Alter Ego #159

82658 00361

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reveals The Secret Origins Of...

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Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt TM & © Estate of Pete Morisi; other art TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.

Roy Thomas' Cannon-ized Comics Fanzine

$9.95

In the USA

No. 159

July 2019

Vol. 3, No. 159 / July 2019 Editor

Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout

Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor

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

Comic Crypt Editor

Michael T. Gilbert

Editorial Honor Roll

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

Proofreaders

Rob Smentek William J. Dowlding

Cover Artist

Pete Morisi

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Cover Colorist

Glenn Whitmore

With Special Thanks to:

Hey Kids Comics Neal Adams (website) Heidi Amash Guy Johnson Bob Bailey Douglas Jones Bill Black Barbara Friedlander (“Gaff”) Jim Kealy Bloomfield Mark Kohn David Bogart Mary-Margaret Ricky Terry Kunze Brisacque Mark Lewis Bernie Bubnis Jim Ludwig Bart Bush Ken Lupoff Bryn Cimino Glenn McKay John Cimino Russ Morisi Shaun Clancy Val Morisi Bob Cosgrove Brian K. Morris Charlie Cox Frank Motler Chet Cox Lewaa Nasserdeen Michaël Dewally Brian Overton Gerald Edwards Joe Quesada Shane Foley Barry Pearl Bob Foster Jay Piscopo Ron Franz Bud Plant Stephan Friedt Catherine Rivera Janet Gilbert Al Rodriguez Grand Comics Randy Sargent Database Dean Smith (website) Robin Snyder Chris Green Dann Thomas

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Pete Morisi, Glen Johnson, Jay Scott Pike, & Pat Lupoff

Contents

Writer/Editorial: Pete Morisi Cared! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! In Praise Of PAM . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Michael T. Gilbert hosts Glen Johnson’s correspondence with artist Pete Morisi…

Thunderbolt!

Kid Stuff? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Part X of Golden/Silver Age writer John Broome’s 1998 memoir.

My Day In Prison With Daredevil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Roy Thomas relates the story behind his offbeat cameo in the Marvel/Netflix series.

Comic Fandom Archive: Bart Bush—Then And Now . . . . . . 64

Bill Schelly strolls down memory lane with the co-founder of Oklahoma comic fandom.

Tributes To Jay Scott Pike, Glen Johnson, & Pat Lupoff . . . 70 re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 75 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #218 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 P.C. Hamerlinck presents Bill Schelly’s 2002 interview with writing great William Woolfolk.

On Our Cover: “Comic Crypt” editor Michael T. Gilbert put together this monumental montage of three of Pete Morisi’s best-known artistic creations: Kid Montana, detective Johnny Dynamite, and Peter Cannon… Thunderbolt. (The latter figure, as demonstrated on p. 17 of this issue, is a creative swipe of a Jack Kirby pose.) In the background are reproduced two of Morisi’s letters to comics fan Glen Johnson. Thanks to sons Russ and Val Morisi for the cover photo. [Peter Cannon... Thunderbolt TM & © Estate of Pete Morisi; other characters TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Above: A dramatic panel by Pete Morisi from Comic Media’s Danger #8 (March 1954), from the “Duke Douglas” story subtly titled “Kill! Kill! Kill!” Scripter unknown. This yarn and several others drawn by Morisi, Don Heck, et al., starring the private detective, were reprinted in France in the 2015 Boardman one-shot Duke Douglas. Thanks to Michaël Dewally. [© the respective copyright holders.]

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: $67 US, $101 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.

writer/editorial

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Pete Morisi Cared!

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or an artist who was never associated with a truly popular super-hero or other comics character—and who spent more time drawing for low-budget Charlton Publications than for Timely/Marvel or other, larger companies—and whose signature style was mostly, and unabashedly, based on the signature style of another artist entirely (i.e., George Tuska), Peter A. Morisi is certainly garnering a lot of coverage in Alter Ego. And yet, somehow, our recent focus on the artist often known as “PAM” is very much in keeping with our publishing philosophy from the very beginning.

As our longtime ace interviewer Jim Amash has often said, in many cases you get the most information and best insights about comicbooks not from interviewing the “stars” of the medium, but from talking with (or in this case, reading the mail of) so-called “lesser lights” who were part and parcel of the industry, year in and year out, dealing with editors, artists, and (when they happened to meet them at all) writers.

Not that Pete Morisi is a “lesser light” of comicdom by any negative standard. If he was perhaps not in the top echelon of comics creators, neither was he clinging to the bottom rung of the ladder. For one thing, he managed to sustain a career in the hard-scrabble comics industry for a goodly number of years, between his earliest confirmed contribution (in 1946) and his work for DC’s post-Crisis Who’s Who series in 1978. And, importantly, much of this time, he was merely secretly “moonlighting” from his day job—as a big-city police officer!

For another thing, his work is not “cheap, shoddy, and anonymous” (to use one of the more infamous quotes by comics’ 1950s bête noire Dr. Frederic Wertham). Well, perhaps “cheap”—if by that you mean only that he drew primarily for poorly-paying

Charlton, but that was partly by choice, as he convincingly states in missives quoted later in this issue—but neither “shoddy” (because he put considerable time and craftsmanship into his art) nor “anonymous” (because he was proud to sign stories whenever he could—it was only the exigencies of moonlighting that led him to hide behind his initials for years).

As seen in this and four previous issues of Alter Ego (#148-150 & #158), Morisi was not merely a comics professional; he was also a comics fan, an aficionado of some of the finest artists the field produced. He had opinions on what made good comics, on how comics creators should be treated, indeed, on nearly every facet of the industry. Sure, you (and I) might vehemently disagree with him on this matter or that… but that’s not the point. The point is—the man cared, and it showed, both in his artwork (and his occasional scripting) and in the letters he exchanged for years with a comics fan who was not a professional: Glen Johnson.

(Ironically, and sadly, Glen—who was a contributor to the first volume of A/E, back in 1965—passed away even as this issue was in production. You can read Bill Schelly’s eloquent tribute to him on p. 73.)

Regrettably, although my very first pro-comics work consisted of scripting stories for Charlton, I never got a chance to meet Pete Morisi. I enjoyed his Peter Cannon… Thunderbolt and occasional other artwork I’d run across, but our paths never intersected. If they had—well, I’m sure we’d have had some animated discussions (including disagreements) on various comics-related points… but I’d have loved to have known Pete Morisi.

But, you know what? Through the unstinting efforts of first Glen Johnson, then Michael T. Gilbert… I almost feel as if I did. And so will you!

Bestest,

COMING IN AUGUST

160

#

Remembering

STEVE DITKO! • The indisputably dynamic DITKO at MARVEL (Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, et al.)—DC (Creeper, Hawk and Dove, etc.)—CHARLTON (Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, The Question, mystery, & science-fiction)—WARREN (Creepy, Eerie)! Don’t miss a rare late-1960s DITKO interview

by RICHARD HOWELL! Plus tributes by MICHAEL T. GILBERT (& MR MONSTER!)— PAUL LEVITZ—BERNIE BUBNIS—NICK CAPUTO—RUSS MAHERAS—BARRY PEARL— ROY THOMAS, & others!

• Extra! FCA presents BRIAN CLEMENS on DITKO & This Magazine Is Haunted!— BILL SCHELLY with BART BUSH (Part 2)—JOHN BROOME—& MORE!! ers, Inc.

TM & © Marvel Charact

TwoMorrows.

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(Above:) Pete Morisi, circa 1988. A “T-Bolt” Secret Origins splash page for DC is on his drawing board. [©2019 Estate of Pete Morisi.]

(Above:) PAM’s greatest hits, done for the 1975 Street Enterprises Benefit Portfolio.

(Top to bottom:) Johnny Dynamite, Lash LaRue, Kid Montana, and Peter Cannon...

Thunderbolt. [The latter is a trademark of the Estate of Pete Morisi; other heroes TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

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In Praise Of PAM

by Michael T. Gilbert

Part 5

Pete Morisi... Thunderbolt!

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ver since Pete Morisi was a kid, he had two loves: comicbooks and the law. He wound up making careers of both.

In an interview with Glen D. Johnson in Comic Book Artist #9 (Aug. 2000), Pete talked about getting bit by the comicbook bug after seeing his first “Superman” story in Action Comics: “I was ten years old in 1938 and the thought that a man could fly, leap over tall buildings, and have bullets bounce off his chest fascinated me. I wanted to be a part of a business that could capture my imagination like that. I had to be part of it.”

When he was a young fan, Jack Kirby especially intrigued Pete.

“I liked Blue Bolt, but it was the Kirby art that drew my attention to the strip. I knew, even then, that I was seeing something special.

Cops & Robbers!

(Above:) Young Pete Morisi playing policeman in the early 1930s.

Policeman Pete would eventually be the proud owner of a real gun and real handcuffs. [© 2019 Estate of Pete Morisi.]

I’ve been a fan ever since. To me, Captain America will always be Kirby’s most interesting art.”

Pete also marveled over the bravura visuals of Lou Fine, Will Eisner, and Reed Crandall. He remained, at heart, a fan all his life.

Starting Out! Pete, a Brooklyn boy, was born on January 7, 1928.

Raised in the Park Slope neighborhood, he studied at Manhattan’s School of Industrial Art and the Cartoonists and Illustrators School, and then got his first gig assisting on The Saint and Dickie Dare comic strips.

Morisi: First Blood!

“L’Olonnois the Cruel” was the first story Pete wrote and drew. It appeared, in “two colors” (out of a possible four) in Fox Comics’ Captain Kidd #25 (Aug. 1949). [© the respective copyright holders.]

His comicbook career began at bottom-tier Fox Publications in 1948, but it was temporarily derailed when Uncle Sam drafted him that year. However, Morisi managed to squeeze in scripts for Fox’s romance and crime comics, as well as writing and drawing his first one-man story (in 1949), “L’Olonnois the Cruel,” also for Fox.

In Praise Of PAM—Part 5

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That same year, Pete married his high school sweetheart, Louise Massie. It would prove to be an enduring marriage.

Pete finished his military obligations and returned to NY in 1950. He then began working for various publishers, including Timely (Marvel), St. John, Quality, Harvey, Gleason, Fiction House, Nesbit, and Comic Media. These books included Murder Incorporated for Fox, Arizona Kid and Strange Tales for Timely. But he made his first real mark at Comic Media, writing and drawing “Johnny Dynamite,” a harder-than-nails private eye inspired by Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer.

Pete’s vicious anti-hero proved to be his signature character in the 1950s. “Johnny Dynamite” stories appeared in seven issues of Comic Media’s Dynamite Comics before the company went belly-up in 1954. But Johnny wasn’t through yet. In fact, he may have been partly responsible for introducing Pete to his most important client.

The Charlton Years!

When Comic Media folded, they sold some of their titles and inventory to Charlton—Dynamite Comics among them. Dynamite Comics was renamed Johnny Dynamite after its title character.

Continuing Comic Media’s numbering, Charlton’s first issue was #10 (June 1955) and featured Pete’s story “Vengeance Be Mine!”

Technically, another of Pete’s stories, “That Wreck, the Hesperus!” (in Charlton’s Danger and Adventure #23, April 1955) had appeared a couple of months earlier, marking PAM’s first Charlton appearance. But it was merely a reprint from Fox’s Feature Presentations Magazine #6, cover-dated June 1950.

While that first Charlton “Johnny Dynamite” tale was likely a Comic Media inventory story, it showed what a more mature Pete Morisi could do. The boys from Derby, Connecticut, must have liked what they saw, and Pete found himself working almost exclusively for Charlton for the next 20 years. That was fortunate, as most of his other clients (Lev Gleason, St. John, Quality, and Fiction House) soon went the way of Comic Media. Which brings us to the next phase of Pete’s career.

After marrying in 1949, Pete and Louise had three sons—Steve in 1950, Russ in 1953, and Val in 1954. And this became something of a problem for Pete. By the mid-’50s, the comicbook field was (you know the drill!) drowning in the wake of a tsunami of bad

Explosive!

Pete drew this striking cover for Comic Media’s Johnny Dynamite #3 (Sept. 1953). Guess he didn’t need an eyepatch yet. [© the respective copyright holders.]

publicity. With a growing family to support, Pete decided to leave comics behind… sort of.

Livin’ The Dream!

Pete joined the City of New York Police Department in 1956 in order to provide a steady income for his family. It was also his opportunity to fulfill another longtime dream. He was finally a cop!

Police work suited Pete. He enjoyed it, and after hours he even had time for his cartooning. However, his boss told him in no uncertain terms that he had to keep his other job under wraps.

“Don’t let anyone know you’re moonlighting, Morisi!” he said. Or words to that effect. Pete got the message.

He began signing his name with his first and last initials only.

And when Thunderbolt started in 1966, Pete added his middle initial, and Pete Anthony Morisi became the mysterious PAM.

The Morisi, The Merrier (Left to right:) Pete Morisi, sons Steve, Russ, Val, and wife Louise in 1974.

Pip the pooch looks a tad camera-shy! [© 2019 Estate of Pete Morisi.]

Pete spent the next two decades drawing and sometimes writing stories for Charlton. Westerns were a specialty, and he was one of the best. Kid Montana, Lash LaRue, Masked Raider, Billy the Kid, and other Charlton cowboys all benefited from the Morisi touch. However, there was one genre he loathed.

Pete hated love comics! Unfortunately, he did them too well for his own good. Despite his objections, Morisi’s editors insisted on

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

assigning him stories for Career Girl Romances, Just Married, and other mushy stuff. Pete compensated by illustrating manly war yarns for Navy Tales and Battlefield Action, and a ton of mystery and science-fiction stories for Charlton spook books, including The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves, Ghostly Tales, Ghostly Haunts, Ghost Manor, and Haunted.

Later he also did work for Flash Gordon and Vengeance Squad.

His One True Love!

But super-heroes were his one true love. Pete was a “long-underwear” fan since he was a kid. He also knew the backstories of his favorite comics and their creators.

Pete would have been right at home writing for Alter Ego. Oddly enough, though he loved the genre, PAM had never really drawn any super-hero strips. Perhaps editors felt his static style was too understated for such an overblown genre. As a fan of Golden Age comics, he tried— unsuccessfully—to acquire the rights to a number of abandoned properties, chief among them the original Lev Gleason Daredevil.

Other defunct heroes he considered buying included Plastic Man, Captain Marvel, and The Flame. None worked out.

Pete Morisi’s 1970s Police ID.

Finally, in 1965, he took matters in his own hands and created his own action hero, “Peter Cannon… Thunderbolt”! T-Bolt was inspired by two of his favorite Golden Age heroes. T-Bolt’s uniform was a variation of the two-color Lev Gleason Daredevil costume (designed by Jack Binder and Jack Cole in the 1940s), while memories of Bill Everett’s Amazing-Man contributed to Thunderbolt’s origin. Both heroes were raised by Tibetan monks and trained to reach the absolute peak of man’s physical and mental perfection. Take that, Batman!

Thunderbolt became a minor cult classic, but Pete’s own agonizing perfectionism worked against him as he missed deadline after deadline. The fact that he was also a full-time cop didn’t help any. When Pat Boyette and Denny O’Neil took over the title, the loss of his hero devastated Pete.

But it didn’t really matter. Only two issues after he left, Charlton canceled their entire Action Hero line, and Thunderbolt with it. But Pete kept working, primarily on shorter stories for Charlton’s Western and mystery titles.

Charlton And Beyond!

Pete gave DC a try in 1973, at the suggestion of his old editor, Dick Giordano. However PAM found he preferred Charlton’s more “laissez-faire” attitude. PAM described his feelings in Charlton Spotlight #9 (Winter 2015): “Charlton always left me alone. ‘Do it your way’ was the standard phrase from editors Pat Masulli, Dick Giordano, and Sal Gentile. Add panels, drop panels, change the story, re-write the endings, we trust you. Quite a compliment, and a situation I never took advantage of, by hacking out a job. My ‘rush’ jobs were due to deadlines, not intent.”

After completing only one story for DC, PAM returned to Charlton. In the early-’70s Gray Morrow tried to get PAM to work for Red Circle Comics (an Archie imprint he was editing), but the line folded before Pete could do anything for them. He considered working for Marvel, Warren, and others, but ultimately opted to stay put at Charlton.

Pete’s Other True Loves!

Lovely Louise and the Morisi boys at Pebble Beach, circa 1960. [ © 2019 Estate of Pete Morisi.]

Charlton had its faults. The pay was among the industries’ worst, printing was lousy, and their scripts were often bad. But Pete had plenty of work, and felt comfortable there. “Better the devil you know,” and all that. Yet Morisi was still restless, creatively.

In Praise Of PAM—Part 5

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Starting in the ’60s, Pete pitched ideas for new comics—primarily Pete Savage… for Hire (a detective strip) and a new super-hero, Boomerang! He never got much beyond the planning stages with the latter, but in 1967 Charlton agreed to try “Savage” in their showcase title Charlton Premiere. Unfortunately, Pete spent too much time tinkering with “Savage,” and the CP book folded before he could complete a story.

Pete still loved super-heroes, and at various times begged his editors to assign him “Blue Beetle,” “The Phantom,” or other heroes when the opportunity arose. His editors refused, claiming Pete was too valuable drawing their Western titles.

That was true enough, but in later years the real reason may have been worries about Pete keeping up with deadlines on a continuing character. They remembered his difficulties with T-Bolt.

An Idea That, Er, Boomeranged In 1994, Pete approached Dark Horse with an idea for a new super-hero, Boomerang, but Dark Horse declined. [TM & © Estate of Pete Morisi.]

Going… Going… Gone!

Pete retired from the police force in 1976, after marking twenty years. But his timing was off once again. By the end of the year, declining sales led Charlton to cancel over 25 titles. All that remained were a few war, Western, and spook comics, a couple of love titles, some licensed characters, and a few assorted stragglers.

While not as bad as 1956 (when Pete joined the force), it wasn’t a great time for comicbook freelancers. Ironically, now that Pete finally had time to work in comics full-time, there weren’t all that many companies left.

Nonetheless, Pete still dreamed of reviving his beloved Thunderbolt. He tried to buy the character back from Charlton in 1968, after T-Bolt was canceled, but they refused. However, in late 1981 Charlton changed its mind, and actually gave him the property. The company finally folded their comicbook line for good in 1985, forcing Pete to look elsewhere for work.

Assignment: Staten Island!

With time on his hands, Pete tried something different.

From May 18, 1979, to March 12, 1982, Pete branched out, writing and drawing a panel strip, Staten Island Stats, for The Staten Island Advance newspaper. The series focused on true-life events and

personalities with a New York connection. It was a fun addition to his comicbook work and he produced almost 150 of them. Val Morisi recently shared some info on the series: “As for some background on the work, it was, as always, a labor of love for my Dad. I’m going to take a guess and say he was paid in the ballpark of about $25 per page (max). I know he spent days in the local library digging up facts and then researching reference photos to help him create the images. If you do the math, he was probably working for about two bucks an hour! While the panel in the paper ran at about 4” x 6”, the originals are all at least 8” x 12” (all, of course, penciled, inked, lettered, and written by my Dad).”

DC Redux!

With Charlton out of the picture, Pete once again approached DC. His friend and former editor, Dick Giordano, was now that company’s managing editor.

The two worked out a deal in which DC would lease T-Bolt from PAM. Morisi had great hopes for Thunderbolt at DC, but the results proved disappointing. We discuss Pete’s DC experiences in greater detail elsewhere in this issue, but the bottom line is that it resulted in a lackluster 12-issue maxi-series in which Pete had little involvement, and two stories he wrote and drew were never published.

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

When Thunderbolt fell into disuse at DC, the rights reverted to Pete. Later, in 2012, Dynamite Entertainment licensed the property from the Morisi Estate, nine years after PAM’s death.

Pete didn’t have much work in his later years, but he kept busy pitching projects. He continued working on “Pete Savage… for Hire” and “Boomerang!”—both of which he’d originally conceived in the mid-’60s. He offered “Boomerang!” to publishers (including Dark Horse in 1994), but there was little interest.

The Long Goodbye!

It was just as well. Pete was in poor shape physically by then, a victim of too much food and a sedentary lifestyle. Suffering from pain that made it difficult for him to draw, it’s doubtful he could have produced a continuing comicbook series. Pete himself said as much in a letter to his friend Glen D. Johnson on 11/6/90, at a time when DC still retained rights to “Thunderbolt”:

problems kicking in, because I had a pretty good run with the limited time allotted me. No complaints.”

Like too many cartoonists, Pete struggled at the end. Though he’d put in over twenty years at Charlton, they’d provided no medical or retirement plans for freelancers. All Pete had was his police pension.

Nonetheless, PAM gamely carried on despite suffering constant pain. In May 2003 his beloved wife Louise passed on. Less than five months later, Pete, age 75, joined her. He left behind three sons, Steven, Russ and Val; a brother, Donald; a sister, Ines Salvanti; and five grandchildren.

That, plus a legacy of superb comicbook stories told with dignity and restraint.

“You haven’t seen my work because I haven’t done anything in a couple of years. I did do a new origin book for DC a couple of years ago—but that’s sitting on a shelf—waiting for them to re-introduce T-Bolt once again. I could push it, but DC is full of delays. Excuses, lies, and frustrations. Not my cup of tea. You’re right, of course, comics will never be the same.

“I kind of go through my old stuff every couple of years, and although it’s all overwritten, it still holds up.

“Over the years I’ve gotten older, fatter, and diabetes—which gives me constant pain.”

Pete’s health problems got worse, as indicated by this note to Glen from 4/16/91: “I guess it’s about two years now—maybe three—since I did two T-Bolt stories for DC. One story died because the book was dropped, and the other one is collecting dust on a shelf. I hope it doesn’t ever get printed now, because writing styles and concepts have changed. It would be pretty boring.

“My eyes have been going on a slow downhill trip for a few years now, and a couple of weeks ago I got what the doctors call an eye virus—Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Talk about pain and eye swelling.

Today was the first day that I drove my car in two weeks—and that was only for a few blocks. Tomorrow, I go to the doctor again. Try to avoid getting old, Glen.”

And this one from 9/26/95: “After 4½ months the cast was finally taken off my leg. I can hobble around with a cane—but I tire easily. This thing is going to take a long while. The steel rod (from knee to ankle) is there to stay—plus the four metal screws (from side to side) that keep things in place. Pain and a swollen leg are an every day thing… and every night.”

Or this sad update from 2/23/00: “On a personal note, my doctors tell me that in addition to my diabetes, carpal tunnel syndrome, diabetic neuropathy, I now have arthritis… which is adding to the pain that I already have. So, as often as I’ve told you that I hope to draw full stories again… it don’t look good.”

Pete’s 4/8/00 letter to Glen summed it up: “Don’t feel bad about Charlton folding and my health

Mix-ed Message Staten Island Stats was a panel strip that Pete wrote and drew from 1979 to 1982 for The Staten Island Advance, a local NYC paper. [© 2019 Estate of Pete Morisi.]

In Praise Of PAM—Part 5

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Thunderbolt...

The Charlton Years!

Chapter 1

A

s I’ve related before: Years ago, I received an unexpected package containing hundreds of letters from Golden and Silver Age cartoonist Pete Anthony Morisi (aka PAM). The sender, Glen D. Johnson, explained that he and Pete had been pen pals for three decades until Pete’s death in 2003. Glen had saved all of Pete’s letters, and suggested that Alter Ego might want to publish them.

While I was intrigued by this treasure trove of comics history, the sheer volume of letters intimidated me. After copying them, I returned Glen’s originals and put my copies aside for later. “Later” turned out to be more than a decade later. Oy!

Boy Oh Boy, It’s Roy! Glen D. Johnson with Roy Rogers in 1991. Rogers passed away in 1998. [© 2019 Glen D. Johnson.]

I came across them again last year, and casually started reading the earliest ones, from 1964. I was instantly hooked. Pete’s letters were a combination of chatty inside info about the comics scene of the ’60s (from the point of view of a cartoonist working in the trenches)—and his uncensored opinions of his editors and co-workers at Charlton (a company he worked for almost exclusively in the ’60s and ’70s).

From then on I set to work, organizing and editing the best letters into a series of articles I called “The PAM Papers,” of which this is Part 5. Part 4’s letters hinted at Pete’s upcoming Charlton hero. This time we’re focusing on the creation and evolution of his signature character, “Peter Cannon… Thunderbolt!” Morisi’s correspondence affords us a rare first-hand glimpse into the birth and development of an unusual Silver Age hero. Our first letters begin before January 1966, the cover date of Peter Cannon…

Thunderbolt #1.

While it’s unlikely that Glen’s letters survived, Pete’s replies are generally self-explanatory. However, I’ve written additional comments when needed, and also edited PAM’s letters for space and clarity.

We begin with Pete joking about his mysterious PAM pseudonym. In the mid-’50s the comicbook field was imploding in the wake of a spate of bad publicity. Pete, worried about supporting his family, got a job as a police officer while continuing to draw comics on the side. Fearing that the boys in blue would frown on his comicbook work, Peter A. Morisi became the mysterious “PAM.”

The New Kid In Town The intro page to Peter Cannon…Thunderbolt #1, announcing Charlton’s newest hero. The indicia reads “Jan. 1966,” but comics were generally post-dated at least two months, so fans probably got their first glimpse of T-Bolt around November 1965. [© Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt TM & © Estate of Pete Morisi; other heroes TM & © DC Comics.]

By the mid-’60s, comics fans began asking who PAM really was. In this instance Glen spotted an early comics story signed “PM” (leaving out the “A”), and asked Pete if he thought the artist was actually Charlton artist and editor Pat Masulli, based on their similar initials. Of course, any older fan who’d seen PAM’s work a decade earlier, when he’d been signing his full name, wouldn’t have been fooled. Glen wasn’t taken in, and was well aware that Pete was both “PM” and “PAM.” He was just having fun teasing Morisi, who responded in kind.

Pete’s letter begins with a tongue-in-cheek reference to fans who mistakenly credited stories he had illustrated to either Massuli or George Tuska (whose style PAM consciously emulated). At the

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

sometimes does Gunmaster that some people believe is done by George Tuska, who does Buck Rogers and inks over Jack Kirby’s layouts for Stan Lee! (Huh?) As for putting “other characters” in with T-Bolt, I’m afraid not! As you said, it would please the pro-fans, but the general public wouldn’t understand it!

As far as I’m concerned, the “Peter Cannon...THUNDERBOLT” title will remain! Let DC or any other outfit do what they like! No copy or imitation was intended on my part, and I’m sure that my storyline is different!

I guess it’ll be OK to mention T-Bolt in TCR #40, as long as a source isn’t named!

Hope you got to see R. [Reed] Crandall. I met him once on a “Hiya” basis, but was too shook-up to say anything else. Aside from L. [Lou] Fine, I consider him to just about be the finest artist around today.

Well, that’s it, back to T-Bolt, Pete Morisi MTG: We see PAM responding to Glen’s question about a potential legal problem with DC over the Thunderbolt name. I’m assuming Pete was concerned that the title might be a bit too similar to DC’s Johnny Thunder (both the 1940s super-hero, and the 1950s DC’s Western gunfighter who inherited the name). Apparently that didn’t turn out to be a problem. And lightning (and THUNDER!) struck twice when Tower published the first issue of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents (cover-dated Nov. 1965) a month before PAM’s comic hit the stands.

By the way, The Comic Reader #40 (Aug. 1965) was Glen’s last issue as editor of that venerable comics newszine. His mention of T-Bolt there and in the previous issue may have been the first time fans learned of PAM’s new hero.

Thunderation!

(Below:) DC’s “Johnny Thunder” strip started out as “Johnny Thunderbolt” in Flash Comics #1 (Jan. 1940), originally published by M.C. Gaines’ All-American Comics group affiliated with DC, and by mid-1965 would appear in a “Justice League/Justice Society” story arc. Pete was a little concerned about the similarity of title. He needn’t have been. Art by Stan Aschmeier; script by John Wentworth. [TM & © DC Comics.]

(Above:) T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1 (Nov 1965) came out just before Pete’s similarly sounding Peter Cannon…Thunderbolt #1 (Jan 1966). Art by Wally Wood. [TM & © John Carbonaro.]

time, Tuska was drawing the comic strip Buck Rogers and had begun working again for Stan Lee. Tuska, like most new Marvel artists at the time, began by working over Kirby layouts. His first 1960s Marvel work was a “Tales of the Watcher” story for Tales of Suspense #58 (Nov. 1964), shortly before Pete’s response: (Undated, 1965) Dear Glen— No, I don’t think Pat Masulli is “P.M.” because “P.M.” is really PAM, who

(Undated, 1965)

Dear Glen—

Pat [Masulli, Pete’s editor] told me that he put “P.A.M.” as the credit reading for T-Bolt! He goofed! I had hopes of bluffing my way through with PAM as a name, now with the periods added, the same old thing will start again! Who is P.A.M.? What’s the name? How can P.A.M. stand for George Tuska? Etc. Etc. Etc.!

There ain’t no justice!

Truly, Pete Morisi

In Praise Of PAM—Part 5

Dear Glen—

(Undated, 1965)

Pat Masulli’s a good guy, don’t be harsh on him. He handles other stuff for Charlton, and is usually “up to here” with work. He knows his stuff—but just doesn’t have enough time to concentrate on one thing, given the time—he’d probably be another Stan Lee. I never did costume stuff [super-heroes] for Timely, or anybody else, now that I think of it (except for “future” [sci-fi] stories), but no steady character. Who knows, you may not care from my “hero” stuff if and when it does come out.

Yours, Pete Morisi

Dear Glen—

(Undated, late 1965)

I’m still behind, but if I don’t answer a letter within one or two days after getting it, it usually takes weeks to get around to it again. Let me try to answer questions as you asked them— The second story of T-Bolt has about six pages to go! As far as I know, there will be a third issue, but who knows after that? (It takes about three issues before an outfit can get the final sales result on issue #1). Now you can see why putting out a new book is a gamble!

T-Bolt #1 isn’t on sale yet, but should be soon.

I (Ugh!) did the Invisible Man (I didn’t see the [IW] reprint, but I guess it’s the same one). It was done for the “Dubin Brothers,” an outfit in New Jersey, who wanted to get into comics (they are

11

printers) but “chickened-out” after putting out three issues. My only regret there is that everything was rush-rush and I had to “knock out” three complete pages a day—and it looked it!

Steel Sterling was one of my favorites in the old days, when Biro and then Novick did it, but I’m sure that MLJ will kill it once and for all, this time around.

Too bad. I was going to approach MLJ about a year or so ago, with the idea of letting me revive the thing for them, but I was too darn busy.

That’s it, Pete MTG: Steel Sterling was an old MLJ (Archie) hero that the company revived in 1965 as part of their new “Mighty Comics” line. Most were drawn by Paul Reinman and written in a tone-deaf pseudo-Stan Lee style by Jerry Siegel. PAM’s misgivings were well deserved.

The “Invisible Man” comic PAM refers to was a 1963 IW reprint of Nesbit Publishing’s’ Superior Stories #1 (May 1955), adapting the famous H.G. Wells novel. PAM signed his full name on this one. Oh, and Nesbit actually published four issues of the title, not three.

Hiya Glen—

(Undated, late 1965)

Thanks for letting me off the hook by saying ‘there’s no hurry in answering,’ as I’ve been kind of squeezed the past two or three weeks.

Well, T-Bolt #2 is finished… now to start thinking about #3. I haven’t seen #1 in printed form yet, though Pat says the proofs look snazzy! I hope the public likes it.

As for copyright (T-Bolt and Thunder Agents), it gets pretty involved. Actually, you can’t copyright any word in the English language, so what we’re dealing with here is the basic idea—as opposed to a name. As far as I’m concerned, Peter Cannon…

THUNDERBOLT stays, no matter what.

Lord Of The Comicbook Jungle At one point PAM hoped to draw “Tarzan” for Charlton, but that was not to be. Pat Masulli, Pete’s first T-Bolt editor, illustrated this striking cover to Jungle Tales of Tarzan #1 (Dec. 1964). Pat had the same initials as Pete, which made some fans suspect that he was the mysterious PAM, as seen in the top-of-page letters-page excerpt from Thunderbolt. Sadly, we couldn’t locate any photos of Masulli. [Tarzan name & material TM & © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.]

12

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Pete Morisi’s Superior Stories In 1955, Pete drew cover and interiors for Nesbit (a.k.a. “Dubin Brothers”?) for all four issues of Superior Stories, which attempted to be a poor man’s Classics Illustrated, all with unidentified scripters: #1 (May-June) adapting H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man… #2 (July-Aug.) featuring Joseph Holt Ingraham’s novel The Pirate of the Gulf… #3 (Sept.Oct.) spotlighting William Clark Russell’s The Wreck of the Grosvenor… and #4 (Nov.Dec.) with O. Henry’s The Texas Ranger. In 2016 Boardman Books combined all these, plus a “Thunderbolt” page and a “Johnny Dynamite” story, in its collection Pete Morisi’s Superior Stories. Thanks to the Grand Comics Database. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

In Praise Of PAM—Part 5

Actually, you can put out a book called Superman (if you change the costume and basic storyline) and get away with it—legally. Here’s the rub, though… DC could take you to court anyway and cause you to go through more loot than ten years’ profits on the Superman title.

You’d win, but it would cost you. (I finally got a thing copyrighted, although it took me about a year. But I’ll have something to work on if T-Bolt doesn’t make it).

As for your buddy, Richard Kyle, thanks anyway but I’m a loner.

He sounds like a brain, but writing is a very personal thing… and I’ve got to do this the way I ‘feel’ it. The character (T-Bolt) is a flexible one, and I’m still ‘kicking around’ how to develop it. If the strip doesn’t make it, I’ll only have myself to blame. I know one thing for sure; I don’t want a ‘mild-mannered reporter’ or ‘wealthy playboy’ type of dual personality. I want to put some ‘teeth’ in my ‘out of costume’ character, although I’ve only hinted at it in the first two issues. Writing doesn’t some easy to me, but I’m thickheaded, as well as a loner.

Sorry to hear that Reinman will do ‘Sterling.’ He’s good for certain strips… but not that one. I would have enjoyed doing it—but you can’t have everything. I’ll forward you a copy of T-Bolt when I get it. (I hope you don’t mind a ‘PAM’ autograph. You may show it around and that wouldn’t do.)

