Alter Ego #163 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Roy Thomas' Xtra-strength Comics Fanzine

THE POWER AND THE PANDEMONIUM OF YOUNG

$9.95

DAVE COCKRUM

In the USA

No. 163

Art TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

March 2020

82658 00376

Vol. 3, No. 163 / March 2020 Editor

Roy Thomas

Associate Editor 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, Bill Schelly

Proofreaders

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Rob Smentek William J. Dowlding

Cover Artist

Dave Cockrum

Cover Colorist

Glenn Whitmore

With Special Thanks to: Don Allen Paul Allen Heidi Amash Pedro Angosto Richard Arndt Bob Bailey Mike W. Barr Al Bigley The Charles Biro family Dominic Bongo Ricky Terry Brisacque Bernie Bubnis David Burd Aaron Caplan Nick Caputo John Cimino Paty Cockrum Pierre Comtois Chet Cox David Drake Doug Ellis Linda Fite Shane Foley Bob Fujitani Janet Gilbert Greg Goldstein Grand Comics Database (website) Gary Groth Robert Guffey George Hagenauer

Don’t STEAL our Digital Editions!

David Hajdu Heritage Comics Auctions Tony Isabella Eric Jansen Sharon Karibian Jim Kealy Jim Korkis Joe Kramar Mark Lewis Art Lortie Doug Martin Mike Mikulovsky Brian K. Morris Will Murray Peter Normanton Barry Pearl David Phelps Richard & Wendy Pini Frank Plowright Gene Reed Al Rodriguez Randy Sargent Jim Steranko Steve Stiles Dann Thomas Michael Uslan Ted White Kendall Whitehouse Marv Wolfman Andy Yanchus Mike Zeck

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Dave Cockrum, Malcolm Willits, & Manly Wade Wellman

& DON’T SHARE THEM WITH FRIENDS OR POST THEM ONLINE. Help us keep producing great publications like this one!

Writer/Editorial: The Red Planet—Mostly In Black-&-White! . . 2 The Genius of Dave & Paty Cockrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Joe Kramar’s 2003 conversation with one of comics’ most amazing couples.

Dave Cockrum—A Model Artist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Andy Yanchus take a personal look back at his friend’s astonishing model work.

“One Of The Most Celebrated Comicbook Artists Of Our Time” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Paul Allen on corresponding with young Dave Cockrum, ERB fan, in 1969-70.

From The Tomb: A Step Into The Unknown! . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Peter Normanton brings his celebrated horror-comics fanzine to the pages of Alter Ego.

John Broome: Letter To An Unknown Reader . . . . . . . . . . 50 We return to the 1998 memoir of the late great Golden/Silver Age comics writer.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! The Other Stan Lee, Part 3 . . . 53 Michael T. Gilbert winds up his compare-and-contrast of two of comics’ greatest.

Comic Fandom Archive: In Memoriam - Malcolm Willits . . 59 The final column prepared by the late Bill Schelly—Jim Korkis on a major collector.

re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 65 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #222 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 P.C. Hamerlinck presents R. Arndt’s talk with David Drake re Manly Wade Wellman.

On Our Cover: While there’s more space given in this issue to Dave Cockrum’s early Edgar Rice Burroughs-influenced artwork than to his later triumphs with DC’s “Legion of Super-Heroes” and Marvel’s X-Men, we felt this cover Dave drew for F.O.O.M. Magazine #10 (June 1975) would remind readers—if they needed reminding!—of his sterling contribution to comics. Drawn when Dave was just starting out on his journey as the first artist of the revived/expanded X-Men, it already displays the mastery that would skillfully bridge the gap between the 1960s mutants and their 1970s permutations. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] Above: A 1970s painting by Dave Cockrum of one of his favorite artistic subjects ever: ERB’s John Carter of Mars! Thanks to Paty C. [John Carter TM & © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.] Alter Ego TM is published 6 times a year by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: 32 Bluebird Trail, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Six-issue subscriptions: $67 US, $101 Elsewhere, $27 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.

The Red Planet— writer/editorial

Mostly In Black-&-White!

ave Cockrum was one of a number of artists I’m grateful I got to know at Marvel, at least slightly, near the start of their meteoric careers, either when I was Stan Lee’s associate editor or as the company’s editor-in-chief in the first half of the 1970s. Of course, by the time he deplaned at Marvel, Dave had already made a name for himself as artist of DC’s “Legion of SuperHeroes,” whose popularity he had boosted with his powerful Kirby- and Adams-influenced artwork. Dave threw himself into everything with an enthusiasm that was inspiring. At some early stage, though I’ve forgotten the incident myself, he apparently showed me his sketchbook full of DC-rejected proposed Legionnaires, some of whom would soon form the bases of Marvel heroes. I’m told one of the designs he showed me was for a guy he called The Wolverine—though, if so, I don’t feel it had any influence on my conceiving a Marvel character of that name a bit later, since I’d been intrigued by animals since childhood and was as knowledgeable as Dave about what a wolverine was. What is undeniable, though, though, is that Dave’s version of Wolverine’s head ere long became, in 1976’s X-Men, the look that lay beneath his mask; and certainly Logan’s distinctive visage was one of several aspects that helped propel the character to greatness. I do recall the 1974 day I took Dave out to lunch to talk with him about his drawing a projected X-Men revival. We went to a restaurant I liked, in the General Motors Building across the street from Marvel’s Madison Avenue digs—one in which you ate your lunch sitting in facsimiles of early 20th-century automobiles. Dave remembered me as eating a cheeseburger—no doubt accurately. I suspect he showed me, that day, still more drawings of what were now prospective mutants rather than Legionnaires. I was mostly content, however, to leave to him and the writer I’d designated (Mike Friedrich) to decide which costumed stalwarts would help

sell the new X-Men in foreign countries—the ostensible premise for the revival, after all. I could always weigh in later, if need be. Soon afterward, I left the editor-in-chief job, and after a brief hiatus, new color-comics editor Len Wein appointed himself the X-Men scribe, and he and Dave set about to people the upcoming mag with new mutants who had no relation whatever to countries where Marvel hoped to sell additional comics. Well, that was Marvel’s business now—and I knew Len and Dave would make a good job of it. What I didn’t know was that soon-to-be second scripter Chris Claremont, working with Dave for the mag’s first couple of years, would take the new X-Men to heights undreamed of by Lee and Kirby when they’d co-created the series in 1963! But I certainly wasn’t startled by what Dave achieved in his time on X-Men—and I’d have been even less surprised if I’d seen all the Edgar Rice Burroughs-influenced artwork he produced circa 1969-70 for a succession of fanzines, in particular one fittingly titled The Barsoomian (which means “The Martian” in ERB-speak). So I’m happy that, through the good offices of Dave’s one-time correspondent Paul Allen (and Dave’s wife Paty), we’re able to spotlight in this issue a cornucopia of ERB illustration from the artist’s early days. The only drawback? Since most of it was never colored, this issue becomes easily the least “colorful” edition of Alter Ego since we went to “full-color” more than fifty issues ago. But we weren’t about to let that stand in the way of your (and our) having a front-row seat to witness the early development of one of the 1970s’ most important comics artists—Dave Cockrum. So what say we all just sit back and enjoy the ride—while we add our own cataclysmic colors, in the privacy of our own marvelbeholding minds’ eyes!

Bestest,

164

COMING IN APRIL

MIKE FRIEDRICH REACHING FOR THE STARS!

Art TM & © DC Comics.

• Powerful vintage Justice League of America cover art by NEAL ADAMS! • MIKE FRIEDRICH tells RICHARD ARNDT about writing comics in the 1960s and ’70s for DC (The Spectre, Justice League of America, Batman, etc.) and Marvel (Iron Man, Ka-Zar, Captain Marvel, et al.)—then founding/editing/publishing the first true “independent comicbook,” Star*Reach! Featuring spectacular art by ADAMS • KANE • DILLIN • NOVICK • BUSCEMA • BUCKLER • STARLIN • CHAYKIN • BRUNNER & others! • Welcome to RURAL HOME COMICS Country—home base of The Green Turtle, The Bogey Man, & lots more hard-charging super-heroes you’ve never heard of—all courtesy of MARK CARLSON-GHOST! Art by BAILY, COLE, STARR, BOLLE, GIUNTA, et al.! • Plus—FCA—JOHN BROOME—MICHAEL T. GILBERT—& MORE!!

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The Genius Of Dave & Paty Cockrum A 2003 Conversation With One Of Comics’ Most Amazing Couples by Joseph Kramar

NTRODUCTION: Joseph Kramar is a student of comics history, film history, etc., as well as an artist, a convention promoter, a political journalist, and a small business owner. He is currently the historian for the local Sons of the American Legion. He feels fortunate, in his youth, to have met many of the great artists and creators in the comicbook field, including most particularly Dave and Paty Cockrum, who were guests of honor at several of his comic, film, and media expos. He feels it is vital to Dave’s legacy (he passed away in 2006, at age 63)

Dave & Paty Cockrum at a comics convention, probably sometime in the 1990s—and (below left) the Dave-drawn splash page of Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975), the comic that started it all over again for Marvel’s merry mutants. Script by Len Wein. The issue’s cover was spotlighted two issues ago. Thanks to Paty for the photo. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

that fans realize that he created or co-created X-Men characters Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Thunderbird, Mystique, and Phoenix, as well as The Starjammers, Deathbird, Llandra, various members of DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes, and a host of others too numerous to name. As Joe says, “The wealth of creativity from the imagination and genius of Dave Cockrum will endure forever.” In 2003, a month or two before the release of Bryan Singer’s X-Men 2 film, I made the trek up to Cragsmoor, NY, to visit with the illustrious renaissance couple Dave and Paty Cockrum. I brought them a peculiar gift: a gourmet omelet-maker set. I set up a primitive recording device and an archaic video recorder, and we spent the day and part of the evening discussing creators’ rights, office antics and politics at Marvel, DC, and Warren. We reminisced about the Golden, Silver, and Bronze Ages of the comics industry and our nostalgia for old film and the fantasy sci-fi genre. I asked Dave about his creative influences and about the inspiration and origins of the diverse plethora of innovative characters he created. Although members of the world-famous Legion of Super-Heroes and X-Men characters are the most prominent, the myriad others he created are equally fascinating. These fantastic characters may have their origins in primordial archetypes emerging from the vast depths and limitless vistas of David’s subconscious mind. I asked him about the inception, development, and genesis of the majestic matriarchal Storm, the goddess-like weather witch of The X-Men. Dave elucidated and elaborated on the creation of Storm. He explained that, while working on concepts for what would eventually emerge in 1975 as Giant-Size X-Men #1: “I came up with a proposed Legionnaire, a bird-lady called Ketzil with a beautiful face and long hair, and a proposed X- Men character called Typhoon with weather powers. There was another proposed X-Men character called The Black Cat [not the later Spider-Man character] who wore the Storm costume without the cape. She had a tufted hairstyle like Wolverine and could transform into a humanoid cat or house cat. There was a hiatus for some reason, and the project was put aside. In the interim all these cat characters popped up— Tigra, The Cat, Pantha at Warren—so it seemed as The Black Cat was gonna be redundant. Roy Thomas said, ‘Why not make the girl Typhoon?’ That sounded interesting, so I put this cape on her from

A 2003 Conversation With One Of Comics’ Most Amazing Couples

she had to be killed as retribution.” I spoke of Sue Richards developing into a powerful liberated woman rising from mediocrity and obscurity, emerging to great prominence. She was a sleeper revealed at last to be in many ways the most powerful of the Fantastic Four. I believe that was in the ’70s. I remember it made an impression on me. I wrote extensively on the merits of equality of race and gender in many of my early articles. I suspect that Paty may be the inspiration for the creation of Dave’s strong female characters. She is an excellent role model for girls who wish to pursue their ambitions in this patriarchal society. I loved hearing Paty’s tales of old Marvel during the transitional period of the Silver and Bronze Ages. To some, Chris Claremont and Dave’s Giant-Size X-Men # 1 is credited with heralding in the latter. For reasons of nostalgia, Silver Age Marvel is my personal favorite period. It was magic. In the early ’70s I attended the first Star Trek cons, Phil Seuling’s early Comic Art Cons, Creation Cons, the first Marvel and first Famous Monsters Cons. When Paty was at Marvel, she referred to the atmosphere as a boys’ club. I loved Marie Severin’s work on Sub-Mariner and the humor books. When Paty spoke of the production work both women did with Sol Brodsky, I was impressed because some of the promo and merchandising were exemplary items. Some are more obscure and rare than the comics. I liked the two sets of Marvel Super Hero Slurpy 7-11 cups Paty designed. Marvelmania produced some great black-&-white pieces. The 1971 black light Marvel posters produced by Third Eye were extraordinary. The most beautiful, dynamic, cosmic panels from the comics by Colan, Kirby, etc., were impeccably chosen, and the vivid vibrant colors used were striking. My favorite items were from the height of Silver Age Marvel, the 66 cards & 67 stickers, and there were bumper stickers as well. The Merry Marvel Marching Society items were magic.

A Typhoon Is A Kind Of Storm

So was the 1966 Marvel Super-Heroes cartoon series, with Cap lamenting the loss of Bucky and the girl from his past, the PTSD-like brooding about World War II, and the melodramatic

A watercolor-markers illo of Storm that Dave drew for fellow pro artist Frank Thorne, in return for one Frank had presented him featuring Red Sonja. And if anybody wonders, in Dave’s 2003 account, what Roy Thomas was doing at a meeting where new X-Men characters were being discussed—apparently, while visiting the Marvel offices in late ’74/early ’75 as a contract writer/ editor, he just stuck his head into a meeting to say hi to Dave, Len Wein, and one or two others and they asked him for his two cents. Hopefully, they got their money’s worth—but Roy only vaguely recalls the incident. [Storm TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

an unused Jean Grey costume concept and gave her the long white hair. We decided Storm was a more feminine name than Typhoon.” Storm is one of the most eminent and striking of the leading characters in the highly lucrative X-Men films. The Cockrums mentioned that Dave’s name did not even appear in the credits. I know Dave and Paty were hurt and felt slighted by this. I feel the “Phoenix Saga” was a most prodigious epic and harbinger of crucial events, provoking deep significant character development through the tragic drama of this powerful milestone. I asked Dave how he created the ineffable Phoenix persona of Jean Grey. He responded: “As Marvel Girl, she fell into the category of what someone called the Stan Lee Housewife-Hero mold. We didn’t feel she had the oomph to fit into the new group, and so I came up with the Phoenix idea.” I spoke of John Byrne’s concept of the Dark Phoenix. I knew Dave was irritated by where that plot line was headed. He responded, “I liked the costume but I hated that they killed her off. Byrne, I think, set that up on purpose, having her eat the sun of the asparagus people and thereby making it that

Red-Hot Peppers Without a doubt, the animation in the 1966 five-times-a-week Marvel SuperHeroes show was primitive—but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t plenty of talent behind the scenes. Case in point: this penciled model sheet for Tony Stark/ Iron Man’s then-secretary Pepper Potts, done by prominent comics artist Doug Wildey. Thanks to Mike Mikulovsky. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The Genius of Dave & Paty Cockrum

soap-operatic aspect of the Thor/Jane Foster/Don Blake triangle or the Shakespearean, classic mythic feel and Greek tragedy of Namor and the allusions to the Cold War in “Iron Man.” Although the animation was cheap and primitive, the revolutionary concept of these fantastic characters portrayed in realistic circumstances was far ahead of its time. The Jack Kirby/Stan Lee feel was palpable. Paty did her production work with Sol Brodsky a few years after that magic time. The creativity and many of the great artists were still there. Paty referred to Marvel at the time as Camelot and herself as Marvel’s resident Witch. I read somewhere that Ray Bradbury was supposedly a descendant of the Witches of Salem. During our interview, I mentioned the Silver Age artists who still overwhelmed and inspired me with awe and wonder, like Adams, Buscema, Colan, etc., and I said to Dave and Paty, “You guys really liked Wally Wood, Gil Kane, and Murphy Anderson.” Dave responded, “Probably the first guy in the business I really liked was Woody. He was the first guy I noticed who signed his work so that you knew who it was, and the artwork was great.” PATY: I don’t remember Wally Wood’s stuff, but Joe Kubert on “Viking Prince” and Bill Everett on “Sub-Mariner”—I remember those names ’cause they signed their work. There was some guy there whose

drawing I really didn’t like at all; I found out later on it was Jack Kirby. DAVE: She never liked Kirby [i.e., his art]. PATY: When I look at Kirby’s black-&-white art, it strobes my eyes to the point where it gives me headaches. He has a very cubistic style. KRAMAR: Jack is a master of design, How’d The Comics Code Police Miss composition, This One? anatomy, Seems to us it’s pretty clear that Dream Girl is not perspective, in bed alone, in the “Legion of Super-Hereos”costume design, etc. featuring Superboy #201 (March-April 1974). Script by Cary Bates; art by Dave Cockrum. Thanks to Like Gene Colan, Sharon Karibian. [TM & © DC Comics.] he has the eye of a cinematographer, director, and filmmaker. He is perhaps the most prolific creator and innovator of the industry, a devoted family man with an Old World work ethic. PATY: He did stuff that, if anyone else did it, it would be static—like, he’ll have two heads looking at each other—Blam!!! That is the biggest no-no you can get in comics, ’cause it’s static, and what he did to make your eyes jump around and make you think there was movement going on—he put all these weird lines in, and they would strobe your eyes and make your eyes think there was something moving, and that’s how he did it. Inkers would fix Kirby’s anatomy and leave some of the weird lines so it would move, and I used to do some of this when I worked at Marvel. They pushed me into merchandising and told me I couldn’t draw and I believed them. Would they lie? KRAMAR: Some of those guys were brutal. Who was the art director then? PATY: A wonderful man named John Romita. KRAMAR: And I’m sure Marie Severin loved your work. PATY: Marie Severin said I should be doing underground comics. My work had an innate sexual dynamic that wasn’t allowed then because of the Comics Code. The big sexual scene was that Nick Fury took the headset off the telephone and left it lying on the table and as they faded it into the background you see the phone sitting there with the headset off the telephone and you know what they’re doing.

Thor Loser? Dave and Paty had to agree to disagree about the artwork of one J. Kirby. Exhibit A: this page inked by Bill Everett and scripted by Stan Lee, from Thor #170 (Nov. 1969). Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

DAVE: I sneaked an outrageous scene into “The Legion of SuperHeroes”of Dream Girl lying in bed, and if you look very closely you see somebody else’s head lying under the covers next to her, and she was going out with Starboy at the time, so obviously that’s who it was. That’s so stupid now, but I would’ve gotten blasted at the time if the Comics Code had noticed that! Some of my favorite anecdotes from my long day in March 2003 with Dave and Paty involve the unique personalities and characters in the industry. Dave told some hysterical stories about

A 2003 Conversation With One Of Comics’ Most Amazing Couples

Jim Warren’s practical jokes and weird sense of humor. He said Warren would rubber-stamp some derisive remark on a page of original art, then pull out some inane novelty like chattering teeth and a laughing box. Dave described DC as organized and corporate compared to Marvel, but not oppressive. I found the office antics and politics at Marvel in that era quite fascinating. I loved Paty’s artwork and her candid forthright outspoken manner. She spoke of Marvel when Stan was still there as a happy time, conducive to creativity, and Dave also described that time of mirth, merriment, and good humor. She was effulgent as she painted a joyous picture of the contented, harmonious environment she described as Camelot. Her tone and the mood drastically darkened when she told of the oppressive atmosphere permeating the Marvel Bullpen during the dismal days following that antecedent enlightened era. Camelot became Enron. PATY: The Comics Code was a group of little old ladies saying, “No, you can’t do this, you can’t do that.” DAVE: My very first encounter with the Code was on my first job for DC, a back-up feature in Superman called “The Fabulous World of Krypton,” and it was a story about mutant Kryptonian children. I drew a girl with cleavage and they said, “No, you can’t have that.”

Getting Warmer… Some vintage “warm-up” pencil sketches of Thor and Captain America by John Buscema, most likely from the back of one of his Marvel pages, provided from the Internet by Mike Mikulovsky. The cover of one of Buscema’s Charlton Nature Boy issues was seen in A/E #159. [Captain America & Thor TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Apparently they wanted the kids to believe there was one solid mass there. PATY: There was one time at Marvel—the book was called Luke Cage, Power Man—this was before Jo Duffy, I think. Ron Wilson was doing the artwork. Big black guy. The kind you would want by your side if you were walking through Hell’s Kitchen, and as sweet as could be. But the writer was getting away with murder. It was mother-this and mother-that. The little old ladies at the Comics Code said, “Oh, he’s talking about his mother, isn’t that nice, he must be a wonderful boy.” This went on for about six months, then someone told them, “Hey ladies, he’s not talking about his mother. That’s street talk for [expletive],” and BLAMO!!! That was it, they put a stop to that. When a new artist came into Marvel, they would try and make them draw like Jack Kirby, for some reason. Early Barry WindsorSmith, when they tried to force him to work in that Marvel style, it just didn’t work. He went away for a while, and when he came back, he and Roy were working on Conan. It was very illustrative, highly decorative. The Conan books just took off like a rocket. He was working his way very, very carefully from quasi-super-hero into the very illustrative type of storytelling he wanted to do. When he left Marvel again, that book he did [The Studio] was wonderful.

Cleave Unto Me…? Is this the page that the Code objected to in the “Fabulous World of Krypton” installment titled “All in the Mind” in Superman #248 (Jan. 1974)? Probably so. Script by Marv Wolfman; art by Dave Cockrum. Thanks to Art Lortie and Jim Kealy. [TM & © DC Comics.]

Also, artists would draw stories—and you should see what they drew on the back of the pages. It was amazing. Buscema work would come in, it was laid out beautifully with excellent storytelling. We would Xerox the backs of the pages. They would have women and studies of people’s faces, studies of animals,

The Genius of Dave & Paty Cockrum

DAVE: Yeah, well, it was before the Jim Shooter era. It was as much fun as comics fan could have with his clothes on. KRAMAR: At DC, before you left, were things OK there? DAVE: It was a little more corporate and more organized, but it wasn’t oppressive or anything. Both offices at the time had freelance areas were you could just come in and hang around. That was nice, but they did away with that years ago. KRAMAR: Yeah, I think that they have policies now that people from another company have to be escorted so that they don’t steal ideas from each other. Sometimes on a Friday evening, when Stan Lee was publisher of Marvel and Carmine Infantino was publisher of DC, they would each bring some writers and artists and meet at a neighborhood bistro called Friar Tuck’s, so there was also some amicable comradeship between Marvel and DC. DAVE: They used to have Christmas parties there. Well, you know, you have to be escorted at DC as well as at Marvel; it is a fear of corporate espionage. KRAMAR: Did you like the Edgar Rice Burroughs books—John Carter of Mars, Carson of Venus? DAVE: Oh yeah, I grew up on that stuff. It’s my favorite, especially Carter of Mars. I did the art on some of those adaptations.

