Alter Ego #154

ALLEN BELLMAN

Roy Thomas' Marvel-Maniac Comics Fanzine

PLUS:

In the USA

No. 154 September 2018

Human Torch, Captain America, Sub-Mariner TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; other art © Allen Bellman & Dan Davis

BLASTS FROM THE 1940s TIMELY/MARVEL BULLPEN!

$9.95

The

Wondrous Women

Of 1970s Marvel: SHANNA THE SHE-DEVIL! NIGHT NURSE! & CLAWS OF THE CAT!

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Vol. 3, No. 154 / Sept. 2018 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

Contents

Editorial Honor Roll

Writer/Editorial: “When Gold And Silver Becks Me On” . . . . 2 “All I Had Was My Memories!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

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

Proofreaders

Rob Smentek William J. Dowlding

Timely artist Allen Bellman spills more Golden Age secrets to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo.

The Female Of The Marvel Species, 1972

A 4-part panorama on the trio of “girls’ comics” introduced by Marvel in the early ‘70s:

Cover Artists

“I Know There Aren’t A Lot Of Heifers In The Bullpen” . . 22

Cover Colorist

“That’s The Bullpen! It’s… Magic!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Allen Bellman (pencils) Dan Davis (inks)

Paty Greer (Cockrum) brought her own wonderment to The Cat—& to 1970s Marvel!

Gerry Turnbull

With Special Thanks to: Heidi Amash Pedro Angosto Heather Antonelli Ger Apeldoorn Sergio Aragonés Richard J. Arndt Bob Bailey Allen & Roz Bellman Lee Benaka Ricky Terry Brisacque Mike Broder Eliot R. Brown Bernie Bubnis Tim Burgard John Caputo Nick Caputo Dewey Cassell John Cimino Shaun Clancy Paty Cockrum Comic Book Plus (website) Pierre Comtois Mark Conlon Adelso Corona Bob Cosgrove Chet Cox Dan Davis Fred deBoom Michael Dunne Jim Engel Mark Evanier Wendy Everett Justin Fairfax Linda Fite Shane Foley Ramona Fradon Benito Gallego Janet Gilbert Don Glut Golden Age Comic Book Stories (website) Grand Comics Database (website) Gary Groth Micah S. Harris Russ Heath Rick Hoberg Larry Houston Alex Jay Benton Jew

Linda Fite talks to Richard Arndt about The Cat—and a little bit of Night Nurse.

Scott Joseph Jim Kealy Tom Lammers Wilfredo Lee Mark Lewis Art Lortie Jim Ludwig Dennis Mallonee Pat McGreal Jim MacQuarrie Winji Mezadieu Mike Mikulovsky William Mitchell Brian K. Morris Bill Morrison Jacque Nodell Richard O’Hara Audrey Parente Janna Parker Barry Pearl Robert Policastro Rubén Procopio Russell Rainbolt Gene Reed Matthew Reynolds Allen Ross Randy Sargent Andrew Satterfield Patrick Scullin Carole Seuling Earl Shaw Scott Shaw!

Mark Sinnott Anthony Snyder J. David Spurlock Jim Starlin Ronn Sutton Jeff Taylor Dann Thomas Mike Tiefenbacher Bobby Timony John Trumbull Gerry Turnbull Mike Uslan Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Dr. Michael J. Vassallo Mike Vosburg John Wells Terry Wilson Marv Wolfman Steve Wyatt Mike Zeck

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Raymond Miller, Dave Hunt, & Martin Greim

“I Created Shanna To Be A Very Intelligent Woman” . . . . 41 Carole Seuling on Shanna the She-Devil—a jungle queen with a long reign.

The Night Of The Nurse! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Roy Thomas discusses Jean Thomas’ tenure as the major writer of Night Nurse.

“A Trick of Memory” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Part V of major Golden/Silver Age scripter John Broome’s offbeat memoir.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! “Dan Adkins & The Incredible Tracing Machine!” Revisited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Chapter 2 of our coverage of the Adkins “swiping” controversy of the latter 1960s.

Comic Fandom Archive: In Memoriam – Raymond Miller . . 73 Bill Schelly’s celebration of a prominent researcher, writer, and Golden Age comics fan.

Tributes To Martin Greim & Dave Hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 80 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #213 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 P.C. Hamerlinck winds up Mike Tiefenbacher’s “Captain Marvel ©opyright ©risis.”

On Our Cover: It was the next-best thing to finding a never-printed piece by Alex Schomburg, the guy who drew so many of those great World War II-era Timely Comics covers on which Captain America, The Human Torch, and Sub-Mariner took on the Axis hordes! Allen Bellman penciled, delineating the Big Three heroes he’d drawn from time to time in the 1940s—Dan Davis supplied some vintage-looking inks—and Gerry Turnbull splashed on the cataclysmic colors! It originally appeared on the cover of the program book for the first annual Cincinnati Comic Expo in 2010— complete with a feel of a few torn spots as if it were an actual Golden Age comicbook cover! With thanks to that con’s host, Andrew Satterfield. [Captain America, Human Torch, & Sub-Mariner TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; other art © Allen Bellman & Dan Davis.]

Above: The first issue of Marvel’s The Cat (cover-dated Nov. 1972) combined the verbal talents of Linda Fite, the storytelling prowess of Marie Severin, and the dazzling finishing and embellishment of Wally Wood. Our heroine looks as if she’s tearing apart some of those gleamingmetal machines with which Wood used to fill the spaceship-happy panels of EC’s Weird Science and Weird Fantasy. Sacrilege! [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] Alter Ego TM 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.

Six-issue subscriptions: $65 US, $99 Elsewhere, $30 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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writer/editorial

“...When Gold And Silver Becks Me On” L ike many an editorial-scribbler before me, and hopefully many after me, I love to begin a piece with a Shakespearean quote… even one from a relatively little-known play.

Naturally, the reference overhead is to the so-called Golden and Silver Ages of Comics, both of which are on prominent display this issue.

The above words also appeal to me because the poetic line that precedes them in the historical drama King John is quoted far more often: “Bell, book, and candle shall not drive me back…”

Yes, the “bell, book, and candle” of Roman Catholic excommunication… and the title of a comedic Broadway play in 1950… and of a 1958 movie version with Jack Lemmon and Kim Novak… …and the ultimate “inspiration” for the somewhat tortured title of my writer/editorial way back in Alter Ego #32 (Jan. 2004): “Bellman, Burlockoff, and Candle.”

Fourteen years ago, that issue’s lead features were an interview

by Jim Amash with 1940s comics artist Sam Burlockoff… and Dr. Michael J. Vassallo’s first recorded talk with Allen Bellman, who’s the cover-featured artist on this one as well.

Michael, a foremost expert on Timely Comics and its personnel of the late ’40s through the ’50s, had “tracked Allen down”—Doc V.’s words—in the late ’90s, when the retired artist was pursuing a second career as a photographer; a firm friendship had soon been struck up. Soon after A/E began its current incarnation in 1999, Michael interviewed Allen for it, so a new generation could be made aware of this gentle man who had joined the Timely bullpen as an adventure artist in 1942. Allen mentioned to Michael that he imagined his former colleague Sam Burlockoff had long since died;

but soon afterward, as kindly fates would have it, Michael received an e-mail from Jim Amash, who was then A/E’s chief interviewer.

Jim mentioned in passing that he was currently talking to… Sam Burlockoff!

It was quickly decided that both interviews would appear in the same issue…by which time the two old friends had been able to meet again face to face. While Sam Burlockoff, alas, passed away in 2007, Allen and his effervescent wife Roz have become popular guests at comics conventions. Recently, he published a memoir… and he, Michael, and I decided that a new A/E interview should cover things that fell through the cracks the first time around. Enjoy!

As for this issue’s 1970s content, it consists of conversations between Richard Arndt and three women who were key personnel on the trio of titles (The Cat, Shanna the She-Devil, and Night Nurse) that Stan Lee conceived in ’72 in hopes of garnering new female readers. Linda Fite, Carole Seuling, and Jean Thomas were the series’ primary writers (though in this A/E I had to stand in for my first wife Jeanie), and Paty Greer/Cockrum penciled an issue of The Cat. (Artists Marie Severin and Ramona Fradon were likewise involved.) The triple experiment wasn’t a raging success, yet Shanna has had a long life as a recurring Marvel heroine… The Cat’s alter ego soon became Tigra the Werewoman (while Patsy Walker later adapted her basic costume as Hellcat)… and one of the three heroines of Night Nurse had graduated to M.D. status by the time of the 2016 film Doctor Strange.

We thought it might prove instructive to treat these three series—and the distaff quotient of their creative teams—all in the same issue. We think it worked out pretty well, and we hope you do, too!

Bestest,

holders; e trademark & copyright& copyright holders Art TM & © the respectiv ective trademark resp the © & TM ges Three Stoo

COMING IN OCTOBER

155

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CELEBRATING GOLDEN AGE ARTIST, WRITER, & EDITOR

NORMAN MAURER!

NOW 100 PAGES!

• NORMAN MAURER—artist (& more) of Crimebuster, the original Daredevil, Crime Does Not Pay, The Three Stooges, etc., and 1950s co-creator of the very first 3-D comics with fellow legend JOE KUBERT—remembered by his wife, JOAN MAURER, daughter of MOE HOWARD of the Stooges! Plus Norm’s work for Marvel, DC, Gold Key, Fox, et al.—and as the producer of 1960s Three Stooges movies! An incredible interview about an incredible guy, conducted by RICHARD ARNDT! • FCA focus on Golden Age Fawcett writer FRANCE “ED” HERRON—a talk with MADDY COHEN, a.k.a. “Mischievous MIMI GOLD,” late-’60s/early-’70s Marvel staffer— Part VI of JOHN BROOME’s memoirs—MICHAEL T. GILBERT presents the conclusion of “DAN ADKINS & The Incredible Tracing Machine”—BILL SCHELLY on RAYMOND MILLER, Part 2—& MORE!

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“All I Had Was My Memories!”

Allen & Roz Bellman at the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con… the year Allen got his Inkpot Award. Thanks to Audrey Parente & Dr. Michael J. Vassallo.

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ALLEN BELLMAN On Golden Age Timely/Marvel & On Being Rediscovered

Interview Conducted & Transcribed by Dr. Michael J. Vassallo

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NTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: Where has the time gone? It’s hard to believe it’s been 14 years since my interview with Allen Bellman was originally published in Alter Ego #32 (Jan. 2004). When I tracked Allen down in 1998, my intentions were to speak to one of Timely’s early unknown links, get his story for posterity, and in the process shed some well-deserved light on a career long forgotten by comics history. I knew of his accomplishments; but for the most part, very few others did. What I got, instead, was a life-long friend.

In the ensuing years, the interview was uploaded to my Timely-Atlas blog, the wider world was exposed to his story, and quite simply, to use the parlance of the digital age… Allen went viral! Like an explosion, he (with his lovely wife Roz) became one of the most popular guests

Three Cheers For The Red, White, & Blue!

This montage could almost be titled 75 Years of Allen Bellman Art, since the Bellman-autographed “Patriot” splash page was drawn by Allen (scripter unknown) for Marvel Mystery Comics #70 (March 1946)… while the color Captain America illo was done quite recently. The former art appeared in Allen’s 2017 book Timely Confidential: When the Golden Age of Comics Was Young, and was supplied by co-editor Audrey Parente; a photocopy of the latter was given to Ye Editor by the artist himself. In this issue, Alter Ego has tried, to the extent possible, to avoid repeating art or photos that previously appeared with Bellman material in A/E #32, 65, or 114, or which are on view in Timely Confidential… but repeating some of them was unavoidable. [Patriot & Captain America TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Dr. Michael J. Vassallo wrestling with a copy of Taschen’s 17-pound 2014 volume 75 Years of Marvel: From the Golden Age to the Silver Screen, for which he and his Yancy Street Gang buddies Barry Pearl and Nick Caputo wrote the original drafts of many of the captions. Some guy named Thomas wrote the main text. Photo courtesy of BP.

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Allen Bellman On Golden Age Timely/Marvel & On Being Rediscovered

on the national convention circuit, bringing his memories and stories of working in the Empire State Building in the 1940s for a young Stan Lee to fans everywhere. Allen can lay claim to being the last man left standing who drew “Captain America” during the war years of the Golden Age, beginning his career in 1942. This fact has not gone unnoticed by fandom and by Marvel in particular. When the Captain America: The First Avenger film opened in Hollywood in 2011, Allen walked the Red Carpet there!

anywhere else. And I say this truthfully: I’ve spoken to many people from the Timely era, most of them people you’d know, and not everyone was as gracious as you’ve been. Many have been wonderful, but others were suspicious of my motives—or at least, they were “cautious” about what they wanted to tell me. I honestly couldn’t understand why. Some couldn’t believe I was even interested in that old stuff, and felt that they’d gone to bigger and better things. One of those was Valerie Barclay, whom I know you knew well.

And he still hasn’t slowed down. His story has been filmed by a documentary company for a future release, last year he threw out the first ball at a Miami Marlins baseball game, and as I write these words, his autobiography, Timely Confidential, has been released by Bold Adventure Press. I had the pleasure of co-editing the book (Allen knows where the bodies are buried!), and I recommend it to everyone interested in hearing a first-hand account of what it was like to work on staff at Timely Comics.

BELLMAN: I did know her. We went to school together.

As he has reached the youthful age of 93, I thought now would be a good time to catch up with Allen and re-visit his life since our last interview. I called him at his home at the turn of 2018 and he was more than happy to oblige, catching his breath between convention appearances.

MJV: I had lunch with her one afternoon near my office. This was before I called you for the first time. She allowed me to tape-record our lunch, but later that night I was horrified to find out that the tape was nearly ruined because we’d been sitting near the kitchen and the loud sounds drowned out nearly everything spoken. I still want to try to forensically transcribe that tape. David Gantz was another. He finally warmed up to me, but the first time I spoke to him he thought I was nuts worrying about Timely history and the “junk art” (his words) he did back then. I told Valerie that I had spoken to Gantz, and she wanted to know everything he told me. She insisted on knowing whether Gantz had told me anything about George

MICHAEL J. VASSALLO: Happy New Year, Allen!

ALLEN BELLMAN: Thank you, Michael. I wish you an even happier one! You and your family.

MJV: Roz is well?

BELLMAN: Yes, thank God. Where would I be without her? She takes care of me, orders my medication… everything is in order in my life because of her. I’m very blessed.

MJV: Allen, it’s been almost 15 years, if you can believe it, since my interview with you was published in Alter Ego. In fact, it’s now 19 years since I first called you up way back in 1998.

BELLMAN: It still seems like yesterday to me.

MJV: A lot has happened to you since that interview. I recall, in one of our very early talks, you mentioned how it bothered you that no one believed you’d ever worked for Stan Lee long ago.

BELLMAN: It was very frustrating, mostly because I couldn’t tell them what I did. I had no copies and barely remembered.

MJV: And now there’s almost no one who doesn’t know you. You’re a major convention draw. You have thousands of Facebook friends... you’ve walked the Red Carpet!

BELLMAN: Thanks to you.

MJV: I did nothing, Allen. I just told your story.

BELLMAN: It wasn’t nothing. I’m convinced I’m still around and kicking because of this second life you’ve given me.

You changed my entire life, man! You gave me the life! I’d probably be dead right now if it wasn’t for you!

MJV: [probably turning red] Well, for whatever small part I’ve played, Allen, I’m extremely happy. And it’s been reciprocated many times over. I’ve had a window to Timely I couldn’t have found

Secrets Behind The Comics: A Krazy Love Triangle Caricature of Violet (later Valerie) Barclay, drawn by Ken Bald for Stan Lee’s small 1947 volume Secrets behind the Comics—juxtaposed with a crowded page from Krazy Komics #12 (March 1943) that includes two of her reputed lovers. Mike Sekowsky is the blond guy at top right who’s talking— and the guy whose head he’s painting with his brush is George Klein.

The main guy in panel 3 is the tale’s penciler, Ed Winiarski; inker & writer unknown. Most of the other people caricatured in this picture have not been 100% identified. Both Sekowsky and Klein remained prominent in the comicbook field for years, working for both Marvel and DC. Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo & Jim Ludwig. [Barclay pic © Famous Enterprises, Inc.; Krazy panel TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“All I Had Were My Memories!”

Klein! I’m not making this up! This is 50 years after the fact!

BELLMAN: They were an item back then, Klein and Valerie, whom I knew then as Violet.

MJV: Well, they were an item behind Mike Sekowsky’s back, it seems, and she still wanted to dish dirt 50 years later! But we’re getting off track here, so let’s just say it’s all worked out wonderfully for the both of us.

BELLMAN: People like myself didn’t understand all this. It’s because of you guys that we’re finally being recognized for the work we did.

MJV: There are a lot of folks like me, Allen. There’s an entire industry now devoted to comics history, shedding light on creators of the past. John Morrow’s company, Fantagraphics Publishing, Roy Thomas, and many close friends and researchers online, all do the stuff I do and have now for years. But let’s move on to talking about your post-interview life. I still want to revisit some old Timely matters, but a lot of the focus will be on the “new.”

The last time I formally interviewed you, we covered your early life and your comicbook career, both on staff and as a freelancer, at Timely.

Within a few years, the floodgates opened and you became a sought-after convention guest.

BELLMAN: Someone offered to put up a website for me, which further got me noticed. I remember that you came to visit me….

MJV: That was shortly after I first contacted you. You were up from Florida in New Jersey for a family function, and you invited my family to dinner.

BELLMAN: I honestly couldn’t believe you actually came. It meant so much to me.

MJV: So much to you? Do you have any idea what it meant to me? I track down a heretofore long-unknown Timely comicbook artist who drew superheroes during the war years, and he invites my family out to dinner!

BELLMAN: But you don’t understand, Michael. All I had were my memories! You sent me all my stories, and now people would believe me when I told them I drew comicbooks in the 1940s. And you wanted to talk to me about them. I’d never had that before. No one to talk to who knew what I was even talking about. This was like an opening into my past, a past long buried and forgotten. I couldn’t wait to meet you in person, someone to talk to me about things no one believed. You drove all the way to just see me.

MJV: We had a wonderful time. In the photos we took, my children were so small! My daughter was 8; she’s 26 now. Some photos from that visit are in your new book.

BELLMAN: That beautiful photo of Roz and me.

MJV: My wife Maggie took that photo. After ten years now of almost non-stop convention appearances, do you still get as much enjoyment out of it all?

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guys from the Marvel movies.

They called me on stage first.

The audience started cheering me! I looked around for Stan Lee, thinking he must have walked into the place and that’s why they were cheering.

Stan wasn’t anywhere, and I realized they were cheering me! They knew who I was!

There had been hundreds and hundreds on line at the signing booth, waiting to meet Play It Again, Uncle Sam! me and get a signature or Allen’s cover for the 2011 Florida SuperCon program book, as inked by Mervyn McKoy, was, of course, an a handshake. homage to the Joe Simon/Jack Kirby cover of Captain And now they America Comics #1 (March 1941), on which the spankingwere cheering new Sentinel of Liberty played a bit of chin music on a me. So I’m on foreign head of state. Thanks to con host Mike Broder. the stage and I [Captain America & Bucky TM & © Marvel Characters, want to show Inc.; con mascot TM & © Mike Broder; other art © Allen the crowd Bellman & Mervyn McKoy.] my shield fingernail so I slowly raise my hand into the air, and someone at Marvel yells out, “He’s giving them the finger!” The crowd was both cheering and laughing at the same time. I certainly wasn’t giving them the finger. “It’s a shield!” I was trying to say! So then later, at the booth, I’m getting a poster autographed by all the actors and Samuel Jackson says to me, “I want to take a photo of that finger.” He takes out his phone and begins fumbling with the camera. He says, “How do you use this thing?” [laughter] MJV: That’s a great story. What about walking the red carpet at the first Captain America movie?

BELLMAN: I was sitting in the back, in a kind of loge area, where people who walk by can see you. A man comes by, walks over to me, and says, “I’m Chris Evans’ grandfather. You look important.”

I was caught off-guard and I jokingly replied, “That’s because I am important.” He walked away from me. I felt terrible. You know me, I don’t want to offend anyone. I thought I’d offended him.

BELLMAN: Oh, they’ve been my life-saver! I’d be in a rocking chair if I didn’t have places to go. But I am starting to cut down now. I guess I’m getting a little old. [laughs] I was even going back-to-back on successive weekends. The promoters who’ve used me before call me every year now. Sometimes there are even conventions in different cities scheduled on the same day! The way I handle it is, I honor whoever calls me first.

A year later or so, I’m in San Diego and Marvel’s movie guys are there, same show as the fingernail incident. I’m at the signing booth with Marvel’s editor-in-chief, Joe Quesada. I go over to Chris Evans and ask if his grandfather was still with us, and he said yes.

I told him about the red carpet incident with his grandfather and told Chris to tell his grandfather that I apologize from my heart for speaking flippantly to him. I wanted him to know I was caught off-guard.

A lot of the young kids at shows don’t know who I am. One year, at San Diego, I had Captain America’s shield painted on my finger by Roz’s manicurist. Marvel kept me in their signing booth with Mark Ruffalo, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Evans—you know, the

MJV: Allen, I’m sure it didn’t come off flippant at all. It sounded just like a joke to me. What was that like, the long line of people swarming the booth for autographs?

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Allen Bellman On Golden Age Timely/Marvel & On Being Rediscovered

Putting A Cap On It A convention Bellman illo of Cap and Bucky— plus a photo of Allen in 2007 with his brand new Inkpot Award from the San Diego Comic-Con. Thanks to AB. [Captain America & Bucky TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; other art © Allen Bellman.]

BELLMAN: It was crazy! Everyone’s yelling for an autograph, people are taking pictures… it was like the paparazzi!

I couldn’t ever imagine experiencing anything like that. Especially at my age.

Behind me was the big bronze statue of Captain America that was being sent to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.

MJV: That’s when I came by, remember? I walked all the way to the front; the con folks tried to stop me from jumping the line, and you told them I was with you. I hugged you and Roz, and you immediately introduced me to those two guys making that documentary about you. The film crew asked me to come back to your hotel room, where they had a video room set up. They interviewed quite a few folks and wanted my thoughts about you, also. How did that whole documentary film come about?

BELLMAN: I hope I can remember it all correctly. I have a fan who I’ve known for many years… Steve Black. He has connections with Arc Media in Seattle, Washington, and he asked me if I’d be interested in having a documentary done about me and my career.

I said I’d be thrilled. So they came all the way from Seattle with a crew of four or five people… boxes of film equipment, lights, everything. Roz fed them. She put out bagels and lox, Danish and coffee all day long. It took a year to make. They followed me everywhere. They followed me to Denver, where they interviewed a lot of people. Then they came out to San Diego. Getting them in there was difficult, as they didn’t have tickets, but the fine folks there helped a great deal and let them in with me. They interviewed so many people in San Diego, including you. There was one artist in San Diego who didn’t want to be interviewed—I can’t remember his name, but that was about the only one. Everyone was wonderful.

Steve put a lot of money into this. I think the film company is a family business. They paid for hotels everywhere they followed me. I spoke with Steve recently and they still don’t have a date for it being finished. I’m hoping they can find a distributor, as they certainly invested in it.

BELLMAN: Not until you sent me over 500 pages of my work! She had no idea. We got married after I left comics. You know what? When I married my first wife, Roz was 10 years old! I was 20. A lot of people ask me why I didn’t marry Roz first?

My answer is, she was only 10 years old! [laughs] They ask how we met.

I say I was about to cross the street and I heard a small voice asking, “Mister, can you help me across the street?” And if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.

But seriously, as you know, I lost whatever stuff I had years before that. My first wife threw most of it out. The rest was stolen from me.

I’m a fatalist. I had a tough time in life back then. I had a miserable first marriage, and even though I loved my job at Timely, there were people there who were often tough on you.

MJV: Like who, for instance?

BELLMAN: Robbie Solomon. He really would take it out on me.

I had a lot of problems with him. He made me feel extremely inferior. Not only me, he was on everybody’s back, but it seemed he picked on me the most. Nobody really knew what Robbie did at Timely. He’d walk around being critical, telling artists to draw like so-and-so, often guys at other companies like Mac Raboy or Lou Fine. Martin Goodman’s books were outselling everybody, and yet Solomon was telling us to draw like artists from other companies.

The artists thought he was a spy for Martin Goodman, that he’d report what was going on among the artists. He’d come over to me and let me have it, in front of everybody. Instead of giving encouragement, he berated. I was so young. I took it personally. It affected me a great deal, I think. And the funny thing of it all, I’m sure he knew absolutely nothing about what made artwork good or bad.

MJV: It could always end up on YouTube.

BELLMAN: Yes, it could. Whatever happens, I owe it all to you, Michael. You have to have a focus in life. You gave me a focus. And Roz is a celebrity, also. Fans take her photo and walk away from me! [laughs] MJV: That Wonder Woman costume has become her trademark. She’s adorable in it. How does Roz feel about all this? Did she know how much work you did in the 1940s and 1950s?

The Wisdom Of Solomon?

This panel from the insider-type story in Timely’s Krazy Komics #12 (Nov. 1943) is reputed by some to boast a caricature of Stan Lee’s uncle, Robbie Solomon, in the forefront of a group of charging staffers. Pencils by Ed Winiarski; writer unknown. Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“All I Had Were My Memories!”

“The Horror! The Horror!”

Two specimens of Allen Bellman’s horror-comics work for Timely. (Left to right:) From Mystic #3 (July 1951) & Marvel Tales #106 (June 1952).

Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

We were all young and we were all developing. Even Stan Lee. In the early days he didn’t recognize good work as well as he did a few years later. Editors get better, also. But Robbie Solomon I’ll never forget. You know, back in 2007 I was invited as a guest to attend the opening of the Montclair Art Museum’s comic art show gallery. You were there, too. There were 7 or 8 artists there—Gene Colan, Joe Simon, Irwin Hasen, Joe Kubert and his two sons, I’m forgetting the others. It was the first and only time I ever had the opportunity to meet Joe Simon, who left Timely the year before I arrived there. So I’m sitting next to Joe Simon and I ask him, “Do you remember Robbie Solomon?” Simon answered, “That son of a bitch!” I told him about how Robbie rode me so hard at Timely, and Simon said, “He did the exact same thing to me! Telling me how to draw!” You know, that made me feel fantastic. If the great Joe Simon, co-creator of one of the greatest comicbook characters of all time, was ridiculed by Robbie Solomon, I now felt honored to have been likewise ridiculed.

MJV: It really brings it full circle. The entire thing is an interesting psychological situation. Look, let’s call it the way it sounds—“bullying”— the ways bullying affects young people. Some can shrug it off, others cannot. Sadly, it only took 65 years to put this to rest.

BELLMAN: [laughs] He was a lady’s hat salesman! Goodman gave him a job because he was his brother-in-law! What did he know about comic art? The answer is, probably nothing! But he enjoyed

lording it over us. He was a short man, like Napoleon. Maybe he had his own inferiority complex, who knows? Most of the artists ignored him. I was just too sensitive. He put a damper on my enthusiasm, or how I looked at my own ability. I was probably 19 years old at the time. If I was good enough to be hired in the first place, why be critical? You should be constructive, not destructive.

MJV: Allen, I know your work better than anyone alive, probably even including you. You grew artistically throughout the 1940s. Recall, you were 18 when you broke in. You had no real training. You were talented, but learning came on the job. You were about 26 when the Timely staff was let go. So all the Timely staff work was done from the age of 18 to 26.

And it was buried by inkers, anyway. The freelance work you did for Stan Lee from 1951 to 1953 was the best work you ever did artistically, in my opinion. It was very stylized and unique, and I loved it. Those were your pencils and inks.

BELLMAN: I think it was the best, also. I look at some of those stories today and really can see how much I improved from the 1940s into the 1950s. But it took a lot of time for me to have confidence in myself. When you are knocked down at a young age, like I was, depending on your personality, it can affect you. It affected me for years.

You know, during that same time, I went up to the Associated Press and was given the chance to take over [the newspaper

7

8

Allen Bellman On Golden Age Timely/Marvel & On Being Rediscovered

aviation headed strip] Scorchy down to Smith during the EC a time the offices to feature was get the changing script. hands. The When I man in arrived, charge, a Mr. Feldstein Wing, loved told me Gag Me With A Spoon! the samples I he’d (Left to right:) Henry Boltinoff at the 2001 All Time Classic New York brought of my already Comic book Convention—panels from a “Peter Puptent” gag page freelance work. He wanted to see a given it away. I was kind of miffed,

by HB, possibly from Tales of the Unexpected #40 (Aug. 1959)— week of continuity. Even at that time, because he’d told me he was and Henry’s DC-editor brother Murray in the 1970s. Courtesy of at the top of my game, I couldn’t do holding it for me, and to come down Russ Rainbolt, Gene Reed, & the Internet, respectively. [Page © DC it because of my situation with my when I was done with the work I Comics.] failing marriage. I had no support was doing. He could have called me at home. A combination of a bad to tell me he was giving it away, but marriage and lack of confidence in my own work wrecked it for me. he didn’t. I just showed up and walked out empty-handed.

I had to turn it down.

MJV: It must have been a pre-Trend story. By the time EC kicked into high MJV: That’s very unfortunate. Back then, all comicbook artists dreamed of gear with their New Trend, they were set with a small stable of regulars getting a big syndicated strip. that never varied. But, prior to that, there were a lot of artists working for them that didn’t work in the classic EC books we know. So I’m guessing it BELLMAN: Another time—probably in the early 1950s while I was must have been no later than 1949, possibly early 1950. freelancing—I turned down a job at DC. Stan was feeding me a lot of work, so I was busy. Henry Boltinoff’s brother, what’s his name…

BELLMAN: That sounds about right. I think the Timely staff had just closed and I was freelancing, but I can’t remember for certain.

MJV: Murray Boltinoff. He was an editor at DC. MJV: Tell me about Henry Boltinoff. He seems to have been one of the BELLMAN: Murray! That was him. Murray Boltinoff gave me a most prolific gag cartoonists of all time. He was everywhere, in every love story script to draw. I was a good friend of his brother, Henry, single magazine on the newsstands and at DC comics, also. a gag cartoonist for magazines. That’s probably why Murray called out of the blue. I was living in Long Island, freelancing. I BELLMAN: Henry was the one who brought me into the National didn’t have to travel to work or anything. But I chickened out.

Cartoonists Society. I attended the Reuben Awards with him that I was petrified of losing work from Stan Lee. Say I took [the DC time. Ha! That was the night my hero Milton Caniff snubbed me assignment]. I’m not that fast, so it would take me a week or 10 coming out of the men’s room! I was waiting for my date outside days to pencil and ink a story. During that time, if Stan called me, the restrooms and Milton comes out. I extend my hand, wanting to I’d be stuck. The DC story was likely a one-time thing. Stan was my tell him of my admiration of his work, and he plows right past me full-time freelance job. So I didn’t want to have to turn him down, like I was a fan looking for an autograph. We were both members of and I didn’t want him to find out, either. So I gave back the [DC] the National Cartoonist Society! Boy, was I crushed. Later on, Henry script. Was it the right decision? Who knows? All I know is my life and I had lunch at the Pen and Pencil restaurant. worked out for the best.

MJV: It’s funny, Allen, but it seems like you were fighting uphill a lot MJV: Didn’t something like that also happen at EC Comics? during your career.

BELLMAN: Not the exact same thing. [EC editor] Al Feldstein called me one time, wanting me to come down and pick up a script. I was working on a story for Stan and told him I couldn’t come right then, but would as soon as I was finished. The difference with the DC story was, I wanted to do the story Feldstein was offering. This went back and forth for a day or two, and he finally said OK, he’d hold it for me.

As soon as I finished the story for Stan, I

In A Timely Fashion (Left:) Allen and Stan Lee (Stan’s the one on our left) at a 1992 comics convention. Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo and Audrey Parente.

(Right:) “Al Bellman” is referred to in this in-joke panel by a fellow Timely Comics artist or writer (both of whose identities are unknown, alas) in the Timely teenage-humor title Margie #49 (Dec. 1949).

Apparently editor Stan let it stay in. Thanks to Tom Lammers & Dr. Michael J. Vassallo.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

BELLMAN: I was.

You know, Michael, it could be all in my head, but what I’ve always felt was that Stan Lee looked at me through the eyes of Robbie Solomon. Robbie was management and part of the boss’ family. Stan, although a kid himself, was also family, through marriage. But Stan was very friendly, both then and now, and could be extremely endearing. One time Stan was on

“All I Had Were My Memories!”

the local radio here in Florida. He was being interviewed. I called in and told the guy on the telephone at the radio station that I had worked for Stan decades ago. He put my call through; we had a three-way call going on the air. Stan hears my voice and yells out, “Allen Bellman!” It was great. He made me feel special. He does that today, also. He makes people like him.

9

famous. I feel blessed. I’m not terribly religious, and I don’t hear voices, but I never thought I’d reach the age of 93 and see all this. I just want to give back. I always give you the credit.

MJV: Not that again.

BELLMAN: I believe in giving credit where credit is due. My late friend, the artist Sam Burlockoff, always gave me credit in getting him into comics. I give you credit for getting me back in.

I know it sounds silly, it’s just this unconscious feeling that Stan still sees me by how his uncle would berate me. But it all lifted when Joe Simon told me he did the same thing to him.

I’ve always wanted to talk about his uncle with Stan. I’ve brought it up a few times, but he won’t go backwards into the past. I even was in touch with him years ago, before you brought me back in 1999. I saw him at a show in Florida. We were like old friends. But when I bring up his uncle, he turns it off. So I suppose you can’t look back.

MJV: OK, I’ll accept that. How is the book doing?

BELLMAN: Fantastic! I’m hearing from comic shop owners that they’re ordering them from Munster—Say “Cheese!” the publisher and selling out immediately. We’re Well, actor/comedian Al Lewis trying to get Diamond to pick it up. It can be was born in Brooklyn—so maybe ordered through the publisher, Bold Adventure “Grandpa Munster” was Allen Press, and of course, through Amazon. Fans Bellman’s childhood friend! [Photo contact me all the time from all over the country. © the respective copyright holders.]

While I don’t need this book “to eat,” knowing it’s MJV: I’m going to look back right now… whatever selling so well is heart-warming. People tell me it happened to the famous Bellman Bakery? reads like a novel. My Facebook page is filled with comments from fans.

BELLMAN: After my mother passed away, my father gave it up.

He moved to New Jersey, where he had a sister. He was alone like I was alone… I was divorced. He never remarried, even though my mother was young when she passed away. She was 60. My father was a severe diabetic.

Originally, it was the Bellman Brothers Bakery, my father with his brothers. It was on the Lower East Side, Avenue C maybe... I was too young to really remember. I remember an old woman, a Mrs. Lerner, taking me to a park near the bakery to feed the ducks.

I was probably four years old. I had a habit of running across the street. Thank goodness there weren’t many cars then! I remember even earlier knowing where I lived, climbing out of a carriage and running home. At some point the brothers separated and my father opened up his own bakery in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Mike Tyson’s old neighborhood. There was one on Dumont Avenue and then another on Sutter Avenue. The one on Sutter Avenue was near the Loew’s East Pitkin movie palace. It was the heart of the Jewish mafia neighborhood. They all hung out in the candy stores in the area. And I had a friend from when I was a kid who became famous years later. Al Lewis.