13

I enjoyed the R. Crandall article in TCR, as well as all of TCR. See ya, Peter Morisi MTG: At various times Glen suggested that Pete could get caught up on his deadlines by using stories by (ahem!) him and other fan writers—including the above-mentioned Richard Kyle, publisher of the respected fanzine Graphic Story World. Pete preferred to go solo.

Dear Glen—

(Undated, late 1965)

Hope you received the T-Bolt I sent you and hope you liked it!

If the T-Bolt title weren’t on the stands, or if I knew that such a title was ‘in the works’ by another company, I wouldn’t have used it. As it is, the title is an original one as far as I’m concerned. Let the chips fall where they may!

As for bare legs… I like ‘em—makes a costume look neat and compact, to my way of thinking! If it makes T-Bolt look ‘queer,’ then Doll Man, Plastic Man, Hercules, and about twenty old-time heroes are guilty of being ‘that way’!

The copyrighted thing I mentioned is another hero but I have no idea of trying to develop or ‘sell’ him at this time! I’m just too darn busy!

I don’t know the ‘real’ Adam Austin offhand, but the work is familiar, although I can’t place it! Your suggestions are worth thinking about—I’ll add them to the dozen or so I’m kicking around!

I figured Woody was pulling something like you mentioned! His stuff lately, although good, didn’t strike me as 100% Woody.

Poor Jerry Siegel. It’s a tough climb to the top—but a quick drop to the bottom!

As for a T-Bolt letter page, I’m pretty sure there will be one, although Pat has the last word there! I’ve noticed lately that the Beetle letter page has been dumped… maybe it’s too much of an added chore for Pat! Sorry [about] your trips into Gallup. I’ve checked the stands in Brooklyn, and T-Bolt isn’t here either! (The copy I sent you was one of five that Pat sent me).

Let me know what you think of T-Bolt, huh, good or bad?

That’s it, Pete Morisi MTG: One winces at Pete’s “queer” reference, but the ’60s were a different time—and Pete is not lambasting gays, only “quoting in advance” what others might say. Another difference was the way cartoonists sometimes felt forced to hide their real names.

Many feared repercussions if they were caught working for rival companies. In this case, Gene Colan went under the name “Adam Austin’ when he drew for Marvel.

Glen also seems to have clued PAM in to the fact that Dan Adkins and others were secretly assisting Wally Wood with his “T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents” stories. Back then, insider gossip was hard to find.

Monkeying Around PAM’s cover for Peter Cannon… Thunderbolt, Vol. 3, #52 (June 1966)—really only the third issue. [Peter Cannon… Thunderbolt TM & © Estate of Pete Morisi; published story © DC Comics.]

Pete’s comment about Jerry Siegel suggest that those in the business were also hip to Jerry’s suing DC over the rights to Superman, losing that part of the case (though he and artist Joe Shuster did temporarily get back the rights to Superboy), and thus getting fired by DC. In 1967 Siegel sued DC again and was blackballed a second time. It was a far cry from the wealth and fame he and Joe Shuster had enjoyed in the late ’30s and early ’40s.

14

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Dear Glen—

(Undated, late 1965)

Here’s some hush-hush info—I think Pat is ready to give up the “comics end” of Charlton and turn it over to his assistant, Bill Anderson, a nice guy. It’s not definite yet. I’ve (don’t yell) already turned it down twice! My “other” work prevents me from taking it.

That’s it, see ya. Pete (Undated, Dec. 1965) Dear Glen— Up to here in work. Yeah, T-Bolt #3 story is finally finished… just about to start the art.

Wanted to let you know that Dick Giordano is the new (Charlton) comics editor (not Bill Anderson).

The Evila Dead?

The evil Evila, back from the dead! She debuted in T-Bolt’s second adventure in Thunderbolt V3#51 (March 1966). Hubba, hubba! [TM & © DC Comics.]

Dick will be named officially this week.

(Undated, 1966)

Adam Austin—Gene Colan sounds right, although he’s improved a lot.

Dear Glen—

As for the Spirit being a fill-in in T-Bolt… No! No! No! That strip deserves its own book! I wouldn’t consider it as a filler for any book.

Nope, I haven’t used Zip-a-tone yet on T- Bolt… no time! In fact, I’ll be two weeks late on issue #4!

T-Bolt #2 will have a brief “origin” of the Hooded One. Also, he’ll revive “Princess Evila, Sorceress of the Nile” to give T-Bolt problems.

Dick is willing to go along with white boots on T-Bolt… but isn’t sold on the second logo bit!

Haven’t seen Nature Boy, or Judomaster for that matter… Charlton has a nice way of telling me nothing! Oh yeah, they did tell me one thing, all the mail, re: T-Bolt, has been great!

Then I’ll drop the Hooded One for an issue or two, to wait for some reader reaction. If they want him back, okay… If not… bye-bye! (That’s assuming that T-Bolt goes past three issues.)

I’ve been thinking of a dual-personality type villain for T-Bolt, and when my ideas “jell,” I’ll use it!

That’s it! Pete-

T-Bolt #3 has Gore the Man-Ape as the bad guy! He’s got the paw of an ape grafted to him after an accident and eventually goes mad for power… until T-Bolt steps in!

(12/24/65) Dear Glen— It’s official—Dick’s in.

Also, a housecleaning coming up. B.B., Vulcan, S. Steel, all being dumped. Ditko no longer with Stan—he quit!

MTG: Nature Boy and Judomaster were two minor Charlton heroes. In fact, Nature Boy only appeared in three issues in the late ’50s, illustrated by future Marvel superstar John Buscema.

That’s it, gotta rush. I’m behind… as usual.

Pete Morisi

(Undated, around spring 1966)

MTG: Ditko leaving Marvel?

Now that’s a scoop, Glen! And so was the fact that Charlton was axing Blue Beetle, Son of Vulcan, and Sarge Steel.

As for Dick Giordano, he quickly became one of Charlton’s most popular editors. It’s interesting to note that PAM was offered, and declined, the editorial spot twice… and eventually three times!

See ya, Pete

Dear Glen— Sorry you didn’t like #3 as much as #2, but I tried. The “family friends” say #3 is the best so far. I guess only time will tell. #4 is about “The Tong,” who have a tank-like machine with a corkscrew nose that bores beneath the earth to steal and plunder. There are the normal run of bad guys, plus sumo wrestlers and a secret mountain hideout to keep things moving. (It was rushed—I did the best I could.)

And He Doesn’t Look A Thing Like Nat “King” Cole!

Nature Boy #3 (March 1956) sported a (signed!) John Buscema cover. It was actually the first issue. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Dick couldn’t squeeze in a letter page in #3… but it will be in #4.

No, I didn’t swipe the Flame’s origin. It’s all mine. What is The Flame’s origin?? Is it like

In Praise Of PAM—Part 5

15

T-Bolt’s? I have a few early Flames, but none of them explain the origin.

Uh-huh, I saw the Tuska Eerie (or was it Creepy?)—I agree, I expected more. Rocky’s stuff was great. [MTG NOTE: Charlton artist Rocke Mastroserio.] Jay Taycee has to be the old EC artist Johnny Craig. [Manny] Stallman did work for the old Stan Lee mags, plus (I think) for DC. At one time he was on the order of a Jack Kirby.

I’m having trouble meeting the generous deadline Charlton gives me. I doubt if I can even approach the Warren mags… or Stan’s stuff for that matter. No time at all!

I don’t want to mix T-Bolt with Blue Beetle, or any other hero, if I can help it. Everybody’s doing it, and I don’t want to join the club if I can avoid it. Besides, Dick says he might re-vamp B.B., and give him limited powers, etc., so he’ll have special plans for that strip.

That’s it, Pete.

MTG: Glen got a bit of a scoop, as the super-powered version of Blue Beetle (by Gill, Tallarico, and Fraccio) was soon replaced by Steve Ditko’s updated, more human model.

PAM asked about the origin of Fox’s “The Flame,” after Glen noted its similarity to T-Bolt in a previous letter. The Flame’s origin had young Gary Preston raised by Tibetan lamas after his father (a missionary ministering to the Chinese) perished in a flood. The holy men then raised and trained him in their mystical ways. Preston learned to control fire, becoming a super-hero in the process.

T-Bolt’s origin paralleled that. As a boy, Peter Cannon was also raised and trained by Tibetan monks, and learned to perform superhuman feats by harnessing his mental abilities. Still, if T-Bolt had similarities to The Flame, so did many comicbook magicians from Mr. Mystic and Amazing-Man to Dr. Strange.

Chapter 2

Deadline Woes!

In this chapter Pete struggles with demanding deadlines and that lousy Comics Code!

…Like Moths Around A “Flame” The premier appearance of Fox’s “The Flame,” from Wonderworld Comics #3 (July 1939). Art credited to Will Eisner and Lou Fine. Glen Johnson noted some similarities to T-Bolt’s origin. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Dear Glen—

(Undated, around April 1966)

I haven’t forgotten you, but up until a few hours ago, I’ve been on T-Bolt #4, without let up. When I get so far behind on a thing, all contact with family and friends stops until I catch up. [MTG NOTE: Pete crossed out the following sentence:] Forgive the mistakes. I haven’t slept in 48 hours.

Here’s some “possible” changes with Charlton—the lead stories may be shortened by a couple of pages, and some advertising dropped so that the “fillers” can be a full 10 pages in their own right.

This could be a very good thing. Judomaster may have Sgt. Steel as a filler, and Blue Beetle and Son of Vulcan may be updated and changed and used as fillers. Also, Dick hinted that Ditko may take on the Blue Boy. The above is in the “maybe” stage of planning, so I wouldn’t print it if I were you.

T-Bolt #4 will have a letter page. Sorry to cut this short, but rush jobs (T-Bolt) knock me out. Gotta Sleep!

Pete

Big Bad Rocky Mastroserio!

Pete poked fun at his pal cartoonist Rocke Mastroserio in this panel from Lash LaRue Western #69 (Sept. 1958). PAM specialized in Westerns before he created T-Bolt. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

MTG: Hopefully Glen reported PAM’s scoop, as Ditko did indeed revamp the Beetle for Blue Beetle #1 (June 1967).

16

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

(Undated, late 1966) Dear Glen— I’ll answer this letter quick, but you can expect a delay on the next one…

I’m already behind on #5.

Many thanks for The Flame thing. It does resemble T-Bolt at that.

Actually, I’m glad I didn’t know the Flame’s origin, or T-Bolt would have either been a closer copy, or I would have gone off in a different direction altogether.

I had great hopes for The Tong—but ran into trouble. #1 Couldn’t get any good information on the Tong Wars that existed in this country. #2 Dick [Giordano] said “No Dice” on hatchet men and axes.

That lousy Code. #3 NO TIME… had to rush the art… and couldn’t really develop the character the way I wanted to.

Beetle-Mania!

(Left:) Blue Beetle, Vol. 2, #5 (March 1965), drawn by Bill Fraccio and Tony Tallarico. Script by Joe Gill.

(Right:) Steve Ditko’s brilliant revamp of the series. From Blue Beetle #1 (June 1967). Script by D.C. Glanzman, probably from a Ditko plot. [Blue Beetle TM & © DC Comics.]

Sonofagun, you’re pretty sharp, Glen, as I recall (issue 3 page 16, panel 6) was a Kirby swipe. I’ll have to watch it in the future, with fans like you around.

Getting back to The Flame, I tried to buy that title from Charlton (before I started T-Bolt) and the deal was almost set, until the lawyers looked into the ownership rights. Then the roof fell in. Charlton doesn’t have a clear-cut ownership to the thing. There’s another party involved who claims partial rights to it. For me to buy it would mean lawyers, lawyers, and more lawyers, so I forgot about it. Too bad, I would have enjoyed doing it.

Back To The Drawing Board!

Pete at work, surrounded by original art from his collection. Say, aren’t those an Alex Raymond Rip Kirby and an Alfred Andriola Kerry Drake in the background? On his board is Pete’s splash for a new “T-Bolt” origin story for DC’s Secret Origins, drawn in 1988 but not published until 2012. [© 2019 Estate of Pete Morisi.]

I haven’t read [Russ] Manning’s review—but I agree with him already. Feiffer didn’t really do a good job on that book. Too sketchy. He spent a lot of time on unimportant things, and too little time on the things that mattered. Also,

In Praise Of PAM—Part 5

17

An Old Flame Ajax-Farrell briefly revived Fox’s The Flame in the mid-1950s. Pictured here is the cover to #3 (May 1955), the final issue, with art by the Iger Studio (including perhaps Ken Battefield). A few years later, PAM tried to buy the rights to the character, but it was no go. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

he gave too much credit to a lot of people that didn’t deserve it.

Pete MTG: Above, Pete’s referring to Feiffer’s 1965 book The Great Comic Book Heroes, which reprinted a number of 1940s super-hero comic stories.

Earlier in the letter, Peter discusses editor Dick Giordano nixing PAM’s killer Tong gang. In real life, the Tong was a secret Chinese society, often associated with thugs and murderers. Sounds juicy, huh? Unfortunately (or not, depending on your perspective!), no murderous “hatchet men” were likely to pass the Comics Code in 1966. The Tong gang, as published in the comic, were your typical dumb American crooks—not the “slant-eyed yellow peril” villains so popular in the ’40s. Even the Tong leader looked pretty darn white-bread!

We also see that PAM mistakenly thought Charlton had rights to The Flame. Fox Publications published the 40s version, and Ajax-Farrell did a short-lived revival in the mid-50s, but Charlton never did.

However, in the mid-’50s, Charlton began buying properties from a number of publishers who were leaving the business— including the Blue Beetle, another hero originally published by Victor Fox. Charlton apparently thought they had purchased rights to The Flame when they bought the Beetle. But Charlton balked at selling when they discovered that “another party” might be able to contest ownership to The Flame.

Dear Glen–-

(Undated, late 1966)

Just finished #5, after a straight 48-hour push. (No sleep in two

days and two nights… Whew!).

Imagine, only 2½ weeks behind my original postponement.

Now to answer your letter— T-Bolt came into being after I bawled out Pat Masulli for not letting me do Blue Beetle. He mentioned there was an opening for a “one shot” costume hero super-type strip at Charlton. I said okay, I’d submit ideas. Then came the long process of thinking.

How to do a super hero and not make him super? I knocked myself out thinking and finally came up with an origin for T-Bolt. Then the same process was repeated in figuring out a name, and once again for a costume. I created Tabu, so that T-Bolt would have someone to talk to. Sounds simple as I tell it, but it was work, work, work!

Caught In The Act Glen Johnson caught PAM swiping a Jack Kirby panel—and Pete readily …er…copped to it. It wasn’t the first time, as we see by flipping this Simon & Kirby splash page from Prize’s Fighting American #1 (April 1954) and comparing it to Pete’s cover to Peter Cannon… Thunderbolt #1 (Jan. 1966). Always steal from the best! [Fighting American TM & © Estates of Joe Simon & Jack Kirby; Peter Cannon… Thunderbolt TM & © Estate of Pete Morisi.]

Charlton and I never discussed ownership… so I don’t know who owns it. It really isn’t important now… only if it becomes another Superman. Then we’ll talk.

18

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

My reason for mentioning the T-Bolt origin over and over again is simply this: Charlton has been having trouble with distribution.

Sometimes loads of books are sent to, let’s say, California, where the things aren’t even unwrapped and never get on the stands. Then the distributor sends them back and says ‘nah, they didn’t sell,’ and collects his commission anyway.

This situation is being straightened out now but until the Charlton books get a fair shake, I want to explain to new readers what T-Bolt is all about.

I’m meeting Dick in NYC tomorrow to discuss the future of T-Bolt. I might just press him for a full costume (covered legs) for T-Bolt. Say, Glen, you let me know the origin of The Flame recently.

Can you do the same for the original Daredevil?

See ya, Pete.

MTG: Pete was a great cartoonist, but not much of a businessman if he imagined Charlton publisher John Santiangelo would share ownership if T-Bolt ever became a runaway success. Siegel and Shuster had found out about publishers the hard way.

It’s interesting to note that Pete was angling to draw “The Blue Beetle.” The team of Joe Gill, Bill Fraccio, and Tony Tallarico had produced a revival from 1964-1965 that was (let’s be kind!) not fully embraced by comic fans. It’s fascinating to imagine what Pete could have done with the character. Knowing his fondness for Golden Age comics, he might even have tried to pitch a version wearing the chain-mail costume from the character’s earliest days at Fox. In a letter sent to Glen in late 1964 or early ’65, Pete shared

“That Lousy Code!”

T-Bolt tackles the evil Tong in issue #4 (Aug. 1966) of his Charlton mag.

However, the murderous Tong gang look more like Mafia thugs, having lost most of their ethnic content after Charlton censored PAM’s story. The dreaded Comics Code was one villain even Thunderbolt couldn’t beat! [Page TM & © DC Comics.]

why he didn’t get the Beetle gig: ”As for Blue Beetle, I missed getting that only because Pat Masulli didn’t want to shake up the mags that were going okay. But I’m not thru yet (keep writing him!). The above also applies to the Tarzan Charlton put out.”

PAM’s letter suggests he’d also hoped to draw the short-lived Jungle Tales of Tarzan comic, ably illustrated by Sam Glanzman, cover-dated from Dec 1964 to July 1965. However, editor Masulli valued Pete’s work on “Gunmaster,” “Kid Montana,” and other Western characters, and was reluctant to pull him off those titles.

Another missed opportunity for Pete.

Dear Glen-

Kooky Krossover!

Pete failed to get the Blue Beetle gig during the Gill/Tallarico/Fraccio era at Charlton; but when he got his own series, Pete slyly arranged a one-page crossover with the Beetle’s alter ego, Dan Garrett. From Thunderbolt V3#51 (March 1966). [Panel TM & © DC Comics; Peter Cannon… Thunderbolt TM & © Estate of Pete Morisi.]

(Undated, 1966)

Just finished a day or so ago, but I was so late (the next issue is due in about one and a half weeks) that I drove up to Charlton to deliver it. Gave me a chance to see Dick, Pat, and Rocky [Rocke] Mastroserio. Nice “get-together.”

For Dick’s sake (deadlines, etc.), I offered to give up T-Bolt, let

In Praise Of PAM—Part 5

19

someone else do it. But he said, “No, if you stop doing it, I’m dropping the book.” So I’ll keep doing it and try to pick up speed… someplace.

As I mentioned before, I really sweat over my stories.

Now as for giving Peter a “problem,” I just don’t know. I realize that Marvel thrives on that gimmick… but DC does OK without it. So does The Spirit, Fighting American, etc. In any event, Dick said no. The fan mail likes T-Bolt the way he is (and this includes the most “adult” mail that Charlton has ever gotten). It’s starting to click, keep your fingers crossed.

If T-Bolt can get enough exposure on the stands… we’re in!

T-Bolt will stay at 15 pages until I can catch up, then it’s back to 18 pages. I guess The Sentinels will pick up the other pages.

I don’t mean to make Tabu a ‘funny-man’… I just like a little sneaky humor in the strip now and then.

And keeping his turban on—under all conditions— makes the reader (I hope!) smile a little. Naturally, I intend to keep his style of talking in the strip, and add to it if I can. Peter, as I mentioned, will get a girlfriend eventually.

Guess that’s it. Thanks for pushing T-Bolt!

Truly—Pete MTG: Morisi’s statement about “picking up speed… someplace” was whistling in the dark. Writing and drawing 15 pages in a little over a week would be kid stuff for a speed demon like Mike Sekowsky or Jack Davis, but not Pete. Glen offered to help him get ahead by scripting a “T-Bolt” story, but PAM politely declined.

It’s worth noting that PAM drew 20-page “T-Bolt” stories for the first four issues. Then the story-count dropped to 18 pages with number five.

Three 15-page issues followed (with a “Sentinels” backup filling out the books), before reverting back to 18 pages for the final three issues (only one

by Pete). Despite editor Giordano’s best efforts to accommodate him, Pete kept getting further behind.

Dear Glen—

(Undated, 1966)

I have a collection of old books and originals, but the books are in bad shape. (As a kid, I didn’t have room for books, so… I tore out the stories I liked and threw out a lot of “now valuable” stuff).

I Want My Mummy!

T-Bolt gets “wrapped up” battling the Mummy in his 6th case. From Peter Cannon…

Thunderbolt, Vol. 3, #55 (Dec. 1966). [Page TM & © DC Comics; hero TM & © Estate of Pete Morisi.]

No covered legs for T-Bolt… at least for a while. Dick likes it just the way it is. T-Bolt #5 pits Peter Cannon against the Hooded One, the Mongol bandits, the Pygmy warriors, and prehistoric monsters, all in one issue (whew)! The plot is a simple one, but I want to get your “un-informed” reaction.

I wasn’t happy with T-Bolt #4, as I told you; I had a few good hatchet fights in mind. Dick said “no”… and then “deadline time” was against me. Don’t know if I mentioned the following in my last letter…

I was kind of punchy when I wrote it, but…

The powers will be changed on Capt. Atom and the Blue Beetle.

The B.B. will now have a “beetle-shaped” super car.

There’ll be a companion feature to T-Bolt… “The Sentinels”… or something—pretty bad from what I’ve seen (folk singers who come on like the Fantastic Four). Ugh! The Fightin’ Five will have a girl with them. That’s about all I can think of… wasn’t crazy about the Daredevil origin (R. Durell didn’t give any credit to Jack Cole, who really put life and action into the strip. Biro only refined it, then let it die by featuring the Little Wise Guys). (They were good enough for a strip of their own… but so was Daredevil). That’s it for now.

See ya, Pete

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

“Folk Singers Who Come On Like The Fantastic Four. Ugh!” Pete complained about T-Bolt’s new backup strip, “The Sentinels,” written by Gary Friedrich and drawn by Sam Grainger. This splash page appeared in Peter Cannon…Thunderbolt, Vol. 3, #54 (Oct. 1966). It was their first appearance. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

MTG: It’s clear that Pete was really into comicbook history, and enjoyed corresponding with a like-minded fan. By now Glen was no longer editing The Comic Reader, though I’m sure he happily passed any hot scoops to the new editor.

However, I have to disagree with Pete’s assessment of Charles Biro, who edited, wrote, and sometimes drew the Golden Age Daredevil. In retrospect, replacing Daredevil with the Wise Guys in later issues of his comic was a smart move.

Super-heroes were on their last legs by 1950, and converting Daredevil’s book into a lighter kid-gang vehicle likely gave the series a few more years. But, as a super-hero fan, I also preferred Biro’s gritty, 1940s Daredevil to the more kid-friendly version Lev Gleason published in the wake of the Comics Code. The comic lasted until 1956, when Gleason pulled the plug on his entire comicbook line.

A Whitney Sampler (Left:) Skyman #2 cover (Nov. 1942) by Golden Age cartoonist Ogden Whitney. Pete liked him! [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

(Right:) A Whitney splash from Tower’s NoMan #1 (Nov. 1966). [TM & © John Carbonaro.]

The drawing of Whitney is from a 1960s ACG Comic. [© the respective copyright holders.]

In Praise Of PAM—Part 5

Dear Glen—

21

(Undated, 1966)

Ogden Whitney had a funny kind of career! In the beginning he was extra good, then, for quite a few years—he was great! Then all of a sudden, when he seemed to be at his very peak, he stopped turning out the good, well-drawn stuff and took the simple line approach to things! I never cared for the line stuff, but his Skyman and his earlier stuff was great!

Truly, Pete Morisi

Dear Glen—

(Undated, late 1966)

I once wrote to you and mentioned that Ogden Whitney was a much better artist than what he’s been turning out lately… and even NoMan is far from his best.

As for T-Bolt #7 (story is done, just starting on the art) the title is “Beware… The Cobra,” about a villain who uses a special cobravenom formula that turns men into slaves. Pretty good story I think… but I’ll wait for your comments on that.

I don’t believe in “speed-lines” or even sound effects—they’re not “true to life”—and I refuse to use them… unless of course an editor insists. Some fans have mentioned that my art suffers because of that… while others claim that it “makes” the whole thing seem real.

I guess it’s a toss-up as to who’s right.

I used to change a lot of balloon conversation in the past, when the lettering was done last—now the lettering is done first—so I have to be certain that whatever I write… is right.

Beware… The Cobra!

(Above:) PAM’s splash for Thunderbolt V3#56 (Feb. 1967).

This was story #7. [Page TM & © DC Comics; Peter Cannon… Thunderbolt TM & © Estate of Pete Morisi.]

While we’re on the subject, Charlton has a new lettering typewriter—and T-Bolt #7 is set for it! Don’t flip… it looks pretty good.

Sorry for this quickie… but I gotta rush.

Pete (Undated, late 1966) Dear Glen—

Pete Swipes Pete!

We’ve flipped this early T-Bolt sketch by Pete in order to show the similarity to PAM’s cover to Thunderbolt V3#55 (Dec. 1966), the 6th issue. Pete wasn’t crazy about it at first, but it grew on him. Note the holster in the earlier version. [Cover TM & © DC Comics; Peter Cannon…

Thunderbolt TM & © Estate of Pete Morisi.]

Glad you liked the Mummy thing [MTG NOTE: story #6]… although I didn’t care for the coloring or print job, I think the book as a whole stands up pretty well.

The cover was a swipe of the sketch I sent you, which in

22

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

battle, particularly since PAM stubbornly refused to work with others. That inflexible attitude led to Pete losing control of his strip.

These letters show the difficult spot Pete found himself in.

turn as a swipe of the original drawing I sent to Charlton when I first tried to sell them the T-Bolt strip.

I have a “thing” about Egypt and mummies… the subject never fails to interest me.

You’re right about the Code, of course… but Evila wasn’t handled like a horror strip. I tried to make her coming back to life an almost natural thing. As for the mummy—he was never dead, remember? Suspended animation was my “out” on that story. The Code really objects to the living-dead… or zombies.

Dear Glen—

(Undated, 1966)

Sorry I can’t say yes to your writing suggestion, but I’m too darn fussy, grouchy, particular, grumpy, picky, etc., when it comes to T-Bolt. Believe me, we’d be enemies in a couple of weeks if I said yes.

I’d like to keep you as a friend and critic if you don’t mind. Don’t take this as a knock of your ability, I really mean what I wrote above.

You’re right about “Peter Cannon’s problem” being, in a sense, a Marvel-type gimmick, but what I meant to say was that I don’t believe in overdoing it—a la Iron Man, who’s always looking for an empty socket to plug into. I like to mention Peter’s “problem” once or twice per issue (mainly for new readers) and forget about it.

Police Officer Pete A. Morisi

on duty in the 1960s. [© Estate of Pete I haven’t been 100% Morisi.] happy with the T-Bolt art, but I refuse to give up on the details (bricks, striped shirts, backgrounds etc.) that mean so much to a strip.

If you really want me to ask Dick about your script I will… but that means that you won’t be able to pass on any inside info that I give you in the future. Let me know.

Speaking of inside info—this will answer all your questions about my being behind. T-Bolt #8, I’m sorry to say, will be written and drawn by a Charlton artist, “Boyette,” who did the Peacemaker in the Nov. “Fightin’ 5.”

I didn’t like the idea, and neither does Dick—but it has to be done… I’ve fallen too far behind. Dick, at first, wanted to get me a writer, or a penciler, or an inker, or anything that would help me… but I told him how I felt about the T-Bolt strip. If I can’t do it my way, I didn’t want to do it.

T-Bolt is done in bits and pieces (remember, I’ve got other work that, sorry to say, comes first). Sometimes I pencil one page per day and sometimes it’s one panel! Same goes with writing… sometimes a story takes weeks. I usually throw out about ten good plots before one “feels” right.

I haven’t been able to come up with a “set formula” like Marvel—and I think that fact is the answer to T-Bolt’s success… there is no formula. When a thing “feels” right—do it! Until then—suffer, yell at your wife, scold the kids, and pull out your hair. This past week has been like that! I’m lucky to have an understanding family who gets quiet around me, saying “oh-oh, he’s writing again!”

That’s it, Pete

Dear Glen—

(Undated, late 1966)

Am in the process of plotting T-Bolt #9, so let me beg off the pencil sketches for awhile, huh?

Saw Dick the other day (he comes in to NYC once a week) and

Even re-writing someone else’s script would take time… and I feel that the reader wouldn’t be getting what he’s come to expect with my stuff. (I’m not patting myself on the back, it’s just that I want the name PAM to mean something…someday). If I felt differently, I would have considered your script. Sorry, but I can’t help the way I feel. I only hope I can keep up to date starting with #9.

More info—the Sentinels writer, [Gary] Friedrich, has switched over to Stan Lee. He’ll only be doing part-time stuff for Charlton.

That’s about it.

See ya, Pete MTG: As we see from Pete’s comments, it took a bit of ingenuity to get around the nitpicky Comics Code. And deadlines continued to plague him. By 1967 editor Giordano was forced to use a Pat Boyette fill-in story. Pete was understandably upset, but Boyette actually did a nice job, especially on a short deadline.

And Pat’s static style was somewhat in sync with Pete’s.

Chapter 3

Farewell, T-Bolt!

Not A “Funny-man”?

By 1967, Pete’s deadline problems came to a head. Despite editor Giordano’s efforts to keep Morisi on his strip, it was a losing

Tabu and T-Bolt, from Peter Cannon… Thunderbolt V3#54 (Oct. 1966).

[Panel TM & © DC Comics; characters TM & © Estate of Pete Morisi.]

In Praise Of PAM—Part 5

23

he mentioned that he’s thinking of “personalizing” most of his books.

That is, setting up a hero, or a format for his titles (war, romance, westerns, etc.)

Dick mentioned that one of the zines spilled the beans about PAM, but he says that the readers (non-zine guys) still don’t know who I am, and he’ll keep it that way.

Oh yeah, Dick also mentioned that he’s not crazy over the “flip lingo” used in The Sentinels, so if you give it a try [submitting a script] don’t go overboard on the Stan Lee dialog, OK? Dick will also be putting out a book (don’t know the title) in which he’ll feature new strips. Sort of a “Showcase” thing like DC. If any of the strips catch on, it’ll be made into a regular Charlton thing.

Get busy, Glen—think and write!

See ya, PeteMTG: The comic Dick Giordano mentioned was Charlton Premiere, which featured new features by upcoming talents like Richard “Grass” Green (“The Shape”), Denny O’Neil (“Children of Doom”), and Pat Boyette (“Spookman”). The first issue was cover-dated

Prehistoric Pete Morisi drew this cool cover to Peter Cannon… Thunderbolt, Vol. 3, #58 (July 1967), case #9. This image is of the cover from the 1970s reprinting

by Modern Comics, a Charlton imprint. [cover TM & © DC Comics; Peter Cannon… Thunderbolt TM & © Estate of Pete Morisi.]

September 1967. Pete encouraged Glen, an aspiring comicbook writer, to submit scripts.

Then there was the ongoing matter of Pete’s nom de plume.

When some fan revealed PAM’s real name (likely by comparing the style to his early signed work), no one outside comics seemed to notice—and few inside!

Dear Glen—

(Undated, Dec 1966)

It’s taken me all this time to come up with a story plot for T-Bolt [case number] 0009. That ought to prove how picky I am. I just mentally rejected a dozen other ideas that I spent days on.

Premiere—And, Alas, Swan Song Charlton Premiere #1 (Sept. 1967), Charlton’s short-lived answer to DC’s Showcase. Cover art by Richard Green (The Shape), Pat Boyette (Spookman), Bill Montes & Ernie Bache (Tyro Team). [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Good luck with your Sentinels (etc.) [script proposals]. At least one of us is producing. As for T-Bolt (when I iron out the bugs) he’ll face the Hooded One, in the Lost Valley beyond the caves of the peaks. Also a goil will be introduced!

Many thanks for all your nominations [MTG NOTE: Most likely the fan Alley Awards]. Frankly, I’d like to win something, mainly to justify Charlton’s faith in me. Dick has allowed me a free hand 99% of the time.

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

T-Bolt 0009 will be 18 pages… until I fall behind again. The yearly Charlton Christmas get-together takes place this coming Wednesday (Dec. 7th) in NYC. I’ll let you know if anything new pops up. Hey—T-Bolt is a year old!

See ya, Pete –– PS: I never recall signing any of the stuff I did for Charlton (aside from PM), but now that I think of it, Charlton did buy some work from other outfits years ago, and my signed work was included.

That’s what sprung the leak. No matter, I’m still sticking to PAM from here on in!

MTG: Pete was referring to signed inventory stories from Comic Media’s Danger and Johnny Dynamite, published by Charlton in the mid-’50s.

With Pat Boyette filling in on issue #8, PAM used the extra time to increase issue #9’s page count from 15 pages to 18.

Dear Glen—

(Undated Dec 1966)

Sorry you didn’t care (100%) for T-Bolt #7. I was about 80%

Don’t Tell George Lucas About This One! PAM’s Hooded One from Thunderbolt V3#51 (March 1966), T-Bolt’s 2nd story. The hero main villain-foe was (surprise!) inspired by Dr. Doom!

[Panel TM & © DC Comics; character TM & © Estate of Pete Morisi.]

pleased with the way it came out. I thought the story was pretty good, the color a lot better, and the art more effective, than some past issues. I agree, however, with your comments about the cover—it was a rush-rush thing—and the color was pretty sad.

Nothing really new at the Charlton party, except that the comic line has improved about 10% over last year. That is, Charlton has picked up, while the other outfits (still doing better sales than Charlton) remained about the same. Saw Chic Stone at the party, I guess he’s in the fold.

Guess that’s about it. I’m in the middle of writing T-Bolt #0009— struggling, as usual. Better get back to it. In the meantime, here’s hoping you have a Merry Christmas, and that the New Year will turn you into a pro comic writer.

See ya! Pete MTG: Chic Stone had drawn My Little Margie and other humor titles for Charlton in the ’50s. He returned briefly to draw for Charlton’s Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves in 1967.

On the Thunderbolt front, we can infer from our next letter that Glen wasn’t too impressed with the first story illustrated by Pat Boyette.

Dear Glen—

(Undated, 1967)

I have to agree with your remarks re T-Bolt #8, but in fairness to Boyette, the coloring didn’t help him one bit. I saw the black & white stats of his job and they were sharp and bold… nothing like the “blah” drab look of the finished product.

