Alter Ego #164 by TwoMorrows Publishing

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CONTENTS American Comic Book Chronicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Companion Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Digital Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Comics Artists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Modern Masters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Jack Kirby Publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

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Jack Kirby Collector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Draw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Write Now (and “how-to” books) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Comic Book Creator/Comic Book Artist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Alter Ego . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Rough Stuff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Back Issue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 RetroFan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 BrickJournal (LEGO® magazine) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

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Pop Culture Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 LEGO® Publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

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to North Carolina’s stay-at-home mandate). If you have trouble ordering online, we’re happy to take your order by phone or email. 3) Pre-order copies of Alter Ego #164, Back Issue #120, BrickJournal #62, Comic Book Creator #23, Jack Kirby Collector #79, and RetroFan #9, all of which will be shipping by mail over the next few weeks. Or please consider: Since BrickJournal #62 and #63 and RetroFan #9 and #10 (and possibly later issues) will not be sold at Barnes & Noble, now is a great time to… 4) Subscribe or renew your current subscriptions! The next issues of all six of our magazines are ready to go to press, and by subscribing, you’re helping us maintain a regular release schedule for your favorite titles. In 1994, I founded TwoMorrows Publishing with the publication of The Jack Kirby Collector #1. I didn’t start out by selling through comics shops or bookstores—only by mail order and subscriptions. And I’m prepared to keep working that way indefinitely, regardless of when stores and distributors reopen. So stay safe, and together, we’ll keep the World of TwoMorrows spinning for another 25 years! John Morrow, publisher TwoMorrows Publishing 919-449-0344 www.twomorrows.com

Vol. 3, No. 164 / May 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

Rob Smentek William J. Dowlding

Cover Artists

Neal Adams & Dick Giordano

Cover Colorist Unknown

With Special Thanks to:

Heidi Amash Gary Groth Richard Arndt Walt Grogan Bob Bailey Dr. Kurt Hemmer Jean Bails Spud Hilton George Wilson Alex Jay Beahm Sharon Karibian Christopher Boyko Jim Kealy Nick Caputo Mark Lewis Mark CarlsonAlan Light Ghost Art Lortie R. Dewey Cassell Jim Ludwig Shaun Clancy The Morisi Family Comic Book Plus Brian K. Morris (website) Will Murray Comic Vine Barry Pearl (website) Trina Robbins Brian Cremins Bob Rozakis The Dillin Family David Saunders Doug Ellis Tom Sawyer John Fahey Carl Shinyama Shane Foley Dann Thomas Mike Friedrich Anthony Tollin Janet Gilbert Joe Vucenic Grand Comics Qiana Whitted Database (website)

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CONTENTS Writer/Editorial: Streets Paved With Gold And Silver (Ages) . . 2 “I Wanted There To Be Comics That Had A Young-Adult Sensibility” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Writer/entrepreneur Mike Friedrich tells Richard Arndt about DC, Marvel, & Star*Reach.

The Forgotten Super-Heroes Of 1944-45 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Mark Carlson-Ghost on the untold story of Rural Home Publishing & other true crimes.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! The PAM Papers (Part 6) . . . . . 65 Michael T. Gilbert spotlights more of artist Pete Morisi’s voluminous correspondence.

Mr. Tawny’s Shadow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 P.C. Hamerlinck presents Brian Cremins on the day Otto Binder met Walter B. Gibson.

On Our Cover: Many of Mike Friedrich’s early-1970s issues of Justice League of America were blessed in having powerful, oft-symbolic covers by Neal Adams. A case in point: that of #88 (March 1971), whose dialogue we’ve altered to our own purpose in order to recognize the importance of Mike’s 1974 publication of the first true “ground-level” comicbook, Star*Reach, and the many titles that came after it. Inks by Dick Giordano. Thanks to the Grand Comics Database. [TM & © DC Comics.] Above: If there is one super-hero who more than any other stands out from the pack of late-WorldWar-II comics companies who played hide-and-seek with the paper-supply restrictions of the U.S. War Production Board, it would be Chu Hing’s “Green Turtle.” Here, as a sneak peak of what you’ll see in Mark Carlson-Ghost’s long article this issue, is the final page of the Turtle’s timeless tale from Rural Home’s Blazing Comics #1 (June 1944). Thanks to Comic Book Plus website. [© the respective copyright holders.] Alter Ego TM is published 6 times a year by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: 32 Bluebird Trail, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Six-issue subscriptions: $67 US, $101 Elsewhere, $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.

Streets Paved With Gold And Silver (Ages)

writer/editorial

t’s funny how often the original, two-decades-ago “mission statement” of this magazine pokes its grizzled head out of the mists of fogbound history, to remind me of precisely what I had in mind in 1999 when I let publisher John Morrow and Comic Book Artist editor Jon B. Cooke talk me into abandoning flipbook status in CBA to revive Alter Ego as a separate title.

The aim was to divide A/E between dealing with the so-called Golden Age of Comics (my own special area of interest) and the equally so-called Silver Age (which was, if anything, even more my area of expertise, since I’d become a professional part of it in 1965). The issue you hold in your hands is split nicely between Golden and Silver matters. We start with Silver—with Richard Arndt’s splendid interview with Mike Friedrich, who was a prominent fan in the early ’60s and who by 1967 was writing and selling scripts to DC Comics for such top features as “Batman,” The Spectre, and Justice League of America. By the early 1970s, he moved on to Marvel and Iron Man, “Ka-Zar,” et al.—and by the mid-’70s he had launched his own publication, Star*Reach, which can lay claim to being the first true “independent” comicbook. It’s this progression, from fandom to the “Big Two” hero publishers to becoming a publisher/editor himself, that makes Mike’s journey so fascinating and important. Perhaps less “important” to comicbook history as a whole, but no less fascinating, are the subjects of the Golden Age portion of this issue: the often fly-by-night publishers who, during the last year or so of World War II, somehow managed to locate legally forbidden caches of newsprint on which to print material as varied as “The Green Turtle” (one of the most unusual super-heroes of any comics age) and “Pussy Katnip,” among many other funny-animal antics. Mark Carlson-Ghost has researched the hell out of that brief era, and we suspect you’ll be as spellbound by the resulting article as Roy Thomas ' Always-Timely Comics Fanzine

MARTIN MAN OD GOPRE SENTS

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MARVEL COMICS No. 165 (1939-1971)

AND THAT MEANS YOU’RE GONNA SEE PLENTY OF: STAN LEE JACK KIRBY JOE SIMON BILL EVERETT CARL BURGOS LLOYD JACQUET SYD SHORES JOE MANEELY STEVE DITKO JOHN ROMITA DICK AYERS DON RICO ALEX SCHOMBURG MARIE SEVERIN WILL MURRAY ROY THOMAS & MANY MORE!

November 2019

we are. It’s almost like finding a whole new comicbook “age” in between the Golden Age and what’s sometimes called the Atomic Age of Comics. These two lengthy pieces take up most of the air in the issue, since our recent forced cutback from 96 to 80 interior pages. But we still found room for Michael T. Gilbert’s “Comic Crypt” (mostly Silver Age-related this time around)—and for Brian Cremins’ article on Golden Age comics/pulp scribes Otto Binder and Walter B. Gibson in P.C. Hamerlinck’s FCA. And wouldn’t you know, these two features, too, are almost equally divided between the 1940s/50s and the 1960s/70s points of focus of Alter Ego. That’s not to say that some future issue isn’t likely to be top-heavy with Golden Age-connected contents, while the one after that may deal almost entirely with the Silver—but if the history of heroic comics is your meat, you should be happy with either outcome. Even so, we do feel two real lacks this issue, due to those missing 16 pages: One is the contributions of the late Bill Schelly, whose “Comic Fandom Archive” has been an A/E mainstay for the past twenty years. But Bill, who passed away far too young last September, will be remembered—and not for the last time—in our very next issue. Additionally, the length of our two lead features, both scheduled back when we had slightly more pages, has sadly forced the delay of both our John Broome installment and letters about A/E #155 until next time. But maybe we can “double up” therein and get back to being only a year or so behind schedule!

Bestest,

165

COMING IN JUNE

MARTIN GOODMAN

The Man Who Founded Marvel Comics!

[Art © Drew Friedman.]

• Luscious cover painting of Timely/Marvel Comics’ original publisher by DREW FRIEDMAN! • “Merry MARTIN GOODMAN”—discussed and dissected by WILL MURRAY, utilizing a neverpublished 2009 interview with STAN LEE about his “peerless publisher”! With art & artifacts by JACK KIRBY, JOE SIMON, BILL EVERETT, CARL BURGOS, PAUL GUSTAVSON, JOE MANEELY, DON RICO, SYD SHORES, STEVE DITKO, JOHN ROMITA, JOHN BUSCEMA, DICK AYERS, NEAL ADAMS, JIM STERANKO, & numerous others! • A celebration of the life and legacy of the late BILL SCHELLY—A/E’s Comic Fandom Archivist in residence and author of major biographies of HARVEY KURTZMAN, JOE KUBERT, OTTO BINDER, JOHN STANLEY, & JAMES WARREN! Conducted by his friend and colleague JEFF GELB, with salutes to Bill from many fans and pros alike! • Plus—FCA—JOHN BROOME—MICHAEL T. GILBERT, & MORE!!

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“I Wanted There To Be Comics That Had A Young-Adult Sensibility”

Writer/Entrepreneur MIKE FRIEDRICH On DC, Marvel, & His Own Star*Reach Interview Conducted & Transcribed by Richard J. Arndt

Mike Friedrich in a photo that appeared in Alter Ego [Vol. 1] #11, the single issue of this magazine he co-edited and published, back in 1978. In terms of the comicbook industry: during the latter 1960s and the 1970s, he was first the writer, and later the publisher, of noted comics, including scripting the likes of DC’s The Spectre #3 (March-April 1968; art by Neal Adams) and Marvel’s Iron Man #51 (July 1972; art by George Tuska & Vince Colletta)… and editing and publishing Star*Reach #1 (April 1974; cover by Howard Chaykin). Thanks to Art Lorite, Barry Pearl, and the Grand Comics Database, respectively, for the art scans. [Spectre art TM & © DC Comics; Iron Man art TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; Star*Reach art TM & © Howard Chaykin.]

NTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: Mike Friedrich was one of a number of comicbook scripters in the mid-to-late 1960s who got their start as professional writers while still teenagers. Joining the ranks of Jim Shooter, Cary Bates, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Willi Franz, and Gerry Conway, among others, Friedrich’s first published script was for an issue of Batman. Over the next decade, his work appeared in such titles as DC’s The Spectre, The Witching Hour, and Justice League of America. In 1971 he moved to Marvel, where he worked on Iron Man, Marvel Feature (starring Ant-Man), Captain Marvel, and Sub-Mariner, among others. In 1974 he began to transition from writing mainstream comics to his own self-published “groundlevel” comicbook Star*Reach, an anthology title that presented some of the best writers and artists of the 1970s producing comics material that the mainstream publishers wouldn’t publish at that time. More than any other title, Star*Reach—and Friedrich’s swiftly following related titles—laid the foundation and set the stage for the explosion of independent publishers and comics that appeared in the 1980s, an explosion that continues to both transform and influence the comicbook market of

Writer/Entrepreneur Mike Friedrich On DC, Marvel, & His Own Star*Reach

today, even though Star*Reach itself expired in 1979. This interview was conducted via telephone on April 14, 2016. RICHARD ARNDT: Thanks for agreeing to do this, Mike. Start us off with your early life, would you, please? MIKE FRIEDRICH: I was born in Oakland, California, and went to high school there. Then I attended Santa Clara University, circa 1967-1971. I sold my first comic story a couple of months before I graduated from high school. In fact, writing for comicbooks is what paid my way through college. My first sale was a ten-page “Robin the Boy Wonder” back-up story. I sold it in May of 1967 and used that money to fly to New York for the first time in my life. That story ran in Batman #202 [cover-dated June 1968]. That wasn’t the first story of mine that saw publication, but it was the first one that sold. They held onto it for a while before they published it. ARNDT: I have your first published story as the lead tale in Batman #200 [Mar. 1968].

ARNDT: That’s the one that I remember. I was just looking at the covers of those two anniversary comics and I don’t recognize the Batman cover at all, but the Detective Comics one, with Batman holding up the two comicbooks—Detective Comics #27 and Batman #1—is the one that I read at the time and remember well. FRIEDRICH: I remember having a lot of fun writing that. I didn’t have to worry about creating the plot, which was always my problem, because it was already done. I could just riff off of the original storyline and try to make it interesting. I had fun with that story. ARNDT: Now the “Spectre” story featured the re-introduction of Wildcat, who hadn’t been seen in fifteen years or more at that point. That, I would think, would have been kind of a big deal also. FRIEDRICH: At that point, Julie had been slowly reviving the 1940s characters in various forms. There had been several team-ups in Showcase. The Spectre had just gotten his own title. I was not a big Wildcat fan, but I’d enjoyed the character from the Justice Society comics that I’d collected. I thought Wildcat was the most interesting unused character at that point. To me now it seems kind of weird to

FRIEDRICH: That’s not quite correct. It was The Spectre #3 [Mar.Apr. 1968], which came out on a Tuesday, and then Batman #200 came out on Thursday the same week. [laughs] ARNDT: So distributors delivered magazines and comics twice a week in the late 1960s? When I was working the bookstores in the mid-1970s, books and magazines came out every Tuesday, to be put out on Wednesday morning. I’m pretty sure that’s how they’re still doing it today—even on the Internet. FRIEDRICH: I have no idea how the distribution system worked anywhere. In the area where I was living at the time, they delivered new comics on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In other markets they may have been released on the same day, so it was still pretty close to a simultaneous publication of The Spectre and Batman. The Batman #200 story was my second story accepted, and the Spectre #3 story was my third sale. I sold both of them in the summer of 1967. I was still very much a novice at learning how all of this worked. From then on the stories came out pretty much in the order that I wrote them. ARNDT: Was it a big deal writing the story for the 200th issue of Batman? Nowadays it would be quite a special event. FRIEDRICH: I think that was the first time DC made a big deal about that type of thing. Julie Schwartz was the editor, and he guessed that fans would appreciate anniversary issues. He was taking advantage of the fact that this comic fan was now writing for him, and that was why he assigned me the issue. It was purely for that reason. I don’t remember if he gave me any guidelines on the story. I’m pretty sure that I was the one who suggested using The Scarecrow as the villain, but I don’t think that there was anything, except possibly the cover, that really pushed it as an anniversary tale. Less than a year later, I was asked to write the 30th-anniversary issue of Batman appearing in Detective Comics [#387, May 1969]. That was very purposefully done. That was also Julie’s suggestion. It was an update of the original “Batman” story from Detective Comics #27 [May 1969]—“The Case of the Chemical Syndicate,” with that first story being reprinted in the back of the book. The original story was only six pages, but it had a lot of panels, so it wasn’t that difficult to redo it as a 17-page updated version.

Rockin’ Robin!

Chic Stone

Wow! Looks like Mike was lucky enough, with his very first professional sale to Batman #202 (June 1968), to work with “Batman” co-creator Bob Kane! Okay, okay—so actually, despite the then-omnipresent signature, Kane’s artistic “ghosts” on this occasion were penciler Chic Stone and inker Joe Giella. But that’s not a bad pair to start out with, right? Thanks to Bob Bailey. [TM & © DC Comics.]

“I Wanted There To Be Comics That Had A Young-Adult Sensibility”

And Now For Something Completely Earlier… Neal Adams around the time he first entered the comicbook industry circa 1966.

Two stories by Mike F. that apparently came out, at least some places, on Tuesday and Thursday in the very same week (yes, that’s right—back then, comics hit the stores twice a week, not just once—they were a mass market then, remember?)—two months before the first story Mike had sold to editor Julius Schwartz appeared: the Neal Adams-drawn “Prologue” to The Spectre #3 (March-April 1968), and the lead tale in the giant-sized Batman #200 (March ’68), again drawn by Stone & Giella as “Bob Kane.” Thanks to Art Lorie & Bob Bailey. [TM & © DC Comics.]

put The Spectre and Wildcat together in the same comic, but I managed it somehow.

I mean, it’s really a Wildcat story guest-starring The Spectre. The Spectre doesn’t even show up until the second half of the story. ARNDT: You were working strictly for Julie Schwartz at this point? FRIEDRICH: For the first year, yes. I was going to college and needed to concentrate on that. I’d only been in New York that first summer, between high school and college, and so I was just working for Julie. I’d been introduced to [Superman line editor] Mort Weisinger, but there was no chemistry there. I was also introduced to the other editors, but I wasn’t trying to work for them. I was only eighteen years old. Also, I was totally a Julie Schwartz fan. It was my fan sensibility that was motivating me at that point. I had no sense of trying to have a career writing comics or anything like that. It was really very… present time… just the idea that this would be a fun, and fannish, thing to do. So I then wrote a couple of stories during my college freshman year. I did a “Green Lantern” story that featured the Golden Age Green Lantern and the contemporary one in a team-up. Then I did that Detective Comics re-do. Then I went back East again, between my freshman and sophomore years, and DC really treated me royally at that point. In the meantime, Carmine Infantino had

Julius Schwartz Taken during fan John Fahey’s visit to the DC offices in 1965. First appeared in A/E [Vol. 1] #9.

become the new editorial director. They decided they wanted to use me to help promote a younger, hipper readership. Little did they know! [laughs] I was then actually asked to write for all the editors.

By that second summer DC had hired Dick Giordano and Joe Orlando. So I did my first stories for them. I wrote a Challengers of the Unknown for Murray Boltinoff. I helped relaunch The Phantom Stranger for Joe Orlando. I did a Teen Titans issue for Dick Giordano. And I did a few more stories for Julie, who, although he’d helped set up all this work for other editors, was, I think, a little resentful of all these other people using me. The Julie stories were, at this point, back-up stories—“Robin” and “Batgirl” tales. I think I wrote the “Batgirl” stories first, and then started up the “Robin” stories. I kept going with the “Robin” stories because I was more comfortable with him. I never quite understood what “Batgirl” was all about. By my third year I was much more independent. I was a couple of years older and there were now some contemporaries of mine working for DC. Gerry Conway, Marv Wolfman, and Len Wein were starting to get regular writing work. I needed to do more of my own assignment-getting, instead of having the editor bring them to me. I was doing about half to two-thirds of my work for Julie and the other third for Dick Giordano.

Writer/Entrepreneur Mike Friedrich On DC, Marvel, & His Own Star*Reach

“The Case Of The Comicbook Syndicate” (Above:) Irv Novick’s dramatic cover for Detective Comics #387 (May 1969—the 30th anniversary of Batman’s debut) led into Mike Friedrich’s rewrite of the first Batman caper under a different title (with art by Bob Brown & Joe Giella) based on the 1939 story by Bob Kane (artist) and Bill Finger (writer) from Detective Comics #27 (May ’39). Thanks to Bob Bailey. [TM & © DC Comics.]

That summer of 1969, between my sophomore and junior year, was when I wrote my first story for Marvel. It was a Western story of some sort [NOTE: Western Gunfighters #1, Aug 1970. —RA]. By the end of that summer was when I started receiving my first regular assignments. By my fourth year of college I was regularly writing Justice League of America [from #86, Dec. 1970, though #99, June 1972], as well as the back-up “Robin” stories appearing in Batman. ARNDT: You brought back Wildcat and The Phantom Stranger to the DC stable. Did you bring back Solomon Grundy in Justice League, or had he already been returned earlier? FRIEDRICH: He had come back in an earlier Golden Age team-up that Gardner Fox wrote and Murphy Anderson drew. That was two or three years before my story. ARNDT: I noticed that, when they brought him back, he looked a good deal stouter than he’d appeared in the 1940s. Then, he was simply a dead-white zombie with incredible strength, but when he came back he looked a bit more like a dead-white Hulk… FRIEDRICH: That bulking up was, I believe, done by Murphy Anderson. He was the artist to draw his return and so he would have done the new design.

Wildcat Strike! Wildcat, the Irwin Hasen/Bill Finger masked heavyweight boxer who’d made his four-color debut back in Sensation Comics #1 (Jan. 1942), was given the Mike Friedrich/Neal Adams treatment in 1968’s The Spectre #3. Thanks to Art Lortie. [TM & © DC Comics.]

ARNDT: There was a story that I really remember vividly that was done for Joe Orlando’s House of Mystery called “His Name Is Kane!” It was a mystery/horror story that managed to parody some of the DC staff as well. They were in Cain’s House of Mystery and were actively involved in the story. Was that in your original story, or did Gil take that on himself to put the editorial staff and himself in the story? FRIEDRICH: That was editor Joe Orlando’s idea. I was a willing victim of it is, I guess, the way to put it. Joe wanted to make fun of

“I Wanted There To Be Comics That Had A Young-Adult Sensibility”

A Double Splash... Is Better Than None? Mike Friedrich scripted a new story for editor Joe Orlando’s revived Phantom Stranger #1 (May-June 1969), with art by Bill Draut (though we’ve only room to print half of its double-page splash)… and a full-lengther for Dick Giordano’s Teen Titans #19 (Jan.-Feb. ’69), illustrated by Gil Kane & Wally Wood. Thanks to Jim Kealy & Sharon Karibian. [TM & © DC Comics.]

Joe Orlando Photo by Bob Rozakis.

“Mayhem” Of Two Worlds Gil Kane had been the originating artist (read: co-creator) of the Silver Age “Green Lantern.”

Splash page of the “two Green Lanterns” tale in Green Lantern #61 (June 1968), one in a series of stories in which the 1960s Emerald Gladiator encountered the 1940s one. Script by Mike Friedrich; art by Gil Kane & Sid Greene. Thanks to Bob Bailey for the scan. [TM & © DC Comics.]

Dick Giordano

Writer/Entrepreneur Mike Friedrich On DC, Marvel, & His Own Star*Reach

Dick Dillin Photo courtesy of Walt Grogan & the Dillin family.

Walking The Plankton (Above & right:) When he took over the scripting of Justice League of America from Denny O’Neil as the series’ third regular writer (Gardner Fox having been the first), Mike brought in newspaper-headline subjects right from the start, as per the theme of potential world starvation in his initial effort, #86 (Dec. 1971). Cover by Neal Adams; interior art by Dick Dillin & Joe Giella. Thanks to the Grand Comics Database & Art Lortie, respectively. [TM & © DC Comics.]

“Born On A Monday…” There was only one Solomon Grundy—whether you were on Earth-One or Earth-Two! Script by Mike Friedrich; art by Dick Dillin & Joe Giella. From Justice League of America #92 (Sept. 1971). Thanks to Art Lortie. [TM & © DC Comics.]

“I Wanted There To Be Comics That Had A Young-Adult Sensibility”

“Tall, Dark, Handsome, And Missing” An action page from the “Batgirl” story of the above title in Detective Comics #384 (Feb. 1969). Script by Mike Friedrich; pencils by Gil Kane; inks by Murphy Anderson. Thanks to Art Lortie. Seen at left is a photo of Mike at DC, probably circa 1970, in the room where DC kept its valuable bound back issues. Courtesy of Jean Bails. [TM & © DC Comics.]

Gil Kane. And then have Gil Kane draw the story that made fun of himself. There was a bit of a rivalry between Carmine Infantino and Gil Kane, which goes back twenty years earlier when they were kids drawing for DC. I never understood it. I was a fan of Gil’s and loved every opportunity to work with him. Gil had been making public statements on how the writing in comics was terrible, which I took a small offense to. So I used the opportunity to kind of parody some of Gil’s own statements to his detriment. In my mind now, though, it was a needlessly vicious story. I am embarrassed that I was a part of it. ARNDT: OK. I hadn’t really thought of the story in that way. You had a lot of really good artists drawing your stories in your first two or three years. Neal Adams, Irv Novick, Gil Kane… a lot of younger writers don’t get the A-quality artists on their stories. Schwartz, Giordano, and the rest must have had a high opinion of your scripts. FRIEDRICH: I have no idea about that. I think they had a higher opinion of my scripts until I wrote them. [laughs] Len, Marv, and Gerry were doing a much better job than I was, in retrospect. Plus, they were living in New York, so it was easier for them to pick up work. They raced ahead of me quite easily.

Raising “Kane” Splash page of “His Name Is… Kane!” from House of Mystery #80 (May-June 1969), in which penciler Gil Kane was forced to draw his own terrifying demise. The story was apparently editor Joe Orlando’s idea, and Mike today regrets having agreed to script it. Inks by Wally Wood. Thanks to Jim Kealy. [TM & © DC Comics.]

Writer/Entrepreneur Mike Friedrich On DC, Marvel, & His Own Star*Reach

Which Witching Hour? Mike wrote the prologue, this interlude, and the epilogue in The Witching Hour #7 (Feb.-March 1970), which were illustrated by Alex Toth (see above)—as well as the script for “The Haunted House in Space” in WH #14 (April-May ’71), drawn by Al Williamson & Carlos Garzon. But nobody bothered to give him a byline for any of them! Thanks to Jim Kealy & Ray Cuthbert, respectively. [TM & © DC Comics.]

Alex Toth From the house fanzine Amazing World of DC Comics #5 (March-April 1975).

“Batgirl.”

Still, I was very fortunate. In addition to the artists you named, I really enjoyed working with Alex Toth on the introduction material for The Witching Hour. Gray Morrow drew a story or two of mine. Al Williamson drew one story of mine, about witches in outer space [The Witching Hour #14, Apr.-May 1971]. I had a lot of different things that Gil drew— Green Lantern, Flash, Teen Titans, “Robin,”

ARNDT: How did you get involved with Skywald? FRIEDRICH: That would have been the summer of 1970. I was having trouble getting work from DC for a few weeks. Sol Brodsky had left Marvel to help form Skywald and had apparently asked either Stan Lee or Roy Thomas if they could refer talent his way. Roy was only too happy to refer DC talent to Skywald. [both laugh] So he sent everybody who was working for DC over to Skywald. I went there and met them. I wrote them a story that was really awful [“The Pollution Monsters” in Nightmare #1, Dec. 1970]. I really didn’t enjoy writing it, nor the experience of working with their editor. I so disliked working on it that I didn’t even go and pick up my check. I had them mail it to me.

