Roy Roy T Thomas homas’ Ace Ace Comics Comics F Fanzine anzine
ACES HIGH!
MAGNO • LASH LIGHTNING THE RAVEN • UNKNOWN SOLDIER VULCAN • THE FLAG • MR. RISK CAPTAIN COURAGEOUS
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No.144 January 2017
The Far-Flying Heroes of Golden Age
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SILVE EY & OF GOLD K ICS! KING COM PLUS: FCA, YPT, COMIC CRDOM COMIC FANE, ARCHIV & MORE!
Vol. 3, No. 144 / January 2017 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)
Comic Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert
Editorial Honor Roll Jerry G. Bails (founder) Ronn Foss, Biljo White Mike Friedrich
Proofreaders Rob Smentek William J. Dowlding
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Cover Artists
Contents
B. Currie (colorist unknown)
With Special Thanks to: Heidi Amash Richard J. Arndt Mark Arnold Alberto Becattini Rod Beck Allen Bellman John & Friedel Benson Earl Blair, Jr. Roy Bonario Jay Boyar Chris Boyko Robert Brown Frank Brunner Nick Caputo Mark Carlson-Ghost Shaun Clancy Comic Book Plus (website) Comics Kingdom Blog (website) Chet Cox Brian Cremins Craig Delich Michaël Dewally Digital Comics Museum (website) Shane Foley Stephan Friedt Janet Gilbert Grant Geisman Grand Comics Database (website)
Bill Harris Hermes Press Larry Houston Alan Hutchinson Douglas Jones (“Gaff”) William B. Jones, Jr. Jim Kealy Adele Kurtzman Art Lortie Mark Lewis Richard Lieberson Jim Ludwig Doug Martin Robert Menzies Mike Mikulovsky Patrick Moreau Brian K. Morris Mark Muller Bill Pearson Matthew Reynolds Rip Jagger’s Dojo (website) Charlie Roberts David Saunders Eric Schumacher Jeff Taylor Dann Thomas Maggie Thompson Gerry Turnbull Dr. Michael J. Vassallo
This issue is dedicated to the memory of
Gary Brodsky
Writer/Editorial: Change And Hope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Coming Up Aces!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Mark Carlson-Ghost writes of Ace Periodicals’ comics line—its heroes and (esp.) its villains!
From Dell—To Gold Key—To King—With The New York Times In Between! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Bill Harris tells Richard Arndt about editing—and writing—for three 1960s comics companies!
Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! Michael T.: The Fanzine Years (Part 3). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Fresh out of college in ’74, Michael T. Gilbert faced the greatest horror of all—the workplace!
Comic Fandom Archive: Earl Blair, Jr., Remembers G.B. Love & Houston Fandom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 The 7th chapter of Bill Schelly’s salute to the legendary editor/publisher of RBCC.
re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 69 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #203 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 P.C. Hamerlinck presents Brian Cremins on Captain Marvel & his controversial pal Steamboat. On Our Cover: We really didn’t have that much choice about the matter. The only illustrations that would telegraph up front the contents and feel of early-’40s super-hero comics published by Ace Periodicals would be one lifted from the cover of an issue of Four Favorites. But which one? Publisher John Morrow and I finally settled on that of FF #4 (March 1942), which featured large figures of four major heroes (The Unknown Soldier, Lash Lightning, Magno, and The Raven) and one kid sidekick (Davey). It’s signed by the artist who has been identified as “B. Currie,” of whom little is known. Ye Editor has read in one place that it was a pen name of artist Harry Anderson, but we’ve never seen any confirmation of that—so “B. Currie” it is! See more of his and others’ work on the colorful Ace covers in this issue’s first offering. [© the respective copyright holders.] Above: Sy Barry’s cover for The Phantom #22 (May 1967) was done for King Comics editor Bill Harris, who also wrote the issue’s tale of The Ghost Who Walks—one of the first costumed heroes in the history of comic strips, let alone of comic books. Barry was then the long-running strip’s artist; Bill Lignante drew the story inside. More about Harris’ work for King and two other comics companies in this issue! [TM & © King Features Syndicate, Inc.] Alter EgoTM is published 6 times a year by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: 32 Bluebird Trail, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Sixt-issue subscriptions: $65 US, $102 Elsewhere, $29.70 Digital Only. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in China. ISSN: 1932-6890 FIRST PRINTING.
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Coming Up ACES! A History Of Ace Periodicals—Their Heroes & (Especially) Their Villains by Mark Carlson-Ghost
I
t was the summer of 1940. No one could deny that Superman was flying high or that The Human Torch was catching fire in more ways than one. More than a few kids were whispering “Shazam!” on their way to school, just in case there was a little leftover magic in the air. Pulp specialists like Fiction House, Standard/Nedor, and Street & Smith had already placed their chips on comic books as the next big thing in the lower echelons of the publishing domain. But one publisher was holding back. He had a reputation for being a bit conservative and, yes, a little cheap. His name was Aaron A. Wyn. His company, when he finally took the leap in June, was known as Ace. Perhaps it’s this late entry, and the relatively small number of super-hero titles that Wyn produced, that account for the historical neglect his company has suffered. It surely isn’t that his comic books were boring. Magno, Lash Lightning, The Unknown Soldier: these were elemental forces devoted to confronting evil. Half of Wyn’s heroes didn’t even bother with dual identities, with so many fiendish villains to be fought. No time to waste tearing free of unnecessary civilian guises. And what villains they were, wildly colorful and extremely deadly! To note but one example, the maniacal Clown tried to dissect his arch-enemy alive to learn the secret of his magnetic power. These bad men turned on each other as easily as on the heroes. Ace villains were often legendary figures of horror: The Mummy, The Were-Wolf, and a Japanese vampire known only as Drako-Saki. Ace’s Vulture, Toad, and Professor Octopus preceded their more famous Marvel namesakes by decades. The Ace line-up of comic books may not have always been the best-written or the best-drawn, but the heroes and villains are well worth revisiting. And Ace’s output during the 1950s, long after the costumed-hero craze had crashed, include some forgotten gems. Now that most issues of the Ace family of comic books are available on-line for interested readers, a detailed assessment of their output is long overdue.