Blowing His Cover Pete did only the cover to issue #10 (V3#59), cover-dated Sept. 1967. It was his last “T-Bolt” work for Charlton. Pat Boyette illustrated the interior story when Pete was unable to. [Cover TM & © DC Comics; Peter Cannon…

Thunderbolt TM & © Estate of Pete Morisi.]

You’re right about the covers, and my only excuse is: #1 – Lack of time. #2 – The covers are done before the script (and I’m never sure what I’m going to write about, so I hate to commit myself to a

In Praise Of PAM—Part 5

particular scene… or villain). That’s why I’ve done a lot of “general” type covers.

T-Bolt #10 is on a close schedule. So far the cover is done, and I’ll start pulling my hair out (writing) as soon as I finish this letter to you.

Don’t know what to tell you in regards to your writing a “stand-by” T-Bolt script. Dick has already set something up like that, by asking some of his writers for synops for a T-Bolt story that he’ll throw at me when I get jammed again. He’s determined to get me on schedule, one way or another… and I can’t say I blame him!

See ya! Pete MTG: As it turned out, Pete didn’t meet his deadline for the tenth T-Bolt story. Speed-demon Pat Boyette again stepped in, writing and drawing the story—probably in a few days. The cover to that issue was PAM’s last “T-Bolt” work for Charlton. With his continuing deadline woes, the next letter was inevitable.

25

(Undated, 1967) Dear Glen— End of the T-Bolt line! Just had a talk with Dick, and told him that I wanted out of the strip. I think I know how you feel about it… so you can imagine what a tough decision it was for me!

The work involved (on a part-time basis) was just too much… and the only other choice was to hack it out! I couldn’t see doing that to T-Bolt, under any conditions, so that’s it! To say I feel badly about it is an understatement.

Hope you’ll forgive this quickie—just thought you’d want to know.

Pete

Deep Regret!

Fans got the sad news about PAM’s departure from his own creation in the letter column of Thunderbolt V3#59 (Sept 1967), the tenth ish.

T-Bolt was canceled the following issue. [© the respective copyright holders.]

MTG: Reading this, I’m reminded of a quote from Wally Wood assistant Bill Pearson in Fantagraphics’s The Life and Legend of Wally Wood. Pearson was discussing Wood’s unfinished masterpiece, the Wizard King trilogy: “He thought about it too long. It got so big in his brain that, when he finally got the opportunity to put it down on paper, it wasn’t coming out as big as he wanted it.”

Another assistant, Paul Kirchner, summed it up thus: “He knew it could never be as good as it would be in his head.”

Kirchner and Pearson could just as well have been talking about Pete. As time went on, PAM’s “T-Bolt” story ideas never seemed, to him, good enough.

More and more, Morisi’s insecurities paralyzed him, resulting in rewrite after rewrite. That may be why he also found it difficult to complete personal projects like Pete Savage and Boomerang.

Pat Boyette Last Thunder (Above:) A sharp Pat Boyette cover (and spanking new logo!) for the final issue. That’s Thunderbolt, Vol. 3, #60 (Nov. 1967), to be exact! [Cover TM & © DC Comics; Peter Cannon… Thunderbolt TM & © Estate of Pete Morisi.]

PAM’s successor on Thunderbolt, as well as the artist of the Charlton title Peacemaker.

After Pete abandoned T-Bolt, Giordano kept him busy with mystery and Western stories, with more forgiving deadlines. Nonetheless, Pete still dreamed of someday returning to Thunderbolt—or creating new characters that he’d own.

26

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Chapter 4

T-Bolt And Beyond!

With Thunderbolt out of the picture, PAM began working on new features for Charlton, and a couple of personal projects.

Dear Glen—

(Undated, 1967)

The day I dropped T-Bolt, I asked Dick to give me a few “change of pace” type scripts for a while, before I settled down on a “steady” feature.

So it was his decision to give me a Kid Montana script, not mine. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind it. The kid and I are old friends.

I know I received some recognition with T-Bolt, but I’m not really interested in fame (if it comes, fine, but I’m not going to worry about it). All I want to do is “contribute” to whatever I’m working

Wink! Wink!

Charlton editor Dick Giordano gets a shout-out from writer/artist Pat Boyette in Peter Cannon…

Thunderbolt V3#59 (Sept 1967). [Page TM & © DC Comics; Thunderbolt characters TM & © Estate of Pete Morisi.]

on. I do have a soft spot for costumed heroes, though, but not enough time to do the kind of job I want to.

The full-page illo [offer] may be done [=over] by now. Dick asked me to include that in the last T-Bolt thing, when I decided to drop the strip. That would have been a nice “goodbye” to the fans… but it slipped my mind completely.

Spoke to O’Neil briefly (on the phone) and told him if he ever needed any help (ideas, etc., for T-Bolt) to let me know, but I didn’t want to weigh him down with my thoughts on the character. Besides, most of my ideas on T-Bolt/Peter, Tabu, The Hooded One, Lori, the High Abbot, have been in print and he can take it from there! The only character he has to develop (if he wants to) is Lori Carson. The rest are pretty set. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

See ya, Pete MTG: Charlton’s Kid Montana comic had ended two years earlier, but Pete drew new stories of the Kid for Charlton’s Outlaws of the West anthology. The first one appeared in issue #68 (Jan. 1968).

Pen-pal Glen suggested that he should also consider approaching Marvel. Pete nixed that idea.

Dear Glen—

(Undated, 1967)

Charlton is keeping me almost as busy as before (less pressure now—no writing) so I still don’t have time for another outfit. Besides the thought of locking horns with Stan [Lee] again doesn’t tempt me.

We’re friends—and I want to keep it that way. (We had a few pretty good verbal battles—which I lost, naturally, and I don’t want to go through that again, unless I have to.)

I don’t know when or where Kid Montana will appear… I’ve only spoken to Dick a few times after T-Bolt. Here’s some bad news— there’s a chance that Charlton may drop all its costume strips! It seems that the distributor is only pushing the “hot” Marvel titles, while the Charlton costume mags never reach the stands… damn it! Charlton’s other titles do okay… because there isn’t much competition there.

Old Friends After T-Bolt was canceled, PAM drew a variety of stories for Charlton, including some featuring “Kid Montana“ (a.k.a. “The Montana Kid”), a strip Pete had drawn in the ’50s and early ’60s. This cover is from Outlaws of the West, Vol. 2, #73 (Jan. 1969). [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

So far I’ve done two Kid Montanas and I’m working on the second “The Man Called Loco” strip.

See ya, Pete

In Praise Of PAM—Part 5

Dear Glen—

(Undated, 1967)

I’m afraid I have to agree with your statements on T-Bolt… but I made myself a promise when I dropped the strip… and that was not to butt into the future of the thing.

I may be starting a Private Eye type strip soon… in fact it’s pretty certain… writing and drawing. More details later on. I hope a different subject matter and shorter stories will allow me to meet some deadlines.

Charlton’s pay is pretty bad… $25 per page… but it’s worth it to me… because it’s not my only source of income… and they leave me alone! No changes, no corrections, no big conferences, etc., etc.

A simple discussion on the phone usually settles what Dick has in mind… or what I want to convey.

Nope, I haven’t seen Crandall’s Flash Gordon yet… I’ll have to rush out, and look around. It can’t be as bad as you say… not Reed Crandall!

See ya, Pete

27

MTG: Reed Crandall had drawn the final Flash Gordon comic published by King Comics (#11, Dec. 1967) before Charlton took over. Reed’s longtime problems with alcohol resulted in art considered below Reed’s former standards.

Dear Glen—

(Undated, 1967)

You’re right, I don’t intend to undertake another T-Bolt type project for a while. But just in case Dick presses me, I’ve got a few things in mind. A costume strip, a secret agent thing, and a Private Eye strip.

Now that I’m “just drawing pictures” again, I miss the personal involvement in a strip that bugged me day and night before. There’s nothing like creating a thing, and watch it develop, and be accepted by others. Too bad the time element works against me.

[Denny] O’Neil is the old Stan Lee writer, and should be able to do a good job on T-Bolt. According to the letter page in the recent T-Bolt, Boyette will do the art in the future… and I think that’s a mistake. He puts a lot of work into his stuff, but has yet to “capture” the “feel” of either T-Bolt, Peter, Tabu, or the Hooded One. Then again, I’ve been wrong before, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

Guess that’s it. Just got another Kid Montana script, so I’d better get started on it. Have a nice vacation.

See ya, Pete MTG: Denny O’Neil scripted what turned out to be the final issue of T-Bolt (V3 #60, Nov. 1967), under his pseudonym Sergius O’Shaugnessy. Earlier, Pat Boyette had written and drawn two fill-in issues, and also illustrated the final O’Neil-scripted issue. If PAM thought Boyette didn’t quite capture the feel of his characters, perhaps in Pete’s mind no one could.

Chapter 5

Heroes No More!

If PAM’s replacement didn’t thrill him, Pat Boyette wasn’t enamored of Thunderbolt, either. ACE Comics publisher Ron Franz wrote about it in a special Pat Boyette memorial tribute in Charlton Spotlight #1 (Fall 2000). He related how, a few months earlier, Boyette had sent Charlton editor Pat Masulli some art samples, hoping to get a comicbook assignment. Boyette heard nothing until Dick Giordano replaced Masulli months later. According to Franz’s recollection, an artist on one of Dick’s books missed a deadline, and a desperate Giordano rummaged through a slush pile and found Boyette’s art samples. Then…

“Out of the blue, Pat got a phone call from Giordano. It came as a surprise as it had been quite some time since he had mailed the samples to Charlton. Giordano told Pat that the script was not very good, but asked him to do the best he could with it. Pat knocked out the story in a few days. Giordano was very pleased with the result, and offered Boyette more work. Pat’s new career as a comicbook artist was off and running.”

Apply Within!

Pat Boyette’s first comicbook job, “‘Spacious’ Rooms for Rent,” appeared in Charlton’s Shadows from Beyond #50 (Oct. 1966), actually the one and only issue. Scripter unknown. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Franz described the missed-deadline tale as a war story.

Boyette’s earliest war stories were “Commando Raid” in War and Attack #58 (Feb 1967) and “The Phantom Green Beret” in Ghostly Tales #58 (Nov. 1966). However Boyette’s first published comicbook work was “‘Spacious’ Rooms for Rent,” a nine-pager in Charlton’s Shadows from Beyond #50 (Oct. 1966).

Pat’s next assignment was a Charlton “Action Hero,” though

28

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

“Worst Hero Ever”?

Pat Boyette claimed that T-Bolt and Peacemaker were the worst characters he ever worked on. Really, Pat? “The Peacemaker” first appeared in Fightin’ Five, Vol. 2, #40 (Nov. 1966). [TM & © DC Comics.]© the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

not a T-Bolt. Ron Franz continued: “In 1966, Boyette drew his first super-hero strip for Charlton, ‘The Peacemaker.’ A few months later, when Pete Morisi experienced deadline problems on Thunderbolt, Boyette filled in for an issue. When Morisi moved on to another assignment, Boyette did the art on the final two issues of the series. For personal reasons, Boyette never cared for super-hero stories. His work on Thunderbolt was interesting, but not especially inspired. Boyette called Thunderbolt the worst character he had ever drawn, not that he considered Peacemaker much better.”

MTG: Ouch! However, as we’ll soon see, Boyette’s opinions of the Charlton Action Heroes would soon be rendered moot.

Dear Glen—

(8/21/67)

I just returned from a quickie three-day vacation up at Al Williamson’s place and now it’s back to work!

The [Charlton] Premiere book Dick was going to put out was a super-hero (three new characters) type thing, but he changed his mind due to the trend. Blue Beetle will hang on (by a thread) just so “Charlton isn’t completely out of the field,” but if sales keep going down—it’s dead!

“Pete Savage… for Hire!” will have to wait for a while, I’ve got a “Man Called Loco” strip to do first. Regarding Savage and cigarettes, Dick said “ease off, have a few smoking scenes but don’t overdo it… you know—the Code.”

I don’t know when (or in what book) Kid Montana will appear in—but it should be coming out right about now.

See ya, Pete MTG: Apparently Pete was a little out of the loop, as Charlton did eventually publish five issues of Charlton Premiere. Issue #1 was coverdated Sept. 1967, and featured Richard “Grass” Green’s “The Shape” (from an anonymous concept and plot by Roy Thomas), Bill Montes & Ernie Bache’s “The Tyro Team,” and Pat Boyette’s “The Spook.”

(8/20/67) Dear Glen—

Lou Fine’s Peter Scratch He inspired PAM’s Pete Savage… for Hire. Here’s strip #1 from 9/13/65.

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

It’s settled—the costume strips are out! Charlton will print whatever art they have in stock and then move into other areas… adventure, fantasy, and science-fiction. The authority for the above is Dick Giordano.

In Praise Of PAM—Part 5

The strip I’m working on is a Private Eye thing in name only. It’s sort of a combined detective and adventure character that I’ve named “Pete Savage… for Hire.” It’ll be something like Lou Fine’s Peter Scratch… only more bizarre. I’m in the hair-pulling stage with it now.

I think I did three (maybe four) Kid Montanas and three A [sic] Man Called Loco strips so far. None of them have come out yet (to my knowledge).

Most of my art in the old days was pretty bad, and I was so disappointed when I saw it that I just threw it aside in disgust. Some of the things were good, though.

See ya, Pete MTG: “It’s settled—the costume strips are out!“ Ironically, Charlton axed Peter Cannon and the rest of their Action Heroes two issues after Pete abandoned T-Bolt. By the end of 1967, their entire hero line was gone, except for a one-shot title, Mysterious Suspense, featuring Steve Ditko’s hero “The Question.” Mysterious Suspense was cover-dated Oct. 1968, but it may have been an inventory story from the previous year.

In any case, The Flintstones, Top Cat, Beetle Bailey, and other licensed properties mostly replaced their hero books. In total, PAM had drawn a total of eight “Thunderbolt” stories, and Boyette another three.

Pete had other offers for work, but was reluctant to stray too far from Charlton. One of those offers was from his friend, cartoonist Al Williamson.

29

(10/6/67) Dear Glen— Al asked me to do the script for a Reed Crandall Flash Gordon book—but damn it—no time. It would have been interesting.

I’ve done three or maybe four “Man Called Loco” strips. I think I mentioned that he’s sort of a Cisco Kid type cowboy (with a civil rights type undertone— “Don’t call me Mex”). I don’t care for the strip—really—but I decided against giving Dick a hard time.

Dick Giordano Now I’m back to “Pete Pete’s friend and editor.

Savage… for Hire” and my normal hair-pulling routine. Still no story at this point—just spots and pieces that have to be kicked into place.

Back to Williamson—I was impressed by the work he’s turning out, and the old Prentice, Raymond, and John Cullen Murphy stuff he shows me. So I’ve decided to lean my artwork in that direction—open panels, different balloon layouts, etc. etc., starting with Pete Savage.

Naturally I’ll want your reaction to both story and art—when I get it done.

See ya, Pete

Pete Savage… For Hire!

Pete Morisi did this previously unpublished sample page, possibly consisting of two daily strips cobbled together. It’s signed with Morisi’s real name (twice!), suggesting that he drew it after he retired from the police force in 1976. However, it may be as early as 1967, the year PAM states he first began working on Savage. It was inspired by Lou Fine’s newspaper comic strip Peter Scratch and his own Johnny Dynamite comic. At one point it was slated to be printed in Charlton Premiere, but that arrangement fell through. Pete S. looks a bit like the post-WWII Nick Fury, no? Michael Ambrose plans to print some unpublished Savage strips in a future issue of Charlton Spotlight. [TM & © 2019 Estate of Pete Morisi.]

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Dear Glen—

(10/16/67)

As far as I’m concerned, the Pete Morisi name is still going to remain under wraps. I’m admitting to nothing. If you want to do an article on PAM, be my guest, but I think I’ve supplied you with my life’s story a couple of times over.

The way Pete Savage is going, I won’t have time to try a Williamson approach, so it looks like “Small Talk” is kaput—at least this time around.

Gotta get back to Pete Savage!

See ya, Pete MTG: “Small Talk” was a fanzine column Glen produced for K-a (full name CAPA-alpha), the amateur press association fanzine. The “Williamson approach” included heavy use of photo reference, a technique Al had perfected. Al often photographed himself and others in action for his Secret Agent Corrigan syndicated strip.

Desk Duty Officer Pete in 1965. He kept mum about his second job—drawing comics! [© 2019 Estate of Pete Morisi.]

And PAM was still reluctant to reveal his “secret identity” as police officer Pete Anthony Morisi, despite Glen’s attempt to give Pete credit.

Dear Glen—

(10/30/67)

Sure, you can do a PAM profile if you like, but I don’t think I can supply you with specific dates and book titles—for the following reason: During my early days in comics, I shared a studio with a book illustrator who had a teen-age assistant who did minor chores for his keep. I found out later—much later—that said assistant got into the habit of grabbing a few of my comic books to read on the train on the way home, and then just threw them away.

Among the books he grabbed, naturally, were some of my early efforts, Simon & Kirby Captain Americas, and portions of “sets” I managed to save over the years (does this sound like something out of your “Small Talk” collectors dream frustration?).

So now you can understand why I could never pinpoint exactly what I did for who, and when.

As for my working with Williamson, I think I mentioned that we both worked as assistants for Mike Roy and John Belfi in (I think) 1948.

As I recall, we did the backgrounds (pencils and ink) for a couple of Daredevil stories, a “Heap” story, and a number of similar things that I can’t remember. Then Al quit (or was fired) and I continued to work with Mike Roy (for a few months) on the Saint strip he had gotten from the Herald Tribune Newspaper syndicate.

“The Man Called Loco” Pete didn’t much care for this feature, starring a Mexican hero with an attitude, but he did a great job on the art. Denny O’Neil scripted the first story, which debuted in Charlton’s Texas Rangers in Action # 65 (March 1968). [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

You’re welcome to ask questions, but I’m not sure if I can pinpoint all the answers.

Originals I got plenty, but I value each one. One Scorchy Smith

by Noel Sickles, one Terry by Caniff, six or seven Scorchy Smiths by Frank Robbins, six or seven Kerry Drakes by Andriola, one Charlie Chan by Andriola, two Flash Gordons by Dan Barry, and a host of

In Praise Of PAM—Part 5

31

other daily strips.

comicbook history before it was forgotten.

As for comic book original pages—a few “crime” Dan Barrys, lots of “crime” Tuskas, a one-page Crandall Blackhawk, a few Eisner Black X’s, ditto Toth’s Johnny Thunder, a Novick Steel Sterling, and a host of others.

As for Pete Savage, Morisi’s project suffered from the same indecisiveness that had plagued his scripting on T-Bolt. It was a problem that seemed to get worse with time.

Pete Savage is a struggle—every word of it—rougher than T-Bolt, which I thought was the peak of frustration.

Meanwhile, at Charlton, big changes were coming.

Chapter 6

So far I’ve developed him in three different ways, and I’m not happy—so after this letter, I start on number four!

I don’t want Pete Savage to be like [Johnny] Dynamite—that was too “gutsy,” and would never get past the Code. I want something on the order of Lou Fine’s Peter Scratch (he’s going to look like him— with blond hair) only I want better plots. Fine developed a good character—but the stories were sad! I hope Pete Savage doesn’t wind up the same way.

Movin’ On! At the end of 1967 Pete gave Glen D. Johnson a major scoop.

Charlton editor-in-chief Dick Giordano had just been hired to edit comics at DC. Wow! Stop the presses! And then PAM ruined it by asking Glen to keep mum. Talk about frustration!

See ya! Pete MTG: Getting accurate comicbook data in the 1960s was strictly hit and miss. Comic reference information from the Bails and Hames Who’s Who of American Comics was still being gathered—and informational websites like the Grand Comics Database were just a futuristic Buck Rogers fantasy. Even the artists themselves were unsure about which comics they had drawn. Pete, a professional and fanboy supreme, had a better memory for his work than most. And fans like Glen D. Johnson did their best to nail down

Dear Glen—

(11/21/67)

I’ve got news (but not for publication)… Dick Giordano is leaving Charlton, and going to *DC*! Yep, as of Dec. 4, Charlton will lose Dick, who will be replaced by Sal Gentili (I’m not sure of the spelling, but it’s pronounced ‘Gen-till-ee’). [MTG NOTE: The last name is actually spelled “Gentile.”] Sal has been working as Pat Masulli’s assistant as of late, and I think he did freelance comics before that.

Back to Dick—he’ll be working with (or under) Carmine

Action Heroes… Western Style!

Pete Cannon, Thunderbolt, may have been the only super-hero PAM drew for comics, but the Charlton cowboys Kid Montana, Masked Raider, Gunmaster, and Bullet (the Gun Boy!) came pretty close. (Left to right:) PAM splash from Gunmaster V5 #85 (Sept. 1965).

Intro page from Kid Montana V2#50 (March 1965), the final issue.

PAM’s Ditkoesqe splash for Masked Raider V2#26 (Oct 1960). [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Wait! There Was A Captain Marvel Who Wasn’t A Woman?

(Left to right:) The original Captain Marvel first appeared on newsstands in late 1939, in Fawcett’s Whiz Comics #2 (Feb. 1940—really the first issue)—and for several years in the mid-1940s starred in the best-selling comicbook on Earth. Cover by C.C. Beck. [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics.]

MF Enterprises’ Captain Marvel #1 (April 1966), a title swiped from Fawcett. Art by Carl Burgos, creator in 1939 of Timely’s equally android Human Torch. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Gene Colan’s cover to Marvel’s first Captain Marvel appearance in Marvel Super-Heroes #12 (Dec. 1967). Inks by Frank Giacoia. The writer/editor/co-creator was Stan Lee… at the behest of publisher Martin Goodman. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Infantino, and will be handling four regular titles (Teen Titans and World’s Finest are two of them) plus some new books.

This is part of the new look for DC, and a big move for Dick. I wish him luck, but I’m sorry to see him go. He was a gentleman to work for—all the way!

When Al [Williamson] and I worked for Mike Roy, there was no set routine. (Let me point out that John Belfi was Mike’s inker—but Belfi also had inking accounts on the side.) So when Al and I helped John, we were just inking the backgrounds that were penciled in by other artists. When we worked for Mike, it would be a little bit of everything. Sometimes it would be just inking backgrounds, other times Mike would say “Put a couple of trees, and a mountain in those panels,” and we’d pencil and ink same. A confusing set-up, but it was great training.

I don’t mind doing a “T-Bolt original” for the zines now and then, but I’d prefer it to be through Dick Sal. [MTG NOTE: There’s a cross-out line through “Dick.”]

Pete Savage is still giving me headaches, so Dick was kind enough to revise the schedule for a later “Charlton Premiere” title that it will appear in. If it clicks—mail reaction—it’ll go in its own book.

At least that’s my understanding with Dick. I’m doing a Kid Montana thing now (art only)—just to give my right brain a breather.

I think I could pick up other stuff from other outfits without any trouble—but again—no time!

Whew—see ya, Pete

Dear Glen—

(12/8/67)

You can mention Giordano’s DC move in “Small Talk”—it’s official now.

I’ll have to look for Outlaws of the West and Kid Montana—I haven’t seen anything [in print] since (sigh!) [leaving] T-Bolt!

Joe Gill wrote a lot of early Montanas, then I wrote five, six, or seven issues, then Joe Gill again, and lately a writer named Steve Skeates (I think that’s the name).

I do quite a bit of re-writing on Montana just to keep the character consistent. The other writers have him talking like—“You an’ yore crew ain’t gonna hog-tie me, Jasper!” (Dick and I agreed that Kid Montana should talk English.)

Uh-huh, there are a lot of Italian-descent guys around Charlton, but an even greater portion of non-Italian names, too, like Montes, Gill, Boyette, Levy, Marcus, Perlin, Anderson, O’Brien, etc. etc. etc.

See ya, Pete

Dear Glen—

(12/26/67)

The Pete Savage thing has been dropped… at least for now… while Gentile makes up his mind as to what kind of books he wants to go with. Right now I’m doing a “Captain Doom” cowboy thing!

Ha! This is some business when an outfit (M.F. or whatever) sues Marvel for a title they swiped to begin with!

Marvel seems to be the “in” publisher, as far as the current cycle of comic book popularity goes! In other words, they will “last” while

In Praise Of PAM—Part 5

33

others crumble! Thinking back, that seems to be the way it goes! Years back it was DC, then Timely, then Biro, then EC, and now Timely (or Marvel) again, that can’t do anything wrong!

No, Al [Williamson] didn’t draw any trees for me… not even a rock!

He mentioned meeting Stan at some party he went to, and Stan said, “You mean we let you go, years back, when you worked for us? Why don’t you come back?” and Al said, “Why don’t you pay more?”… which ended the conversation!

See ya, Pete

No Flash In The Pan

MTG: Myron Fass’ company MF A panel from artist Mac Raboy’s Flash Gordon Sunday comic strip for Aug. 1, 1948. [TM & © King Features Syndicate, Enterprises was the outfit threatening Inc.] to sue Marvel. Known as a sleazy publisher, MF briefly published Presumably they tried to intimidate Marvel after Martin unauthorized versions of Golden Age characters Captain Marvel Goodman’s company introduced their own “Captain Marvel” in and Plastic Man, with new costumes, powers, and identities.

Marvel Super-Heroes #12 (cover-dated Dec. 1967). It’s unlikely Fass’ threat went beyond a cease-and-desist letter. Marvel called his bluff.

Dear Glen—

(1/17/68)

Oooops, almost forgot, I owe you a letter! The holidays kind of wrecked my schedule! Just finished Captain Doom and am about to begin a Montana! Pete Savage is still alive… at least in the “maybe” stage! Sal Gentile will present (or re-present) the idea to the Charlton wheels, who have the final “say” in what books they print! Dick once mentioned that he had the final say on certain books [but] new titles, I think, had to be okay’d by a board of directors! Guess Sal is in the same boat!

I’ve been reading DC’s “New Look” stuff—and it’s shaping up big! Deadman by Adams—Wow! Good idea, good art (although I don’t agree with the wild layouts!). If they keep going like this, I think they can beat out Marvel in a year or so! DC seems to be the “House of Ideas” at this point! Old Stan will have to hustle, if he wants to stay on top!

Gotta rush— See ya! Pete

Dear Glen—

(1/27/68)

Loco will continue (there’s three or four more that I did)—but I still don’t like the strip. However, I’ve been wrong before.

Gentile didn’t send me any fan mail. Dick must have forwarded three letters while he was boss. I did go up to the Charlton office once—and Dick showed me the incoming mail—seven out of ten were for me (or T-Bolt)—but Dick wouldn’t forward them to me (I asked)—no reason given.

“I’m Doing A Five-Page Science-Fiction Thing” PAM never actually drew Flash Gordon, but this snazzy sci-fi backup story did appear in that title when it was published by Charlton. From Flash Gordon, Vol. 2, #16 (Oct. 1969). [© the respective copyright holders.]

This is hush-hush (by request of Al Williamson)—Mac Raboy is sick… cancer sick… at least that’s the rumor. Too bad. As for Flash [Gordon], there’s no decision yet. Maybe Mac can continue, maybe Dan Barry, maybe… Al Williamson—nobody knows. When I hear, you’ll hear.

Since Pete Savage is “up in the air”—I’ve thrown out all scripts.

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

I wasn’t happy with them. If I get the “okay”—I’ll start again. Maybe I can put a script together that “feels” right—like some of the T-Bolt things.

Am on a Kid Montana strip now—with a deadline breathing down my back (as usual)—so I gotta go.

See ya, Pete MTG: Mac Raboy was the artist of the Flash Gordon Sunday syndicated strip. Though PAM didn’t know it, by the time he wrote this letter, Raboy had already died on December 12, 1967.

Dear Glen—

(2/1/68)

Sal has a lot of things doing—but he’s kind of tight-lipped, and doesn’t say much. He did say that Charlton has made some deals with T-Bolt and will be putting out “Mannix” (The TV private eye) among other titles. No, I won’t be doing it—we talked about it—but the schedule is too close. It seems that if the deadline isn’t met—to the day—the entire contract is lost. Naturally, I wouldn’t want to put Sal in that position.

As for giving me something instead of Loco, that’s out, too. “I’ve got nobody who can do it as good” is the way Sal put it, “but I will give you fillers now and then when we’re ahead of schedule.” So right now, I’m doing a five-page science-fiction thing that will be in Flash Gordon.

I knew you’d catch that “bad guy” head I used in a couple of stories, and you’re right, I am building a file of characters. That’s a Williamson gimmick that he passed on to me. It makes a story seem “more real,” and adds class to the artwork. (Ooops, Al asked me not to mention the foregoing—so mum’s the word.)

See ya—Pete MTG: Pete had put together a photo swipe file of characters he could use in various stories. Sometimes the same villain would appear as different characters in completely unrelated stories!

Oh, and for whatever reason, Charlton never did publish a Mannix comic.

Dear Glen—

(2/17/68)

Whew! Sorry for the delay in answering your letter, but Sal Gentile jammed me with couple of close deadlines, and I couldn’t take time out for anything but drawing pictures! As it is, I just finished up at 7:15 AM after working through the night on a “Loco” strip!

I heard about Mac Raboy about the same time you did—it’s a shame to lose that kind of talent! I didn’t know the guy, but he did some beautiful work!

Rumor has it that Al [Williamson] didn’t get the Flash Gordon strip—and he’s angry. More info on this when I see (or hear) from Al! I called the Charlton bosses and tried to “buy” all the rights to my old T-Bolt baby… but they said ‘no’—they want to hold onto it—just in case!

They’ve still got a Blue Beetle in stock that they plan to put out in six or seven months—and if that clicks—maybe they’ll try a T-Bolt again! Don’t get excited… I said maybe!

Now it’s time to start again—Kid Montana is on the drawing board, and I’d better get to it!

See ya, Pete

Always The Fan! PAM gives a tip o’ the hat to his favorite cartoonists in Dynamite’s Peter Cannon… Thunderbolt #1 (2012), a story originally written and drawn for DC in 1988. Clearly, Cannon had good taste! [TM & © Estate of Pete Morisi.]

MTG: The “Blue Beetle” story Pete referred to was “A Specter Is Haunting Hub City!,” originally slated for Blue Beetle, Vol. 4, #6, before the title’s cancellation. Charlton never did publish it, but the story finally appeared in 1974 in the fanzine CPL Special Double Issue 9 & 10.

Dear Glen—

(March 1968)

It’s always been a Williamson dream to do Flash Gordon for syndication—I hope he can work something out with King Features.

More on that when I hear from Al. Yep, if T-Bolt (that’s a big if) comes back—I want to do it—story and art. Frankly, even with the headaches involved—I miss my creation—Tabu, the Hooded One, and all!

Nope, I got nothing extra for creating T-Bolt—just the right to do the book—and the self-satisfaction of knowing that I can affect people with words and pictures—which is a great thrill, when it involves a sincere effort.

I’ve always felt that T-Bolt could be one of the BIG names in comics, and that with the proper color, printing, and distribution, it could make it! That’s why I want to own it—for the future! Maybe Marvel, or DC would be interested in putting it out—but the Charlton wheels said “no, not the comic book rights.” So that’s it. If I do it again, it’ll be for Charlton!

Count your blessings—a real walk-in closet for books and strips and our kind of junk—great! Me, my whole studio space is a converted walk-in closet, and I’ve got to fit a table, lamp, me, a chair, Christmas ornaments, and my books and strips etc., etc. You’ve got it made!

Well, that it for now—back to Kid Montana.

See ya, Pete

In Praise Of PAM—Part 5

POSTSCRIPT: MTG: And indeed, that is it for now—at least for the latest installment of Pete Morisi’s letters. There’ll be more of them next issue.

Meanwhile, one surprising tidbit revealed above for the first time was the fact that PAM was actually offered a spot in Charlton Premiere for his detective strip “Pete Savage... for Hire.” But sadly, he was unable to deliver. Once again, a combination of bad timing, the difficulty of juggling two jobs, and Pete’s own crippling perfectionism killed that deal. It’s a pity we missed seeing Pete’s Code-friendly variation of his old Johnny Dynamite series.

As for Thunderbolt, despite Charlton’s hints of a revival, they never published another issue. Even after the book was canceled, Charlton refused to sell Pete his character. However that wasn’t quite the end of T-Bolt.

In December 1967 Dick Giordano left Charlton to become a DC editor. Upon settling in, Giordano invited Pete and other Charlton creators to join him. Working for DC at higher rates sounded good on paper, but for Morisi it turned out to be an uncomfortable fit.

Pete didn’t knock on DC’s door until 1973, his first assignment

35

being “Bum Wrap” in Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion #11. Dick had gone freelance by then, and Pete found himself working under Carmine Infantino and editor Joe Orlando.

Pete chafed at DC’s editorial restrictions and the time-consuming corrections Orlando insisted on. Charlton’s looser editorial approach suited him better, even if the pay was worse.

After drawing only one DC mystery story, he returned to Charlton.

However, there were problems there, too. Pete had retired from the force in 1976, after putting in 20 years. PAM was looking forward to being a full-time cartoonist once more, but bad timing again plagued him. As sales dropped at Charlton, they began canceling titles or filling them with (unpaid) reprints. Pete was finding less and less work at his go-to company. By 1984 Charlton had shut down their comicbook division, though a few sad stragglers came out cover-dated as late as Feb. 1986.

By then, Dick had already returned to DC. In 1980, DC publisher Jenette Kahn invited Giordano to edit some “Batman” titles, and within a year he’d worked his way up to managing editor. Dick’s move proved to be a stroke of luck for “Thunderbolt.”

When Charlton finally closed shop, DC purchased their Action Heroes (for $5000 each) as a gift to Dick Giordano, who still had

Pete’s Unfinished Symphony.

Pete drew yet another “T-Bolt” story, ”Revenge of the Hooded One,” this time for DC’s ill-fated Blockbuster Weekly, but was only able to complete 18 of its 26 pages before the projected magazine was canceled. The series was to feature the Charlton Action Heroes, with Pete’s story slated to appear in two-page installments. It remains unpublished. [TM & © 2019 Estate of Pete Morisi.]

