Alter Ego #166 Preview by TwoMorrows Publishing

FEATURING:

Roy Thomas' Twin-Fawcett Comics Fanzine

KURT SCHAFFENBERGER GOLDEN AGE GREAT

& ALEX ROSS

82658 00410

Art TM & Â© DC Comics; Shazam is TM DC Comics.

MODERN-DAY SHAZAM! MASTER

$9.95

In the USA

No. 166 November 2020

Vol. 3, No. 166 / November 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

Contents

Cover Artist

Writer/Editorial: The Once & Future Captain . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 FCA [Fawcett Collector Of America] #225 [Cover] . . . . . . . . 3

Rob Smentek William J. Dowlding Kurt Schaffenberger

Cover Colorist

The 1996 San Diego Comic-Con Kurt Schaffenberger Panel 4

Uncertain

With Special Thanks to: Heidi Amash Mark Ammerman Bob Bailey Ricky Terry Brisacque Bernie Bubnis Mike Burkey Bart Bush Glen Cadigan Aaron Caplan Nick Caputo J. Michael Catron John Cimino Shaun Clancy ComicLink (website) coollinesartwork. com (website) Chet Cox Sean Dulaney Shane Foley Stephan Friedt Ken Gale Paul Gambaccini Jeff Gelb Janet Gilbert Grand Comics Database (website) Jim Gray Walt Grogan Bruce Guthrie Dan Hagen

P.C. Hamerlinck presents a triple helping of Fawcett- (and DC-) related art history.

George Hagenauer Dennis Haycock Tom Hamilton Fred Janssen Josh Johnson Douglas (Gaff) Jones Jim Kealy Mark Lewis Jim Ludwig John Lustig Russ Maheras Bob McLain Doug Martin Mark Muller Ron Murphy Mark Nobleman Peter Normanton Nils Osmar Jake Oster Bud Plant Al Rodriguez Gene Reed Alex Ross Jason Sacks Gary Sassaman Janice Sheldon David Siegel Marc Svensson Dann Thomas Michael Vance Mark Voger Frank M. Young

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Kurt & Dorothy Schaffenberger, Hy Fleishman, Nick Cuti, Frank McLaughlin, & Bill Schelly

Kurt & Dorothy Schaffenberger—from Captain Marvel to Lois Lane, and back again!

“Comics Are My Living—Not My Life!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 The Public & Private Times of artist Kurt S., as recalled by Mark Voger.

Echoes Of Shazam! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Artist supreme Alex Ross shares his ultra-Shazam! tapestries—and the secrets behind them!

Tributes To Bill Schelly – Part 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Jeff Gelb showcases more memories of comics’ foremost biographer and fan historian.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! Mort Weisinger: The Superman Behind Superman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Michael T. Gilbert spotlights Part I of Sam Moskowitz’s portrait of a major DC editor.

Ping-Pong & Peggy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Golden/Silver Age scripter John Broome’s 1998 memoirs, lucky Part XIII.

re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 65 In Memoriam: Frank McLaughlin, Nick Cuti, & Hy Fleishman . . 71 From The Tomb Presents: Pre-Code Horror – Girls In Peril . . 75

Peter Normanton portrays damsels in distress—and how!—back in the fear-fraught ’50s!

On Our Cover: Kurt Schaffenberger was definitely one of the Fawcett-era artists who best made the jump from the Golden Age into the Silver. In fact, he went from Captain Marvel to Superman—which is a leap upward, downward, or sideways, depending on one’s point of view. In 1977 he contributed a great illo of the World’s Mightiest Mortal and Dr. Sivana for that year’s DC Calendar—and we couldn’t wait to celebrate it as an Alter Ego cover! Coloring may be by DC production chief Sol Harrison. [TM & © DC Comics.] Above: One of the most important comic artists of recent decades has been Alex Ross, beginning with his work on the 1994 painted Marvel series entitled simply Marvels—and followed up by various painted series for Marvel, DC, Dynamite, et al. He has worked with virtually the entire Marvel and DC Universes, and with many public domain heroes—yet in a very real sense some of his most memorable work has been done with the original Captain Marvel, as per this powerful illustration provided us by the good people at ComicLink. [TM & © DC Comics.] 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.