MJV: Grandpa Munster?

MJV: Talk to me a little bit about how this book came about. I recall several years ago you told me you had an idea for a “Timely Confidential” type book, where you told stories about Timely and wanted me to write it for you. I was then in the midst of several projects and didn’t really have the time to devote to it properly, perhaps even feeling I couldn’t do it justice.

But the point I want to make is that I think it turned out even better. As it ended up, it became your autobiography rather than my biography of you, under the same title; and the publisher asked me to edit it anyway, which I was more than happy to do. So rather than my interpretation of your life and career, which would have been data- and detail-heavy, pertaining to the comicbooks, instead we have your story in your own words. My talking on and on about “Jet Dixon”—who came before and who came after— would have been boring to your fans!

BELLMAN: The publishers, Audrey Parente and Richard Harvey, did a wonderful job putting this together. Audrey was promoting a small pulp-magazine convention and asked me to be a guest. While we were talking, I brought up the fact that I was trying to find someone to help me with my biography. She

BELLMAN: Yes. I didn’t see him ever again after we grew up, but I remember his face like it was yesterday. His name was Albert. He was raised by a single mother, a red-headed woman. The very last time I ever saw him, he was playing a pinball machine in a candy store.

He was just a kid I knew in the neighborhood… we palled around together, got into hijinks… like that. I was about 11 or 12 years old. If Al Lewis came from the Brownsville area, it was him.

MJV: What does Roz think about the last 10 years?

Before I called you, you had a normal life. Now your life is perpetual comicbook craziness.

BELLMAN: Before all this, Roz knew what I had told her, about the comics and Timely. But she’s the same person and our personal life is the same. Outside of that, other family, friends, etc., they look at us differently. A little bit like being

Confidants & Confidential (Left:) Allen was reunited with his old friend and fellow comics artist Sam Burlockoff (seen on right) in 2003, thanks to the combined efforts of Dr. Michael J. Vassallo and Jim Amash, who were interviewing the two retired pros for A/E #32. Photo probably taken by Roz Bellman.

(Right:) The cover of Bellman’s 2017 memoir Timely Confidential, which was edited by Doc V. & Audrey Parente for Bold Venture Press. [Captain America TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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Allen Bellman On Golden Age Timely/Marvel & On Being Rediscovered

had a small publishing company, had worked as a reporter for a newspaper, and she offered her services. Audrey spent a lot of time with me and a tape-recorder I bought. We met at my house, we met at restaurants, and I basically spilled my guts on tape for hours and hours on end over several different sessions. It probably took about a year to get it all done. She then transcribed the tapes, put things in order as best she could, and then sent it all to you.

MJV: I had a lot of fun with it. Much of it I was familiar with, but there were so many more personal stories. Stories about your family, your children, your struggles in early life … things only you could put down properly into words. Some of it I thought was too personal for public consumption. You weren’t trying to put a gloss or sheen over your life. It was basically, here I am, warts and all. I worked with Audrey and Richard, wonderful people. I just corrected all factual data that needed correcting and put things into a more chronological order. Oh, and I deleted a few duplicate sequences.

BELLMAN: How am I supposed to remember what I said on tape the week before? [laughs] I left it in your hands. You know my career better than I do.

MJV: Only with the factual details of the books and the company you worked for. And that was the least important part of the book. One part I did spend a lot of time on was the bibliography. Your original bibliography on your website was compiled by the website designer from online databases that were rife with errors. Over the years I’ve been correcting the databases as best I could, but this book allowed me to actually look at nearly every single story you were purported to have done in the 1940s.

And I found there were a lot of errors. Not only did I have to delete many entries, but you weren’t even given credit for stories I did find, particularly Atlas stories! So to everyone reading this, including your webmaster—use the bibliography in the back of the book to update the website. My only goal is accuracy.

BELLMAN: Thank you for all this hard work.

MJV: It was my pleasure, Allen! Do you ever think back, in a quiet time between show appearances, about those Timely days? Are the recollections still vivid for you?

BELLMAN: At Timely, I have incredibly clear recollections. But only at Timely. After I was let go, I worked on staff at Lev Gleason for a year or less, and I have no recollections at all of what I did. But I did a lot of work in that year. They were very nice. A friendly, relaxed atmosphere. I remember [editor] Bob Wood. I remember Bob coming in on a Monday morning with black and blues over his eyes. He would get drunk on weekends and get into fights all the time. And you know the story about him killing a woman while drunk.

MJV: I sure do. It’s a sad story and he had a brutal end.

BELLMAN: He did. He was working as a short-order cook in a diner in New Jersey, and I think the mob got him. Maybe he owed them money, I don’t know. It was a tragedy, an end like that, when a few years earlier he was a talented and creative guy.

What alcohol did to him was unbelievable. In the office he was soft-spoken, polite: “Allen, could you ink this cover, we’re in a bind.” Like that. I loved the guy.

MJV: You did covers for Lev Gleason?

BELLMAN: Maybe one or two, and not in their entirety. I think I inked one, and I recall finishing one when there was a deadline and the artist had something come up. I don’t know what they were. [Editor] Charlie Biro I never got to know. He’d come in, never say hello to anyone. He was usually delivering something to Bob Wood, and then he was gone. We called him “The Flash”! In and out.

MJV: What about [publisher] Lev Gleason himself?

BELLMAN: Never saw him! I don’t know how you can run a company and never be there! I was there nearly a year and have no recollection of ever seeing him. Martin Goodman at Timely we saw all the time. He didn’t say much, but his presence was felt.

Gleason was a phantom.

MJV: Let’s run through a bunch of Lev Gleason staffers. Bill Walton?

Christmas & Crime (Right:) A caricature of Allen—perhaps by legendary editor Charles Biro himself—on a Lev Gleason Publications Christmas card circa the early 1950s. Caricatures of several of his fellow Gleason artists mentioned in this interview, from that same card, are on view in Timely Confidential.

(Above:) A quartet of Gleason romance and crime stories (the latter from Crime and Punishment) are reprinted in Timely Confidential. This Bellmandrawn splash page is from the company’s flagship cops-and-robbers title, Crime Does Not Pay (#109, April 1952), which isn’t in that book. Scripter unknown. Thanks to Jim Kealy. [© the respective copyright holders.]

BELLMAN: I remember Bill from Timely, where he was on staff with me there. When the staff was let go, we both ended up at Lev Gleason.

MJV: Abe Simon?

BELLMAN: Abe was a big husky guy who may have inked. He was always joking around with me.

“All I Had Were My Memories!”

11

funny-animal story called “Little Lionel.” It was only a one-off or two-off job as a freelancer. He was never on the staff. As it ended up, we reprinted several stories of yours for Lev Gleason in the book.

BELLMAN: I have not seen that artwork in years and have no conscious memory of it. Like I said, for some reason, the work I did there is a huge blank to me. I can’t believe you found a lot of it.

MJV: You’re pretty distinctive, and a lot of it was signed, anyway. The problem was finding long runs of Lev Gleason titles to research.

BELLMAN: I haven’t seen that stuff in nearly 70 years. But Timely is different. I remember the characters. I remember the sourpuss expression of Martin Goodman whenever he made an appearance where the artists were. He never seemed to smile. He never came out and said, “Hi, guys, how ya doing?” Never. But he was a good man to work for. He was generous. He gave us off on Wednesdays during the summer. There were bonuses. Financially, the artists on staff did very well.

You’re A Goodman, Charlie Brown!

Publisher Martin Goodman is caricatured here—in the “Homer and The Creeper” story from Krazy Komics #12—as a blond, though people often referred to him as having “prematurely white” hair. Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo and Jim Ludwig. Penciled by Ed Winiarsky: inker & writer unknown. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

MJV: Simon did ink and pencil. Later he inked Don Perlin on many stories, including one of my favorite pre-Code horror stories of all, “The Tin Cup.” Irving Watanabe?

BELLMAN: He was a letterer. Nice man.

MJV: He later worked at Marvel also. How did your tenure end?

MJV: A lot of people have said that. While the later image you get from some of the people who worked at Magazine Management in the 1960s was one of almost cruel indifference, during the Timely years, everyone from yourself to Vince Fago, and many others interviewed, have said he was much more cordial, gave bonuses, watched stag films with the artists, etc.

BELLMAN: My memories are distinct. I can still see Don Rico come out to greet me on the very first day I was there. I’m just a kid and had my samples with me. I was about 18 years old. Syd Shores was there, Vince Alascia…. two guys sitting by the window. This was in the McGraw-Hill Building, not the Empire State Building. We moved a few years later. I know I’ve said this before, but there were two “camps” there. In one camp was Don Rico, Frank Giacoia, and a few others. The other camp was Syd Shores and a few others.

BELLMAN: They gave up the staff. Just like Timely, earlier. Later I had a freelance story and Irv Spector became the editor.

MJV: Camps? You mean like mini-“gangs” inside Timely?

BELLMAN: Not gangs like you think of the word, but mini power structures.

Don Rico had a position there; I don’t know what it was. He was reviewing my portfolio. But Syd Shores was sort of the art director. He was older than everyone else. Well, except for Chris Rule. So they butted heads with respect to authority in the trenches. Syd was the guy who usually broke new artists in. We went to him for help. We ended up becoming very close friends.

MJV: That was in 1954. You mean you continued to freelance for Gleason after the staff was let go?

BELLMAN: Yes. Do you know Irv Spector?

MJV: Yes. He later got into animation and had a long career there.

BELLMAN: Correct, but he was in comics before that. And he was in animation before the comics!

He worked for Max Fleischer in the late 1930s.

MJV: I can also say that I discovered a story he did for Timely that his son once told me was the very first thing his father did when he got out of the service. It was a

MJV: You’re not the first person to tell me

From The Star-Spangled Shores Of Timely Comics (Left to right:) Artist Syd Shores in uniform during the Second World War; courtesy of daughter Nancy Shores Karlebach & Shaun Clancy… Shores’ dramatic cover for Captain America Comics #62 (May 1947)… and a pic of Nancy with Allen Bellman a few years back.

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Allen Bellman On Golden Age Timely/Marvel & On Being Rediscovered

that about Syd. Gene Colan has spoken extensively about Syd Shores and his mentorship. Syd helped Gene out a lot when Gene started at Timely in 1947. Gene thought Syd was one of the best artists in comics. Marion Sitton told me the exact same thing. When he had a problem in a story, some concern about how to stage a scene, etc., he went to Syd for help.

BELLMAN: He was a mentor. I don’t hear him spoken about enough in all these magazines and histories. I don’t feel Syd gets the recognition or respect he deserves. He was probably Timely’s best artist. Not the fastest—that award goes to Mike Sekowsky, who also was fantastic. But Syd was absolutely stellar. And he passed away very young. His lovely wife Selma was over at our house as a guest after he died.

MJV: I’ve become good friends with his daughter Nancy.

BELLMAN: Nancy is a sweetheart. When she comes to Florida, she visits me. I remember when she was born. I also remember when her sister Linda was born! That’s how old I am!

MJV: Syd and Sol Brodsky both missed this whole celebration of the history of comics and its permeation into popular culture. Well, maybe not Sol Brodsky, who worked at Marvel into the 1980s, but certainly Syd Shores, who died a long time ago at the too-young age of 59.

BELLMAN: I attended Syd’s funeral. I think it was in Morristown, New Jersey. Stan Lee and Martin Goodman were there. I recall that I had just had a big cast taken off my leg at that time, from a bad automobile accident. I took a bus to New York City, then another bus to Morristown to attend the funeral. After the service, I asked Stan to give me a lift back to the city. From there I could get the bus back home to the Asbury Park area.

MJV: Was Stan driving?

BELLMAN: Oh no, he had a chauffeur. I just sat there quietly.

Made a little small talk. That’s all. But that’s the only way via public transportation it could be done at that time. All the buses to all the towns in New Jersey were in New York City.

MJV: What do you think Syd would say today about the enormous success commercially that his signature character, Captain America, has become?

BELLMAN: Syd was a #1 artist. He was one of Timely’s best, probably the best. Now, I wasn’t there in the 1960s, but when Syd came back to comics, Jack Kirby was there and was Marvel’s #1 artist.

MJV: When you really think about it, Simon & Kirby created the character and imbued it with all their talents, especially the incredible action choreography of Jack Kirby, but they left after ten issues. While other fine artists handled the feature in different titles in the 1940s—Al Avison, Don Rico, others, including yourself—no one drew more Cap stories than Syd Shores. He was the definitive Cap artist of the decade.

People forget this fact. And then when he finally returned to comics in the late 1960s, Marvel just didn’t have room for him until they expanded their line after the old restrictive distribution deal with Independent News ended in 1968. So he had a tough time breaking in; and then when he did, he couldn’t get into the top characters. Stan had him instead penciling lesser ones and inking Kirby on Captain America—inking I absolutely love, by the way. And then he got ill and passed away.

BELLMAN: I wouldn’t have known that, as I was long out of comics. I think he was frustrated by not returning to the top again.

MJV: I can understand that, but the comic line was much smaller in 1968 and there were only so many open spots.

Stan always tried to keep artists working.

He kept feeding Syd work on secondary and tertiary features. My memory is reading that fans thought his inking style was a bit old-fashioned, which was nonsense. But compared to the “cosmic” inks of a Joe Sinnott or wonderful work by Frank Giacoia, Stan may have felt it took the power out of Jack’s pencils.

BELLMAN: That’s a shame. Knowing Syd like I did, he’d be thrilled by the celebration of comics by the public today.

You know, I’ve become friends with Jim

Cast-ing Pearls A colorful (if black-&-white) cornupcopia of photos of the Timely Bullpen in the 1940s.

(Clockwise from above center:) Allen Bellman himself, at his drawing board in 1945 at age 21. Photo courtesy of AB. An early-1940s photo of some of the Timely Bullpen, taken in the McGraw-Hill Building, before the move to the Empire State Building.

(Left to right:) Christopher Rule, Barbara Clark Vogel, David Gantz, Marcia Snyder, Mike Sekowsky, & Ed Winiarski. This pic first appeared in A/E #13, provided by Dave Gantz.

Artist Vince Alascia, in a detail from an oft-reprinted group photo taken Aug. 14, 1942.

Don Rico, circa 1942; besides being a writer and artist, he was a sometime editor under Stan Lee.

“All I Had Were My Memories!”

13

muddied it further. But Buscema eventually became one of the top talents the industry ever saw; and, juxtaposed against his Timely work, it’s remarkable.

Now I know why John never wanted to look at that work again in later years, when it was discussed or brought up!

What about Carmine Infantino? He and Frank Giacoia tried to get work while still in high school.

Joe Simon gave them a “Jack Frost” story that was later finished up by the staff; I think George Klein went over the entire thing. He wasn’t there that long. Frank Giacoia joined the staff, but Carmine’s father wanted him to finish school first! Carmine came on about 1943.

Gentleman Gene Colan with Allen B. at a comics exhibit at the Montclair (NJ) Art Museum on Sept. 15, 2007—plus a Colan splash page from Human Torch #31 (July 1948). Thanks to Allen Bellman, Dr. Michael J. Vassallo, & Shaun Clancy. [Penciled art © Estate of Gene Colan; pages TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Shooter. We see each other a lot at cons. Gene Colan was my dear friend. Colan hated Shooter.

MJV: [laughs] Yes, I know. Gene and his wife Adrienne were my friends also. Shooter gave Gene a very hard time.

BELLMAN: Well, Gene told me why he hated Shooter. But I like Jim. We get along great. One time, he asked me for a sketch, or a commission. Well, boy, did I sweat that drawing out! I knew what a hard critic he was from Gene.

MJV: [laughs] Wait a minute, you mean you were afraid Jim Shooter would go hard on you over the convention sketch? Like he would have as an editor?

BELLMAN: Absolutely. I wanted it to be just perfect. And he loved it! I was so flattered he even asked me. We’re great friends. I just wish people would get along better. Any problem can usually be worked out.

BELLMAN: I remember Carmine. He told me one time about a new young singer appearing at the New York Paramount Theatre. He told me the singer was going to be one of the greatest of all time.

MJV: Frank Sinatra!

BELLMAN: Yes, Frank Sinatra. Carmine with a full head of hair told me all about Frank Sinatra. He was crazy about him! And then later Sinatra pulled me through a tough divorce. I listened to his music as a way to get through a tough time in my life. I used to cry in my Pablum!

MJV: I know you were close friends with Sol Brodsky. How far back in the 1940s was Sol on staff at Timely? My estimate was about 1947, although I found an early humor story signed “Sol” back in 1943.

BELLMAN: Sol was there earlier than 1947, I think. He was basically an inker back then. We hit it off right away. I even remember collaborating on several stories with him; one of them may even have been a long “Human Torch” story, 18 pages or so.

MJV: He became a penciler when the staff was let go. He drew a lot of crime and war stories in the early 1950s. Even became a cover artist on a lot of books… even drew a bunch of fantasy-type covers in the post-Code period.

BELLMAN: I never knew that. You know, he and I once

MJV: Talking about Gene Colan, you know that he and John Buscema started at Timely within a few months of each other.

BELLMAN: Gene was great from the start. You know he once included me as a character in one of his stories? He just drew me into the story. He drew me real well! I think he made me a villain.

MJV: I didn’t know that. It was probably in a crime story.

BELLMAN: I think it was. I remember Gene back then with curly hair and a big smile. And then, over 50 years later, we met again and re-established our friendship down in Orlando, when he was living in Florida.

MJV: What about John Buscema?

BELLMAN: John had thick black hair back then.

MJV: Surprisingly, Buscema’s work at Timely appeared, to me, much cruder than Gene’s. And I feel he was saddled with terrible inkers that

The Italian Connection (Left:) Artist (and future DC Comics publisher) Carmine Infantino in the early 1950s; courtesy of J. David Spurlock.

(Right:) Francis Albert Sinatra, at age 25, performing “As Time Goes By” in 1940. In Ye Editor’s far-from-humble opinion, there was never a better pop singer, period. Allen Bellman is far from the only guy who’d credit Ol’ Blue-Eyes’ ballads and “saloon songs” with getting him through “a tough time in my life.”

14

Allen Bellman On Golden Age Timely/Marvel & On Being Rediscovered

attempted to start a little syndicate for ourselves. I created a character called “Bill Pade.” It was a take on “bill paid.” We were going to sell this to businesses. I went to my uncle in Long Island, who still had a bakery where there were a lot of trucks, to try it out. It was advertising art for business collections. I even had metal printingplates made up. Sol and I thought it up, planned it; but like a lot of ideas, it went nowhere.

MJV: When Atlas lost their distributor and nearly closed down in 1957, Sol became an agent of sorts, getting artists work at Charlton, and then helped launch Cracked magazine in 1958. Sol, of course, came back to Stan in the early 1960s and inked some early issues of the new Fantastic Four title, becoming production manager and Stan’s right-hand man at the company. Were you still in contact with him in the early 1960s when he was back at Marvel?

John & Dolores Buscema (Left To Right) at their 1952 wedding, in a photo supplied by artist Matthew Reynolds via Mike Mikulovsky.

Big John’s penciled-and-inked splash page for Timely’s Man Comics (June 1950)—which barely hinted at what was to come. Scripter unknown.

Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo.

The Buscema-penciled splash page of The Avengers #74 (March 1970), as inked by Tom Palmer and scripted by Roy Thomas; with thanks to Barry Pearl.

[This & preceding art TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

BELLMAN: Well, he used to visit me out in New Jersey, he and his wife. Then we drifted apart.

Eventually I moved to Florida and never was in contact with him again before he passed away.

MJV: Marvel’s #1 letterer in the 1960s was Artie Simek.

With few exceptions, he and Sam Rosen basically did it all themselves. Artie even lettered the iconic logos on the early Marvel titles. Both had histories pre-dating Silver Age Marvel.

BELLMAN: I remember the very first day Artie Simek came to work at Timely! At lunchtime, when we all sat down with sandwiches, he took out a harmonica and began to play it! He was a good, down-to-Earth guy. Really nice guy. And a great letterer.

MJV: Before his lettering, Artie was also contributing cartoons to Goodman’s girly humor magazines as far back as 1944. You know, I grew up within walking distance of his home and never knew it. Somewhere along the line, after he passed away, I saw he lived in Jackson Heights, where I lived. I could have theoretically walked over, knocked on his door, and reminisced about his comics career.

Sol Brodsky in uniform during the Second World War, in a photo sent by daughter Janna Parker—and his cover for Timely’s Journey into Unknown Worlds #6 (Aug. 1951). [Page TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“All I Had Were My Memories!”

BELLMAN: Something like that happened with Michael Uslan and me. We lived in the same neighborhood. I knew his father. We were in the Lion’s Club together. And I never knew about his son Michael, how much he loved comic books. When he found out I’d worked at Timely, he had to talk to me. He was so happy to meet me.

MJV: Talk about George Klein a little bit.

BELLMAN: George Klein was a true gentleman. He was well-dressed, debonair, a nice-looking guy. I’ll never forget the Homburg hat he always wore. He sat next to Violet Barclay, and the thing that went on between him and Mike Sekowsky we already talked about. I remember Mike had a scar on his face. And a chip on his shoulder. But boy, was he talented! He used to sit back with his hands behind his head in the middle of the day, already done with all his assignments. I never understood how he could finish so fast!

And yet, thinking back, I have no recollection of seeing his finished artwork.

MJV: That could be because he never, ever, inked his own work. After he finished a story, it went to a variety of inkers.… George Klein and Chris Rule were probably his most-used inkers. You were a penciler, so you’d not likely come across his penciled work. You probably did at some point, and just don’t remember.

BELLMAN: He did Millie the Model and Nellie the Nurse?

MJV: Some of their early teen covers. He did “Tessie the Typist” that ran in Joker Comics, Georgie, and funny-animal comics. He also did hero stories, and when the romance line was launched he probably drew more romance stories in two years than anyone in the industry. There were even a couple of book-length romance stories Timely was experimenting with.

Sekowsky penciled all 30 or so pages.

BELLMAN: I didn’t even know he was doing that much work! We weren’t friends, but we were friendly. And I didn’t get a chance to learn all the artists’ styles like you do. I was busy working on my own stories. I remember Russ Heath at Timely.

He was always doing Westerns….

MJV: He did ink, but he also penciled a lot. He drew “Patsy Walker” in Miss America Magazine before Al Jaffee. He also worked on the “Miss America” strip that ran in Marvel Mystery Comics, mostly drawing the faces for Pauline Loth!

He was a children’s book illustrator in the 1920s and 1930s. He also worked as a Hearst newspaper fashion artist. His style was illustrative and dainty, perfect for romance and teen comics, but very stiff for hero books. Al Jaffee told me that Stan pulled Rule off “Patsy Walker” in Miss America Magazine and replaced him with himself, telling Jaffee that Rule’s work was too “old-fashioned” and wanting him to spruce up the feature. According to Jaffee, Rule was furious at Stan but soon found work in the myriad romance titles. Rule drew beautiful women, but they looked like frozen fashion models in the panels.

BELLMAN: Which is probably why they used him to make the Miss America faces prettier.

MJV: Well, Pauline Loth was a terrific action artist. She trained in the animation industry, under Max Fleischer. She was brought [into comics]

by Vince Fago [Timely editor during most of WWII].

BELLMAN: I remember her well. Didn’t she also work with Bessie Little?

MJV: She did! She moved over to the new Miss America Magazine that Goodman started for teen-age girls in 1944 and was the fashion editor under the name “Pauline O’Sullivan.” I don’t think I ever saw her in comics again.

BELLMAN: Well, for a while she worked in the animators’ room.

That’s what we called the group who drew the funny-animal comics.

MJV: Pauline did contribute to those titles, like Krazy Komics. I think she may have penciled “Super Baby.”

BELLMAN: Some guys did both the funny stuff and the adventure books. Mike Sekowsky did both.

MJV: He showed up about 1948. That year, Timely began their Western comics line. They started characters like Kid Colt, Two-Gun Kid, Black Rider….

BELLMAN: I drew some Westerns in the 1950s. I hated to draw horses. I always made sure I had a picture of a horse nearby to draw!

MJV: Well, that’s ironic, considering the fame your twin granddaughters have drawing posters for the Kentucky Derby!

BELLMAN: They’re showing me up! I’m so proud of them. One is a designer who also does a lot of commercial work. In fact, when Stan Lee and his crew were in Louisville, I spoke to Tony Carroll, Stan’s man, and recommended a restaurant there that my granddaughter Doreen does design work for. So Stan ate there.

MJV: We mentioned Christopher Rule. Rule and Klein were very friendly, I hear. Rule was probably the oldest artist on staff.

BELLMAN: He was an old-time artist… a roly-poly man who looked like Santa Claus. He was an inker.

15

Russ Heath with his cover for Timely’s Western Outlaws #4 (June 1954).

The undated photo of Russ at a party (with his then-girlfriend Peggy Lord visible behind him) is probably from the 1950s or ’60s. Thanks to the Grand Comics Database. [Cover TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

16

Allen Bellman On Golden Age Timely/Marvel & On Being Rediscovered

That might explain it.

I know from talking to you in the past that you never met Bill Everett, who was never on staff in the 1940s. But you did know Carl Burgos, who did join the staff after he came out of the service in 1946.

Here She Is… Miss America!

(Above:) Christopher Rule apparently redrew (in the inking phase) many of the faces in Pauline Loth’s super-heroic “Miss America” feature, as per the latter of these panels from Miss America, Vol. 1, #2 (Nov. 1944). A photo of Rule can be seen on p. 12.

(Right:) Rule penciled and inked this cover for Miss America, Vol. 7, #48 (Nov. 1952), at a time when the comic starred teenager Patsy Walker—who’s gone on to featured status in the Marvel/Netflix live-action series Jessica Jones. Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo for both scans.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

BELLMAN: Carl Burgos created one of the most original characters of all time with The Human Torch. Goodman loved the Torch!

Carl sat right in back of me. He was as quiet as anything. Never seemed to say a word. All he did was draw by himself, quietly. Two years ago, in San Diego, his two daughters came over to me and said hello. They’re sweethearts.

MJV: Yes! I brought Susan to your panel discussion. I got to know her after I wrote a long 100th-birthday retrospective of her dad’s life and career

MJV: He was extremely versatile. Allen, how were inker assignments handed out at Timely? There were regular pairing like Syd Shores and Vince Alascia…

BELLMAN: Well, that was a duo. They were a de facto pair.

Syd penciled and Vince inked. That’s all. Anything else was just assigned by Stan. I’m sure there were favorites.

MJV: There were. Sekowsky/Klein and Sekowsky/Rule were common pairings. I’ve even seen Rule/Klein and Klein/Rule! Chu Hing inked a lot of stories in 1948-49, frequently over Pierce Rice.

BELLMAN: I don’t know how you see all that. Later on, after the war, so many hands worked on stories.

MJV: Practice, Allen. Years of practice and not enough sunshine! And I agree about the post-war stories at Timely. By 1948 and 1949 it becomes very difficult to definitively tell who is working on a story. I’ve seen two or three different pencilers and the same amount of inkers on a single story!

BELLMAN: It was a way to get things done fast. I recall there were more books than ever before, and the only way to fill them was by an assembly-line style of production, even more so than earlier.

After the war, so many new faces were showing up. I recall Marty Nodell worked on staff also.

MJV: That was in 1948-49. What you say actually corresponds with the love glut of 1949, and it’s no coincidence that’s where the most bizarre mash-ups occur.

BELLMAN: I’m remembering that Vince Alascia inked one of my stories. At the end a plane goes into a volcano.

MJV: I’ve seen that one. But it wasn’t at Timely; it was years later—at Charlton in the mid-1950s. I didn’t even know you’d ever worked for Charlton!

BELLMAN: I did that through Vince Fago’s brother Al. I’m not sure what his connection was to Charlton; I thought he was an agent or something. He actually brought the script to my house in Long Island. I think I did only the one story for Charlton, but who knows? It’s been so many years.

MJV: Al Fago did a lot of work for Charlton in the 1950s, penciling and inking. I suppose he could have had an editorial capacity of sorts, also.

“Let’s Play Detective!”

That’s the name of the bylined feature Bellman wrote and drew for several years for Timely—e.g., in Young Allies #19 (Spring 1946). The solutions to the crime mystery are always printed upside down. Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“All I Had Were My Memories!”

17

assistant!

MJV: You’re big on social media, also. Your Facebook page has thousands of friends.

BELLMAN: I enjoy the direct connection with my fans. But there is one thing about that I do not like. Maybe it’s because I’m an old guy, but I’m often shocked by behavior I see on social media.

MJV: Well, I agree with that. And it has nothing to do with age. It has to do with decency.

BELLMAN: Social media—and by that I really mean Facebook, which is all I do—seems to bring out the best and the worst in people. So many people conduct themselves wonderfully. They are kind, friendly, respectful. Other people—and I don’t really mean against me, just what I see—can be so cruel, so vindictive. Politics is mostly what I mean. Do you know I was canceled from a Golden Age charity benefit for autism appearance because of politics?

MJV: That’s terrible, Allen. The country is very polarized now, and it has seeped into everything. The division is palpable. But I’m going to make a decision here and move away from politics and on to something else. Do you remember what your salary was at Timely?

BELLMAN: $25 a week, at first. It did increase over time, maybe up to $60, then $75. At that time, if a man made $35 or $40 a week, he was doing good. If he made $75 a week, that was really good. $100 a week put you at the top of the list! Boy, times have changed.

MJV: So the artists on staff at Timely were really making a good living?

BELLMAN: We were. And many also freelanced at the same time, adding to their income. You basically could earn as much as you wanted. I wrote and drew my filler “Let’s Play Detective” as a freelancer while on staff. I received $9 for the script and $35 for the finished two pages of art.

Break A Law—Break A Jaw! And the latter is just what’ll happen in the very next panel of this story Bellman penciled for Charlton’s Lawbreakers Suspense Stories #15 (Nov. 1953), as inked by Vince Alascia. Scripter unknown. Thanks to Shaun Clancy. [© the respective copyright holders.]

MJV: Well, then, artists who were phenomenally fast and prolific—I’ll use Mike Sekowsky as an example—were doing fabulous from a financial standpoint. Sekowsky was probably the most prolific Timely artist of all.

He was everywhere, turning out tons of penciled pages. He once re-did a lost art job overnight!

on my blog in April of that year. Did you know [writer & “Batman” co-creator] Bill Finger?

BELLMAN: He wrote a few stories in the mid-1940s for Timely, but I didn’t see or know him. I am friends with his granddaughter, Athena.

MJV: I am, also. I met her for the first time several years ago at your table at the NY Comic Con. It’s so wonderful her grandfather has finally gotten the recognition he deserves. He’s even received a street named after him in the Bronx this year.

BELLMAN: I have to call her to have lunch with her. You know, I need a staff to help me!

I have so many things going on: convention appearances, commissions, you name it. I’m busier now than at any other time in my life. Roz helps a great deal, but I could use a personal

Burgos To Go! (Left:) Three of the early pillars of Timely Comics. (L. to r.:) Artist/ writer Carl Burgos, publisher Martin Goodman, and Lloyd Jacquet, head of the Funnies, Inc., comics shop that supplied “The Human Torch,” “Sub-Mariner,” and other material to Timely. The photo, which was taken on New Year’s Eve, 1940, is courtesy of Wendy Everett, daughter of Namor creator Bill Everett.

(Above:) Panels from the final page to the Burgos “Human Torch” story in Marvel Mystery Comics #16 (Feb. 1941), which led into a Torch/Sub-Mariner team-up in next month’s issue. Thanks to Warren Reece.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

18

Allen Bellman On Golden Age Timely/Marvel & On Being Rediscovered

He’s A Con Man (But In A Nice Way)!

Allen with Captain America art (and dig that specialized shield!) at a Cincinnati con in 2011. Thanks to AB.

BELLMAN: I never knew what other artists were making. It was never discussed.

But yes, artists like Mike Sekowsky were living high on the hog.

MJV: Let’s talk again about Stan Lee. BELLMAN: I spoke about Stan Lee quite a bit in the book. I told how, back in the day, I had completed a story called “The Spider of Paris” for one of the crime books. Well, after I drew that story, believe it or not—and I swear to you, Michael, that this is true—I worked up a logo with the word “Spiderman.” No image, or maybe there was an image, a doodle of someone wearing spats, but mostly, just the name. I showed it to Stan and he gave me a sort of a dismissive look and kept on walking. And it was thrown away.

Boy, was I surprised years later to hear about a Spider-Man comicbook!

MJV: That’s some story. It shows that there is synchronicity in the creative arts at times. The idea for Spider-Man as we know him is a bit of a convoluted story, even pre-dating the hero we know by Stan and Steve Ditko. There was an earlier Jack Kirby-drawn version that was never used that, according to Steve Ditko, was a derivation of Simon & Kirby’s The Fly for Archie Comics in 1959. There was even a logo for the character that came from Joe Simon that Jack Kirby stated he brought to Stan Lee. But at Atlas,

there was an even earlier “Spider Man” as a monster spider villain in a pre-Code horror story by Ed Winiarski in 1954. It got the cover feature of the issue, drawn by Joe Maneely.

BELLMAN: I’ve seen that. This was ten seconds of time around 1950 or so. But I’ve always wondered if Stan ever remembered it.

MJV: I doubt he would.

BELLMAN: A couple of years back, I was at a comic book show in Miami with [“Superman” artist] Al Plastino. We did an act on stage where we needled each other. I think it was even videotaped.

He was a very sweet man who passed away shortly after that.

Surprisingly, Al told me he didn’t get along with Stan. I couldn’t find out why.

MJV: I have no idea. In fact, Al never even worked for Stan, doing a bit of Timely work through Funnies, Inc., in 1942-43, I believe. That’s it. But Stan will always be a controversial figure.

BELLMAN: Nowadays we’re 20 blocks apart.

MJV: Really? How do you mean? Do you want to explain?

BELLMAN: Sure. I don’t care. I think he purposely snubbed me one time.

MJV: He snubbed you? What happened?

BELLMAN: A few years ago, I was at the Boston Comic Con and there was a 95th birthday for Ken Bald, who I knew well at Timely. Well, I wasn’t invited. I’ve always felt it was because of Stan Lee, who was also in attendance. Stan and Ken were close

The “Patriot” Acts “Patriot” pages drawn by Allen Bellman for (left to right) Marvel Mystery Comics #62 (March 1945) & #70 (March 1946).

Scripters unknown.Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“All I Had Were My Memories!”

19

me remembering a young woman he dated before he got married. She worked in the company, I think on Miss America Magazine. Not Bessie Little, who was the editor of all the movie mags and such. This was a staffer, a cartoonist. I can’t think of her name right now. Very beautiful woman. Let me ask Roz… MJV: How would Roz know?

This was before you even met her.

It’s A Spider, Man! (Left:) Bellman’s splash panel for “The Spider of Paris” in Justice Comics #29 (Sept. 1952). Script by Carl Wessler.

(Right:) Two years later, Ed Winiarski drew this “Spider Man” yarn for Uncanny Tales #26 (Nov. 1954). Writer unknown.