If little has been written about the origins of these characters, even less has been said about the publisher and editorial team that oversaw them. The article that follows is the result of a fair amount of digging and a little educated speculation. The result is the first extensive history of Ace Periodicals, its comic books, and how they came to be.
A.A. Wyn & The Pulps
Aces Full (Above:) The Ace comics symbol, as it appeared from beginning to end of the company’s existence—and future Mad artist/writer Dave Berg’s cover for the company’s Four Favorites #5 (May 1945). The various heroes who shared the Ace covers often seemed to be sharing a very Justice Society-like adventure… but inside, there was nary even a two-hero team-up in sight. Thanks to Jim Kealy. [© the respective copyright holders.]
A.A. Wyn Pulp, comics, & paperback publisher, 1898-1967. Thanks to David Saunders & www.pulpartists.com
A.A. Wyn may have been cautious, but he was hardly stupid. Born Aaron Weinstein in 1898, Wyn (occasionally spelled Wynn)
arrived at pulp publishing through a rather circuitous route. Time magazine had this to say about him in a Sept. 16th, 1935, article entitled “Pulp Pride”: “Aaron A. Wyn, a strapping six-footer… has been a newshawk on the Pacific Coast, a schoolteacher in Idaho, a cowhand in Wyoming, an able seaman on freighters, a hobo, a writer.” According to Time, Wyn first stuck his toe in the pulp magazine business circa 1925, soon becoming an editor for Dell Magazines.
Circa 1930, Wyn—only 32—jumped at the opportunity to become a publisher in his own right. Harold Hersey had founded
4
A History Of Ace Periodicals—Their Heroes & (Especially) Their Villains
Donald A. Wollheim would later helm Ace’s paperback science-fiction line—and see an example of his innovative “Ace Doubles” on p. 26. In the late 1960s, he would found DAW Books, which became a major SF paperback publisher. Above is a detail from a circa-1930s photo that appeared on the site thewaythefutureblogs.com. [© the respective copyright holders.]
Magazine Publishers two years earlier but had run into trouble with his financial backers. The backers were looking for a new man to lead what still seemed to be an operation with considerable potential for profit. They enlisted Wyn. By 1935, when the Time article ran, Wyn was running a booming business, publishing titles as varied as Sky Birds, Western Aces, Ten Detective Aces, Secret Agent “X,” Spy Stories, and Love Fiction Monthly. Wyn’s wife Rose served as one of his editors from almost the beginning, as did a young fellow who became well known in science-fiction circles, Donald A. Wollheim. How did Wyn come to the attention of a national news magazine? By writing an “eminently newsworthy” letter to The New York Times in defense of pulp fiction. The Times had run a rather desultory editorial regarding the medium. Wyn noted that “the story’s the thing.
You’re Aces With Us, A.A.! A pulsating potpourri of early Ace pulp-mag covers: Sky Birds (Sept. 1931)… Western Aces (Sept. ’35)… Ten Detective Aces (April ’38)… Secret Agent “X” (date unknown)… Love Fiction Monthly (Sept. ’35). Wyn surely would’ve named his aviation pulp Aces High, if there hadn’t already been a pulp or two with a similar title. [© the respective copyright holders.]
Good writing never has spoiled a wellplotted pulp story, but it never made a bad one good.” Wyn valued fast-paced plotting above all else. Well, perhaps not above everything…. Wyn had a reputation for being stingy in the extreme. Many years later, during the 1960s, the author of a Man from U.N.C.L.E. paperback novel played a clever prank on his employer. David McDaniel had the first letters of the chapter titles in his book’s table of contents spell out “A.A. Wyn is a tightwad.”
Fred Gardener Editor of the early Ace pulp magazines. Courtesy of David Saunders & www.pulpartists.com
The aforementioned Wollheim worked for Wyn for decades, overseeing many of his pulp magazines and later the sciencefiction division of his paperback line. Wollheim painted a more nuanced but still sharply delineated description of Wyn after his death in 1967: “Aaron Wyn, like many writers, was basically a shy man; most of his education had come from his own reading, and he was confident only of his own judgment…. He was a man to be respected, of high intelligence, undoubted literary ability within strict limits, but always a tough, opinionated businessman for whom few ever acquired a warm affection.”
Coming Up Aces!
