Alter Ego #143

Vol. 3, No. 143 / November 2016 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)

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Michael T. Gilbert

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

Proofreaders Rob Smentek William J. Dowlding

Cover Artists & Colorists: George Wilson, Jesse Santos, et al.

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With Special Thanks to: Heidi Amash Sal Amendola Ger Apeldoorn Richard J. Arndt Bob Bailey Bernie Bubnis Aaron Caplan Nick Caputo John Coates Chet Cox Vince Davis Craig Delich Mark Evanier Shane Foley Mark Foy Stephan Friedt Keif Fromm Janet Gilbert Donald F. Glut Grand Comics Database

Ernesto Guevara Adam Haney Jim Kealy Al Kracalik Mark Lewis Art Lortie Jim Ludwig Dan Makara Keith Morgan Mark Muller Michael Netzer Barry Pearl Gene Reed Steven Rowe Richard Rubenfeld Tom Sawyer Dave Siegel Dann Thomas Mike Tiefenbacher The Turek Family Andy Yanchus

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Jesse Santos & Mark Hanerfeld

Contents Writer/Editorial: That “Seventies” Issue! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 “[Gold Key] Didn’t Follow What Marvel Or DC Was Doing” . . . 3 An interview with Dr. Spektor creator “Dinosaur Don” Glut, conducted by Richard Arndt.

ACBA—The Academy Of Comic Book Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 A very informal history of comics creators’ 1970s professional association by Sal Amendola.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! Michael T.: The Fanzine Years. . 51 Michael T. Gilbert on his early beginnings as a comic book artist.

Comic Fandom Archive: We Called Ourselves TISOS . . . . . 57 Richard Rubenfeld and Andy Yanchus on the 1960s-70s “Illegitimate Sons of Superman.”

In Memoriam: Jesse Santos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 67 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #202 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 P.C. Hamerlinck interviews Bill Schelly about the new edition of his Otto Binder biography.

On Our Cover: Sure, Don Glut (whose photo is seen in dead center of the page) wrote comics stories for Marvel, Warren, Charlton, Archie, Skywald—even a few for DC—but it was at Gold Key (Western Publishing’s 1962-1984 comic book imprint) in Los Angeles that he made his signature contributions, a trio of fantasy/science-fiction titles (Dagar the Invincible, The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor, and Tragg and the Sky Gods, plus a tale or two for its authorized Twilight Zone comic).

So we decided to frame his 1970s mug shot with covers from those four series. The names of the cover-painting artists are hard to come by, but some are probably the work of George Wilson, and the cover of Tragg #1 (June 1975) is by interior artist Jesse Santos. Thanks to Don for the photo, and to the Grand Comics Database for the cover images. [TM & © Random House, under license to Classic Media, Inc.] Above: Perhaps the most influential Marvel issue Dinosaur Don ever scripted was What If? #9 (June 1978) in which four authentic 1950s characters and the retro 3-D Man formed The Avengers nearly a decade early—and saved the life of President Dwight D. Eisenhower! Pencils by Alan Kupperberg, inks by Bill Black, building on a concept by Roy Thomas. See p. 30 for details.

Thanks to Barry Pearl for the scan. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] Alter EgoTM is published 6 times a year by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344.

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writer/editorial

That “Seventies” Issue!

T T

he Seventies. Or, as I prefer to write it: the ’70s.

Actually, of course, when the locale is Alter Ego, we’re talking mostly about the first half of the decade, a perhaps-extended version of the Silver Age of Comics—through late 1974, when I stepped down as Marvel’s editor-in-chief (with issues bearing my editorial imprimatur coming out into ’75). A/E’s coverage of those years overlaps with that of our TwoMorrows sister mag Back Issue, whose franchise begins with 1970, the year some count as the end of the Silver Age. This, more than most, is a ’70s issue of Alter Ego.

First up is my longtime friend and associate Don Glut, whose first professional forays into the comics field were made in ’69, and who by the end of ’75 had written for Warren, Gold Key, Marvel, Archie, Skywald, DC, and Charlton.

The first half of the 1970s also saw virtually the entire lifespan of the professionals’ Academy of Comic Book Arts, founded in 1970 and pretty much dead in the water by ’76. As artist/teacher Sal Amendola says in this issue’s informal study, a history of ACBA may never be written because, for a society made up of pro writers and artists, it left less of a paper trail than you’d imagine.

Still, Sal and I make a start of it, with him providing the basic text and my singing harmony (or dissonance) in captions and notes… if only to challenge others to pick up where we leave off.

Michael T. Gilbert’s second chapter on his “fanzine” days begins in the latter 1960s, but it encompasses his life and work through 1973—so it fits within our chronological compass, too.

Richard Rubenfeld and Andy Yanchus’ article on the late-’60s fan-group TISOS—“The Illegitimate Sons of Superman”—might barely miss inclusive status, but only because, at the tail-end of the ’60s and start of the ’70s, several of its founding members went to work for Marvel, DC, or elsewhere, most prominently Len Wein and Marv Wolfman, but several others, as well.

Okay, so maybe there’s no way to tie this issue’s FCA and P.C. Hamerlinck’s interview with Bill Schelly on his reissued biography of Otto Binder to the ’70s hitching post. But then again, 1974 saw the passing of that seminal writer, and with him, a major connection to the original Captain Marvel, one of the great superhero concepts… even as DC’s Shazam! comic was offering a new generation a look at the World’s Mightiest Mortal.

Interestingly, the ’70s theme has strong ties to the 1940s, the Golden Age of Comics which formed so much of the impetus for my launching this third volume of Alter Ego. For, before he scripted comics, Don made ambitious amateur films about Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, Captain America, and other great ’40s heroes. ACBA was a meeting-ground for artists who’d been in the field since World War II and those co-existing uneasily with the Vietnam War. Michael T. Gilbert talks about the early NYC comics conventions, where 1940s pros were celebrated.

TISOS were the self-styled bastard offspring of Superman—most of them born either in the ’40s or early ’50s. And Binder’s comics heyday came at Fawcett between the early ’40s and 1953.

Numerous future issues will, of course, return to a 1940s focus—and those, in turn, will cast long shadows into the ’60s and ’70s. A star-spangled spectrum of derring-do at the dawn of heroic comics—merging into their Renaissance, sparked by editors Julius Schwartz and Stan Lee, a few key writers (Otto Binder definitely among them), and a number of monumentally talented once-1940s artists like Kirby, Infantino, Kane, and Sekowsky.

One of the characters in the stage play The History Boys complains about how much he hates studying history, because it consists of “just one f***ing thing after another!” But it doesn’t, really. It is, rather, a cosmic continuum of cause and effect… with each historical effect becoming, in its turn, an historical cause.

So let’s hear it for this ’70s issue—and for the decades before and after it!

Bestest,

COMING IN DECEMBER #144 WHEN SUPER-HEROES WERE ACE’s ACE IN THE HOLE! The Deck Was Stacked—In Favor Of ACTION!

Art © the respective copyright holders.

• Vintage cover by B. CURRIE, from Four Favorites #4 (March 1942)—spotlighting Ace heroes Magno & Davey, The Unknown Soldier, Lash Lightning, and The Raven!

• “Coming Up ACES!” by MARK CARLSON-GHOST—the saga of the heroic, horror, and romance comics of Ace Periodicals (1940-1956), showcasing the stellar artwork of KURTZMAN, MOONEY, BERG, COLE, PALAIS, CAMERON, FELDSTEIN, et al!

• BILL HARRIS, 1960s editor at Dell/Western, Gold Key, & King Comics, talks to RICHARD ARNDT about working with WILLIAMSON, CRANDALL, BARRY, BOLLE, FREDRICKS, FUJITANI, MANNING, LIGNANTE, WILSON, etc.

• Plus FCA —MICHAEL T. GILBERT—BILL SCHELLY on Houston fandom’s connection with RBCC—& MORE!! NOTE: New 100-page/$9.95 format starts in #145 (January)!

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“[Gold Key] Didn’t Follow What Marvel Or DC Was Doing” An Interview with Dinosaur DON GLUT Conducted & Transcribed by Richard J. Arndt

D

on Glut [it’s pronounced “gloot”] entered the comics world in 1969, after an extensive period spent making amateur films. His breakthrough came writing horror stories for the Warren black-&-white magazines. He soon moved into color comics, first at Gold Key, and, later, Marvel, with a few stops along the way at Charlton and DC. In his career he created the characters Dagar and Dr.

Spektor and wrote for such series as Dagar the Invincible, The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor, Tragg and the Sky Gods, Kull the Destroyer, The Invaders, What If?, and Captain America, among many others. Today he continues to work in the film and television industries and has recently written his new first comics stories in nearly thirty years. This interview was conducted on Aug. 3, 2015.

Three To Get Ready…

Don Glut (top center), framed by art from the three major comics companies for which he worked during his first decade in comics. (Left to right:) A Neal Adams-drawn horror story from Warren Publishing’s Vampirella #1 (Oct. 1969)—that’s what we call starting off at the top! The art was reproduced from the artist’s tight pencils. With thanks to Jim Kealy for this and the following scan. [TM & © DFI.] Jesse Santos’ splash page for Gold Key’s The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor #18 (Dec. 1975). [TM & © Random House, Inc., under license to Classic Media, LLC.] The Alan Kupperberg/Frank Springer splash of Don’s first scripting gig on Marvel’s The Invaders (#29, June 1978). Editor Roy Thomas came up with the concept of the Nazi flying saucer piloted by Komtur the Teutonic Knight—and left pretty much everything else in “Dinosaur Don’s” capable hands! Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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An Interview With Dinosaur Don Glut

cartoons and newsreels and Westerns. I wanted to show my kind of films. I wanted to be able to show my movies on my home screen any time I wanted to. You just couldn’t do that back then.

It’s funny that we even had a movie camera. Ours was a 16mm movie camera. Before he went into the Army, my dad was a baker, and one of his baker friends owed him some money and couldn’t pay him back. So the friend gave him a 16mm Keystone movie projector with a couple of little films that went with it. My mother, when she first started dating my dad, was trying to get something nice for him as a Christmas present. She was working in a building as a typist. In the building, on an upper floor, was a company from which you could buy things wholesale. She bought him a 16mm Keystone movie camera to go with his projector. So we’d always had the 16mm projector and camera in our family. Before I started using it, it was mostly used for family home movies—events, vacations, birthdays, weddings, that sort of thing.

Parental Guidance Suggested Don Glut’s father and mother, back in the day. Thanks to DG.

“Making Amateur Films Was My Hobby For A Long Time” RICHARD ARNDT: We should start with some information about your background—where you grew up—that sort of thing.

DON GLUT: I was born in Pacos, Texas, on an Army base in 1944.

My dad was stationed there, and my mother followed him. Our hometown was really Chicago, though. After my father was shipped overseas, my mother moved back to Chicago, and that’s where I grew up. I spent most of my formative youth in the Windy City. I moved out to California in 1964 when I transferred to USC and their film school. I liked the area so much I never went back to Chicago, except for visits.

So when I got this idea that I wanted to make movies, we already had some of the hardware. That year, 1953, a movie came out called The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. It was a Ray Harryhausen “monster attacks New York” story. [NOTE: It was officially based on Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Foghorn.” —RA.] This was just when I was getting into prehistoric animals, which became one of my main interests. I wanted to get that movie to play in my house but, of course, you couldn’t get that movie back in 1953! So I got it in my head that the only way to show a dinosaur movie in my home was to make my own. That sort of lit the fire, and it turned out that most of the movies I wanted to see and show in my house I had to make myself.

So I made dinosaur movies. I made movies with the Universal monsters like Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolf Man, which actually led to super-hero films. Super-hero films weren’t mainstream back in the 1950s-1960s. Making amateur films was my hobby for a long time.

RA: As I understand it, you had a fairly lengthy career doing amateur films. You actually started at a very young age…

RA: The super-hero movies you made—I’m assuming they were unauthorized?

GLUT: Everybody has a hobby when they’re kids. Where other kids were collecting stamps and baseball cards and things, I was making amateur films. I made my first one in 1953—I was only nine years old. I continued that into my early twenties. All told, I made 41 films, most of them in Chicago, although I continued to make them when I moved to California.

I guess I was bitten by the movie bug at a very early age. That’s what I’ve always really wanted to do with my career, to make films.

GLUT: I didn’t even know what the word “authorized” meant back then. We just made some costumes and tried to figure out how to do the special effects. All my super-hero films were heavily influenced by the Republic Studios’ movie serials that I was a big fan of. My films were patterned in many ways after what we

The first one I made—well, initially I wasn’t interested in making films; I was interested in showing them. In those days you didn’t have video recorders or DVD players. You ordered films from places like Castle Films, which put out movies for home distribution.

But they didn’t have any monster movies! No dinosaur films or Frankenstein movies.

Nothing like that. It was

Monsters In Motion (Left:) Don in his 1960 opus Revenge of the Teenage Werewolf. At that time, the American-International cult movie classic I Was A Teenage Werewolf starring Michael Landon was only two years old!

(Above:) Stop-motion models made by Don Glut for one of his monster movies: Son of Tor (1964). Somehow, we don’t think Joe Kubert had heard about this one…! Thanks to DG for these scans. [© Don Glut.]

“[Gold Key] Didn’t Follow What Marvel Or DC Was Doing”

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“Faster Than A Speeding Bullet! KA-PWEENG!” (Above, left to right:) Don plays a rather “real”-looking hero in his 1962 ama-film Superduperman, inspired by the parody classic in Mad #4 (Hey—shouldn’t that emblem on his chest have changed every scene, like in the comic?)—then the main guy in Batman and Robin (1962)—next, the Sentinel of Liberty in Captain America vs. The Red Skull (1963)—and even relative “newie” Spider-Man in 1969. The first three had been the stars of live-action movie serials in the 1940s.

Thanks to DG. [© Don Glut.]

rented or what I saw on television.

RA: When you finished the movies, did you project them on a wall or a bedsheet or did you actually have a screen?

GLUT: We had an actual screen. Not only would I project them, but I would put on shows in the basement and charge admission for kids to come over and see them. My brother and grandmother, upstairs, would make popcorn and drinks that I would sell in the basement to these kids. It was great fun. I got all my neighborhood friends to be in the films. It was a great way to learn stuff. There were no books, in those days, to teach you how to do special effects or makeup—especially monster make-up. I had to figure it out myself! A lot of those things that I learned on my own, I was later able to apply when making professional films.

“I Did Three Superman Movies In All” RA: I’m going to assume that the unauthorized super-hero characters that you did were Superman or Batman because they were Republic serials…

one was called The Adventures of The Spirit, which I filmed mostly here in California, with a great deal of input from Bob Burns. Bob looked somewhat like Kirk Alyn, who played Superman in the Columbia serials. Bob’s wife Kathy gave him the spit-curl, the Superman curl on his hair. We used a costume that my mother had made in Chicago and which I’d brought back with me to California after a visit home. This was 1963.

I had planned to make a movie called Superman at the Earth’s Core, with all the Edgar Rice Burroughs’ characters and monsters in it. When I got out here [to California] I realized how impractical that was. So we made a serial called The Adventures of The Spirit, in which Superman and many other super-heroes, monsters, fantasy characters, whoever, made cameos and guest appearances. Then the third super-hero film I did was Superman vs. the Gorilla Gang.

Bob Burns played the gorilla and a stuntman friend of mine named Bart Andrews played Superman. So I did three Superman movies in all.

GLUT: Actually, those two were Columbia serials. It would have been better if they’d been done by Republic.

RA: Columbia was best-known, in 1950s short films, for some really cheaply made Three Stooges shorts.

GLUT: Yeah, but also a lot of featurelength movies.

RA: Who played Superman? Did you do it?

GLUT: Yeah, I did. The first Superman I did was actually called Superduper Man and was a take-off on the old Mad comic book story [“Superduperman” by Harvey Kurtzman & Wally Wood, Mad #4, April-May 1953]. Then the second

Getting In The Spirit Of Things Two key moments from Don Glut’s 1963 film The Adventures of the Spirit: one with his friend Bob Burns as Superman and himself as The Spirit—and one which The Spirit faces the Frankenstein Monster, portrayed by none other than Glenn Strange, who had played the Monster in three 1940s Universal movies: House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Strange also played the bartender on TV’s Gunsmoke for years. Don’s interest in old horror movies led to his friendship with Strange, Lon Chaney Jr., et al.— but not, at this stage, with Will Eisner, creator and copyright-holder of The Spirit! Thanks to DG. [© Don Glut.]

6

An Interview With Dinosaur Don Glut

RA: Now, when you say The Adventures of The Spirit, was that Will Eisner’s Spirit?

GLUT: That was Will Eisner’s Spirit.

Captain America’s in that movie, and the Frankenstein Monster… In fact, I might add that Frankenstein’s Monster was played Famous Monster-Lovers Of Filmland

by Glenn Strange, Forrest J. Ackerman (on left, original editor of the who played the influential Warren Publishing magazine Famous Monster in three Monsters of Filmland that had debuted in 1957) Universal films and Don—with two of Don’s Frankenstein during the original paintings. “Forry” was Don’s agent for a number of years. Photo courtesy of DG. cycle and was the bartender at the Longbranch Saloon in the TV show Gunsmoke. The Phantom of the Opera, The Green Hornet, The Shadow, Rocket Man, and the Wolf Man were all in it. It was a big monster/hero rally, I guess. It was a five-chapter serial that I shot out here.

successor, The Armadillo, now has a recording studio. We wrote and recorded twelve 1950s-style rock ‘n’ roll songs that we used for music on those movies. We put out the songs on a soundtrack CD. So there’s three different items, all with the same title—I Was a Teenage Movie Maker.

RA: How did Forrest Ackerman, the editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland, get involved in your amateur films?

GLUT: He really wasn’t in any of my amateur films! That’s the funny thing! Forry remembered being in one or two of my amateur films, but those were films made by friends of mine. Forry didn’t actually appear in any of my personal films, but he did publish pictures from them—still photos—in Famous Monsters [of Filmland magazine]. That may have been where his confusion came from.

RA: So that was the first magazine coverage that you got?

GLUT: On the amateur films, yes. The first time I ever saw my name in print in a magazine—other than things like newspaper clippings announcing my birth which my mother saved—was a Superman comic, which was a real thrill at the time.

RA: Wow! That’s impressive! Did you make a Spider-Man film also?

GLUT: Yeah, supposedly I made the first amateur SpiderMan movie. I don’t know of any made before mine. This would have been in 1969. I played Spider-Man. My mother made the costume again, of course. This was shot in a canyon in California, so it didn’t have any of that New York feel to it. He was shooting his webs off rocks and trees!

All of that stuff, all 41 films from 1953-1969, are available on DVD via Amazon. It’s a double disc set called I was a Teenage Movie Maker. All of it is on there, plus a feature-length documentary about the making of those films. I interviewed the people who were in them, those still alive. I went back to the original locations where I shot footage. I really explain in the documentary what it took to make those movies, over all those years. There were a lot of things I couldn’t get into the documentary because they were more cerebral— not visual enough, so I wrote a book with the same title, which McFarland published. It covers a lot of the other bases that the DVD documentary couldn’t.

There were a whole series of my teenage monster movies from the 1950s and 1960s that I needed music for, since they were originally shot silent. I used to play bass in a band called the Penny Arkade; and a friend, David Price, who played rhythm guitar in that band’s

Jerry Grandenetti A caricature from a Warren magazine. [© New Comic Company, LLC.]

Don Glut

The Devil Is In the Details—And In The Marsh!

before he sported a ‘stashe. Thanks to DG.

The splash page of Don’s first story sale to Warren Publishing: Creepy #29 (Sept. 1969), with art by Jerry Grandenetti. With thanks to Nate Hawthorne. [© New Comic Company, LLC.]

“[Gold Key] Didn’t Follow What Marvel Or DC Was Doing”

7

Esteban Maroto Legendary Spanish comics artist.

“Maroto & Me” (Clockwise from far left:) Esteban Maroto’s covers for two volumes of the original Spanish editions of Don Glut’s New Adventures of Frankenstein series (Frankenstein Resuscitado and Frankenstein y Dracula) and the splash page from Don’s story for Vampirella #23 (April 1973). The first two were sent by DG; the third is repro’d from Dynamite’s Vampirella Archives, Vol. 4. Thanks to DG. [TM & © DFI.]

“Jim Warren Was Looking For New Writers…”

RA: Did the connection with Ackerman actually lead to you writing for comics?

GLUT: It directly did. Forry, at the time, was my agent, and he knew that I wanted to write comic books. I’d previously submitted to Charlton a full script I’d written called “Blue Beetle vs. Captain Atom.” They didn’t buy it. I made a few other submissions along the line. So one day I got a call from Forry telling me that Jim Warren was looking for new writers for Creepy and Eerie. He asked if I’d like to do it, and I said sure. The money wasn’t good, even for 1969. My first story appeared in an issue of Creepy [#29, Sept.

1969]. It was based on a Nathaniel Hawthorne story and was called “The Devil of the Marsh.” Jerry Grandenetti did a great job on the art. That was the beginning of it.

RA: I remember that story. I liked it a lot.

GLUT: Thank you! I didn’t write the plot, mind you. I just transferred Hawthorne’s story to the graphic medium.

RA: It couldn’t have been very long after selling that story that you basically wrote about 80% of the contents of Vampirella #1 (Sept. 1969).

GLUT: Yeah, I wrote everything in that issue except for Vampy’s origin story, which was written by Forry, and another story by Nick Cuti. I wrote everything else. That was very early in my comic-writing career.

RA: Was there any particular reason that it was all gathered up in that first issue?

GLUT: No, I just got another call from Forry, who said Warren was doing this new magazine. At the time, I don’t think it was even called Vampirella. I don’t think it had a title yet. The host character was described to me by Forry as a mod witch. He just wanted to know if I could write stories that emphasized sexy girls. So I [continued on p. 11]

8

An Interview With Dinosaur Don Glut

Night And Day It’s Vampirella!

Don wrote all but two stories in the first issue of Warren’s Vampirella (Oct. 1969), with art rendered by (clockwise on this & facing page) Billy Graham, Reed Crandall, Neal Adams, Mike Royer, and Tony Tallarico. The splash page of the Adams story was seen on p. 3; here’s the wind-up, whereon the protagonist learns the secret of the “Goddess of the Sea.” Like the rest of the yarn, it was printed from Neal’s pencils.

Repro’d from Dynamite Entertainment’s hardcover Vampirella Archives, Vol. 1. [TM & © DFI.]

Billy Graham From the 1975 Marvel Con Program Book—during the era when BG was illustrating the adventures of Luke Cage.

Reed Crandall had been a comics star since Quality’s “The Ray” and “Blackhawk” back in the early ’40s.

“[Gold Key] Didn’t Follow What Marvel Or DC Was Doing”

Neal Adams had drawn the comic strip Ben Casey before moving over to comic books.

Mike Royer In the 1970s he would become the principal inker of Jack Kirby’s “Fourth World” titles.

Tony Tallarico The veteran artist of The Great Society Comic Book, et al., was interviewed over the course of Alter Ego #106-109.

[Art © Tony Tallarico.]

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10

An Interview With Dinosaur Don Glut

Rhapsodies In Black-&-White Splash pages of a trio of stories written by Don Glut, and drawn by Ernie Colón for Warren’s Eerie #25 (Jan. 1970) (top left)—by Billy Graham for Vampirella #2 (Nov. ’69)—and by José M. Beá for Eerie #39 (April ’72). Repro’d from Dynamite’s Vampirella Archives, Vol. 1. Thanks to DG & Nick Caputo. [TM & © DFI.]

Ernie Colón Over the years, this versatile artist has drawn everything from Richie Rich to Conan the Barbarian to a graphic novel version of the 9-11 Report.

José M. Beá

“[Gold Key] Didn’t Follow What Marvel Or DC Was Doing”

11

story, no matter what the length.

Who Says Nobody Makes Art Pictures Anymore?

Two publicity stills done for the forthcoming film version of Don Glut’s book Tales of Frankenstein.

The one on the right is not the Frankenstein Monster. The actors’ real names are Scott Fresino (whom Don says he met at one of Roy’s parties years ago) and Lillian Lev. [TM & © Pecosborn.]

[continued from p. 7] cranked out a batch of them. It was kind of a thrill to me when the issue came out that one of my stories was done by Neal Adams.