Thanks for both scans to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

friends. I stayed in my hotel room. I wasn’t going to crash the party uninvited.

MJV: That makes no sense, Allen. All you folks are to be celebrated. You should all be together any time you can, especially if you are all attending the same show. But Stan wouldn’t have been in charge of doing the inviting. I’m betting it was a low-level gofer that missed the opportunity to invite you.

BELLMAN: Another time, there was a convention in Rhode Island where Stan was on stage with a Golden Age/Silver Age panel with Joe Sinnott, etc. I was the last one asked to come up on the stage.

I said a few nice words about Stan. I mentioned how I recalled Robbie Solomon and how Stan walked behind him when he first started working at Timely, as Robbie broke him in. I mentioned that when he came back from the war and Robbie later passed away, he never walked behind anyone again. It couldn’t have been sweeter.

Then later, I again said a few words and said, “Let’s make America great again,” and Stan kept saying, “He’s a Trump man! He’s a Trump man!” [Vassallo laughs furiously] I’m telling you! I later heard from fans who were there and they thought the entire thing was wonderful theatre. The audience was laughing so hard.

MJV: Wait a minute… is her name Marion?

BELLMAN: Marion! That’s it! Marion Cohen. How did you know that?

MJV: Allen, you are not going to believe this, but several years ago, when the book I wrote with my friend Blake Bell, The Secret History of Marvel Comics, came out, we had a book launch at The Society of Illustrators in New York, during the New York Comicon. The event was advertised in the New York Post newspaper, so the turnout was very large in spite of most people being at the con at the Javits Center. We had a panel discussion about the book and a slide show. Al Jaffee and Stan Goldberg were our guests. Two days later, I’m waiting for my daughter in Grand Central Station; a young man comes up to me and says he had attended the book launch after reading about it in the newspaper. He then says his grandmother worked for Martin Goodman in the 1940s. I ask her name, and his answer was Marion Cohen, and she was still alive.

In a week’s time, she and I were having lunch together at The Society of

MJV: I wish I’d have been there!

We’d have some video to accompany this article!

BELLMAN: So I think I get under his skin.

MJV: Oh I doubt it, Allen. I’m telling you, the simplest answer is just that somebody forgot to invite you.

BELLMAN: Maybe you’re right.

I certainly don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade. I have my fans and I’m a happy camper. I was just a bit hurt. Who knows if I’ll ever see Ken again? With so little time left, every meeting is precious to me nowadays. So I really don’t care any longer whose feathers I ruffle. You know, it’s funny, talking about Stan has

BELLMAN: We had her here several years ago in Florida, with her grandson.

He’s in the film industry now and I introduced him to Michael Uslan.

Ken Bald was caught on camera a few years back holding an unfinished re-creation of his cover for Timely’s Sun Girl #1 (Aug. 1948)—next to an image of his splash panel for a “Miss America” story from Blonde Phantom Comics #13 (Spring 1947). Scripter unknown. Photo courtesy of Shaun Clancy. [Page TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

20

Allen Bellman On Golden Age Timely/Marvel & On Being Rediscovered

Illustrators, where she was a member, and telling me all about her years working at Magazine Management of the 1940s.

BELLMAN: I don’t believe it!

MJV: I don’t, either. And here’s the backstory: I’d actually been searching for her for years! I indexed the 1940s run of Miss America Magazine and catalogued scores and scores of illustrations signed by “Marion,” “MG,” and “Gerrick.” I finally made the connection that “MG” was in fact Marion Gerrick, which now I know was her maiden name. The only data I could find on her was later as a painter who had a lot of success in the fine-art world; then the trail ran cold. And I wasn’t even certain it was the same artist. So I put it aside for a few years, with her then falling into my lap through her grandson Adam. And now you mention her to me!

This is a one-in-a-million coincidence.

BELLMAN: Stick with me, kid! [laughs] MJV: You said she visited you down in Florida?

BELLMAN: Yes. I was at a one-day Mike Carbonaro show in New York several years ago... at the Hotel Pennsylvania. I think it was a last-minute thing. Anyway, her grandson came to my table and we chatted. He told me his grandmother worked for Magazine Management and it went from there. Eventually, they both came by our place here in Florida, as she also wintered in Florida. They were very nice and she told me she dated Stan Lee before he was married.

MJV: I’m a big baseball fan, Allen. As a matter of fact, I pitched in high school and wanted to play in college but never really got the chance. So imagine my surprise when I see you throw out the first ball at a Miami Marlins baseball game! How the heck did that come about?

BELLMAN: Mike Broder runs a busy comicon in Miami. He called me up one day when the Panthers wanted me to do something for them, I forget exactly what. I couldn’t go. Then, more recently, he calls me and asks me whether I’d like to throw out the first pitch for the Florida Marlins. I told him it was a dream come true. And sure enough, it was arranged. What a long trip to Miami, though. He drove us and it seemed to take forever. When we got there, we got the royal treatment. Kids everywhere dressed in Marvel costumes.

I still have the ball signed by the manager. I went out to the mound and saw myself on the big screen. Audrey was there with us taking a ton of photos. Later we had a private box and were treated like royalty.

MJV: Did you practice a bit? Warm up or anything? Practice throws?

BELLMAN: Nothing at all. Now listen to this: I put my cane on the ground and threw the ball. I then accidentally stepped on the silver part of the handle, and I turned around like a merry-go-round. But I never fell down. The ball dropped about 10 feet right in front of the catcher.

MJV: You short-hopped it!

Watch This Space!

(Left:) Splash page of one of the stories Allen Bellman drew for Space Squadron #5 (Feb. 1952).

(Right:) By issue #6 (its last, dated April ’54), the comic’s title had been changed to Space Worlds… but Allen still drew the “Space Squadron” tales that filled it. Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“All I Had Were My Memories!”

21

Buy Him Some Peanuts & Crackerjack…

On Aug. 17, 2017—Marvel Super-Hero Night at Miami Marlins Park—Allen poses with the Marlins’ mascot (who sports a Captain America shield)… then throws the first pitch. This wasn’t his first comics-related brush with baseball: In Timely’s Sports Action #13 (July 1952), he drew a story (see splash at right) that involved the alleged National Pastime, only he says it was so ineptly written that the scribe must’ve been someone who knew virtually nothing about the game. Photos taken by Wilfredo Lee and provided by Audrey Parente; comics scan courtesy of Dr. Michael J. Vassallo. [Page TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

BELLMAN: It was perfectly in line, just short. But they still wouldn’t sign me up!

MJV: What about when your son was a kid? Didn’t you play catch with him?

MJV: When was the last time [before that] that you’d thrown a baseball, Allen?

BELLMAN: Never. I’ll tell you another baseball incident. I was at Ebbets Field the last year the Dodgers were in Brooklyn, in 1957. I was with a beautiful girl, half Italian, half Jewish. Somebody hits a foul ball right at us. I tried to protect myself by covering my head with my hands, and the ball fell right at my feet. I bent down and picked up the ball. The guy next to me was yelling, “I had it! I had it!” I replied, “That’s the way the ball bounces!” I don’t know what made me say that to the guy. He gave me a look and that was the end of it. I signed the ball to the girl in India ink.

BELLMAN: I never threw a baseball. When the kids were out playing stickball in the streets, I was up in the house drawing.

MJV: What became of her?

BELLMAN: Oh, I don’t know. We parted soon after. She wasn’t the one I wanted to marry. I wish I still had that ball! She probably threw it out.

MJV: A ball from Ebbets Field would be nice to have! It was a foul ball, right? Not a home run ball?

BELLMAN: A foul ball. Where do you think I was sitting—in the bleachers? I got us good seats down front! I knew how to treat a date. That ball had my name on it. It was coming right for my head like a bullet. I’m very religious, a devout coward! Someone else would try to catch it. I ducked!

MJV: Well, all that was the warm-up for your night at Marlins Park. [laughs] I saw the video. It was fantastic. It’s a good thing you didn’t fall, Allen.

BELLMAN: I was worried I would. I wanted to look like a pitcher!

I’m telling you, God won’t let me do anything wrong.

MJV: And that’s a good note to end on. It’s been an absolute pleasure talking to you, Allen. Let’s plan to update readers again in about five years!

BELLMAN: I’ll be ready.

Book ’Em, Bellman!

The cover of the 2012 SuperCon program book was penciled by Allen, inked

by Adelso Corona, and colored by Winji Mezadieu. Thanks to con host Mike Broder. [Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Thing, Sub-Mariner, & Human Torch TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; con mascot illo TM & © Mike Broder.]

See Timely Confidential: When the Golden Age of Comics Was Young by Allen Bellman, edited by Dr. Michael J. Vassallo & Audrey Parente, from Bold Adventure Press, for a checklist/bibliography of the artist’s work.

22

The Female Of The Marvel Species, 1972 – Part I

“I Know There Aren’t A Lot Of Heifers In The Bullpen…”

A Conversation with LINDA FITE About The Cat

Conducted & Transcribed by Richard J. Arndt

I

NTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: Linda Fite went to work at Marvel in 1967 because she fell in love with Marvel Comics while in college. After two years of working in editorial and production, she left for a variety of writing and production jobs for various companies, returning to Marvel for a period in 1972-73 as a freelance writer. She was married to Marvel artist Herb Trimpe for many years. This conversation took place over the phone on March 9, 2016.

RICHARD ARNDT: Can you tell us a little about your early upbringing?

LINDA FITE: I was born in Louisiana. My dad was in the Air Force, so I traveled around all my childhood. Moved every two or three years. I went to high school in Plattsburgh, New York. I went to college in Virginia, and that’s where I first read a Marvel comic.

Not until college. A friend of mine named John Peden ran a coffee house in Raleigh, North Carolina. It was way cool and he was way cool.

He had some Marvel comics lying around. This would have been in 1967. I read them. I’d always liked comics when I was a kid, but I wasn’t a big collector. I would read Superman, Superboy, Wonder Woman, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, Little Lulu. I loved Little Lulu.

RA: Well, who didn’t? That was a great comic. [both laugh] FITE: Anyone who doesn’t love Little Lulu is weird! [laughs] So, anyways, I thought those Marvel comics—from 1966-1967—were so fun that I started buying comics. I would go into Lynchburg, Virginia, and buy comics at the newsstand. I really liked them.

So everyone in my class was getting ready to get jobs or go to grad school. I had a contact at Life magazine. My mother knew someone who knew someone. I had another contact at Forbes and still another at NBC. So I had all these possibilities, but I wanted to work at Marvel Comics! [laughs]

“Little Lulu, I Love You-Lu Just The Same!”

Irving Tripp’s cover for Dell/ Western’s classic comicbook Marge’s Little Lulu #34 (April 1951). The stories inside were written by John Stanley. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Linda Fite (above center) in Cornwall, England, in 2013—plus the Fite-scripted splash page of The Cat #1 (Nov. 1972), as penciled by Marie Severin, inked/embellished by Wally Wood, and co-plotted by Roy Thomas. Thanks to Linda for the photo, and to Barry Pearl for the art scan. [Page TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

So I wrote Stan Lee a letter from college. I got a letter back from Flo Steinberg! [laughs] Stan underlined the things in my letter that he thought were good, and one of the things that I wrote was that I could type. [laughs] Stan had underlined that!

It was a very typical jackassy letter on my part. I swear to God I had a line in there that went “I know there aren’t a lot of heifers in the bullpen….” [much laughter] But Flo wrote back [Linda does impersonation of Flo Steinberg’s high-pitched voice], “Stan is so impressed. Give us a call!” Or maybe she called me. If you’ve ever met Flo Steinberg, she has the most amazing voice. It’s like

“I Know There Aren’t A Lot Of Heifers In The Bullpen...”

Fabulous Flo Steinberg Marvel's far-famed corresponding secretary, 1963-68. Photo courtesy of Dr. Michael J. Vassallo.

23

Betty Boop on acid! It’s a great voice! [NOTE: This interview took place some months before Flo’s 2017 passing.]

incorrect. [laughs] It was so long ago!

She told me that Stan can’t give me a job but he would love to meet me—if I came to New York.

Which is exactly, by the way, what Stan replied to Barry WindsorSmith, when Barry wrote Marvel Comics. “I would love to meet you if you come to New York.” Only in Barry’s case it was across the freakin’ ocean!

FITE: I’d quit Marvel. They wouldn’t give me enough money. That’s pretty much why they let Flo go, too. I was asking for a $25 raise. I was making so little money! Stan said he’d give me $5. So I left.

So I moved to New York with my friend. We got an apartment on the Upper West Side. I called and went down and had an interview at whatever company was publishing Life. They offered me a job. So did another place, but Marvel offered me a—get this—summer job. [laughs] It was substantially less money than the other places, but I wanted it soooo much! I said “Yes!” I started working there the summer after college.

RA: After those three initial stories, there’s a big gap in your bibliography.

Was there a reason you weren’t writing any longer?

I went and got another job. I was the art director for a trade magazine. Trade magazines aren’t sold to the public. They’re distributed to people in a particular trade—like plumbing or airlines. The one I worked for was called Mass Retailing Merchandiser. It went to companies like K-Mart and Woolworth’s.

Variety, which covers the entertainment industry, is a trade magazine. There were lots of these type of magazines back in the day. Unless you’re in the trade itself, though, you don’t really hear much about them.

I worked there from 1969 until 1972 or so. They were bought by a company in Chicago and they moved the whole magazine there.

They asked me if I would go. They would move me out there but I just didn’t want to leave New York.

RA: What did the summer job entail?

FITE: It was called an editorial assistant position. Mostly I was helping Flo with fan mail and anything else that came across the transom. I was writing stuff for the “Bullpen Bulletins” page. Little items for that. Some production work—literally cut-and-paste or whiteout stuff on camera-ready art. Just whatever they needed.

The summer job ended and they said they’d keep me on and give me $15 more a week or something like that. I took that. I just kept doing whatever they needed done in the office from them on.

I also kept bugging Roy to let me write. “Please let me write!”

I wanted to write.

RA: Roy wasn’t the editor at that time, though, was he?

FITE: No, Stan was still the editor, but Roy had a lot of clout. He made a lot of assignments for writers. Always in consultation, for sure.

RA: Do you remember the first story that you got assigned?

FITE: I think he gave me a Western. The Westerns at Marvel had two stories per comicbook, a lead story and a back-up story.

Writers back then started out doing back-up stories or stories for the anthologies, I guess, although Marvel didn’t have many of those at the time. Roy let me write a little Western—”Kid Colt Outlaw” or the “Rawhide Kid” or somebody. I’m sure it was a moment of “Let’s see if she can do this.” Werner Roth drew it and Herb Trimpe inked it.

Then I did a little thing for The X-Men. A Jean Grey story. That was fun. It was just a five-pager, but it’s been reprinted so many times! I get something like $7.27 every time it is. [laughs] It’s free money. I did the work 45 years ago and am still getting paid for it!

RA: I have you writing a couple of back-up Westerns. There’s the first one, which appeared in Rawhide Kid, but was a “Kid Colt Outlaw” story, and another that appeared in Kid Colt Outlaw but was a “Two-Gun Kid” story.

FITE: I don’t remember the characters very well, but I remember the title of the first one—“Dixie or Die!” It was so politically

Just Kid-ding Around (Above:) “L.A. Fite” scripted this “Kid Colt Outlaw” backup story in Rawhide Kid #67, with pencils by recent X-Men artist Werner Roth and inks by newcomer Herb Trimpe. Ye Editor isn’t sure whether Linda chose to use her initials rather than her first name, or if Stan Lee and/or Roy Thomas felt at that time that ID-ing a female writer might not go down well with Marvel’s mostly male audience. Either way, it’s a problem that was soon resolved, as witness the very next art spot! Thanks to Nick Caputo. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

A Conversation With Linda Fite About The Cat

24

the notion of a cat, even though I know it’s sexy and female. It was all right. It worked out better when she became Tigra.

RA: She had a much longer career as Tigra than as The Cat. FITE: Well, she was much sexier as Tigra.

RA: I’ve heard the story that, when the cover art for the first issue of The Cat came back from inker Wally Wood, Wally had inked her nude.

FITE: I don’t doubt it.

RA: I don’t know if you saw it…

FITE: No. I wasn’t in the office, so I didn’t see the finished art. I didn’t see them until they got cleaned up or whatever. Wally was such a… dirty old man. [laughs] He was a great guy, but Wally had his issues.

RA: Did you come up with the villains for The Cat? There seemed to be a lot of them coming over from Daredevil.

FITE: I think Roy would suggest villains. He’d say, “Why don’t you use The Owl? Why don’t you use The Man-Bull?” Malcolm

“The Female Of The Species” The feminine first name clearly wasn’t a problem just a few months later, when Linda was invited by Roy T. to script a 5-page “Marvel Girl” backup feature in The X-Men #57 (June 1969). Pencils by Werner Roth; inks by Sam Grainger. Thanks to Barry Pearl & Nick Caputo for the scan. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

RA: Somewhere in that year, 1972, you went back to Marvel as a writer.

FITE: I got a freelance gig. I didn’t go in the office. I was living around the corner from Marvel at the time. Roy had this idea—this was a time when all these Civil Rights things were happening.

The Women’s Liberation Movement was happening. The Black Panthers were happening. Roy wanted to get in on that wave, so he called me, along with his wife at the time, Jeanie Thomas, Carole Seuling, Paty Greer, and, of course, Marie Severin to work on these women comics projects he was setting up. Trying to make a mark in that market. It’s always good business to do that sort of thing and hope to generate some free press at the same time. It was partly Ogden Whitney promotion and partly “Let’s see if this thing A self-portrait flies.”

RA: The character you wrote was The Cat. Who came up with that idea?

FITE: Not I. It must have been Roy and Stan.

Roy co-plotted the first issue. I think the character was their idea. I would not have used

from an ACG comic in the 1960s of the co-creator of “Skyman” and “Herbie.” [© the respective copyright holders.]

“L.A. Fite” Fights On! Linda felt a bit more aggressive when scripting her second Western backup, giving the title of this “Two-Gun Kid” story two exclamation points! From Kid Colt Outlaw #141 (Dec. 1969). The Grand Comics Database says this story, drawn by veteran Ogden Whitney, had originally been slated to appear in the recently canceled Two-Gun Kid mag. Thanks to Nick Caputo.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“I Know There Aren’t A Lot Of Heifers In The Bullpen...”

25

Donalbain was my guy. But Roy would throw the villain at me and I’d have to come up with a story. That’s my recollection.

There was an unpublished story for what would have been #5. That whole story was my idea. Ramona Fradon drew that, but it was never published.

RA: I’ve heard about that story. I think Ramona was telling me about it. It may have been her first work for Marvel.

Marie Severin at the 1971 New York Comics Convention.

Photo courtesy of Mike Zeck & Pedro Angosto.

FITE: It had some nice imagery, but Marvel never published it because their circulation standards were much higher then than they are today. The sales weren’t big enough; they weren’t willing to let the book roll, so they put the kibosh on the comic. That’s my understanding.

Wally Wood Beware! The Claws Of… The Cat The striking cover of The Cat #1 (Nov. 1972)—whose masthead caused many to refer to the comic’s title as The Claws of The Cat. Pencils by Marie Severin; inking & embellishment by Wally Wood. Linda makes a slight but gracious error, however, when she says that “Roy [Thomas] had this idea” for the three so-called “girls’ comics” or “women’s comics.” In point of fact, all were Stan Lee concepts, down to their precise titles. Roy’s main contribution was to decide that each of the trio should have a woman scripter. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

at a 1974 con in NYC. Thanks to the former Golden Age Comic Book Stories website.

I wrote the four published issues, and the last one—the one with Ramona—I only plotted, because it never got to the scripting stage. It was done Marvel-style, so I plotted, the artist penciled it, and then I would script, and then it would go on to the inker. With the fifth issue we never got past the penciling stage. Besides Ramona, Wally, and Marie Severin, other artists who worked on the book included Alan Weiss, Jim Starlin, Jim Mooney, Paty Greer, and Bill Everett. We had good artists!

RA: You did a fill-in scripting job on Night Nurse, another of the “women” titles from that period. This one was entitled “The Secret of Sea-Cliff Manor!”

FITE: Yeah, Jeanie Thomas started it and couldn’t finish it for some reason. That was a very gothic title! [laughs] “Don’t go into the basement!” That’s the kind of story where someone will get pushed over a cliff. There were hundreds of gothic book covers back then, with a woman running away from a castle or a house.

Cover Me! The remaining three Cat covers: #2 by John Romita… #3 by Rich Buckler & Frank Giacoia (with “John Romita alterations,” according to the Grand Comics Database)… and #4 by Romita & Tony Mortellaro. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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A Conversation With Linda Fite About The Cat

Cats

Jim Mooney is especially remembered for his work on “Batman,” “Supergirl,” and “Spider-Man.”

(Clockwise from top left:) Marie Severin & inker Jim Mooney detail The Cat’s costuming in #2… Paty Greer & inker Bill Everett pit her against Sub-Mariner foe Commander Kraken in #3… plus the Jim Starlin/Alan Weiss/Frank McLaughlin splash page for #4. All scripts by Linda Fite. Thanks to Barry Pearl. Photos of Paty Greer/ Cockrum & Bill Everett accompany the following interview with Paty. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Jim Starlin in the U.S. Navy, shortly before he became a dynamic new Marvel artist.

From his 2010 book The Art of Jim Starlin: A Life in Words and Pictures.

Alan Weiss as a newcomer in the comics field in the late 1960s.

Frank McLaughlin in 2005. In the mid-1960s, he created Judo-Master for Charlton.

Thanks to Mark Sinnott.

“I Know There Aren’t A Lot Of Heifers In The Bullpen...”

27

RA: And in the house there’s always a single, lighted window.

FITE: Cool! [both laugh] RA: Then I see a short horror story. It appeared in Giant-Size Chillers #2.

“Treasure Hunt with Death!” with art by Ron Wilson and Jack Abel.

FITE: Jeez, I have no idea what that is.

I’ve no recollection of that at all. I’ll have to look that up. Now I’m on a treasure hunt!

RA: How did you get involved in Flo Steinberg’s Big Apple Comix?

FITE: I was and still am really, really good friends with Flo. She’s my son’s godmother. So when she was getting it together, I just volunteered to help out with production, and she gave me a page to write and draw on my own. I can photo-draw. I’m a pretty good artist. I’m not a comicbook artist, but I can paint, I can draw. I can do these things! [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: Linda’s page written and drawn for Big Apple Comix #1 (1975) was reprinted in our previous issue, in conjunction with our tribute to Fabulous Flo Steinberg.]

RA: I remember ordering that book from the back pages of Jim Steranko’s Mediascene.

FITE: Cool! [laughs] RA: I realized immediately, as I was still living at home, that this would be a comic I didn’t want to leave lying around the house.

FITE: Oh, that book had some rude stuff in there.

RA: A couple of those stories were really filthy. There was one drawn by Neal Adams and Larry Hama that I’m pretty sure my mother wouldn’t have approved of.

FITE: Those guys were baaad! I couldn’t have shown my mother, either! That’s for sure. But it was a really great effort on Flo’s part.

She had a great line-up of artists, and there were all kinds of stories in it. That Wally Wood cover was so fabulous! I loved both of Herb’s stories. Especially the one with the fighter pilot and the King Kong thing.

A couple of years back, Ramona spoke with Richard Arndt about her brief Marvel stint in early 1973, more than a decade after her last “Aquaman” outing for DC: “Roy Thomas called me from Marvel. I did an issue of The Cat, which never came out…. I went back to DC after that…. Working for Marvel was weird because I’d never worked without a script and Roy Thomas handed me this paragraph, a synopsis of a 17-page story. I took it home and was totally bewildered, but I started drawing it. The first thing I thought of was that I was basically writing this story and I’m drawing it and I’m getting the same pay as if I were just drawing it. I went home and tried to figure out all the details of the plot, but I was rusty. I hadn’t drawn in six or seven years. I thought what I did was awful and I was kind of glad it never came out. Roy did give me another job, though—the Fantastic Four [#133] thing.”

RA: Mike Ploog had a really nice story in that one.

FITE: It was really nice! Flo did great!

RA: It was a great comic. I wish she’d done more.

FITE: Me, too!

RA: How did you meet Herb Trimpe?

FITE: We just met in the office.

I remember the first time I met him—he was wearing goop in his hair, like Brylcreem, you know?

Ramona Fradon (at top center) juxtaposed with one of the pages she penciled (and Jim Mooney inked) for the never-published The Cat #5; with thanks to Mike Burkey’s “Romitaman” website. [Page TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Fradon Goes Raidin’!

(Above:) A mischievous commission drawing of recent note by Ramona, in which she depicts Aquaman, rather than the Sub-Mariner, discovering Captain America frozen in ice. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert.

[Aquaman TM & © DC Comics; Captain America TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Roy in 2018: “Ramona would’ve had plenty more Marvel assignments had she wanted them, because as editor-in-chief I didn’t think her new work was ‘awful’ at all—though probably I should’ve had the Cat synopsis fleshed-out a bit more for her. I suppose I thought Ramona’d enjoy the freedom to expand a plot, as John Buscema and others did. Still, my cold-calling her (we had never met) helped bring her back into comics, and that’s what matters most to me.”

A Conversation With Linda Fite About The Cat

28

The Treasure Of His Company What A Night To Be A Nurse!

(Above:) SPOILER ALERT! The climactic page from Night Nurse #4 (Nov. 1973), as plotted by Jean Thomas, dialogued by Linda Fite, and illustrated by Winslow Mortimer. For more on that comic issue, and for photos of its creative team, see the Roy Thomas interview beginning on p. 49. Thanks to Jacque Nodell. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

(Above:) This story scripted by Linda Fite led off the partly-new, partlyreprint Giant-Size Chillers #2 (May 1975). Pencils by Ron Wilson; inks by Jack Abel. Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

His hair was slicked back like Dracula’s! [laughs] Herb had taken the seat in the bullpen of this really nice guy named Al Kurzrok.

Al worked at Marvel for a while. Anyway, Herb took Al’s chair, and I thought, “Who is that guy in Kurzrok’s seat?” That’s it.

Just an office friendship that just became more. Herb was wildly enthusiastic and a great deal of fun. That’s how I met him.

It was fun doing those comics, but I started having children.

Herb Trimpe in the early 1970s, in a photo courtesy of office visitor Bob Policastro—plus two (out of eight) sequences done daily-strip-style for the two-page feature “Lotsa Yox, Featuring Rodger Farnsworth USAAF” in Big Apple Comix #1. Written & penciled by Trimpe; inked by Wally Wood.

Four other strips from the feature were reprinted in our previous issue. [© Estates of Herb Trimpe & Wally Wood.]

“I Know There Aren’t A Lot Of Heifers In The Bullpen...”

29

Here’s To The Cat! Our irrepressible interviewee toasts great action pages from The Cat #1 (art by Severin & Wood) and #4 (art

by Starlin, Weiss, & McLaughlin)— both of which she scripted. Thanks to Linda for the photo, and to Barry Pearl for the page scans. [Pages TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

I was freelancing on jobs after that. Herb and I went to England for a year in 1975. From March of 1975 to March of 1976 we lived in Cornwall, England. I was very busy with our first child, and then I got pregnant with our second.

talk. The kids had a great life, because both of their parents were home most of the time. Very nice setup. That job lasted until 1988 when computers ate my job. They quit doing camera-ready art and layouts. Everything went on the computer.

When we got back to Manhattan, I eventually started doing layouts and mechanicals for a scientific scholarly publication.

It was a job that I could work at home. I’d visit the office once a week, while Herb watched the kids, with much terror. [laughs] Then I could work at night. He’d work. We’d listen to the radio and

I worked for a local newspaper for twenty years, but I retired. Now I’m freelance copy-editing for another little newspaper. A bi-weekly. Just have to keep my hand in, you know?

LINDA FITE Checklist [This checklist is adapted from the online edition of the Who’s Who of American Comic Book 1928-1999, established by Dr. Jerry G. Bails and available at www.bailsprojects.com (see ad on p. 62); unfortunately, Linda Fite is listed therein under the name “Linda Trimpe,” even though she did not take that name when she married artist Herb Trimpe. Names of features that appeared both in comicbooks of that title and in other magazines as well are generally not italicized in this checklist.

Key: (w) = writer; (p) = penciler; (i) = inker; (e) = editor; (prod) = production.]

Name & Vital Stats: Linda A. Fite (b. 1945) – writer, editor; production

Pen Names: L.A. Fite, Byron Fite Family in Arts: Herb Trimpe (former spouse); Mike Trimpe (former brother-in-law) Big Apple Productions: Big Apple Comix (w) (p)(i) 1975; support (prod.)

COMICBOOKS (U.S. Mainstream Publishers:) Marvel Comics: The Cat (w) 1972-73; Kid Colt (w) 1968; mystery/ occult (w) 1975; support (asst. e) 1967-69; Two-Gun Kid (w) 1969; X-Men (w) 1969

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The Female Of The Marvel Species, 1972 – Part II

“That’s The Bullpen!

It’s… Magic!”

Artist PATY (GREER) COCKRUM On Putting Out The Cat— & Lots Of Other Stuff Conducted & Transcribed by Richard J. Arndt

I

NTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: Paty Greer became a letterhack and major fan of Marvel Comics in 1970. She did several art jobs for Marvel on their romance and “women creator” titles.

She was on staff at Marvel from 1974-1982, and generally went by the single name “Paty” (which she pronounces PAY-tee), which she adopted when someone misspelled her nickname “Patty” in a letter to her). During that time she married Dave Cockrum, the artist on the “new” X-Men and many other titles; they were married until his death in 2006. After leaving her staff job, she continued to work for Marvel’s merchandising department as a freelancer. She became legally blind in 1999 but in recent years has done some work in the independent comics field. This interview, which covers Paty’s Cat work among many other facets of her career, was conducted by phone on Aug. 30, 2013….

RICHARD ARNDT: Can you tell us when you got involved in professional comics?

Paty Greer (top of page) often signed herself simply “Paty” (pronounced “Pay-tee”); later she’d take the name “Paty Cockrum” when she wed second husband/ artist Dave Cockrum. Photo taken in the Bullpen, October 1976, by fan Bill Mitchell on a memorable visit, and printed with his blessing. We wish he’d been around to photograph the cast and crew more often, since his pics are some of the best we have of that period’s Marvel misfits in action. Oh, and that’s secretary Mary McPharron blurred on the right.

(Above:) Paty’s rough pencils were credited as “layouts” on the splash page of The Cat #3 (April 1973), while Bill Everett’s finishes are simply listed as “inks”—which would tend to indicate that the “penciling” was more or less divided between the two of them. The panel’s caption suggests Everett was originally intended to fully draw this issue, and that Paty stepped in to help out by doing layouts. She says, however, that she was originally told Wally Wood would be inking #3, as he had #1. Mixed-up Marvel musical chairs, anyone? Thanks to Barry Pearl for the scan.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

PATY COCKRUM: When I went to work for Marvel, I didn’t live in the city. I had to commute and work an eight-hour day there for peon wages, but I was Stan’s star performer. When he had guests in from other companies he would point me out in the hallway and say, “She’s the one!” They ask me, “You commute six hours a day to work here?!?” I go, “Yah!” Then they’d ask, “How come?” and I’d say, “If you have to ask that question, you probably will never understand. But—see that door back there?” They go, “Yeah…” and these are all executives, mind you... and I’d go, “That’s the Bullpen.

It’s… magic!” They’d all look big-eyes over my shoulder and I would say “Gotta go now, ‘bye!” [laughs] They had the big eyes and the expectation and they’d walk towards the Bullpen… [laughter] It was wonderful.

Now, what can I do you out of?

RA: How did you get acquainted with comics in the first place?

COCKRUM: I read comics as a kid, and then just about the time I graduated from high school in 1960 I was looking around and all I could see on the stands was Jack Kirby art. I didn’t like Jack Kirby art. I hated it! It was ugly! He couldn’t draw horses. He couldn’t draw humans. What I learned later on, as I became an art teacher, was that his art was very, very, very cubistic, and I hate cubism.

“That’s The Bullpen! It’s... Magic!”

Make Mine Marvel—Eventually!

Paty didn’t care much for Jack Kirby’s 1960s artwork, as perhaps exemplified by his cover for The X-Men #6 (July 1964), inked

by Chic Stone—but she was intrigued by Sal Buscema’s work on comics like Sub-Mariner #27 (July ’70), with inks by Mike Esposito, featuring the selfsame Commander Kraken she herself would pencil in The Cat #3—and she really fell in love with The Avengers as penciled by John Buscema and inked by Tom Palmer, as per #75 (April ’70). Well, we concur with the lady’s tastes on two out of three, anyway! Thanks to the Grand Comics Database for the covers. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

There were people like Mike Esposito or Frank Giacoia who would “fix” his art. Round it off a bit. Try to do something with the very skewed musculature and anatomy.

Later, at Marvel, I had to work with black-&-white art, and sometimes I had to work with his art, and finally I sat down with it and said to myself, “Why do I get headaches every time I see this art?” I finally figured it out. I took black-&-white representations of his art and took out the Zap lines. Zap lines are lines in a drawing that had no meaning except that they were there. They had no costume meaning. They had no anatomy meaning. They had absolutely no meaning except they were there. I call those lines Zap lines, a phrase I coined myself. They were in his figures. They were in his backgrounds. They were all over the place. I whited them out.

Lo and behold, everything in the drawing went static. I said, “Wait a minute.” Kirby’s supposed to have so much movement, and what happens, at least in his art at that period, was that the Zap lines made your eyes jump around. They strobed your eyes. Some people more, some people less, but with me it was very pronounced. Those Zap lines gave movement to the panel on the page.

Anyway, in 1960 Kirby art was everywhere and I didn’t like it, so I quit reading comics for about ten years. Then, in 1970 or 1971, I was living in upstate New York with my first husband and I couldn’t find any interesting paperbacks on my neighborhood spinner rack, so I looked over at the comicbook stand and there was a comicbook that was well-drawn. It was by Sal Buscema and featured one of my favorite early super-heroes—the Sub-Mariner.

I went “Wooh! That’s Subbie! That’s good art! Wooh!” I bought it and loved it. It was a good story. It was great art. I went, “Hmmm.

Marvel Comics. I never heard of them. Let’s see what else they do.”

I picked up a copy of The Avengers. Oh my God! And that started me off. I was a big Avengers fan. Roy Thomas was the writer. John Buscema and Tom Palmer were on the art. It was wonderful!

I started writing letters to the letters pages. Only, on my letters I would draw art all around the edges of it. People do that today, too, but I think I was the first person to ever do it. The people who trumpeted it to the world were CBG—the Comic Buyer’s Guide— which was a buyer’s guide put out by Maggie Thompson. I wrote

31

them a letter with art all around it and they were like “Wow! Hey, people, look at this! This is a great letter we got!” So I started writing letters to Marvel dealing with various and sundry aspects of their comics and… look, I’m a weird duck. I’m an artsy-craftsy person.

So I decided as a hoot that I would make Stan Lee a Spider-Man rug. I made one 36 to 40 inches in diameter. I hooked it and it was about two or three inches thick, with the Spider-Man insignia.

I think he still has it. In fact, someone told me they saw an interview with him and he had it on his wall, behind him.