“Did You Like The Edgar Rice Burroughs Books?” That was probably one of the most unnecessary questions ever asked to Dave Cockrum! For more—a whole lot more—about Dave and the creations of ERB, see Paul Allen’s article, beginning on p. 15. Meanwhile, here’s a color drawing by Dave sent to us by Paty. [John Carter, Dejah Thoris, Woola, & Thark TM & © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.]

wonderful pencils. He loved doing cowboy stories, and especially loved the Conan books. He made fun of the super-heroes. He referred to it as drawing guys in long underwear. He told me one time he did comicbooks to pay the bills, and one of these days he would get to doing what he really wanted to do, which was to be a fine artist. He wanted to paint with oils and things like that. KRAMAR: It depends on who inks them, just like Gene Colan. Tom Palmer was a good inker for them. DAVE: I have an issue of [Charlton’s] Nature Boy, which is pre-Marvel, with Buscema’s work. It didn’t have the same look; it was very commercial-looking. Nature Boy was a strip about a kid who fell into the ocean or something, and the gods adopted him, and gave him all sorts of powers. Nature Boy was a slim, good-looking young man, and if you look, you could see some of Buscema in there. I guess it wasn’t until he went to Marvel that everybody expanded. KRAMAR: [to Dave] Did you like working with Chris Claremont?

PATY: The first book I ever drew was The Cat #3. Marie Severin sent me the story line, a 1½-page synopsis. She told me not to worry about the backgrounds because Wally Wood was lined up to ink the book. He would put in the background. But Wally got sick or something and couldn’t do it, so they gave it to Bill Everett to ink. Well, he didn’t put anything in, so it was kind of bare. Bill was my hero back from when he did Sub-Mariner. I never got those pages back. I did get the pages back from an issue of Spider-Man I did. A lot of Everett’s stuff was still in the warehouse. Marvel had a big warehouse. KRAMAR: [to Dave] Did you get most of your X-Men pages back from Marvel? DAVE: As far as I know, except for some. They told Roy they found them all. They told me they didn’t. PATY: Well, the X-Men characters that Dave created are still being used in plot lines, cartoons, movies, toys, and video games. DAVE: I sometimes think that Marvel sees me as an embarrassment because I created all those characters and I am not getting a penny out of it. PATY: One good thing that DC would do was commission re-creations of great covers for the artist. At Marvel I was working for Sol Brodsky in production, and we would take the art out of existing comics and use them for merchandising. DAVE: There was one panel of the Hulk where I drew him punching through a brick wall. If I had a nickel for every time they used that piece of artwork, I would be a rich man today. I did some re-creations of X-Men covers. KRAMAR: [to Paty] Did you like working at Marvel?

KRAMAR: Was Stan around?

PATY: Working at Marvel was cool, but I left in 1982. I couldn’t stand what was happening. They were getting greedy and started putting out garbage.

DAVE: Yeah, for most of the time. He still had his office there; I had occasional dealings with him.

KRAMAR: Do they give Dave credit now for the X-Men characters he created?

KRAMAR: Was Marvel your favorite place to work?

PATY: He didn’t even get an invite to the premier of the X-Men film.

DAVE: Yeah, Chris was all right.

A 2003 Conversation With One Of Comics’ Most Amazing Couples

Star-Spangled War Stories (Above:) A 1970s sketch by Dave Cockrum for a hardback reprinting of “Captain America” stories. Thanks to Paty. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Above right:) Dave’s final cover for DC was this one for Blackhawk #261 (Aug. 1983). [TM & © DC Comics.]

Dave & Paty Cockrum Dave & Paty in a photo taken circa 1979-80 at the Marvel offices at 575 Madison Avenue in NYC, courtesy of Paty—and the final, dramatic page of The X-Men #99 (June 1976), the sixth issue of the revived series following Giant-Size X-Men #1-and-only. Script by Chris Claremont; pencils by Dave Cockrum; inks by Frank Chiaramonte. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The Genius of Dave & Paty Cockrum

Were Thine That Special Face… (Above:) Dave Cockrum’s cover for The Incredible Hulk #206 (Dec. 1976)—the artwork that Dave says in the interview was reprinted so often. Thanks to John Cimino. (Above center & right:) Two examples of same—the box for a Hulk puzzle, and a 1977 poster spotlighting Ol’ Greenskin. The face on the former (probably the one Dave originally gave him) makes him look a bit less sinister, but otherwise it’s basically the same drawing. Thanks to Barry Pearl for the puzzle, and to the Al Bigley Archives (via Sharon Karibian) for the poster. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Marvel’s policy for issuing checks was, on the back of the checks it said if you sign this check... KRAMAR: …You give up the rights to the characters you created. DAVE: I always crossed it out. When I left Marvel, I gave them a resignation letter that said I was tired of the oppressiveness of the Shooter regime.

DAVE: Mine were mostly innocuous… Captain Marvel Jr., Blackhawk… Mac Raboy was one of my favorites. I loved his work on Junior; it was a lot more realistic than C.C. Beck’s work on Senior, but I loved his stuff, too. That’s why I pushed to get the “Captain Marvel Jr.” books when I was working at DC, because my stuff was more like what Raboy had been doing more than anything else. I even bought a bunch of Raboy back issues to use as a reference.

KRAMAR: Dave, when did you first become interested in comics and drawing?

KRAMAR: Do you still have any issues from back then?

DAVE: Probably when I was 7 or 8 years old. I was copying stuff out of the original Captain Marvel series, and there was a book called Spencer Spook—it wasn’t like Casper and it wasn’t milk-toast; it had a bite to it. I thought it was funny. I made up my own super-heroes back then. I came up with a Fly character way before Archie comics did… somewhere around 1953-54.

PATY: We still have some Joe Kubert’s Brave and Bold “Viking Prince.”

PATY: That’s when I got into it, in the early ’50s with Sub-Mariner drawn by Bill Everett.

DAVE: Over the years, bits of stuff were thrown out from moving.

DAVE: We did have a large Silver Age collection of Green Lantern, Flash, Justice League… stuff like that. We fell into hard times and had to sell them off. We worked a deal with a local comic shop. The poor guy had a fire and lost his whole stock, and we virtually restored him with Silver Age, Marvel, and DC stuff from our collection.

KRAMAR: And you would also draw these characters?

I don’t read the X-Men books any more. Well, I have read some of the stuff Chuck Austen has written lately, because he is doing some OK stuff.

PATY: On occasion. My favorite was the original cowboy Ghost Rider, the one on the white horse. Oh-hee!! My grandmother threw away all my good comics. I had a whole bunch of EC comics that I bought with my Sunday school money. 25 cents those days got me a comicbook and a vanilla ice cream soda. My grandmother discovered my cache of them and she said, “What are you doing with these”—Vault of Horror, the Old Witch.

PATY: Even Chris Claremont. For some reason, Editorial at Marvel keeps trying to tell Chris Claremont how to write. Now, Chris created the X-Empire. For 13 years, he was a steady money-maker for Marvel. They would tell Chris “You can’t write this, you can’t do that.” There’s been a gag order placed on people so they can’t talk about characters and what is happening there; it’s crazy. But DC has a much better approach, because they value the history of their characters, so

A 2003 Conversation With One Of Comics’ Most Amazing Couples

Batman will be 32 forever and Superman the same thing. DAVE: But, they don’t entirely value the history of their characters; after all, there was Crisis and Zero Hour.

Epilogue: David and Paty brought so much to the comics and fantasy genre. Their fantastic mythic characters immortalized in cartoons, comics, film, toys, and video games have brought joy to so many. The industry has reaped millions off Dave’s creations. His legacy is his art and imagination and all his illustrious contributions to the genre.

The Feminine Mystique (Below left:) Paty tells this story of the creation of the mutant seen here: “Between the two stints Dave did on The X-Men, Jim Shooter had him on staff, designing covers… so Dave had an office in the back halls there beyond JJ’s [Jumbo John Verpoorten’s] office. Dave liked to draw pretty ladies and often did. One that he drew, Andy Yanchus and I sat down to give colors to and came up with a set of colors we all liked. Dave took it and hung it in his office, and one day Chris [Claremont] came into his office, looked up at the wall, and said, ‘WHO IS SHE?!!! I WANT HER!!! WHO IS SHE??? WHAT’S HER POWERS???’ Dave created so many characters and mostly brought names and powers for them to begin with, so Chris figured this was another of Dave’s characters. Dave looked up from the cover he was designing and said, ‘She’s a pretty lady.’ Chris says, ‘Can I have her for The X-Men?’ ‘Sure,’ sez Dave. So Chris gave the powers and name and Dave the visuals to… MYSTIQUE. I’m not sure but I believe Dave may have given Chris the original drawing… we kept copies.” [Mystique TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Below:) Paty also informs us that Dave “had done this stunning piece of Uhura [from Star Trek] and was hoping to get actress Nichelle Nichols to sign it—for over twenty years!” Finally, Paty says, “at a Big Apple Con, she was there… [so] we came down from upstate [with his sketchbook], got in line, and paid the $5 for the photo they were selling for her to autograph. When he got to her, he said, ‘I don’t want your autograph on the photo. I want it on this sketch of Uhura I did… if you don’t mind.’ She looked at the art and then up at him with BIG eyes and said, “Oh, you don’t want to keep this… you want to give it to me!” Dave told her that yes, he did want to keep it and would she please sign it… which she did. When he told me about the exchange, I laughed and asked if he croaked could I give it to her, and he told me yes, cuz then he wouldn’t need it. So, after he passed, I arranged to present it to her at the Atlanta Dragon Con. She remembered both the exchange with Dave and the signing of it… and was pleased to know that Dave was now a world-famous comicbook artist. So the original is in Nichelle Nichols’ hands, but I kept this scan.” [Art © Paty Cockrum.]

DAVE COCKRUM A Model Artist

A Personal Look Back by Andy Yanchus

Dave Cockrum, Andy Yanchus, & Friends Dave (on left) in a circa-1980 photo taken by his father—and (at right) Andy Yanchus—above an unused Cockrum cover featuring his Creature from the Black Lagoon-style co-creation The Manphibian. Also seen, at bottom, is a montage of Dave’s model designs for Godzilla’s buddy Rodan, the Creature his own self, the Hulk, and Frankenstein’s Monster. Thanks to Paty and Andy for the personal photos, to Andy for the model montage, and to Mike Mikulovsky for finding the artwork online. [Manphibian & Hulk TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; Frankenstein’s Monster design TM & © Universal; Rodan TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

first met Dave Cockrum in 1972. I was selling model kits at some comicbook convention in Manhattan, and my friend Mark Hanerfeld brought Dave to my table and introduced us. Dave and I clicked right at the start. He was only about 6½ months older than I, and we shared a seemingly endless number of interests—comicbooks, model building, ‘50s science-fiction movies, military aviation (especially the early jets), Warner Bros. cartoons, Godzilla movies, etc., etc. To me, it was as if I had discovered a brother I never knew I had! I was working at Aurora in those days, supervising the development of new model kits. It was a no-brainer to hire Dave to design new dinosaur and monster kits for the company. As a fan, he knew all the details and had tons of reference. As a modeler, he knew what other builders would be looking for. As an artist, he dynamically posed the figures in ways never before seen in styrene.

Many of Dave’s designs added to Aurora’s legendary status as the leading maker of plastic model figure kits. Among them were the huge 1/12 scale Tyrannosaurus Rex, the Frankenstein Monster, Rodan and Ghidrah from Japan, and, of course, the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Unfortunately, too many of the new kits Dave designed never got produced. Gort, the Metaluna Mutant, the comic strip Phantom, the Phantom of the Opera, the Mummy, King Kong, Godzilla, and a Stegosaurus were some of a painfully long list of canceled projects—killed by a management that decided to invest more money into new toys and games and reduce model kits to reissues. Ah, but the Cockrum magic couldn’t be swept aside and forgotten.

A Personal Look Back By Andy Yanchus

Monsters & Heroes, Cockrum Style Two of Dave’s classic dinosaur designs, plus the mutant from the film version of This Island Earth, Bigfoot, and The Phantom. Thanks to Andy Yanchus. [Phantom TM & © King Features Syndicate, Inc.; other models TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

two-engined jet with the comment that the lizard camo was being taken too far! The cartoon was reprinted in a national modeling journal, which tickled Dave, of course, but not as much as seeing someone actually build a model of his silliness and entering it in a contest!

Years after Aurora went out of business, many of Dave’s unused designs were resculpted and produced as limited-run resin kits by people who loved what Aurora had once been and what Dave had done to perpetuate that glory. The fact that Dave went on to be a major force in the revival of The X-Men is common knowledge and has been reported many, many times. There’s little that I can add to all that, except to say how thankful I am that Dave allowed me to be a small part of X-Men history. After leaving Aurora, I wound up at Marvel Comics as Coloring Coordinator. Dave was unhappy with the coloring he was getting on his X-Men, and he asked me to color the book. (I think he was sure that I would get the airplanes right!) I did so, and over the years I established the color schemes for several of his characters. Despite working on comicbooks together at Marvel, Dave and I were probably still more connected by modeling. We were both members of the Brooklyn Plastic Modelers’ Society (BPMS), as was Dave’s wife, Paty! Dave and Paty spent hours driving to the meetings each month, and Dave usually had some new model to display. I edited the club newsletter, and Dave contributed a mountain of original art to the publication. He did illustrations for product reviews, caricatures for regular column headings, space-filling spots, and cartoons. One of his jokes was about the lizard camouflage being applied to the A-10 tank-buster. Dave added a head, legs, and wagging tail to the

In Space, No One Can Hear You Go “Ahhhh…” It’s “Cosmic Cockrum” time in this montage of spaceship and related models, courtesy of Andy Yanchus. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

And, speaking of modeling contests, Dave won quite a few awards with his models of space ships, monsters, and comicbook characters. Together, we always tried to promote more fantasy and science-fiction modeling. We sponsored a few science-fictionthemed contests where Dave provided the first prize—an original piece of art of the winning model! That sure got some car, tank, and plane modelers building something completely different. Yes, Dave and I shared many interests, but we didn’t agree on everything. I wasn’t one to keep pets, but Dave had a menagerie of exotic birds and reptiles. And I could never figure out why he didn’t like the Buster Crabb Flash Gordon serials. Religion was another thing where we were at odds. Dave didn’t have much to do with it, and I’m not sure what he believed in an afterlife. I remember a priest telling me a joke about how all the Catholics in Heaven were grouped together, separated from everyone else behind a high wall because they thought that they were the only ones up there. Well, I’d like to think that on the

Dave Cockrum—A Model Artist

Science-Fiction Icons Models of the gunfighter robot from the original film version of Westworld—and, of course, DC space hero Adam Strange— with a lion-headed warrior in between. Thanks to Andy Y. [Adam Strange TM & © DC Comics; other characters TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

whisk him from realm to realm. He certainly hasn’t had time to visit them all yet. The Blackhawks, Tinker Belle, Batman, Doc Savage, the Little Mermaid, Daffy Duck, Marvin the Martian, and countless others will just have to wait their turn.

other side of that wall, off in a corner somewhere there’s a piece of Heaven where fantasies become real. There, Dave is aboard the Nautilus (Disney version, of course) with Captain Nemo. He’s in Sherwood Forest with Robin Hood, on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ vision of Mars with John Carter, on the RM-1 on man’s first trip to the Moon. He’s seeing dinosaurs first-hand, battling the War of the Worlds, flying the XP6M-1 Seamaster, and giving Zorro a few pointers. Surely it was the Creature from the Black Lagoon that gave Dave the crystal to unlock the Time Machine used to

I imagine that not far away from this place where Dave’s dreams abide is a similar land, somewhat more special than the first. This is where the characters Dave created can be found. Dave’s spending lots of time there, too, with Nightcrawler, Storm, the Starjammers, the Futurians, and even Dr. Fang and Long John Silverstein. But this place isn’t just for Dave’s benefit. It’s for all the souls who relished those Cockrum creations. It’s their place to live out their fantasies. And Dave is there seeing all the love and joy his creations bring to so many. And they’ll keep coming to experience the Cockrum magic for eons to come. I’m proud to have been a friend.

WE’RE BACK—Commemorating & Collecting

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“One Of The Most Celebrated Comicbook Artists Of Our Time” Young DAVE COCKRUM & The Barsoomian (1969-1970) by Paul Allen

Paul Allen This photo was probably taken in October 1969, right after his graduation from Naval Officer Candidate School. He soon got commissioned, as well as married. Photo taken by Paul’s brother, Don Allen.

Dave Cockrum while in the U.S. Navy and stationed in Guam, circa 1969-70. His future wife Paty, who sent this photo and the accompanying illo, says that he was already working on “an early version of Nightcrawler” in this picture.

early fifty years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting, purely via the U.S. mail, a young man who would go on to become one of the most celebrated comicbook artists of our time. I never met Dave Cockrum in person, but over a two-year period and in the course of at least twenty letters, I came to know him well and to this day consider him a good friend from my youthful past. It began in mid-February 1969, when Dave wrote me as a Burroughs fan to inquire about a fanzine I published called The Barsoomian. At the time, Dave was a Yoeman second class (YN2) in the U.S. Navy, stationed in Guam. Coincidentally, I was a recently commissioned Ensign in the Navy about to depart for the U.S. Naval Base at Subic Bay in the Philippines. In his second letter to me Dave speculated that I might actually land in Guam on my way there. In fact, we did land in Guam but, sadly, it was only to refuel and we never deplaned. Dave was an aspiring artist whose work had appeared in a few fanzines, and he offered to send me artwork for The Barsoomian. I readily agreed and was astounded when I saw the quality of his work. I knew then this guy had a brilliant career waiting for him if he stuck to it. As you will read in the letter excerpts that follow, he

A Princess Of Barsoom A 1977 Dave Cockrum color illustration of Dejah Thoris, princess of Helium on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ version of the Planet Mars (a.k.a. Barsoom). When Dave and Paul Allen had corresponded nearly a decade earlier, of course, the artist was still developing his skills… but this shows where he was headed. [Dejah Thoris TM & © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.]

Young Dave Cockrum & The Barsoomian (1969-1970)

during my senior year of college. But when my printer increased his price, I had to delay it. I finally got to publish it with an updated editorial while at Subic Bay. In addition, the issue was a mostly photographic one with many rare photos of the first movie Tarzan, Elmo Lincoln. I already had a Jeff Jones cover and some interior sketches by Roy Krenkel that Larry Ivie kindly loaned me (with Roy’s permission). The paste-ups were already done and camera-ready, so I really couldn’t squeeze any of Dave’s art into it.

First Contact Dave Cockrum’s very first letter to Paul Allen, 2-15-69, when both were in the U.S. Navy but destined to be stationed thousands of miles apart—in Guam and the Philippines, respectively. All of Dave’s letters to Paul that are printed with this piece are courtesy of Paul, who preserved them for half a century… for which all of comicdom owes him a debt of gratitude.

However, at the same time, I published reprints of the first eight issues of the magazine. The Barsoomian #8 was actually my first issue. The first six were published by Joseph W. Miller in 1952-53, and #7 was published by James V. Taurasi in 1954. Since they all had to be re-formatted, the first seven issues featured new front and back covers, so I was delighted to use some of Dave’s work on those reprints.

had a lot of enthusiasm and he did stick to it. Dave sent me a lot of artwork to use in The Barsoomian and he was pretty excited to have the opportunity to have his Burroughs art published. Looking back on it, I have to laugh, because I was far more excited than him to have his art to publish! But that’s the kind of gentleman he was, modest about his own work, yet enthusiastic as all get-out about everything he did. He was anxious to work for other fanzines and I suggested a number to him, for which he thanked me in subsequent letters. What amused me was that he frequently said editors liked his “worst” work in lieu of the pieces he really liked. Take my word for it—there was no worst, it was all great. I may have even had a hand in getting him his first published illustration in a newsstand-distributed magazine. An editor by the name of William Crawford revived an early-’50s SF magazine called Spaceways (after the 1953 movie). I wrote Crawford about Dave and suggested to Dave that he send him some art. As I recall, a drawing of John Carter by Dave appeared on the back cover of his last issue. But as you will see in the letters, Dave never got paid for it. Unfortunately, I never got to publish a lot of his work. The Barsoomian #15 had already been fully laid out and ready to publish

“Look! Up In The Sky!” One of Dave’s early Burroughsian sketches, whose “aerial battle” is mentioned in his letter to Paul Allen dated 4-23-69. It was published as the cover for the reprint edition of Allen’s The Barsoomian #4 (1969). [Art © Paty Cockrum.]

“One Of The Most Celebrated Comicbook Artists Of Our Time”

From that point on, we had big plans for using Dave’s work in issues #16 and #17, including a color cover or centerfold. But those plans never came to pass. Coincidentally, we both got “Early Outs” from the Navy as part of the Vietnam cutbacks in 1970. Dave wrote me about his and I wrote back to tell him about mine. Neither one of us could believe our good fortune. In late April he wrote me to say he would be heading back to the States soon to live with his in-laws in Jamaica, NY. That was the last I heard from him until the following October. My early out became effective at the end of August when my wife and I returned to Rochester, N.Y.

2… 4… 6… 8… What The Hell Is “Gafiate”? By the time Paul Allen says he “gafiated” from science-fiction fandom in the early 1980s, Dave had long since graduated to the revived and newly popular X-Men (above left is his first full pencil-and-ink cover, for #98, April ’76, not long after the title was resuscitated)—and to at least the first issue of Marvel’s John Carter, Warlord of Mars (June ’77), for which he inked Gil Kane’s pencils. The text section of that issue, however, featured a touch of solo “Barsoomian” work by Cockrum—as per the above-right illo, which was later used on the title page of the hardcover John Carter, Warlord of Mars Omnibus (2012). [X-Men cover TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; John Carter art TM & © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.] Incidentally, since most A/E readers (and comicbook fans generally) may be unfamiliar with the SF-fandom verb “to gafiate”—it means to become satiated, at least for a time, with SF and/or fandom and decide to “Get Away From It All.” In Ye Editor’s humble opinion, “gafiate” is right up there with “fanzine” itself as a wonderful word that science-fiction fandom bequeathed to comics fandom.

