. I think he wrote some of the Kid Colt and maybe the Two-Gun Kid. I don’t know exact titles, because I don’t have them in front of me.

When I was a kid I had a crush on Kid Colt.

Sub-Mariner Service (Right:) Sol Brodsky during his time in uniform during World War II. Janna says he was in the “submarine service.” Photo courtesy of Janna Parker.

(Above:) Just about the only super-hero inking that A/E’s editor can recall Sol, then Marvel’s very busy production manager, finding time to do during the 1965-70 period when the two of them worked in the same office was the inking of John Buscema’s cover for the Silver Age Sub-Mariner #1 (May 1968). Sol was very pleased when Roy, as the issue’s scripter, complimented him (very sincerely) on it. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

I wish I’d been more of a fan back in those days, because I’d remember more. Still, I know he did write some.

Sometimes he’d do rewrites, too. He really did have a hand in everything.

Do you know that he was the original editor of

“Dad Loved Comic Books!”

Sol-id Work Some Brodsky splashes done for Timely/Atlas in the 1950s, clockwise from top left—all writers unidentified, but several of the yarns are signed by the artist in one way or another: A science-fiction filler from Venus #15 (Aug. 1951).

A boxing story from Sports Action #11 (March 1952).

A “Clark Mason” counterespionage thriller from Spy Fighters #8 (May 1952).

A post-Code mystery yarn from Marvel Tales #158 (May 1957), the penultimate issue.

Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo for the first two scans, and Michael T. Gilbert for the latter pair.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

11

12

Sol Brodsky Remembered By Daughter Janna Parker, aka Janice Cohen

Before It Gets Too Code!

Two pre-Code covers by Brodsky: The dialogue-heavy cover of Spy Fighters #2 (Jan. 1952) is, like many early-’50s Timely covers, very much in the vein of Charles Biro’s covers for Lev Gleason comics such as Crime Does Not Pay. Journey into Unknown Worlds #15 (Feb. 1953) is one of a number of effectively creepy horror covers drawn by Sol. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Cracked, the humor magazine? In fact, my mom was the one who came up with the title, calling it Cracked. That was my mom’s claim to fame in the comic book world. She didn’t claim it publicly, but in the house, we knew it. It was a household secret. And now it’s not!

RA: In 1970 he began working at Skywald Comics, which were published

by Israel Waldman and edited by your dad. There were some 25¢ color titles, Westerns, romance, and horror for the most part, plus two black-&white titles—Nightmare and Psycho.

PARKER: Yes, I remember that. There was a son of Israel’s, too, but I don’t remember his name. [NOTE: Hershel Waldman.]

RA: Your Dad had a history of sorts with Waldman, because he’d drawn quite a few covers for Waldman’s Super Comics or I.W. Comics back in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Super Comics didn’t sell on the

Not All It’s Cracked Up To Be The cover of Cracked #1, cover-dated Feb.-March 1958 (before it officially started calling itself Cracked Mazagine—and yes, the misspelling is theirs for once, not ours!). According to Mark Arnold’s 2011 book If You’re Cracked, You’re Happy – Volume 1: The Early Years, Sol Brodky edited the first ten issues of the parody mag before Stan Lee and Martin Goodman lured him away to the nascent Marvel Comics. Mark also reports that the cover’s layout was done by John Severin, who’d soon draw for Cracked for decades—but, unhappy at this stage over the page rates, he elected not to finish it and turned it over instead to his recent Timely staff colleague Bill Everett, who painted the finished cover. That makes it, really, a SeverinEverett collaboration. Mark’s two-volume history of Cracked is a valuable work and a good read; do yourself a favor and seek out a copy!

[TM & © Cracked Entertainment.]

newsstands. They were packaged as three comics for a quarter in plastic bags and sold through novelty or dime stores. So there was a previous connection with Israel Waldman, before the Skywald startup.

PARKER: That’s something I did not know. That’s interesting to me. I do know that Dad and Israel went way, way back. But I didn’t know that bit of history.

RA: Anyway, it was in 1970 that he and Waldman started up Skywald. The “wald” came from Waldman and the “sky” came from Brodsky.

The Skywald’s The Limit!

(Left & center:) Among the number of color comics that Skywald published during its existence were three issues each of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. Think there’d have eventually been a crossover? Dick Ayers penciled both #1 covers, dated June 1971; John Severin (his old teammate from Sgt. Fury at Marvel) inked the latter; the inker of the former is unknown.

(Right:) Jack Katz, soon to begin his graphic novel magnum opus The First Kingdom, penciled the cover of Jungle Adventures #1 (March 1971). Inks by Frank Giacoia. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

PARKER: That I knew. Dad really, really wanted that to work. There was a part of Dad that wanted to be the creator of something grand, to be independent and create his own thing. He wasn’t like the people that built collections and really

“Dad Loved Comic Books!”

13

Kid-ing Around (Left:) Sol drew the lead story in Kid Colt Outlaw #109 (March 1963) for editor/writer Stan Lee, back in the last days when Stan the Man had time to indulge himself in writing a Western.

(Right:) Sol also wrote a handful of Westerns in the latter ’60s, such as this early Herb Trimpe effort for Kid Colt Outlaw #135 (July 1967). On page 5, shown, Roy vividly recalls that the woman seen with her child at the bottom of the page originally had a dialogue balloon, reading, quote: “Black Bart, you’re the meanest man I ever did see!” Stan had it whited out... to the sorrow of Roy, Gary Friedrich, and other staffers who thought it a great “campy” line. You’ll see this story’s splash page later this issue. Thanks to Nick Caputo for both scans. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

were into pages and that sort of thing. He really liked to build the business. He was very, very serious about that. At Marvel they called him Stan’s “right-hand man.” He was, I think, as concerned with the business part of Skywald as Waldman was. Even though he loved the creative part, there was a very practical part of him.

Things had a due date, a due time, and they had to be done on time. Part of being a production manager for so many years, I guess. That sort of thing, that reliance on getting the job done on time, was very real to him, and he passed that on to me. Deadlines were no joke.

He was gentle with everybody, though. He didn’t yell. He was not a screamer, not at home and not at work. He was just very serious. Ultra-serious with timing, deadlines and dates. He loved all that, though, also.

Once we were at a convention… it had to be in the late 1960s, so it was one of the first real conventions. It was held in New York. I was immediately fascinated and wanted to go everywhere and see everything. People were looking for him to sign autographs, and he wouldn’t get in the elevator [with them]. He had the whole

family go up or down a whole lot of steps so we wouldn’t be seen.

I think he was innocent or shy in that way, about who he really was and his work. That wasn’t the way I was. I worked as an actress for some time while out here in Los Angeles and loved the limelight! I really wished my Dad would have signed those autographs! Many years later, I ended up signing my autograph for Mark Hamill, because I colored Groo. I was signing for First Comics as well. But, my Dad, nope. I think if he had, he would have gotten a kick out of it. I know I did.

The main books I remember around the house, and there were a lot of books, but the main ones that I remember were Millie the Model, Chili, and Kid Colt. And the Big Boy strips. There were lots of other ones but those are the ones that stick out in my memory.

The most interesting thing about my Dad was that he was there.

He was at Marvel right at the beginning and through all those important days in the 1960s. Everything that Stan Lee or Stan Goldberg couldn’t do in production, Dad did. In films, you’d call him the character actor who’s in nearly every movie that you see.

Somebody had to be there, and Dad put himself there. I think he

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Sol Brodsky Remembered By Daughter Janna Parker, aka Janice Cohen

did that on purpose. That would have been his personality.

RA: Before we get too far out of the 1960s, you mentioned your Dad’s work on the giveaway Big Boy restaurant comics. I’ve been told that doing those comics was a fairly lucrative sideline for the artist.

PARKER: I was really young then, when Dad was doing those. But Dad had a big statue of Big Boy on his desk for many years. I guess he used it as a model or something like that. Dad always worked on the Big Boy pages at home, and my whole family loved the extra time we got from him being home then.

RA: I think Stan Lee wrote some of the early issues of Big Boy, which were illustrated by Bill Everett. They weren’t officially Marvel or Timely comics, but they were produced by staffers from that company, beginning in 1956. In fact, according to Nick Caputo’s blog site, your dad was the packager from 1957 to 1964. Besides your Dad and Everett, Dan DeCarlo, Stan Goldberg, Artie Simek, and Steve Ditko are also known to have worked on the title.

PARKER: I didn’t know that other artists worked on the book, but it was a big presence in our house. Dad also worked on something for Birds-Eye Peas. Some kind of frozen food from that company.

There was some saying or slogan that went with that ad campaign, and I acted it out when I was at home. He did a lot of

Retread Softly…

(Above:) In 1958 and the early ’60s, Brodsky drew, among others, these four covers for Israel Waldman’s reprint company IW: The Avenger #9 (which contained Bob Powell-drawn stories of Magazine Enterprises’ mid-’50s hero of that name)… Frontier Romances #1… Gunfighters #11… and Kaänga #58, repackaging the Fiction House jungle lord. (Don’t take any of the issue numbers seriously.) Sol probably inked all of these covers, except possibly The Avenger. Regrettably, we’re not sure who sent us all these cover scans, but our hat’s off to him/her. [© the respective copyright holders.]

He Made The Brain Run On Time!

In 1963 Sol drew the cover of the reprint humor title The Brain #18 for Waldman’s reprints. [© the respective copyright holders.]

“Dad Loved Comic Books!”

15

that. That was way back. In those days there were a lot of companies, the cereal companies and whatnot, that had comics-style stories on the boxes.

RA: Somebody had to write and draw all those Bazooka Joe comics!

PARKER: That’s right! It was kind of a different world back then. There were comics in lots of places besides just comic books. Dad loved comics! Now that I think of it, it’s surprising that there wasn’t a big pile of comics in the house all the time, because Dad just loved comics—all kinds, all ways. I still remember comics folded in thirds and wrapped in brown paper coming in the mail.

That was very exciting for me. I read each and every one of them!

You know, my dad started his career in comics sweeping the

Arts Gratia Artist (Above center:) Janna in one of her TV acting roles—on the 1994-98 space opera Babylon 5. She’s the one on our right, standing next to one of the stars, Mira Furlan. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

(Right:) One of Janna’s recent colored interpretive drawings. Both scans courtesy of JP. [© 2015 Janna Parker.]

floors at Archie Comics, or maybe it was Fox Comics. [NOTE: According to Roy Thomas, Sol had early menial jobs at both places. He once told Roy that he was sweeping up (or some such thing) in 1941 at MLJ, the forerunner of Archie Comics, when publisher John Goldwater strode into the bullpen and proclaimed to one and all that he’d like somebody to come up with a character like Henry Aldrich, the teenage focus of the popular Aldrich Family radio series. Among those present, Sol remembered, was artist Bob Montana.] I remember this because Dad always told that story about sweeping the floor to emphasize that, if you love something enough, you shouldn’t be too proud to do anything to get in the door. You should just get in! He literally swept the floor to get his start in comics. He was young. Still a teenager. This would have been the 1940s. He wasn’t the only teenager, I suppose, to be looking for a job in comics in those days.

He was just willing to start off at the bottom.

Come On, Big Boy… [Not Even] 10¢ A Dance!”

“Brod” even signed this circa-1962 splash page of Adventures of the Big Boy. Probably wrote the story, too. The lettering is reportedly by longtime Marvel regular Artie Simek. Thanks to Nick Caputo.

[TM & © the respective copyright holders.]

RA: I’m pretty sure he was working for Fox. Some of his first cover art was for Blue Beetle #17. Some time later he went to work for Timely, both drawing and doing production work. Then, after the Great Implosion of Timely/Atlas in 1958, he started the humor magazine Cracked for publisher Robert Spoul, and at the same time he was doing freelance work, particularly in production for Stan Lee. In 1964 he became the production manager at Marvel. I think they created the position for him.

PARKER: If you talk to my brother, he is better at names and dates and things than I am. However, the dates you’re mentioning sound right.

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Sol Brodsky Remembered By Daughter Janna Parker, aka Janice Cohen

Beetle-Mania

RA: Then he left Marvel to start up Skywald and was there for two years (1970-1972). I don’t know if you remember Al Hewetson….

PARKER: I do.

RA: He passed away a few years ago, but he and I corresponded for several months before his death. He had very good memories of your father. Al had worked at Marvel, as Stan Lee’s assistant or gofer, for a period of time, and had gotten to know Sol Brodsky there. Al left Marvel at some point in either 1969 or 1970 and started writing stories for Warren’s Creepy and Eerie titles, as well as for Skywald. Then, in 1972, he took a job at Skywald as the assistant editor under your dad. When your dad left Skywald, he recommended Al for the editor’s job he was vacating. Al considered your dad’s recommendation to be one of the best things that had happened in his life.

PARKER: My dad would help anybody. I’m not saying that just because he was my dad. These days, I’m not even sure if that’s the best trait to have, but Dad would help anyone and everyone if they could do the work. He wouldn’t hire someone who was incompetent, who couldn’t do the work, but if Dad could give somebody that he knew a helping hand, some work to do, then he would do it. He was just one of the kindest people in that regard. I think a lot of people would agree with that. I suppose that was why my Mom was left to dole out the punishment. Dad was too nice. He just was very kind and wanted everyone to succeed. I remember him giving my friend’s mom a job doing zip-a-tone additions to pages after her husband died and she needed extra income. He also trained my uncle, Fay’s husband, to do Photostat work. If Dad could help, he would.

RA: Do you know why he left Skywald and returned to Marvel?

Some of Brodsky’s earliest work in comics was done for Victor Fox’s Blue Beetle comic—such as a “V-Man” story for BB #16 (Nov. 1942)… the cover of #17 (Dec. ’42)… and, displaying his virtuosity as a cartoonist, a “Dipsy Doodle” public-service page in #22 (June ’43), signed by “Sol.” Thanks to Jim Ludwig and Michael T. Gilbert. [Blue Beetle is now a trademark of DC Comics; art © the respective copyright holders.]

“Dad Loved Comic Books!”

17

The Baton Is Passed (Left:) Al Hewetson, Sol Brodsky’s successor as editor at Skywald—and (at bottom of page) a photo he took of Sol on the latter’s last day at the comics company that had taken half its name from him. It must have been a bittersweet departure for Sol; but at least he was returning to what would soon become an improved position at Marvel, which he would hold for the rest of his life. Thanks to George E. Warner for sending the photo of Al from Skywald’s Scream #1 (Aug. 1973) and that of Sol from Hewetson’s 2004 book Skywald!: The Complete Illustrated History of the Skywald Horror-Mood; thanks also to Barry Pearl, Shaun Clancy, and Stephan Friedt. [Photos © Marvel Characters, Inc. & Estate of Al Hewetson, respectively.]

PARKER: You know, I was never 100% clear on that. There may have been a slow-down of work or something. He didn’t have enough to do or something maybe like that.

RA: Skywald had tried an experiment with color comics that had failed.

The color line was cancelled and the black-&-white titles had a hiatus of some six months or so.

PARKER: One of the reasons that I don’t know that much about it was that Dad just didn’t speak that much of work when he was home. To Dad, business was business and home was home. My Mom was not into comics or art at all. She was not creative in any artsy way whatsoever. She would joke about that, in fact. I think she may have felt bad in some respect deep inside because she couldn’t draw or wasn’t moved in that way. Dad just kept those aspects of his life very separate. I do remember, though, people coming to the door and hand-delivering packages. I remember Artie Simek and somebody else, maybe Sam Rosen, who would come and deliver the artwork to our apartment—a lot. They didn’t talk about it much. I don’t remember the fellow’s name, but Dad pushed to get one of the first Filipino artists at the time to work for Marvel. That fellow came to the door a lot and brought artwork.

RA: In those days, the first few artists from the Philippines that would have been in the U.S. would have been folks like Tony DeZuniga or Ernie Chan (or “Chua,” as he billed himself at the time). Possibly Alex Nino.

PARKER: The Tony name sounds familiar…

RA: DeZuniga actually started at DC, but I can easily see him dropping off work from himself or other Filipino artists, since he also acted as an agent of sorts for artists still living in the Philippines.

PARKER: If Dad saw a talent he could push, then he’d do that.

I remember Alfredo Alcala, although he wasn’t the Filipino that I was trying to think of. Alfredo did a lot of work. The one I’m trying to think of was only the first. There was more than one artist. I do remember that Artie Simek was there a lot, too.

Particularly when I was a kid. The Filipino thing started later.

RA: Artie was a letterer, so he would have been delivering penciled and lettered pages that needed inks. Sol, as the production manager, would need to send the pages off to the correct artist for inking.

Following the Skywald period, he rejoined Marvel, but not as the production manager, because John Verpooten had taken over that job. So Stan created a new position for Sol as the vice president of operations, which, I believe, had something to do with overseas publishing as well.

PARKER: Yes, that’s right. Dad’s job was to develop different markets for the comics and characters. Marvel made a real effort in those years to build a market in Great

Britain and Europe for Marvel comics and characters. When I worked at Marvel, that’s what Dad was doing. He had a big office, with tons of British titles. They were bigger than our comics but they weren’t in color. They came out faster than here in the States, too. I think weekly, so they would only use six or eight pages from an issue and then use the rest in another issue. But each issue would have a half-dozen or more [features], because they were really thick books, some of them. Stuff got used up really fast. No color, though, except on the cover. I think they have color in those comics today, but not back then.

Comics have changed so much since then with computers. A lot of kids won’t even look at a black-&-white book anymore.

RA: I know. When I was a kid, a black-&-white book was something special, where you found stuff that you couldn’t find anywhere else. I guess that’s no longer true, though.

PARKER: When I first came out to [San Diego] Comic-Con in 1977 or 1978, the convention was just filled with comics and comics creators, but now it’s filled with movie stars. Things have changed so much. It’s very different. I guess that sort of thing started happening, though, while I was still working for Marvel. The last color book I did for them was an adaptation of the Bee Gees’ version of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. I also did coloring for The Man from Atlantis, a TV show [adaptation]. Marvel was really trying to bridge the gap between movies and comics. They were involved with the Star Wars and Conan films and stuff like that. That Sgt. Pepper’s thing was the hardest I’ve ever done. Tons of reference material to include.

RA: So we’re back at the spot now where you got your job and were working for your dad.

PARKER: Well, like I said, Dad trained me but then turned me over to Marie… Marie Severin.

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Sol Brodsky Remembered By Daughter Janna Parker, aka Janice Cohen

Support Your “Red Cross”!

“Charles Nicholas & Sol Brodsky” are credited with both the cover of Holyoke’s Captain Aero #8 (Sept. 1942) and the origin/first story of the costumed hero “The Red Cross” within. Nicholas (real name: Charles Wojtowski), the creator or co-creator of “The Blue Beetle,” is sometimes credited with the writing on this story and Brodsky with the art… but there are several other possibilities, including that Sol scripted and inked the story over Nicholas’ pencils, or that Nicholas did rough layouts with Sol finishing, etc. It does seem likely, though, given the shared byline and Sol’s 1960s claim that he had created the character, that Brodsky did more than simply ink the first three “Red Cross” stories.

Thanks to the Comic Book Plus website. [© the respective copyright holders.]

“Dad Loved Comic Books!”

19

And Here We Always Thought It Was Just The Name Of A Motorcycle Gang!

A few years later, Brodsky drew (and signed) a Western yarn in the “Hell’s Angels” series for Holyoke’s Sparkling Stars #18 (Oct. 1946). This seems to be an unauthorized permutation, in some odd way, through World War II and beyond, of the World War I fighter pilots celebrated in the 1930 film Hell’s Angels.

Thanks to Jim Kealy. [© the respective copyright holders.]

RA: Nothing like learning from the best…

PARKER: Oh, the absolute best! Dad brought me up there the first time when I was just a kid. I’m not even sure where the company was located then. I do know there weren’t many people up there at the time. Marie was there, and she was a woman who could do anything top-notch. She could draw, design covers, color… She used to blow me away. She still does.

At some point, Marvel did a comic where Dad was The Human Torch. It was a book where the idea was that the Marvel characters were actually members of the Marvel bullpen. I think Stan Lee was Mr. Fantastic, Jack Kirby was, obviously, The Thing, Flo Steinberg was The Invisible Girl, and Dad was The Human Torch. It was for a comic called What If—I think Jack actually drew it. I remember that Flo Steinberg was a household name when I was growing up. She really helped build the whole business. I think the whole bullpen at one point consisted of Stan, Flo, my dad, and maybe Marie.

Everybody else was a freelancer. Flo stuck out because she was a woman and so talented and capable. Flo was there from very nearly the beginning of the Marvel Age. She left Marvel for the first time, just about the same time as my Dad left for Skywald.

RA: That would have been at roughly the same time or maybe a little before Jack Kirby left, as well.

PARKER: Yeah, she went to work at Warren. I lost track of her after that, but she was an important part of Marvel at the same time my Dad was.

RA: I know she kept in touch with Marie Severin, because they used to get together with Trina Robbins, the underground artist and comic book historian, and Dale Messick, who was the artist for Brenda Starr.

I’ve heard it mentioned by others that Sol’s job with

Marie & Sol—Still Working Together!

Artist & colorist Marie Severin, from the 1969 Fantastic Four Annual—and the caricature of Sol Brodsky she drew (and probably colored, as well) for the Sol tribute in Marvel Age #22 (Jan. 1985). Thanks to Scott Rowland. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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Sol Brodsky Remembered By Daughter Janna Parker, aka Janice Cohen

What If Sol Brodsky Co-starred In A “Fantastic Four” Story?

The last “Fantastic Four”-related tale that Jack Kirby actually drew for comic books was this one for What If? #11 (Oct. 1978). Story conceptualizer and series editor Roy Thomas wound up letting Jack script it, as well, since, after he and RT discussed the idea by phone, Kirby decided that Sol Brodksy, rather than RT, should be the fourth member of the “Marvel bullpen F.F.,” along with Kirby himself, Stan Lee, and Marvel’s 1960s corresponding secretary/“gal Friday” Flo Steinberg. Roy soon realized, whatever Jack’s motivations for doing so, that Sol, who’d designed the F.F. cover logo back in ’61 and had inked F.F. #3-4, deserved to be the tale’s Human Torch a lot more than the Rascally One himself did. Seen here are the Sinnott-inked cover, an introductory panel from page 2, and all of page 19, in which Sol discovers his new flame powers. We don’t know about you, but we love the dialogue in the latter’s final two panels! Inks by Mike Royer & Bill Wray. Thanks to Barry Pearl for the scans.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Marvel meant that he didn’t work with the regular editorial office. That he was kind of in a separate category or office.

PARKER: Yes! People called him Stan Lee’s “right-hand man”! I remember when Dad came out to California to visit or on business. He and my mom would take me out to dinner, and Stan and his wife would be there. They didn’t talk business during those dinners, but I’m sure that business went on. People today, in that situation, would be way out there—“I’m Stan’s right-hand

man!”—but my dad was very quiet. Very off to one side but very, very, very involved in everything.