FCA

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: A favorite among Golden-Silver-Bronze Age comicbook connoisseurs, genial gentleman Kurt Schaffenberger—the illustrator with the clean line and distinguishing style—was best known for his polished work on Fawcett’s Marvel Family as well as being the preeminent and definitive Lois Lane artist at DC Comics. Kurt got his start at Jack Binder’s Englewood, New Jersey, studio, where he was part of a comicbook art-producing “assembly line” that included many of his fellow Pratt Institute graduates. During World War II, Kurt served for four years with Special Services in England and the OSS (forerunner of the CIA). After the war, he returned to what became his life’s work. From the Marvel Family to the Superman Family, Captain Marvel was his unequivocal favorite out of all the assignments that had

Kurt & Dorothy Schaffenberger in November 1998, framed by: (Left:) Schaffenberger’s cover for The Marvel Family #69 (March 1952). Besides C.C. Beck, Kurt was the other main artist for the World’s Mightiest Family. [Shazam heroes, Billy Batson, Mary Batson, & Freddy Freeman TM & © DC Comics.] (Right:) The everinquisitive and intrepid newspaper reporter finds herself in another jam on Schaffenberger’s cover for Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane #76 (Aug. 1967). [TM & © DC Comics.]

made their way onto his drawing board. I had the pleasure of meeting Kurt in 1995, and he will always remain one of my artistic heroes. In the following year, he was a special guest at the San Diego Comic-Con International, where he received the Inkpot Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comic Arts. At the convention, he participated in a Golden Age panel (to be featured in a future issue) and in the following solo panel. The “panel” was unique in that, throughout its entire duration, it was simply Kurt interacting with fans in a 45-minute Q&A session without a moderator. Thanks to super-fan David Siegel for arranging Kurt’s appearance at the convention that year, and to archivist Marc Svensson—preserver and protector of Comic-Con panels past. —P.C. Hamerlinck.

The 1996 San Diego Comic-Con Kurt Schaffenberger Panel

HOST: Could you start by telling us a little bit about your first interest in comics and how you decided to turn them into a career? KURT SCHAFFENBERGER: Well, I did not have an interest in comics. When I started in 1941, I knew nothing about them. I had graduated from art school [Pratt Institute], and the first job I landed [the Jack Binder studio] was drawing comics … and I’ve been stuck in it ever since. [laughs] AUDIENCE MEMBER: I’d like to hear about your work at Fawcett. SCHAFFENBERGER: Well, they were good years. We were young… newlyweds. I worked there for a number of years, until 1952 [sic–it was actually 1953]. The trial—Superman [National] vs. Fawcett—had been going on. My wife had attended several of the hearings, and things seemed to have been going very well for Fawcett—until one day, I get a phone call from [editor] Wendell Crowley telling me it was over and I was no longer employed drawing comics. And then I spent some years trying to line up new assignments. Finally, in 1957, while my wife and I were in Maine on vacation, I got a phone call from Otto Binder telling me that Mort Weisinger is looking for an artist to do Lois Lane. So, when we got home, I packed up some samples, took them over and showed them to Weisinger, and he hired me. I drew Lois Lane for many years. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Kurt, did you work from home or work in the DC bullpen? SCHAFFENBERGER: I never worked in the bullpen there. I had a studio built on the back of my house. I had a 4’ x 9’ picture window—a beautiful place to work—and I worked there for many years, until we sold the house back in ’89 and moved to central New Jersey from northern New Jersey. AUDIENCE MEMBER: What working hours did you keep? Jack Kirby had worked in the early morning hours. That was his time to be creative. SCHAFFENBERGER: Not mine. [laughs] I started in the mornings, but generally what I had done in the morning I wound up doing over again at night. My best hours were from about noon until 6 p.m. when we’d knock off for dinner. And then I’d generally work

How Kurt Schaffenberger Got His (Second) Job (Above:) Writer Otto Binder and artist Kurt Schaffenberger’s “How Lois Lane Got Her Job” from Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane #17 (May 1960). During his ’96 San Diego Comic-Con solo panel, Kurt explained to fans how he (through a tip from Otto) landed his first “Lois Lane” assignment in 1957. [TM & © DC Comics.] (Right:) Otto, Dorothy, and Kurt at New Hampshire’s White Mountains National Forest, 1948. Photo taken by Ione Binder.