Aside from a Christmas card, my last real letter from him was dated October 1 and was a four-page hand-written letter from Bayside, NY. And it was a doozy, all about his adventures with Jim Warren, his hopes for getting in at DC Comics, and the terrific help he was getting from a fellow named Neal Adams. He was more excited than I had ever seen him before—and that is saying something! He couldn’t have been happier and I felt good for him. It was like “I’ve arrived!” Even though it was just the very beginning of his long and highly successful career. Ironically, however, it was a career that I was never to follow. My wife and I had started new jobs in civilian life and were saving

“You Will Find Me A Grave Man!” Cockrum’s cover sketch for Daredevil #158 (May 1979), the finished version of which would be executed by fellow artist Frank Miller. Thanks to Frank Plowright for the sketch—and to W. Shakespeare for the quotation. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Young Dave Cockrum & The Barsoomian (1969-1970)

Is There A Doc In The House? Dave circa the ’80s—and Paul in 2019—beneath a sample Doc Savage Sunday newspaper strip drawn by Mr. C. in the ’70s. Clearly, he liked other pulp creations besides just those of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Thanks to David Phelps (and indirectly, Tony Isabella) for the Cockrum photo… to Heritage Auctions & Dominic Bongo for the strip… and to Paul Allen for his own pic. [Doc Savage TM & © Advance Magazine Publishers, Inc., d.b.a. Condé Nast.]

to buy our first home. Reality was setting in. I returned a bunch of artwork to him, saving out 12 pieces that I hoped to use in future issues. But by year’s end we had lost touch with one another. The following year I made the painful decision to kill The Barsoomian. In the early ‘80s reality hit again and I gafiated completely. I sold off a huge fantasy and SF collection and dropped out of fandom totally. But I did save some of my fan correspondence and I saved Dave’s artwork. There was no way I would sell it and betray his trust in me. Fast forward to 2000. My wife and I were now empty-nesters contemplating retirement in a year or two. I started getting back into comics—my first love as a kid. I found a couple of articles about Dave on the Internet and was pleased and happy to learn that he was one of the most popular artists in comics. I sent e-mails to a couple of the article writers asking for help in contacting Dave but they never responded. Later I learned of his health issues and ultimately his passing [in 2006]. I felt like a really good friend was gone, even if it had been 30 years since we last corresponded. Now, fast forward again to 2018 and the publication of Alter Ego #153, featuring an interview with Paty Cockrum. I enjoyed the interview immensely and thought Dave was really a lucky guy to

“One Of The Most Celebrated Comicbook Artists Of Our Time”

The Sound Of Thundersaber Dave’s second letter to Paul (3-7-69) mentions his ERBesque concept “Thundersaber.” Incidentally, fanzine historian/collector Aaron Caplan tells us that Dave’s earliest published work seems to be dated March 1968, consisting of a Sgt. Fury illo in The Yancy Street Gazette, with more spot illos in later issues… after which he became “an incredibly prolific fanzine contributor” with “staff artist” stints at Fantastic Fanzine, The Collector, [the fanzine] Comicology, and others. But, except for a few instances in the following pages, we’re concentrating on his Edgar Rice Burroughsinfluenced art connected to his correspondence with Paul Allen.

have met a woman like her. Her energy and enthusiasm reminded me so much of the Dave Cockrum I knew through his letters. That very evening I dug out the letters and the artwork and sent an e-mail to Roy Thomas. The result is what you hold in your hands. To me, these letters provide tremendous insight into the spirit of a very talented young man who went on to great things. I hope you sense that, as well, as you read these excerpts. Obviously, I haven’t seen the finished article at this writing, but I sincerely hope that in some humble way it will be a lasting tribute to a very special person.

The ensuing pages are composed, more or less in chronological order, of the letters that Dave Cockrum wrote to Paul Allen in 1969-70. Sadly, none of Paul’s letters have survived. With this treasure trove of correspondence at our fingertips courtesy of Paul, we decided to print all of the letters we could, accompanied by artwork that often has some relation to the subject of the missive. We regret that more of the following artwork is not in color—but we’ve printed it, by and large, just as Dave drew it, mostly a half century ago….

Young Dave Cockrum & The Barsoomian (1969-1970)

Your Next Vacation Spas Of the following 4-23-69 letter, Paul Allen writes: “Dave mentions enclosing several sketches which I suspect are some of the illustrations I used in the Barsoomian reprints I published. He specifically mentions an aerial battle.” Seen on these two facing pages are the reprint covers for The Barsoomian #1 and three other Cockrum drawings that were apparently used on other reprint editions. Incidentally, for the uninitiated: In the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Barsoom” is the Martians’ name for their own planet… “Pellucidar” is the primeval land at the center of a hollow Earth reached via mechanical mole-machine… and “Caspak” is the “Land That Time Forgot” in the three novels ERB wrote about that lost Pacific island. [Art © Paty Cockrum.]

“One Of The Most Celebrated Comicbook Artists Of Our Time”

Young Dave Cockrum & The Barsoomian (1969-1970)

“Princess Natanie Of Ylbaeor” That’s how Dave labeled this pencil sketch—an early study of his heroine. It’s pretty clear that his “Thundersaber” would’ve been heavy on the Edgar Rice Burroughs influences, with perhaps a touch of Robert E. Howard—foreshadowing Mike Grell’s Warlord series that would debut at DC in 1975. [Art © Paty Cockrum.]

Thundersaber Rattling The fourth letter from Cockrum to Allen (4-23-69) was his first two-pager, as the guys got to know each other a bit better. In it, Dave recounts the backstory of his “Thundersaber” concept. More about it on the pages to follow. (Below:) What Dave labeled his “rough sketch of last panel in prologue” of Thundersaber #1. [TM & © Paty Cockrum.]

“One Of The Most Celebrated Comicbook Artists Of Our Time”

First Impressions (Above:) According to Dave’s 1969 labeling, this is the first view his hero Fox had of Princess Natanie. [© Paty Cockrum.]

From The Starship Enterprise This page of Dave Cockrum’s ERB-influenced feature “Thundersaber” appeared in Enterprise Monthly #3 in the late 1960s, as published by Ron Kraus’ publications. We picked it up from Bill Schelly’s 1997 collection Fandom’s Finest Comics. [© Paty Cockrum.]

Young Dave Cockrum & The Barsoomian (1969-1970)

“One Of The Most Celebrated Comicbook Artists Of Our Time”

Face Front? In his letter of 5-22-69, as Paul points out, Dave “mentions faces not showing in Pellucidar sketches, which could be [the illos seen on this page and the facing one]. He also describes the action depicted in the [second of the two].” [Art © Paty Cockrum.]

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Young Dave Cockrum & The Barsoomian (1969-1970)

Heads Up! Early studies by Dave Cockrum for the hero and heroine of his projected “Thundersaber” series. [© Paty Cockrum.]

“Know, O Prince…” An early Cockrum drawing of Conan, done for Fantastic Fanzine #12 (c. 1970)—displaying another influence on Thundersaber. [Conan TM & © Conan Properties LLC.]

“One Of The Most Celebrated Comicbook Artists Of Our Time”

The Artwork That Time Forgot Paul feels pretty certain that the Dian/Mahar/hypnosis scene he describes in his letter of 6-3-69 is the one printed on p. 25… while the “Caspak watercolor” that Dave mentions from Land That Time Forgot is probably the one seen on this page. Cockrum’s original letter ended with the rough sketch which he later turned into a painting as a gift for Paul, as seen here. [Art © Paty Cockrum.]

Young Dave Cockrum & The Barsoomian (1969-1970)

A Sketchy Business The John Carter/Llana of Gathol and Dejah Thoris sketches that Dave references in his short note of 10-1-69 are probably the ones shown here. [Art © Paty Cockrum.]

“One Of The Most Celebrated Comicbook Artists Of Our Time”

From Space Fantasy To Science-Fiction In his letter of 10-11-69, Dave Cockrum referenced editor/publisher William L. (“Bill”) Crawford and his Spaceway SF magazine, to which he hoped to make a sale. Seen below is the cover of the June ’69 issue of Spaceway, and a pic of Crawford at an SF event in Los Angeles in 1979. Photo by R. Daniels, from Lloyd Arthur Eshbach’s fandom history Over My Shoulder (1983).

Young Dave Cockrum & The Barsoomian (1969-1970)

Ripped And Torn On 10-24-69, Dave refers to having problems finishing a drawing of a scene from ERB’s quasi-historical novel Outlaw of Torn. Apparently he did eventually finish it and mail it to Paul, however—or we couldn’t have reproduced it above! [Art © Paty Cockrum.]

“One Of The Most Celebrated Comicbook Artists Of Our Time”

Make Mine Marvel! Dave’s communication with Gary Groth’s Fantastic Fanzine led to the publication of his Hulk cartoon in #11. Thanks to Aaron Caplan. [Hulk TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Pro & Prose Here, on 1-7-70, Dave mentions both the “Un-Man” strip he was doing for the comics-style fanzine Star-Studded Comics (from the “Texas Trio”) and a sword-and-sorcery story he planned to submit to James Warren’s black&-white comic magazines. Whatever tale that may have been, one distinct possibility is “Swamp Demon,” which would see publication in Creepy #40 (July 1971), with both script and art by Cockrum. (See following page.) It became the second tale drawn by Cockrum to appear in a Warren mag. Repro’d from the Creepy Archives, Vol. 8. [Page TM & © New Comic Company.]

Unhand That “Un-Man”! Dave’s 1970 “Un-Man” feature finally appeared in the fan-publication Star-Studded Comics #18 in 1972. Repro’d from Bill Schelly’s The Best of Star-Studded Comics. [© Paty Cockrum.]

Young Dave Cockrum & The Barsoomian (1969-1970)

[TM & © New Comic Company.]

“One Of The Most Celebrated Comicbook Artists Of Our Time”

Dave Cockrum—Above & Beyond! In this missive dated 1-13-70, the artist speaks of illustrations we don’t have of Tarzan and Moon Maid and a centaur published in the s&s fanzine Amra—so below left is a perhaps slightly later piece of art he doesn’t write about to Paul Allen: a movie-poster-like display drawing for ERB’s novel Beyond the Farthest Star. [Art © Paty Cockrum.]

What’s A Picnic Without Ant-Man? By this time, Cockrum was at least still placing lots of his super-hero drawings in popular fanzines of the late 1960s. Here, for example, is an Ant-Man drawing for Fantastic Fanzine #10 in 1970. [Ant-Man TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Young Dave Cockrum & The Barsoomian (1969-1970)

Krypton, Kapers Another Burroughs-influenced Cockrum page from the “Fabulous World of Krypton” entry in Superman #248 (Jan. 1974). Script by Marv Wolfman. Thanks to Art Lortie. [TM & © DC Comics.]

Dejah Thoris, All Over Again! While Dave’s work on Marvel’s John Carter, Warlord of Mars series was unfortunately limited, he later penciled this cover for #11 (April 1978); inks by Cockrum & Rudy Nebres. [TM & © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.]

“One Of The Most Celebrated Comicbook Artists Of Our Time”

Gearing Up Paul Allen writes of this 1-20-70 letter from Cockrum: “Nothing to do with me, but [Dave] discusses a whole slew of projects here. He was really becoming very active in comics fandom in preparation for his postNavy career.” Indeed! Seen at top right is a 1974-published drawing of the movie (and Ditko-drawn comicbook) monster Gorgo, which appeared somewhere-or-other, by which time Dave was long since a practicing pro. Thanks to Gene Reed. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Young Dave Cockrum & The Barsoomian (1969-1970)

“He Doth Bestride The Earth Like A Colossus…” (Above:) When leaving Navy in 1970, Dave couldn’t have dreamed that one day he’d be noted as a major artist of the revived X-Men—and as co-creator of one of the cosplay trio (Colossus) in the above photo. Courtesy of David Phelps.

A Protean Accomplishment Paty writes of the above: “This is the patch Dave designed for his ship in the Navy. The ship, the Proteus, was a sub-tender out of Guam during the Viet Nam conflict… and he designed the patch for the ship. It may still be in use today, if the Proteus is still in service. He was so proud of this patch and the fact that his commanding officer designated it the official patch for the ship. Pure Cockrum from that era!” Thanks so much, Paty. This image can serve as a reminder that Dave did a whole lot for his country besides just draw some of the most influential comics of the so-called “Bronze Age”!

“One Of The Most Celebrated Comicbook Artists Of Our Time”

Mars Needs Weirdness! Talk about weird coincidences! Dave Cockrum refers in his letter dated 4-28-70 to Frank Frazetta’s dust-jacket painting for a then-new edition of ERB’s seminal 1912 novel A Princess of Mars, and Ye Editor (Roy Thomas) is just wrapping up a more than 150-strip comics adaptation of that novel for the Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., website—using as his reference that very same Doubleday edition (which he purchased nearly half a century ago)! It was a masterful cover, indeed—but does John Carter, on it, look to anybody besides RT a lot like the late great Bernie Wrightson? [Art © the respective copyright holders.]

Young Dave Cockrum & The Barsoomian (1969-1970)

Neal Adams at the 1971 New York Con. Courtesy of Pedro Angosta & Mike Zeck.

The Office “Pool” Apparently the last full-out letter that Paul Allen received from Dave Cockrum was this hand-written one, dated Oct. 1, 1970. The story referred to is clearly this 6-pager (see bottom left), scripted by fan-turned-pro Buddy Saunders… as championed by Neal Adams, then already one of the most prominent professional artists in the comics field. It was published in Warren’s Vampirella #11 (May 1971). Thanks in retrospect, Neal, for giving Dave’s career a welcome boost at a much-needed time! Thanks to Art Lortie for the art scan. [Page TM & © DFI.]

“One Of The Most Celebrated Comicbook Artists Of Our Time”

Thy Name Is Legion! Before he became forever associated with the ultra-successful Marvel X-Men revival of the mid-1970s, Dave had made his mark on DC’s “Legion of Super-Heroes” series, as with this page of his costume designs from an issue of Adventure Comics—or was it Superboy? [TM & © DC Comics.]

Young Dave Cockrum & The Barsoomian (1969-1970)

You’ve Heard of Thor Losers? Here’s a Thor Winner! Even after he’d had some success as a pro, Dave continued to contribute to worthy fan projects. At left, for instance, is a 1972 Thor drawing (complete with notes) that he did for Tom Fagan, who hosted the pro-attended parties held every October in Rutland, Vermont, in conjunction with that small city’s Halloween parade. [Thor TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Dave Cockrum contributed the above sketch of himself drawing a very John Carterish (and Dejah Thorisish, of course) scene, which was printed in Fantastic Fanzine #10 (Summer 1969). Note the “DEC” signature he often used at the time. [Art © Paty Cockrum.]

Paul Allen circa 1969-70, upon being promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade (LTG) at the U.S. Naval Base at Subic Bay, Republic of the Philippines. Also seen are his wife Sue and Rear Admiral Valdemar G. Lambert, commander of the base where Paul served as Assistant Public Affairs Officer.

“One Of The Most Celebrated Comicbook Artists Of Our Time”

“X” Spots The Mark! (Below:) A 1996 self-portrait by Dave Cockrum, featuring several of the X-Men— and his later own super-hero creations, The Futurians. [X-Men TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; other art TM & © Paty Cockrum.] (Right:) In 1981, Dave painted this cover for The X-Men Chronicles, a one-shot fanzine. [X-Men TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Young Dave Cockrum & The Barsoomian (1969-1970)

A Slay-ing Song Tonight! This undated Christmas card from the Cockrum family to Paul Allen is almost certainly from 1970. Besides his work at DC on “Legion of Super-Heroes,” etc., and at Marvel on The X-Men, et al., Dave produced many pencil cover layouts during the sizzling ’70s. One of them is this one, done for The Defenders #63 (Sept. 1978)—which was turned into a finished cover by none other than Joltin’ Joe Sinnott! [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] And now, nearly half a century later, many of Dave’s early drawings and his letters to Paul Allen are being printed—most of them for the first time ever—to celebrate the career of one of the greatest comicbook artists to come out of the 1970s— Dave Cockrum!

“One Of The Most Celebrated Comicbook Artists Of Our Time”

Time—And The Hulk— Stomp On! In March 1968, Dave Cockrum was drawing spot illos for fanzines such as the Marveloriented Yancy Street Gazette, as witness these images. [Iron Man & Nick Fury TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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

Less than a decade after his fannish correspondence with Paul Allen, Dave Cockrum was producing artwork such as this painted cover for a nationally sold paperback such as The Marvel Superheroes, which reprinted some of the great stories by Lee, Kirby, and others. [Cover TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

PRESENTS

by Peter Normanton A/E EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: For a decade, beginning in 2000, Peter Normanton published and edited the British horror-comics fanzine From the Tomb. It was a high-quality production that specialized in examining material from the (mostly later) 1940s through the mid-1950s, the haunted heyday of the genre in the U.S. Since his magazine’s, er, demise, two Best of collections have come out from TwoMorrows Publishing. Along the way, I offered Peter a spot to continue his awardwinning periodical in the pages of Alter Ego—if not necessarily in each issue, then at least in every issue in which I can find space! He recently sent me his first few contributions. And so, without further preface or pontification, I’ll turn things over to the ol’ Tomb-Tender himself....

~Peter Normanton.

Adventures Into The Unknown (Right:) The covers to the first two issues of the American Comics Group title (with cover dates Fall 1948 & Dec. 1948-Jan. 1949), which featured art by Edvard Moritz, left the reader little doubt as to what lay within. AITU became the first regularly published horror comicbook. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

t must have seemed like a real-life adventure into the unknown for editor Richard Hughes and his team when Adventures into the Unknown prepared to debut in the summer months of 1948, cover-dated for the fall of that year. At that moment in comicbook history Adventures into the Unknown was the only one of its kind, a bona fide horror comic, pre-dating its competitors’ more notorious output by just a few months. With the decline of the Golden Age super-hero following the Allied victory over the Axis powers, a combination of crime, comedy, and romance had come to the fore in a period of widespread experimentation, as the publishers sought the next big seller. Hughes had high hopes for this latest addition to the company roster, hopes that would very quickly transcend his wildest dreams, but, as we shall see, were not entirely without precedent.

A Step Into The Unknown!

During the winter months of 1947, Avon had released Eerie Comics #1, one of their earlier one-shot titles. While this issue can lay claim to being the very first horror anthology, it was in turn foreshadowed by several equally chilling entries. Amongst the most notable were Gilberton’s Classics Illustrated #13, which adapted Robert Louis Stevenson’s tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as early as 1944, with Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein being similarly represented in issue #26 of this series a little over twelve months later. As war came to an end in the summer of 1945, the first issue of Yellowjacket Comics, published by The Frank Comunale Publishing Company (later Charlton Comics), sat inauspiciously alongside the legendary super-hero titles of the day. Sepulchred within was an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Black Cat,” in what would become the semi-regular horror series “Famous Tales of Terror.” “The Pit and the Pendulum” received a similar telling in this title’s third edition, with “The Fall of the House of Usher” following in #4 and “The Tell-Tale Heart” in #6. Alan Mandel was handed the creative reins for the last of these “Famous Tales of Terror,” the barely remembered “The Avenging Hand!,” destined to appear in issue #7, cover-dated January 1946. Sadly, the horror fans of the day were denied any more of these spine-tingling episodes as Yellowjacket Comics fell from the company’s schedule as of issue #10. Not long after these “Famous Tales of Terror” had premiered in Yellowjacket Comics, Halloween beckoned. Just to keep with the seasonal spirit, DC’s Comics Cavalcade #12 sported a pumpkin super-hero cover, but that was to be their absolute limit. Harvey Comics however, surprised the comic-buying public with another of those highly collectible one-off titles, Front Page Comic Book, introduced by an unusually chilling Bob Fujitani cover. This issue unveiled “The Man in Black” as the host to a supernatural mystery/war hybrid. There was an intimation of something strange at hand, but this unnerving air was not in attendance when The Man in Black returned in All-New Comics #11, during the early months of 1945. However, the tone for his next appearance in the pages of All-New Comics #14, cover-dated Jan.-Feb. 1947, was profoundly more atmospheric.

Signposts On The Road To Horror Comics (From top of page:) The Ken Battefield-penciled cover of proto-Charlton’s Yellowjacket Comics #7 (Jan. 1946) captured the essence of later horror comics while also playing host to the last of that title’s “Famous Tales of Terror,” written and drawn by Alan Mandel. Harvey’s one-shot Front Page Comic Book was the showcase for a macabre Bob Fujitani graveyard scene as early as 1945. Batman (as drawn by Bob Kane) had been on the trail of an actual vampire in Detective Comics #1 (Sept. 1939)—whereas by the fall of 1945 Comic Cavalcade #12 could only tease playfully with its Halloween-style cover by E.E. Hibbard. Classic Comics #13 (Aug. 1943) did far more than tease, unsettling its readers with a 53-page adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s time-honored chiller, behind an Arnold L. Hicks cover. [Detective & Comic Cavalcade covers TM & © DC Comics; Classic Comics cover TM & © Frawley Corporation and its exclusive licensee First Classics, Inc.; other covers © the respective copyright holders.]

From The Tomb Presents:

Prior to this, another promising horror host, “Mr. Nobody,” had guested in Continental’s Suspense Comics. These crime-ridden tales alluded to the uncanny in the midst of their narrative, but erred on the side of caution when it came to taking that step into the darkness. However, “Vampire Moon” from Suspense Comics #2 continues to arouse interest amongst many horror comic historians. Simplistic this account may have been, but any youngster reading this in 1944 would have been wise to pay heed of its content and stay well clear of the graveyard. Over at Timely, Captain America was forced to do battle with a variety of horror-spawned creations in both Captain America Comics and U.S.A. Comics, as was DC’s Batman in the pages of his own title and its companion Detective Comics. Each of these thrill-spilled encounters was undoubtedly hair-raising, pushing those heroes to new limits, but in essence they were still super-hero comics. Horror, if only used as a backdrop, was certainly in evidence throughout these years, but the publishing houses were somewhat reticent when it came to the idea of unlocking the doors once and for all to this dark domain. Avon Comics could have done exactly that when they released Eerie Comics #1. This title can stand proud as the first of its kind, while at the same time it should be duly credited for setting the standard that any publisher would be expected to achieve. Bob Fujitani’s cover abounds with an allure characteristic of many other titles of the period, complimenting the ghostly apparition already seen on the cover of Front Page Comic Book. His composition, while relatively simple, carries an immediate impact in its depiction of a scantily clad beauty lying restrained before a deathly figure bathed in the light of a full moon. Such imagery had been an archetypal motif of the pulps of the period; now it was the turn of the comicbook. The stories contained within these 52 pages were indeed a favourable assemblage, with the sinister “Dead Man’s Tale” being of note, along with Joe Kubert’s rendition of “The Man-Eating Lizards.” “The Goofy Ghost” two-pager carried a teaser as to there being a next issue, but this wouldn’t come about until early in 1951, when the horror phenomenon had taken over the newsstands. Alas, by then there would be no room for poor “Goofy Ghost.” For the gore fans amongst you, these pages did contain a few grisly moments, principally the hanging scenes in “Mystery of Murder Manor” and the faked accident on the subway tracks so ruefully portrayed in the finale “The Strange Case of Henpecked Harry.” Regrettably, Avon shied away from making comicbook history as the first publisher of a regular horror comic; that distinction would come to rest with Richard Hughes.

Eerie Comics #1 (Jan. 1947) It was Bob Fujitani, again, who supplied the menacing cover to this Avon one-shot, which for many is the precursor not only to Avon Periodicals’ own ongoing Eerie series that followed in 1951, but to the entire horror-comics boom of the first half of that decade. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Monsters & Heroes (Left to right:) Nina Albright’s cover for Et-Es-Go’s Suspense Comics #2 (Feb. 1944) not only suggested a terror from beyond; that issue also featured an early vampire story. Classic Comics #26 (Dec. 1945) gave Robert Webb—with inker Ann Brewster and writer Ruth A. Roche—the chance to interpret Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s gothic masterpiece Frankenstein, a few years after Timely/Marvel’s U.S.A. Comics #1 (Aug. 1941) had unleashed Jack Kirby (penciler) and Joe Simon (inker) to create a creepy cover classic of their own. But then, Kirby often said that that team’s Captain America Comics issues that year were intended more as horror than as super-hero action. [U.S.A. cover TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; Classic Comics cover TM & © Frawley Corporation and its exclusive licensee First Classics, Inc.; other cover © the respective copyright holders.]