Another was by Reed Crandall. That made me feel really great that day.

RA: They’re both really good stories as well. Adams’ “Goddess from the Sea” was reproduced from pencils.

GLUT: Yeah. It was a long time ago, but the lead character in that story was an artist at a drawing board. I think that was Neal’s idea.

I think I just had the guy looking out the window or something.

That was one of Neal’s innovations, and it was a good one.

RA: “Cobra Queen” was another great story by you that was very nicely illustrated by Esteban Maroto [Vampirella #23, April 1973].

GLUT: Esteban Maroto, before he became an artist for Warren, did the first four covers of my New Adventures of Frankenstein paperbacks that were going to be published in Spain. I have the four covers. The first two books came out, and then the Franco regime stepped in. That government was very prudish and puritanical.

They thought the books were just too gory, and they killed the series with the second book, even though the covers had been done for all four books of the series.

Those were all done by Esteban. That was the first time I’d ever heard of him, but shortly after that he popped up doing his work for Warren. Now those Frankenstein books are coming out in deluxe editions. There are twelve titles in all. The first six are out in volume one, and volume two will be coming out around Halloween of 2015. That one will have one completely new novel which winds everything up. There’ll also be a collection of short stories called Tales of Frankenstein from which I’m taking five stories, and we’re in pre-production on a movie adapting them. We start shooting the first story in about three weeks.

RA: Oh, cool! I’d love to see the movie when it’s completed. Now, you worked regularly on the Warren magazines—Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella—for at least a year or so.

GLUT: Yeah, quite a while.

RA: You already mentioned they didn’t pay a lot. I recall it as 25 bucks a

GLUT: Yes, $25 a story. And Forry, as my agent, took $5 of that from every story I wrote for them. You couldn’t pitch a plot, like at the mainstream companies. You had to submit a full script. At least, I did. So if they didn’t like it in New York, you’d written a whole script for nothing. They could reject it for any reason.

Some of those rejected scripts I later changed around and eventually sold to other companies. That’s how it was back then, though. You took your chances. At the same time, they were easy to write. I could crank those things out, on a manual typewriter—not an electric one, but an actual manual typewriter—in about an hour. I did them so fast I often didn’t know where the story was going to go. I knew how many pages it had to be, and I’d just start typing. Some of them started with a pun that Uncle Creepy or Cousin Eerie or Vampirella could say, and I’d try to write a story playing off or leading up to that pun. It was a crazy way to write a story!

I remember going through my musician/hippie phase back then, and I’d be listening to some band in a club on the Sunset Strip. While I was watching the band I’d get an idea for a horror story. The clubs closed at 2:00 a.m., so I would go home at about 2:30 and I’d crank that story out.

RA: You had some pretty good artists besides Crandall and Adams on your stories at that time. Ernie Colón did some of your stories.

GLUT: Yeah, Ernie, Billy Graham, Tom Sutton—I had some good artists on my stories. Warren, across the board, had some great artists working for his magazines. Look at those covers! Most of those covers were really good! Speaking of Billy Graham, one of my stories that he drew was “Rhapsody in Red!” I love George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”—it’s my favorite music—and that’s where that title came from. I’d probably just seen the movie again on television. A lot of stories came from that—listening to music, seeing old movies on TV the week before or the night before I’d write the story.

“Gold Key… Treated Their Contributors Like A Family” RA: Somewhere around 1971 you started doing work for Gold Key. GLUT: Gold Key came after the Warren stuff. Again, Forry was sort of involved with that. Boris Karloff had died in 1969, and Forry had gotten an assignment from Ace Books to do a book about him, which was to be full of all kinds of things from Karloff’s career. Forry didn’t have time to do it all himself. He had the knowledge for a lot of the material, but they wanted the book in just a few days. So I pitched a few ideas, and one of them concerned Boris Karloff in the comic books. I knew that Gold Key had been doing Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery. So I went over to Western, which was the publisher behind the Gold Key line, not to pitch myself as a writer of comics but to do some research on the Boris Karloff comic book. When it was published, how many issues, that sort of thing. Today, you’d get that done in a few seconds on the Internet, but, back then, it wasn’t that easy. So I went over there, and while I was there I said to the editor, Chase Craig, that if he had an opening for a writer I’d like to write some comics.

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An Interview With Dinosaur Don Glut

Mummy”—and submitted it. They told me that they really liked it. They thought I had a real handle on the mystery stories—they didn’t like the word “horror”—and they hired Jesse Santos for the art for the story.

He did a great job on it, too.

Jesse Santos as a young man. (See Mark Evanier’s tribute to the late artist on p. 65 of this issue.)

It wasn’t like the usual watered-down type of story that they’d been publishing. It was really something they hadn’t done before. Another story I did for the digest was called “Wizard of the Crimson Castle.”

It was a revamped story that I’d originally submitted to the Warren magazines but they [Warren] rejected it. I later wrote another script for Gold Key with the same character.

So I wrote a lot of those stories in the Mystery Comics Digest, usually without credit. We wouldn’t get credit until years later. I kept pestering them and pestering them until they finally acquiesced and started giving us credit. In the early days we didn’t get those credits, so I would put little in-jokes in each of my stories so that I could identify, twenty years later, that that was one of my stories. I could prove it to others—“Look, there’s my friend’s name on that billboard!” Something like that.

That’s how I gave myself unofficial credit in those stories.

RA: Jesse Santos was really a pretty good artist. I think he was quite underrated, maybe simply because he didn’t get credit or perhaps because he did most of his work solely for Gold Key.

I Want My “Mummy”!

This first comics story scripted by Don Glut for Gold Key/Western was also the first time the writer was teamed up with Filipino-born artist Jesse Santos, with whom he would do a mountain of work over the next few years. This tale first appeared in Mystery Comics Digest #1 (March 1972), but is repro’d here from its reprinting in a 1975 issue of Dr. Spektor Presents Spine-Tingling Tales #2 (1975). Thanks to DG. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Gold Key had a policy back then, an unwritten policy, that they treated their contributors like a family. They wanted to make sure that every writer and artist that they had could make a living and support their wives and kids. They wouldn’t just open up a new slot for someone, because it would be taking away from somebody else that they were already committed to. About a year after I’d done the article for Forry on the Karloff book, I got a call from Chase Craig, who said, “Look, we finally have an opening, if you’d like to come in and pitch some stories.” So I went in there and met with Del Connell, who had just become the editor.

My first Gold Key assignment was a one-page text story about robots that, although I was paid for it, never saw print. Instead, Gold Key was just beginning a new digest-sized magazine called Mystery Comics Digest. It was going to be mostly reprints, but they were going to include three new stories per issue. They wanted to know if I’d try my hand at writing those stories. They showed me the format that they were going to use; Gold Key had a specific format on how to do a script. You took a piece of paper and drew in with a ruler where all the panels were going to go. Then, inside of each of those rectangles or squares you wrote your text. [A/E EDITOR'S NOTE: See A/E #92 for a sample of Don Glut's Gold Key scripting style.] So I did my first story for them—“Mask of the

GLUT: He did some stuff later on for the big companies—particularly for Gray Morrow at Red Circle [an imprint of Archie Comics].

Gold Key was very protective of their talent, but they also didn’t want the artists and writers to really know each other, contact each other, go to conventions, do interviews—that kind of thing. They were afraid that one of two things would happen, and what happened with Carl Barks during the Dell days was a good example of why. One—that the artist or writer would ask for more money and, two—that they would go to the other companies for a better deal. Gold Key was very cautious and didn’t want the artists or writers to become well-known. Now, me, I’ve always been a shameless self-promoter. I’ve gone to unbelievable lengths to get people to know who I am. They couldn’t stop that. That was just part of my nature. [continued on p. 15]

Chase Craig Longtime Gold Key editor.

Photo taken circa 1959.

Del Connell A later photo taken of the Gold Key editor under whom Don directly worked.

“[Gold Key] Didn’t Follow What Marvel Or DC Was Doing”

Funny Animals & Mirthful Monsters In the 1970s, Don also wrote various humor comics for Gold Key. (Clockwise from above left:) Tweety & Sylvester #24 (May 1972)… Bugs Bunny #155 (March ’74)… and Little Monsters #26 (Sept. ’74). Artists unidentified.

Don Glut & Bob Clampett The late Bob Clampett (on right), besides being one of the major 1940s Warner Bros. animation directors and having a hand in the creation of Tweety, Porky Pig, and Daffy Duck, later created the popular TV puppet show Time for Beany. Seen with Clampett and Glut is a hand-puppet version of the real star of Beany: Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent. Thanks to DG.

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An Interview With Dinosaur Don Glut

I Love A “Mystery” Among the many “mystery” (don’t call them “horror”!) stories that Don Glut scripted for Gold Key were these for (left to right on this & facing page): Grimm’s Ghost Stories #24 (July 1975); art by Frank Bolle.

Mystery Comics Digest #14 (Oct. 1973), “Slime Thing.” Note how Don tosses the names of fellow monsters Man-Thing, Hulk, and Heap into the final panel. Art by Dan Spiegle.

Thanks to Keith Morgan.

Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery #68 (June ’76)—artist unknown.

Twilight Zone #75 (Jan. ’77); art by Bill Ziegler. Incidentally, Wulfstein was “returning” from an earlier yarn by Glut in Mystery Comics Digest. Thanks to Don Glut & Mark Muller for the scans. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Frank Bolle in a screen capture from film taken at a party hosted by fellow artist Leonard Starr in 1965. Thanks to Tom Sawyer.

Dan Spiegle He drew the Hopalong Cassidy newspaper strip from 1949 until it ended in 1955.

“[Gold Key] Didn’t Follow What Marvel Or DC Was Doing”

15

Bill Ziegler (on left) speaking with fellow artist Alfredo Alcala at a con in the late 1970s. Thanks to Bob Bailey.

[continued from p. 12] They were able to keep the reins on Jesse for quite a while, until people started noticing his art. I don’t remember exactly how the Red Circle thing came about, whether I mentioned him to Gray or Gray had noticed him on his own. Still, Jesse did get work from Gray at Red Circle. Then, when all the books got cancelled at Gold Key, Jesse, like a lot of us out here, went into animation. That’s where he did a lot of his post-Gold Key work. His real work, what he had his heart into, however, was portrait art. That was really his main focus.

RA: I didn’t know that about him. That’s quite interesting. From Gold Key you did some work for Skywald.

GLUT: Yes, but not that much. In fact, I may have only written one story for Skywald. I did a story in Psycho, a black-&-white horror magazine.

RA: It was illustrated by a Spanish artist, I think, Juez Xirinius [“Bad Choke” from Psycho #8 (Sept. 1972)].

GLUT: Well, you remember more about that than I do. I also did some work for Charlton and DC.

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An Interview With Dinosaur Don Glut

“[Dagar’s] Name Was Supposed To Sound Like A Dagger” RA: Did you create “Dagar”?

GLUT: Yes. His name was supposed to sound like a dagger, but nobody ever pronounced it that way. They pronounced it “Daygar,” and after a while I went the way everybody else had gone and joined the bandwagon. By now, it’s become “Day-gar” even in my mind.

He had all kinds of names before we settled on that. “Shaark” was one of them. “Dagar” started out as a one-shot in Mystery Comics Digest. I’d done a story for Gold Key called, I think, “Castle of Skulls,” and they bought it. Then I wrote another one with the same character. Gold Key said nobody will know that it’s the same character, and I replied it didn’t matter. If they noticed, then they noticed, and if they didn’t, it wouldn’t make any difference. It still held up as a story, either way. So they had two stories with this character.

The Choke’s On Me! A page from Don’s sole effort for Skywald Publications: the story “Bad Choke” from Psycho #8 (Sept. 1972), with art by Juez Xirinius. Thanks to DG. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Gold Key—the West Coast-branch editors, anyway—had no knowledge of what sword-&-sorcery was. They didn’t know who Conan was or anything like that. They didn’t follow what Marvel or DC was doing. They were completely oblivious to any of that.

But when they saw these two stories, they could see that they had a potential series featuring this character. So I got the chance to do the story that was intended for the first issue of Dagar the Invincible. But because the comic book was now coming out, they thought the stories in Mystery Comics Digest, which hadn’t come out yet, would take away from the prestige of the comic book series. Especially if they came out later than the premier issue of Dagar. So they had me change the name and appearance of the Mystery Comics Digest character—make his name a little different, change his personality a little bit to a character named Duroc.

Then the New York office, after a couple of the “Duroc” stories came out, thought that the name Duroc, because it rhymed with Turok, another character that they were publishing, was confusing. So we changed Duroc to Durak. Somewhere down the road, Durak actually met Dagar in Dagar’s book [#7 (Apr. 1974)].

Then Durak crossed over into The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor #16 (Sept. 1975). He became something of a recurring character.

Now Let’s Go Out And Find A Few Sorcerers To Kill!

Don Glut (photo) on an early San Diego Comic-Con panel, perhaps talking about all the heroes he’s introduced to each other… such as (above) Dagar and Durak in Dagar the Invincible #7 (April 1974). Thanks to DG. [Comic art TM & © Random House, under license to Classic Media, Inc.]

“[Gold Key] Didn’t Follow What Marvel Or DC Was Doing”

17

Don Glut & Jesse Santos were reunited at a 2007 Los Angeles convention. Also seen is actress Monique Parent, who starred in Frontline Films’ horror entry Blood Scarab, which was written and directed by Don. Photo courtesy of DG.

Is This A Dagar That I See Before Me? (Above & below right:) The splash page and cover of Gold Key’s Dagar the Invincible #1 (Oct. 1972)—which debuted only two years after Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian. The painted cover, as confirmed by experts Steven Rowe and Mark Foy, is the work of George Wilson; he may have been working from a sketch by Jesse Santos. The interior art for all issues was by Santos, the scripts by Don Glut.

Actually, the official title of the series from start to last was Tales of Sword and Sorcery Dagar the Invincible… but we won’t mention that again if you won’t.

Dagar #1-9 were reprinted in hardcover by Dark Horse Books in 2011… while an article by Don about Dagar saw print in Alter Ego #92. Thanks to DG for the scans. [TM & © Random House, under license to Classic Media, Inc.] (Left:) Don’s cover suggestion, back when it was briefly suggested that the hero’s name be “Zagar.” Courtesy of DG. [Art © Don Glut.]

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An Interview With Dinosaur Don Glut

And What, Pray Tell, Will Sesame Street Do When Big Bird Doesn’t Come Home?

(Left:) Splash page of Dagar the Invincible #10 (Dec. 1974), by Don Glut & Jesse Santos. [TM & © Random House, under license to Classic Media, Inc.]

Dagar had a lot of history, all of which is covered in great detail in my foreword to the Dagar the Invincible Archives, Vol. 1, which came out from Dark Horse in 2011. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: Or see A/E #92.]

RA: I was aware somewhat of the Durak character, but I wasn’t aware that he was basically Dagar under another name.

GLUT: Well, I tried to keep them different. Anytime somebody called Dagar a barbarian, his girlfriend would get upset and say, “He isn’t a barbarian!” and, of course, he wasn’t. He came from a civilized country that got destroyed.

Dagar was a brooding mercenary character. He was cynical.

I wanted Durak to be different, so I gave him a beard—a goatee and a mustache so that he looked like Errol Flynn.

Durak was the actual barbarian in a swashbuckling mode.

Dagar fought for money. Durak fought for the thrill of adventure. That’s how I tried to contrast the two. They also had different-colored hair. In movie terms, Dagar was more like Kirk Douglas, while Durak was the Errol Flynn character.

“[Doctor] Spektor Was My Favorite Of All The Gold Key Stories” RA: Moving from Durak to Dr. Spektor…

GLUT: Spektor was my favorite of all the Gold Key stories.

Maybe my all-time favorite of all my comics work. I loved the subject matter. I was a huge Dark Shadows fan at the time, and that show had a big influence on me. Same with the Universal and Hammer horror films. I was also a big fan of the pre-Code 1950s Dick Briefer Frankenstein comics. All of that, for me, was a heavy influence. All those influences came together in The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor.

What’s In A Name?

(Above:) Panel from the “Durak” story “The Wizard of the Crimson Castle” that originally appeared in Mystery Comics Digest #7 (Sep. 1972); it’s reprinted here from Dr. Spektor Presents Spine-Tingling Tales #3 (Sept. 1975). As Don strives to make clear, the name of the hero of his early stories done for MCD as “Dagar” tales became “Duroc” stories instead… and Duroc’s name was later changed to “Durak” to avoid confusion with Turok, Son of Stone. Aspirin, anyone? Thanks to DG. (Right:) Jesse Santos’ cover for Dr. Spektor Presents Spine-Tingling Tales #3. [© the respective copyright holders.]

“[Gold Key] Didn’t Follow What Marvel Or DC Was Doing”

19

Shades Of Gray (Above:) Dagar’s steady ladyfriend Graylin gives him a helping hand in a Glut/Santos page from Dagar #12 (July 1975). [TM & © Random House, under license to Classic Media, Inc.] (Above right:) Don and his girlfriend/first wife Linda Gray, after whom Graylin was named, watch as their friend Heather Johnson shakes hands with another pal, Kirk Alyn, the first movie “Superman” (not to mention “Blackhawk”), at a comics convention some years back. Photo by Al Kracalik.

Thanks to DG.

Also, it was a very personal book for me. I based Dr. Spektor very much on myself. In fact, for a while I had a beard and mustache like him that I wore for about a year. [chuckles] The relationship I had with my then-girlfriend, who would become my future ex-wife, was very similar to the one that Spektor had with Lakota, his assistant and girlfriend. I think it’s better written, with more layers of subtext and depth, than a lot of the superhero books of the time.

Dr. Spektor started in Mystery Comics Digest as a host character, and those early stories were drawn by Dan Spiegle. Dan did a lot of stuff for Gold Key. He also did the Hopalong Cassidy newspaper strip for a while. Then Del Connell, my editor, said, ‘Hey, let’s do a Dr. Spektor book!” What he thought he was going to get was an anthology book with Dr. Spektor hosting, as Spektor had been doing in Mystery Comics Digest.

The Doctor Is In!

What I brought him was a 25-page story in which Dr. Spektor was a character. He was shocked, because that wasn’t what he’d wanted. However, he did see the possibilities. So he said, “Let’s do it, but one condition. We don’t do a 25-page story, but starting

Dr. Spektor started off life in company with the Crypt-Keeper, Uncle Creepy, and Cain and Abel… introducing “mystery” stores in the pages of Mystery Comics Digest #5 (July 1972). How did they ever get along without him for the first four issues? Thanks to Art Lortie. [TM & © Random House, under license to Classic Media, Inc.]

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An Interview With Dinosaur Don Glut

The Doctor Is Out—On A House Call!

Jesse Santos, doing a new drawing of his Philippines series D-13, takes a second to look back as well at his painted cover and splash page for The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor #1 (May 1973), wherein the good doctor both introduces and stars in a feature-length tale.

Thanks to scripter Don Glut. [TM & © Random House, under license to Classic Media, Inc.]

Don’t Rain On My Parade!

More in-jokes abounded in Don’s contribution to the “Rutland stories” of the 1970s, in which comic book pros and super-heroes alike showed up at the annual Halloween parade in Vermont’s second-largest city, at the invite of super-fan Tom Fagan. In Occult Files of Dr. Spektor #18 (Dec. 1975), our protagonist first spies folks costumed as several creatures he has encountered in the past—plus Wulfstein (hero of a couple of Glut-scripted Gold Key stories), The Lurker of the Swamp (from a Glut tale in Mystery Comics Digest #7), and The Purple Zombie, an early-1940s “super-hero” of sorts in Famous Funnies’ Reg’lar Fellers Heroic Comics. Art by Santos. [TM & © Random House, under license to Classic Media, Inc.]

“[Gold Key] Didn’t Follow What Marvel Or DC Was Doing”

Guest Who! Double-Feature Don exulted in sneaking guest stars into The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor, as witness these appearances of Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom, in #14 (June 1975)… Durak in #16 (Sept. ’75—the Frankenstein Monster was in this one, too)… and the revived Golden Age super-hero The Owl in #22 (Oct. ’76)—plus there was an actual were-owl in the latter! Art by Jesse Santos, of course. Thanks to Stephan Friedt and Don Glut for the scans. [TM & © Random House, under license to Classic Media, Inc.]

with issue #2 we do a 17-page lead story with a story in the back which Spektor just narrates, like in the old days.” I said OK. I didn’t really want to do that. I needed the extra pages to give the characters more depth than you’d be able to do in a 17-page story. I could also make the plots more intricate in a longer story.

So I wrote the stories up to where Spektor becomes the werewolf, and Del Connell decides that “Hey! We can’t have Spektor being a werewolf in the front of the book while he’s narrating stories in the back!” I guess he thought that was too strange. So for the four issues of the werewolf story arc the stories were again full 25-page stories. Then we just never went back to the old format. We never mentioned it again. We ran 25-or-so-page stories until the book was cancelled.

RA: I guess it’s nice when the character dictates the length of the story.

GLUT: I guess you could say that. I was always doing subversive things like that. My trick, at the time, was to go in and pitch the story to get the go-ahead, then try to come up with a story that was so compelling that Del couldn’t turn it down. If I did that right, he would say, “OK, go with it.” That’s how I got to do the crossovers with Dr. Solar, The Owl, and what have you. I just wore him down.

He would be physically exhausted by the end of the pitch. [laughs] He liked the pitch and couldn’t say it was a bad story! So he went

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An Interview With Dinosaur Don Glut

Two For The Price Of Two! Don Glut scripted two stories for Chilling Adventures in Sorcery #4 (Dec. 1973), an entry in the Archie group’s Red Circle line, edited by Gray Morrow. He wrote one tale drawn by Dick Giordano (no bylines for either man) and one drawn by Vicente Alcazar. [TM & © Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

with it. That’s how I was able to do things that you normally wouldn’t have seen in a Gold Key comic.

I even did a Rutland, Vermont, story like those that DC and Marvel were doing at the time. I did a story set in Rutland in Doctor Spektor where all these early characters appeared in costume from what would become Gold Key, like the Purple Zombie, and Del agreed with the idea. He took it! There were a lot of things I couldn’t get away with, but some of the other things that I did get away with amaze me to this day.

“I Found Out That Gray Morrow Was Doing This [Red Circle] Line Of Comics” RA: You’ve already mentioned Jesse Santos working for Red Circle, but you worked for them, as well.

GLUT: Yes, I did. When I found out that Gray Morrow was doing this line of comics, I got hold of his home phone number and called him to introduce myself. Gray Morrow was a wonderful guy. I

RA: Do you remember the issue that Rutland story was in?

GLUT: It was called “Masque Macabre” and appeared in The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor #18. Jesse Santos drew the issue. There was a big parade with all of the past Spektor characters appearing in it. The Owl and Dr. Solar were both in it. Everybody was in that story. A lot of the monster characters in Doctor Spektor started out as one-shot stories in Mystery Comics Digest. I then brought those characters into the Doctor Spektor universe.

I even did unofficial company crossovers at Gold Key. I don’t know if anyone’s even aware of them. I had Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, in Doctor Spektor for a while. You never saw his first and last name spoken together. He was always called either Steve or Rogers. This was in the early 1970s, when Captain America was going through his cop phase. He was a good-looking blond-haired cop, and I used him in Doctor Spektor.

Dick Giordano Gray Morrow The noted artist took a fling at editing in the early ’70s.

The respected artist and longtime managing editor of DC Comics, in a portrait drawn

by Michael Netzer. [© Michael Netzer.]

Vicente Alcazar The Spanish artist entered the U.S. comic book field in the early 1970s (see p. 45). This is a more recent pic.

“[Gold Key] Didn’t Follow What Marvel Or DC Was Doing”

23

From Sauropds To Saucers (Left:) The prehistoric warrior Tragg and his ladyfriend Lorna were introduced in a yarn by Glut and Santos in Mystery Comics Digest #3 (May 1972), which told the tale of the first werewolf; it’s repro’d here from a reprinting in Dr. Spektor Presents Spine-Tingling Tales #1 (May ’75), thanks to Ernesto Guevera.