for a few more hours, until 10 o’clock at night. We had a dog at the time who could tell time. He knew when 10 o’clock rolled around and it was time for his walk. And he would not let me forget it. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Can you tell us more about Wendell Crowley? SCHAFFENBERGER: He was a giant of a man, physically. He stood a good 6’9”. Jack Binder hired him. Initially, he was an office boy for us. Wendell would take the completed pages from Binder’s studio in Englewood, New Jersey, and go deliver them in New York City. He gradually worked his way up to where he became an editor for Fawcett during the war. A lot of the guys from Binder’s studio were off in the service, including me. AUDIENCE MEMBER: How were you paid at the Binder shop? SCHAFFENBERGER: He got paid and he paid us. AUDIENCE MEMBER: When did you meet C.C. Beck? SCHAFFENBERGER: I happened to meet Beck and his family through Jack Binder, as they were personal friends. Beck was living fairly close by to Binder, and we used to have a group of us that would get together every Saturday night for bowling, then head back to one of our homes for beer and drinks…

The 1996 San Diego Comic-Con Kurt Schaffenberger Panel

remembers it. Will had called all the writers and artists into his office and said, “I’ve written this play and it’s going to be produced. They found a backer for it, and they also need some small backers for it.” The big hit on Broadway at the time was Death of a Salesman written by Arthur Miller, and that was sponsored by a lot of small backers. Will told us that’s what he was trying to do—to get a bunch of us in on it—and, of course, he lost our shirts. The name of the play was Springtime Folly. It was about the garment trade in New York. It opened one night and closed the next night. [audience laughter] DOROTHY SCHAFFENBERGER: Along with our money! AUDIENCE MEMBER: Who were the actors in the play? SCHAFFENBERGER: None that you would recognize now or back then. [audience laughter] DOROTHY SCHAFFENBERGER: They all left town in the middle of the night! [audience laughter] AUDIENCE MEMBER: Can you describe the work process at the Jack Binder shop?

A Cover Kulled From The Hamerlinck Collection Schaffenberger’s striking cover for Shazam! #22 (Jan.-Feb. ’76) was a hit, although the book was struggling to stay alive. The villain is Golden Age creation King Kull—no relation (except the name) to Robert E. Howard’s earlier sword-&-sorcery hero. [TM & © DC Comics.]

SCHAFFENBERGER: The trouble that they had was getting writers that knew how to write Captain Marvel. They tried several, including Denny O’Neil, who couldn’t grasp the character at all. That was their basic problem. They had the art the way it used to be, but the writers didn’t understand Captain Marvel. Nelson Bridwell knew a little bit about the character and how it should be handled. Otto Binder was available at the time, but they never approached him to write it. AUDIENCE MEMBER: How was your relationship with William Lieberson?

Will Lieberson Fawcett's executive editor.

SCHAFFENBERGER: He was the chief editor at Fawcett, but I had very little interaction with him. I dealt mostly with editors Wendell Crowley, Ginny Provisiero, and a couple of others. Will decided he was meant for bigger stuff and wrote a play that was produced on Broadway. [laughs] My wife

This Cover’s For The Birds! Schaffenberger’s high-flying cover for Master Comics #95 (Sept. 1948). In the wake of the Mac Raboy era, from 1947-53, Kurt —along with Bud Thompson—was one of Fawcett’s main “Captain Marvel Jr.” artists, spelled by Joe Certa, Charlie Tomsey, John Belfi, and others. [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics.]

“Comics Are My Living— Not My Life”

The Life & Private Times of KURT SCHAFFENBERGER by Mark Voger

Kurt & Dorothy Schaffenberger at their New Jersey home in 1998 (photo by Kathy Voglesong.) At left is the splash page of Kurt’s very first story for Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane— the lead yarn in issue #1 (March-April 1958). Script by his old Fawcett buddy, Otto Binder. Courtesy of Bob Bailey. [TM & © DC Comics.]

ere are some things Kurt Schaffenberger was not: A back-slapper. An egotist. A self-promoter. An insufferable bore.