A Step Into The Unknown!

run, dating back to the period 1934-39, then returning in 1942 to continue until 1944, before the curtain fell when its final season aired between 1945 and 1946; Dark Fantasy began to terrify the air waves in 1941, a series cut short but a few months later. Inner Sanctum Mysteries debuted that same year, chilling its listeners until 1952; Dark Destiny followed in 1942, sadly being taken from the air after only five months in March 1943. Suspense was first broadcast in 1942 in what would prove one of the most remarkable of these spooky series, surviving until 1962, interestingly hosted by “The Man in Black,” a name that, as we have already mentioned, would have been familiar to many of Harvey’s readers.

It’s A Living, Ghost! (Above left:) Fred Guardineer, artist/creator of “Zatara the Master Magician” in DC’s 1938 Action Comics #1, supplied the artwork for Frank Belknap Long’s briefly continuing series “The Living Ghost” in Adventures into the Unknown #1; these scenes may seem a bit extreme for this title, but these were still early days for the American Comics Group as a horror publisher. (Above center:) Edvard Moritz returned as cover inker this time (the penciler is unidentified), to unsettle Adventures into the Unknown’s growing readership over the Christmas holidays of 1948, with issue #3 (Feb.-March 1949). [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Away from the comicbook industry, the pulp magazines were now in decline, although there was still plenty of interest in the more ominous aspects of these publications. Hughes would have been quite aware of the failing fortunes of these long-established magazines, having served as editor on the Thrilling Publications line, which also appeared under the guise of Better Publications and Standard Publications between 1937 and 1955. Their range of titles included Thrilling Wonder Stories, Startling Stories, and Thrilling Mystery. Each of these periodicals, alongside many of their illustrious contemporaries, was now beginning to struggle, yet certain stories still attracted a favourable response from their readers. These could have included the more foreboding tales in their list of contents, prompting Hughes further towards the idea of bringing out a regular horror comic. The pulps weren’t the only medium in which horror had been seen to thrive. The creepy radio shows of the day had been attracting audiences for more than 15 years. There really were many of these transmissions being broadcast across the entire country, amongst them The Witch’s Tale, which had aired as early as 1931, making it to 1938 before being withdrawn. Barely three years later, Lights Out commenced a long, albeit occasionally intermittent

Another name that would one day make it to the comics first appeared in 1943: The Mysterious Traveller. His narration from the carriage of a speeding train would keep his audience on the edge of their seats until 1952. Boris Karloff had a similar effect when he hosted Creeps by Night for the duration of its 12 episodes in 1944, with the last four shows introduced by the unknown Dr. X. The radio show House of Mystery had already run its course between 1945 and 1949, two years prior to DC releasing their long-running comic of that title. The Hall of Fantasy managed two series between 1946-47 and 1949-53; meanwhile, Supernaturally Yours debuted in 1947 for what was an unfortunately short run. This listing suggests but a handful of what was on offer in the years before television came into its prime, but it provides you an idea as to the appeal horror was beginning to generate. Under the guidance of publishers August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, the publishing company Arkham House set out in 1939 to perpetuate the works of H.P. Lovecraft. In just a few years, they would lead the way in hardcover horror publishing, following the appearance of The Outsider and Others. However, it should be kept in mind that Arkham House did not enter into wholesale production; their print runs were very limited at this time, running from 1,054 on Clark Ashton Smith’s Out of Space and Time in 1942 to slightly over 4,000 on an assortment of the company’s releases in 1947. Lovecraft’s The Outsider and the Others could only muster 1,268 copies, making it one of the most prestigious horror collectibles of this or any other period. Other publishers of the day would look to reprint tales from the horror pulps, incorporating them as a part of their wider lines, but none did it quite like Arkham House. The 1940s also saw a plethora of horror movies, most notably Universal’s The Wolf Man and Man-Made Monster, both released in 1941, with Night Monster following in 1942 and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man in 1943. The landmark Cat People was first seen in 1942, with I Walked With a Zombie appearing in 1943, alongside the menace of The Return of the Vampire. Two years later, the influential British portmanteau Dead of Night made it to the cinema screen, with The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Body Snatcher, and Isle of the Dead also unsettling theatre-goers that same year. Many mystery films of the period posed as horror movies, offering much in the way of atmosphere, but were unable to capture the portent so essential to the horror genre. There was plenty of comedic horror on offer, but by 1947 cinematic terror was on the wane. The Inheritance of that year was a clever gothic thriller, while Fear in the Night was a

From The Tomb Presents:

watchable noir thriller, although The Creeper of 1948 did chill with its skulking cat-like creature. Horror on the big screen was rarely actually witnessed by the movie-goer as Adventures into the Unknown was preparing for its first appearance; ghostly occurrences may have been a-plenty, but these films were too often played for nothing more than the laughter of those in the auditorium, like 1948’s Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

Caverns & Castles (Top illo:) An ancient reptile surprises a couple of treasure-hunters on the cover of Adventures into the Unknown #4 (April-May 1949), even as companies like Timely and EC were beginning to show an interest in this new trend. (Bottom:) Al Ulmer’s brushstrokes returned the reader to the very first “gothic novel” ever, Horace Walpole’s 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto—at least all of it that writer Frank Belknap Long could shoehorn into seven pages! [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

The stage, so it would appear, was now set. The macabre had become customary fare during the 1940s, making it conceivable for an accomplished comicbook publisher to release an on-going horror comic. How long it would last was open to speculation, but the B&I Publishing imprint of the American Comics Group took the step to launch their foray into the genre with Adventures into the Unknown #1. That same month, Prize’s humor title Frankenstein #15 also went on sale, along with Marvel’s Venus #2, which was definitely for the girls (it wouldn’t metamorphose into a horror comic for a couple more years). At the same time, Timely/Marvel introduced The Witness to the newsstands, a supernatural character foreshadowing DC’s Phantom Stranger. The only other eerie cover gracing the newsstands that month was Bob Powell’s for The Shadow, Vol. 8, #6. Looking across the array of comics on show that month, there was nothing else to match Edvard Moritz’s forbidding cover for Adventures into the Unknown #1. While it didn’t shock in a way that covers would in the near future, it captured the attention of countless thrill-seeking juveniles, each of them eager to uncover what lay beyond that door. The only way they could do so was by shelling out a dime; only then would they discover that which lay in wait. They weren’t to be disappointed. Frank Belknap Long, whose book The Hounds of Tindalos had been published by Arkham House scarcely two years before, collecting 21 of his tales dating from the pulps of 1929 to 1945, was brought in as principal writer for the first two issues. These creepy tales would bring a shudder to the spine, thanks to his astute scripting and the artwork of Moritz, Fred Guardineer, Max Elkan, King Ward, and Al Ulmer. For the first two issues readers were treated to the loathsome “Living Ghost” a potential continuing series, which sadly wasn’t to last as the in-demand Frank Belknap Long was moved to other assignments. This first appearance of Adventures into the Unknown succeeded in matching the example set by Eerie Comics #1 eighteen months before, including a re-telling of Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto. As the reader turned the last page, it was obvious that B&I Publishing Co. under Richard Hughes’ editorial guidance had a winner on their hands. The team returned for a second appearance as the autumn leaves began to fall, cover-dated Dec. 1948-Jan. 1949. Edvard Moritz once again delivered a compelling cover, maybe not as iconic as that adorning the previous issue, but nonetheless eye-catching. Frank Belknap Long’s story-telling was as strong as ever, with the dread creeping through each and every page. That same month, Harvey’s Black Cat Comics #14 hinted at the promise of a few Halloween capers, but it wasn’t ready to take on board the terror comicbook fans would soon be craving. Captain America #70 turned to a science-fiction theme, bringing the planet Mars closer towards the Earth’s orbit to enable an invasion from its warmongering denizens; this in just a short space of time would become a trademark of the Atlas line of terror-related comics. That same month, Timely’s Complete Mystery #3 announced “Fear in the Night,” a 25-page supernatural extravaganza crafted by writer/editor Stan Lee and artist Carl Burgos. Stan’s story followed a mysterious man in black’s pursuit of a rather unsavory type. A struggling company by the name of EC also released their Fall-dated Moon Girl #5. Its content included the Richard Krausscripted “Zombie,” embellished by the aspiring Johnny Craig, considered by many to be EC’s first horror story. Strangely, Moon Girl #5’s cover artist Sheldon Moldoff had pitched the concept of a horror comic,

A Step Into The Unknown!

Tales of the Supernatural, to Bill Gaines as early as March 1948. This would have been around the same time Richard Hughes and Frank Belknap Long would have been exchanging similar ideas for Adventures into the Unknown. The tale printed in Moon Girl #5 had probably been part of Moldoff’s original presentation. The Christmas holiday period saw the release of issue #3, cover dated Feb.-March 1949, once again setting Moritz loose on cover duties. His unsettling sarcophagus cover was another high point, as Richard Hughes ushered his new comicbook onto the streets of North America, with Frank Belknap Long now only able to gift these pages a single story, “The Vampire Prowls,” showcasing a blood-sucking monster of which Universal would have been proud. Horror devotees have long been on the trail of this issue, for it contains future EC writer/artist/editor Al Feldstein’s very first horror story, “The Creekmore Curse.” There is a subdued good-girl element to these ghostly carryings on, which doesn’t detract from what is a very disconcerting narrative. As 1948 drew to a close, Adventures into the Unknown was still the only horror comic of its kind, but very soon its competitors would begin to catch on. Soon after the release of Adventures into the Unknown #4, Timely/Atlas launched their horror line with Amazing Mysteries #32, cover-dated May 1949. This issue led with “The Thing at Chugamung Cove,” now acknowledged as being a truncated version of H.P. Lovecraft’s “Shadow over Innsmouth.” The following month, EC’s Crime Patrol #12 ran the horror suspense tale “The Hanged Man’s Revenge.” Later in the year, War against Crime #10, cover-dated December 1949-Jan. 1950, would play host to the Vault-Keeper. If that wasn’t enough, Marvel Mystery Comics, once the domain of some of the finest super-heroes of the day, became Marvel Tales with issue #93. Comicbooks were beginning to change; for many, this would not be for the better. The American Comics Group are not generally associated with the more despicable horror comics of the period, yet there is no doubt their part in the eventual deluge was key. Richard Hughes had done his homework, but the release of Adventures into the Unknown was still a gamble. Adventures into the Unknown and its soon-debuting sister title Forbidden Worlds would endure the Comics Code, surviving until 1967, inspiring a new generation of writers and artists, securing them a worthy place in comicbook history. Peter Normanton writes: “After more than fifty years of comicbook reading, I still can’t help myself, adding to my collection whenever possible. For ten of those years I edited the horror-comics ’zine From the Tomb, one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. In that time I was asked to edit The Mammoth Book of Best Horror Comics, a book I put together with me as a 13-year-old in mind. This was followed by two From the Tomb-related collections: the TwoMorrows-published The Best of From the Tomb and It Crept From the Tomb, along with a series of articles for Pete Crowther’s PS Artbooks Harvey Horrors series.” See more From the Tomb installments in future issues of Alter Ego. Oh, and to locate handsome bound volumes of the first 71 (!) issues of Adventures into the Unknown, as well as Eerie #1, look up www.psartbooks.com on the web!

“Never Darken My Door Again!” (From top:) Edvart Moritz’s cover for Adventures into the Unknown #8 (Dec. 1949-Jan. 1950) seems to reveal what had lain beyond the darkened door we’d seen from outside on the series’ first cover. Before artist Al Feldstein established himself as one of the leading men in comicbook horror (by becoming editor and writer of EC’s Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, and Haunt of Fear), he illustrated “The Creekmore Curse” in AITU’s third issue; scripter unknown. AITU #5 was the first issue to carry the ACG shield logo (see its bottom left corner), a month after Timely/Marvel released their first foray into terror, Amazing Mysteries #32 (May 1949)—which, behind its cover by an unidentified artist, continued the numbering of the super-hero title it replaced: Sub-Mariner. [Amazing Mysteries cover TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; other pages TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Letter To An Unknown Reader

A/E

Part XI Of JOHN BROOME’s Memoir My Life In Little Pieces

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: Irving Bernard (John) Broome was a pulp-magazine and comicbook writer going back to the late 1930s and early ’40s, though in his memoir he mentions those occupations only in passing. Still, I’m overjoyed—with the permission of his daughter Ricky Terry Brisacque—to have been able to serialize his 1998 “Offbeat Autobio,” published only a year before he passed away, for the insights it affords us into the author of 1940s “Justice Society of America” and related stories, who became the major writer of the Silver Age “Flash” from 1956 through the 1960s and the original scripter of the Silver Age “Green Lantern,” as well as participating in the “New Look Batman” of the mid-1960s, etc., etc., etc. He spent most of the last two decades of his long life teaching English in the schools of Japan, and he loved the latter nation and its people—warts and all. An example of his “tough love,” mixed with the affection for animals of the primary writer of DC’s long-running “Detective Chimp” series, can be seen in this issue’s installment, a section that Broome titled “Letter to an Unknown Reader.” (Thanks to Brian K. Morris for retyping the book’s manuscript for us to edit.) Dear Reader. Please be indulgent and listen to me. Sometimes I get into such a state of inner agitation, I seem about to burst. I’m in such a state now and writing you in order to try and restore a measure of calm. The principal reason of my distress is a news story I read about the recapture of a monkey who escaped from a research lab. The story reawakened a streak of horror in me that had been lying dormant for some years. I can’t bear the thought of animals being subjected to suffering and misery and loss of freedom, especially for such a nebulous goal as scientific research. How can they do it? How can human beings deliberately wreak pain and suffering on small, helpless creatures? It is beyond me. I don’t belong to the same species as the so-called humans who do this kind of thing. Seriously I don’t. The Japanese are among the worst offenders, I suspect. To them, there is no such thing as God’s creatures because there is no such thing as God. (There is no God in Buddhism or Shintoism, either.) That means that man is the only measure of what is good and bad in existence. Ergo, torture monkeys, dogs, and cats because that doesn’t count if it ever helps one single human child or adult to overcome a disease or condition. The Japanese, who are so delicate and reﬁned in some ways (construction sites wear skirts around them in order not to interfere with neighborhood life), can be the most calloused in inflicting pain and misery on anything that is not Japanese, or worse, not human at all. This poor monkey, listen to his story. Someone has to proclaim the saga of this poor simian. I suspect it is not destined to vanish utterly, there is too much of heroism in it, of great endeavor, of courage and endurance, as in all great epics that have stirred human breasts from time

John Broome at the 1998 San Diego Comic-Con (the one and only comics convention he ever attended! he was the Steve Ditko of writers)—and one of the numerous paintings he created while living in Japan. His daughter Terry had to photograph it at a slight angle, but we’re happy to be able to print it here. [Art © Estate of John Broome.]

immemorial. But of course, there is no monkey bard to sing the tale, so faute de mieux, l will tell it. It all begins with a monkey who is a pet of a Japanese owner. This monkey develops a nasty habit of getting angry. Perhaps he even bites the owner once or twice. Anyway, the owner decides to get rid of him. He selects a scientific research organization to give the monkey to. Let us not probe too closely into the owner’s motives in making this choice. After all, the monkey may have bitten him rather badly. Let’s not say it was vengeance. Let’s say it was the owner’s soul-felt wish to do something for humanity. The owner wanted to do something for humanity: or to be more exact, he wanted the monkey to do something for humanity. If the monkey had to give up his life in this endeavor, why, I’m sure the owner thought that that would be altogether fitting and proper. Maybe the owner, being Japanese, really thought that he was doing something beneficent for the monk in giving him an opportunity to die an honorable death of service to humanity. Anyway, there is our monk then, in a small cage with a double lock in the laboratory. Of course, he is still angry. They have been doing things to him in this new environment that are not

Letter To An Unknown Reader

reason to believe they were... The ending? Like all adventurers, human or simian, the monkey has to complete his tragic trajectory and arrive at his downfall. Trussed in a net, despised and ignominious, he is returned to his cage. Sic transit, etcetera, etcetera. Maybe there is no ultimate justice, but I like to think that, at least for a while in the House of Shame, the monkey’s days were lit by memories of his hours of freedom. He almost made it. How many of us can say more than that? John Broome’s reminiscences, which have appeared in most issues of Alter Ego since #149, will continue next issue.

Raising The Bar(s) (Above left:) Bobo, the “Detective Chimp” who starred in his own feature throughout much of the years-long run of DC’s Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog comic, got his start by escaping from a cage, as seen on this page scribed by Broome and illustrated by Carmine Infantino for Rex #4 (July-Aug. 1952). Of course, a chimpanzee isn’t, strictly speaking, a monkey—but it’s as close as we could come! Thanks to Jim Kealy. (Above right:) In Rex #13 (Jan.-Feb. 1954), Bobo makes a break for it atop an ostrich. In his own way, the monkey celebrated by Broome was as plucky as Detective Chimp himself. Thanks to Doug Martin. [TM & © DC Comics.]

calculated to restore anyone’s good humor. So one day, when he is especially angry with his tormentors, with all humans, with his own monkeyhood, and with God himself and His torture-ﬁlled universe, on that day, the monkey agitates and shakes his cage to such an effect that he turns it upside-down: yes, upside-down. Strange to say, in that position, he can open the door: he does so. There is no one around. Maybe it is late at night. But this monkey doesn’t just sit around and wait for someone to put him back in the cage. No, sir. This monkey doesn’t need to be told that all of the laws of the Horror Universe he finds himself in demand that he put as much distance as possible between him and this place. He manages to escape from the lab room by way of a ventilation fan! It seems luck is with him! Only Giacomo Casanova’s escape from the Leads prison in Venice rivals this escape of the monkey from the House of Human Shame that goes by the name of a research laboratory. But Casanova got clean away. What chance has our Simian adventurer, despite a heart equally and loudly beating for freedom, for life, for happiness? The answer, of course, is none at all. But he makes a stab at it. None more valiant, none so embattled against impossible odds. He meets one of the smaller versions of his tormentors. He sets upon him, bites him once or twice, and the little poltroon runs away screaming. Well, that’s one of them and it evens the score a little bit, the monk tells himself. In all, he bites two children during this escapade. No doubt in his life with his owner, children had sometimes tormented him. He’s getting his own back now. The monk is feeling a little better: maybe the odds against him in this universe are not so heavy as he had every

Gorilla My Dreams! Gorillas aren’t monkeys, either—but somehow, this Broome-scribed splash page depicting humanity under the heel of those great apes might’ve crossed the writer’s mind anew when he came across the tale of the briefly escaped lab monkey in Japan. Gil Kane penciled and Bernard Sachs inked this lead story for Strange Adventures #69 (June 1956), a science-fiction comic edited by John’s longtime friend Julius Schwartz. Thanks to Bob Bailey. [TM & © DC Comics.]

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(Above top & bottom:) Charles Biro photo from Gleason’s Desperado #1 (June 1948) and Stan Lee from 1966. (Top right, first two panels:) Daredevil from Daredevil #44 (Sept. 1947). Art by Norman Maurer, script by Biro. (Last 2 panels:) Stan Lee and Wally Wood magic from Marvel’s Daredevil #5 (Dec. 1964). Maurer and Wood even made sitting at a desk look exciting! [© Marvel and Gleason Pubs.\]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Charles Biro—The Other Stan Lee! (Part 3)

by Michael T. Gilbert

n our two previous installments, we discussed notable similarities between Stan Lee and Charles Biro. Lee admired Biro’s writing and editorial expertise, abilities that helped catapult Gleason Publishing’s big three titles—the original Daredevil, Boy Comics, and Crime Does Not Pay—into some of the best-selling comics of the Golden Age. Lee would later do the same thing for Marvel in the 1960s, with the help of superstar artists like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. But for all of Lee’s success at Marvel, his detractors charged him with being a credit hog. Biro had similar accusations thrown at him.

“Bluff The Ending!” In personal correspondence with Glen D. Johnson (12/24/1996), Gleason artist Pete Morisi shared this tidbit: “Biro did some art (all Biro) early on. Steel Sterling, a few Daredevils, Sgt. Boyle, Corporal Collins, and then switched to writing and doing covers for all his books. Then, as the workload got too heavy, other artists did the pencils for some of his covers. Biro would change a couple of figures, ink the cover, and sign it with a big CHARLIE BIRO.” Morisi added this postscript in a letter of 1/12/97:

Morisi’s tale sounds quite similar to complaints lodged against Lee decades later. But for all his faults, Biro had a definite editorial viewpoint, one that made his books sell like crazy!

“A Little Piece Of The Brain…” “Charlie used to yell at me, ‘I don’t want art—I want detail!’”said Bob Fujitani. “That’s what people look for. That’s what impresses them. He published a cover that had a criminal shoving a woman’s face into a lit gas burner on the stove, and he showed it to me. He said, ‘Look at that! Look at the detail! See that gas burner? There were the little holes where the gas shot out of the burner and he thought that was magnificent. If you drew a guy being shot in the head, you had to have a little piece of the brain coming out of the back with little hairs sticking out of it. ‘That’s what sells!’” Crime Does Not Pay artist Tony DiPreta echoed Morisi’s observations, as related in David Hajdu’s The Ten Cent Plague. “Charlie didn’t want to know anything about symbolism or any of that. He wanted very precise realism, exactly the way things looked. What I learned to do, working for him, was, if there was a machine gun in the story, I went out to find a real machine gun. Now, a lot of people working for other guys, if there was a machine gun, they’d make one up. Well, he didn’t want us to do that. I remember… there was a gun dealer in New York that Charlie knew, and I went to the place and I got my hands on the guns I was supposed to draw.” DiPreta continued, “To Biro, realism and violence were inextricable. In addition to demonstrating this through the

“To clear up what I told you about Charlie Biro’s covers, let me say that most of them were all Biro. It was only during the end of his career (probably due to an increased workload) that he mixed and matched his covers with other artists. “I remember getting a script from Biro, with the last few pages missing. He told me to ‘bluff through the ending’—that he’d fix it when I returned it. Well, I wrote the last few pages of the script, and brought the criminal to justice and illustrated the story. “Old Charlie didn’t change a word of the script, printed it as is, and didn’t pay me for the writing, to boot. Such is the comic book business!!! I guess I could have yelled and screamed over the above, but by the time I saw the published book, it was months later, at a time when Biro’s books were failing, and I didn’t want to add to his problems.”

Twice-Told Torture! Biro was not above swiping a good cover idea. His gruesome cover to Crime Does Not Pay #24 (Nov. 1942) was clearly based on Allen Anderson’s cover for the pulp magazine Gangland Detective, Vol. 2, #3 (Sept. 1940). Biro likely came across it while searching for true crime stories for his comics. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Charles Biro—The Other Stan Lee (Part 3)

relentless savagery in the stories he produced, he articulated the idea explicitly to his readers in an odd meta-vignette in the Nov. 1943 issue of Crime Does Not Pay. Biro and Bob Wood appear as themselves, discussing the ‘Who Dunnit’ mystery tale in the reader’s hand. (Departing from realism on one detail, the drawing did not include Biro’s pet monkey). Wood asks, ‘Do you think this crime story is too bloody and gory, Charlie?’ Biro responds, ‘It’s bloody all right, but it’s true!’ That’s the important thing. We want our readers to see the horror of the crooked path to crime.’”