ARNDT: You also had one other story with them. You’re credited for writing a “Butch Cassidy” story for them for Butch Cassidy #1. [A/E Al Williamson EDITOR’S NOTE: Since this interview was conducted, we discovered that the Grand Comics Database contains erroneous information re Skywald’s Butch Cassidy #1 (June 1971), whose lead script it ascribes to Mike. As the credits in the comic itself make clear, it was Gary Friedrich (no relation) who scribed the latter yarn.] FRIEDRICH: I don’t remember that one at all. I only remember doing the one story for them. I don’t think I even talked to them about a second story. That first story was such a negative experience that I can’t imagine having done a second story for them. Somebody who would have more likely worked on Butch Cassidy was Len Wein. I’m not positive, but given what kind of work Len liked to do at the time, you might check with him on that. [NOTE: This interview was conducted shortly before Len Wein’s passing.] The Western story I do remember doing was with Tom Sutton. It was called “The Renegades” [Western Gunfighters #1, June 1970], set just after the Alamo, and I don’t really remember how that came about. By that point, I would have known Roy Thomas socially. He must have called me up and asked me if I could do it and I said

“I Wanted There To Be Comics That Had A Young-Adult Sensibility”

Skywald’s The Limit! Mike wrote only one script for I. Waldman & Sol Brodsky’s Skywald company: “The Pollution Monsters” appeared in Nightmare #1 (Dec. 1970), with art by Tom Sutton. Thanks to Jim Ludwig. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

sure. He may well have plotted the first story—there were three, all told—but I’m really not sure of that. I seem to remember that I just did the dialogue work on it, but it’s too fuzzy in the background for me. Maybe he remembers. I remember Roy complimenting me on some vintage rural language usage that I did—a dialect that you don’t usually see in comics. I really don’t remember writing any but the first story, but I may have written one or two more. I wasn’t trying to work for Marvel at all at that point. I still saw myself as a DC writer, but it helped lay the groundwork for my main Marvel work. I started there in late 1971 or early 1972 or so. ARNDT: Before we move on to your years at Marvel, there was another DC short piece I wanted to ask you about. It was for a Joe Kubert war title—Our Army at War #236 (Sept. 1971)—illustrated by John Severin and called “22 Hours to San Francisco.” It was a little Vietnam story, at a time when the war books at both DC and Marvel avoided that war nearly completely. I think both companies were a little scared that people would get upset with them no matter what the story was about. Your story had no dialogue at all. FRIEDRICH: Well, as you mentioned, Joe Kubert had become the editor of the DC war comics. I can’t remember the sequence exactly, but I was still in college and I’d started flying to

“Call Them.. Renegades” ran for only two or three episodes, beginning in Marvel’s Western Gunfighters #1 (Aug. 1970). Roy Thomas conceived and plotted the first story for artist Tom Sutton, then turned the yarn over to Mike Friedrich to dialogue as his very first assignment for Marvel. Originally titled “The Outcasts” (and rechristened by Stan Lee), it starred several survivors of the Alamo—and was “inspired,” if that’s the word, by Roy’s dim memories of the 1953 horse opera The Man from the Alamo, starring Glenn Ford. Thanks to Nick Caputo for the scans. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Tom Sutton

Writer/Entrepreneur Mike Friedrich On DC, Marvel, & His Own Star*Reach

“War’s Over If You Want It!” The splashes of Mike Friedrich’s three off-beat war stories, done for editor Joe Kubert; all scans courtesy of Art Lortie: “Come the Revolution,” from Our Army at War #217 (March 1970), with art by longtime Tomahawk artist Fred Ray. “The War Is Over,” from OAAW #227 (Jan. 1971); art by Frank Thorne. “22 Hours to San Francisco,” from OAWW #236 (Sept. ’71); art by John Severin. [TM & © DC Comics.]

New York during the Christmas and spring breaks. Just for a week or two. Joe had become quite famous—he had this little tag line at the end of his stories that read “Make War No More.” I thought that was funny because I always thought his war books were pro-war comics. They glamorized being in the military. That was not, it turns out, what Joe thought they were doing at all. Joe thought he was simply telling what it was like to be at war if you were in the military. It was, to Joe, always about the personal aspects of being in this situation. So, being the young, arrogant man that I was, I thought I would test this idea of “personal stories” by doing a story that had an anti-war slant to it. I actually did three of them. There was one set in the Revolutionary War that Fred Ray drew, and then there was one by Frank Thorne called “The War Is Over.” The Revolutionary War story was about two brothers who get really upset about the Revolution, and we got a lot of radical college rhetoric, which I was taking right from the then-current debates about the Vietnam War, and I put that into the American Revolutionary context. It then turns out the two brothers had really different ideas as to what side

“I Wanted There To Be Comics That Had A Young-Adult Sensibility”

to be on. One brother ended up shooting the other one. Now, I had nothing to do with John Severin being assigned the art for “22 Hours to San Francisco.” I had nothing to do with Kubert’s art assignments. That story came out in the late summer of 1971, and I’ll tell you a related story. As I said, I was visiting New York during the 1971 Christmas break. Irv Novick’s son—whose name I don’t remember, just that he was Irv Novick’s son—but he called up Joe Kubert as I happened to be walking by Joe’s office. Joe waves and says, “Come on in here.” I find out that Irv Novick’s son was a Vietnam veteran, working against the war in Washington, DC.

Bernie Wrightson Photo of 20-year-old Bernie from the Joe Vucenic collection, taken by George Wilson Beahm; provided to A/E by Christopher Boyko.

Of course, he knows his dad had done all these “Haunted Tank” comics and whatnot. So he was totally familiar with DC war comics. He was completely astonished to read this little story in Joe’s comic. So he calls Joe up. As he was talking to Joe on the phone, Joe told him, “The writer’s right here!” [laughs] We had a brief chat on the phone. He was totally astonished that DC Comics had published that story. I told him that I’d asked Joe if I could do a story like that and Joe said, “Sure, fine.” I think he was surprised to hear that. I learned that Joe had his own sense of integrity. ARNDT: That story may have started a trend, as even Robert Kanigher, who’d written a lot of the DC war comics from the 1950s on, wrote quite a few anti-war stories in that brief 1971-1974 period. Kanigher had that nice one with Alex Toth called “White Devil… Yellow Devil.” There was also “The Tally,” which was also with Toth. They may not have appeared with any great regularity in the serials in the front of the war books, but the back-up stories during that period often had anti-war stories. Joe was also running Sam Glanzman’s “U.S.S. Stevens” series that focused a lot on that sort of thing.

“Feed It!” Mike wrote this story for Bernie Wrightson to draw. It appeared in Web of Horror #3 (April 1970). [© the respective copyright holders.]

FRIEDRICH: Yes, I remember “White Devil… Yellow Devil.” That was a good one. There was also the ambiguity of the “Enemy Ace” series. I enjoyed that aspect of that book. ARNDT: You did do one story for Major Publications’ black-&-white horror magazine Web of Horror, with Bernie Wrightson on the art. It was called “Feed It!” FRIEDRICH: I never met the editor for that story. My only contact for that was Bernie. I knew Bernie socially. He was a fairly new artist at that point. He and a bunch of other people—Frank Brunner was one of them—had made this connection to this publisher out in Long Island. Bernie must have asked me to do this, because I wrote the full script before he drew it. It was published, I think, in the third issue, and then the company collapsed or something. [NOTE: Actually, Robert Sproul, the publisher, simply had no interest in continuing the magazine after the editor, Terry Bisson, left. Sproul canceled the magazine without telling anyone. When Wrightson and Bruce Jones, who thought they were the new editors, visited the offices, they found that Sproul had moved without leaving any forwarding address. Frank Brunner, who’d visited the offices several days earlier and

apparently seen what was going on, had rescued as much artwork as he could and returned it to the various artists. Read the full story in my study “Caught in a Web of Horror” in A/E #81. Bernie Wrightson passed away, unfortunately, in 2017. —RA.] Bernie got the original artwork back. Every time Bernie republished that story, he’s sent me a royalty check. ARNDT: Good! That’s the way it should work. FRIEDRICH: Exactly. That’s how it should work. I must have done that in late 1969 or early 1970. I don’t remember the specifics but I created that story. It wasn’t co-plotted or anything. It was one of the few horror comics where I actually “got it.” The tone, the rhythm was there and, for me, that was usually difficult. Of course, by then I’d already done quite a few “mystery” stories for Dick Giordano for either The Witching Hour or House of Secrets. ARNDT: In fact, I think you wrote the very first House of Secrets story—that one that explained the origin of the House. They were moving it down the highway or something like that, for the first revamped issue of House of Secrets [in 1969]. FRIEDRICH: Yeah. Jerry Grandenetti drew that. It was the first appearance of the House and the first appearance, I think, of the

Writer/Entrepreneur Mike Friedrich On DC, Marvel, & His Own Star*Reach

Bringing Down The House! The third page of the story “Don’t Move It!” from House of Secrets #81 (Aug.-Sept. 1969), the first issue of the revived comic—with script by Mike Friedrich, and highly stylized art by Jerry Grandenetti. Thanks to Bob Bailey. [TM & © DC Comics.]

Marvel. They gave me Iron Man, because it just happened to be a book that they needed a writer for. When DC learned that I was writing Iron Man, they fired me from all of my regular writing assignments there. Then Marvel filled in my schedule with their stuff.

Jerry Grandenetti A caricature from an issue of Warren Publishing’s Creepy. [TM & © New Comics Company LLC.]

Once I started writing at Marvel, the work started coming out much more quickly, because they were pretty close to deadline at Marvel. I did Iron Man more or less continually for roughly four years. There were a couple of issues during that time that I did not do, but by and large it was continuous for me on that title for four years. ARNDT: What was the difference in the bullpens between DC and Marvel at the time? FRIEDRICH: I was still mostly working out of California at that time. After I graduated from college, I did come and live in New York for a little under a year. It was during that time that I made the transition from DC to Marvel. After that period I returned to California, so I was only working directly with the Marvel bullpen a few months. Most of the time I delivered my scripts in what passed for overnight mail at the time. There was no FedEx or e-mail, but the post office did have an overnight mail system. I did keep up my connections by visiting the bullpen every month or so, but not a lot. That was one reason that my career didn’t really stick at Marvel. To work there, you needed to be in the office a lot more

George Tuska & Iron Man George penciled Iron Man for years, beginning with issue #5 (Sept. 1968). Here’s the splash page of his first teamup with scripter Mike Friedrich, for Iron Man #48 (July 1972), the latter’s first Marvel superhero assignment. Inks by Vince Colletta. Thanks to Barry Pearl & R. Dewey Cassell. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Mike Friedrich (above, left) with his future editor Roy Thomas amid fans and Marvel folk at the 1967 New York comics convention, on Mike’s first trip East to confab with his DC editor, Julius Schwartz. But Roy and Mike hit it off, so it was just a matter of time.

host, Abel. I thought it was interesting to tell the story of the House more than the host. ARNDT: Now it’s on to the Marvel years. Sometime in late 1971 or early 1972 you moved to Marvel and took over, well, several series, but most prominently Iron Man. FRIEDRICH: I had a flare-up with Julie Schwartz in the fall of 1971. It resulted in me calling Roy Thomas up and saying I wanted to start working for

“I Wanted There To Be Comics That Had A Young-Adult Sensibility”

Three To Get Ready… Three of Mike’s shorter-term assignments included these series and issues: Marvel Feature #5 (Dec. ’72), starring “Ant-Man”— art by Herb Trimpe. Mike scribed #4-10.

Herb Trimpe From 1969 Fantastic Four Annual.

Astonishing Tales #15 (Dec. ’72), showcasing “Ka-Zar”—art by Gil Kane & Tom Sutton, including this very Eisneresque splash page. Thanks to Barry Pearl for these scans. Sub-Mariner #51 (July 1972), which was plotted and drawn by Bill Everett, and dialogued by Mike, who’d become close friends with the creator of Prince Namor. Mike also provided a bit of uncredited help on an issue or two.

than I was. At that [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] time, anyways. The other big reason was the quality—or lack of it—in the writing. ARNDT: You did work on quite a few series, right off the bat. You were writing Iron Man, “Ant-Man” in Marvel Feature…

FRIEDRICH: “Ka-Zar” came along at that time, also, or fairly soon afterwards. I don’t remember the sequence of when I took over titles. I was working on Sub-Mariner for a while. Iron Man Bill Everett was the one I worked on right away, and the one From 1969 FF Annual. that lasted the longest. Sub-Mariner came about because I’d been roommates with Bill Everett. Bill was slowly getting back into doing his own artwork, up until his health collapsed. He passed away in early 1973. So I was part of writing the stuff he was drawing. I was doing it with him, but I wasn’t really connected with the character. I was connected to him. Bill was penciling and inking the entire book

Writer/Entrepreneur Mike Friedrich On DC, Marvel, & His Own Star*Reach

when I got involved. They were beautiful issues, but there were only two or three of them. I think I also worked with Al Weiss on a five- or six-page “Sub-Mariner” story [Sub-Mariner #54, Oct. 1972] that was eventually used as a back-up story. I don’t remember how that came about anymore. I think Al was still getting started and it was a way for Roy to test him out.

sun was an interesting concept for the time. There were interesting things going on in that book.

ARNDT: You were mentioning the sequence and you started on Iron Man, did a couple of Western fill-in stories, followed by work on the Sub-Mariner, “Ant-Man,” and then Warlock.

FRIEDRICH: I’m getting a lot of questions now about this because of the movies and the Infinity Stones. I’m having trouble reconstructing a lot of it. What I do remember was that Starlin and I were housemates, in a house on Staten Island in the summer of 1972, when he was just getting started and I was writing Iron Man. I think Roy assigned Starlin to Iron Man to introduce Starlin’s new character Thanos. I don’t think Jim came to me first. I think he brought it to Roy first, and Roy, knowing we were housemates, put us together. He basically told Jim, “Yes, you can introduce your characters if you make it an ‘Iron Man’ story.” So Jim introduced Drax the Destroyer and Thanos in this Iron Man job. Then Jim took the concept over to Captain Marvel, and I came along for the ride.

FRIEDRICH: Warlock would have come alone fairly soon. That led to the only story I ever worked on with John Buscema [Warlock #2, Oct. 1972], and it was just a real pleasure to work with him. He was a fabulous artist. He did only the one issue. Afterwards, I did several more issues with Gil Kane. Then I think I went off it for several issues, and when I went back, Bob Brown was drawing it. I’d worked with Bob over at DC, on the “Batman” comics. ARNDT: This was during the period when Warlock was modeled after the Jesus Christ, Superstar/Christ-like figure, correct? FRIEDRICH: Yes. I had fun with that, too. I would have more fun with that today. ARNDT: It was an interesting strip. It’s overlooked now, largely because of what Jim Starlin did when he took over the character, but the Christ allegory and the alternate Earth with no super-heroes on the far side of the

Now, where you started scripting Captain Marvel, was that because you knew Jim Starlin? I believe he was plotting and drawing the book and you were providing dialogue?

After two or three issues, Jim was figuring out that he could make a lot more money and have more control over his work if he did the dialogue work himself. So he began doing his own writing. There was one story where he had three chapters, and he wrote the middle chapter and I did the other two. That convinced Roy that Jim knew how to do dialogue, and so Jim took over the writing as well as the plotting and penciling of the following issue. A few issues down the road, he got into deadline trouble and he called me up to ask me to write the copy for one more issue, which would explain the last issue I did. So Jim was plotting those stories and I was just going along for the ride. I had a great time, because it was fun to work with his material. Regardless of what the credits on any given issue were, if it involved Thanos, Jim plotted it and I supplied the copy. I will take credit for making sure that, in the Iron Man job, Jim got credit for creating Thanos and Drax, because the only person who would have had the ability to give the artist the credit for something like that was the writer. The editors wouldn’t have paid any attention at all to something like that. If I’d written the credits traditionally as “story by Mike Friedrich, art by Jim Starlin”—thirty years later there would have been different economic consequences. But I’m not that kind of a guy, and I thought it was really important. By then we all knew that Jack Kirby wasn’t getting the credit he should have gotten, so I made sure that Jim got the credit he deserved. For the first three, maybe even four, years I was at Marvel, I was doing a lot of work for them. I was writing, I think, three comics a month. Sometimes four. That was twice as much as I’d been doing at DC. I made a ton of money working at Marvel, compared to what I was earning at DC. And this was before there were sales royalties. Just page-rate work. But I was able to do a lot more pages per month at Marvel, especially because of the way they worked. At that time, they were doing the Marvel method, where the artist did a lot more of the visual development than the writer did. That saved time and I made out much better. ARNDT: With all that work, what made you decide to start up Star*Reach?

Over-The-Counter-Earth Mike got his baptism of fire on Warlock in issue #2 (Oct. 1972), dialoguing a story plotted by Roy Thomas—with layouts by John Buscema and finished art by Tom Sutton. Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

John Buscema Again from the 1969 FF Annual.

FRIEDRICH: Well, in my mind, I didn’t find the two things—publishing my own book and working for Marvel—incompatible. It was just that Star*Reach was doing stuff that Marvel wasn’t doing. I wanted there to be comics that had a young-adult sensibility instead of a juvenile sensibility. That’s what

“I Wanted There To Be Comics That Had A Young-Adult Sensibility”

Jim Starlin in the U.S. Navy, circa 1969, a few years before his Marvel debut. From Jim’s 2010 autobiography Jim Starlin: A Life in Words and Pictures.

FRIEDRICH: Yes, that’s right. You’ll need to talk to Roy about the sequence of events from his perspective. What I remember was that Roy was on the outs with Marvel for some period of time. I happened to be in New York during this time. Roy had the connections and the rights to this story with the Robert E. Howard estate. He decided he wanted to do the Bran Mak Morn story for somebody other than Marvel. I told him I’d do it. He said, “Sure, fine.” He got Barry drawing it. In fact, Barry may have already started drawing it at the point I had the conversation with Roy. But then Roy patched things up with Marvel and he felt that he now really couldn’t have a competitor doing the Bran Mak Morn story because Marvel was beginning to do these black-&-white sword-&-sorcery magazines. However, I don’t know why Barry stopped drawing it. I have no connection with that end of the story at all. I don’t know what happened there.

But, at some point, Roy assigned the remainder of the story to Tim Conrad, who drew it in a Windsor-Smith style to finish the job. It was published in one of Marvel’s black-&-white magazines, but I don’t know where [NOTE: The Savage Sword of Conan #16-17, Dec. 1976-Feb. 1977 —RA], but this was several years after the time I was talking to Roy about it. I would have been talking to Roy in 1971 or 1972, more than likely.

Thanos For The Memory! Though he’d been seen in profile earlier in the issue, and his legs on the preceding page, it was this page in Iron Man #55 (Feb. 1973) that really introduced the waiting world to Thanos, who would (between Jim Starlin’s comics and later the Marvel movies) become one of the best-known super-villains ever. Jim plotted and drew the story, with Mike providing the script. Mike reports that he designed the story credit “Plot, pencils, and character conceptions by: Jim Starlin” so Jim would get full credit for Thanos and Drax the Destroyer. However, despite Mike’s statement that “the editors wouldn’t have paid any attention at all to something like that”: in actuality, an assistant editor brought that credit to the attention of editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, who had no objection to it. As long as it didn’t use the actual word “create,” he figured Marvel wouldn’t mind, just as Gary Friedrich had gotten credit for “conceiving” the “Ghost Rider” feature a bit earlier. Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

led to doing Star*Reach. Certainly, the earlier issues of Star*Reach were oriented in that direction. If you look at the Starlin-ChaykinGiordano-Brunner material, those were the people doing those stories and they tended to be more adult versions of super-hero stories. ARNDT: When we spoke some years back, you mentioned that the very first story you wanted to publish in Star*Reach was an adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s “Worms of the Earth.” It’s a Bran Mak Morn story, set in the British Isles, after the Romans had invaded but had largely abandoned the Isles. Those pages that were started for that story would have been the nine or ten pages that Roy Thomas and Barry WindsorSmith did that later appeared in an issue of The Savage Sword of Conan, correct?

ARNDT: Roy had mentioned somewhere, in 1973 or thereabouts, that Barry was working on the pencils, but I talked to Tim Conrad some years back and he mentioned that the first few pages were complete, very tight pencils, and that after three or four of those, the pencils got looser and looser until they were basically layout pencils. Tim told me that made the transition from Barry’s art to his own a little easier because the change was more gradual than if it had just switched abruptly. FRIEDRICH: I don’t remember even seeing the artwork. I just remember it being a conversation with Roy in New York, during one of my visits. It might have even been during the year I lived there. However, it was in October of 1973 that I contracted with Jim Starlin and Howard Chaykin for their material for the actual Star*Reach #1. The deal with Roy was long dead by then. I was still doing Iron Man for Marvel, but most of the other things I was doing were fill-ins, I think. I would do Iron Man for at least another year or so, but the other stuff, the material, just got less and less interesting to me. It got to a point where I was less interested in what they were offering—they had better options with writers who were local—in New York, so I was falling down the totem pole at Marvel pretty fast. At the very end, I was turning down assignments. I remember doing Werewolf by Night with Mike Ploog. That was fun, though I actually had a hard time with the more “mystery” characters like Werewolf, Morbius, that type of thing. I was a super-hero guy, and I just had a hard time making the shift. You could probably tell that from the stories I wrote for them. ARNDT: I liked that “Dracula” story “Assault of the She-Pirate!” you did for Dracula Lives #7 [July 1974]. FRIEDRICH: That one was kinda fun. I don’t remember it specifically, but I remember having fun while I was doing it. George Evans drew that one. It was fun to do and fun to see it in print.

Writer/Entrepreneur Mike Friedrich On DC, Marvel, & His Own Star*Reach

ARNDT: Now, with Star*Reach, you’d contracted with Jim Stalin, who clearly had some short stories lying around… FRIEDRICH: Actually, I think I was talking to Howard Chaykin more than Jim Starlin at that point. Star*Reach was originally going to be 32 pages—the same size as a regular comic of the day, although with no ad pages. Howard was doing sixteen of those pages, and Jim was doing the other sixteen. They sent me the material in January of 1974. At that point, at the last minute, I decided to change the format to 48 pages. I thought an anthology should have a lot of stories in it. So I called somebody up, probably Chaykin but maybe Starlin, and asked if he could help me find sixteen more pages. Chaykin, or maybe Starlin, said that they knew this new kid who’d showed up named Walt Simonson. They said, “He’s got a twelve-page story.” I don’t remember how I talked to Steve Skeates, but he had these fish stories that he was doing. I knew Steve socially also and had roomed with him briefly, but I don’t remember if I talked to him or if someone else did. Walt had drawn his story in art school, in Rhode Island, but the dimensions were off for reproduction on a normal-sized comicbook page. His art only took up something like three-quarters of the

page, so he drew this little wordless strip that ran at the bottom that had nothing to do with the story running on most of the page. [laughs] However, I don’t even remember even meeting Walt until a couple of years after I launched Star*Reach and his story got published. I had his address, so I mailed him his check, but I don’t remember meeting him until much later. There was a one-year overlap between starting Star*Reach and my continuing to work at Marvel. It wasn’t until I’d put out the second issue, in 1975, that I began to think that I was more interested in doing that than continuing to write the comics for New York. At some point, I gave Marvel thirty days’ notice that that issue of Iron Man would be my last. I think Archie Goodwin was the editor at that point, although I barely spoke with him. By that point, my only real contact was with the production department—getting the material in.

Barry WindsorSmith At the time he drew his pages of “Worms of the Earth,” he was still using his birth-name “Barry Smith.”

The “Worm” Turns Double-page splash of “Worms of the Earth.” This first of two parts, begun artwise by Windsor-Smith with its later pages completed by Tim Conrad, appeared in The Savage Sword of Conan #16 (Dec. 1976), quite some time after it had been begun. Script by Roy Thomas. Unfortunately, Roy recalls if anything even less about the beginnings of the adaptation than Mike does, except that it had at one time been a substitute for a “Conan” black-&-white story that Barry had earlier agreed to do for Savage Sword. Roy feels it was probably a mere pipe dream of his to even think about adapting the Robert E. Howard yarn outside Marvel, since he was on staff at the latter at the time he and Mike discussed it. Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Robert E. Howard Properties, LLC.]

“I Wanted There To Be Comics That Had A Young-Adult Sensibility”

cover. He was doing his character Dragonus in that issue. By then I was getting enough submissions from writers and artists that I was able to fill out material beyond lead features. I could only afford to pay New York rates for the lead features. Then the other material I was paying half as much. I did one of the leads—“Stephanie Starr” led off #2 and it was based on an idea that I George Evans developed for DC, but then Dick Giordano He had been a left his position and the story just sat there on mainstay of EC the shelf for several years. Dick did draw it for Comics back in the Star*Reach. There was a part of me that wanted to 1950s. continue to do it, but by the time I was doing the publishing, I just lost my enthusiasm for writing altogether. I did a couple of stories in the late 1970s, but they were one-offs. Tell you what, though, I’m sure Roy would like me to end up with my Marvel years and leave Star*Reach for maybe another time. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: Not totally, of course—but much of the history of Star*Reach, though important to comics’ history, is outside Alter Ego’s general time-franchise, and probably should be explored more fully elsewhere. In fact, it already has been—in The Star*Reach Companion, a volume written by Richard Arndt for TwoMorrows Publishing in 2013 and still available from this publisher at twomorrows.com.] ARNDT: Well, then, is there a DC or Marvel story that you’d like to point out as your favorite or one that you’d like readers to take a closer look at?

“Yo-Ho-Ho And A Bottle Of Blood!” Splash page of “Assault of the She-Pirate” from Dracula Lives #7 (July 1974). Script by Mike Friedrich, art by George Evans. Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

FRIEDRICH: Wow, I don’t know. The one that kind of leaps first to mind was my homage to Harlan Ellison that I did in Justice League [“The Most Dangerous Dreams of All!” from Justice League of America #89, May 1971]. I enjoyed doing that. I’d become a big fan of his work, and I was trying to figure out how to bring that type of character into the comics. It was mostly a Green Arrow and Black

I remember one time there was a Steve Gerber comic—I’ve blanked out the name of it—where Gerber had gotten into terrible deadline trouble and they had this entire issue that had been drawn. It just showed up in the mail. They called me and said that they needed it returned in 48 hours. I said, “OK.” [laughs] I don’t even remember the story, but Steve was doing some pretty strange stuff at the time. I called him up and asked, “Can you explain this ending?” and he said, “Noooo.” [laughs] So I wrote it as best I could and let the pictures speak for themselves. It was one of the last things I did, within the last six months. [NOTE: This was probably a “Son of Satan” story, for Marvel Spotlight #23, Aug. 1975. —RA.] ARNDT: To me, Star*Reach #3 [Sept. 1975] was where that series really seemed to come together. You had a great cover, great stories throughout. FRIEDRICH: Yes, that had a Frank Brunner

Frank Brunner circa the early 1970s—and his wraparound cover for Star*Reach #3 (Sept. 1975), featuring his swordand-sorcery hero Dragonus. Thanks to Jim Ludwig. To purchase a Brunner art commission, visit his website at http://www.frankbrunner.net. [Art TM & © Frank Brunner; Star*Reach TM Mike Friedrich.]

Writer/Entrepreneur Mike Friedrich On DC, Marvel, & His Own Star*Reach

Reaching For The Stars The three most memorable stories from Mike Friedrich’s Star*Reach #1 (April 1974) were: “Cody Starbuck” by Howard Chaykin. [TM & © Howard Chaykin.] “…The Birth of Death” by Jim Starlin. [TM & © Jim Starlin.] “A Tale of Sword and Sorcery” written by Ed Hicks & illustrated by Walt Simonson. Art on this page thanks to Jim Ludwig & Art Lortie. [TM & © Ed Hicks & Walt Simonson.]