There were two offices, you know. There was Dad’s office and then there was the main editorial office that was run by whoever was the editor at the time. Jim Shooter was there when I left. Dad liked being separate and I could see why…. Roy’s running of the office was way different. And Archie Goodwin—he was really, really nice—but different people have different personalities. I didn’t deal with the editors all that closely, mind you. Not on any kind of intimate level.

Sol Brodsky Abroad (Left:) Larry Lieber drew this cover for the Marvel UK’s 200th issue of The Mighty World of Marvel “for the week ending July 28, 1976,” which spotlighted partial-issues of The Avengers, Daredevil, The Incredible Hulk, and Conan the Barbarian, utilizing poses by Kirby and others. From its inception, Brodsky presided over Marvel UK, which was basically an entirely separate division at Marvel that began in the early ’70s, soon after he returned to the company. Thanks to Robert Menzies . [Marvel heroes TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; Conan TM & © Conan Properties, Inc.]

“Dad Loved Comic Books!”

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I have a photo of Dad in his office. It’s not the best of photos, but I’ll see if I can read what’s behind him in the photo. It’s just a tiny little photo. In the room at 575 Madison he worked in, behind where he worked, was a gigantic wall of published comic covers. That’s the office I remember seeing him in. The photo is really, really blurry and so tiny it’s hard to see. I can see a Star Wars cover and a Daredevil.

Maybe they were the Special Projects titles that Dad worked on.

RA: Do you remember what, besides the overseas material, your dad was working on? I know that he did Marvel-style ads for Saturday morning cartoons and that sort of thing.

PARKER: The last thing that Dad worked on that I know of was that TV show with Mr. T—The A-Team! Marvel was doing an adaptation of it or promos for it or something.

Dad was actually getting that going when he passed away.

He got ill and died of cancer.

By the time they found it— well, like I said, Dad was quiet. He wouldn’t ever complain of pain. So when they found the cancer, it was in his liver—it was everywhere.

He worked through it, though, as long as he could, but he must have had it for some time before it was really noticeable. I was out here in California, so when I got a chance to go back and see him, it was a bit of a shock. Dad didn’t make a big deal out of

“Wall Of Covers” Janna sent us this somewhat fuzzy photo of her father from 1977 or ’78, as documented by the Tarzan cover seen in it.

This “wall of covers” (mentioned by her on p. 22) is probably behind the production manager’s desk, and had once formed a background for Sol’s 9-to-5 life; but, in this instance, he probably just posed for the photo there rather than in his own office. The production manager from 1970-77 was John Verpoorten, who passed away near the end of the latter year.

The Only A-Team Wasn’t In The Comics!

(Top center:) The cover of The A-Team #1 (March 1984), one of Sol’s last projects before his passing. This was a limited series of which art director (and cover penciler) John Romita said in a Marvel Age #22 interview with Dwight Jon Zimmerman: “The biggest challenge we had was when we did the three A-Team comics. We had to produce all three in thirty days. That’s plot, script, pencils, inks, and coloring—and then wait for approval.

Somehow we got them done. [And Sol] was proud of the fact that we produced them on time… they didn’t look as bad as I thought they might… [and, despite the fact that we had three different art teams on the three comics…] there was a cohesiveness to the series…. We were handling all sorts of projects, and always under pressure. Sol was able to handle it. I think it was a great satisfaction to him to turn out stuff under ridiculous conditions.”

(Above:) Sol's inks for Jack Kirby's dynamic “Ant-Man” splash page done for Tales of Suspense #40 (Feb. 1963). Plot by Stan Lee; script by Larry Lieber.

Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Center of page:) Also from Marvel Age #22: a photo of Sol clowning around with “The Green Goblin” at the annual White House Easter Egg Hunt (precise year not known). David Anthony Kraft sent us this sharper image of that pic. [© the respective copyright holders.]

how he was feeling, so when he finally said something it was too late. After they found it, he died rather quickly. I’m not sure he even wanted to know how bad it really was.

RA: Is there anything you’d like to add for an ending for this interview?

PARKER: All those guys, Stan, my Dad, Marie, Flo—their work is so impressive. That’s the word for it, impressive. I don’t know if they knew it or would even say it, but what they did, it was impressive.

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Sol Brodsky Remembered By Daughter Janna Parker, aka Janice Cohen

SOL BRODSKY Checklist

[This checklist is adapted from information found in the online edition of The Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999, established by Dr. Jerry G. Bails. Names of features that appeared both in comic books with that title and in other publications, as well, are generally not italicized. Some of this information was probably supplied by Sol Brodsky himself via questionnaires sent out in the 1970s in conjunction with the original print edition of the Who’s Who. Key: (e) = editor; (w) = writer; (p) = penciler; (i) = inker; (prod) = production work.]

Name: Solomon Richard [Sol] Brodsky (1923-1984) editor, writer, artist

Promotional Comics: Adventures of the Big Boy (w)(p)(i)(prod) 195864 for Big Boy Restaurants

Education: Brooklyn Museum School of Art; High School of Industrial Arts, New York City; Pratt Institute, Queens, NYC

Ace Periodicals: crime (p) 1954; horror (p) 1953

Pen Names: Dick Richards; Solly; Brod

Family in Arts: daughter Janice Cohen (now Janna Parker), colorist; son Gary Brodsky, artist, writer; son Stephen Brodsky, support staff

Print Media: artist/production: Blushing Blurbs (book); Executives ABC Doodle Book; production artist: Golfers Anonymous and Secrets behind the Comics (books)

Animation: Marvel/Sunbow – production advisor: Fantastic Four, Spider-Man

COMIC BOOK CREDITS (Mainstream U.S. Publishers):

Archie Comic Publications/MLJ: Archie (p)(i) c. 1947; filler (p)(i) 1959-61; The Fly (i) 1959; house ads (p)(i) 1960; support (prod) 1941 Catholic Comics: Catholic Comics (p)(i) 1947

Eastern Color Printing: Heroic Comics (p)(i) 1947

Fox Comics: Blue Beetle (w)(p)(i) 1941-42; gag page 1943; Martin Kane (p)(i) 1950; V-Man (p)(i) 1942 Holyoke Publications: adventure (p)(i) 1942-43; Blue Beetle

Holyokes, Cat-Man! (Left:) Sol Brodsky’s (and Charles Nicholas’) final work on the “Red Cross” series they had co-created appeared in Holyoke’s Captain Aero #10 (Jan. 1943), where the masked medic lorded it (symbolically) over Hitler, Mussolini, and General Tojo. Once again, exactly how the work was divided is uncertain. Jack Alderman took over the art chores with issue #11. Thanks to Comic Book Plus.

(Right:) A Brodsky-drawn “Volton” splash from Cat-Man Comics, Vol. 3, #2 (July 1942). Scripter unknown. [© the respective copyright holders.]

“Dad Loved Comic Books!”

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One From Column A… Three vintage 1952 Brodsky covers from the Atlas Age, in three different genres: Astonishing #11 (Spring)… Battlefield #3 (Aug.)… and Justice #30 (Oct. ’52).

Thanks to the Grand Comics Database. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

(w)(p)(i) 1942-43; cover (p)(i) 1948 for Western Thrillers #1; covers (p)(i) 1947-48, possibly Captain Kidd #25, Famous Crimes #3-17 & 20, Murder Incorporated #5-9a & 9b-15, My Life #4-5, Western Killers #6064, Western Outlaws #17-21, Western Outlaws #17-21, Western Thrillers #1 & #5, Women Outlaws #3-5; filler (p)(i) 1943; Hell’s Angels (p)(i) 1947-48; Little Leaders (i) 1942-43; Phantom Falcon (p)(i) 1942; The Rag-Man (p)(i) 1942-43; Red Cross (w)(p)(i) 1942; Saxie and Peaches (i) 1947-48; support (art director/asst. e) 1946-47; Uncle Bungle (i) 1948; V-Man (p)(i) 1942; Volton (p)(i) 1942; war (p)(i) 1942-43

Filler Fun Well over a year before he did production work for Fantastic Four #1, Brodsky penciled and inked this twopage “Shield” featurette titled “Power Pack” for Archie’s Adventures of The Fly #4 (Jan. 1960).

Script by Joe Simon. [© Estate of Joe Simon; The Shield is a trademark of Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

I.W. Publications: covers (p)(i) 1958, 1963-64

Kelvart Enterprises: Up Your Nose… and Out Your Ear (prod manager/co-own) 1972

Lev Gleason: various features (p)(i) mid-1940s; appeared in group photo on Gleason greeting card mid-1940s

Major Magazines: Cracked (e) 1958-60; support (e) Cracked, et al., 1958-60

Marvel/Timely Comics: Adventure into Mystery (p)(i) 1957; Adventures into Terror (p)(i) 1951, 1953; Adventures into Weird Worlds (p)(i) 1952-53; All-True Crime Cases (p)(i) 1951-52; Amazing Detective Cases (p)(i) 1951; Ant-Man (i) 1962-63; Astonishing Comics (p)(i) 1953, 1956; back-up feature (p)(i) 1953 in Combat Casey; back-up feature (p)(i) 1956 in Devil-Dog Dugan; back-up feature (p)(i) 1958 in Wyatt Earp; back-up feature (w)(p)(i) 1958, 1964, 1967 in Two-Gun Kid; back-up feature (w)(p)(i) 1963-65, 1968 in Rawhide Kid; Battle (p)(i) 1953-55; Battle Action (p)(i) 1952 (unconfirmed); Battle Brady (p)(i) 1954; Battlefield (p)(i) 1952; Battlefront (p)(i) 1953; Clark Mason (p)(i) 1951-52; Combat (p)(i) 1953; covers (i) 1961-68; covers (p)(i) 1951-57; Crazy (e) 1953-54, (p)(i) 1954; Crime Exposed (p)(i) 1952; Daredevil (asst. i) on first issue; Dee Dee (w)(p)(i) 1967-68; DevilDog Dugan (p)(i) 1956; Fantastic Four (i) 1962, 1981, (logo design) 1961; Greg Mason (p)(i) 1951-52; Gunhawk (p)(i) 1951; The Gunhawks (i) 1972; Gunsmoke Western (p)(i) 1963; illustration (i) 1962; Iron Man (i) 1966; Journey into Mystery (p)(i) 1958, 1963; Journey into Unknown Worlds (p)(i) 1955, 1957; Justice Comics (p)(i) 1951, 1956; Kid Colt (p)(i) 1953, (w) 1963, 1967; Kid Colt Outlaw (p)(i) 1963; Man Comics (p)(i) 1951 – adventure & war; Marines in Battle (p)(i) 1958; Marvel Tales (p)(i) 1955-57; Men in Action (p)(i) 1952; Men’s Adventures (p)(i) 1951-52; Menace (p)(i) 1953-54; Millie the Model (w)(p)(i) c. 1948-71; Mystery Tales (p)(i) 1955-56; Mystic (p)(i) 1953-56; Mystical Tales (p)(i) 1956-57; Navy Combat (p)(i) 1957; Patsy and Hedy (w)(p)(i) 1965; Patsy Walker (w)(p)(i) c. 1948-50s; Private Eye (p)(i) 1951; Rocky Jordan (p)(i) 1951; Space Squadron (p)(i) 1952; Space Worlds (p)(i) 1952; Spellbound (p)(i) 1952, 1955-57;

24

Sol Brodsky Remembered By Daughter Janna Parker, aka Janice Cohen

Sports Action (p)(i) 1952; Spy Cases (p)(i) 1951-52; Spy Fighters (p)(i) 1951; Strange Stories of Suspense (p)(i) 1955-57; Strange Tales of the Unusual (p)(i) 1956-57; Strange Tales (i) 1959, 1963 – logo design c. 1959, (p)(i) 1951-56; support (e) 1953-54 Crazy; support (prod) 1954-71, 1973-84; support (VP Special Operations) 1973-84; Suspense (p)(i) 1951-53; Tales of Justice (p)(i) 1956; Tales of Suspense (logo design) 1959, (p)(i) 1963; Tales of the Watcher (i) 1964; Tales to Astonish (logo design) 1959, (i) 1963; TwoGun Kid (w)(p)(i) 1967; Uncanny Tales (p)(i) 1952-57; various features (p)(i) 1942; War Action (p)(i) 1952-53; War Adventures (p)(i) 1952; War Comics (p)(i) 1951-52; The Wasp (i) 1965; The Wasp Tells a Tale (i) 1964; World of Fantasy (p)(i) 1956; World of Mystery (p)(i) 1956-57; World of Suspense (p)(i) 1952; Wyatt Earp (p)(i) 1958

Rural Home Publishing: Blue Circle (p)(i) 1944-45; Variety (p)(i) 1946 Sywald Publications: (e) & co-publisher 1970-72 Victory Comics: X-Venture (p)(i) 1947

Clothes Make The Team?

The cover of Fantastic Four #3 (March 1962) was penciled by Jack Kirby, inked by Sol Brodsky, colored by Stan Goldberg, and commissioned by editor/writer Stan Lee—and was the first glimpse readers ever got of the group’s new costumes. So what if the Torch was drawn with two left hands? The page from the interior, by the same quartet, recounts the team’s origin from the first issue. Thanks to Barry Pearl for the latter scan.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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NOTE: This volume had been temporarily delayed, but has now been published out of order.

SOL BRODSKY — Stan Lee’s “Right-Hand Man” — Part III

25

“Sol Was A Great Company Man” STAN GOLDBERG Remembers SOL BRODSKY Interview Conducted & Transcribed by Richard J. Arndt NTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: Stan Goldberg, who regrettably passed away in 2013, not long after this interview was conducted, was a veteran of the Timely, Atlas, and Marvel bullpens from the late 1940s to the 1970s. He worked for Marvel again in the 1980s. In the 1950s he was the head of the coloring department at Timely/Atlas. Between 1961 and 1965 he colored practically all the Marvel comics, as well as drawing all the Mille the Model titles. He was also one of the two main artists (the other being Dan DeCarlo) at Archie Comics between 1968 and 2010. Up till near the end of his life he was an active artist, drawing, among other projects, Nancy Drew for Papercutz. A tribute to Stan Goldberg begins on p. 66 of this issue… but meanwhile, let’s enjoy the reminiscences and information he has to give us….

Starkman. When that bullpen broke up in 1958, a lot of those guys went over to DC Comics and both of them went to work there. Stan Starkman was on a freelance basis and Joe Leterese was on a staff job at DC. Anyway, that first day I arrived, they pulled the guys apart, and I thought to myself “Geez, I’m going to be working with these guys in this room!”

I

RICHARD ARNDT: First off, thanks for agreeing to this interview. It was very nice of you.

STAN GOLDBERG: Well, Richard, I’m always happy to talk about my pal, Sol Brodsky.

There’s so many things I’d like to say about him.

He was my boss.

He was my friend. He helped me out a lot. Socially we were good friends.

RA: How long did you know Sol?

A Fantastic Foursome

We played cards every lunch hour.

We played with two decks because we only had an hour, so one deck was used in the game and the other one was being shuffled for the next hand. Sol was a big card player all his life. Those card games became a regular thing.

When we quit playing in the bullpen, we kept on in somebody’s home. There was a once-a-month card game at Roy Thomas’ [apartment] in the 1970s, or maybe it would be at the house of one of Stan’s assistants for many years, Al Sulman. We had that card game for many years, until 1984.

Inker Sol Brodsky and colorist Stan Goldberg flank the published cover for Fantastic Four #4 (May 1962), to which both longtime Timely/Atlas/Marvel artisans contributed—along with all-important penciler Jack Kirby, of course, while editor Stan Lee may well have contributed the initial concept, as he often did. Brodsky and Goldberg were friends as well as colleagues for many decades. Their photos come from the 1969 F.F. Annual.

The descriptions printed there beneath the photos were, A/E’s editor believes, written by him, though Stan Lee may later have altered one or two.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

GOLDBERG: I’ve been thinking about Sol these last few days, knowing I was going to talk about him tonight. I met him in the first bullpen of Timely Comics in the 1950s, where I spent about eight years. For a good part of those eight years, Sol and I worked together. There were probably 12 to 15 people working there at that time. I was a kid there, but I was running the coloring department.

I had a corner of the room. Sol was maybe ten years older than me.

He had the middle of the room with his drawing board. The coloring department—we didn’t need drawing boards. I just had a big table with a big bunch of my Dr. Martins, the dye and the inks, a lot of other stuff.

The first time I came into the bullpen, there was a big fight going on. Two of the letterers were beating each other up in the back of the room. One of them was Joe Leterese, and the other Stan

Back to Sol: I knew him as an artist first off, then as a production man later on. It’s the production guy that people remember, because he gave up drawing completely. Well, he might draw up something if he wanted me to see what he was thinking, and he could do that very well because he was an artist, but he quit drawing for publication. I spent a lot of time with Sol. All in all, though, socially and in business we were good friends. We played cards with a whole bunch of guys in the bullpen.

Those card games were a regular thing and lasted some thirty years!

I remember one time Stan Lee came in from his office, which was right next to ours, and I think he was kidding around— playing the big editor, and he put his hands on his hips. We all looked up at him and we saw a kind of smile coming on his face.

Now, Stan knew exactly who was doing what and if we were on schedule, because we were putting out fifty books a month with corrections and lettering and proofreading and coloring. A lot of stuff, but we had a great bunch of guys—all professionals— working in that room to do all that. You can’t do all that unless

26

Stan Goldberg Remembers Sol Brodsky

we got in there. They weren’t killer games, just for fun and laughs. Those card games went on right up to 1984, when Sol passed on. He wasn’t the only one. Three or four other guys passed on around the same time. I had a tragedy in my family. It just never started up again. I have great memories of those games, though. We had loads of fun.

[Back in the 1950s] we’d go out together, a whole bunch of us, but you gotta remember that I was the young guy then. I was the youngest of all of them, even if I was just ten or fifteen years younger. I was not married at that time. All of these guys, or most of them, were married. Even the ones who were not married were older than I was. I was part of the crowd in the office, in the card game, but socially I was not really a part. But when I got married, I fit in better. Then it was “Hey, Goldberg, we’re gonna meet in the city, have dinner next week. C’mon!” Maybe we’d meet on a Sunday—that sort of thing. Your official membership in that group was with your wife.

Thereby Hangs A [Marvel] Tale!

Whether or not the Comics Code was in effect, Sol could rise to the occasion. Seen above are the pre-Code cover of Marvel Tales #113 (April 1953) and the post-Code one of #145 (April 1956). The latter is signed, a relative rarity for Brodsky in those days. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

you’re professional. So Stan says, “I pay you guys to eat your lunch at lunchtime. Not to play cards. You eat your lunch at lunchtime.”

We look at him and he looks at us. Then somebody starts shuffling the cards and we all burst out with a good laugh. He laughed right with us, than went back into his office. He was a good boss to work for. He really was. He got along fine with everybody in that room.

RA: This would have been poker?

GOLDBERG: Oh, yeah, poker. Poker, poker, poker, poker, poker! It started off as a ten or twenty game—a dime or twenty cents. When the bullpen broke up we started going once a month to somebody’s home. Thirty years later the stakes had gone up to a 50¢ and $1 game. That was it. It was never about the money.

Besides Sol and me, the longest-lasting regulars were John Romita, Al Sulman, Mike Esposito, Roy Thomas—Roy was the new guy. He was a good card player. I think one of Roy’s first jobs as a writer was doing one of my Millie the Models.

We usually played at Roy’s place because he lived in Manhattan. Al Milgrom came in. He was probably the last new guy

RA: Now, you mention the first bullpen for Timely or, I guess, in 1950 it might have been called Atlas. Was that a full bullpen?

GOLDBERG: Yeah, that was a full bullpen.

Production crew, editors, writers, artists. It was in the Empire State Building at that time. Actually, it wasn’t the first bullpen, though. I came in around the beginning of 1950, but the 1940s bullpen had different fellows in it. Some of them from the 1940s bullpen became quite famous. You’d be amazed. There was Gene Colan, Danny DeCarlo, John Buscema, Al Jaffee. I don’t know if Sol ever worked in that bullpen. He might have. But there were a lot of letterers, inkers, proofreaders from the 1940s that weren’t there in the 1950s.

That bullpen disappeared in 1949 because I think Martin Goodman was tired of paying people on salary and figured it would be cheaper to let them go. The one that I joined with Sol happened a few months later.

Like I said, we had a schedule of about fifty books a month that we had to put out. And a big variety—from funny animals to teenage humor to Westerns to war. I loved that kind of variety. There were guys who were great drawing funny animal books… guys who were great drawing Westerns. Al Jaffee did Patsy Walker. They were some of the best Patsy Walkers I’ve ever seen. Not just 32-page books, either. Some were larger sizes—48-, 64-page books. Big books!

Mike Esposito.

Al Milgrom.

Who Dealt This Crew?

Besides Goldberg and Brodsky, the four others in the late-’60s-to-mid-’70s Marvel poker circle were (left to right) John Romita, Al Sulman, Mike Esposito, Roy Thomas, and (by the mid-’70s) Al Milgrom—plus, not mentioned by Stan, advertising rep Carl Wershba. Photos are from the 1969 F.F. Annual, the 1975 Marvel Con program book, and Al Milgrom; future Mad artist/writer Dave Berg’s caricature of Sulman is from Stan Lee’s 1947 book Secrets behind the Comics.

[Photos © Marvel Characters, Inc.; art © Stan Lee.]

“Sol Was A Great Company Man”

27

Joe Maneely.

Dan DeCarlo.

Warming Up In The Bullpen (Left to right:) The “late-’40s bullpen” mentioned by Stan G. included the likes of Gene Colan, Dan DeCarlo, John Buscema, and Al Jaffee, who a decade or three later would be well know for doing, respectively, Daredevil, Archie, The Silver Surfer, and the “Fold-Ins” in Mad magazine. The photos are from the 1969 F.F. Annual (where else?)—DeCarlo’s self-caricature is from the Yoe/IDW book Dan DeCarlo’s Jetta—Dave Berg’s caricature of fellow Mad-man Jaffee is from Stan Lee’s Secrets behind the Comics, which was produced in the era of that post-war Timely bullpen—and pic of Joe Maneely provided by daughter Nancy.

[Jaffee pic © Stan Lee; DeCarlo pic © Estate of Dan DeCarlo; photos © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

RA: You mentioned that you met Sol in the bullpen in the 1950s. What was his job at Timely, or Atlas as it would have been at that time?

GOLDBERG: Well, there were a number of artists in the bullpen at that time. You’d be amazed. Carl Burgos was there. He was around a long time and did a lot of covers. John Severin was there. Bill Everett was there. He was in the 1940s bullpen, too, but he came back. Fred Kida was there. Sol, of course. But the biggest and the best… he was the giant of them all and he died at the age of 32, going home one night. He fell off the train. He lived out in New Jersey. He fell off the train and was killed. That was Joe Maneely.