Biro’s Vision Though often gruesome, Charles Biro had a definite vision for his comic line, much like Stan Lee at Marvel. They were there to produce successful comics—which meant volume and consistency. At Marvel the product Stan most enthusiastically sold was Stan Lee. At Gleason, it was Charles Biro. But he took his work seriously. “Comics was his greatest love in the world,” said his daughter Denise Ortell in Jim Amash’s interview in A/E V3#73. ”He wanted to be remembered for his work in comic books. He wanted to be immortal. He felt that the work he was doing was very important. From day one, all of his stories were created to teach lessons or help people. Even though the comics might look a little horrifying on the surface, he was always going after the bad guy and helping the good guy.”

Lev Gleason’s Head Honchos Co-editors Charles Biro and Bob Wood from Crime Does Not Pay #30 (Nov. 1943), as reprinted in Dark Horse’s Crime Does Not Pay Archives, Vol. 3 (2012). Art by Dick Briefer. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Stan & Charlie Golden Age artist Bob Fujitani told an amusing anecdote in Alter Ego #23 (April 2013). Bob was a regular contributor to Biro’s books, and also worked for Marvel in the ’50s. A fan who interviewed Bob Fujitani wrote the following on comic historian Nick Caputo’s website, recalling ”…something Bob Fujitani told me on more than one occasion: Stan would call and ask Charles Biro for advice. I think the Biro influence on Stan is profound, and it is great to see Stan confirm the relationship. After Charles Biro left the industry, Bob recounts a story about Stan calling Biro for advice when comics were not selling. He asked Biro, “What does the industry need?,” to which Biro responded, “The industry needs ME!” Now that’s a statement worthy of Stan Lee himself! In A/E V3#23, Fujitani shared another Stan Lee anecdote: “He [Lee] used to call up Charlie all the time for ideas. I know, because I was there a couple of times when he called Charlie. Biro’d hang up the phone and say, “Gee, this guy wants me to do everything for him. Give him ideas for this, give him ideas for that.” That was when Crime Does Not Pay was riding high. He was very friendly with Biro.” And one Biro idea that Stan eventually used was a super-hero named… Daredevil!

The Daredevil Connection And then there’s the matter of the two Daredevils. The first Golden Age “Daredevil” story was tucked away in the back of Gleason’s Silver Streak #6 (Sept. 1940) and credited to artist Jack Binder. Plastic Man creator Jack Cole redesigned his costume the following issue. Don Rico briefly took over, and then it was passed on to Biro, who quickly made the character his own.

“Meet Bob Wood” Bob Wood bio from Daredevil #13 (Oct. 1942), probably written by Biro, or perhaps by Wood himself. Charlie was always effusive in his praise of his partner. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

In an interview in Alter Ego V3#73 (Oct. 2007), Biro’s daughter Denise described her dad as being a “five letter man,” in high school who did “track, tennis, football, boxing, hockey, golf.” She added, “He was driven. He had to win at whatever he did, and he would take each sport up to the point where he could win at the highest level. If it was ping-pong, he would keep going until he could beat the world champion. In tennis, he played the semi-professional circuit.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

“Meet Charles Biro” This bio from Daredevil #12 (Aug. 1942) was written by Biro’s friend and co-editor Bob Wood. Articles like this helped Biro connect to his readers. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Charles Biro—The Other Stan Lee (Part 3)

“When we were growing up, we had trophies everywhere. He was fabulous at golf. He was fabulous at football. He played semi-pro hockey and his team used to play at Madison Square Garden. This would have been in the late 1920s and early ’30s.” Most super-heroes act as some sort of wish fulfillment for their creators. In Biro’s case his heroes seemed to be patterned after Charlie himself! For instance, like Biro, young Chuck Chandler started out in Boy Comics as a top-notch hockey player before becoming Crimebuster. Clearly Biro believed in the adage, “Write what you know!” Daughter Denise continued: “There are things that have always been in his comic books, or things that he picked up from our lives. Daredevil used a boomerang. Dad always had boomerangs all over the house, and was quite proficient with them. Anything that was in any of the stories, he would always learn about it first, then teach it to the readers. He was always educating. He would always use things from our house. When I go through the old comics, I see our furniture, our chandelier, our scales, all sorts of stuff.” Under Biro’s leadership Daredevil became one of the best-selling comics of the ’40s. Unfortunately, the dreaded Comics Code of the mid-’50s sanitized the line, causing sales of Lev Gleason’s comics to plummet. Nonetheless, Biro continued to write solid stories featuring Daredevil’s kid pals, the Little Wise Guys, (who had now replaced Daredevil in his own comic). The series ended with issue #134 in September 1956, and the Gleason comic line with it. Charlie left comics, eventually securing a job providing graphics for NBC news. He had long suffered heart problems before succumbing to a fatal heart attack on March 4, 1972, at age sixty. By then Stan Lee had taken the lessons established by Biro to levels even Charlie had never dreamed. So how did Stan get involved with Daredevil in the early ’60s?

According to comic historian Will Murray in Alter Ego V3#118, (July 2013), Marvel publisher Martin Goodman discovered that the trademark to Biro’s Daredevil had lapsed and ordered Lee to revive the character— original costume and all! Earlier, Pete Morisi had also attempted to buy the rights to Daredevil from Gleason. That deal was killed when Biro (who didn’t actually create the character) demanded a percentage of any future sales—a demand PAM bitterly refused.

H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks Chuck Chandler, like Biro, was an ace hockey player, before adding a cape to his uniform and becoming Crimebuster. From Boy Comics #3 (April 1942), as per microfiche. Art (& quite probably script) by Biro. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

When Marvel was hoping to snag the lapsed trademark, Lee reportedly offered Steve Ditko the series, but the artist declined. It was then given to Bill Everett, who drew the first issue. However, in part because of concerns about possible legal complications, Everett (or cover artist Jack Kirby) designed a new costume for the Marvel version. And the rest is history.

“See If You Can Spot Me!” Bob Wood, Biro’s friend and co-editor, reports that Bob’s “got ME pegged as a villain in the next issue of Daredevil. See if you can spot me.” Indeed, Wood was cover-featured as a killer named Woody the following issue. Art imitated life a little more than a decade later, when Wood was convicted of murdering a girlfriend during a drunken spree. From Daredevil #40 (Jan. 1947). Inset from Daredevil #41 (March 1947), art (and perhaps script) by Biro. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Postscript There’s a sad coda to this story. According to cartoonist/ historian Jim Steranko (on the SterankoJ. website), Biro (likely in the late ’60s), asked Jim to arrange a meeting with Stan Lee. The cartoonist, now in his fifties, was interested in getting back into comics and was brimming with ideas. On 7/26/13 Steranko posted the following anecdote: “Charlie and I were having dinner one night, and he began asking me about the contemporary comics scene. Usually I had him talking about his life and times, but not that day. So I asked what was REALLY on his mind — and he surprised me by saying that he had a Niagara of ideas about comics, and could I set up an interview with Stan at Marvel?

A man with Charlie’s credits wouldn’t step into an underlying position. Charlie was a fighting general — Patton — and could never function, even as Stan’s right hand (which Roy T. already held). So, a comic book revolution flared and died in a moment that day.” That’s undoubtedly true. But it’s also likely that Charlie’s ideas were simply too old-fashioned for “swinging ’60s” Marvel. Charlie had been out of comics for since 1956, and his glory years were a decade earlier. By the late ’60s the comic world was a very different animal. And the man who’d set the pace for Stan Lee simply couldn’t compete with the real thing. ‘Till next time…

“Charlie was ready to return to the most expressive medium he’d ever encountered. The next day I asked Stan how much he knew about Charlie and his history, and, of course, he was aware of Charlie’s comics work. I had him schedule a meeting and confirmed with Charlie for the following week. “The conference was in Stan’s office and lasted slightly less than an hour. When I asked how it went, Stan became reserved — and I knew then what transpired. The ship can’t have two captains.

Our thanks to Jim Amash, Bob Fujitani, Tony DiPreta, David Hadju, Will Murray, Pete Morisi, Jim Steranko, and the Biro family for their research and insightful comments.

“Dad Always Had Boomerangs!” Charlie, like “his” Daredevil, loved boomerangs. In fact, he even offered them to his fans! From Daredevil #41 (March 1947). [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Comic Fandom Archive—In Memoriam

Malcolm Willits (1934-2019) by Jim Korkis Presented & Edited by Bill Schelly A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: This piece, sadly, marks the final entry of the “Comic Fandom Archive” that was prepared by Bill Schelly before his untimely and greatly lamented passing on September 12 last. A full tribute to comic fandom’s greatest historian (as well as one of the best biographers of comicbook creators) will appear in a near-future edition of Alter Ego, under the aegis of his friend Jeff Gelb and Ye Editor. In addition, only a few weeks before his death, Bill arranged for the reprinting of one or two articles in “CFA,” even if he did not live to oversee their preparation. If possible, those pieces will be included in that issue. With this issue, as well, we have added Bill’s name to the Editorial Honor Roll on our Contents page—alongside those of A/E founder Jerry G. Bails, later A/E editor/publishers Ronn Foss and Mike Friedrich, and Biljo White, art editor of A/E [Vol. 1] #7-9. We suspect that Bill would have wanted that—and he richly deserves to be remembered for his contributions to more than 150 issues of this magazine. He will not be forgotten by those of us who knew him.

Malcolm Willits (Above & right:) Malcolm Willits in his 1952 high school photo— and in later years. Seen below is the interior of his and partner Leonard Brown’s Collectors Book Store, circa 1980, at a time when their business was at its peak.

ookstore owner and writer Malcolm Willits passed away on Monday, April 15, 2019. He was 85 years old.

For young comicbook fans like myself growing up in the Los Angeles, California, area in the 1960s and 1970s, Malcolm Willits and his Collectors Bookstore in Hollywood were like finding the fabled city of Shangri-La overseen by some older wise man who had collected old comicbooks forever. When the store opened in March 1965, it was reputedly the first store in America to deal exclusively in vintage comicbook material and science-fiction and movie memorabilia, according to Willits. Within a few blocks were also Cherokee Books and Bond Street Books, which also sold old comicbooks but in a more casual manner along with other things.

Willits disliked how Burt Blum was handling old comic books at Cherokee Books.: “His father put him in charge of the comics to keep him out of trouble. Burt was a good guy, but he didn’t like comicbooks and he didn’t like comicbook collectors. He’d sit there like a bump on a log. People were stealing from him right and left. We [Willits and Leonard Brown] knew we could do better business.” Willits did become quite a financial success at his business, spending the money on his other eclectic collections of antique classic cars, World War II memorabilia, American science-fiction, Disney, pulps, and movie memorabilia. Willits was born in Columbus, Ohio, on February 5, 1934. His family moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1939, where he spent his time growing up reading and collecting comicbooks. His death on April 15, 2019, garnered little attention in the press, despite his iconic early contributions to both comics and Disney fandoms as well as his movie memorabilia business that attracted Hollywood’s biggest stars as his customers. He joked that his first encounter with Disney was in 1938 when his parents had to take him out of a movie theatre because he had been too scared by seeing the Wicked Old Hag in the animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He began collecting Disney material in November 1945, much to the continuing

Comic Fandom Archive

field would so hit its stride that the great auction houses of the world would include among their masterpieces the very things we loved so much as kids. “As with most visionaries, we were somewhat prone to exaggeration. Our fourth issue (June 1948) claimed the I.S.P.C.C. to be ‘the biggest kids organization’ in the entire city. It wasn’t. The Comic Collector’s News did little to enhance anyone’s collection, since we all knew each other anyway.”

Comic Collector’s News—With & Without The Apostrophe! Two issues of Willits’ juvenile comics fanzine of the late 1940s, co-published by his pal Jim Bradley. Their prescient slogan was: “Your Comics Are Valuable. Don’t Throw Them Away.” [© the respective copyright holders.]

bewilderment of both his family and fellow classmates, and he never stopped. He graduated with a degree in history from the University of Washington and was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1957. He moved to East Los Angeles in 1962 and became a history and English teacher at Washington Preparatory High School for roughly six years. Willits was the first person to interview Carl Barks (artist/ writer on the Disney Ducks comicbooks) for publication and the first person to interview Floyd Gottfredson (the decades-long artist on the Mickey Mouse comic strip) for publication. He hosted both artists at his Pasadena, California, home in 1982, where they met each other for the very first time and had their photo taken in Willits’ vintage 1938 V-16 Cadillac limousine, the very same one he had used when visiting Barks and his wife for the first time in 1961. Willits got started in comics fandom in 1947 as a 13-year-old when he and his friend Jim Bradley “started what may well have been the world’s first comicbook fanzine.” “Jim Bradley and I called it The Comic Collector’s News, and while it featured articles, advertisements, and contests relating to comicbooks, its real purpose was to enhance our own collections by making our wants more widely known. “We knew the comics were out there; it was just a matter of finding them. By our third issue, we had established a club, The International Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Comics. Our editorial stated: ‘The I.S.P.C.C. asks for your help. Right now all over the United States there are millions of comic books, both old and new, that are soon to be destroyed. These comics are valuable. We must contact everyone possible so that we can save these comicbooks from destruction’. “Our slogan was: ‘Your Comics are Valuable. Don’t throw them away.’ Not bad, considering comicbooks had been in existence for only fourteen years and practically no one at that time recognized their importance. Fifteen more years would pass before comic collecting would be taken seriously, and another thirty before the

Willits and Bradley were also avid science-fiction fans, and in spring 1950 they published the first issue of their photo-offset sci-fi fanzine Destiny, which lasted for eleven issues. Willits’ ads in the magazine for purchasing copies of Mickey Mouse Magazine resulted in his buying several from a gentleman in San Francisco by the name of Anton LaVey, later the founder of the Church of Satan in 1966.

Destiny was the first showcase for Willits’ fiction writing, which later resulted in his 1999 book The Wonderful Edison Time Machine: A Celebration of Life, illustrated by Toby Bluth, animation producer Don Bluth’s brother and a noted children’s book and Disney artist. The novel tells the tale of four young boys who travel back through time to 1929 to prevent “Black Friday,” the day the stock market crashed and resulted in the Great Depression. It was favorably reviewed. Ever since he was a child in the 1940s, Willits had been a fan of Carl Barks, who drew the Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comicbooks for Dell/Western. He read Barks’ stories in Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories, the Firestone giveaways, and the larger Disney comicbook specials. He started his Barks collection in 1945. However, while he could recognize the work of the distinctive artist, he had no clue as to the name of his favorite comicbook storyteller. In 1957, Willits found himself in the Army and assigned to a post in Minneapolis where he was editing the new Army Corps newspaper. “One issue [of Destiny] featured a lengthy article on cartoon animation, devoting a good deal of space to Walt Disney and his efforts. Using this issue as ‘bait,’ even though our magazine had folded, I wrote the Disney studio informing them I’d like to do an article for Destiny on their Donald Duck comicbook artist,” Willits remembered. The military letterhead must have impressed someone at the Disney Studio, and they replied with the name and address of the “Good Duck Artist.” Unfortunately, because of his military responsibilities, Willits was unable to make use of the information at that time. He kept the letter from Frank Reilly, who was in charge of Disney comics, and later sold it in 2011 for $3,585. Willits was in contact with another fan of Disney comicbooks and Carl Barks named John Spicer. Spicer and his brother Bill (later editor and publisher of Graphic Story Magazine and a professional

Malcolm Willits

You Are My Destiny! A handful of issues of Willits’ and Bradley’s SF fanzine Destiny, with a cover by D. Bruce Berry on Vol. 1, No. 6, the “Winter 1951” edition. In the 1970s Berry inked some of Jack Kirby’s DC titles. [© the respective copyright holders.]

comicbook letterer) collaborated on a neatly typed letter to the Disney Studio stating that one of them was a high school art teacher who was planning a class that would include a discussion of comic art, specifically Disney comic art, and specifically wanted to ask the artist who drew the “Donald Duck” comicbooks some technical questions. A woman at editorial in Disney wrote back with the name and address of Carl Barks. John Spicer wrote a letter to Barks on April 11, 1960. Since it was the first real fan letter Barks had

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received, he was initially suspicious about it but answered it. Almost immediately, John Spicer wrote another letter, asking if he could arrange a visit. Arrangements were made to visit Barks in late August/early September 1960. When John Spicer informed Willits of his success in getting a visit with Carl Barks, it encouraged Willits to write to Barks himself on May 25, 1960. Once again, Barks couldn’t believe that he had fans and had no idea of the widespread adulation of his work. (Barks later gave the original copies of these first two fan letters to the Disney Archives.) Barks and his wife Garé visited with Willits in July 1961 when Willits went back to college at the University of Washington. “Barks chose to acknowledge his two newfound fans with the June 1961 issue of Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories (#249) in a story titled Stranger Than Fiction. I had already informed him of my abiding interest in science-fiction, and of how my parents refused to allow it in the house when I was young, and how much I wished he’d do more stories with this theme [of science-fiction],” Willits recalled. “In this story, Donald is enraged to find his nephews reading a science-fiction book and proceeds to throw it in the trash. The book in question is Ten Seconds to Mars by Spicer Willits. Naturally, the kids have the last laugh as what Donald considers to be sciencefiction turns out to be fact. As with many of Carl’s stories, a moral is involved, but even if it wasn’t, John and I were delighted in being immortalized, however briefly, in one of his works,” Willits said with a smile. In 1962, along with Steve Edrington, Willits once again visited Barks at his home, but this time took along a tape recorder and did the very first interview with the artist. The 1962 interview was not published in full until six years later in Don and Maggie Thompson’s fanzine Comic Art No. 7, in 1968. The printing of the interview was delayed because in 1963 the Disney Company not only refused the use of any artwork to

illustrate it, but did not approve of the interview being published at all while Walt Disney was alive, to maintain the illusion that Walt did all the drawing of everything. When Willits moved to Los Angeles, he met fellow collector Leonard Brown, who was dealing in comicbooks while attending USC and living in Long Beach. “Leonard and I were soon running ads together to buy old comicbooks and movie material,” recalled Willits. “I spent the summer driving across the United States buying up such collectible material. I shipped so much material home that a few months later Leonard, who had tons of his own material, came over to my apartment one evening and suggested we open up a store. “We did! We called it the Collectors Book Store and we opened in March of 1965. I figured I could work in it after school and grade papers. After all, I had noticed that the owners of other used bookstores never seemed to do anything except play chess or talk with their friends. “But in our store, we quickly noticed that the rent came due every thirty days and the only way to have it was to work. Our store proved so successful that within ten months I was able to quit my tenured teaching position and join Leonard full time. We also needed the $2,000 I had in my retirement account, as Batman had just started on television and suddenly comicbook collecting was really big. “Our store encompassed three main fields: comicbooks, science-fiction, and movie material. But it was definitely the comicbooks which carried us the first few years. Leonard put out the first real catalog in the field in late 1965, a 36-page booklet which incorporated twenty-one separate collecting departments.” In the years before the Internet and eBay, finding old comic books required putting thousands of dollars’ worth of advertisements in newspapers around the country. As Willits stated: “Large virgin book collections from the Golden Age were almost impossible to find, mainly because they never existed in the first place. Who could have wanted to, or could have afforded to buy all the comicbooks which appeared during the late Depression and early years of World War II? Certainly no kid had that kind of money, or the space to keep them in.

Barks-ing Up The Right Tree (Left:) The letter that revealed the identity of Carl Barks as the “good duck artist.” Willits was the first to ferret out this information. (Above:) The first fan photo of Barks ever taken. Carl and his wife Garé stopped by to see Malcolm at the University of Washington in Seattle on July 25, 1961. Photo by Jim Gaylord.

Malcolm Willits

idea that Gottfredson should do paintings like Carl was doing. I hit on the idea of having Floyd create a series of paintings, each one devoted to one of his classic Mickey Mouse adventures. “I met with three Disney executives and their response was very enthusiastic. [Gottfredson] agreed to take up painting, although at the time he had never done more than black-&-white illustration. It ended up being 24 paintings between 1978 and 1983.”

A Collector’s Edition—From Collectors Book Store (Left:) The 36-page first catalog issued by Collectors Book Store after the store debuted in 1965. [Superman TM & © DC Comics.] (Above:) Publicity photo of Malcolm Willits. Over the years, Collectors Book Store received a lot of press coverage for its tremendous inventory of rare comicbooks and movie memorabilia.

“For complete mint runs of these comics to have survived, it required adults to buy and keep them—keep them through the wartime draft and paper drives, through household moves and periods of unemployment—to protect them from the ravages of silverfish and sunlight, extremes of temperature, and the destructiveness of children and grandchildren.

Eventually Collectors Book Store shifted to almost exclusively movie material. The original store was at 1717 N. Wilcox Avenue (half a block above Hollywood Boulevard). As business expanded, Willits kept moving the location, ending up in an empty bank at 6763 Hollywood Boulevard (about midway between Grauman’s Chinese Theater and Cherokee Books) that is most remembered by comicbook collectors.

When Leonard Brown retired in 1983, Willits sold off nearly the entire comicbook collection and moved the store to its final Hollywood and Vine location, where it concentrated on movie stills, pressbooks, signed actor contracts, posters, scripts, and similar items. It grew in size to be second only

“For any comicbook to survive over ten years during the Golden Age was little short of a miracle, as comicbooks were meant to be read and thrown away. Sure, some publishers, artists and writers kept file copies, and even collectors kept runs of a particular title or two, but for accumulations representing the entire field to survive the travails and upheavals most people experience, well, it just didn’t happen. “Except it did. In two instances I know of.” Those two instances were the Edgar Church collection (aka the Mile High collection) and the Antane B. King collection. In 1954, Willits purchased piecemeal over time over 3000 comicbooks from the King collection and sold off most of them for a healthy profit. “When we opened our store, one of my first customers was Milt Gray, and when he got a job at Disney, he discovered Floyd Gottfredson. I was astounded he was still around and still active and still drawing Mickey Mouse,” recalled Willits. “My contact at the Disney Studio was George Sherman, head of the Publications Department, and I asked if I could interview Gottfredson. He liked the idea and arranged everything. “Like Carl [Barks], [Gottfredson] was modest to a fault. The article “Mickey’s Chronicler—An Interview with Floyd Gottfredson” appeared in a fanzine called Vanguard 1968. I got the

The Duck Man & The Mouse Man (Left:) Willits became involved in encouraging Carl Barks (seen on right) and Floyd Gottfredson to produce oil paintings featuring Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. Some are shown in the catalogue, with the above nice painted cover by the Mouse Man. [Art TM & © Disney.] Additionally, in the late 1970s/early ’80s, the store on Hollywood Boulevard also sold some of the first art re-creations painted by comicbook artists. A/E editor Roy Thomas, during that period, purchased from them a Bill Ward re-creation of a Blackhawk/Military Comics cover and a Paul Reinman re-creation of his cover for an issue of Comic Cavalcade. Both these paintings were used as Alter Ego covers early in the magazine’s present volume.

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to the collection held at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

They were closing back lots and moving out of Hollywood. They were throwing things away. We were able to buy some excellent material. We could buy a poster for a dollar and sell it for $20,” Willits said.