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

fond memories of the old Charlton heroes. T-Bolt was one of those heroes.

Or so DC thought.

In reality, a couple of years earlier Pete had finally convinced Charlton to let him acquire the rights to T-Bolt. Surprisingly, they let him have it for free. The date of the transfer was Dec. 28, 1981.

From then on, Pete retained rights to his characters, though not to the original stories he had done for Charlton in the 1960s. Charlton sold those to DC, which may explain why the latter apparently thought they owned the character.

This complicated things for Giordano, who had plans for a new maxi-series featuring the Charlton heroes. He wanted Thunderbolt as part of that team. As a longtime Morisi fan, he also hoped that DC would publish a new “Thunderbolt” series by PAM. So he approached Pete and offered to have DC license T-Bolt from him. They agreed to pay Morisi $5000 up front, plus a percentage of sales. Smooth sailing, right? Not so fast!

Behind the scenes, DC’s marketing department pressured Giordano to use younger creators for the series, feeling that Pete’s style was too “old-fashioned” for the current comics marketplace.

They didn’t think Pete was good enough to draw his own character!

Dick Giordano described the problem in a 2004 e-mail to Pete’s son Val Morisi. Val had recently read a heartfelt PAM memorial by cartoonist Fred Hembeck. In it, Hembeck mentioned the unpublished “T-Bolt” story Pete did for DC’s Secret Origins in the late ’80s. Val was intrigued, and, at Fred’s suggestion, contacted Dick Giordano about ownership rights to the story. Dick’s e-mail response was dated Feb 12, 2004, just months after Pete had passed away.

Dear Val, I was saddened by the news of your father’s death. I always enjoyed talking with him AND enjoyed his work. He will be missed! Peter and I went back a long way... to the 60s when I was the Editor-in Chief at Charlton Comics and your father was the creator of Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt. We worked very closely together in those days but mostly over the phone and thru the mails (FedEx hadn’t been “invented” yet).

He was still working for the NYPD at that point and we had to go to some lengths to conceal the fact that he was moonlighting.

In 1967 I moved over to DC and your father continued to work for Charlton. That gig didn’t last long for

Bah, Hembeck!

T-Bolt… Hembeck style! Adorable, no? [Art © Fred Hembeck; Peter Cannon… Thunderbolt TM & © Estate of Pete Morisi.]

Watch Out For The Charlton Action Heroes!

Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons drew the cover to DC’s aborted Comics Cavalcade Weekly (initially titled Blockbuster Weekly). The series was advertised but never published. This prospective cover was beautifully colored in 2013 by Scott Dutton. [TM & © DC Comics.]

me and I left the DC editorial position in late ‘69 and went freelance.

Flashing forward to 1980 (and to the best of my recollection there was little or no contact between your father and myself during that period) and I returned to DC in an editorial position and shortly after, being promoted to a position of authority. DC bought all the Charlton properties that were created on my watch for me to reissue as DC properties. Thunderbolt was not among them.

Your father, very wisely, negotiated a reversion of the property to his name with Charlton and therefore he owned Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt. I wanted very much to work with Pete and publish Thunderbolt again and so I commissioned Pete to write and draw a new Thunderbolt story for DC. Alas, when it was done, DC’s marketing department decided that the material was too dated and the project was shelved. I’m fairly certain that Pete was paid in full for his work but that he was asked to sign a contract prohibiting him from publishing THAT story elsewhere. Later, we paid Pete (on a first-copy royalty basis, as I recall) to allow us to publish an “updated” version of Thunderbolt produced by other creators.

In Praise Of PAM—Part 5

37

That proved to be a mistake on Giordano’s part. The series by Mike Collins and Jose Marzan, Jr., debuted in Sept. 1992, running twelve issues. It was a well-intentioned effort, but it looked and read like just any other ’90s mainstream super-hero comic. It wasn’t Pete’s vision. DC’s audience responded with a collective yawn. So much for DC’s marketing geniuses!

Worse, it caused a permanent rift between Dick and Pete.

It was a classic case of “the road to hell” being paved with good intentions. Giordano’s e-mail described the unfortunate situation: The result was a mish-mash that I was embarrassed that I had talked Pete into. We never spoke after that. Not because of any animosity but because my wife fell gravely ill and passed away (as a matter of fact, 11 years ago today) and I was so devastated that I resigned my position at DC and returned to freelancing where I am today.

I do not know what the legal position of Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt is. I rather suspect that you, as Pete’s heir, own the copyright to the property. That does not mean you own the right to publish the material you found. I have absolutely no idea what contractual restrictions were written into the agreement but you should be able to find out by writing an E-mail to Paul Levitz, President and Publisher of DC Comics and asking him for a copy of any contracts between Pete and DC Comics. Paul is a stand-up guy and you can tell him what you’re looking for without concern about getting an honest answer. Tell Paul you spoke with me and that I suggested your contacting him. Paul is a good friend and I’m sure he’ll help if he can.

Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful, Dick Val Morisi explains what happened next in an e-mail dated 2/21/18: When I subsequently contacted Paul Levitz, he, like Giordano and [Fred] Hembeck had been, was equally gracious and gave me the go-ahead to have it published. Sometime later, 2012, when the piece did see print through Dynamite Entertainment, I contacted Fred Hembeck to thank him. In return he sent his own T-bolt ‘toon version (see attached)...pretty cool.

Number One With A Bullet—But Going Which Way? Peter Cannon—Thunderbolt #1 (Sept 1992). Art by Mike Collins & Jose Marzan, Jr. T-Bolt finally wound up wearing full-length tights in this short-lived DC series. [Cover TM & © DC Comics; character TM & © Estate of Pete Morisi.]

In an e-mail of 2/21/18, Val commented further on the PAM/DC situation: I have letters (somewhere) documenting my father’s acquiring the rights from the defunct Charlton company and some international company that they were transferred to. It’s my understanding (not fact) that DC assumed it had bought all the Charlton characters, unaware that my Dad had secured the rights to Thunderbolt. I think it was then that the two had to reach a contractual agreement.

Set A Watchman….

Ozymandias slugs Rorschach in Watchmen #11 (Aug. 1987). Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons’ Ozymandias was based on PAM’s Peter Cannon…Thunderbolt. [TM & © DC Comics.]

I can only speculate on all the in-betweens, but the final contract did have a reversion clause that returned the rights to my father if the character was not used for 5 years... which is exactly what happened (I have letters from my Dad to DC requesting the return of rights and the contract that shows that provision).

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Pete wrote and drew two new “Thunderbolt” stories for DC during his time there. Both went unpublished. One was in 1988 for DC’s second Secret Origins series. Pete met his deadline but the story was shelved. The title was canceled in 1990.

Pete also drew another “Thunderbolt” story around that time for DC’s proposed Charlton Action Heroes anthology, Blockbuster Weekly (a.k.a. Comics Cavalcade Weekly). It was Giordano’s pet project, but lack of time and interest killed the comic. In another case of bad timing, Pete drew 18 pages of a 26-page story, “Revenge of the Hooded One,” but the series was terminated before any issues appeared. Pete’s original art is in the hands of his other son, Russ. Hopefully he’ll allow it to see print someday. Ultimately DC published only one page of PAM “Thunderbolt” art—a one-page pin-up drawn two years earlier for Who’s Who in the DC Universe #23 in January 1987.

Another Number One? Alex Ross’s painted cover to Dynamite’s Peter Cannon— Thunderbolt #1 (2012). [cover TM & © 2019 Dynamite; Peter Cannon…

Thunderbolt TM & © Estate of Pete Morisi.]

DC tried using T-Bolt in their other comics, most notably in Justice League Quarterly and Justice League Task Force (sporting a snappy new costume!). But that, too, went nowhere. Peter Cannon once again vanished into comicbook limbo, and after the contractual five-year period was over, the rights to Thunderbolt returned to PAM. Pete had to be thrilled.

Sadly, once again his timing was off. In the ensuing years, Pete had suffered a series of debilitating illnesses, including diabetes, the pain of which made it impossible for him to draw a continuing series. Regardless, PAM pulled something off that even Siegel and Shuster couldn’t. Pete got DC to return ownership of his beloved Thunderbolt to his creator. That alone was pretty remarkable!

Pete’s unfinished Blockbuster Weekly story was the last “Thunderbolt” tale PAM drew. His health problems continued, and Pete Morisi passed away on October 12, 2003, a victim of heart disease.

In its original Charlton incarnation, Peter Cannon… Thunderbolt lasted a mere eleven issues, of which Pete drew only eight. But thanks to PAM’s vision and perseverance, its impact on comics has far exceeded its slim page count.

Letters We Get! The T-Bolt release letter dated Dec. 28, 1981, sent by Charlton to Pete Morisi. He also received one from the Federal Publishing Company (which held the international rights).

According to son Val, Pete got those two companies to transfer the rights to him “by relentless pleading and reason! Free!” Hey, whatever works, Pete!

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Even after Pete’s death, his Thunderbolt lived on. In 2012 (fortyseven years after PAM created the character!), the Morisi Estate licensed T-Bolt to Dynamite Entertainment. They published a new series, Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt, written by Steve Darnell and Alex Ross, with art

by Ross and Jonathan Pete Lau. The first issue even in 1997. [© 2019 Estate of Pete Morisi.] included the previously unpublished Secret Origins story Pete had done for DC decades earlier.

The Dynamite series ended after only ten issues. It was another well-intentioned attempt that (to this writer, at least) simply couldn’t capture the Morisi magic. PAM’s vision of Thunderbolt was one of understatement and restraint. Dynamite’s souped-up T-Bolt missed the mark on that score. Perhaps creator and creation were inextricably linked. However, it’s worth noting that, just this year, Dynamite has once again revived Thunderbolt. It remains to be seen if lightning will strike twice for Pete’s signature hero.

Ironically, Thunderbolt’s greatest impact on popular culture didn’t directly involve the character. In the mid-’80s Giordano (then DC’s managing editor), fielded a proposal for a maxi-series featuring Dick’s beloved Charlton Action Heroes. British writer Alan Moore pitched a dark version of the heroes, an idea that eventually morphed into Watchmen.

DC Come, DC Go Pete’s only published “Thunderbolt” work for DC: a pin-up for Who’s Who in the DC Universe #23 (Jan. 1987). [© DC Comics; Peter Cannon…

Thunderbolt TM & © Estate of Pete Morisi.]

It was a bit too dark for Giordano’s taste. Afraid it would ruin the Charlton characters, he asked Moore to invent new heroes, using the Charlton originals as the basic template. He and artist Dave Gibbons did just that, and Watchmen became one of comics’ greatest success stories. It has remained continuously in print for over thirty years, won a Hugo award, and was adapted into a blockbuster 2009 movie. One of the Watchmen heroes, Ozymandias, was an ordinary human trained from birth to reach absolute physical and mental perfection. Moore based the character on Morisi’s “Peter Cannon … Thunderbolt.”

Thunderbolt & Dynamite—An Explosive Combination?

(Left:) In 2012, Dynamite Entertainment repurposed an unpublished 1988 PAM page intended for DC’s Secret Origins and ran it as an alternate cover to their Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt #1.

(Right:) The cover of Dynamite’s Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt #1 (Jan.-Feb. 2019), the magazine destined to bring the hero back into the comics universe. Art by Sean Phillips. [Peter Cannon… Thunderbolt TM & © Estate of Pete Morisi; actual page © the respective copyright holders.]

All in all, not a bad legacy for an ex-cop from Brooklyn!

Special thanks to Glen D. Johnson, Mike Ambrose, Val Morisi. and the Morisi family for their help and support. And to PAM, too, of course, for a lifetime of memorable work!

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Chapter 7

Morisi Memories

by Val Morisi MTG: Late in 2017, I began an e-mail correspondence with Pete’s youngest son, Val. He graciously agreed to share some personal memories of his dad and the Morisi family: Growing up with Dad was a typical upbringing except that we had to keep his comic art a secret. It’s kind of frustrating for a kid who wants to boast about his Dad... especially as the comics revival exploded in the 1960s. My father, a lifelong comicbook fan starting in childhood, always dreamed of working in comics. Just as he began to realize that dream the industry went south and he, having three children and wife, opted for the security of being a policeman. Shortly after my father was hired as a policeman we moved to a low/middle income housing project and about that same time a “one time script” was sent to him to illustrate. At that time the NYC Police Department had banned “moonlighting,” so thus began the secrecy and the “one time scripts” kept coming for about 20 years.

Our family of five lived in that 5½-room apartment (at 105 Ave. X, Brooklyn, NY 11223, Apt 3-F) for about eighteen years. Dad made the most out of what was meant to be a walk-in closet by turning it into his “studio”... cramming his art table, supplies, comic collection,

Siblings Pete (left) and sister Ines in the 1930s. Even dressed like Buster Brown, Pete looked plenty tough! [© 2019 Estate of Pete Morisi.]

and reference materials all behind a curtain. When an outsider knocked on our door, we’d always delay a bit in answering so Dad could “escape” and draw the curtain. In those days it was common practice for friends and relatives to show up unannounced for a visit and, although that must have played havoc with his already looming deadline, I never remember him giving anybody the bum’s rush. It would just mean for him: “coffee and cigarettes” and up all night to catch up. While he admitted to having produced “rush jobs” and couldn’t even look at some of those he did in print, they were for the most part the exception. I recall him tearing up many a fully penciled and inked page when he wasn’t satisfied with the results. As a kid, if I was struggling a bit with a school book report or its cover and I went to Dad for help, I knew two things were going to happen: I was going to have to work harder than I intended and I was going to get an “A.” Of course, after Dad had to pull an all-nighter to catch up, you know the kids had to be quiet the next day. That was no easy task for a kid, especially when we had to figure out “is he behind the curtain?” or “is he in bed?” or “is he even here?” Again, back then the Police Department worked weekly rotating shifts: 8 am-4 pm one week, 4 pm-12 am 2nd week, 12 am-8 am the third week, and never a standard day off. We literally did not know if Dad was coming or going. However, when he was “behind the curtain” it was always a treat to get a glimpse of the art he was creating. To this day it’s that stark black and white look of his originals that stays in my mind; oceans of black ink, intricately drawn backgrounds or curiously odd geometric backgrounds and unique angles of bodies frozen in action in a cinematic style.

Kid Stuff A slightly older Pete posing for a pic. [© 2019 Estate of Pete Morisi.]

My father was very humble about his talent, but whatever he might have thought he lacked in skill I think he more than made up for in his perseverance and understanding the best way to employ his God-given gifts. I thank you for showing interest in my Dad’s work. I think he would have been honored to see this. I wish he was here to see all the attention he continues to get.

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The Woman Behind The Man MTG: Though he was not one to complain, Pete’s letters to Glen D. Johnson in his later years revealed an artist suffering numerous physical ailments. I mentioned to Val that Pete’s wife Louise must have had incredible patience during those years. In an e-mail dated 12/8/17, Val agreed that his mom was pretty special: My mother was, as you correctly stated, very patient with a strong Christian faith. She being very outgoing as well, I know she unselfishly sacrificed a lot to be a stay-at-home Mom while much of Dad’s time was spent working two jobs. My Dad gave her much of the credit for raising us kids. She was an excellent cook, seamstress, knitter, and trained secretary. She also did all the family bookkeeping.

Back in the days of the mechanical typewriter she could type upwards of 80 words per minute. That came in handy as she typed out most of my Dad’s handwritten scripts for submission.

Mom and Dad shared common interests in music, musicals, and movies (and the trivia therein). My mother was very attractive and often the basis of many of my father’s images of close-cropped female brunettes in his artwork (see a few samples attached). She didn’t

Louise & Peter Morisi in the late 1940s. What a cute couple! [© 2019 Estate of Pete Morisi.]

return to work as a secretary/executive assistant until I (the baby) was about 19. She not only survived the attack on Sept. 11 when the bus she was on to the city was miraculously delayed in Brooklyn but she was also working there during the 1993 bombing (unharmed).

In 1997 she was diagnosed with cancer of the palette and had surgery. She was in remission ’til things started to happen fast in 2003.

Nothing showed in many tests as she rapidly declined and then in May they informed us that the cancer had returned in vengeance and she died 3 weeks later. Needless to say Dad was devastated as his wife of over 50 years was gone. But wait, it gets worse. Returning from my mother’s burial our limo was struck head-on by another car.

I suffered a concussion and Russ a severely injured ankle (lifetime disability), but Dad got the worst of it with a broken back, broken ribs, and collapsed lungs. After 5 months of hospital and nursing home rehab where Dad had made great progress (lost nearly 80 lb.), an infection settled in his heart, robbing it of 90% of its function. He died shortly thereafter, but I know the real downfall for him was when he lost his bride.

MTG: I asked Val if he knew how his parents got together. He responded in an e-mail on 1/21/18:

Loretta Young?

Nope, just stylish Louise Morisi. Or was this taken before 1949, when she was still Louise Massie? [© 2019 Estate of Pete Morisi.]

I don’t recall any stories on how they met. They would joke from time to time about previous “crushes” they had in their youth,

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Pretty As A Picture!

Pete used his wife Louise as the model of many of the sexy gals in his strips. (Above:) A panel from Comic Media’s Weird Terror #3 (Jan. 1953).

(Right:) From Charlton’s The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves #63 (Feb 1978). [© the respective copyright holders.]

The Morisi Clan In 2001 On the left, descending diagonally from left, are Pete, Louise, and son Val Morisi. In the rear at center & right are Laura and Russ (another of Pete’s sons) Morisi and (in middle row, l. to r.) their kids Robert and Gina, next to Val’s son John. Note the painting of a skier behind Pete, drawn by his idol George Tuska—which you can view a lot more clearly on the right! [© 2019 Estate of Pete Morisi.]

In Praise Of PAM—Part 5

but how they met is a mystery to me. Perhaps it was in high school.

I believe they both went to Manual Training High School (now John Jay) on 7th Avenue in Brooklyn (Park Slope section?). They married in 1949 and brother Steven was born shortly after on April 3rd 1950; Russ January 28th 1953; me April 23rd 1954.

MTG: Pete’s letters mentioned his having broken both legs. I asked Val if he knew more about that. His response:

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Louise & Pete Morisi, 2002 A year before they both passed on.

Note Pete’s cane and bandaged leg. [© 2019 Estate of Pete Morisi.]

My father lived on a dead end street. Large utility poles laid on their sides bordered the Con Ed (electric company) sub-station area there at the end of the block. One day while Dad was walking his dog a sanitation truck making a U-turn struck one of the poles, which subsequently rolled into my father taking him down like being hit by a huge rolling pin. I don’t recall both legs being broken but the one that was, was severely broken and put back together through a major operation involving pins.

After a long recovery Dad could walk again but was never the same. He stopped driving because he lost the lateral mobility in his leg.

MTG: As Pete neared the end of his life, it seemed that the Morisi family was under a dark cloud. In an e-mail dated 12/8/17, I learned that things got even worse: You hit the nail on the head re the “dark cloud” comment.

During my father’s hospitalization my Uncle Donald (Dad’s brother) was my rock, visiting my father during the times I couldn’t be there.

Then he, too, was in a car accident, where the car he was traveling in flipped a few times rendering him unavailable. It was tough

relaying the message to my Dad who by then stunned asked, “What’s happening to this family?”

I appreciate you asking about my Mom. She deserves a lot of recognition as the “woman behind the man.”

Be Well, Val

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

Mom & The Morisi Boys in 1960. [© 2019 Estate of Pete Morisi.]

Splash panel by Pete Morisi (scripter unknown) for Fox Feature Syndicate’s Crimes by Women #11 (Feb. 1950). Thanks to Frank Motler. [© the respective copyright holders.]

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Afterword: Who Is Glen D. Johnson?

Glen is one of those unsung fans who, in the early 1960s, helped build modern comicbook fandom. In Dec. 1964 he became one of the earliest members of Jerry Bails’ K-a (CAPA-alpha) ‘zine, with the appearance of his “Small Talk” column in issue #3.

Fifty-four years later, that legendary amateur press fanzine is still going strong—at least as an online zine.

Jerry Bails also founded TCR (The Comic Reader) in 1961, the first regularly published comics industry news fanzine. He edited the first 25 issues before handing Glen the editorial reigns in 1965.

Glen produced issues #26 to #40—becoming only the second editor of the long-running, and respected, newszine.

As we see by this 1964 quote from his “Small Talk” column in CAPA-alpha #3, Glen was also one of Pete Morisi’s earliest boosters: “I haven’t heard much comment from fans concerning Charlton’s new line of heroes, but I believe all of the new titles are excellent except the Blue Beetle. The artist he has now is not the artist to A Comic Fandom Archive handle him. I’d like to see the artist The Comic Reader #32 (Dec. who handles ‘Kid Montana’ take 1964), edited by Glen D. over.”

Johnson. Comicbook fan and The artist who handled “Kid Montana” was, of course, Pete Morisi. Around 1964 Glen began a correspondence with Pete, becoming his friend and #1 fan in the process.

In the “real world,” Glen, an aspiring comicbook writer, taught

researcher Howard Keltner drew the cover. This one is also one of the earliest fanzines in Michael T.’s own collection! [Heroes TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders; other art © Estate of Howard Keltner.]

English as a Second Language (ESL) to grade school kids on the Navajo reservation near Crown Point, New Mexico. He attempted to merge both of his interests with Navajo Canyons, a comic strip based on Native American lore. Though it was never sold, he produced some handsome sample pages drawn by Utah-based cartoonist Ned Young, Jason Chee, and pioneering DC artist Creig Flessel.

Along The Navajo Trail A 1972 sample page of Glen Johnson’s unsold comic strip, Navajo Canyons, as illustrated by comicbook pioneer Creig Flessel.

Flessel had drawn for DC Comics back in the 1930s, including “Speed Saunders” in Detective Comics #1—more than two years before Batman made the scene! [TM & © Glen D. Johnson.]

He also published a number of “how to read” comic booklets, reprinting comicbook stories, rewritten with simpler dialogue.

One featuring The Spirit was done in partnership with Will Eisner.

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PETE MORISI Checklist [This checklist is adapted from information in the online Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999, established by Dr. Jerry G. Bails and viewable at www.bailsprojects.com. Names of features that appeared both in comicbooks of that title and in other magazines are generally not italicized. Key: (w) = writer; (p) = penciler; (i) = inker; (S) Sunday newspaper comic strip; (d) daily newspaper comic strip.]

Name: Peter A. Morisi (1928-2003) – writer, artist Pen Names: Sal-Pete (shared with Sal Trapani); also signed PAM (or P.A.M.) and P.M. Education: High School of Industrial Arts, NYC; Cartoonists and Illustrators School Family in Arts: Steve Morisi (son) Influences: Milton Caniff, George Tuska Print Media (Non-Comics): Artist: 1970s for column “Staten Island Stats” for The Advance (newspaper); contributor to Street Enterprises Benefit Portfolio; magazines 1952-52; Marvel Science Fiction 1952; Tween Age Digest 1953; portfolios 1974 Other Career Notes: Police officer, c. 1955-75 (retired after 20 years) Syndication: Dickie Dare (asst. ink) to Coulton Waugh for Associated Press; Flash Gordon (ink) 1953, three months over Dan Barry for King Features Syndicate; The Saint (asst. ink) to Mike Roy for New York Herald-Tribune Promotional Comics: Masked Rider (p)(i) 1959 for Blue Bird Comics Assisted: Don Heck (doing some pencils); Mike Roy and John Belfi (background inks) on Heap and Crimebuster – dates unknown A.C.E. Comics: covers & illustration (p)(i) 1986 Renegade Press: covers (p)(i) 1987; Johnny Dynamite (p)(i) 1987 Sword in the Stone: Canada, Adventures into the Unknown (p) 1990 reprint Fan & Trade Zines: Charlton Bullseye (p)(i) 1976-76; Comic Reader (contributor) COMICBOOKS (U.S. Mainstream Publications): Better/Nedor/Pines Publications: horror (p)(i) 1954; romance (p)(i) 1952 Charlton Comics: Attack (p)(i) 1972; Battlefield Action (p)(i) 1961; Billy the Kid (p)(i) 1958-61, 1972; Billy the Kid backup features (p) (i) 1959, 1963; Captain Doom (p)(i) 1969; Career Girl Romances (p)(i) 1973; Cheyenne Kid (p)(i) 1961; Cheyenne Kid backup features (p)(i) 1959; covers (p)(i) 1955, 1964-76; Danger (p)(i) 1955; Dr. Graves (p)(i) 1962-65; Fightin’ Army (p)(i) 1971; Fightin’ Marines (p)(i) 1952; fillers (p)(i) 1971; Flash Gordon back feature (p)(i) 1969; Ghost Manor (p)(i) 1970-76, (w) 1973; Ghostly Haunts (p)(i) 1970-75, (w) 1973-75; Ghostly Tales (p)(i) 1970-75, (w) 1974; Haunted (p)(i) 1972-72, 1975-77, 1979-83; Haunted Love (w)(p)(i) 1975; Hollywood Romances (p)(i) 1970-71; I Love You (p)(i) 1971-72; Johnny Dynamite (w)(p)(i) 1955; Kid Montana (p) (i) 1958-71; Kid Montana backup features (p)(i) 1962-63; Lash LaRue (p)(i) [a jam] date uncertain; Loco (w)(p)(i) 1958; The Man Called Loco (p)(i) 1968-70; Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves (w) 1973-74; Masked Raider (p)(i) 1958-61; Maverick Marshal (p)(i) 1959; Monster Hunters (p)(i) 1975; Mr. Dedd (p)(i) 1960s; Outlaws of the West (p)(i) 1958, 1963; The Phantom (p)(i) 1971; Rocky Lane’s Black Jack backup features (p) (i) 1959; Romantic Story (p)(i) 1970; Scary Tales (p)(i) 1975; Sheriff of Tombstone back features (p)(i) 1959; support (lettering) 1969-78 (on

Play Mystic For Me! For Timely/Atlas/Marvel, Pete Morisi drew this tale that appeared in Mystic #52 (Oct. 1956). Thanks to Glenn McKay. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

own strips only); Teen Confessions (p)(i) 1970; Teen-Age Love (p)(i) 1972; Texas Rangers (p)(i) 1958, 1963-64, 1970; Thunderbolt (w)(p)(i) 1965-67; Time for Love (p)(i) 1971; Vengeance Squad (w)(p)(i) 1975-76; Wyatt Earp (p)(i) 1958-59, 1961 DC Comics: Dark Mansion (p)(i) 1973; Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion (w)(p)(i) 1973; Sinister House (p)(i) c. 1973; Who’s Who in the DC Universe (p)(i) 1978 entries Dell/Western Publications: romance (p)(i) 1952 Eastern Color Printing: New Heroic Comics (i) 1946 Fawcett Publications: Lash LaRue (i) 1952; war (p)(i) 1952 Feature Comics: romance (p)(i) 1954 Fiction House: romance (p)(i) c. 1952; Western (p)(i) c. 1952 Fox Comics: Captain Kidd (w?)(p)(i) 1949; crime (w)(p)(i) date

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Out-Foxed!

Let There Be Battle!

Hope Pete got paid, unlike many other pros, when he worked for Victor Fox’s comics line in Crimes Incorporated #12 (1950; apparently the only issue). Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Among the various war stories Pete Morisi drew for Timely (the future Marvel) Comics was this one for Battle #48 (Sept. 1956). Scripter unknown. Scanned by Michael T. Gilbert from his own copy. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

unknown; Crimes Incorporated (w)(p)(i) 1950, probable; historical fiction (w)(p)(i) date unknown; L’Olonnois the Cruel (w?)(p)(i) c.

1948 (his first feature doing full art) Gilberton: various features (p)(i) 1961 Harvey Comics: fillers (p)(i) 1952-53; mystery/occult (p)(i) c. 1952; war (p)(i) 1953 Harwell Publications: covers (p)(i) 1953; Danger (p)(i) c. 1952-54; Dear Lonely Hearts (p)(i) c. 1952-54; Death Valley (p)(i) c. 1952-54; Duke Douglas (p)(i) c. 1952-54; Horrific (p) 1954; Johnny Dynamite (p)(i) 1953-54; Luke Hennessy (p)(i) c. 1952-54; War Fury (p)(i) c. 1952-54; Weird Terror (p) 1954

Marvel Comics: Arizona Kid (p)(i) 1950-52; Battle (p)(i) 1956; Battlefront (p)(i) 1956; Battleground (p)(i) 1957; crime (p)(i) 1951-52; Devil Dog Dugan (p)(i) 1956; Devil Dog Dugan backup feature (p)(i) 1956; horror (p)(i) 1952; mystery/occult (p)(i) 1955; Mystery Tales (p) (i) 1957; Navy Combat (p)(i) 1956; Navy Tales (p)(i) 1957; Rawhide Kid (p) (i) 1957; Strange Stories of Suspense (p)(i) 1956; Strange Tales (p)(i) 1952, 1956-57; Sub-Mariner (i) c. 1955; Uncanny Tales (p)(i) 1956; war (p)(i) 1951-52, 1955-57; War Comics (p)(i) 1956; Western (p)(i) 1955-56; World of Suspense (p)(i) 1957; Young Men (p)(i) 1951 Nesbit Comics: The Invisible Man (p)(i) 1955; The Pirate of the Gulf (p)(i) 1955; Texas Ranger (p)(i) 1955; Wreck of the Grosvenor (p)(i) 1955

I.W. Publications: Fantastic Adventures (p)(i) 1964 reprint

Quality Comics: Two-Gun Lil (p)(maybe some inking?) 1952

Lev Gleason Publications: Adventures in Wonderland (p)(i) 1955-56; Black Diamond (p)(i) 1955-56; Black Diamond backup feature (p)(i) 1954; crime (p)(i) 1949; Crime Does Not Pay (p)(i) 1955; Red Fire (p)(i) 1955; Rocky X of the Rocketeers (p)(i) date uncertain; romance (p)(i) c. 1952; war (w)(p)(i) c. 1953-54

Skywald Publishing Company: Butch Cassidy (p)(i) 1971 reprint St. John Publishing: horror (p)(i) 1952 Toby Press: Tales of Horror (p) 1952

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Kid Stuff?

Part X Of Comics Writer JOHN BROOME’s 1998 Memoir A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: Irving Bernard (John) Broome (1913-1999) became a writer of comicbooks and pulp-magazine stories in the 1940s, and reached his apex as the major author of stories of the resuscitated “Flash” and “Green Lantern” between 1956 and the late 1960s, before mostly winding down his career as a writer. His short 1998 memoir My Life in Little Pieces: An Offbeat Auto-bio has been serialized in most issues of A/E beginning in #149, by permission of his daughter, Ricky Terry Brisacque, as retyped by Brian K. Morris. This issue, after an anecdote involving one of his fellow DC scribes, Dave Vern (real name: David V. Reed), he relates a tale of his childhood….

Another Vern Yarn (or Once More Into the Vernacular, Dear Friends) Note: At one point in his career, friend Dave had accounted for several first-rate science-fiction stories, but afterward he was reduced to trying to write comics, for which he had no particular bent. Ergo, the following: We were sitting in Julie Schwartz’s DC office one afternoon, just the two of us, when suddenly Dave says in ruminative fashion, “You know what ‘squinkers’ are?”

I suspect some kind of trap and so remain silent, for of course I know that squinkers are scripts for comics stories (as I’ve mentioned) but, as I sense, Dave has something else in mind.

“Squinkers,” he says in his best deadly manner, emphasizing each word with guitar-string clarity and resonance, “are the second-lowest form of public writing. And do you know what the lowest form of public writing is?” l stay stony and, knowing Dave, refuse to take the bait, but of course that doesn’t slow him down in the least.

“Writing on s***house walls!” he chortles with venomous glee.

Obviously, he never did make a good comics writer.

Sagawa and Domenique A French friend, Domenique Palmé, once spent a week alone with Sagawa, the Japanese girl-eater, in an isolated cottage in the massif of central France. To be sure, this was some time before Sagawa killed, cut up, refrigerated, and ate parts of the Dutch girl who was teaching him French in Paris, and Domenique was unaware of her danger. Later, when she told us about the experience, wide-eyed, innocent Domenique made it clear he hadn’t touched her at all, and I concluded, justifiably I think, that the reason she had been so lucky was that, as far as Sagawa was concerned, she was simply not to his taste.

John Broome (top left) at the 1998 San Diego Comic-Con, from the Hey Kids Comics website—juxtaposed with the “Batman” splash from Detective Comics #185 (July 1952), with pencils by Dick Sprang & inks by Charles Paris. So why’d we reprint this particular page? Because supplier Jim Kealy noted that the Grand Comics Database credits this tale scriptwise to John Broome (albeit with a question mark), while other sources suggest it’s the work of his fellow comics writer David V. Reed, whom John refers to as “David Vern.”

This way, we’ve got both bases covered! For a photo of Reed/Vern, see the previous issue of A/E. [Page TM & © DC Comics.]

Oofty-Goofty and Others The child was always running, running. Before this, they began putting up the boardwalk in Coney Island where he lived.

First, they put up only this one narrow track as long as the island, almost over the sand alongside the ocean. It stayed like that a long time before they put anything else up and the kids from our block were always running on it, up and down it, till after dark every day in our game of ring-a-levio. If you could get away and not be tagged, you had a chance to sneak back to the base and dodge in

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Part X Of Comics Writer John Broome’s 1998 Memoir

Yet truly keep their lawful places: Our playmates too grow old as we do Yet shadow us forever young.

Kurtz the dude, the dandy, with his starched shirts and a crease in his pants (already longies at 12 or 13)… Fried… was he always dressed in khaki?… not well-built, slouched around, but somehow always coming first in the street races among us smaller kids... Izzie Kriss... O Subtle One, O Serpent!... and Morris the Lefty, the punchball whiz with his educated slapping technique guaranteed to get him on base... it’s hard to think they must be all codgers now (if not gone altogether)… that only wraiths in the mind of the old man who was the child are still crouching down, shooting black or red checkers (one side waxed hard for slipperiness) or Orange Whistle bottle caps at the cracklines in the sidewalk, or spinning green, blue, or milky immies or big glassy bolsters at the scooped out holes in the dirt patch alongside, or pitching coins or Passover nuts to get nearest the curb, or most unbelievable of all that no one on that block on 36th Street between Railroad and Mermaid Avenues is flipping tickets any more, the tickets we hoarded all winter to bring out when the “ticket season,” by some mysterious signal, started again one special day in spring, our precious tickets with pictures in faded colors of baseball players, Zach Wheat, Burleigh Grimes, Lee “Specs” Meadows...