That rug sort of introduced me to the Bullpen. When I finished it up, I rolled it up in this big round brown paper package and put art all over it. I put on the package: “To Stan, from Marveldom Assembled!” I took it down to New York, left it at the front desk, and left. I was only a couple of hours above the city, so it was no big deal to drive in and drive back out.

They took it into Stan’s office and told him it came in to the front desk. They unwrapped it and oohhed and ahhed about it.

Stan asked who it was from. The package only said “Marveldom Assembled.” It was either John Romita or Marie Severin who looked at it and said, “Wait a minute. We know that art. It’s been on letters. Paty sent that!” So Stan had Mary McPharron, who was his secretary at the time, call me up and asked me if I left something for Stan. I told her yes, and that it was a giant toilet bowl cover for the executive ass. She laughed! She asked me if she could tell him that and I said sure. [laughs] She called back and said that Stan wanted to meet me the next time I was in the city.

So the next time I was in the city I walked around to Marvel.

Mary had a tiny little desk next to this door. I walked in and she asked if she could help me. I said that I was Paty, and she went, “Oh, my God!” Now, Stan had this office way in the back with J.J. Verpoorten. She put me in the seat beside her desk and ran off to get Stan. This was when Marvel was really small and you could see everything. Everything was in this one tiny little office, so I could see where Johnny Romita

Mary McPharron Marvel secretary who welcomed Paty in the early 1970s. From the 1975 Marvel Con program book.

We wish we had a pic of the Spidey rug Paty had made at the time she first came to the offices, but though she tells us that it’s appeared, hung up behind him, in a couple of photos taken of Stan, we couldn’t come up with one of them by deadline time.

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Artist Paty (Greer) Cockrum On Putting Out The Cat

Magnificent Mutants

had a drawing board and he was working on a “Spider-Man” page.

Even today I could find that page that he was working on, because I noticed he was using a particular art technique. He looked up at me and asked how I knew that? I told him I had a degree to teach art in four states. He went, “Oh, hi! My name’s John Romita.” I said “Hi, I’m Paty.” He went “Oh, my God! You’re Paty!” So they knew me from my fan stuff.

Once I got so mad about a story that Roy did that I got a roll of toilet paper and I wrote the letter on the toilet paper, unrolling it as I went and finishing up with the line “This story wasn’t worth toilet paper!” Then I rolled it back up and mailed it to him. Later, Roy told me that when he got it he unrolled it and read the entire letter. [laughs] I said, “You actually read the whole letter!” He said, “Yeeeah.”

RA: Do you remember what story you were so angry about?

COCKRUM: I have no idea! It’s just that I thought something should go a certain way and it wasn’t going that way. It upset me. I had a lot of fun.

Paty mugging as Magneto some years back—plus previously unpublished color drawings she drew of two of her favorite Marvel characters (along with The Vision): The Scarlet Witch and Magneto. Courtesy of Paty. [Scarlet Witch & Magneto TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

about 3” x 3”. Since those figures would never have fit on a regular chess board, I also made the chessboard. The chessboard opened up. It was 4” x 4” corkboard squares, dark and light. It folded up, and on the outside it had a branch filigree with blue velvet under it. Then I made a cabinet to hold all the characters, with little hooks to hold them in place. Some of the pieces were very, very delicate.

Loki’s horns come up and go out. They aren’t bone but they aren’t bad! [laughter] When I went down to New York to give Roy the chess set, I first gave him the chessboard, as a joke. I said, “I know you love chess, so I wanted you to have this board.” Tony Isabella and Duffy Vohland had smuggled me into the offices the weekend before when no one was there. I’d brought the cabinet with the figures in it and hid it between two desks. Roy was running around the Bullpen that Monday as he usually did, and they told him that I had something to give him. So we’re in this editorial room and Roy comes in, saying he really doesn’t have a lot of time and has to go. I told him that Marveldom Assembled wanted him to have this and he took this chessboard, which was huge! He said it was very nice but that he didn’t have a chess set to fit it. I told him, “Oh,

I had a kiln in my house at home, and later on I did a chess set for Roy. The king of the chess set was about fifteen inches high and the queen not much smaller. They were all Marvel characters.

The black crew were the Marvel villains and the white crew were the heroes. They each were hand-colored ceramic sculptures that sat on bases. Roy still has it.

RA: Yes, he mentioned it in his note to me. He’s still quite proud of it.

COCKRUM: I have a couple of pictures that he sent me of him and the set. I decided to do that because I really liked Roy’s writing on The Avengers and I did things like that. I’d already done Stan’s rug. I was really into the intricate relationship between The Vision and The Scarlet Witch. To me, The Scarlet Witch was my alter ego. She was cool and I really loved those stories. He was bringing it along so nicely and so gently. He was a great writer!

I knew he liked to play chess, so I did all the ceramic figures—in fact, the local paper got wind of it and came out to do an article on me doing the sculptures. It was written around the fact that I was sending it all off to this comicbook writer. My husband at the time just didn’t understand. He went, “You’re just going to give it to him?” I said, “Sure! I enjoy his stories.”

I’d done the whole set with each of the characters sitting on a light-colored wood base or a dark-colored wood base that was

Chess One Of Those Things Photo of just part the Marvel chess set made for and presented to editor Roy Thomas by Paty, some time before she worked at Marvel. The chessboard table on which they sit, however, isn’t the board she gave him with the set.

Photo taken by Dann Thomas. Thanks also to Paty.

“That’s The Bullpen! It’s... Magic!”

33

After that, they told me that whenever I was in the city to stop in, and I would do that. I would come in with two boxes of Dunkin’ Donuts under my arms and Mary would call out “Paty’s here!” Stu Schwartzberg, in the camera room, would go, “She got doughnuts?” [laughs] I helped them move from the original office at 325 Madison Avenue up to 575 Madison Avenue [long before I went to work there].

I had gotten some of my letters published, and I immediately got letters back from comic geeks. I formed good friendships with a lot of them. Two of them actually became comic pros—that was Tony [Isabella] and Duffy [Vohland]. So when a position “Comic Geeks [&] Good Friendships” opened up at Marvel in the Bullpen for a paste-up Paty (seen on right) says that her “pen-pal” exchanges with Tony Isabella (left) and Duffy person, those two were instrumental in getting me Vohland (center) led to their suggesting her for a staff position once they were in the Bullpen down there. They let me know of the position and by the early 1970s. Latter two photos from the 1975 Marvel Con program book. asked if I was interested in working at Marvel. I said “Yes!” My husband at the time said, “Wait, they’ll yes, you do!” Then we threw back the covers that were hiding the pay you, right?” I said yeah, although I’d have worked at Marvel cabinet and pulled it out from between the two desks. There was for free. He just wanted to make sure that I’d make enough money about thirty seconds of stunned silence, and then everybody started for me to get there and back on the train every day. babbling. I had done the characters that I liked, so a lot of them were Avengers. The Vision was the white king and Wanda was the Then, of course, I had to arrange transport and all this other queen. Spidey was a rook and the guys on horses were the Black stuff, but that worked for about a year and a half before I ended Knight and… I don’t remember the other one. The pawns were up getting shut of my first husband and moving down to the city, smaller characters who were sitting down, with their legs crossed, where I worked for Marvel full-time. on both teams. It was a fun thing.

I started working for Marvel in August in 1974. Now, I lived up in the Catskills, and Sol Brodsky, who would be my future boss, used to come up there on his vacations. It used to tickle him. He’d go, “You know where South Fallsburg is?” and I’d tell him it was about twenty minutes north of me. He’d go, “That’s where I go for vacations.” And I’d tell him, “That’s where I live.”

I was so gung-ho! They brought me into the Bullpen to do paste-up work. My minor in college was English Compositional Literature. I was licensed to teach that in three states but not in

Six-Guns & Kung Fu Shrinks (Left:) A pinup that Paty penciled for Two-Gun Kid #136 (April 1977), that title’s final issue after nearly three decades. Inker uncertain. Thanks to Nick Caputo.

(Above:) An early spot illo that Paty drew to accompany an editorial in Marvel’s black-&-white comic Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #29 (Oct. 1976), featuring Shang-Chi. The New Yorker has contests where readers write captions/dialogue for some of its cartoons; anybody out there wanna do the same for Alter Ego? All mid-1970s issues of DHKF have been reprinted in two handsome Omnibus editions. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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Artist Paty (Greer) Cockrum On Putting Out The Cat

New York because I never bothered to get the license there. I could do storyline and art. I was uniquely trained to be an editor.

But I was pushed into the merchandising department, which was just getting started at the time. Sol and I were pretty much the entire merchandising production department for eight years!

RA: How did you get the jobs where you were the artist of the stories in the books?

COCKRUM: I don’t remember who gave me my first assignment. It was a six- or seven-page story for My Love #19 [Sept. 1972], one of the romance books. I did it and I hated it. John Tartaglione inked it and did a nice job on it, though.

John Tartaglione From the 1975 Marvel Con program book.

Around the office, he was often referred to as “John Tartag.”

From that job the editors saw I could do sequential art. Marvel had just started this female-oriented title called The Claws of the Cat. Marie Severin had drawn the first two issues but she had other stuff to do, so she suggested I do it. So they contacted me and asked if I wanted to do the upcoming issue. They told me they’d send me the paper for the art pages, which they’d already done for the romance story, so I said “Cool!”

They sent me this storyline and the paper. Severin told me that I didn’t have to worry too much about backgrounds, just indicate light backgrounds, because we’re going to have Wally Wood ink it. He’ll put in all that kind of stuff. I said “OK?” I did it with light indications of backgrounds, which is not something I would have normally have done, but Marie said what she said and I’d said “OK.” I sent it back in and they OK’d the work. But Wally was sick and couldn’t ink it, so they got Bill Everett to ink it. Now, Bill Everett was the original writer and artist on Sub-Mariner—a character I loved and the one who got me back into comics in the first place! Hot damn! One of my favorite artists!

As a kid, I loved both the Sub-Mariner and “The Viking Prince” from DC. Back in those days, Bill Everett and Joe Kubert were the only artists who signed their work on the splash page. Other artists did not. I didn’t know Jack Kirby’s name, whose art I didn’t like, because he didn’t sign his name until after I quit reading comics.

So Bill inked my story, and they had somebody else pencil the fourth issue, and then they canceled the book. The Cat later became Tigra, which Tony Isabella created. She mutated, which kind of rotated back to the story I did, which was about alien creatures that looked like cats living under the water. And later, I don’t remember who, but someone else used the original Cat costume and became Hellcat. [INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: That was Patsy Walker, longtime star of Timely/Marvel teen comics.]

It was kind of funny that the name they gave the original Cat was Greer Nelson, since my last name when I was married to my first husband was Greer. I thought that was kind of a giggle.

I wondered if they’d done that on purpose. I enjoyed doing that story. At one point the villain, Commander Kraken, was telling a story about things he’d done and how he’d fought the Sub-Mariner, so I threw in a ghost image of the Sub-Mariner on one of the pages.

So my favorite “Sub-Mariner” artist got to ink my Sub-Mariner pencils! It was a little weird at some point, because I hadn’t done the detailed backgrounds, so some of them were a little skewed, but other than that it was fine.

RA: You’ve heard the story of Wally Wood on the first issue of The Cat, haven’t you?

My Love Does It Good!

(With apologies to Sir Paul McCartney for the above heading.) The splash page of the tale Paty penciled for My Love #19 (Sept. 1972), with inks by John Tartaglione. Incidentally, the “Anne Spencer” who wrote the yarn was reportedly Captain America scripter Steve Englehart, under a pseudonym.

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

COCKRUM: No. RA: Well, legend has it that Marie Severin sent Wood the cover for the first issue and he returned it with The Cat inked naked. Buck-naked. [laughs] Marie had to go back and white out the naughty bits and put the costume back in.

COCKRUM: Oh, that’s wonderful! If it isn’t true, it should be!

RA: It also may be why he didn’t ink #2!

COCKRUM: Now, in the merchandising department I did the Slurpee cups and a lot of other stuff, but I didn’t get to do a lot of the stuff that I really wanted to do. I wanted to do the kind of T-shirts that Marvel actually did ten years later, but I wanted to do them in the 1980s. I wanted to do some really interesting stuff but was always told that that notion would never fly.

If a boy had come in with that idea—I think it was the inherent sexism that the company started devolving to under Jim Shooter that finally made me give up and say good-bye. Years later, after I left, John Romita told me that when I left Marvel the lights sort of went out of it. That the days I was there were fun days, but after that Marvel sort of got not fun. I told him that was the reason I left, that it was not fun anymore. I left in July of 1982.

Because of Jim Shooter, Marvel was going in a direction I didn’t

“That’s The Bullpen! It’s... Magic!”

35

Bill Everett The photo that accompanied his in-depth interview in Alter Ego [Vol. 1] #11, in 1978.

Unfortunately, Bill himself had passed away in early 1973.

The Ladies Of The Lake (Above left:) “Sub-Mariner” creator Bill Everett loaned his patented “underwater” look to the sunken scenes penciled by Paty for The Cat #3. Script

by Linda Fite.

(Above right:) That very some month (on-date sale Nov. 1972), Wild Bill also wrote, penciled, and inked the entirety of Sub-Mariner #55. Thanks to Barry Pearl for both scans. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

think it should go. Mind you, nothing I said had a big deal to do with changing anything, but for me it was like watching a beloved child die of cancer and not being able to do a damn thing about it.

So I left. Those were my exact words when I told Romita and Sol Brodsky I was going. I told them I gave Marvel ten years before they went bankrupt. The Image boys, Jim Lee and the rest, came in and gave them an extra five years, but fifteen years after I made that prophecy they declared bankruptcy.

RA: Was there anything in particular that irked you as to where Marvel was going?

COCKRUM: [sighs] Stan had tried to bring in diversity. He wanted women artists and writers. He wanted ethnic artists and writers because he recognized where the audience was going to be in a couple of decades. He could see it. Shooter came in, and he was a black hole as far as I was concerned. He hated and feared strong women. He and I always butted heads. He couldn’t do a thing about me, though, except to try to get me fired a couple times, because I was Sol’s right-hand A Prince Of A Fellow woman in the merchandising department.

Paty tossed a head shot of Prince I mentioned earlier my qualifications for being an editor. Duffy Vohland told me way after I left that, in the

Namor into a panel of Cat #3 otherwise devoted to Commander Kraken—and had the pleasure of seeing it inked by the Atlantean’s creator, William Blake Everett. Thanks to Barry Pearl.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Artist Paty (Greer) Cockrum On Putting Out The Cat

36

COCKRUM: Oh, no! Shooter was the reason that a lot of people left. The artists usually worked at home and didn’t have that much to do with office politics but the writers, particularly the seasoned writers, like Roy, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Don McGregor—a whole batch of them, and I understand—it’s what I was told, anyways—that Shooter called them all into his office and told them he was going to teach them all how to write a story. He recited the “Little Miss Muffet” poem and said that was an example of a story with a beginning, middle, and end. By this time, everybody is going “What the—?,” you know. They came out of that meeting shaking their heads. Then Shooter started bringing in young people because he wanted his name to be as prominent around Marvel as the “Stan Lee Presents” logo that was on every Marvel splash page. There was one big problem with that, however, and that was that Jim Shooter was no Stan Lee.

Jim Shooter in another of those classic Bullpen photos taken in October 1976 by Bill Mitchell. Paty and the Marvel editor-in-chief did not get along, though she gives him credit in some areas.

late 1970s, before Shooter became the editor-in-chief, he’d been in a meeting where my name came up in regards to being a possible editor. At the time, I was going through the divorce with my first husband and somebody, and I suspect I know who it was but I don’t know for sure, said that if they gave me the job Marvel might be named as a correspondent in the divorce, and that after that everybody looked around and said maybe we’d better not.

RA: That sounds ridiculous.

COCKRUM: It does, but that’s what Duffy, who was in the meeting, told me. I asked him why he didn’t tell me at the time and he said, “Because you’d have killed someone and I didn’t want you in jail!” I told him, “Duffy, I have a better sense of self-preservation than that!” But somebody would have really been hurting if I had found out then!

RA: I talked to Sol Brodsky’s daughter and she told me that not only was Sol considered Stan Lee’s right-hand man at Marvel but that Sol’s department was totally separated from Jim Shooter’s control.

COCKRUM: Yeah! Shooter couldn’t do a damn thing about me except go up and whine to Jim Galton about me. They hauled me up there one time for a bogus thing where I was accused of holding up production of the books. Bull****! I told them that my job was to get merchandising shots of the characters when the art came into the offices. I never held up a production job. Sol sat there and didn’t even defend me. I had to get in Galton’s face and tell him exactly what was going on down there. After he listened for a while he started to back down, and when he started that Sol finally went, “Oh, well, she’s right.” I feel that Sol should have gone up and said, “I know this woman. No one loves Marvel better than she does. She wants us to be the best there is at what we do.” But he didn’t. Still, Sol’s department being separate from Shooter’s meant that Sol was protecting me from Shooter.

Stan could sell ice cubes to Eskimos and make them smile while doing it. You knew Stan was probably ripping you off, but you smiled and said, “Yes, sir, may we have another?” because Stan was like that. You’d follow him anywhere. Shooter was a black hole. I watched people’s personalities warp when they were under his control and warp back to a semblance of reality when they no longer were.

I’ll give the devil his due, though. Shooter was the man who got the artists’ pages returned to them. Before that, the company kept all the art. Shooter was the guy who brought in creator’s rights where you got some royalties, artwork returned, that sort of thing.

He was the guy who did that. And once Marvel was returning art, DC had to do it, too. Before that, DC sometimes, just to make sure the artist didn’t get his art back, would chop it up with a paper chopper.

It was after I left Marvel and was running errands back and forth for Dave [Cockrum], which I did because he hated coming into the city, that Jim Owlsey, who was a fun guy—I think his name now is Christopher Priest. He changed it; I don’t know why. At the time, though, he was Jim Owlsey, and he was the editor of the “Spider-Man” group, and he came to me one day and said, “Paty, you’re going to save my ass!” He said that all of his “Spider-Man” artists were sick. He had a terrible deadline and needed me to do a fill-in story. I told him I had six merchandising projects at home on my desk. See, I’d continued to work for Sol after I left, but he couldn’t get me for as cheap as he had when I was on staff.

But finally I’d had it. I said, enough.

After Marvel moved to Park Avenue South from Madison Avenue in 1981, I’d finally had enough.

Who’re Those Two Guys With Sol Brodsky?

RA: You certainly weren’t the first person to leave Marvel because of Jim Shooter.

Sol (on our right) with Stan Lee and The Green Goblin at a White House Easter egg gathering circa the 1970s. Thanks to Ger Apeldoorn.

But Jim said that I had to help him out. I was not thrilled but said, “What do you need?” He tells me that he needed a fill-in story for the Peter Parker [Spectacular Spider-Man] book. I asked him what the deadline was on this lovely little thing, and he said that he needed it in a week. I said “What!?” “I need it in a week. You can do it.

Here’s the synopsis. Do it!” So I did it. I gave him a full book of pencils in a week. It wasn’t the best “Spider-Man” story in the world but it wasn’t the worst.

I drew Spidey in his red-and-blue costume which I always loved. I hated the black costume. Shooter was always pushing the black costume because that was his design. So Jim looked over the pages and said, “Great! Only it’s not going to be in Peter Parker, it’s going to be in Amazing Spider-Man, because I have a tighter deadline on that book than the other one. You’ve gotta

“That’s The Bullpen! It’s... Magic!”

37

ink it for me in a week. [laughs] I need it in a week and I don’t have any inkers. You gotta ink it.” I said “I’m not an inker!” Jim goes, “You can do it. You do all the corrections on the merchandising.

You can do it.” So I took it home and inked it, but he said I had to ink in the black costume. I said I hated the black costume! He said that Shooter was the editor-in-chief and we had to do it his way.

So I took it home and I made it the black costume, and it wasn’t the best “Spider-Man” ever but it wasn’t the worst, either. It was in Amazing Spider-Man #264 [May 1985].

RA: You did a couple of other stories for Marvel. One was in Epic Illustrated #31 (Aug. 1985)…

COCKRUM: That was for Archie Goodwin, and I own that story and its characters. They’re copyrighted to me. Jo Duffy was the assistant editor to Archie at the time, and she said I should really do a story for them, six or seven pages, and that they could put it in Epic. OK, so I did.

I have a second story that was half done when I became legally blind, so I haven’t done anything with it since then, but those five or six pages are in full color, because it was being done for full reproduction. I penciled, inked, and

Jim Owsley 1980s Marvel editor. Photo by Eliot R. Brown.

Paint It, Black Paty’s splash page for Amazing Spider-Man #264 (May 1985). Script

by Craig Anderson. By this time, her penciling and inking were both advanced enough that she was able to do the entire art job—even though she loathed having to re-garb the wall-crawler at the eleventh hour in the new black “symbiotic alien” outfit. Thanks to John Caputo for the scan.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

colored it, as well as wrote the story. I’ve had people ask me when I was going to do some more of that, but it’s hard to do art when you can’t see what you’re doing. I’ve been legally blind since 1999. I’ve gotten better at it and I’m trying to get back to actually doing some art lately, but I don’t know if I’ll ever finish the elf stuff.

I also did a story for What If?—#38 [Apr. 1983]. It was The Scarlet Witch in her old age, with The Vision, of course, still being The Vision. That was done, I think, when I was still on staff. I did a lot of Vision artwork for FOOM #11, I think, which was a Vision issue. The centerpiece of that was a double-page spread that was inked by Tom Palmer. I have the art for that and it’s wonderful!

RA: I love Tom Palmer. He’s still active, I believe.

Sort Of Sorcery Paty’s splash page for “The Sword of Sh’rlii” in Epic Illustrated #31 (Aug. 1985). She wrote, drew, and colored this somewhat Tolkienesque tale at the suggestion of Marvel/Epic assistant editor Jo Duffy. [TM & © Paty Cockrum.]

COCKRUM: His art was so instrumental in making me love The Avengers. John Buscema was there, too, but when he was inked by Joe Sinnott on Fantastic Four, with what I call sterile super-hero art, he looked different. The Buscema/Sinnott work was very crisp, open for color with not a lot of embellishment, but Palmer’s inking was lush. There was texture and depth. That art was like a painting.

Like Hal Foster art in the Sunday funnies. Just beautiful, illustrative art. So the same penciler, John Buscema, did both The Avengers and Fantastic Four, and there were two totally different looks to the books.

RA: I think we’ve covered most of your artistic efforts at Marvel. Is there something you’d like to say to wrap this up?

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Artist Paty (Greer) Cockrum On Putting Out The Cat

FOOM Went The Strings Of My Heart!

(Above:) The John Buscema/P. Craig Russell Vision cover of FOOM Magazine #12 (1975), juxtaposed with Paty’s color drawing of Vizh and The Scarlet Witch done for that issue’s back cover. Inks on latter by Al Milgrom.

(Below:) Paty’s centerspread featuring that happy couple, plus Ultron and Wanda’s brother, Pietro, aka Quicksilver. Inks by Tom Palmer. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“That’s The Bullpen! It’s... Magic!”

39

What If—Paty Got To Draw a Vision/Scarlet Witch Story?

Pages Paty penciled for What If? #38 (April 1983), the David Michelinie-scripted story set in a future in which The Scarlet Witch, having aged to nearly the point of death, is saved when the robotic Jocasta switches consciousness with her—so that Wanda can live on forever with her beloved android, The Vision.

Inks by Andy Mushynsky. Thanks to Barry Pearl for the scans. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

COCKRUM: When I first went to Marvel, it was more fun than you could have and still get paid for. It just was. I gleefully commuted six hours a day, for peon wages, to work there.

Gleefully! But I got to the point where it wasn’t fun anymore. The office politics were not fun.

I did a story not too long ago for a friend, and it was published in a British comic book. FPL (aka Faster than Light) #5 (Feb. 2011).

It’s from Orang Utan Comics. It’s a seven-page story, called “Dear Darkness,” that was written by a friend of mine named Rivka Jacobs.

RA: I’m going to have to look for a copy of that issue. Thanks so much.

[INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: Paty sent me jpegs of that issue and the artwork is simply stunning.]

COCKRUM: You’re welcome.

Paty & Her Pals {Left:) A drawing that Paty (mostly) did for a Steve Englehart interview in FOOM Magazine #12. (L. to r.:) Paty, John Buscema, Roy Thomas, The Vision, Duffy Vohland, Steve Englehart (at typewriter), and production manager Jumbo John Verpoorten. Paty tells us that Marie Severin added the caricature of Paty herself behind John B. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Above:) Dave & Paty Cockrum, circa 1980. Courtesy of Paty.

Artist Paty (Greer) Cockrum On Putting Out The Cat

40

All Cats Have Claws In The Darkness (Left:) A penciled page from Paty’s 7-page story “Dear Darkness,” which appeared not long ago in a British comic, from a script by Rivka Jacobs—and (right) a climactic action page by Paty & Bill Everett from The Cat #3, with script by Linda Fite. Thanks to Paty and Barry Pearl, respectively, for the scans. Thanks also to Paty’s friend Richard O’Hara for his help in sending some of the scans printed in this interview.

[TM & © respectively Paty Cockrum & Marvel Characters, Inc.]

PATY COCKRUM Checklist [This checklist is adapted from the online edition of the Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999, established by Dr. Jerry G. Bails (see ad on p. 62). The last entries to this website were made in October 2006. Names of features that appeared both in comicbooks of that title and in other magazines as well are generally not italicized. Paty Cockrum is the source of some information on this checklist. Key: (p) = penciler; (i) = inker.]

Name & Vital Stats: Paty Cockrum (b. 1942) – artist, colorist

Deluxe Comics: support (colorist) 1984-86 [imprint: Lodestone]

Pen Name: Paty

Warp Graphics: support (colorist) 1992-94

Previous Name During Pro Work: Paty Greer

Orang Utan Comics [UK]: Faster Than Light 2011

Education: B.S. (art education), Towson State College [Maryland]

COMICBOOKS (U.S. Mainstream Publishers):

Family in Arts: Dave Cockrum (husband)

Marvel Comics: Amazing Spider-Man (p)(i) 1985; The Cat (p) 1973; covers (i) 1985; Epic Illustrated (w)(p)(i) 1985; Marvel Universe (p) 1983; My Love (p) 1973; support (colorist) 1983-85, 1990-91; support (sales) 1974-83 (comics & merchandise); What If? (p) 1983

Influences: John Buscema, Michelangelo Commercial Art & Design: Hulk crossword book (interior) 1978 Other Career Notes: Teacher: art classes, Goshen, NY 1963-64

The Female Of The Marvel Species, 1972 – Part III

“I Created Shanna To Be A Very Intelligent Woman”

41

An Interview with CAROLE SEULING, First Writer of Shanna The She-Devil

C

arole Seuling had only a short career as a comics writer, with the great majority of her scripting work being on the first four of the five issues of Shanna the She-Devil. However, she is also linked to comics by her earlier marriage to Phil Seuling, who produced comics conventions in New York City from 1968 through the 1980s; he also basically created the direct distributor system and, thereby, the modern-day comicbook store. This interview took place via phone on Sept. 8, 2013.

SEULING: Basically I just enjoyed looking at them. I actually did write little stories but they were not for comic books.

RA: So how did you get involved in professional comics?

SEULING: Well, I was married to Phil—Phil Seuling—and when he started collecting comics and then selling them, that was my chance to have a Wonder Woman collection. Of course, I always

RICHARD ARNDT: Carole, I’d like to thank you for agreeing to this interview. Could we start off with your youth and when you first encountered comic books…

CAROLE SEULING: I started reading comics during World War II. In fact, my father used to read Archie to me before I could read.

Then, when I turned three or possibly four, I took the comic away from him and read it to him. I know I was reading before I went to school. I read the Disney books and the Archie titles. I remember having lots of comics as a kid because I was reading them. My parents were happy because I was reading, and they gave me what I wanted, which included fairy tale books as well as comics.

But I really enjoyed the comics.

Later on, I started reading Wonder Woman. I wasn’t into Superman or Batman that much. It seems to me I was always reading comics.

I have a collection of foreign comics. Foreign language books from the 1940s and 1950s. My grandparents had a boarder who was in the Danish Merchant Marine, and he used to pick up whatever comics were on the boats and bring them home with him and then he’d give them to me.

RA: I’ve heard that many cargo ships carried bundles of comics as ballast during that time period.

SEULING: I have Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck in Greek, German, Spanish, French. You name the European country, and I probably have a comic from that country. It’s interesting, because sometimes I had the American version of that comic and I could tell what they were saying.

RA: Did you make up stories to fit the ones you didn’t have American copies for?

Carole Seuling (at top center) holding a tiger cub a few years back—and the splash page of Shanna the She-Devil #1 (Dec. 1972), penciled by George Tuska & inked

by Vince Colletta. Plot & script by Carole; additional dialogue by Steve Gerber. Thanks to Carole and her daughter Heather Antonelli for the photo, and to Barry Pearl for the art scan. [Page TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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An Interview With Carole Seuling

was World War II and my mother would give all my comics away to my cousins who couldn’t afford comics, and then those comics would be given to the paper drives.

RA: A lot of the original comics vanished due to the paper drives and recycling during the war years.

SEULING: Golden Age comics are worth what they’re worth today because of those paper drives during the war. I continued reading comics in fits and starts. When I was a teenager, I loved Mad—the comicbook, not the black-&-white magazine version. When I was in high school, that was my number one choice. Mad was wonderful— so funny—and they had their imitators, too. Magazines like Cracked and Sick. There were others too. I had a letter published in Cracked, a long time ago. [laughs]

Four-Color Super-Femmes The two Golden Age titles Carole especially collected were Wonder Woman and Mary Marvel. Seen above are the covers of WW #6 (Fall 1943) by H.G. Peter and MM #5 (Sept. 1943) by Jack Binder, courtesy of the Grand Comics Database. [WW cover & Shazam heroine TM & © DC Comics.]

had the worst copies, because when someone would call and order a comic, Phil would take the good ones, the ones in the best condition, even if they were mine, and leave me the crappy ones. [laughs] Obviously, I wasn’t selling them myself, personally, at the time. I also collected Mary Marvel comics. Those I still have.

RA: Those were good comics.

SEULING: Yes. Back in 1965 there was a comic book convention run by Dave Kaler and—I’ve forgotten the hotel—maybe it was the Broadway Central? Anyway, about a month after we had the con, it collapsed. [laughs] The hotel just dissolved. I remember going up the stairs with my kids during the con, and I made them walk on the sides of the staircase, because it not only creaked, it actually bounced up and down as you walked on it, so I think the building was starting to go even then.

My husband and I wore costumes. We were Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel, and Otto Binder was the judge. So you can guess who won first place. [laughter] I think Jack Binder was there, too. I have a piece of original art he gave me—a painting of Mary Marvel.

It’s very nice.

I enjoyed those two characters—Wonder Woman and Mary Marvel—because they were female heroes. Later on, in the late 1960s, long after the creator of Wonder Woman—his name was William Moulton Marston—had died, I spoke to his wife on the phone because I was trying to buy his notebooks. He was a child psychologist, you know. He wanted girls to have a strong, positive image during World War II. He wanted them to feel empowered.

RA: Marston also had a hand in developing the modern-day lie detector, which may explain the power of Wonder Woman’s lasso, because you couldn’t lie when you were lassoed by it.

SEULING: I didn’t know about the lie-detector thing. What a lovely connection! Wonder Woman’s lasso made everyone tell the truth.

I haven’t read a Wonder Woman comic since I sold my collection. I kind of miss reading the original stories.

RA: I think you always miss reading the ones that got you hooked on comics when you were young.

SEULING: But you understand that my Wonder Woman collection wasn’t the same copies of the comics I’d read as a kid, because it

Then, when Phil got involved in comics, I started reading Marvel. I never read any of their stuff early on. You know, I’ve never been a comicbook fanatic. I’m a fan, in the sense that I would collect the Mary Marvels and the Wonder Womans, but I don’t look at comics from one decade to the next, sometimes.

The way I got involved in writing Shanna the She-Devil was that Roy Thomas and my husband and I were very good friends. I still visit Roy when I go down to Florida and back. I still see him twice a year. He’s on my route! We talk about the old days.

So Stan Lee had this idea that he wanted more female heroes in the Marvel Universe, and he wanted them written by women. So Roy kind of drafted me for it. I enjoyed it very much.

RA: Of all the female super-heroes that they did—and to be honest, they didn’t do a tremendous number of them—they did three or four, but Shanna’s lasted the longest.

SEULING: She’s been doing guest shots for many years. I understand the super-villain I created for her book, The Mandrill, has lasted a long time as well. There’s a guy in Australia who did an article for Back Issue, which TwoMorrows also publishes, and he did a really nice piece on Shanna. We did the interview on the Internet.

After I stopped writing it, I really didn’t know what happened to the character.

RA: She had a few more solo adventures in the black-&-white magazine Savage Tales, and then she started teaming up with Ka-Zar. SEULING: They got married and had a child, right?

RA: I believe so. Those were some good stories, but I haven’t seen much of the new material that she may have appeared in….

SEULING: A few years ago, they had a comic that featured a Shanna clone. It had her name and it looked like her but it wasn’t the same

Early Daze At the 1965 New York comics convention, manning the Seulings’ dealer table. Thanks to Carole and her daughter Heather Antonelli. A photo of Carole & Phil garbed as Captain & Mary Marvel at that same con, with costume judge Otto Binder, was printed in A/E #147.

“I Created Shanna To Be A Very Intelligent Woman”

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Awesome Aftermath Phil and Carole Seuling feigning (?) collapse at the close of the 1969 New York Comic Art Convention, the first one that Phil (with Carole’s considerable help) hosted following his major participation in the previous year’s one and only SCARP-Con. The July 4th weekends were generally chosen for these events, because they were notorious for being “slow” times for hotels in NYC during that era. This photo, with allegedly humorous text and word balloon (including the “Carol” misspelling) added

by Roy Thomas, appeared in a two-page photo-feature on the 1969 con in Alter Ego [Vol. 1] #10.

character at all. A Chinese guy did it—I forget his name…

RA: Frank Cho? SEULING: Frank Cho, yes!

RA: Cho had been doing a little bit of work on another jungle queen character—Cavewoman—for Budd Root’s Basement Comics. Cavewoman was a girl who’d been thrown back in time, and she was growing up with the dinosaurs. Cho did some work on that character. A lot of the jungle princesses look a bit alike—the leopard skin bikini and what-not. When Cho did his version of Shanna, it actually resembled the Cavewoman character more than it did the original Shanna.

Shanna Lives!

We’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves, but here are the covers of two later Shanna series.

(Left:) Shanna the She-Devil #4 (July 2005), with art by Frank Cho. (Right:) Shanna the She-Devil: Survival of the Fittest #1 (Oct. 2007) – cover by Khari Evans & Jimmy Palmiotti. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

RA: I’m not certain he ever claimed that himself. In the original comics he’s only listed as co-scripter.

SEULING: Before he died, he denied it. But once it’s out there, on numerous websites, it’s awful hard to get it corrected.