5
a story and villain lifted from a 1934 tale from Secret Agent “X,” another Wyn/Ace pulp. A master of disguise, The Phantom Fed was a less dynamic version of the far more successful original. Wyn and his art editor, Fred Gardener, encouraged early writers to borrow freely from pre-existing Ace pulp-mag plots in an effort to reduce costs. Trost speculates that the names of the pulp heroes were changed to avoid paying the original writers royalties. But since the original author was occasionally credited, it seems equally likely that Wyn and Gardener felt the need to modify their pulp heroes for a younger comic book readership. Other heroes appearing in Sure-Fire #1 were rather nondescript. The Raven, an otherwise unremarkable masked mystery man, distinguished himself only by being a special friend of the poor. Rounding out the line-up, Marvo the Magician barely distinguished himself from the newspapers’ Mandrake by having a monkey named Tito for an assistant instead of a muscle-man named Lothar. Hap Hazard, a juvenile adventurer, was played mostly for laughs. Wyn’s second effort, Super-Mystery Comics, appeared on the newsstands a scant month after Sure-Fire. Its lead hero, Magno, master of magnetism, emerged full-blown, with neither an origin nor a secret identity to slow him down. “Mysterious and mighty,
Squeezing The Pulps Two of Ace’s early pulp heroes—who’d have their adventures translated in one way or another into Ace’s comics line—were Captain Hazzard (a Doc Savage imitation who starred in a single 1938 issue) and the masked “Moon Man,” who moonlighted in 38 stories in Ten Detective Aces. Artists unknown. [© the respective copyright holders.]
Wyn’s experiences during his younger years, if Time and his own self-report are to be trusted, may have given him good reason to be cautious with his money. For an established publisher of pulp magazines, his entry into comic books was rather late in the game. When Wyn finally gave the green light for the enterprise, he appears to have entrusted many of the details to his longstanding art editor, a fellow named Fred Gardener (not to be confused with “Zatara” artist/creator Fred Guardineer). In those early years, Wyn would reserve the honor of being listed as editor for himself.
The Early Comic Books Wyn started his comic book division with Sure-Fire Comics, cover-dated June 1940. Sure-Fire starred a multi-powered superhero named “Flash Lightning.” (His first name was generally put in quotation marks in the logo.) Flash was able to use the power of lightning to fly really fast and send forth bolts of electricity, all powers granted him by an ancient Egyptian mystic known only as the Old Man of the Pyramids. His first opponent, The Phoenix, along with his nefarious schemes, was directly borrowed from 1938’s one-and-only issue of Captain Hazzard, a pulp magazine also published by Wyn through Magazine Publishers, Inc., which bore an “Ace” logo on its Jim Mooney cover. Pulp historian Mark Trost notes By the year this pic was that, with the exception of the featured taken, the artist had hero, the comics story was a fairly established himself on faithful, if truncated, adaptation. Another feature in that first issue of Sure-Fire, “X, The Phantom Fed,” starred
features like “Batman,” “Supergirl,” and “Amazing Spider-Man.”
He’s Got A Train To Catch! Top-notch “Lash Lightning” splash page from Lightning Comics, Vol. 2, #4 (Dec. 1942). Art by Jim Mooney; scripter unknown—after Flash had changed his first name to Lash. Thanks to Jim Kealy. [© the respective copyright holders.]
Coming Up Aces!
11
Art Saaf issue struggles. They more nearly resembled the maniacal foes of the MLJ and Timely heroes. Ace stood pat with their two-title line-up for about a year, until the overwhelming popularity of superheroics prompted Wyn to introduce three additional comic books. The new titles were heavily populated with patriotic heroes. Our Flag Comics debuted in August 1941 and featured The Unknown Soldier, the living embodiment of every young soldier who ever gave up his life for his country, and The Flag, a foundling who gained exceptional strength, speed, and invulnerability whenever he touched his mysterious flag-shaped birthmark. The Unknown Soldier broke current fashion and wore a stylized brown military outfit as opposed to the more typical red, white, and blue affair. Not to be outdone, Banner Comics appeared one month later and featured no fewer than three patriots. The colorfully clad Captain Courageous was the very personification of courage called upon in troubled times, while The Lone Warrior and his younger brother obtained superior strength from an experimental serum concocted by their father. The third hero, Paul Revere, Jr., was simply the teen-aged descendant of the famous patriot. With its sixth and final issue, Banner Comics morphed into Captain Courageous Comics. Joining the previously established line-up was The Sword, secretly Arthur Lake, who had discovered the transformative powers of the legendary Excalibur. Ace also created an anthology title, Four Favorites, to gain extra
It’s A Grand New Flag! The Unknown Soldier appeared on Art Saaf’s cover for Ace’s Our Flag #1 (Aug. 1941), but by #2 he’d switched from blue to khaki. The Flag grabbed the spotlight on the cover of #2 (Oct. 1941), courtesy of artist Jim Mooney. Another interior feature in #1 was “Captain Victory,” but he was gone by #2. Writer & artist unknown. Thanks to Mark Carlson-Ghost. [© the respective copyright holders.]
exposure for their most popular heroes. Early issues starred Magno, Lash Lightning, The Raven, and Vulcan. Who can take credit for this creative turnaround? Two names emerged from my research. One is the aforementioned Turner, who continued freelancing with the company and may have been responsible for part of the shift in tone. But there is another, more intriguing candidate for the role of the writer/editor who turned the rather stolid storytelling of Ace comic books around.