In Tragg and the Sky Gods #1 & 2 (June & Sept. 1975; see bottom left & right), the caveman battled otherworldly aliens who landed in the flying saucer seen on the cover of this issue of Alter Ego. “That crazy Erich van Däniken stuff” was all the rage during the ’70s, as witness Jack Kirby’s The Eternals and “Man-Gods from the Stars”/Marvel Preview #9 (Winter 1976), among others. [TM & © Random House, under license to Classic Media, Inc.]

loved him. A lot of other people did, too. I never heard anything derogatory about him. He gave me free rein. Write some stories and send them in.

Some I didn’t get my name on. I know which ones I did, though.

One of the mystery titles I had two stories in but was only credited for one. It had a really nice cover, maybe drawn by Gray, where the cover character looked like a combination of Zacherly, the TV horror host, and the Phantom of the Opera. There’s a Golem behind him. I wrote both of those stories but only got credit for one. [NOTE: Don is referring to Chilling Adventures in Sorcery #4 (Dec. 1973), featuring a cover that is definitely drawn by Gray Morrow. The two interior stories “Horripilate Host,” drawn by Dick Giordano, and “A Thousand Pounds of Clay,” illustrated by Vicente Alcazar, were both recently reprinted in Afterlife with Archie #3 & 4. —RA.] I liked working for Gray. He didn’t make a lot of demands. You just sent your story in and it got illustrated.

RA: Do you know why Archie Comics decided to start doing a straight horror/mystery comic? That seemed an odd thing for Archie at that particular time.

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An Interview With Dinosaur Don Glut

GLUT: Because at that time, in the early 1970s, everybody was doing horror! DC had a half-dozen horror or “mystery” titles. So did Charlton. Marvel was doing a ton of stuff, including lots of reprints of their pre-Code Atlas stories but also doing books like Werewolf

by Night, Tomb of Dracula, Frankenstein, and Ghost Rider. Dr. Strange even had a horror period. All those books were making money!

Everybody was jumping on the bandwagon. Even Gold Key had the Karloff and Twilight Zone books.

Key was primarily a California-based company. —RA.] Nowadays, I hear about Doctor Spektor all the time from fans. Back then, though, I would go to conventions and nobody had even heard of the character. They’d ask me what I was writing, and they’d never heard of any of those books. Never seen any of those books.

“Gold Key Did Have Some Great Writers And Artists”

GLUT: I did Tragg and the Sky Gods for Gold Key [in 1975-1977]. It was a dinosaur/science-fiction combination book. Nobody in the 1970s that I talked to had ever heard of it, either. It was kind of sad doing all this work, trying to do my best, and nobody appeared to be seeing it. I think there was an apathy towards the Gold Key line then as well. Most comic book readers were Marvel and DC chauvinists back then.

RA: I know that Gold Key didn’t seem to get distributed particularly well. It was tough sometimes finding their books. You could always find a DC or Marvel comic, even Charlton comics were fairly plentiful, but if it wasn’t a Disney book, the Gold Key titles didn’t seem to appear very often in Michigan, where I grew up.

GLUT: There were times when Gold Key didn’t get distributed at all in certain areas. Particularly in the East. [NOTE: Western/Gold

RA: That’s the truth. I remember seeing the Disney books, Turok, Magnus, occasionally the mystery or sword & sorcery books, but Dr. Solar or Doctor Spektor never appeared on the newsstands in my area.

RA: I guess the Gold Key books just weren’t… cool at the time, although there were a lot of good artists and writers working on them. Gold Key, I suspect, never really understood super-heroes and what fans liked about them, certainly not in the way that DC and Marvel did. So, because they didn’t focus on super-heroes, the Gold Key books got pushed aside by the fan-boys of the time.

GLUT: Yes, I suppose that may be true. Gold Key did have some great writers and artists, though. Russ Manning was one of the top artists there, and just as good a writer as an artist. Russ’ writing on the Tarzan newspaper strip is just fantastic. I wrote a lot of Tarzan stories for Russ, and I learned more about comic book writing— pacing, where to put certain panels, how not to end a page—I got all of that from Russ. It was a great learning experience. Especially since he was just a wonderful human being.

RA: You must have been doing the work with Russ in the early 1970s, since DC took over the Tarzan comic book in 1972…

GLUT: It was when Russ was doing those Tarzan albums. We call them graphic novels today. Tarzan and the Land That Time Forgot.

[NOTE: That was done for Treasure House, a British publisher, in 1974, and finally reprinted by Dark Horse in the mid-1990s. —RA.] I wrote three complete graphic novels for Russ that never got published, because they pulled the plug on the albums. Not the publisher but Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. It was a shame, because they were really fun to write.

One of the books was called Tor-Gund, the Beast Chief, which was basically Tarzan saving King Kong after he falls off the Empire State Building, then smuggling him to the lost land of Pal-ul-Don. I had cameo appearances in it by such pulp magazine characters as Doc Savage, who wasn’t identified by name, of course.

RA: That sounds like a story I’d like to read today!

GLUT: It was a fun story to do. Another was called “Bwana War!,” and the third was a “Jane” story. That one was a version of Wagner’s Ring Cycle turned into a “Jane” story with a Tyrannosaurus Rex taking the place of the dragon. None of them ever came out. The “Jane” story had a couple of pages drawn, but I don’t know if any of the other books were drawn at all. But, at least I got paid for writing them and enjoyed myself along the way.

What’s Nu? A Don Glut/Mike Royer collaboration for the English-published black-&white Tarzan Weekly #11 for Aug. 20, 1977, edited by longtime Tarzan artist Russ Manning. It picked up the storyline of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel The Eternal Love (aka The Eternal Savage), in which Tarzan had appeared as a supporting character. See more about the ERB material produced especially for British weeklies in A/E #129, our special issue on Burroughs’ creations in comic books and comic strips. [TM & © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.]

I think the “Jane” pages were done by a woman named Maria Milicec. I’m no longer sure of the spelling of her last name. She ended up working at Hanna-Barbara as a director for a while.

“I Did Quite A Bit For Marvel” RA: You were also doing novelizations at this time…

“[Gold Key] Didn’t Follow What Marvel Or DC Was Doing”

The Star Wars, My Destination The cover of Don’s paperback novelization of the 1980 film The Empire Strikes Back... the sequel, of course, to the original 1977 Star Wars movie. Don and George Lucas had known each other at film school. [TM & © Lucasfilm & Disney.]

GLUT: I did two based on movie scripts. I did The Empire Strikes Back, and the other was for Clash of the Titans, the first movie version from 1981. That one wasn’t published. It was a “mini-novelization,” and intended to appear as a Big Little Book. At the last minute MGM pulled the plug on it.

The Big Little Books sold for 39 or 40 cents, and the story the publisher told me was that MGM didn’t want this big spectacular expensive movie associated with a 39-cent product. They felt it cheapened the movie somehow.

25

editor/writer position at Marvel. Do you remember anything about that visit? Did it have, to your knowledge, a direct influence on the titles or assignments you got at Marvel Comics?

GLUT: Actually, Roy and I met and got to know each other much earlier than that—in the mid-1960s in Chicago. There was a small but growing comic book fan group in the Windy City. I’d already moved to California, but was back home on vacation. We had a group get-together where I’d rented some Republic Pictures serial chapters, and Roy attended. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: This conclave occurred over the Christmas break in 1964; Ye Ed drove up from the St. Louis area, where he was a high school teacher.] I tried to get The Adventures of Captain Marvel, but there was some problem at the rental house. I substituted various chapters of other serials, like King of the Rocket Men, Zorro Rides Again, and The Crimson Ghost.

That’s where Roy and I met in person for the first time, although I think we corresponded a bit before that.

But I didn’t get my first Marvel assignment from Roy—that came from Marv Wolfman back around 1973. I wrote a story called

I guess I did do two other Big Little Books. One was on the Hulk and the other was a Pink Panther project. The Hulk one wasn’t from the 1970s TV show. It was patterned after the actual comic book.

RA: You did a really nice adaptation, drawn by Reuben Yandoc, of Stanley Weinbaum’s classic science-fiction story “A Martian Odyssey.” It appeared in the Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction Special for 1976.

GLUT: Yeah, that was one of the first things I did for Marvel. I did a lot of adaptations for Roy. I did the Weinbaum piece and a lot of Solomon Kane stories for The Savage Sword of Conan. I thought the “Martian Odyssey” story was a very strange story.

RA: The author wrote it in, I think, 1934. It wasn’t a cutting-edge 1970s story, but he was a quirky and interesting writer. “A Martian Odyssey” was his first story, and it made quite a splash at the time, since its alien characters didn’t appear to have any really human characteristics.

Unusual idea for that time period. He wrote some really great stories before he passed away at the age of 33, a year and a half after “A Martian Odyssey” appeared. There’s a nice collection of his work, called The Best of Stanley Weinbaum that you can still find in used bookstores and online. You did a good job of keeping the essence of the original story in the adaptation.

GLUT: I didn’t know anything about Weinbaum. It was probably the only story I ever read of his. Anytime I ever did any kind of adaptation, I wanted to be as close to the original source material as I could, while keeping it within the parameters of whatever medium I was doing it in—whether comics or film script or prose fiction. I tried to keep the original integrity there as much as possible.

RA: Just as we come up near the end of 1975, you started doing a lot of scripts for Marvel.

GLUT: I did quite a bit for Marvel—The Invaders, Kull, “Solomon Kane,” some Captain America and a lot of What Ifs. RA: Roy Thomas mentioned that he spent time with you in California in February of 1976, when he had come out to L.A. while he was waiting for Marvel to draw up a contract for him to return as editor-in-chief. He was staying with a high school friend of his, but you and he hung out that week. Apparently, your time together helped him decide to turn down the top editorial job in favor of moving to California and just retaining an

A Martian Oddity Splash page of Don Glut’s adaptation of Stanley Weinbaum’s “hall of fame” SF story “A Martian Odyssey,” which had been renowned in the 1930s for its depiction of non-humanoid aliens. Art by Reuben Yandoc. Editor Roy Thomas asked Don to adapt this classic for Marvel’s 1976-dated black-&white comics magazine Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction “Vol. 1, #1” (but actually the one-and-only issue of the second volume—go figure!). Sadly, because all the paperwork on the SF and fantasy adaptations RT oversaw in Marvel’s 1970s mystery comics has been lost over the years, many fine stories with excellent artwork cannot be reprinted by Marvel today. [Adaptation © Marvel Characters, Inc.; original story © Estate of Stanley Weinbaum.]

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An Interview With Dinosaur Don Glut

I Love L.A.!

Two photos of Don Glut with Roy Thomas and other pals on the West Coast—hovering above the splash page of a horror/humor story Glut scripted for the Thomas-edited Arrgh! #3 (May 1975), more than a year before RT moved West. Pencils by Mike Sekowsky, inks by Mike Vosburg. Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Left:) Kirk “Superman” Alyn’s birthday party, Oct. 1977, held at Don’s house in Burbank, CA. (Standing, l. to r.:) Danette Couto [the future Dann Thomas], Roy T., Jim Harmon, & unknown. (Seated, l. to r.:) unknown child, Don G., Kirk Alyn, unknown teenager.

(Right:) Don and Roy doing their duty in a Writers Guild of America West strike line in the mid-1980s. It’s a wonder those Hollywood producers held out as long as they did!

Mike Sekowsky Most noted for penciling the first 60 or so issues of DC’s Justice League of America.

“The Ghastly Dummy” for Haunt of Horror, a black-&-white comic magazine Marv was editing. That was my first experience doing a story in the so-called “Marvel style,” i.e., writing the copy over existing artwork. The story was drawn, but the magazine was cancelled before it saw print.

Then came prose work on Monsters of the Movies, a Marvel version of Forry Ackerman’s Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. I believe Roy wanted the magazine to be edited and written by people in the Hollywood area, because they’d be living where most American movies were being made. Also, we knew and even socialized with a lot of people who were involved in the making of “monster” and other movies, including directors, producers, writers, actors, and special-effects artists.

Jim Harmon edited that magazine and brought some of his writer friends, including Ron Haycock and myself, on board. We tried to put out an “intelligent” monster-movie magazine, and it was fun while it lasted—that is, until the New York Marvel bullpen started interfering in various ways, never for the better, such as putting in their own articles, leaving our names off the masthead, that sort of thing. The title soon went down the tube. I remember them leaving us out of one issue altogether—and putting out what was nothing more than an issue-long plot synopsis of the movie Horror of Dracula. But I think, when we still had control of the

magazine, either Ron or I would have been better editors. Not to take anything away from Jim, but he was more of an old-time-radio, Western, and science-fiction buff than someone who loved monster movies. At the time, Roy knew Jim better than he knew me, so Jim was the first person he thought of when considering someone on the West Coast.

Roy came out to Los Angeles [in February 1976], seriously considering making the move to the West Coast, where there were bigger opportunities than writing comics—including script-writing for motion pictures and television.

I think I’d made some of my earliest TV sales by that time. So Roy started to do some apartmenthunting. I recall I went with him and we found an Oakwood Apartments complex located approximately midway between Warner Studios and Hollywood Boulevard. That’s where he finally settled down, at least for a year or so. By then, Roy and I had been good friends for a while. We shared a lot of the same interests, like pretty much the same movies, novels, and short stories, music, and, of course, comic books. Plus, we liked each other. Roy, my then-wife Linda, and I did a lot of socializing together in those days—hanging out, having and going to parties, local conventions, and so forth. When I actually started writing comics for Roy, he knew I needed money and graciously threw as many assignments my way as he could. I’ll never forget the “Rascally One” for doing that. He also got me out of some tight financial situations.

“I Had A Good Time With The Invaders” RA: Was there any particular story from those years that you really have fond memories of?

GLUT: I didn’t have a whole lot of fun writing Kull [the Destroyer].

That’s only because I was never really much of a fan of sword &

“[Gold Key] Didn’t Follow What Marvel Or DC Was Doing”

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Kull Or Be Kulled!

Glut’s first and last splash pages for Marvel’s Kull the Destroyer #21 (June 1977) & #29 (Oct. ’78)—the latter the final issue of the series. Inks by Rick Hoberg and Ricardo Villamonte, respectively. Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Kull Properties, LLD.]

sorcery stories, no matter how well they were written—although Roy did some excellent work writing the “Conan” and other Robert E. Howard-based stories. All sword-&-sorcery stories seemed pretty much the same to me. They all seemed to have the same plot. I didn’t particularly enjoy writing Dagar, either. With Solomon Kane—I just didn’t like the character. I had to remain true to Robert Howard’s character, but Kane was a Puritanical guy, a religious fanatic. I worked to make him believable but I didn’t enjoy those stories.

RA: You’re not the first person who’s worked on Solomon Kane who’s remarked to me on the unpleasant personality of that character.

GLUT: I did two original “Solomon Kane” stories that I really liked doing, though. I had him fight Dracula—a story that was a sequel to an earlier story written by Roy—that was a good one, and another where Kane went to the actual, historical Frankenstein castle in Darmstadt, Germany. I enjoyed those.

I had a good time with The Invaders, particularly the one where they meet Frankenstein’s monster [#31 (Aug. 1978)], because it was my tribute to all those pre-Code comics, particularly Dick Briefer’s “Frankenstein” stories in the wartime issues of Prize Comics. Some of which had the Monster in a Gestapo uniform fighting with—and then against—the Nazis. I loved doing that story!

My last two issues, the latter of which became a king-size issue [#40-41 (May-Sept. 1979]), were where The Invaders go to Chicago.

I grew up in Chicago, and two of the few things I ever missed about Chicago were the Field Museum in Grant Park, where I had part of the action in the comic staged, and Riverview Park, which was billed as the Ernie Chan world’s greatest amusement park. It was The talented Filipinotorn down in 1967. I was able to get photos born artist had of that amusement park and I sent them to previously been a the artist, Alan Kupperberg, who sadly just longtime inker of passed away recently. I wanted everything to Conan the Barbarian be in the right place, everything geographias “Ernie Chua.” cally correct. If you looked at one ride and turned your head 180 degrees away for that view, you’d actually see the ride that had been located 180 degrees away from the first ride.

I even brought local Chicago legends into the story. There was a local legend about the speed of the Bobs Rollercoaster. It turned out to be just that, a legend. The speed the rollercoaster was believed to travel wasn’t the real speed by any stretch of the imagination. There was another legend that one of the Strat-O-Stat planes broke off and flew into the Chicago River and killed some people. I put that in there, but instead of just having the cables break and the plane shooting into the river, I had the Sub-Mariner do the deed.

There were some errors. I had one with the Aladdin's Castle Fun

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An Interview With Dinosaur Don Glut

Dagar book. I never said that she was the same character in both books. I left it up to the readers to decide or figure it out.

In The Invaders, I introduced a character named Lady Lotus, who was an original character, created by me. She was obviously bi-sexual, but also probably omni-sexual. She comes on to the girl, she comes on to the guy, she comes on to The Human Torch and he tries to explain to her that he’s not actually human, he’s an android. She says, “I’m not that particular who I share my love with.”

She was a fun character to do. [much laughter]

David Wenzel Now a prominent illustrator of Tolkienesque fantasy, the artist painted this self-portrait a few years back. [© David Wenzel.]

Roy’s a little older than me, so he could relate to World War II better than I can. He put his heart and soul into those “Invaders” stories, and people responded to that. I think people can tell when you’re writing something you’re proud of and having a good time with.

RA: I think so, too.

The Vampire Strikes Back!

One of Don’s signal contributions to Marvel’s tales of Robert E. Howard’s first sword-and-sorcery hero, Solomon Kane, was this sequel to an earlier Roy Thomas/Alan Weiss encounter between the Puritan adventurer and Count Dracula, in the pages of The Savage Sword of Conan #26 (May 1978); art by David Wenzel & Marilitz. Its title: “Retribution in Blood.” Four issues earlier, the writer had found a way to involve an ancestor of Victor Frankenstein in one story. He also adapted a few of REH’s Kane tales and made up others of his own. Thanks to DG. [TM & © Solomon Kane Properties, LLD.]

House, from which Baron Blood steals a casket. The attraction had been repainted in the 1950s and that was the version that went in the comic, not the way it would have looked in the 1940s. Still, I loved doing that! Loved it!

I did another sort of unofficial company crossover with Dagar and Kull. Dagar’s girlfriend got fed up with his violent life and left. Then I had a very similar character show up in Kull with amnesia. [laughs] She had these vague memories of a sword-wielding boyfriend that she’d had.

When she finally got her memory back, she put on clothes that were very Alan Kupperberg Frank Springer similar to the clothing was then a young From the 1975 Marvel that she wore in the relative newcomer to the comics field.

Con program book.

Invaders From Marvel The splash from The Invaders #30 (July 1978)—Don Glut’s second outing on Marvel’s title that related World War II exploits of Captain America, Human Torch, and Sub-Mariner. (The splash of #29 is seen on p. 3.) Alan Kupperberg had likewise made his debut on #29, so editor Roy Thomas kept inker Frank Springer on the series to provide continuity, since the latter had embellished Frank Robbins’ pencils for the previous yearplus. Thanks to Barry Pearl for the page scans. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“[Gold Key] Didn’t Follow What Marvel Or DC Was Doing”

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That Toddlin’ Town…

(Left:) The Sub-Mariner faces the Nazi super-baddie called Master Man in Riverview Park, the amusement park that was one of the things L.A.-dweller Don Glut missed most about his native Chicago. From The Invaders #41 (Sept. 1979), the final issue in the original series, a 52-page special that printed two stories as one. Pencils by Alan Kupperberg, inks by Chic Stone.

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

Lotus Begin!

(Other three art spots on this page:) Lady Lotus was intended by Don to be equally interested in Golden Girl (the Japanese-American super-heroine introduced into the feature) and in Captain America, in these scenes from Invaders #38 & 41 (March & Sept. 1979). Pencils by Alan Kupperberg.

Inks by Chic Stone. Thanks to DG. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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An Interview With Dinosaur Don Glut

What If Don Glut Had Written Eight Issues Of What If? Scenes from three tales in Marvel’s What If? title that were scripted by Don Glut (clockwise from above left, with thanks to Barry Pearl for the scans:) Splash page of What If #5 (Oct. 1977), his first, in which Captain America and Bucky both survived World War II (this is pre-“Winter Soldier,” of course). Pencils by George Tuska, inks

by Russ Jones (who was rooming with editor/co-plotter Roy T. at the time)…

In What If #9 (June ’78)—the first gathering of a 1950s incarnation of the Avengers, a concept of RT’s that he had intended to co-star Venus, Marvel Boy, 3-D Man (Roy’s own co-creation), and maybe one or two others he’s forgotten now—and for which writer Don turned up The Human Robot and Gorilla-Man from old Timely horror/mystery comics and Jimmy Woo from The Yellow Claw. Pencils by Alan Kupperberg, inks by Bill Black.

Don didn’t write the cover copy for What If? #10 (Aug ’78)—RT did—but nothing captures the essence of his concept “What If Jane Foster Had Found the Hammer of Thor?” like Big John Buscema’s art therefor! In DG’s yarn, Dr. Don Blake’s nurse became Thordis, forerunner of the female Thor currently running around in Marvel’s mags (or so they tell Roy— they haven’t sent him any copies to read). [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

George Tuska From the 1975 Marvel Con program book.

John Buscema Ditto.

“[Gold Key] Didn’t Follow What Marvel Or DC Was Doing”

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Captains Courageous (Clockwise from above left:)

Sal Buscema From the 1975 Marvel Con program book.

Dick Purcell starred as Captain America in the 1944 Republic movie serial of that name—but minus Bucky, shield, and certain other aspects of his distinctive wardrobe—and with an alter ego of Grant Gardner, district attorney, rather than Steve Rogers! Oh—and with a pistol, something he didn’t employ in comics of the 1970s (although he had used rifles and machine-guns against enemy troops during WWII and Korea). Sadly, Purcell died only a short time after filming was completed.

Writer Don Glut, penciler Sal Buscema, and inker Joe Sinnott caught the spirit of that old cliffhanger in Captain America #219 (March 1978).

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] Don’s costume for a 1964 comics convention was far closer to the real McCap of the 1940s than was the serial—or, for that matter, the late-’70s TV movie made by Universal. (P.S.: He took first place.) Courtesy of DG.

GLUT: With the What If? stories, I always felt I could take the “bible” history of a character and tinker around with it. I’d base characters on stories I’d really loved when I was younger.

anybody reading it would know what it was all about. That had a lot of joy going into it. That one was probably my single favorite story from Marvel.

One of my all-time favorite stories for Marvel, though, was one I did for Captain America. Captain America goes to Hollywood to supervise the filming of the Captain America serial that Republic Pictures actually made in 1944. Roy didn’t actually know what Marvel still owned regarding that chapterplay, so, just in case, I made some changes. The original movie serial was fifteen chapters long, so I made the comic book version twelve chapters. Republic Pictures became Democracy Pictures, and so forth. The secret identity of the serial version of Captain America was a district attorney, so I made mine another higher-up figure in law enforcement, a police commissioner—perhaps with an unconscious nod to Gotham City’s Jim Gordon. But it was close enough that

Two things happened that led to my no longer writing comics.

Gold Key stopped publishing original comics because they said they weren’t selling, and then Jim Shooter came into Marvel [as editor-in-chief] and a lot of us West Coast contributors suddenly were out of a job. A lot of us West Coast people who’d been working for Marvel—writers and artists alike—took the next logical step. We went into television animation. So my writing career went from making most of my living writing comic book scripts to writing TV cartoon scripts.

That petered out after a while. There’s a thing in Hollywood called age bias. Once you reach a certain age, you’d better start

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An Interview With Dinosaur Don Glut

wrote the stories in the Warren style, and Sala liked them. He bought them “right off the bat,” so to speak. So it looks like that I may do future scripts for The Creeps magazine. It was fun. It was fast. He liked it. The check came in promptly, cleared, and everything was fine.

RA: Happy to hear that, because I have a subscription to the magazine, so I can look forward to reading them.

GLUT: Rich Sala is really making an effort to bring back as many living writers and artists from the Warren books as he can get. I know he’d like to get Steve Ditko, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. Rich Buckler has done some work there—also Frank Brunner and Ralph Reese. I’ll be attending a convention next week that both Rich Buckler and Don McGregor are attending, as well.

I’m looking forward to that.

And that, as they used to say in the newspaper biz (and in the old Jack Webb movie), is “30”!

You Give Me The Creeps!