I wanted to give Shanna a very different background from the earlier character, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. I can’t even

SEULING: I didn’t know any of that. My neighbors bought me the first three or four. I think I have all but one of the run. It interested me, and then I realized he made the character look like Scarlett Johansson. Shanna when I wrote her was never built quite that way! [laughs] RA: Yeah. That could have been a carry-over from Cavewoman, because she was quite busty as well.

SEULING: I took the work on Shanna seriously, though. Stan Lee said, “Write for college freshmen,” and that’s what I tried to do.

That was the reading level and interest level we were supposed to be aiming at. This was in 1972. So I did exactly that.

RA: Did you create the character completely yourself?

SEULING: I did. Steve Gerber, who did some of the dialogue, had no part in the creation of that character. He provided additional dialogue on the first and fourth issues because Marvel thought my dialogue was a little sparse. I thought the pictures should tell a major part of the story.

RA: That was the style, back then. Marvel tended to, I think, overwrite dialogue a lot. That was their style at the time, based on Stan Lee’s scripts when he wrote the bulk of the books. It was their company and it certainly was successful for them.

SEULING: I got very angry when I saw Steve Gerber listed as co-creator on a couple of websites. I sent them some angry e-mails.

Man, Oh, Mandrill!

The introduction of the malevolent Mandrill in Shanna the She-Devil #4 (June 1973), from the plot by Carole Seuling. Script by Steve Gerber, pencils by Ross Andru, inks by Vince Colletta. Too bad the markings on the villain’s face weren’t colored bright red and blue like those of an actual mandrill baboon.

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

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An Interview With Carole Seuling

jacket or something! [laughs] Not in Africa, anyway. Too hot! Of course, Marvel also wanted to sell comics, so the leopard-skin bikini was picked because she wasn’t going to be wearing any onesies either! [laughs] I think Jim Steranko did the cover for the first issue.

Steve Gerber clowning around at a comics convention.

George Tuska Photo from the 1969 Fantastic Four Annual.

RA: He did the covers for the first two issues.

John Buscema and John Romita did those for issues #3 and #4.

SEULING: Steranko was really annoyed because they gave him the wrong animals that were attacking her on the cover and he had to go and redraw them all. I’d written Siberian wolves and they told him hyenas, so he had to go and redraw them all. Steranko got upset over a lot of things! [chuckles] [NOTE: Actually, the two beasts appear to still be hyenas on the cover of Shanna #2, so maybe Steranko refused to do any redrawing and Marvel decided what the hell. —RA.] I do have some of the original art from Shanna in the form of stats. I started teaching while I was writing the book and I couldn’t go into Manhattan anymore and make the story conferences. I ended up not being able to do both well. So Marvel and I just decided that I wouldn’t do it anymore.

RA: You wrote the first four issues, and there was only one more issue after that.

Jungle Action—No, Wait, That Was The Black Panther’s Comic!

The third page of the tale from 1972’s Shanna #1, with “story” credited to Carole Seuling & Steve Gerber. That’s technically correct by the credit standards of the time; but, in actuality, Carole wrote the entire original script—only, after it had been lettered, Stan decided the dialogue was a bit sparse, so Steve was assigned to add dialogue throughout. Pencils by Tuska, inks by Colletta. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

remember what her background story was.

RA: There were tons of jungle princesses back in the day in the comics— Nyoka and Jann and Sheena. So many more.

SEULING: Stan wanted a tougher, modernized version of Sheena, one who would be more edgy. That’s why I had her leopards eat somebody in one of the issues. Or kill him, anyways. I got some nasty letters about that. It was the 1970s, for God’s sake! Get over it. [laughs] Mind you, she wasn’t a jungle queen. She was a biologist and animal behaviorist who went back to Africa with the offspring of a leopard that she’d been caring for at an unnamed zoo. The mother leopard was killed by a sniper who went through the zoo killing all the animals, and only the cubs survived.

RA: Where did she get her costume, then? It seems a little odd for a woman who cares for leopards to be wearing a leopard-skin bikini. I don’t believe that I read the first issue when it came out. I know I read #2 and #3.

SEULING: It was explained in the first issue that it was the pelt of the cubs’ mother. She wanted to return the cubs to their natural environment, and I guess she wasn’t going to wear the pelt as a

SEULING: I actually wrote the first three, and the fourth issue I plotted. Gerber wrote the dialogue for the fourth issue. I created Vince Colletta The Mandrill, though. Gerber created a inked all five issues of female villain named Nekra. I don’t think I the original Shanna made up Nekra, but I had The Mandrill. I series. Photo from still have my copies of that. Believe it or not, Marvel Tales Annual #1 I save everything. I’m a packrat. I plotted (1964). and sent in the outline for issue #4. They didn’t send me any artwork back on that issue, though, because I was off the book and Gerber was doing the scripting.

I created Shanna to be a very intelligent woman. She was an Olympic contender, in gymnastics, I believe. It depresses me, even after all these years, that the most one of those issues goes for is a couple of dollars. [laughs] RA: She was a good character, though. She wasn’t stupid. Even when you weren’t writing her, she remained a smart, intelligent woman. She wasn’t a handmaiden-type gal.

SEULING: I put in dialogue from the Minoan Linear B language for one of the issues, and she understood it. That was in #3. I was worried that Marvel was going to make me take it out because it was so obscure, but they left it. I enjoyed putting that into the comic.

It was probably the first and probably the last time the Minoan Linear B language was in a comic! [laughs] I got my idea for the second issue from the National Geographic, which had an article about people using sailboats with wheels on the sand dunes in the Sahara. I also killed somebody else in one of the issues, but that time it was with elephants. It was in a long shot, though. That guy killed by the elephants was actually based

“I Created Shanna To Be A Very Intelligent Woman”

Jim Steranko Photo from 1969 Fantastic Four Annual. During the 1960s, he was a frequent guest at the Seulings’ home at Coney Island, Brooklyn.

Hunters & Hyenas John Buscema Photo from 1969 Fantastic Four Annual.

Steranko’s covers for Shanna the She-Devil #1 (Dec. 1972) and #2 (Feb. 1973). Clearly, the spotted hyenas he had been asked to draw remained on the latter cover, even though the threat inside came from Siberian wolves. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

You’ve Got Me Covered!

The John Buscema cover for Shanna #3 (April ’73), as inked by Joe Sinnott—John Romita’s for #4 (June ’73)—and the Romita/Sinnott cover of #5 (Aug. ’73), the only issue on which Carole Seuling didn’t work. A photo of Romita appears on p. 56. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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An Interview With Carole Seuling

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“Sailboats On The Sahara! Believe It, Buddy!”

(Above:) New penciler Ross Andru hit the ground running with a sensational splash for Shanna #2 that was as good as any he ever did even for Wonder Woman— and the following pages contained plenty of good follow-through. Script by Seuling, inks by Colletta. Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

on a person that I really didn’t like, and I let everybody know that that’s who that character was supposed to be. That’s one of the privileges of writers, I guess. [laughs]

Ross Andru, 1977

RA: I don’t think those stories have been reprinted a great deal. Maybe just the first one. And that’s a shame because, as I recall, they were really beautifully drawn. Ross Andru and Vince Colletta were the artists.

[NOTE: All five issues of Shanna the She-Devil were reprinted in Marvel’s 2010 hardcover volume Women of Marvel: Celebrating Seven Decades Omnibus. —RA.] SEULING: Ross was doing Wonder Woman at the same time, and I was quite pleased to have him work on it. I would have loved to

Going Greek (Above & right:) In issue #3, Shanna finds herself trapped in a pit, being spoken to in what Carole says was “Minoan Linear B,” a language related to ancient Greek. Later in the issue, our sexy She-Devil speaks to her captors in that tongue, juxtaposing from the classical Greek she’d studied in college. Roy T. says: “As editor, I enjoyed seeing the exotic lettering, which showed Carole’d done her homework… still, it was all Greek to me, as Shakespeare didn’t quite say.” Script

by CS, pencils by Ross Andru, inks by Vince Colletta.

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

“I Created Shanna To Be A Very Intelligent Woman”

have had Steranko draw it, though, because I loved the way she looked on his covers. I wanted Shanna to be as tough as Wonder Woman, because Wonder Woman was tough. She wasn’t a shrinking violet. I wanted Shanna to be tough.

47

Howard Chaykin (on left) in the 1970s, with Creation Con co-founder Adam Malin. Thanks to Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth—who also snapped the picture. Thanks also to Art Lortie.

I did a little bit of work for Archie’s Red Circle Line after that. Howard Chaykin illustrated the main piece. He used to pop into the bookstore on the weekends. He gave me an enormous compliment. He told me my script was the easiest one he’d ever had.

Steranko would go on for hours when he visited the store about how a comicbook script was like a movie script. Essentially comicbook panels are storyboards. They lead from one piece of frozen action to another piece of frozen action. Just like storyboards for a movie do. You have to provide that action and movement that occurs between the panels with your mind.

I would put into the script “medium shot, long shot,” etc. Insert something here. You know. I gave a lot of instructions on how to do the story. They were suggestions. You didn’t have to follow them, but Howie appreciated that. He drew that story exactly the way I wrote it.

I like that story.

RA: It didn’t last very long, but that Red Circle run had a lot of good stories and artists on it. There was Gray Morrow, Alex Toth, Bruce Jones, Wally Wood, Al McWilliams, and Vicente Alcazar, among others. Just a lot of good stories and top-notch artists.

SEULING: I did filler pages for them, too. They used to have one-page fillers on witchcraft facts and what-not….

RA: Oh, yeah. Those were called “Essays of the Supernatural.” Both Phil and you wrote them.

SEULING: Since leaving comics, I’ve been involved in teaching, and that’s how I’ve spent the rest of my working life. I taught English as a foreign language. ESL. I’ve taught every grade from pre-K to college at one time or another.

I did enjoy my experience writing for Marvel. I have to say I liked it. They offered me a production job, and if I hadn’t gotten the teaching job I might have taken them up on it. I could have worked for them for a while, but I had children to support. At that time, you didn’t work for Marvel and expect to make a great deal of money. I agreed to do the book, though, because I thought it would

Are you Betty—Or Veronica?

As “C. Seuling,” Carole wrote this yarn for the Archie group’s Red Circle Sorcery #6 (April 1974). The art was by Howard Chaykin, just starting to make his mark in comics. Thanks to Jim Kealy. [TM & © Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

be fun. Not for the money. And it was fun, but I couldn’t see myself spending my life writing comics.

RA: Well, you created a good character, and she’s still around today.

SEULING: But I did more important work afterwards.

RA: And that seems like a good place to stop. Thanks for the talk. It’s been fun.

SEULING: You’re welcome. Thank you for interviewing me. It’s always a pleasure.

CAROLE SEULING Checklist [This checklist is adapted from the online edition of the Who’s Who of American Comic Book 1928-1999, established by Dr. Jerry G. Bails and available at www.bailsprojects.com (see ad on p. 62). Some information here has been added by Roy Thomas, based on the preceding interview. Key: (w) = writer.]

Name & Vital Stats: Carole Seuling (b. 1939) – writer

COMICBOOKS (U.S. Mainstream Publishers):

Family in Arts: Phil Seuling (former spouse)

Archie Comic Publications: Red Circle Sorcery (w) 1974 Marvel Comics: Shanna the She-Devil (w) 1972-73

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The Female Of The Marvel Species, 1972 – Part IV

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The Night Of The Nurse!

ROY THOMAS On The Night Nurse Series By JEAN THOMAS & WINSLOW MORTIMER Interview Conducted & Transcribed by Richard J. Arndt

Jean & Roy Thomas at the 1973 ACBA Awards banquet. Seen at far left is the splash page of Night Nurse #3 (March 1973), the best of those drawn by artist Winslow Mortimer; script by Jean Thomas. Photo from The Academy of Comic Book Arts Newsletter, Vol. I, #21. Thanks to Jacque Nodell for the scan of the splash. [Night Nurse page TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

It was probably his idea to team Marie Severin with Wally Wood on Cat #1.

Otherwise, he left concept development and the art and story assignments mostly to me. He didn’t feel a need to concern himself with the details: there’s a cat-powered super-heroine; a jungle queen—we did decide up front she’d be an ecological jungle queen for the 1970s—and a nurse involved in dramatic situations at a big-city hospital.

I

NTERVIEWER’S INTRO: Night Nurse was the third of the trio of Marvel titles launched in 1972—along with The Cat and Shanna the She-Devil—that were aimed at female readers and were scripted primarily by female writers. Night Nurse ran for four issues, cover-dated Nov. 1972 to May 1973. Its main creative crew consisted of writer Jean Thomas and artist Winslow Mortimer. Jean declined to be interviewed for this issue, so this conversation with Roy Thomas, Jean’s ex-husband and then-editor, was conducted by phone on Dec. 9, 2017.

RICHARD ARNDT: I guess we should start with the rationale behind doing the female-centered books.

ROY THOMAS: All three titles and concepts were Stan’s. They were set in motion by winter or spring of ’72, not long before I became editor-in-chief. By the time they were published, I was the editor of record. There was The Cat—or The Claws of The Cat, though that wasn’t the official title—and Shanna the She-Devil—I assumed that name was inspired by Fiction House’s “Sheena,” though Stan never said so—and Night Nurse. He and I initially discussed all three in the same conversation.

I decided it would be a good idea— both for point-of-view in writing and for possible PR benefit down the road—to have women write all three comics. Stan Photo from the 1975 Marvel happily went along with that. I also Con program book. wanted women to draw them, where possible. Hence, besides Marie, the work

by Paty and Ramona Fradon on The Cat… though Ramona’s story was sadly left unpublished when that mag was canceled. It was that issue I lured Ramona back into comics to draw, and I followed it up by having her pencil a Fantastic Four before she decided she’d feel more comfortable back at her alma mater, DC. She hated working “Marvel style,” but I’m still happy to have played my small part in bringing her back into comics. I’d have put more female artists on those titles, but there weren’t many in the field then, and I didn’t have the time to go looking for new ones.

None of the three titles were intended to be treated as romance comics, not even Night Nurse. We were trying to appeal to both girls and boys, especially with The Cat and Shanna.

RA: There’d been a Timely comic called Linda Carter, Student Nurse about a decade earlier. It ran for nine issues, from Sept. 1961 to Jan. 1963, and was written by Stan Lee with art by Al Hartley. Except for having the same name and occupation, the two Lindas didn’t really have anything in

Roy Thomas On The Night Nurse Series By Jean Thomas & Winslow Mortimer

50

Photo from Marvel Tales Annual #1 (1964).

Warning—Student Driver!

Linda Carter, Student Nurse, whose nine-issue run was scripted by Stan Lee and drawn by Al Hartley, was launched only two months before Fantastic Four #1; but the former comic never did quite decide what it wanted to be when it grew up. So it never did. The cover of #1 (Sept. 1961) was played for laughs… #2 (Nov. ’61) as romance… #5 (May ’62) as a gag cover drawn like a romance cover… #8 (Nov. ’62) as a big-city hospital drama, pure and simple… and #9 (Jan. ’63) as a romance comic again, though with hospital-drama overtones.

Thanks to the Grand Comics Database.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

common with each other. They didn’t even look alike!

THOMAS: Some people try to equate the two series, but I don’t think there was ever meant to be any connection. I don’t remember if it was Stan’s idea or mine to use the name Linda Carter. I’ve no idea why the old name was used. Just a whim, like as not. It wasn’t an actual revival, like bringing back the Sub-Mariner. [laughs] Stan’s often said he never understood [original Marvel publisher] Martin Goodman’s obsession with nurses. I guess, in the past, Goodman had instructed him to launch the various nurse comics… maybe Nellie the Nurse, but certainly Linda Carter, Student Nurse. Goodman had plenty of sexy nurses in his “men’s sweat” mags, too, amid all the leftover Nazis and man-eating weasels.

Plus, there’s always room for drama in a hospital, between nurses and doctors and patients. Movies, radio, and TV had already amply demonstrated that. So Stan must’ve felt Goodman’s fascination with nurses made some sense. After all, he didn’t make this Linda Carter a doctor—nor do I recall trying to talk him into doing so.

What would we have called it—Doctor in the Dark?

Besides, in 1972, nursing was still one of the major occupations a young woman could aspire to. Ten or twenty years later, things had changed considerably. But back then, some of the main careers open for women were as secretaries, teachers, and nurses—an increasing number of doctors, but mostly nurses. Women were still knocking against the glass ceiling in most other occupations, so

Whoa, Nellie!

Timely/Marvel’s humorous Nellie the Nurse made her debut in 1945, but the cover of issue #6 (1947—no month) was the first on which she appeared in a nurse’s uniform.

Artist unknown.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The Night Of The Nurse!

51

the Women in Chains movies.

THOMAS: I don’t recall. There weren’t all that many drive-in theatres in New York City. [laughs] RA: What was the idea behind having Linda Carter be on the night shift?

THOMAS: Well, of course, that was inherent in Stan’s alliterative title. I suspect the word “night” made the title sound a bit dangerous. Day Nurse wouldn’t have sounded too exciting. Dark things happen at night.

RA: On the night shift, all the whackos come out.

THOMAS: Yeah. And it sounded better than just calling the book Linda Carter, Nurse, right? All four of the issues featured some sort of crime.

Nursing A Trend (Left:) The cover of a reprint edition of the first Cherry Ames book, each volume of which contained the word “Nurse” in the secondary title. The author was Helen Wells. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

(Right:) The John Romita-drawn “Mary Robin, R.N.” comics series began in Young Love #39 (Sept.-Oct. 1963)—the very first issue published after DC purchased the title from the defunct Prize group. Funny thing is: on this cover Mary seems to have a secret thing for the young blond-haired doctor with whom the female patient is flirting… while on the cover of #40, just two months later, she’ll be shedding hidden tears over a dark-haired male patient she’s fallen in love with! Thanks to the Grand Comics Database for all comics covers that accompany this interview. [TM & © DC Comics.]

a nurse comicbook made sense. Stan figured there were girls and young women out there who’d want to read about nurses. There were already a number of what now would be called “young adult” novels, such as the Cherry Ames series, that focused on nurses.

Surprisingly, the entire Night Nurse series has been reprinted

by Marvel—twice. First in an omnibus—Women of Marvel: Celebrating Seven Decades Omnibus—and, a couple of years ago, in an actual Night Nurse collection. The latter contained the four issues of Night Nurse, plus a Daredevil issue that featured Elektra, The Black Widow, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Jessica Jones. Four of those six characters appeared in the Marvel/Netflix version of The Defenders, of course.

The only character from Night Nurse I know of who’s appeared much of anywhere since the early ’70s is Christine Palmer, who became Rachel McAdams’ character in the Doctor Strange movie. In it, though, she’d graduated to a doctor from her Night Nurse days as an R.N. I didn’t begin to figure any of that out till after I read the end credits of the movie, where they mention the various Marvel artists and writers whose work was used in some way in the movie, besides Stan and Steve [Ditko] up front;

RA: There were a number of nurse series in the romance comics of that era, too. Charlton’s comics had several serials focused on nurses.

DC had an excellent series in Young Love called “The Private Diary of Mary Robin, R.N.,” written by Robert Kanigher and illustrated by John Romita, that ran for several years. Romita went directly from that series to his work at Marvel on Daredevil in 1965.

THOMAS: I wouldn’t bet on Stan being familiar with any of those.

RA: The Romita nurse stuff is really well-drawn…

THOMAS: There’s a shock! [both laugh] RA: …and I think DC reprinted all the “Mary Robin” stories in their Showcase Presents Young Love volume.

THOMAS: I suppose DC figured there was a market for reprinting those stories, especially with Romita artwork, between girls who might like to read the stories and guys who like seeing pretty girls. As I recall, there were very few ugly nurses in these comics.

RA: That’s exactly right. Also, in 1972 there was a mini-cycle of B movies, or drive-in movies, that centered on nurses—Student Nurses, Candy Stripe Nurses, Nurses Report, and so on—that ran concurrently with the Women in Chains/Prison cycle. These were made by low-budget movie companies like American International and generally featured lots of violence, all revolving around pretty women who occasionally were half-dressed—usually less than half-dressed, in

The Night Nurse—On Duty Since 1972!

(Left:) Actually, in addition to what Roy T. says in this interview, the first issue of the 1972-73 Night Nurse series, cover-dated Nov. 1972, has been reprinted three times to date—counting the 2011 trade paperback Marvel Firsts: The 1970s. Here’s Winslow Mortimer’s original cover of NN #1.

(Right:) As Richard Arndt reports, the one-shot Night Nurse #1 (July 2015), besides reprinting all four 1970s issues, also contained Daredevil #80 (1998 series; Feb. 2006), with no fewer than four heroes who would have their own Marvel/Netflix series a decade later, as well as appearing together in The Defenders. Linda Carter appeared in the Daredevil story as a character actually referred to as “the Night Nurse.” Cover by Siya Oum. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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Roy Thomas On The Night Nurse Series By Jean Thomas & Winslow Mortimer

Love, Love, Love!

In 1972, some months before Night Nurse’s shift started, Jean Thomas scripted a trio of stories for the pair of romance comics that Stan Lee had recently inaugurated. All scans provided by Nick Caputo.

(Counterclockwise, from top left:) “Formula for Love” in My Love #16 (March ’72) teamed Jean up with two titans—Gene Colan (penciler) and Bill Everett (inker). The latter pair had last joined forces on “Sub-Mariner” tales several years earlier.

“Holiday of Heartbreak” in My Love #17 (May ’72) was penciled by Mike Sekowsky (once one of Timely’s most prolific artists, on romance stories as on just about everything else), as inked by the able Jack Abel.

“When a Love Story Ends” in Our Love Story #17 (June ’72) gave the new kid on the block a chance: Alan Weiss, whose illustrative style would grace numerous Marvel and other comics in the future. [All art on this page TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

and there, in amongst a dozen or so names of comics people, I was startled to see that three of those listed were myself and my two wives! [mutual laughter] Jeanie is there, and so is [Night Nurse artist] Winslow Mortimer, so I figured something in the film had to come from Night Nurse. To this day, I’ve no idea what Dann and I contributed to it with our 1990s co-writing of Dr. Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, but there must’ve been something.

Somebody, I guess, had used Christine Palmer in another Marvel Comics series, maybe even made her a doctor, and from there she graduated to the Doctor Strange movie. Redhead Christine Palmer was originally one of the three leads in Night Nurse, the other two being blonde Linda Carter and an African-American named Georgia Jenkins. I don’t recall if they called the hospital in that movie “Metro General,” short

The Night Of The Nurse!

Is There A Night Nurse In The House?

Yes—But Now She’s A Doctor!

Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange, and Rachel McAdams as Dr. Christine Palmer, in the 2016 blockbuster Marvel film Doctor Strange.

[TM & © Marvel Studios.]

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It’s A Small World, After All! (Above left:) Luke Cage meets Dr. Claire Temple in Hero for Hire #2 (Aug. 1972). Script by Archie Goodwin; pencils by George Tuska; inks by Billy Graham. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Above right:) In the first season of several of the Marvel/Netflix series (beginning with Daredevil), Claire’s become a nurse—taking the opposite career path from Christine Palmer! Seen here, from season one of Luke Cage, are Mike Colter as Cage and Rosario Dawson as Claire. By an unlikely coincidence, Colter (b. 1976) grew up in St. Matthews, South Carolina—the same small town near which Roy & Dann Thomas have lived since 1991: the first actor ever to play Luke Cage, and one of his co-creators. Oh, and Mike C. is a cousin of renowned actress Viola Davis—who herself appeared in the Warner comicbook film Suicide Squad. [TM & © Marvel Studios.]

for Metropolitan General, the name Jeanie and/or I concocted for the hospital in Night Nurse. Metro General is a recurring setting in the various Marvel/Netflix series, though. It’s where nurse Claire Temple, who appears in nearly all those series, has worked. She’s a character who first appeared in early issues of Hero for Hire, and is quite a good character.

Jeanie and Winslow Mortimer created the Night Nurse characters. I was involved as editor, and I’m sure I worked with Jeanie on at least some of the plots; but she and Winslow did the heavy lifting. Previously, Jeanie had helped me behind the scenes with a Conan plot or two, probably some other plots, like the origin story of “Werewolf by Night,” and we wrote a few pieces together for Crazy Magazine during that same period.

RA: What brought up the decision to have Win Mortimer handle the art chores? He was a long-time comics veteran… had done Superman for years and years.

THOMAS: He wasn’t getting much work from DC at that time… maybe some romance work, if anything. He’d done a lot of classic work on Batman and Superman in the 1950s. By the standards of the ’70s, though, his work was very quiet. Very well-drawn, mind you.

When he came over to Marvel, he drew an adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for Supernatural Thrillers, and in the black-&-white mag Vampire Tales the two of us adapted the first true vampire story: “The Vampyre,”’ by John Polidori. It came out of the same evening on Lake Geneva on which Mary Shelley was inspired to write Frankenstein. People always talk about Mary, Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron, but Polidori was there, too; he was Byron’s personal physician.

BFFs, Night Nurse Style Linda, Christine, and Georgia do some bonding early in Night Nurse #1 (Nov. 1972). Script by Jean Thomas; art by Winslow Mortimer. Thanks to Jacque Nodell. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Win was a good artist. He’d done newspaper strips, too; but he wasn’t really a good fit for Marvel. His horror pages didn’t look horrific—his people reacted a bit too passively to what was going on—and his super-hero artwork was way too quiet for Marvel. So

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Roy Thomas On The Night Nurse Series By Jean Thomas & Winslow Mortimer

in and do that. The three nurses were pretty much the whole continuing cast. Some comicbooks, TV shows, whatever, have the woman do the detective work and then the boyfriend steps in to slug the bad guy. But none of our nurses had a boyfriend who lasted more than an issue. Our thinking was that a steady boyfriend wasn’t a good idea. Jeanie understood that. Linda’s boyfriend in the first issue didn’t like her being a nurse, which made it easy to get rid of him. The book’s focus stayed on the three nurses. For the first two issues, it was pretty equally divided between the three of them. Linda took center stage in #3, and in #4 Christine Palmer had a solo story.

Back to that splash page in #2: another reason I believe it isn’t a Winslow Mortimer drawing is the car in the hit-and-run. It’s about to strike this woman, and one of its wheels isn’t on the ground.

Winslow was such a realistic artist that the whole notion of the car almost flying off the ground isn’t something he’d have drawn.

It has a far more violent feel than the average Winslow Mortimer drawing.

RA: The cover to #1 is Mortimer’s work, no doubt, but the layout of that cover reminds me of covers Gray Morrow was doing at the time. I wonder if he might have done an initial layout.

THOMAS: I can’t imagine Gray Morrow would’ve been doing

“Sorry, Charlie!”

Jeanie and Roy Thomas collaborated on the script for this back-cover spoof of a then-famous Starkist TV ad featuring Charlie the Tuna, in Crazy Magazine #3 (March 1974). Art by Lee Mars; photo by Michele Wolfman.

Charlie has made a comeback recently; but he’s lucky he didn’t wind up the way the Thomases portrayed him! Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

I made him the Night Nurse artist. He certainly knew how to draw both good-looking women and crime comics, and we were trying to straddle both those genres. It seemed a logical choice, and I think he did a good job, all things considered.

I do have the distinct feeling that the splash page of Night Nurse #2, which shows Linda Carter reacting to a hit-and-run accident, is not all Win’s work. I think there’s some Romita in there.

Either I, or more likely Stan, had somebody redraw that one figure.

Win might have inked it.

RA: The Grand Comics Database suggests that Frank Giacoia was the likely inker of the splash, but they don’t attempt to guess the penciler.

Mortimer is certainly the artist for the rest of the issue.

THOMAS: To be fair, I don’t think John Romita or anybody else could have really made Night Nurse a truly exciting book, because it was never intended to be a full-out action series. There were crimes in it, but I don’t know if we’d have been able to continue that path forever. Instead of Metro General, it would have started to look like Crime Central!

RA: And the hard thing with the Night Nurse dealing with crime is, she’s never going to throw a punch.

THOMAS: No, and there was no regular male character to step

Any Way You Spell It… “V” Is For “Vampire”!

Win Mortimer’s splash page for Marvel’s version of Dr. John Polidori’s late19th-century short story “The Vampyre.” Story adaptation by Ron Goulart; script by Roy Thomas. From the first issue of the black-&-white magazine Vampire Tales (1973—no month). [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The Night Of The Nurse!

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That was a real cliché in those days. I suspect that tear came from Winslow, who knew to do that occasionally from his work on DC’s romance comics. The splash page has her with tears welling up in both eyes! In #1, she does seem to weep a lot for a hardened night nurse. Of course, they’re all fresh graduates from nursing school, so maybe she hasn’t really gotten hardened yet.

Pinch-Hit & Run (Left:) Now that he takes a closer look at it, Roy T. strongly suspects that none of the artwork on the splash page for Night Nurse #2 (Jan. 1973) is by Win Mortimer. Roy’s suspicion is that Stan Lee, then recently transitioned from editor-in-chief to publisher, considered Mortimer’s original art for this page way too quiet and insisted it be redrawn. Chances are the layout/penciling is by John Romita; the finishing/inking is reportedly by Frank Giacoia.

(Right :) Beginning on p. 2, though, the rest of the issue was pure Mortimer art—and Jean T. wrote the script from first page to last. Thanks to Jacque Nodell for both scans.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

cover roughs for Marvel at that time. Besides, he was basically as static an artist as Mortimer, although his draftsmanship was impeccable. I would suspect that, if anyone else did a cover layout for that issue, it would’ve been Marie Severin or John Romita. It’s a good enough cover.

I don’t know who wrote the cover copy for #1—whether it was Stan or me, or Stan editing something I’d written—but I laugh every time I see it. The text tries to balance the nurse aspect with the romance aspect, with Linda saying that if she helps the guy lying on the sidewalk in front of her she’ll “lose the man I love forever!”—and her boyfriend’s yelling at her, “Linda, stop! You don’t know what you’re doing!” It’s really bad dialogue. You can’t tell if the boyfriend is referring to the consequences of what Linda’s doing, or if he’s saying she’s simply a dunce who literally doesn’t know what she’s doing! It was a weird, awkward phrase, whoever wrote it.

RA: And, to be honest, that cover, and the whole series, probably suffered from the fact that romance comics of the early 1970s were really “weepers.”

The girls were always crying over minuscule problems, so that when Prescription: Knuckle Sandwich a genuine problem cropped up there Actually, though he wasn’t anybody’s was no dramatic effect.

THOMAS: Yeah, there were a lot of tears in those books. Even on the cover, Linda looks like her right eye is ready to well up.

boyfriend (yet!), young Dr. Tryon threw a mean punch near the end of Night Nurse #3—after Linda deflected his gun. Thanks to Jacque Nodell.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Night Nurse wasn’t a full-on romance book, though, even in artwork. Winslow put a lot of black areas in the backgrounds, something rare in romance books. Even in the daytime there are shadows… it wasn’t a bright, wide-eyed romance book. It’s a weird blend of Young Romance meets Marvel

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Roy Thomas On The Night Nurse Series By Jean Thomas & Winslow Mortimer

#3 that I even suggested she sign, she mentions that not only had she considered a nursing career when younger, but her kid sister did go into nursing, as did her sister-in-law—that would be my sister Katy, who actually quit nursing school just a semester shy of graduation, to get married and raise a Not A Dry Eye In The Hospital! family instead. What’s (Left:) A tear from each eye, on the splash page ironic is that, as Jeanie of Night Nurse #1. Script by Jean Thomas; art by revealed in an interview Winslow Mortimer. Thanks to Jacque Nodell. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] in Back Issue [#44], she would later become an (Above:) Mortimer and his wife Eileen in 1956, when he was drawing the long-running David editor for the American Crane newspaper comic strip about a young Journal of Nursing minister, which had been originated artwise by company, and still later Creig Flessel. This photo was taken for an article she left publishing in Time magazine. [© the respective copyright entirely to, quote, “write holders.] health and science material for academic medical centers.” So you can see that she was far more oriented toward nursing and the medical profession than, say, most of us male writers were oriented toward the rocket science that was part and parcel of many of the stories we were scripting.

Comics—probably closer to romance than to the typical Marvel comic, but we were walking a tightrope between genres and we knew it. We didn’t expect great things from it, but we gave it a shot.

RA: I guess we should mention that only the first issue had that tearful, romance look to it. The rest of the covers were crime or gothic covers.

THOMAS: Linda went through a real baptism of fire in #1. The second issue has a John Romita/Frank Giacoia cover. It’s a little stronger because Romita drew it like it was a Spider-Man cover. It was also more of a crime issue, since it dealt with the hit-and-run incident. Ditto #3, which centers around a mob boss who’s in the hospital, with hit men trying to kill him while he’s there. That cover has a much more traditional Winslow Mortimer female on the cover than what Romita drew on #2. But Linda does have a much more dramatic stance than on the cover to #1… not an action figure, but she’s not looking willowy. She’s very defiant. Winslow caught that flavor pretty well. He was learning as he went along.

One of the things I’d forgotten was that by #3, because the comic was bimonthly, we actually had a letters page, which was titled “Night Desk!” I’m sure Jeanie chose the letters, in addition to writing the responses. In an introductory note in

Jazzy Johnny Romita A Bullpen photo of Romita taken in October 1976 by Bill Mitchell.

Since Jeanie had a reasonable amount of knowledge about nursing, she handled the letters pages very well. In #4 there was just a half a letters page. It called for more letters, since we’d planned for a fifth issue, even though it never actually happened.

RA: What brought about the shift in character focus in #4? Linda Carter had been the main focus in the first three issues, and then Christine Palmer became the lead character in #4. Linda Carter only cameoed in that issue.

It’s a gothic story, set at Sea-Cliff Manor, like most gothic stories of the day were—a gothic mansion on a sea-cliff, along with mysterious goings-on.

Working The Night Shift Amazing Spider-Man artist (and unofficial art director) John Romita drew the cover of Night Nurse #2, on left—while Win Mortimer returned for that of #3.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The Night Of The Nurse!

Christine has taken a job there as a care-giver for a wheelchair-bound young man.

THOMAS: The title of the comic wasn’t Linda Carter, Night Nurse, so it was OK to use any one of the three nurses as the lead in a given issue. Why we went gothic for that issue, I really have no Pros & Cons idea, except that gothic At an early-’70s comics convention, Jeanie stories were all over and Roy mugged for a photo that was printed the bookstore shelves in Fantastic Fanzine #12 (1971). Thanks to Barry Pearl & Nick Caputo. at the time. I suspect it was Jeanie’s idea to go gothic. At the end of the second issue, Christine discovers that a doctor she knows was responsible for that fatal hit-and-run. He convinces her to cover for him, but in the end she reveals the truth.

As he’s led off by the cops, she says, “I have to get away… from the hospital… from everything!” Christine didn’t appear in #3, but she had her own story in #4. I don’t recall if that was planned from #2, though I suspect it was.

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job at Marvel after she graduated, if she wanted it, so that was nice.

So she’d already been around the office a lot, working for a combination of Stan and Sol Brodsky. By coincidence, she and I worked in the same room, since the secretary, production manager, and I shared that space. She made phone calls to the printers, colorists, separators, and so on. Afterward, she went to Hunter to get her degree. When Night Nurse came up in ’72, I felt she was perfect for it. She’d always been a good writer, even back in high school.