Abner Sundell & “How To Crash The Comics” Abner Sundell is not listed as having worked for Ace at all in Jerry Bails’ 1970s print edition of Who’s Who. Nonetheless, there is overwhelming circumstantial evidence to suggest that he did. It is known that Sundell worked as an editor along with Harry Shorten over at MLJ, where he co-created Steel Sterling and possibly The Black Hood. During Sundell’s tenure there, recurring villains bedeviled The Black Hood (namely, The Skull), The Shield (The Vulture), and Steel Sterling. Sterling’s new and fiercer foes included The Black Knight and several circus-themed villains, among them a fire-breathing bad man named The Inferno, who ultimately would turn hero. Robert Turner also worked for MLJ during this period, and both men wrote for Steel Sterling.
Coming Up Aces!
23
John Buscema
Warren Kremer
in 1952. Thanks to Image artist Matthew Reynolds and Mike Miklovsky.
in 1975. Detail of photo printed in A/E #30, courtesy of Mark Arnold.
Taking A Risk! (Left:) John Buscema’s cover for Mr. Risk #7 (Oct. 1950), actually the first issue. (Right:) The Warren Kremer cover of issue #2 (Dec. ’50), the final issue. [© the respective copyright holders.]
Crime, Atomic War, &… Green Arrowhead? The atmosphere at Ace during the ’50s was colorfully detailed by Lou Cameron in a Jim Amash interview published in Alter Ego #79. Fred Gardener was still with the company, now serving as managing editor. Cameron described Gardener as “a character, very just, but very brash.” He fondly recalled the time that Gardener threw a blustery Jerry Siegel out of the Ace offices. Putting on airs in his effort to find work, Siegel had treated Gardener’s secretary rudely, and that the generally genial editor wouldn’t tolerate. Gardener and his staff experimented with genres other than horror and romance with less success. Ace revived the character Mr. Risk in 1950 and gave him in his own title in an attempt to capitalize on the hard-boiled detective craze popular at that time. His gimmick, unusual for a ’50s detective, was that he didn’t carry a gun. Having lost his Asian assistant, Risk was of necessity more two-fisted than ever. He was joined by two other detective features, “‘Poke’ Bancroft” and “Kirk Mason, the Tough Dick.” Mr. Risk only lasted two issues before being transformed into a conventional crime title, Men against Crime. Other well-intentioned efforts followed. War Heroes was a decent, if short-lived title featuring the emotionally centered wartime stories DC favored. There was little gritty realism à la EC, but romanticized and redemptive deaths were not unknown. There was little reason to seek out War Heroes on the already crowded newsstands. It folded after just eight issues. A far more creative effort was Robert Turner and Ken Rice’s World War III, cover-dated March 1952. “Let the reason for publishing this shocking account of World War III be completely clear,” Turner’s ominous narrative begins. “We want only to awaken America, and the world, to grim facts…. Only a superstrong and fully enlightened America can stop this onrushing horror of the future.”
“Fully terrified,” was more like it. By page 7, a full-page mushroom cloud was seen rising over the naval base at Norfolk, Virginia—no narration or dialogue needed. People were subsequently burned alive and all that remained of one man was his shadow etched in a ruined city wall. The Americans, for their part, avoided civilian targets—to the dismay of some of our angrier soldiers. But an atomic cloud rising over the Kremlin was intended to supply the reader with some righteous sense of retribution. Atomicthemed comic books were being issued by several other publishers. Wyn may have felt he’d missed the mark by not playing up the
Hell Is For Heroes Cover of Ace’s short-lived War Heroes #1 (May 1952), birthed during the height—if that’s not a contradiction in terms—of the Korean War. Artist unknown. [© the respective copyright holders.]
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From Dell—To Gold Key—To King— With The New York Times In Between! A Candid Conversation With Writer & Editor BILL HARRIS About His Comics Career
I
Conducted & Transcribed by Richard J. Arndt
NTERVIEWER’S INTRO: Bill Harris was an editor first at Dell, then at Gold Key Comics, in the early 1960s, where he worked on such titles as Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom. Following that period, he was hired by King Features to edit their new line of comic books, some of whose titles had been taken back from Gold Key, such as The Phantom, Flash Gordon, and Mandrake the Magician. Harris also wrote The Phantom for the entirety of its comic book runs at both Gold Key and King. This interview was conducted on January 25, 2013.
The Phantom Of The Comics Convention (Center:) Bill Harris at the 1965 “Academy Con” in New York City, flanked by comics fans Bobby Van (on his left) and Mark Hanerfeld (on his right). This con was held at a time when Harris was in between comic book editorial gigs. He’d recently resigned the one at Western/Gold Key, and the one at King Features was still a year away; but in July of ’65 he was still scripting The Phantom comic book for Gold Key. Thanks to Bill Schelly. (Left:) The Phantom was visually introduced to Gold Key’s readers on the second page of its The Phantom #1 (Nov. 1962), as written by Harris, drawn by Bill Lignante, and lettered by comic strip veteran Ben Oda. The yarn was a riff on Richard Connell’s famous 1924 short story “The Most Dangerous Game.” Note that Gold Key at first eschewed the use of inked borders for its panels. Repro’d from Hermes Press’ 2014 hardcover The Phantom – The Complete Sundays: Volume Two 1942-1945; Hermes Press has reprinted the Gold Key, King, and Charlton comic book runs of The Phantom. (Above right:) Splash page of King Comics’ The Phantom #22 (May 1967), with script by Harris and art by Lignante. Thanks to Eric Schumacher. [Both Phantom pages TM & © King Features, Inc.]