A page by writer Don Glut and artist Mansyur Daman from The Creeps #4 (Winter 2015)—a new black-&-white comics magazine from Warrant Publishing Company, under publisher/editor Rich Sala. Richard Arndt reports that the mag “started out as a prozine effort emulating the Warren books and sold via the Internet… has just gotten national newsstand/comic shop distribution with #4.” Thanks to DG. [TM & © Warrant Publishing Co.]

looking for another job. The studio heads really want everybody to look golden and young around the studio. After a while, it stops being about your skills or your ability to come up with new ideas, and it becomes based on your age or looks.

Still, that led to my being able to direct movies, which is what I’ve been doing. So right now, I’m in postproduction on a werewolf movie and in preproduction on the Frankenstein movie adaptation I mentioned earlier that I’m financing myself. I may be doing some “Saturday morning”-type cartoons again for a different country in the Middle East. I may be writing a big-budget anime movie in Japan. I have a meeting in about three weeks on that.

I ran into Rich Buckler recently at a convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and he urged me to do some comics. So, thanks to Rich’s suggestion I connected with Rich Sala, who’s the publisher/editor of The Creeps black-&-white horror magazine, and I’m writing comics again. I wrote two stories which he’s already bought and which should be coming out in #4 of that book.

These are the first comic stories I’ve written since the early 1980s. I wasn’t sure I could move back into it easily, but I wrote the two stories in the same exact style that I wrote for the old Warren books. Every company has its own way of preparing scripts, so I

A Glut Of Heroes A 2015 headshot of Donald F. Glut, surrounded by art from some of the comics features he has scripted over the years. [Dr. Spektor, Dagar, & Tragg art TM & © Random House, under license to Classic Media, Inc.; Captain America, Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, & Thor/Thordis art TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; Uncle Creepy art TM & © New Comic Company, LLC; Kull art TM & © Kull Properties, LLC; Solomon Kane art TM & © Solomon Kane Properties, LLC.; Star Wars art TM & © Lucasfilm/Disney; Tarzan art TM & © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.; Cobra Woman art © DFI.]

“[Gold Key] Didn’t Follow What Marvel Or DC Was Doing”

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DON GLUT 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 Jerry G. Bails and viewable at www.bailsprojects.com. Names of features that appeared both in comic books with that title and in other magazines, as well, are generally not italicized. Some information provided by Don Glut, including info past 2005, the last date when data was added to the Who’s Who. All credits are as writer except where otherwise identified.]

Name: Donald F. Glut (b. 1944) – writer Pen Names in Other Media: Don Grant, Johnny Jason, Victor Morrison, Rod Richmond, Mick Rogers, Adam Spektor, Dave Steele, Bradley D. Thorne Education: B.A. (Cinema) UCLA Family in Arts: Linda Glut (former wife) Influences: EC Comics, Joe Kubert, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley Member: AFTRA; Comic Art Professionals Society (CAPS); Dinosaur Society; Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists; Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists; Society of Vertebrate Paleontologists; Writers Guild of America West

Harmon-izing Don Glut (on left) and his late friend Jim Harmon worked on many projects together—including the Marvel mag Monsters of the Movies, of which Jim was editor and Don an associate editor. The cover of the first issue was painted by Bob Larkin. Photo courtesy of DG. [Cover TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Associate Editor: E-Go Collectors Series; Henry Winkler Magazine; King of the Monsters; Monsters of the Movies

Writer (Animation): Duck Tales (Disney) 1987; Astro and the Space Mutts, Biskitts, Frankenstones, Monchhichis, New Shmoo, Space Stars, Young Sentinels, (all 1976-78, Filmation); Dyno-Mutt, Godzilla, Scooby Doo, Popeye, Super-Friends (all 1977, Hanna-Barbera); Tarzan (197079, Ruby-Spears); Hulk, Spider-Man (1980-89, Sunbow)

Contributing Editor: Prevue magazine 1987

Performing Arts (Film): Extra in King Kong 1976

Editor & Writer: Modern Monsters 1966; Classic Movie Monsters; Dinosaur Dictionary; Dinosaur Scrapbook; Dinosaurs; The Dracula Book; Monsters Activity Book; Frankenstein Catalog; The Frankenstein Legend; Freakout on Sunset Strip; Great Movie Serials; Great Television Heroes; Mammoths; New Dinosaur Dictionary; True Vampires of History (all dates but first uncertain)

Performing Arts (TV): Breck commercial, et al. 1964

Artist: CAPS Portfolio 1978

Non-Fiction Writer: Articles in American Way, The Comic Book Book, E-Go Collectors Series, Famous Monsters of Filmland, Frankenstein File, Frankenstein Monster, Grit, Henry Winkler Magazine, Incredible Science Fiction, King of Monsters, Mediascene/Prevue, MGM’s Wizard of Oz (Marvel & DC co-venture), Monsters of the Movies, Monsters Unleashed, Natural History, Pizzazz, Radio Western Adventures, Right On!, Science Fiction Illustrated, Search, Terra, Tiger Beat, TV’s Dynamic Heroes, Vampire Tales Writer (Juvenile Books): Incredible Hulk ’80, Pink Panther ’80 (both 1980), Battle of the Clouds, He-Man & the Power Sword (dates uncertain) Writer (Novels): King of Castle Grayskull, Frankenstein [11 titles 1971+] Writer: Record album liner notes Writer (Short Stories) 1971+: Demon Stone, Dr. Karnstein’s Creation, F.R.A.N.K.E.N.S.T.E.I.N., Ranger to Eternity, Origin of a Super-Hero, Tragg & the Jaws of Death, To Be Frank, Valley of the Shadow, Vengeance of Skeletor

Magician: Amateur performances Musician: rock group [clubs and records] 1960s Writer (Films): Hell Squad 1981 (Cinevid; not credited or paid); Dinosaur Valley Girls 1996; Scarlet Countess (aka The Erotic Rites of Countess Dracula) 2001; The Mummy’s Kiss 2003; Countess Dracula’s Orgy of Blood 2004; The Mummy’s Kiss: 2nd Dynasty 2006; Blood Scarab 2008 (all films 1996-2008 released through Frontline Entertainment); She-Wolves (currently in post-production, Pecosborn Productions, co-written & co-directed by Dan Golden— title will probably change); Tales of Frankenstein (Pecosborn, in production) Writer (TV): Shazam!; Land of the Lost (both 1970s) Honors: American Library Association Award for one of the best reference works of 1972; Galaxy Award 1980; Inkpot Award (San Diego Comic-Con) 1980 Comics in Other Media: various features (as writer) in Adam, Adam Prime, Choice, Players Co-Creator (as Writer): Dagar the Invincible, Dr. Spektor, Tragg and the Sky Gods British Comics: Tarzan Weekly 1977

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An Interview With Dinosaur Don Glut

Skywald Publication Co.: Psycho c. 1972 Warren Publications: backup features 1969-70, 1972 in Vampirella; Creepy 1969-80; Eerie 1969-73, 1981

Chic Stone had been the inker of Fantastic Four in the early mid-’60s.

From the Marvel Con Program Book.

Western Publishing: Believe It or Not 1970-79; Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery 1970-79; Bugs Bunny 1970-79; Dagar the Invincible 1972-77; Disney features 1970-79; Doctor Spektor Presents SpineTingling Tales 1975-76; Gold Key Spotlight 1977; Golden Digest 1976-77; Grimm’s Ghost Stories 197579; The Little Monsters 1970-79; Mystery Comics Digest 1972-73; The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor 1973-77; Porky Pig 1970-79; Space Family Robinson 1970-79; Spine-Tingling Tales 1970-75, 1976-79; text 1976-77; Tragg and the Sky Gods 1975-77, 1982; Tweety & Sylvester 1970-79; The Twilight Zone 1972-79; Walt Disney’s Comics Digest 1970-79

The Invaders Meet Frankenstein To no one’s surprise, the first time Don got a chance to choose the theme of an Invaders issue, they encountered Mary Shelley’s iconic Monster, in #31’s “Heil Frankenstein!,” cover-dated Aug. 1978. Art by Chic Stone & Bill Black.

Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

COMIC BOOK CREDITS (U.S. Mainstream Publications): Archie Comic Publications: Chilling Adventures in Sorcery 1973; Mad House 1974; Red Circle Sorcery 1974-75 Charlton Comics: Ghost Manor 1976; Ghostly Haunts 1976; Ghostly Tales 1977; mystery/occult 1975 DC Comics: House of Mystery 1974, 1978, 1981; House of Secrets 1974 Marvel Comics: Arrgh! 1975; Captain America 1978; Ghost Rider 1977; horror 1974; The Invaders 1978-79; Kull the Destroyer 1977-78; MGM’s Marvelous Wizard of Oz (text pieces—joint Marvel/DC venture) 1975; Solomon Kane 1977-80; Savage Sword of Conan (backup stories) 1977-80; Star Wars 1978; text 1970s; Thor 1979; 3-D Man (plot assist), 1977; Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction 1975-76; Vampire Tales 1974; What If? 1977-80

Under Western Skies (Above:) The Frankenstein Monster battles a werewolf (actually a lycanthropic form of Adam Spektor himself) in Gold Key’s The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor #12 (Feb. 1975).

(Left:) Don went way back with the Frankenstein Monster. Here he is reading Dick Briefer’s iconic Frankenstein horror comics in 1958—which, by then, were already several years old. Courtesy of DG. [TM & © Random House, under license to Classic Media, Inc.]

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

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ACBA—The Academy Of Comic Book Arts Sal Amendola circa 1974. Photo courtesy of the artist/teacher.

A Bird’s-Eye View Of Comics Creators’ 1970s Professional Association

by Sal Amendola

A/E EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: ACBA—the Academy of Comic Book Arts—was formed in 1970 as the comic book industry’s equivalent of the National Cartoonists Society, a group made up (especially in that era) primarily of newspaper comic strip artists, and which did not actively seek out members from the comic book field. Ironically, for an association that contained so many writers and editors, there seems to be nothing like a complete record anywhere of either ACBA’s doings or its meetings… only accounts, if one peruses comics and fanzines of the day, of the several years’ worth of Shazam Awards it handed out. In the interest of hopefully jump-starting a history of ACBA and inducing other comics pros to share their memories—via e-mails, letters, or full-scale interviews or articles—we asked longtime artist Sal Amendola to scribe his own recollections of the organization.

Why Sal? Well, first and foremost: several years ago, out of the blue, he sent Ye Editor a collection of professionally taken photos of industry personnel at the 1973 ACBA Banquet, at which the Shazam Awards for the preceding year were handed out. (This particular group of photos, alas, proved elusive at the time of this publication, but will see the light of day in an early issue.) Sal was a young and upcoming artist at that time, was associated with ACBA directly or indirectly for much of its existence, and, being until 2015 an instructor at the well-known School of Visual Arts in New York City, has a more than passing interest in the field’s history. So I asked him if he could write a very informal piece about ACBA as a starting-point for a history of the 1970-75 organization… and he concurred, as witness what follows. One may disagree with some of his judgments—and Ye Ed does, hopefully good-naturedly, in some of the accompanying captions, which are written in order to give supplementary information and memories from Ye Ed, who was an ACBA board member for most of its five-year existence. But first and foremost, let’s let Sal share his remembrances with us…

A

s for an ACBA “History”—here’s what I know: Stan [Lee, editor of Marvel Comics] had the idea to start the Academy.

The Academy’s full name was originally to have been “The Academy of Comic Book Arts and Sciences” (perhaps after the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences). For whatever reason(s), the “and Sciences” was dropped. Personally, for several reasons, I wish the latter words had been retained.

Stan called Carmine [Infantino, editorial director of DC Comics] in on it. This, perhaps, was to make it a joint effort by the two top rival companies—at once keeping it from appearing to be a perhaps-“corporate” Marvel enterprise, and also ensuring that it would become something that would inevitably come to encompass the entire comic book industry.

As Stan, and then Carmine, had envisioned it, I believe, the

ACBA Goes To Mars Amendola’s first full-art assignment on the “John Carter of Mars” feature appeared in DC’s Weird Worlds #3 (April-May 1973). Done during the ACBA years, it was scripted by Marv Wolfman. Sal’s first pencil job for the series, in WW #2, had been inked by Joe Orlando. During this period, the (unofficial) cover title of the comic was Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Weird Worlds. [TM & © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.]

Academy was intended for the benefit of the people who actually created the comics: not the publishers, distributors, or dealers (“dealers” in those days being newsstand operators, candy stores, and pharmacists), except indirectly; i.e.: happy, respected workers produce increasingly profitable (as well as creative) products that would make the non-creators happy as they have their business managers’ accountants fill out their ever-enlarging personal and corporate monthly bank deposit slips.

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A Bird’s-Eye View Of Comics Creators’ 1970s Professional Organization

the other way ’round? I believe Ralph Reese was fourth and final president.

All meetings after Stan turned over the presidency to his successor were held at Dick’s and Neal’s Continuity Associates “studios,” including under Ralph’s presidency.

After several years, I tried to get the Academy’s dormant bank account, which by then had been transferred to the State, transferred to the National Cartoonists Society’s account. We can make an easy argument that just the existence of the Academy, at least to some degree, was what had gotten the artists the return of our artwork, the writers and artists some reprint money (paltry though it may have been and as easily rescinded as Archie Comics found it to be), and all our other “rights” and “benefits.”

Stan Lee & Carmine Infantino Circa-1973 photo of Stan Lee, by then the publisher of Marvel Comics—and a 1972 pic of Carmine Infantino, who in the early ’70s was promoted from DC Comics’ editorial director to its publisher. In 1970, Lee persuaded Infantino to lend his name to the cause of founding the Academy of Comic Book Arts.

Thanks to Ger Apeldoorn for the Lee image, and to Vince Davis for the Infantino photo taken at the ’72 San Diego Comic-Con. Roy Thomas adds: “Carmine wasn’t the only pro who felt that anyone who was ‘management’—which included being an editor of any kind—shouldn’t be eligible to be a member of ACBA. I distinctly remember how, at the group’s first big general meeting (probably still in 1970), artist/writer Joe Kubert, then a DC editor, forcefully voiced that same opinion to the assemblage. Though Joe was/is one of my artistic idols, I took the floor after him, to strenuously disagree: the way the comics industry was set up, I argued, anyone who was a writer or artist today was likely to become an editor tomorrow (as witness Joe himself)—and of course vice versa. That would mean that people would constantly be first eligible, then ineligible, then perhaps eligible again, to be in ACBA. In the end, Stan’s view—which was also mine, though the two of us hadn’t coordinated our opinions— prevailed. When Stan became Marvel’s publisher in 1972, he stepped away from playing an active part in ACBA. I did much the same after becoming Marvel’s editor-in-chief. By the way, though Sal states that Carmine wasn’t doing any ‘creator’-type work in 1972, I’m relatively certain that, as DC’s editorial director and perhaps even as publisher, he was still doing some cover roughs.”

It probably seemed a natural thing to both Stan and Carmine, “management” though they may have been, that they should have considered conceiving such an organization, since both had been (and Stan continued even then to be) comic book creators.

Carmine decided to drop out of the proposed organization once it had gotten underway—supposedly because, as top executive at one of the top comic book publishers, he thought it inappropriate, perhaps unseemly, to have any dealings with it at all. My belief is that, in principle, Carmine was right.

At Archie [Comics] once, [John] Goldwater actually put in an appearance in their production room. There was an ACBA meeting coming up. He said to all of us something like, “You don’t want to go to their meetings, do you?” There was an awkward silence, and he walked out. I then scribbled onto a background billboard in an “Archie” story that I did, “ACBA meeting, 4th,” the day of a subsequent meeting.

Goldwater was a guest at one of the meetings. I asked him what he’d like to drink. He asked for tea. He never touched it.

The Academy had a yearly awards banquet.

Its regular membership meetings tried to feature some special guest or deal with all manner of technical, financial, creative issues, and other issues relevant to the membership.

ACBA tried, too, to get the membership and the industry in general involved in charitable and other community works.

Stan is now credited historically as the guy who “broke the Code,” when in fact it was an effort that had long been in process by the Academy, DC Comics (in an effort to get out their Green Lantern/Green Arrow “drug books”—good ol’ Marv Wolfman made us conscious that they should be called “anti-drug books”), and even by Leonard Darvin himself, the director of “the Code.” As then-secretary of the Academy, I was with Neal and Dick up at Darvin’s offices, and at a lunch with them, as they had some of their discussions.

Stan saw no conflict in his dual position, and accepted being voted the Academy’s first president.

The ACBA ad hoc meeting and the first year or so of board meetings were held in Stan’s office.

Was Neal [Adams] the second president and Dick [Giordano] the third, or was it

Setting A President (Left to right:) Artists Dick Giordano, Neal Adams, and Ralph Reese were apparently the second, third, and fourth presidents of ACBA. Reese holds a certificate which represents an ACBA/Shazam Award; thanks to Ralph for the photo. Thanks to Bob Baily for sending the Adams-drawn heads of himself and Giordano from a 1971 DC page announcing the company’s quasi-sweep of the first ACBA Awards. [© DC Comics.]

ACBA—The Academy Of Comic Book Arts

39

the one and only issue that was printed, that publishers would not be given copies. This was supposedly to make contributors not feel afraid to state opinions. Stan was angry and offended. I took the rap for the decision.

Signs Of The Times According to Sal Amendola, 1970s Archie president (and company co-founder) John Goldwater was definitely not a fan of the concept of ACBA. Above is the panel in the “Archie” story “Extra Special Evening,” from Pep #317 (Sept. 1976), into which penciler Sal mischievously added a billboard reference to an upcoming ACBA meeting—at a time, alas, when the organization was a mere shadow of its former self. Writer: Jim Ruth.

Inker: Jon D’Agostino. [TM & © Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

I’d actually forgotten that you [Roy] were the first guy to do the newsletter. I had become so wrapped up in all my own “adventures” getting those things done (and the ACBA FORA) that I had come to feel like I was the only one doing them (some of the writing, some of the spot drawings, all of the mechanicals and printing, almost all of the folding, mailing, “yada yada…”). In the FORA, I was told to specify, in

John Goldwater A 1943 photo of the co-founder of MLJ, the company that eventually became Archie Comic Publications, Inc., under himself as publisher. With thanks to Mike Tiefenbacher.

I was disappointed in all the backbiting and scapegoating between the organization’s board members.

I was disappointed in a couple of guys who saw their positions on the board as a means toward getting professional accounts for themselves through ACBA, rather than sharing such opportunities with the membership (I’ll neverever stop being a “goody-two-shoes” idealist!).

Perhaps the most “intriguing” time for me was when I was sent to respond to some supposed student committee of some university (Columbia, perhaps). The address to which I was sent was some otherwise abandoned, dark apartment, the entrance to which was through an alley.

The Comics Code Is Drug Kicking And Screaming…

(Left:) Sal believes writer/editor Stan Lee has been given too much credit for “breaking the Code” because he persuaded Marvel’s then-publisher Martin Goodman to put out Amazing Spider-Man #96-98 (May-July 1971) minus the Code seal when the Comic Magazine Association of America and its Code Authority refused to okay the first of those three so-called “drug issues.” As Sal says, folks at DC and elsewhere had also long wanted to push the Code to change. Still, the fact remains that the Code was altered only after—and, I would argue, at least largely because—the Marvel story arc was published. This page from ASM #97 by Stan Lee (writer), Gil Kane (penciler), and Frank Giacoia (inker) shows Harry Osborn in the throes of his addiction, even though no attempt was made to specify which particular drug he might’ve been taking. To Stan and to the government entity that asked him to do such a storyline, the point was: they were all bad. Thanks to Barry Pearl for the scan. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Above:) That said: to further give credit where credit is due, it was definitely scripter Denny O’Neil and penciler Neal Adams (with inking by Dick Giordano and editing by Julius Schwartz) who published a harder-hitting drug story in Green Lantern #85-86, as per Adams’ cover for the former, cover-dated Aug.-Sept. ’71— the first such tale ever printed with the approval of the Code. [TM & © DC Comics.]

40

A Bird’s-Eye View Of Comics Creators’ 1970s Professional Organization

Inside the apartment, I was faced by a group of conspiratorial college-aged students sitting on one side of a long boardroom-like table. They’d wanted to commission comic book writers and artists to create a comic book that these students (?) would have published, wherein the super-villains would be Stan, Goodman, Archie Comics’ Goldwater, Carmine and the higher DC executives, and Darvin. I pretended enthusiasm for the idea, looking at their cover sketch, giving “input,” and promising that ACBA would be back in touch with them with prospective writers and artists. All the while, I was thinking, “Feets, get me out of here!” Dick and Neal told me to simply not get back in touch with them.

If you want much more of an ACBA history beyond this, Roy, I’d probably not be the right guy for the job. Truth is, I don’t think anyone would be. I think many of us could give personal anecdotes that might be put together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The pieces would be deceptive. Some would look like they’d fit perfectly somewhere, but just wouldn’t; some would look like they couldn’t fit anywhere, but eventually would. All the anecdotes (like mine), no matter how true, are still filtered memories with forgotten details.

I can’t imagine asking Stan: how often he himself has said that he really just doesn’t remember something or other. Ask Carmine?

Shazam!

The precise physical aspect of ACBA’s Shazam Awards tended to change from year to year, though all of them utilized the original Captain Marvel’s magic lightningbolt. Here are three examples from Roy Thomas’ shelf: (Above left:) Both these Awards, with different forms for different years, utilized “golden” metal thunderbolts—one with the ’bolt’s sharp end impaled in a transparent base… the other with a smaller ’bolt totally enclosed in a transparent piece of plastic. Roy’s not sure of the precise year either was given, except that the former came before the latter. The latter was awarded in 1974 (or possibly ’75) for a catch-all category, “Superior Achievement by an Individual.” As seen in A/E #58, he and his bride Dann used the earlier ’bolt as the centerpiece of their wedding cake in May 1981.

(Above right:) Matching the type seen in the photo of Ralph Reese on p. 38, this paper certificate was handed out to Roy in 1972 as the “Best Writer Award, Dramatic Division” for calendar year 1971. He’s reasonably certain it was he who had it laminated onto a wooden plaque… clearly before ACBA’s president got a chance to sign it! Both photos by Dann Thomas.

First off, he still says he doesn’t want to talk about the past, and when he does, then there’s his “filter,” even though I know he’s telling the truth [as he sees it]. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was written before Carmine Infantino’s passing in 2013.] It would take a more aggressive, tenacious personality than I, with time to get in touch with all the still-living people involved, and asking very specific questions. And then trying to fit all those pieces into as close to a whole truth as possible.

ACBA’s Last Hurrah This photo—previously seen in A/E #140—is reprinted so soon because it commemorates one of the last public surfacings of ACBA. In late 1975, a press conference was held in the Allied Chemical Building in Times Square, NYC, to express support for “Superman” co-creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, not long after the first big-budget Superman movie was announced. Roy Thomas (standing, center) was asked by Neal Adams, one of the primary organizers of the event, to read an official ACBA statement Adams had drafted on behalf of Siegel and Shuster; Neal (not in photo) felt that, given his involvement in organizing the event, he should not read the statement himself. Ironically, by this point ACBA was basically a moribund organization, so this became, in a sense, virtually its last hurrah… but for a good cause: namely, gaining credit and remuneration for Siegel and Shuster. In the wake of the unfavorable publicity, Warner and DC quickly capitulated. The 1978 film would feature a full-screen credit for Siegel and Shuster, they were granted lifetime pensions, and their byline was restored in the comics and other media.

(L. to r., sitting:) artist Joe Shuster, New York Daily News sports cartoonist & writer Bill Gallo (reading a statement on behalf of the National Cartoonists Society, representing comic strip people), writer Jerry Siegel. (L. to r., standing:) Irwin Hasen, drawing his comic strip co-creation Dondi shedding a tear for Superman and his creators… Roy Thomas… Burne Hogarth (Tarzan, etc.)… Alfred Andriola (Kerry Drake)… John Pierotti (editorial cartoonist)…

Jerry Robinson (Still Life)… Harry Devlin (magazine cartoonist). The photo originally appeared in the NCS’s 1976 Reuben Awards program book; retrieved

by Jim Kealy.

I sincerely hope the above will prove helpful.