Howard Chaykin at a comics convention in 1970. Thanks to Gary Groth.

Walt Simonson A photo taken, admittedly, some years after his Star*Reach debut.

“I Wanted There To Be Comics That Had A Young-Adult Sensibility”

Starr’s In Their Eyes (Above:) The kid from Castro Valley, California, scripted the “Stephanie Starr” story in Star*Reach #2 (April 1975). Art by Dick Giordano. Thanks to Art Lortie for both art scans on this page. [TM & © Mike Friedrich & Estate of Dick Giordano.] (Right:) Mike in an early ad for Star*Reach Productions. [TM & © Star*Reach Productions.]

Canary story, with minimal participation from the other characters. However, the comic that I enjoyed most was doing Marvel’s Warlock. Even though I did Iron Man a lot longer, it was a bit of a slog. I was never really on the same page as the artist. I never really felt I was in sync with that, even though I wound up writing it for so many years. But I remember enjoying all the issues of Warlock that I worked on. I loved the concept and enjoyed playing around with it. I got some great art support there from John Buscema and Gil Kane. The stuff I did for DC that I remember the best was mostly the small stuff. It was doing the war stories, doing the Witching Hour intros that Toth drew—Neal Adams did one of them, too. I also enjoyed shoehorning Neal into four pages of Justice League [#94, Nov. 1971]. We wound up introducing a character, Merlyn, in that issue that’s now appearing on the Arrow television show. Neal did the character design for him. That was the fun stuff. The story I had the most emotional connection with at DC, though, was the “Batman” Christmas story—“The Silent Night of the Batman” [Batman #219, Feb. 1970]. That story has appeared

many, many times since its first appearance. Most recently in the collected Neal Adams Batman Omnibus—the giant collection that DC just put out. ARNDT: Yes, that one’s breaking my shelves at this very moment! [laughs] FRIEDRICH: That story holds up very nicely. ARNDT: You did three of those short “Batman” back-up stories, and all three of them hold up pretty well. FRIEDRICH: Batman was the character that I wished I could have written more of at DC. I just happened to be in an environment where a master—Denny O’Neil—was doing the material, and there was no way I could match his quality. Still, I enjoyed working on that character quite a bit. He was probably my favorite DC character. Every “Batman” story I wrote I enjoyed, one way or another. ARNDT: Well, I know you’d like to do a separate, complete interview on Star*Reach—but after that anthology folded in 1979 you returned to Marvel for a couple of years, setting up their direct sales department, an extremely important job that I don’t think most fans are aware of. FRIEDRICH: Yes. When Star*Reach collapsed, I set up the Marvel direct sales department and worked there a little over two years. Got it established and on a solid footing, then hired my replacement—Carol Kalish—and returned home to San Francisco. I was commuting home every month, between San Francisco and New York, for two years, and that really wore on me. If Marvel had been headquartered in San Francisco, I would have happily kept working for them.

Writer/Entrepreneur Mike Friedrich On DC, Marvel, & His Own Star*Reach

But I came back [to San Francisco] and set up an artist agency on a lark, and that ended up going for close to 25 years. I helped create, with some partners, the annual Wonder-Con convention in that time as well. That convention was eventually sold to the Comic-Con people. Following all of that, I went into an alternate universe and became a union rep at the University of California, representing scientists and technicians. I did that until I retired four years ago. Following that, I went into a third alternate universe—went to seminary and became an ordained deacon in the Methodist Church, which is what I’m doing now. ARNDT: Well, congratulations. FRIEDRICH: It’s a half-time, volunteer position, doing a lot of regional church stuff. ARNDT: Well, I thank you for taking the time to do this. FRIEDRICH: I’m looking forward to seeing this.

Addendum: BILL FINGER AWARD Speech [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: In 2019, Mike Friedrich was presented with the Bill Finger Award at the San Diego Comic-Con. This award is given each year to one living, and one deceased, comicbook authors, in the words of Awards Committee chairman Mark Evanier, “to recognize writers for a body of work that has not received its rightful reward and/or recognition.” The Award was founded by the late Jerry Robinson, early ghost artist of “Batman” and later a major comic strip cartoonist, in honor of his friend Bill Finger, the long-unacknowledged co-creator of “Batman.” The following, in response to many requests which Mike has had for a copy of it, is his acceptance speech on that occasion: I only met Bill Finger once, but my introduction to comic fandom was that I collected Batman, Batman, Batman. I loved Batman! It was only much later that I learned that so many of my favorite stories from the golden years of 1941 and ’42 were written by Bill Finger. This lack of recognition is a stain on our history that I’m glad is being addressed. In my case, this award is less appropriate, as there is a better reason why I was overlooked, as my enthusiasm for writing far outstripped my craft. Still, nonetheless, enthusiasm counts, passion counts. As many teenagers discover, the world is not as well-ordered as our education tends to teach us. In my case, I learned that things frequently “just weren’t fair,” and I chose to do something about fixing it. This desire motivated my writing letters to the editor, dozens of them. It motivated my then writing the actual comics you’re honoring tonight. It motivated my publishing, where the creators owned their work. It motivated how I established formal trade terms when I established the direct sales department for Marvel.

Mike Friedrich today (well, maybe yesterday) in his home in Berkeley, California; he is currently a deacon in the Bay District of the California-Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church. Mike feels a special connection with “The Silent Night of The Batman,” a story he wrote for Batman #219 (Feb. 1970)— again with art provided by Neal Adams (with Giordano inks). Thanks to Bob Bailey for the scan; photo by Spud Hilton. [TM & © DC Comics.]

It motivated my two-decade agency, representing dozens of artists… later motivated my move into the union movement at the University of California… more recently, motivates me today, where in a Christian church context I’m involved in supporting human rights in Palestine. The series I wound up enjoying the most writing was the Justice League of America. Something spoke to me then about the power of unlikely people working together to face challenges larger than any one of them. In these present times, it’s by working with each other than we’ve got a chance to address climate change, racism, and homelessness. I have to thank Neal Adams, who at the ripe old age of 25 took me under his wing and showed me the ropes… my editors, Julie Schwartz, Dick Giordano, and Roy Thomas… my writer colleagues, Gerry Conway, Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, and Elliott Maggin… my letter-column pen pals Irene Vartanoff and Guy Lillian… TISOS, you know who you are… …and most especially my partner in crime and in love, Lee Marrs. Thank you.

“I Wanted There To Be Comics That Had A Young-Adult Sensibility”

(Clockwise) Memories Three of Mike’s favorite super-hero stories to write were: “The Most Dangerous Earth of All” in DC’s Justice League of America #89 (May 1971), in which he introduced “Harlequin Ellis,” an homage of sorts to science-fiction author Harlan Ellison, as per this page drawn by Dick Dillin & Joe Giella, with Mike himself portrayed in pagen 1— JLA #94 (Nov. ’71), “Where Strikes Demonfang?,” for which Neal Adams drew this page of his early signature hero Deadman departing from Aquaman’s body— —and Marvel’s Warlock, as exemplified by the Gil Kane/Tom Sutton splash from issue #3 (March 1972). Thanks to Chris Day and Barry Pearl, respectively, for the art scans. [JLA pages TM & © DC Comics; Warlock page TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Get the STAR*REACH COMPANION Complete history of the influential 1970s independent comic, featuring interviews with and art by DAVE STEVENS, FRANK BRUNNER, HOWARD CHAYKIN, STEVE LEIALOHA, WALTER SIMONSON, BARRY WINDSORSMITH, KEN STEACY, JOHN WORKMAN, MIKE VOSBURG, P. CRAIG RUSSELL, DAVE SIM, MICHAEL GILBERT, and many others. In addition to extensive historical coverage by author RICHARD ARNDT, the book also features full stories from STAR*REACH and its sister magazine IMAGINE, including a Cody Starbuck story by HOWARD CHAYKIN, ‘Marginal Incident’ by Fables artist STEVE LEIALOHA and, presented for the first time in the original, intended version, ‘Siegfried and the Dragon’ by P. CRAIG RUSSELL, one of the first of his operatic adaptations. Cover by CHAYKIN! MATURE READERS ONLY. (192-page paperback w/COLOR) $27.95 Only $10 ISBN: 9781605490519 • (Digital Edition) $9.99 Diamond Order Code: APR131262

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Writer/Entrepreneur Mike Friedrich On DC, Marvel, & His Own Star*Reach

MIKE FRIEDRICH Checklist [This checklist is adapted primarily from information provided in the online Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999, established by Dr. Jerry G. Bails and viewable at www.bailsprojects.com. A pair of errors have been corrected. Names of features that appeared in comicbooks both of that title and in other magazines as well are generally not italicized below. Key: (w) = writer; (ed) = editor; (pub) = publisher.] Name & Vital Stats: Friedrich, John Michael (b. 1949) – editor, writer, publisher, business agent Education: B.A., University of Santa Clara [CA] Honors Through 1999: Inkpot Award (San Diego Comic-Con) 1980 Independent Comics: Pacific Comics: fillers (w) 1983-84; illustration (w) 1983; text (w) 1984-84 Star*Reach Productions: Star*Reach (w) 1975, 1977; Stephanie Starr (w) 1975; support (ed, pub) 1971-79, 1991

From California He Came… From Time To Time! Splash page of the second Green Lantern issue scribed by Mike Friedrich while still living in northern California: #73 (Dec. 1969). Art by Gil Kane & Murphy Anderson. Thanks to Art Lortie. [TM & © DC Comics.]

Note on Comics Career: Agent and distribution consultant; Star*Reach Agency c. 1982-92; organizer, Star*Reach Trade Show c. 1985-87; organizer, Wondercon c. 1988-92; story packager, Heavy Metal, Pacific, First, Marvel c. 1979-80, 1983-86 COMICBOOK (U.S. Mainstream Publications) – all credits as writer unless otherwise noted:

Mike F. & Lee Marrs at the 1982 San Diego Comic-Con… juxtaposed with the final story page from Justice League of America #89 (May 1971), the tale whose Neal Adams/Dick Giordano cover graces the cover of this issue of Alter Ego. Script by Mike Friedrich; pencils by Dick Dillin; inks by Joe Giella. Thanks to Bob Bailey for the scan, and to Alan Light for taking the photo. [TM & © DC Comics.]

DC Comics: Batgirl 1969; Batman 1968-70; Challengers of the Unknown 1969; Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love 1972; Fabulous World of Krypton 1972; fillers 1970; The Flash 1969-71; Green Lantern 1968-70; House of

“I Wanted There To Be Comics That Had A Young-Adult Sensibility”

Whole Lotta Chaykin Goin’ On! Howard Chaykin’s wraparound cover for Star*Reach #4 (April 1976)—probably done not long before he began working on Marvel’s Star Wars #1. Han Solo was perhaps influenced artistically by Cody Starbuck, since George Lucas liked Chaykin’s work and requested him as the artist on the Star Wars comic—another influence owed to Mike Friedrich’s Star*Reach title. [TM & © Howard Chaykin.]

Mystery 1969; House of Secrets 1969, 1971; Justice League of America 1969-72; Our Army at War 1969-71; The Phantom Stranger 1969; Robin 1968-72; Secret Hearts 1969-71; Sgt. Rock 1984; The Spectre 1968-69; Superman & Hawkman 1972; Superman and Robin 1971; support (asst. ed) 1971; Teen Titans 1969; The Witching Hour 1969-71 Eclipse Enterprises: filler 1984, 1986; Star*Reach Classics (ed, w) 1984 reprint; Stephanie Starr (w) 1984; support (ed) 1984 on Star*Reach reprints First Publishing: Elric: The Sailor of the Seas of Fate (ed) 1985-86; Elric: The Weird of the White Wolf (ed) 1986-87 Major Magazines: Web of Horror 1970 Marvel Comics: Ant-Man 1972-73; The Brothers Link 1971; Captain

America 1974; Captain Marvel 1973-74; Dr. Strange 1973; Dracula 1974; The Golem 1974; Iron Man 1972-75; Ka-Zar 1972-74; Monsters on the Prowl 1971; Morbius 1974; Outlaw Kid 1972; The Renegades 1970-71; Sub-Mariner 1972; support (asst. ed) 1972; support (ed) 1974; support (manager, direct sales) 1980-82; Thing & Iron Man 1973; Warlock 1972-73; Werewolf by Night 1974 Seaboard/Atlas Comics: Nightmare 1970

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A Fond & Ferrous Farewell Mike’s final issue in his nigh-continuous four-year run on Marvel’s Iron Man was issue #81 (Dec. 1975). Pencils by Chic Stone; inks by Vince Colletta. Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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NEW FOLIO COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Selected and introduced by ROY THOMAS

Preface by MICHAEL MOORCOCK

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Art by John Romita. Captain America TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

MARVEL: THE GOLDEN AGE 1939–1949

MARVEL’S 1970s

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The WHO’S WHO of American Comic Books 1928-1999 Online Edition Created by Jerry G. Bails Art by Joe St. Pierre. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Since this issue’s “re:” letter-col got bounced, here’s Shane Foley’s colored “maskot” art for it. [Captain Ego TM & © Roy Thomas & Estate of Bill Schelly—created by Biljo White; Alter Ego TM & © Roy & Dann Thomas—costume design by Ron Harris.]

The Forgotten Super-Heroes Of 1944-45

The Untold Story Of RURAL HOME & Other True Crimes by Mark Carlson-Ghost Lindsay L. Baird The legally and ethically challenged publisher of Rural Home Comics (and probably a behind-the-scenes presence in several other WWII-era comics publishers as well, if the truth be known)—plus artwork featuring three memorable, yet somehow almost totally unremembered, super-heroes of the year 1944 and, at least in terms of cover dates, early ’45. Baird photo courtesy of David Saunders. (Clockwise:) Maureen Marine attacks a Hitlerian octopus on the cover of Blue Circle Comics #3 (Sept. ’44); art possibly by Harold Delay. The Duke of Darkness in a dramatic splash by underrated artist John Giunta, from Triple Threat Comics #1-and-only (Winter 1945). (The Duke’s the one at bottom, facing a Nightmare-ish foe, Mr. Slumber.) El Kuraan, on the splash of his introductory story in Red Circle Comics #3 (March 1945). There were apparently just two tales of this early Muslim comicbook hero. Artist and writer unknown. Courtesy of the Comic Book Plus website. All comic art accompanying this article, unless otherwise indicated, was provided by author Mark Carlson-Ghost. [TM & © the respective copyright holders.]

The Untold Story Of Rural Home Comics & Other True Crimes

upply and demand. That’s the simplest explanation for the explosion, back in 1944, of short-lived super-hero features— and the equally short-lived companies that published them. Almost all of the heroes have names only the most diligent students of comicbook history will recall: Maureen Marine, The Duke of Darkness, and El Kuraan, to name but a few. They were a quixotic bunch, and only a few of them deserved a longer shelf life on the newsstands than what they got. But what they lacked in pedigree, the character concepts often made up for in sheer inventiveness. However, equally interesting is the story behind these heroes, the men (and at least a few women) responsible for the raft of new publishing ventures in the closing years of World War II. Rural Home, Spotlight, William H. Wise: the list is long. And there were more than a few shady real-life characters in the narrative about to unfold. The most important thing to understand about this brief period in comicbook history is that stringent paper quotas were set by the U.S. federal government early in 1943. But the demand for comicbooks remained the same. In an era of world war, if anything, the desire for escapist fantasies increased. So do the math. Reduced product on the newsstands, and the same or increased demand, meant that just about everything on sale sold out. In short, there were huge profits to be made by anyone able to create product. And not everyone was particularly scrupulous about honoring a law on paper use that, on the face of it, seemed very challenging to enforce. The backstory of this influx of offbeat, short-lived heroes (and publishers) is largely untold. Established stars like Superman and Captain America would just have to make room. The Green Turtle, Purple Tigress, and a raft of often ill-conceived wannabes were on their way.

The L-241 Paper Limitation Order After the attack on Pearl Harbor, what unfolded during the subsequent months prompted regulations limiting the amount of paper used in publishing. For one thing, the supply of available pulp paper was down, due to fewer (undrafted) men to cut down the trees and fewer (rubber) tires for the trucks that were needed to transport that lumber for processing. At the same time the wartime need for that paper dramatically increased. “Paper is a war weapon,” Batman somberly explained in 1944 in a one-page public service announcement in Detective Comics #86. “It’s used to make countless military items like parachute and bomb bands, containers for army rations and for shells, war maps and naval charts and many other battle necessities.” True enough, but it became apparent to the federal government that the biggest publishers of books, magazines, and newspapers were able to buy up most of the remaining available pulp for paper. This left smaller publishers—or less well-healed larger ones—out in the cold. As such, the government instituted paper conservation measures on January 1st, 1943. Policies allotted companies new quantities of paper based on their volume of consumption during the base rate year of 1941. Each existing publisher could utilize only a notably smaller percentage of paper than they’d used in that year. There were also separate regulations for publishers of newspapers, magazines, and books. They were covered under Limitation Orders L-240, L-244, and L-245, respectively.

The Butler Did It! Jerry Robinson, then an art “ghost” for Batman co-creator Bob Kane, drew this DC public service announcement featuring Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred and a couple of masked employers. [TM & © DC Comics.]

An important caveat was that there was a small-publisher exemption, spelled out in Limitation Order L-241, which addressed the regulation of commercial printers. As long as a small publisher notified the War Production Board afterwards, and didn’t use more paper than allowed, they would not be considered in violation of the legal limit. Any excess usage would need to be made up by the printer who allowed it. For comicbook publishers finding themselves under paper use restrictions for the first time, the impact on their schedules was almost immediate. The first sign of modified schedules appeared in comicbooks cover dated March 1943, which makes sense if you remember that the dates on comicbooks were usually two or three months ahead of the actual calendar. Some under-selling titles were canceled on the spot, and some others were reduced from monthly to bimonthly status. As restrictions grew tighter, the total number of pages in most comicbooks was reduced from 64 (not counting covers) to 56 or even 48. Not everyone, however, was content to play by these new rules. As will be seen, certain packagers tried to find ways around these limits, sometimes seeking a surrogate publisher who had not used his entire allotment and who was willing to use it on the packager’s behalf. This could be legal, but only if the surrogate publisher notified the WPB in triplicate within one month of the transaction. A second strategy was to seek out individuals who were not actually publishers but who were willing to put their name and

The Forgotten Super-Heroes Of 1944-45

address in the indicia of a one-shot comicbook. In this way, the individual technically acted as a small publisher as long as he stayed within certain limits. But sometimes the same packager and de facto publisher might be behind a half-dozen or more such one-shots, clearly violating the spirit of the law. Such cooperative activity could be seen as a conspiracy to defraud the government. A third strategy was simply to obscure one’s publishing efforts, ignore the governmental restrictions, and hope not to get caught. A final strategy has not been mentioned before in comicbook histories, at least to my knowledge. That was to use a book or newspaper publisher’s paper allotment for printing comicbooks. So far as this author can tell, such an approach would also have been illegal. However, given that some book publishers also dabbled in comicbooks, it was likely hard to track. The history that follows centers on the comics of Rural Home Publishing Company, a brash new player in the already crowded comicbook market of 1944. In my humble opinion, Rural Home used more creative strategies to circumvent the new regulations than any other existing company. The article will also shine a light on other publishers who ran afoul of the new laws. But to understand the unique strategy of Rural Home as a comicbook enterprise, we must also look at the comic art shops who supplied pre-packaged material for them.

Lloyd Jacquet’s Forgotten Heroes Lloyd Jacquet charged a lower page rate for the material produced by his comic art shop (Funnies, Inc.) than did most of his competitors. Its glory days of producing Carl Burgos’ “Human Torch” and Bill Everett’s “Sub-Mariner” for Martin Goodman’s Timely Comics were well behind it now, although Funnies still produced stories featuring those characters for Timely Comics, albeit now with lesser talents. But Jacquet had no difficulty in

finding work for his studio, often with smaller companies that couldn’t afford to pay for a more expensive product. Consolidated Magazines was one such company, owned and operated by Joseph A. Rubinstein. Consolidated Magazine’s two titles, Key Comics and Lucky Comics, both debuted in issues coverdated January 1944. They were distributed by FDC, Fawcett’s distribution arm, and were described as monthlies. By the second issue, however, a skittish Rubenstein noted in a text page that his comicbooks were “now published quarterly due to War Production Board limitations on use of paper.” Someone must have alerted Rubenstein of the legal problems that would have resulted from a monthly schedule. Jeffrey Quick, Key Comics’ number-one hero, proudly declared, “Since I am the possessor of the Key, I have no need for masks, costumes, or superhuman powers!” In the first two issues, Quick carried the magical Key on the end of a rope as a sort of bolo. The Key also served as a signal of danger, glowing whenever evil was near. With issue #3, Quick became merely a collector of keys, telling the story behind a different one each issue. Key’s other borderline super-hero was Gale Leary, the Will o’ the Wisp. When Gale was just a baby, her mother was murdered and the killers placed a willow branch in her small hands to keep her from crying. As an adult, Gale hunted down her mother’s killers, sans any special costume, but with the aid of that willow branch, which granted her magical powers. These powers seemed limited to glowing in the dark and making Gale impervious to attack, for reasons never clearly explained. Consolidated’s second title, Lucky Comics, showcased Lucky Starr, a run-of-the-mill photographer and adventure feature. That was pretty much it. Both of Consolidated’s titles ran only five issues, scattered over a two-year period. Later issues listed Jacquet as a co-owner. That same year, the Jacquet Studio began work for Camera

Lloyd Jacquet The legendary founder of Funnies, Inc.—bookended by the covers his comics shop produced for Key Comics #1 (Jan. 1944; art by Walter T. Johnson) and Lucky Comics #1 (Jan. ’44; cover artist uncertain). The former spotlights Gale Leary, a.k.a. the Will o’ the Wisp. [© the respective copyright holders.]

The Untold Story Of Rural Home Comics & Other True Crimes

Comics’ distributing arm, FDC. The designation of Rural Home as publisher was not yet present. Blazing Comics was headlined by “The Green Turtle,” whose partially masked face was always obscured or turned away from the reader, perhaps to create an air of mystery. Another more interesting possibility was that, by not showing the hero’s face, an Asian-American artist named Chu Hing could make it ambiguous as to whether the hero was white or Asian. While aiding the Chinese against the Japanese invaders, the Turtle sported a distinctive green cape that gave the appearance of a turtle’s back. A large black shadow of a facially expressive turtle followed behind the hero wherever he went. It was all engagingly strange. And here, at least, “good” Asians were portrayed alongside evil ones. That said, the Chinese need for a white savior, if that was The Green Turtle’s ethnicity, was unfortunate.

More For ’44 Two of Jacquet’s other 1944 forays into producing comics for small publishers were Camera Comics for U.S. Camera and Yellowjacket Comics for Levy & Santangelo, the future proprietors of Charlton Comics. Linda Lens strikes an action pose on the cover of Camera #3 (Dec. 1944), courtesy of an unknown artist—while George Gregg drew the insect-herding hero on that of Yellowjacket Comics #2 (Oct. ’44). [© the respective copyright holders.]

The Blazing line-up also included “Redhawk” (a Native American aviator), “The Black Buccaneer” (a historical swashbuckler who was white, despite his name), and “Jun-gal,” the racially insensitive story of a white female Tarzan-type grown strong with the aid of her black “Mammy.” It was an odd mix, to say the least. Blue Circle Comics, for its part, rotated its cover honors between its five main features, which included a hero by the same name.

Comics (featuring the spunky news photographer Linda Lens) and Edward Levy and John Santangelo’s Yellowjacket Comics. Secretly detective-story writer and amateur beekeeper Vince Harley, Yellowjacket could summon his namesakes with the stirring cry of “Bees to me!” His costume was a striking combination of yellow and black. The other super-hero in Yellowjacket Comics was Diana the Huntress. The heroic goddess was drawn in a style reminiscent of H.G. Peter’s Wonder Woman, after whom she was clearly patterned. Yellowjacket also featured the guerilla efforts of Juan Manito, the Filipino Kid, against the Japanese who occupied his homeland. Levy and Santangelo’s fledgling effort would blossom into the much-loved publishing underdog, Charlton Comics. When a fellow named Lindsay Baird approached Jacquet to produce comicbook content for the new enterprise he and several associates were starting up, it must have seemed like business as usual for the comic shop veteran. It soon became far more complicated than that.

The Unsung Heroes Of Rewl Publications Lindsay Baird and his Rewl Publications launched their comicbook line in June of 1944 with two titles, Blazing Comics and Blue Circle Comics. Both magazines were produced by the Jacquet shop and featured the rather bland artwork that all too often came with it. Editorial offices were listed at 500 Fifth Avenue in New York City, and the comicbooks were again distributed by Fawcett

Nippings For The Boys From Nippon Chu Hing’s “Green Turtle” splash page from Rural Home’s Blazing Comics #2 (July 1944)... and his cover for #3 (Sept. 1944). Courtesy of Alex Jay and the Grand Comics Database, respectively. [© the respective copyright holders.]

The Forgotten Super-Heroes Of 1944-45

It’s The Voice Of The Turtle, Dove! Both on the cover and in the “Green Turtle” lead story of Rewl Publications’ Blazing Comics #1 (June 1944), the super-hero’s face—yes, even his masked face—was never shown, for reasons that remain a matter of speculation to this day. The art is by Chu Hing, who may or may not have also written scripts for the series. Thanks to Alex Jay for both art and photos in this grouping. Incidentally, Alex has written an article on Chu Hing that will appear in an upcoming issue of Alter Ego—you won’t wanna miss it! [© the respective copyright holders.]

The Blue Circle led a group of pardoned criminals who used their intimate knowledge of criminal technique to help stamp out crime. They would all sit around a circular table after being summoned by a slip of paper with a time and—naturally—a blue circle. The comicbook also featured Queen Maureen Marine, the human monarch of the weird fish-like inhabitants of Atlantis. Maureen was granted the power to breathe underwater by Father Neptune after the boat she was on was destroyed by the Nazis. The series was derivative of other more popular heroes in just about every way imaginable. Other series starred Steel Fist (a costumed hero with a steel fist), Toreador (an American bullfighter), and Driftwood Davey, a handsome, crime-fighting itinerant nursing a perpetual five-o’clock shadow. The third issues of both titles, each cover-dated September 1944, were the last for several months. Something clearly happened to make Baird skittish about continuing to publish Blue Circle and Blazing. Had the federal government begun to sniff around? Baird, as we’ll soon learn, had no legitimate paper allotment. But any serious legal consequences were still several months away. Had he received a warning without immediate consequences? Subsequent events would reveal that he was already headed for trouble. Whatever the precise details, Baird’s publishing strategy took an immediate and decidedly different direction.