Do you know that name—Joe Maneely? [NOTE: Maneely was nearsighted and had reportedly lost his glasses a couple of days before, so he wasn’t wearing any on that night. He apparently stepped outside the railroad car he was riding in and fell between the cars.]

GOLDBERG: Lots and lots. A lotta covers. He played poker with us sometimes, but he was work-conscious. If he had a Black Knight to do he’d beg off, saying he had a cover to do.

That whole bunch of guys, all of us, were laid off in 1958 because we lost our distributor [American News]. The distributor had gone out of business, and Timely or Atlas or whatever they were calling themselves at the time was having to shrink. We had books in the house ready to go, but the distributor was gone, out of business. Sol was laid off. All of us were laid off. If the books are lying around in a warehouse instead of on the stands, nobody’s going to make any money. Some of the guys went to DC Comics, letterers, inkers. Joe Maneely went to DC.

RA: Yes, he did the original Black Knight and Yellow Claw. He did lots of stories and covers for Atlas (now Marvel) Comics.

Sol, though, became the first editor of Cracked.

Cracked was published by a guy named Sproul, Robert Sproul. It was a humor magazine competitor of Mad. John Severin did a

Bill Everett

Carl Burgos

Pic probably taken

by Roy Thomas, circa 1970.

Courtesy of daughter Susan Burgos.

The New Weird Order Carl Burgos and Bill Everett, who in 1939 had created The Human Torch and The Sub-Mariner, respectively, were probably (though not definitely) the inkers of these two horror covers penciled by Sol Brodsky: Astonishing #23 (March 1953) is one of the most effective of Sol’s numerous horror covers, made the more so by the inking, which may be by Burgos. Colors by Stan Goldberg. Thanks to Steven Willis for this scan.

Marvel Tales #94 (Nov. 1949), with cover penciling by Brodsky (and inking most likely by Everett), was in truth only the second issue of that title, which came into existence as one of Timely’s earliest “horror comics,” taking over the numbering of flagship Marvel Mystery Comics when the Torch and Namor were dumped. Note the “Marvel Comic” circle that publisher Martin Goodman’s titles sported for roughly half of that year. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

28

Stan Goldberg Remembers Sol Brodsky

had John Severin, and Zany featured a lot of guys who’d worked or would work for Marvel. Joe Sinnott and Carl Burgos were there. I think the work in Cracked was better than in Zany. This was early in my drawing career, and I think I was learning to draw my way. But I never heard of Candar. Doesn’t ring a bell.

Don’t Get Mad—Get Cracked Or Zany!

Stan Goldberg worked on early issues of Cracked (edited for Major Magazines by Sol Brodsky) and Candar’s Zany, both launched in 1958. The cover artist of the latter is unidentified, but the former (#2) is the first full-fledged Cracked cover drawn by the late great John Severin.

[TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

lot of work at Cracked. A lot of covers. It was a steady gig for him.

Sometimes you rely on steady gigs. Sol got me some work up there.

I was also doing Zany. I wasn’t as good as some of the other guys at that type of humor, but Zany was fun to do.

But even then, when he was working at Cracked, Sol was doing work as a freelancer. I remember he was doing something about a plainclothes guy—like a CIA guy, one of those things. They weren’t characters in costumes.

They were G-Men who worked for the government. Or they might have been cops.

There was a comic strip that Alfred Andriola did called Kerry Drake. I remember Sol doing that strip for a number of years. Some kind of a detective. No mask or anything. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: The various versions of the Who’s Who of American Comic Books do not list any comic strip work by Sol Brodsky… not that that necessarily means he didn’t do any at one time or another.]

RA: Kerry Drake wasn’t a secret agent, though.

He was a D.A. at the start of the strip and then became a plainclothes cop.

GOLDBERG: Well, somebody out there will know the strip that

RA: Zany was published by an outfit called Candar—four issues from 1958-1959. They also published men’s-adventure and girlie magazines. Cracked was published by Major Publications.

Were both of those companies from Robert Spoul?

GOLDBERG: From Candar? I don’t know. I thought that Cracked and Zany were from the same publisher. Cracked

Namor Some More!

Jack Kirby From the 1964 Marvel Tales Annual #1. [© Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Fantastic Four #4 (May 1962) was the second of the pair of issues inked by Brodsky over pencils by Jack Kirby, with coloring by Goldberg, script/editing by Stan Lee. Presumably, Stan G. colored The Sub-Mariner’s scaly trunks red because the F.F.’s outfits were blue, the same color Prince Namor’s garb had been in the mid-1950s revival. But before long he switched, either of his own volition or at Lee’s request, to the more nautical green. Thanks to Barry Pearl for these scans. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“Sol Was A Great Company Man”

Sol ghosted. I didn’t really read Kerry Drake, but I saw it. Sol was a good storyteller, a good artist. His art was probably overshadowed because he was such a great production man.

A year or so after Stan let us all go in ‘58, I got a call from him to come in and color some of the books that had been left over after the distributor went out of business. Stan had found a new distributor and he needed to get the books out, but he was all alone there. There was no bullpen left. So I started coloring and eventually drawing the two Millie the Model books—the other was Modeling with Millie. Then, gradually, things started picking up and Stan needed some help on production. I was doing everything for Stan as a freelancer, but after a while he wanted me to become the production head. Now, I was fast—I could color two books in a day—but I was also drawing two titles and filling in on production and I couldn’t do it all. So I told Stan that he should get Sol Brodsky. Sol had been doing some freelance work for Stan, too, even while he was editing Cracked. Corrections, stories, inks. In fact, Sol inked some of the early Fantastic Fours. Sol also knew production forwards and back. So Stan hired Sol, and that was the beginning of Sol becoming Stan’s “right-hand man.” He was Stan’s “right-hand man” for many, many years.

29

but I didn’t want my name on the book. I wanted it to be credited to “Solly Brodsky.” Sol knew Millie the Model. He inked my work on her many years earlier. He could be the inker now, too, and there wouldn’t be any problem there with him getting it right with the cartoon way.

So there were at least 40 or so issues of The New MMMMillie the Model, and there was also the Chili book which was done in the same way. They were all signed “Sol Brodsky.” It didn’t really fool anybody, because folks could tell my style. Archie Comics recognized my style, so they stopped giving me work. That was the reason I had wanted Sol to sign his name. So those books were done by me but signed by Sol for, I think, the rest of their runs. Sol wasn’t the only inker, of course. I did 90% of the penciling on the Millie books, but there were a lot of inkers working on my stuff— from Sol to Frank Giacoia to… well, on and on and on. When those books finally ended, I went back to Archie.

No other company was like that. DC wasn’t like that. Archie had some problems with other companies having books that looked like Archie Comics’ books.

Stan even hired a secretary to work in the office—Flo Steinberg, who in some ways became the face of Marvel for those years. Flo became very important in her own way, too. If Sol was Stan’s “right-hand man,” then Flo was Stan’s “right-hand girl.”

Sol was a great company man. Some people say that as a bad thing, but with Sol it was a good thing. Sol was a company man in the best sense of the word. He would go out of his way to keep Stan informed on what was going on when Stan moved out to California. Stan trusted him and relied on him. If you get a chance to talk with Stan, Stan will tell you how important Sol Brodsky was to him. Stan was out in California, trying to sell the super-heroes to the movie industry. That was Stan’s big job out there. In his own way, I guess, he did it and became a super-star.

I worked right across from Sol. He was a pretty interesting man who knew all the production stuff. He was a medium to good artist. He wasn’t one of the giant artists and he knew it, but he was a pro. He inked a lot of my stuff in those days. Millie the Model, that sort of thing. After many years of drawing Millie the Model, I had gone to work at Archie Comics. Then, about 1967 or so, Stan called me back. They were going to do a revamped Millie the Model book that went back to the style I’d started drawing her years earlier, as a teenage humor book. That’s the way she was originally, and that’s how I did the book when I started working on it. Then, sometime in the mid-1960s, she became a very serious soap-opera type book—an adventure book, although she remained a model. Stan wanted to bring her back as a humor book, so he called her the “new” and he stretched out the word “Millie” so it was The New MMMMillie the Model and he wanted me to do it, but I was working for Archie. Marvel had started to credit the writers and artists by that time, so I told Stan that I would draw it,

Millie The mmmMarvel The cover and the original art of a splash page from Millie the Model #161 (Aug. 1968), after the title was revived as a humor vehicle written by Stan Lee and became a hit all over again for a time. The interior art is bylined “Solly B.” but was actually penciled by Stan Goldberg, with inking by Brodsky. The same team probably drew the cover, as well. With thanks to Janna P. for the latter. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

30

Stan Goldberg Remembers Sol Brodsky

work for Skywald. Don Heck, Syd Shores, Tom Palmer, and Tom Sutton all did work for Skywald at the same time they were doing work for Marvel.

GOLDBERG: Oh, Mike Friedrich—good writer. He was young then. Probably needed the work. Maybe Martin saw too many Marvel artists doing work for Skywald. Still, Stan wanted Sol back, and so Sol came back—at kind of a menial job, at first. I went up there at the time and he was in a room just doing some proofreading, maybe inking something as a production man. But that didn’t last long. Sol was too bright a guy and there were too many good opportunities for him to do something bigger. It was at this time, when Stan wasn’t writing all the titles or doing all the editing, that Sol really became his “righthand man.” Sol had a lot of positions up there. He did very well because he was such a bright guy.

The Many Colors Of [Brod]Skywald[man] Skywald’s Hell-Rider #1 (July-Aug. 1971) was written by Gary Friedrich (a harbinger of his slightly later “Ghost Rider” motorcyclist done for Marvel) with art by the longtime team of Ross Andru (pencils) & Mike Esposito (inks)—and a cover painted by Harry Rosenbaum.

The one-and-only issue of The Heap (cover-dated Sept. ’71), with cover by Tom Sutton & Jack Abel, picked up on the swamp monster’s appearances from Skywald’s black-&-white magazine Psycho.

[TM & © the respective copyright holders.]

In 1970 Sol left Marvel and went to Skywald. Israel Waldman was a big publisher of children’s books. Sol and he actually formed Skywald, which was the comic book line—the “Sky” was from Brodsky and the “wald” was from Waldman.

Waldman decided to put out comic books. I even did some work for them. Sol was in charge of it. It was for only a couple of years.

They put out a number of black-&-white horror books. I was doing a teenage book for them. The color line was mostly Westerns and romance. Then the color line folded and the black-&-white books were halted for a while, too, so Sol didn’t have enough work to do.

RA: Did you know that Sol worked for Israel Waldman a number of years before Skywald?

This would have been in the late 1950s to the mid-1960s. He was doing covers for Waldman’s Super Comics or IW Comics.

GOLDBERG: I did covers for those books, too. Sol inked me on them. Teenage humor books, I think.

After Skywald, Sol was back at Marvel. He was doing the overseas work, too. Selling reprints of Marvel comics in Europe.

Stan wanted him to come back; but, I think at that time, Martin Goodman was still the publisher of Marvel Comics and Martin Goodman didn’t want him back because he felt he was stealing art and printing it at Skywald. I think he also thought there might have been some stealing of talent. [NOTE: In the first issues of the black-&-whites Nightmare and Psycho and in the back pages of the Western comics, Skywald used a great many 1950s reprints from various companies.]

RA: Well, that’s odd, because Mike Friedrich told me he got work at Skywald because Sol asked Roy Thomas if there were any artists or writers at Marvel that might want to do some work for Skywald and Roy gave them Mike’s name. Roy may have thought that was funny, since Mike worked for DC at the time and not for Marvel.

But a number of Marvel artists did, of course,

Pirates And Pimples Two Brodsky covers for done for Israel Waldman’s IW reprint company: Buccaneer #8 (1958) and Meet Merton #11 (1963). Don’t bother looking for the earlier-numbered issues of either title! They don’t exist. Stan Goldberg says he penciled and Sol inked some covers of “teenage humor books” for IW… but Sol signed the latter “Brod,” and in 1963 Stan G. had no reason to hide behind a Brodsky signature, so maybe Stan penciled a different teenage cover. [© the respective copyright holders.]

“Sol Was A Great Company Man”

31

Oh, there’s a story about Sol and Johnny Romita I’d like to tell.

Sol and John had a good relationship. It was a love/hate relationship sometimes. Anyway, Sol was so happy when he found out that Marvel was going to put out more titles and he came rushing in to see John and he says, “We’re putting out seven books and they want to double us! We’re going to be putting out 14 books!” John leans back in the chair and groans, “Oh, my God!” Sol was so happy and John was just ‘Oh, No!” [laughs] Sol was just “More business! More business!” But John did it. He would put out the 14 books or whatever and they’d look great. John was a very meticulous and careful guy. A great art director. John’s a good guy.

You know, all the artwork for “Spider-Man” had to go through John, because he was the art director. Every one of those artists drew their version of Peter Parker, but people had to recognize Peter Parker. So John told this story at his retirement party: he would white out everybody’s Peter Parker head—it didn’t matter who the artist was—so he could put in the John Romita definitive Peter Parker head. [laughs] He literally had to correct thousands of

Sol & Pepper Probably one of the projects put together by Brodsky was the 1977 Mighty Marvel Super-Heroes Cookbook, which featured art by veteran comics illustrator Joe Giella. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Later, in the 1980s, I quit working for Archie again for a period of time and Sol was again very good to me. I came up to Sol… well, no, he actually called me. He said, “I’d like to do something with you. I know you’re a good artist. I’d like to hire you at $50 or $100 a day just to come up here and sit at the desk and work in my department.” Sol was in R&D, the Research & Development Department, and we would pitch ideas to big corporations on how they could promote their particular product using comics. Like amusement parks like Hershey Park, that sort of thing. John Romita worked there, too. John didn’t work for Jim Shooter. He and Sol worked together.

I was a freelancer then, but Sol said I could spend a couple of days a week up there and work up things to show prospective clients how they could use our comics for their products or do pictures for campaigns. Sol was good to me in that respect. I guess we were really good for each other. So, days that I didn’t have a lot of freelance work, I’d go up to Sol’s department. It wasn’t just Sol and me. Marie Severin was up there. John Romita was up there.

They were all on staff, but Sol hired me as a freelancer just to be there in case they needed another artist to work on the promotional material. This was a different art department from the one that Jim Shooter ran. Shooter ran all the comics through his art department, but Sol’s did other stuff. One of the names we were using was Marvel Books. I did a ton of stuff for them that dealt with all the cartoon shows that came on Saturday morning. There was also work on how-to ads and what-not-to-do ads for various public service announcements.

“Smile When You Say You’re Gonna Miss The Deadline, Podner!”

Roy Thomas reports: “It was Sol, as production manager, who introduced me to Sub-Mariner creator Bill Everett when he returned to Marvel in late 1965—and in the next breath, Sol asked me if Bill could stay weeknights with Gary Friedrich and me in our Greenwich Village digs. Even so, Sol and Bill had a sometimes contentious relationship afterward, due to Bill’s inability to make deadlines.” Here, though, they teamed up on a backup tale for Rawhide Kid #65 (Aug. 1968). Thanks to Nick Caputo. [© Marvel Entertainment, Inc.]

32

Stan Goldberg Remembers Sol Brodsky

Holyoke, Cat-Man—Part II Some early-’40s Brodsky work for Holyoke: “Captain Aero’s Sky Scouts” in Captain Aero Comics, Vol. 2, #7 (July 1942).

“Little Leaders”—another “kid gang”—in Cat-Man Comics, Vol. 3, #5 (Nov. ’42). This and previous scan from Michael T. Gilbert.

“The Ragman” and “The Deacon” from Cat-Man Comics, Vol. 3, #7 (Jan. 1943). Sol apparently did full art chores on the former, while the latter was penciled by SB and inked by someone who signed himself/herself “Lee.” The writers of all four of these stories are unknown, except that Alberta Tews wrote “The Ragman” under the pseudonym “Teusday” (sic).

Thanks to Jim Ludwig for the “Ragman” and “Deacon” scans. [© the respective copyright holders.]

“Sol Was A Great Company Man”

heads to put his own spin on the head in!

Stan Lee would come back to New York [from time to time] in the 1980s. I’d visit the offices and I’d see him there, conferring with Sol.

Sol would be working in that separate office from Jim Shooter, and sometimes a client would come in and ask Shooter how much this job was going to cost and Shooter would give him some figure— $45,000. He’d tell them that he needed H-Hour [to hire] the writer Sol was one of those guys who always got his and the artists and projects in on time—and we’d bet that his cover things like that. But if for Timely/Atlas’ Men in Action #1 (April 1952), they’d give it to Sol done during the Korean War, was as “timely” as the realistic wristwatch and gun he drew there. and we’d have Chic [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] Stone and John Romita and a few other artists there doing work with Sol on these special projects— well, Sol wouldn’t know what Shooter had quoted to them and he’d tell them that he could bring that project in for $13,000 or $14,000. Shooter’s figures would always be about three times more.

33

Sol died in 1984, I think the month of June. He was sick and wasn’t coming into the office. I didn’t know how sick he was at the time. He called me on a Sunday but we were out. He left a message. I tried to call him back but he couldn’t answer the phone.

Selma told me that he was not doing well. He died soon after that.

I remember going to his funeral. 1984 wasn’t the best year for me. Losing Sol was just one of a lot of things that were happening around that time. At the funeral I sat beside Danny Crespi, who was the assistant production manager in the 1980s. Danny’s passed away now, too.

Sol was one of those guys who deserves to be remembered. I was so close to him for so many years. From 1949 to 1984, Sol was there for me in so many different ways. Socially, work-wise, for the first thirty years or so of my career and my life, Sol was a huge part of it. This tribute Roy’s doing for Sol got me to think a lot about Sol. Working with him, for him, across the room from him. He was an excellent, excellent card player. I haven’t thought about Sol in a while, so I’m very happy you’re doing this story on him.

Sol loved this industry, and I think it showed in the work that he did. I’ve enjoyed thinking of him and his visits to my house. Good times. Sol was a good friend.

Marie Severin wanted a raise one time, and Sol offered her something like $2 more. I think Marie told him to stick it up his… you know. Not in a rude way, but she refused to take that kind of a raise. She was insulted. Sol was just trying to keep the salary department from showing too big a loss. To show the owners of Marvel Comics what he could do. Some people can bring a job in for less. Some people can’t. Marie wasn’t mad at him forever, you know. She and Sol were great friends.

Socially we’d go out and do stuff together [in earlier years]. Stan and his wife, Carl Burgos and his wife, Stan Starkman—he was a letterer who went to DC, and Herbie Cooper, another letterer who formed his own printing company. These were all guys from the old bullpens. We’d go out every month, go to dinner or the theater.

We’d meet in the city for a Sunday brunch. It was a whole group of people that we stayed close with. Sol and Selma Brodsky were part of the group. So were John and Virginia Romita. Mike and Irene Esposito. Mike passed away a couple of years ago. I’m still close with Irene. I just talked with her a few days ago. It was nice. Then the ’80s rolled around—Sol got sick and passed away. Deaths and times—it was a nice time, though. We were all friends for years.

I knew Sol and Selma very well. I didn’t know his daughter Janice that well, though she worked at Marvel for a while, too. I know she got married and moved out to California with her husband. I think he was a musician. Just recently, somebody told me they’d gotten divorced about twenty years ago, which I didn’t know anything about, so that’s how long I’ve been out of touch. I didn’t even know that Selma had died a while back. I did know their son, Gary Brodsky.

We’re Looking For People Who Like To Draw, Too! Though Sol rarely wrote or drew in his later years, in the Oct. 1965 issue of Rawhide Kid (#48) he did both on this backup tale. Inking by Carl Hubbell.

Thanks to Nick Caputo. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

SOL BRODSKY — Stan Lee’s “Right-Hand Man” — Part IV

34

A Eulogy by STAN LEE

Stan Lee, Sol Brodsky’s boss but also his co-worker and often collaborator for many years, wrote the following short piece to be read at his friend’s funeral.

Sol Brodsky had passed away on June 4, 1984.

modest and self-effacing that many people he worked with never knew that years ago he had penciled and written many fine scripts for our books, and had been considered one of our top inkers. He also did coloring, lettering, layout, and editing—and whatever he did, he did it well.

ot only have we lost a man we genuinely loved, but we’ve also lost someone who was very rare and very special. So many of the virtues which we all prize so highly, Sol possessed in abundance.

N

I had known him for more than thirty years, and never heard him say a derogatory word about anyone, never saw him give less than his best to any task he tackled, and never knew him to pass the buck, or to be anything but scrupulously honest and sincere. He was always ready to do what he could to help, to make things easier for the other person.

Sol was a true professional, so

As an executive in charge of a department, Sol had one of the most valuable qualities of all—he was wonderfully dependable. Not only did he do what had to be done skillfully and cheerfully, but he delivered it as promised.

“Stan Lee, The Green Goblin, And Sol Brodsky At The Annual White House Easter Egg Hunt” So read the caption beneath this photo when it was first printed in Marvel Age #22 (Jan. 1985), the issue dedicated to Sol. The precise year, alas, was not revealed. [© Marvel Characters, Inc.]

As a husband, a father, a coworker, and a friend, Sol enriched the lives of those who knew him.

Today, we say goodbye to Sol Brodsky—but we will remember this gentle, decent man with great love, always. [© Stan Lee. Reprinted by permission.]

SOL BRODSKY — Stan Lee’s “Right-Hand Man” — Part V

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A Few Choice Words On SOL BRODSKY from John Romita ol Brodsky was the top sergeant to Stan Lee’s general when I rejoined Marvel in 1965. His squad was Flo Steinberg, Marie Severin, Roy Thomas, [ere long] John Verpoorten, and me.

S

He was up to the task, and we did our jobs pretty well. It was hectic at times, but never was a drag. We had laughs and got along fine. Better than my Army stretch… and Sol was the reason.

For 24 years we worked together (even did four years together out of mainstream comics in a “book division” doing coloring books, popup books, and such).

That’s a long time, but it flew by. Marvel was a great family to those of us who were there for years, and Sol was one of the family.

John Romita was an artist in the Timely bullpen from 1949-57, then drew romance comics for DC for nearly a decade, returning to (by then) Marvel in 1965 and soon becoming the second artist of The Amazing Spider-Man. Beginning in 1972, he was Marvel’s art director until his retirement in the 1990s.

A Pop-Culture Portrait John Romita—and the cover of Marvel Age #22 (Jan. 1985), that he drew for the issue that commemorated the life and times of his friend and colleague Sol Brodsky. [Cover TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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SOL BRODSKY — Stan Lee’s “Right-Hand Man” — Part VI

36

“We Need A Lot More Guys Like Him” A Brief Reminiscence Of SOL BRODSKY

by Herb Trimpe

ol was great because he was from the old world of publishing. Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines.