Sal Amendola taught from 1974 to 2015 at the School of Visual Arts, and today spends much of his time painting. Beginning in 1971, he drew comics stories for DC (“Dr. Mid-Nite,” “John Carter of Mars,” “Batman,” et al.), Marvel (where he was an associate editor), Archie (mystery stories and four years’ worth of Archie & His Gang), Atlas/Seaboard (“Phoenix”), and Charlton (“Six Million Dollar Man”).

NOTE: Copies of the irregularly published issues of the Academy of Comic Book Arts Newsletter are fairly rare—and very few of them were extensively illustrated. On the following eight pages is reproduced the entirety of the Newsletter, Vol. 1, #21 (June 1973), which was published to document the Academy’s Third Annual Shazam Awards Banquet, a dinner held at a restaurant in Manhattan for the purpose of handing out the ACBA Awards. A modicum of commentary from A/E’s editor is printed below each page.

Sal Amendola A recent photo of Sal teaching at the School of Visual Arts. Photo by Michael Weisbrot.

ACBA—The Academy Of Comic Book Arts

41

The use of “Shazam” as the name of the ACBA Award, with a lightning bolt as its visual equivalent, had been proposed by Roy Thomas. His impeccable 1970 logic was that the original Captain Marvel’s “magic word” was known even to the general public (through its use in newspaper headlines, etc.). In addition, the fact that Fawcett’s 1953 legal settlement with DC prohibited it from ever again publishing (or allowing to be published) stories of Captain Marvel meant that the word “Shazam” would never again be associated with any individual publisher. Only two years later, of course, DC made arrangements with Fawcett to publish a Shazam! comic book. (P.S.: Cory Adams, seen above, was Neal’s then wife.)

42

A Bird’s-Eye View Of Comics Creators’ 1970s Professional Organization

The fact that artist Neal Adams was the president of ACBA at this time (probably completing a term that had begun in 1972) would seem to indicate that he was the Academy’s third president, which suggests that artist Dick Giordano was its second (after Stan Lee). If so, this answers a question posed by Sal Amendola in the main text. Gerda Gattel, incidentally, had originally been a well-respected proofreader for Timely Comics, moving to DC during one of the former company’s down periods.

ACBA—The Academy Of Comic Book Arts

43

The 1973 banquet, of course, was held primarily to hand out Shazam Awards for the previous year, covering comic books with cover dates from January through December of ’72. Notes: Artist Bernie Wrightson then spelled his first name “Berni,” while the nickname of Jean Thomas (Roy’s then-wife) was generally spelled “Jeanie.” That’s writer Gerry Conway seen behind her and Roy in the middle pic. In the Mike Ploog photo at lower left: while it perhaps isn’t made clear in the Newsletter caption, that’s young Michael W. Kaluta seen behind Ploog’s left shoulder.

44

A Bird’s-Eye View Of Comics Creators’ 1970s Professional Organization

A montage of 1972 Award-winners mentioned on this page can be seen on p. 49. Archie Goodwin’s wife Ann even then went by the name Ann Murphy, not Ann Goodwin. Non-comics person Debby Burhans (mentioned on this page, seen on the facing one) was Sal A.’s date that night. Mark Hanerfeld, in the same caption and photo, was primarily a comics fan, but served in the late ’60s as an assistant at DC and wrote a handful of stories there. Seen at the bottom right of this page, in a photo that overlaps onto the next, is the mustachioed cartoonist Sergio Aragonés of Mad magazine.

ACBA—The Academy Of Comic Book Arts

Vicente Alcazar was a Spanish-born artist who did work for Marvel, DC, et al. Alan Kupperberg was then a neophyte artist. Flo Steinberg, Marvel’s corresponding secretary during the ’60s, was by 1973 working for Warren Publishing’s merchandising arm, The Captain Company. Steve Englehart was a Marvel writer (Captain America, et al.), Arlene Williamson the wife of artist Al Williamson (see p. 6 of Newsletter). Staffer Stu Schwartzberg was writing/drawing humor stories for Marvel. Linda Trimpe, wife of artist Herb Trimpe, did some scripting for Marvel.

45

46

A Bird’s-Eye View Of Comics Creators’ 1970s Professional Organization

E. Nelson Bridwell was an editor at DC Comics, primarily of reprint titles; he had also co-created and written The Inferior Five. Steve Harper was a young comics artist, Steve Mitchell an up-and-coming inker. In 1975 writer Mary Skrenes would co-create Omega the Unknown for Marvel with friend/fellow scribe Steve Gerber. EC Comics legend Al Williamson wasn’t working in the comic book industry at this point; he was illustrating the newspaper comic strip Secret Agent Corrigan, which was scripted by his friend Archie Goodwin.

ACBA—The Academy Of Comic Book Arts

47

Elliot Maggin (who often bylined his middle initial as “S!”) was a writer for DC, in particular of “Superman” stories. Steve Skeates had begun his professional life as a Marvel staffer, then wrote for Charlton, later for DC. Glyn Wein, then Len’s wife, was at this time a colorist for Marvel. Linda Lessman worked in Marvel’s production department for several years; she later married artist Bill Reinhold.

48

A Bird’s-Eye View Of Comics Creators’ 1970s Professional Organization

While the anonymous writer of this Newsletter (not RT) lists Roy T. as “writer/editor” of the 1972 Conan the Barbarian, Stan Lee was the official editor of the first two (of that year’s ten) issues, before he became Marvel’s publisher. Jean Giraud (whose name is misspelled, and who was not present to pick up his award) is the real name of the French cartoonist also known as “Moebius”; as “Gir” he also drew the famed French comic strip Lt. Blueberry. As noted, all photos in the Newsletter were taken by Michele Wolfman, then the wife of Marv Wolfman.

ACBA—The Academy Of Comic Book Arts

49

And The Winners Were…

Here’s a sampling of art and script from the winning entries in the 1972 Shazam Award sweepstakes—plus a photo of two recipients not pictured in the foregoing ACBA Newsletter.

John Albano A later photo of the scripter, who also co-created “Jonah Hex.” Thanks to Mark Evanier.

John Costanza Conan The Barbarian #20 (Nov. 1972) CTB was voted Best Continuing Feature. Writer/editor Roy Thomas; penciler (and de facto co-plotter) Barry Smith, later Barry Windsor-Smith; inker Dan Adkins. Two of 1972’s ten issues of the title were penciled by Gil Kane. [TM & © Conan Properties International, LLD.]

House Of Mystery #201 (April 1972) Best Short Story, Dramatic: “The Demon Within.” John Albano, writer; Jim Aparo, artist; Joe Orlando, editor.

[TM & © DC Comics.]

House of Mystery #202 (May 1972) Best Humor Story: “The Poster Plague.”

Steve Skeates, writer; Sergio Aragonés, artist; Joe Orlando, editor. [TM & © DC Comics.]

Swamp Thing #1 (Oct.-Nov. 1972) Best Feature-Length Story: “Dark Genesis!” Len Wein, writer; Berni Wrightson, artist; Joe Orlando, editor. [TM & © DC Comics.]

A 1981 photo of the ACBA Awardwinning letterer.

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[Green Lantern TM & © DC Comics.]

52

Michael T.: The Fanzine Years! (Part 2)

Michael T.: The Fanzine Years!

(Part 2)

M

y first comicon almost killed me.

As a young teen, my comic trading buddies had regaled me with tales of a fabled gathering in New York called a “comic convention”—a magical place where fans could find old Golden Age comics and meet actual cartoonists. But in 1966 I was a broke 14-year-old, stuck in the Levittown suburbs. Traveling alone on the Long Island Railroad to the big city was way too intimidating for this scaredy cat. But, a couple of years later, I finally managed to save enough to attend the 1968 SCARP-Con, run by Phil Seuling, Maurice Horn, and others in Manhattan.

During the four-day convention, I kept costs down by crashing at Grandma Nurock’s apartment in the Bronx, a subway ride away from the con. It was fitting punishment, since she was the one who’d got me hooked on comics as a kid. Besides, the upscale Hilton charged a princely $11 a night. Who could afford that?

I rarely get too excited by cons nowadays, but at 16 this was a BIG! DEAL! On the big day, heart tripping, I exited the subway and entered the Statler Hilton. Almost fifty years later, the details are hazy. Will Eisner and Burne Hogarth were listed as guests for the con’s Special Luncheon, but who had money for that when there were stacks and stacks of old comics everywhere?

I was particularly eager to pick up EC comics, including less popular “New Direction” titles like Impact and Aces High, which were the cheapest. Maybe they weren’t as sexy as Tales from the Crypt, but they still had superb work by Reed Crandall, Johnny Craig, George Evans, and other EC stalwarts. Condition? I didn’t care. Even coverless copies were acceptable if I could get them cheap enough. The more the merrier!

Zippy!

Michael was 15 when he drew the above illo for his high school literary magazine. The budding cartoonist had just discovered a hidden stash of Zip-a-tone in the art department and really went to town! From Perceptions 1967 (June 1967), Island Trees Senior High. [© 2016 Michael T. Gilbert]

I spent days at the con, dragging myself, exhausted, on the subway each night to Gram’s Grand Concourse apartment. Food?

Positively Ditko-esque!

Pen Pals!

Michael, age 19, displayed his art at an amateur art contest at the 1970 New York Comics Convention.

This included his Ditko-inspired Spider-Man montage (above) and his The Adventures of God cover (seen on next page). [Spider-Man TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Michael’s 1970 comic booklet, signed by Berni Wrightson, Neal Adams, Kenneth Smith, Dick Giordano, Archie Goodwin, and Frank Frazetta. What... no Roy Thomas?!

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

53

Ha! What true fan would spend good money on such trivialities when there were musty comics to buy? This was a once-in-alifetime opportunity to snag Golden Age comics!

Gram’s fridge was mostly empty, so for the duration of the con I survived on stale peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. By the end of day four, I was so starved and exhausted that my face broke out in a horrible case of hives.

But it was worth it. Best... Con… EVER! However the 1968 comicon definitely taught me the value of pacing oneself.

Con Artists!

As an aspiring cartoonist, I dreamed of someday being invited to the New York Comics Convention myself. It took a couple more decades, but that dream did eventually come true. I made return trips to the Seuling cons from 1969 (Phil’s first con on his own) until I moved to California in early 1975 (skipping the 1972 con to attend the first EC con).

In the process, I saw some actual pros—and a young man on the verge of becoming one of comics’ greatest superstars.

That story began with me waiting for a panel to begin at the 1968 con. Nearby, a small crowd began to form around a tall gangly kid a few years older than me, displaying an oversized portfolio. Curious, I looked over his shoulder and saw some jawdropping EC-inspired pages. The story was young Bernie Wrightson’s early horror masterpiece, “Uncle Bill’s Barrel.” Though not as slick as his later Swamp Thing and Frankenstein work, it was clear that this was an extraordinary talent.

I didn’t know it at the time, but this was the very con at which Bernie would be introduced to DC art director Carmine Infantino, leading to the young artist’s first pro assignment. But I knew him when!

No Sacrilege Intended!

Bernie and I crossed paths again at the 1973 con when I gave him a copy of New Paltz Comix #1, featuring my first comic book stories. Bernie was incredibly sweet and encouraging—remarkably so for someone who was now one of the top artists in the business.

I’ve never forgotten his kindness.

When Michael T. drew this faux comic book cover for his art class at NY’s Suffolk Community College in 1970, he figured, if Thor was worthy of his own comic, why not the ultimate deity? And why couldn’t God specialize in tiny miracles, like finding a home for a family of birds in an abandoned urinal? How cute! [© 2016 Michael T. Gilbert]

In the decades since, I’ve attended many more conventions as both fan and pro, but my first 1968 con remains the most exciting.

Meanwhile…

By Brightest Night!

Michael and his pal Harvey Sobel entered the costume contest at the 1971 NY Con, with Michael as Green Lantern and Harvey as Green Arrow. The winner? Future cartoonist Mike Zeck’s Black Bolt! Michael and Harvey also donned their costumes when riding on a float at Tom Fagan’s famous Rutland Halloween parade a few months later.

Money from odd jobs funded my comic collecting, and allowed me to keep up with the latest issues. At first I worked at my dad’s tailor shop on Saturdays, but later scored my dream job at a local drugstore, at least for a couple of months. Actually, the job itself wasn’t that great, but one of the perks was. The drugstore had a large comic book section, and I got a 40% discount. The owners recovered most of their money every week!

Hmm! Speaking of that drugstore, I recall walking my new girlfriend, Jan Goodman, home after school. I was in 11th grade, having moved from Levittown to Commack, NY, that year. On the way, we passed the drugstore and stopped in to look at magazines. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted the last copy of Creepy #21 sitting on the rack.

I started to grab it when my date stopped me cold.

“You don’t read magazines like that, do you?” she asked contemptuously. It was a classic scene right out of Seduction of the Innocent.

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Michael T.: The Fanzine Years! (Part 2)

I didn’t hesitate. Eyes blazing, I pulled myself to my full 5' 5" height.

“Me? Read this?” I gingerly placed the offending magazine back on the rack. ”Gulp! Not me. Heh!” Okay, I’ll own it. I was a weenie. In my defense, I should point out this was in 1967, and Warren was on the cusp of bankruptcy.

The issue consisted of old reprints drawn by great artists, as well as new stories by lesser talents who worked cheap.

Still, you know the drill. No matter how lame the issue, we nerds hate to break up a run. But by the time I snuck back, that last copy was gone. Served me right, too. “To thine own self be true!,” as The Mighty Thor probably said in some comic. Needless to say, that particular relationship didn’t last long.

Next year I made comics money by unloading mail at the Commack post office before school. The hours were 4:30 AM to 7:30 AM, so I had to wake up at 3:30 AM six days a week in order to make it to work in time. The things a guy will do for comics!

When I wasn’t buying funny-books and pestering pros at conventions, I worked hard to become one. At first I honed my skills drawing strips for my high school paper, as well as illos for their literary magazine. Seeing my work replicated hundreds of times made me feel like a minor celebrity!

Comics And College!

After graduating in 1969, I commuted to Suffolk Community College on Long Island while living in my old room in my parents’ house. I joined the school paper, The Oracle, and my cartoons were soon appearing regularly, which led to one of my first commercial art jobs.

Cover Story!

(Above:) In October 1970, Michael finally hit the big time: his first college newspaper cover feature! The piece, bravely satirizing the evils of school cafeteria food, posed little threat to either Harvey Kurtzman or Bill Elder.

And say, isn’t that the intrepid cartoonist himself in the background? [© 2016 Michael T. Gilbert]

Spooky!

(Right:) This 1970 Compass editorial cartoon concerned toxic chemicals dumped in the river by NY’s Con Edison power company. [© 2016 Michael T. Gilbert]

Oh Rats!

Michael T. missed out buying this issue of Creepy #21 (July 1967), with cover art by Gutenberg Monteiro. Bob Jenny, Sal Trapani, “Tony Williamsune” (aka Bill Fraccio and Tony Tallarico), and Monteiro were credited with interior work. [© New Comic Company.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

55

A venerable local college bar, Whales, decided to rename itself “King Solomon’s Mines.” After seeing one of my cartoons, the owner asked if I could paint a new sign. The only problem was, I’d never painted a sign before. However, I’d recently met another comic fan (a fellow student, whose name I’ve long forgotten), who was also a professional sign painter. We agreed that I’d design the new King Solomon mascot, he’d do the lettering and painting, and we’d split the pay.

Soon, “creative differences” soured things between us and we almost came to blows. But, on the plus side, the owner did pay us and proudly installed the sign atop his bar. Of course, after all that “Sturm und Drang,” sales didn’t improve. A couple of months later, they scrapped our sign and put up the old one. It’s a good life lesson to realize just how little supposedly important things like that matter decades later.

Raising The Bar! One of Michael’s first paid art jobs was designing this bar sign in Selden, NY. The sign’s dot pattern wasn’t his attempt to ape Lichtenstein, but because this was the last shot of the film! You folks remember film, right? [© 2016 Michael T. Gilbert]

Saab-topuss!

In 1970, Michael’s pal Steve Burstock talked him into painting his 1963 Saab into a giant Saab-topuss. It was quite a sight on campus! The car included octopus hubcaps and genuine suction cups bolted to the tentacles! Michael’s sister Harriet can be seen in the second pic. When Michael transferred to New Paltz, he tried to sell his car to the Museum of Modern Art. They turned him down, but it’s an honor just to be rejected by the Museum of Modern Art! [© 2016 Michael T. Gilbert]

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Michael T.: The Fanzine Years! (Part 2)

SUNY New Paltz!

A couple of years later I transferred upstate to the State University of New York at New Paltz, and continued my budding cartoon career for their student paper, The Oracle. The paper also planned to publish an underground comic, New Paltz Comix, to which I contributed my very first comic book stories. But (as detailed in a previous column), the editors blew their budget on an end-of-school fireworks display and I somehow wound up publishing it myself.

While at New Paltz, I also met a few more rabid comic fans, including the late, great cartoonist, Raoul Vezina. And while I was perusing a Neal Adams Batman comic in my dorm, affable Al Rosenberg introduced himself as a fellow Bat-maniac. Much later, he started the Ramapo Comic Con in Spring Valley, NY, where I did my student teaching. Al and I loved debating important college matters, such as whether the greatest “Batman” artist of all time was early Bob Kane, Dick Sprang, or Neal Adams. Sprang had my vote!

Collecting comics at my college wasn’t easy. A few years later, Pete Maresca opened his Crystal Cave comic shop in town, but in 1972 we had to depend on a couple of drug stores and a local hippie book shop for our supply.

On New Comics Day, we fans would hover over the comic section at the main drug store, waiting for the owner to snip the cord binding the latest comics. More often than not there would only be a copy or two of the latest Barry Smith Conan the Barbarian or Wrightson Swamp Thing, and a Battle Royale would ensue. Oh, the humanity!

Luckily, comics were in good supply in nearby SUNY Albany, and my buddy Harvey mailed me regular care packages with the hard-to-find issues. Good man, that Harvey! I even illustrated his comic book review column, A Second Glance at Comics!, which appeared in both the Albany and New Paltz college papers. With all that important stuff going on, it’s a wonder I had time for classes!

Lord of Destruction!

Michael drew the above faux cover for his term paper in an “Art of India” class in May 1972. A comparison to his earlier Adventures of God cover shows how the price of comics kept going up! Up! UP!! [© 2016 Michael T. Gilbert]

It all ended in late 1973, when I graduated with a BA degree in Art Education. And then I was off to the... ulp!.. real world!

Till next time…

A Second Glance at Logos!

Michael’s 1971 column heading for his friend’s college newspaper column.

[Superman TM & © DC Comics; other art © 2016 Michael T. Gilbert.]

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Comic Fandom Archive

We Called Ourselves TISOS “The Illegitimate Sons Of Superman”

by Richard Rubenfeld & Andy Yanchus A/E EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: Roy Thomas filling in for Bill Schelly this go-round, with an interim edition of CFA. Some time back, longtime fans/collectors Rich Rubenfeld and Andy Yanchus wrote the following account of the 1960s-born New York-area fan-group called TISOS, which included in its ranks several near-future comic book pros.

We’re proud to present it here.

T

ISOS. Chances are you have never heard the name, or to be more accurate, you do not know us as a group; but for those who were a part of it, TISOS was a wonderful experience and the basis for personal and professional friendships that have endured for over four decades.

There is general agreement that Mark Hanerfeld came up with the name in late 1966 or early 1967 to identify a group of mostly New York-based comic fans and soon-to-be professionals in the field. Mark claimed that TISOS stood for “The Illegitimate Sons of Superman.”

Emulating the abbreviated identifications commonly used for government agencies, popular culture was awash in acronyms at the time and TISOS therefore was an opportune reference to the lexicon of fictional organizations that included such “official” monikers as SPECTRE, UNCLE, THUNDER, and SHIELD. (Undoubtedly most readers of Alter Ego are still able to recite what these abbreviations signify!) For a long time, the meaning of our acronym was a closely guarded secret, known only to the members; then, very slowly, close friends were let in on the joke.

Rankled by the identification of TISOS as a club that appeared recently in Marv Wolfman’s blog, Stan Landman initiated a spate of e-mail responses from members that attempted to define just what TISOS was. Stan opined that TISOS “was a group of friends for whom Mark chose an admittedly apropos name,” while, according to Eliot Wagner, the attorney in the group, TISOS was an “unincorporated association.” Marv maintained that TISOS was “an unholy cabal,” indicating that “was its main appeal.” Leave it to Len Wein to add a wry coda to his response: “I always thought of TISOS as a top-secret organization that had the potential to be a powerful force for good in this sad, sorry world. And look what we’ve done with all that power. [sigh]” Besides those mentioned above and the authors of this article, Ron Fradkin and Dave Kaler were part of the group. Pat Yanchus, Andy’s sister, and out-of-towners Irene and Ellen Vartanoff were also members and welcome female presences in our gatherings.

Meeting regularly in our homes and at comic conventions until 1970, and less frequently during the early 1970s, TISOS was essen-

Hey, Kids—Daddy’s Home!

(Above left:) The official 1967 photo of TISOS—“The Illegitimate Sons of Superman”—taken at the Academy Con in New York City. (L. to r. standing:) Pat Yanchus, Len Wein, Andy Yanchus, Ron Fradkin, Eliot Wagner, Marv Wolfman, Rich Rubenfeld. (Crouching in front, l. to r.:) Mark Hanerfeld, Stan Landman. Photo courtesy of Andy Yanchus and Richard Rubenfeld.

(Above right:) The Man of Steel himself, from an Aurora model ad that ran, among many other places, on the back cover of Mystery in Space #96 (Dec. 1964). Art probably by Murphy Anderson. [Superman art TM & © DC Comics.]

tially a closed group, but not an elitist one. Guests were sometimes invited to TISOS gatherings. During their prolonged residences in New York City, Mike Friedrich (of California) and Shel Dorf (of California by way of Detroit) regularly participated in TISOS activities, as did Tom Fagan whenever he came into town from Vermont. Girlfriends (and later wives) attended TISOS gatherings, particularly in the later years.

The history of TISOS is inextricably tied to that of comic fandom. Building upon preexisting friendships, most of us were around from the start and met at the earliest comic conventions in New York. Ron and Len were two of the organizers of the very first New York Con, held on July 27, 1964, in the Workman’s Circle Building in Manhattan. Len claims to have coined the term “comicon” for this gathering. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: In issue #135, Bill Schelly showed that Ronn Foss, if no one else, had used the term in

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Comic Fandom Archive

Maybe Some Of These Guys Were Nieces And Nephews…?

We’ve stuck in these two photos here because they depict most of the others who “regularly participated in TISOS activities” when they were in New York—plus a few other pals and hangers-on: (Above:) A panel at a NYC con, either 1967 or ’68—more likely the former, since three TISOS members are wearing the same clothes as in the “official” ’67 pic. (L. to r.:) Mike Friedrich, Irene Vartanoff, Mark Hanerfeld, Marv Wolfman, Len Wein. The non-TISOS fan crouching before the table is unidentified.

(Right:) Rutland, Vermont, 1969—a TISOS-plus assemblage at Clement House, site of many a gala post-parade Halloween party in that era.

(L. to r. standing:) host Tom Fagan, Andy Yanchus, Mark Hanerfeld (barely seen), fanzine editor Bob Cosgrove, Dave Kaler, Len Wein, Richard Rubenfeld, Ellen Vartanoff, Roy Thomas (face hidden), Jean Thomas. (L. to r., seated) fanzine editor Martin & Ellie Greim, Marv Wolfman, Michele Kreps (the near-future Michele Wolfman, who would become a Marvel colorist). Both photos courtesy of Richard Rubenfeld.

(Top right:) Halloween Parade panel from The Avengers #83 (Dec. 1970), the first so-called “Rutland story,” published the year after the latter photo was taken. In 1971 & ’72, both Marvel and DC would publish “Rutland stories.” Script by Roy Thomas, pencils by John Buscema, inks by Tom Palmer. Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

print a year or two before, but Len may have later coined that word independently without seeing that fan-notice.] Living in Levittown, close to where Len resided, Ron had gotten to know him as well as Marv, who used to see Len when he visited his sister in town. In 1965, Dave enlisted the aid of Marv, Mark, and Len and hosted the first of three conventions he hosted in Manhattan. This event took place near Greenwich Village, in the Hotel Broadway Central, on July 31 and August 1, 1965, and was attended by most of us. Eliot, Irene, and Ellen joined after meeting the core group at the two 1966 conventions hosted respectively by Kaler and John Benson.