Incidentally, in case somebody asks if I had any worries about a possible charge of “nepotism,” just remember where I was working! Martin Goodman’s brothers had been involved in his magazine company since the ’30s—Stan was related to Goodman by marriage—Larry Lieber was Stan’s younger brother—Marie Severin had gained entry into the field by being the kid sister of EC artist John Severin—later on, John Romita, Jr., was John’s son, and even his mother Virginia would work at Marvel for years— and John Buscema’s younger brother Sal had become a prominent Marvel artist. Len Wein’s and Marv Wolfman’s then-wives became first-rate colorists, too. And every one of those folks was not merely kin to someone already in the comics—they were also extremely competent artists, writers, or whatever. I guess it tended to run in the family. To me, like for Stan, the only real question was, “Can this person do the job?” Jeanie could, so I never had any qualms

From the beginning, Linda was meant to be the central character—or at least, a sort of first among equals. At the same time, since it was a trio of nurses, we could shift the interest from time to time to one of the other two. It gave us scope to do different kinds of stories. The first three issues were all involved with crime at Metro General in one way or another. That last one was also a crime story, but it was also a gothic tale.

RA: Which, as you said, were very popular at the time. Both DC and Charlton tried out gothic mystery comics… DC with The Sinister House of Secret Love and The Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love, and Charlton with Haunted Love. Linda Fite actually co-scripted that final issue of Night Nurse….

THOMAS: Yes. Here’s how that happened: When Jeanie and I eloped in mid-1968, after I’d been a guest at a comics convention in St. Louis, her plan was to continue her education in New York. She’d been studying for a degree in clinical psychology at a women’s college in the St. Louis area. In New York, she made plans to attend Hunter College in Manhattan, but she couldn’t start right away.

Meanwhile, by late summer, Jeanie wound up filling the job of Marvel’s corresponding secretary/ gal Friday for a few months.

In a Bullpen Bulletin [in issues like Fantastic Four #84, March 1969, on sale by the end of ’68], Stan says she was replacing Robin Green, who’d succeeded Flo [Steinberg], and that’s probably accurate. Jeanie did such a good job that, when she left to go back to school, Stan promised her a

Going Gothic The cover and splash page of Night Nurse #4 (May 1973). The cover is by John Romita and inker Joe Sinnott; the interior art is by Win Mortimer, with script by Jean Thomas & Linda Fite. Splash provided by Jacque Nodell.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Roy Thomas On The Night Nurse Series By Jean Thomas & Winslow Mortimer

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Anything more you’d want to know about that would have to come from her interview.

Stan pored over the first issues of all three of those series.

I suspect he went over The Cat most carefully, since as a superheroine she had the most potential to be a possible break-out character. Night Nurse was really the caboose of that trio.

However, with the fourth issue, Jeanie’s writing on the book got interrupted—because she and I separated at the end of October ’72. Not to go into a lot of detail, because I’m definitely not playing the blame game here… but the fact is that, not having wanted the separation, I became just too distraught to go on dealing with her after it happened. I don’t remember all the particulars, and Jeanie declined to be interviewed for this issue, which I was disappointed about but which is certainly her right—although she did talk a bit about Night Nurse in Back Issue [#44].

My memory, which certainly doesn’t do me any great credit in this instance, is that I unilaterally relieved her of dialoguing

“It Was A Dark If Not Necessarily Stormy Night…”

A moody page, with lots of black ink splashed around, from Night Nurse #4, combining elements of 1960s-70s gothic romance novels, Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles— and Robert Lewis Stevenson’s novel Kidnapped, as Christine discovers (the hard way) that someone has sawed through a high balcony railing! Plot by Jean Thomas; script by Linda Fite; art by Winslow Mortimer. Thanks to Jacque Nodell. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

about hiring her.

I didn’t do any real scripting on any of the three femalecentered books. A line or two of dialogue as editor, maybe, but nothing major. I probably did work with Jeanie a bit more on plots, since we were living together, but basically the writing was hers.

Linda Fite had picked up pointers from working in the office for a while, and had already written a few comics stories before she did The Cat. She and I must’ve talked over that origin tale enough that I had a co-plotting credit on #1, which I otherwise wouldn’t have taken.

Carole Seuling, unfortunately, was left a bit more on her own.

We’d been friends since very soon after I arrived in New York in ’65 and met her and her then-husband Phil. But Carole and I didn’t see each other that often by ’72; she lived out in Brooklyn. We talked a few times over the phone, and apparently, judging from her interview [earlier in this issue], she met at least once with Stan; but, other than that, she was left pretty much to her own devices. Steve Gerber ended up doing some rewriting on Shanna #1 and the full dialoguing by #4. But Carole wrote the first three issues, and the plot for #4. They were basically her stories, and she did them well.

Outtakes For An Out-Patient Win Mortimer’s rough pencils for page 3 of the never-published (or even dialogued) Night Nurse #5 from 1973. Several years ago, Dewey Cassell ran across scans of the art for all but the first two pages of this 14-page story online. Chances are that a backup romance reprint would’ve filled out the issue, just as The Cat #4 re-presented an “X-Men” vignette written by Linda Fite. Plotted by either Jean Thomas or Linda Fite. For a synopsis of the lead story, see Back Issue #95. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The Night Of The Nurse!

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A Couple Of Grand Finales (Left:) Although Dr. Tryon had slugged the mob’s hit man a page or so earlier in Night Nurse #3 (see p. 55), it was Linda Carter who got the drop on the bad-guy. Script by Jean Thomas; art by Winslow Mortimer. Thanks to Jacque Nodell. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Above:) Roy and Jeanie met face to face for the first time in at least a couple of decades on March 11, 2017, at a Big Apple Con. An article in The New York Post had reported that Roy was bringing along the Spider-Man costume Stan Lee had given him circa ’65 (which Roy had worn for a photo in Not Brand Echh and in the ’72 Carnegie Hall show)—so Jeanie surprised him by dropping by, replete in a Spidey sweatshirt, for a friendly chat and a bit of catching-up. Roy says, “It was great seeing her.” The vintage costume is seen on a mannequin behind the two of them and Roy’s pal John Cimino, who has since acted as Roy & Dann Thomas’ agent in selling it to a collector.

RA: I understand.

the whole, or at least the latter pages, of Night Nurse #4. I could be wrong about that—maybe she quit totally on her own—I don’t recall all that clearly. We were working “Marvel style.” She furnished the plot, Win broke down the story in rough pencils since he’d be inking them, then Jeanie was to do the dialogue; but somewhere in there, she and I had split up. As I said, I couldn’t bring myself to deal with her, so I ended up asking Linda Fite to do some or all of the dialogue. There apparently also exist all or most of Win’s pencils for a 14-page story for Night Nurse #5—I read about it in Back Issue [#95], where it was news to me—but I’ve no idea if that one was plotted by Jeanie or by Linda. In any event, it doesn’t seem to have been dialogued.

By the time we were working on #4, Stan and I were probably reasonably sure Night Nurse was going to fail, so I’m sure Jeanie knew it, too; thus, I don’t know if writing that final issue was a big deal to her. We had the sales figures for the first issues of all three of the “girls’ books,” and none of them was doing well. Night Nurse was probably doing the worst, since it would’ve attracted far fewer male readers.

Even so, taking Jeanie off the book was something I shouldn’t have done. I should’ve found a way to have her deal with somebody else editorially, or whatever. I wasn’t thinking as clearly as I should’ve. Frankly, I may have left Marvel open to legal problems at the time, had she wanted to force the issue, since I couldn’t and wouldn’t have argued that she’d been doing a poor job. It was purely my own personal problem, and I don’t want to whitewash it.

It’s something I’d like to think I wouldn’t do again.

THOMAS: Anyway, as it turned out, that separation lasted just a little over three months—and when we got back together in February of ’73, Night Nurse was already dead and buried. In ’74, partly to make up to her for the Night Nurse thing, but mostly because she was particularly well-qualified for it, I assigned her to write the new Spidey Super Stories comic, which by coincidence Win Mortimer would be drawing. She was qualified to teach elementary classes, though I don’t think she ever actually did, and that book was aimed directly at kids that age.

RA: I graduated with a degree, a major, in library science but with a minor in English, which qualified me to teach either middle school or high school English a few years after that time. She may have had the psychology as a major and elementary teaching as a minor in the same way.

THOMAS: Jeanie had graduated with honors—summa cum laude, I believe—from Hunter College and eventually did graduate work in clinical psychology. She interacted directly with the people at The Electric Company and its parent, the Children’s Television Workshop, which was a godsend because not only did she handle them well, but that meant I didn’t have to deal with them at all. Which was good, because I disagreed with some of their requirements but I wouldn’t have been able to change them.

Jeanie had written just four issues of Spidey Super Stories before I stepped down as editor-in-chief soon after Labor Day of ’74, but she went on writing it for roughly another year after Len, then Marv, became editor. She and I had parted ways for the final time by the summer of ’75; soon after that, she left that comic.

She says in Back Issue that she left Spidey to take a full-time job as a magazine editor. I do know that while we were still together she was an editor on one or two movie/TV mags—not Magazine

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Roy Thomas On The Night Nurse Series By Jean Thomas & Winslow Mortimer

Spidey & The Marvel Ladies A sensational sampling of Jean Thomas & Win Mortimer’s work on Spidey Super Stories.

(Clockwise from top left:) Re-telling the origin in SSS #1 (Oct. 1974)… meeting Medusa of the Inhumans in #4 (Jan. ’75)… Marvel’s first Spider-Woman (!) in #11 (Aug. ’75)… guest-starring The Cat in #12 (Sept. ’75)… and teaming up with Shanna the She-Devil in #14 (Dec. ’75)—not that the Children’s Television Workshop would’ve allowed the term “She-Devil” to slip into its sanctioned Marvel/Electric Company comic! Mike Esposito inked all these pages, most in tandem with Tony Mortellaro. Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The Night Of The Nurse!

Management publications, but a different company entirely—and she continued doing that for a while. One of the magazines was called From Dawn to Dusk and dealt entirely with TV soap operas.

So I’m pretty sure she left Spidey Super Stories voluntarily. At the very least, I’m positive I had nothing to with her leaving, either overtly or behind the scenes. She’s credited as full writer on Spidey Super Stories #1-14 and as co-writer with Jim Salicrup on #15, which probably means that she plotted #15 and Jim, as the new scripter, dialogued the stories. Being in comics wasn’t Jeanie’s major interest anyway. She was just writing them as a sideline to her education goals. She says [in Back Issue] that Spidey Super Stories gave her credentials to work for the Parents Magazine line of children’s titles like Humpty Dumpty and Young Miss, before she switched to the

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American Journal of Nursing.

She was and is a talented woman. She and her husband still live in Manhattan. I’m glad she finally got a screen shout-out for her work on Night Nurse. I’d like to think she’ll concur with most or all of what I’ve said here—but naturally, if she doesn’t, she knows I’d give her ample space on a letters page to say so. As you know, I did this interview only because she declined to do one, and we needed something on Night Nurse to accompany the coverage of Shanna and The Cat. I’d have preferred that only the women involved with those comics had been interviewed for this issue.

But at least, having been the editor of all three titles, it did give me a chance to talk a bit about the other two as well.

JEAN THOMAS Checklist [This checklist is adapted from the online edition of the Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999, established by Dr. Jerry G. Bails and available at www.bailsprojects.com (see ad on p. 62). Some additional information has been added by Roy Thomas, based in part on information provided by Jean Thomas in Back Issue #44 & 95. Names of features that appeared both in comicbooks of that title and in other magazines as well are generally not italicized in this checklist. Key: (w) = writer.] publishing American Journal of Nursing (dates uncertain); writer of Name & Vital Stats: Jean Thomas (b. 1948; maiden name Jean “health and science material for academic medical centers” (dates Maxey) – writer, colorist uncertain; quote is from Back Issue #44) Education: Graduate (Summa Cum Laude) of Hunter College, COMICBOOKS (U.S. Mainstream Publishers:) NYC, NY; later did graduate work in clinical psychology [further info unavailable] Marvel Comics: Crazy Magazine (w) 1973-75; Fantastic Four (colorist, one issue) c. 1969; My Love (w) 1972; Night Nurse (w) 1972-73; Our Family in Arts: Roy Thomas (former spouse) Love Story (w) 1972; Spidey Super Stories (w) 1974-75; Werewolf by Print Media (Non-Comics): Editor: Ziff-Davis Publications, early Night (co-plot origin) 1972 1970s (including magazine From Dawn to Dusk); editor for company

Pablo Marcos’

The WHO’S WHO of American Comic Books 1928-1999 Online Edition Created by Jerry G. Bails

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A commission drawing by this months’ coverfeatured Golden Age artist, Allen Bellman.

[Captain America & Bucky TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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In 1978, they implemented a bold initiative: Provide readers with more story pages by increasing the pricepoint of a regular comic book to make it comparable to other magazines sold on newsstands. Billed as “THE DC EXPLOSION,” this expansion saw the introduction of numerous creative new titles. But mere weeks after its launch, DC’s parent company pulled the plug, demanding a drastic decrease in the number of comic books they published, and leaving stacks of completed comic book stories unpublished. The series of massive cutbacks and cancellations quickly became known as “THE DC IMPLOSION.” TwoMorrows Publishing marks the 40th Anniversary of one of the most notorious events in comics with an exhaustive oral history from the creators and executives involved (JENETTE KAHN, PAUL LEVITZ, LEN WEIN, MIKE GOLD, and AL MILGROM, among many others), as well as detailed analysis and commentary by other top professionals, who were “just fans” in 1978 (MARK WAID, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, TOM BREVOORT, and more)—examining how it changed the landscape of comics forever! By KEITH DALLAS and JOHN WELLS. (136-page trade paperback with COLOR) $21.95 • (Digital Edition) $10.95 • NOW SHIPPING! ISBN: 978-1-60549-085-4

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THE 1990s was the decade when Marvel Comics sold 8.1 million copies of an issue of the X-MEN, saw its superstar creators form their own company, cloned SPIDER-MAN, and went bankrupt. The 1990s was when SUPERMAN died, BATMAN had his back broken, and the runaway success of Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN led to DC Comics’ VERTIGO line of adult comic books. It was the decade of gimmicky covers, skimpy costumes, and mega-crossovers. But most of all, the 1990s was the decade when companies like IMAGE, VALIANT and MALIBU published million-selling comic books before the industry experienced a shocking and rapid collapse.

“A Trick Of Memory”

63

Part V Of My Life In Little Pieces

By JOHN BROOME

A/E

EDITOR’S INTRO: Since issue #149 (with the exception of last issue, which got a bit overcrowded), we’ve been serializing what John Broome subtitled his Offbeat Autobio. He was an important comicbook writer from the 1940s (when he scripted All-Star Comics, “Green Lantern,” et al., for DC) through the 1960s, when he was the first scripter of the Silver Age Green Lantern and the major one of the 1956-revived Flash. He also scribed for pulp magazines in the early 1940s, and wrote the Nero Wolfe detective comic strip. In the mid-’60s he, his wife Peggy, and their daughter Ricky moved to Paris; he spent the last two decades of his life teaching English in the schools of Japan. His 138-page memoir My Life in Little Pieces, self-published in 1998, a year before he passed away, consists of various essays and remembrances, though few deal with the folks he knew in the comics industry. Our thanks to Ricky Terry Brisacque for permission to reprint her father’s book, and to Brian K. Morris for retyping it onto a Word document.

In the first four parts of this re-presentation, John Broome wrote about living and teaching in Japan, among other things. These essays provide an intriguing insight into the mind and life of one of the most important creative talents of the Silver Age of Comics. The words from this point on are all John’s….

Irving Bernard (John) Broome enjoys some waterside time at Candlewood Lake, in Connecticut, 1948. Quite a contrast with his memories of a “heavy snowball” striking his ear 15 years earlier—and with the Broomescripted comicbook panels below: his duel between Green Lantern and The Icicle in the Golden Age All-Star Comics #41 (June-July 1948; art by Arthur Peddy & Bernard Sachs)—and the splash of his second-ever Silver Age “Flash” outing, from Showcase #8 (June 1957); pencils by Carmine Infantino, inks by Frank Giacoia. Thanks to Ricky Terry Brisacque for the photo, and to Allen Ross for the ’57 scan. The “Justice Society” panel is from Ye Editor’s bound All-Star volumes. [Panels TM & © DC Comics.]

“A Trick Of Memory” (Note: The flamboyant style of this piece may be laid to the fact that the writer was still young when he wrote it, hardly sixty in fact.)

They say memory plays tricks on us poor mortals, and brother, I know what they’re talking about. Why, even at 21, I’d already been made aware on occasion of Mnemosyne’s willful high-kicking character. But at that green age, and in an era so far off now, I didn’t begin to dig the range and depth of the old girl’s antics. No, believe it, not by a moonshot, I didn’t.

Hear then, Wedding Guests, heed: The age is 21, as noted, and the recorder of the following events is the proud possessor not of a long beard or glittering eye, but of a white beret, surely one of the first of those crepe-like badges of bohemianism to bemuse the pre-McDonald burghers of dear old Brooklyn U.S.A. back in the early thirties. The season is winter and the never-before-worn headpiece matches in purity the deep fresh snow underfoot on the boardwalk at Coney Island.

Ah! the boardwalk at Coney Island. Ah! the games of ring-aleaveo when it, and he, were very young, indeed before it was fully built… Ah!

64

Part V Of My Life In Little Pieces By John Broome

But now, trudging along, he dreams not of childhood’s games but rather of streets he has never seen, the crooked cobblestoned streets of Paris, native habitat as it were of his flaunting headgear and treasured goal of his youthful imaginings.

Suddenly a heavy snowball buries itself in his ear, missing his stainless top piece by literally a hair’s breadth. Dazed, shocked, on fire with pain and indignation, he whirls and spies the culprit, a young Philistine in bedraggled knickers legging it off and chortling audibly. Furious, he gives chase but the rascal gets away. Those are the bare bones of that early incident, but perhaps it would be just as well not to disinter them further.

Instead, friend and reader, with your permission, we’ll skip the next fifteen years and dissolve to a peaceful setting in rural New England. Of course I am at present a different person (I think I exchanged my old personality for a new one, those days, about as often as I bought a new pair of shoes), married, living in upstate New York in an isolated little house with a wife and a bright-asa-penny little daughter, and one morning, one of those perfectly ordinary mornings with nothing else to mark it out, become aware while shaving that I am beginning to get a nasty earache.

Well, although there have been ills aplenty in the intervening years, troubles in the ear department have been notable only by their absence. So why, wherefore, such an ache? As the pain increases, true to the writer’s nature, the conviction sets in that he must have mastoid where they scrape bone, or something else just as awful, and of course insidiously incurable. But then while continuing nevertheless to shave, although doomed, a conversation from the evening before filters into his head.

My wife and I had been discussing a cherished project, our first trip to Europe, to France particularly, to Paris even more so, to the Champs Elysees, the Quartier Latin... Here, however, l stopped shaving and stared at my image in the mirror, eyes beginning to bulge, because the next item in that associative stream of consciousness was inevitably for me on this morning, my long-since lost and all-butforgotten white beret. And, to carry the thought processes one step further, did it mean perhaps that this pain—?

Ye Gods, I could almost hear myself cry out. Could this mysterious earache be coming from “Broome[’s] A Good Man!” just the memory Writer Steve Englehart & artist Marshall Rogers of being hit by pay tribute to sometime “Batman” scribe John that snowball Broome and his “French connection”—through the way back in that personae of Bruce Wayne and butler Alfred—in previous existence Detective Comics #473 (Nov. 1973). Thanks to Jim Kealy. [TM & © DC Comics.] of mine?

At first, the bizarre notion didn’t wield much clout. A pain from the unconscious, from a buried memory? It seemed farfetched indeed. I tried to be cool, dispassionate, scientific, though frankly I’m hardly the type. Checking back established at least that it was the same ear, my right. And another thing, there was a blanket of undisturbed snow outside my bathroom window and had been for a week. Snow, the boardwalk at Coney Island, the impact of that icy missile walloping in on me... Slowly, I began to be shaken in my disbelief. After all, I pondered, why not a pain from memory alone?

I could recall reading that, under hypnosis, the mere suggestion of being burned had raised real enough blisters on the back of a subject’s hand. Pain apparently was something a lot more devious than had ever been indicated to us in school physiology lessons.

Belief hadn’t arrived yet, but on the other hand, I no longer felt doomed. Optimism flowed back in. If it was really a memory pain, I told myself, it should by all odds go away quickly, for how long could a pain that was only a wraith last? Sure enough, a few hours later it eased its grip and slowly vanished. And never came back.

Well, friend and reader, I don’t blame you if you are not yet convinced. But hearken a bit further, please you. Once more, prestochangeo, the scene shifts, this time to Japan, where I am serving at a ripe age now as teacher of English to the natives. One recent morning, in my digs in Tokyo, I awaken feeling odd, downright rotten in fact. Every part of my body aches intolerably, legs, arms, shoulders, back and neck, yet there is no fever and somehow it isn’t as if I’ve caught something. What the devil is wrong with me?

Perhaps it was just my age, perhaps, ending my seventh decade on the earth, I had to learn to expect days like this, God forbid! Oliver Wendell Holmes, surely the authority of choice on the subject, said that “old age comes not gradually or gently, but in rude jolts in the form of insults and affronts…” So maybe it was just a case of my receiving a crack with the back of his hand from Father Time. But, willy-nilly, l couldn’t go for that, either.

The misery lasted from early morning to nightfall. During the course of it, the thought did occur to me that if this was a memory pain, it could only be a replay of a head-on encounter with a Mack truck. However, one question lingered persistently: was there any past experience of mine that could account for such a broad constellation of symptoms? And finally an idea surfaced… presented herewith. F & R., without further divagation… [sic] My douleurs that day—for like the previous eruption from the memory bank, this one did not last more than hours after being exposed as a fraud and a trickster, much as Rumpelstiltskin disappeared the instant his name was successfully uttered in the fairy tale—my symptoms, then, were a psychical re-staging of the growing pains of my early teenhood, which as it happens were severe enough since I shot upward, bamboo fashion, more than a foot in height around my 12th or 13th birthday. Leonard Bernstein has recorded a like experience in a magazine interview: a force like a giant’s hand seemed to descend and seize hold of him at puberty, and with magical potency waft him from a puny stripling into full-grown manhood in a matter of months. And into full-blown genius, too, one may add: whereas in my case, the “force” only turned me into a string bean with Adam’s apple to match, while denting my psyche indelibly in the process, or so it seemed.

Ah, SO... as a Japanese might say, politely but non-committally… ah, so… But if you are of a more inquisitive nature, you might wonder what to make of this particular trick of Mnemosyne’s. Well, one answer could be that memory pains are universal, that most or a good many of us get them now and then without recognizing them as such, or paying much attention either, since as I believe they disappear soon enough without lasting

“A Trick Of Memory”

65

EVERYONE DESERVES A GOLDEN AGE THE HERO INITIATIVE CREATES A FINANCIAL SAFETY NET FOR COMIC CREATORS WHO MAY NEED EMERGENCY MEDICAL AID, FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR ESSENTIALS OF LIFE, AND AN AVENUE BACK INTO PAYING WORK. SINCE INCEPTION, THE HERO INITIATIVE HAS BEEN FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO BENEFIT OVER 50 CREATORS AND THEIR FAMILIES WITH OVER $500,000 WORTH OF MUCH-NEEDED AID, FUELED

BY YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS! IT’S A CHANCE FOR ALL OF US TO GIVE BACK SOMETHING TO THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE GIVEN US SO MUCH ENJOYMENT.

East Is East One of several paintings John Broome created in his later years, while living and teaching in Japan. Photo by Ricky Terry Brisacque, from the framed original. [© Estate of John Broome.]

effect. However, there’s another possibility. Christopher Isherwood once described a woman acquaintance as a psychosomatic genius able to summon up at will crippling imaginary symptoms from her unconscious. Along that line, may it not be that this old self-indulgent late-life scribbler is also a medical anomaly, but that with him the specialty is memory pains?

Take it easy, will you, friend? Stop fidgeting and in a moment or two, you’ll be able to go in and join the festivities, okay?

Hear ye! Perhaps with luck, the recorder of these notes may have something to look forward to in the years of his final decline.

If he stays reasonably in control, one morning—it’s always morning after sleep or dreaming—he will, as he opens his rheumy old eyes, be conscious of the damnedest feeling of his life. It will be an experience totally unlike any other he has ever had. It will be, if memory serves, the sensation of being born, of coming on that, for him, momentous occasion out of the strange darkness into the unbelievable light.

Ah, fellow voyagers, if you think about it, is the notion really so fanciful, that one might relive one’s birth pangs? After all, time seems to have no effect on the intensity of these experiences. The growing pains (if you accept that’s what they were) coming back across fifty years were just as sharp as the earache coming back after fifteen. And who can say that as the Naught begins again to invade the premises, the groundwork won’t be especially suitable, even optimum, for a one-shot re-enactment of the birth trauma?

Yes, who can say, but even I have to admit it sounds too neat. Life’s beginning and its end in a flash of confrontation:

[Art by Allen Bellman] Captain America TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

the commencement of all and the destroyer of it all poised in momentary cosmic balance… somehow reminiscent of Browning’s wide-embracing night vision of “…cold, sunset, moonrise, starshine too….”

Aye, maties, too neat. Yet here is one who can’t help hoping that finally at the very end, Mnemosyne will relent, quit her mischievous ways, and send him—well, I guess the expression would have to be, something worth dying for.

John Broome’s memoir will be continued in our next issue.

A Wolfe In Sheep’s Clothing Broome’s mental/medical detective work had also served him in good stead while writing the Nero Wolfe comic strip, starring Rex Stout’s famous armchair sleuth. This 1957 daily, illustrated by Mike Roy, is courtesy of collector and expert Art Lortie. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

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67

Twice-Told Tales A remarkably detailed Dan Adkins splash for “The Day After Doomsday” from Eerie #8 (March 1967). [© Comic Company, LLC.]

Dan swiped his main figure from a pulp illo drawn by his friend, John Schoenherr. Reprinted in MCR #4 (19170). [© the respective copyright holders.]

68

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

“Dan Adkins And The Incredible Tracing Machine!” Revisited (Part 2)

by Michael T. Gilbert

L

ast issue we discussed a 1969 fanzine article by Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. At the time, Jim was dismayed to discover that one of his favorite cartoonists, Dan Adkins, regularly copied other artists. His article, titled “Dan Adkins and the Incredible Tracing Machine,” appeared in a long-forgotten fanzine, MCR #3 (aka Modern Collector’s Review). Its following issue included some spirited defenses of Dan’s use of swipes by Bernie Wrightson, Jeff Jones, Michael W. Kaluta, Richard Corben, and others, which we reprinted last issue. This time around, we have still more commentary from MCR #4, beginning with Marty Greim, one of the most respected fanzine publishers in the ’60s and ’70s.

Martin Greim (2/24/70): To Jim Vadeboncoeur: Yes, Jim, I called you all the things you mention in your article. I did say you had the poor taste of a 9-yearold. At the time I said this (after reading your first article) I believed I was dealing with a 9-year-old. However, since then I have found you are an adult; and that, sir, makes the Dan Adkins article even worse!

I could see, perhaps, a 9-year-old writing a tasteless article like “Dan Adkins and the Incredible Tracing Machine,“ but for a grown man to—boy!

You call me childish for name-calling. Perhaps in this you are right; but even more childish was your attempt at name-calling Dan Adkins.

Clip Joint!

A somewhat tongue-in-cheek quote by Dan Adkins’ mentor, the late great Wally Wood (above). Courtesy of the Wishberry site.

I’m not about to debate with you on swiping; you seem to be the type of person who would ban West Side Story because it was based on Romeo and Juliet. Plus the fact, I believe enough damage was done by your article without me turning the pages of MCR into a battleground. To do this would only be lending me to your cause.

So you may keep your logic and your opinions of me—you may go protesting swiping in the street—I don’t care. I’ve said all I’m going to on the matter. However, while you’re doing this, I’m going to enjoy Dan Adkins’ art—swiped or not; and I’m going to do a little creative swiping myself. So, lots of luck!

MTG: If Marty’s comments to Jim V. seem a bit harsh, one should understand two things. First, Marty and Dan were good friends; Adkins, in fact, frequently contributed to Greim’s Comic Crusader fanzine. Secondly, Marty’s own fan drawings were mostly swipes, too, so this article may have hit a little too close to home.

Next we have recent comments on the debate by my good friend, cartoonist Ronn Sutton. I consider Ronn to be something of an honorary member of The Studio (which consisted of Barry

Dan Does Dan! Adkins’ self-portrait from the splash page of a story he drew in Chamber of Darkness #8 (Dec. 1970). [© Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Dapper Dan Adkins In 1970

A Comic Crusader!

Snapped at the Detroit Triple Fan Fair.

[Photo © 2018 Ronn Sutton.]

A picture from just a few years back of Marty Greim, who passed away in 2017. He loved Dan’s comics. [NOTE: Marty’s belated obituary/tribute appears on p. 77.]

“Dan Adkins And The Incredible Tracing Machine!” Revisited

69

Windsor-Smith, Jeff Jones, Mike Kaluta, and Bernie—aka Berni— Wrightson). Ronn was friends with all, and was briefly Wrightson’s roommate in the ’70s. The two remained good friends until Bernie’s death on March 18, 2017 (just weeks before Marty Greim’s own passing). Take it away, Ronn…

Ronn Sutton (4/23/17): I find it interesting that swipe-a-rama guy Marty Greim not only ardently defends Adkins, but also stoops to name-calling.

Meanwhile, with a lot more grace come Kaluta, Jones and Berni to Adkins’ defense. One has to wonder why. At first I thought, “Ah, they’re friends with Dan.” But not so, according to Wrightson’s letter. It does sound like Jeff and Berni discussed the whole matter, then sat down to write their letters. And frankly, I disagree with them when they say if Adkins wants to swipe it’s “his business.” Well, it would be if Dan swiped art in his home and that was the end of it.

But as soon as Dan sent the swiped art out to the publisher and the work becomes available to the public, then everyone is entitled to an opinion. And if you steal other people’s drawings and attempt to pass them off as your own, you’re just asking for trouble. Look at all the guys in recent years that have been caught by the online press for swiping artwork and making prints & selling them at conventions, only to be caught and banned from conventions (but first mocked and pilloried across the Internet).

I’ve always said that Adkins’ big mistake was that he learned the basic swipe process by working with master-swiper Wally Wood, but didn’t understand that you have to adapt the swipe to fit your needs, not simply steal a drawing line-for-line and sign your name to it.

And so he got called out for it. And rightly so. Same thing happened to Keith Giffen when he discovered Muñoz and simply passed off Muñoz’s work as his own. Like Adkins, public shaming caused him to drop off the face of the comics world for a long time.

“Shazam”?

Martin Greim swipes Gil Kane’s Captain Marvel for Marty’s fanzine, Comic Crusader #8 (1970). Inks by Dan, who had also inked Gil’s pencils on the actual series a few months earlier. [Captain Marvel TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

MTG: Next, let’s hear Jim V.’s response to the comments on his first article. We’re excerpting parts of his lengthy letter from MCR #4. Jim’s letter also affords us a glimpse into the early years of one of comics’ most astute experts on comic art.

Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr (2/18/70): Dear Mr. Adkins…

Last issue I composed a list of “swipes” that I observed in stories illustrated by Dan Adkins. I then wrote a short article describing my personal reaction to this discovery. It was not an attempt at sensationalism, nor was it challenging Mr. Adkins’ talent as an artist. From the response that it provoked, it became obvious to me that it is necessary to clarify my feeling on the subject of ‘steals’ and Mr. Adkins. But first, I would like to explain a little bit about myself.

Twice-Told Covers!

Dan wasn’t the only swipe artist at Warren. Vic Prezio’s cover for Creepy #18 (Jan. 1968) was clearly taken from Frank R. Paul’s pulp cover for Amazing Stories (June 1926). Did publisher James Warren know? [© 1926 the respective copyright holders & New Comic Company, LLC, respectively.]

My name, as you probably know, is Jim Vadeboncoeur (how nice to be infamous). I am 23 years old but a relatively new member of fandom. I started buying comics in 1966 while majoring in art at

70

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Dan Swipes Dan! (Left:) Wally Wood and Adkins teamed up to draw this stunning cover to Tower’s T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #7 (Aug. 1966)—hard to say which of them penciled and which inked. [© John Carbonaro.]

(Center:) Then Dan borrowed the image for a panel in an unpublished late-’60s “Sub-Mariner” inventory story. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Right:) But it turns out that old master Reed Crandall did it first in Quality’s Military Comics #16 (Feb 1943). Good Lord! When will it all end?!?

[Blackhawk TM & © DC Comics.]

Foothill Junior College. I had always read comics but had never been interested enough to purchase one until I saw Spider-Man #33. I was so impressed by Ditko’s dynamic drawings that I began to buy comics in earnest.

For over a year I was collecting in total ignorance of fandom.

When I suddenly discovered other collectors, it was like the opening of a new vista. I discovered a realm of art which I had never even dreamed of. Artists like Williamson and Frazetta, Hogarth, Raymond, Foster, Wally Wood, and Reed Crandall had been unknown to me.

I had never seen such a wealth of beauty as was suddenly arrayed before me in the collections of my newfound friends. Since art had always been my primary interest, I began to search out the work of these artists. I was introduced to Creepy and Eerie, Frazetta paperbacks, Tower publications, and all of the old comics that contained their art. Each new discovery was like taking another step into a brand new world, a world populated only with beautiful things, dynamic people and exotic landscapes. A world that I realized I could never be a part of.

I did not write that article as an “exposé” of Dan Adkins. I believe that most fans were well aware of the swipes occurring in his work long before I even conceived the notion of writing the article.

Since it was common knowledge, how could I expose it?? Nor was I condemning him. If the tone of the article carried that impression, then was due to my lack of writing skill and knowledge of my readers.

I wrote that article half tongue-in-cheek and half in pity. Since I quite obviously failed to convert my message, I will attempt to clarify it. I hope that I succeed this time.

The title was a take-off on a typical Tom Swift book. The “Incredible Tracing Machine” was supposed to be the “Magic Art Reproducer” which was advertised constantly in the late fifties. I didn’t actually believe that Mr. Adkins used such a machine, but since

Each new story that I saw by these artists was not only a step into beauty, but also a private disappointment. It was a deep tragedy to discover that I lacked the talent to help create more worlds of excitement and beauty. I was not capable of even approaching the quality of art produced by these men. So I admitted the obvious and looked to other talents with I possessed. I changed my major to Business Management, worked my way through college, and am now happily employed at a Micro-Metallurgy firm as Quality Control Manager. During the time I continued to collect comics and expand my appreciation and interest in the Graphic Art form.

That brings me to the present and the article that appeared in the last issue of this magazine.

So far, in response to my article, I’ve been called “an ass,” “a little kid,” “a little strange,” and told to “Go to Hell!” by Martin L. Greim, accused of “muckraking and character assassination” by Berni Wrightson, and called “irrelevant” by Jeff Jones. I really don’t feel that is an accurate representation of myself.

Picture Perfect!

Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., sent us this recent photo. Still a fan fifty years later! [© 2018 Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr.]