S

True, an artist, as well, but he was the iconic office manager when it came to getting the job done. Sol was also the first person I came into contact with at Marvel. I’m not counting John Verpoorten, as I had known him from our time at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. I was hired by Sol on the spot. I’m not sure he ever conferred with Stan. When I showed him my “portfolio,” there wasn’t any recent artwork in it all, just stuff I had dug up from samples I had done while in school—at the suggestion of John V.

Kid-ding Around Herb Trimpe, in a recent photo—and the splash page of one of the earliest stories he ever drew for Marvel: a tale from Kid Colt Outlaw #135 (July 1967) that was scripted by none other than Sol Brodsky. Thanks to Nick Caputo for the art scan. [Page TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

In the interim between school and Marvel, I had spent four years in the Air Force, so you might say my art was pretty stale at that point. I had been to DC first, as they were top-dog in the mid-’60s, although by then Marvel was breathing down their necks. I had no luck at DC, but Sol gave me inking work immediately.

Working in the production department at Marvel to begin with, as well as the inking work, I ran a Photostat copy machine. Sol always had priority when he had a request. He was a stickler for “I need a copy of this, and I need it right now.” Never in a mean or crude way, but all business. This may have rubbed some people the wrong way, but it was a tough job and somebody had to do it.

Sol was the consummate professional and the kind of guy you’d want working for you if you were in the publishing business—or any business, for that matter. He should have been cloned, because we need a lot more guys like him around these days—and he was a pretty damned good artist, at that.

Herb Trimpe was an artist for Marvel Comics from 1967 through much of the 1990s. He is most noted for his work on The Incredible Hulk (a long run), Godzilla, G.I. Joe, Fantastic Four Unlimited, and numerous other series. He was also the first artist to draw The Wolverine in a comic book story. Sadly, Herb passed away unexpectedly on April 13 of this year, just before this issue of Alter Ego went to press. We'll pay proper tribute to him in a near-future issue.

SOL BRODSKY — Stan Lee’s “Right-Hand Man” — Part VII

37

For The Love Of Sol

A Brief Remembrance Of SOL BRODSKY

by David Anthony Kraft

omics of every kind—I’ve loved them all.

C

Marvel in the ’60s, natch. And DC. And ACG. And Warren monster comic mags, from the first issues of Creepy and Eerie to Vampirella. And so, into the ’70s, and the exciting advent of Skywald comic magazines, of course.

Psycho. Nightmare. Hell-Rider.

The, to me, especially exciting return of—The Heap! Don’t know what it is about misunderstood man-monsters, but I loved The Incredible Hulk from issue #1, and glommed onto the shambling Swamp Thing from the start, much later getting the dubious distinction of scripting #24, the last issue of the original series.

However, at the time, I was still a barbarian in the frozen northlands near the Canada and Montana territories. Being young and brash, and with the confidence of youth and my first science-fiction sale to Amazing Stories, I cold-called Skywald one day and put forward the notion that I should be writing “The Heap” stories.

The man on the other end of the conversation turned out to be none other than Sol Brodsky (the Sky in Skywald, as I later learned).

That he took the call, and took me seriously, was more of a wonder than I might have realized back then. He had a slight New York accent, listened to what I had to say, asked a polite question or three, and then acquainted me with my first glimpse into the inner workings of comics: “The Heap” already had a regular writer and the assignment was his as long as he wanted it.

But I was welcome to submit some horror story ideas, and if any struck his fancy, he’d give me the go-ahead to write the script.

Elated, I jumped at the opportunity—and rapidly discovered that the short horror story was not my forte. It’s much more difficult than it looks to put plot and character into 5 or 6 pages. Will Eisner, a master if ever there was one, had an affinity for it, and most of his Spirit short stories are awesome in what they achieve in a few pages of carefully composed dialogue, plot, and art.

A Psycho-logical Deduction A “Heap” for the ’70s made his/its debut in the first issue of Skywald’s black-&-white horror comic Psycho (coverdated March 1971), behind a cover painted by Hector Varella. As soon as he saw the character, Dave Kraft decided he should be the guy writing it! [© the respective copyright holders.]

Our Cast Of (Marvel) Characters (Above:) “Stan the Man and Dave the Dude”—that’s the cutline that appeared under this photo in Marvel’s self-produced fan-club FOOM Magazine #17 (March 1977), wherein Dave interviewed Stan. Dave never really fit the Madison Avenue image!

(Left:) Sol Brodsky is reported to have drawn this self-portrait (not the best likeness) for the Famous Cartoonist button series circa 1975. They were distributed by the Krupp Comic Works & Phil Seuling. [© the respective copyright holders.]

I did the best I could, and sent off a sheaf of ideas to Skywald.

And, in those delayed-gratification days before the advent of instantaneous e-mail, I eagerly awaited the mail every day until, at last, an envelope arrived from New York. Every bit as expectant as anyone awaiting the opening of a portentous envelope on Oscar night, I scanned the letter.

My fate was sealed.

Sol liked one of the plots. My career in comics was launched.

The resulting story, “Kerene,” appeared in Psycho #7. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Well, not quite.

It should be noted, from my point of view, that opportunity had opened as a direct result of my authorial acumen. I suspect in hindsight that, while Sol no doubt took some small pleasure in helping an aspiring writer at a great disadvantage and distance from the New York mecca of comics publishing, the $5 page rate he paid also played no small part. From what he told me years later about his last days at Skywald, he was lucky not to lose his investment and relieved to get out of his adventure into publishing with a shirt still on his back.

I sent in some more plots, got another sale, but just as I was starting to get into the swing of things, unbeknown to me, Sol was getting out. Premises languished, time passed, I got no response.

Eventually, Al Hewetson emerged as editor, but appeared to have no further interest in my efforts, and the Skywald connection closed.

A couple years later, some Rascally fellow named Roy invited me to join the Marvel Bullpen as his assistant editor. I roared into town on a motorcycle, all tangled long hair and beard, to begin the best years of my life in comics. Didn’t know a soul in New York City. Or so I thought.

38

A Brief Remembrance Of Sol Brodsky By David Anthony Kraft

Until editor-in-chief Thomas took me around to meet the vice-president of something-orother. None other than… Sol Brodsky! He was all business, neat, trim, corporate. Nice smile, polite but (first impressions are not always correct) intimidating. At least, to me.

Rebel Without A Magazine When this picture of FOOM Magazine editor “DAK” appeared in issue #22 (Autumn 1977), it was meant to symbolize Dave and FOOM itself riding off into the sunset on his chopper, since that was the mag’s last issue. But he’d looked pretty much the same when he rolled into New York City on it, a few years earlier, during Roy Thomas’ twoyear reign as Marvel’s editor-inchief. [© Marvel Characters, Inc.]

And to others, I observed after settling into the Bullpen.

Just let Marv Wolfman and Don McGregor get into a mock duel, and there was Sol, standing in the hall, framed by the doorway, silent and with a stare that would have put the Gorgon to shame.

Everyone in the room turned to stone. “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature,” as television commercials of the time said—and it definitely didn’t do to fool around with Sol Brodsky!

After a year in New York, comics caught up with me and I took the summer off.

Long story short: I thought I was moving to the West Coast in best Steve Englehart style, with two or three color series to write for Atlas Comics. As with Skywald earlier—oops!—the work vanished. No sooner was I out of town than the whole operation shut down.

The late ’60s/early ’70s, I would remind you, was the era of Drugs, Just Say Yes! Hence my rather extensive use of said same, with a particular affinity for LSD. Upon my return to Manhattan and Marvel, while tripping, wearing mirrored sunglasses and a black leather jacket, I passed Sol’s door and was overcome with the urge to beard the lion in his den.

Upon knocking and entering, I sat opposite Sol’s desk and opened up, telling him that I’d always sensed a certain disapproval and suffered under his gaze and just wanted to clear the air, manoa-mano.

He leaned back in his chair, relaxed, and assured me that his stoney stare had never been meant for me. “You were cool,” he said in essence, “but when things get out of hand,

I’ve got to play the heavy to keep it all together.” We had a great talk, and when I left his office, the tension was gone and I had a new ally of sorts in Sol. Turns out he’d been a booster all along.

More and more, I began doing assignments for his department.

He was in charge of special projects, or “industrials” as he called them. Everything from dealing with the Children’s Television Workshop to the American Cancer Society, scripting all manner of one-shots and strips for Pez candy dispensers, coloring books, records, you name it, featuring Spidey, Hulk, FF, X-Men, and most of Marvel’s mightiest.

I accompanied Jolly Solly (he really was!) to many a meeting around Manhattan, and remember one in particular with an ancillary rights representative with whom we were making a deal to adapt Fox movies. By this time, I was suitably attired. That is, attired in a suit. As we settled into plush chairs in the executive’s huge corner office, Sol draped his drab raincoat over the back of a sofa and it fell open to reveal a brilliant paisley lining, psychedelic as hell. The exec made much of that, but it revealed Sol’s hidden side: within the v.p. lurked a thinly disguised creative spirit.

Proof of that: I remember once when Stan Lee was stomping down the hall, scribbling dialogue onto a Spider-Man daily strip as he raced along in his Stan-like way. He stopped and stuck his head

Togetherness (Left:) One of numerous projects on which Dave Kraft worked with Marvel V.P Sol Brodsky was FOOM Magazine itself, which “the Dude” edited for the final issues of its run. In this 22nd and final edition, Sol is listed as “Voomy V.I.P.,” and since editor-in-chief Jim Shooter’s name does not appear in the credits, clearly the magazine was entirely handled in Brodsky’s department. In other Kraft issues, the credit at various times for Sol was “Patient V.P,” “Keeper of the Kash,” “Prime Mover,” “The Wellsprings of Life,” “The Mill of the Gods,” “The Giver of All That’s Good,” and, last but not least, “Mr. Nice Guy.” Cover artist uncertain. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Top right:) At some time in the late 1970s, Brodsky and Kraft co-wrote an outline of a projected novel, a murder mystery. Seen here is its first page. Note that the former used the form of his name “S. Richard Brodsky” in this instance. [© David Anthony Kraft & Estate of Sol Brodsky.]

For The Love Of Sol

into Sol’s office, asking for a quick phrase to describe a hot disco club.

Without missing a beat, tongue in cheek, Sol suggested “the jumpin’est joint in town.”

“But a deal is a deal,” I said.

Marvel’s president and CEO, Jim Galton, had decided otherwise, it seemed. I was floored. In shock. Anger and adrenalin rising.

“That’s why you don’t write Spidey,” said Stan as he sped away.

“What would you do?” I asked Sol.

It was from Sol Brodsky that I learned many of the lessons that served me well at Marvel and after, when I began publishing my own line of comics and mags. One weekend I disappeared, and remained disappeared for a week; it was, shall we say, a romantic interlude, much needed, and my mind was not on comics work.

During that time, wanted posters began appearing all over town, an All Points Bulletin went out from the Bullpen, and the Missing Persons Bureau was called out to search the city for me, door to door.

When I ambled happily into Marvel, expecting everyone to be pleased that I was delivering on my deadlines, Sol took me aside and explained the exigencies.

It was, of course, good that I had met my deadlines.

So why, I wondered, the worry?

39

On the record, he said, he was Marvel’s hatchet man and doing his duty. Off the record, he said, “You’d be a fool not to fight for it.” Those were the words I needed to hear.

Next stop: Stan’s office.

“Kerene”-ing Into Comics Dave’s first-ever comics script sale was to Sol Brodsky at Skywald—for this story published in Psycho #7 (July 1972). Art by Domingo Gomez.

Thanks to DAK, Glenn MacKay, and and Mark Muller for the scan. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Because, without communication, no one knows if you’re going to deliver, except you. And if it should happen that you didn’t— there’s no way at that late date to come up with a contingency plan. At the first suspicion that there might be a problem, he said, always call. That way Plan B can be put in effect and potential catastrophe averted. And even if you are on target, keep in touch so that everyone knows not to worry.

Sol was so right. I’ve given that talk to many creators since then.

When I bought my house, and had a sudden and urgent need for steady income, it was Sol Brodsky who gave me a contract guaranteeing that I would meet my payments. As a result, I helped launch Marvel Books, the new line of illustrated storybooks for kids.

And when push really came to shove, it was Sol to whom I turned as my consigliere. Which is ironic, since he was working for the other side.

After Steve Gerber put together the very first Marvel Super Special, starring KISS, he pulled up stakes and moved to Las Vegas.

Those were the days when you needed to be in New York to package and deliver a big project. Thanks to Steve’s recommendation, and my more-or-less total immersion in rock, I assumed the mantle of producing Marvel’s next blockbuster, a magazine biography of the Beatles, replete with a special royalty deal that did not then exist for any other Marvel publications.

It was a sweet deal and I was riding high.

Until the day I walked in and a somber Sol summoned me into his inner sanctum. “The deal is off,” he said.

Stan and I have always had a good relationship. When I decided to cloak myself in the costume of the business class, he gave me great advice on what to wear, and where to find it. Give him his due, he tried to parrot the company line (Galton’s line). But I pointed out that since Marvel did not own the Beatles, artist George Pérez and I could just take the project to another publisher, and indeed I returned to my own office and put in calls to a couple of rock publishers.

Stan had second thoughts.

“Y’know, I’d benefit most from royalty payments, so I can hardly be opposed to the idea,” he said.

“Let’s you and him fight.” And with that, Lee got me in to see Galton upstairs on a Friday afternoon immediately, as the guy was going out the door.

A long bargaining session later, I emerged, victorious.

A deal was a deal, after all.

But it was Sol Brodsky’s support when I needed it that sent me sallying forth instead of scurrying away to fester with bitterness and spite. It was Sol Brodsky who bought my first comics story. It was Sol Brodsky who was there for me when I bought my house.

In case I haven’t made it clear yet, I think Sol was a great guy.

Whenever I’m telling Sol stories, I always describe him as my Jewish father.

That’s what he was to me.

David Anthony Kraft went to work for Marvel in 1974, and wrote and edited for the company for several years, scripting The Defenders, ManWolf, She-Hulk, Captain America, and others. He also wrote “Superman & Batman,” Blackhawk, Swamp Thing, et al., for DC— and in the 1980s published his own line of comics (Southern Knights, XThieves), as well as the magazine Comics Interview, the latter for 150 issues. He was story editor and writer for TV’s animated G.I. Joe: Extreme and Street Fighter, and is currently writing the Yi Soon Shin series of graphic novels, which are available through Amazon.

The first one features a foreword by Stan Lee.

40

Dr. Amy K. Nyberg

A/E

Seal Of Approval: The History Of The Comics Code Continuing Chapter 6 Of Our Serialization Of The 1998 Study

By DR. AMY KISTE NYBERG

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: We near the conclusion of our reprinting of Dr. Nyberg’s groundbreaking history of comic book censorship—a work we’ve felt honored to be able to re-present, with a wealth of added illustrations, for Alter Ego’s audience. Previous installments have appered in A/E #123-128, 130, & 133. As we’ve said before, Seal of Approval is “footnoted” in the MLA style which lists book, article, or author name, plus page numbers, between parentheses in the main 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’s because the other pertinent information is printed in the text almost immediately preceding the note.

We’ve again retained such usages and spellings from Nyberg’s book as “superhero,” an uncapitalized “comics code,” “E.C.” and “DC,” etc. In the captions we ourselves have added, however, we have reverted to A/E house style and preference. These captions, of course, do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Dr. Nyberg or of the University Press of Mississippi, the original publisher of the book—the original edition of which can still be obtained from UPM at www.upress.sate.ms.us. Our thanks once again to Dr. M. Thomas Inge, under whose general editorship the volume was originally published in 1998 as part of its Studies in Popular Culture series, and who was of great help to A/E in helping to arrange for its reprinting here… to William Biggins and Vijah Shah, acquisitions editors past and present at the U. Press of Mississippi… and to Brian K. Morris for retyping the text on a Word document for Ye Editor.

t was Marvel Comics, not DC, that broke new ground by producing a mainstream comic book dealing with drugs, publishing and distributing the comic without code approval.

By doing so, Marvel Comics forced the Comics Magazine Association to reevaluate the comics code that had been in effect with no changes since 1954. The comic was [The Amazing] SpiderMan, a top-selling Marvel title. Stan Lee, Marvel’s editor-in-chief, received a letter from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare asking the company to do a Spider-Man story about the dangers of drugs. In a three-issue story, Spider-Man learns that his college roommate is a drug addict. Because the comics code forbade any mention of narcotics or their use, the story did not get code approval, but Marvel decided to publish the story anyway.

Lee recalls that the story got favorable press nationwide, “and because of that, the Code was changed” (Daniels Five Fabulous Decades 152).

meantime, the Code Administration’s ruling that no stories shall deal with narcotics addiction shall remain in effect” (CMAA Files [minutes, 9 June 1970]). Work on code revisions began immediately, and the association’s board of directors reviewed specific provisions in a special meeting called December 7, 1970, for that purpose. The president of the association, John Goldwater, noted that he had always taken the position that if times and circumstances warranted it, changes in the code should be considered and made.

He added: “However, such changes should be carefully considered, so that the self-regulation program, which has served the industry effectively for more than

I

Recent segments dealt with the first fifteen years of operations under the Comics Code, which was adopted on October 26, 1954….

The publishers apparently considered Marvel’s request that the company be allowed to publish their special Spider-Man stories at a meeting in June 1970. This request led to a discussion of whether the time had come to change A Drug On The Market the code, a discussion led by National’s represenGil Kane’s cover for The Amazing Spider-Man tative, Carmine Infantino. The minutes of the meeting #96 (May 1971), the first of the three sostated: “It was decided each publisher, after discuscalled “drug issues” that were published sions with his editorial staff, should prepare any without the Comics Code seal—and which led suggested revisions he saw fit, and these should be directly to the first rewriting of the Code. submitted to the Board for its consideration at a The scripter and editor of the story within subsequent meeting.” However, the board rejected was Stan Lee. Photos of Kane have been seen in recent issues of A/E—and will be, again!

Marvel’s request with this statement: “In the [© Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Continuing Chapter 6 Of Our Serialization Of The 1998 Study By Dr. Amy Kiste Nyberg

Needling The Code Under the revised (1971) Comics Code, DC wound up publishing its own harderhitting “drug story” in Green Lantern #84-85, written by Denny O’Neil, with pencils by Neal Adams and inks by Dick Giordano— and it was printed with the Code seal. Seen at left is Adams’ cover for GL #85 (Oct.-Nov. ’71.) [© DC Comics.]

sixteen years, should not become ineffective” (CMAA Files [minutes, 7 Dec. 1970]).

Revisions were discussed and approved for most of the text of the code at that December meeting, and the publishers agreed that the new code would go into effect February 1, 1971 (see CMAA Code 1971). Many of the restrictions on the presentation of crime and horror were liberalized. Ghouls, vampires, and werewolves, which were prohibited under the original code, would now be allowed as long as they were “handled in the classic tradition such as Frankenstein, Dracula and other high calibre literary works … read in schools throughout the World.” In addition, new provisions dealing specifically with narcotics were added. The revisions dealing with sex also reflected the relaxing of the strict morality imposed by the 1950s version of the code. Although illicit sex acts were not to be portrayed, they could now be hinted at. Although rape still could not be shown or suggested, seduction could be suggested (although not shown). The code provisions for advertising remained unchanged. Unlike other magazines, which relied heavily on advertising revenue, the revenue derived by comic book

41

publishers for advertising was negligible. Nearly 95 percent of revenues came from newsstand sales.

A lengthy preamble was added to the 1971 code reaffirming the publishers’ commitment to act responsibly in publishing comics. It praised comics as an “effective tool” for education and instruction and also noted the comics’ emerging role as a contributor to “social commentary and criticism of contemporary life,” recognizing the move in the industry to incorporate contemporary issues into story lines. The code changes were explained as necessary to making a positive contribution to “contemporary life.” While the wording of some sections of the code was modified and a new section on how to handle drugs was added, the format of the code remained unchanged, with the emphasis remaining on the depiction of crime and authority figures. Comic book standards defined the reader as a child, and there was no acknowledgement on the part of the CMAA-member publishers that the medium should move beyond content suitable for an audience of all ages.

These changes were approved by the publishers at their meeting in December, but the publishers could not agree over the wording of Part C, which gave the code administrator broad powers to interpret the code for “all elements or techniques not specifically mentioned” in the code. That debate was carried over into the board’s meeting January 28, 1971. National Periodical Publications had proposed amending that section of the code by adding a second paragraph that would read: “It is not the intent of the Code to prohibit the treatment of such realistic problems as drugs, generation gap, poverty, racial relations, abortions and political unrest handled in an instructive positive fashion. This provision shall not be unreasonably invoked” (CMAA Files [minutes, 28 Jan. 1971]).

The debate centered around the provisions involving drugs and abortion. Although the amendment was supported by Charles Goodman, representing Marvel Comics, and Carmine Infantino, representing National, three other publishers opposed its adoption, including Goldwater (representing Archie Comics), Leon Harvey of Harvey Comics, and John Santangelo, representing Charlton Comics. The proposal failed, and Section C of the comics code remained unchanged.

The Powers That Were (Below:) The four publishers—and one soon-to-be publisher—who voted in 1971 on the updating of the Comics Code. Some were more eager to do so than others.

Charles “Chip” Goodman, son of Timely/Marvel founder Martin Goodman, and Marvel’s publisher 1971-72. 1966 photo from Adam Parfray’s 2003 book It’s a Man’s World. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Carmine Infantino, editorial director (& near-future publisher) of DC Comics.

Photo taken at 1972 San Diego Comic-Con by Vince Davis.

John Goldwater, Archie publisher, in a 1943 photo; thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher.

Sorry we couldn’t come up with a more recent photo.

Leon Harvey, co-publisher of Harvey Comics, in a 1972 photo. Thanks to Mark Arnold & Frank Motler.

John Santangelo, Jr., who had by 1970-71 taken over most of his father’s duties as publisher of Charlton Comics, in a 1970s photo from interview magazine CARTOONIST PROfiles. Thanks to Jon B. Cooke & Phil Hurd. [© Claudia Hurd.]

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Seal Of Approval: The History Of The Comics Code

Big Code Wind

CODE OF THE COMIC MAGAZINE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, INC.: 1971 This seal of approval appears only on comics magazines which have been carefully reviewed, prior to publication, by the Comics Code Authority, and found to have met the high standards of morality and decency required by the code.

Preamble The comics magazine, or as it is more popularly known, the comic book medium, having come of age on the American culture scene, must measure up to its responsibilities Constantly improving techniques and higher standards go hand in hand with these responsibilities.

To make a positive contribution to contemporary life, the industry must seek new areas for developing sound, wholesome entertainment. The people responsible for writing, drawing, printing, publishing and selling comic books have done a commendable job in the past, and have been striving towards this goal.

Their record of progress and continuing improvement compares favorably with other media. An outstanding example is the development of comic books as a unique and effective tool for instruction and education. Comic books have also made their contribution in the field of social commentary and criticism of contemporary life.