Immortal names!

And immortal games—punchball, association (touch football), one-o-cat (using two pieces of sawed-off broomstick, the shorter piece, the “cat,” sharpened to a point at one end and perched on the rim of a sewer cover, would fly up at the sharp downward rap of the longer piece and then quickly whacked hard would go sailing off, twirling in the air as it flew, twirling prettily in the air as it flew…).

Johnny B. Osgood John Broome writes of childhood chums who sported fanciful nicknames like “Oofty-Goofty” and “Morris the Lefty”—but Mr. B. himself, in later years, assumed aliases from time to time. In early “Captain Comet” yarns he was “Edgar Ray Merritt,” while this story from Strange Adventures #9 (June 1951) saw his first use of the pen name “John Osgood.” Given his background as a science-fiction fan (and later agent), editor Julius Schwartz was apparently happier to see writers’ names adorn the epics in his SF comics Strange Adventures and Mystery in Space than he was those of artists—who in this case were Bob Oksner & Joe Geilla. Thanks to Jim Kealy. [TM & © DC Comics.]

and free your teammates who were like in prison there. Then you were all home free. Home Free!

Did Oofty-Goofty play ring-a-levio with us? Maybe not.

He was a couple of years older and at that age, around 12, the difference was like, say, a different generation. No, Oofty-Goofty was not our pal. What he was, he was our idol, the neighborhood daredevil, the first to stick his foot under the wheels of passing cars, or running the breakwater rocks that stuck out into the ocean at 36th Street all the way to the end without slipping, without going down on his hands and knees, leaping, twisting in the air, flying, catapulting himself along, balancing on the slanty sides of the rocks and on their pointy edges. Oh, there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do, that short, husky, hook-nosed hero of ours! (In our affection and awe, we also nicknamed him Eaglebeak on account of his poor nose that looked so broken, but where the name Oofty-Goofty came from, the child never knew.)

The stars, our night shadows, move with us When we move

We littler kids didn’t usually get a game in these street games, on account of too many bigger kids, but we never gave up trying.

“Choose me in! Choose me in!” We’d be hopping around the two leaders choosing up sides before the game, pestering them, yanking at them, imploring them while they’d be picking out their teammates carefully, ignoring us.

I know it’s details that count in a piece of I-writing like this, but with a certain culminating event presently in the offing I find, alas, that I have no details to offer, only conjectures. I think Abe Kurtz was already going to high school at this time and that he’d already made the track team there as a freshman. But not sure across the piled-on lustres, just think.

And while I‘m at it, just when was it actually that OoftyGoofty took off on that round-the-country tour with that troupe of vaudeville acrobats he’d been working out with summers on “Muscle Beach,” a few blocks down along the hot amber-tinted sands from 36th Street? It could have been this very year, or possibly the one after—certainly it was a good many years before Oofty, bless him, set out on a much more serious adventure, going off to fight Franco in Spain, an act that hardly surprised us OoftyGoofty watchers, maybe scattered by then, but still on duty, for that’s the kind of a guy we knew our Eaglebeak to be, and we knew instinctively that time had no power to change him.

Simply put, this was the kind of a guy who couldn’t stand to see anybody around him mistreated. I remember when some older boys would grab one of us kids and start to cockalize us—they’d hold us down on the empty corner lot, open our pants, and play with our tiny peckers, pinch and flick till we screamed—when this happened, if Oofty-Goofty was near, he’d always try to interfere.

“Aw, cut it out, guys!” and do his best to free the victim. That’s how he was and I guess we honored him as much for his outreaching

Kid Stuff

49

“Strange Sport Stories” – Round One “Strange Sports Stories” was the unofficial title of DC’s bimonthly The Brave and the Bold #45-49 over the course of late 1962 and much of ’63, as edited by Julius Schwartz and mostly written by Gardner Fox, with three tales by John Broome. The JB-scripted splash page seen above left, from #49 (Aug.-Sept. ’63), was penciled by Flash artist Carmine Infantino and inked by Joe Giella. However, despite having nearly a year of trial exposure, “Strange Sports Stories” never did win an ongoing title of its own. Earlier entries like “Justice League of America” and “Suicide Squad” had been, shall we say, more successful. Thanks to Bob Bailey.

Couldn’t resist showing you the Infantino/Murphy Anderson cover to that issue as well. Julie—and the sales-scouring publishers—really had a thing about gorilla covers in those days! Thanks to the Grand Comics Database. [TM & © DC Comics.]

human heart as for his startling daredevil tricks that endeared him to us on a different level.

Contrariwise Abe Kurtz, for his part, was clearly a species of early-on Yuppie. He dressed like one and even at 13 kept his eye on the main chance, was serious about school, and thirsted for success. As I see it now, it would have been hard to find anywhere a starker contrast to Oofty-Goofty—who never cared for school, who wore around the block any old thing he happened to own, who suffered when others suffered—than that stiff and proud, tall and good-looking collar-ad Abe Kurtz .

I’ll say what I can in favor of Kurtz. I think his father was dead and he knew he was going to have to be the sole support of his mother and their family. That’s why he was so serious about school, and who could blame him? (In fact, wasn’t it in Kurtz’s house on the block where the child earned his first penny wages folding Venida hairnets in envelopes and stacking them in large white paper boxes, a quarter a box, for Abe’s widowed mother? Yes, it must have been!)

No doubt that’s what made Abe so tough inside, but Oofty-Goofty was tough, too, in his own way, and so of course the two of them— our two best street athletes, often the two “choosers” in our street games—had to clash head-on and they did repeatedly because they were so different and because neither one would give an inch to the other.

Until one day, the bad blood between them came to a boil and they stopped right in the middle of a punchball game, and as if at a long-awaited, mutually-heard signal, agreed on the spot to fight, and marched side by side, jaws and fists clenched and teeth grinding in fury, to the empty lot on the corner to have it out.

Half the kids on the block marched with them as the news spread like wildfire, including every single one of us littler kids— prancing and screaming along—who couldn’t wait to see our Eaglebeak knock the stuffing out of that stuffed shirt Kurtz with his nose always in the air. We longed to see Kurtz humbled, beaten, bashed, killed if possible, and we knew our squat, sturdy champion with his marvelous dexterity was just the guy to do the job. So we screamed and leaped and danced happily as if this fight was a gala put on for our special benefit.

The Empty Corner Lot The “empty” corner lot was sporadically adorned with burnt-out mattresses, old bedsprings, rusted pieces of iron, burnt holes in the ground, and blackened stones where mickies were cooked, with garbage and the slop and refuse of daily city life; it was here that our snow forts were built and our snow fights took place in winter, and our slingshot fights from behind tin

50

Part X Of Comics Writer John Broome’s 1998 Memoir

barricades in summer; it was the traditional arena for fist fights, and especially for the small fly, it was where the odorous air might ring with the tremulous warcry of “three-six-nine...”

Three-six-nine A bottle of wine: I can lick you Any old time chanted by the victor as he rapped the loser’s chest with his fist triumphantly. Once the child had to take three-six-nine from a fat little gink named Matty, but that’s another story…

The Fight

“Strange Sports Stories” – Round Two Once we’d sprung the cover of The Brave and the Bold #49 on you, we couldn’t resist showing you the earlier four as well.

(Above:) Infantino & Giella on B&B #45 (Dec. 1962-Jan. 1963)… and Infantino & Anderson on #46 (Feb.-March ’63).

(Below:) Infantino & Giella on #47 (April-May ’63)… and Infantino & Anderson on #48 (June-July ’63). All from the GCD. [TM & © DC Comics.]

To tell the truth, I don’t remember the actual fight. Maybe the excitement of it was too much and bombed out the child’s nervous system, leaving only a few nebulous overall impressions behind like a series of still shots but on a conceptual not a graphic level.

Chief among these is the sense that Kurtz had somehow got boxing lessons probably in his school gymnasium that year because he surprised us by boxing instead of fighting, weaving and ducking à la Benny Leonard, poking away coolly at Oofty’s furious rushes, giving ground when he had to, but jabbing again and again at his nose until that poor, already broken thing had become a mass of new blood. Also, I’m pretty sure that some older men who had come close to watch jumped in then and stopped the fight, saying we had to call it a draw since they had prevented OoftyGoofty by main force from going on and so it couldn’t be considered a clear victory for Kurtz, but we little kids knew better. We knew our idol had been beaten (and it didn’t need a virtual repeat of the first fight three months later to convince us). You can’t fool little kids in such matters and the sickening shock of that realization is something one young onlooker still wears like a permanent scar within him.

For this onlooker, a fairy tale junkie almost from his bib-wearing days on zwieback, the power of goodness had always been a part of accepted reality, a rock-solid magic-bearing force easily capable of ensuring the victory of a warm and wonderful “good guy” like

Kid Stuff

And, In This Corner…

(Above:) The first two pages of the Broome-scribed story in Brave and the Bold #46, with Infantino & Giella doing the artistic honors. The penciler developed a stylistic touch in the “Strange Sports Stories” issues in which he drew shadowy silhouettes in the captions, allegedly to add to the excitement and immediacy of the situation. It probably didn’t work, but it was an interesting experiment nonetheless. Thanks to Jim Kealy. [TM & © DC Comics.]

Oofty-Goofty over a hard cold “bad guy” like Kurtz. But the reverse had taken place (twice), shaking the ground under his feet like one of the “tidal waves” sent by a great four-stacker steamship (the Berengaria, the Majestic, the Lusitania) passing 36th Street on its way into New York Bay (when as a proud Junior Lifeguard, with swimsuit insignia to prove it, his job had been to get tiny tots and old people out of the water in time, and once he had been able to feel he had actually helped a struggling old lady to the safety of the shallows). But how explain the incredible spectacle he had witnessed? How accept it? How live with it? Was goodness then so unreliable? Was it perhaps no guarantee at all in the real world around him, in the largely unknown world around him?

These were questions to which child or old man, idealist in bud or bone-aching graybeard, he could never—even after the glorious vindication of goodness, as it seemed to him, in two humanity-threatening World Wars—find entirely satisfactory or The Second Inning soul-nourishing answers.

John Broome’s “offbeat auto-bio” will continue next issue.

The Broome/Infantino/ Giella splash page for the second (of two) main stories in the “Strange Sports Stories” issue Brave and Bold #47. Thanks to Jim Ludwig. [TM & © DC Comics.]

51

TM & © 2019 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.

by ROY THOMAS & PABLO MARCOS

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS’ GREATEST HEROES— NOW IN FABULOUS ONLINE COMIC STRIPS! NEW SEQUENCES CONSTANTLY BEING ADDED! Official Website: http://edgarriceburroughs.com/comics/ Website now also features weekly comic strips of John Carter of Mars, Carson of Venus, Pellucidar, Land That Time Forgot, and many others— only $1.99 per month!

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The 1970s

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Release date: July 24, 2019

53

My Day In Prison With Daredevil

More Than You’re Likely To Want To Know About Ye Editor’s Cameo On The Marvel/Netflix Series

by Roy Thomas

AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION: The following piece was written for the Roy Thomas Appreciation Boards, operated on Facebook by my manager and pal John Cimino. (I myself don’t do Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, or much of anything else except telephone, USPS, and e-mail.) It began as my attempt, initiated only a day or so after the actual filming occurred on January 12, 2018, to write down everything I could recall about the experience, along with a bit of context. After the article was up on the Boards, it occurred to me that, as what is sometimes nowadays referred to as a “print freak,” I wouldn’t feel the process was truly complete until it had appeared in Alter Ego… with a bit of editing to bring it up to date. So here’s the article, without further ado… and remember, you don’t have to read it if you don’t want to. Hopefully, there’s plenty of other material in this issue to make it worth your ten bucks or whatever….

N

o sense denying it: I really wanted to do a Marvel movie cameo.

Of course, I never thought there was much chance of my actually getting to do one, back during the days when it was almost solely Stan Lee making those fleeting but eagerly anticipated appearances. When Chris Claremont popped up in an X-Men movie, then two, I didn’t much mind, since Chris had been so integral to the success of the revived X-Men comic in the 1970s and beyond. But then, when other writers and artists also started showing up in the Marvel films, or at least were being scheduled to do so—well, it wasn’t that I begrudged any of those creators their time onscreen. Far from it. Each one of them deserved it.

Still, I have to admit, I couldn’t see why they were being invited to do cameos and I wasn’t. Maybe I’d missed my only shot when I became “just” a name on a 1940s wartime bandstand in Avengers: Age of Ultron? (Not that that hadn’t been and isn’t still much-appreciated! Thanks again, Joss Whedon!)

Anyway, whatever my feelings, I still wasn’t inclined to be pushy about a possible cameo. I mentioned it once in an e-mail to someone at Marvel and then forgot about it. Well, almost.

So, if you happened to spot me in prison garb in the fourth

Charlie Cox & Roy Thomas (That’s from left to right at the top of this page, just in case you couldn’t tell.)

This pic of the Daredevil star as Matt Murdock and of Ye Ed as an incarcerated, orange-jumpsuited felon was taken soon after the latter’s arrival in the one-time prison where the visitors’-room scene was to be shot. Photo probably by Brian Overton.

Seen above is the Gene Colan splash for Daredevil #59 (Dec. 1969), as written by RT and inked by Syd Shores. The scripter feels both story and villain were only so-so, but Colan’s art was superb, as always. Thanks to Barry Pearl for the scan.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

54

Roy Thomas’ Cameo On The Marvel/Netflix Series

episode of season 3 of Marvel/Netflix’s Daredevil… well, you can blame it on John Cimino.

As a friend and associate for the past few years, John’s been running the “Roy Thomas Appreciation Boards” on Facebook—which he inaugurated and named. (Me, I’ve never been on Facebook in my life, though my wife Dann has to go on occasionally in connection with her job teaching economics at a local tech college.) Of late, John has also arranged for me to attend a number of comics conventions at a fee that’s made it worthwhile for Dann and me to overcome our reluctance to travel in these days of arrogant airlines and the long shadow of terrorists. And somewhere along the line, John decided—even though I told him to forget it, it was never gonna happen—that he was going to “get” me a cameo.

Friday, January 12; I’d be able to fly back home the next morning.

Dann and I were planning to buy an extra ticket so she could come along, but in the end she decided to stay home on our South Carolina “farm,” since it was such a short trip and she’d have had nothing to do but sit around watching a TV monitor for several hours. Also, she was recovering from the really bad flu strain that was then going around… maybe it was even a touch of pneumonia… which, as it turned out, would hang on into March before she felt really good again.

Getting to New York City was definitely not half the fun, to paraphrase an old airlines ad from back in the days when air travel was a less horrific experience than it often is now.

Negative events started piling up even pre-airport. Two days before departure, I had to drive our nearly 15-year-old three-legged

And he did… or, at least, he played a crucial part in my doing one. Not in a theatrical movie, as it turned out, but in a Marvel/ Netflix episode, which actually was just fine by me. I won’t go into the machinations of how it happened—let’s just say that in the end the Marvel folks were very accommodating and enthusiastic about it. I particularly have to thank Marvel’s Joe Quesada and David Bogart for setting things up.

I was given the choice of doing said cameo either in the third season of Daredevil or the second of The Punisher or maybe the third of Jessica Jones. Sure, Iron Fist or Luke Cage or The Defenders (all since canceled, alas) would’ve all been more logical, due to my part in the co-creation of those three concepts; but the firstnamed trio of shows were scheduled to be filmed first, and I saw no reason to worry overmuch about which series it was. After all, I had been the second regular scribe of Daredevil back in 1969-70, succeeding Stan (Wally Wood had dialogued one issue, or I’d have been the series’ second writer, period) from #51-70 and then again in #72, a spell of just a bit under two years as chronicler of the Man without Fear. My villainous additions to DD’s rogues gallery were hardly my proudest hour—the likes of Stunt-Master, The Torpedo, Crime-Wave, and somebody called Kragg—though I’ve always felt that Death’s-Head, Brother Brimstone, and (as it turned out) infamous DD informant Turk Barrett weren’t bad additions to the canon; and I think I did reasonably well by pre-established bad-guys like Mr. Fear, The Stilt-Man, and a couple of others.

Anyway, I had been an early co-conspirator on Gene Colan’s long and fabled run on Daredevil—so I immediately opted for DD over the other two. I was given the choice of my cameo taking place in either of two scenes scheduled to be filmed in January 2018 for season 3, episode 4: either as a well-dressed patron in a Manhattan bar (I got the impression it might involve The Kingpin—they mostly insist on just calling him Wilson Fisk, but to me he’s The Kingpin), or else as a prison inmate in another sequence, which I assumed would also involve The Kingpin, and which was to be shot in a building that had once been an actual prison. I opted for the latter, mostly because the projected time frame for its filming was “sometime between Jan. 8 and Jan. 18,” while the earlier scene might’ve required me to be flying on or around New Year’s Day, 2018—not the greatest time to be at an airport. Actually, I lucked out in more ways than one: NYC was the victim of a horrendous snowstorm during the earlier period.

As it turned out, the cameo would require me to arrive in NYC on Thursday, January 11, for a shooting on

The Young Turk (Above:) Turk Barrett, who didn’t stick around long enough that issue to acquire a last name, made his fourcolor debut getting creamed by the Black Panther in Daredevil #69 (Oct. 1970), courtesy of Thomas, Colan, & Shores—and, in this issue of A/E, Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Left:) Turk and The Punisher—portrayed by Rob Morgan and Jon Bernthal, respectively.

Morgan has appeared as Turk in episodes of Marvel/Netflix’s Daredevil, Luke Cage, The Defenders, The Punisher, and Iron Fist.

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

My Day In Prison With Daredevil

dog Onslow to our veterinarian to be put to sleep. This caused me to miss an opportunity that day to have two huge round bales of hay delivered to our place, for our dozen Scottish highland cattle to feed on while I was away. So I arranged for a local hayman to deliver them the following afternoon—the last day they could arrive before the date I had to leave. But, alas, on Wednesday the 10th, he’d barely driven his big truck and its huge trailer off the two-lane Highway 6 and onto the several-hundred-foot gravel road (“Bluebird Trail”) that leads to our door than, amazingly, one of his oversize tires blew. He informed me that it would take till the following morning for him to get hold of a spare and have it put on, which meant that his truck and trailer (plus those enormous bales) would have to sit there on our road overnight. It also meant that, on the morning of the 11th, I’d have to throw out several regular bales from our sheds to the cattle, since I had no idea when he’d be able to deliver the hay the final few hundred feet from where the truck now sat to our main field.

Come 9:00 Thursday morning, I’d fed the cattle, as well as the other animals that needed feeding (six pigs, donkey Edgar Rice Burro, 20 goats in two fields, a horde of free-range guinea pigs, two guinea fowl, four chinchillas, and our trumpeter hornbill Barbra… plus helping Dann feed our six remaining, alwaysravenous dogs)… and I took off in the Impala, leaving her the Silverado pickup truck, which is the way she wanted it. As I drove down our road, the hayman and his grandson were just getting to work removing the blown tire on his truck, so I said a brief hello, then headed for the airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, a bit over two hours away. I hadn’t wanted to take a chance on a missed connection either way by flying out of the airport in Columbia, SC, which was just under an hour from our place, so we’d booked a direct flight from Charlotte to LaGuardia in NYC. And I was leaving way, way early—thanks to Dann’s admonitions.

I got nearly to Columbia on Highway 26—a little less than halfway to Charlotte—when I suddenly spotted some sort of dark object directly ahead in my lane. It looked like it might be the usual debris—part of a shredded tire from a car or truck, a phenomenon that seems almost ubiquitous on South Carolina’s highways—but definitely best not to run over it. However, there were cars in the adjoining lanes, so I couldn’t do much more than slow down a bit, swerve slightly, and hope for the best.

No go. A moment after I winged the object, I could tell I had an instant flat—luckily, not a blowout. I pulled over to the shoulder, got out, and saw that the right front tire was flat as the proverbial pancake. There was no sign of whatever I’d hit; I still have no idea what it was.

Fortunately, Dann had insisted I take my new cellphone that I’d been avoiding using (or learning much about) for months… so I called her even before I made an attempt to reach Triple-A for road service. My plan at that point was simply to get the spare tire put on and return home. Even though I’d left home a full five hours before my 2:00 P.M. flight to NYC, I was still over an hour from Charlotte… and I wasn’t stupid enough to try driving that far on the undersize spare. I figured I’d just head back home and call the Marvel folks and tell them thanks but I couldn’t make it… act of Crom, and all that. Apparently, this second blown tire in two days had done me in.

But Dann was having none of it. Knowing how much I wanted to make it to NYC, she quickly phoned AAA for me, and the garage guy got there in 20-25 minutes and did a good and fast job (you bet I tipped him!)… and meanwhile, she’d reminded me that, by “good luck,” I’d had the flat only about 10 minutes away from the Columbia airport. She called Hertz there and arranged for me to

55

pick up a rental car. She’s a truly resourceful woman, is my wife.

By the time all was said and done, I’d lost about an hour and a half due to the blowout… but I was on the road again and made it to the Charlotte terminal gate a half-hour before takeoff… actually, 5 or 10 minutes before they even started boarding!

Fortunately, traffic hadn’t been especially heavy… there’d been a light drizzle, but nothing more, and no road accidents to slow things down as there often are… and I found the long-term Charlotte parking lot on first try even though I’d never driven to that airport without Dann along.

Wonder of wonders, I’d even found a parking spot at the Columbia airport right off the bat, a true rarity.

Dann Thomas The real hero (heroine?) of this story, without whom Roy would’ve had to settle for just streaming the third season of Daredevil on Netflix, rather than being a part of it.

Anyway, things went smoothly from that point. I guess I’d got all the weekend’s bad luck out of the way by the time I reached Charlotte. By 5:00 P.M. or so I had gotten to the Pearl Hotel (in Manhattan’s Broadway theatre district, an old haunt of mine between ’65 and ’76), and could meet Marvel executive David Bogart for a delicious and leisurely dinner at 6:00.

Next morning, at 9:30 in the hotel lobby, I met up with the equally genial Brian Overton, another Marvel exec I’d met before.

(He, David, Dann, and I had had dinner together during an earlier trip north.) It was Brian’s appointed task to accompany me for the day and help out with anything that came up, so that I wouldn’t be an undue burden on the TV people. Instead, I would be an undue burden on Brian, but he was a good sport about giving up his Friday. He’d be the one who got to watch the TV monitor much of the day.

We got to the location—a now-unoccupied prison on Staten Island—by a bit after 11:00 A.M., in a professionally driven vehicle.

A young lady named Sarah was there to meet us and escort us to one of the trailers. Hey, wow—I had my own trailer! Definitely a first. Just about the only other time I’d been on a TV (or movie) set had been during the filming of the first Incredible Hulk TV-movie circa 1977; but then I had just been standing around at the outer edges, watching as a green-painted Lou Ferrigno smashed his way out of a big “iron lung” in which he had supposedly transformed from the absent Bill Bixby.

In the trailer this 2018 morning were two different-sized short-sleeved orange prison jumpsuits… they’d gotten my sizes and other particulars earlier, but clearly were taking no chances. Ditto, there were two T-shirts, so I could wear one under the jumpsuit, since parts of the prison were chilly. Plus fluffy white socks and the right-sized off-white shoes with no laces… I guess so they’d come off if an inmate tried to make a break for it.

I’d brought along a book to read in case things got boring—

56

Roy Thomas’ Cameo On The Marvel/Netflix Series

A. Scott Berg’s big, fat, and very good biography Woodrow Wilson, which I’d recently picked up at a Goodwill store, of all places —but folks showed up so quickly to take me to makeup that I decided to leave it in the trailer, along with my personal clothes. Just because he’s a nice guy, though, Brian stuck that heavy book in his own pack and dragged it around all day. I never did touch it again until long after the cameo was over.

This day’s scene and several others were being shot at an abandoned prison that, I was told, had been used as a location in previous Marvel/Netflix shows. I wasn’t sure what I’d be doing in the scene… nobody had said… but I hoped I was up to whatever was required.

First requirement after the prison garb was makeup, in another trailer. A couple of very professional young ladies sat me down. First, one rearranged my hair… she even cut off a strand here and there, with my blessing. Then I was moved to a chair where my “tattoos” were to be added. Tattoos? Hadn’t thought of that…but I suppose they figured it would make a Jasper Sitwell type like me look a bit more hardened. The young lady—who sported her own very real tattoos—had a bunch of fake ones laid out before me, ready to apply, and I was given a choice. There were skulls, and knives, and knives in skulls, and a few others… oh, and a sizable black spider. Given my own hatred (if not downright fear) of spiders, plus my various associations with Spider-Man over the years, I naturally opted for that. It was applied to the back of my right hand. We all agreed it would be fun to continue the arachnid motif, so they “tattooed” a bunch of webbing on the left side of my neck, and on my right forearm. Plus another very tiny spider near my left thumb, which I couldn’t imagine anything but a telephoto lens could’ve possibly picked up. Still, it did add to the authenticity, and they seemed happy I was so willing to go along with whatever they felt best. Oh, and they also added makeup that made it appear as if I had a slightly split upper and lower lip… as if a fellow convict had given me a fist sandwich.

Everyone connected with the show was unfailingly polite, and they seemed genuinely happy to have me there. I’d like to think it was because I made it plain, quite sincerely, how much I enjoyed the Marvel/Netflix shows. That episode’s director, Alex Garcia Lopez, came up and said a few enthusiastic words before rushing off… and the young scriptwriter, Lewaa Nasserdeen, who was on set for the day to make hasty script changes if any were needed, was very friendly and we posed for a photo together. (His official title was “Ringside Writer on Set for Episode 304.”) We both got a kick out of the fact that this was his very first time writing Daredevil—while my first DD work was just a year or so shy of being five decades past.

Also present was Mary-Margaret Kunze, listed on the sheet Marvel had sent me as “Marvel Executive on Set” for episode 304. She, too, was fantastically friendly and courteous,

and, despite having plenty of other things to do all day, would check in every so often to make sure everything was going okay for me; so did one or two other people. I tried not to be a burden; the most I ever accepted, and not till sometime in mid-afternoon, was a bottle of water, out of which I took maybe two sips.

To my surprise, I learned that The Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) wasn’t in this particular scene after all, and wouldn’t be on the set that day. I had hoped to get a chance to tell him how much I’d enjoyed his portrayal of Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan, et al., in the excellent 1996 movie bio The Whole Wide World.

I had since learned, to my surprise, that he’d even been involved in that project as a co-producer. He’s been highly watchable in Men in Black and Jurassic World and other films as well.

Instead—but this was certainly not a disappointment—I was introduced to Charlie Cox, who plays Daredevil/Matt Murdock.

Having been impressed by his work on the first two seasons, and in The Defenders, it was a distinct pleasure to meet him. I figured he’d just shake my hand and hurry off, but he apparently had a few free minutes, and we had a chat about the show.

I’ve been in a situation or two where I’ve had to fake my feelings about a movie or TV show. In this case, I could truthfully tell Charlie how, as a former writer and later editor of Daredevil (and as a reader of the comic from its 1964 debut), I thought he and the cast and the crew had all captured just the right feeling. Sure, it’s more of a Frank Miller Daredevil than a Stan Lee/Roy Thomas one, but that’s what they were trying to do… and as far as I was concerned, they’d done it. Karen Page, Foggy, The Kingpin, Stick… all excellent. Plus that wonderful extended-shot fight scene in the first season, which had lasted two harrowing minutes onscreen, and which all concerned were quite proud of. They’d followed that up with another extended battle in the second season… and I learned that January day that one of the other sequences that would be filmed at the prison, although probably not scheduled to be shot that very day, would be a really extended fight scene, throughout level after level of the building. It was going to be by far the longest of the three—the projected running-time I heard was twelve minutes!—and I figured it would be sensational.

“I’m Ready For My Closeup, Mr. Netflix!”

Lewaa Nasserdeen (scriptwriter of Daredevil, season 3, episode 4) clowns around with RT in the ex-prison. Photo probably taken by Brian Overton.

I found Charlie Cox a genuinely friendly guy… either that, or he’s an even better actor than I gave him credit for. I didn’t realize at the time that I’d seen him before in TV series like Downton Abbey and Boardwalk Empire… but I did notice that he had a British accent (he’s part English, part Irish, and part Scottish) when he wasn’t playing an American attorney and a masked super-hero. For his part, he seemed pleased that a guy who’d written the Daredevil comic liked the show and wasn’t worried about any inconsistencies between comicbook and TV. He said he hadn’t been aware of the comics before landing the role of Murdock/DD, but that he’d read a mound of them since to familiarize himself with DD’s

My Day In Prison With Daredevil

Vincent D’Onofrio (Left:) As Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. The Kingpin, in the first season of Daredevil, 2015. A sterling performance, revisited in season 3.

world. He half-joked that he figured that, if The Defenders had a leader, it would be Daredevil. I told him I totally agreed with him… which I did.

(Right:) In one sense, D’Onofrio’s “Kingpin” role was his second on-screen portrayal of a Marvel-related personage.

In the excellent 1996 biographical film The Whole Wide World, he played Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Barbarian—who has recently returned to Marvel. D’Onofrio also co-produced that movie. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

I noticed that he had a couple of scars on his forehead, partially hidden by his tousled hair.

They looked quite real, but I assumed they were courtesy of the makeup department. He smiled: “Yeah, they’re from my last fight.” Daredevil tends to get beat up a lot in the various series. His strength is that he gets back up and triumphs in the end. We shared a laugh about the scene at the start of the second episode in season 1, an aerial view of him lying badly hurt in a dumpster. We also discussed the gradual way his costume had evolved over the first season. At first, I’d been worried that Marvel/ Netflix was going to give him that early quasi-costume (mostly just a black scarf wrapped around his head) permanently instead of some version of his familiar red/black outfit; but then came the line in which Murdock refers to his outfit as “a work in progress,” which had brought a chuckle. (Actually, Charlie and I discussed various things over the course of two conversations we had that day, so I’ve lumped together most of what I recall at this point.)

Charlie moved on, since he obviously had other things to do. In the course of things, I forgot to introduce him to Brian Overton, who was behind me…

I think I assumed that, since Charlie knew everybody else there, he knew Brian, too… but Brian hadn’t been on the set before any more than I had.

They did finally get introduced, though.

I was a bit out of my comfort zone myself, but I didn’t want to neglect Brian, who was providing me with much-appreciated support, as was Mary-Margaret.

57

Also nearby, I spotted a trio of my fellow “inmates”— as evil-looking a mixed-race threesome as I’d seen since—well, since the early-1960s day I’d been on a Criminology-class “field trip” to an actual, operating maximumsecurity prison in southern Illinois. I sure didn’t want to share a cell with any of those guys.

I figured they were in for murder and/or rape, while I was clearly just an embezzler.

If I was guilty at all! My lawyer says not.

About this time, someone came by to ask if everything with the jumpsuit, etc., was working out. I replied that I was a bit worried about the shoes… they were the right size, but they seemed loose and my heel sometimes slipped out when I walked, so that I could keep them on only by kind of balling up my toes. Quickly, another pair was brought… officially the same size, but somehow just different enough that they stayed on throughout the day. These guys clearly came prepared, which didn’t much surprise me. The Marvel/Netflix shows didn’t get to be as good as they’ve been because the work crew was a bunch of amateurs.

Soon, I was escorted to the main set, where, as it turned out, the cast and crew would spend the entire afternoon up till roughly 5:00 shooting and reshooting a single scene that would run, at most, three or four minutes on-screen. Realizing this as things rolled along made the process even more fascinating to me,

The Reel Deal (Left:) In this scene from the 8-episode Marvel/Netflix series The Defenders, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) wears his early, improvised black Daredevil mask—look, ma, no eyeholes!—while carousing with Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), Iron Fist (Finn Jones), and Mike Colter (Luke Cage). While this issue of A/E was in preparation, alas, Netflix canceled all the Marvel series, as Disney (which owns Marvel) is prepping its own Disney Plus streaming service.

(Right:) Charlie/Matt in full DD regalia. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

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Roy Thomas’ Cameo On The Marvel/Netflix Series

because it meant that, if I stuck around the set instead of running off to the restroom or the caterer or to watch the TV monitors or just to lounge around until we extras were next needed, I could see every single take that would later show up in the aired episode… always assuming, of course, that the entire scene didn’t wind up on the cutting-room floor (along with my cameo) or need additional shooting later. So that’s what I did.

I soon learned that the scene involved Matt Murdock (who for some reason was pretending to be his ex-law partner Foggy Nelson) talking to an inmate who’s brought into the visitors’ room where prisoners are allowed to talk across tables to family members or friends. The scene was to be shot in what were basically two rooms, which were almost totally open to each other… except for a partial wall (maybe 8 or so feet long) at one end, which enabled various crew members to keep out of the camera’s line of vision when they weren’t needed. In the main room was the table to which a uniformed prison guard escorted the inmate to talk to Murdock (the actor playing the “inmate” was a fairly lean, bearded guy who reminded me of an old comicbook buddy from the 1970s, artist Russ Jones), plus another table (which had its own inmate-and-visitor pair) a few feet away, in Murdock’s direct line of sight.

In the other, same-length “room” were the rest of us—but at four tables, at each of which sat a different grouping. I was at a table almost directly to Charlie’s right, maybe 15 feet away from him.

Across from me, wearing a “little black dress,” sat a dark-haired woman named Marie (and I could kick myself for not remembering her last name!). I learned over the course of the afternoon that she did this TV “extra” work part time. For her regular job, she worked in a bookstore and did quilting, she said. She lived in New Jersey…

Hoboken, I think. She was very amiable, and gave me pointers on

what we’d be doing: silently pretending to talk as husband and wife (or whatever), as background to the main scene being enacted at the table with Charlie and the bearded prisoner, whose name I would later learn was Jasper Evans. I was more or less parallel with “Evans”… Marie with Charlie. A few feet to my left was a table where an African-American “inmate” faced a couple of members of his own family. Directly behind me, back to back, was another prisoner, whose real name seemed to be Dave, facing his leatherjacketed male visitor… and there was another such table-grouping to complete a sort of squared-off arrangement. A couple of “guards” moved among our four “inmate” groupings, obviously to keep order. There were several warning signs on the walls posting the prison’s rules, not all of them visible on this day to the filming cameras. So my “cameo” was basically going to consist of work as an “extra”—but that was about what I had expected. Sure, I’d have loved it if they’d made me the prison guard who brought in Jasper Evans… or if I’d had a line to deliver… but I’d take what I could get, and was appreciative for it. Marvel hadn’t had to give me a cameo just to humor me, after all.