A new comicbook titled Red Band Comics, also distributed by Fawcett, appeared in November 1944. It was ostensibly published by a company called Publicaciones Recreativas, operating out of Mexico City. But the features of Red Band were copyrighted by a group called Enwil Associates, no address provided. The company names of Rewl and Enwil have several letters in common, and forthcoming events clearly suggest a common publisher or publishers. The timing, the common distributor (FDC), and subsequent evidence will all suggest that Lindsay Baird was behind this south-of-theborder enterprise. It certainly appeared to be an effort to circumvent American paper restrictions.

Chu Fook Hing A 1919 photo—taken a quarter of a century before the Asian-American artist (he was born in Hawaii of immigrant parents from China) drew “The Green Turtle.”

With artwork exclusively provided by the Bernard Baily Studio, Red Band Comics starred The Bogeyman, a mustachioed Spirit lookalike who still managed to strike fear in the hearts of crooks. Also featured was a farcical super-hero named Captain Milksop. His story told the adventures of nerdish Mortimer X,

The Untold Story Of Rural Home Comics & Other True Crimes

Running In Blue Circles “Maureen Marine” got an undersea origin drawn by Harold DeLay in Rural Home’s Blue Circle Comics #1 (June 1944)—while Blue Circle led his Blue Circle in Blue Circle #1 (among other places), with art by Bill Allison—and Steel Fist slugged his way onto several of the mag’s covers, including that of #2 (July ’44), courtesy of artist H.C. Kiefer. Scripters unknown. Thanks to the Comic Book Plus website and to the Grand Comics Database. [© the respective copyright holders.]

who became the green-and-yellow-clad Captain Milksop in a most unusual way. As the narration explained: “Stepping into a deserted doorway, Mortimer takes out his treasured copy of Red Band Comics, rubs it ‘round and ‘round over his head, and…” says the magic word, “Comics.” Just like that, there stood Captain Milksop! A final feature starred Satanas, a monstrous villain so evil and dangerous that he was sent by Pluto, his home planet, into space for what was intended to be an eternal exile. It was only Satanas’ good luck (and our bad) that the vile creature noticed the welcoming sight of planet Earth. Defying expectations, Satanas had green skin instead of red and sported a single eye in the middle of his forehead. Red Band #2, published two months later, had exactly the same stories as the first one and even the same cover, save for a different issue number. And to make things even odder, Red Band #3 featured an entirely new set of heroes, even though the wholly absent Satanas and The Bogeyman were still featured on the cover. Captain Wizard and his newly found magic cloak made their debut that issue. Other features were Race Wilkins, an explorer of the fantastic, physician Dr. Mercy, and newsman King O’Leary. In a case of history repeating itself all too soon, issue #4 had the exact same contents and cover as #3!

The Forgotten Super-Heroes Of 1944-45

new life. Humorous fillers included Gregory the Ghost and a mad scientist named Dr. Paul Barer. . For all of the creative energy behind his efforts, Baily ceased publishing his own titles rather suddenly, sometime in 1944. I say “suddenly” because there is clear evidence that Baily had intended to publish new comicbooks titled Tally Ho, Knockout, and Barrel Comics. I see no grounds for believing he would have had a paper allotment. It may be that he believed— incorrectly—that he was abiding by the smallpublisher exemption of the Paper Act and learned otherwise. Whatever happened, last-minute adjustments became necessary. The information on the indicia identifying Baily as publisher was blacked out for all three comicbooks, and the latter two titles received new names and covers as well.

The Red Band Of—Courage?

Tally Ho, cover-dated December 1944, was published by a surrogate publisher named Swapper’s Quarterly. Perhaps Fawcett’s distribution arm, which had distributed

Mark Carlson-Ghost, who’s done considerable sleuthing on the subject, suspects that Rewel/Enwil/(and soon)Rural Home publisher Lindsay Baird was behind issues of Red Band Comics, which was published in Mexico—but in English (and copyrighted by “Enwil Associates”). The covers of both #2 (Jan. 1945) & #3 (April ’45) featured The Bogeyman, a flagrant rip-off of Will Eisner’s The Spirit, and another interior star, the evil one-eyed Satanas. Neither character actually appeared in #3, though—while #2 merely reprinted the contents of #1! The twice-used cover art is by the talented Bob Fujitani— but don’t blame him! That Baird guy must’ve been slippery as an eel! [© the respective copyright holders.]

Why all the crazy mistakes? The best and most likely explanation is that an American publisher (who may well have not spoken any Spanish) printing comicbooks in Mexico turned out to be a recipe for miscommunication and mystifying mistakes. Whatever its supposed advantages, Baird and his associates would subsequently forgo any further business dealings south of the border.

Bernard Baily: Life After The Spectre As the producer of content for Red Band Comics, artist/ entrepreneur Bernard Baily may or may not have known about the mix-ups in Mexico. In any case, other efforts on his part to branch out on his own in the industry were not exactly going as planned. Baily had hoped to utilize his art shop to publish his own comicbooks. He didn’t want to just supply material for folks like Lindsay Baird and his other major customer, Teddy Epstein and Mike Bleier’s Prize Comics Group. Given that he had co-created The Spectre and Hour-Man for DC Comics, Baily had some reasons to feel optimistic. In 1943 to early in 1944, Baily had issued four issues of Illustrated Stories of the Opera, adapting Faust, Carmen, and other hi-brow fare. (Opera fans, of course, have long been known for their patronage of comicbooks!) Of greater interest here is Baily’s one issue of Spook Comics, featuring as it did the satanic Mister Lucifer, nicely rendered by artist John Giunta. Imprisoned in stone for 2000 years, the wraithlike Lucifer was portrayed as entirely red in color. Mister Lucifer was aided in his evil doings by his “lads,” equally wisplike green demons. Spook was a sort of early horror comicbook, as it also featured a story of a beautiful voodoo dancer named Caresse who accidentally brought a dead man back to murderous

Watch Out For “The Bogeyman”! Did we mention that Rural Home’s “Bogeyman” was a flagrant rip-off of Eisner’s Spirit? Oh, yeah… we did. This splash (with a de-moustached hero) from Merry Comics #2 (Dec. 1945), with a de-moustached hero, was drawn by Sam Cooper; scripter unknown. The publisher, surprisingly, was Carlton Publishing Corporation—presumably no relation to the Charlton gang. Note the “red band” at the bottom of the page. [© the respective copyright holders.]

The Untold Story Of Rural Home Comics & Other True Crimes

likely had a legitimate paper allowance, albeit one for books. Intriguingly, most of the Cambridge House books that are known were written by none other than Robert Kanigher, at the beginning of a long career. He would become best-known for writing and editing “Sgt. Rock” and Wonder Woman for DC in the 1960s.

Getting Spooked! For Spook Comics #1-and-only (1946, no month), artist John Giunta drew an exquisite cover and 8-page lead story of “Mr. Lucifer”— clearly the Devil, who gets his comeuppance in the end, along with his accompanying demons. Scripter unknown. Thanks to Comic Book Plus for the pages, and to David Saunders’ online Field Guide to Wild American Pulp Artists for the photo of Giunta. [© the respective copyright holders.]

The material Baily produced for Cambridge House primarily consisted of two mammoth-sized comic “books.” Star-Studded Comics, issued in 1945, was 132 pages long, boasted “32 smash features,” and sold for 25 cents. Its contents were a surprisingly uninspired mix of super-hero, adventure, and humor stories. Captain Combat and Commandette just happened to be in costume for a parade and a movie, respectively, when the happenstance of crime moved each of them into heroic action. Ghost Woman was a spirit seeking eternal rest by finding her killer. Unlike DC’s Deadman, she managed the task in the length of a single eight-page story. So much for her hopes for an ongoing series!

Spook Comics, facilitated the new arrangement. Or maybe Baily saw to the new setup himself. Regardless, Tally Ho was a delight. Snowman, an Eskimo idol come to life, looked just like his name. Made of snow, he had rosy cheeks and a blue button nose, smoked a little red-pipe, and wielded an axe! At the end of his first and only story, Snowman dispatched the villainous Fang—an exile from Desolation Island—by throwing him to a bunch of crocodiles! This incongruous mix of cuteness and brutality sported the first comicbook artwork of Frank Frazetta. Other stories featured The Man in Black (a Phantom Stranger precursor) and the humorous adventures of He-Man, alias Sampson Hercules Muckles. As for Baily’s other two intended titles: Knockout became Great Comics and was “published” by Novack, while Barrel became Latest Comics #2 and was “published” by Palace. If all of this seems hopelessly confusing, this was probably the intent of the actual publishers involved. It’s more than likely that some shady business was going on. Baily Studio artwork also ended up in another Swapper’s Quarterly comicbook called Cisco Kid. That comic starred the screen cowboy, but its back-up stories were far more interesting. A humor strip, “Super Baby,” was done entirely in rhyme: “And as the thug lets go a sock… He learns that baby’s hard as rock!” To round out this odd mix of features, Cisco Kid also boasted the presence of the horrific Funnyman (no relation to the postwar super-hero creation of Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster). Funnyman had been a gleeful torturer for the Gestapo until his victims got hold of him and carved a grotesque smile into his face. Escaping to America, Funnyman began a career of crime, using a special gas that made people laugh until they died. Essentially a Nazi version of The Joker, Funnyman was the creation of Bruce Elliot (later to become a writer for The Shadow pulps) and John Giunta. Baily’s art studio also provided artwork for one-shots published by an outfit named Cambridge House, operating out of New York. As best can be determined at this late date, Cambridge House appears to have been a legitimate if small-scale publisher specializing in “how to” books. This is how Cambridge House

Bernard Baily Known to fans of the early Golden Age as the artist of both “Hour-Man” and “The Spectre,” Baily soon put together both his own art shop— and Baily Publishing Company, whose Spook Comics unfortunately didn’t go beyond the first issue, cover-dated 1946. Thanks to the Comic Vine website—though this pic had appeared first in Alter Ego.

The Forgotten Super-Heroes Of 1944-45

“Snow” Joke! Two of the most interesting features in Baily Publishing’s other super-shortlived comics lineup were “The Snowman” in Tally Ho Comics #1 (Dec. 1944), which sported art by John Giunta and a just-starting-out Frank Frazetta—and the sinister “Funnyman” drawn by Giunta in Cisco Kid #1 (Winter ’44), behind that artist’s cover. Scripters unknown. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Cambridge House also issued Gold Medal Comics in a similar format that same year. Its lead feature, “Captain Truth,” was nicely drawn by Mac Raboy. The teen-aged super-hero sported a striking costume: swashbuckler boots and gloves, a long flowing cape, and a musketeer hat, complete with gigantic plume. Captain Truth’s powers were more conventional, namely flight, super-strength, and invulnerability. Other stories that issue starred Dr. Tom Tom (a jungle doctor) and an otherwise undistinguished costumed hero named Lucky Man. The size of the books and format of the comicbooks was almost certainly intended to resemble books, which is likely what Cambridge House had a quota for. Indeed, the cover declared both comics “a Cambridge House book” and included a table of contents, numbered pages, and the titles of the “books” on their binding. That said, Cambridge House also issued Hurricane, a normal-sized ten-cent comics featuring the humor character named—wait for it—Hurry Kane. Baily’s art shop had been ready for new customers when Lindsay Baird came calling. But Rewl Publications appeared to be interested in the Baily Studio producing only Red Band Comics for them. Though, as things turned out, the mishaps that plagued Red Band Comics were only the beginning of their association.

The Untold Story Of Rural Home Comics & Other True Crimes

Next Stop Oxford House? The cover of the single 1945 issue of Cambridge House’s Star Studded Comics was probably produced by the Bernard Baily studio, as was the “Ghost Woman” feature within—while Mac Raboy drew the “Captain Truth” feature in Gold Medal Comics #1-and-only, behind his own cover. Thanks to the GCD & Comic Book Plus. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Mac Raboy Thanks to Shaun Clancy & Christopher Boyko.

The Forgotten Super-Heroes Of 1944-45

The Official Launch Of “Rural Home” Lindsay Baird was not a man prone to giving up. Apparently anticipating possible legal challenges, he and his colleagues took stock of their situation and reorganized. Rewl Publications was never named as a publishing entity again. Blazing and Blue Circle Comics reappeared on newsstands five months after their previous issues, with covers dated February 1945. The two former Rewl titles were now put out by a “new” publisher named Rural Home Publishing Company. Editorial offices were listed as being at 2747 West Madison Street in Chicago, with a new “proprietor” identified as Edwin Hamilton. That said, the copyright holder was once again declared to be Enwil Associates, Inc. The new issues of Blazing and Blue Circle both sported “No. 4” on the covers, but had “volume two, number one” listed in their indicias, suggesting a new beginning of sorts. But there was much to suggest a significant continuity in ownership. Artwork continued to be by the Jacquet studio, the printing continued to be done in Pennsylvania, and the distributor remained Fawcett. The corporate “reorganization” seemed largely cosmetic at first. But Rural Home as a publishing venture would soon reveal a new and decidedly more complicated business plan. All of this begs the questions, who was Lindsay Baird, and who were his business colleagues at Rural Home Publishing Company? During its brief lifespan, Rural Home was no small potatoes. Believe it or not, at its peak, the company boasted nine different comicbooks on the newsstands. It was strange, given the paper allotment limitations in place, to have an ambitious “new” publisher of comicbooks appear. Not only that, but Rural Home seemed like an unlikely name for a super-hero comicbook company. So much so that this author initially assumed that there must have been a magazine by that name that had had access to some legally acquired paper it wasn’t using. However, an extensive search has revealed no evidence of a magazine named Rural Home ever being published in the 1940s. Perhaps the choice of the name was part of the scam. As for the other names the company went by, Rewl and Enwil, it is important to remember it was common practice in the 1940s for publishers to create a corporate name from the first letters of their own or their loved ones’ names. Frank Temerson published Cat-Man Comics and other titles under the moniker Et-Es-Go, which stood for the first letters of his sisters’ names. MLJ, the early designation for what became the Archie Comics line, came from the first letter of the names of the three owners, Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkeit, and John L. Goldwater. And Nedor was an amalgam of publisher Ned Pines and his wife Dora. It would appear that Rural Home’s corporate names followed this same practice. The only names that turn up in the comicbooks and in the legal record for Rewl/Enwil are Edwin Hamilton as

“proprietor” and Lindsay Baird as publisher. As it happens, the letters “E” and “L” for their first names are present in both Enwil and Rewl. “W” is also present in both corporate names. “R” is unique to Rewl. “I” and “N” are unique to the Enwil designation. I suspect some silent partners had first names that started with those other letters. This particular theory will point the finger of suspicion at one additional collaborator before this article is done. Nothing is known of the prior history of Hamilton, and only a few details are extant regarding Lindsay L. Baird. (Baird’s first name was variously spelled Lindsay and Lindsey, but it appears in the legal record as the former, so that convention is followed here.) In 1930, at the tender age of 29, Baird had already filed for bankruptcy. A newspaper notice only added the fact that he was employed as a salesman at the time. The 1940 census has a Lindsay Laire Baird living in Hempsted, New York, a town in the western half of Long Island. His wife Louise was noted as ten years his junior. The couple had three children—two boys (Lindsay, Jr., 8, and William W., 3) and one girl, Enid, 6. (Had the latter two names been the sources of the name “Enwil”? And could the three kids have loaned their initials to “Rewl”?) The family was wealthy enough to have a 24-year-old live-in servant. Baird’s older brother was likely wealthier still. A retired colonel, Andrew Baird was the president of the Williamsburg Savings Bank in Brooklyn (New York Times, 3/20/1955). Did Andrew provide seed money for his brother’s questionable enterprise? At this late date we can only speculate. And that’s all of what can readily be discovered about Baird’s life prior to the launch of Rural Home. It seems likely he was employed in some capacity in the publishing industry to see the possibilities in such an enterprise. Baird’s subsequent activities also reveal a resolutely opportunistic character.

Going The Rural Route When Lindsay Baird re-entered the field with Rural Home Publishing Company, two of his first issues, both cover-dated Feb. 1945, were the fourth issues of Blazing Comics and Blue Circle Comics. Chu Hing was back with “The Green Turtle” in the former—while the latter’s anonymous cover art showcased a character named Driftwood Davey. Thanks to Grand Comics Database & Mark Carlson-Ghost. [© the respective copyright holders.]

The Untold Story Of Rural Home Comics & Other True Crimes

Rural Home: Rebuilding On Unsteady Ground The comicbooks of Baird and his colleagues were a quirky bunch. None of the contents of their titles were produced in house, but instead by four different art shops (Ben Sangor and L.B. Cole soon followed the efforts of Jacquet and Baily). Knowing which art shops were responsible for which comicbooks figures prominently in making sense of what followed. In addition, three different distributors operated simultaneously to distribute the various Rural Home titles to the newsstands and other venues where they were sold. Each distributor distributed only comicbooks produced by a particular art shop or shops. In each instance, that art shop had a previous association with that distributor in work done for another company. For example, Sangor produced two comicbooks for Rural Home, both of which were distributed by Independent News, the same distributor that handled Sangor’s work for Ned Pines. L.B. Cole and associates produced Rural Home comicbooks distributed by the Publishers Distribution Company (PDC). Cole was simultaneously doing work for Frank Temerson’s Et-Es-Go/Continental, which was also distributed by PDC. In each case, a history of previous association between the art shops and their distributor at Rural Home can be established. Were the art shop owners also co-collaborators? That seems a real possibility. Rural Home also used different printers. Those distributed by FDC were mostly printed by Central Printing in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, though, as we’ve seen, Red Circle was printed in Mexico City. Those Rural Home titles distributed by IND and PDC were printed at the World Color Press in St. Louis.

on him shortly.) One possible motivation for Baird’s publishing approach becomes clearer with the wisdom of retrospect. The people behind Rural Home may not have wanted federal authorities to notice what a big splash the new company was making. And, for the time being, the scheme seemed to be working. New titles were launched at a rapid rate. The month before Blue Circle and Blazing Comics’ return, a third Jacquet-produced title, Red Circle Comics, debuted. One of its stars was The Prankster, who used a comic white mask, a water pistol, and a dash of blinding pepper salt to fight crime! The Prankster was secretly Mike Morgan, a stand-up comedian. Another Red Circle feature was “The Judge and the Jury.” In it, a young lawyer named Jim Lawson donned a black mask and a judge’s robes to track down and then try criminals before a jury of their victims, before turning them over to the police. In the origin story, one crook cried, “This is unconstitutional!” which was probably the most intelligent comment made in the story. Other Red Circle features were Red Riot (a lumberjack) and Dinky Dibbs and his parrot Cracker. Cracker, the narration assured us, was “the only full-fledged parrot detective in the world!” One could but hope. The next two comicbooks were produced by the Ben Sangor art studio, best known for supplying Ned Pines (Sangor’s son-in-law) with animation-inspired material. Laffy-Daffy Comics was a funny-animal book lacking a focus on any particular character, no better or worse than the material Sangor supplied elsewhere. The features offered up in a second title were more interesting. Cannonball Comics starred The Crash Kid, a costumed, acrobatic hero. The Crash Kid was secretly Rusty Adams, known at the Daily Herald as “the demon copy boy.” Also featured in Cannonball were Thunderbrand, a medieval young prince searching for his father, and Crime Crusader, an otherwise undistinguished private detective named Jonathan Jones. In his first recorded case, Jones did square

A single company using multiple distributors and printers at the same time was a very odd arrangement, one rarely utilized in the industry. (R.B. Leffingwell, a small-fry publisher, was already using a similar strategy. More

Red Circles Under My Eyes Neither the cover nor the dramatic lead splash page of Rural Home’s Red Circle Comics #1 (Jan. 1945) is identified as to artist— but Leonard Starr drew The Prankster on the cover of issue #2 (Feb. ’45). We wonder if DC Comics complained, since another Prankster was then currently one of Superman’s recurring foes. Thanks to Comic Book Plus & the GCD. [© the respective copyright holders.]

The Forgotten Super-Heroes Of 1944-45

“It’s Quite The Fashion, The Continental…” The Et-Es-Go/Continental brain trust, 1944. (Left to right:) artist/art editor L.B. Cole, editor Rae Herman, and head writer Jack Grogan. This pic first appeared in Comic Book Marketplace #30. We were told, when we ourselves first printed it in Alter Ego #117, that “Rae Herman” herself usually spelled her first name “Ray”—but we’ve left it “Rae” in Mark CarlsonGhost’s text, since that spelling is so common in reference to her. Photo credited to Sheldon Levens.

Rae Herman, and lead writer Jack Grogan. (The connection with Herman will prove meaningful.) Cole replaced Charles Quinlan, whose stories and art for Cat-Man Comics and Captain Aero were very professional but not particularly dynamic.

The Desert Son “El Kuraan,” the Muslim hero who first appeared in Red Circle Comics #3 (March 1945), was actually Jahn, the son of a local chieftain, who adopted a secret identity to fight for the cause. Artist & scripter unknown. Courtesy of Comic Book Plus. [© the respective copyright holders.]

off against the Painted Grin Killer (his victims all sported horrific smiles), who turned out to be a demented white-faced clown. Again? Only, in this case, the Joker wannabe had the decidedly less compelling moniker of Grinno. The final art shop to be called into the ever-expanding Rural Home enterprise was operated by that master of the poster-style cover, L.B. Cole.

L.B. Cole’s Forgotten Super-Heroes Prior to his engagement with Rural Home, L.B. Cole had joined Frank Temerson’s publishing effort in 1943 as their art editor. He joined a small staff that included Temerson, his right-hand woman,

The Sangor, Not The Song! The cover of Rural Home’s Laffy-Daffy Comics #1 (Feb. 1945) definitely has the look of the Sangor Studio (see A/E #61 for a reprinting of Michael Vance’s book on the latter)… while the “Crash Kid” cover of Cannonball Comics #1 (same date) was standard super-hero fare. [© the respective copyright holders.]

While Cole didn’t utilize an art shop in his editorial role at Et-Es-Go/Continental, he began using some of the freelancers he knew there for other work. In July of 1944, Cole and his newly formed art shop began producing Contact Comics for Aviation Press. Its features were solid and enjoyable, including a Blackhawkinspired pilot, Golden Eagle; a Native American flyguy, Tommy Tomahawk; and the sleek aviatress, Black Venus. Work for Four Star’s Captain Flight was less memorable, though that series still could boast his excellent signature covers. It likely came as a mild surprise that what Rural Home wanted

The Untold Story Of Rural Home Comics & Other True Crimes

neighborhood boys’ club called The Secret Six. Commendably, the club’s official secretary was an AfricanAmerican boy named Jimmie, who was drawn realistically and who spoke without a hint of dialect. And, in a victory over easy stereotypes, when the boys thought they were in a haunted house, it was the chubby kid and not Jimmie who was the most freaked out.

Cover Me! L.B. Cole’s strong covers for Rural Home’s Eagle Comics #1 and Mask Comics #1, both cover-dated Feb.-March 1945. [© the respective copyright holders.]

from Cole was a mix of action, educational, and humor titles. Rural Home already had five costumed-hero books underway and probably felt a need to diversify. Cole, for his part, proved ready to deliver whatever his new customer needed. Cole’s first work for Rural Home debuted in March 1945. Eagle Comics was comprised of non-descript true-story and educational aviation features. Perhaps the most interesting story to modern readers concerned Carole McNair, a stewardess or “air hostess” in training. The reader learned that before World War II air hostesses needed to be R.N.s as well, but the wartime need for nurses led airlines to drop that regulation.

Taffy Comics was a crudely drawn funny-animal story, but boy was it ambitious! In a seven-part book-length adventure, Happy Village was destroyed by an invasion of Japanese beetles. In a dream, a super-hero alter ego informs a timid worm named Wiggles that all he needs to say is “Omygosh” and the super-hero who’s always been inside him will emerge. Doing just that, the transformed Wonderworm manages to defeat the Japanese Beetles. The next issue, Wonderworm took on Sooper Dooper Ant, who looked just like Adolf Hitler! These four titles looked like nothing else in the Rural Home line-up, all with vivid L.B. Cole covers.

As it happened, Rural Home only published one issue each of the Cole titles. And the Sangor shop efforts only lasted two issues each. The sixth issue of Blue Circle Comics had just come out, the company’s oldest title. Then, as quickly as they’d appeared, the Rural Home comic books suddenly disappeared from the newsstands.

Mask Comics, coming out that same month, featured the story of The Black Raider. The Raider was secretly Gordon Summers, an injured vet discharged from the military due to injuries sustained during the D-Day invasion. Eager to stay in the fray, Summers added a black eye-mask to his black-night raider fatigues to fight crime. Bonnie Heather, a Scottish gal with a spirit of adventure, rounded out the line-up. Patches Comics and Taffy Comics came out the following month. Patches, the main character of the eponymous title, was an orphaned boy living with his grandmother. He is likely the only boy every to be named after his quilt. Every patch of the quilt represented the story of an ancestor that Grandma was only too happy to tell. Patches also belonged to an adventurous

More Covers By Cole The covers of Patches #1 (March-April 1945), featuring Patches and Gram, and of Taffy Comics #2 (June ’45), starring Wonderworm. [© the respective copyright holders.]

The Forgotten Super-Heroes Of 1944-45

The Sudden Demise Of Rural Home Rural Home’s line-up of comicbooks came to a sudden end in the spring of 1945. Every one of the existing titles ended with either their March, April, or May issues. The reason seems clear. Lindsay Baird was facing jail time. On March 31st, 1945, The New York Times reported that Baird had been arrested and charged with six counts of violating regulations issued by the War Production Board. More specifically, he was charged with “the unauthorized use of 261 tons of paper in 1944” while publishing Blazing and Blue Circle Comics. Each count was punishable by a year in jail and a fine of $10,000. Baird was released on bail of $1,000 pending an appeal. While the legal record is inexact, the court referencing Rewl as the publisher suggests that it was the third issues of Blazing and Blue Circle that were discovered as illegal. Baird was surely told to cease and desist his illegal use of paper as he awaited the result of his appeal. The appeal denied, Baird stood trial and was found guilty. His sentence was handed down by Federal Judge Grover M. Moscowitz. On June 26th, Baird was fined $20,000 and sentenced to 60 days in prison. In addition, Rewl Publications as a corporate entity was fined an additional $20,000!

He Rode A Blazing Cover! Not long before Rural Home’s publisher, Lindsay Baird, got busted for “the unauthorized use of 261 tons of papers in 1944,” the company published these issues: The Black Buccaneer does a bit of avast-ing on the cover of Blazing Comics, Vol. 3, #2 (a.k.a. #5; March ’45)—while that may be the “Native American aviator” Redhawk on that of the final issue, Vol. 3, #3 (a.k.a. #6; April ’45), who doesn’t appear in the issue, although three “Will Rogers” cowboy stories do! Some ID-ers believe the former cover was penciled by Gil Kane and inked by Leonard Starr, but that can’t be verified; the cover artist of the latter is unidentified. Oddly, there were apparently years-later editions of these two issues that sported the same covers but contained contents from entirely different companies, including EC and DC’s Superboy! This was apparently done by grafting the late Rewl covers over the interiors of “remaindered” or unsold comics. Clearly, something not quite legal was going on here. [© the respective copyright holders.]