Members of the industry must see to it that gains made in this industry are not lost and that violations of standards of good taste, which might tend toward corruption of the comic book as an instructive and wholesome form of entertainment, will not be permitted.

Therefore, the Comics Magazine Association of America, Inc. has adopted this Code, and placed its enforcement in the hands of an independent Code Authority.

Further, members of the Association have endorsed the purpose and spirit of this Code as a vital instrument to the growth of the industry.

To this end, they have pledged themselves to conscientiously adhere to its principles and to abide by all decisions based on the Code made by the Administrator.

Code for Editorial Matter

(On this & facing page:) The text of the 1971 revision of the CMAA’s Comics Code. Thanks to Barry Pearl. [© the respective copyright holders.]

At a meeting February 1, 1971, the association formally approved and implemented the new code. At that time, Charles Goodman, speaking on behalf of Marvel Comics, promised that after the publication of the three Spider-Man issues (cover-dated May-July 1971) the company would not publish any comics magazine without the seal of approval. The minutes specifically state that the February meeting was called “to receive assurances that the members would comply with the Code in the future” (CMAA Files [minutes, 1 Feb. 1971]).

Despite its softened stance, the 1971 code represents a lost opportunity for the industry. Its reaffirmation of comic books as a medium intended for children effectively shut the door on the possibility of attracting a broader audience for comic books. The underground comics had established that there was a new adult market for comic books, a generation of young adults who had grown up with comic books and were open to the possibilities of the comic book form. But the publishers were generally content with the status quo and unwilling to risk their

General Standards - Part A 1. Crimes shall never be presented in such a way as to promote distrust of the forces of law and justice, or to inspire others with a desire to imitate criminals.

2. No comics shall explicitly present the unique details and methods of a crime, with the exception of those crimes that are so farfetched or pseudo-scientific that no would-be lawbreaker could reasonably duplicate.

3. Policemen, judges, government officials and respected institutions shall not be presented in such a way as to create disrespect for established authority. If any of these is depicted committing an illegal act, it must be declared as an exceptional case and that the culprit pay the legal price.

4. If a crime is depicted it shall be as a sordid and unpleasant activity.

5. Criminals shall not be presented in glamorou s circumstances, unless from their ill-gotten gain an unhappy ends results , and creates no desire for emulation.

6. In every instance goo d shall triumph over evil and the criminal punishe d for his misdeeds.

7. Scenes of excessive violence shall be prohibite d.

Scenes of brutal torture, sary knife and gun play excessive and unneces, physical agony, gory and gruesome crime shall be eliminated.

8. No unique or unusual methods of concealing weapons shall be show cealment could not pos n, except where such con sible be duplicated.

9. Instances of law enfo rcement officers dying as a resu lt of a criminal’s activities couraged, except when should be disthe guilty, because of thei r crime, live a sordid exis to justice because of the tence and are brought particular crime.

10. The crime of kidnapp ing shall never be portraye d in any detail, nor shal abductor or kidnapper. l any profit accrue to the The criminal or the kidn apper must be punishe d in every case.

11. The letters of the wor d “crime” on a comics mag azine cover shall never in dimension than the othe be appreciably greater r words contained in the title. The word “crime” alone on the cover. shall never appear 12. Restraint in the use of the word “crime” in titles or subtitles shall be exercised.

Costume

1. Nudity in any form is prohibite

d. Suggestive and salaciou s illustration is unaccep table. istically without undue emphasis on any physica l quality.

2. Females shall be draw n real

Marriage and Sex 1. Divorce shall not be trea

Witch One? As the Code was being revised, Archie Comics added the title Sabrina the Teenage Witch #1 (April ’71), to take advantage of the popular TV series based on its character. Cover art by Dan DeCarlo and inker Rudy Lapick. [© Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

ted humorously or repr esented as desirable.

2. Illicit sex relations are not to be portrayed and sexual abnormalities are unacceptable.

3. All situations dealing with the family unit shou ld have as their ultimate the children and family goal the protection of life. In no way shall the breaking of the moral cod warding. e be depicted as re4. Rape shall never be shown or suggested. Sed uction may not be show n.

5. Sex perversion or any inference to same is stric tly forbidden.

General Standards - Par tB

1. No comics magazin e shall use the word horr or or terror in its title. The ciously in the body of the words may be used judi magazine.

[Footnote: The word horr or or terror in a story title in the body of the magazin an injudicious use, and e has been ruled to be therefore is not permitted .]

Continuing Chapter 6 Of Our Serialization Of The 1998 Study By Dr. Amy Kiste Nyberg

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2. All scenes of horror, excessive bloodshed, gory or gruesome crimes, depravity, lust, sadism, masochism shall not be permitted.

3. All lurid, unsavory, gruesome illustrations shall be eliminated.

4. Inclusion of stories dealing with evil shall be used or shall be published only where the intent is to illustrate a moral issue and in no case shall evil be presented alluringly nor so as to injure the sensibilities of the reader.

5. Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with walking dead, or torture, shall not be used.

Vampires, ghouls and werewolves shall be permitted to be used when handled in the classic tradition such as Frankenstein, Dracula, and other high calibre literary works written by Edgar Allen Poe, Saki, Conan Doyle and other respected authors whose works are read in schools around the world.

6. Narcotics or Drug addiction shall not be presented except as a vicious habit. Narcotics or Drug addiction or the illicit traffic in addiction-producing narcotics or drugs shall not be shown or described if the presentation: (a) Tends in any manner to encourage, stimulate or justify the use of such narcotics or drugs; or (b) Stresses, visually, by text or dialogue, their temporary attractive effects; or (c) Suggests that the narcotics or drug habit can be quickly or easily broken; or (d) Shows or describes details of narcotics or drug procurement, or the implements or devices used in taking narcotics or drugs, or the taking of narcotics or drugs in any manner; or (e) Emphasize the profits of the narcotics or drug traffic; or (f) Involves children who are shown knowingly to use or traffic in narcotics or drugs; or (g) Shows or implies a casual attitude toward the taking of narcotics or drugs; or (h) Emphasizes the taking of narcotics or drugs throughout, or in a major part, of the story, and leaves the denouement to the final panels.

General Standards - Part C All elements or techniques not specifically mentioned herein, but which are contrary to the spirit and intent of the Code, and are considered violations of good taste and decency, shall be prohibited.

Dialogue 1. Profanity, obscenity, smut, vulgarity, or words or symbols which have acquired undesirable meanings- judged and interpreted in contemporary standards- are forbidden.

2. Special precautions to avoid disparaging reference to physical afflictions or deformities shall be taken.

3. Although slang and colloquialisms are acceptable, excessive use should be discouraged and whenever possible good grammar shall be employed.

economic health on experimentation that would challenge the public’s perception of comic books.

This conservative stance served to reinforce the idea that any significant changes in evolution of the medium would have to come from outside the major players in the industry.

The liberalization of the code had less impact on industry output in the 1970s than one might expect. Part of the reason was that the push for “relevance” in comics died not long after being introduced. Comics historians Greg McCue and Clive Bloom suggest that relevance failed to catch on because audiences wanted more allegorical and escapist entertainment from their superhero comics (53). The content of some comics did change under the 1971 code, however. For example, the relaxing of the restrictions on vampire and werewolf stories led to publication of a number of these types of stories, prompting some publishers to propose this amendment at an October 27, 1971, meeting: “No comics magazine shall use the word vampire or werewolf in its title, or bear illustrations of such characters on its

Where’s Abbott & Costello When You Really Need Them?

In 1972, writers Len Wein & Marv Wolfman and artist Jim Aparo introduced the series “Spawn of Frankenstein” in The Phantom Stranger comic, utilizing Mary Shelley’s Monster in what the revised Code referred to as the now-acceptable “classic tradition”—although he was colored green, like the non-classic Incredible Hulk. In #26 (Aug.-Sept. 1973) came the inevitable issue-length clash of the mag’s two protagonists, fronted by Michael W. Kaluta’s lushly rendered cover. The story has been reprinted in black-&-white in Showcase Presents The Phantom Stranger, Vol. 1. [© DC Comics.]

Religion 1. Ridicule or attack on any religious or racial grou p is nev

Code for Advertising Ma tter

er permissible.

The regulations are app licable to all magazines published by members sociation of America, Inc. of the Comics Magazin Good taste shall be the e Asguiding principle in the acceptance of advertising.

1. Liquor and tobacco advertising are not acce ptable.

2. Advertising of sex or sex instruction books are unacceptable.

3. The sale of picture pos tcards, “pin-ups,” “art studies,” or any other repr semi-nude figures is proh oduction of nude or ibited.

4. Advertising for the sale of knives, concealable weapons, or realistic gun facsimiles is prohibited.

5. Advertising for the sale of fireworks is proh ibited.

6. Advertising dealing with the sale of gamblin g equipment or printed bling shall not be acceptab matter dealing with gam le.

7. Nudity with meretric ious purpose and salaciou s postures shall not be perm ing of any product; clot itted in the advertished figures shall never be presented in such a way contrary to good taste or as to be offensive or morals.

8. To the best of his abil ity, each publisher shal l ascertain that all stateme ments conform to the fact nts made in advertiseand avoid misrepresen tation.

9. Advertisement of med ical, health, or toiletry prod ucts of questionable natu Advertisements for med re are to be rejected. ical, health or toiletry prod ucts endorsed by the Am sociation, or the Americ erican Medical Asan Dental Association, shal l be deemed acceptable all other conditions of the if they conform with Advertising Code.

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Seal Of Approval: The History Of The Comics Code

Kill The Vampire!

(Above:) Neither DC nor Marvel, the two industry leaders, let the cemetery grass grow under their feet in making use of vampires once the Code was liberalized to some extent in 1971—as witness no fewer than three comics dated “October 1971” and coming out that summer. Oddly, however, none of the three actually featured a vampire that was “in the classic tradition such as Frankenstein, Dracula, and other high caliber literary works… read in schools throughout the World” that the revised Code specified!

For DC’s House of Mystery #195, Bernie (then “Berni”) Wrightson drew a moody, macabre cover to go with the interior story “Bat Out of Hell!,” written by Jack Oleck and drawn by Nestor Redondo, in which a would-be murderer is pursued by a giant vampire bat.

At the same time, writer/artist/editor Jack Kirby produced “The Man from Transilvane!” in Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #142, which utilized a Dracula stand-in called Count Dragorin. The Count and his werewolf henchman Lupek turned out to come from a science-fictional parallel dimension created in the image of old horror movies. Kirby’s cover was inked by Neal Adams & Mike Royer. Don’t ask—just buy the hardcover Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus, Vol. 2. [© DC Comics.]

Over at Marvel, when editor Stan Lee instructed them to introduce a vampire in The Amazing Spider-Man #101, guest writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane wanted to resuscitate Bram Stoker’s Dracula; but Lee insisted they make up a character in more of a super-villainous mold. So, enter Morbius, the Living Vampire—a scientist who needed human blood to combat a weird deficiency, and who gained vampire-style super-powers in the process. Marvel would debut Tomb of Dracula a few months later, starring the real McCount. Cover penciled by Gil Kane, inked by John Romita. [© Marvel Characters, Inc.]

cover” (CMAA Files [minutes, 27 Oct. 1971]). The motion was tabled at that meeting and defeated at the board’s February 28, 1972, meeting. On June 19, 1973, the association clarified the use of the words horror and terror, specifying that while those words could be used in the body of a story, they could not be used in the title of the story. The prohibition of those words on the cover of comic books continued as well (CMAA Files [minutes, 29 June 1973]).

Comics also became somewhat more graphic in their depiction of violence and sex, and occasionally the code authority issued memos interpreting the code regulations. One such memo was issued April 13, 1974, and clarified the definitions of “excessive bloodshed and gore” as well as warning publishers

Cry “Werewolf!”

(Right:) Some CMAA publishers attempted to ban the use of the words “Vampire” and “Werewolf” in the titles of comics—but that went nowhere. Meanwhile, Marvel launched its series “Werewolf

by Night” in Marvel Spotlight #2 (Feb. 1972), with script by Gerry Conway (from a plot by Roy & Jeanie Thomas) and art by Michael Ploog, behind a dramatic cover by Neal Adams. After three trial issues, Werewolf by Night #1 premiered with a Sept. ’72 date and an equally moody cover by Ploog; Conway and Ploog handled the material inside. [© Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Continuing Chapter 6 Of Our Serialization Of The 1998 Study By Dr. Amy Kiste Nyberg

45

And If That Doesn’t Work, Let’s Try… Nyberg notes that some genres that were tried during the 1970s, with varying degrees of success, were “sword-and-sorcery titles… science fiction, and horror comics.” Exhibits A through C: Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian, the conspicuous success in the former category, really moved into high gear with issue #4 (April ’71), in which writer Roy Thomas and artist Barry Smith adapted Conan creator Robert E. Howard’s story “The Tower of the Elephant.” Cover by Smith, who in the mid-’70s became Barry Windsor-Smith. [© Conan Properties International, LLD.] Straight science-fiction (as opposed to “space opera” à la 1977’s Star Wars) had less appeal to Marvel’s readers, alas—as RT learned when, as editor-in-chief, he launched Worlds Unknown, which featured adaptations of SF tales by prominent authors. Despite John Romita’s strong cover for issue #1 (May ’73) heralding writer Gerry Conway & artist Ralph Reese’s rendition of Frederick Pohl’s award-winning short story “The Day after the Day the Martians Came,” the mag soon folded. [© Marvel Characters, Inc.] At DC, editor Joe Orlando proved to have the magic touch when it came to only-slightly-toned-down horror, as witness his continued success with House of Mystery and several related titles. Bernie Wrightson’s cover for HOM #204 (July ’72) underscored his position as a youthful master of the form, as he co-wrote and drew the interior tale to go with it, titled “All in the Family…” [© DC Comics.]

about their treatment of sex. Code administrator Leonard Darvin wrote: “Running or dripping blood, or pools of blood, are not permitted. A very small stain around a wound may be acceptable, but must be kept to a minimum. There must be no impression of gore in any areas of objection by governmental and private agencies concerned with children” (CMAA Files [memorandum from Leonard Darvin, 13 Aug. 1974]). The memo also cautioned publishers that the topic of rape was forbidden, that the code prohibited any illustration or dialogue that indicates a sexual act is actually taking place, and that homosexuality or any suggestion of it by illustration, dialogue, or text was strictly forbidden.

Another memo, dealing with the topics of drug addiction, nudity, and alcohol, was issued in 1978. The memo, written by Darvin, noted that stories showing or describing any kind of drugs, including marijuana, had to definitely state or show it being a harmful substance. Publishers were also violating code standards of nudity by submitting artwork that showed nude buttocks or pictured them “so insufficiently covered as to amount to nudity” (CMAA Files [memorandum from Leonard Darvin, 13 Apr. 1974]).

Darvin warned publishers that such representations were not allowed under state statutes that legally defined nudity. He also warned against showing the drinking of alcohol and instructed publishers to avoid gratuitous display of signs or scenes showing liquor, beer, or wine.

For the most part, however, the comic book industry of the 1970s resembled that of the 1950s. The superhero had fallen from favor, and it was a time of experimentation as readership declined.

The devoted core audience of fans was too small to support the industry, and publishers introduced new genres in an effort to lure new readers. Some of the genres that were tried (with varying degrees of success) were sword-and-sorcery titles such as Conan the Barbarian, science fiction, and horror comics. Jacobs and Jones describe the 1970s as “a mad scramble for new ideas that would sell.” Of all new comics introduced in the 1970s, half failed in the first ten issues, two-thirds failed by the first fifteen issues, and only seven survived into the 1980s (242).

Rising production costs drove the price of comic books up and out of the price range of many children. In addition, comic books, considered low-yield items, disappeared from drugstores, newsstands, and supermarkets. The two major publishers, Marvel and DC, made changes in corporate management. In 1976, outsider Jenette Kahn, with experience in children’s publishing, was named publisher at DC. This appointment was followed by a cutback in the number of titles and a staff reduction. Marvel promoted Jim Shooter to editor-in-chief in 1978. He set out to train new talent in the basics of comic book storytelling and also trimmed titles (Jacobs and Jones 243-44).

Next: A Code For The ’90s?

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DAN BARRY & Flash Gordon Part III Continuing Our Look At A Controversial Comics Talent

by Alberto Becattini

A/E

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: Issues #130131 saw the first two parts of this artistic biography of Dan Barry (1923-1997), who in his day was both a leading comic book illustrator and the long-running force behind the iconic Flash Gordon newspaper comic strip that had been created in 1934 by Alex Raymond. The first installment covered Barry’s comic book career at DC, Lev Gleason, and elsewhere, his stints on the Tarzan comic strip and in advertising, and his and King Features’ relaunching of the daily Flash Gordon comic strip in 1951, after a sevenyear hiatus. The second segment dealt with his first half-dozen years doing Flash Gordon, often with the help of a revolving door of friends and hired scripters and artists, with whom he had an often difficult relationship. At various times in the latter 1950s, Barry lived in the South of France, England, and Italy. Writer (and former Flash Gordon scribe) Harry Harrison moved to Italy in 1958 and scripted for Barry for a time. That summer, Barry moved to the isle of Capri, and the two continued to work together after Harrison returned home as his first science-fiction novel, Deathworld, was being published. Barry and Harrison had Flash and his longtime ladyfriend Dale Arden marry—then break up as she decided she “need[ed] to be needed” and Flash Gordon wasn’t the “needy” kind. She became the fiancée of a man named Steve Benton....

Austrian Days

Dale was basically out of the picture for over three years.

Meanwhile, Barry had left Italy and relocated in Austria, eventually renting a chalet in Kitzbühel. While there, he met Jutta Gartenschläger, an attractive six-foot-tall blonde who had been working as a stunt actress in several skiing movie scenes. She

would soon become his second wife.

Barry became an excellent skier, and at one time he had the Shah of Persia as a skiing mate.

Through artist/sculptor Paul Von Ringelheim (who modeled for Barry as Owl in 1961’s “Horseparlor in the Sky”), Barry also made friends with movie actor Kirk Douglas, who was living near him with his family during 1960 while shooting the film Town without Pity. While in Austria, Barry also studied at the Kokoschka Workshop and later founded an art colony, conducting his own painting classes at the Tyrol State Museum.

Ric Estrada [who had also moved to the Austrian Alps, at Barry’s suggestion] drew most of “The Visitors” (1961), in which Harry Harrison was caricatured as one of the assistants to the

Chess One Of Those Things Dan Barry plays chess at his chalet in Kitzbühel, Austria, circa 1960 (top right)—while a short-haired Dale reappears in the beautiful “Quarantine Station” continuity, also known as the “Interferon Story,” by Harry Harrison and Dan Barry. July 9, 1960, daily strip, reproduced from original art. [© King Features Syndicate, Inc.]

Dan Barry & Flash Gordon—Part III

More Space Ghosts (Above:) Oct. 12, 1959, strip drawn by Mike Sekowsky & Frank Giacoia. Reproduced from original art. [© King Features Syndicate, Inc.]

Artists Mike Sekowsky (1923-1989), seen above left, and Frank Giacoia (19241988) teamed up on various Flash Gordon daily sequences from 1953-60.

Null-G & Void From 1958-70, Harry Harrison (nee Henry Maxwell Dempsey, 1925-2012) also wrote the Flash Gordon Sunday page for artist Mac Raboy. At center right is Harrison’s sketch of Flash’s Null-G spacesuit, visualized by Raboy in the Oct. 15, 1961, page directly above. [© 2015 King Features Syndicate, Inc.]

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Continuing Our Look At A Controversial Comics Talent

A Comic Strip With A Porpoise June 28, 1962, daily strip featuring dolphin tamer Brad Masters. Drawn by Dan Barry and Martin Asbury.

Reproduced from original art. [©King Features Syndicate, Inc.]

British artist Martin Asbury assisted Barry during 1962, when he was just a fledgling comic artist. Later on, he drew the Garth newspaper strip (1976-97), among others, and since 1984 he has been a top movie storyboard artist.

Harry Harrison (1925-2012).

Read more about him in A/E #131.

Stellar Secretary of Earth. Another Harrison caricature appeared in the very first panel of “Back in Time” (1962), on which Barry and Estrada shared artwork.

After Estrada temporarily left, Barry hired a new assistant, the British Martin Asbury, who would later recall:

I saw an advert in a magazine devoted to advertising seeking an assistant for an “international strip cartoonist.” I was very excited by this and immediately applied and much to my surprise, I got the job. The strip turned out to be Flash Gordon and the “international strip cartoonist” was one Dan Barry, and I worked for and with him for six months in Kitzbühel, Austria. He was married to a very lovely and very patient Austrian lady named Jutta. I used to go to their house early every morning, have breakfast with them and then work all day there in his studio. Dan would often leave me alone during the day to ink in backgrounds on the strip. Dan was not a particularly nice man, subject to quick and fiery bursts of temper. He was very fond of

chess and on the rare occasion would take delight in beating me at that game. He seemed to have contempt for me and made no allowances for my inexperience and youth. He often called me: “British S***!” Eventually we had an argument and he stopped paying me. I was therefore forced to sell my car (my pride and joy at the time!–an MG!) to raise the fare and returned to England.17

Ric Estrada came back, assisting Barry in the summer of 1962, but he was soon replaced by an old friend of Barry’s, Bob Fujitani, who would later assume complete art chores on the strip.

Fujitani recalled that: Dan sent me a letter one day from Kitzbühel, Austria. We knew each other from the Lev Gleason days with Charles Biro, and I hadn’t heard from him since. The letter said, “How would you like to do Flash Gordon and maybe possibly take it over completely?” In the beginning I used to ink some of his stuff when he was in Europe sending me the pencils. I would then ink it and deliver it to King Features.18

Cuban-born artist Ric Estrada (1928-2009) assisted Dan Barry on Flash Gordon on occasion between 1952-62.

Just Wild About Harry Harry Harrison is caricatured in a pair of panels taken from the June 3, 1961, and March 19, 1962, dailies drawn by Dan Barry and Ric Estrada. [© 2015 King Features Syndicate, Inc.]

Dan Barry & Flash Gordon—Part III

49

Direct From Europe (Above:) Dan Barry probably did his best work on the strip in the early 1960s, when he was still in Europe. The above Oct. 19, 1962, daily was drawn

by Barry with assistance from Ric Estrada. Reproduced from original art. [© King Features Syndicate, Inc.]

Back In The USA–And On Mongo

Barry was back in the USA on November 22, 1963—the same day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. Waiting for him at the dock was his brother Sy, who had by then been drawing The Phantom strip for over two years. Dan and Sy would not see much of each other in the following years. Dan was reportedly envious of his younger brother, who was making more money with The Phantom than he ever had with Flash Gordon.

After divorcing Jutta, Dan would live and work at Bob Fujitani’s house in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, for about six months. He then moved to his own apartment in South Kent, Connecticut, about 30 miles away from Fujitani. On May 2, 1969, Dan married a 33-year-old Swiss-born lady named Ursula Fabian.