The Daredevil scene shot that afternoon begins with a guard escorting in Jasper Evans, who seems happy to see Murdock, though he’s a bit confused because he’d been told his visitor was Foggy Nelson. Matt gives a vague explanation for telling the prison staff that he’s Nelson, then tries to elicit some information from Evans. Their faces move closer together, and their voices get deliberately low… so low that I couldn’t make out what they said for a time, though I was later assured that mics would pick it up.

After a minute at most of this, Evans suddenly leaps up angrily and slugs Murdock in the jaw across the table, screaming: “I don’t know this man! Get me out of here!” A couple of burly guards rush up and pull Evans backwards, down the 15-to-20-foot length of that room—and past near where Dave the prisoner sits, turning to stare (like all of us had been told to) at this explosion of violence.

Evans manages to gasp out to Dave: “I told him nothing! I told him nothing!”—clearly concerned for his own life if someone (probably The Kingpin) thinks he’s been squealing to Murdock. (In one of the earliest takes, Evans’ shoes came off when he was dragged away. I wasn’t the only one who had problems with that prison footwear!)

Matt sits at the table a moment, rubbing his chin where Evans struck it. Then a guard comes in to escort Matt out, but tells “Mr. Nelson” that he’ll have to sign a paper before he leaves, due to a

Attorney-Client Privilege?

(Left:) Charlie and Roy pose informally for a pic during an on-set break. It was Charlie’s suggestion that he act as if he’s showing the “guest of the state” some papers from his lawyerly briefcase, as if Roy were a prospective client.

(Above:) Matt Murdock pretending to be Foggy Nelson (as portrayed by Charlie Cox, pretending to be an American lawyer) and bearded convict Jasper Evans (actor’s identity, alas, unknown at presstime) confer in the prison visitors’room, moments before an angry, terrified Evans lashes out at Murdock. Screen capture by John Cimino.

My Day In Prison With Daredevil

blow having being struck. Matt tries to wave it off, but the guard says he can’t let him go until he signs it. Murdock mulls this for a moment—after all, he’s going to have to sign this paper as Foggy Nelson—then resignedly says “Okay” and walks out behind the guard.

that only the deluxe 1000-copy edition of Taschen Publishing’s and my humongous tome The Stan Lee Story, priced at $1500 per, would debut in November of 2018, with a more general-audience (and less expensive) edition scheduled to follow only after that one had sold out, probably sometime in 2019. See ad for the latter on p. 63.]

And that was it. Obviously, all I knew—all any of us extras knew—was what we saw happening at that time, and there was no need for us to know more. I had a suspicion, based on that extended fight-scene that I knew was a part of the episode, that Murdock was walking into a Kingpin-set trap… but I’d have to wait till the third season debuted before I’d know for sure how everything hung together.

Since before the sock in the jaw we weren’t supposed to be paying any attention to Murdock and Evans at the nearby table, but only to each other, Marie and I “talked” away silently, sometimes smiling, sometimes frowning, occasionally gesturing slightly. One bit she came up with was pointing at my spider hand tattoo, as if it was a new thing. At other times, she referenced my split lip with a slight gesture, and I shrugged it off… just one of those things that happen in prison.

59

When The Lights Go Out Roy (and fellow extra Marie, across the table) sit in the darkened “visitors’-room” at a time when only the main area nearby was lighted. Marie is probably checking her e-mails, while a crew member performs some technical function in the background—or maybe reads his e-mails.

I tried to imagine I was saying things like “How’re the kids?” or “How’s my mother?”—things like that. Early on, I often let some of the words come out in a very low whisper, but Marie warned me against that, as you couldn’t be sure some sensitive mic might not pick it up, so I quickly broke myself of that. In between takes, she told me at one stage that part of what she’d been “saying” to me was, “I’m sorry I had to turn you in to the cops, but like, we needed the reward money.” I thought that was funny, so later I would mouth words about how I was going to wring her neck when I got out in 25 years. (By which time I’d be 102; I’d told Marie she was far too young to have an oldster like me for a husband, and she seemed a bit surprised at my age, bless her.) Of course, it was only her and my personal conceit that we were playing husband and wife; probably more realistically, she could have been playing my daughter… or just some weirdo who liked to visit guys in prison.

Whatever. We had a good time. Marie had been an extra in other series, including one that I like, The Americans. She said that, on that one, she had once had to don two different sets of clothes for two different scenes… and when the TV people cut things together, it turned out she was in one group of people who were looking at another group of people… and she was in both groups.

Marie soon noticed that I was being treated a bit differently from the other extras, and she inquired about the reason. I explained I’d been a Marvel writer and editor for many years, and still worked on a Spider-Man newspaper strip, etc.… so I was doing a sort of cameo, which they’d graciously invited me to do. Because she was a bookseller, at some point I mentioned the big 2014 book 75 Years of Marvel, and she seemed to recall seeing that one at the store where she worked. I told her I was working on another big book, this one about Stan Lee, which would probably hit her store sometime later in 2018. [2019 NOTE: I didn’t know at the time

I earlier used the phrase: “in between takes”—and man, there were a lot of takes. I can’t imagine that every two-or-three-minute sequence takes five hours to shoot, counting coverage… but the director clearly wanted to get this one just right. The entire scene, or bits of it, was shot dozens of times.

At least some of the cameras were apparently focused on us at the same time as they were covering Matt and Jasper Evans… or perhaps were sweeping between us. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have had us be acting while the other scene was being filmed. In the early shooting they had us prisoners and visitors react to Matt’s getting slugged just by turning in surprise to look in that direction; later, they directed us to rise excitedly to our feet, and that was the version they wound up using.

Sometimes they just concentrated on filming the two-man main scene while the rest of us could just sit there watching… and at a couple of times over the course of the day, we were all dismissed while shooting between Charlie/Matt and Evans went on. On those occasions, all the other extras who’d been in that visitors’-room/area left the room, and it was just me sitting there, watching the shooting and re-shooting. (I had asked if that was okay, to make sure I wouldn’t be in the way.) I found it anything but boring. It was intriguing to see seven, eight, or even more guys (not counting the actors and extras) each doing his/ her thing… sometimes an appearance of chaos, but of course each person was doing his/her job, whether filming, maneuvering a boom mic, etc., and the end product would be a brief scene that would look as if it had all happened in a couple of minutes, instead of being stitched together from footage shot over a period of something like five hours.

They even brought in a dolly track at one point, just so the camera could move in for a close-up of Matt, musing—perhaps before Evans was brought in.

At one point, when they were filming just “Matt,” rubbing his chin after being slugged and Evans dragged away, Charlie called out my name—I had no idea he’d known I was even there, let alone remembering my name—and asked if I’d mind moving to the bench where the inmate Dave had sat. I think Dave had been Charlie’s “eye-line” reference, or some such thing. (Forgive me if I don’t get all the nomenclature quite right; I was just picking this up as I went along, and had never made any attempt to study filmmaking terminology, not even when I was co-writing and selling screenplays back in the 1980s.) Later, I realized from comments made between the crew that at some point in the scene the “eyeline” was me, then switched to Dave. Glad to be of service.

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Roy Thomas’ Cameo On The Marvel/Netflix Series

On at least two occasions during the day when there was a more general break, youngish members of the crew approached me rather diffidently, explaining that they didn’t want to bother me but just wanted to express their appreciation for my comics work. One guy particularly mentioned Conan the Barbarian. There wasn’t time for much of a real conversation, but I tried to make it clear how much I was enjoying seeing Daredevil transformed from a comicbook into a successful TV-style series. It was nice to feel appreciated by a bunch of pros, each of whom was clearly good at his/her job, or they wouldn’t have been there.

and at one point during a lull we exchanged a comment or two about music that had been played off and on that day. Earlier, in the area of the prison where I first met Charlie, the writer, and the director, some piped-in music had played a few bars of “Jailhouse Rock” by Elvis—always welcome to my ears. Someone said something about that song being from a long time ago. “November 1957,” I responded. The cover date of Fantastic Four #1 isn’t the only bit of historical trivia I know. Later, early on in the set area, there’d also erupted some “Fulsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash, and everybody spontaneously had started singing along with it.

At some time during such a break, when the other extras were off at the caterer a room or two away (they were serving noodles, which I wouldn’t have found too tempting at the best of times), Charlie walked over, sat down, and engaged me in conversation again for a few minutes. Among other things, he asked if I was really enjoying sitting through the same scene over and over. I assured him I was… it was far easier for me to watch it than it was for him to do it over and over, acting as if each time was the first time something spontaneously happened. Then he went back to work… as did I, in my lesser way.

I mentioned to this guard/extra that those two prison songs came close to exhausting my knowledge of that kind of music, and he mentioned a song by Merle Haggard. I said I hadn’t heard that one, though I’d seen Haggard with Willie Nelson back when I lived in New York. I said I wasn’t really a country music fan… I was more interested in Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis.

A few minor things went wrong. Unfortunately, from the leftover snow of a few days before, some slush and ice had worked its way inside. I learned during my one brief absence from the visitors’ room (a trip to a bathroom, which was a considerable walk away) that the floors of the old prison were wet and slippery in places. I got by okay, but when Marie returned from one of the breaks, a couple of the crew were solicitous of her. Turned out she’d slipped and fallen on some of the icy slush, though fortunately she was only slightly bruised, and she carried on as if nothing had happened. She was a real trooper.

For me, the closest thing to an unpleasant happening occurred with one of the burly guards who would drag off Jasper Evans. He was a big guy with a mustache and a deep voice, quite articulate,

Orange Is The New Four-Color (Above:) The first thing Netflix viewers saw in the visitors’-room sequence was not a shot of Matt Murdock—but, surprisingly, Roy T. in his spiffy orange jumpsuit, talking to his (unseen) “wife” across the table. If you look closely, the spider “tattoo” on the back of his right hand is slightly visible. As related in this article, it was someone else’s voice, not Roy’s, that was heard voicing his “Good” line and a sort of grunt a couple of seconds later. This screen capture, complete with subtitles, is courtesy of John Cimino. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

(Right:) When this article first appeared on the Roy Thomas Appreciation Boards on Facebook, RT drew from memory a map of the set, in an area of the former Staten Island prison, as it appeared that day in January 2018. Since then, he’s added a couple of windows he neglected to note the first time around.

“That pedophile!” he spat out with genuine, sudden anger.

I responded, lightly, that there are indeed those who think he actually murdered one girlfriend in Memphis some years back (I’m not one of them)—but pedophilia? I quickly realized he was referring to Jerry Lee’s marrying his 13-year-old third cousin back in ’58. I opined as how that was a romance, if a bit unorthodox… and not totally unusual, especially in the South at that time. But he was having none of it. He went off on a brief but impassioned rant about how Jerry Lee had “traumatized” that poor girl, how she’d be screwed up for the rest of her life, etc. I didn’t feel it would help much for me to mention that she had later authored (or co-authored or whatever) a book about their life together titled Great Balls of Fire, and she seemed to have come through it reasonably well.

By then, the guard/extra was off on a tangent about the ruling class of some east-European nation who had used up all of some

My Day In Prison With Daredevil

61

just soap and water)… we all forgot about the tiny spider near my left thumb, which remained… but when they came to the spider on the back of my right hand, I told them I’d like to keep that. “Really?” they said. “It’ll take a couple of weeks to fade off… it won’t just wash off real easily with soap and water.” I said that was fine, and they seemed pleased I was going to keep a souvenir of the experience. Or maybe they just thought I was gonna go back home and pretend I was now this spider-tattooed badass.

Then, into the van and back to Manhattan.

In this shot, Roy and all the extras playing convicts, prison guards, or visitors have been directed to leap to their feet in It had taken an hour and surprise when Jasper Evans slugs Matt Murdock. John Cimino, who provided this screen capture, pointed out that Roy was a half to get to the prison the first of the extras to make a move to begin to sit down again. Roy explained that his sense of the scene was that, once on Staten Island, but it everyone saw that a single punch was all there was going to be, they would logically start to ease into their chairs again… took a bit longer (it being though very slowly. What? They don’t give out Emmys for cameos? rush hour) to get back.

Brian, Mary-Margaret, edible foodstuffs grown there for some profitable purpose, leaving and I shared the van, driven by an amiable guy named Bob. the country’s people to starve. I ceased trying to follow his train Mary-Margret answered a few of our questions about shooting of thought. He said at some stage that he enjoyed pointing out these Marvel/Netflix series… and Brian gave me the hot-offthings (like the “foodstuff/starvation” bit) to people and watching the-presses news that Marvel had just recovered the rights to their eyes as they learned something new and publish Conan the Barbarian. (I had mixed unexpected. I guess he included me. I nodded, and feelings about that: on the one hand, it that pretty much ended that conversation. would probably at least mean a better reprinting of my 1970s material than I felt He did fine playing one of the guards dragging had been done at Dark Horse; on the other Jasper Evans out of the visitors’ room, though. hand, DH publisher Mike Richardson had Eventually, it was all over. Marie came in to say been talking to me about doing another they’d told her they wouldn’t need the extras (the Conan series at Dark Horse, and now that inmates and their families) anymore in that scene, possibility might be out the window. Oh, so we could all go; but she wanted to say goodbye, well, c’est la vie. I’ve written a lot of Conan. and we each said, truthfully I think, that we’d If I have to write one more issue or series to enjoyed working together. She was sticking around prove that I brought something to the table, the general set, because apparently there was to be then it’s already too late for me.) more shooting in the evening of another scene, and I was the last to be let off by the van, she might be called on to do extra work in it as well. right outside the Pearl Hotel (and across I left, rejoining Brian. He’d been outside with from the theatre where The Book of Mormon other crew members and the like for these past was playing—a show I probably wouldn’t several hours, often watching what was going on have gone to see if I’d been given free via monitors. I apologized for spending the whole tickets). Brian still had a couple of hours’ day on the shooting set, but I’d gotten intrigued. trip back to his home in Connecticut. He I know the old saying: “The most exciting day of deserved some kind of medal, by my lights. your life is your first day on a movie set. The most I didn’t feel like heading straight back boring day of your life is the second.” I think it to my room, though, even if I had to make would take a bit longer than that for it to get to me, an 8:00 flight the next morning and the though.

Along Came A Spider… ever-cautious Dann had made me promise The spider “tattoo” that had been Anyway, then it was back to “my” trailer to to leave a wakeup call for 3:00 A.M. I had artfully applied to the back of Roy’s change back into civvies, and I said goodbye to the a very good cheeseburger at a grill next right hand for the Daredevil shoot—as actually rather comfortable orange prison outfit. to the hotel (it’s hard to get bad food in seen about a week afterward, when Then I was taken back to makeup so the ladies NYC, since there’s so much competition), it was still relatively intact. It took a could remove my four tattoos. They took off the then wandered down Seventh Avenue to couple of weeks before it had totally webbing on my neck and arm (it took more than faded away. Photo by Dann Thomas.

42nd or 41st. I had been all over this area

Stand And Deliver

62

Roy Thomas’ Cameo On The Marvel/Netflix Series

Halloween Happenings (Left:) In October 2018, John Cimino and his daughter Bryn flew down from Boston to attend Roy and Dann’s big annual Halloween party on their spread near St. Matthews, South Carolina—hence the photo of Roy and John with a freezeframe of the cameo on the Thomases’ upstairs TV, taken on Oct. 20th… well, probably in the wee small hours of the 21st.

John told Roy, “Show me again how you were dramatically leaning on the table after that convict punched Murdock!”

Photo by Catherine Rivera.

(Below:) 14-year-old Bryn Cimino attended the festivities as the new Captain Marvel… nee Carol Danvers in the RT-scripted second story of Captain Mar-Vell. Here Bryn relaxes in one of the hanging chairs in the Thomases’ top-floor library-and-loom room. Photo by John.

back in the day, especially between 1965 and ’68 when I’d been a 20-something single guy living in New York… and mostly loving it. I passed the Winter Garden Theatre and remembered seeing Barbra Streisand there in Funny Girl… twice, once from a box seat. I remembered The Odd Couple with Art Carney and Walter Matthau… Man of La Mancha… That Championship Season… the 1972 revival of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Phil Silvers… Pippin, also circa ’72, when Martin Goodman took a bunch of us to a preview (he hated the Bob Fosse musical; my date and I loved it). The “Great White Way” is much brighter now than it was then—there are far more and huger electric and neon signs than when I lived there—but for one evening I was 25 again, just wandering around in my own personal Wonderland, much as I’d done two-thirds of my life ago.

But hey, being in New York, then L.A…. working in comics, and for a time in movies… it’s all been a Wonderland.

And, hopefully, it’s not nearly over.

Thanks, Marvel. You made an old comicbook writer/editor very happy.

Late October 2018 Addendum But wait—there’s more!

Since Marvel had requested that I not post this mini-memoir or any photos related to my cameo until a week after its Netflix debut on Friday, October 19th, that means I had time to add a couple of reactions to the cameo as aired. I saw at least the first part of episode 4 the night it “opened,” thanks to Dann, who streamed it for me even though she was hard at work with the final preparations for our big annual Halloween party the following night.

When the prison sequence came onto the screen, I was prepared for the worst: that all the visitors’-room footage had wound up on the cutting-room floor, in favor of just close-ups of Matt Murdock talking to Jasper Evans. Or, since all of us in that second room were only extras, after all, for the editing to have been done in such a way that even I couldn’t spot myself. And I knew where to look!

So imagine my surprise—no, my shock—when I found myself the focus of the first shot in the scene, seen center-frame past Matt’s or somebody’s blurred head. What’s more, as I realized only when John Cimino pointed it out later, I even had a line of

dialogue. Well, it was a couple of words that someone else actually voiced, “dubbed” in as my response to a line from the extra across the table… still, they’d actually made the convict I played into a character with a “speaking part.” I didn’t notice “my” dialogue at first, because both voices speaking in that scene were male— and I’d been sitting across the table from a woman named Marie, remember. But Marie wasn’t seen in that shot—the big blurred head in the foreground hid her—so the film folks had opted for having two male voices rather than introducing a woman’s voice into that scene. Sorry about that, Marie.

Anyway, there I was, sitting lumpily at a table, pretending to speak, with words put in my mouth by a voice actor I’d never meet.

It reminded me a bit of the Marvel method of dialoguing comics after the pictures were drawn: Gil Kane once referred to that system as being “a bit like adding sound to a silent movie.” Which is pretty much what had been done in that Daredevil shot.

A few seconds later, there was a fleeting glimpse of me again—standing, I think, moving, reacting to Matt getting punched in the jaw just yards away from me. Humorously, if you look closely in that scene, you can see Marie’s quite female hand and arm leaning on the table.

There was even a third shot, which took in most of the visitors’-room, myself included—all of us standing and gawking at the aftermath of the punch. This is the only shot, really, that made much use of the dozen of us who’d played inmates, visitors, and prison guards in that area.

But it was fun to see—even if I couldn’t watch the whole episode that Friday night.

Thanks, one and all, for indulging me in writing down these thoughts, while they’re reasonably fresh in my mind.

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BART BUSH, Then And Now

Down Memory Lane With The Co-Founder Of OAF (The Oklahoma Alliance Of Fans) Part 1: Bart Bush, Then Introduction

Bart Bush

aving grown up in Pittsburgh, I was largely unaware of developments in Oklahoma fandom, except insofar as they fed into the nascent Southwesterncons that were featured in issues of the Texas Trio’s Star-Studded Comics. It wasn’t until I began researching my 1995 book The Golden Age of Comic Fandom that I discovered the impact Oklahoma fans had made on fandom in the region, including putting on several Multicons that were every bit as good as those by their Texas neighbors.

in his high school photo in 1968—and holding a re-creation of the cover of the 1940s Dick Tracy jigsaw puzzle.

Bart: “Fan artist Ralph Muccie painted this for me in 1968.

My comic book spinner rack can be seen in my closet.” All photos with this interview are courtesy of Bart Bush.

H

Bart Bush was a co-founder of fandom in the Sooner state, and one of its key movers and shakers. Typical of his group, his interests were heavily into comics but extended into all the related areas of fantasy literature and film fandom of the day, a “fan for all seasons.”

He published the organization’s fanzine for much of its long run, and was on the con committee of all four Oklahoma Multicons (which will be discussed in Part 2). Today, I can’t think of anyone more into Golden Age comic books than Bart. I first met him when I was a guest of OAFcon in Norman, Oklahoma, in 2008, and am proud to now be an official OAF. Bart and I became fast friends, and I’m delighted to introduce him to those of you who don’t know him yet, through this interview, which was (at Bart’s request) conducted via e-mail in the last days of December 2018. —Bill Schelly.

BILL SCHELLY: According to my notes, you were born and grew up in the town of Ponca City, Oklahoma. Is Bart Bush your full name?

BART BUSH: No, my full name is James Bart Bush. I was born in 1951.

BILL: What was the town like?

BART: Ponca City is a town in northwest Oklahoma about 15 miles from the Kansas border. It was an oil and farming area, home of Continental Oil/Conoco since the 1920s. The population was around 20,000. Closest major city would be either Tulsa or Oklahoma City, both about two hours away. So it was pretty isolated except for other small towns nearby.

BILL: Where did you buy your comicbooks?

BART: We had plenty of drug stores that carried comicbooks, [also] grocery stores, and one newsstand and paperback store. The closest shopping center to my home was within a half a mile. The strip contained a grocery store, TG&Y, and a drug store, all which carried comics and magazines. The easy access to my favorite comics was just a brief walk away starting in 1959 when I was eight years old!

BILL: I take it your parents weren’t anti-comicbooks?

BART: My folks were both readers. My mother liked true-crime magazines Official Detective, True Detective, etc. My dad read sciencefiction, was a big fan of Burroughs, and read most everything paperback during the early 1960s. So the family Sunday night outing would be to go to the downtown newsstand and get reading material. My hands were always full of the comics and monster magazines, which my dad also read afterwards, which was probably why I was able to get as many at one time as I did—15 to 20 at a time.

BILL: What did your father do for a living?

BART: He was an ophthalmologist, whose office was one block away from the newsstand where I got my comics. That made it convenient to get a ride home with a load of comics! In the early1960s pre-Marvel days, unbeknownst to me, Dad would stock his waiting room with my comics. I only discovered this one day on a visit and saw a stack of my comics on a table. I scooped them up and took them home. From that point on, I selected only the funny ones for him to take. So was the fate of the early Dell and Harvey comics in my collection.

BILL: What were your favorites?

BART: This was the early 1960s, so Harvey and DC were my favorites, and I didn’t miss many of them. The Harvey style really appealed to me, and those square-bound giants became a must-have. I was fortunate to purchase new comics like Flash #105, Brave & Bold #28–30, and everything that came afterwards that

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was something new for me. When I got home, I read it— then read it again. In its own special way, it grabbed me, the idea of a teenage boy who was a hero, but insecure and unsure. Great costume and interesting art. Two days later, our family took a summer vacation, driving to Florida.

At a shopping center along the way, I found new Marvels: X-Men #1, Avengers #1, FF Annual #1, Strange Tales Annual #2, Amazing Spider-Man #5, Fantastic Four #19—all at the same time.

BILL: I’m getting a tremendous nostalgia rush as I picture that newsstand with all those key Marvels.

Back In A Flash The pre-teen Bart, when he was primarily a fan of DC and Harvey Comics.

Seen here is the Carmine Infantino/Murphy Anderson cover of The Flash #105 (Feb.-March 1959), the first issue after the title began regular publication—and picked up the numbering from the Golden Age Flash Comics discontinued ten years earlier. [Flash cover TM & © DC Comics.]

built on the DC Silver Age legends: Atom, Hawkman, Green Lantern, Action…. I bought ’em all. Comics like the Secret Origins, Superman and Batman Annuals were must-buys, as they made us kids feel special, getting to read the classic stories. How else could you get them? And the reprints of the covers gave you a glimpse of this incredibly long history of these characters. How could you not want more? I had to keep buying and reading. And I did, every chance I could.

BILL: Did you “play super-hero” as a kid?

BART: Absolutely. I used a cape my Grandma made me, I jumped around and acted stupid, pretending I was the kid of steel—throwing cardboard boxes and playfully fighting younger kids in the back yard.

Comicbook action and thoughts always were part of my growing up years.

BART: It was an incredible mind-blowing group of comicbooks! I read them over and over during that long car ride. As soon as I got home, I was off on my bike to find these other comics shown in the ads, featuring Ant-Man, Thor, Iron Man, Sgt. Fury... even Patsy Walker!! Oh my ghod, I had to have them all! If they were Marvels, then they were going to be great! I became a Marvel devotee that summer of ’63, and never missed any issues after that.

BILL: What about the monster mags? Were you an avid reader of Famous Monsters of Filmland?

BART: I started buying Famous Monsters with issue #11 (April 1961) with the Gorgo cover. I had been a weekly follower of Saturday night monster films (Shock Theatre) so I immediately became absorbed into monster fandom, ordering some fanzines such as Candlelight Room and Gore Creatures, and stuff from Captain Company like monster masks. I had the Shock Monster and the Frankenstein masks, both of which over the years literally melted away into a glob of rubber! The Monster stuff was fun. I hosted neighborhood kid Spook Houses and I used that Magnajector advertised in FM to cast still pictures from the mag on a bedsheet hung on the wall. I draped bed sheets and blankets over the bed posts, covering the side-by-side single beds, and played a record at 16 rpm to sound creepy. I had kids crawl under and between the beds and I dangled string over them as they crawled, made spooky sounds, and reached out and grabbed them as they blindly

BILL: What was your first Marvel comicbook?

BART: In late June 1963, I bought Amazing Spider-Man #4 on a whim. I wasn’t familiar with Marvel Comics, had not seen The Fantastic Four or The Hulk, so this

Captain Company Adventures Basil Gogol’s cover for Famous Monsters of Filmland #11 (April 1961), the first issue bought by Bart Bush—and the “Magnajector” ad from FMoF #12. [TM & © New Comic Company.]

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Comic Fandom Archive

maneuvered under the blankets to the exit. For 10-and-11-year-olds, this was fun!

BILL: At what point did you discover comic fandom?

BART: Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector #44 (1965) was my first issue, and it opened my eyes to the whole possibility of owning old comics.

But as a teenager of 15 without a job, money beyond my new weekly comics budget was pretty much nonexistent. So I ordered fanzines, and what old comics I could… but fanzines held a greater appeal at that time. I figured I could get the old comics later. My first Golden Age comic was in 1965. I traded a kid two Amazing Spider-Man issues for Adventure Comics #51. Do I still have it? Yes! BILL: How did you make your first contact with other local fans?

Torching The Back Issues The building in Ponca City, Oklahoma, where the West Side Magazine Exchange was located— and an example of proprietor Anne Hall’s “handiwork” defacing the covers of used comicbooks, in this case Quality’s Torchy #16.

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

BART: I met David Smith at the newsstand in Ponca City in July of 1965. We were both waiting for them to unpack the new comics, and got talking. This was the week the third Fantastic Four Annual was to be out and we immediately became friends over the bond of comics. David had a new car we called the Black Beauty. It was a solid black VW Sedan. We discovered

that in Ark City, which was in Kansas about 15 minutes north, comics and magazines were often delivered a week earlier than Ponca City.

That made a new weekly trip necessary to make sure we didn’t miss a single book! We both were hooked on comics and enjoyed the new mix of comics from publishers like Tower, Harvey Thrillers, Charlton, ACG, Warren. All were creating new product that appealed to us collectors. Then there were the Frazetta covers on Edgar Rice Burroughs paperbacks, more monster magazines, new digests, and more similar new things to consider. Being a teen consumer of the 1960s, I was constantly finding plenty to keep me broke. My $1.00-anhour wage didn’t go far enough.

BILL: Did you ever find any used book or magazine stores that had back issues of comicbooks?

Fabulous Firsts John Fantucchio’s cover of RBCC #44 (Dec. 1965) was Bart’s first issue, while Adventure Comics #51 (June 1940) was his first Golden Age “acquisition.” [Adventure cover TM & © DC Comics; RBCC cover TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

BART: Yes. It was called the Westside Magazine Exchange. It was a used paperback, magazine, and comicbook store. It opened in the early 1960s on a residential side street, in a low-rent area of Ponca City, with no sign, and obscured by overgrown trees. The owner was Anne Hall, a red-headed dance-hall piano player and entertainer in her younger days. By this time, she was about 60. As you walked in, rows of wooden shelves of paperbacks floor to ceiling, ran down both sides of the store. They were arranged by genre.

At the back was her long counter that held all the candy, pop, and then the comics in stacks behind her on shelves.

They were stacked by title so you just asked to see the “Batman stack” or “Spider-Man stack” to go through. She became wise to us collectors making money off her. While we were able to score a lot of comics for low prices, she infuriated us when she started rubberstamping her Westside Magazine Exchange address on the covers of the comics! Her reasoning? We collectors weren’t leaving anything for her casual customers who traded in comics, and she knew we wouldn’t take comics with her stamp. Well, we did, anyway!

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members?

Serial Killers Bart, like many fans in the 1960s, was entranced by the movie serials of the 1940s, such as Dick Tracy vs. Crime Incorporated (1941) and Batman (1943). Awareness of those erstwhile cinema classics was promulgated in the pages of James Warren’s magazine Screen Thrills Illustrated, as per the cover of #8 (May 1964). [Batman TM & © DC Comics; other material TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

BILL: You also became a fan of movie serials at this time. Tell me about that. How did you manage to see them?

BART: In 1966, a TV station began showing some 15-chapter serials in the newly released 90- minute condensed versions. I knew just enough about serials from reading Screen Thrills Illustrated that these fight-a-minute, action-packed thrilling character-weird villain films were for me! I hadn’t been to a comicon yet, so the chapter by chapter experience had yet to be a reality in my life. But these fueled the fire for wanting to see more of these chapter plays.

Over the years I’ve continued my passion for the serials, owning nearly all the Republic and Columbia serials in some form or another.

BILL: What are your favorites?

stuff right there, but to form an organization?

BART: Paul McSpadden, Robert A. Brown, Bruce Shults, Larry Latham, John Wooley, Lee Whittlesey, Jim Elsey, Charles Rice, Danny Hutton, Matt Waldroop (then known as Matt Curtis), Wilt Conine, Steve Fears, Bart Bush, and David J. Smith. Most were teenagers, except for Robert Brown and Wilt Conine, who were both teachers. They gave us some structure.

BILL: So it wasn’t just to trade and sell

BART: We decided to start a club. The name Oklahoma Alliance of Fandom was chosen—informally to be known as OAF. Matt Waldroop offered to print an OAF fanzine using his ditto press, mainly as a method of announcing future meetings, adding some comic news, sale lists and want lists. OAF #1 was published a week later and started a monthly schedule.

BILL: It seems like the connection between OAFs was stronger and had a greater cohesion than some other fan groups. Is this a social thing more notable in people from your region (the friendliness, etc.), or to what would you attribute it?

BART: I think the fanzine had a lot to do with it. Starting in 1967 we regularly held garage meetings where members could visit,

BART: Dick Tracy vs. Crime Inc., Spy Smasher, Spider’s Web, Fighting Devil Dogs, Secret of Treasure Island, G-Men vs. Black Dragon are just a few of my favorites.

BILL: You’re known as one of the founders of the Oklahoma Alliance of Fans. How did OAF come about?

BART: The first meeting took place in Paul McSpadden’s family garage in Oklahoma City on a cold day in March 1967. The group was made up of fans who invited friends or from names found in comics.

BILL: For the record here, who were the original 14

A Trio Of OAFs OAF #1 (1967) was a mini-zine with a cover by its publisher Matt Curtis. Bart writes: “The three guys in the picture are John Wooley, David Smith, and me, taken October 5, 1968, in the OAF garage meeting at Bob Miller’s house in Oklahoma City. John is holding a copy of OAF #18, which had been released a week or so before, David is holding an EC, and I’ve got a copy of John’s fanzine Bloody Good which, unfortunately, isn’t decipherable in the photo.” [© the respective copyright holders.]

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Comic Fandom Archive

Robert A. Brown Co-founder of OAF. Bart: “Robert [is] a constant collector … who held the club together through rough times, hosted our major comic conventions, and has always been there when needed.”

buy and trade old comics, as well as watch a chapter or two of a movie serial on 16mm. We started out from the beginning making it a fun club and inclusive of anyone who shared our general interests, which, in addition to comicbooks and strips, was for old movies, serials, toys, posters, artwork, science-fiction/fantasy, and more. Most meetings had 20 to 30 in attendance. These Saturday meetings every couple of months were important to share information, and were vital in adding to our knowledge of artists, genres, titles, and such. There was no Overstreet Price Guide yet, to help determine values or even know for sure if a title existed, so shared knowledge was important at this time just to keep up with the ever-growing hobby.

still endure to this day from those early years as fans.

BILL: I know that Robert Brown has been a key force in OAF from the start. How would you characterize him?

BART: One could say that Robert is OAF, a constant collector dedicated to the enjoyment of the finer parts of popular culture.

His interest in all the great books, comics, artists, writers, and thinkers has always been contagious in spreading the good word of the printed past. He got OAFs started on EC Comics, children’s book illustrators, and lobby cards. He was the first guy I knew who loved and collected Little Lulu. He introduced us to 16mm films, and movie stars we’d never heard of. The first radio shows I owned were from his collection. He’s the OAF who held the club together through rough times, hosted our major comic conventions, and has always been there when needed.

BILL: The first con in Texas was the Southwesterncon in Dallas in 1966, and the second was the Houstoncon in June 1967. Did you guys go to the Houston con?