In 1966-67 some of us attended the “mini-cons” hosted by Marv in his Flushing home. Strictly speaking not TISOS affairs, they took place in his garage and basement, and gave us opportunities to talk about comics and get to know each other better. A few of us were regulars on the Thursday afternoon tours of the DC offices. Mark often volunteered there, helping to organize the DC Comics Library and doing some editorial work for Joe Orlando. Len did volunteer work at DC as well. Marv, while serving as an intern at DC, saved hundreds of pieces of original art from being shredded, including unpublished Golden Age work. It is a testimony to his generosity that he shared what he was permitted to take home with his TISOS buddies!

Anticipating their future accomplishments as comic book scribes, Marv and Len regularly contributed to fanzines, as well as publishing their own in the mid- to late 1960s. Marv published What The—, an opinion zine, while he was still in high school, and later on The Foob, a comedy zine, and Stories of Suspense, a horror zine. He took over Super Adventures, previously published by Dave Herring, which focused on super-heroes. Len published Aurora, which along the way boasted covers by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, and was a co-publisher of a short-lived zine called Trident.

In addition, Mark was at the helm of The Comic Reader from 19681970, and in this capacity was privy to what was happening in the field. He loved nothing better than to share the latest information by phone, making each person in TISOS he called promise not to tell anyone else what he passed on. So who were we going to tell anyway—each other?

We Called Ourselves TISOS

59

Saturday morning cartoon shows, many of which were based on comic books we enjoyed. Unable to travel to New York every month, the Vartanoff sisters attended the New York conventions and showed up for the February and summer meetings, held in Rich’s Franklin Square home, where there was enough room for TISOS to have guests attend as well.

When The Fans Hit The… Covers and interiors of late-’60s fanzine work by Marv Wolfman were printed with his interview in A/E #113… Len Wein’s in #135. But here’s a triptych of fanwork by that pair and Mark Hanerfeld. (Clockwise from top left:) The cover of Marv’s fanzine What Th—? #3 (circa 1967), drawn by Chuck Rogers… JLA heads done by Len for a Julius Schwartz interview (by Rick Bierman) in Popular Heroes Illustrated #2 (also latter ’60s)… and Joe Orlando’s sketch of mystery host Abel, modeled after Mark Hanerfeld, from The Comic Reader #173—one of the rare illos from the 1968-1970 period when Mark edited the newszine. TCR image courtesy of Aaron Caplan; other images from Richard Rubenfeld. [What Th...? cover art © Chuck Rogers; JLA & Abel art TM & © DC Comics.]

The first TISOS meeting in its own right, with no agenda other than to look at comics and socialize, happened in December 1966.

We met at a used bookstore that Eliot had discovered several years earlier on West 49th Street and 8th Avenue, near the old Madison Square Garden. Run by a guy named John, the store was a great place to find cheap back issues and also gave visitors a chance to view publisher’s handouts that included reproductions of upcoming paperbacks many of us were interested in. Some early gatherings were held in Dave’s and Mark’s apartments where among other things we counted ballots for the Alley Awards, sponsored by the newly formed Academy of Comic Book Arts and Sciences. TISOS members were also active at Kaler’s Academy Cons of 1966 and 1967, where we helped out by doing such things as putting together displays of professional and amateur artwork and selling and collecting admission tickets.

TISOS meetings took place about once a month in the homes of members who were willing to serve as hosts. There was no fixed order or mandatory hosting quota, but space to meet was an ongoing concern. Marv’s finished basement was a frequent meeting place, particularly early on. Eventually, some regularization took place. September meetings were usually held in Andy and Pat’s Brooklyn home, coinciding with the premieres of

The meetings were informal and a lot of fun. Coinciding with the Silver Age and a particularly rich period for popular culture in general, there was always a lot to talk about. Comics were certainly foremost. We discussed the plot lines of current series and the artists and writers assigned to these features. We lauded the accomplishments of Jack Kirby, John Broome, and other people we admired and trashed the hack work of others. We argued the merits of DC over Marvel and vice versa. With such treasures at hand as Andy’s extensive model collection and Len’s vintage Plastic Man and Spirit collections, meetings were also learning experiences, broadening our scope of awareness and providing opportunities to pick up on something we might have missed on the newsstand.

Original artworks in our collections became lessons in connoisseurship; as credit lines were not yet regularly featured in many comics, we learned to identify the signature styles of pencilers, inkers, and even letterers. Innovative work by Jim Steranko and Neal Adams was celebrated. Momentous events in the comics world, such as Kirby’s departure from Marvel in 1970, the introduction of new characters like Enemy Ace and Deadman, and the updating of established characters like Batman and Captain America were the basis for many a conversation.

Conversations were not restricted, however, to comics. We were all popular-culture junkies. Interest in super-hero toys, model kits, and trading cards ran high. Andy and Pat used to shop at a candy store in Brooklyn where Topps tried out new gum card ideas.

Cards were sold in plain white wax paper packets with simple stickers identifying the contents. Generously, they would buy several boxes of cards to make up sets for the rest of us to purchase at minimal cost. Too bad many of us no longer have them, as such items have since commanded high prices at Christie’s auctions.

Novels, movies, and television certainly had their impact. We were James Bond fans, many of us introduced to the character

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Comic Fandom Archive

Not Not Brand Echh If Andy and Pat Yanchus did indeed hang out in “a candy store in Brooklyn where Topps tried out new gum card ideas,” they might be some of the few folks in the world who ever owned the fourteen 8-page “hero parody” comics that Topps testmarketed in 1967 but never issued wider. All covers and interiors of the 2½" x 3½" “Krazy Little Komics” series were reprinted in Alter Ego, Vol. 2 (and the trade paperback collection of same); but here, for the first time, is a montage of six of those covers in color. The art was by various combinations of Wally Wood and Gil Kane; the interiors were written alternately by Len Brown and Roy Thomas—but all the covers were scripted by Len, the young Topps exec whose idea the series was. [© Topps, Inc.]

upper Manhattan got their comics several days ahead of schedule, visits to them often took place when we were meeting in the city. Pat was usually the chauffeur on such junkets, driving as many of us as could fit in her 1961 Ford Fairlane.

through Ian Fleming’s novels; we shared our opinions about the Bond films and the actors who played the leading role in the films.

Peter O’Donnell’s Modesty Blaise novels and Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct books were almost required reading. Although we generally disliked the campiness of the Batman TV series, the casting of the show’s villains was an endless source of discussion.

British TV was important to us as well. We mourned the departure of Diana Rigg from The Avengers and were skeptical of Linda Thorson’s ability to replace her on the show. We puzzled over the meaning of The Prisoner series. Andy recalls, that, during the latter’s first American run, TISOS watched its next-to-last episode together. We were all on the edge of our seats as the story raced to its climax. When “To Be Continued” flashed onto the screen, everyone in unison let out a deafening “AAARRRGGGHHH!!!”

This response not only reflected our dismay at having to wait another week to find out what happened next, but was a reference to Boston Brand’s anguished cry that concluded the early “Deadman” stories. Science-fiction and fantasy intrigued us as well. Many of us grew up on the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs and therefore were critical of the depiction of Tarzan in the comics. Frederick Pohl’s “Time Pool” series and Harlan Ellison’s short stories were discussed, as were the latest installments of Star Trek and Planet of the Apes.

One of the regular activities at the meetings was to go to the nearest newsstand to check out the latest arrivals. If purchases were to be made, the trick was to do it before Mark, who usually bought ten copies of everything. The man was truly in love with comics! When it was discovered that some stores in

Most of all, we had fun. We were regularly subjected to doses of radio’s Chicken Man and lambasted such comic book turkeys as M.F. Enterprises’ Captain Marvel (“Split!” “Zam!”). At least one meeting broke out into an M&M fight! Given all the pictures taken at the conventions and various TISOS events, it was inevitable that some of the shots were less than flattering. For example, at the 1966 Academy Con Costume Competition, Len was dressed up as The Black Terror. Just as Pat snapped a picture of him, Len touched his nose. The following year, when Len appeared in the guise of Black Bolt, one of the photographs showed him touching his nose. Not long after, Len was photographed touching his nose at a TISOS meeting. Andy and Pat actually started lurking around with their cameras waiting for Len to make the right move! Inevitably, early in the September 1968 get-together, Len put both hands to his nose and yelled, ”Take the damn picture already and be done with it!”

Len was also responsible for initiating what became known as the TISOS wave. In the graphics he drew for a flyer for Dave’s 1967 Comicon, he showed a gathering of super-heroes, almost all of whom had their arms upraised in a sort of wave. Len had drawn the hands in an unnatural position with all the fingers crooked and separated from each other. We all had a lot of fun going around contorting our fingers in that way, particularly in group photos.

While the meetings had recurring

Pop Goes The Culture!

Clockwise cultural icons that were centers of TISOS attentions: Sean Connery as James Bond… Linda Thorson as Tara King in 1968-69 TV episodes of The Avengers… Patrick McGoohan as No. 6 in TV’s The Prisoner, 1967-68.

We Called Ourselves TISOS

61

little or no notice. What an opportunity to get to know them and see where they worked! It was always a treat to see their original art and the work they owned by artists they admired.

Considering the number of people in the group who later worked in comics, TISOS stands out from other fan groups at the time.

Dave Kaler was the first to go professional, writing for Captain Atom and other Charlton titles.

Len and Marv went on to make comics history through The Just-Us Society their writing and editing at No, this isn’t the infamous photo that Pat Yanchus snapped in which Len Wein/Black Terror was caught scratching his nose, DC, Marvel, and elsewhere. but it does show the masquerade contest (which includes three TISOS members) at an early comics convention in New York Both were Marvel editors-inCity, as seen in Larry Ivie’s Monsters and Heroes magazine #5 (1969). chief in the mid-1970s.

Characters they played a part activities, there was always something unexpected—usually disasin creating for Marvel and DC have endured and even transcended trous—that would occur. Someone would knock over a stack of comics by becoming popular in other media. comics that would have to be put back in order; someone would Blade, one of Marv’s creations, became a major player in spray the ceiling with an exploding can of soda. People tripped, Marvel’s horror line after his successful run in Tomb of Dracula; things got broken. Eventually we came up with the custom of additionally, the character has been the basis for three very presenting the “Kaptain Klutz Award” to the person responsible successful films and a short-lived TV series. Marv’s seminal work for the biggest blunder of the day. Not to be confused with Don on Teen Titans and Crisis on Infinite Earths has had a major impact Martin’s character of the same name appearing in Mad, Andy on the DC Universe today. modified an MPC plastic kit of the character Hot Shot, transforming it into a dorky fan wearing a really bad homemade superLen, with Bernie Wrightson, created Swamp Thing, a character hero costume having traits common in TISOS, such as thick that has been featured in two movies and a television series. He eyeglasses and a five o’clock shadow. The model made the rounds was a major force in the revival of the X-Men series and in the for a while, with the winner allowed to keep it until it was passed creation of its most popular character, Wolverine. These characters on to the next “Klutz.” are among the most prominent characters in comics today and have generated half a dozen high-profile X-Men movies, two TISOS events were not limited to meetings and conventions.

Wolverine films, and several animated series.

Group activities most often centered on comics and comic-related events, such as attending one of the early performances of You’re a Mark Hanerfeld did some editorial work at DC and even wrote Good Man, Charlie Brown and seeing the film Planet of the Apes en a few stories for Joe Orlando’s horror books and for The Spectre. masse. In addition, given our close friendship with Tom Fagan, most of TISOS made the trip to Rutland, Vermont, in 1969 to Hired as an assistant editor by Roy Thomas at Marvel, Irene appear in costume in the annual Halloween Parade, an event Vartanoff became the editor and later the production manager for promoted by Tom to comics pros that was made famous by its Marvel’s reprint and special project titles. inclusion in Avengers and “Batman” comics around that time. A few of us were lucky enough to be able to attend in subsequent Ellen Vartanoff did some freelance inking and coloring for DC years, and established herself in the Washington, DC, area as a teacher of cartooning.

From the start, TISOS had connections with comics professionals, many of whom we met at the conventions. Neal Adams And, at Marvel, Andy Yanchus was initially the coloring coordidropped by an early meeting in Stan’s apartment, and Bill Everett nator for all the books, eventually coloring virtually every and Harry Lucey were guests at a winter meeting hosted by Rich character in the line, including Spider-Man, the Hulk, and The Xin 1968. Gerry Conway, who was just starting his career as a comics Men. writer, was another occasional participant in TISOS activities. Visits In 1996 Stan Landman hosted the first TISOS reunion in his with comics professionals were not limited to TISOS meetings, Manhattan apartment, and almost everyone was able to attend. however. For those members able to participate, TISOS went to see Four years later, we met again, and we continue to see each other artists living in the area, including Leonard Starr, Jack Kirby, Joe individually whenever we can. Sadly, Mark passed away in 2000, Giella, and Jerry Grandenetti. Irene recalls being part of a group and we’ve lost touch with Dave, but we know we speak for that stopped by to see Dick Giordano in Derby, Connecticut, on the everybody when we say: return trip from Rutland, and following that with an impromptu visit to the nearby Charlton factory, “which on a weekend “HAIL TISOS!” afternoon was both deserted and unlocked.” Without exception, the pros were hospitable to us, even when we showed up with Talk about being in the right place at the right time!

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Comic Fandom Archive

TISOS Triumphs!

Four significant comic books written by TISOS folks (clockwise from top left): Dave Kaler started his stint as scripter of Charlton’s Captain Atom with #82 (Sept. 1966), working with penciler Steve Ditko and inker Rocke Mastroserio. The DC Action Heroes Archives, Vol. 1, from which this splash was scanned, credits Ditko as cowriter, and perhaps he did co-plot in some sense… but, as the 1965 Kaler roommate who recommended him to Charlton’s then-editor Pat Masulli, Roy Thomas is pretty sure that Nightshade (if not the villainous Ghost) was Dave’s concept. If his memory is correct, then Captain Atom #82 was not just a case of Dave dialoguing a story plotted by Ditko. [TM & © DC Comics.]

Marv Wolfman began writing his signature Marvel title, Tomb of Dracula, with #7, whose splash (along with #10’s introduction of Blade the Vampire-Slayer) saw print with the writer’s interview in A/E #113. Seen here is the Wolfman/Gene Colan/Tom Palmer splash from TOD #14 (Nov. 1973), which spotlights both Drac and Blade. Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] Len Wein hit it big at DC with Swamp Thing, as per the #1 splash seen on p. 49 of this magazine… so here’s a key page from #2 (Dec. 1972-Jan. 1973), with art by Bernie Wrightson.

Thanks to Bob Bailey for this and the following scan. [TM & © DC Comics.]

Mark Hanerfeld wrote a five-pager in The Spectre #9 (March-April 1969) in which the Ghostly Guardian (well, his face, anyway—his shadow and his hand had popped up a bit earlier) is seen only in the final panel. There were no credits on the story “Shadow Show,” which was drawn by Jack Sparling. [TM & © DC Comics.]

As stated in the article, Andy Yanchus and siblings Irene and Ellen Vartanoff also worked professionally for DC and/or Marvel at one time or another. That TISOS bunch were a talented crew!

We Called Ourselves TISOS

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Addendum:

Mark Hanerfeld

by Rich Rubenfeld

T

here are people you like the first time you meet them, and Mark Hanerfeld was such a person.

Generous to a fault, he was an excellent conversationalist with strong convictions about just about everything. He was an incredibly kind man, someone who would do anything for his friends. Irene Vartanoff recently recalled how Mark piloted his old VW bus: “[H]e fearlessly drove it everywhere at top speed and it shivered at 65 mph…. When I think of him driving into Manhattan to meet us at the train, going to the expense and effort of parking, bridge tolls, and dealing with all the traffic, just so we wouldn’t flounder at Penn Station with our heavy luggage, I am reminded again of what a gentleman he was.”

No one loved comics more than Mark. TISOS meetings could get pretty raucous and silly; in fact, at some point, they usually did. Some of us might have been louder or more vocal, but no one generated more enthusiasm for comics and their creators than Mark. Even though he had strong opinions and was more than willing to share them, at the same time, he didn’t take himself too seriously. There was nothing authoritarian about him at all. Because he was usually well-informed, Mark’s views carried some weight with the rest of us, even when we didn’t agree with him. In the course of a heated conversation, Mark could always be counted on to say something that would keep us going. His kind of logic was often difficult to follow, however.

Having worked with Mark on projects for Aurora Plastics and displays at the Cartoon Museum, Andy Yanchus reminisced: “It never ceased to amaze me that he could, in the blink of an eye, come up with the most complicated, convoluted solution to any problem posed!”

Mark had a very droll sense of humor, and it was often very low-key. Len Wein remembered one conversation with him in particular: He was absolutely confident in his opinions of the business and everything else. I remember him once making a suggestion about how the comics industry should completely change its pricing structure…. I told him he was crazy. I said, “What happens if the industry takes your advice and your plan fails and the whole comics business collapses overnight and there are no more comic books?”

Mark looked at me, smiled, and shrugged his shoulders as he replied, “Well, then I was wrong.”

And that, in a nutshell, was our dear departed friend.

Andy still laughs when remembering another incident: Mark Hanerfeld had the misfortune of bearing a strong resemblance to trumpeter Al Hirt…. The unfortunate aspect was the constant ribbing Mark had to endure, even from his friends in TISOS. I recall this one day when the guys went to Penn Station to meet

In Reunions There Is Strength!

Recent photos of some of the TISOS gang, together again… all photos courtesy of Richard Rubenfeld. (From above): (Left to right:) Jesse & Richard Rubenfeld, Irene and Ellen Vartanoff, Marv Wolfman and his daughter Jessie.

Len (on left) and Richard R., March 2014.

(Left to right, in back:) Richard Rubenfeld, Eliot Wagner, Andy Yanchus, Stan Landman. (L. to r., in front:) Fran Shlesinger (Eliot’s wife), Pat Yanchus, Ruth Pietrykowski (Stan’s wife) – June 2015.

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Comic Fandom Archive

“Mark” Marks The Spot!

Will the real Mark Hanerfelds please stand up? (Clockwise from top left:) Mark Hanerfeld having fun in Richard Rubenfeld’s home in Franklin Square, New York, 1968. Photo courtesy of RR. Al Hirt, noted jazz trumpeter for whom Mark was more than occasionally mistaken.

Sebastian Cabot, English actor for whom Mark was also mistaken from time to time—especially during the 1966-71 period when he was co-starring in the American TV series A Family Affair. “As a rule,” writes Richard Rubenfeld, “he did not like being identified as Cabot.”

Abel, the amiable host of DC’s mystery comic House of Secrets—who was, in fact, physically modeled after Mark H. This framing page from HOS #92 (June-July 1971) was scripted by fellow TISOS member Len Wein and illustrated by Bernie Wrightson. Thanks to Bob Bailey. [TM & © DC Comics.]

the girls [the Vartanoffs], who had taken the train up from Washington, DC…. At the station, the girls presented Mark with a small, gold metalized plastic trumpet. Visibly annoyed with yet another Al Hirt joke, Mark gave a weak “Thank you” and slipped the toy into his coat pocket. From the train station we proceeded along 34th Street, walking toward Broadway. Mark was ahead of us, obviously trying to distance himself from the group because Marv [Wolfman] was leading a chant, “Al Hirt… Al Hirt….” Near Macy’s department store, an elderly couple approached us from the opposite direction. On seeing Mark, they stopped and started to ask, “Say, aren’t you….” Never uttering a word, Mark reached into his pocket, pulled out the golden toy trumpet, gave it to the couple, and continued on his way without missing a step.

I never mentioned Al Hirt to Mark again.

I vividly recall my last visit with Mark: In late August 2000, as had become our custom when we were on Long Island, my son Tyler and I made plans to see Mark, whose health was failing. As luck would have it, Pat Yanchus was up from Florida visiting her brother. We decided to pick up Mark at his home in Howard Beach and rendezvous with Pat and Andy at a diner in Little Neck. It was a swelteringly hot, muggy day. When we got to Mark’s apartment, he was in a tizzy. The woman who came every couple of weeks to clean for him had to get home in a hurry due to a family emergency. Mark, no longer able to drive but feeling very responsible, insisted that instead of calling her a cab, we should drive her home before going on to the diner. The traffic was horrendous, and not being familiar with Jackson Heights, I got seriously lost. There was no way to reach the Yanchuses who had arrived at the diner on time.

We were truly flustered when we got there. Mark, who hadn’t

eaten anything since breakfast, was ravenous and ordered a cheeseburger, something that he was not supposed to eat.

Obviously enjoying his meal and being with old friends, he said he was very tired, but particularly looking forward to visiting a comics shop located across the street from the diner. Mark was very frail and not feeling well. He had to be helped crossing the street; but once he was in the store, he was invigorated and joyfully checked out the new comics. The Golden Age and Silver Age comics on display behind the counter made the strongest impact on him, and he reminisced about the ones he still had and lamented those that he didn’t.

On the way back to Mark’s apartment, it was clear that the outing had taken its toll on him, but as usual, he asked me to stop at a candy store so he could buy a lottery ticket. He had plans, if he won a substantial amount of money, to take all his friends on a trip around the world. But Mark’s luck had run out. Just a few days later, Mark was sent to a nursing home to recover from a fall. He died there, only a few months later.

In Memoriam

65

Jesse Santos (1930-2013) “A Jolly Man Who Clearly Loved To Draw” A tribute by Mark Evanier

J

esse Santos, who died April 27, 2013, was a superstar of Filipino comic books. He began drawing professionally in the Philippines at the age of 14, and during the latter days of World War II spent much time as a “sidewalk artist” drawing portraits of American servicemen stationed in his native country.

They caught the attention of Tony Velasquez, who was regarded as the “Founding Father” of the Philippines comic industry. Before long, Santos was drawing for Halakhak Komiks, which was the first serialized comic book published in his country. He was soon in many of them—an amazingly prolific artist who was often entrusted with the all-important job of designing and rendering the covers.

In 1969, Santos had the opportunity to emigrate with his family to the United States, which he did, settling in Los Angeles. He was glad to be there, but he was unable to connect with the U.S. comic book industry and wound up returning to his roots in a poorpaying job: he sat all day at Farmers Market, the famed L.A. landmark, doing drawings of tourists.

One day, two men stopped at his little booth and admired several science-fiction paintings that he had on display to show the world what else he could do. The men, impressed with what they saw, asked him if he’d ever considered doing comic books. He told

Santos & Spektor Jesse Santos at a comics convention a few years ago—and a panel from The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor #14 (June 1975). He illustrated the entire 18-issue run of that Gold Key/Western title. Thanks to Jim Kealy for the art scan. [TM & © Random House, under license to Classic Media, Inc.]

them in his flawed English, yes, he’d drawn one or two comic books per month for twenty years in his homeland. Within a matter of days, he had quit the caricature job and was drawing comic books again.

The two men were Chase Craig and Del Connell, editors for Western Publishing Company’s line of Gold Key Comics. They assigned Santos an educational comic that required diligent historical research, and soon he was drawing a new newsstand comic the company had decide to launch—Dagar the Invincible, created and written by Don Glut. It was successful and was soon joined by another Glut creation, The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor. On the latter, he replaced Dan Spiegle (who had drawn his earliest appearances in anthology titles) and proceeded to make the character quite his own. The editors at Western loved Jesse’s work, and he was one of the few artists on their adventuretype comics who was engaged to paint the covers of comics he illustrated. His paintings were especially striking.

Even before Western shut down its comic line in 1984, Santos drifted into animation design. He worked on many programs, but his artistry especially dominated the Legends of Prince Valiant animated series produced in 1992. The list of other shows where his art could be seen include The Bionic Six, Jem, Blackstar, Dino-Riders, and Tiny Toon Adventures.

I always enjoyed seeing Jesse’s work and also talking with him, though the latter could be a bit difficult, as his English never got to be very good. He was a jolly man who clearly loved to draw, and I think that’s evident in his work, much of which has recently been reprinted in hardcover form by Dark Horse Comics. I’ll bet it’s around for a long time. Sorry we didn’t have Jesse for even longer.