According to an article in the New York Daily News, Assistant U. S. Attorney Frederic J. Waters declared Baird a “contumacious chiseler. He is utterly devoid of any remote vestige of patriotic consideration. He was prompted solely by the most miserable of all human motives—greed.” “Contumacious,” in case anyone might be wondering, is defined as “obstinately disobedient or rebellious.” Another dictionary adds that it is an adjective reflective of “resistance to authority.” It is apparently a legal term as well, reflecting a stubborn and conscious defiance of the law. Add in the chiseling part and you have to reluctantly give Baird his due. Not just anyone can get a federal attorney that angry. On the other hand, the Chicago Tribune, home of anti-FDR sentiment, offered an alternative, rather jaded perspective on the whole affair. It reported the news of Baird’s fine in its July 5th edition under the headline “A Fatal Error,” closing with this editorial aside: “Mr. Baird is not the only publisher who has made this mistake, but he didn’t carry the right insurance. He ought to have been guided by some other publishers who, after the compliance division of WPB had entered a solemn finding that their excess use of newsprint constituted an impediment to the prosecution of the war, were thereupon rewarded, not with jail sentences and fines, but with an increase in their newsprint allotments. “In short, Mr. Baird should have supported the New Deal if he was going to break the law.”

Regardless, the impact on Baird’s arrest on his publishing efforts was immediately apparent. Rewl, in essence bankrupted by the fine, ceased to exist as a viable publishing entity. As for Rural Home, its entire line of nine comicbooks ceased publication. It’s worth noting at this juncture that, if Lindsay Baird wasn’t the driving force behind Rural Home, ostensibly a separate corporate entity from Rewl, there would have been no reason for all of its titles to disappear simultaneously. Baird ended up spending a total of three months in jail, one month apparently added for bad behavior. This was possibly for failure to make enough of an initial payment on his fine. The so-called chiseler would be dealing with the impact of that fine for years to come. There is strong evidence that Rural Home had planned on expanding its line even further prior to these seismic events. It appears that covers for several new titles had already been produced and paid for. Central Printing in Pennsylvania already had the color proof of a cover for a new comicbook titled Green Band Comics. The cover art suggests that the comic was going to feature a Mandrake-like magician. Another cover proof was for the neverpublished Lance Comics. (Thanks to the folks of the Comic Book Plus discussion forum for these details.) Finally, the entire contents of a new L.B. Cole title, Toytown Comics, had already been prepared. Each of the three distributors (FDC, PDC, and IND) and four art shops (Jacquet, Baily, Cole, and Sangor) handled the end of Rural Home, and unused material they’d produced in advance, in different ways. As a result, some of the Rural Home characters found continued life in other comicbooks. For that matter, so would Lindsay Baird.

The Untold Story Of Rural Home Comics & Other True Crimes

Ned Pines. L.B. Cole would need to be more creative. As noted earlier, two of Rural Home’s humor comicbooks, Taffy and Patches, were distributed by Publishers Distribution Company, designated PDC on the covers of comicbooks it handled. PDC had a long history of helping new publishers get started in the business, distributed by PDC, of course. It was something of a win/win situation. For example, PDC had been instrumental in helping Harvey Comics get started. More relevant here, PDC owner Irving S. Manheimer also had a long business relationship with Frank Temerson, publisher of Cat-Man Comics. Which just happened to be where L.B. Cole was serving as art director.

Help Save Paper—Fast! (Right:) Lindsay Baird could’ve avoided getting into trouble with the law (and the government) in early 1945 if he had heeded this earlier public-service page starring The Flash, which appeared in various DC/AA comics. Art probably by Hal Sharp; scripter unknown. [TM & © DC Comics.] (Above:) Instead, Baird got busted, as confirmed by this Chicago Tribune article found online, and originally turned up by David Saunders of www.pulpartists.com. The precise date of the article is uncertain, but it was almost certainly around June 26, 1945, the date given by Mark Carlson-Ghost in this piece. [© the respective copyright holders.]

The Rural Home-Rae Herman Connection The collapse of Rural Home and the imprisonment of Lindsay Baird provided unique challenges for the players involved. Each of the four comic shops that supplied Rural Home with material was faced with the challenge of surplus content. Ben Sangor, who supplied content for Rural Home’s Laffy-Daffy Comics, could simply use any leftover artwork in funny-animal books they produced for

It would have been only natural for Cole to approach either Temerson or PDC about picking up material for the titles he had produced for Rural Home. It appears that Manheimer was the one who helped decide what would what happened to the titles he had planned on distributing. Whatever the precise details, Temerson’s right-hand woman, 24-year old Rae Herman, was approached about playing the role of a surrogate publisher.

Post-Rural Life (Left to right:) The cover of Patches #2 (July 1945), drawn by George Harrison and published by Rae/Ray Herman. L.B. Cole’s cover for Taffy Comics #2 (June 1945), whereon Wonderworm tackles an insect version of Adolf Hitler. The issue probably went on on sale around the time Der Führer was shooting himself in his bunker beneath the ruins of Berlin. Eagle Comics #2 (April-May ’45) likewise sported a Cole cover—but with no human beings, only aircraft. Cole’s Mask Comics #2 cover (same date) did feature humans—but the central figure was something else again. [© the respective copyright holders.]

The Forgotten Super-Heroes Of 1944-45

Power To The People! Cole’s cover for Power Comics #1 (June 1945) spotlighted Detective Terry Moore—while his art for that of #3 (Aug. ’45) featured Dr. Mephisto. Behind the latter, Rudy Palais drew the adventures of Mata Hari’s daughter, “Miss Espionage.” Mark suspects that this title was originally intended to be published by Rural Home. [© the respective copyright holders.]

This is what’s known for sure: The second issues of Patches, Taffy, Eagle, and Mask, and the first two issues of Toytown, were all in need of a new publisher. All of them found one sometime in 1945. Patches #2 was “published” by Ray Herman (a male persona Rae often used). Taffy #2 was attributed to Samuel Herman, one of Rae’s older brothers, five years her elder. Toytown’s first issue was published by Swapper’s Quarterly and Almanac, and issue #2 was credited to B. Antin, of whom nothing is known. All three issues were printed at 420 DeSoto, St. Louis, the address for World Color Press, and distributed by PDC. Rural Home’s Eagle Comics also enjoyed an undated second issue, this time “published” by Gail Hillson. Hillson had finished her time as managing editor of Classic Comics the year before. An aspiring writer and theatrical producer, Hillson had a sense of humor about her job at Gilberton. When asked once by a reporter what was necessary for a book to be considered a classic, Hillson drolly replied: “A classic is something which is over 56 years old. Because it means that it’s in the public domain—no royalties” (Detroit Free Press, 11/15/1943). Of interest here is that the comic that would become Classics Illustrated was also distributed by PDC. Manheimer may well have approached Hillson about being yet another surrogate publisher. Hillson’s issue of Eagle Comics did introduce a number of new characters. The lead feature was “The Four Aces,” a quartet of World War I pilots that re-enlisted after the attack on Pearl Harbor. They all wore brown flight suits with an image of a club, heart, diamond, and spade, respectively, encircled in red on their chests. Matching insignias also graced their planes. Frances Craig was the

pretty red-haired member of the Civilian Air Patrol. The Eagle Scouts of Rosedale, U.S.A., were a kid group who inexplicably all flew planes. They encountered the bizarre threat of Buffalo Bill Cody resurrecting Napoleon, Hitler, and Ulysses S. Grant to further his ambitions. Or so it seemed. Said notables turned out to be delusional escaped inmates of the Cloverdale Sanitarium. None of the new characters would fly again, as Eagle never had another issue. The second issue of Mask Comics was printed with its indicia blacked out, no publisher listed. It reintroduced The Black Raider to readers. New to its pages were Merlin the Boy Magician and The Collector. Merlin, a stage mage, came into possession of a magic medallion once worn by his ancestor, which granted him actual magical powers. The Collector had been Hanson Riordan before he had been killed in the line of duty. Heavenly forces ordained that he return to Earth to collect the souls of the guilty. One last title, Power Comics, belongs to this group of titles even though it was never published by Rural Home. My own belief is that it had been intended to be. Power Comics shared the same characteristics as the others: L.B. Cole covers, characters in common, distribution by PDC, and being printed by World Color Press in St. Louis. Four issues of Power Comics were published in all. The first issue featured a hobo hero named Dusty Dugan, “Knight of the Road,” and Detective Terry Moore. The second issue included two features that had debuted earlier, Bonnie and Patches. The third and fourth issues included more stories of The Black Raider and Merlin the Boy Magician. Two new features included crime king Dr. Mephisto, dressed to the hilt in top hat and tails, and Miss Espionage, the sultry daughter of Mata Hari! “Sinister Suitcase,” a one-shot crime story, would be reprinted a few years later in Rae

The Untold Story Of Rural Home Comics & Other True Crimes

possible involvement fits perfectly. But what makes us strongly suspect that Baird and/or his cronies were behind most, if not all, of these one-shots? For one thing, seven of the nine one-shots featured characters from Rural Home’s Red Band Comics. All nine one-shots were produced by the same packager, using differing mixes of the same characters. Bernard Baily’s studio supplied the material, his shop’s work identifiable by being about a quarter of an inch shorter on the page than anyone else’s. Four of the one-shots either sported the Fawcett Distributing Company FDC cover insignia or featured Fawcett advertising inside. FDC was the distributor that had handled Blazing, Blue Circle, Red Circle, and Red Band for Rural Home. All of that at least suggests a common figure behind the various surrogate companies noted in their indicias.

Toys—Wanted? Rae/Ray Herman and her Orbit Publications took over Rural Home’s Toytown Comics with #3 (Aug. 1946), L.B. Cole cover and all—but with #9 (Sept.-Oct. ’47), the title was changed to Wanted Comics, to compete with Gleason & Biro’s Crime Does Not Pay. Cover by Mort Leav. Thanks to the GCD. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Finally, and most importantly, Lindsay Baird was brazen enough to list himself as publisher of Meteor Comics, one of the nine. It’s possible that Baird abided by all of the requirements of the small-publisher stipulation in the paper use regulations. In all likelihood, though, these one-shots claiming eight different publishers, and as many different addresses, were using paper

Herman’s Wanted Comics. It seems likely that Publishers Distribution and World Color Press knew that Frank Temerson, the publisher of Cat-Man Comics and Captain Aero, had decided to get out of comicbooks. Rae Herman had served as an editor and, along with one of Temerson’s sisters, a nominal publisher of Temerson’s comicbook line. Herman was likely eager to continue working in the field. Her father had died five years earlier. If she didn’t make her way in the world, who would do it for her? Temerson’s Continental gave up the ghost with comicbooks cover-dated September 1946. The first comicbooks published under Herman’s new Orbit imprint were the third issues of Patches, Taffy, and Toytown, all cover-dated July 1946. She was never out of work. Herman quickly made the new Orbit titles her own. Patches and Taffy became teen titles, no longer featuring L.B. Cole artwork. Only Toytown remained as it was. Orbit would soon become better known for Rae Herman’s successful crime comicbook, Wanted; a cowboy title, The Westerner; and two superior romance comics, Love Diary and Love Journal. One last detail about Herman and her new company: Orbit was co-owned by Marjorie May, who just happened to be the niece of the owner of World Color Press, Roswell Messing. The personal details regarding Herman and May are from David Saunders’ excellent pulpartists.com website. The role of distributors and printing companies in the ownership of Golden Age comicbook companies only complicates an already tangled picture.

Lindsay Baird’s Surprising Return As noted earlier, Lindsay L. Baird was sentenced for two months in jail but served a total of three. He clearly had a knack for ticking off authorities. The last of Rural Home’s comicbooks appeared, cover-dated May 1945. A series of nine one-shot comicbooks, with evidence to suggest his involvement, followed. These one-shots appeared with cover dates (if any at all) of October to December 1945. Allowing that Baird’s court case took about a month and he spent three months in jail, the timetable for his

We’re Off To See Captain Wizard! After getting out of jail, Lindsay Baird managed to publish a total of nine Rural Home one-shots; he even brazenly stuck his name in one of them, Meteor Comics #1 (Nov. 1945), which showcased the super-hero Captain Wizard. Surprisingly, the cover artist is none other than Gil Kane, later the legendary illustrator of 1960s/70s Green Lantern, The Atom, Amazing Spider-Man, et al.… though he didn’t draw the “Captain Wizard” adventure inside. [© the respective copyright holders.]

The Forgotten Super-Heroes Of 1944-45

Rural Comes Home—Albeit Briefly The “Dec. 1945”-dated covers of Merry Comics #1, with a Captain Milksop cover perhaps drawn by Art Seymour… Zoom Comics #1… Snappy Comics #1, with art signed “King” (probably Warren King)… and the “1946”-dated Atomic Bomb Comics #1, featuring a bare-limbed Captain Wizard on the cover, but not inside (but there was a previously unpublished “Airmale and Stampy” story, if that sets your heart a-flutter). Thanks to the GCD. [© the respective copyright holders.]

illegally. If so, there was no reason for Baird to list his name on one of them, other than indulging that “stubborn resistance to authority” of which the prosecuting attorney accused him. If this was an illegal venture, it was as if he was almost daring authorities to notice the declaration and catch him. As we will see, there’s a good deal of subsequent evidence to suggest that Lindsay Baird hadn’t learned his lesson. What Baird apparently did learn was how not to get caught the next time around. The smart thinking was, with the war drawing to a close, paper restrictions would be eliminated in the early months of 1946. The easy profits would soon to be coming to an end. Baird likely realized this was the last chance for a piece of that particular pie. So, what was the content of these nine one-shots? Meteor Comics, the one title Baird claimed as his own, featured the second appearance of Captain Wizard. It also included appearances by Race Wilkins, who adventured in the center of the Earth where all figures of myth and legend still dwelled, and The Impossible Man, the only normal human on a planet of superhumans. All of them were Red Band alumni. More than a year later, a Captain Wizard Comics one-shot would be published (more on that later), featuring the same line-up of characters. Merry Comics and Zoom Comics, both ostensibly published by Carlton Comics, featured a different line-up of former Red Band characters: two-fisted physician Dr. Mercy (along with his “fun-loving ambulance driver, Stompy Lion”), and King O’Leary, the “Daily Sentinel’s crack city editor” and amateur crime-buster. Bogeyman showed up in both issues as well, but only as a text feature in Zoom, squeezed out by two other old favorites from Red Band. Satanas, the evil Plutonian, makes his third and final appearance in Zoom, this time using his discovery of music to create massive sound machines capable of destroying bridges and skyscrapers with equal ease. Captain Milksop also made a comeback. Interestingly, though editorial offices were listed in New York, both comics featured advertisements only for Chicago businesses. Snappy Comics told the story of Special Agent No. 1. The splash page helpfully informed the reader that he was “formerly known

as Sergeant Strong,” as if that character had worked up a devoted fan base in his one previous appearance in Red Band. The one-shot also featured the debut of a new hero, “the elegant and fastidious” Beau Brummel. Beau fought crime in his tuxedo, complete with cape and cane. The cane could shoot out a blinding liquid, and his bowtie could snap forward with sufficient force to knock a bad guy over. For good measure, Snappy also featured an unused “Airmale and Stampy” story that the Baily Studio had originally intended for another publisher. Atomic Bomb Comics featured the same line-up of characters as Snappy, though with a Captain Wizard cover thrown in for no reason whatsoever other than that it was available. Atomic Bomb was the only other one-shot with an actual person’s name listed as publisher, in this case one Jay Burtis. The final three one-shots of what this author has come to refer to as the “Red Band group” deserve extra attention. This is in part because they feature two more forgotten super-heroes. It is also because they suggest a possible connection to the then just-emerging Charlton Comics enterprise.

And Then There Was Charlton? Bernard Baily surely encouraged his staff to indulge their whimsy, and it showed in the creative product he supplied for his customers. The writers behind these final three one-shots are unidentified, but it’s possible that Baily wrote some of them himself. Nowhere does this possibility seem stronger than in the creation of the most delightful super-hero to appear in these one-off titles, The Duke of Darkness. His origin story in K.O. Komics revealed that the ghostly hero was the spirit of a slain police officer named Danny “Paddy” Sullivan. With his white skin, The Duke of Darkness looks very much like The Spectre, only dressed in blue instead of green. The similarity in the characters shouldn’t be surprising, as shop owner Baily had been the artistic co-creator of DC’s ghostly guardian. But whereas The Spectre was grim and foreboding, the Duke was good-natured and fun. He didn’t seem to mind that the police chief, his former boss, didn’t recognize him, considered him a criminal, and had locked him up in a jail cell. The Duke resided

The Untold Story Of Rural Home Comics & Other True Crimes

and featured stories starring Yellowjacket and the ever-dapper Beau Brummel. The tangled history of Charlton Comics is a tale for another day, and in my humble opinion should be kept largely separate from that of Rural Home. Stepping back, it must be said that these nine one-shots, featuring so many forgotten oddball characters, were largely a delight. With the close of 1945, their maestro Lindsay Baird once again vanished from the world of comicbooks, this time for good. But as will be seen, Baird still managed to leave a string of historical bread crumbs for us to follow to learn his final fate.

The Mystery Of The Ambitious Ad Man

Ghosts Grim & Grinning Bernard Baily’s classic “Spectre” cover for DC’s More Fun Comics #42 (April 1940)—and John Giunta’s “Duke of Darkness” splash for Rural Home’s Top Spot Comics (Winter 1945), behind an equally Spectre-like Baily cover [More Fun cover TM & © DC Comics; Top Spot cover © the respective copyright holders.]

there, amusing himself by confounding the police chief with his inexplicable jailbreaks. He figured living in jail was the best place to pick up leads on criminals to apprehend. The Duke of Darkness appeared in two further one-shots, Top Spot Comics and Triple Threat Comics, and faced colorful criminals in all three appearances. The Duke first faced Professor Evil, the spirit of a deranged scientist named Live buried the same day as Duke was and who decided to reverse the letters of his last name. Subsequently the Duke encountered The Prince of Paupers, who disguised himself and his gang members as disabled beggars, and Mr. Slumber, a departed spirit and master of a band of nightmares. Other characters sharing space in these one-shots were Dennis Temple, who fought wartime saboteurs as a masked movie villain named The Menace, and the clueless last survivor of ancient Atlantis, the cone-hatted Magnificent Epod. King O’Leary and Beau Brummel also appeared in Triple Threat. A brief digression. It is Triple Threat as a comicbook, and Beau Brummel as a character, who provide the slimmest of links to the publishing company and printing firm that would become Charlton Comics. Triple Threat was the only one of these nine one-shots to be printed in Derby, Connecticut, by the same printers who would later become Charlton Press. Were Ed Levy and John Santangelo actually publishing Triple Threat, or just serving as printers? I suspect the latter. Levy and Santangelo were already churning out Yellowjacket Comics, a title that also debuted in 1944 and ran until 1946, under their Charles Publishing designation. If Levy and Santangelo were actually publishing Triple Threat, it seems like they would have done so using that name. Another one-shot comicbook did just that. TNT Comics was published by Charles Publishing in February 1946

Triple Play The three-hero cover of the Derby, Connecticut-printed Triple Threat Comics one-shot (published near the end of ’45) was composed of Photostats from the stories inside drawn by John Giunta (“The Duke of Darkness”), Gerald Altman (“King O’Leary”), and an unknown illustrator (“Beau Brummel”). [© the respective copyright holders.]

Trying to piece together the puzzle pieces concerning these seemingly interconnected one-shots can be a bewildering enterprise. A promising new lead in that effort requires a brief detour into the world of newspaper and magazine advertising.

After the publishers involved changed the name of Rewl Publications to Rural Home, the name of another business entity began appearing in the indicias of their comicbooks. After noting Rural Home as a publisher based out of Chicago and copyright holders as Enwil Associates, Inc., their “advertising representative” was listed as being the Universal Comics Group, whose address was 15 East 40th

The Forgotten Super-Heroes Of 1944-45

C.H. Albrecht Mark Carlson-Ghost reports that the gent at left “connected [Rural Home, et al., publisher] Lindsay Baird with Central Printing,” which printed comics for Baird both before and after his prison stay. Seen at right is an Oct. 24, 1949, newspaper ad in NYC for Central Color Printing in WilkesBarre, Pennsylvania. Thanks for photo and information to David Saunders’ invaluable website www.pulpartists.com. Albrecht Publishing Company produced the single issue of Conqueror Comics (Winter 1945) with its cover signed “King” (again, probably Warren King)—and two stories therein star the planet-traveling “Conquerors,” who in this splash look more like time travelers. [© the respective copyright holders.]

director of advertising as early as 1923. He continued to work in newspaper advertising throughout the 1930s. An interest in four-color printing may have developed through the necessity of having Sunday funnies printed by four-color presses. And Sunday funnies featured advertising.

Street, New York City. Listing a company’s “advertising representative” was rather unusual for 1940s comic books. All the more so since the advertising before and after the rebranding appears to be largely similar, with a notable number of Chicago and other Midwestern firms in the mix. Strong circumstantial evidence suggests that the person pulling together this advertising was almost certainly Charles H. Albrecht. Once again, it’s thanks to the dogged research of David Saunders at www.pulpartists.com that we have access to most of what we know about C.H. Albrecht. It emerges that Albrecht worked for or served as an intermediary for Central Printing and Binding in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He also was the fellow who connected Lindsay Baird with Central Printing in the first place. Central was likewise the same printer who printed up Blazing and Blue Circle, the comicbooks that earned Baird a prison sentence. Yet the Pennsylvania firm continued to print up many of the one-shots that came out in 1945 after Rural Home’s fall. It turns out that Albrecht’s primary professional background was in advertising. In his fifties during the short run of Rural Home, Albrecht had worked for The New York Herald as their

Albrecht’s connection with Central Printing assured that Albrecht had a front-row seat for Lindsay Baird’s shady business model. It seems likely, however, that Albrecht’s primary role was working for or heading up the so-called Universal Comic Group advertising enterprise. After Rural Home’s fall, as Albrecht Publishing Company, the adman also published at least one one-shot comicbook of his own. The name of the one-shot was Conqueror Comics. It is significant that Conqueror utilized artists who had worked for the Jacquet shop, was printed by Central, and was distributed by Fawcett, just as Blazing and Blue Circle had been. And, again thanks to David Saunders, we know that—like these other comicbooks—Albrecht specifically arranged for the advertising that was featured in Conqueror Comics. He did the same for another one-shot called Hi-Lite Comics, which listed its publisher as E.R. Ross. Jim Amash’s interview with Leonard Starr in Alter Ego #110 revealed that E.R. Ross’ full name was Edith Roberta “Bobbie” Ross. In her thirties, Ross was serving as the editor of the Jacquet Studio at that time, and also did some writing for the art shop. After the ending of Rural Home, Ross entered into a new partnership with two of her artists, Warren King and a freshfaced but talented 19-year old named Leonard Starr. Together they produced content for these two one-shots. King drew the covers for both, and he and Starr each drew one feature inside. My guess is that Albrecht arranged for Central Color to do the printing and Fawcett to handle distribution The lead story of Conqueror Comics was titled, appropriately

The Untold Story Of Rural Home Comics & Other True Crimes

enough, “The Conquerors.” It was based on an intriguing, if entirely implausible premise. Brothers Bill and John Cotter developed a space ship capable of interplanetary travel. The first planet they landed on was named Asia, and was ruled by Kublai Khan. The planet just beyond it was called Rome and was ruled by Caesar. An entirely Nazi-run planet was ruled by Hitler, though Khan considered him a joke. As it turned out, time didn’t exist in this particular region of space. Just how the various conquerors escaped to these planets was

Edith Roberta “Bobbie” Ross The “E.R. Ross” of E.R. Ross Publishing Company, which officially put out just one comicbook ever: the Fall 1945 Hi-Lite Comics, featuring the swordsman “M’sieu L’Epee”— probably drawn on the cover by Warren King and/or Leonard Starr, and on the inside by Bob Lubbers—and the mysterious con artist “Miss Shady,” delineated by King. Scripters unknown. In a sense, though, this comic was probably one of the last gasps of Lindsay Baird’s Rural Home organization. [© the respective copyright holders.] Pulp-mag expert David Saunders, who supplied the above college yearbook photo, reports: “Edith Roberta Ross, who worked for Lloyd Jacquet, was born in Brooklyn in 1918…. She attended college at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where she studied Journalism and Publicity. She completed the junior year of college in June of 1939 and then in August of 1939 she returned to live with her family in New Jersey…. She found work as a journalist at the Brooklyn Eagle [newspaper], where Lloyd Jacquet had been a columnist for radio enthusiasts. By 1945 she was working for him at his shop. She eventually retired from editing and moved to San Diego, California, where she died in 1998.”

Leonard Starr at a 1965 party. Thanks to Tom Sawyer.

The Forgotten Super-Heroes Of 1944-45

“Red Band” group of nine one-shots. My take on the relationship of Baird and Albrecht is this: Lindsay Baird and Charles Albrecht worked together at Rural Home. Albrecht’s role there was big enough that his advertising venture got an unusual shout-out in the indicia. Both Lindsay Baird and Charles Albrecht are listed as publishers for one-shots that utilized the same advertising and the same distributors that the pair used when at Rural Home. It may be that they continued to work together after Rural Home’s collapse and Baird’s release from jail. Or maybe they went their separate ways, each pursuing quick profits in a similar fashion.

Atlas Shrugged Off The “Atlas” feature drawn by Edvard Moritz got shelved from 1946 till 1964, when it surfaced in a “reprint” from Super Comics, Inc., behind a new cover by Ross Andru & Mike Esposito. Scripter unknown. From A/E editor’s collection. [© the respective copyright holders.]

left unexplained by Khan. The Cotter brothers were not to learn too much about what would at some point become Earth’s future. Ironically, neither King nor Starr handled the unidentified artwork on The Conquerors. The youthful Starr drew Trouble, Inc., a private detective agency run by two-fisted P.J. Colt. King provided the art for Sandy, a boy adventurer living in a snowbound North Woods. Hi-Lite Comics had Warren King providing the more satisfying exploits of Miss Shady, a sexy blonde con artist who managed to escape capture at story’s end. Starr supplied the artwork for Monsieur L’Epee, a black eye-masked swashbuckler operating during the reign of King Louis of France. In his interview with Amash, Starr confirmed the kind of money that such one-shots could bring in, but also recalled the specter of federal restrictions. “We put out one issue, and boy, the returns were terrific. And then we were prohibited by the War Production Board,” Starr recounted, “because we weren’t publishing before the war… So there went my early fortune.” It is worth mentioning that many of the ads for the same small-time Chicago novelty companies appeared in both Rural Home and the Albrecht/Ross comicbooks. And the same relatively unique advertisements also appeared in what I’ve come to call the

There are two intriguing postscripts to the story of C.H. Albrecht. Again echoing David Saunders’ research, Albrecht appears to have intended to publish another one-shot titled Occult Comics during this same period, but it never saw print. Later, in 1946, he saw to the production of a cover and contents for yet another venture. Atlas Comics was to tell the story of Jim Randall’s encounter with the Greek god Atlas, who saw to it that Randall was granted similar superior strength. Randall subsequently became a costumed super-hero named Atlas. If the word Atlas seemed to pop up repeatedly, it makes sense once you learn that Albrecht produced the comicbook for Charles Atlas as a promotional vehicle for the body building guru. Something went wrong, however, the material only showing up years later in 1964 in I.W.’s Daring Adventures #18. One final detail of interest. Shortly after the war ended, circa 1946, Albrecht’s go-to printer, Central Printing, was bought out by none other than Victor Fox. That fact will add a small but intriguing footnote to the story of what happened after Rural Home’s demise. In the meantime, we turn to other comicbooks and publishers that also ran afoul of wartime paper regulations.