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A Candid Conversation With Writer & Editor Bill Harris
“I Was Brought In [to Dell] To Promote Comic Books” RICHARD ARNDT: Thank you for agreeing to this interview. First, can you tell us a little bit about your background? Did you read a lot of comics as a kid? BILL HARRIS: I grew up in Pennsylvania, in West Pittston, a pretty small town near Scranton. Just about all the kids read comic books. We traded them back and forth. I had a boxful and I kept them in the cellar stairway. The kids from the neighborhood would come and take out what they wanted and put in what they didn’t want anymore. Everybody did it. My first job was with ABC Radio. My dream in life was to be in broadcasting. But I got fired after about four years. It was due to budget cuts, which is really common in that business. So I thought “F—- you guys. I’m not gonna work for you again, just so you can fire me for nothing that I did.” So I began scrambling about, looking for a real job. I worked with Crowell-Collier, a publishing company that’s now defunct. I learned about sales there. The guy I worked with was a genius—a terrific teacher. He taught me how to write and do sales promotion. I started a checkered career, bouncing around from one company to another. I’d gotten married and had kids, and I couldn’t afford to live on the salary that Crowell-Collier was paying me. Every time I asked for a raise, they told me the economy was poor. [laughs] I solved that one by quitting and going somewhere else. Eventually I wound up at Dell, which is now gone, too, I think. I was brought in there to promote comic books. RA: How did you promote comics in the early 1960s? HARRIS: My promotional career at Dell Publishing, while officially on behalf of Dell Comics, included all of the Dell magazines, from Modern Romances to Inside Detective—there were dozens of them. It mostly involved relations with magazine wholesalers, who needed periodic nudges to put the Dell products on newsstands rather than saving them for returns to cover their monthly bills. It also included flyers and brochures to promote
Getting A Promotion It’s not known whether Harris was involved in doing promotion for Dell/Western on these two particular magazine issues (a ’60s-something edition of Modern Romances and the Feb. 1963 issue of Inside Detective), but one if not both are from the period of his employment at Dell, which didn’t include working solely on comic books! Note the Dell seal on the latter cover. [© the respective copyright holders.]
specific comic titles, which helped give Western, Dell’s partner company, some stories to impress the licensors on how we were working to boost their royalty revenue. Remember, Dell did an enormous amount of licensed material, from movies to TV shows to cartoon and comic strip characters. You know, Dell—and Gold Key, when it spun off from Dell—were exempt from review by the Comics Code Authority. The Comics Code was established to answer the ravings of Frederic Wertham, the self-appointed guardian of the poor little kids who he claimed were being corrupted by the comic book publishers. We were exempt because we had a higher authority—our licensors—to satisfy. That was a mandate that extended to even our original titles like Turok [Son of Stone] and Doctor Solar [Man of the Atom]. We did allow the Comics Code to look over our output, albeit without the authority to change any of it. I had regular visits with Leonard Darvin, a lawyer, and, I think, one of the inquisitors. I came to like him and wondered whatever became of him. There weren’t many jobs he could have filled after the Comics Code ran its course. RA: He was the attorney for the Code Office, or actually for the Comics Magazine Association of America, which set up the Comics Code Office, in the early 1960s and in 1965, I think, became the actual head of the Comics Code. He worked for the Comics Code Office, in one way or another for 25 years. Then for 10 years after that he served as a consultant. He passed away in 2003 at the age of 94.
Baby, It’s Code Outside! Two of Gold Key’s successful (and non-Comics-Code-approved) 1960s series during Harris’ tenure, illustrated by strong covers: Turok, Son of Stone #44 (March 1965) and Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom #7 (March 1964). The latter cover was painted by George Wilson; the artist of the former is unidentified. [TM & © Random House, Inc.]
HARRIS: Huh! Anyway, I really fell in love with comics on that job. A guy named Matt Murphy, from Western Printing, used to come down once a week to preview titles with Helen Meyer, Dell’s president. I got to know Matt, and one day I said to him, “You know, I’m in the wrong place. Instead of promoting comics, I’d rather be working on them.” He said, “I can’t hire you because you’ve become Dell’s most important employee” and all that. Dell was a customer of Western’s, and they couldn’t afford to rock the boat [by hiring me directly from Dell]. He told me to get on another payroll
Len Darvin Administrator of the Comics Code Authority, beginning in late 1965.
From Dell—To Gold Key—To King—With The New York Times In Between!
41
[through the company], because the average age of everyone was so high. King Features was owned by the Hearst Corporation, and they used to let the retiring girlfriends and what-not come in and work there. You couldn’t lose with King Features. So there I sat, bored out of my mind, and finally I got to the point where if anyone asked me to do anything I’d snap at them. I didn’t want to be that guy. They had a movie called Yellow Submarine coming out, so I worked on the licensing for that. Then all of a sudden, one day it was gone. Movies come and go, you know? Yellow Submarine came and went. [INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: Western did the comic book adaptation of that film inspired by a Beatles song, using an early draft of the movie's screenplay.] I called my old boss up at the Times and asked if I could have my old job back. He said yes, so I went back. I just took up where I left off. I ended up leaving the Times years later because the books I was writing were taking up so much of my time. I asked one of my publishers if I could match my salary from working at the Times by working for him and he said yes. I worked for multiple publishers after that.