“Dan Adkins And The Incredible Tracing Machine!” Revisited

I was writing an article for comic fans I thought that I would use comicrelated material.

It was pure naïveté on my part when I mentioned those artists who I thought did not swipe. From the number of letters informing me otherwise, it is unreasonable to continue to believe that none of them do. I do maintain that few could possibly do so in the volume that I have observed in Mr. Adkins’ work. This is not meant slanderously, nor is it an attempt to criticize the quality of his draftsmanship. It is a fact. I did not pursue the morality of “swiping” in my first article because I believe that morals are an individual thing. I have no more right to impose my personal beliefs on Mr. Adkins than Mr. Martin L. Greim has to inflict his on me.

Since my reasons for writing that article have been challenged, I am going to express my opinion. I do feel that “swiping” is unethical.

It’s plagiarism. An artist is not just selling a drawing to a magazine, he is selling his talent. The quality of art in a comic is a determining factor in the quality of sales, and, though not the major factor, it can make or break a comic. Stan Lee, for example, attempts to increase the sales of a poorly selling mag by putting a popular artist on it. It may fail in the end, but it shows that he is aware of the influence a good artist can have on sales.

Everyone in fandom and the editors of Marvel and National keep insisting that comics are an art form, a legitimate art form; yet when someone attempts to apply the standard of the rest of the Arts regarding plagiarism, the outcry is to the effect that comics are exempt because of their frequency of publication. Such an artist is required to produce such a plethora of panels, so he does not have to account to anyone regarding how he obtained his material as long as it is submitted on schedule. If that’s the case, then I maintain that such an artist is either a hack, or that he has not really prepared himself for his work.

I think Dan Adkins falls in the latter category. If you re-read my first article you will find no pious condemnation, nor even an attempt to force anyone to subscribe to my own ethical standards. It appears that my thoughts about the ethics of the situation are not widely held, but that does not prohibit me from believing in them. This is known as Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press.

As I said, I think that Dan Adkins has not completely prepared himself for the comics field. I feel that I possess a fairly discerning eye for good art and I think that Dan is a very talented artist. He does good layouts, is a capable storyteller and penciler, and has a fantastic inking style. I just want to know why he feels that it is necessary to “swipe.” The answer is that he can’t draw fast enough to fulfill his commitments.

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Dan Flipped For This Femme!

Dan Adkins took the Frazetta panel at left from the Shock SuspenStories #13 story “Squeeze Play“ (Feb. 1954). After flipping the femme upside down (see directly below), he copied it for his spidery If magazine #128 illo (Aug. 1968). [© William M. Gaines Agent, Inc., & the respective copyright holders of If magazine, respectively.]

Take for example “The Day after Doomsday,” which appeared in Eerie #8. [MTG: Reprinted on the first page of this edition of “Crypt.”]

It, to me, is some of the best work that Mr. Adkins has ever done. He must have spent weeks, or even months, to produce it. The fantastic detail, incredibly fine inks, and beautifully done figures attest to the time he spent on it. I can’t understand why he would want to include someone else’s work in such a magnificent masterpiece. I can almost picture the pride, effort, and sweat involved, and then the personal grief he went through when he decided that it was necessary to copy some of John Schoenherr’s scratchboard work to complete it. Dan wanted to create beauty and was succeeding up to the point where the economics of the situation prompted his borrowing it instead of creating it. Mike Kaluta said in his letter that I gave the impression that Dan was proud of his “swipes.” I was definitely not attempting to convey that at all. If I did, I’m sorry. I’m also sorry that Adkins does swipe. He knows the quality that he is capable of producing; yet he continues to accept more work than he can handle. I wish that he would be honest enough with himself to admit his limits and work within them. I wish him luck and hope that the day arrives when he doesn’t find the need to “swipe.”

MTG: Now that Jim V. is almost 50 years older and wiser, I asked him if he still stood by his comments from half a century earlier—as well as his thoughts on the response he got from Kaluta and others.

Here’s his response:

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. (4/21/17): My feelings were that all of the artists were incredibly cohesive in their arguments and none of them were justification for the extent of swiping that Adkins was doing/did. There’s a scale beyond which “art by” should be listed as “collages by” and Adkins surpassed it. I got laid up for six months around that time and had nothing to do to occupy my mind and time except play with comics. Once I connected a couple of Ditko swipes, it was a game that got out of hand.

The article made MCR, by the way. If you’ve ever seen MCR 1 & 2, you’d understand what I mean. Issue #3 was side-stapled. It was only the infamous article that generated enough interest for him to do a saddle-stitched #4 with Big Name Pro letters. I’d be really interested to know if Kaluta wrote his response before or after actually seeing the article—if he actually recalls the tempest in a teapot from nearly fifty years ago—do your math, dude!

MTG: Ulp! In the e-mail I sent to Jim I mistakenly stated that his article was almost forty years old.

Apparently, time flies even faster than I thought (plus, math has never been my strong suit!). Mea Culpa, Jim! Next issue: Dan replies to Jim Vadeboncoeur’s article—and how!

Be there!

Till next time…

Caught In The Act! Michael T. reverses and swipes a Wally Wood pic from Mad #3 (Jan. 1953, above) for his”Oooak!” splash page, from Dark Horse Presents Vol. 2, #1 (April 2011).

Hey, always steal from the best! [© EC Publications & Michael T. Gilbert, respectively.]

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Comic Fandom Archive – In Memoriam

Raymond Miller

(1931-2017) Prominent Researcher, Writer, & Fan Of The Golden Age Of Comics

by Bill Schelly

A

s 2017 was coming to a close, we lost the man who was perhaps early fandom’s most widely published authority on the Golden Age of Comics, having created scores of features and articles that appeared in RBCC and other popular fanzines throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Although he was a fan of EC and Silver Age comics, Miller was primarily interested in writing about comicbooks published from 1938 to 1946.

According to his niece, Peggy Willman, he died around 8:00 p.m. on Friday, December 15, 2017. He had been suffering from angina, but she said his death was due to “natural causes” and occurred about a month after he moved into a nursing home. He is survived by his sister Margaret Kinnian and other relatives.

Raymond Miller was born in 1931, which made him of prime comicbook-buying age during the 1940s. He grew up in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, a small town not far from Pittsburgh. He bought his first copy of Captain Marvel Adventures in early 1943 (#18, the one featuring the introduction of Mary Marvel), and soon was purchasing as many comicbooks as he could afford. “In those days, you didn’t need a comicbook store,” he recalled in an interview that appeared in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1167 in 1996.

“You could buy comics at newsstands, drug stores, grocery stores, five-and-dime

“The Boy With The Most Comic Books In America” Miller in 1966, about the time he drew the Supersnipe cover for RBCC #49, which came out at the end of that year. Once the fanzine went with photo offset printing, Miller’s artwork was a little too primitive for its covers, but he continued writing columns and articles for Love’s fanzines into the 1970s. [Supersnipe TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Raymond Miller in 2014; photo by Earl Shaw. (Left:) He began contributing features to G.B. Love’s Rocket’s Blast fanzine during its early mimeo and ditto days of the mid-1960s.

Like nearly all of his artwork, this cover of MLJ’s Shield and Dusty the Boy Detective was traced—in this case, from work by Irv Novick. [The Shield & Dusty TM & © Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

stores. I must have had access to at least 10 different places to buy comics in a town of 9000 people. Now that I think back on it, I often wonder where I got the money to buy what I did.” [NOTE: This interview, conducted by Jeff Gelb, will be published in its entirety in the next issue of Alter Ego.] In the post-war period, he bought every Fiction House title, along with Batman and Superman, Phantom Lady, Blue Beetle, and many others. He collected all the Fawcett Westerns and, in the early 1950s, all the EC comics. He kept his comicbooks in neat stacks on shelves, and never loaned them to friends. At his death he still had more than 30 books he originally bought between 1943 and 1945.

For many years, Miller knew of no one else who collected comicbooks, nor of any source for back issues. This changed in 1959 when he managed to link up with Dean Newman of Bard, California.

In September of 1960, Newman told Miller about a dealer in old comics named Bill Thailing who lived in Cleveland, Ohio. By the time Raymond caught up to the Ohioan, the dealer’s selling prices generally ran from 25 cents to $1.50 for a Golden Age comic. The prime comics before 1943 commanded a stiffer price, $1.75, $2, or higher. He was selling Batman #1 for $3.

Raymond bought as many of these rarities as he could afford, though he was never flush with funds.

Miller and Thailing constantly traded data about

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Comic Fandom Archive—In Memoriam

Make Mine Timely!

(Above:) Raymond Miller’s best known feature in fandom was the ongoing Information Center. This is the logo for the column used when the fanzine became slicker and better-produced.

(Right:) The Rocket’s Blast Special #1 (1967), with Miller’s seminal Timely Comics history, helped satisfy fans anxious to learn anything about the early Marvel heroes. It was one of Love’s best-selling specials, having at least three printings; this is the third. The cover was drawn by Buddy Saunders, one of the fandom-famed “Texas Trio.” [Human Torch, Captain America, & Sub-Mariner TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Golden Age comics. Raymond began compiling his own data with information he obtained not only from Bill Thailing, but from an emerging roster of correspondents who became known to him through Alter-Ego, The Comicollector, and The Rocket’s Blast, beginning in 1961 when the fanzines came long. These included veteran collectors M.C. Goodwin, Jerry Bails, Howard Keltner, Dick Hoffman, Kenny Heineman, Rick Durell, Hames Ware, Richard O’Brien, Don Rosa, and Don Foote, among many others. Miller discovered that he not only liked compiling comicbook data for himself and his correspondents, but enjoyed sharing that data with others in the form of articles written for the amateur publications.

Perhaps the first to feature Raymond’s work was G. B. Love’s The Rocket’s Blast, beginning a writer-publisher relationship that put the collector’s efforts before a readership that constituted just about every active fan in those days.

Miller contributed countless articles and pin-ups on the Golden Age heroes to RBCC as well as to Gordon Love’s other fanzines.

Miller’s artwork was essentially traced from the vintage comics themselves, but this was necessary because the earliest fanzines couldn’t reproduce images from the actual comics. He authored the first Rocket’s Blast Special on Timely Comics, issues of The Illustrated Comic Collector’s Handbook, and The Golden Age. But he didn’t restrict his fan efforts to those fanzines from G.B. Love. Miller tirelessly created features for many other fan publications, including The Comicollector (before it merged with The Rocket’s Blast), Bob Jennings’ Comic World, and countless others. Eventually, he settled down and concentrated on regular “Information Center” columns for RBCC, which the magazine continued running until Raymond gave them up in the mid-1970s. (He only stopped when he had to take full-time care of his ailing mother.)

He became one of the main disseminators of information on comicbooks published before 1950, a contribution of inestimable importance to fandom. One of his most significant pieces was the first long history of Will Eisner’s career which appeared in Sense of Wonder #11 (1972). He was a major source of data for Jerry Bails, Howard Keltner, and Michelle Nolan when they were planning various seminal indexes that saw print in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Over the ensuing years, Raymond Miller stopped buying new comicbooks, but still treasured and enjoyed his collection of Golden Age goodies. “I like to display my comics, for my pleasure, once a year,” he said. “I have a big piece of plywood that holds eighteen comicbooks and, right after New Year’s, I set up my board and display eighteen comics a day.”

My Visit With Raymond Miller [An excerpt from Bill Schelly’s memoir Sense of Wonder, My Life in Comic Fandom—The Whole Story.]

As 1966 progressed, when I was beginning my sophomore year at Mt. Lebanon High School in Pittsburgh, I noticed a subtle change in the advertisements in RBCC. A great number of old comics became available as a result of numerous newspaper articles about the high prices being commanded by comics from the 1940s. People who’d never thought much about the comics and pulp magazines in their attic had an incentive to dig them out and sell them. Where once such issues were hard to find for the average fan, now (thanks to RBCC) they were almost plentiful.

There were a number of comic book dealers, most notably Claude Held, Ken Mitchell, Bill Thailing, Phil Seuling, and the much-reviled Howard (“tape is not a defect”) Rogofsky. I overcame my reluctance to send money through the mails once I realized most dealers were reputable. On those few occasions when I had a few extra dollars, I would buy a money order and send away for one or two reasonably priced comics. I owned one issue each of Sub-Mariner, Daredevil, and Whiz Comics from the late 1940s, but the most I ever spent was three dollars for a book. I could never afford to plunk down enough at one time to purchase any of the true rarities.

My buddy Marshall Lanz didn’t have any key Golden Age comics, either. There was no way for us to view the early classics of the field. Comic book conventions had begun in New York City in 1964, but we were not in a position to consider traveling to the Big Apple or Detroit fan gatherings where such rarities might be on display. Jerry Bails was selling photo sets of certain classic covers, but these were in black-and-white, as were his microfilm transfers of whole comics. Besides, we didn’t have the wherewithal to buy a

Raymond Miller (1931-2017)

75

colorful wonders in our hands, and gingerly opening a few (with his permission) to peer at the stories within.

Raymond also owned a few pieces of original art, either through trades or in recompense for letters published in DC comics edited Crypt Of The Collector by Julius Schwartz, (Left:) Raymond welcomed Marshall Lanz and Ye Author into his bedroom where he kept his collection, when we visited on Election who was rewarding Day of 1966. We got our first chance to hold Golden Age comicbooks in our hands. Fortunately or un-, Lanz and Schelly were not the best letter-writers captured on film that day. with artwork. We (Right:) Photos of Miller’s collection, taken far more recently by Earl Shaw, show it looking much the same as when Schelly and marveled at the Lanz visited him 50-plus years ago. craftsmanship in pages drawn by Mike microfilm viewer. Fanzines often resorted to tracings of old covers.

Sekowsky, an artist neither of us particularly liked until we saw those beautiful originals from Justice League of America. One of those The only book collection in print was Jules Feiffer’s The Great Sekowsky pages found its way into my possession, the first such Comic Book Heroes, which had been published by Crown Publishers, original I owned.

Inc., the prior year. Somehow Feiffer was able to obtain permission to reprint classic stories of DC and Timely (Marvel) heroes from the early 1940s in full color, including Superman, Batman, Wonder We both lit up when he pulled out a large stack of Spirit Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Captain America, the Sections that had been part of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in the Human Torch and Sub-Mariner, as well as sample episodes of 1940s. By this time, both of us were fans of Will Eisner’s masked Plastic Man and The Spirit. This book had a tremendous effect on detective, having thoroughly enjoyed The Spirit #1, a 25-cent book me, not only because it gave me an opportunity to read a number published by Harvey Comics in July that reprinted a bunch of his of the best Golden Age stories, but because it validated my own best stories. It seemed like everyone in fandom was raving about continuing interest in comics. It was as if the book said to adults, Eisner’s amazing storytelling ability, which was originally shown “It’s okay to like comics.” Considering that I courted ridicule every off to such great advantage in the special comic book inserts that time I stepped up to the drug store counter to buy the latest issues, were included in Sunday newspapers in many major cities. Every I loved the fact that a respected writer like Feiffer was saying that week Eisner wrote and drew a complete seven-page Spirit story, comics weren’t only for kids. (With its $12 price tag, this hardback usually set in the wonderfully noir-ish environs of the fictional book was not being marketed to children.)

Central City. Each one was a gem, often taking the form of a little morality tale. These Spirit Sections were highly collectible, since Then Lanz and I discovered that Raymond Miller, fandom almost all of this great body of innovative work was unavailable authority on the Golden Age and well-known for his collection in any other form. Luckily for us, Raymond Miller owned doubles of comics from that era, lived not far from us. The man who had of some of these sections and was willing to part with them for written so many articles and done so many character drawings on 1940s comics for RBCC lived in nearby Vandergrift, Pennsylvania. We wrote to him asking if we could visit. When he agreed, it wasn’t long before we recruited Mrs. Lanz as our chauffeur. We showed up at Miller’s door on Election Day of 1966.

Raymond lived in a small, older bungalow with his parents. He was in his mid-to-late thirties, slight of frame, and wore wire-rim glasses. He welcomed us and ushered us to his bedroom, where he kept his impressive comic book collection.

Miller owned 700 comics published before 1946, not only from DC and Timely, but from Fox, Centaur, Fawcett, MLJ and other smaller publishers.

I’ll always recall his shy, soft-spoken manner as he showed us many of his treasures. We felt truly awed by the beauty of those four-color rarities, which we were finally getting to see with our own eyes. This was a true “sense of wonder” experience. Many of the books came with a story, either a narrative of how they had found their way into Miller’s hands, or an explanation for a book’s particular significance to collectors. It was a magical experience, holding those

Raymond Was One Of The FCA—Long Before There Was An FCA! Xmas Comics #2 (1942) was a hefty 324 pages of Fawcett magic and was published a couple of months after America’s Greatest Comics #5, which carried a Dec. 16, 1942, cover date. As you can see, some of Raymond’s comic books were in much-used condition.

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Comic Fandom Archive—In Memoriam

The Spirit Of Fandom Bill and Marshall had only seen Harvey’s The Spirit #1 reprint issue when they visited Miller. The second issue didn’t arrive for another month or so, but #1 was enough of an introduction to prime us for paging through Miller’s stack of original Spirit Sections from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Bill ended up buying or trading for the Sept. 18, 1949, Spirit insert, a parody of romance comics. [The Spirit © Estate of Will Eisner.]

reasonable prices. Both Lanz and I walked out of there with some choice Eisner work.

Age comics he showed us.

Miller was obviously an introvert, yet he was gracious and made us feel welcome. For his part, Lanz was polite. He could be, when the occasion warranted it. I think he respected Raymond’s lack of pretension. We were both totally blown away by the Golden

Next issue, Jeff Gelb—one of Raymond’s closest friends in the later years of his life—presents a tribute to him, which will include the complete interview that Jeff did with Raymond, which was published in Comics Buyer’s Guide in the 1990s.

award-winning writer bill schelly relates how

comics and fandom saved his life in this engrossing memoir that begins in the burgeoning comic fandom movement of the 1960s and follows the twists and turns of his life as a fan and writer to the present day.

Along the way, you'll experience his close encounters with such legendary comic book creators as

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ÒIntimate and heart-warming!Ó ÑPAUL LEVITZ, Executive Producer, The Dark Knight Rises

AVAILABLE WHEREVER BOOKS ARE SOLD APRIL 17 2018 978-1-62317-151-3 - 392 PAGES - 6 X 9 - $ 19.95

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in memoriam

Martin Greim (1942 - 2017)

He “Lost None Of His Enthusiasm For The World Of The Imagination”

by Bob Cosgrove

O

n a hot summer day, about 15 years ago, I found myself sitting in the microfilm room of the Boston Public Library, helping Martin Lawrence Greim (pronounced “Grime”) search for a newspaper photo he remembered from decades earlier. And suddenly, there it was: nine-year old Marty, resplendent in his space cadet uniform, standing by the control panel of the space ship Polaris next to Tom Corbett, the Space Cadet of radio and TV himself, making a promotional appearance at Filene’s Department Store.

The only child of doting parents, Marty enjoyed not only television fantasy and science-fiction, but comics as well. He collected them and, for a time, war memorabilia; he also liked to draw, a talent he honed by copying work from his favorite comic artists. In his early teenage years, he developed diabetes, which he carefully managed, though it was to plague him throughout his life. At Roslindale High School a gym teacher, noting Marty’s six-foot-plus gangling frame and large hands, coerced him into going out for basketball, a decision that proved unhappy for both of them. “Every time I got the ball,” Marty later remembered, “these little men in striped shirts would run up to me and start blowing whistles.”

I met Marty in the summer of 1967. Instant friends, we co-edited Champion, a fanzine I published. Marty soon created his own zine, Comic Crusader, a title he persisted with despite my gibe that it “sounded like a union magazine for comedians.” CC

Marty Greim in a photo one of his children titled “Dad with All His Toys”—and (below) the beautifully done covers (some with art by Greim) of his highly regarded fanzine Comic Crusader. Thanks to Bob Cosgrove. [Comic Crusader covers TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

typically ran articles and interviews focusing largely on Golden Age comics and professionals, usually by Marty, myself, or Tom Fagan; professional and high-quality fan artwork, much of it Marty’s; and a comic strip or two.

In 1971, Marty and his wife, the former Eleanor Cranton, had their first child, Jolene. A second daughter, Alana, followed four years later.

Among other things, Marty found time to co-chair the first three Boston comicons (“Newcons”), design a float and appear in costume for the Rutland Halloween parade, write a column for The Comic Buyer’s Guide, and produce a series of buttons featuring famous comic characters, as well as Comic Crusader Storybook, a one-shot collection of well-known amateur strips, among them “The Eclipse,” “The Eye,” “Dr. Weird,” Marty’s own “Defender,” Ditko’s “Mr. A,” “Space Guardian,” and “The White Raven” by Al Bradford.

Diabetes attacked Marty’s eyesight, ending any chance of drawing comics professionally. He took pride, however, in the “Donald Duck” story he wrote and drew, “Big Feet,” eventually published by Gladstone in Donald Duck #249. As a professional writer, he spun tales for The Fly, The Shield, and The Comic— er, MIGHTY Crusaders. Most notable was his own whimsical creation, “Thunder Bunny.” Think Billy Batson, yclept “Bobby Caswell,” transforming into a humanoid, super-powered rabbit who apparently wore a spare Dynamo costume plus a cape. The character bounced from Charlton, to Archie Comics, to Apple, with Brian Buniak providing delightful artwork.

Unsurprisingly, Marty amassed a fabulous collection of original comic art. At one point, the classic Carl Barks Uncle Scrooge portrait “McDuck of Duckburg” hung on his walls, as did Marty’s “grail,” the iconic Alex Raymond Sunday page [Continued on p. 79]

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in memoriam

The Ten Best Things I Learned About DAVE HUNT

by Lee Benaka

I

met Dave Hunt (1942-2017) for the first time in person in April 2014, at the Asbury Park Comic Con in New Jersey.

Dave inked some of my favorite childhood comics, including Amazing Spider-Man #140 and a Marvel Team-Up run with John Byrne. Many years prior, I had made a half-hearted attempt to contact Dave, but I wasn’t able to communicate directly with him until I “found” him on Facebook.

I went to the Asbury Park con with the singular goal of meeting Dave and perhaps buying a piece of original art from him.

I met up with him before the show opened to the public and sat with him for three hours as he told me story after story about his career in comics. On my drive home from the show, I convinced myself that Dave’s stories needed to be memorialized in a book and shared with his fans. I proposed the idea to Dave, and after some consideration, he agreed to the idea. This idea eventually became the book Dave Hunt: An Artist’s Life, published in March 2018 by ComicArtAds Press.

I visited Dave’s house several times over the next few years for long interview and art-scanning sessions. He began his fight with cancer toward the end of my book-writing process. I knew that he decided to stop his treatments because they were so unpleasant, but I still hoped to visit him one more time to scan some additional pieces of art. We made plans for a visit after a work trip of mine, but Dave passed away on March 5, 2017, surrounded by family and loved ones, before I left for my trip.

I can’t visit Dave anymore, but I can share the 10 best things that I learned about Dave during the few years of our friendship:

1.

Dave was a huge comicbook fan as a child in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He especially loved Carl Barks’ Disney work, as well as Batman and Superman comics. His mother never threw away his comics, so his collection survived decades of reading and re-reading (except for the box his cats got into).

2.

Dave came to comics relatively late in his career. He studied science and then art for several years at a series of colleges before graduating. After a grueling three-year stint as a senior designer at Macmillan in New York City, Dave “laid himself off” and spent the summer focusing on his painting and collecting aluminum cans to supplement the income of his wife, who worked as a nurse.

3.

Dave saved the 1972 help-wanted ad placed by Marvel that he responded to. The ad called for “Exper. cartoonist for drawing adventure comics & covers. Knowledge of lettering needed.”

4.

Dave worked full-time, every day, in the Marvel Bullpen, side-by-side with Mike Esposito and Frank Giacoia. The artists often would collaborate (in credited and uncredited ways) to meet deadlines on comics such as Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel Team-Up, and Captain America.

5.

Dave may have been responsible for Peter Parker accidentally causing Gwen Stacy’s death. (‘Nuff said; read the book!)

6.

Dave served as an uncredited background inker for his artist friend Joe Sinnott for several years in the mid-1970s. Dave’s uncredited inking work included 19 issues of Fantastic Four

Dave Hunt above left, with veteran Marvel inker Joe Sinnott at the latter’s home, sometime in the 1970s—and a Spidey panel from one of the Marvel TeamUp issues that Dave inked over John Byrne during that decade, with script

by Chris Claremont. Dave was considered by Marvel and its fans to be one of the very best of the Sinnott-influenced inkers. Photo courtesy of Lee Benara. [Panel TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

In Memoriam

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between #167 (Feb. 1976) and #191 (Feb. 1978).

7. Dave left Marvel for DC Comics at the end of 1978 because he needed more steady work to support his family. Dave later came to believe that, if he had stayed on at Marvel, he likely would have been offered the job of inking The Uncanny X-Men over John Byrne.

DC Does It! (Left:) Hunt inking over penciler Irv Novick for Superman #407 (May 1985).

Script by Gerry & Carla Conway. (Above:) Later photo of Dave Hunt courtesy of Mark Evanier’s blog newsfromme.com. [Page TM & © DC Comics.]

8. A few years into his DC Comics work, Dave and his frequent “Superman” collaborator Curt Swan were summoned to a meeting with Joe Kubert. Joe had been asked by DC management to advise Curt and Dave on how to “jazz up” their Superman art. Dave recalled that meeting as painfully awkward.

9. Dave spent the last 15 or so years of his career working on comicbooks for kids, including Roger Rabbit and Scooby Doo. He enjoyed this work because of his friendly relationships with the editors, including David Seidman and Heidi MacDonald, and because he felt a nostalgia for the types of comics he enjoyed as a child.

10. Dave was a pro wrestling fan—no wonder we hit it off so well!

Lee Benaka is co-author of Dave Hunt: An Artist’s Life, published by ComicArtAds Press (www.comicartads.com)

[Griem continued from p. 77] featuring a sword duel between Flash Gordon and Ming.

In the late 1980s, Marty fell on hard times, losing his job and, some years later, suffering a stroke. He moved to Arizona and spent his last few months in a nursing home, dying a few weeks before his April 26 birthday. I had asked Jolene what she thought Marty would like for his birthday, and she replied that he was interested in a Rocky Jones, Space Ranger video. In the end, the kid who wore the space cadet uniform six decades earlier had lost none of his enthusiasm for the world of the imagination.

Bob Cosgrove has considered himself a member of fandom ever since a copy of Alter Ego #8 (original edition) arrived in the mail. Somewhere along the way to becoming a professional writer or artist, he took a wrong turn and wound up as a Superior Court judge.

Roll, Thunder Bunny, Roll!

Splash from a “Thunder Bunny” story written by Marty Greim, penciled by Brian Buniak, inked by Frank Giacoia, and published by Archie Comics.

Thanks to Bob Cosgrove. [Thunder Bunny TM & © Estate of Martin Greim; page © Archie Comics Publications, Inc., or successors in interest.]

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were reprinted!

Don Glut Thanks, Don. For a multi-page piece, those are pretty minor typos… though naturally we wish there’d been none at all! Considering that, in your interview with Richard Arndt, you expressed your disappointment that your Gold Key work was never as widely distributed as the comics of Marvel and DC, you’d be gratified to learn that a number of readers waxed very enthusiastic about both the interview and your work. Witness Micah S. Harris: Dear Mr. Thomas, I was glad to see Don Glut get the star treatment in Alter Ego #143. His was one of the first names I recognized being everywhere as a young comics/science-fiction/fantasy fan in the early ’70s.

Eight years back this month, my brother and I were privileged to visit Don in Burbank and dine at the pizza place in the building where, according to Don, some of the effects were done for 2001: A Space Odyssey. I had contacted him via e-mail before our visit about my research on Schlitz the Pinhead from the movie Freaks. (Don recalled seeing Schlitz, identified by somebody on the street, on Hollywood Boulevard back in the ’60s, early ’70s.)

Micah S. Harris

M

And I remember how impressed I was years ago, Micah, when I first learned Don was buddies with actor Glenn Strange—not because of the latter’s recurring role as the bartender on TV’s mega-hit Gunsmoke, but because he had played the Frankenstein Monster in one of my favorite movies, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (as well as two other times)! By the way, proofreader Rob Smentek tells us that Don’s documentary I Was a Teenage Moviemaker is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime.

arvel, from the ’40s through the ’70s, is this issue’s theme— from Allen Bellman’s days in the Timely Bullpen through the three then-called “girls’ titles” begotten (and, alas, buried) in 1972-73. Shane Foley, our Australian artwork ace, used one of Allen’s recent convention drawings—Mr. B’s done a million of ’em, it seems—as the basis for the above “maskot” illo. When I first saw it, I (Roy—who’d you think?) was struck by the similarity of that Captain Ego pose to that of the C.C. Beck/Captain Marvel artwork, model plane and all, that formed the face of the CM wristwatch I purchased via mail in the late 1940s, a different specimen of which I own even today. (It doesn’t work, but hey, if I wanna know the time, I can glance at one of the wondrous wristwatches Dann’s had made for me, each sporting the Alter Ego mask logo, in color.)

Thanks for your usual top-notch job, Shane; but, as one whose 2001 trip Down Under was way too short, I keep wondering every issue how you can resist the urge to draw a kangaroo into your “maskot” art spots! Oh, and a winsome “welcome back” to Randy Sargent, who with this issue returns to coloring Shane’s deathless “maskot” drawings! [Captain Ego TM & © Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly – created by Biljo White; other art © Shane Foley.]

Now for our monumental missives on A/E #143, whose cover feature was my old friend and colleague Don Glut, co-creator of Dr. Spektor, Dagar the Invincible, and Tragg and the Sky Gods, among other things. In fact, our very first letter is from nobody else: Hi Roy— The interview came out great. Just spotted three mistakes. My mother and grandmother made the refreshments for my basement movie shows; I don’t have a brother. It’s Captain America Battles The Red Skull, not “Vs.” And should be “Tyrannosaurus rex,” the specific name being always lower case. And I learned from the issue that a couple of my Red Circle stories

Maybe Don’s vintage comics didn’t always get the proper respect here in the U.S. of A., but here’s another view, courtesy of “re:”-page regular Jeff Taylor: Hi Roy, I’ve been a Don Glut fan ever since the ’70s (hey, any guy who is that big into Frankenstein and dinosaurs is okay with me!). For

Tragg Race!

One of several scans of Glut-scripted tales we had on hand for A/E #143 but didn’t have the space to use was this Dan Spiegledrawn splash from Gold Key’s Tragg and the Sky Gods #6 (Sept.

1976). Thanks to Don Glut. [TM & © Random House, under license to Classic Media, Inc.]

re:

81

some reason known only to the dark gods of magazine distribution, my small Canadian town got just about all the Gold Key comics he ever did, and I was a particularly big fan of Dr. Spektor, with Tragg and the Sky Gods coming in a close second. We also managed to get all of the ’70s Atlas comics, too, which I understand were very hard to find down in the United States. One of the few advantages of growing up in the middle of nowhere, I guess!

Jeff Taylor The vagaries of comicbook distribution go way back, Jeff. I remember well that, the last year or so of Fawcett’s original comics line (circa 1952-53), I couldn’t find Captain Marvel, et al., at either of the two drugstores in my hometown where I bought most of my comics—but virtually across the street from one of them was Cox’s Five-and-Dime, which carried the Fawcetts—and just about no other comics! You had to keep on your toes to be a comics fan in the Good Old Days.

Next, a note from Pierre Comtois, who’s written a couple of books for TwoMorrows Publishing….

Roy, Alter Ego #143 is another triumph. I have to admit up front that I never gave Don Glut much thought as a comics writer before, but after reading his lengthy interview, I just might check out his Gold Key/Western output the next time I come across the stuff in the dollar bins. That said, there were a couple of intriguing points that could have been raised or expanded upon just a bit, including Don’s career as a rock’n’roll artist with the Penny Arcade and his comments about being uncomfortable writing Solomon Kane due to the character’s Puritanical motivations. Adding to my curiosity was Richard Arndt’s comment that he’d heard of other writers who expressed the same reservations. That got my antennae up! Which writers? What was meant by “unpleasant personality”? Inquiring minds want to know more!

The article on ACBA was also interesting. As a teenaged fan at the time, whenever I saw the news about the organization printed in a Marvel comic, I imagined a super-serious, well-oiled group à la the Academy Awards. Not so, it seems. So, yeah, a little more coverage about the group would be in order. One thing’s for sure, though: it sure had a lot of great stuff to choose from in those years to give awards to! Those samples on page 49 alone make the current comics scene look pathetic by comparison. (Is it okay to say that here?)

Finally, when P.C. (love those initials!) asks Bill Schelly about any other writers crying out for full-length bios, I thought for sure they’d mention your name, but no! I was kinda shocked. But as long as the subject was raised, let me be the first to demand that Bill consider you his next subject!

Pierre Comtois Truth to tell, Pierre, no fewer than two writers I very much respect have suggested doing an authorized bio of me in recent years; but, while flattered, I begged off both times. The reason: I’ve long had in mind an offbeat and heavily illustrated sort of autobiography, so I preferred not to get involved with an official bio by someone else. I’ve got one more book project I want to get out of the way first—turning my Master’s thesis on comics of the Cold War into a volume for TwoMorrows—then I hope to tell my own story in my own way. Probably not as skillfully as someone else might’ve told it, but at least I’ll have no one to blame but myself.

And we’ll print more about the 1970s Academy of Comic Book Arts anytime we can dredge up additional hard info. But it’s difficult to come by, ’cause it doesn’t seem any of those pro comicbook writers, editors, and artists kept any paper records!

Apparently, longtime reader Bernie Bubnis was taken aback by the pronunciation of Don’s last name…

In The Tall Kane Pierre Comtois asks which writers besides Don Glut were “uncomfortable writing Solomon Kane,” Robert E. Howard’s Puritan adventurer. Well, since Roy Thomas is the only other person who scripted Marvel’s version of Kane during the 1970s period under discussion, it was probably him… though he wouldn’t have phrased it quite that way. He just found REH’s motivation given for Kane—a pure lust for adventure, clouded over by Puritan morals—both less fun and less “real” than the mercenary and lustful instincts of Conan the Cimmerian. Here’s the splash for the story Don came up with for the sequel to the Solomon-Kane-Meets-Dracula story Roy T. had written a bit earlier. Art by David Wenzel & Marilitz. [TM & © Solomon Kane Properties, LLD.]

Hi Roy, WHOOOA, my editor friend, you are now telling me I have been mispronouncing Don Glut’s (as in “slut’s”) name for more than half a century??? I think you are wrong and I think Don is wrong. Have him check with his family.

Comicbooks, science-fiction, horror movies, and Famous Monsters of Filmland… the only things on the mind of a young boy in the late ’50s and early ’60s (girls, for some of us, were later added to that list). And Don Glut was a super-star to many of us kids reading FM. I always assumed he was Forry Ackerman’s best friend. And he was making his own movies! I have never forgotten how impressed I was by him, and how much I thought my life sucked compared to his. Never knew he had such a strong career writing comics. Great interview. Will definitely order a copy of his DVD and relive my childhood hero worship of his early filmmaking.