Sparkling Stars’ Legal Troubles The agents enforcing the regulations of the War Production Board were vigilant. The Federal Register, a record of official federal actions, noted in its April 4, 1945, entries that Holyoke Publishing stood accused of violating Limitation Order L-244. Specifically, the company was accused of using over 380 tons of paper for the publication of the comicbook Sparkling Stars. Unlike other accused publishers, however, Holyoke had a ready defense. They noted that Holyoke had been publishing three different comicbooks, namely Captain Aero, Blue Beetle, and Cat-Man Comics, during the base rate year of 1941. The only problem with that defense was that in 1941 Holyoke was only serving as the printer of those comicbooks and not the publisher, a role it only took over in 1942. That said, it may have been enough to make a case for legitimate confusion. No fine was noted, but there were consequences. nonetheless. A cease-and-desist order seems likely. The first nine issues of Sparkling Stars were published on a monthly basis with issues

The Untold Story Of Rural Home Comics & Other True Crimes

addresses. These one-shots featured common filler and text material, and some overlap of characters, suggesting a common packager. The content of these one-shots was spotty at best. Swapper’s Quarterly, which simply gave its address as Chicago, had apparently been responsible for publishing two Baily studio one-shots, the previously discussed Tally Ho Comics and Cisco Kid. After the demise of Rural Home, Swapper’s Quarterly (along with another “publisher” named Almanac) issued the first issue of Toytown Comics, packaged by the L.B. Cole studio. Almanac, for its part, was listed as the singular publisher of Navy Heroes, a collection of patriotic true stories. Farm Women’s Publishing Co. put out two issues of Circus Comics (4-6/45) from the same Chicago address, 155 North Clark Street, as Almanac. It’s hard to imagine that all of these comicbooks were generated by truly independent publishers. Spotlight, who listed their Chicago address as 2439 Gunnison St., published a total of six comicbooks in all. Like Rural Home titles, they featured material from an almost identical set of comic art shops. Ship Ahoy and Tailspin (both cover-dated 11/44) were produced by L.B. Cole’s studio and featured military material without any advertising. Both one-shots sported classy typeface across the top of the covers that read “The Ten Cent Comic Book Series.” Offering mostly true war stories, each had one fictional hero. Ship Ahoy featured Rip Roarin, a Navy airman from Texas, while Tailspin offered a colorful costumed pilot named Firebird. Decked out in yellow, orange, and red, Firebird faced a beautiful Nazi aviator named Valkyrie. Sound familiar? Only, when this Valkyrie pulled a gun on Firebird, he shot and killed her.

“…Last Sparkling Stars I See Tonight…” Artist Harry Lazarus’ cover for Holyoke’s Sparkling Stars #7 (Dec. 1944). The “paper police” pulled the plug for about a year after #8 (Feb. ’45). [© the respective copyright holders.]

Next up, Latest Comics (3/45) and Three Ring Comics (3/45) both featured funny-animal material produced by the Jason Comic Art studio, headed by Leon Jason. Finally, Gem Comics (4/45) and Twinkle Comics (5/45) were

cover-dated June 1944 through February 1945. They featured a rather uninspired group of heroes: Hell’s Angels, a trio of wartime pilots; Boxie Weaver, a Joe Palooka wannabe; and Speed Spaulding, yet another upright student athlete. A year’s hiatus followed the court proceedings. Holyoke only resumed its publication of Sparkling Stars with its February 1946 issue, after the Limitation Orders had been dropped.

The Pop Pop, Twinkle Caper There’s one more example of the government’s vigilance regarding the use of paper, but this one requires a bit more backstory. Lindsay Baird had first ceased his publishing efforts in the closing months of 1944. During this hiatus, another group of suspicious one-shot titles began to appear between November 1944 and June 1945. Most of these one-shots were distributed by Fawcett’s distribution arm, just as Blue Circle and Blazing Comics had been. At this point, it will come as little surprise that some if not all of these one-shots were also being published without a legitimate paper allowance.

How’re You Gonna Keep ’Em Down On The Farm?

An unknown packager had begun to buy up or otherwise secure comicbook material from a somewhat similar group of comic art shops (Jason Comic Art, Bernard Baily, and L.B. Cole), likely on the cheap. Most of these one-shots were put out by three different “publishers” (Swapper’s Quarterly, The Spotlight, and Leffingwell), all operating out of Chicago, albeit from different

The one-shot Navy Heroes and the two-shot Circus Comics were officially published by companies with the unlikely (and Rural Home Publishingsuggesting) names Almanac and Farm Women’s Publishing Co. Do we detect a theme here—almost as if Lindsay Baird and company were thumbing their nose at the paper-protecting powers-that-were? Artists unknown, but the “JCA” initials on the latter suggest the cover was by the combined Jason Comic Art studio. [© the respective copyright holders.]

The Forgotten Super-Heroes Of 1944-45

Chasin’ Jason The covers of the first issues of both Latest Comics (March 1945) and Three Ring Comics (May ’45) were produced (and signed) by the Jason Comic Art studio. [© the respective copyright holders.]

produced by the Baily Art Shop. Inside, Gem Comics featured a pair of married amateur detectives, Bob and Blanche Lane; Steve Strong, adventurous member of the International Geographic Society; and Little Mohee, the blonde adopted daughter of a tribal chief. Mohee’s constant companion was a fiercely loyal white wolf named Lobo, while her spiritual guide was a talking white beaver. Twinkle Comics could boast the adventures of Lt. Jay Case, Air Force pilot, and Superstitious Aloysius, an elf who could charm away evil. R.B. Leffingwell, located at 233 West Erie St. in Chicago, was listed as the publisher of Jeep Comics, Chuckle, Topsy-Turvy, and Pop-Pop Comics. Chuckle was a giant 130-page humorous comicbook selling for 25 cents, packaged by the Ben Sangor shop. Topsy-Turvy was similarly produced by Sangor and starred the teenager, Cookie. As was the case with Rural Home, the Sangor comicbooks were distributed by Independent News. Pop-Pop Comics consisted of humorous features packaged by the Jason Comic Shop. Both Pop-Pop and Jeep Comics were distributed by Fawcett. Of greatest interest here is Leffingwell’s Jeep Comics, produced by the Baily studio. The lead feature was a pair of heroes nicknamed Jeep and Peep. Jeep—no formal name was ever given—was a recently discharged vet and inventor who was fond of wearing a red cape with his white shirt and blue trousers. Attaching a rocket to his old army jeep, Jeep and his pre-adolescent pal flew around in the vehicle (nicknamed Eugene) in search of adventure. Other features in Jeep Comics included Superstitious Aloysius; Criss Cross, a crime-fighting locksmith (!); Captain Power, an

Fighting By Sea & Air L.B. Cole’s studio produced the one-shots Ship Ahoy and Tailspin, for which that artist/ entrepreneur drew both covers. The latter featured Firebird, a costumed aviator who took on a Nazi aviatrix called The Valkyrie— just as Airboy did over in Hillman Periodicals’ Airboy Comics. Thanks to Mark Carlson-Ghost for the splash, and to the GCD for the cover scans. [© the respective copyright holders.]

American officer in war-torn Europe; and “Solid” Jackson, scientific criminologist. Two issues were published (Winter ’44 and Spring ’45). A planned third issue didn’t see print for three years. Legal problems were looming. Similar to the situation at Rural Home, it would seem that a prime motivation for this profusion of different publishers and addresses was to hide the fact that at least some of the comicbooks were being published illegally. The April 1945 issue of Magazine World noted two of these Chicago-based titles, Pop-Pop and Twinkle, had been recalled from

The Untold Story Of Rural Home Comics & Other True Crimes

Robert (“R.B”) Leffingwell The Chicago-area advertising man and publisher, in an Oct. 14, 1923, photo provided by Davis Saunders of www.pulpartists.com. He published the four mags shown here—though, at the same time, Topsy-Turvy Comics #1 (April 1945) with its Dan Gordon-penciled cover of the ACG teen hero Cookie, and the big 1945 collection Chuckle (cover art by Irving Dressler), are definitely from the fabled Sangor Shop (see A/E #61) and the beginnings of the ACG/American Comics Group… while Pop-Pop Comics (c. ’45) boasts another cover provided by the Jason Comic Art studio. Jeep Comics #1 (Winter ’44) features the costumed heroes “Jeep and Peep.” Jeep Comics #3 finally came out in 1948… from Spotlight Publishing Co. What a tangled web, huh? [© the respective copyright holders.]

the newsstands by the WPB (War Production Board). It turned out that neither publisher (referring to Spotlight and Leffingwell) had a paper allotment, and that the number of printed copies far exceeded the small-publisher exemption. Any legal consequences went unmentioned. Both comicbooks had been distributed by Fawcett, who seemed to be involved in more than their fair share of

WPB actions. Twinkle and Pop-Pop were the last publications of what might be called the Spotlight-Leffingwell group. Swapper’s Quarterly similarly disappeared. As such, we may reasonably assume that the WPB action directly or indirectly spelled the end of their publishing efforts, under those names at least. A publisher of sexually naughty joke books named Palace Promotions put out a second issue of Latest Comics in 1945 and a third issue of Jeep Comics in 1948. Identifying the owner of Palace Promotions might provide some new insights into this tangle of surrogate publishers and illicit activity. Given what little we have to go on, who was behind these seemingly related Chicago-based one-shots? They would seem not to have been spearheaded by Lindsay Baird. If Baird had been known to be a repeat offender, that would have been noted in the news accounts of his encounter with the feds. R.B. Leffingwell seems a more likely suspect.

R.B. Leffingwell: The Final Pierce of the Puzzle? In The Spotlight The Baily Art Shop produced Gem Comics and Twinkle Comics. The cover of the former is by John Giunta; the cover of the latter has a strong art style, but its artist is unidentified. Note the spotlight motif—on the Spotlight comic! [© the respective copyright holders.]

R.B. Leffingwell was a real person, spending most of his career—beginning circa 1904—as

The Forgotten Super-Heroes Of 1944-45

an advertising representative for magazines geared towards a rural audience, published out of Chicago, and distributed throughout the Midwest. Internet searches revealed that Leffingwell represented titles such as The Household Guest, The Home Folks, and Home Friends, all “leading mail order monthlies.” It was while investigating Leffingwell Toytown Story that this author discovered there The cover of Toytown Comics #3 (Aug. 1946), which was published by Orbit after the demise of Rural Home. actually was Art by L.B. Cole. [© the respective copyright holders.] a Rural Home magazine—at least in 1913. Its subheading boasted that it was “The National Farm Mail Order Monthly.” The magazine had been established in 1871. Unfortunately, no evidence has been found to suggest that the Rural Home mail-order magazine survived beyond the 1920s. If it did survive into the ’40s, that would provide a very helpful piece of this publishing puzzle. Was the mere memory of the mail-order magazine enough for con men to choose it a “publisher” who they hoped feds might think had a legit paper allowance? What is clear is that Leffingwell as a comicbook publisher operated in a fashion very similar to Lindsay Baird. Both had Chicago connections and utilized a similar mix of comic shops for the content of their titles. Both Spotlight and Rural Home utilized Fawcett and Independent News as distributors. The identity behind the “R” in Baird’s REWL Publishing has never been discerned. Might the “R” in REWL represent R.B. Leffingwell? Was Leffingwell the one to come up with the Rural Home moniker? There is one final circumstance that makes it likely that Leffingwell and Baird were working together in some capacity. Baird’s Rural Home published two L.B. Cole-produced humor titles, Patches and Taffy Comics. Swapper’s Quarterly published an L.B. Cole-produced humor title entitled Toytown Comics. With the disappearance of Rural Home and Swapper’s Quarterly, all three humor titles ended up being published by Rae Herman’s Orbit comics group. This author is not quite ready to declare that the Leffingwell/ Spotlight/Swapper’s Quarterly “group” was one and the same as Rural Home. But they certainly shared overlapping business practices and perhaps business interests as well. Thus far, the stories of how Lindsay Baird, Holyoke, and R.B. Leffingwell all ran afoul of paper-rationing laws have been told. Only one last true-crime story remains. The final suspect? None other than Victor S. Fox himself!

Book Or Comicbook? The Feds Strike Again A little background first. Early-’40s publisher Victor Fox had re-entered the comicbook world in 1944 with a small, low-quality line of ten-cent comics in 1944. His return included retaking control of his single claim to fame, the super-hero known as The Blue Beetle. With comicbooks selling like hotcakes, Fox had moved to resolve his 1942 bankruptcy as quickly as he could. Fox would have realized that his production of comicbooks during the pre-war base rate year of 1941 would grant him a relatively healthy paper allotment. But while Fox now had publishing options many would have envied, it appears it was not enough to garner the profits that the eccentric entrepreneur had envisioned. Fox would soon turn to “surrogate” publishers, companies who had a surplus allotment of paper that they were willing to use on behalf of other companies. All for a price, of course. During the war years, William H. Wise & Co. was seemingly blessed with a more than ample paper allowance. That publisher’s modus operandi was to issue massive reference volumes, including offerings like The Modern Home Physician, the World’s Greatest Books series, and The Garden Encyclopedia. To a lesser extent, the firm had also published humor digests such as Tops in Humor and Mirth of a Nation during the feds’ base rate year. As such, Wise & Co. would have qualified for a more than ample paper allotment for books and a smaller one for magazines. The firm became one of the best-known examples of “surrogate” publishing in the comicbook industry. Among other titles, Wise published The Complete Book of Comics and Funnies for Ned Pines and The Complete Book of True Crime Comics for Lev Gleason. These titles even sounded like Wise’s encyclopedic books. Of far poorer quality was the voluminous amount of original material that Victor Fox arranged to have the company publish. In

Fox News A photo of Golden Age schlock publisher Victor Fox—or at least, that’s what Comic Vine website thinks, and we hope they’re right!—and the 128-page publication The Book of Comics (1944) that he apparently managed to publish through William H. Wise & Co. The cover, by an unidentified artist, spotlights Captain V (who was later rechristened The Puppeteer) and members of the U.S. armed forces. [© the respective copyright holders.]

The Untold Story Of Rural Home Comics & Other True Crimes

Tigress, Jaguar, & Pussy Galore—From A Wily Old Fox (Top row:) “The Purple Tigress” appeared only in Fox’s All Good Comics (nn, 1944 edition), a 132-page anthology from Fox… while Jaguar Man held forth in that schlockmeister’s All Great Comics (nn, “version 2,” 1945. The Tigress was allegedly drawn or written (or something) by “Betty Brown.” The name of the Jaguar Man feature just said “Jaguar”—but he was referred to by the longer name throughout the story, in which he was a zookeeper moonlighting as a costumed hero and taking his charge, Ebony, with him on his nocturnal prowls. If the zoo had found out, he’d doubtless have been fired for endangering an (expensive) black jaguar! (Bottom:) “Pussy Katnip” over in All Great Comics was a funny-animal superheroine of sorts, who, as the third page of the story shows, gained vague but amazing powers from a “concoction” known as “the Katnip Fizz”—which, however, didn’t change her appearance. Does anybody out there think there really was an artist and/or writer named “Len Snort” drawing the yarns? [© the respective copyright holders.]

The Forgotten Super-Heroes Of 1944-45

apparently fought crime in a skimpy tiger outfit because she could see in the dark. A heroic zookeeper named Jaguar Man, in contrast, was far more modest, covering himself from head to toe in a spotted fur costume. And for fans of anthropomorphic animals, there was the poorly drawn Pussy Katnip. Pussy was a torch singer who gained superior strength and cleverness by gulping down a secret formula of “Katnip Fizz.” Two of these giants, Ribtickler and Book of All-Comics, both 50-centers, were cited in 1945 by the War Production Board for having been “printed in violation of the order limiting the paper tonnage to be used in printing magazines and periodicals.” Magazines, not books. Both had been issued by Chicago Nite Life News, Inc., whose editorial address was listed as 250 West Broadway, New York City. As we’ll see, this address would soon be used by another Fox enterprise.

Papered Over

In short order, two companies identified as Belmont Books, Inc., and Giant Books, Inc., appealed the decision, hoping to “continue distribution” of the two titles. But on June 23rd, The New York Times reported that the WPB had rejected their appeal. Fox’s connection with Giant and Belmont (not the same paperback firm established in 1960) isn’t known. They may have been shell companies owned by Fox. It is worth noting that both firms were identified as “book” publishers, further supporting the idea that Fox was trying to pass off the comics as books.

Although they featured funny animals and super-heroes, the War Production Board was neither amused nor thrilled by the paper violations that allowed the 194-page comics Ribtickler and Book of All-Comics to be printed in 1945. Apparently, Victor (Sly as a) Fox was involved with both titles. Artists unidentified. [© the respective copyright holders.]

1944, Wm. H. Wise issued The Book of Comics for Fox, followed by All Top Comics and All Great Comics, all three efforts boasting “128 pages in full color” for only 25 cents. That same year, Wise also published the 194-page Everybody’s Comics, which sold for 50 cents. All four comicbooks featured the same super-hero, adventure, and humor features, many of those also appearing in Fox’ ten-cent line. As with the Cambridge House/Baily Studio collaboration, in an apparent effort to qualify as books, each of these mammoth comic books included a Table of Contents page printed in formal typeface and interior pages featuring page numbers. Their large size also allowed them to be square-bound (albeit poorly) like books. The profits from these comicbooks must have been sizable, as the following year Fox got even greedier and, it appears, more careless. For whatever reason—perhaps their paper allotment was finally used up—Wm. H. Wise & Co. appear to have declined to publish any more of these giant comicbooks. Fox soon sought two new collaborators, both based in Chicago: R.W. Voight and Chicago Nite Life News. Five more Fox giants appeared in 1945. A brief mention of some of the new super-heroes featured in these anthologies is warranted. The nine Fox giants often featured Anteas, the Bouncer, a Roman statue come to life (courtesy of original writer Robert Kanigher) who, well, bounced. Another apparent favorite was the red-white-and-blue-clad Captain V, who was later renamed The Puppeteer after the profession of his alter ego. In the forgotten-heroes department, there were several appearances by Red Robbins, an only moderately quick “speedster” with superior strength; Johnny Earthquake, a normal guy whose fists just felt like earthquakes; and Bronze Man, whose bronze mask covered war-inflicted facial deformities. Someone writing these fly-by-night features must also have had a fondness for cats. There was The Purple Tigress, who

Victor Fox was the final behind-the-scenes figure to be impacted by the government’s paper-use regulations. But his involvement in this story still results in a couple of final twists and turns.

Victor Fox & Red Circle’s Brief Afterlife On August 24th, 1945, a week before Japan officially surrendered, the War Production Board surprised the publishing industry by ending all regulations regarding the use of paper for books and magazines. Overnight, all book and magazine publishers could suddenly use as much paper as they wanted, as long as they could find it. Pulp paper, however, was still in relatively short supply. A whole new generation of comicbooks hit the newsstands in 1946, a topic worthy of further examination at some later date. Only one of those companies is relevant here, one started by the ubiquitous Victor Fox. Fox could now publish a wide range of comicbook titles openly. The ambitious publisher was on the move again. Beginning in the final months of 1945, Fox was issuing close to a dozen different comicbooks, mostly undistinguished funny-animal and humor material. But Fox, as always, was playing more than one angle at a time. During the war, Fox had launched a line of digest-sized detective novels. Like Fox’s giant comics, these had been put out by surrogate Chicago publishers, including R.W. Voight and Spotlight, but used the same fox-head insignia as his comicbooks. With the end of paper regulations, Fox continued the series of novels under the name Green Publishing Co. We know all of this thanks to the

The Untold Story Of Rural Home Comics & Other True Crimes

wonderful research done by bookscans. com. Fox also began publishing remaindered comicbooks under the titles Roly-Poly and Liberty Comics using the same Green Publishing name. If anyone wants to write this off as mere coincidence, consider these additional details: Both Green and surrogate Fox publisher Chicago Nite Lite News listed the same editorial address. Furthermore, at the same time as Green was publishing its comicbooks, Fox funny-animal comicbooks were featuring one Green Premium Coupon per issue. For a mere 25 coupons, you could receive a genuine Blue Beetle whistle! Ruth Roche, famous nowadays for her work with the S.M. Iger comic shop for Fiction House and others, edited the comicbooks published by Green. This was actually before Iger and Roche began producing Phantom Lady and Rulah, Jungle Goddess for Fox. Liberty Comics and Roly-Poly Comics mostly featured reprints of old

Ruth Roche (seen at top of page) edited Green Publishing Co.’s mostly-reprint mags Liberty Comics and Roly-Poly Comics. The artists of the cover of Liberty #15 (July 1946) and the “El Kuraan” feature inside are unidentified. [© the respective copyright holders.]

MLJ/Archie comicbooks. But here’s where the Rural Home connection kicks in: Two consecutive issues of Liberty Comics featured never-beforepublished content that had been produced by the Jacquet art shop for Red Circle Comics. Prior to the demise of Rural Home, the final issue of Red Circle (#3) had introduced two new characters. Starring in a series called “Secret Assignment” was one Anthony Cobat, “key American agent in the international undercover organization.” The feature had a timely feel to it and boasted some of the earliest artwork produced by Leonard Starr and Frank Bolle. The other new feature was “El Kuraan,” The Desert Eagle, an intriguing masked Arab hero. Wearing a red face scarf to mask his identity, the hero also wore a pale green headdress and trousers, I’ve Got A “Secret”! navy blue robe, and red slippers. El Kuraan was The “Secret Assignment” secretly Jahn, the son of an aging Arab chieftain series introduced earlier in and a debonair reporter for an Arab newspaper. Rural Home’s Red Circle #3 He befriended a clueless American engineer was seen again in Liberty and businessman named Paul Conway. Conway Comics #14 (May 1946), had mistakenly negotiated with a corrupt Arab as drawn by the team warlord who had driven Jahn’s people off their of Leonard Starr & Frank land in his lust for oil profits. Bolle. [© the respective

Frank Bolle~

The Forgotten Super-Heroes Of 1944-45

El Kuraan made one final appearance in 1950. The cover that was intended for Red Circle #4 featured a beautiful image of El Kuraan drawn by Leonard Starr. Sadly, it was used as a cover for various remaindered copies of comicbooks from several different publishers instead—an old Victor Fox trick. Content was from titles as wide-ranging as Lev Gleason’s Crime Does Not Pay, the Prize group’s Young Love, and Fox’s own Women Outlaws. Other unused Rural Home covers intended for Blazing Comics #6 and Blue Circle #6 wrapped around similar remaindered material. Those two covers likely came into the possession of Fox’s wholly owned print shop, now known as Central Color Press, just before Rural Home’s collapse. Victor Fox would have had access to the unused color plates (or the printed-up but unused covers), thus finding one last way to squeeze a few more dollars out of a dying company. Both Fox Features Syndicate and Central Color Press filed for bankruptcy later that same year. As such, the story of the Rural Home heroes can finally be declared as officially over. But the story of Lindsay Baird still has a few chapters left to be told.

The Final Fate Of Lindsay Baird With the paper restrictions finally lifted, Lindsay Baird once again entered the publishing arena. Perhaps comicbooks had left a bad taste in his mouth, as Baird ventured into the world of “true” detective magazines instead. He established a new firm, Waverly Publishing Company, Inc., located at 1476 Broadway in New York City. In November of 1945 he was sending a colored cover plate for his new title, News Flash Detective Cases, to his longtime printer, Central Printing & Binding in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Circle The Wagons! Leonard Starr’s dynamic “El Kuraan” cover for Red Circle Comics #4 (April 1945) was wasted on a comic that was merely a slapdash collection of remaindered comicbook interiors. They weren’t even always the same interiors. One printing, for instance, slapped the words “SABU THE ELEPHANT BOY” across man and horse and was crammed with reprints of a licensed comic starring the young Indian film star. Another edition reprinted an issue of Dorothy Lamour Comics. [© the respective copyright holders.]

As it turned out, two additional issues of Red Circle had been prepared by the Jacquet studio prior to Rural Home’s abrupt demise. Someone with earlier connections with Rural Home provided the material for Green. It might have been the Jacquet Studio, or perhaps Fawcett’s distribution arm. Fawcett (a.k.a. FDC) was the distributor for both Red Circle and Green Publishing. Different printers were used for each, so that doesn’t appear to be the connection. Liberty Comics #14 (indicia “volume 2, no. 5”—no date) included the features “Secret Assignment,” “El Kuraan” (with his friend Paul Conway), and “The Prankster,” as well as old standbys “Saunders of State” and “Dinky Dibbs.” Liberty Comics #15 (“vol. 2, no. 6”— July, 1946) featured an identical line-up, with the only difference being that The Prankster was replaced by Patty of the Airlines, a heroic air hostess. This time El Kuraan rescued an American woman that Paul Conway was unable to save. At the end of the story, the American is smitten with The Desert Eagle, not Conway. But some of the subversive pleasure of an Arab hero getting the girl was lost when Conway begins to thank El Kuraan for saving his oil company. El Kuraan stops him, exclaiming: “No—it is you who has brought prosperity to my people.”