His new partner Mark Willoughby, a long-time employee who worked with him for thirty years, remembers movie stars coming in to examine the collection. Willits gained notoriety in the 1980s when he auctioned off Marlon Brando’s Oscar from the film On the Waterfront for $13,500.

He sold one poster for 1924’s Alice in Wonderland for $5,000. “It went for more than the film cost to make. It only cost $3,000 to make the film,” Willits said.

Despite objections from the Academy, he went on to sell Picture This! about half a dozen On December 5, 1982, Willits hosted a gathering Oscar statuettes over at his home on Wentworth Avenue, Pasadena, the years. However, California, consisting of (clockwise from seated in 1989, the Academy left): Garé & Carl Barks, Bruce Hamilton, Willlits, Russ Cochran, Floyd & Maggie Gottfredson. initiated a court action that temporarily blocked Willits or anyone else from future trophy sales of Oscars given post-1950, and it later became a permanent injunction. “The big studio system was collapsing right when we opened.

The Collectors Book Store physical location was closed to the public in 2002, with the business shifting entirely to Internet sales. Willits retired to Palm Springs in 2005. Liquidation of the entire collection took place through an auction by Profiles in History in December 2008. “Hollywood has changed,” noted Willits. “Movie publicity just isn’t done the way it used to be. It’s time to let it go.” Robert Beerbohm stated, “Leonard Brown and Malcolm Willits created the best comicbook store the world has ever known. When we [Bud Plant and I] opened that first Comics and Comix store August 1972, our goal striven for was this place.” Howard Lowery said, “For me, it began in 1966 when I first visited Collectors Book Store as a teenager looking to add a few comicbooks to a modest collection. Shortly thereafter, owners Malcolm Willits and Leonard Brown offered me a part-time job, which soon became full-time employment lasting 23 years. I learnt my trade in their service—from wrapping packages, to laying out a catalog, to managing an auction.” Perhaps Willits’ greatest legacy is the impact he had on so many others, re-introducing them to the treasures of childhood and encouraging them to preserve the physical examples of those memories.

Dear Roy, It must have been 1965, when I was ten years old, that my well-intentioned grandmother surprised my sister and me with a big announcement. She and my aunt Joan were going to take us kids into New York City to see the Rockettes perform at the legendary Radio City Music Hall for their annual Christmas Spectacular. I couldn’t have cared less. I wasn’t interested in Rockettes (rockets, maybe), but I was a huge Marvel fan. Suddenly, it hit me. “New York City? Isn’t that where they make Marvel Comics?” I asked. My wonderful grandmother, born in 1900, indulged me and we planned a side trip to 635 Madison Avenue before the show. In the New York winter it must have been a cold walk out of our way, but we made it to the famous address I had copied from a comicbook. We rode the elevator (it may have been my very first time in one) to the floor of the directory that said “Marvel Comics.” It was an austere building with perfectly dull hallways, housing lots of boring businesses with their names on the stark, grey doors. I guess I expected something more akin to Disneyland, with six-foot-tall Spider-Man posters on the walls and the one-and-only Stan greeting visitors with a hearty handshake. The door that said “Marvel” on it was just as nondescript as the ones for insurance companies, dentists, and notaries public. Clearly, this wasn’t a tourist destination. I remember the four of us standing there, staring at the plain, unwelcoming door for what seemed like an hour. Had we come all this way just to look at an ordinary door?

hane Foley has done it again—this time, employing the look and layout of a vintage Dave Cockrum illo to picture both of our mixed-up “maskots,” Captain Ego and Alter Ego, instead of alternating them from issue to issue as he often does. Hats (and masks) off, as well, to colorist Randy Sargent. [Captain Ego TM & © Roy Thomas and Estate of Bill Schelly – created by Biljo White; Alter Ego hero TM & © Roy & Dann Thomas – costume designed by Ron Harris.] As we expected, there was an outpouring of kudos and commiseration related to the very special Alter Ego #153, which, in particular, celebrated the life and work and good spirits of Fabulous Flo Steinberg, Stan’s most important and well-known (because of Stan) corresponding secretary, who also worked for years for Warren Publications’ Captain Company. We had room to print only a few such comments, but we start with one from her longtime friend (and co-creator with Stan, Marie Severin, and Yours Truly of Marvel’s The Cat/Greer Nelson), late-’60s Marvel staffer Linda Fite: Oh, Roy! The Flo tribute issue is just wonderful. I appreciate your going to all that trouble so very much, and I appreciated hearing about Flo from people I don’t know (or barely know). One correction: Flo’s date of death was July 23, 2017, not July 17 as you stated in your editorial (you probably got confused with her birthday, March 17, which you had correct, of course). Linda Fite Naturally, Linda, I’m truly sorry I got the dates confused… but any date was far too early, and far too final, for both of us… and for the many other people who knew and loved her. A lot of folks, however, even if they didn’t really “know” Flo personally, felt touched by her. Here’s one such remembrance we received, this one from reader David Burd:

Just then, a deliveryman from the local coffee shop arrived carrying a tray of full cardboard coffee cups for the Marvel staff. He had his hands full. My grandmother was a tough old lady. She had lived through World War I as a teenager in her native England, endured the Great Depression, and survived the bombing of her hometown in World War II. She wasn’t going to let a silly closed office door stop her. She reached for the forbidden door, saying, “Here, let me get that for you,” opened it to let the coffee man in, and closed it with herself on the other side. We waited. The door finally opened and we were greeted with the warm smile of the secretary. “I’m sorry, but Stan, Jack Kirby, and the other artists work at home. There’s nothing here for you to see.” She offered me pin-ups of Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. (I still have the FF page, although I thought the black-&-white art should be colored in, which I did clumsily. Hey, I was ten.) I was a painfully shy kid, but somehow I mustered up the courage to hesitantly ask this nice lady, “What’s your name?” When she answered “Flo Steinberg,” I shouted, “I KNEW IT!” I told her that I recognized her distinctive voice from the MMMS “The Voices of Marvel” record, which I had played so often I had it memorized. (“Stan, the fans know you have a bad memory from all the mistakes you make. But this is ridiculous. He’s been your associate for years.”) Goodness knows what my grandmother thought of all this. How did my shy ten-year-old self from the New Jersey suburbs know this attractive adult woman in New York City? The whole Marvelous adventure made me love my grandmother even more. I have no recollection of what the Rockettes did onstage that afternoon, but the memories of meeting Flo are crystal clear some 53 years later. David Burd

[correspondence, comments, & corrections]

they should include proper attribution. Kendall Whitehouse Photo supplier J. Ballman responds that he’s extremely sorry for the error in attribution, as are we; but he adds, “The pic is all over the net, so really there was no way to know where it originated. I thought it was Lucille, but apparently it wasn’t. My mistake.” A couple of corrections from veteran comics writer Mike W. Barr: Hi, Roy, Some thoughts re A/E #153: The Spider-Man poster on page 66, though attributed to John Romita, is obviously the work for Steve Ditko (whom I miss).

Another Photo Of Fabulous Flo Steinberg Because you can never have too many.

Thanks for sharing that memory with us, David. So that means you weren’t one of the young fans that, according to hearsay, Flo “tripped” when they tried to make it past her into the Marvel inner offices—but Bernie Bubnis assures us that anecdote was really just a joke: Hi Roy— The idea of Flo “tripping young kids” was started by Ron Fradkin. Whenever we visited Marvel, we knew that Stan was not there, because Ron had already called him at home to check his location that day. We stopped by to chat with Flo and sometimes bring up a hot dog from a downstairs vendor. She once worried aloud that she would not be very good at keeping kids from pushing their way into the Bullpen. Ron told her to “trip ’em on the way in.” It was always a private laugh we shared, and it is why I wrote about Flo tripping Ron in my RB article (featured on p. 30). Once the Rolling Stone article sunk in, I felt better as I remembered the “fun” we had at Marvel by bringing clumps of DC original art with us and dumping them on any desk we could find: “This Flash story will make a nice fill-in issue.” More “Trudy Ross” trivia: A “Trudy Ross” was born March 27, 1943, in Rhode Island. Moved to NYC approx. 1962 (she was 19) and married Dennis Addis in NYC in 1971. She died March 14, 1976, in Minnesota. So far we have not found cause of death or Mr. Addis— but we will. Bernie Bubnis We appreciate your telling us that Flo didn’t really trip fans, Bernie—it never sounded like her—but I’ll admit, being of a less forgiving mind than Ms. Steinberg was, I saw a few I wouldn’t have minded tripping myself. Next, a correction with regard to a photo credit in A/E #153, from Kendall Whitehouse: Roy, Just so you know (in case the image gets used again elsewhere), the attribution of the photo from the “Survivors of the First Comic Con” panel at New York Comic Con 2014 at the lower left of page 33 of Alter Ego #153 is incorrect. Although credited to Lucille Bubnis, the photo shown is one of mine, one of several I took of the panel. (The full set can be viewed in my Flickr album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/15543694@N06/ albums/72157646474937604.) I’m always happy to share my photos with any of the TwoMorrows publications, but it’s best to ask first and, of course,

In FCA’s third installment of “Captain Marvel & the ©opyright ©risis,” Mike Tiefenbacher writes: “Pete Morisi happily licensed DC’s usage [of his creation] Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt into the ’90s. But Morisi told me he wanted to publish T-Bolt himself, but when he informed DC’s [managing editor] Dick Giordano of this, Giordano threatened to tie up T-Bolt’s publishing rights “until after you’re dead.” Not much happiness involved there. Mike W. Barr We had always heard that the dispute between Pete Morisi and DC over “Peter Cannon – Thunderbolt” had been settled amicably. But if you heard differently, direct from the horse’s mouth… I (Roy) seldom receive any comments, pro or con, on my “writer/ editorials” that start off each issue, but this time was different—probably because the subject was Fabulous Flo Steinberg. Here’s a note from her friend Nick Caputo: Hi Roy, I just received my digital copy of the new A/E, and although I usually only skim through it, preferring to read the printed version when it arrives, I couldn’t resist reading your opening comments. Your firsthand accounts about Flo were heartwarming, vivid, and very funny (I love the story of Flo pleasantly but steadfastly making the point that she would be gone after her two weeks’ notice). You captured so much of what made her special, and I’m glad that in the last decade or so I was able to spend time with her at various conventions and numerous lunches, often accompanied by Barry [Pearl] and Doc V[assallo]. I very much respected her ignoring the negative fan-base that sought to demonize Stan, as well as her powerful work ethic. I was very pleased when I discovered through [Marvel collections editor] Cory [Sedlmeier] that it was Flo who had done proofreading on essays I wrote for the Masterworks and Omnibus volumes. On a personal note, Flo was a sincere person who was genuinely concerned about how I was doing, and I greatly appreciated that, along with her need for privacy, something we both related to. Thanks again for sharing your memories. I look forward to reading the rest of the issue, although your opening salvo will be hard to top. Nick Caputo Methinks that, by the time you had waded through the outpouring of remembrances of Flo in #153, Nick, you probably encountered other anecdotes that touched you equally or even more… and each of us spoke from the heart. I even opened up the forum to one pro to whom I would refuse to speak or share a panel with… because he was a friend of Flo’s. There are times to put aside differences. The accompanying interview with (and 1971 Rolling Stone article by) Flo’s successor, Robin Green, also garnered a fair amount of attention. To wit, this from comics historian Pierre Comtois:

re:

Roy, About the article by Robin Green (which issue of Rolling Stone I’d bought back in the day when I was eagerly seeking out any information about Marvel wherever it appeared): Upon re-reading it for the first time in decades, I wondered how accurately Robin depicted life in the Marvel offices and the subject of her interviews. You touched a bit on that with your various editorial asides, but still, I wonder, did she exaggerate for effect at all, maybe in an attempt to give the offices and those who worked there a more “with it” feel for readers of Rolling Stone? I also found Mike Tiefenbacher’s article on copyright really interesting, and I was especially intrigued by his comment regarding DC’s Comics Cavalcade Weekly that never got published. He says that two issues were completed. Inquiring minds want to know: Are there Steve Ditko “Blue Beetle,” “Question,” and “Captain Atom” stories still floating around out there but never published?! Never mind “Peacemaker”! Pierre Comtois Chances are that Steve Ditko didn’t contribute to the planned Comics Cavalcade Weekly, Pierre; still, if anyone knows any different, we hope they’ll let us know—and we’ll inform you right here! As for Robin Green’s article in Rolling Stone, which, as noted in #153, was based on interviews conducted a year or so before its 1971 publication date: Despite the handful of corrections and caveats that I felt compelled to add in captions, I feel Robin did her dead-level best to put together a good and accurate article on Marvel Comics—and by and large did a very good job of it. I don’t think anyone at the office was outraged or upset by things in it. Of course, I can’t speak for Stan—because if he ever spoke with me about the piece, I don’t recall that conversation. And it was a pleasure re-establishing contact recently, even for a little while, with Robin after so many years and her successful career as a writer for popular (and, in the case of The Sopranos, influential) TV series. One fan mentioned (though not by name) in the Rolling Stone article was Richard Pini, husband and business partner of Wendy Pini, who has since gone on to create, write, and draw the successful Elfquest series…. Hi Roy, I recently received my digital copy of Alter Ego #153 and, as always, the nostalgia content was high. Maybe even more so for this issue because of the reprint of Robin Green’s 1971 Rolling Stone

cover article about Marvel Comics. Here’s a very roundabout and obscure bit of trivia for you: In 1971 both Wendy and I were still crazy Marvel fans (our fervor waned in later years as we got deeper into the business of making comics ourselves; it’s the old “you should never witness how sausages are made” maxim), so when I spotted that issue of Rolling Stone on the newsstand, I immediately grabbed a copy. At one point in her account, Robin recalled the fan mail that would come into the Marvel office and wrote, “I remember one letter from a young couple who had met through the letters page of Silver Surfer comics. The girl had written a letter which was published, and the boy had read the letter, dug what she said, and written to her. They met at a comic book convention a bit later, and shortly afterward were married.” Well, of course, Wendy and I knew right away that was us. Robin understandably was hazy about some of the fine details—we didn’t first meet at a convention, and we actually got married the year following the article’s publication—but I recall clearly our delight at actually appearing, however indirectly, in the pages (if not on the cover) “of the Rolling Stone.” Richard Pini I was nearly 100% certain that you and Wendy were the couple cited by Robin in the article, Richard, so it’s good to have your personal confirmation. Nice running into you both at a comics convention recently, too. Another subject of A/E #153 was Michael T. Gilbert’s (and the Comic Crypt’s) ongoing series about artist Dan Adkins and his use of swipes/reference materials. One informed view comes from longtime author/editor Ted White, himself an interview subject a year or two back in the pages of this magazine: Dear Roy: Paging through the latest A/E, I hit Michael Gilbert’s column on Dan Adkins and his “swipes.” Dan was a friend of mine; I knew him in the ’50s before he turned pro, and I hung out with him in his Brooklyn apartment, listening to his amateur rock’n’roll band. Dan was a country boy at heart and a bit naïve. He never understood the fuss about his swipes. That fuss started long before 1970—ten years before, in fact.

Wendy & Richard Pini (on left) back in the late’70s days when, in addition to launching Elfquest (and their relationship), Wendy was also having fun cosplaying as Red Sonja (usually in the “iron bikini,” but in this case something closer to her look from Conan the Barbarian #23-24)— and (on right) with A/E editor Roy Thomas at the East Coast Con in New Jersey, 4-27-18. Photo by John Cimino. The popular and long-running Elfquest series was launched by Wendy as writer/ artist and Richard as business manager in 1978. [Elfquest TM & © Wendy & Richard Pini.]

[correspondence, comments, & corrections]

That’s when Dan had a b&w illo on the back cover of an issue of Amazing Stories, the science-fiction magazine, then published by Ziff-Davis. It was a direct steal of the Frazetta cover for EC’s Weird Science-Fantasy #29. (That cover was “famous” because it had been drawn to be a Buck Rogers cover for Famous Funnies that was for some reason rejected.) When Dan turned in the illo, he did not expect it to be displayed so prominently, but by being on the back cover it immediately attracted (unwanted) attention as an act of plagiarism (which it certainly was), and Ziff-Davis banned Dan from further appearances in their magazine. Dan never quite “got” that reaction to his swipe. When I became the editor of Amazing in 1968, I started using Dan (and other artist friends like Jeff Jones and Mike Kaluta) in the magazine again. I did not catch him in any obvious swipes. Ted White As you know, Ted, Dan Adkins was a talented guy, despite the fact that his penciling, per se, never really developed commensurate with his inking skills. Those of us who knew and liked him were always rooting for him to get past the need to over-use swipes and make a more lasting mark in comics. Here’s a more fannish view on the controversy, from researcher George Hagenauer: Hello Roy, It was the summer of 1968, my father had work in New York and Washington, DC, so we had a rare out-ofstate vacation. My first plane ride, and while my younger brother had to see sights with my mother, I was free for a day to roam New York alone. And that meant haunting Hell’s Kitchen

Dapper Dan Adkins at work in 1966, probably on “Dr. Strange” or “Sub-Mariner”—and an apparently rejected Adkins cover for Tales to Astonish #98 (Dec. 1967), next to the issue’s published cover, also by Adkins. Thanks to Steve Stiles, Greg Goldstein, and the Grand Comics Database, respectively. [Cover art TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

bookstores for old comics and scoring 30 Golden Age and ECs for a dollar each (helps to be tall; they were on a shelf near the ceiling). It also meant visiting comicbook publishers. I wanted to be a comicbook writer. I had sold some short material to Cracked and one story to Creepy. This being the ’60s, we weren’t allowed to phone long-distance, so I just showed up at the Marvel offices. There was another teen in the waiting room. I asked at the desk and Gary Friedrich graciously came out to talk to both of us. It was easy to deal with my questions; he gave me a few pages of a script. The other teen was there to lodge a concern: Dan Adkins’ tracing in “Dr. Strange.” He had a yellow pad of correlations between Adkins’ panels and usually Steve Ditko’s. If my aging memory is correct, there were about 150-175 of them. I am not certain how many issues he had tracked—Adkins had started in issue #161, so there were 4 or 5 out there at the time of my visit. I pointed out the Gray Morrow cover swipe for David Bunch’s “Walking Talking I Don’t Care Man” in Amazing. Unlike many fans, I read both sci-fi and comics. You will note in that case that the quality of Adkins art on Voltorr really drops when he is no longer swiping (and, being a science-fiction text story, there was not much

re:

else to swipe outside the cover). Friedrich said Marvel was aware of the problem. The teen in the office was not the only person to mention the excessive copying. They had received other letters, and I expect other yellow pads full of references. If I remember right, he said they were dealing with it. Which they probably were, as I think Adkins’ last work on “Dr. Strange” as a penciler was issue #170. His run was around 9 issues. I know that, when I saw Gene Colan take over the series, I figured it was due to the excessive swiping/copying/tracing. His swiping was not limited to Marvel. At one point I had the entire art for a Warren story that Adkins did where the monster was obviously swiped from Ymir, the monster in the [1957] movie 20 Million Miles to Earth. The art was beautifully rendered, but I decided not to keep any of it. In addition to Ymir, I was seeing images obviously copied from sci-fi illos by John Schoenherr and others. As a result, many of the pages just did not hold together as a whole. Adkins was a brilliant inker, but a weak penciler. As a result, he needed to utilize more than the acceptable amount of reference from other artists. Legally, Marvel didn’t need to necessarily fire him as a penciler—after all, most of his excessive copying was from material they owned the rights to. No one was going to go after them on copyright issues. But there were complaints from a number of sources other than the fanzines. The bigger problem was how the art flowed. When an artist skillfully swipes in comics, the swipe becomes integrated with their style. You tend to not notice it. When a less skilled artist swipes or copies, it looks like a collage—detail, perspective, etc., vary a lot panel to panel. This is what you see often in “Dr. Strange” and even in the Warren story with Ymir swipes. My guess is that is why Adkins was dropped as a penciler, and frankly I liked Gene Colan a lot more on Dr. Strange. George Hagenauer If my memory is correct, George, Dan provided a final service to the Doctor Strange title when, after drawing the first two issues, he had a hand in getting us to turn over the penciling for the third (#171) to a young artist of his acquaintance named Tom Palmer—who, when he became Gene Colan’s inker on the mag beginning with #172, swiftly showed himself to be, at the very least, one of the best embellishers Gentleman Gene ever had. Just room for a couple of additional corrections to the issue: Robert Guffey writes: “The top caption on p. 19 identified Paul Kirschner as the publisher of The Realist. I think you might be getting Paul Kirschner, the cartoonist, confused with Paul Krassner, the comedian (author of Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut and numerous other hilarious books), who published The Realist all the way until spring 2001.” [Guilty as charged, Robert. I realized my error too late to correct it in #153 itself, alas.] And Al Rodriguez informs us: “On page 79 of #153, under where it says, “Doctor! Doctor!,” it says that Reed Crandall drew it, but the drawing is signed ‘Johnny Craig.’” [Thanks for pointing out my error, Al. Luckily, the point concerning Dan Adkins’ use of that scene as a swipe for a panel in a Doctor Strange issue is not affected by my accidental mis-attribution.] Got a correction re something in this issue—or some other comment to make or piece of information to add? Please send it to: Roy Thomas e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com 32 Bluebird Trail St. Matthews, SC 29135 We know we close nearly every “re:” section this way, but where else would we put this info:

Getting In The Spirit Of Things Mr. Monster’s fellow Crypt-keeper Michael T. Gilbert sent this correction: “A caption in the FCA section of Alter Ego #153 suggested that a kid on the cover of Fiction House’s The Spirit #5 [1954] may have been a whitewashed Ebony. At first glance I suspected it was likely his more PC replacement, the fair-skinned Sammy. However, looking through the actual issue, I find that the lad is Walk-A-Long Haggerty, a Western fan (likely inspired by Western star Hopalong Cassidy), who assisted The Spirit on a case that issue.” Thanks, Michael. We’ve reproduced above the splash page of that story as reprinted in the authorized 1954 comic; it was reprinted there from The Spirit Weekly for April 8, 1951. Thanks to the Grand Comics Database for the latter info. [TM & © Will Eisner Studios, Inc.]

Our Alter-Ego-Fans online discussion group is still going strong, with news and reviews and my cloying requests for aid and assistance on this mag, thanks to the efforts of moderator Chet Cox, who presides over https://groups.yahoo.com/group/alter-ego-fans. Since Yahoo no longer has an “Add Member” tool (guess somebody walked off with it!), you may experience a slight difficulty getting in; if so, just contact Chet at mormonyoyoman@gmail.com and he’ll quickly aid you through the process. Thanks as always for your fine work, Mr. C.! In addition, John Cimino is still presiding over all things related to the Stan Lee-dubbed “Rascally Roy” at Facebook’s The Roy Thomas Appreciation Board, which posts photos, info about upcoming convention appearances and comicbook stories, etc. People who’ve actually been on Facebook (which apparently includes just about everyone in the civilized world except Yours Truly) tell me he does a great job.