Even Dan’s third marriage would end in divorce, in 1980.

Brotherly Love (Above:) Ironically enough, when Sy Barry worked on the 1969 daily Phantom continuity entitled “The Masked Ball,” he paid homage to his elder brother: the villain was called Dan and had Dan Barry’s face! [© King Features Syndicate, Inc.]

In early 1965 Barry decided he would devote most of his time to painting, so he relinquished the Flash artwork to Fred Kida. No sooner had Harry Harrison left the strip in late 1969 than Barry took Flash, Dale, and the Space Kids back to Mongo again (he had already done that in 1956-57 and 1960), making new readers acquainted with King Trigon of Neptunia and Queen Fria of Frigia, before Flash and friends came back to Earth and Kida concurrently left the strip as of September 4, 1971.

Mac Raboy died on December 12, 1967, and his last Sunday appeared five days later. King Features asked Barry to take over the art chores, and Barry turned out the drawing with help from George Olesen, Fred Kida, and Frank Giacoia before the artwork was handed over to Bob Fujitani in March 1969. Harry Harrison continued plotting the Sunday continuities until July 1970, when Barry went back to writing the page himself.

Barry And Fujitani

After Kida left, Bob Fujitani was also called on to draw most of the Flash Gordon dailies, which had been unsigned since 1965. By early 1974 Barry and Fujitani were basically taking turns on the dailies. Fujitani recalled that:

(Above:) Sy Barry drawing the Phantom strip. [© the respective copyright holder.]

Dan was always so slow that he always needed somebody to help him. He couldn’t do it all. He was slow but he was very meticulous. He would give me a set of pencils and there’d be a bolt on the drawing with a little cast shadow with it and all done in pencil and it was done so carefully.19

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Continuing Our Look At A Controversial Comics Talent

Fred Kida (1920-2014) was another longtime collaborator of Barry’s on Flash Gordon. He worked on it off and on from 1953-61 and continuously from 1965-71. A prominent comic book artist, Kida also penciled the Amazing Spider-Man strip from 1981-86. Two interviews with the late artist will be featured in A/E a few issues from now.

Follow The Kida!

(Top of page:) Kida art on the April 24, 1971, daily. Reproduced from original art. (Directly above:) Flash faces panther girls in this May 9, 1966, strip drawn by Fred Kida. [© King Features Syndicate, Inc.]

From November 18, 1973, until February 19, 1975, Flash Gordon ran as a seven-day strip for a total of six continuities. In the last two of them, Flash and Vicki traveled in time to ancient Rome and Troy. Vicki chose to stay with Achilles, whereas Flash was able to go back to the 20th century, yet not home. While he was missing, Barry would retell the whole Don Moore-Alex Raymond storyline as a TV program entitled “The Making of a Legend,” until Flash finally got home on September 9, 1975.

In early 1978, at a time when an alliance had been set up between Ming and the Skorpi, Barry hired Rich Buckler to pencil the daily strip. Buckler later recalled that:

DC letterer Ben Oda put me on to Dan Barry, who at the time was looking for a “ghost penciler” for Flash Gordon.

Our first meeting was at an Irish bar on Manhattan’s East Side. I never saw his place of work, nor did I meet any of his other assistants, either. Dan was cordial and direct. We got along right off and he hired me on the spot. A few days later I met with him again and he gave me the assignment, which was (Right:) Japanese-American artist Bob Fujitani worked on Flash Gordon off and on from 1963-86.

Born in 1920, Fujitani (aka “Bob Fuje”) drew comic books in the Golden and Silver Age, as well as the newspaper strip Judge Wright (1945-46).

“Fuje” Comes On Board February 23, 1963. One of the very first strips penciled by Dan Barry and inked by Bob Fujitani. Reproduced from original art. [©King Features Syndicate, Inc.]

Dan Barry & Flash Gordon—Part III

Barry And Bob (From top of page to bottom:) April 1, 1963, strip penciled and inked by Bob Fujitani.

May 23, 1975, daily—a very nice example of Barry’s pencils with Fujitani’s inking.

Reproduced from original art.

May 9, 1971, Sunday page drawn by Fujitani. [© King Features Syndicate, Inc.]

supposed to be only a week or two but actually stretched out to months’ worth of work. I was provided with photocopies of the strip and some blank art boards that were bordered in pencil. Dan’s script was already penciled in. The artwork was up to me. As things worked out, Dan used everything I drew and I never had to correct anything. Here I was, working with a veritable master of comic art! But all good things come to an end, and Dan

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Continuing Our Look At A Controversial Comics Talent

Flash Gordon Conquers The Movie Universe—Again!

(Above:) Presentation painting by Dan Barry and Bob Fujitani for the 1980 Flash Gordon movie produced by Dino De Laurentiis. (Right:) The final art for the poster, painted by a different artist. [©Dino De Laurentiis Corporation & King Features Syndicate, Inc.]

Italian movie producer Dino De Laurentiis (1919-2010) commissioned Barry to do film poster art.

Beyond Flash (Left:) Barry’s poster for another Dino De Laurentiis movie production, Beyond the Reef (1980). [© Dino De Laurentiis Corporation.]

Dan Barry & Flash Gordon—Part III

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Rich “Swash” Buckler (Above:) April 24, 1978, strip penciled by Rich Buckler and inked by Bob Fujitani. Buckler brought some of the comic books’ dynamism back to the strip during his tenure. Reproduced from original art. [©King Features Syndicate, Inc.]

resumed penciling on the strip.20

Rich Buckler in a recent photo. At age 29, he was a penciler for Barry’s Flash Gordon from April to June 1978, before assisting Barry’s brother Seymour on The Phantom for a year.

We were working on a poster, and in order for us to both be working on it at the same time, we did it as a Triple Taker. That means we had one big Master calligrapher Ben scene in the middle with a smaller Kazuhito Oda in a 1940s scene on each side of that. Dan photo. The Japanesewanted to do the big scene while American Oda lettered I would work on the two side scenes. most of Dan Barry’s I originally laid out the whole thing, comic book stories and but we couldn’t both paint it at the newspaper strips from same time. He was very excited about 1946 until he passed away in November 1984 at it. He insisted that whatever we made age 69. would be split 50/50. When we were doing the poster, he was calling me two or three times a day. Suddenly, he stopped calling. The poster was almost finished, and finally after I didn’t hear from him for over a week, I called him. I asked, “Dan, what’s happening? Do you need some help?” and he replied, “You know, Bob, this has cost me a lot of money. I had to buy two new suits because I’m going to New York almost every other day to talk with Dino. I had to take his secretary out to lunch, and there’s a lot more to this poster business than just painting. Someone has to pay for all that. [So] we need to have a different arrangement. I was thinking that 70/30 is more fair.” Then we had this big argument over the phone and hung up. He called me about a week later and asked, “What about the strip?” and I said, “It’s up to you. I don’t care. I’ll still do the strip.” He then said, “All right. We’ll keep the same arrangement on that then. I’m glad I got you off my back.” And I continued working on the strip for a little longer after that.21

As of June 12, 1978, the art on the daily went completely to Fujitani, who had been co-signing the strip since January 17, 1977. By 1982, though, Fujitani’s drawing style had grown way too loose, especially after the fallout he had with Barry over the movie poster they had been painting for Dino De Laurentiis’ production of Flash Gordon. As Fujitani recalled: That movie was what we broke up over.

17 18 Sheena is a trademark of Galaxy Publishing, Inc., & Val D’Oro Entertainment, Inc.

19 20 21

Notes for this installment:

Martin Asbury, e-mail interview with Alberto Becattini, 25 May 2011.

Bob Fujitani, interview with Shaun Clancy, 4 and 5 May, 2011 Bob Fujitani, op. cit.

Rich Buckler, e-mail interview with Alberto Becattini, 27 May 2011.

Bob Fujitani, op. cit.

Alberto Becattini’s artistic biography of Dan Barry will continue next issue.

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS’ GREATEST HEROES— NOW IN FABULOUS ONLINE COMIC STRIPS!

by ROY THOMAS & TOM GRINDBERG Tarzan TM & © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.

NEW SEQUENCES CONSTANTLY BEING ADDED! Official Website:

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Website now also features weekly comic strips of John Carter of Mars, Carson of Venus, Pellucidar, Land That Time Forgot, et al.— only $1.99 per month!

ALSO:

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ALL-NEW FULL-COLOR ADVENTURES —NOW PLAYING ON AN INTERNET NEAR YOU!

55

Sorry, Wrong Number!

Dan Zolnerowich’s cover of Hillman Periodicals’ Real Clue Crime Stories, Vol. 3, #3 (May 1948), with its “Zolne” signature. [© the respective copyright holders.]

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Get A Clue! – Part I

by Michael T. Gilbert

D

uring comics’ Golden Age, crime ruled! I’m not talking about sleazy comic book publishers, mind you. No, I mean the sexy, sensational, gory crime comics they published!

Charles Biro and Bob Wood started the trend in July 1942, with the first issue of Lev Gleason’s sales blockbuster, Crime Does Not Pay. Before then, the field largely belonged to super-heroes. But by the late ’40s, reality-based love and crime comics replaced the super-guys. Within a few years, dozens of crime titles fought tooth and nail for rack space, with Atlas alone pumping out more than fifteen crime titles!

Maybe It’s His Deodorant?

(Above:) Well, something in this diner sure smells fishy! Pity poor Officer Dunleavy. He can’t drop into his favorite diner for a cup of Joe and a sinker without the whole place clearing out. It’s enough to give a cop a complex! From Real Clue Crime Stories V4#5 (July 1949). Artist unknown. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Pennies From Heaven!

(Left:) Check out the grin on that motorcycle cop! Officer Dunleavy— let’s assume, just for the heck of it, that it’s the same policeman who was on the earlier cover—abruptly retired shortly after this issue and moved permanently to Tahiti. Strangely enough, his fellow cops never did find that missing loot. Hmm! Wonder where it went? From Real Clue Crime Stories V5#4 (June 1950). Art credited to Dan Zolnerowich. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Get A Clue!

57

Gleason’s Crime Does Not Pay and Crime and Punishment remained leaders in the field, but crime aficionados had plenty to choose from. There were cheesy Fox titles like Murder Incorporated and Crimes

by Women, while Prize had Headline and Justice Traps the Guilty. EC’s Crime SuspenseStories were arguably the best-illustrated of the bunch, with chilling art by Al Feldstein, Johnny Craig, Bernie Krigstein, and Reed Crandall.

But Hillman Periodicals was no slouch, either!

That company began publishing true-confession and true-crime magazines in the late ’30s and early ’40s, but soon branched off into quirky four-color titles like Miracle Comics, Rocket Comics, Air Fighters Comics, and Clue Comics.

Dan Zolnerowich Photo from the 1937 yearbook of the Pratt Institute where “Zolne” studied. Courtesy of the Tenth Letter of the Alphabet website & Mark Muller.

“Hey, Buddy! What About My Tip?” (Above:) This crook got the “chair” and lived to tell about it! This is one cop who prefers “take-out”! From Real Clue Crime Stories V5#2 (April 1950). Artist unknown. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Alex Hillman,

With Luck Like That…

publisher of Hillman Periodicals, 1964. Thanks to Mark Lax on a 2010 web entry.

(Right:) Trust me, you never want to have a nickname like “Lucky” in a crime comic. This guy found that out—the hard way! From Real Clue Crime Stories V3#8 (Oct. 1948). Art signed by Zolnerowich. [© the respective copyright holders.]

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Clue Comics was particularly interesting. The title originally featured bizarre, crime-fighting super-heroes like The Boy King, Zippo, Microface, and Nightmare and Sleepy, along with a smattering of crime stories. However, when Hillman’s heroes didn’t set the world on fire, the company hired comic superstars Joe Simon & Jack Kirby to reinvent the title. In 1947 Clue became Real Clue Crime Stories, featuring exciting, two-fisted crime tales.

Simon & Kirby moved on a few months later, but by then they’d set the pace for the new Real Clue comic. And while the post-Simon & Kirby issues weren’t quite as exciting (how could they be?), the creators who followed made up for it with solid art and well-plotted, characterdriven crime stories, a Hillman trademark. But what really set their crime comics apart from the rest of the pack were their covers.

Simply put, they were hilarious!

Junk In The Trunk!

(Right:) These industrious lads not only bumped off a rival, but also got someone to pay for the privilege of getting rid of the evidence. Talk about multi-tasking! From Real Clue Crime Stories V2#10 (Dec. 1947). Art credited to Zolnerowich. [© 2015 the respective copyright holders.]

Honor Among Thieves?

(Above:) Not for these two felonious fellows. Oh, well, I guess things will even out in the end! From Real Clue Crime Stories V3#11 (Jan. 1949). Art signed by “Zolne.” [© 2015 the respective copyright holders.]

If you’re viewing a Digital Edition of this publication,

PLEASE READ THIS: This is copyrighted material, NOT intended for downloading anywhere except our website or Apps. If you downloaded it from another website or torrent, go ahead and read it, and if you decide to keep it, DO THE RIGHT THING and buy a legal download, or a printed copy. Otherwise, DELETE IT FROM YOUR DEVICE and DO NOT SHARE IT WITH FRIENDS OR POST IT ANYWHERE. If you enjoy our publications enough to download them, please pay for them so we can keep producing ones like this. Our digital editions should ONLY be downloaded within our Apps and at

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Get A Clue!

59

Most crime comics focused on scenes of sex and gruesome violence, but someone, perhaps editor Ed Cronin, actually had a sharp sense of humor. For a while at least, black humor seemed to be the order of the day on Hillman’s Real Clue Crime Stories and its sister title, Crime Detective. Later covers reverted to more traditional crime fare, but the ones represented here are especially fun.

Ed Cronin, Hillman comics editor, 1942-1953—as remembered

by Herb Rogoff, who served as his associate editor for several years. [© Herb Rogoff.]

Dan Zolnerowich (aka Zolne) was Real Clue’s main cover artist during this period. Zolne worked for the Eisner & Iger [later just Iger] studio, from 1939 to 1944. His art appeared on Fiction House features like “Super American,” “Kaänga,” and “The Hawk,” as well as a series of classic covers featuring jungle gal “Sheena.” Zolne also illustrated Quality’s “Blackhawk,” “Doll Man,” and “Hercules.” He wound up his career in the ’50s and ’60s assisting Eisner on PS magazine.

Ticket To Ride!

(Above:) Other crime comics depended on gruesome blood and gore. Not this one! Check out the crook’s disgusted look on his one-way ride to the hoosegow. No ticket needed for this punk! From Real Clue Crime Stories V3#9 (Nov. 1948). Art credited to Zolnerowich. [© the respective copyright holders.]

And so we end our little crime spree. But don’t worry, we’ll have more next issue. It would be a crime not to!

Till next time...

P.S.: Don’t miss our two bonus Hillman covers on the very next page!

“The People Are Mad At You!” (Left:) And then we have the cop explaining why the blustery crook’s in the clink. Talk about understatement! From Real Clue Crime Stories V4#6 (Aug 1949). Artist unknown. [© the respective copyright holders.]

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

The Pen Is Deadlier Than The Sword Dept.!

And, finally, we have your basic white-collar criminals, working their evil deeds with pen and paper. On these two covers, the crooks not only force their victim to write a phony will, but then make a few extra bucks with a life insurance policy—post-mortem! I’m guessing their grandkids are cleaning up on Wall Street nowadays.

(Top:) Real Clue Crime Stories V3#4 (June 1948). Art signed by Zolnerowich.

(Bottom:) Real Clue Crime Stories V3#2 (April 1948). Artist unknown. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Comic Fandom Archive

61

Alter Ego’s Multi-Part Tribute To G.B. Love & RBCC – Part 2

G.B. Love.

Photo by Robert Brown.

Introduction

Last issue, we kicked off our tribute to Gordon Belljohn Love and his estimable fanzine by publishing an overview of his accomplishments as one of the founders and linchpins of comicdom’s Golden Age. Now let’s get to know G.B. a little better, through John de Groot’s perceptive, occasionally eloquent feature article that appeared in a Florida newspaper

when RBCC was at its peak. It’s © 1971 by The Miami Herald, as are the two accompanying photographs by Dave Didio. The handful of minor errors in the piece are reprinted “as is,” followed by the corrected form in brackets, to wit: Tonnerville Folk [ = Toonerville Folks]. Otherwise, we retained the style and substance of the original article.

—Bill Schelly.

The Super Labors Of Love

Miamian G.B. Love is crippled by cerebral palsy.

It was a difficult time—until he discovered “Shazam” From Tropic magazine, The Miami Herald, May 2, 1971 And G.B. Love fooled them all. He made the miracle happen.

by John de Groot Herald staff writer

His body remains stubborn and frail, but now G.B. Love works long into the lonely night in a tiny, cluttered room of his parents’ house in Southwest Miami, carefully clutching a blunt pencil, punching out one letter at a time on an electric typewriter, letters turning into words, hard hours grinding into weeks, his body fighting him all the way as he wears out six electric typewriters and unknown blunt pencils creating a whole world of miracles.

akes a miracle to change things. They’ve been telling G.B. Love that for all of his 31 years. A crashing, blinding miracle. Nothing else will do it. Not medicine. Not G.B. Love. Only the splitting of sky and a miracle.

T

His body won’t listen to him.

He asks an arm to move and it does so with reluctance, fighting back, fingers fluttering. He tells a leg to step forward and all it can do is shuffle.

Impossible biceps spring to life, flexing outward from massive chests. Below are a sculptured solar plexus and lithe hips reaching down to join tree trunk thighs. Here are granite jaws. There swing steel fists.

Notice the awesome pectorals.

Observe the bunched calves.

G.B. Love has cerebral palsy.

He has had it since birth, when doctors found certain motor functions of his brain had been damaged.

All his life, G.B. Love has been trying to tell his body to do this and that, working hard with his fine mind, hoping to force a word through resisting lips, wanting hands to clasp firmly around small objects, dreaming of the day when his body might listen to him.

The World’s Mightiest Forehead G.B. Love as seen in Tropic Magazine (part of the Miami Herald newspaper) in 1971, with a Don Newton drawing of Captain Marvel superimposed on his brow. The Big Red Cheese was one of Love’s favorite comic book characters, as well as Newton’s. Photo by Dave Didio. [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics.]

Tap, tap. G.B. Love taps away about bodies, wondrous, impossible, beautiful Super Bodies “faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a

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“Tapping At My Chamber Door…”

“One letter at a time,” writes John de Groot, “G.B. Love deals with miracles that come in blinding flashes….” [© the respective copyright holders.]

locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!”

Tap, tap and “a bolt of lightning emerged, changing the frail youngster into a dynamic, well-proportioned individual who looked like he could take a dozen challengers without working up a sweat.”

One letter at a time, G.B. Love deals with miracles that come in blinding flashes, crackling lightning; the 14-year-old, helpless orphan newsboy, Billy Batson, murmuring the magic word Shazam and instantly changing into a clean-cut assemblage of Super Strength, muscle and bone encased in skintight costume, majestic cape swirling from mountainous shoulders: Captain Marvel. ***

It’s late at night, and G.B. Love’s father comes home from his job at the Royal Bakery and there’s his son, bent over the electric typewriter, surrounded by huge oil paintings of Super Heroes, walled in by towering bookcases jammed with nearly $10,000 worth of comic books, his desk laden with notes and manuscripts dealing with Batman, Captain America, Wonder Woman….

Wrongs are being done. Freedom and justice must be preserved.

Evil-doers must be punished. A brick wall is in the way. The brain tells the impossible body, knock that wall down. Huge fists bunch and explode forward, bricks shattering into dust. Pow! Slam! Crash!

Wack! Arghhhh! Right there in the modest residence of Daddy Love.

Tap, tap.

“My wife and I, we’ve tried lots of times to get interested in the super hero business,” Daddy Love says. “We’ve really tried. But we just can’t. Some folks are interested in some things. Other folks are interested in other things.”

Three Cheers For The Green And Blue!

Apart from RBCC, one of G.B. Love’s most popular fanzines was The Illustrated Comic Collector’s Handbook.

Interviewer de Groot used its Vol. 3 (1968) as a resource when writing his article, even quoting the text by writerartist Raymond Miller. Front cover drawing of Green Hornet by Biljo White; back cover Blue Bolt illo by John G. Fantucchio. [Characters TM & © by the respective copyright & trademark holders; art © respectively

by Estate of Biljo White &

by John G. Fantucchio.]

Alter Ego’s Multi-Part Tribute To G.B. Love & RBCC – Part 2

63

books that now go for as high as $250 each, paying a dollar a month for his Rocket Blast [ = Rocket’s Blast] magazine, $5 for an issue of his inch-thick Fandom Annual with its full-page, beautifully rendered drawings of the Cat Woman [sic], the Crimson Comet, the Phantom Commando, Flash Gordon, All America’s Boy Heroes.

Tap, tap. G.B. Love carefully communicates with freelance artists and writers throughout the country, Super Hero experts all. They wade through the brittle pages of countless lost comic books published in the Golden Age of Comics during the early 1940s, researching everything, re-creating, redrawing forgotten Super Greats, dealing with things like the evolution of Batman’s Batmobile, precisely preparing blueprints of the 1950s Batmobile, showing all its changes from 1939 to 1965… fins shifting, hoods changing, the chrome this way in 1940, the top open in 1941.

Serious, scholarly research. G.B. Love publishes it, typing it out one letter at a time.

Then, of course, there is his multi-volumed Illustrated Comic Collectors’ Handbook, and what G. B. Love is doing here is recreating every Super Hero who ever stalked pulp, countless hundreds of men, women, boys, girls, impossible people like:

“The Phantom Eagle—Mickey Malone, a youthful mechanic, was too young to join the Air Force, so in Wow Comics Six (July, 1942) he became the Phantom Eagle. With his famous Comet-plane he wreaked havoc on the Axis Powers during World War II. Around 1944 he began his famous quest for the Golden Mace, which supposedly contained the secret of peace and unity.”

[NOTE: This excerpts Raymond Miller’s text from The Illustrated Collectors’ Handbook, Vol. 3 (1968), as do subsequent paragraphs in this article. —Bill.]

The Nedor Of Heroism Raymond Miller’s drawing of Nedor’s hero The Liberator from The Illustrated Comic Collector’s Handbook Vol. 3. The Liberator appeared in Exciting Comics and America’s Best. [Drawing © Raymond Miller.]

What Daddy Love has on his hands is an international expert and publishing giant of Super Heroes, a man The New York Times calls up for answers about Super Hero trivia, the creator of the largest and most respected magazine dealing with the cult and world of Super Heroes. The Rocket Blast and Comic Collector [ = The Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector], published right there out of G.B. Love’s tiny room, typed out one letter at a time, circulated throughout the United States, Europe, South America and Australia.

“We came down here about 12 years ago,” recalls Daddy Love.

“Came down from Georgia. My son was supposed to see the rehabilitation people up there because of his problem.