This tribute appeared in 2013 in Mark Evanier’s blog www.newsfromme.com. It has been edited only slightly for this reprinting. Mark is a longtime writer in TV, comics, and other media. We regret our delay in carrying this tribute.

Tarzan TM & © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.; other art © 2016 Tom Grindberg.

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Great to have input from the Hasen fan and friend who filmed the unseen documentary Irwin: A New York Story, an illustrated transcription of which we ran in issue #140. That artwork, which was long in the collection of my (i.e., Roy’s) late friend and mentor Dr. Jerry G. Bails, is currently owned by collector Keif Fromm, who had this to say about it: Dear Roy, I really wish you had contacted me, because I own the original art of the cover of All-Star Comics #49, and I certainly would have helped you get a better “complete” image of it.

Based on my research and my discussion with a few other experts, as well as getting Irwin Hasen’s thoughts long before his recent passing, it is believed that this cover was most definitely 66.6% illustrated by Arthur Peddy and Bernard Sachs, but it is very likely that the other 33.3% of it, featuring Wonder Woman, was rendered by Irwin Hasen. He actually gave me a pretty firm confirmation of this many years back.

This certainly makes a ton of sense, since Irwin was doing many of the Wonder Woman covers during this time.

I should also tell you that at one point Irwin even told me that he vaguely believed that this All-Star cover was originally intended as a Comic Cavalcade cover, which makes some sense since it “only” features Green Lantern, The Flash, and Wonder Woman, but that it ultimately became an All-Star Comics cover since Comic Cavalcade ceased featuring super-hero subject matter a year earlier.

I don’t consider this as a case of coincidence, because I have never been a firm advocate of the idea of coincidence, and it’s because of this ideology that I have felt that the cover of All-Star #49 featured Green Lantern, The Flash, and Wonder Woman for a very specific reason and not just by chance.

“M

askot” artist Shane Foley did a solo act this issue on the illo above, capturing (and then coloring) the style of artist Jesse Santos, who at one time or another drew all three of the main series that Don Glut co-created for Gold Key: The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor, Dagar the Invincible, and Tragg and the Sky Gods. The reason: Shane’s regular coloring collaborator, Randy Sargent, has had a few health problems of late, and we wish him a continued and speedy recovery. So does Shane—he’s running out of green and yellow paints! [Captain Ego TM & © Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly; created by Biljo White.]

Now, on to a few missives re a pair of issues, beginning with Alter Ego #132, in which we celebrated the 1940-1970 careers of DC’s Flash, Green Lantern, and Hawkman concepts. Kurt Mitchell’s masterful overview of those three decades was well-received, but for some reason some folks seemed most concerned with the burning question of whether Irwin Hasen or Arthur Peddy had penciled the original art for the cover of 1949’s All-Star Comics #49, which we used up front on A/E #132:

Hi Roy:

Keif Fromm I’ve got to admit, Keif, I have severe doubts about that cover ever being scheduled for an issue of Comic Cavalcade, since it represents a dramatic scene, one that seems to cry out that it illustrates a particular storyline—and not one of the Flash-Wonder Woman-Green Lantern CC covers ever did that. The closest approximation of such a cover would be the final super-hero cover of the comic (#29, Oct.-Nov. 1948), seen elsewhere on this page. (One earlier CC [#24, Dec. 1947-Jan. 1948] had featured three separate scenes

For what it’s worth, here’s something I recall Irwin [Hasen] saying about the All-Star #49 cover. I’d asked him multiple times if it was his, and every time Going Out With A Bang (Or he denied it, saying, “Peddy has a slicker style Rather, Three Of Them)! than [mine]. My work is more cartoony.”

He also mentioned that for a time he shared a studio on Times Square with Arthur Peddy and Lee Elias. Perhaps that’s how their styles became intertwined?

And Irwin’s favorite saying, which is how best he’d like to be remembered: “Remember the laughter.”

Dan Makara

Irwin Hasen’s cover for Comic Cavalcade #29 (Oct.-Nov. 1948), the final super-hero issue of the “76page magazine” (80 pages, counting the covers), which sold for 15¢. With #30, the format was changed to “funny-animal,” starring “The Fox and the Crow,” “Nutsy Squirrel,” et al. Thanks to the Grand Comics Database. [TM & © DC Comics.]

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[correspondence, comments, & corrections]

from the JSAers’ stories inside.) Even allowing for the fact that the lettering the heroes are seen carving into a mountainside could have been entirely different for a Comic Cavalcade effort, the whole thing just doesn’t compute, to this longtime fan.

Craig Delich, the comics historian who has doubtless studied the cover of All-Star #49 more than anyone else (even its longtime owner Jerry Bails), has this to add to the discussion: Hi Roy— There has always been a point of contention re the All-Star #49 cover art. Jerry [Bails] originally had it down as Hasen, I believe. I convinced him it was Peddy and [Bernard] Sachs.

I have studied Peddy and Sachs for ages. The thing that always threw me was Green Lantern’s mask. True, Hasen usually did the type of mask we see on this cover. Peddy drew a mask that was pointed to top and bottom sides. Check out his stuff and you’ll see what he means. But, once in a great while, I’d see Peddy do the type of mask seen on this cover. Both Peddy and Sachs drew GL’s figure like we see here.

I also like to check out the wings on Flash’s helmet, which Peddy and Sachs do a bit differently than Hasen.

Wonder Woman looks like Wonder Woman [by Peddy & Sachs] did in All-Star #57, when shaking the submarine for a few extra crooks inside. Yet Hasen did a Wonder Woman remarkably like the one Peddy and Sachs did.

That’s why this cover is so hard to really pin down.

The idea of several artists doing this [DC] cover, which Keif Fromm has suggested, seems remote. Happened a lot in the earliest days, but I doubt it happened here. Maybe Hasen started the cover and Peddy and Sachs finished due to scheduling conflicts or the other way around. No one will ever know for sure.

Craig Delich It does seem, Craig, as if the covers of issues #36 (with Superman and Batman) and #49 are liable to remain the most problematical of the 57issue run… with Irwin Hasen a prime candidate for having drawn both of them!

Now, on to mail (snail and e-) concerning Alter Ego #133, whose cover feature was Dr. Jeff McLaughlin’s interview with the late artist Jim Mooney, beginning with the observations of a regular contributor to this section, 50-plus-year fan Bernie Bubnis: Hi Roy, I read your editorial first, so I was depressed to read that Jim Mooney took his own life. I could not weigh the crystal-clear memories of his great career with the knowledge that he could not handle his final years. I’m not judging anyone, but it just seems so sad. Throughout the interview he gave so many reasons to live. Or, at least, I believed he did.

Ron Fradkin relayed a story to me many years ago. He and Len Wein were visiting the DC offices. Len spots Murphy Anderson and just has to act out a series of panels from a Murphy story. Animated and starstruck, Len is complimenting Murphy’s choice of design and art. (Len always wanted to be an artist, and I believe that if he had kept working at it, his first dream would have come true.) Murphy was very patient, listened, and shook his head as if to say, “Yes, you are correct, I am a great artist.” Len asked him to sign his name to a comic he was holding. Murphy says, “Thank you. I am so happy you enjoy his work. That is very important to me. I am going to sign my own name so you can follow my career, also.” (Or something like that.) He signed it “Jim Mooney.” The Gentleman had a great sense of humor. They all laughed.

Hmm… Maybe “Kaänga!” Is What Guys Shouted When They Spotted Those Jungle Gals!

For four-color, published “cheesecake” or “good-girl art” by Jim Mooney, one need only scour up copies of some of his “Kaänga” stories for Fiction House’s Jungle Comics—e.g., this splash page from #47 (Nov. 1943). Scripter unknown. [© the respective copyright holders.]

RBCC… what can I say? Gordon [Love] was an amazing person. The right guy for the right job at the right time. Schelly is doing him justice. Well done.

“Mr. Monster”: Had never seen that Li’l Abner piece, and I try to collect everything from Capp. I guess that is what make his [Michael T. Gilbert’s] column so special. Great graphics and wellthought-out subjects.

As for FCA: I really enjoy articles about foreign comic books.

Especially art that is done by other than the original illustrator.

Bernie Bubnis Momentarily lost the train of thought in your Wein-Anderson anecdote above, Bernie—so I e-mailed you to confirm that, that day, Len only thought he was talking to Murphy Anderson, and that he was actually addressing Jim Mooney. Thanks for your comments on some of the other features in A/E #133, as well. And here’s another Mooney anecdote, this one from John Coates, author of the recent TwoMorrows book Dan Spiegle: A Life in Comic Art: Hi Roy, Thank you for the focus on Jim Mooney. I never met Mr. Mooney in person, but did communicate with him via phone back in 1993 in order to commission a sketch. Throughout the process he was very pleasant, patient, funny, and appreciative of the attention

re:

he was starting to get from fandom.

When I commented that he was probably tired of drawing the “girl-next-door,” 1950s-wholesome Supergirl, he replied with a wonderful anecdote. At a comic convention a fan had asked him to draw that same wholesome 1950s Supergirl—only in a bondage pose, like a Betty Page-type image. Jim said he couldn’t hide his embarrassment, politely declined, but suggested that the fan go buy a magazine!

John Coates Interesting reaction from the artist who drew several installments of the comics feature “Pussycat” for Martin Goodman’s men’s magazines, John… but then, many artists understandably have a mental line they won’t cross in terms of rendering sex, violence, or whatever.

A piece of info from Dave Siegel, whose adventures in helping to arrange for Golden Age comic book artists to attend comics conventions (especially San Diego) was the focus of A/E #142: Hi Roy, I wanted to let you know that, on page 42, the artwork of The Legion of Super-Heroes was done by Jim Mooney for me— because, in 1996, I got Jim out to the San Diego Comic-Con for the first time.

David Siegel Thanks for the reminder, Dave. So we’ve used that piece twice, both in #132 and in #142. And here’s another belated identification, this one from another oft-contributor to A/E, Nick Caputo: Hi Roy, I quite enjoyed the Jim Mooney issue of Alter Ego. I always

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enjoyed the man’s work and particularly enjoyed the look of the Romita/Mooney issues of Amazing Spider-Man. One correction, I believe: the photo of Marvel professionals on page 31 had an “unidentified.” The unidentified is Lindy Ayers [wife of Dick]. The Yancy Street Gang had the pleasure of speaking to her both at conventions and at the Ayers’ house, and she is a sweet person and lovely hostess.

Nick Caputo Our gratitude for the ID, Nick. Ye Editor has had the good fortune to run into Lindy Ayers a couple of times himself, but failed to recognize her in that photo.

Kind of a truncated letters section this go-round—but maybe next time—!

Meanwhile, please send comments and criticism and carping to: Roy Thomas e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com 32 Bluebird Trail St. Matthews, SC 29135 The Alter-Ego-Fans online group is cleverly hidden at group.yahoo.com/group/alter-ego-fans. Yahoo Groups has eradicated its “Add Member” tool for moderators, so if you want to join this magazine’s online chat group and find that it won’t let you in, please contact Chet Cox at good ol’ mormonyoyoman@gmail.com with your name and a little bit about yourself. On the A/E list, we discuss the Silver Age, the Golden Age, and Alter Ego itself, and Roy T. himself is often there with advance news, requests for help re keeping A/E a repository of Silver and Golden Age knowledge., etc., etc. It’s fun, educational, and it’s carb-free!

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

© AC Comics.

The above is just a partial list of characters that have appeared in AC Comics’ reprint titles such as MEN OF MYSTERY, GOLDEN AGE GREATS, and AMERICA’S GREATEST COMICS. Virtually all issues published to date are still available for purchase 24/7 with PayPal, Visa, or MasterCard. To find over 100 quality Golden Age reprints, go to the AC Comics website at <www.accomics.com>.

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OTTO BINDER: The Life & Work Of A Comic Book & Science-Fiction Visionary An Interview With Biographer BILL SCHELLY

by P.C. Hamerlinck

Bill Schelly Photo by Adam Haney.

B

Otto Binder experimenting with an 8mm camera in his backyard during the late 1940s.

Despite the lack of any rare Binder film footage from those days, Bill Schelly’s biography of the writer, available again in a new edition, offers a close-up view of Otto’s life.

ill Schelly’s acclaimed 2003 biography of Otto Binder —a personal portrait of one of the most imaginative and prolific writers of sciencefiction and comic books—is PCH: Why did you originally want back in print with a new, to write a book about Otto Binder? revised edition. Binder’s SCHELLY: I had done a string of lifework included the books about the history of achievement of authoring over comics fandom between 1995 to half of the Marvel Family saga 2000, and had taken it about as and building up precedentfar as it would go. That was a setting, momentous fascinating journey, but the time mythologies for both the had come for me to branch out Captain Marvel and Superman as a writer. Roy Thomas families. I caught up with Bill suggested the idea of a recently to chat about Otto and Once Bitten, Twice Told biography of Otto Binder. The to learn what we can expect A great “Captain Marvel” splash, from a story written by Otto Binder and idea resonated with me, because from the new edition of the illustrated by C.C. Beck (pencils) and Pete Costanza (inks) for Fawcett’s Captain the “Captain Marvel” stories are biography (accompanied with Marvel Adventures #80 (Jan. 1948). [Shazam hero & Sivana TM & © DC Comics.] my favorite comics from the assorted photographs that did 1940s and Binder wrote the majority of them. I also loved his not make it into the first edition). Otto Binder: The Life and Work of a “Superman” family stories of the late 1950s. I felt a connection to Comic Book and Science Fiction Visionary is available wherever books the man because he touched my life when I was a young comic are sold. Special thanks to Julia Kent of North Atlantic Books. book reader. And I appreciated the way he participated in fandom —P.C. Hamerlinck in the 1960s. So I started researching his career, and that’s how it began. This was in 2000 or early 2001.

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material. There’s a new introduction, more on his last years at Fawcett, more about his UFO writings, and other material added here and there all the way through, like stuff about his writing for Web of Horror in 1970. We also added some samples of his personal data sheets, which listed all the comic books he wrote up to 1965 or so.

PCH: Has your personal view of Binder, and your appreciation of his writing (particularly his work at Fawcett), changed at all since the first edition was published 13 years ago?

SCHELLY: My appreciation for his body of work for Fawcett, especially the “Captain Marvel” and “Marvel Family” stories, has grown as I’ve come to realize that none of it came easy for him.

One might think because of the apparent simplicity of some of his stories that they were easy to write. It was a lot of work for Binder to make it look easy. This is something he himself pointed out in a couple of interviews. To keep the quality up and be, arguably, the most prolific writer of the Golden Age of Comics, was an incredible achievement.

“Up In The Air, Junior Birdman!”

Otto O. Binder also scripted stories featuring many other members of The Marvel Family, including this tale for Captain Marvel Jr. #72 (April 1949). In fact, he wrote two of the four “CMJr” stories in that issue. Art by Bud Thompson.

[Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics.]

PCH: Otto Binder’s stories were read by millions, and he worked on two of the most popular comic book heroes of all time, yet he is still unknown to most people today. With your book, do you think you can bring about a new awareness of Otto’s contributions to comics and science-fiction beyond comics fandom?

SCHELLY: I think I can. It’s handy that it’s coming out when awareness of Supergirl is high, thanks to the television series. That should attract some readers. The book is affordable. It’s being distributed by Random House, who presumably know how to get their books into bookstores. Those are all favorable factors. Not that I think this is going to become a runaway bestseller. If several thousand copies are sold, then it’s bringing Binder to at least some readers beyond those in comics fandom, who bought the first edition.

PCH: What motivated you to have a second edition published of the biography?

SCHELLY: As soon as any of my books have been published, I receive photos and information that I wish had been included. This was true of the first edition of the Binder book. This edition offers a substantial amount of new material, like observations from Binder neighbors and friends, previously unpublished photographs, and new facts. I make every effort to be as accurate as possible, but invariably a certain number of errors occur. I wanted to fix those.

Another reason for a second edition is that I foolishly printed only 1,200 copies of the first one, and it sold out quickly. Now that thirteen years have passed, let’s give it another go!

PCH: How does the North Atlantic Books new edition differ from the Hamster Press first edition?

SCHELLY: First of all, it’s paperback instead of hardback, which helps keep the price down. It has 24 new images, of which a dozen are photographs. There are more late-in-life photos of Otto. I went through, made all the corrections, and re-wrote the text here and there where I felt it wasn’t quite good enough, or to add new

PCH: With Otto, there were no barriers between the professional writer and his readers. I believe he viewed them as kindred spirits, and he was always open and approachable with fans who were eager to learn more about his work, the comics industry, and its history. How important do you feel was Otto’s role during the growing comics fandom scene of the 1960s, and how was it conveyed in the biography?

SCHELLY: Otto Binder was among the half-dozen professionals in the early 1960s who did a lot to support comics fandom. Roy Thomas has called him, along with Gardner Fox and Julius Schwartz, one of the “patron saints” of Alter Ego. That’s why there’s an entry about him in my book Founders of Comics Fandom.

He let Bill Spicer adapt “Adam Link” into graphic story form, which became a highlight of the first two issues of Spicer’s Fantasy Illustrated in 1964.

In the book, I reprint a letter Otto wrote to Roy giving him carte blanche to adapt other stories. He didn’t ask for any financial compensation for these adaptations. He wrote lengthy letters about the Fawcett days to Richard and Pat Lupoff, in response to Dick’s “Big Red Cheese” installment of “All in Color for a Dime,” and to Roy for Alter Ego. Plus, there was his very real support of some of the early New York comic-cons that is laid out. He did an awful lot for fandom, and for friends in fandom like Jerry Bails, Don and Maggie Thompson, and others.

PCH: In your book you note that Superman Annual #1 from August 1960 holds special significance for you, as it was the first comic book you owned and marked the first Binder stories you ever read. (Six out of its nine stories were by Binder.) In the ensuing years, were there other key books or stories that perked further interest in Binder for you?

SCHELLY: The adaptation of “Adam Link’s Vengeance” by Bill Spicer and D. Bruce Berry, which I already mentioned, impressed me a great deal. That, in turn, led me to pick up the Adam Link reprint book that came out in 1965, which I also enjoyed. That was the extent of my exposure to his science-fiction pulp writing at that time. Naturally, I read a lot more of it once I decided to write the biography. As a middle-aged adult, I didn’t relate to his other pulp stories as deeply as I had to “Adam Link,” but I could understand how his work appealed to readers at the time. There was always an emphasis on humanity in his stories, rather than gadgets.

PCH: Can you give a few examples of exemplary Binder comic book stories you referenced in the book—from Fawcett, DC, EC, and Timely— and why they stand out to you?

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Yesterday’s Man Of Tomorrow Superman Annual #1 (1960)—the first comic book Bill Schelly ever owned… and his first exposure to the great talent of Otto Binder, who wrote six of the nine tales reprinted in that issue. Cover art by Curt Swan and Stan Kaye. [TM & © DC Comics.]

SCHELLY: From Fawcett, I would point to “The Mighty Marvels Join Forces” in Marvel Family #1, which introduces Black Adam, a really memorable villain, and of course to his “Monster Society of Evil” serial. That one stands out because of the villain, too, in that case, revealing the fearsome evil mastermind as a tiny worm named Mr. Mind. That sort of tongue-in-cheek material was certainly his forte, including his wonderful Mr. Tawny stories. Tawny was sort of an alter ego for Binder himself, I believe. Actually, most of his stories of Billy Batson and Captain Marvel were straight-ahead, serious action.

Of his work at DC, I greatly admire the stories he wrote, working with artists Wayne Boring and George Papp, in the Superman Annual #2 (Jan. ’61), the “all-villains” issue. He wrote as much of that reprint book as he did of the first annual. In fact, “The Invulnerable Enemy” affected me so much that I had a nightmare about the character! In my dream, the Invulnerable Enemy was in my neighborhood, and I was running away from him. He was looking the other way, and I thought I was home free, but then my foot hit a tin can, and his big head suddenly swiveled in my direction and he saw me! I woke up in a sweat! Binder’s “Superman” stories were always very well-crafted and involving.

Many of the stories he wrote at EC were sort of ersatzFeldstein, but one of my favorites is called “Standing Room Only!” [Crime SuspenStories #23, June/July ’54]. It’s about a guy who escapes his crime by masquerading as a woman— only to be caught when he enters the wrong restroom. Quite clever! Also, the “Adam Link” adaptations at EC, which

I, Robot—You, Otto!

(Left:) The cover to Amazing Stories (Jan. 1939) featuring Eando [officially Earl & Otto] Binder’s “I, Robot,” the first of what became a series of stories about robot Adam Link.

Cover illustrated by Otto’s high school buddy, Robert Fuqua.

(Right:) An illustrated portrait of Otto Binder from that same Jan. 1939 issue of Amazing Stories (v.13, #1), used in a “Meet the Authors” feature.

There is no artist credit, but there’s a general note on the pulp’s contents page reading “Illustrations by Robert Fuqua and Julian S. Krupa.” We would guess the portrait is by Krupa, since it doesn’t resemble the style of Fuqua’s “Adam Link” drawings in Amazing Stories, which appear in Bill Schelly’s book. [© the respective copyright holders.]

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much writing he did for Timely. I believe they were his secondbiggest market, after Fawcett, during the Golden Age. PCH: Binder’s comics scripts were commonly playful, but had a sense of humanity to them. Even his introduction of the Bizarro character was poignantly written. What other elements did you find that separated Otto’s style from most other writers?

SCHELLY: One of the most common elements in his comic book stories is their science-fictional bent. I’m not talking about his stories in the DC science-fiction comics of the 1950s, but his other stories. He emphasized SF in the Superman mythos—Brainiac and Kandor come to mind—and even in Gold Key’s Mighty Samson, with its futuristic, post-apocalyptic setting. Scientific elements were also important in a lot of “Captain Marvel” stories in the 1940s… stories about the future, stories that took place in outer space, and so on.

PCH: How long did it take to do the research for the biography, and what were some of main factors that helped you piece it all together?

SCHELLY: I think it took about two years from conception to publication, the first time around. By 2000 or 2001, when I started, the Internet had gained wide acceptance and made researching the book a lot easier than writing my Harry Langdon biography in the 1980s. E-mail allowed me to contact others without worrying about running up long-distance phone bills and gave me access to other online resources. The Binder relatives, such as his nieces Bonnie

It’s All About Family!

The one and only Golden Age appearance of Black Adam came in Fawcett’s Marvel Family Comics #1 (1945), as scripted by OOB and drawn by C.C. Beck and Pete Costanza. With the second issue, a few months later, the name of the comic was changed to The Marvel Family. [Shazam, Shazam heroes, & Black Adam TM & © DC Comics.]

were written by Binder, are some of his best work at EC. I feel that they have Joe Orlando’s finest EC art. When Warren Publishing brought Orlando back to “Adam Link” in the pages of Creepy, the artwork looked totally different, and much inferior. I only found out later that Orlando had engaged Jerry Grandenetti to ghost those for him. But the idea of a sentient robot with feelings like a human being was always effective. So many of his stories were about beings who seemed different on the surface, but were actually not that different from ourselves. In the book, I talk about another adaptation he did for EC, “The First Martian,” that is a great example of that theme.

As for Timely, what stands out the most to me is his booklength “complete comic adventure thriller” (as it’s billed on the cover) in Young Allies #1. Such long, multi-chapter stories were still fairly unusual in the summer of 1941. Of course, the JSA in All-Star Comics had been doing them for a few issues by that time. I think this was when Otto began to see Nightmare Alley the real potential of the sequential art form.

Superman Annual #2 (Jan. 1961) reprinted Otto Binder’s story “The When I was examining Invulnerable Enemy,” which gave young Binder’s own records, I Bill Schelly a nightmare. Art by Curt was surprised just how Swan & Stan Kaye. [TM & © DC Comics.]

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Group Therapy (Left:) This Binder-scripted Chapter 2 splash page from Timely/Marvel’s Young Allies #1 (Fall 1942) was apparently done by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby themselves— though another artist drew the rest of that chapter. (We’re showing the splash of the second chapter because the first one consisted of a pasted-up montage of scenes from the issue-length tale’s six segments.) Repro’d from the hardcover Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Young Allies, Vol. 1.