Kurt was a walking comicbook legend, not that you’d know it from speaking with him. “Comics are my living, not my life,” was one telling Kurt-ism. This simultaneously amused and frustrated my buddy Howard Bender and me. Howard drew stories for DC Comics in the ’80s, but was as much a fan as an artist. Me, I was just a fan who happened to write a dopey, sporadic newspaper column about comics. The time and place was 1989 in coastal Ocean County, New Jersey, where Kurt and his wife Dorothy had recently relocated from River Edge, also in NJ. Howard and I both loved the so-called “Silver Age of Comics” (1956 through the early ’70s), a period during which Kurt reached the apex of his career with his vastly entertaining 10-year run on Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane. What a book that was! Kurt’s Lois Lane was firmly a Silver Age Superman title, as edited by DC’s Mort Weisinger, who enforced tight narrative control and strict continuity throughout the multititle Superman line. (Kurt once called Weisinger a “sadist.”) But since Lois — Daily Planet reporter and Superman’s love interest — was the hero of the book, it had a charm and whimsy that played perfectly to Kurt’s illustrative gifts. (Kurt once categorized his style as “caricatured realism,” an apt descriptor.) So, in ’89, Kurt and Dorothy moved to Brick, NJ, where I lived at the time. Howard — who knew Kurt professionally and lived in nearby Toms River — helped arrange an interview. I spoke with Kurt in the living room of his new home in a bucolic, cookie-cutter retirement community.

The Life & Private Times of Kurt Schaffenberger

while Kurt sat back slyly and contributed the odd rejoinder. To this day, I can see Dorothy’s smiling face at the door of the Schaffs’ modest, spotless home, with Kurt standing behind her. Some memories from those days...

Mark Voger & Howard Bender Mark, on left, was photographed by wife Kathy Voglesong for his TwoMorrows biography Hero Gets Girl: The Life and Art of Kurt Schaffenberger. Howard, on right, has drawn a number of comics for DC and others.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but Kurt was a bit sad about the direction his career had taken. He felt marginalized, not that he ever came out and said it. “I consider myself semi-retired at this point,” he told me that afternoon. I later learned that this decision was forced by outside factors. In recent years, DC had removed Kurt and another legendary talent in the field, artist Curt Swan, from its Superman books. By ’89, Kurt was relegated to DC’s version of Siberia, inking C-level stories. “It’s a job that a well-trained orangutan should be able to do,” Kurt said of this inking phase. Kurt also noted that, overall, the super-hero genre had taken a dark turn, content-wise. “Most of the stuff that is being produced now is so far out, I can’t even relate to it,” he told me. “Everything starts off with the premise that the world is already blown up, and let’s see what we can do to rebuild it. It’s really downbeat. The comics nowadays are very depressing, to me. Our stuff was hopeful.”

We attended a comics convention in Woodbridge, NJ, at which the star attractions were Kurt, Murphy Anderson, and Curt Swan — a dream lineup for Silver Age DC freaks. Toward the end of the show, the three artists repaired to the hotel bar for a drink. I walked by and spotted these comicbook giants sitting astride at the bar. I started toward them, thinking, “There’s my whole childhood, sitting on three stools. I wanna have a drink with them.” But as I got closer, I realized I should not insinuate myself. Let these old-timers have their drink. Don’t ruin it. I turned and walked out of the bar, and heard the gentlemen laughing behind me. They never noticed me. One time, Kathy and I were on assignment for the Press, covering a big fan convention in Atlantic City that boasted such guests as Adam West, Burt Ward, Jerry Mathers, Bob Denver, Dawn Wells, Clayton Moore — and Kurt and Howard. It was a long day for all of us, and Kurt was dragging. He would be riding home with Howard, whose little ones were getting a bit antsy. In the hotel parking garage, Kurt paused by our car as Kathy and I were packing the trunk. “You know,” I said to Kurt, “there was a fifth of Jack Daniels in that very trunk not 24 hours ago.” Kurt looked at me with an impassive expression and said, “What good is it doing us now?” Kurt once said something that will stick with me the rest of my life. Kathy made a crack about my having recently gained some weight, to which Kurt responded nonchalantly, “He’s just getting a head start on old age.” Words of wisdom. Early on, Kathy and I threw a cookout in the Schaffs’ honor. For this modest gathering, I invited mostly artist