BART: Yes. Looking back, it was an important event. We all felt a bond develop between the nine of us who rode together nonstop to Houston to attend our first convention. Plus we now were in contact with another comic/nostalgia group similar to OAF yet unique in their own way. The bond became inevitable and many friendships

Con Man Bart at the Houstoncon in 1969, and with Fandom’s Agent publisher Chuck Wooley at Partycon in Dallas in 1971. The kid got around.

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Great OAFs From Little Acorns Grow The OAF fanzine helped keep club members abreast of news of future meetings, upcoming comicons, and “comics for sale and/or trade” by the members. Depicted on top row of page: OAF #20 (Dec. 1968, art

by Richard Haendel), OAF #23 (March 1969, art by Roger Hill) and “OAF #30 (Nov. 1969, art by Larry Latham).

Sometimes pro artists graced the covers of the OAF zine, such as Vaughn Bodé on OAF #32 (Feb. 1970) and Reed Crandall (OAF #34, April 1970). Bart: “David Smith (the co-editor of OAF) owned the originals to both of these covers. We met Reed Crandall in Wichita and David purchased it from Reed. In 1969 we attended the World SF Con in St. Louis, and David had Vaughn draw his interpretation of the Lone Ranger, David’s favorite hero.” [Marvel heroes TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; The Shadow TM & © Advanced Magazine Publishers d/b/a Condé Nast; Vaughn Bodé art © Estate of Vaughn Bodé; ERB characters TM & © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.]

BILL: As you know, I’m very interested in fanzines. Can you fill in some details about the OAF fanzine?

BART: Matt Waldroop edited and published OAF #1 though #6, then handed the job to Robert Brown, who handled issues #7 though #14. With #15 in June 1968, David Smith and I took over publishing the monthly fanzine. The club was really growing at this time, and the fanzine became larger in size as more members contributed each month. Issue #18 was our largest, with 58 ditto pages! Even with a seemingly small print run of 75 copies, that many pages took a long weekend to crank out, collate, address, stamp, and mail. Yet we did it every month, not missing a month, from June 1968 to October 1970.

BILL: I see from looking at a couple of issues that the circulation topped 100 copies at certain points. For someone who has never seen an issue— it’s a fairly rare publication—can you describe the kind of things were published in the zine?

BART: First off, any news having to do with the club itself. Also any trip reports to other cons, artwork by members, address lists, and plenty of ads for old comics, other fanzines, as well as letters

and other miscellaneous stuff. We had nice covers, some of them photo-offset, such as those by Reed Crandall, Vaughn Bode, Roger Hill, and a nice Shadow cover by Larry Latham.

BILL: I take it that you continued to publish OAF all along, after taking it over in 1968. Is that right?

BART: Actually, no. In fall of 1970 college demanded more of my time, and I passed the editorship back to Robert Brown, who continued publishing the zine until #53 in August 1980. That would have been the end of it, and was, until it was nostalgically revived for a few digest issues by me and original editor Matt Waldroop with #54 in 1996. That run lasted in June of 2000.

Next issue, I continue my interview with Bart Bush, focusing on the four Multicons sponsored by the Oklahoma Alliance of Fandom, starting in 1970. And then, as the title of this piece suggests, we’ll talk about the re-emergence of OAF over the past decade, the recent OAFcons, and other things Bart has been up to as a fan and dedicated collector. See you then!

You can contact me at hamstrpres@aol.com. My web site is www.billschelly.net.

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In Memoriam

JAY SCOTT PIKE

(1924-2015) “I Just Really Liked To Draw!”

by Stephan Friedt

J

Jay Scott Pike ay Scott Pike (who also worked under the name “Jim Pike”) was born in Philadelphia in 1924. At an early age, he wanted to be an artist:

“I always liked to draw, and when I was a kid the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs movie was out in the theatres and I used to draw the dwarfs and even tried to draw Snow White. I don’t know that I was any good at drawing her, but I can remember doing that, and I just really liked to draw!”

At 15 or 16, to the best of his memory, Jay enrolled in the Art Students League in Manhattan. At 18 he was drafted into the service and spent four years as a Marine. After mustering out, Jay spent time at Parsons School of Design and Syracuse University, and in 1948, after marrying Margi, he attended the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida.

In 1949, he and his wife moved to New Jersey, where he met and worked with comicbook artist Al Hartley. Jay’s earliest works were Westerns and romance books for Hillman Comics and some pulp magazine illustrations. Unfortunately, the personalities of the two artists clashed and they ended their partnership.

By this time he had met Stan Lee of Timely/Marvel Comics (then in its “Atlas” phase), and Stan scooped him up. Jay’s first story for Stan is thought to be a tale in Adventures into Terror #3 (April 1951). He spent most of the next decade drawing for Timely/ Marvel’s Westerns, war, horror, science-fiction, and romance books.

He and Don Rico created Marvel’s Jann of the Jungle, and Jay drew many of the different “jungle girls” in Marvel’s stable.

In the mid-1960s, he moved over to DC for a stint.

With John Romita’s recent move to Marvel, DC needed an artist with a flair for drawing attractive women; so, for the next ten years, Jay filled DC’s romance titles with some of the most attractively drawn females in comics. He also created, wrote, and drew the origin story of the character “Dolphin” in Showcase #79 (Dec. 1968). The heroine only had the one issue, but other pros would revive her later. Jay stated in an interview

above his splash panel from Timely’s Black Rider #18 (Jan. 1952; scripted

by Robert Bernstein) and his cover for DC’s Heart Throbs #112 (Feb.March 1968). Thanks to then-associate editor Barbara Friedlander for the romance cover and to Shaun Clancy for the photo. [Black Rider art TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; Heart Throbs cover TM & © DC Comics.]

that he dropped “Dolphin” after unsuccessful talks with Irwin Donenfeld to obtain a portion of the rights to the character.

During the 1960s, he branched out into advertising art, working for a long list of Fortune 500 companies. He provided magazine covers, interior illustrations, and good-girl art for men’s magazines and calendars. It was here he developed his signature “dropped panties” gimmick. Jay also became well known for his pencil drawings of nudes that hung in Playboy Clubs around the world.

He returned to comics briefly in the 1990s to draw a few issues of DC’s Scarlett. He was also responsible for the art for the one-shot issue of DC’s Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Series Finale (1994).

He was survived by his wife of 67 years, six children, 18 grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

We regret the lateness of this tribute to a fine artist.

In Memoriam

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PAT LUPOFF

(1937-2018) “It Was A Privilege To Know Her”

by Bill Schelly

P Pat & Dick Lupoff (Above:) Triumphant as Mary Marvel at the 1960 World Science Fiction Convention—plus (below) the Joe Sanders cover of Xero #1, distributed at that con. The full version of one of the two iconic photos of Dick and Pat as Captain and Mary Marvel was last seen in A/E #156.

(Bottom right:) Pat and Dick in the late 1960s or early 1970s, changing with the times.

at Lupoff, the second woman ever to win a Hugo award, passed away on October 18 of last year. She had been in declining health for some time.

Pat was famously “Mary Marvel” to her husband Dick’s “Captain Marvel” at the 1960 World Science Fiction Convention’s masquerade, an appearance that helped inspire nostalgia for comics of the 1940s, and made obvious the fact that there was a lot of interest in comics among those in the audience. As co-publisher of the legendary fanzine Xero, which launched the “All in Color for a Dime” series, Pat contributed articles of her own and, most importantly, edited the lengthy, star-studded letter columns that became an important part of each issue.

Born Patricia Enid Loring in 1937, she grew up in Manhattan.

Her father was a lawyer who went into the metal fabrication business, and did very well with it. A voracious reader from an early age, she liked a wide variety of comicbooks. “I did love all the Captain Marvel comics,” she recalled in a later interview. “That was one thing that Dick and I had in common.” She also enjoyed “Mary Jane and Sniffles” in Dell’s Four-Color, all the Walt Disney comics, and, when she was older, Classics Illustrated.

Pat met Dick on a blind date when she was attending summer school in 1957 at Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois. Though she returned to Connecticut College in New London for the regular school year in the fall, Dick visited her, and they were married in August 1958. Shortly after their marriage, they moved to Manhattan, where they joined a science-fiction club, which led to their memorable appearance at the 1960 World Science Fiction Convention.

Pat Lupoff shared her husband’s enthusiasm for fandom and amateur publishing. Xero #1 saw print in time for distribution at the same 1960 Worldcon (over Labor Day weekend) where they made their appearance as the Marvels. In addition to her editorial role on the fabled fanzine, Pat threw herself into the multitude of tasks involved in such an enterprise, and played a major role in Xero’s

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success. The birth of their first child, Kenneth, in 1961, did cut into her time for such things, but her editorial efforts in producing the fanzine’s voluminous letter columns (titled “Epistolary Intercourse”) never flagged. It was she who chose and edited letters from prominent writers and fans such as James Blish, Richard Kyle, Harlan Ellison, Anthony Boucher, Frederik Pohl, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Donald Wollheim, among many others. In her role as co-editor of Xero, Pat shared a Hugo with her husband in 1963, making her just the second female recipient of a Hugo (after Elinor Busby in 1960 for the fanzine Cry of the Nameless).

In Memoriam

discussing early drafts of her husband’s many articles and novels.

On the day after Pat passed, son Ken Lupoff wrote on his Facebook page, “Pat always had her own strong personality and a huge and open heart, and even as she declined cognitively and physically over the past several years, her personality and warmth was always present. She might not have remembered your name, but she was always happy to see you and tell you that she loved you.”

From a personal standpoint, although I interviewed Dick and Pat at length over the phone in 1994 (see Bill Schelly Talks with the Founders of Comic Fandom, Vol. 1, Pulp Though Xero ended with its tenth Hero Press), I only met them once. We issue in 1963, Pat’s involvement in fandom got together for breakfast at Comic-Con and the book trade continued. In the early International: San Diego in 2011, when 1980s, she began working as a bookseller they were special guests of the convention, at Cody’s Books in Berkeley, California. to help commemorate the con’s “50th She worked her way up to the position anniversary of comics fandom” theme.

Precursors of manager of the children’s section, I was delighted to finally meet them in both buying and selling books, and built Pat and Dick at the 2011 Fandom Reunion in San person. Pat was a little less voluble than a small section of the store into a very Diego, where they were special guests—because Dick, but when, later that day, it was her Xero came out a year before the pure comics successful operation. Following the closing turn at the microphone on the fandom fanzines Alter Ego and Comic Art whose 50th of Cody’s Books, Pat moved to a similar panel, she spoke forthrightly with obvious anniversary the con was celebrating! position at Dark Carnival Bookstore of the intelligence about her role in Imagination. The Lupoffs’ close friendship editing and publishing Xero. with SF and comics fans Don and Maggie It was a privilege to know her. All of us at Alter Ego Thompson, made during their earliest days in fandom, survived offer Dick and her family our profound condolences Don’s untimely passing in 1994. She was Dick’s muse, reading and for their loss.

Art by John Romita.

Captain America TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

In Memoriam

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GLEN JOHNSON (1937-2019) “This Is My Chance To Give Back Something To Fandom”

by Bill Schelly

G

len Delmer Johnson passed away on February 16, 2019.

He had been treated for cancer for some time. Glen was a well-known writer and publisher of fanzines about comicbooks in the 1960s, and followed comicbooks all of his life.

He was born on March 20, 1937, in Mackintosh, Minnesota, the eldest of nine siblings in the Johnson clan. His father, who died when Glen was in his late teens, was a construction worker. By then the family was living in Superior, Wisconsin. Glen went to college at the University of Wisconsin, graduating with a major in Education and a minor in P.E. As a child, Glen began reading comics in the mid-to-late 1940s, and became a firm fan of “The Justice Society of America” in DC’s All-Star Comics. His interest intensified in young adulthood when, while working for the railroad as a relief clerk, he bought a copy of Showcase #4 featuring the return of The Flash in modernized form.

He was still going to college when he linked up with comic fandom by writing to Alter-Ego founder Jerry Bails in 1961. He began writing articles for G.B. Love’s The Rocket’s Blast and Robert Jennings’ Comic World. These efforts attracted the attention of Roy Thomas, who had taken over the helm of Alter Ego, and resulted in Johnson’s piece “Two Cases of Conscience” about a pair of socially relevant issues of All-Star Comics, which appeared in A/E #8 (March 1965). He also wrote an article on the two Injustice Societies from All-Star that saw print in the following issue.

The Comic Reader had been spun-off from Alter-Ego by Bails mainly as a vehicle for disseminating news about the professional comicbooks and comic strips to a couple of hundred eager readers.

By spring 1964, Bails was ready to move on to other projects.

Recently Glen recalled, “Jerry Bails was going to give it up… and there didn’t seem to be anybody that was going to step up to the plate and do it. I thought, ‘This is my chance to give back something to fandom.’” When he was editing TCR (from #26 in June 1964 to #41 in September 1965), Johnson lived with his wife Maizie in Crown Point, New Mexico, and taught school on the Navajo reservation. After publishing 16 issues, Johnson passed The Comic Reader on to Derrill Rothermich and Jim King. He shared an Alley Award with Rothermich in 1964 for the “On the Drawing Board” columns that had appeared through the year in TCR. With regard to his comicbook collecting over the subsequent years, Glen recalled, “I was pretty much of a completist from about the time The Fantastic Four came out until 1975…. I also bought most of the DCs. That’s about it. In 1975, I got interested in old cars, and I sort of put the

Glen Johnson as seen (at left) in 1965’s Alter Ego (Vol. 1) #8, and (at right) in a recent photo. Pictured below is the lead illustration by Biljo White for Johnson’s JSA article in A/E #8. [Justice Society heroes TM & © DC Comics.]

comics aside. After that, I just collected what I liked. That’s when I sold most of my original artwork and some of my comicbooks, so I could buy some old Hudsons. Now, car collecting is probably just a step above my interest in comicbooks. But I am still interested in comics. I collect anything that features the JSA.” Glen was also a fan of comicbook writer-artist Pete Morisi; he corresponded with Morisi until the end of the man’s life, and visited Pete on three different occasions… and the results of that long correspondence have been seen over the course of several recent issues of Alter Ego, including most particularly this one.

Alter Ego published an interview with Glen Johnson in #51 & 52 (2005). It was reprinted recently in the book Bill Schelly Talks with the Founders of Comic Fandom from Pulp Hero Press.

This tribute is largely adapted from Bill’s book Founders of Comic Fandom. See p. 44 of this issue for more about Glen Johnson.

GET A FREE COPY! Help us find a few missing pages, and better scans of others. Anonymity will be respected.

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Alter Ego #149, with its extended spotlight on the life, work, and opinions of major artist Gil Kane, garnered a fair amount of mail, including several missives I (Roy) felt deserved to be quoted at some length… so let’s get that ol’ Ark a-moverin’, with a message from UK fan Chris Green, who was an eyewitness to one of that issue’s centerpieces in the making….

Dear Roy, The Gil Kane interview is one I am particularly pleased to see back in print, not least because I was one of those “numerous devotees sitting in” when it took place. It was late on the Sunday afternoon of UKCAC [UK Comic Art Convention] ’86 (Sept. 21). My friend, the comics artist Art Wetherell—sadly no longer with us— and I were hanging around the University of London Union venue, looking for a way to kill an hour before we had to leave to catch the last train home.

The con was winding down, so we wandered onto the terrace and were astonished to see none other than Gil Kane being interviewed. Clearly, few people knew this would be happening.

The “numerous devotees” numbered less than twenty, as I recall.

Art and I each grabbed a chair, got as close as possible, and were lucky enough to catch most of the interview.

We’d seen Gil on a couple of panels over the course of the weekend, including one in which he was interviewed by Alan Moore, but this was something else. Maybe it was the (relatively) intimate atmosphere, but the man was really on form. Erudite, charming, gossipy, incisive, articulate, and a font of information, he had that small group of fans hanging on his every word. The printed interview is immensely informative and entertaining (I’ve read the Fantasy Advertiser #100 version more than once over the years), but being there on that London terrace as one of my all-time favourite comics heroes held forth remains the absolute highlight of my con-going years.

L

ongtime comics artist Pete Morisi has become a virtual mainstay in Alter Ego for the past year or so, given the several articles— including this issue’s long one—that Michael T. Gilbert has put together of the worthy’s lengthy correspondence with fan Glen Johnson.

But this is the first time that Shane Foley, our maskot-artist-in-residence (well, he’s in residence in his native Australia, anyway), has used one of his heroic drawings as the basis of one of this magazine’s official spirits.

Thanks to Shane, and to colorist Randy Sargent, for a job doubly well done! [Alter Ego hero TM & © Roy & Dann Thomas; costume designed by Ron Harris.]

I did a little digging around and found a couple of poor-quality photos I took of the occasion and am e-mailing them to you, Roy, in hopes that you and the A/E readership might find them of interest.

Chris Green As we discovered via an exchange of e-mails, Chris, one of the 1986 photos you sent of Gil Kane at the UK con has already gotten printed— in A/E #156, though wrongly credited to a “Chris Smith” instead of yourself. Sorry about that! The other is seen on this very page. Thanks for your first-hand account of the interview as an intrigued bystander!

Gil Kane In Merry Olde (Far left:) Photo taken by Chris Green of Gil Kane being interviewed at the 1986 UK con.

(Left:) Part of the first page of the Kane bio that was printed in the same 1986 issue of the Brit fanzine Fantasy Advertiser as the interview. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

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[correspondence, comments & corrections]

Another person who knew Gil personally is Robin Snyder, who published an informative fanzine/newsletter titled The Comics!...

Dear Roy, Reading again that Steve Whitaker interview with Gil Kane brought back many good memories of conversations over lunch with Gil Kane. The questions and asides by Whitaker are still forgettable, but Kane surmounted each one and delivered, as usual, a forceful expression of his thoughts and ideas that still is worth contemplation. He was one of a kind, in that he could verbally identify an artist in a sentence or two and include his strengths and weaknesses. It is always refreshing to read and think about someone who knows what he is doing. “An Old Ballet Dancer Like Me” alone is worth the price of admission to your magazine.

Robin Snyder So are you saying we should up our price, Robin? But never fear—we plan to hold the line at $9.95 for 100 pages for as long as we can. That’s basically a dime a page—a steal, as they say. Of course, who’s stealing from whom is always a matter of opinion.

Michaël Dewally, who’s often contributed art spots to help us out, this time has a tidbit of information about one of those in A/E #149: Dear Roy, In A/E #149, page 28, the Prince Valiant panel listed in the caption as “date unknown” is from the June 5, 1955, strip. Needless to say, the following week, Aleta gets what she wanted, some relaxing time in the bathhouse of Kiev. She is as redoubtable as ever.

Thank you for continuing to edit Alter Ego as a paper publication so that articles like Ger Apeldoorn’s on Stan Lee’s syndication efforts [in #50] can find a permanent home.

Ger’s efforts in documenting and reporting on that period of Stan’s career are a major addition to comics history.

about the sales of certain comicbooks in the late ’60s and ’70s. So let us have a history lesson here. In those days, comicbook sales were down across the board tremendously and most curiously for comicbooks that seemed to garner a lot of attention and seemed to be fan favorites. Sales were not only bad but worse than normal. It made no sense to publishers, but they were too lazy to take the time or energy to find out why this was so.

There were certain people who knew exactly why this was so.

These were teenagers and young men in their twenties who would borrow their father’s car and drive to the local distributor, of which there are 410 local distributors across America, and they would purchase comicbooks just inside the loading dock. They would sell them at their father’s garage or at a local motel to fans in their area.

These books were reported as being “destroyed” by their local comicbook distributors.

How was such a thing possible? It was possible because of the incredibly stupid process in the industry called “affidavit returns.”

Local distributors signed a piece of paper [saying] that he [had] destroyed a certain amount of comicbooks, and he was believed.

Even though the previous method of returning comicbooks was [that] the distributors removed the comicbook[s], wrapped them in rubber bands, and sent them to the publisher.

What in fact happened was that the 410 distributors stripped the comicbooks and sold the remaining stripped comicbooks into the local toy stores in their area to be sold to people like me for 4 cents.

Then, since the distributors were found to be so trustworthy, they went to the affidavit return system, in which collectors could buy whole copies in perfect condition to sell for 50 cents to $2.00 to the local fans.

In not a great deal of time, these young adults became the owners of comicbook stores and the entrepreneurs of the direct sales market that has now taken over the industry.

Michaël Dewally Agreed, Mike (or is that “Mikë”?).

Next, we have a missive that its scribe, comics artist Neal Adams, chose for reasons of his own to address to “Alter Ego” rather than to me personally.

Well, to each his own. I presume it’s a reaction to my statement, in a caption accompanying a few panels from his and Denny O’Neil’s Green Lantern #76, that sales of that DC series, “already long declining, were not sufficiently bolstered [by the relevancy “Green Lantern/Green Arrow” issues] to save the mag from cancellation.”

Although I went on to remark on how that outstanding run of issues has remained in print for the past several decades, doubtless long since turning a profit in such formats, Neal has his own take on why that magazine was canceled: Dear Alter Ego, I am getting a little sick of hearing certain incorrect statements

So the question you have to ask yourself is, if you were one of these knowledgeable fans and you wanted to sell 15-cent comicbooks to the other fans for 50 cents to $2.00, which titles would you be buying?

I think you can easily see that they would be buying Swamp Thing, GL/GA [Green Lantern/Green Arrow], Conan [the Barbarian], and in essence, the fan-favorites.

Sachs & Violence As mentioned on the facing page, Gil Kane always decried the inking he received from veteran Bernard Sachs, as per this splash page from The Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog #30 (Nov.-Dec. 1956), scripted by Robert Kanigher. Thanks to Bob Bailey.

[TM & © DC Comics.]

I sign copies of those comicbooks that I did in those days in mint condition at conventions even today. This is why the best-read comicbooks from those days did not sell well and ended up being cancelled while books that I merely did the covers for increased in sales mostly because nobody read the interiors.

I would prefer that, if a myth were continued, the actual facts be added to it.

re:

Thank you and good night.

Neal Adams Everyone closely associated with the comics industry in the late 1960s and much of the ’70s has heard this take on events at the time, and most of us suspect there’s something to it, so no quarrel there. Still, cold, hard, buttressed facts have been hard to come by, if only because, as Neal suggests, maybe the comics companies who should have been paying the most attention… weren’t.

We’d very much welcome someone out there doing a researched study of that situation for A/E, going beyond Neal’s anecdotal account.

For one thing, things do seem to me as if they might be a bit more complicated than the above letter suggests, since DC’s Swamp Thing was a good-selling title from the outset and for some time—and, except for the downward sales trend of issues between #2 and #7 over its first year, Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian was also a sales success. Neither of those titles was canceled during that period as Green Lantern/Green Arrow was, which suggests that other factors may have been in play as well. Still, we’re grateful to Neal for sharing his POV with us.

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sign a comicbook. Wein is just too excited with the idea to abandon the quest. [Later,] Len opens the book to the first page and puts it on Ditko’s art board. He asks him to sign. Ditko does sign (in the lower border under the art), using his drawing pencil. Len lights up like a Christmas tree, and I thought his head was going to explode. Then…

Ditko erases it and reminds the both of us, “If you do it for one person, you have to do it for everyone. So I don’t sign for anyone.” Len’s head does explode, or at least makes a popping sound as it deflates. Ditko always had his own set of rules, but they did not include being a sadist.

Actually, he was very approachable for sketches, and soon after this incident, provided Len with a Dr. Strange drawing for the cover of Aurora #5… and… it was signed.

Just a salute to two people I will always remember and respect.

Fascinating portrait of Gil Kane. Truly a man trapped in a Flash In The Pan comicbook, or at least the confines of a comicbook. It must have On the very next page, “Gaff” mentions Gil Kane’s “Flash Gordon” backup stories in the latter-1960s King Comics issues of The been frustrating for him to want Phantom—so the least (also the most) we can do is showcase perfection so badly, only to see a this alleged Flash Gordon drawing that was reprinted in the UK page rate as the exit sign. He always, on the cover of the Alan Class comic Creepy Worlds (#85, circa always, always HATED Bernie Sachs’ Here with his almost-every-issue 1970). Courtesy of Dean Smith. [Flash Gordon TM & © King Features inking. During my interview with running commentary on Alter Ego is Syndicate, Inc.] Mike Sekowsky for a Rocket’s Blast Bernie Bubnis, one of whose principal article, the only reason I got the claims to fame is that he co-hosted the nerve to ask Mike “Do Sachs’ inks ruin your work?” is because I very first comics convention ever, in Manhattan in 1964.... heard Kane say it to us so many times. I figured Gil knew the right questions to ask. Mike basically said that he penciled loosely and Hi Roy, that Bernie helped him complete jobs quicker. Another page-rate “…I was suddenly struck by the fact that I’m the only person watcher. When you decided to reprint the article in A/E years later, left alive who has a memory of that… episode.”

I cringed when I re-read my words. Gil was scheduled to attend the If that wasn’t a line from your editorial in A/E #149, it could ’64 comicon if we could get it to NYC. Thanks to Ethan, we did, but very well be the first line from a horror movie. Perhaps… our horror Gil was a no-show. I did not stick around fandom long enough to movie. ever ask him why. Always felt that Julie [Schwartz] sunk that effort and that Gil made the correct decision to avoid Workman’s Circle With Len [Wein]’s recent passing, all types of memories that July day. flooded my mind. Most were about the good times we spent together. We shared the same type of personality and, coupled Ted White is a great interview. Loved the paragraph about with our own Mr. Spock, Ron Fradkin, laughed and played our how he met, drove with, and married his beautiful wife. Also, the way through the early days of comicbook fandom. I wrote a note Lupoffs and the Nixons. I could not ask for a more memorable to [English radio personality and 1960s U.S.-born comics fan] Paul description of two great early comicbook fans. Even though Dick Gambaccini because he, Len, and I shared a few 1964 Comicon hated kids who read comics and wanted us all burned at the stake, memories. I had to ask Paul if he remembered. As always, Paul put I always enjoy thinking about how wrong he was. it simply: One more thing: The last paragraph of Alan Brennert’s tribute “…I was really slapped across the face by Len’s death… to Richard Kyle was as perfect as a tribute could ever be. Thank you, precisely because we were not friends as adults, and I knew him Alan. only as a teenager. If our teenage acquaintances are kicking off…

Bernie Bubnis yeeks!”

At last pulse check, two of the three participants in this next story are still present in the “room.” So I will tell it now.

Len and I spent quite a bit of time visiting the pros in NYC. Len went with me to visit Steve Ditko in his West 43rd St. studio.

Len buys a Spider-Man comic off the racks at Penn Station and plans to have Ditko autograph it. I tell him that I do not think Steve will

We concur with your conclusions, Bernie. But sadly, you mention, before relating an anecdote involving yourself, Len Wein, and Steve Ditko, that two of the three people involved are still “in the room.” Unfortunately, as you know, the artist/co-creator of “Spider-Man” passed away last year.

Next issue we’ll have a special tribute to him.

John Benson wrote to point out that Ye Editor erred in referring,

78

[correspondence, comments & corrections]

on p. 83 in A/E #149, to the earlier version of that panel from a 1952 crime comic as being “Code-approved.” He’s dead on: I truly must’ve been sleepwalking when I let that slip through, as the Comics Code didn’t take effect till the turn of 1955! The crime-comic panels printed in #149 were sent by John as examples of how it wasn’t all that unusual for a story to be censored when it was reprinted even before the CMAA was formed. up:

Here’s a mystery from the reprinted Gil Kane UK interview cleared

Greetings, On p. 27, your editorial note concerning the typo “figts”— could the word have been meant to be “gifts”? That certainly would make sense in the sentence in which it is used.

Mark Kohn 618 Marshall Av. Fond du Lac, WI 54935 That’s almost certainly it, Mark! I corrected several other typos in that 1986 fanzine, but I didn’t think to rearrange the letters in “figts” in the right way. Bob Cosgrove also wrote to suggest that “figts” was probably “gifts” spelled sideways. Thanks to both!

Douglas Jones (“Gaff”), who back in the late Silver and Bronze Age was a colorist and production worker for both Marvel and DC at one time or the other, came across with a fascinating little story related to Gil Kane—and then some thoughts on the early-1960s rise in the price of a comicbook that we wanted to share with you:

Shortly after this happened, a book of penciled Man-Thing pages by Jim Mooney got lost in the mails to inker Bob Wiacek (think it was issue #2, Vol. 2). We had a set of Xeroxes from which Chris Claremont had written the script, which would be lettered on the penciled pages. So, digging out my trusty lightbox, I traced the Xerox pages onto new artboards. This was a lot easier than the What If?, as it was full pencils and the borders clearly marked. Chris had indicated some art changes—some panels moved to make room for more text, and a new panel—which I did as I was tracing. So, there’s a panel of original Gaff art in that issue….

Not exactly remembering the 15¢ price increase [mentioned in A/E #149]: It was the October 1961 price increase from a dime to 12¢ for DC where Marvel managed to hold out for another month, not 1969. That 1961 increase also had Dell raising its price to 15¢—a devastating increase on titles aimed at a young audience who could not afford such an increase—which a year later made Western Publishing not renew their comics licensing with Dell and instead start their own Gold Key Comics line which proudly hailed on its covers, “Now only 12¢.”

Both DC and Marvel raised their prices to 15¢ in May 1969: Just look up the GCD [Grand Comics Database] for the covers to Green Lantern #69 (12¢) and #70 (15¢), and Fantastic Four #88 (12¢) and #89 (15¢). But, DC got a head start on the price increase on their “umbrella” titles Action Comics, Adventure Comics, and Detective

Roy— I was surprised you didn’t run any of Gil’s work drawing the “Flash Gordon” backups in The Phantom for King Comics in 1966, since Gil was such a fan of the character.

Here’s a Gil Kane story, or rather about a story Gil was supposed to draw. Tony Isabella had plotted a “What If Gwen Stacy Hadn’t Died?,” and Gil was to draw it. Now, at this time (1980 or so), Gil didn’t do full pencils if he was going to ink a job. Instead, he did thumbnail sketches in marker on 8½” by 11” typing paper. The thumbnails would be Photostatted to the larger art-page size, and he would lightbox the thumbnails through the paper and finish the art in the inking. The scripting and lettering were either done separately on vellum overlays or, if there was time, onto the boards Gil would ink.

When this story was scheduled to appear, it was years after the thumbnails, and Gil was no longer doing work for Marvel.

[Editor] Jim Shooter first had [artist] Frank Giacoia try to trace the thumbnails onto paper on a lightbox, but Frank said the glare of the lightbox hurt his eyes. Next they tried having him ink on overlays, which proved a problem because vellum does not absorb ink… you have to wait until the ink dries on it; otherwise, if you were, say, doing some cross-hatching, the ink lines would merge and turn into inky globs. Plus the lettering had to be done on vellum as well.

Frank had run up a bill in the past for putting in invoices in advance of the jobs, so Jim Shooter had him doing the inking in the offices where folks could keep an eye on him. I made a suggestion: Suppose I were to lightbox the thumbnails onto art paper using non-photo light blue pencils? Frank then would have artboard pencils to draw on, which the lettering could be done on as well.

The thumbnails were pretty rough, and borders done in freehand. Working in my typesetting office, I would draw in the borders with a ruler and would finish the barebones backgrounds as much as I could. Many of those backgrounds went to others in the Bullpen to ink for Frank. It turned out to be a success, but I was saddened later that the $5 a page I’d gotten for the tracing had come out of Frank’s page rate, on the argument that he was going to be paid extra for inking on overlays, and now he wasn’t.

“What If Gwen Stacy Had Lived?”

That was the question asked (and answered) in What If? #24 (Dec. 1980), in a story written by Tony Isabella and finished by Frank Giacoia, Carl Gafford (now Douglas Jones, a.k.a. “Gaff), Peter Poplaski, Ron Zalma, and Joe Albelo, from thumbnail pencil breakdowns done some time earlier by Gil Kane. “Gaff” did the coloring. Thanks to Chet Cox and Jim Ludwig for the scan. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

re:

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manufacturing Hudson Vitamins) in 1968, it was unusual that the sale didn’t include a “no competition” clause, used by new owners of a business to keep the previous owner from using the sales proceeds to re-enter the field. Guess the new owners knew that Marvel had prospered in spite of Goodman and not because of him.

When he started Atlas/Seaboard Comics in 1974, the story going around was that Goodman had started it because his son Chip had been so badly treated by the new owners, when in reality nobody treated Chip worse than his father Martin did. Martin couldn’t abide the idea that Marvel was even more successful after he left, and he wanted to prove he could do it again.

As it happened, the only ones who believed that Martin could do it again were DC, as they were quaking in their boots, which caused Carmine [Infantino, DC publisher] to enter an unsavory alliance with Marvel, exchanging page-rate information, as you remember all too well. Surprised nobody got arrested for that.

Douglas Jones (“Gaff”) Thanks for the long commentary, Gaff! We’ll let readers glean from that what they may—plenty of food for thought, regarding the economic side of comics.

Next, some scattershot thoughts on several interesting subjects from Al Rodriguez: Hi Roy,

It Was Conan’s World—The Rest Of Us Just Lived In It! The cover of issue #5 (1971) of Richard Kyle’s esteemed fanzine Graphic Story World. Art by Vince Davis. Apparently the early sales success of Marvel’s then-new Conan the Barbarian title led the artist to think the mag was going to take over the newsstands. Well, after declining sales from #2 through #7, the sword-and-sorcery comic’s sales turned around, and by the middle of the decade it had indeed become one of Marvel’s best-selling titles. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Comics, with those going from 12 to 15¢ earlier in April of that year.

Why? Dunno. You [Roy] also told me once that the increase to 15¢ was so devastating that it caused Archie to lose about a third of its sales and all Archie imitations at the other companies lost money immediately, which meant—since it took up to three months to get final sales figures—those books were gushing red ink for months and nobody knew it. You also told me that Curtis Circulation was so bad at collecting monies from their dealers in 1968 that if the increase to 15¢ had occurred a year earlier, Marvel would have gone out of business.

Actually, one company did go to 15¢ a year early: When Gold Key stopped printing their own books and went with World Color instead, the increase in costs made them go up to 15¢ in May 1968— exactly a year before the rest of the industry, and highly ironic, since Gold Key Comics was created because of Dell’s increase to 15¢ in 1961.