“I Did All The [Phantom Comics] Published By Western And… King Features” RA: You worked on The Phantom for a considerable period of time— three or four years. HARRIS: Yeah, I did all the ones published by Western and all the ones published by King Features: 28 issues between 1962 and 1967. Then the book went to Charlton. RA: Did you work with a number of different artists while writing The Phantom? HARRIS: No. That was another thing about Falk. We had one guy. His name was Bill Lignante. He came to me right after I started organizing the book, before publication, and told me that he was Lee Falk’s pick to do the comic book. I told him that we had artists of our own at Western and we’d rather use one of them. Frankly, I didn’t think that Lignante was that good an artist. At least, I didn’t think that at the time. I’ve since changed my mind. But I found out later that Lee Falk had indeed sent him over. So we used him. He was the only artist we used for the book at both Western and King Features. RA: One of your and Lignante’s stories did appear in the Charlton version of the book—“The Ghost Tribe,” in #35.
Lee Falk The writer and major creator of two popular early adventure comic strips for King Features: Mandrake the Magician and The Phantom. Thanks to Hermes Press.
HARRIS: I don’t know about that. There may have been one left over. See, King Features had to produce material for the foreign market. The worldwide market, actually. That’s why they went into comics to begin with. To keep supplying that market, they had to keep producing material even though they were no longer publishing it themselves. I suspect, with that Charlton story, we got a couple of scripts up on the publishing schedule, and when Charlton took over, they started with their own scripts but used ours when a deadline got too close. I think Dick Wood took
Print The Legend!” Splash page of Bill Harris’ second “Phantom” story, for Gold Key’s The Phantom #2 (Feb. 1963), which depicts the hero on his throne in the Asian jungles, his faithful dog Devil at his side. (His horse, in case you didn’t know, is named Hero.) Art by Bill Lignante. Repro’d from the first volume of the Hermes Press reprinting of the “Gold Key years.” [TM & © King Features Syndicate, Inc.]
over The Phantom after I left. I’m not sure, though. RA: Yes, he did three or four issues. HARRIS: Dick had a brother or maybe two, and they all worked in the comic book business. I liked Dick Wood. I don’t know how to describe him, but he was a very interesting man. RA: Both Western and the King Feature books tended to use painted covers….
Bill Lignante
HARRIS: Yeah, that was a Artist of all Gold Key and King Comics Western thing. Ed Marine issues of The Phantom, as personally was the art director there, selected by Falk. and he worked for a guy named Walter Brooks, who was the overall art director for Western. Brooks was responsible for all the Dell paperback covers. Ed was responsible for all the comic book covers. Ed liked to use paintings. I think that became kind of a Western trademark.
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A Candid Conversation With Writer & Editor Bill Harris
Kilgore wrote it for me and Fred illustrated it. [INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: The art is credited by the Grand Comics Database to a Phil de Lara rather than Fredericks; it’s impossible for us to confirm which of the two is correct.] Mel Crawford, another of my favorite artists, did the cover. That book was my all-time favorite project, of any kind. We went up to Jim’s apartment to hash out what we wanted. We ended up going there seven or eight times, and it was like going to a party over there. Kilgore and Fredericks were the funniest guys on Earth. Jim appreciated their humor. We’d sit around and shoot the jokes back and forth. It was like a vaudeville room. I got to like Jim a lot, and we stayed in touch for quite a while. I guess you know that he just dropped out of sight. RA: He’s still around and kicking, though. HARRIS: Jim had a lot of enemies in the comic book business, but I’ve always defended him. He was always very generous with gifts. He got a lot of loyalty that way. RA: Right about the time Creepy #1 came out, there was a Bullwinkle newspaper strip by, I think, Al Kilgore that featured Uncle Creepy. Was that little shout-out your doing? The strip was reprinted on the first or second letters page in Creepy.
All’s Fair… The cover of the 1964 comics special Hanna Barbera The Flintstones at the New York World’s Fair, a notion of Warren Publishing’s Jim Warren, published by Gold Key/Western. Art by Mel Crawford. [TM & © the respective copyright holders.]
HARRIS: I put together the first couple of letters pages for Creepy, and I think it’s quite possible that I put that Bullwinkle comic strip in there. I don’t really remember. The first issue of Creepy didn’t come out all that long after the Flintstones at the New York World’s Fair book. I had this idea that comics companies didn’t really do too much with the kids, their fans, who read their stuff. They really had no contact with them until this fan movement started in the early 1960s. The fans were kind of ignored before that. They would come and hang around the office and kind of hero-worship you, hoping to meet an artist or a writer. I thought that, if Jim could get involved with those fans, he’d be way ahead of the game. I think he agreed, and that’s what we did.
Creeping Along Creepy #18 (Dec. 1968) was the first issue of that Warren title to appear after Archie Goodwin resigned as editor—so it may be one of those for which Bill Harris did “editorial consulting.” Officially, the editor is listed as being publisher James Warren himself. Cover painting by Vic Prezio. [TM & © New Comics Company.]
RA: He started up a fans page where the young writers and artists could show their work. A large number of writers and artists got their first public appearance on a Creepy, Eerie, or Vampirella fan page or appeared on the letters page. Bernie Wrightson, Bruce Jones, Len Wein, for example, appeared on the fan page. Brad Bird, who directed both The
Iron Giant and The Incredibles films wrote to the letters page, as did many other future media professionals.
…And Three To Go! (Left to right:) James Warren, Bill Harris, and Woody Gelman share a moment at the 1965 New York comics convention, probably following the panel in which Harris and Warren took part. Bill had only recently stepped down as a Gold Key editor, but was still writing The Phantom for the company… James W. was the “Warren” in Warren Publishing… and Woody Gelman, a one-time funny-animal scripter for DC (and the creator of its popular humor feature “The Dodo and the Frog”), was then an executive at Topps Chewing Gum, Inc., and near-future publisher of Nostalgia Press. Thanks to Bill Schelly.