As the interview was winding down, my late wife, the photographer Kathy Voglesong (who died in 2005), showed up to pose Kurt in the cozy back-porch studio the Schaffs had set up. Dorothy was very kind to us, insisting that we get together again someday as we bid the Schaffs adieu. My article, titled “It’s the Way He Draws His Faces,” ran in the Ocean County edition of the Press. I never thought we would actually get together again, but Dorothy persevered. So, every now and then, we would all go out for a nice lunch or dinner, including Howard and his wife Joanie. I can honestly say that, even though I was 31 and Kurt was 69, I actually became buddies with the artist. But I owe that to Dorothy. She was the outgoing one, the one telling the funny, time-tested anecdotes,

They Might Be Giants… Hell, They Are! (Left to right:) Comicbook legends Kurt Schaffenberger, Curt Swan, and Murphy Anderson appearing at a comic convention in New Jersey in 1993. Photo by Kathy Voglesong.

ECHOES OF SHAZAM!

The Tale Behind Two Titanic Tapestries Of CAPTAIN MARVEL’s Shadows by Alex Ross

o tell the story of who all is in the crazy piece of art seen on the following two pages, I have to first share the origin of how it came to be. At Christmas time in 2018, I had asked my sister Normandie for an old album from the ’70s that I knew she had in her collection. Instead of just giving me that copy, she thought it would be a good idea to buy me one for the holiday. The album was the soundtrack to the film, Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels, which I principally wanted for the elaborate cover artwork (which was from the movie’s poster). I knew that this overstuffed, trippy image would inspire me on some kind of composition. I thought that I might translate the layout to something involving super-heroes on one of my various cover gigs. As it worked out, on Christmas evening, after all the gifts were opened, I was thinking about this newly acquired record as I sat and watched TV. It eventually dawned on me that the artwork’s looming head of Frank Zappa could be reinterpreted as the ancient wizard Shazam, and that the whole image could fulfill a long-held ambition to illustrate all of the various characters inspired by one of my favorite heroes—the great, original, and true Captain Marvel. By the evening’s end, I had laid out an 11” x 17” drawing featuring tons of characters.

Motivation You see, I had harbored this concept for a long while, because the individual distinctive qualities that defined this character were so influential on countless other properties; but I felt he was overlooked for the creative debt owed to him. With Superman, it is generally understood that the entire genre of super-heroes is because of him. Batman and Wonder Woman are recognized for their forerunner status and for the archetypal details they pioneered. Captain Marvel is the other character who premiered in that same period and introduced as many of the primal concepts of super-hero lore as they did, but his legacy was compromised. It could be argued that it was stolen from him. DC’s longstanding suit against Captain Marvel’s publisher over alleged copying of their property, Superman, pressured Fawcett Publications to eventually agree to stop making their comics and to no longer compete with them in the marketplace. When comics were selling the most they ever did — in the millions of copies — Captain Marvel and his associated Marvel Family line of books reigned supreme. They were better at this than everybody else. As most readers of comics history know, the concept couldn’t stay gone forever, and Captain Marvel continued to be copied in one way or another, from his design to his essential being—as a figure of two lives combined in one. The hero who begins as one

Frank Zappa & Alex Ross – Together Again For The First Time! (Left:) The cover art to the soundtrack album from Frank Zappa’s 1971 film 200 Motels served as an inspiration to— (Below:) —Alex Ross, artist of such masterworks as Marvel’s Marvels and DC’s Justice. [Album cover TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