Also, it needs clarifying that [Marvel publisher Martin] Goodman’s sale of his Magazine Management to Perfect Film & Chemical was for his sweaty men’s magazines (stunningly spoofed by National Lampoon as “Real Balls Magazine”), which went to Curtis Circulation for distribution. Were those mags ever distributed by Independent News? I think not; the latter could get blue-nosed for the strangest reasons: Like, they would distribute Playboy but not Jim Warren’s horror mags. When Goodman sold Marvel Comics to Perfect Film (at the time, only known for

In A/E #149, it’s interesting, as Ted White comments in his interview, that he felt the Comics Code would not allow unhappy endings, and in the final issue of EC Comics’ Panic comic (#12, I think, the final issue of the series), with the Comics Code seal, there is a text piece discussing how it was understood for a while how happy endings were considered to be very commercial, how entertainers could do better commercially with happy endings.

Thoughtful reading matter and grist for the mill.

Also, an error in the “Bypassing the Real for the Unreal” section: Harvey Kurtzman’s (and EC Comics’) Two-Fisted Tales #21 was actually printed in 1951.

The same section had a sidebar called “The Sound and the Fury,” like in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth and William Faulkner’s novel The Sound and the Fury. I am reminded of a Mad article (on the Absolutely Mad DVD-ROM) that had Howard Dean holding his hands, as if holding an invisible gun, and the writer of the Mad article (which was about adapting Shakespeare for modern times), saying, in response to Howard Dean holding that apparent invisible gun, “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

Al Rodriguez Not all the mail directed to Alter Ego comes directly to Ye Editor.

Some of it is sent, quite properly, to our associate or section editors, and they pass the best of it on to us, so that we can feature missives commenting on more than merely an issue’s cover feature, as in this e-mail sent to Comic Fandom Archive editor Bill Schelly by Bud Plant, a 1970s comics fan who has gone on to head one of the most successful comics-related (though not just comics-related) book-selling companies around. Bud was moved to comment by Bill’s tribute to the late Richard Kyle, one of the most important fan-writers of the 1960s and beyond… and the man who invented terms like “graphic story” and “graphic novel” (whatever you may have heard elsewhere)….

Bill, Just uploaded the new A/E and the first thing I read was your piece on Richard Kyle. I hate to say it, but I am not sure if I knew he had passed away. A piece like this makes me take pause and appreciate what a force Richard was. Really enjoyed Alan

[correspondence, comments & corrections]

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Brennert’s sidebar on working with him, too.

Richard’s first magazine, Fantasy Illustrated, was a rare and wonderful treat to me. I found it just after entering fandom circa 1965 or ’66, probably through an ad in the Rocket’s Blast. Like Steranko’s History of the Comics and, just later, Jerry Weist’s Squa Tront, it was the very top tier among provocative and thoughtful insights into the world of comics—long before Gary [Groth] and The Comics Journal—pointing out the best and brightest from Alex Toth and George Metzer to Basil Wolverton. Those special issues of Graphic Story World were rare gems amongst the often crudely done fanzines.

This was the kind of rare and wonderful publication that I wanted to handle in my fledgling little mail order business.

I know that beginning in the fall of 1970, when my mail order advertising and flyers began, I was immediately handling GSM and, shortly, Graphic Story World and Wonderworld. Before the direct market was a sparkle in Phil Seuling’s eye, we both were taking these to comic shows like his New York Con, San Diego, Oklahoma, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, etc.

Today those GSM and GSW issues still offer insights worth reading. For instance, Richard and Fred Patten were probably the first to bring Valerian to the attention of U.S. comics fans. I am so pleased I got a chance to talk with Richard at the 2011 San Diego fan reunion. He was one of the true pioneers of our hobby and really raised the bar on serious appreciation of comics… or rather, graphic stories and graphic novels, as you so well noted.

Bud Plant Actually, Bud, as we suspect you know well, the magazine Fantasy Illustrated was produced by Bill Spicer, not Richard Kyle—but Richard quickly became a leading essayist in Graphic Story Magazine, as Bill soon retitled it. Later, Kyle started his own magazine, Graphic Story World, a title soon changed to Wonderworld.

P.C. Hamerlinck, editor of the FCA section in each issue of A/E, notes that, in the Fawcett-related section of #149: “The Jerry DeFuccio photo used in the ‘Critical Circle’ article is from 1995, not 1955.” P.C. also forwarded these thoughts from reader Guy Johnson on the vintage L. Miller reprints of Fawcett material back in the early 1950s: Hi P.C., I’m writing regarding Gerald Edwards’ article in the latest edition of FCA. While collecting all things Captain Marvel Jr., I’ve become somewhat knowledgeable (though no expert) on the L. Miller gravure issues that the article covers. I have about three dozen in my own collection, more than just the Juniors, so I can offer a few friendly corrections: (1) On the black-&-white Wow reproduction, there actually is an issue number (#44), in the dark balloon in the upper right. But I believe calling it the “earliest known” issue of Wow is incorrect. The earliest [UK] Wow I have in my own collection is #26.

(2) Re the Whiz Comics unnumbered #64, I also don’t believe this to be the earliest issue. I have Whiz going back to #60.

(3) Re Captain Marvel Jr. #43, there is an issue number located in a small circle in the indicia on the rear cover. Hiding the number in the indicia was one of the things that Miller sometimes did.

As Gerald points out, getting information on the Miller gravures can be maddening.

Guy Johnson P.C. figured he’d let article-writer (and image-provider) Gerald Edwards respond to this one, so: Hi P.C.—

Wow! What A Cover!

Besides that of issue #44, whose cover was depicted in Gerald Edwards’ article in A/E #149, the only L. Miller (UK) Wow Comics cover currently displayed by the online Grand Comics Database is that of issue #55, published in 1948. The art is by regular “Mary Marvel” illustrator Jack Binder. [Shazam heroine TM & © DC Comics.]

The early UK Fawcetts are indeed a very gray area! I could be wrong, but there is almost no info even in the UK to access. You really need to own the comics first, and that is the hard part. The purpose of my article was to highlight the comics and provide what little information could be derived from them. But it was a fascinating time in the history of Fawcetts.

Gerald Edwards Got more to say? Send comments and corrections to: Roy Thomas e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com 32 Bluebird Trail St. Matthews, SC 29135 Ye Editor doesn’t do Facebook himself, but his buddy John Cimino runs The Roy Thomas Appreciation Boards (he named it), which discuss all things related to Rascally Roy, Roy the Boy, etc., including upcoming con appearances, tidbits of info, etc. It’s fully interactive—which is more than Ye Ed is!

And our e-mail discussion list, Alter-Ego-Fans, is still going strong, too, with news and views, at http:/groups.yahoo.com/group/ alter-ego-fans. Since Yahoo no longer has an “Add Member” tool, you may experience a slight problem getting in; if so, please contact moderator Chet Cox at mormonyoyoman@gmail.com and he’ll walk you through the process. It’s only a short walk, honest!

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WILLIAM WOOLFOLK Remembered– Part II I

NTRODUCTION: Magazine writer. Publisher. Emmy-nominated television writer/story editor. Best-selling novelist. All of these titles describe William Woolfolk (1917-2003), whose versatile pen proved successful in varying fields throughout his career. But ultimately, it is his comicbook stories for which Woolfolk is best remembered, with the man himself later admitting that “Comics have outlasted all my writing efforts in other media.” He was one of the highest-paid and most sought-after writers during the Golden Age of Comics, producing scripts for Fawcett, MLJ (Archie), Quality, Timely (Marvel), National (DC), Will Eisner’s The Spirit, and others. For more on William Woolfolk, seek out his essay “Looking Backward — From My Upside Down Point of View” (A/E V3#6), my interview with Woolfolk entitled “The Human Side of the Golden Age” (A/E #24), and last issue’s extended Part I of “William Woolfolk Remembered” (A/E #158). For this issue’s second part of our Woolfolk commemoration, we present an interview with the writer conducted by our colleague, Bill Schelly.—P.C. Hamerlinck.

William Woolfolk as pictured on the back cover of his 1975 novel The President’s Doctor, from Playboy Press—and the splash page of the Woolfolk-scripted lead story in The Marvel Family #9 (March ’47), ; art by the Beck-Costanza Studio.

[Shazam heroes TM & © DC Comics

William Woolfolk Interviewed By Bill Schelly - June 29, 2002 Transcribed by Brian K. Morris Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck BILL SCHELLY INTRO: As some of you know, I self-published a biography called Words of Wonder: The Life and Times of Otto Binder, which came out in late 2003. (A revised and expanded version titled Otto Binder: The Life and Work of a Comic Book and Science Fiction Visionary saw print in 2016.) At the time, Woolfolk was one of the few Fawcett veterans who was still around. I believe I got his address from Roy Thomas. When I interviewed him about Otto Binder, I still had a lot to learn about the latter’s career, as is obvious from some of my questions. I found Woolfolk to be an engaging conversationalist with a good sense of humor and a very good memory. How lucky I was able to speak to him! He passed away about a year later. Although I used a number of quotes from it in my book(s), I recently realized that it was a treasure and ought to be published as a separate interview. I’m delighted that it’s finally seeing print in that form in FCA. BILL SCHELLY: Let’s start with a little background information on you so I can get a feeling for when you met Otto Binder … a little bit of what had come before in your life.

WILLIAM WOOLFOLK: My life began when I met Otto.

SCHELLY: [laughs] Well, let’s start with when and where you were born.

WOOLFOLK: That’s gotta come out, huh?

SCHELLY: Yeah, afraid so.

WOOLFOLK: Aw, s**t. [laughs] June 29, 1917, when dinosaurs still walked the Earth. I was born in a town called Center Moriches, Long Island, and I left there at the age of three months, as soon as I found out where I was. My family insisted on coming with me. [laughs]

William Woolfolk Remembered—Part II

All The Way With MLJ In 1941 a young Bill Woolfolk pitched on the spot to MLJ editor Harry Shorten a villain called The Jingler, thereby launching the writer’s eminent comics career.

The above “Wizard” yarn “The Jingler of Death” appeared in Top Notch Comics #26 (April 1942), with art by Paul Reinman. Woolfolk soon scripted various other MLJ features, including the pictured stories in The Hangman #2 (Spring ’42) with art by Warren King, and in Black Hood Comics #17 (Winter ’46, with art possibly by Irv Novick. [TM & © Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

SCHELLY: And where did you do most of your growing up?

WOOLFOLK: Mine was a show business family, and so I was all over the country.

SCHELLY: So you were a bit of a nomad as you were growing up?

WOOLFOLK: As a three-month old, I was. And I went to Louisville. And then from Louisville, I went to Boston. And then from Boston, went to Coney Island, where I spent a great deal of time because my father managed the Loew’s Coney Island theatre.

SCHELLY: Did you ever go on stage yourself?

WOOLFOLK: No. SCHELLY: You weren’t drawn to that?

WOOLFOLK: Well, it was not that I wasn’t drawn to it, but I had an unfortunate thing when I was thirteen. I had an operation which cut my facial nerves and caused complete paralysis on one side of my face where I couldn’t drink anything without spilling, couldn’t close my eye, I couldn’t do anything. But one year later they did another operation and I think now it’s almost normal. [laughs]

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SCHELLY: So you weren’t going to become a performer.

WOOLFOLK: I was not likely to be a matinee idol. [laughs] SCHELLY: Were you interested in writing at a young age?

WOOLFOLK: Yes, as a substitute for acting and show business, I suppose … a way of expressing myself in literary terms.

SCHELLY: Did you attend college?

WOOLFOLK: Yes, I graduated from NYU with a B.A in 1938.

SCHELLY: Well, that brings us right up to the beginning of the comicbook era, in terms of original comics, anyway, and the birth of Superman. What led you into the comicbook field?

WOOLFOLK: Desperation and hunger. [laughs]

Clockwise Fawcett Forays By Woolfolk “Monte Hale Meets The Weeper” - Western Hero #79 (June ’49); art by Bob Laughlin. The Weeper was originally a “Bulletman” villain created by Henry “Lynn” Perkins (see A/E #157). Woolfolk’s Weeper was clearly a different character, but essentially the idea was the same as Perkins’, an editor Woolfolk had disliked. It’s fascinating that a writer of Woolfolk’s caliber decided to recycle the concept and merely place it in the Old West. Many thanks to Bill Black for hunting down the issue and providing the scan.

“Don Winslow of the Navy Climbs Mt. Everest” - DWOTN #38 (Sept. ’46); art

by Carl Pfeufer/John Jordan. The adventure was recently reprinted in Dead Reckoning’s magnificent 2018 hardcover collection The Best of Don Winslow of the Navy: A Collection of High-Seas Stories From Comics’ Most Daring Sailor, edited by Craig Yoe. Get yours today!

“Stratosphere Treasure Hunt”- Captain Midnight #45 (Oct. ’46); art by Leonard Frank. [TM & © the respective copyright holders.]

William Woolfolk Remembered—Part II

SCHELLY: That’s a pretty common reason.

WOOLFOLK: Actually, I was greatly celebrated in college by professors for my writing style and therefore got fixated on becoming a writer. And then I began selling to what they called “the little magazines” of the day—experimental magazines—which we thought were so much more literary, much more worthwhile than the large ones.

SCHELLY: Those kind of magazines still exist.

WOOLFOLK: Yes, they do, but not in the numbers they had back then. They were a great subculture kind of thing where writers could find their footing. Of course, they paid very small sums, and mainly in subscriptions.

SCHELLY: Were you writing short stories?

WOOLFOLK: Yes. SCHELLY: Was your goal to become a novelist?

WOOLFOLK: I suppose that was a distant objective, but to write short stories was a very popular form when magazines were still in abundance and they all published short stories, or most of them did. And that was the aim that everyone had, I suppose, to become a short-story writer. Novels seemed beyond the reach of people who were 21 or 22 years old.

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WOOLFOLK: I’d sold some stories to slicks early on. And none of the people that became good comicbook writers had been able to sell to the slicks. Manly Wade Wellman could not, Otto Binder could not, Joseph Millard could not.

SCHELLY: I understand it was a very tough, competitive market.

WOOLFOLK: Well, I never sold to a major slick. I sold only to secondary ones. It still left a big impression when I first got into comics. They’d say, “Oh, you sold to slick magazines!”

SCHELLY: So how did you find yourself working in comics? Did you answer an ad, or what happened?

WOOLFOLK: I was living in Brooklyn with my father at the time, so I didn’t need a great deal of money. I had been selling to occasional slicks, but it wasn’t really enough to make a living out of it. So I started looking around, determined to find something that would supply a regular weekly income. I knew Seymour Wright.

He later created Casper, the Friendly Ghost. We were friends in college and it was just coming out of the Depression era. We’d made a pact that if we did not get a job at the end of six months, we’d pull the covers over our heads and never go out into the world again. [laughs] After college, I’d lost track of Sy until one day I picked up a

SCHELLY: There was such a huge variety of everything, from crude pulps to slicks.

A Story Book Beginning!

“Captain Marvel and the Sun People” was a book-length, illustrated prose story that made up the second issue of Captain Marvel Story Book (Winter ’47). Art by C.C. Beck & Pete Costanza; script by William Woolfolk. [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

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comicbook and was surprised to come across one of his works in it, signed by him. He was a very good cartoonist as well as a writer. After seeing his name in the comic, I wrote to him and accused him of having sold out to Mammon.

I then asked him how I could do the same. [laughs] And when he wrote back, he suggested I go to Jerry lger’s shop.

So I went there and presented myself, but they were not interested.

Harry Shorten

Then I had learned Harry Shorten, who was a football star at NYU whom I had watched play all the time, was the editor at MLJ Publications. I sent him a story outline and I heard nothing. I finally got the courage to go in and see him. He looked into his “Forget File” [laughs], found my outline, and said, “Well, this is not what we want. What we want are colorful villains.

Go home and try to think of a colorful villain.” But having an editor right there in my grasp, I decided to come up with a colorful villain right on the spot called The Jingler, a guy who leaves jingles behind at crimes.

He liked the idea, and bought it for “The Wizard.”

besides being an early comicbook writer and editor, developed the comic strip There Oughta Be a Law… and appeared on the cover of this 1969 Belmont paperback collection of same.

page, and then 50¢ more if you came in and added the dialogue to the balloons. I thought it was an insane way to work.

SCHELLY: So the artist actually drew the page before you did the final dialogue.

WOOLFOLK: Yeah.

SCHELLY: Interesting.

WOOLFOLK: The story plot was there, and the breakdown of each panel was there. But it was at the artist’s discretion what he wanted to draw and how big of a balloon he wanted to leave you, which is what you call a handicap for a writer.

SCHELLY: I would think so.

WOOLFOLK: Warren King, who later became the editorial cartoonist of The New York Daily News, was doing comics for MLJ. He came to me one day and said, “I went up to Fawcett to try to get some work. They, unfortunately, were not interested in my artwork, but they were interested in the story that I showed them.”

And the story happened to be one I had written. And the editor he had seen at Fawcett, John Beardsley, told King, “I would like to see this writer!” So I went up to Fawcett to meet with Beardsley, since Shorten was not about to yield another penny without rubbing a nickel off the back of it. And Beardsley immediately claimed me as his prize, gave me work, and I was in at Fawcett. Beardsley eventually went over to Busy Arnold’s Quality Comics, and Otto Binder, then, sort of inherited me.

SCHELLY: I didn’t know that Otto was an editor.

WOOLFOLK: He was, briefly, then quit to become a freelance writer because it was more profitable than being an editor. At

SCHELLY: One of their major characters.

WOOLFOLK: Yeah.

SCHELLY: So what year would that have been?

WOOLFOLK: It was ’41. And from that moment, I became a big shot in comics. I was kind of a revelation at MLJ because, beforehand, they mostly had the artists doing their own scripts. Shorten made page cuts because newsprint was getting in short supply due to the war. The comics came down from 64 to 48 and again down to 32 pages. He told me, “You’re going to feel it here, but we’ll get all the work we can over to you, because you’re the best writer we’ve had.” At the time, other writers were Harry Stein, who later became an editor at Quality Comics, and Ed Bresnick, who quickly fell out of comics, but that was all. Of course, there was also Bob Montana writing his own scripts on Archie.

I did a couple for him, though. I told John Goldwater, “For God’s sake, don’t let him go.”

The minute I saw “Archie,” I felt it was the most original thing I’d seen in comics thus far. And Goldwater knew it because of its sales. So there I was, working away happily, more or less, although Harry Shorten was a kind of ogre who defended the gates of the treasury with a fierce, lion-like attitude. [laughs] I’d just write breakdowns of scenes, which he paid a dollar-fifty a

Editorial Musical Chairs—Fawcett Style After Ed Herron’s abrupt dismissal from Fawcett, interim comics editors were briefly set in place. This early 1942 Fawcett comics editorial meeting was attended by (l. to r.): Mercedes Shull (editorial assistant who became a Fawcett comics editor from ’44 to ’49), John Beardsley (who months later jumped ship to Busy Arnold’s Quality Comics), Otto Binder (who happily returned to freelance writing by mid-’42), Tom Naughton (who got out of comics that same year), and Rod Reed (who eventually became chief editor until ’43).

William Woolfolk Remembered—Part II

the time, “Captain Marvel” was being written by Manly Wade Wellman. Later on, after having written quite a bit for Fawcett, I asked Rod Reed where I ranked in the hierarchy? He said, “You are the very best of our junior writers.” I thought that was a very diplomatic thing to say until it occurred to me there were no other writers around. They were all being drafted! [laughs]

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SCHELLY: So ’41 was probably when you really got to know Otto.

WOOLFOLK: Yes, it was. I remember saying to him, “You know, there’s a science-fiction writer called Eando Binder. Are you any relation to him?” [laughs] And he said, “I’m him! That’s my brother Earl and me!” Eando Binder was such a good science-fiction name.

It sounds so avant-garde. He was already one of my favorites. I was wildly enthusiastic about Hugo Gernsback’s Amazing Stories, and was a fan of Otto’s “Adam Link” series in it.

SCHELLY: He wrote a lot of stuff for Gernsback right up until he got into comics; then it kind of stopped.

WOOLFOLK: Yes, comics were more profitable, by far. Otto was flattered that I knew about him and admired his science-fiction writing. And he, in turn, was impressed by the fact that I had sold to slick magazines.

Writer Of The Purple Page (Above:) When the FCA editor suggested that William Woolfolk be a special guest at the San Diego Comic-Con, dedicated pro-finder David Siegel immediately made it happen! Here are Woolfolk and Siegel at the 2002 SDCC, in a (slightly grainy) photo originally published in Comics Buyer’s Guide.

(Right & below:) Another peek inside Woolfolk’s writing records journal, covered in greater detail last issue—this time, a page listing the comicbook storIes he wrote in March and April of 1950. One yarn noted is “Sivana Jr.’s Friendly Robot” from Captain Marvel Jr. #93 (Jan. ’51); artwork by Bud Thompson. [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics; scan of journal page © 2019 Marc Svensson.]

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Otto Binder and his wife Ione are all smiles at a 1952 Fawcett office party celebrating comics editor Ginny Provisiero’s 10-year anniversary with the publisher.

The following year, alas, saw the demise of Fawcett’s entire comics department following settlement of its longstanding lawsuit by DC Comics.

(Top of page:) The title pages of Binder’s most important SF story, “I, Robot,” which introduced the human-emotioned Adam Link in the January 1939 issue of Amazing Stories pulp magazine. In the mid-1960s the story was adapted as an episode of the TV series Outer Limits.

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

(Left:) Splash page of Binder-scripted lead story from Captain Marvel Adventures #71 (May 1947), with art by C.C. Beck & Pete Costanza—the final Golden Age appearance of the Lieutenant Marvels, the first superpowered spinoffs of the Shazam Mythos. [Shazam heroes, Shazam, & Dr. Sivana TM & © DC Comics.]

William Woolfolk Remembered—Part II

Fawcett Threesome Woolfolk-scribed tales of “Radar the International Policeman” from Master Comics #73 (Oct. ’46); art by Al Carreno—“Ibis the Invincible” from Whiz Comics #87 (July ’47); art by Kurt Schaffenberger (with KS drawing himself and his wife Dorothy into the story as the haunted-house buyers)—and “Lance O’Casey” from Whiz Comics #109 (May ’49); artist unknown, but quite possibly Lee Elias.

The latter story features Singapore Sal, who was also a recurring troublemaker for Don Winslow—so it may be that Woolfolk had conceived the female pirate and simply took her with him when he switched story venues. [Ibis TM & © DC Comics; other material TM & © the respective copyright holders.]

SCHELLY: What year did you get married?

WOOLFOLK: What year was I trapped? [laughs] Well, it was after I was already in comics, —’42, I think. Her name was Teresa, but everybody called her Terry.

SCHELLY: And Otto was married at that time, too?

WOOLFOLK: Yes, to lone.

SCHELLY: So, as couples, you could socialize after work hours as well.

WOOLFOLK: That’s what we did. We got together for dinners and went to movies and plays in New York.

SCHELLY: Was he living in Englewood, New Jersey, at the time?

WOOLFOLK: Yes. He hadn’t bought his house there yet, but I remember when he did: he said his hand was shaking so much when he had to make out a check that big, he could hardly sign it. [laughs] SCHELLY: He called it “The House That Captain Marvel Built.”

WOOLFOLK: Yeah, I’m sure it was.

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The Quality Of Mercy…

Even though he referred to the company as a “slipshod operation,” Woolfolk produced a tremendous number of scripts for Quality Comics during the Golden Age. A miniscule sampling, clockwise from top right, includes: “Blackhawk” in Modern Comics #62 (June ’47); art by Reed Crandall/Chuck Cuidera … “Plastic Man” in Police Comics #77 (April ’48); art by Jack Cole …

“Kid Eternity” in Hit Comics #59 (July ’49); art possibly by Pete Riss … “Doll Man” in Feature Comics #117 (Dec. 1947); art by John Spranger.

[Characters TM & © DC Comics.]

William Woolfolk Remembered—Part II

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a natural segue into doing “Captain Marvel.” Later on, Rod Reed became chief editor, and he was very diplomatic, a very good guy.

For example, I was at a party when he came up to me and said, “Bill, one of us has his fly open.” [laughs] John Beardsley, having gone over to Quality, was trying to claim me. Rod approached me and said, “I know John wants to have you entirely over there, but can’t we have a share of you?” I said, “I wouldn’t leave Fawcett!” [laughs] I was working for both of them at that time. Quality was the most slipshod operation ever. Otto said they had the best writing staff ever, and that may be true, but what was also true was that they had the worst editorial staff ever. There was hardly any guidance at all.

SCHELLY: They had a tremendous amount of talent, but I know what you mean. [Quality] never seemed to gel in the same way that Fawcett did.

WOOLFOLK: We wrote anything we wanted to write at Quality.

No one gave an assignment. When Beardsley was there, he was the most lackadaisical editor, and the guy before him, George Brenner, was the most incompetent editor ever. [laughs] And then, thereafter, everything got worse because Busy Arnold hired nothing but his Brown University football players that he liked. [laughs] SCHELLY: One of the things that certainly helped Fawcett and all these publishers was that comics had become all the rage.

WOOLFOLK: Yeah, they certainly were. And they sold half the spoils. The spoilage rate was, like, 3%; you know, the copies that would be too tattered to be sold. But they sold beyond that, because the newsstand kept the tattered copies because they could sell them, too, so it was like coining money, to have that paper allotment at that time.

SCHELLY: Those Fawcett-Binder baseball games in New Jersey sound like they were good, happy times for everyone.

“Condemned To Die” Woolfolk was with Captain Marvel Jr. in the beginning (his origin in Master Comics #21 (Dec. 1941); see previous A/E issue), and eventually became the main writer of the World’s Mightiest Boy right up to the very end. He penned every story in Junior’s final issue—Captain Marvel Jr. #119 (June ’53)—with its fitting, if perhaps coincidental, “Condemned to Die” closing cover blurb. “Guilty of Murder” in that issue, like the cover (which was seen in A/E #151), was illustrated by Bud Thompson. [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics.]

WOOLFOLK: Yes, they were. We were young men in our prime with plenty of money and plenty of acceptance.

SCHELLY: Were you with Fawcett until the end of their comics line?

SCHELLY: And where were you living at that time?

WOOLFOLK: I was still in Brooklyn, through the period of that first marriage and during my time at Fawcett.

SCHELLY: How would you describe Otto as a person?

WOOLFOLK: Friendly and stable, not likely to go off on flights of whatever, so it gave you a feeling of solidity to be with him.

And I think I certainly needed that, as later events proved. He was Fawcett’s top writer, and had several other contacts, too. As a matter of fact, Otto was generous that way. He recommended me to Martin Goodman at Timely, where I met my second wife, Dorothy.

Otto mentioned that there was an editor named Dorothy Roubicek up there and that he thought she needed writers, so I went up there and met with her.

SCHELLY: So Otto, in a sense, helped you meet your second wife.

WOOLFOLK: Yes. SCHELLY: Would you say Fawcett was a good operation to work for?

WOOLFOLK: I started there with other characters which became

Two For The Seesaw Fawcett’s revered comics editors of the Golden Age: Wendell Crowley (left) and executive editor (’43-’53) Will Lieberson

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

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WOOLFOLK: He was always worried. His wife thought it was about the money. By that time, things were getting tougher.

SCHELLY: Who came up with the idea for Space World?

WOOLFOLK: I did. The magazine would have been a success if I’d stayed with it. I was still working on terribly undernourished finances, in the sense that I had money, but nothing near the money to launch a major magazine, which is a million dollars. And I was about nine hundred and ninety-seven thousand short. [laughs] In any event, I was getting it out on a skinflint budget. When I turned the business over to other people they ran it into the ground.

SCHELLY: Otto Binder was the editor.

WOOLFOLK: Right, I hired him. I think he was an efficient, competent editor. When you consider the budget, I think Space World was extraordinary. But it looked like a genuine B-magazine. [laughs] SCHELLY: Did you have occasion to work with Otto again?

WOOLFOLK: Space World was the last time we worked together.

It wasn’t making money, so I left the magazine when I got an offer from Reginald Rose to be the chief writer and story editor for The Defenders television series. He said, “You got to come over. The TV money is so much better than publishing money. There’s no comparison.” Back then, I made fifty thousand a year.

SCHELLY: And you later became a very successful novelist.

WOOLFOLK: A fairly successful novelist. [laughs] I had eight books chosen by major book clubs, but I wrote nineteen, so we won’t talk about the other eleven. [laughs]

Watch This Space!

Cover of March 1961 issue of Space World, published by William Woolfolk, edited by Otto Binder. [TM & © respective trademark & copyright holders.]

WOOLFOLK: Until the very end, no. I worked for them for quite a while, though. Will Lieberson had taken over as chief editor there, and I got along okay with Will and everything was going fine.

But one day he met with me and said he knew I was working not only for Quality but also for other publishers. “It’s very tight for writers,” he said, “and we don’t have enough assignments. Can you cut down on your allotment of stories that you do?” And I said, “Sure, I’d be glad to!” So, in effect, I left.

SCHELLY: After you left Fawcett, did you stay friends with Otto during that time?

WOOLFOLK: Yeah, we stayed in constant touch and still saw movies together.

SCHELLY: Do you remember how he was doing after the demise of Fawcett’s comics?

WOOLFOLK: I know he was upset a great deal by the hit his finances took. And then later he had the terrible tragedy of his daughter being killed. Sadly, just before that, Fawcett editor Wendell Crowley’s daughter had died. You know, both Wendell and Jack Cole had called me “the Shakespeare of Comics.” [laughs] That’s a derogatory thing to say about Shakespeare. I was close friends with Wendell back then—even more so, I think, than with Otto. Wendell used to call me every day and we’d spend an hour on the phone. One day, his young daughter, who was playing baseball, went out to second base and dropped dead.

SCHELLY: Oh, gosh. In Otto’s case, many concur that he was never the same after his daughter’s death.

SCHELLY: What would you consider to be your most successful book?

WOOLFOLK: Opinion of the Court.

SCHELLY: So, as far as Otto goes, you knew him over a period of twenty-some years. Did he change over the years?

WOOLFOLK: He remained a very sweet man, but after the difficulties, he was drinking too much and wasn’t making that much money.

SCHELLY: He wrote several books about UFOs. Do you know if his interest in UFOs was serious? Did he believe in them?

WOOLFOLK: I don’t think he believed in them, no. But he flattered himself— and maybe not too much flattery—on being a scientist.

He had a scientific turn, therefore, of mind. But I don’t think he really believed that extraterrestrial visitors from a hundred light years away were coming, you know. That stuff was written for the money.

SCHELLY: As a writer, do you think he pretty much lived up to his potential?

WOOLFOLK: I don’t think any writer lives up to his potential, or to his hopes or aspirations. I have no idea what his aspirations were. I know I’ve never lived up to mine.

SCHELLY: We have to talk about Mort Weisinger for a moment.

WOOLFOLK: Otto did not get along with Mort Weisinger, which is not at all surprising. And Mort did abuse him, as he did with many others.

SCHELLY: What forms would that abuse take?

WOOLFOLK: Otto told me that Mort insulted his work and

William Woolfolk Remembered—Part II

Four-Taste A quadruplet sampling of Woolfolk works at DC: Superboy from Adventure Comics #191 (Aug. ’53); art by Curt Swan/John Fischetti … Superman in Action Comics #182 (July ’53); art by Wayne Boring/Stan Kaye … Batman and Robin for Detective Comics #194 (April, ’53); art by Bob Kane/Charles Paris … and “Suicide Squad” in Star Spangled War Stories #20 (April ’54); art by Jerry Granenetti/Bernard Sachs. [TM & © DC Comics.]

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The Man & The Myth A screen grab of William Woolfolk from videotaped footage taken at The Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant in San Diego during Comic-Con weekend, August 1-4, 2002.

Probably Woolfolk’s most-remembered work will be the stories he scripted about the World’s Mightiest Marvel—one of the greatest super-hero creations of all time. Splash page of Captain Marvel Adventures #93 (Feb. ’49); art by Beck/Costanza. Second only to Otto Binder, Woolfolk was the other principal scripter of the big guy that Dr. Sivana called “the Big Red Cheese” in the post-war years. [Shazam hero & Shazam TM & © DC Comics; screen capture © 2019 Marc Svensson.]

dry, and then I throw them away.” He was an ugly man. He enjoyed bullying, but he was also a terrible groveler. I don’t know which was worse. When I became a successful novelist and had my million-copy paperback bestseller, he practically crawled and kissed my shoes every time we talked. I couldn’t stand the man.

SCHELLY: When did you do your last work for DC?

probably around 1953.

WOOLFOLK: I wrote my last script for DC right before I got into publishing. So it was

SCHELLY: When you left comics, you never really went back.

insulted him. It crushed Otto at quite a bad, weak time in his life.

That was a bad thing of Mort to do. But there was Otto, at the dregs of his hope, and his drinking, and his problems. And he’s being insulted by Mort Weisinger.

SCHELLY: That sounds like that was the period when Otto came back to DC in the late ’50s. He was very productive, he did a lot of very good work, and it seemed like he might’ve got along better with Weisinger at that time.

WOOLFOLK: That’s probably true. I was also over at DC, you know. I wrote “Superman,” “Batman,” and whatever.

SCHELLY: Really? So you worked with Weisinger?

WOOLFOLK: Oh, yeah. I worked with Weisinger, I worked with Jack Schiff, I worked with Murray Boltinoff, I worked with Robert Kanigher.

SCHELLY: Could you tell me more about Weisinger, if you’re willing to go on to speak about him?

WOOLFOLK: To speak about the unspeakable? [laughs] SCHELLY: Well, it’s almost like he seemed to enjoy skewering writers and plotting them against each other.

WOOLFOLK: He did. He was quite an ogre. He said, “I treat writers like lemons. I squeeze them until they’re

WOOLFOLK: I went into publishing, and then into television writing, and then novels.

SCHELLY: So you didn’t have any need to go back.

WOOLFOLK: No, but I so miss comics. Those were the golden days of our youth. It was wonderful to be young and to be successful. I enjoyed thinking up ideas for Captain Marvel, Batman, Superman, Plastic Man, et cetera. I still think comics were the best fun ever.

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