JACK KIRBY’S DINGBAT LOVE In cooperation with DC COMICS, TwoMorrows compiles a tempestuous trio of never-seen 1970s Kirby projects! These are the final complete, unpublished Jack Kirby stories in existence, presented here for the first time! Included are: Two unused DINGBATS OF DANGER STREET tales (Kirby’s final Kid Gang group, inked by MIKE ROYER and D. BRUCE BERRY, and newly colored for this book)! TRUE-LIFE DIVORCE, the abandoned newsstand magazine that was too hot for its time (reproduced from Jack’s pencil art—and as a bonus, we’ve commissioned MIKE ROYER to ink one of the stories)! And SOUL LOVE, the unseen ’70s romance book so funky, even a jive turkey will dig the unretouched inks by VINCE COLLETTA and TONY DeZUNIGA. PLUS: There’s Kirby historian JOHN MORROW’s in-depth examination of why these projects got left back, concept art and uninked pencils from DINGBATS, and a Foreword by former 1970s Kirby assistant MARK EVANIER! NOW SHIPPING! (176-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $43.95 (Digital Edition) $14.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-091-5

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In the latest volume, KURT MITCHELL and ROY THOMAS document the 1940-44 “Golden Age” of comics, a period that featured the earliest adventures of BATMAN, CAPTAIN MARVEL, SUPERMAN, and WONDER WOMAN. It was a time when America’s entry into World War II was presaged 1980s back in print! Look for by the arrival of such patriotic do-gooders as WILL EISNER’s Uncle Sam, HARRY SHORTEN and the 1945-49 volume in 2020! IRV NOVICK’s The Shield, and JOE SIMON and JACK KIRBY’s Captain America—and teenage culture found expression in a fumbling red-haired high school student named Archie Andrews. But most of all, it was the age of “packagers” like HARRY A CHESLER, and EISNER and JERRY IGER, who churned out material for the entire gamut of genres, from funny animal stories and crime tales, to jungle sagas and science-fiction adventures. Watch the history of comics begin! NOW SHIPPING!

rs TM & ©

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MAC RABOY Master of the Comics

Beginning with his WPA etchings during the 1930s, MAC RABOY struggled to survive the Great Depression and eventually found his way into the comic book sweatshops of America. In that world of four-color panels, he perfected his art style on such creations as DR. VOODOO, ZORO the MYSTERY MAN, BULLETMAN, SPY SMASHER, GREEN LAMA, and his crowning achievement, CAPTAIN MARVEL JR. Raboy went on to illustrate the FLASH GORDON Sunday newspaper strip, and left behind a legacy of meticulous perfection. Through extensive research and interviews with son DAVID RABOY, and assistants who worked with the artist during the Golden Age of Comics, author ROGER HILL brings Mac Raboy, the man and the artist, into focus for historians to savor and enjoy. This FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER includes never-before-seen photos, a wealth of rare and unpublished artwork, and the first definitive biography of a true Master of the Comics! Introduction by ROY THOMAS! ISBN: 978-1-60549-090-8 • NOW SHIPPING! (160-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $14.95 Roger Hill’s 2017 biography of REED CRANDALL sold out just months after its release—don’t let this one pass you by!Pre-order now!

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Edited by ROY THOMAS The first and greatest “hero-zine”—ALL-NEW, focusing on GOLDEN AND SILVER AGE comics and creators with ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS, UNSEEN ART, P.C. Hamerlinck’s FCA [Fawcett Collectors of America], MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY’S Comic Fandom Archive, and more!

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ALTER EGO #154

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ALTER EGO #153

Golden Age artist FRANK THOMAS (The Owl! The Eye! Dr. Hypno!) celebrated by Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt’s MICHAEL T. GILBERT! Plus the scintillating (and often offbeat) Golden & Silver Age super-heroes of Western Publishing’s DELL & GOLD KEY comics! Art by MANNING, DITKO, KANE, MARSH, GILL, SPIEGLE, SPRINGER, NORRIS, SANTOS, THORNE, et al.! Plus FCA, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

Unsung artist/writer LARRY IVIE conceived (and named!) the JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, helped develop T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS, brought EC art greats to the world of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and more! SANDY PLUNKETT chronicles his career, with art by FRAZETTA, CRANDALL, WOOD, KRENKEL, DOOLIN, and others! Plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

Remembering Fabulous FLO STEINBERG, Stan Lee’s gal Friday during the Marvel Age of Comics—with anecdotes and essays by pros and friends who knew and loved her! Rare Marvel art, Flo’s successor ROBIN GREEN interviewed by RICHARD ARNDT about her time at Marvel, and Robin’s 1971 article on Marvel for ROLLING STONE magazine! Plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

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ALTER EGO #156

ALTER EGO #157

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ALLEN BELLMAN (1940s Timely artist) interviewed by DR. MICHAEL J. VASSALLO, with art by SHORES, BURGOS, BRODSKY, SEKOWSKY, EVERETT, & JAFFEE. Plus Marvel’s ’70s heroines: LINDA FITE & PATY COCKRUM on The Cat, CAROLE SEULING on Shanna the She-Devil, & ROY THOMAS on Night Nurse—with art by SEVERIN, FRADON, ANDRU, and more! With FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

Golden Age artist/writer/editor NORMAN MAURER remembered by his wife JOAN, recalling BIRO’s Crime Does Not Pay, Boy Comics, Daredevil, St. John’s 3-D & THREE STOOGES comics with KUBERT, his THREE STOOGES movies (MOE was his father-inlaw!), and work for Marvel, DC, and others! Plus LARRY IVIE’s 1959 plans for a JUSTICE SOCIETY revival, JOHN BROOME, FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY and more!

All Time Classic Con continued from #148! Panels on Golden Age (CUIDERA, HASEN, SCHWARTZ [LEW & ALVIN], BOLTINOFF, LAMPERT, GILL, FLESSEL) & Silver Age Marvel, DC, & Gold Key (SEVERIN, SINNOTT, AYERS, DRAKE, ANDERSON, FRADON, SIMONSON, GREEN, BOLLE, THOMAS), plus JOHN BROOME, FCA, MR. MONSTER, & BILL SCHELLY! Unused RON WILSON/CHRIS IVY cover!

Interview with JOYE MURCHISON, assistant to Wonder Woman co-creator DR. WILLIAM MARSTON, and WW’s female scriptwriter from 1945-1948! Rare art by H.G. PETER, 1960s DC love comics writer BARBARA FRIEDLANDER, art & anecdotes by ROMITA, COLAN, JAY SCOTT PIKE, INFANTINO, WEISINGER, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, and others! Extra: FCA, JOHN BROOME, MR. MONSTER, & more!

FCA SPECIAL! Golden Age writer WILLIAM WOOLFOLK interview, and his scripting records! Art by BECK, SCHAFFENBERGER, BORING, BOB KANE, CRANDALL, KRIGSTEIN, ANDRU, JACK COLE, FINE, PETER, HEATH, PLASTINO, MOLDOFF, GRANDENETTI, and more! Plus JOHN BROOME, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and the 2017 STAR WARS PANEL with CHAYKIN, LIPPINCOTT, and THOMAS!

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Peter Cannon–Thunderbolt writer/artist PETE MORISI talks about the creative process! Plus, read his correspondence with comics greats JACK KIRBY, JOE SIMON, AL WILLIAMSON, CHARLES BIRO, JOE GILL, GEORGE TUSKA, ROCKY MASTROSERIO, PAT MASULLI, SAL GENTILE, DICK GIORDANO, and others! Also: JOHN BROOME’s bio, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and BILL SCHELLY!

REMEMBERING STEVE DITKO! Sturdy Steve at Marvel, DC, Warren, Charlton, and elsewhere! A rare late-1960s Ditko interview by RICHARD HOWELL—biographical notes by NICK CAPUTO—tributes by MICHAEL T. GILBERT, PAUL LEVITZ, BERNIE BUBNIS, BARRY PEARL, ROY THOMAS, et al. Plus FCA, JOHN BROOME, BILL SCHELLY, and more! Spider-Man cover by DITKO!

Full-issue STAN LEE TRIBUTE! ROY THOMAS writes on his more than 50-year relationship with Stan—and shares 21stcentury e-mails from Stan (with his permission, of course)! Art by KIRBY, DITKO, MANEELY, EVERETT, SEVERIN, ROMITA, plus tributes from pros and fans alike, and special sections on Stan by MICHAEL T. GILBERT, BILL SCHELLY, and even the FCA! Vintage cover by KIRBY and COLLETTA!

WILL MURRAY presents an amazing array of possible prototypes of Batman (by artist FRANK FOSTER—in 1932!)—Wonder Woman (by Star-Spangled Kid artist HAL SHERMAN)—Tarantula (by Air Wave artist LEE HARRIS), and others! Plus a rare Hal Sherman interview—MICHAEL T. GILBERT with more on artist PETE MORISI—FCA— BILL SCHELLY—JOHN BROOME—and more! Cover homage by SHANE FOLEY!

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MANLY WADE WELLMAN

David Drake Discusses His Friend & Fellow Writer Interview Conducted by Richard J. Arndt

Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

NTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: Manly Wade Wellman (May 21, 1903-April 5, 1986) was already a major pulp writer when his first comicbook stories were published in Pep Comics #1 (Jan. 1940) for MLJ Comics, forerunner of today’s Archie Comics. Over the next fifteen years, he maintained a dual career, continuing his pulp/ literary career writing mostly fantasy and science-fiction stories as well as historical works, while also scripting for comics. During those years he scribed the adventures of such features as “Captain Marvel” and “Spy Smasher” for Fawcett Publications, “Captain America” for Timely Comics (today’s Marvel), “Tarantula,” “Aquaman,” and “The Phantom Stranger” for National Comics (today’s DC Comics), and, for Quality Comics, “Blackhawk” and “Plastic Man.” He also filled in, along with William Woolfolk and occasionally Jack Cole, on Will Eisner’s newspaper comic insert The Spirit after Eisner was drafted during the Second World War. Although most of Wellman’s known comicbook credits appear to be concentrated between 1940 and 1945, his journals show that he was making considerable money writing comics even in the post-WWII years. In addition to his comics work, Wellman is best known for his fantasy prose characters, including John the Balladeer, Judge Pursuivant, and John Thunstone. He is also the author of dozens of historical, science-fiction, and mystery novels, as well as nonfiction biographies—one of which, Rebel Boast, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize—and local regional history books.

Manly Wade Wellman during the Golden Age—juxtaposed with a page from Fawcett’s Captain Marvel Adventures #1 (March 1941). The entire issue, including this tale that takes place on the planet Saturn, was produced over one weekend by Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Dick Briefer, and others holed up together in a hotel room. [Shazam hero & Billy Batson TM & © DC Comics.]

David Drake, a noted author in his own right as the creator of the Hammer’s Slammers military science-fiction series, a co-founder of the small press publishing company Carcosa, and a longtime friend of Wellman’s, kindly agreed to be interviewed for this edition of FCA on February 19, 2019. RICHARD ARNDT: My guess would be that you’re more familiar with Manly Wade Wellman’s prose career in literature than you are with his comicbook work. DAVID DRAKE: Yes, that would be correct. I started reading Manly’s stories and novels at age thirteen. I’m not a comics person. I remember when Marvel Comics started making a big splash in the early 1960s, when I was an undergraduate. However, I never had any significant contact with those. The only comics I really remember reading on my own were the war comics of the 1950s— also the funny-animal comics. I was thoroughly familiar with Carl Barks, long before I had any notion of who he was. [laughs] RA: You certainly wouldn’t be the only reader who was thoroughly aware of Barks and his work on “Donald Duck” and “Uncle Scrooge” without actually knowing his name. His identity didn’t become common knowledge until the early 1970s, long after he’d retired from writing and drawing comics.

DRAKE: My mom didn’t really like comics, although, like I said, I was permitted to read funny-animal comics. The fact that Barks was doing a lot of really good ones at the time was noticeable. I perhaps wasn’t as handicapped in my comics background as I thought I was! RA: Let’s discuss your memories of Manly Wade Wellman. I understand that he was born overseas…

Fawcett Collectors Of America

DRAKE: Yes! He was born in Kamundongo, in what is today’s Angola. He used to tell me that it wasn’t called Angola then, but in fact it was, according to an 1890s travel book on Africa that I read. However, it was more commonly known as Portuguese West Africa. His father, Frederick Creighton Wellman, was a doctor there. He was not a medical missionary, but the Presbyterian Church started a hospital in the middle of Angola, and he was the doctor employed by the Church to work there. Manly was only the second white child born in that region. The first was his brother Paul, who was two years older than Manly. The eldest brother of the family, Creighton—named after his father—had been born in the States. Manly and Paul were very close, all their lives. Paul wrote mainstream bestsellers—novels like The Female and The Iron Mistress. Many of Paul’s novels were made into films. On the other hand, when Manly started writing fiction, it was pulp fiction. He was in his mid-twenties when his debut fiction story “The Lion Roared” was published in a pulp magazine called Thrilling Tales. However, both of them started out as journalists. When the family returned to the United States, they moved around the country, living for a time in Washington, DC, then in Salt Lake City.

Manly attended college in Wichita, Kansas, at Wichita Municipal University [now Wichita State University]. It was in Wichita that the two brothers started their journalism careers. Paul was the managing editor, while Manly was a crime and court reporter, for the Wichita Eagle. Then the ownership of the paper became Republican. Both the Wellman boys were staunch Democrats. At the same time, the rival paper in Wichita became one run by Democrats. The two papers were actually on opposite sides of the street, and there was an entire change of personnel between the Wichita Eagle and the Wichita Beacon. The brothers switched over to the Beacon and Manly continued working as a reporter for his brother, who remained a managing editor. Manly was also writing the film reviews for the Beacon. Paul began writing historical novels dealing with the Indian Wars and eventually moved to New York around 1934. Manly soon followed him. As mentioned, Manly had been writing for various pulps while still working as a reporter, but in New York he also began writing to a much greater extent for the horror and fantasy pulps, such as, among others, Weird Tales. His wife, Frances, also wrote horror fiction. In 1939 he moved to West Orange, New Jersey, and I think it was there that he began writing for the comics. He would send in what he called “squinkas” [pronounced “squink-as”], which was a term I think he coined, although other writers also used the term. RA: What did he mean when he called the comic scripts that? DRAKE: It just meant that he would send in to the editor in New York City, by train, these little plot-and-dialogue scripts to the comic companies, and then get the check back by return mail. Fifty bucks. The script would be given to an artist, drawn, and appear in a comic, usually very quickly. By this time, Manly was a fairly major pulp writer, particularly in fantasy and science-fiction. He did a lot of work for Astounding Science Fiction. Not that much for John Campbell, but quite a bit for the editor who preceded him, F. Olin Tremaine. He broke with Campbell over a book Manly’d written called Twice in Time, which was a Leonardo da Vinci novel involving time travel. Campbell told Manly that he, Manly, didn’t understand da Vinci and that Campbell was going to have to edit it massively. Manly told him to go piss up a rope. They didn’t work together after that. [laughs] Campbell had been trying to start a fantasy magazine… RA: Yes, Unknown, or Unknown Worlds, as it ended up.

What A Startling Development This Is!

DRAKE: No! That was the point. Campbell got Manly and L. Sprague de Camp, as well as Julie Schwartz, who was an agent for science-fiction and fantasy writers at the time, to a lunch meeting and told them that he was going to do a new magazine. He wanted to publish fantasy stories that would be in the same mode as the science-fiction stories in Astounding, which, at Campbell’s insistence, were often based on real science. He wanted the group to brainstorm a title for such a fantasy magazine. Manly suggested Tain’t So Stories. Manly was very clear when he spoke, at least when I knew him. [chuckles] He had a degree of contempt for Campbell, who was younger than Manly. Campbell, of course, came up with the final title, Unknown, I think pretty much on his own.

Before turning to comics, Wellman wrote first for the pulp magazines of the day. His book-length novel Devil’s Planet was published in Thrilling’s Startling Stories for January 1942—just one of MWW’s many pulp stories. Cover art by Rudolph Belarski. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

One of the things that Manly held against Campbell was that Campbell had invited Manly and Frances, along with—it may have been Sprague deCamp and his wife—to dinner at Campbell’s home. Manly was vastly irritated by Campbell opening a can of

David Drake Discusses Friend & Fellow Writer Manly Wade Wellman

Spirit. When Will Eisner returned to The Spirit in late 1945 after his military service in World War II, both Manly and Bill Woolfolk were gone from the strip. DRAKE: Right. RA: I read those wartime stories by Wellman, Woolfolk, and Jack Cole and realized that they had turned The Spirit into strictly a crime comic, which it wasn’t under Eisner, who crammed in every genre he could and where everything was possible from week to week. DRAKE: Manly used to talk about this character called The Green Claw, and I don’t think he was a character in The Spirit; The Green Claw was an Oriental super-villain.

There Were Giants In Those Days… This famous and oft-reproduced photograph shows a number of pulpmagazine (and future science-fiction, fantasy, and comicbook) legends at future Superman editor Mort Weisinger’s home in 1937. (Top row, left to right:) L. Sprague de Camp, John D. Clark, Julius Schwartz, Edward Weisinger [not involved with pulps], Jack Williamson, Edmond Hamilton, Otis Adelbert Kline. (Bottom row, l. to r.:) Otto Binder, Manly Wade Wellman, Frank Belknap Long. Mort probably snapped the pic. Photo source: Blackgate.com/Doug Ellis.

spaghetti for supper, which was all the five or six of them had for dinner. Manly considered that very strange. However, I’ve read Manly’s journals and checked the time for this dinner, and it was actually during the great hurricane of 1938. Campbell had obviously sent his family inland, out of harm’s way. Manly and Frances only drove a short distance, across the Jersey line into New York, to get to Campbell’s. Manly’s journal mentions “Hell of a wind! There were trees down all over the place!” Well, of course there were. It was a f---ing hurricane!

RA: The character was a Jack Cole creation who first appeared in Silver Streak Comics published by Lev Gleason, although I suppose that Manly could have ghost-written some of those stories for him. Both Wellman and Cole appeared to be working for the same companies at the same time during that period. It is known that Wellman wrote another Oriental character named “Fu Chang” for MLJ [today’s Archie Comics]. Fu Chang was sort of a Charlie Chan type of character. “Fu Chang” started out in Pep Comics #1 (Jan. 1940) and, interestingly enough, Jack Cole wrote and drew “The Comet” in that same issue. DRAKE: The character may have just been “The Claw” but when Manly talked about it, it was always “The Green Claw.” He liked to tell me about a particular story when The Green Claw has been defeated and all his acolytes are marching around his bier, slashing

According to those same journals, in 1946 Manly earned $8600 as a writer, which was an enormous amount of money in 1946 [Somewhere in the vicinity of $118,000+ in today’s currency—RA]. Almost all of those earnings were from his comics work. He was still writing comics when he moved to North Carolina in 1951. RA: That earnings statement for 1946 is significant because online records don’t show any known original comics work by him between the end of 1945 and 1951. Clearly though, he was writing stories, and apparently quite a number of stories, for someone! DRAKE: Yes. I don’t know who for, though. I know there are credits for reprints, but I have a feeling that reprints of comicbook stories wouldn’t be paid for. [laughs] He was working for, I think, the Gold Medal syndicate. RA: Gold Medal was a subsidiary of Fawcett, who published the Captain Marvel comic book that Wellman once wrote. Gold Medal, though, in my memory, published paperbacks. John D. MacDonald earned his fame as a mystery writer doing dozens of paperbacks for Fawcett Gold Medal before he hit the jackpot with his Travis McGee series. DRAKE: Fawcett was the parent company, but Manly worked for Gold Medal. He never mentioned anything to me about writing for Fawcett. That doesn’t mean that he didn’t, of course, but he never talked about Fawcett, only Gold Medal. He was also writing The Spirit for quite a while, three or four years, for the newspaper insert version. RA: Those stories were around a lot longer than between 1942-1945, because they were being reprinted for years after that by Quality Comics, both in Police Comics and Quality’s reprint comicbook version of The

The Spirit Of ’45 Along with William Woolfolk, Manly Wade Wellman stepped in to script The Spirit for creator Will Eisner while the latter served in the military during World War II. Above is the beginning of the Wellman Spirit tale for March 4, 1945. Artwork by Lou Fine. [TM & © Will Eisner Studios, Inc.]

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themselves with knives, displaying great discomfort. Then the villain rises on his bier and the priest cries, “How can this be?” The villain replies, “Cease your jabbering, fools! The Green Claw lives!” He was very happy with that story. He used The Green Claw again, years later, in one of his juvenile stories. An aunt in the story is writing comics and is given a case where the hero is trapped in an absolutely impossible-toescape trap. Manly explained that he’d already killed off the villain but wanted to use him again, but couldn’t figure out how to do it. So Manly put in that “Cease your jabbering, fools! The Green Claw lives!” bit. [both laugh] And I’ve actually seen that magazine, with that story in it. It does exist! I don’t remember if he was called just “The Claw” or “The Green Claw” in that story, or the name of that particular magazine, but it does exist! RA: Manly began his comicbook career at MLJ in 1940 and appears to have worked there for about six months or so. He was also writing for Lev Gleason at that time. Gleason, by the way, had a character—a villain— named Iron Jaw, which sounds similar to the Green Claw. Iron Jaw was a Prussian-looking fellow with huge metal teeth, like bear-trap teeth. Like The Green Claw, he was a super-villain who not only appeared quite

“Z” Is For Zero Hour As mentioned on the first page of this article, Manly Wade Welllman is said to have scripted the entirety of Fawcett’s 1941 Captain Marvel Adventures #1, which was produced in a hurry. In this lead story, the evil Dr. Sivana created “Z,” a foe who’s the “ultimate in toughness,” to take on the World’s Mightiest Mortal. Art by Jack Kirby & Dick Briefer. [Shazam hero & Dr. Sivana TM & © DC Comics.]

frequently, but often appeared to die at the end of each story he appeared in and then was somehow brought back to life for his next appearance. A short time after the MLJ and Lev Gleason work, Manly moved over to Fawcett and wrote all the stories in Captain Marvel Adventures #1 (March 1941). That’s the issue that Jack Kirby penciled. Joe Simon and Dick Briefer were also involved. Fawcett editor Ed Herron must have thought Manly was a pretty good writer, considering he’d only had about six months’ experience writing comicbook scripts, to hand him a brand new title for their leading character.

Claw-ing His Way Into Comics Artist Jack Cole’s colossal Golden Age super-villain The Claw—from his cover for Silver Streak Comics #8 (March 1941)—or “The Green Claw,” as Wellman insisted on remembering whenever he discussed the character with friend David Drake. The towering menace was never called by the longer name in the comics, however. It’s unknown just which “Claw” stories MWW might have written. Maybe someone can tell us, using the dialogue clues that Wellman liked to repeat, as quoted by Drake in this article? [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

DRAKE: You also have to remember that he was a pretty well-known pulp writer at that point as well. He did have stories about writing that first issue of Captain Marvel Adventures. He mentioned one of the artists that he worked with, but I don’t remember the name. RA: If it was for that first issue, it was probably Kirby, Simon, or Briefer. DRAKE: I think I would have remembered Kirby or Joe Simon. Manly and an artist were brought in by whoever was the editor at that time [Ed Herron —RA] and shown an issue of Superman. The editor flipped pages and pointed out scenes that he wanted duplicated in the comic. Then Manly went back and wrote a copy of

David Drake Discusses Friend & Fellow Writer Manly Wade Wellman

whichever issue of Superman he was shown. [laughs]

certainly some of the best fantasy stories being written at that time.