“Well, we came down here to Miami and after about three years I took him around to the rehabilitation people and they gave him tests. They said there was just nothing they could do for him.

Goodwill offered him a job for $25 a week, but he wouldn’t take that.”

G.B. Love listens to his father and smiles because all those giant biceps and wall-splintering fists he deals with are bringing in thousands of dollars. Comic collectors and dealers are buying fullpage ads in his magazines, offering back issues of 10-cent comic

Talk to G. B. Love and he’ll say yes, it’s part of the current Nostalgia Thing, a facet of the current craze that sees people preoccupied with the past, listening to old tapes of Lone Ranger radio programs, sporting Mickey Mouse watches, talking about the early stages of rock ‘n’ roll with Bill Haley and the Comets, interested in Captain Midnight decoder rings that you once obtained with an Ovaltine label. The Super Hero cult is all of that and more. More than Peter Pan media dragging you back to better, less complex days. Much more.

Certainly, comic books are a uniquely American art form. G.B. Love will admit to that and he’ll point out that this aspect intrigues serious comic cultists. The first comic book, developed in 1934, was an American phenomenon. It was a pulp 10-center, published by Eastern Color, and consisted of a collection of Sunday newspaper comic strips: Tailspin Timmy [ = Tailspin Tommy ], Tonnerville Folk [ = Toonerville Folks ], Dixie Dugan, Mutt and Jeff, Hairbreadth Harry. The First Comic Book—something new in man’s thousand-year effort to express himself with line and color.

So there is the Nostalgia Thing and there is the Unique Art Form Bit. Yet, in honest moments, G.B. Love will admit there is even more to a preoccupation with Super Heroes.

“I was a little boy the first time I read comic books,” he says.

“And that is when comic books are magic. You’re young. You’re weak. You’re smaller than anyone else. The whole world is bigger and stronger than you are. You have to deal with the neighborhood bully and a lot of giant adults.

“You read about super heroes. You fantasize. They’re superstrong. They’re all-powerful. They can do all the things man ever dreamed of doing—all the ultimate fantasies of man. They can fly, just like Da Vinci dreamed about. They can swim. They can conquer evil with one arm behind their backs. They can even live

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Comic Fandom Archive

forever. You name it and a super hero has the power to do it… to achieve all that man has thought of in his wildest moments.”

thus acquiring the strength and awesome talents that enabled him to defeat Nazi hordes as The Liberator?

The bodies of Super Heroes never failed commands from the brain. They were invulnerable, able to withstand bullets, fire, acid, landslides, ice, floods—all the catastrophes of the imagination.

They were bodies to dream about, bodies perfect, muscles infallible.

Or Super-American, who was sent back into the past by the people of the future to fight for freedom and liberty, his fantastic body and mind bringing ruination to the Axis of World War II?

Thus speaks G.B. Love.

They were something to dream about if your body never obeyed your brain and people kept telling you, there’s nothing we can do, medicine is hopeless, it will take a miracle.

Those are the very fabric of Super Heroes.

They’re little people becoming super by magic and miracle.

There’s Fred Parrish, the Harvard football star who was struck by lightning and gained super powers through electricity, taking on the name Blue Bolt and battling wrong-doers in the name of justice.

What about Dr. Nelson Drew, a quiet college instructor who learned the secret of drinking the ancient Egyptian potion Lamesis,

And Capt. Fight, who was really Jeff Crockett, a high school coach?

Always it was the same: Frailty begot miracle, and magic created Super Power. ***

So here’s G.B. Love, spending a growing lifetime listening to doctors say sorry, and then reading about Freddy Freeman, crippled and orphaned by the evil Captain Nazi who left Freddy for dead.

Tap, tap. G.B. Love re-creates it one letter at a time: “To save Freddy’s life, Captain Marvel, in his other identity of Billy Batson, takes Freddy to old Shazam, who passes on to Freddy some of Captain Marvel’s powers.”

Freddy becomes Captain Marvel Jr. and “is now The Mightiest Boy on Earth and can fly.” All in the name of preserving the American Way and defeating wrong-doers. All with a majestic

Hand Me That Handbook!

Vol. 4 of the Comic Collector’s Handbook featured a cover by academic John Adkins Richardson, with heroes from Golden Age DC, Fawcett, and Timely comics.

Don Newton’s lively interpretation of Johnny Quick, with a nod to “Mort Morton” (i.e., Mort Meskin), appeared inside. [Batman, Superman, Shazam hero, & Johnny Quick TM & © DC Comics; Captain America © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Alter Ego’s Multi-Part Tribute To G.B. Love & RBCC – Part 2

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young body and Super Powers.

In World War II they battled the Axis powers.

During Korea, they fought communism.

In the ’60s, with the Vietnam war being rather unSuper and nebulous, they turned on social ills and Op Criminals.

Now Super Heroes like Spiderman [= Spider-Man] are engaged in—are you ready?—a constant struggle with their own hang-ups, thus reflecting the ’70s.

“Super heroes,” concludes G.B. Love, “play on the natural dreams and desires of man. They’ll always be with us, because people need super heroes.”

Tap, tap: “Carried to the mountain retreat of the eagle and nurtured by it for many days, Tom Townsend, a worthless idle playboy, regained his strength and even surpassed his former capacity.

With Three Magic Words…

Freddy Freeman shed his physical handicap when he first became Captain Marvel Jr. in Whiz Comics #25 (Dec. 12, 1941). The Miami reporter equated Freddy with G.B. Love.

[Shazam heroes TM & © DC Comics.]

“One day the great bird brought back not food, but an American flag, which it dropped at the young man’s feet. Considering this an omen, Tom exacted a vow against evil in all forms and fashioned a costume from the banner. Thus was born a new and unique conqueror of crime, Captain Flag.”

Very carefully, long into the night, wearing out electric typewriters with a blunt pencil, G.B. Love taps away.

Takes a miracle to change things. That’s what they told him.

Shazam! G.B. Love has made it happen on his own.

Coming next: The first part of A/E’s interview with James Van Hise, who talks about his first meeting with Gordon Love and becoming his editorial assistant on RBCC and his other fanzines. And stay tuned for tributes to one of fandom’s most active fans and publishers by friends and colleagues such as John Ellis, Robert Kline, Larry Bigman and Earl Blair, Jr.. Comments to Bill Schelly can be sent through Bill’s web site: www.billschelly.net. Be sure to check out his new books Black Light: The World of L. B. Cole, and the upcoming biography Harvey Kurtzman, The Man Who Created MAD.

H Harvey arvey K Kurtzman: urtzman: The M Man an Who Crea Created ated t ted Mad da and nd Re Revolutionized volutionized Humor in A America merica A Bio Biogr Biography Bi aphy B By y Bill Schelly hardback color 642-page har dback book with c olor insert — $34.99 each “I alw always ays c considered onsidered Alfr Alfred ed E. Neuman as a br brother.” other.”

—Da —David vid L Lynch ynch “T “Those hose early is issues sues of Mad da attacked ttacked the h hypocrisies ypocrisies of a 19 1950s 50s society tha thatt perceived perceived itself tself as normal . . . and it w wasn’t asn’t afraid afraid to to make make fun of alc alcoholism oholism or se sexism xism and rracism.” acism.”

—Ma —Matthew tthew Weiner, Weinerr, cr creator eator of Mad Men “He w as . . . a kind of unsung Mother T heresa was Theresa ffor or American c comics omics artis artists, ts, c comedians, omedians, goofballs, outsiders, br brainiacs ainiacs and tr troublemakers.” oublemakers.” — —Terry Terry Gilliam

w www.fantagraphics.com ww.fantagraphics.com

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In Memoriam

Stan(1932-2014) Goldberg “The Color-Designer Of The Marvel Universe”

by Jim Amash

he first thing I thought of when I started this piece is that I can remember Stan’s birthday better than those of many of my friends—because of how I learned it. When I started interviewing him for Alter Ego #18 in February of 2001, I began by asking his birthdate. He answered, “I was born May 5th, 1932, the fifth day of the fifth month. The year was 1932, and three plus two equals five, so five is my lucky number.” We both chuckled at that, and I knew at that moment that Stan and I were destined to be friends. And so we were, for the rest of his life.

T

Stan started reading comics at an early age, deciding he was going to be a comics artist someday. The summer after his high school graduation in 1949, his friend Marvin told Stan that he was leaving the coloring department at Timely Publications, and that Stan should go there for a job. He did, and got Marvin’s position.

Stan rapidly progressed in the job, to the point that, within a couple of years, he was coloring all of the covers, plus many interior stories, for Timely, and soon became head of the coloring department. But he also wanted to draw, and managed to sell editor Stan Lee a few back-up fillers for the horror books. I asked him for a copy of that first story for A/E #18, and he was very reluctant for me to see it because, he said, “It’s so bad that I want to forget I drew it.” I persisted over the course of a couple of weeks, and he said, “You’re not going to give up until I send you a page from that story, are you?” “Nope! It’s easier for you to give in, Stan,” and we both laughed as he agreed to send Roy the splash page.

By Stan’s reckoning, he colored nearly every cover for Timely in the 1950s, and there’s no telling how many stories are on the list, too. His career hit a temporary roadblock when Timely shut down for a few

months in 1958, but when Lee asked him to come back, he did. But Lee wanted Stan to do more than just color comics. He wanted him to draw a humor comic named Kathy. Stan wasn’t sure he could switch to that style, even though he had started selling cartoons to Martin Goodman’s magazines. Lee had faith in Stan, and Stan worked hard to justify that trust. Influenced by cartoonists Al Hartley and Bob Oksner, among others, Stan became a good and dependable cartoonist. He also came into the offices every so often to help Stan Lee with production work. Between that, drawing comics, and coloring most of the line and all of the covers, Stan was very busy during a time when many artists couldn’t find work and had to leave the business.

Stan’s life changed in a couple of ways in 1961. He married his sweetheart, Pauline Mirsky; and, as Timely was becoming Marvel Comics, his role as a colorist took on a greater importance than before. Marvel had decided to re-enter the super-hero genre. It was Stan Goldberg who color-designed (with editor Lee’s approval) the legion of heroes, villains, and side characters created by Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko that became the foundation of the Marvel Universe. For the most part, Lee went along with Stan’s color designs for the characters. When he didn’t, as in the case of the Hulk, whom Goldberg wanted to be green whereas Lee insisted on gray, Lee quickly discovered gray didn’t work when he saw the printed first issue of The Incredible Hulk, so the character’s skin color was changed to green with #2.

Color Me Iconic Stan and Pauline Goldberg, in a photo taken by Jim Amash sometime in the 2000s—flanked by two of Stan’s most important coloring jobs: the first appearance of Spider-Man in Amazing Fantasy #15 (Aug. 1962), and the debut of a certain jolly green giant in The Incredible Hulk #2 (May 1962). Pencils on both by Jack Kirby, with inks

by Steve Ditko. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Stan really didn’t think his contributions were that big a deal when I interviewed him about it. “It was just a job, and not a good-paying one,” he said to me. I countered with, “Stan, don’t you realize you are the color-designer of the Marvel

Stan Goldberg–”The Color-Designer Of The Marvel Universe”

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Casting Pearls Before Millie (Left:) Stan drew comics like Kathy, Millie the Model, and the depicted My Girl Pearl in a humorous style influenced by Dan DeCarlo and ultimately by Archie co-creator Bob Montana. The scripter of this one-pager from Pearl #7 (Aug. 1960) is unknown. Thanks to Betty Dobson.

(Right:) When Millie the Model switched from humor to “a more realistic soap opera series,” Stan made the switch, as per this cover that he both drew and colored for issue #135 (Feb. 1966). He was bylined as “Stan G.,” to go with the name of editor and oft-writer Stan Lee. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Universe? That’s no small accomplishment. We know those characters in part by their color schemes. Who knows what they would have looked like had another artist color-designed them?” I was surprised that Stan had never given serious thought to this.

He knew the distinctive look he gave to the covers was important to the company for reader identification, but his thinking had never really expanded beyond that level. He eventually embraced and grew very proud of his role in the development of the early Marvel comics. Until the mid-late 1960s, Stan colored most if not all of the covers, and color-designed the vast majority of characters from Spider-Man to Galactus and beyond.

During this time, he began drawing more books like Millie the Model, My Girl Pearl, Patsy and Hedy, and Patsy Walker, while continuing to cartoon for Marvel publisher Martin Goodman’s magazines. While Lee, Kirby, and Ditko were creating the Marvel Universe and working “The Marvel Method,” the day came when Stan would, too. When Lee decided to turn Millie the Model from a humor book into a more realistic soap opera series, the stories were mostly left up to Goldberg, though Lee wrote the dialogue after he saw the pages. Stan told me that he and Lee would kick around plot ideas, but essentially Goldberg was doing all the plotting, and the storylines were more often than not his ideas. Their working

relationship got to the point where all Stan had to do is to tell Lee what the plot was going to be, and get his approval.

By 1969, Marvel had dropped most of the humor line, and Stan went to DC for work, having already started drawing for Archie Comics the previous year. He still did the occasional color job for Marvel through the early to mid-1970s. At DC, he drew several series such as Binky, Buzzy, Binky’s Buddies, Date with Debbie, Debbi’s Dates, and Swing with Scooter, but the work had dried up by 1972, and he returned to penciling for Archie on various titles. For a period of time, Stan was drawing the revived Millie and Chili books at Marvel, but those titles were short-lived. He also took on a number of non-comic book art assignments in the 1970s.

When the Marvel work ended, Stan worked for Archie until 2010, with a few detours during that time. In the 1982-84 period when Archie had slowed down its purchase of new stories, he worked for Sol Brodsky at Marvel doing coloring books and various other projects. He started working for DC, too, with Roy Thomas on Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! Roy and Stan were working on a couple of other projects, including a projected humorous teenage super-hero title, but the projects were ill-fated.

In 1984, Stan and Pauline’s daughter Heidi died tragically, and for a period of time Stan was unable to work. Through the help of

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In Memoriam

Stan Goldberg: The Best Of Archie Stan with friend/interviewer Jim Amash a few years back—and the cover of IDW’s hardcover volume Archie: The Best of Stan Goldberg, published in 2010. [Book cover TM & © Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

friends like Mike Esposito, Stan managed to pull himself together and returned to drawing for Archie. His work appeared in a great number of various Archie titles—too many to list—which included a long run of the flagship Archie title. He also drew several issues of Mendy and the Golem for The Golem Factory in 2003.

Stan was one of the major Archie artists for more than forty years, producing thousands of stories and covers. After he left Archie in 2010, he continued to work on projects for several publishers while battling various health problems. He penciled an Archie parody story for Bongo Comics’ Simpsons Comics #183, and several graphic novels (The Three Stooges and Nancy Drew) for Papercutz, which he penciled and inked. In 2011, he drew an alternate cover for Fantastic Four #1, and one for IDW Publishing’s Love and Capes: Ever After #5. His last published work was a “Spider-Man” story in Marvel’s 75th Anniversary Special, although it didn’t see print until after he had passed away.

In 2010, IDW published the hardcover Archie: The Best of Stan Goldberg. Stan was inducted into the National Cartoonists Society’s Hall of Fame in 2011, and awarded their Gold Key Award in the 2012 official induction. He continued to be a popular guest at comic book conventions until his passing. I think he loved meeting the fans as much as they loved meeting him. And he was a popular member of The Berndt Toast Gang, the Long Island chapter of the NCS, seldom missing a gathering.

Stan was always ready to draw something. He did many noncomic book projects for various publishers over the years, including several book projects with his son Bennett. Stan’s other son, Stephen, is an advertising agency media director. For the last twenty-some years of his life, Stan and Pauline would vacation in Mexico, and Stan filled up many sketchbooks with drawings of the places he traveled.

After our interview in 2000, Stan and I spoke every two or three weeks for the rest of his life. Several times, he even called me from Mexico. We had a very strong friendship, and had much love between us. We talked comics, movies, television, old-time radio, music, baseball, politics, the news, and we shared lots of laughs.

We came to each other for advice and information, talked about our good times, our troubles, and our hopes for the positives that the future would bring. Even though Stan was old enough to be

my father, he always treated me as a peer.

There are so many stories to tell about Stan, but I’ll pick the one that was among the most special. One day, I was interviewing him on the telephone when my wife came into the studio to tell she was going to the store. I said, “Okay, Heidi. I’ll see you later.” Stan almost shouted at me, “What did you say? What did you call your wife?” I told him her name is Heidi. Stan grew very quiet, and then said sadly, softly, “Heidi was my daughter’s name.” We started talking about her, and at that point, I stopped recording our discussion. This was a private conversation, and I felt I had no business recording it. After that, Stan always asked about my Heidi. It made him feel good to say her name. One day, he called and Heidi answered the phone. Near the end of their talk, Stan said, “My daughter is gone, but you can be my Heidi.” Heidi said, “I will always be your Heidi, Stan.” It was one of the most emotional moments that we shared together.

Stan was a resolute and prideful man who suffered through more than his share of tragedies with dignity and strength. In his worst times, Stan summoned his inner resources to stand tall and face the world. To the very end of his days, Stan continued to look at the bright side of existence, always believing in a better tomorrow. Stan had many happy times and lived a rich, full life, optimism being the key to his soul. He had enduring love for his family and friends, and was greatly loved in return. For 55 years, Stan Goldberg’s work brought joy and entertainment to the world.

For 82 years, he was a strong presence in the lives of those who knew him. Rest in peace, my friend. You’ll be endlessly missed.

Jim Amash conducted the great majority of interviews for Alter Ego from 2001 through 2012; his new interview with Roy Thomas will appear in A/E #136. Jim’s in-depth conversation with Stan Goldberg, in A/E #18, is still available through TwoMorrows Publishing.

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prominent figures in fandom, most of whom have otherwise also contributed to A/E. Here’s a sampling of what they had to say, beginning with Brent Frankenhoff, longtime editor at CBG and a gent whose unselfish help was indispensable to the issue: Hi Roy—

Wow! What a great job Alter Ego #122 was! The tributes and memories have had me returning to the pages again and again and smiling at how many of our contributors not only remembered Don and Maggie but also included me in their praise. I was proud to be able to do my part to help out with the timeline and some of the art. As I wrote in my piece, I enjoyed my 20+ years on the magazine and wouldn’t trade them and the experiences and friendships gained for anything.

Two additions need to be noted, however. In the list of other publications we produced, I forgot to include Baby Boomer Comics, the softcover collection of Craig Shutt’s “Ask Mr. Silver Age” columns, and our softcover collection of Peter David’s But I Digress. Since they’re not filed with my price guides and other CBG material but under “D” for “David” and “S” for “Shutt” on my bookshelves, I missed them when doing my survey of our books.

My apologies to both fine authors. I’d really appreciate it if you could run this short letter in an upcoming issue so that those credits are properly made.

Brent Frankenhoff

We didn’t receive a complaint from either Craig or Peter, Brent—but even so, I’m happy to set the record even a wee bit straighter. Next comes an e-mail from John Jackson Miller, who co-wrote with you the brief (but not too brief, I’m happy to say) history of the CBG years….

Roy, ndoubtedly, the most important comic books to which this issue’s central figure, Sol Brodsky, ever contributed artwork were Fantastic Four #3 & #4, both of which he inked over the dynamic pencils of Jack Kirby. So Shane Foley adapted figures from the cover of the latter as the basis of our dual “maskots” Alter Ego and Captain Ego—and it’s a tribute both to Kirby & Brodsky and to Shane that said sources will be instantly recognizable to many hardcore comic readers. Congrats yet again, Shane— and to colorist Randy Sargent, your partner in chromatic crime! [Alter Ego TM & © Roy & Dann Thomas— costume designed by Ron Harris; Captain Ego TM & © Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly—created by Biljo White; other art elements © 2015 Shane Foley.]

U

Alter Ego #122 was, as I (Roy) mentioned therein, a very unusual issue—both in dealing with the 40-year history of the newspaper/adzine that began life as The Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom and metamorphosed into the Comics Buyer’s Guide, without regard for A/E’s usual franchise period; and in its theme being the suggestion of publisher John Morrow. I’m glad we did it his way. The most pertinent missives received concerning that issue were from TBG/CBG staffers or from other

Thank you for all your work on this. I was only at Krause from 1993-2007, but it felt like longer, having read CBG for a decade before that and having written several of the anniversary retrospectives. So I’m glad to see CBG commemorated. I think CBG provides an unusual case study of

Book ’Em, Dan-O! Two books published by Krause and written by key Comics Buyer’s Guide columnists were Craig Shutt’s Baby Boomer Comics and Peter David’s But I Digress. Thanks to Brent Frankenhoff for a scan of the latter. [Cover art on left © the respective cpyright holders; But I Digress cover art © Neil Gaiman.]

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[correspondence, comments, & corrections]

a fan-produced publication making the jump to a corporate environment—something made possible by the classified and other ad revenues. It’s really a snapshot—several snapshots!—of what the comics world was like in a specific era.

And thanks for the notices on the co-workers. At the time of Don [Thompson]’s passing, producing the newspaper was a colossal job (which took no small toll on him); it became the mission of Maggie and Brent and everyone involved to make sure the publication went on without a bump. At the same time, the market was going into freefall, necessitating editorial participation in several redesigns and countless initiatives from the publishers and ad staffs—but everyone coped with that and kept on going.

Looking back on it, it doesn’t sound like that great a job—as one ad manager’s slogan put it: “Comics—you’d think they’d be fun!”— but it was still a great place to work, with great people, and I’m glad the readers were along for the ride.

John Jackson Miller

Next we have a note from Alan Light, who had started the whole thing back in the early 1970s with the first issue of The Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom (whose name we somehow managed to render with the word “Comics” throughout, for which my fellow proofreaders and I duly apologize)….

Dear Roy,

Thanks so much for Alter Ego #122, the “CGG Remembered” issue. It looks spectacular. Surreal, but spectacular. Surreal because, on one level, it doesn’t seem possible that what I did so long ago, on a day-to-day basis, just flying by the seat of my pants, added up to all that. It was particularly touching to read the other memories, from Fred Hembeck, Terry Beatty, and so forth. Some things they wrote I had forgotten about until I read their words, and some I still don’t remember. Little decisions I made along the way sometimes had a big impact on their lives, like Fred’s. Please pass along my thanks to John Morrow for suggesting the idea to you.