The history of true-detective magazines is a spotty one. The first issue of News Flash Detective Cases was dated December 1945 and appeared as a bi-monthly for at least six issues. The first issue of a companion title, Crime File Detective, appeared in May 1946. It is likely these titles were not long-lived, though Baird may have continued in the publishing field in ways no longer evident. What is known is that Baird was finding the $20,000 fine levied against him an impediment to future business endeavors. According to legal records, released from jail, and with what felt to him onerous expectations, Baird applied to take what was called “the poor person’s oath” in order to have the rest of the fine discharged. At this point, Baird had paid $6547 of what he owed. But the appeal was denied. His claim of poverty was rejected on grounds “that the government has information that the defendant is concealing money.” Further legal wrangling continued. Baird and the court came to a new agreement on August 8th, 1946. Baird paid an additional thousand dollars with the understanding that he could pay the rest of the fine in monthly increments of a hundred dollars or more. The government agreed not to threaten to take unspecified “equipments” from Baird in return. This may have referred to equipment used as part of his Waverly Publishing operation. In the years that followed, Baird’s three children grew up. Perhaps the accusation in the courtroom that his father lacked any patriotism whatsoever spurred Baird’s eldest son to enlist in the Army during the Korean conflict. Or perhaps he was simply following the example of his more upstanding uncle. Needless to say, the dynamics between fathers and sons are often fraught. Meanwhile, court documents detailed the ongoing back and forth between Baird, Sr., and the government. “He paid for a time,” one summarized. “A bailable attachment was issued against him;

The Untold Story Of Rural Home Comics & Other True Crimes

Baird might be a chiseler, but the Court felt the government had exceeded its bounds in pursuing what he owed it. Lindsay Baird was now 56 years old. He evaded further jail time and likely any further payments on the fine. And with this final legal success, Baird disappears from the public record. Perhaps things were finally looking up for Baird and his family. Then, in 1959, a terrible event almost destroyed the career of his 27-year-old son. Local newspapers reported that Lt. Lindsay L. Baird, Jr., had been charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminal negligence in handling a firearm. While hunting in the Catskills, the younger Baird admitted that he had been shooting his rifle “‘almost at random’ across a meadow at a tree.” He never saw the man fishing at a nearby stream. One of Baird’s bullets penetrated the man’s heart, killing him. News of these events was surely wrenching for Baird, Sr. But the career of his son managed to survive those charges. Perhaps he’d inherited some of his father’s tenacity and drive. No record of the elder Baird’s death was found, but Baird, Jr., died in 1998 at the age of 66. His obituary details how, after leaving the Army in 1973, Lindsay Baird, Jr., specialized in computer security. In the military or out of it, the younger Baird made a career of protecting the country from “the bad guys.” Given his father’s extensive history of legal troubles, there was a certain irony in that.

Maybe Not Entirely Forgotten The forgotten heroes of 1944-45 have largely been ignored in the retro revivals of Golden Age heroes. But they were too engagingly eccentric not to manage to inspire a couple modern tributes.

News Flash! He’s Baaaack! The cover of Lindsay Baird’s magazine News Flash Detective Cases #2 (Feb. 1946).

various orders were made directing the payment of the balance in installments and a number of contempt proceedings were started and then withdrawn. This culminated in an order by Judge Murphy, consented to by appellant, made on March 10, 1955, which reduced the installment payments to $25 per month” through the end of the year and back to $100 per month thereafter until the fine was fully paid. But even with these accommodations, Baird still didn’t live up to the agreement. A new judge ruled him in contempt and ordered his imprisonment until the fine was fully paid. Baird again appealed the decision. This time, on February 4th, 1957, the higher court rejected the lower court’s ruling. It was a complicated opinion, but essentially the judge argued that the court had no “statutory authority” to make the compromise bargain way back in 1946 that seemed to both honor Baird’s poverty and yet require regular payments. The judge concluded that Baird “may have persuaded the Government to request something (of him) which it had no right to ask and then ignored his part of the bargain. But (Baird) may not be imprisoned for failure to keep his word.” We know all of this from the final court proceedings of the United States of America v. Lindsay L. Baird, 241 F.2d 170 (2d Cir. 1957). While the judge ruled in Baird’s favor, he wanted it to be clear that this judgment was in no way a vindication of Baird’s behavior: “We are not concerned with the character of the appellant nor with the sincerity of his protestations of inability to pay the balance of the criminal fine imposed upon him.”

In 2014, in a graphic novel entitled The Shadow Hero, Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew re-imagined the character of The Green Turtle as an authentically Chinese one. What’s more, in the story the 1940s hero inspires a modern Asian-American to take on his identity. Then, beginning in 2016, a series of noir novels by Brett A. Brooks featured that shapely feline chanteuse, Pussy Katnip. More than its characters, devoted comicbook historians seem to remember Rural Home, the company, if for no other reason than to argue about the vexing number of one-shots seemingly tied to it. It’s hoped this article will shed new light on that debate, but it will be unlikely to settle it. Much like the philosophers of old who clashed over how many angels can dance on the head of the pin, there is too much fun to be had in arguing the matter. In closing, it would be nice to deem Lindsay Baird, Sr., a forgotten hero, but the hero part really doesn’t fit. That said, in my opinion, his tenacity and sheer audacity deserve to be recalled with some affection. With this article, at least, he’s forgotten no longer.

Epilogue: Croydon & Rural Home Untangled In 1944, another publisher entered the comicbook arena. His name was Jerome A. “Jerry” Kramer, the man behind Croydon Publishing. He was an interesting figure, a nationally recognized expert in tax law who had a taste for publishing somewhat sleazy material. His initial involvement in comicbooks was short-lived. He published only nine individual issues over a two-year period, six of which were one-shots. It’s unclear whether Kramer had a paper allotment or not. That said, he seems to have been too savvy to have run afoul of the

The Forgotten Super-Heroes Of 1944-45

39th St., New York City (thanks to archiver “USA” at the comicbookplus/forum for his deep dive into Croydon addresses). The Croydon Publishing Co. has often been wrongly associated with Rural Home and even described as a publishing wing of the troubled company. There is almost nothing to link Croydon to Rural Home, and a good deal to distinguish it. Croydon was distributed by Kable News, a distributor that never did business with Rural Home. Plus, three of Croydon’s grand total of nine published issues were of newspaper reprints: The Nebbs, Miss Cairo Jones, and World Famous Stories. Rural Home never trafficked in newspaper comic strips. Croydon’s two humor comicbooks, Funland Comics and Merry-GoRound Comics, featured artwork by the Ferstadt Studio and Al Fago, neither of whom did work for Rural Home.

Home Sweet Rural Home! The cover of the graphic novel The Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew updates Rural Home’s “The Green Turtle” (and there’s been at least one further volume since)—while Pussy Katnip is now the heroine of “film noir novels” by Brett A. Brooks, one of whose Kindle covers (artist uncertain) is seen here. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

feds. In addition to his comicbooks, Kramer also published rather sensational paperbacks under the Croydon imprint, beginning as early as 1945 with a series of detective novels. Kramer’s early paperbacks had titles like Here Lies Blood, Murders I’ve Seen, and Vicious Circle. Kramer may have published material during the critical base rate year. Historical details on small publishers during this period are often wanting. Both his paperbacks and comicbooks from this period featured the same address, 108 West

The only thing linking Croydon to Rural Home is that in 1946—after Lindsay Baird had left comicbooks for good—Croydon published a single issue of Captain Wizard, a character who had originated in Red Band Comics. The war was over and publishing limits lifted. In that sense, the Captain Wizard one-shot was different from the others featuring Baily Studio content. How Kramer got his hands on the artwork is anyone’s guess. Maybe Croydon and the Captain Wizard one-shot shared a common printing company.

Variety Comics was the only Croydon title to last more than one issue. It came out all of three times, one issue published in 1944 and one in each of the following two years. Variety starred Captain Valiant, who in his origin story was just a super-hero character created for a Broadway play. When the star got drunk, his understudy stepped in and managed to stop a crime during the performance. Since Captain Valiant was masked, no one knew that the understudy was the hero. All this made for a novel set-up: Captain Valiant had a secret identity that no one suspected

Croydon True Miss Cairo Jones, by writer Jerry Albert & artist Bob Oksner, ran from 1945-1947 as a newspaper comic strip, and had one comicbook issue (a collection of strips) in 1945—while the two funny-animal titles, Funland Comics #1 (1945) & Merry-Go-Round Comics #1 (Dec. ’45) sported covers by Lou Ferstadt and Al Fago, respectively. [© the respective copyright holders.]

The Untold Story Of Rural Home Comics & Other True Crimes

Variety Is The Spice Of Life Crodyon’s Variety Comics #1 (1944) certainly showcased a variety of genres on its cover, including a new costumed hero, Captain Valiant. He appeared in all three (annually published) issues, although with a costume change near the end. The art is by Marvin Stein. [© the respective copyright holders.]

was secret! Unfortunately, future issues didn’t follow up on this premise. Other series in Variety (what a great title for a Broadway hero to star in!) included Policewoman Terry Temple and Jungo, Jungle Master. After 1946, Kramer focused on his mystery paperbacks, but early in 1947 he gave up on that as well. Two years later, Croydon’s publisher connected up with L.B. Cole. Cole told the story of how, in 1949, both he and Kramer had heard that Novelty Press was getting out of comicbooks and wanted to sell off its back inventory of stories. Best known for publishing Target Comics, Blue Bolt Comics, and Dick Cole, Novelty Press was the poor stepchild of the owners of The Saturday Evening Post. Apparently Cole and Kramer showed up together for the auction of the Novelty Press material and titles. The two men decided to pool their resources and buy Novelty together. Still distributed by Kable, Kramer and Cole adopted a Star imprint for their comicbooks that featured Cole’s trademark brightly colored covers. Kramer also reentered the paperback arena under a revived Croydon imprint and sporting cover art by Cole. This time Kramer was peddling a numbered series of sensational “love novels.” Titles like Reckless Virgin, Shadows of Love, and Street of Sin, suggested that love had little to do with it.

Publishing History of RURAL HOME & Related Comics REWL

ALBRECHT/ROSS

Lindsay Baird, Jacquet Shop

Jacquet Staffers

FDC - Central Printing

Blazing Comics #1-3 (6/44-9/44)

Hi-Lite Comics #1 (Fall c. 1945)

Blue Circle Comics #1-3 (6/44-9/44)

Conqueror Comics #1 (Winter 1945)

RURAL HOME

###

Jacquet Shop

GREEN

FDC - Central Printing

Iger/Roche publishers

Blazing Comics #4-5 (2/45-3/45)

Unused Jacquet content

Blue Circle Comics #4-6 (2/45-5/45)

Roly-Poly Comics #14-15

RURAL HOME Jacquet Shop FDC - Greater Buffalo Press Red Circle Comics #1-3 (1/45-4/45) ###

(Red Circle characters) PUBLICATIONES RECREATIVAS (Rural Home) Baily Shop FDC - Mexican Printer Red Band Comics #1-4 (11/44-5/45) [continued on next page]

The Forgotten Super-Heroes Of 1944-45

We’re Off To See Captain Wizard! Behind a new cover by John Giunta, Croydon’s Captain Wizard #1 reprinted the good Captain himself (drawn by Jack Alderman) and “The Impossible Man” by Charles Voight. Scripters unknown. [© the respective copyright holders.]

[continued from previous page]

RURAL HOME

Swappers Quart./Almanac

ORBIT—Rae Herman

###

Sangor Shop/Hughes

Toytown #1 (no date)

Initially all L.B. Cole Shop

MISC. PUBLISHERS

IND - World Color Press

PDC - World Color Press

All Baily Shop

Cannonball Comics #1-2

B. Antin

All FDC or Unknown

Laffy-Daffy Comics #1-2 (both 2/45-3/45)

Printers Unknown (Same set of characters, most from Red Band)

RURAL HOME

Gerona

PDC - World Color Press

K.O. Komics (10/45)

Mask Comics #1 (3/45)

Lindsay Baird Meteor Comics #1 (11/45-FDC) Top Spot Top Spot Comics #1 (1945) Carlton Merry Comics nn (12/45 - FDC) Zoom Comics nn (12/45-FDC) Special Action Triple Threat nn (Winter/45) Cima Snappy Comics #1 (no date - FDC) Jay Burtis Atomic Bomb Comics #1 (no date)

L.B. Cole Shop

Eagle Comics #1 (3/45) Patches #1 (4/45) Taffy #1 (4/45) ### MISC. PUBLISHERS All L.B. Cole Shop PDC - World Color Press (No Publisher Listed) Mask Comics #2 (Fa/45) Gail Hillson

Toytown #2 (1945) Narrative Power Comics #1-4 (no dates) ###

Toytown #3-7 (8/46-5/47) Other Orbit titles followed.

Sources

Ray Herman Patches #2 (1945)

Taffy #2 (1945)

Taffy #3-12 (7/46-2/48)

In writing this article, the author primarily drew on information he has gleaned over the years from his own collection. His membership in the index APA Capa-Alpha proved very useful in launching this investigation a very long time ago. More recently, searches of newspaper archives of the New York Times, New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, and Detroit Free Press supplied helpful details, as did issues of the industry trade periodical Magazine World and legal records publicly available on the Internet. David Saunders’ encyclopedic site pulpartists.com provided valuable additional details, as noted in the body of the article. The author also found the Comic Book Plus discussion forums useful in unraveling some final mysteries. Finally, he says, “I have to give credit to my own obsessive-compulsive willingness to pay attention to the various combinations of publishers, printers, and distributors. It was absolutely necessary to understanding this and many other intriguing but often vexing publishing tangles.”

Eagle Comics #2 (no date)

Samuel Herman

Patches #3-11 (7/46-11/47)

Mark Carlson-Ghost

Mark Carlson-Ghost is a popular-culture historian when not teaching psychology at the graduate level. His eclectic website markcarlson-ghost.com features comprehensive histories of a wide variety of comics, as well as various compendiums of super-heroes by company, ethnicity, disability, and sexual orientation. Carlson-Ghost lives in Minnesota with his husband and the indomitable Jake the cat.

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The Boys in Blue from Dynamite #3 (Sept. 1953). Pete, seen at bottom right in photo, joined the New York City police force in 1956. [© the respective copyright holders.]

[Photo © the Pete Morisi Estate.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

The PAM Papers – Part 6

by Michael T. Gilbert

ast episode we published letters from Pete to his correspondent and friend Glen D. Johnson, describing the rise and fall at Charlton of his beloved character Peter Cannon… Thunderbolt! Charlton killed its entire super-hero line shortly afterward, but Pete’s editor, Sal Gentile, kept Morisi busy on other projects. After Charlton’s “action hero” line died, PAM— unsuccessfully—tried to buy the rights to T-Bolt. Getting his offer rejected was disappointing. But something else was even worse… (8/12/68)

Dear Glen— Here’s some fast info that makes me want to scream!

Just spoke to Sal regarding originals, and he says that he has orders not to give anything back, but to destroy the art after a certain time period. So all my stuff eventually winds up in a “shredding” machine. That’s not the main reason for my writing “out of sequence”— here’s the screaming news—Charlton will put out the King Features titles in the future. Flash Gordon, The Phantom, Jungle Jim, and Beetle Bailey. Great, huh? Except that “due to the value of my work in westerns, and deadline considerations” I’m out of the King Features titles that’ll feature original art for: Flash Gordon—Boyette Jungle Jim – Boyette The Phantom —Aparo Beetle Bailey – Who cares? I screamed, yelled pleaded, asked and screamed again—but no deal—“We need you to keep doing what you’re doing.” Grrrroowwrrr! See ya, Pete MTG: DC was notorious for destroying original art, but Charlton was nearly as bad. The official reason for doing so was fear that the black-&-white art could be used to illegally print comics overseas without paying the companies—a questionable reason at best. However, most cartoonists didn’t care, since the art wasn’t considered particularly commercial until the 1970s. But a few, like Pete, slaved over their art and valued it. His editors did manage to slip him a handful of pages over the years. Making things worse, Pete had always begged his editors to assign him super-hero stories, but they had other ideas. As we can see from his “Phantom” art on this page, Morisi’d have been ideal for that series. (6/15/69?)

Dear Glen—

Thanks for letting me know that my Flash Gordon job came out—I haven’t checked the stands in a few weeks—but they were sold out anyway. So I called Sal and he said he’d mail me a copy. The verbal agreement I have with Sal is the same one I’ve always had, but lately I’ve wanted “out” of one of the westerns I do. We’ve been kicking it around, and Sal’s been offering me Romance and/or Hot Rods, which I’ve refused. So I’ve settled for Montana, Loco, and fillers. That’s it, Pete

A Comic Fandom Archive Though Pete was a big fan of the genre, Thunderbolt was the only (non-Western or sci-fi) costumed comicbook hero “PAM” ever drew professionally. However, this sample page, published in Charlton Bullseye #5 (1976), demonstrates that he’d have been an ideal choice for Charlton’s version of Lee Falk’s Phantom. This sample was likely drawn in the late ’60s, and colored by Michael T. in 2018. One of Pete’s letters referred to a Phantom drawing he did for a Charlton display at a NY convention. Could this have been it? [TM & © King Features Syndicate, Inc.]

MTG: The Flash Gordon story Pete referred to wasn’t the title character, but a sci-fi backup story in issue #16 (Oct 1969). (9/1/68)

Dear Glen—

That “Savage” by Kane is probably his best stuff to date—but his writing falls into traps (over-description), like my writing did on Dynamite. Re: The King Features titles—for a while I honestly thought of quitting Charlton and going over to DC or Marvel—but the idea of being “late with Giordano deadlines” changed my mind. I can’t do that to him again. As for Marvel… I’m just not in the mood to clash with Stan again. So I’ll swallow my pride and vanity and stay where I am. Guess that’s it. See ya, Pete

The PAM Papers – Part 6

(10/7/68)

Dear Glen—

I just completed a Loco and Montana… and just beat my deadline by one day. Now that I planned a couple of days off, another Loco and Montana (two scripts) came in the mail—and here we go again. I got the King package with Reed’s Flash Gordon—both beautiful books, with the exception of Flash’s heads—for some reason Reed [Crandall] just can’t get close to a likeness. See ya, Pete (10/14/68)

Dear Glen—

I can’t see how Wood, Williamson, Crandall, etc., could possibly find time to do “free” art for witzend. It just doesn’t figure. As it is, I’ve been getting to bed about 3 AM for the past week or so (it’s 4 AM right now) and I’m just barely meeting my deadlines. I picked up a Charlton Flash Gordon (did you get yours yet?) and happened to mention it to Sal Gentile on the phone. I said, “Boy, that Crandall is great,” to which he answered, “I think Pat Boyette is better!” After I screamed and told him that Pat was a good artist, but nobody compared to Crandall, he said, “That’s what all the fans have been writing me, but I think Pat is better.” (The above, naturally, is not for publication. I wouldn’t want to embarrass Pat, Sal, or myself). Gotta go to bed… It’s getting early! See ya, Pete MTG: Pete refers here to Wally Wood’s Pro-zine witzend. Actually, Williamson and company mostly couldn’t afford to do new art for the zine, but allowed Wood to run some stunning unpublished art. However, other artists, Wally Wood and Steve Ditko among them, did produce original features for it. Creative freedom and copyright ownership was more important to them than money. (10/26/68)

Dear Glen—

I know you’re not responsible for the Morisi name going around the field. I’ve signed too much of my work in the past to keep its total secret from sharp comic fans and collectors. All I’m trying to do is keep them out of print (zines) as much as possible. I don’t mind being in print as PAM, but Morisi is out.

His Name Was… Kane! Pete admired Gil Kane’s His Name Is… Savage! (June 1968) comic, but thought it a tad overwritten. But Kane believed in “augmenting” pictures with ample text. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

I’m not really interested in doing Flash Gordon for Charlton, because I’m not as involved with the strip as Al is. He really did a job, because Raymond was his ideal artist, and Flash his ideal character. I’m much more interested in The Phantom—that’s my meat—but Sal keeps saying “no”… so I guess that’s that. Just finished a Loco—with a Montana and another Loco to go. Gotta get started. See ya, Pete MTG: As we discussed previously, Morisi used his PAM signature to hide his real name, so the public (and his bosses) wouldn’t find out that a police officer was also drawing those simply dreadful comicbooks. (11/15/68)

Dear Glen—

Funny… good art is good art, but even too much of a good thing gets tiresome. Now the overabundance of DC Neal Adams work is starting to “bug” me—just like Marvel’s overuse of Jack Kirby. I always liked Beck’s stuff, it was nice and “friendly”— somehow—I hope he gets the right property to do at DC. See ya, Pete MTG: Golden Age Captain Marvel artist C.C. Beck did indeed get work at DC—but not until 1973 when they hired him to revive the original Captain Marvel. Ironically, DC’s lawsuits against Fawcett had killed the original character 20 years earlier.

Quick As A Flash! Two panels from PAM’s “The Real Enemy!” in Flash Gordon #16 (Oct. 1969). [TM & © King Features & Charlton].

Dear Glen—

(12/15/68)

I just got back from a lunch-meeting with Dick Giordano and everything is fine with him… except the new National offices are in a decorating mess. Here’s what he had to say—

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Toth did an Enemy Ace… and although the art was good, he changed the story character, and lost the “flavor” of the hero. So, his Enemy Ace may appear under a different title. Toth is also doing romance and a new “future” type strip. Dick is interested in getting A. [Angelo] Torres and Gray Morrow into the National fold. Infantino’s only art is laying out covers. Ditko still sick—T.B. Deadman on the verge of being dropped—lousy sales. Creeper dropped. Hawk and Dove doing fair. War books picking up sales (I told him to revive the Boy Commandos… and let Lou Fine do it). Fine is “interested” in doing comics—but they haven’t gotten together yet. Did you get Strange Adventures #216? Dick pointed out page 13 and the “Hey, a Jim Steranko effect” bit in the last panel and the full page Deadman head on page 15. Real wild. I’ll give Boyette an “A” for effort for his Flash Gordon—but it just ain’t Flash Gordon. Jeff Jones is trying too hard to be a Frazetta. He might do better if he just tried to be Jeff Jones. He’s got talent, but he pays no attention to storytelling, and he must drive a colorist crazy.

”A For Effort!” PAM didn’t care much for Pat Boyette’s version of “Flash Gordon.” He also thought Jeff Jones would do well not to emulate Frazetta. Above left is Boyette from Flash Gordon #13 (April 1969); next to it Jeff Jones’ unpublished cover intended for the same issue. [TM & © King Features Syndicate, Inc.]

See ya, Pete MTG: Alex Toth did do an “Enemy Ace” story for editor Joe Kubert. But when Toth unilaterally rewrote the script, Kubert rejected it, creating bad feelings between them. The story itself was redrawn by Neal Adams. Toth’s version apparently hasn’t survived.

(the disease also sidelined him in the mid-’50s). But “Sturdy Steve” recovered and continued to produce art until his death in 2018 at age 90.

PAM’s description of DC at the period gives an idea of the company’s creative chaos. Under Editorial Director Carmine Infantino, DC was throwing all sorts of new books at the wall to see if any would stick. But the company rarely gave promising but poorly selling titles a chance to build an audience. Pete mentioned his friend Steve Ditko’s illness. Steve reportedly suffered from Tuberculosis

(Jan 1969)

Dear Glen-

I asked Al [Williamson] what Crandall was doing, and he said he didn’t know. I miss his stuff, too. Hey, Al had a baby boy (his wife, that is). They called him James—all is well. I’m trying the smaller page size (10 x 15) for a change of pace on an 8-page Montana thing I’m doing. Maybe I can pick up some speed. —Oops spilled some ink— No, I wouldn’t like to see a Toth Hawkman—that’s more a Williamson thing—but on the other hand, Toth can do no wrong in my book. He’s one of the greats in comics, and if he put his mind to it, he could possibly be the greatest. Before you yell, remember I said “If he put his mind to it!” See ya, Pete

Dear Glen—

(3/12/69)

Yep, that “heavy” in Loco was the same guy I’ve used before. He’s a little-known movie actor (I don’t even know his name), but when I came across a series of his photos in a magazine, I decided to use his foreboding face. I used him “so often” because I was having fun drawing him. Incidentally, Loco #72 was a quickie hack job—deadline troubles—and you’re right, Zorro supplied the Mexican costumes. The next Loco will be a lot better.

“Real Wild”?? A fun, gimmicky Neal Adams head shot from Strange Adventures #216 (Jan. 1969). PAM liked it! [TM & © DC Comics.]

The Flash Gordon filler I did came out so-so. Am now doing a Loco. Sal offered me a romance story—I said no. Although I stepped out of the Mannix book Charlton is

The PAM Papers – Part 6

doing [MTG: That title was never published], I told Sal that if Charlton ever gets the comic book rights to It Takes A Thief (the TV show with Robert Wagner)—I want it. He said okay—if and when. I’m still working small-size and am beginning to get used to it. That’s it—see ya, Pete (6/17/69)

Dear Glen—

I don’t have Frazetta’s address—and I don’t know anyone who has, with the possible exception of Al, who’s touchy about the Frazetta subject—there’s friction between them. If I were you I’d write Frank a letter care of the Warren Publishing Co.—he should get it forwarded to him. See ya, Pete (6/25/69)

Dear Glen—

I really have no “confidence to betray” regarding the Frazetta/ Williamson thing I mentioned. I didn’t press Al for details, but I remember during one of my “get togethers” with him—I happened to mention Frazetta’s name a few times (in a complimentary way) and Al would react with a quick, annoyed look, and then try to cover up that look with a “Oh yes, he is good, but not as good as he thinks………. Ha-ha-ha!” and “No, I don’t see him, or keep in touch… and I like it better that way.” I realize that most people would have followed through with a “What do you mean?” type question, but I could see that the whole subject was painful to Al, so I let it drop. (Ain’t I a wealth of information?) See ya, Pete (7/5/69)

Dear Glen—

Your remark that some artists hate Infantino surprised me. I don’t know anything about him (I met him once with a quick hello) but it could be that he demands from his people the type of work that he would deliver. That would be a high standard to meet. I agree, I think Marvel is still doing better than DC. DC has changed, and hired a whole mess of new and old artists—but there’s something about the DC books that grabs me wrong. Somehow (I don’t know why) I feel “comfortable” with Marvel. I never should have taken on those romance fillers (three pages—not four pages)—so far I’ve thrown out three pages that didn’t work out—gotta try again and again. I haven’t done romance in years—and I’m pretty stale. Styles, furniture, ugh! That’s about it—now it’s back to girls’ dresses!

The Way To Go-Go! A PAM love tale from Romantic Story #109 (Oct. 1970). He hated ‘em! [© the respective copyright holders.]

Whew, you really laid it on the line—and I must say I agree with you. If I had my way, we’d win that war that’s killing so many of our guys. I don’t buy any of the hippy, commie, liberal, bleeding hearts, etc. routines. I agree with you, also, that this type of subject matter should be kept out of fanzines. I don’t know about Ditko and Charlton, but his work is bad lately. I think Denny O’Neil writes the Montana and Loco stuff—the scripts are unsigned and Sal tells me nothing. Yes, I still re-write the scripts— within reason. I follow the main plot and just dress up the dialogue. Naturally, I don’t get involved to the extent of doing a T-Bolt or a J. Dynamite type writing. That would require too much work. See ya, Pete MTG: If Pete’s political opinions seem harsh, they mirrored that of many late-’60s “law-and-order” types. Most of his fellow police officers would likely have agreed with Pete’s sentiments.

See ya, Pete

Driving Him “Loco”! “The Man Called Loco” from Texas Rangers #72 (June 1969). Costumes “inspired” by Alex Toth’s Zorro! [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Dear Glen—

(8/24/69)

Your “Small Talk” [column] should really be titled “Straight Talk.”

Dear Glen—

(9/10/69)

Don’t feel bad about school starting again—in my part of the country we call it riot and demonstration time again. Outlaws #79 has the first “small size” strip that I did for Charlton (you told me to let you know).