He also would tell the story of the trial that had DC/National Comics suing Fawcett for copying their Superman book with the creation of Captain Marvel. Manly was a witness for National. RA: Well, that must’ve killed his career at Fawcett!

RA: Not only were those stories good fantasy stories, but it was Manly’s stories that probably led me to listening to folk music and some of the sounds of those old blues singers and early bluegrass players like Bill Monroe, the Stanley Brothers, and the Louvin Brothers, among a lot of others. The Louvin Brothers really had an edge!

DRAKE: I doubt that it did him any good there. The National Comics attorney was Louis Nizer, who was a prominent attorney of the period. He wrote the book My Life in Court, which was quite a famous book. It ran in the Reader’s Digest Condensed Books series and is still in print.

DRAKE: Whether they were black or white, those singers were equally poor. That’s where that edge comes from. There’s not that much of a difference in subject matter between Blind Lemon Jefferson and Bill Monroe. Maybe in delivery, but not really in subject matter.

Manly and the illustrator were put in a hotel room and told not to open the door to anybody. They were sequestered, I guess. So Manly and whoever that original artist was were sitting in the hotel room and someone started hammering on the door but they didn’t open it.

RA: Well, it was Manly’s John the Balladeer series that prompted my first exposure to that kind of “down home” music. I always regarded John the Balladeer as a musician who was singing those grittier Appalachian songs. That his wanderings and song choices were, essentially, pre-radio.

In the end, the suit was settled, I suspect at least in part because of Manly’s intended testimony. He’d been deposed about the way they’d been told by editorial to copy the “Superman” stories, and the Fawcett attorney tried to get Manly to say that he hadn’t really worked on that first issue of Captain Marvel Adventures, because, of course, neither the writer or the artist got any sort of credit on the actual book. Manly’s reply was, “I sure as hell did! I worked my name into the word balloons on the first page. If you’ve got that issue, and I gather you do, it will spell out Manly Wade Wellman on the early word balloons.” I think there may have been a couple of editing changes, but if you check out those early word balloons you can tell that “Manly Wade Wellman” is at least partially spelled out there.

DRAKE: Yes! Manly walked around with Vance Randolph, the folklorist. From Randolph he picked up a lot of stuff. When Manly was in Wichita, he attended college on an athletic scholarship. He was a third-string center on the Wichita football team. The college

RA: It was rare for a writer to get any credit back in those days. DRAKE: [laughs] I don’t know if you could exactly call that credit! As you mentioned, his intended testimony probably killed his career at Fawcett. Manly had a hell of a temper. I told you about him breaking his relationship with John W. Campbell. He was quite capable of blowing up at editors and publishers. He wasn’t going to be pushed around. At one point, he was working with Bernard McFadden. McFadden was a blowhard but very much a physical culture guy. Think of him as a predecessor of Charlie Atlas or Jack LaLanne. He also ran a pulp magazine company, initially called the Good Story Magazine Company and then later Teck Publications. Among the titles that he published for a time was Amazing Stories. Manly walked into McFadden’s editorial offices to deliver a story while McFadden was booming, “I can arm-wrestle any man in this office, right now today!” Manly said, “Like hell you can!” Now, McFadden would have been in his sixties, maybe even older than that. Manly was twenty years younger and just flattened McFadden’s arm. [laughs] Needless to say, he didn’t work for McFadden any longer, either. Manly was not a perfect human being, but, by God, he was a man! RA: My first known readings of Manly were his John the Balladeer stories. The public library I went to had the Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction annual volumes, and almost all of the 1950s and early 1960s volumes had a John the Balladeer story included. The character was often referred to as Silver John. DRAKE: Manly didn’t call him Silver John. That was a marketing term made up by his hardcover publisher, Doubleday. The John the Balladeer stories are probably his best-known work. They were

Turning On The Fawcett Wellman created and wrote the early Fawcett feature “Lee Granger – Jungle King,” which debuted in the first issue of the short-lived Slam Bang Comics (March 1940). Granger’s friend was an English-speaking lion, pre-dating Otto Binder’s Tawky the Talking Tiger in Captain Marvel Adventures by some years. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

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RA: “You first eight”? DRAKE: That’s how many cartridges he had in the magazine of that pistol. They got the point. Manly was serious… and they were serious as well. [laughs] The publisher had a ranch-style house, and he slept in a different room every night, in case somebody drove by at night and started shooting into the house. By sleeping in a different room, they wouldn’t know exactly where to aim. It was real—real danger. Manly later became the police reporter in Wichita. At the time, Wichita was a major stop for drugs or bootleg liquor moving across the country. Both East/ West traffic as well as drugs coming up from the Mexican border. RA: As I recall from old crime novels, Kansas—in particular Kansas City—was a well-known syndicate town.

Gentle Country Ballads? John the Balladeer by Manly Wade Wellman (Baen Books, 1988) is a collection of 17 short stories, written in two chronological periods (1951-58) and (1979-86), plus vignettes from 196263, featuring the supernatural tales of Silver John, a folk singer who wandered the Appalachian Mountains. Foreword by David Drake. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

DRAKE: Wichita had its moments, too. Things were more tightly connected back then, because the population was much smaller and corruption was really kind of rampant. Every type of commerce through those areas ran along the railroads and the major highways—no freeways back then— leading right to the various towns.

The photo of Wellman above was taken in 1975. Courtesy of David Drake.

RA: Manly wrote some “Phantom Stranger” stories in 1952-1953. He didn’t create the character—that was John Broome—but he wrote a fair number of the stories for that earlier six-issue run.

would find summer jobs for the athletes, and Manly was sent out to a small-town paper in Kansas.

DRAKE: I don’t know much of anything about The Phantom Stranger.

At that time, in the years right after World War I, the Ku Klux Klan was being reborn. This was not the original Klan. The original Klan was a Southern thing, but the post-WWI Klan was not primarily a Southern phenomenon. It was really centered in the Midwest, with a lot of it in Kansas. Manly interned with a crusading publisher in a small town in Kansas. The publisher had taken on the Klan. So it was Manly and this publisher, working together against the Klan, which was quite powerful at the time. The first thing that that publisher offered him, after Manly had taken the job, was Manly’s choice of an automatic pistol or a revolver to defend himself with. They were both .32s. Manly took the automatic pistol as opposed to a revolver. The publisher warned him to keep that gun with him.

RA: He’s a DC character who’s still around today… a mysterious man who wears a cloak and fedora. He may be a fallen angel, one who didn’t take sides during the war between God and the angel Lucifer. For that lack of faith in God, his wings were torn off and he was thrown out of Heaven but not sent to Hell. Instead, he’s left to wander the Earth for eternity, sort of like the captain of the Flying Dutchman or the Wandering Jew. That’s one of the versions of his origin, anyways.

The printing presses for the paper were up in the editorial offices on the second floor of their building. The first floor had a regular store occupying it. One night, sometime after midnight, when Manly put the paper to bed and was going down the alley stairs of the building, some guys moved into the mouth of the alley and Manly stopped on the stairs. A man called to him, “Come on down, kid. We’ve got something we want to talk to you about.” Manly told me that he pulled out that .32, racked a round in the chamber, and told them to “Come on up, you first eight!” They saw or heard that pistol and sort of drifted away. [chuckles]

DRAKE: [laughs] That’s actually a pretty good concept. RA: Mind you, that was an origin story that was written decades after his debut. In the original stories he was just a spooky man who showed up where supernatural things were happening. In a way he might even be considered a possible prototype for John the Balladeer, who kind of did the same thing. He was always called “the Stranger” because back then, and even to this day, nobody knows his name. He was initially largely a narrator, but gradually he began taking a larger part in the stories he would narrate. John Broome and artist Carmine Infantino are credited with creating the character, but Manly wrote at least three of the original stories, one in the first issue and a couple of others in a later issue. DRAKE: Manly never talked about that character. By the time that book appeared, Manly had moved away from New York but kept sending in his comicbook stories via train up to New York. RA: Tracking down Manly’s actual work can be a chore, since most of

David Drake Discusses Friend & Fellow Writer Manly Wade Wellman

some stories, because he tended to use a lot of ellipses in his “squinkas”… DRAKE: [laughs] I believe that he was still writing comics, even when he was living in Chapel Hill. That’s a significant period of time after he moved to North Carolina. He initially moved to North Carolina after winning the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Story Contest in 1946, with his story “A Star for a Warrior,” beating out William Faulkner. That story revolved around a Native American detective. He moved to Southern Pines, where he was researching his book Giant in Grey (1949), regarding Confederate General Wade Hampton, who was not only a Confederate general but was a major politician in the state after the war. Manly was partially named after him. RA: Wade Hampton is largely unknown outside of South Carolina. How did Manly come to be named after him? DRAKE: Actually, that’s kind of a funny story. Manly’s mom wrote her uncle back in Arkansas, whose name was Manly, that they were going to name their new baby Manly, after him, and Uncle Manly wrote back, “Don’t name him after me! Name him after the General!” Great-uncle Manly had ridden with Wade Hampton during the Civil War and was very much an enthusiast for the General. After their father abandoned the family, they moved in with his mother’s kin in Arkansas and great-uncle Manly, I think, to a considerable degree took the place of a father figure in Manly’s life. He was an important man to Manly. RA: Your namesake often is, and Manly actually had more than one namesake.

Phantom Stranger—Phantom Danger! During his final decade of comicbook scripting, Wellman wrote early “Phantom Stranger” stories for DC Comics, including “The Haunters from Beyond” for Phantom Stranger #1 (Aug-Sept. 1952). Artwork by Carmine Infantino & Sy Barry. [TM & © DC Comics.]

the writers in the 1940s-1950s, and for some companies, well into the 1960s, simply weren’t credited for their work. From 1946 through 1955, Manly’s acknowledged credits are fairly spotty, but, if you’re correct that he was writing steadily for comics during that period, there must be many uncredited stories by him for that time period. I have a note here that mentions that some credit detectives have identified Manly’s writing in

DRAKE: As it turns out, yes. In the late 1940s Manly and Frances moved, not to South Carolina, but about midway between Wade Hampton’s home and the UNC library, where he could do research on Hampton. Then, in 1951, he moved to his later house, just outside Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The house was actually located in a small village called Pinebluff. I’m not even sure it was even incorporated at the time. In 1955 he wrote his last “squinkas” for comics and spent the rest of his days in North Carolina as a teacher and writer, writing the fantasy tales of John the Balladeer and the occult detective stories of Judge Pursuivant and John Thunston. He also wrote more historical nonfiction work and several science-fiction novels.

Wellman & Company (Left:) A get-together with friends. (L. to r.:) David Drake, Manly Wade Wellman, and Dave Shelton talk shop and share stories, 1971. (Right:) MWW in 1973. Both photos courtesy of David Drake.

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COMICS BY MANLY WADE WELLMAN: SYNDICATION The Spirit [1942-43] COMICS STUDIO/SHOP Chesler Studio [Managing editor/writer 1939-41] Sangor Studio [1944]

DC COMICS (NATIONAL) Aquaman [1942-47] Mystery in Space [1951] The Phantom Stranger [1951] Strange Adventures [1951] Tarantula [1942-43]

AMERICAN COMICS GROUP mystery [1949-50] ARCHIE PUBLICATIONS (M.L.J.) Bentley of Scotland Yard [1939-40] Fu Chang [1939-40] Rocket and the Queen of Diamonds [1939-41]

FAWCETT PUBLICATIONS Captain Marvel [1941] Ibis the Invincible [1941] Lee Granger, Jungle King [1940-41] Spy Smasher [1941-42] text fillers [1941] FOX Blue Beetle [1942-43] LEV GLEASON The Claw [1941] MARVEL COMICS (TIMELY) Captain America [1942] Hurricane [1942] QUALITY COMICS Blackhawk [1943-50] Plastic Man [1943-50] David Drake is an author of science-fiction and fantasy, including military SF such as the “Hammer’s Slammers” and “Republic of Cinnabar Navy” series. Visit David Drake at david-drake.com.

The Mask Of The Red Death Among numerous other things, Wellman scribed some early “Spy Smasher” stories, including the tale of the Nazi master criminal The Red Death, in Spy Smasher #2 (Winter 1941). Art by Charles Sultan. [Spy Smasher TM & © DC Comics.]

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KIRBY & LEE: STUF’ SAID

Spotlight on MIKE FRIEDRICH, DC/Marvel writer who jumpstarted the independent comics movement with Star*Reach! Art by NEAL ADAMS, GIL KANE, DICK DILLIN, IRV NOVICK, JOHN BUSCEMA, JIM STARLIN, HOWARD CHAYKIN, FRANK BRUNNER, et al.! Plus: MARK CARLSONGHOST on Rural Home Comics, FCA, and Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! Justice League of America cover by NEAL ADAMS!

WILL MURRAY showcases original Marvel publisher (from 1939-1971) MARTIN GOODMAN, with artifacts by LEE, KIRBY, DITKO, ROMITA, MANEELY, BUSCEMA, EVERETT, BURGOS, GUSTAVSON, SCHOMBURG, COLAN, ADAMS, STERANKO, and many others! Plus FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt with more on PETE MORISI, JOHN BROOME, and a cover by DREW FRIEDMAN!

FAWCETT COLLECTORS OF AMERICA (FCA) Special, with spotlights on KURT SCHAFFENBERGER (Captain Marvel, Ibis the Invincible, Marvel Family, Lois Lane), and ALEX ROSS on his awesome painting of the super-heroes influenced by the original Captain Marvel! Plus MICHAEL T. GILBERT’s “Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt” on Superman editor MORT WEISINGER, JOHN BROOME, and more! Cover by SCHAFFENBERGER!

MIKE HAWTHORNE (Deadpool, Infinity Countdown) interview, YANICK PAQUETTE (Wonder Woman: Earth One, Batman Inc., Swamp Thing) how-to demo, JERRY ORDWAY’s “Ord-Way” of creating comics, JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews the latest art supplies, plus Comic Art Bootcamp by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY! Contains mild nudity for figure-drawing instruction; for Mature Readers Only.

EXPANDED SECOND EDITION—16 EXTRA PAGES! Looks back at the creators of the Marvel Universe’s own words, in chronological order, from fanzine, magazine, radio, and television interviews, to paint a picture of JACK KIRBY and STAN LEE’s complicated relationship! Includes recollections from STEVE DITKO, ROY THOMAS, WALLACE WOOD, JOHN ROMITA SR., and other Marvel Bullpenners!

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GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY ISSUE! A galaxy of comics stars discuss Marvel’s whitehot space team in the Guardians Interviews, including TOM DeFALCO, KEITH GIFFEN, ROB LIEFELD, AL MILGROM, MARY SKRENES, ROGER STERN, JIM VALENTINO, and more. Plus: Star-Lord and Rocket Raccoon before the Guardians, with CHRIS CLAREMONT and MIKE MIGNOLA. Cover by JIM VALENTINO with inks by CHRIS IVY.

HEROES OF TOMORROW! Mon-El hero history, STEVE LIGHTLE’s Legionnaires, and the controversial Legion of Super-Heroes: Five Years era. Plus SEKOWSKY’s Manhunter 2070, GRELL’s Starslayer, Charlton’s Space: 1999 tie-in, Paradox, and MIKE BARON’s unfinished Sonic Disruptors series. Featuring the BIERBAUMS, BYRNE, GIFFEN, MAYERIK, SIMONSON, TRUMAN, VOSBURG, WAID, and more. LIGHTLE cover.

CONAN AND THE BARBARIANS! Celebrating the 50th anniversary of ROY THOMAS and BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH’s Conan #1! The Bronze Age Barbarian Boom, Top 50 Marvel Conan stories, Marvel’s Not-Quite Conans (from Kull to Skull), Arak–Son of Thunder, Warlord action figures, GRAY MORROW’s Edge of Chaos, and Conan the Barbarian at Dark Horse Comics. With an unused WINDSOR-SMITH Conan #9 cover.

Celebrates the 40TH ANNIVERSARY of MARV WOLFMAN and GEORGE PÉREZ’s New Teen Titans, featuring a guest editorial by WOLFMAN and a PÉREZ tribute and art gallery! Plus: The New Teen Titans’ 40 GREATEST MOMENTS, the Titans in the media, hero histories of RAVEN, STARFIRE, and the PROTECTOR, and more! With a NEVER-BEFORE-PUBLISHED PÉREZ TITANS COVER from 1981!

SUPERHERO ROMANCE ISSUE! Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark’s many loves, Star Sapphire history, Bronze Age weddings, DeFALCO/ STERN Johnny Storm/Alicia Pro2Pro interview, Elongated Man and Wife, May-December romances, Supergirl’s Secret Marriage, and… Aunt May and Doc Ock?? Featuring MIKE W. BARR, CARY BATES, STEVE ENGLEHART, BOB LAYTON, DENNY O’NEIL, and many more! Cover by DAVE GIBBONS.

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P. CRAIG RUSSELL career-spanning interview (complete with photos and art gallery), an almost completely unknown work by FRANK QUITELY (artist on All-Star Superman and The Authority), DERF BACKDERF’s forthcoming graphic novel commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Kent State shootings, CAROL TYLER shares her prolific career, JOE SINNOTT discusses his Treasure Chest work, CRAIG YOE, and more!

WENDY PINI discusses her days as Red Sonja cosplayer, and 40+ years of ELFQUEST! Plus RICHARD PINI on their 48-year marriage and creative partnership! SCOTT SHAW! talks about early San Diego Comic-Cons and friendship with JACK KIRBY, Captain Carrot, and Flintstones work! GIL KANE’s business partner LARRY KOSTER about their adventures together! PABLO MARCOS on his Marvel horror work, HEMBECK, and more!

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #78

SILVER ANNIVERSARY ISSUE! How Kirby kickstarted the Silver Age and revamped Golden Age characters for the 1960s, the Silver Surfer’s influence, pivotal decisions (good and bad) Jack made throughout his comics career, Kirby pencil art gallery, MARK EVANIER and our regular columnists, a classic 1950s story, KIRBY/STEVE RUDE cover (and deluxe silver sleeve) and more! (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (DELUXE EDITION w/ silver sleeve) $12.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Now shipping!

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See “THE BIG PICTURE” of how Kirby fits into the grand scheme of things! His creations’ lasting legacy, how his work fights illiteracy, a RARE KIRBY INTERVIEW, inconsistencies in his 1960s MARVEL WORK, editorial changes in his comics, big concepts in OMAC, best DOUBLE-PAGE SPREADS, MARK EVANIER’s 2019 Kirby Tribute Panel, PENCIL ART GALLERY, and a new cover based on OMAC #1! (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Ships Spring 2020

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RetroFan: The Pop Culture You Grew Up With! If you love Pop Culture of the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties, editor MICHAEL EURY’s latest magazine is just for you!

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Interviews with MeTV’s crazy creepster SVENGOOLIE and Eddie Munster himself, BUTCH PATRICK! Call on the original Saturday Morning GHOST BUSTERS, with BOB BURNS! Uncover the nutty NAUGAS! Plus: “My Life in the Twilight Zone,” “I Was a Teenage James Bond,” “My Letters to Famous People,” the ARCHIE-DOBIE GILLIS connection, Pinball Hall of Fame, Alien action figures, Rubik’s Cube & more!

Featuring a JACLYN SMITH interview, as we reopen the Charlie’s Angels Casebook, and visit the Guinness World Records’ largest Charlie’s Angels collection. Plus: an exclusive interview with funnyman LARRY STORCH, The Lone Ranger in Hollywood, The Dick Van Dyke Show, a vintage interview with Jonny Quest creator DOUG WILDEY, a visit to the Land of Oz, the ultra-rare Marvel World superhero playset, and more!

NOW BI-MONTHLY! Interviews with the ’60s grooviest family band THE COWSILLS, and TV’s coolest mom JUNE LOCKHART! Mars Attacks!, MAD Magazine in the ’70s, Flintstones turn 60, Electra Woman & Dyna Girl, Honey West, Max Headroom, Popeye Picnic, the Smiley Face fad, & more! With MICHAEL EURY, ERNEST FARINO, ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, and SCOTT SHAW!

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RETROFAN #5

THE CRAZY, COOL CULTURE WE GREW UP WITH! LOU FERRIGNO interview, The Phantom in Hollywood, Filmation’s Star Trek cartoon, “How I Met Lon Chaney, Jr.”, goofy comic Zody the Mod Rob, Mego’s rare Elastic Hulk toy, RetroTravel to Mount Airy, NC (the real-life Mayberry), interview with BETTY LYNN (“Thelma Lou” of The Andy Griffith Show), TOM STEWART’s eclectic House of Collectibles, and Mr. Microphone!

HALLOWEEN! Horror-hosts ZACHERLEY, VAMPIRA, SEYMOUR, MARVIN, and an interview with our cover-featured ELVIRA! THE GROOVIE GOOLIES, BEWITCHED, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, and THE MUNSTERS! The long-buried Dinosaur Land amusement park! History of BEN COOPER HALLOWEEN COSTUMES, character lunchboxes, superhero VIEW-MASTERS, SINDY (the British Barbie), and more!

40th Anniversary interview with SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE director RICHARD DONNER, IRWIN ALLEN’s sci-fi universe, Saturday morning’s undersea adventures of Aquaman, horror and sci-fi zines of the Sixties and Seventies, Spider-Man and Hulk toilet paper, RetroTravel to METROPOLIS, IL (home of the Superman Celebration), SEA-MONKEYS®, FUNNY FACE beverages, Superman and Batman memorabilia, & more!

Interviews with the SHAZAM! TV show’s JOHN (Captain Marvel) DAVEY and MICHAEL (Billy Batson) Gray, the GREEN HORNET in Hollywood, remembering monster maker RAY HARRYHAUSEN, the way-out Santa Monica Pacific Ocean Amusement Park, a Star Trek Set Tour, SAM J. JONES on the Spirit movie pilot, British sci-fi TV classic THUNDERBIRDS, Casper & Richie Rich museum, the KING TUT fad, and more!

Interviews with MARK HAMILL & Greatest American Hero’s WILLIAM KATT! Blast off with JASON OF STAR COMMAND! Stop by the MUSEUM OF POPULAR CULTURE! Plus: “The First Time I Met Tarzan,” MAJOR MATT MASON, MOON LANDING MANIA, SNUFFY SMITH AT 100 with cartoonist JOHN ROSE, TV Dinners, Celebrity Crushes, and more fun, fab features!

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RETROFAN #9 (NOW BI-MONTHLY!)

RETROFAN #9 features interviews with two TV superheroes, Seventies’ Captain America REB BROWN… and Captain Nice (and Knight Rider’s KITT) WILLIAM DANIELS with wife BONNIE BARTLETT! Plus: remembering the Captain Nice TV series, the Wonderful World of Coloring Books, star-studded Fall Previews for Saturday morning cartoons, an eyewitness account of The Cyclops movie, the actors behind your favorite TV commercial characters, Benny Hill’s invasion of America, a trip to the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention, 8-track tapes, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ERNEST FARINO, ANDY MANGELS, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, Please add $1 per issue and SCOTT SHAW! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.