Alan Light

Consider it done, Alan! The numerous photos you sent us were a more-than-welcome part of the mix, as well! Next, concerning the content of what would have been issue #1700 of CBG, several examples of which

we published in A/E #122, Don Ensign, who’s written various articles for the FCA section of this magazine, had this to say: Roy,

While I appreciate all the reminiscences of the various editors and contributors to TBG/CBG, I enjoyed the most, from a comics historian’s viewpoint, Michelle Nolan’s column. She has a real talent for ferreting out the obscure nooks and crannies of comic book history and compiling that information into a very readable and interesting column. I realize A/E has published some of her old indexes in the past, but I’d recommend that you consider giving her a new publishing home in A/E. It seems as if her specialties are a good match for Alter Ego. Don Ensign

I couldn’t agree more, Don. We’re hoping to print some future columns/articles by Michelle and also by Craig Shutt, “Mr. Silver Age.” Our only stumbling block is that we’ve already sectioned off a significant proportion of issues of A/E to regular departments such as FCA, “Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!,” and (most times) Bill Schelly’s “Comic Fandom Archive”—and committing on a regular basis to any additional “departments” could only be done at the expense either of those or of a given issue’s main feature, something we’re reluctant to do. But we’ll work something out, the first chance we get!

Bernie Bubnis, a regular on these pages, was of course an early fanzine publisher—and the co-host of the very first true comics convention, held in New York City in 1964. So, when he has a few words to say about our TBG/CBG issue, you can bet we want to hear (or rather, read) them….

Hi Roy,

40-something years [since TBG #1]? Has it been that long?

From the lows… jail, high on cocaine, depressed, lost… to the highs… marriage, kids, dogs, survival… it’s always been there to remind me. I was/am a fan. I somehow scored a “free” subscription to TBG/CBG that lasted into the ’90s until someone was smart enough to start sending me invoices. Thank God they didn’t catch that oversight earlier. Like oxygen to a deep-sea diver, CBG kept pumping my lungs. Kept me breathing. I can never thank it enough. Like RBCC and A/E… TBG/CBG helped to keep my love affair with comic book fandom… alive and well. Thank ye all.

Favorite piece was by R.C. Harvey.

One very constant: everyone loves Maggie and Don. Canceling a magazine will never change that fact.

#122 is a departure from normal A/E fare… and a damn good idea. Someone has to be in charge of the memories. Roy, please keep up the good work.

P.S.: I think I scoured #122 cover to cover, but maybe I missed this one guy: George (can’t remember his last name, but have seen him mentioned in A/E) did a series of articles about collecting original art and was able to enliven each with a different approach.

Bernie Bubnis

Coming For Christmas 1988: The Story Of Marvel Comics Sometimes things don’t pan out. The Jan. 8, 1988, edition of CBG heralded the forthcoming book The Story of Marvel Comics, to be written by Stan Lee—and depicted, as an example of the type of art the researcher was looking for, the original art from Don Heck’s unused cover for The Avengers #37 (Dec. 1966). The project eventually metamorphosed into Les Daniels’ Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World’s Greatest Comics. [Marvel art TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; other material © Krause Publications, Inc., or successors in interest.]

re:

Methinks the “George” you’re thinking of, Bernie, may be George Hagenauer, who still contributes art and information to Alter Ego on a fairly regular basis. Or am I wrong on that, people? Next up, reader Dan Hagen….

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Agreed, Bill. He was a talented guy, and is well remembered! And, lastly—this just in from Mike W. Barr, longtime comics writer (and buddy)…

Dear Roy:

Roy,

Michelle Nolan, in her article “Who was Who in the Four-Color Funnies?,” writes of DC’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer comics: “[T]he last [published in 1962] was a nowrare 25¢ issue.” (Some of the stories from this series were reprinted in 1973s Limited Collectors’ Edition #C-24, incorrectly covertitled as “New Giant Adventures of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”) But DC also published original “Rudolph” stories in their All-New Collectors’ Edition #C-53 (Jan. 1978 – “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”) and CDan Hagen 60 (1978 – “Rudolph’s Summer Fun”), which were written and penciled by the great Any friend of Dave the Dude’s is a friend of mine, Dan, if only by osmosis. How many other “You’ll Go Down In [Comics] History!” Sheldon Mayer and inked by Tenny Henson and Mayer. I proofread these early in my Marvel staffers came to New York to work via Shelly Mayer’s “Rudolph the Red-Nosed staff career at DC and had the immense motorcycle—or even now live on top of a Reindeer” cover for All-New Collectors’ Edition privilege of speaking with Mayer himself mountain (named “Screamer Mountain”—and if #C-53, released for Christmas of 1977. Thanks about the projects. I, of course, initially called you’ve ever tried driving up or down it after a to Grand Comics Database. [© DC Comics.] him “Mr. Mayer,” to which he immediately New Year’s snow, you’ll know how it got its replied, “Call me Shelly.” Those conversations are among my name). But I digress… which maybe is only appropriate, in a letters fondest memories of those days; I wish they had been far longer. column that deals with an issue of A/E to which the recuperating Peter David made a much-appreciated contribution, as well.

Mike W. Barr Love the fanzine tribute issue, particularly the reproduction of Al Hanley’s art and the material on Alan Light. Hanley, a sweet guy and considerable talent taken from us much too soon, would have loved to see his art so beautifully reproduced. And it was thanks to Light and his fanzines that I met my great lifelong friend David Anthony Kraft. Thanks for taking me back to those eager, hopeful, halcyon days.

Another shout-out, from Bill Black, publisher of AC Comics, reprinting countless Golden Age stories (see AC’s ad on next page)…

Roy,

Oh, boy! “Good Guy” in color! Fantastic! Worth the price of admission! Well done!

Bill Black

A Advertise dvertise With With Us! Us! ALTER EGO! • BACK ISSUE! • DRAW! COMIC BOOK CREATOR! COVERS: 8.375" Wide x 10.875" Tall (plus 1/8" bleed all around) FULL-PAGE: 7.5" Wide x 10" Tall HALF-PAGE: 7.5" Wide x 4.875" Tall QUARTER-PAGE: 3.75" Wide x 4.875"

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I myself never had the privilege of meeting the great Sheldon Mayer, who was the editor of several of my favorite Golden Age mags (Flash Comics, All-American Comics, Green Lantern, All-Flash, Wonder Woman, Sensation Comics, Comic Cavalcade, the early Funny Stuff—and oh, yeah, I almost forgot—All-Star Comics)… so I envy you.

But then, I’d probably have just gushed and made a fool of myself, not for the first time. Thanks for the added info about Santa’s scarlet-schnozzed sleigh-guider, Mike—you are a man full of surprises!

Meanwhile, if you find yourself on the Internet, why not head on down to the Alter-Ego-Fans online chat group to learn more about upcoming features in this mag—to get a chance to unselfishly help us out with needed art and photo scans (thereby winning yourself a free copy of an issue of A/E)—and to discuss Alter Ego, the Golden and Silver Ages of Comics, and anything else that might be on your mind? You’ll find it at group.yahoo.com/group/alter-ego-fans. If you run into any problems signing up, just contact our genial overseer Chet Cox at mormonyoyoman@gmail.com and he’ll walk you through them. You’ll be glad you signed up—and so will we!

Send kudos and caustic comments and everything in between to: Roy Thomas 32 Bluebird Trail St. Matthews, SC 29135

e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com

Next month—Len Wein! ’Nuff said, as someone (including Len himself) used to say!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JULIE! Dept.: Just before this issue went to press, Jon B. Cooke and John Morrow reminded me that this June 19th would have been (and still is, I guess) the 100th birthday of the late great Julius Schwartz, original editor of the Silver Age Flash, Green Lantern, Justice League of America, Hawkman, and The Atom, as well as 1948-51 editor of DC’s “All-American” titles and the overseer of the “New Look” Batman in the mid-’60s. He cast a long shadow— and it’s still expanding into the future.

Previously Unpublished Brunner Artwork!

ATTENTION: FRANK BRUNNER ART FANS! [Dr. Strange & Clea TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; other art © Frank Brunner.]

Frank is now accepting art commissions for covers, splash panels, or pin-up re-creations!

Also, your ideas for NEW art are welcome!

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74

Art ©2015 Mark Lewis

other hand, I sometimes feel that there must be a guiding hand behind it all. How can it all happen haphazardly?

Chapter XV

Abridged & Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

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.

O

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 selfdescribed 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—nonetheless provides glimpses into the idiosyncratic and fanciful mind of Otto O. Binder.

In this concluding excerpt, Otto discusses spiritual matters before bidding readers a fond adieu.

—P.C. Hamerlinck.

W

hy? Why life? Why the world? Why does mankind exist?

If there is a Higher Power, what is His purpose? This instantly classifies me as an agnostic. (Not an atheist, because I use the word “if,” granting the possibility.) I’m not a churchgoer and I can’t accept faith blindly. But on the

Loves Me Like A Rock Otto Binder, a self-proclaimed agnostic, still added spiritual/transcendental elements to the Marvel Family mythos—most notably, the Rock of Eternity, the otherworldly dwelling place for the spirit of the ancient wizard Shazam.

The Rock, located at the end of time and space, was first revealed in Marvel Family #1 (1945), wherein Shazam carved onto his home’s walls a synopsis detailing the encounter between the World’s Mightiest Family and Black Adam.

Shortly thereafter, in “The Marvel Family Reaches Eternity” (Marvel Family #7, Dec. ’46; art by C.C. Beck/Pete Costanza; edited by Wendell Crowley), Binder sent the Marvels themselves on a journey to the Rock of Eternity for the very first time. [Shazam heroes TM & © DC Comics.]

So I am an agnostic. I don’t look askance at religious people, however. If they can accept their particular faith without question, gaining peace of soul from it, it seems to me a good thing. I believe that all religions have certain preachings that are universal and teach the general virtues of goodness, kindness, forgiveness, and to live with each other in friendship and peace. All of them have their own “Sermon on the Mount” and “Ten Commandments” which are needed in any world with two or more human beings within sight of each other.

I sometimes sincerely wish I could strongly believe that all sins will be forgiven, that eternal bliss lies ahead, and that all things (good or bad) are part of a Higher Design.

Because with such a faith, a person is relieved of doubts, worries, and speculations as to what life is all about. But me? I have to be

Memories Of A Nobody—Part XV

75

one of those people that mulls it all over and comes to several assorted conclusions about life—all of them disturbing and contradictory. I suspect there are other poor souls like me. Let us all wail together.

••••

Ah well, we now come to the end. How shall I excuse myself for all the tomfoolery and blather I’ve poured forth? Shall I confess that it was one of those things that grips a writer and makes him write away like mad, sheerly for the love of it?

Sincerely now, and humbly, too, I hope my words brought you an hour or two of enjoyment. While more nonsense than common sense, it was aimed at your funny bone rather than your brain. It was an experiment, an attempt to bridge the gap between me and you, and give you an insight into my alleged mental processes, my feelings and emotions, all while pulling your leg way out to here.

Wait! An idea for a new chapter has just come to me, so I’ll keep going on, and the only thing that will stop me is my typewriter breaking down … well, how do you like that? My typewriter just broke down. This is …

THE END.

The End Must Come Is this the end? Yes, it’s the end of our abridged version of Otto Binder’s previously unpublished 1948 book Memoirs of a Nobody. Just a year before, he had written “Condemned To Die!” (Marvel Family #15, Sept. 1947; art by Beck) which almost looked like the end of Billy Batson and Captain Marvel… an event which at that point was still a half-dozen years down the road.

[Shazam hero & Billy Batson TM & © DC Comics.]

76

The Fawcett Invasion Of France – Part II A Gallic Captain Marvel Jr.

by Jean-Michel Ferragatti Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

FCA EDITOR’S NOTE: In our previous issue, French comics historian Jean-Michel Ferragatti gave us a comprehensive summary of Fawcett comics published in France right after World War II. In this concluding chapter, he focuses on a very unique “Captain Marvel Jr.” adventure… drawn by a certain French artist. —PCH.

T

The Captains And The Kid

here were many Fawcett comics features that were published in France, but the two most successful ones were “Captain Marvel Jr.” (“Capitaine Marvel Jr.”), which appeared in Mon Journal for a run of 42 episodes translated from Master Comics and Captain Marvel Jr. … and, of course, “Captain Marvel” himself in the series Capitaine Marvel, published by the Editions Populaires et Modernes (which quickly became Periodiques et Editions Illustrées) for 69 issues and encompassing 118 tales translated from Whiz Comics and Captain Marvel Adventures. (“Hoppy the Marvel Bunny” was also published numerous times—at first, briefly by Editions Dargaud, and then later on and more frequently by Editions Mondiales, but unfortunately with limited success.)

Creator (With An Asterix) (Top of page:) Albert Uderzo in a 2007 photo from Comic Box (the French equivalent of Alter Ego) #53, which contained an interview with him. Photo by Petrov Anher.

(Above:) A panel from a 1967 Asterix album (Asterix et les normands) by Rene Goscinny and Uderzo. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

(Right:) Panel 3 of this page from Uderzo’s 1950 “Captaine Marvel Jr.” tale reveals one of his numerous Superman “swipes”—right down to the hero’s outer briefs. [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics; other art & story © the respective copyright holders.]

The Fawcett Invasion Of France–Part II

77

Bravo For “Captaine Marvel Jr.”!

Uderzo’s enchanting “Capitaine Marvel Jr.” tale, which ran for 26 weekly installments in Bravo during 1950, introduced us to young Freddy Freeman and the tale’s villain, Dr. Satano—a dead-ringer for Mr. Crime from Lev Gleason Publications’ Crime Does Not Pay, but sporting a Shazam top hat.

[Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics; other art & story © the respective copyright holders.]

The Capitaine Marvel series ended in October of 1950 due to the adoption of a July 16th, 1949, law called “Loi sur les publications destinées à la jeunesse” (“law on the publications intended for the youth”), which created a Comic Code Authority (Commission chargée de la surveillance et du contrôle des publications destinées à la jeunesse et à l’adolescence).

Shortly after the formation of the Code, all Fawcett comics—along with all other foreign super-hero characters—disappeared from France.

At that time, a French artist (born from Italian immigrants who had settled in France in 1934) tried relentlessly to enter into the world of comics.

Born in 1927, the artist began his career as a 14-year-old hired

by La Société Parisienne d’Editions (SPE) during the Second World War. His job was supposed to be for only a few weeks, but he stayed with the publisher for one year and began to learn the skills of the artist, even if he remained confined to the lowest tasks in the office.

(The SPE would later briefly publish Fawcett heroes “Mr. Scarlet & Pinky,” “Commando Yank,” and “Radar the International Policeman.”)

In 1950, this young French artist was hired by a Belgian group formerly known as Groupe des Editions Jean Meuwissen to work on their children’s publication titled Bravo.

Bravo For Bravo

Backing up just a bit: Bravo was created in 1936 by Flemish publisher Jean Meuwissen. With the occupation of Belgium by the Nazis in May 1940, the Flemish market was closed for Bravo, so Jean Meuwissen decided to launch a French-speaking version of the magazine in December 1940. The series continued to be

published until the end of the war.

Initially, Meuwissen translated American comic strips such as Flash Gordon (“Gordon l’intrépide”), Jungle Jim, The Katzenjammer Kids (“Les garnements”—translated as “Little Rascals”), Pete the Tramp, Felix the Cat (“Félix le chat”), and his top success, Bobby Dazzler. Some native artists had also been hired to produce comics, such as former opera singer Edgard P. Jacobs, who later fathered the famous series Blake et Mortimer, and the famous horror writer Jean Ray (who was published in the U.S. in the pages of the pulp

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

78

When Clones Clash!

Page 2 of the saga—and already the first battle between Captain Marvel Jr. and Dr. Satano has begun. Uderzo’s Freddy/ Cap Jr. somewhat resembles artist Joe Certa’s version of the character, done for Fawcett in the early 1950s. [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics; other art & story © the respective copyright holders.]

Weird Tales, under his Flemish pen name John Flanders).

In 1942, Meuwissen asked Jacobs to draw Flash Gordon (“Gordon l’intrépide”) in the same style as Alex Raymond, since Opera Mundi (the French agency that was distributing many American comic strips in Europe) had been forced to cease operations after Nazi-occupied France had forbidden all American publishing material, following Pearl Harbor and the declaration of war between the U.S. and the Axis powers.

But “Gordon l’intrépide” was too well-known as an American series and had to come to a halt anyway by the end of 1942.

Meuwissen then asked Jacobs to draw an original science-fiction series inspired by Flash Gordon. As a result, in February 1943, Jacobs began drawing Le Rayon U (The U Ray), which ended in September 1945.

But a change occurred at the end of 1944: Belgium was liberated and the magazine ceased publishing in September, then started up again in June 1945.

However, as the magazine had continued to be published during the Nazi occupation, some people suspected Meuwissen might have been linked with the Nazis. The title was sequestered in 1946, and Meuwissen flew away with all the money he could gather and disappeared forever.

The magazine was managed by a trustee named G. Defosse, who had brought back the printing plants, as well as the publication itself. But Defosse was not very interested in the children’s magazine market. (1946 was also the year of the new launch of Le Journal de Tintin—”Tintin’s Journal”—a fierce competitor.)

Therefore, he launched a women’s magazine named Femmes d’Aujourd’hui (“Women of today”) and entered into a distribution agreement with the group Hachette to distribute it in France.

Bravo Is Back

Bravo was re-launched in 1950 with a new subtitle: “Journal

d’enfants de Femmes d’Aujourd’hui” (“The kids’ magazine of Femmes d’Aujourd’hui”). During this publication’s final outing, Femmes d’Aujourd’hui signed a license with an American publisher to create new adventures for one of their characters. Hence, Femmes d’Aujourd’hui’s editor asked a young French artist to draw these new adventures.

This aforementioned young artist was none other than Albert Uderzo, later the co-creator of the world-wide popular series Asterix… and the 1950 character was Captain Marvel Jr.!

The Fawcett Invasion Of France–Part II

79

Freddy Freefall Freddy in imminent peril once again, in Uderzo’s dramatically drawn panels from page 10.

[Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics; other art & story © the respective copyright holders.]

hero who changes himself into a superman, and I did what I could.” The story appeared, one page per issue, in the weekly Bravo, in 26 installments between April 20 and October 12 of 1950. At that time, Uderzo was running a small art shop/studio consisting of four other artists, including French artist Roland Garel.

Uderzo’s “Capitaine Marvel Jr.” story actually begins thirty years later, in 1980, with a large explosion. Docteur Satano (a doppelganger of “Mr. Crime”—from Lev Gleason’s Crime Does Not Pay—who happens to wear a hat with the Shazam lightning bolt logo on it) has studied in India and Tibet but is the laughingstock of all his neighbors.

Upset by his reputation, Satano seeks to conquer the world. It was his laboratory that exploded.

Freddy Freeman is the only one to explore the destroyed building. Inside, he crosses the path of an invisible beam and acquires new extraordinary powers. Freddy dons his new costume, but soon learns that Docteur Satano has himself already changed into the most powerful person in the world.

Ironically, Uderzo’s successful Asterix strip first appeared in 1959 in Pilote, which was published by Georges Dargaud, the man who in 1946 had published the first Fawcett comic character in France: “Hoppy the Marvel Bunny” (in Le Journal de Bob et Bobette).

As Uderzo explained in an interview from Schtroumpf / Les cahiers de la BD #23 regarding his 1950 “Captain Marvel Jr.” work:

“The lady who had written the script had never done this before, and I was not so pleased to take over an American character. They had given me some documents about this crippled

Understanding that this young boy shares his powers, Docteur Satano fails in his attempt to kill Freddy. As Satano flies away, he curses Freddy, whom he now calls “Captain Marvel Jr.” Freddy is puzzled by what he’s been called and repeats the name. Thunder strikes and changes the youngster back to his former identity.

Later, all major nations are hit by a devastating explosion and then are blackmailed by Satano, the “new master of the world.”

In the course of the 26 pages of the 1950 tale, this Belgian version of Captain Marvel Jr. battles Docteur Satano and all his

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

80

Dr. Satano Is French Toast Page 26, the final showdown between Captaine Marvel Jr. and Satano. But, unlike Cap Jr.’s American foe Sivana Jr., Dr. Satano never returned—unless he came to the U.S. to spell Mr. Crime in an issue of Crime Does Not Pay. And Uderzo would move on, a few years later, to the heroes with whom he’d forever be identified…

Asterix and Obelisk. [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comic; other art & story © the respective copyright holders.]

incredible devices: a memory-eraser ray, a hypnotic ray, and a giant electro-magnet.

With his electro-magnet invention, Satano captures Freddy and restrains him to prevent his transformation.

The Docteur then uses the magnet to cause a train accident. Fortunately, Freddy frees himself in time to avert a major catastrophe.

Satano’s next plan is to unleash a psychic bomb during a military parade. But once again, Captain Marvel Jr. spoils the plan.

Dr. Satano later exposes Captain Marvel Jr. to a radioactive beam. All living beings that approach him die, and he is forced to transform back to Freddy again to avoid any further harm to others. Neutralized, he cannot fight Satano’s plan to conquer the world.

Desperate, he hurls himself into the sun, survives, and is completely cured of his affliction.

Meanwhile, Satano has formed an alliance with the mob. Satano’s men infiltrate the team of a millionaire who has organized a treasure hunt in a distant island.

Freddy is invited to the party, but the ship he is on is sunk by a warship. The mob believe they have killed Freddy and steal the treasure. Of course, Freddy changes into Captain Marvel Jr., saves the party, and takes down the mob.

In the story’s finale, Docteur Satano attempts to use his psychic ray invention against the entire world, but Captain Marvel Jr. finds his hideout and finally defeats him.

Thus concluded the only adventure of Captain Marvel Jr. drawn

by Albert Uderzo. The story was nearly forgotten for years, except by the Asterix creator himself and by Captain Marvel Jr.’s Frenchspeaking fans.

Some unauthorized reprints of the tale circulated amongst fans for years, until an official version of it was recently included in the 424-page book L’intégrale Uderzo 1941-1951, released by Hors Collection and published with Uderzo’s permission.

Vive le Capitaine Marvel Jr.!

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A TRIBUTE TO A COMICS LEGEND:

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From running the first photostat machine at Marvel Comics to being the first to illustrate Wolverine, no other member of the Marvel Bullpen had such a varied and remarkable career as HERB TRIMPE. He drew licensed characters based on toys such as G.I. Joe, Godzilla, and Transformers, which went on to become blockbuster movies. He drew runs of super-heroes like Iron Man, Defenders, Captain Britain, and even Marvel’s flagship character Spider-Man. But he’s best known for his definitive eight-year stint drawing the INCREDIBLE HULK. This book, produced with Herb’s full cooperation just prior to his passing, chronicles the life and art of Trimpe through his own voice, as well as the voices of friends and colleagues like STAN LEE, TOM DEFALCO, ROY THOMAS, JOHN ROMITA, BILL PECKMANN, SAL BUSCEMA, JOE SINNOTT, LARRY HAMA, DOUG MOENCH, ELIOT BROWN, LEN WEIN, RON FRENZ, STEVE ENGLEHART, and his son ALEX TRIMPE. Their testimony to his talent and his legacy of artwork leave no wonder why he has been dubbed “The Incredible Herb Trimpe.” By DEWEY CASSELL and AARON SULTAN. NOW SHIPPING! (160-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $34.95 • (Digital Edition) $7.95 • ISBN: 9781605490625

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