(Right:) Otto also wrote the second of the two very JSA-like “All Winners Squad” yarns, for All Winners Comics #21 (Winter 1946-47). The pencils are attributed to Syd Shores; inker unknown. Repro’d from hardcover Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age All Winners Comics, Vol. 4. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Mundy and Patricia Turek, were very helpful. Also, Binder colleagues Julie Schwartz and Bill Woolfolk were still alive. Julie gave me access to his collection of photographs and shared memories of spending time with Otto. He also talked about Otto’s relationship with Mort Weisinger, which is an important part of the book. If I’d waited until now to research the book, almost all of his colleagues would no longer be alive.

PCH: Did you discover any new revelations about Binder that you were eager to unveil in the new edition?

SCHELLY: Well, I don’t want to give too much away here. I was happy to be able to include Otto’s memo to the Fawcett executives in the early 1950s, proposing ways to stave off the weakening sales of Captain Marvel Adventures. Brian Cremins had already written about this in Alter Ego #123, but now it’s part of Binder’s fulllength biography. I got a copy of the memorandum from the Cushing Library at Texas A&M. It’s really interesting to see how Otto would have guided the title. I also discovered that Binder was planning to write a book about Ted Owens, who was known as “the PK man” for his claim of psychokinetic abilities. I was able to

obtain material from Owens’ biographer, Jeffrey Mishlove, Ph.D. Owens was a member of Mensa and a fascinating individual. As it turned out, Binder passed away before he could write the book, but the story of their association is very interesting in a number of ways. I also wrote a bit more about Binder’s UFO writings for magazines such as Mechanix Illustrated and Saga. As for other material about comics, there’s his involvement with Web of Horror magazine, his thoughts on the ill-conceived “SPLIT!” Captain Marvel written by Roger Elwood, Milson’s Fatman the Human Flying Saucer, and more.

PCH: Otto’s best-known pulp stories were the “Adam Link” series of tales found in Amazing Stories. How do you feel Otto/Eando Binder rated amongst such SF peers as Otis Adelbert Kline, Manly Wade Wellman, etc.? And do you think Otto was miffed at all over the continued use of the “Link” concept, and the title he originated, “I, Robot”—later taken by Issac Asimov?

SCHELLY: The early stories that Otto and Earl [Eando] Binder wrote as a team were somewhat crude, which is understandable since they were learning as they went along. On his own, Otto

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SCHELLY: I feel like his greatest contribution to the Captain Marvel mythos, in a sort of intangible way, was the sense of personal decency that pervades those stories. This was perhaps Binder’s most salient trait as a human being: his decency, his regard for others, and his empathy for others. Being a good citizen was very important to him, and a wonderful message to convey to his readers, many of them young people. You can feel it when you read his stories of the Marvels. It makes you feel good, and it’s something that is completely missing from today’s comic books.

In terms of his greatest concrete contribution to the Fawcett and DC universes, I would point to Mary Marvel and Supergirl. No, he didn’t invent Mary Marvel, but he developed her and made her an important Golden Age character. And Supergirl is perhaps an even more important character in the DC universe, having been continued by so many writers and artists after Otto moved on to other characters. You know, as different as the Supergirl TV show is from the mythos as it was originally written by Binder, I feel like her character, her positivity and sweetness in the show, is very much the Kara that Otto conceived, with the help of the artists Al Plastino and Jim Mooney.

The Powers-That-Were A 1942 Fawcett comics editorial meeting. After editor Ed Herron was dismissed for violating Fawcett’s policies, Otto Binder briefly stepped in as one of the comics editors for a six-month period in 1942 before returning to freelance writing. (L. to r.:) Mercedes Shull, John Beardsley, Otto Binder, Tom McNaughton, and Rod Reed.

became one of the better writers for the science-fiction pulps, although he wasn’t in the same league as Robert A. Heinlein and a few others. His work ranks with that of Otis Adelbert Kline, who was his mentor. Some might not realize that Binder stories rubbed shoulders with those by Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft in the pages of Weird Tales.

But in that particular pulp, I would say, he wasn’t one of the best; he was average.

Weird Tales wasn’t really the right environment for him, as a writer. I think my account of his meeting with H.P. Lovecraft is one of the best parts of the book. Also, Binder was an agent for Robert E. Howard just before he died, which is another angle to his early days in New York City.

As for whether Otto was annoyed when the Asimov book appeared, using his “I, Robot” title, he wasn’t. Otto was quite gracious about it, and as a result, Asimov gave Binder blurbs that he could use on his SF books of the 1960s, when Asimov was riding high. They remained friends.

PCH: Binder had contributed considerably to the mythos of both Captain Marvel and Superman. What do you feel were his greatest groundbreaking accomplishments for both heroes, and why?

PCH: What do you feel were the distinct differences between Otto’s Fawcett work with editor Wendell Crowley and his scripts for DC under Mort Weisinger’s editorship?

SCHELLY: The “Captain Marvel” stories are simpler, and rather fanciful, compared to the scripts he wrote for Mort Weisinger in the mid- to late 1950s. There’s much more of an attempt at verisimilitude in those stories, lots of explanations, and a push for internal logic. Sometimes, trying to be consistent with the other stories in the Superman family of titles was difficult for him, and kind of shackled him a bit, but great writers find ways to turn shortcomings into

Golden Days In A Golden Age Two previously unpublished Binder photos (not from the book): (Left:) The young happy couple, Otto and Ione Binder, in 1944, enjoying a moment together in their apartment where they lived before moving into “The House That Captain Marvel Built.”

(Below:) Dorothy and Kurt Schaffenberger (on left) with Otto and Ione Binder, vacationing together on the coast of Maine in July 1946. They were experimenting with Kodacolor film. Courtesy of the late Dorothy Schaffenberger.

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PCH: Since Otto based some of Mr. Tawny’s many faults and foibles on himself, were you able to actually pinpoint some of those?

SCHELLY: I know that Otto gained weight from spending so much time in his sedentary work through the 1950s, and there was at least one Tawny story where the tiger must go on a diet.

[NOTE: “Mr. Tawny’s Diet Danger” – Captain Marvel Adventures #121, June ’51.]

PCH: How were you able to delicately bring the death of Binder’s daughter Mary into the narrative?

The incident took a tremendous toll on the Binders.

How were you able to gently place that pivotal, painful moment in time that not only affected the rest of the Binders’ lives, but also affected the quality of Otto’s writing during his final years? Was it the most challenging chapter for you to write in the book?

Two Pairs of Shazam Siblings

SCHELLY: The death of his daughter Mary at the age of 15, a victim of a senseless automobile accident, was the tragedy that colored the rest of Otto and his wife Ione’s lives in the darkest of hues. They never recovered, which is understandable. No parent should bury their child—I know, I’ve been through it myself—and yet, it’s a positive thing to acknowledge Mary’s importance in their lives, and how much she gave to others, beyond her family. She was a special young lady, and I quote from one of her neighbors who, to this day, still keeps two photographs of Mary on his wall. I

Older brother Jack Binder’s splash panel for the lead story in Mary Marvel Comics #2 (June 1946), scripted by Otto. Jack drew nearly all solo stories of Cap’s sweet-natured twin/ kid sister. [Shazam heroine & Georgia Sivana TM & © DC Comics.]

advantages, and I think he did that in a lot of cases. He wrote all the early “Jimmy Olsen” stories in his own magazine, and counted Jimmy and Superboy as his two favorite DC characters.

PCH: Besides Otto Binder, Bill Woolfolk was the other main writer of “Captain Marvel” in the post-war years. Both men (who were also good friends) had a similar manner and methodology in their approach to the Marvel Family. Was Woolfolk a significant part of the story?

SCHELLY: Yes, Bill Woolfolk is a supporting character in the book, and figures not only in the Fawcett part of the story, but in the period of time when Otto left comics to edit Space World magazine, which they produced together. I interviewed Woolfolk at length, and that material added a great deal to the book. Of course, Space World was a financial disaster for the Binders.

PCH: Did you touch upon Otto’s working relationship and friendship with artist C.C. Beck?

SCHELLY: Binder considered Beck “a bit of a genius,” and the two of them got along famously. Oh, they might disagree on story points, but it was all worked out amicably. Beck was the one person from Fawcett who stayed in touch with Otto in the later years of his life, the early 1970s. Wendell Crowley would have done so, but he passed away after heart surgery. But Beck stayed in touch, mostly through regular correspondence, and their wives, Ione and Hildur, were very good friends, too. I quote rather extensively from letters back and forth between the two couples.

[NOTE: One such letter, from Binder to Beck, provided by FCA, was reproduced in the book.]

Live And Let Diet!

C.C. Beck’s cover for Captain Marvel Adventures #121 (June 1951). Otto Binder wrote all four “CM” stories in the issue, including “Mr. Tawny’s Diet Dangers” — plus the issue’s 2-page “Jon Jarl of the Space Police” prose tale.

Incidentally, the cover of CMA #121 is just one of the comics included on this issue’s FCA cover background (see p. 71). FCA cover coordinator Mark Lewis painstakingly arranged 22 rows of 24 comics apiece of Fawcett books containing the work of Otto Binder. The total came to over 520 comics, and that’s not even including Binder’s Western comics, licensed movie adaptations, or horror comics for Fawcett—even more impressive when you also take into account the fact that, in many of these issues, he wrote more than one story! Alter Ego and FCA plans extensive coverage of Otto Binder’s pay records (and the insights they give into the Golden Age of Comics) in near-future issues. [Shazam hero & Mr. Tawny TM & © DC Comics.]

Otto Binder: The Life & Work Of A Comic Book & Science-Fiction Visionary

was able to research this by reading multiple newspaper accounts of the accident, by interviewing family members who remember it all as if it was yesterday, and by listening to audio tapes of Otto trying to communicate with her in the spirit world.

It does get rather intense, but it’s also incredibly moving. I didn’t let the tragedy completely overtake my narrative, but it’s definitely in there. In fact, I dedicated this new edition of the book to Mary Binder.

Mary, We Hardly Knew Ye… A colorized/airbrushed photograph of Otto and Ione’s pride and joy, their teenage daughter, Mary Lorine Binder.

The photo was taken in early 1967, the same year she was tragically killed.

Courtesy of the Turek Family.

PCH: How much did you delve into Otto’s later preoccupations with UFOs and communicating with the deceased?

SCHELLY: There’s a chapter called “The Sounds of Silence” which quotes from a tape he made, trying to contact Mary. And his interest in UFOs and his writings on that subject are a part of a few chapters, starting in the early 1960s. I will say that he never totally lost his skepticism, but did come to believe that UFOs do exist.

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PCH: You’ve written books on the lives of Otto Binder, Joe Kubert, and Harvey Kurtzman. What are some dream biographical subjects you’d like to take on in the future?

SCHELLY: I’m interested in a lot of comic book writers and artists.

The question becomes, is there enough new and little-known material to make such a book compelling to their fans? I don’t want to just string all the known facts together, I want to dig and find out new stuff. I believe that’s why my biographies have done as well as they have, because people learn more about their subjects. Of course, a certain percentage of readers are coming to the material fresh. I’ve found that my Binder biography speaks to people who have very little interest in comic books or sciencefiction, because his life was so interesting, and getting to ride along with him ends up having more impact than they expected. That’s when I know I’m doing something right. I do think a book on Gardner Fox or Edmond Hamilton would be very interesting to take on. We’ll see what the future holds.

PCH: Do you think we will see more comic book writer biographies in the future, as opposed to just artist or artist-writer ones?

SCHELLY: I hope there will be more biographies of writers. Of course, Stan Lee and Will Eisner both are writers, although Eisner also was an artist, but there have been multiple books about both of those gentlemen. Harvey Kurtzman was as much a writer as an artist, perhaps more so. I’d like to see a book on Robert Kanigher.

Maybe we can prevail on Robin Snyder to write one, some day.

Kanigher naturally plays an important part in Man of Rock, my Joe Kubert biography—which, I hasten to add, is still in print. Comics will always emphasize the artists, but without a story, what would they draw?

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Addendum:

Otto Binder As I Remember Him

by C.C. Beck [Originally published in Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector #115]

W

hen I was a young fellow, growing up in a small town in Minnesota, I could not imagine myself ever meeting a famous writer in person. As young people do, I assumed that famous writers were some sort of superior beings — old, wise, and at least eight feet tall.

About fifteen years later, in New York, I was introduced to a young, pleasant-faced fellow who turned out to be one half of the famous science-fiction writing team known as Eando Binder.

“Eando Binder!” I gasped. “C-c-can I have your autograph?”

“Of course,” he smiled, “but my name’s Otto. My brother Earl was the ‘E,, I’m the ‘O’ of ‘E-AND-O.’ And by the way, Binder is pronounced to rhyme with tinder, not finder.”

I have met many famous people since. Some of them have been not-so-nice persons, some have been fine human beings. Otto Binder was one of the finest. He was even-tempered, down-toEarth, plain, honest, fond of fishing, gardening, and playing poker.

He worked out of his home and took great delight in puzzling the

wives of his commuter-type neighbors by walking about in a dressing gown at all hours of the day. They could never understand why Otto didn’t have to shave, put on a vest, coat, and tie, and dash off to catch the 8:03 every morning as their husbands did. “They think I’m a kept man,” Otto once told me. “I don’t dare tell them what I really do for a living.”

What Otto did was write stories for the comics.

Superbly. He wrote strictly from his imagination, not from any vast experience as a reporter nor as a student of current events. I remember a discussion between Otto and another writer, George Scullin, when both were working with me and Pete Costanza in our comic-production studio in New York.

“If,” George said, “I were to receive a thousand-dollar advance for an article on life in Africa, I would use the thousand dollars to buy a ticket to Africa. I would live in Africa and study life there for six months. Then I would write the article. What would you do, Otto?”

Before answering, Otto put a match to the tobacco in his pipe.

He puffed and snorted, but his pipe refused to light. He tapped its contents into an ashtray and put the pipe back into his pocket.

Pete, George, and I still waited for Otto’s answer. Finally, it came, and it was just as down-to-Earth, sensible and realistic as Otto himself was.

“I would put the thousand dollars in the bank first,” Otto said.

“Then I would go home and write the whole article from my imagination.”

That was Otto. His article would have sold, as did his comic stories. When comics went into a slump, Otto switched to space stories and articles and had many books published, including several of his old science-fiction stories from the ’30s.

He was still going strong and had just co-authored Mankind, Child of the Stars with Max Flindt before his death on October 14, 1974. His like will rarely be found again, I’m sure. He was a good writer, a fine man, and a wonderful friend.

Otto Times Two! (Above:) Otto Binder drawn in 1974 by C.C. Beck; originally published in Legion Outpost fanzine; specially colored for FCA by Mark Lewis. [© Estate of C.C. Beck.]

(Top right:) A 1971 photo of Otto.

And, of course, he wasn’t eight feet tall, and old and wise like I had once imagined all famous writers must be. He was just a couple of inches taller than I am (I’m short) and a year younger.

I’m pretty old now, myself, as was Otto when he died. Neither of us ever became wise at all, happily. Otto would have blushed at the very thought of being called wise—a thought which I’m sure never came to him, in spite of his wonderful imagination.

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WHE % N YO ORD U ONL ER INE!

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MLJ COMPANION

THE MLJ COMPANION documents the complete history of Archie Comics’ super-hero characters known as the “Mighty Crusaders”—THE SHIELD, BLACK HOOD, STEEL STERLING, HANGMAN, MR. JUSTICE, THE FLY, and many others. It features in-depth examinations of each era of the characters’ extensive history: THE GOLDEN AGE (beginning with the Shield, the first patriotic super-hero, who pre-dated Captain America by a full year), THE SILVER AGE (spotlighting those offbeat, campy Mighty Comics issues, and The Fly and Jaguar), THE BRONZE AGE (with the Red Circle line, and the !mpact imprint published

by DC Comics), up to THE MODERN AGE, with its Dark Circle imprint (featuring such fan-favorites series as “The Fox” by MARK WAID and DEAN HASPIEL).

Plus: Learn what “MLJ” stands for! Uncover such rarities as the Mighty Crusaders board game, and the Shadow’s short-lived career as a spandex-clad superhero!

Discover the ill-fated Spectrum line of comics, that was abruptly halted due to its violent content! See where the super-heroes crossed over into Archie, Betty, and Veronica’s world! And read interviews with IRV NOVICK, DICK AYERS, RICH BUCKLER, BILL DuBAY, STEVE ENGLEHART, JIM VALENTINO, JIMMY PALMIOTTI, KELLEY JONES, MICHAEL USLAN, and others who chronicled the Mighty Crusaders’ exploits from the 1940s to today!

By RIK OFFENBERGER and PAUL CASTIGLIA, with a cover by IRV NOVICK and JOE RUBINSTEIN.

INCLUDES 64 FULL-COLOR PAGES OF KEY MLJ STORIES! (288-page FULL-COLOR Trade Paperback) $34.95 • (Digital Edition) $12.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-067-0 • NOW SHIPPING!

COMIC BOOK FEVER

GEORGE KHOURY (author of The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore and Kimota: The Miracleman Companion) presents a “love letter” to his personal golden age of comics, 1976-1986, covering all the things that made those comics great—the top artists, the coolest stories, and even the best ads! It covers the phenoms that delighted Baby Boomers, Generation X, and beyond: UNCANNY X-MEN, NEW TEEN TITANS, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, LOVE AND ROCKETS, CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, SUPERMAN VS. SPIDER-MAN, ARCHIE COMICS, HARVEY COMICS, KISS, STAR WARS, ROM, HOSTESS CAKE ADS, GRIT(!), and other milestones! So take a trip back in time to re-experience those epic stories, and feel the heat of COMIC BOOK FEVER once again! With cover art and introduction by ALEX ROSS.

2017 RATES

All characters TM & © their respective owners.

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BACK ISSUE #89

BACK ISSUE #90

BACK ISSUE #91

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BACK ISSUE #93

“Bronze Age Adaptations!” The Shadow, Korak: Son of Tarzan, Battlestar Galactica, The Black Hole, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Worlds Unknown, and Marvel’s 1980s movie adaptations. Plus: PAUL KUPPERBERG surveys prose adaptations of comics! With work by JACK KIRBY, DENNY O’NEIL, FRANK ROBBINS, MICHAEL W. KALUTA, FRANK THORNE, MICHAEL USLAN, and sporting an alternate Kaluta cover produced for DC’s Shadow series!

“Eighties Ladies!” MILLER & SIENKIEWICZ’s Elektra: Assassin, Dazzler, Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau), Lady Quark, DAN MISHKIN’s Wonder Woman, WILLIAM MESSNER-LOEBS and ADAM KUBERT’s Jezebel Jade, Somerset Holmes, and a look back at Marvel’s Dakota North! Featuring the work of BRUCE JONES, JOHN ROMITA JR., ROGER STERN, and many more, plus a previously unpublished cover by SIENKIEWICZ.

“All-Jerks Issue!” Guy Gardner, Namor in the Bronze Age, J. Jonah Jameson, Flash Thompson, DC’s Biggest Blowhards, the Heckler, Obnoxio the Clown, and Archie’s “pal” Reggie Mantle! Featuring the work of (non-jerks) RICH BUCKLER, KURT BUSIEK, JOHN BYRNE, STEVE ENGLEHART, KEITH GIFFEN, ALAN KUPPERBERG, and many more. Cover-featuring KEVIN MAGUIRE’s iconic Batman/Guy Gardner “One Punch”!

“Bronze Age Halloween!” The Swamp Thing revival of 1982, Swamp Thing in Hollywood, Phantom Stranger team-ups, KUPPERBERG & MIGNOLA’s Phantom Stranger miniseries, DC’s The Witching Hour, the Living Mummy, and an index of Marvel’s 1970s’ horror anthologies! Featuring the work of RICH BUCKLER, ANDY MANGELS, VAL MAYERIK, MARTIN PASKO, MICHAEL USLAN, TOM YEATES, and many more. Cover by YEATES.

“All-Captains Issue!” Bronze Age histories of Shazam! (Captain Marvel) and Captain MarVell, Captain Carrot, Captain Storm and the Losers, Captain Universe, and Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers. Featuring C. C. BECK, PAT BRODERICK, JACK KIRBY, ELLIOT S. MAGGIN, BILL MANTLO, DON NEWTON, BOB OKSNER, SCOTT SHAW!, JIM STARLIN, ROY THOMAS, and more.

Cover painting by DAVE COCKRUM!

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ALTER EGO #144

BRICKJOURNAL #41

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #12 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #13 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #14

OUT OF THIS WORLD LEGO! Spacethemed LEGO creations of LIA CHAN, 2001: A Space Odyssey’s Orion space plane

by NICK DEAN, and Pre-Classic Space builder CHRIS GIDDENS! Plus: Orbit the LEGO community with JARED K. BURKS’ minifigure customizing, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art, MINDSTORMS robotics by DAMIEN KEE, and more!

JACK KIRBY’s mid-life work examined, from Fantastic Four and Thor at Marvel in the middle ’60s to the Fourth World at DC (including the real-life background drama that unfolded during that tumultuous era)!

Plus a career-spanning interview with underground comix pioneer HOWARD CRUSE, the extraordinary cartoonist and graphic novelist of the award-winning Stuck Rubber Baby! Cover by STEVE RUDE!

MICHAEL W. KALUTA feature interview covering his early fans days THE SHADOW, STARSTRUCK, the STUDIO, and Vertigo cover work! Plus RAMONA FRADON talks about her 65+ years in the comic book business on AQUAMAN, METAMORPHO, SUPER-FRIENDS, and SPONGEBOB! Also JAY LYNCH reveals the WACKY PACK MEN who created the Topps trading cards that influenced an entire generation!

Comprehensive KELLEY JONES interview, from early years as Marvel inker to presentday greatness at DC depicting BATMAN, DEADMAN, and SWAMP THING (chockful of rarely-seen artwork)! Plus WILL MURRAY examines the nefarious legacy of Batman co-creator BOB KANE in an investigation into tragic ghosts and rapacious greed. We also look at RAINA TELGEMEIER and her magnificent army of devotees, and more!

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PRINTED IN CHINA

MARK CARLSON documents 1940s-50s ACE COMICS (with super-heroes Magno & Davey, Lash Lightning, The Raven, Unknown Soldier, Captain Courageous, Vulcan, and others)! Art by KURTZMAN, MOONEY, BERG, L.B. COLE, PALAIS, and more. Plus: RICHARD ARNDT’s interview with BILL HARRIS (1960s-70s editor of Gold Key and King Comics), FCA, Comic Crypt, and Comic Fandom Archive.

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DRAW! #32

DRAW! #33

KIRBY COLLECTOR #68

KIRBY COLLECTOR #69

Super-star DC penciler HOWARD PORTER demos his creative process, and JAMAL IGLE discusses everything from storyboarding to penciling as he gives a breakdown of his working methods. Plus there’s Crusty Critic JAMAR NICHOLAS reviewing art supplies, JERRY ORDWAY showing the Ord-Way of doing comics, and Comic Art Bootcamp lessons with BRET BLEVINS and Draw! editor MIKE MANLEY! Mature readers only.

Interview and demo by Electra: Assassin and Stray Toasters superstar BILL SIENKIEWICZ, a look at The Watts Atelier Of The Arts (one of the best training grounds for students to gain the skills they need to get the jobs they want), plus regular columnist JERRY ORDWAY shows the Ord-Way of drawing, JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews the latest art supplies, and BRET BLEVINS and Draw! editor MIKE MANLEY’S Comic Art Bootcamp.

KEY KIRBY CHARACTERS! We go decadeby-decade to examine pivotal characters Jack created throughout his career (including some that might surprise you)! Plus there’s a look at what would’ve happened if Kirby had never left Marvel Comics for DC, how Jack’s work has been repackaged over the decades, MARK EVANIER and other regular columnists, and galleries of unseen Kirby pencil art!

KIRBY’S PARTNERS! Cap/Falcon/Bucky, Sandman & Sandy, Orion & Lightray, Johnny & Ben, Dingbats, Newsboys, plus features on JOE SIMON, MIKE ROYER, CHIC STONE, DICK AYERS, JOE SINNOTT, MIKE THIBODEAUX — even ROZ KIRBY! Also, BATTLE FOR A 3-D WORLD, the 2016 Comic-Con Kirby Tribute Panel, MARK EVANIER, and galleries of Kirby pencil art! Cover inked by JOE SINNOTT!

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