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Al mentioned that “another artist” will take over the Flash Gordon chores for Charlton, and “I don’t know who it is, but he’s not too good.”

They want to get into new market areas that will only accept that type of book. Sal mentioned that “Montana and Loco always made money for Charlton”—but it’s their decision, not mine! So after I finish the Montana I’m doing, I could be among the unemployed—although Sal said he’d try to give me something—if possible. Oh well, I’m long overdue for a vacation. After that, we’ll see what we see.

See ya, Pete (10/4/69) Dear Glen— Spoke to Sal and he told me that Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim have been dropped. Lousy sales. They’re being replaced with two “funny books.” The Phantom book is on the borderline. Tried to press Sal for a Dr. Graves, but got a “My other artists can’t do good westerns—I need you on Montana and Loco,” answer. See you, Pete

Dear Glen—

(10/14/69)

Don’t really know how many issues I’m ahead with my stuff. As a guess I’d say three. Charlton is holding onto the Cheyenne Kid, and will probably incorporate Montana and Loco in that title.

It’s Not A Plane, Either! Some uncredited writer (possibly Nick Cuti) pokes fun at the new Charlton lineup, in this panel from the Flintstones-licensed comic Pebbles and Bamm Bamm #5 (Aug. 1972). Artists unknown`. [TM & © Hanna Barbera or successors in interest.]

Spoke to Sal, and he dropped a bombshell in my lap. Charlton is dropping most of their titles—Outlaws and Texas Rangers included— and taking on the cartoony strips (Bullwinkle, etc.) to replace them.

See ya, Pete

Dear Glen—

(10/27/69)

Just returned from lunch with Dick [Giordano], and figure I’d better write to you while things are fresh in my mind. As for getting more originals, (you asked about Wrightson), that’s out. Dick told me that National hired a couple of “fans” to do office work—and that’s when originals started disappearing, even before National gave the OK for their release. So, as a result, no originals will be given away. Dick was sorry about the mess and mentioned most of the originals wound up at conventions—with a price tag attached. Kind of annoying. Dick mentioned also that there are some good fans around whose intentions are honorable, like that guy out west. That… that… “Glen Johnson?,” I said, and he said, “Yeah, him!” Dick knew about the Charlton changeover and said that whenever Charlton stops giving me work, to come to National. So I’ve got a place to go to… when Charlton fades. I’m happy about the offer—but sad about Charlton. See ya, Pete (Nov 1969)

Dear Glen—

Just finished my last (?) Kid Montana and will mail it when I’m finished with this letter. Sal said that he doesn’t want to lose me and will try to send as much stuff as he can… like romance (ugh!) and mystery (hooray!) scripts. Incidentally, he said my romance stuff was printed (he couldn’t remember the book) but I haven’t seen it! If Sal doesn’t come through with work (within a reasonable time)—I guess I’ll go to DC—although I’m not crazy about the thought. That’s about it—gotta run. See ya, Pete MTG: This was one of Pete’s last letters dating from the 1960s, and an unsettling one at that. As a freelancer, PAM was always at the mercy of his publishers. As 1970 approached, things didn’t look too good at Charlton. But DC held the promise of better things ahead. In future issues we’ll see how that promise worked out.

Holy Hannah! It’s “Montana”! A “Kid Montana” story from Outlaws of the West #79 (Jan 1970). It was PAM’s first employment of the smaller Silver Age (10” x 15”) original-art page size. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Till next time…

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Mr. Tawny’s Shadow

The Day Otto Binder Met Walter B. Gibson by Brian Cremins [Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck]

Otto O. Binder

Walter B. Gibson

“Captain Marvel Saves the King,” for Captain Marvel Adventures #9 (April 1942), marked his first four-color foray with the World’s Mightiest Mortal. Earlier he had done a “CM” prose story, ‘Return of the Scorpion,” for Fawcett’s 1941 Big Little Book-alike Captain Marvel Dime Action Book. Artist unknown. [Shazam hero & Billy Batson TM & © DC Comics.]

The creator of the pulp version of The Shadow, in a photo circa the mid-1930s. The cover shown is that of Street & Smith’s The Shadow, Vol. 39, No. 3, Oct. 1941. Art by Charles Rozen. Thanks for the artist ID to Anthony Tollin, current editor/ publisher of a stunning run of reprints of the original Shadow magazines; look ’em up online! [TM & © Advanced Magazines, d.b.a. Condé Nast.]

’m not sure that a Midwesterner can fully appreciate The Shadow and what he means to those of us who grew up in New England. Then again, I’m not certain that many readers under the age of 45 or 50 even remember the character, unless they’re fond of the 1994 film with Alec Baldwin and Penelope Ann Miller, a movie that, like Warren Beatty and Madonna’s ill-fated Dick Tracy (1990), failed to capture the public’s imagination the way that Tim

Burton’s Batman had in 1989. The Shadow, the character shaped by magician and pulp novelist Walter B. Gibson (1897-1985), belongs in the same disembodied landscape as William Austin’s Peter Rugg the Missing Man or with the many haunted protagonists in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short stories. More a presence than a body, more an idea than a fully formed hero, The Shadow, with his eerie laugh and his blood-red girasol ring, lives about as far from Billy

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

Batson and the old wizard Shazam as you can imagine. Although their sensibilities were radically different, Otto Binder admired Gibson; and, in a letter to his Chicago friend Cliff Kornoelje written in the fall of 1942, Mr. Tawny’s co-creator describes a conversation he’d had in New York with one of the most prolific pulp writers of the 1930s. That Binder ends the letter with a reference to Hoagy Carmichael, another romantic Midwesterner like himself, speaks not only to his sensibility as a science-fiction and comicbook writer, but also to his nostalgic affection for music, the pulps, and for comics themselves. The Shadow, of course, lurks mysteriously in these spaces, too, appearing briefly before he—like Holmes’ nemesis Prof. Moriarty or Wells’ Invisible Man— disappears from view, leaving little behind that might betray his presence. Over the last few years, Doug Ellis, one of the organizers for the annual Windy City Pulp and Paper convention held in Lombard, Illinois, has shared with me and with other friends and pulp-fiction colleagues a selection of Binder and Kornoelje’s letters from the 1940s. The one I keep returning to is from September 22, 1942, near the start of Binder’s career as the chief writer for Captain Marvel Adventures. Filled with references not only to Gibson and Carmichael but also to broken typewriters, Amazing Stories, and the looming threat of World War II, this letter invites us to reflect on how The Shadow and Captain Marvel have shaped American literature. After reading this letter again, I also began to think more about the literary impact of Binder’s work with C.C. Beck. While Binder’s influence on popular culture remains as pervasive as ever—from the CW network series Supergirl to Mr. Mind’s cameo in David F. Sandberg’s 2019 Shazam! film—he remains, like The Shadow, a largely unseen though vital presence. As he did in other pieces he wrote over the course of his career, Binder, in this letter to his friend, imagines what lies ahead for pulp fiction and for comicbooks. “How do you feel about the comics?” he asks Kornoelje. “Do they entrance you at all? Disgust you? Leave you neutral?” Binder follows these questions with details on the encounter with Gibson, who, it seems, also saw great potential in

comicbooks. For all their similarities—their professionalism, their prolific imaginations, their grand contributions to some of the most significant American heroes of the last century—it’s difficult to imagine two writers with such different philosophies. What did they have to say to each other? Here’s what Binder told his friend. Notice the reference to his artist brother Jack, whose studio produced comics for Street & Smith as well as for Fawcett: The man who writes The Shadow (the pulp), Walter Gibson, now wants to write comics entirely. He is an amateur magician on the side. Drops in to Jack’s art shop now and then for a confab. Believes comics have a great future ahead of them. So do I. Get interested in them, Klyf [sic]. Read Captain Marvel regularly if nothing else. Best-selling comic today. In a reminiscence published in The Shadow Scrapbook from 1979, Gibson fills in the details Binder sketches out in this letter. The first issue of Shadow Comics hit newsstands early in 1940, within weeks after Billy Batson’s debut in Whiz Comics #2. According to Gibson’s essay in the Scrapbook, the title “was intended to promote the Street & Smith magazines, which were going at full blast. The Shadow was chosen as the leader because of its adaptability to comic treatment” (128). Having written Shadow novels since the character’s first appearance in his own pulp magazine in 1931, Gibson began “[turning] out six- to eight-page scripts highlighting action scenes from such [Shadow] novels as The Crime Oracle, The Salamanders, and Lingo.” Gibson also praises the artwork produced for the series, noting that in order “[t]o speed the output, the illustrative work was turned over to a highly efficient art studio managed by Jack Binder, while free-lance artists were being contacted for special assignments” (128). Jack is even featured in Street & Smith’s How to Draw for the Comics, which includes profiles on other important artists such as Supersnipe’s George Marcoux. At the close of this essay, Gibson remarks on the “misinformed comic historians” who had dismissed “the Shadow scripts as a ‘shop job’ without carrying their research further.” Like Binder, Gibson took a great pride in his work, and points out that the stories that appeared in Shadow Comics, far from being simplistic adaptations of adventures that had appeared in the magazine, “were specially designed from start to finish, in contrast to the other stories appearing in those books” (Gibson 128). These comicbooks, like the pulps that had

The Shadow’s Nose! (Far left:) Neal Slavin and Robert Anthony, Inc.’s cover for Walter B. Gibson’s The Shadow Scrapbook, 1979. (Near left:) Debuting shortly after Whiz Comics #2 was Street & Smith’s Shadow Comics #1 (Jan. 1940); cover art by George Rozen. [The Shadow TM & © Advanced Magazines, d.b.a. Condé Nast.]

Mr. Tawny’s Shadow

inspired them, gave Gibson the opportunity to practice his craft in a visual medium which required close collaboration with artists like Binder and his staff. Gibson’s approach to storytelling, however, shared little in common with that of Jack’s brother Otto. Whereas Mr. Tawny’s co-creator had a humanistic sensibility inspired by his affection for Jonathan Swift and Lewis Carroll (two writers Binder singles out for praise in the interview with Matt Lage included in P.C. Hamerlinck’s Fawcett Companion; see p. 64), Gibson, as writer and pulp historian Will Murray argues, was more likely to draw on his experience as a magician to shape his stories. If you want to learn more about Gibson and I’m All Right, Jack! The Shadow, there’s no (Clockwise from above:) A photograph of Otto’s more essential book than artist brother Jack Binder in the spring of 1937, Murray’s masterful The courtesy of Doug Ellis and the late Bill Schelly... Duende History of The Shadow a mini-biography of Jack Binder featured in Street & Smith’s How to Draw for the Comics (1942)… Magazine, published by and Binder’s cover art for Shadow Comics, Odyssey Publications in Vol. 3, No. 1 (April 1943). [TM & © Advance 1980. In this history of the Magazines d.b.a. Condé Nast.] character, Murray makes note of Gibson’s literary heroes, from Horatio Alger and Alexander Dumas to Arthur Conan Doyle and Edward Bulwer-Lytton, but he maintains that, in order to understand fully Gibson’s achievement, it’s necessary to explore the writer’s lifelong fascination with the occult (Murray 9). Early in his career, after all, Gibson wrote books for Howard Thurston and Houdini. While best known today for his work on The Shadow, Gibson also published numerous handbooks for aspiring performers, including Professional Magic for Amateurs (1947), Secrets of Magic (1967), and The Complete Illustrated Book of the Psychic Sciences, which he wrote in collaboration with his wife Litzka in 1966. “The most pervasive single influence upon Walter Gibson’s writing was not a literary one,” Murray argues, yet it permeates his style, plot structures and other devices. That influence is magic. Gibson brought the dynamics of misdirection, illusion, escape, sleight of hand—even the stage magician’s flair for drama and mystery—to bear on the formulation of his Shadow novels in a fashion perhaps unequalled. This, more than anything else, raises his work above the level of pulp fiction. (Murray 10) You can find evidence to support Murray’s assertion in the pages of Jack Kerouac’s Dr. Sax, the 1959 novel about the writer’s childhood in Lowell, Massachusetts. Its elusive title character is based on Gibson’s hero. For writers like Trina Robbins and Dick Lupoff, Captain Marvel and The Marvel Family remain sources of endless and comforting childhood memories. Lupoff’s “The Big Red Cheese,” one of the essays that has served as a template for other comics scholars since its first publication in 1960, begins with a memory of the writer and his brother at a magazine shop in Florida, where

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

(15) where he’d find copies of the magazine, but also another “shop” right next to it, he writes, with “ribbons for sale, ladies of the sewing afternoon with pendant ringlet wigs advertising round blue-eyed mannikin [sic] doll-heads in a lace void with pins on a blue cushion… things that have turned brown in our father’s antiquity” (15). In Kerouac’s prose, Lowell, a mill town once famous for its textiles, is a Depression-era, crepuscular boyhood dream. He recalls looking for the Shadow-like Doctor Sax on rooftops; in the stained-glass windows of the city’s many Catholic churches; in the currents of the Merrimack River; in its shop windows and on its playgrounds: “I saw him leap over the last bush on the sandbank one night,” his autobiographical narrator remembers, “cape a-flying,” but he “missed really seeing his feet or body, he was gone—he was agile then…” (Kerouac 33). For Kerouac, memories of The Shadow come alive in the ghostly spaces of his New England boyhood. Lowell, like other factory towns, became a hub in the early 20th century for families from the American South and from Eastern and Southern Europe looking for new opportunities, a shot at what soon became known as the American Dream. Kerouac was in college at Columbia University by the time Street & Smith began publishing The Shadow’s comicbook adventures in the early 1940s. But it didn’t matter. By then, the talented French-Canadian kid had taken what he needed from Maxwell Grant, the pen name Gibson and other writers used when chronicling The Shadow’s exploits.

The Rest Is History! Frank Hamilton & Robin Storesund’s cover for Will Murray’s The Duende History of The Shadow Magazine, published by Odyssey Publications in 1980. [Shadow TM & © Advanced Magazines, d.b.a. Condé Nast.]

they enjoy ice cream and discover Whiz Comics #2. In a moving essay written about Beck after his death in 1989, Trina praises her friend’s “crisp, clean drawing style” and stresses that “Captain Marvel became the only super-hero comic I read as a girl, and a pretty major inspiration for my own art style.” Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, thirteen years before Lupoff and 22 years before Robbins, novelist and poet Jack Kerouac was too old to enjoy Captain Marvel and the other four-color heroes of the 1940s. A child of the Depression, Kerouac found in The Shadow a figure who would haunt him and serve as the basis for one of his most atmospheric narratives. Published by Grove Press just two years after the success of On the Road, which became a holy book for the Beat Generation and for the counterculture of the 1960s, Dr. Sax, to borrow a phrase from Kerouac’s 1959 interview with Steve Allen, is a “symbolistic, serious, impressionistic [novel],” a text that he probably wrote “in pencil.” Like his other Lowell novels—The Town and the City (1950), Maggie Cassidy (also 1959), Visions of Gerard (1963), and Vanity of Duluoz (1968)—Dr. Sax is a memory experiment, one in which movies, pulp magazines, and radio dramas rub their grimy elbows with the spirits of Marcel Proust and Walt Whitman. The title for Book Three of the novel sums it all up: “More Ghosts.” At the heart of the narrative is The Shadow, his slouch hat nearly covering his blue eyes and his beak of a nose. Kerouac’s narrator not only remembers the “candy store”

The opening chapter of Kings of Crime, first published in 1932, will give you a sense not only of Gibson’s style but also of how his sensibility differed from Binder’s. The first chapter, “The Shadow Listens,” begins in a “somber, black-walled room,” one with a “purplish tinge,” a “silent” place that resembles “a chamber of death.” A “spectral figure” appears, “[c]lothed in a cloak of jet-black hue, with visage obscured by the broad brim of a black slouch hat,” a “personage [that] possessed the eerie quality of an apparition” (Grant 5). Then, like a magician pulling a rabbit from a hat or sawing his young apprentice in half, Gibson reveals this phantom’s identity, complete with a well-placed exclamation point: “The Shadow was in his sanctum!” We learn that the Shadow is waiting for reports from his various agents. Before the action of the story heats up, Gibson lingers on a description of one of the character’s most famous emblems, his ring: “On the third finger of the hand

Jack Kerouac That beat author’s Dr. Sax is shown here in the later (1973) Ballantine Books edition, with cover photo by Hank Dunning. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Mr. Tawny’s Shadow

Kings Of Crime Author Brian Cremins: “[At left] is my worn copy of Kings of Crime, featuring Jim Steranko’s artwork. This is the Pyramid paperback edition from 1976. Kings of Crime first appeared in The Shadow Magazine, Vol. IV, #2 (Dec. 1932). I wrote a book report on this novel for Sister Rita Collins, my beloved middle school English teacher at St. John the Evangelist School, in 1986 or so. It was the first Shadow novel I ever read.” [Art TM & © Advanced Magazines, d.b.a. Condé Nast.]

come home from Gallagher’s and sit in the kitchen and whisper… Captain Marvel. A lightning bolt would split the sky and there he would be: two legs, young, whole, like the man in that old photograph,” an image taken before he’d lost a leg to an accident on a soccer field. “He would smile at me and reach over and hug me and off we would go together to play ball.” Unfortunately, Hamill admits, “[t]hat never happened” (24), and he later faced his own struggles with alcoholism. Still, the hope inspired by those comicbooks stuck with him, decades after he’d first read them.

The two crime-fighters, The Shadow and Captain Marvel, differ, of course, in their appearance, their methods, and in their behavior. Nonetheless, as these examples from Kerouac and Hamill show, both heroes conjure up long-ago memories of home and family. Kerouac’s more ghostly, out-of-focus recollections of Lowell can be traced to The Shadow’s persona, especially as Gibson defined it in a 1941 article for Writer’s Digest (see Murray pp. 10–11). The Shadow, he notes, was not a sympathetic figure, one in whom readers might find themselves. To write a character like The Shadow—one partly inspired, Murray points out, by the stage version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (10)—one had to surrender to mystery and to darkness: “You must treat the character as a discovery,” Gibson explained, “rather than your own creation. Treat him, not just seriously, but profoundly. Picture him as real, and beyond you, in mind as well as prowess” (Gibson qtd. in Murray 10). A protagonist like The Shadow, Gibson adds, “is in the game for his own amusement,” and, ”if written well, will frighten and satisfy his audience and their need for “entertainment.”

shone a shimmering gem, a rare fire opal that glimmered with ever-changing shades” (6). It’s no wonder that Gibson had such admiration for Jack Binder and his staff of artists, since the next few lines are filled with rich, colorful, concrete details about the jewel, which appears at first to be a “deep maroon” but soon shifts “to a purplish hue,” then to “a light blue,” and finally “a firelike red, shining from uncalculable depths.” This, we learn, is “The Shadow’s girasol—a priceless gem, unmatched in all the world— the solitary symbol of The Shadow!” (Gibson loved exclamation points.) While The Shadow helped inspire some of Kerouac’s most experimental writing—for all its beauty, Dr. Sax is a difficult novel to read—Captain Marvel remains a touchstone for Pete Hamill, the journalist and novelist whose study Why Sinatra Matters is one of the best books on American music you’ll ever read. In the opening chapters of his 1994 memoir A Drinking Life, Hamill, born in 1935, remembers his affection for the comicbooks of the early 1940s. He admits that he “was very worried about the Red Skull, who was always blowing up factories like the one where my father worked nights” (Hamill 18). To warn his dad, he offers his beloved Simon & Kirby comics as evidence. His father, Hamill writes, “laughed out loud,” and exclaimed, “That’s a g*ddamned comic book!” After this conversation, Hamill “worried” less about his father and the factory, but he held strong to another lesson offered in the pages of Captain Marvel Adventures: “Maybe words, like potions, were also capable of magic,” he notes, before remembering the most poignant of his childhood dreams, that his father would escape the temptations of the local bar: “And I wished that my father had a secret word, too. He would

Binder’s work, especially in the late 1940s and early 1950s when he and Beck were creating Mr. Tawny’s adventures, was more personal, more intimate (and I say this as a fan of both writers and their work). Binder sought to humanize his characters, to bring them closer to his readers. I doubt that Binder would have been comfortable writing The Shadow’s adventures, or Batman’s, for that matter—though, as a pro, he would have tried his best. In the introduction to his story “The Teacher from Mars” in the 1954 edition of Leo Margulies’ and Oscar J. Friend’s My Best Science Fiction Story, Binder argues that “[t]oo many science fiction stories

Pete Hamill The author/journalist—and Julianna Lee & Scott Nobles’ cover for his 1994 autobiography, A Drinking Life (Back Bay Books). Hamill also later evoked Captain Marvel in his novel Snow in August (Little Brown & Co., 1997), which was made into a movie for television. [Art © the respective copyright holders.]

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

You Otto Read These! overplay cold science and underplay human characters. I have been guilty of the same myself too often.” In the story of Mun Zeerohs, bullied by his students because he doesn’t look or talk like them, Binder set out “to break away from this restriction and produce a living, breathing character. One whose emotions and innermost thoughts you could follow and sympathize with” (Binder 19). In their best work, Binder and Beck succeeded in presenting Captain Marvel as a “living, breathing character,” traits that might explain why the hero remains fascinating for contemporary audiences, like those who enjoyed Zachary Levi as Shazam and look forward to the film’s sequel. Like Kerouac and Hamill, however, I have my own confession to make: much as I adore Captain Marvel, my favorite fictional character of all is The Shadow. Maybe it’s because the first story I ever wrote on the electric typewriter my mom bought for me was a team-up between Sherlock Holmes and Gibson’s hero. In eighth grade, I spent weeks agonizing over logistics: could Holmes still be alive in the 1930s? Did Dr. Moriarty survive Reichenbach Falls? I used two narrators: an elderly Dr. Watson and The Shadow’s assistant Harry Vincent. Maybe I’d find a way for Irene Adler and Margot Lane to meet. And maybe one day, when The Shadow finally enters the public domain, I’ll finish that story, another beloved childhood fragment. In the 1942 letter to his friend, Binder describes one of Fawcett’s legendary office parties: “We ended up in Greenwich Village at three A.M., eating,” he writes. “Sort of an eat-drinkand-be-merry spirit seems to pervade us all, for tomorrow is war.” After recommending the films Bambi and Holiday Inn, and following a discussion of his brief stint as a comicbook editor, he describes his life with Ione. It’s getting colder, but there are “fires

(Left:) Amazing Stories magazine for Jan. 1939 cover-featured the story “I, Robot”—the first in the “Adam Link” series by Otto Binder, writing as “Eando Binder.” From his earliest days as a pulp writer, Otto had already shown a humanistic sensibility in his work that would later find its way into his comicbook scripts. Cover by Robert Fuqua. (Right:) In contrast with Gibson’s The Shadow, Otto Binder and artist C.C. Beck would later construct their tales of Mr. Tawky Tawny the Talking Tiger on a more personal and intimate level. Their “Mr. Tawny’s Fight for Fame” appeared in Captain Marvel Adventures #126 (Nov. 1951). [Shazam hero & Mr. Tawny TM & © DC Comics; other art © the respective copyright holders.]

in the fireplace a couple nights a week. Later,” he adds, “to save oil, it will be a regular custom.” There’s also music: “We have a record of ‘Stardust,’ my favorite. Ione is playing it right now,” he says, as he finishes the letter. That one of Binder’s favorite songs would be Hoagy Carmichael and Mitchell Parish’s evocation of a time so “long ago” that the only a “melody” remains should come as no surprise. The singer, after all, remembers those days only “sometimes” and “wonders why” anyone would “spend the lonely night dreaming of a song.” It’s easy to imagine Mr. Tawny alone in his study listening to Louis Armstrong’s version of the tune. How different from the hair-raising snippet of “Omphale’s Spinning Wheel,” the piece of music by Camille Saint-Saëns that opened The Shadow’s radio show week after week, just before that chilling voice—“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!”—that ominous laugh, and, finally, the cheery advertisements for Blue Coal. Remember those?

Works Cited Binder, Otto. Letter to Cliff Kornoelje, September 22, 1942. Typescript. Copy courtesy of Doug Ellis.

Mr. Tawny’s Shadow

All In Black-&-White For A Dime—At The Saturday Matinee! The Shadow beat Captain Marvel into the multi-chapter movie serials of the Golden Age, with Victor Jory playing the former in The Shadow (1940), and stuntman Tom Tyler portraying the World’s Mightiest Mortal in Captain Marvel (1941)… from Columbia and Republic Pictures, respectively. [Shadow TM & © Advanced Magazines d.b.a. Condé Nast; Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics.]

Gibson, Walter B. The Shadow Scrapbook. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979. Grant, Maxwell (Walter B. Gibson). Kings of Crime. Pyramid Books, 1976. Hamill, Pete. A Drinking Life. Back Bay Books, 1994. How to Draw for the Comics. Street and Smith Publications, 1942. “Jack Kerouac on The Steve Allen Show with Steve Allen 1959.” Historic Films Stock Footage Archives. YouTube. Accessed 8 November 2019. Kerouac, Jack. Dr. Sax: Faust Part Three. Grove Press, Inc., 1959. Lage, Matt. “‘We Were More or Less Inspired’: Otto Binder: An Interview with Captain Marvel’s Mightiest Writer” in P.C. Hamerlinck (Ed.), Fawcett Companion: The Best of FCA. TwoMorrows, 2001: 59–64. Murray, Will. The Duende History of The Shadow Magazine. Odyssey Publications, Inc., 1980. Robbins, Trina. “C.C. Beck; An Appreciation.” Typescript, no date (probably late 1989/early 1990). Copy courtesy of Trina Robbins.

The Big Red Cheese C.C. Beck’s cover for Captain Marvel Adventures #9 (April 1942). [Shazam hero & Billy Batson TM & © DC Comics.]

Binder, Otto. “The Teacher from Mars” in Leo Margulies & Oscar J. Friend (eds.), My Best Science Fiction Story. Pocket Books, 1954: 18–36.

Thanks to Doug Ellis for sharing copies of Binder’s letters to Cliff Kornoelje; to Will Murray, whose articles in the Comics Buyer’s Guide in the 1980s, along with my grandmother’s recollections of the radio show, first introduced me to The Shadow; to my colleague Dr. Kurt Hemmer, an expert on the Beats, for help and suggestions on Kerouac and Dr. Sax; to Trina Robbins for a copy of her essay on C.C. Beck; and to my friend Qiana Whitted for hosting the International Comic Arts Forum at the University of South Carolina in 2016, where I first presented portions of this essay.

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With a JACLYN SMITH interview, as we reopen the Charlie’s Angels Casebook, and visit the Guinness World Records’ largest Charlie’s Angels collection. Plus: interview with 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!

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Covers comics’ WWII GOLDEN AGE! EISNER’s Uncle Sam and work with IGER, SIMON & KIRBY’s Captain America, birth of Archie Andrews, “packagers” like HARRY A CHESLER, and how dozens of companies published the entire gamut of genres, from funny animas & crime to jungle & sci-fi adventures. By KURT MITCHELL with ROY THOMAS.

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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!

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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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