The ACBA article was very interesting. I almost forgot it ever existed. Reprinting the newsletter is fantastic. Everyone is dressed

82

[correspondence, comments, & corrections]

like they’re in a Beatles cartoon. Some really great photos.

Mr. Monster does it again. The Museum of Modern Art letter is priceless. Gilbert is a madman.

Keep him.

The TISOS piece was well-written and touched on some great memories. Enjoyed seeing Dave Kaler in Rutland before he joined the Village People.

Bernie Bubnis Thanks for giving us all a thumbnail appreciation of so many of #143’s features, Bernie. Sometimes I feel guilty when an issue’s cover spotlight receives all the attention and the work of stalwarts like Michael T. Gilbert, P.C. Hamerlinck, and Bill Schelly seems taken for granted. It really isn’t, I suspect—but I’m always happy when it doesn’t look like it is!

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I was really impressed by the interior cover for FCA #202 that Mark Lewis put together for that same issue of A/E. Seemingly hundreds of Fawcett comicbook covers, behind C.C. Beck’s caricature of Otto Binder. So I asked him how he did it, and I’m happy to say he responded at length:

Strange As It Seems…

Mark Lewis in 2014—and the faux cover he drew for a Code-era issue of Standard/Better/ Pine/Nedor’s Thrilling Comics featuring the hero Doc Strange. It has just the right feel, doesn’t it? Since that company left the comics field in 1956, such a cover could actually have existed, Code seal and all. And see pp. 89 ff. in this issue’s FCA section for some startling, exciting, even thrilling news about the potential status of that company’s superheroes! Thanks to Mark for both scans. [Doc Strange TM & © Standard/Pine or its successors in interest; other art © Mark Lewis.]

Hi Roy, The short answer is: painstakingly, one at a time.

Longer answer: I felt like, with the images Paul and I were considering as a main image, we were going to need something in the background, too, or it was going to feel too sparse. So it occurred to me that a good way to go might be to show covers for all of Otto Binder’s Fawcett work. I elected to leave out any of the licensed work (movie adaptations or Westerns) or horror comics.

I used comic.org to come up with a list, and gleaned the majority of my covers from there. With a few of the Captain Marvel Adventures covers, I used scans of my own personal copies. There were some other scans where Paul managed to turn up better versions than I did. I made sure all these files were the same width in pixel dimensions.

Then, because they were scanned by different people on different scanners, I had to go in an optimize all the covers so as to get as consistent values as possible (black to white) throughout them all. It was during this process that I was kind of beginning to kick myself for taking on such a major project.

Next, I had to figure out how to fit them all onto the [FCA] cover. Doing that required math (something I’ve never been all that good at) and laying out a sort of experimental grid/checkerboard.

I ultimately wound up with 22 rows of 24 comics each. Then began the painstaking process of bringing in each of those covers, one at a time, and assembling them like a jigsaw puzzle. Again, roughly about halfway in, I was asking myself, “Why do I always seem to make more work for myself than I should?”

When it was finally done, I was pleased with the result. It definitely brought home the fact that Binder was an amazingly prolific writer! It’s even more incredible when you take into account the fact that, in many of those comics, he wrote more than one story!

In some, I think, he wrote the whole issue!

That might be more than you wanted to know, Roy, but that’s how it was done. I’m glad you like it.

Mark Lewis

Whew! Good thing we don’t pay by the hour for the work you put in on it, Mark! But then, you were just doing it to help out FCA editor P.C. Hamerlinck, as you’ve done with the past few dozen “interior covers.” And Dann often reminds me that if I got paid even minimum wage for the work I put in on A/E, we could have new pens built to keep the rain off our cattle, goats, and pigs in the winter. Working on fanzines has always been primarily a labor of love for all of us—as I was just reminded while reading a few chapters of Bill Schelly’s great new and enlarged edition of his own fandom-autobio, Sense of Wonder (see p. 76).

Send kudos and/or criticisms on this issue to: Roy Thomas e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com 32 Bluebird Trail St. Matthews, SC 29135 Still into online e-mail discussion lists? Try Alter-Ego-Fans!

Subscribers will learn about future issues of A/E and often get a once-(or-many-)in-a-lifetime chance to help Ye Editor acquire much-needed art and photos for said issues (thereby earning themselves a free copy).

Just visit http:/groups.yahoo.com/group/alter-ego-fans. Yahoo Groups has deleted its “Add Member” tool, so if you find that it won’t let you in, please contact our ever-genial moderator Chet Cox at mormonyoyoman@gmail.com and he’ll walk you through the process!

While, over on Facebook, dealer and con-expeditor John Cimino is still handling what he named The Roy Thomas Appreciation Boards to discuss anything and everything dealing with Your Humble Servant, including this mag, upcoming con appearances, comments on comics or super-hero movies or whatever. The site is fully interactive (whatever that means—John told me to say that!).

P.S.: See the following three pages for a special “re:” coverage of a very special night in Ye Editor’s recent life...

re:

83

COURAGEOUS! Roy T. here: “I couldn’t resist (not that I tried all that hard) including a special addendum to this ‘re:’ section—both for personal reasons, and because of the talent displayed on these next three pages, which I didn’t feel should be wasted on one evening in a restaurant’s private dining room. re:

“In Los Angeles, on Nov. 11, 2017, the Comic Art Professional Society—of which I was a charter member back when it was launched 40 years ago—held its annual banquet, this time in honor of a very humbled Yours Truly… which Dann and I were happy to fly out to attend. The guest speakers, presided over by toastmaster Bill Morrison, were comics writers Marv Wolfman and Pat McGreal and artists Scott Shaw!, Larry Houston, and Rick Hoberg—plus a special video greeting from Stan Lee. Oh, and Mark Conlon sang ‘Old Man Thomas,’ a hilarious parody of ‘Old Man River’ written by Pat McGreal.”

Caricature Traits Roy again, narrating all these captions: “The cover of the evening’s program book sports a caricature of me by Scott Shaw! He professed disdain for his caricaturing skills, but alas, I’m afraid he actually did a pretty good job. The program book (produced by Patrick Scullin and Jim MacQuarrie) featured articles by Scott, Steve Wyatt, and the aforementioned Jim MacQ., plus a number of illos—such as Scott’s, above, which combines characters from his 1978 What If? #8 story and from the Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! series that he, Dann, and I launched together in the early ’80s. The three of us posed that evening for a blurry selfie—or maybe we really were a bit blurry that night!” [Man-Spider & Watcher TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; Captain Carrot TM & © DC Comics.]

84

[correspondence, comments, & corrections]

Rick Hoberg, Roy T., & Larry Houston “Seen left to right. After helping out with Star Wars #6 (and some earlier covers), Rick penciled a memorable run of All-Star Squadron for me at DC—and Larry drew a key issue of that series, as well. Both now work in related fields: Rick doing commercial art, including regular gigs for the Star Wars folks, while Larry’s up to his hipboots in animation.” From Rick’s and Larry’s Facebook pages.

The Company Roy Kept “Counterclockwise from top right, from the program book: a vintage All-Star Squadron Sandman panel with commentary by artist Tim Burgard… a Conan cookout by Benton Jew… and an indecent proposal from Black Canary courtesy of Mike Vosburg, who was present that night. Bobby Timony, Scott Joseph, and Terry Wilson also contributed art tributes to the program book, which I wish we had room to repro!” [All-Star Squadron art & Black Canary TM & © DC Comics; Conan TM & © Conan Properties International, LLC.; other art © the respective artists.]

re:

85

“Marv Wolfman adds a touch of dignity and decorum to the evening, while trying to ignore Scott’s caricature of me on the screen to his left. As speakers that evening, Marv, Rick, Larry, and Scott (who gave one of his patented ‘Oddball Comics’ performances) were all far too kind in saying how I’d helped them in their careers—but somehow, I kinda suspect that super-talented guys like those were gonna make it with or without any help from a misplaced Missourian!” Thanks to Michael Dunne and Larry Houston’s Facebook page.

“Jim MacQuarrie gave a tip of his hat—or was it the flip of his finger? (just joking)—in the program book to Roy’s notion for ret-connecting three Johnny Thunders in a proposed Justice Society special that got torpedoed by a DC editor whom I’ll never forgive. See A/E #69 for the full, unfettered story.” [Characters TM & © DC Comics; other art © Jim MacQuarrie.]

“The Sergio Award was presented to me as the evening’s highlight

by Mad legend (and its designer—and my longtime friend) Sergio Aragonés, with CAPS president Steve Wyatt looking on at left.

The statuette was sculpted, incidentally, by Rubén Procopio. Also seen are a close-up of the award (a Sergio caricature), taken later by Dann… and a sketch

by Sergio of the Thomases’ South Carolina homestead, which was probably drawn while I was giving my brief acceptance speech—but it’s wonderful and welcome, just the same!

“Thanks to one and all for a night that Dann and I will never forget. And why should we want to?” [Art © Sergio Aragonés; above event photo from Hoberg and Houston Facebook pages.]

All characters TM & © their respe

ctive owners. RetroFan is TM TwoM

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89

Captain Marvel & The ©opyright ©risis – Part IV The Conclusion Of An Attempt To Clarify Copyright Complexities & Trademark Tribulations

by Mike Tiefenbacher FCA EDITOR’S INTRO: Over the past three issues, Mike Tiefenbacher has attempted to clarify copyright- and trademark-related questions concerning Fawcett Publications. Those chapters dealt with the disposal and dispersal of that company’s Marvel Family-related and non-Shazamic properties after 1953, when Fawcett shut down its initial comicbook operation. His researches also analyzed the attitudes and actions of various other Golden (and even Silver) Age comics companies toward renewing their copyrighted comics material, dealing last time particularly with matters related to Charlton, DC, MLJ/Archie, Tower, and Dell. Don’t expect us to try to sum up the thousands of words Mike expended on these subjects—just go back and read them! In this final segment, he shows how copyright/trademark questions and confusion continue up to the present day….

DC

made one more acquisition of a rival comics company… in 1998. This time there was no question about copyrights, because WildStorm Comics transferred them to DC in one of those lists of titles similar to that registered in 1992. The copyright question does, however, arise with regard to one of the WildStorm titles published under the America’s Greatest Comics imprint: Tom Strong.

Tom Strong was, like almost all of Alan Moore’s mainstream comics creations, a pastiche of Golden or Silver Age (or literary) characters, and at least in comicbooks, most resembles Doc Strange, the Ned Pines (Standard/Nedor/Better) hero who had appeared in Thrilling Comics in the 1940s. Moore had been informed that the Standard characters were long since in the public domain; thus, Tom Strong #11-12 (2001), his two-part tribute to the first two Justice League/Justice Society team-up issues (Justice League of America #21-22, 1963), guest-starred all of the Standard roster of heroes, eventually following that up with two six-issue series of Terra Obscura (2003-05) based entirely on those same Standard heroes.

Trouble is, as far as I can determine, they weren’t (and are not) in the public domain. Ned Pines was one of the few ’40s publishers who renewed all of his early-’40s titles, a natural development because Pines (and all of his successors in interest) was also renewing every Standard pulp-magazine copyright. Best Comics #1-4, Thrilling Comics #1-31, Exciting Comics #1-23, Startling Comics #1-18, Fighting Yank #2, America’s Best Comics #2-3, Real Life Comics #1-8, and Coo-Coo Comics #1-2 (and, likely, others) were renewed by Pines under his Popular Library company name, and this continued even after Popular Library was acquired by Perfect Film and Chemical in December of 1967. If the latter corporate name sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the company that purchased Magazine Management from Martin Goodman in June of ’68. So, for about two years, Marvel Comics had access to the Standard Comics heroes but was

A Couple Of Four-Color Captains Captain Marvel, then one of the most popular comicbook properties around, welcomes a popular radio hero to the Fawcett lineup on the cover of Captain Midnight #1 (Sept. 30, 1942). The begoggled aviator had previously appeared in Dell/Western’s The Funnies (see A/E #151); but Fawcett gave him a decidedly more super-heroic aspect, complete with secret identity, blackout bombs, and glider-chutes beneath his arms that helped him glide like a flying squirrel. Cover art by the Jack Binder shop.

Thanks to John Wells and the Grand Comics Database. [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics; Captain Midnight TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

apparently unaware of it. (To be fair, they weren’t even using their own Golden Age super-heroes then, though it’s hard to imagine they wouldn’t have jumped at a Black Terror revival if Stan Lee had but

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Diamandis outbid Hachette Publications and purchased CBS Publications in a leveraged buy-out (selling several of CBS’s own magazines to finance it), even taking over CBS’s offices.

The ABCs Of Scientifacts (Left to right:) America’s Best Comics was both the name of a subsidiary group of comics published by DC/WildStorm from 19992010, and of a comicbook title published from 1942-49 by Ned Pines’ Standard (aka Better/Thrilling/Nedor/Best) comics group.

One of the lesser-known stars of that Golden Age line was Doc Strange (originally called Dr. Strange), a science-based superhero, seen here on the cover of America’s Best Comics #17 (March 1946) cavorting with Black Terror, Fighting Yank, and PyroMan. Cover art by Alex Schomburg. In the early 1940s, there was also a short-lived series featuring a hero called “Doc Strong” in MLJ’s Blue Ribbon Comics; he was more of a Doc Savage type. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

To emphasize the connection between Pines/Standard’s Doc Strange and the Alan Moore/Chris Sprouse creation Tom Strong, the pastiche hero’s title featured a tribute to the first Justice League-Justice Society crossover from 1963, “Crisis on Earth-One”/“Crisis on Earth-Two,” in #12’s “Crisis on Terra Obscura,” dated June 2001. That issue revived all of the original Standard super-heroes on an alternate Earth under the assumption they were all in the public domain. But were they?

As if that wasn’t enough, the story in Tom Strong #13 (July 2001) featured a clear tribute to Fawcett’s Marvel Family—at the very least, parodying characters owned by DC. [Previous two art spots TM & © America’s Best Comics, Inc., or successors in interest.]

known—although the Comics Code Authority wouldn’t have let the skull-symboled hero be called by that name.)

In any event, in 1971 Popular Library was sold again, this time to CBS Publications. Ned Pines finally retired, meaning that he would no longer be there to oversee things, and, even though CBS continued to renew every issue of every Standard pulp title, they stopped renewing the comics titles (with one exception: It Really Happened #5 [1946], a historical biography comic featuring in that issue Lou Gehrig, Lewis Carroll, Amelia Earhart, and Israel—a story from which must have been reprinted somewhere in that general era). CBS stopped renewing the Standard comics copyrights even though it continued to renew copyrights for Fawcett’s comics when it acquired Fawcett Publications in 1976.

Nonetheless, CBS remained the owner of all of the renewed and un-renewed Pines comics copyrights, and this did not change— until the government decided that CBS owning both the Popular Library and the Fawcett Crest paperback imprints constituted a violation of anti-trust laws (since they’d have owned a whopping 12% of the paperback market!). After losing their appeal, CBS wound up selling both paperback lines: Fawcett Crest to Random House, Strange But True! and Popular Library to Warner Books.

Splash page of “Doc Strange” CBS continued to renew the Pines story from America’s Best copyrights (under the CBS name), Comics #22 (June 1947), which indicates that the copyrights penciled by Ken Battefield were not part of the sale. This may and inked by Rafael Astarita; scripter unknown. Thanks to also have been the case in 1987 with Comic Book Plus website. [© the its Fawcett copyrights, when CBS respective copyright holders.]

Publications board member Peter

The Fawcett comicbook copyrights had ended in 1983, so there was no succession of companies on any of those, but the last of the Pines pulps were still to come, and the final year of pulp renewals were made by Diamandis Communications. A year later, Hachette bought out Diamandis, making it a division of its huge global operation, presumably taking the pulp copyrights with them.

Hachette may not even be aware of this, since I’ve seen dozens of reprints of Pines’ pulps which publishers

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Apparently, while influenced by existent British statutes, the origin of the U.S. copyright law way back in the 18th century was to enable local orchestras with small budgets to perform Beethoven or Mozart works without having to pay royalties for public performance!

That ridiculous rationale is simply unsupportable as a justifiable reason to affect all copyrights in perpetuity, but its tenets continue to this day. It does seem that each new version of the Copyright Act seems to extend the expiration of copyright further into the future, and now seems to fully support the idea that an estate of an artist or creator should be able to bequeath their work to their descendants; but until the law is finally changed to eliminate the expiration entirely, it remains a bizarre carryover of a law specifically created to stiff creators of their rights.

Today, most of all of the comics supposedly in the public domain are available online for public viewing.

Many that aren’t in public domain (the 1940-41 and 1945-54 Fawcetts among them) are as well. In fact, many current Marvel and DC issues are also, just a bit Regaining Their Wings harder to find. There evidently isn’t much interest by the copyright holders in taking them all down, and (Left:) The modified pilot overalls worn by longtime radio character Captain Midnight on the cover of the first issue of Captain Midnight #1 had transformed into a genuine superthis availability should be sufficient to fulfill the ability hero costume by the time of Fawcett’s Captain Midnight #56 (Oct. 1948), whose cover to read and share those, though multiple uncontested was beautifully rendered by Dan Barry. [Cover TM & © the respective trademark & public-domain Golden Age era titles have also been copyright holders.] reprinted in hardcover volumes. And that’s fine, I guess.

(Right:) Clearly the inspiration for the recent Dark Horse revival (seen here is that I’ve been delighted to suddenly be able to read all of company’s Captain Midnight #4, Oct. 2013), the Fawcett-developed hero found new life these fabled comics I would never be able to collect beyond his radio, movie, or TV identity. Thanks to John Wells and the GCD. or afford, and none of this would have been possible [Cover TM & © Dark Horse Comics, Inc.; Skyman TM & © Ron Frantz.] without their public-domain status. These are all aspects of the copyright law which seem to be functioning have presumed are in the public domain when they clearly are as designed. But then we have the matter of current publishers not. Meanwhile, there’s nothing to indicate that the Fawcett comics copyrights were ever part of the Diamandis takeover, but there’s no way to know for sure; when DC purchased the full rights to all of the Fawcett comics in 1991-92, it was from CBS, which indicates both companies believed they were not. Who actually owns the Standard comics copyrights is, and may forever be, unknown, but this much is for sure: all of the Standard/Nedor origin stories and most of the early adventures of their comics (circa 1939-43) are still under copyright…by someone.

And therein lies the core of the question: why is there a copyright system at all? Shouldn’t intellectual property be just like physical property? If a person devotes his life to the creation of non-corporeal property (books or music) instead of physically creating things that could be owned or resold for profit, why should his rights be different from the latter person? The main thrust of the copyright acts is uncontestable: protecting the ownership of ideas and actual physical works from use by others who did not think of the ideas, did not create any of the physical works, but seek to profit from them nonetheless. Why, after all this concern for protecting the rights of the creators or owners of the copyrights, there was ever thought to be a need to have those rights expire, is simply baffling. If you own the piece of art that you’ve bought from the artist, your ownership isn’t unceremoniously taken from you after a fixed period of time. An architect’s work that you’ve bought in the form of a house, even if he’s copyrighted its appearance for use on other houses, doesn’t revert to the architect after a copyright term.

Reach For The Sky, Man! In the public-domain spirit, also revived was the other star costumed pilot of 1940s comicbooks: Columbia’s Skyman, star of the long-running Big Shot Comics, portrayed here on Ogden Whitney’s cover for Skyman #3 (July 1947).

The hero was revived in Return of The Skyman #1 (Sept. 1987), which reproduced the cover of Columbia’s Skyman #1 (July 1941). The revival was authorized by Columbia’s original editor, Vin Sullivan—who had previously also been the original editor of both “Superman” and “Batman.” Thanks to John Wells and the GCD. [Skyman TM & © Ron Frantz.]

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from none other than Vince Sullivan, owner of Columbia Comics, for his own ACE Comics in 1986-87.) We wouldn’t have had the short-lived revival of the Centaur heroes by (now Marvelowned) Malibu Comics in the mid-‘90s. And we definitely wouldn’t have seen the Project Superpowers series, which revived just about every major and minor Golden Age publicdomain super-hero (and, as outlined above, some that were not), in some handsome issues from Dynamite Comics. And, while that would be sad, the question is—so what?

Thunder-ing Along!

When other names were discussed by DC to replace “Captain Marvel,” the name “Captain Shazam” (announced as the title of a projected-but-neverpublished Milson comic by Otto Binder and C.C. Beck in the latter 1960s) might have come up and been available for the upcoming big-screen Shazam! movie—but not “Captain Thunder,” which had been the Fawcett hero’s original name, used only in a 1939-40 ashcan edition, as seen above left; there was also that one-shot “Captain Thunder” appearance in Superman #276 (June 1974).

Ashcan reprinted by DC in 1992’s hardcover Shazam! Archives, Vol. 1.

[Shazam hero & Billy Batson TM & © DC Comics.]

For, in the intervening years, Captain Thunder and Blue Bolt #1 (Sept. 1987)

by Roy & Dann Thomas (writers) and Dell Barras (artist) came out from Heroic Publishing, as seen above right, courtesy of the Grand Comics Database. In 1992, there were two additional issues, as a new #1 & 2— And, in recent years, the good Captain and his equally lightning-powered offspring have starred in several issues of that company’s Heroic Spotlight title. Seen at right is E.R. Cruz’s cover for HS #26 (Feb. 2017). Further issues are in the pipeline. Thanks to Dennis Mallonee for the scan. [Captain Thunder & Blue Bolt TM & © Roy & Dann Thomas.]

creating new adventures featuring these old characters.

The argument is that, should it become the law that copyrights never expire, we’d never see the return of old, beloved characters.

We would never have seen the Hillman copyrights revived by Eclipse in the ‘80s title Airboy, Michael Gilbert’s rescue of Mr. Monster from Canadian comics obscurity, or the recent run of the comicbook version of Captain Midnight from Dark Horse. (Notably, that last-named series contained a guest appearance and then spin-off in a series of his own of a revived Skyman—a character owned by Ron Frantz, who acquired the rights for it and The Face

There have been many nostalgia-inspired revivals done over the decades since the 1960s, by both the legitimate copyright holders and those taking advantage of public domain laws, and one might argue that most of them fail to satisfy that nostalgia by only leaving the names (or the costumes) of the characters intact, altering one or more of the originals’ aspects to make them contemporary or, more often, changing the original’s motivations and appearance so that whoever’s doing it can claim they added to the characters; “putting their stamp on it” is how they put it. (Easily most irritating: reviving a character no one’s seen in fifty years just to kill them off!) The list of failures is long, saddening, and continues to this day.

I’d venture to say that none of these comics, as good or bad as they were, were best-sellers. Would new, original heroes have done any better or worse, especially since a publisher can never own something which has fallen into the public domain, and their profits would only last as long as their trademark? More to the point, why is it anybody’s inalienable right to use, without any payment to any of the creators or owners, any old character not currently maintained? Why is this even considered a moral or ethical thing?

The people doing this may have every good intention—tribute, development of unrealized potential, simple desire to see a beloved old hero in print again—but how in the world does cutting the characters’ owners completely out of the picture fly? Because “most” comics were owned by amoral businessmen who shouldn’t own the copyrights to begin with? Because they “all” exploited creators by not sharing profits with them? Because that’s the way publishing works, because that’s how the copyright law used to

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grandchildren and actually paying for—or better yet, buying—the thing you feel is yours to take.

A “Split!” Decision (Above:) When people talk trademarks and copyrights, somehow the name of M.F. Enterprises’ ambidextrous (to put it mildly) android of the mid-1960s tends to come up, as witness these panels from that company’s Captain Marvel #4 (Nov. 1966). Poor Captain (Roger Winkle) Marvel…nobody loved him! Besides not being Billy Batson (the closest he got was having a kid sidekick named Billy Baxton), he had the universally ridiculed power of being able to split the limbs from his synthetic torso and have them function independently.

Script by Leo August; art by Carl Burgos. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Be that as it may: As you read this, filming is going on by New Line/Warner Bros. Pictures on the Shazam! motion picture, which is due out in April 2019. From what’s been revealed to date, we discover that a lot of DC’s above activity, seemingly done randomly and without design in what has appeared a half-hearted and only slightly successful succession of constantly changing alterations to the Captain Marvel legend, has its roots in the copyright investigation the company went through around 2010. This is only my conjecture, of course, but it appears that, realizing a movie couldn’t be made using the original Fawcett version due to the lapse in copyright renewals, they came up with what I consider to be an ingenious solution: create a new intellectual property.

Thanks to Carmine Infantino’s forced retitling back in 1973, Shazam! is DC’s free and clear, and completely protectable, so that’s not a problem. But (Top right:) But reconsider—what if Roger had been born in TV’s Hanna-Barbera universe? they do run into problems with the character’s name, He’d have fit right in with the likes of The Impossibles’ Fluid Man, Coil Man, and Multihis history, his broadcasting occupation, family Man, as proven by this mock vintage Gold Key cover by Mark Lewis! [Art for MF Enterprises members, costume details, and the Marvel Family character © the respective copyright holders; other art elements © 2018 Mark Lewis; the members (Freddy, Mary, and Uncle Marvel), all of Captain Marvel name is a trademark of Marvel Characters, Inc.] which remained unchanged prior to the introduction of the “New 52” universe. In 2013, DC’s Geoff Johns be written, because those titles fall into an era Congress chose not and Gary Frank set out transforming all of it. The only details to extend protection to, and because to not do it is simply wasting retained in the series that ran in 2011’s Justice League of America good opportunities for profit? Well, then, hey, go ahead… but #7-11, 0, 14-16, & 18-21 were the names of Billy Batson, Freddy just imagine that what you’re actually taking is the equivalent Freeman, and Mary Bromfield, and the original pantheon of gods of someone’s car out of their garage, or their wallet out of their and wise men who awarded Billy his super-powers. Juvenile back pocket, and then think about how that might be resolved delinquents Billy and Freddy, despite the efforts of Billy’s evil social by taking the time to track down the original owners’ children or

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The Golden Age Of—Ages!

In paragraphs of this article that he replaced in the eleventh hour with material referring to what’s known about the forthcoming Shazam! film, Mike T. wrote of varying periods in the comicbook life of Fawcett’s Captain Marvel, during which the World’s Mightiest Mortal was handled in somewhat differing ways.

Here, clockwise from above left, are samples from three eras: the early straight melodrama of Captain Marvel Adventures #8 (March 1942; art by by C.C. Beck art staff; scripter unknown)… the classic period of CMA #69 (Feb. 1947; script

by Otto Binder; art by Beck, Pete Costanza, and the Beck-Costanza studio) and CMA #121 (June 1951; by Binder & Beck)… and the insertion of a touch of horror into the continuity as per The Marvel Family #80 (Feb. 1953; script by Otto Binder; art by Kurt Schaffenberger). [Shazam heroes & related characters TM & © DC Comics.]

Article Title

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I Yam What Shazam!

(Left:) Shazam (the young guy in the super-hero suit) faces the otherwisenameless and aged Wizard in the New 52’s Justice League #0 (Nov. 2012).

Script by Geoff Johns; art by Gary Frank.

(Above:) Zachary Levi, the actor who will portray Shazam in the forthcoming film, juxtaposed with a detail from the Gary Frank cover of Shazam! #1 (Sept. 2013), after its use in Justice League #0. [TM & © DC Comics.]

to be seen which of these details will be part of any ongoing version of Shazam!, it appears that it’s exactly the version on which upcoming movie will be based.

worker, became foster siblings entrusted to good foster parents Victor and Rosa Vasquez, becoming part of a family including Mary and new characters Eugene Choi, Petro Pena, and Darla Dudley.

Billy and Mary look more or less like their old selves, while Freddy is now blond and long-haired. The actual origin of Shazam is quite similar to Captain Marvel’s, though his benefactor is now solely known as The Wizard. While his magic word remains “Shazam!,” it is only transformative if he consciously wants it to be. Billy, as he has been characterized since at least the June 1986 Secret Origins #3 by Roy Thomas & Jerry Bingham, becomes an adult hero as Shazam only physically, retaining Billy’s mind and adolescent personality. As Shazam, Billy sports a red costume with a lightning bolt on the front, with a white cape and gold gauntlets and boots, but all of the fine details have changed. Eventually, Billy again shares his powers, though this time it’s with all five of his foster siblings. While each wears a costume in five different colors, none of them receives a discrete name of his/her own in the original sequence (Darla alone remains a child). Following the backup series, Shazam becomes a full member of the Justice League and continues through virtually the end of the New 52 version of the team (#30-50). Meanwhile, in a one-shot special, The Darkseid War: Shazam! (2016), the costume is again altered with an extraneous gold overlay of some sort, Shazam exhibits different magic powers, and the old pantheon is exchanged for a completely new (and truly forgettable) lineup, also spelling “Shazam,” though only the costume change is reflected in Justice League. Shazam has yet to show up on DC’s Rebirth version of Earth-One, so while it remains

With Zacherly Levi cast as Shazam and Mark Strong (Sinestro in 2011’s Green Lantern film) as Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, and lesserknown actors playing Billy, Freddy, Mary, Eugene, Petro, Darla, Victor, and Rosa plus other characters seen in the origin story, as well as pictures from the production showing a bright red version of the hooded Shazam costume mostly reflecting the Gary Frank design, the purpose of the 2013 reboot becomes crystal clear. The version of Captain Marvel appearing in his movie is almost entirely brand new, with almost all particulars changed from the Fawcett comic book. (One major change: Black Adam, intrinsic to the new origin, won’t be a part of the first movie.)

In other words, anyone wishing to exploit those public-domain stories can try, but they won’t be able to take advantage of the film.

Both “Captain Marvel” and “Shazam” are unusable trademarks, the original costumes only roughly resemble those in the movie, and the characters are different, so it would be very hard to connect old reprints to it. Conversely, since no one has challenged it to this point, it remains to be seen whether DC/Warner’s lawyers couldn’t successfully defend their ownership of the original characters, too, even with the lapsed copyrights. I’d say they’ve created a bulletproof, if not invulnerable, version.

Those of us ancient enough to be emotionally attached to the 1940-53 version of the character may be dissatisfied with how all this has shaken out and dismiss the movie out of hand. I wouldn’t blame you.

But it seems to me that, with the Wonder Woman movie’s success causing a change in further DC films to lighter, more familyoriented fare, the results may well turn out to be close enough to overlook the fine details—if they can recapture the feeling of the original comics.

And that would be more than acceptable to me.

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Copyright Comics? What’s Next—Trademark-Toons?

Fan/artist John Trumbull’s artful homage to a classic Superman/Supergirl cover by Curt Swan and Al Plastino, utilizing Fawcett’s Big Red Cheese and no fewer than four versions of Captain Marvel that’ve been launched since 1967 by Marvel Comics. Okay, so admittedly, two of ’em are the same guy in different costumes; but this cover was done before the current Marvel Captain Marvel hit the comics stores and got slated for her own movie! Carol Danvers, when wearing the dark outfit seen here, was still just Ms. Marvel, not being promoted to Captain till later. John says his main criteria were, which characters did he want to draw? Thanks to him for permission to print his faux cover as seen on the website deviantart.com—and to Fred deBoom for first pointing it out to us. [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics; all four Marvel Captain Marvels TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Mike Tiefenbacher talks a good game, but has no legal background whatsoever (aside from testifying in a deposition for someone famous back in 1984), yet he hasn’t let that stop him from making it appear that he knows what he’s talking about, because that’s what writers do. And besides—it’s copyright “law.” It’s not like that’s a real thing, right?

Special thanks to John Wells of the Grand Comics Database for providing many of the images for this series, and for being there with all the titles and numbers whenever he was asked.

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DRAW #35

VIDEO GAME ISSUE! Get ready as LEGO designers TYLER CLITES and SEAN MAYO show you LEGO hacks to twink and juice your creations! Also, see big bad game-inspired models by BARON VON BRUNK, and Pokemon-inspired models by LI LI! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!

Career-spanning discussion with STEVE “THE DUDE” RUDE, as he shares his reallife psychological struggles, the challenges of freelance subsistence, and his creative aspirations. Also: The jungle art of NEAL ADAMS, MARY FLEENER on her forthcoming graphic novel Billie the Bee and her comix career, RICH BUCKLER interview Part Three, Golden Age artist FRANK BORTH, HEMBECK and more!

Celebrating the greatest fantasy artist of all time, FRANK FRAZETTA! From THUN’DA and EC COMICS to CREEPY, EERIE, and VAMPIRELLA, STEVE RINGGENBERG and CBC’s editor present an historical retrospective, including insights by current creators and associates, and memories of the man himself. PLUS: Frazetta-inspired artists JOE JUSKO, and TOM GRINDBERG, who contributes our Death Dealer cover painting!

Fantasy/sci-fi illustrator DONATO GIANCOLA (Game of Thrones) demos his artistic process, GEORGE PRATT (Enemy Ace: War Idyll, Batman: Harvest Breed) discusses his work as comic book artist, illustrator, fine artist, and teacher, Crusty Critic JAMAR NICHOLAS, JERRY ORDWAY’S regular column, and MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ “Comic Art Bootcamp.” Mature Readers Only.

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Ships Sept. 2018

(100-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Ships Fall 2018

(100-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $5.95 • Ships Winter 2019

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Ships Fall 2018

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#3: SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE Director RICHARD DONNER interview, IRWIN ALLEN’s sci-fi universe, Saturday morning’s undersea adventures of AQUAMAN, ’60s and ’70s horror/sci-fi zines, Spider-Man and Hulk toilet paper, RetroTravel to METROPOLIS, IL’s Superman Celebration, SEA-MONKEYS®, FUNNY FACE beverages & collectibles, a fortress of Superman and Batman memorabilia, and more! SHIPS DECEMBER 2018!

NEW! Edited by Back Issue’s

RETROFAN #2 is our HALLOWEEN ISSUE, sure to satiate the trick-or-treat cravings of your inner child! MARTIN PASKO peeks into the tombs of TV horror-hosts ZACHERLEY, VAMPIRA, SEYMOUR, MARVIN, and our coverfeatured ELVIRA! ANDY MANGELS welcomes us to Saturday morning’s Horrible Hall, home of the Groovie Goolies! ERNEST FARINO tunes in to the creepy, kooky Bewitched, The Addams Family, and The Munsters! The Oddball World of SCOTT SHAW! takes us on a Jurassic lark through the long-buried Dinosaur Land amusement park! Learn the history of Ben Cooper Halloween costumes in an interview with IRA J. COOPER! Super collector TERRY COLLINS shows off his collection of character lunchboxes! Plus: collecting superhero View-Masters; Sindy, the British Barbie; and more fun, fab features! Photo cover spotlighting Elvira herself, CASSANDRA PETERSON! (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 • (Digital Edition) $4.95 • SHIPS SEPTEMBER 2018!

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TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA

#4: Interviews with the Shazam! TV show's JOHN (Captain Marvel) DAVEY and MICHAEL (Billy Batson) GRAY, the Green Hornet in Hollywood, remembering monster maker RAY HARRYHAUSEN, the way-out Santa Monica Pacific Ocean Amusement Park, a Star Trek Set Tour, SAM J. JONES on the Spirit movie pilot, British scifi TV classic Thunderbirds, Casper & Richie Rich museum, the King Tut fad, and more! SHIPS MARCH 2019!

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