HARRIS: Jim was a smart guy, one of the smartest guys I’ve ever met, and he knew how to work what he did well. Fred and Al were both movie buffs. They could recite dialogue from everything except silent movies. They knew the cast of every movie. Al collected 16-millimeter prints of movies, which was the only way you could watch a movie at home in those days. He had quite a collection. Al designed the boxes that the movies were shipped in, so he got free films that way. Nearly every week you could expect an invitation to come over and watch a movie at his house. RA: Your mentioning your connection with Jim Warren reminds me that a writer for Warren mentioned that a Gold Key editor was ghost-editing the Warren books right after Archie Goodwin left. Would that Gold Key editor have been you? HARRIS: Yes, I did some “editorial consulting” for Jim Warren at the start of his publishing operation. I wouldn’t say I edited any issues. Jim did that himself. But I did backstop him and encouraged some of the writers and artists I worked with at Western or King Features to look for work at Warren Publishing. I was partly motivated by an admiration for Jim’s style, but more out of a desire to help those guys find more work than I
Sy Barry See A/E #37 for an in-depth interview with this superb artist. Two of his Phantom covers can be seen on p. 42.
From Dell—To Gold Key—To King—With The New York Times In Between!
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Al Williamson was one of comic books’ greatest devotees of the art of Flash Gordon creator Alex Raymond—as well as a star artist at EC Comics in the first half of the 1950s.
We’re Number One! There were two Flash Gordon #1s in the mid-1960s. (Left:) This painting by an unidentified illustrator fronted Dell/Western’s #1-and-only, dated June 1965. The interior art was by Paul Norris. (Right:) Al Williamson drew the beautiful cover for King Comics’ Flash Gordon #1 (Sept. 1966), as well as the interior art. [TM & © King Features Syndicate, Inc.]
was prepared to pass along. One I recall was Ben Oda, the lettering man, who was one of my all-time favorite people. He became one of Jim’s favorites, too. As for exact dates of when I was doing this consulting, it’s among my weaknesses that I can’t retain numbers longer than a minute or two. Sorry! Do you remember a guy named Sy Barry?
“We Made Money On [Flash Gordon #1]” RA: I do. I think he did Flash Gordon… no, wait, that was Dan Barry. HARRIS: Sy and Dan were brothers. I was watching a thing on Netflix last week. A science-fictiony kind of television program, and the producer and head writer on it was a guy named Seymour Barry, and I thought to myself, “I know a guy named Seymour Barry. Now where do I know that name from?” Mind you, I don’t know if it was the same guy, but Sy’s full name was Seymour. Sy drew the Phantom comic strip for many years. He also worked with his brother on Flash Gordon. I don’t know if Dan took over the strip directly from Alex Raymond, who died in a car crash in the 1950s. [INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: For the record, Mac Raboy took over the art on the Flash Gordon strip after Raymond’s death. When Raboy died in 1967, Dan Barry took over the strip. See the coverage of Dan Barry in A/E #130, 131, 134, & 137. A/E #37 highlighted an interview with Sy Barry.] RA: Al Williamson, who drew Secret Agent X-9, which was started by Alex Raymond, also drew the Flash Gordon comic book for King Features. I thought that Williamson’s artwork looked the most like Alex Raymond’s on Flash…. HARRIS: I was the editor on that book. We had full copy returns on Flash Gordon #1, and I had a room full of copies of that issue. The guys who sell used comic books in various types of stores came up to King Features and bought the returns from us. We didn’t take a bath on the number of returns. We made money on that one. That was a beauty of a comic book. Frank Bolle did some of the Flash Gordon comics, too. Frank worked for me a lot at Western. He’s a hell of a nice guy. Is he still alive? [Continued on p. 50]
Secret Agent Whatever For King’s Flash Gordon #4, Goodwin and Williamson also drew a backup tale of King Features’ comic strip Secret Agent X-9, which had been originated in 1934 by Dashiell (The Maltese Falcon) Hammett and Alex Raymond and would run, under various teams, through 1996. The same year they drew this comic book story (1966), Archie and Al would take over the newspaper strip, whose name was changed for the remainder of its run to Secret Agent Corrigan. Thanks to Mark Muller. [TM & © King Features Syndicate, Inc.]
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[©2016 Michael T. Gilbert.]
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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!
Michael T.: The Fanzine Years! (Part 3) by Michael T. Gilbert
L
ike Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, I found myself in limbo after graduation. By December 1973, I’d completed my student-teaching requirements (a sop to my parents while I took art classes and drew comics on the side). While technically qualified to teach art, I had zero interest in actually doing so. I wanted to draw comics. In 1974, that wasn’t going to be easy. In the indulgent ’70s, schools’ standards weren’t as rigorous as they’d been decades earlier. As a result, my cartooning skills were mostly self-taught. The School of Visual Arts only began offering cartooning classes in September 1973, and the Kubert School didn’t open until 1976. But by then it was too late for me. With diploma in hand, I was anxious to earn a living.
On the plus side, school was a lot cheaper then, with some help from a Regents scholarship. As a result, I graduated owing a mere $1000—$600 of which I spent printing New Paltz Comix #1! As luck would have it, Gram had given me a $1000 savings bond for my Bar Mitzvah, and it matured just at the right time. So my college was now fully paid off. Eat your heart out, Millennials!
Creepy’s Loathsome Lore! (Above & below:) Two sample pages Michael attempted to sell to Warren Publishing in 1971. The “Spawn of Mars” page never got past the pencil stage, until inked by his friend Brian Buniak years later. [© 2016 Michael T. Gilbert.]
After graduation I moved back to my parents’ home in Commack, NY. But after seeing me laze around a couple of weeks, Mom not-so-subtly informed me I’d be moving out. I’ve had my issues with my mom, who passed on a few years back, but forcing me out was actually very healthy. Mom’s mother, Grandma Anna Nurock, had an extra room in her large Bronx apartment, so I had a free place to crash. It was a good way to transition to “real life,” and made it easier to look for a job in the city. During my college days, I’d already met with James Warren a couple of times, but failed to make a sale. This time I decided to work up some samples to show DC or Marvel. I penciled a “Spider-Man” page, but the results were stiff and awkward. How did Ditko make it look so effortless? Frustrated, I tossed it, and decided to try again. Maybe I’d have better luck with “Batman”?
Commercial Art! In the meantime, I lugged my huge portfolio around town on the subway looking for work. I had no luck for the first few weeks, though at one point I stumbled onto Ken Bald’s studio. In 1974 he was drawing the syndicated Dr. Kildare comic strip and had, until recently, also illustrated the Dark Shadows strip. While he was quite friendly and encouraging, he had no work for me.
Comic Fandom Archive
63
Alter Ego’s Multi-Part Tribute To G.B. Love & RBCC – Part 7
G.B. Love. (1939-2001) Photo by Robert Brown.
EARL BLAIR, JR., Remembers G.B. Love & Houston Fandom by Bill Schelly
I
NTRODUCTION: In prior installments of our multi-part tribute to Gordon Belljohn Love (in Alter Ego #133-135 & #140-142), we covered the period of his life during which he published the Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector, his ubiquitous 1960s adzine, from his base in Miami, Florida. James Van Hise explained in issue #142 how he took over the reins of RBCC from G.B. in 1974. Various friends, fans, and contributors to RBCC have also shared their memories of Gordon Love with us. Now we shift our focus to the second important stage in Love’s story: his period as a central figure in Houston fandom, his role as editor of the fanzine Trek (and the Best of Trek book series), and his friendship with Earl Blair, Jr., who knew him as well as or better than anybody. I spoke with Earl (“Captain Bijou” to his friends and customers) at length via telephone on September 6, 2014. The tape was transcribed by Brian K. Morris. Special thanks to Earl Blair, Jr., Roy Bonario, and Robert Brown for their photographs. BILL SCHELLY: Could you give me a little information about yourself as a comic book collector as a boy and teenager?
EARL BLAIR, JR.: I was born in 1946, in San Antonio, Texas. I was an Army brat, and our family moved around. We ended up settling down in Houston in late 1950, early 1951. I’ve been a comic book fan from the earliest time I can remember, buying comics off the stands, comics such as Roy Rogers, Superman, and Captain Marvel Adventures. When DC was bringing back The Flash and Green Lantern, some of the letter columns started talking about the old issues in 1940s and all of that. I thought, “I would like to find out where I can get some of those.” I wrote DC and they said, “We don’t have any of these comic books, but you can try some of these guys: Howard Rogofsky, Claude Held, and Ken Mitchell.” I started buying comic books from Claude Held, and also went to used book stores in Houston looking for back issues.
Earl Blair, Jr. in the mid-1960s. [Photo © 2016 Earl Blair, Jr.]
BS: Did you ever find much in those used book stores?
Captain Caption In the early 1950s, young Earl had been a fan of Fawcett’s Captain Marvel— and he drew this Captain Marvel art for the cover of G.B. Love’s Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector #48 (1966) some time before the two of them ever met in person. [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics.]
BLAIR: There was this old feller running a book store, and he saw my earnestness in looking for old comics. I’d left my phone number with him. So when a lady came into his store with a box full of old comics, he called me and I rushed right over. [Bill laughs] I’d say there was probably 100 or 150 comics in the box. I started going through them, and these are titles I had never had or hadn’t
3TEAMBOAT 3ABRA (OLBROOK S 9OUTHBUILDERS #APTAIN -ARVEL !FRICAN !MERICAN 3TEREOTYPES $URING 7ORLD 7AR )) BY "RIAN #REMINS
The WorldÕs MightiestÉ (Above:) Steamboat was hypnotized into believing he was Captain Marvel in the ironically-titled tale ÒThe WorldÕs Mightiest Mistake,Ó from Dbqubjo!Nbswfm!Bewfouvsft #16 (Oct. 1942). Writer unknown; art by C.C. Beck, Dave Berg, & the Captain Marvel art staff. [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics.]
IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, THE LINK TO ORDER THIS PRINT OR DIGITAL FORMAT!
(Right:) Cartoonist Keiler Roberts (best known for her autobiographical CLICK series Qpxefsfe!Njml) did the drawing and cover design forISSUE our IN author Brian CreminsÕ book Dbqubjo!Nbswfm!boe!uif!Bsu!pg!Optubmhjb, recently published by the University Press of Mississippi. The article that follows is abridged from a chapter of that book. [Art © the University Press of Mississippi.]
ALTER EGO #144
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