body and then transforms instantaneously into another form, whether that’s a costumed, powered identity or an altogether different body, is Captain Marvel’s innovation. If there were a patent for such ideas, the original publisher would have collected massively. They also wouldn’t have likely conceded to DC’s bullying. But that was the point, wasn’t it? DC thought they should safeguard all of the essential tropes of superheroes as Superman initially defined them, and any close imitator was seen as a threat, particularly if it was giving them a run for their money. Today, it might seem absurd to have this fight, since similarities between concepts are everywhere in comics and film, and it’s nearly impossible to put a lid on ideas. The original Captain Marvel would return twenty years after his departure in the 1950s, in time to impress kids like I was in the ’70s with both his comics and his Saturday morning live-action TV show. The only thing is, by then, he wasn’t able to use his actual name in the titles for either. His magic word “Shazam!” would be his signifier for a new generation’s introduction to him. Even though you would clearly learn that he was Captain Marvel and that Shazam was the wizard who gave him these powers, it had an undermining effect on understanding his story. Marvel Comics’ effort to graft the name Captain Marvel onto somebody, anybody, to preserve their new claim took away from the original, but then it was DC who now published his return, and, frankly, they deserved the problem. [NOTE: Alex’s double-page composition is seen on the following two pages, after which his article continues.]

All characters TM & ÂŠ the respective trademark & copyright holders. A bit of art has been repeated in the middle of this spread, so that no art would be lost.

24 The Tale Behind Two Titanic Tapestries Of Captain Marvelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Shadows

Echoes Of Shazam!

The Tale Behind Two Titanic Tapestries Of Captain Marvel’s Shadows

Key To “Echoes of Shazam!” Artwork

The Artwork Now, to bring us around to this piece of art (which is depicted on the preceding two pages, with a “key” at the top of this page), I was really just following a pure inspiration. I thought that I would do this drawing to work out how I might do a full-size painting. The drawing got tighter and tighter on the 11” x 17” sheet of copy paper I started on that Christmas evening and it began to seem like it already was the culmination of my ambition as a physical work. I approached doing a marker color comp over a copy of the pencils, slowly adding more layers of ink, colored pencil, and paint touchups. I felt that I could share my concept in this form as it only exists to communicate an idea, as I can’t print it, sell it, or profit from it. Just look at all of those different corporate properties mashed together! I had my friends who manage social media for me (I’m computer-phobic, or a “Luddite,” as the term goes) post this art in the time period between the release of Marvel’s Captain Marvel film and DC’s Shazam! movie. I was looking to stir up conversation that I would eventually clarify my thoughts for, which is now this article and character list. The order I placed numerically is bonkers, but it is intended to flow from the central-focus Captain to tell a story of how this concept evolved. Before I start, I need to thank the pool of friends past whom I ran my list of who to include. Ron Murphy, Keith Anderson, Tony Vitale, George Khoury, and Paul Dini all informed me about characters I hadn’t thought of or was even aware of. Ron Murphy went to lengths of supplying images to base my drawings on.

The List 1. Captain Marvel and Billy Batson — The reason I’ve illustrated both characters here is to drive home the idea about the transformation innovation being the largest impact culturally. When the boy speaks his magic word to become an adult super-hero, it’s really a play on the tale of Aladdin and the genie, where the wish fulfillment is made by one becoming the other. In [Shazam hero & Billy Batson quickly evolving the super-hero concept TM & © DC Comics.] only a year and a half after Superman debuted, Captain Marvel’s creators made the fledgling genre connect that much more with its target audience. Batman introduced Robin to be a connection for the young male readers, but Billy Batson was better than a sidekick, as he became that leading, powerful figure. With the powers of myth fueling this hero, his personality and mind were something of a mystery in that, despite the shared memories they traded between the two identities, you weren’t quite sure it was the same person. It was never made clear originally that the Captain was an older body of Billy’s. What was clear to the readership was that there was something cool about changing into this big, costumed, squinting titan. He was never designed to be just the reader in a new skin suit but an ideal of ability and purpose. It is a modern reassessment of him that led to his current characterization of being the super-hero who has the

Echoes Of Shazam!

mind and behavior of a kid. If Tom Hanks had never made Big, we might never have seen that idea be applied to this character. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: Perhaps not to the same degree, yet it’s a fact that the very first time Captain Marvel was ever treated as being just a superadult-bodied version of Billy Batson occurred in Secret Origins #3 (June 1986)—two years before the release of that film. Ye Editor wrote that tale, with art by Jerry Bingham & Steve Mitchell.] One thing to note in the art is that I attempted to draw everyone like their most famous art styles and not just make it all my version of them. Here it’s my intent to capture C.C. Beck’s classic version of Billy and the Captain, with flat coloring like the 1940s comicbooks had. 2. Billy Batson and Captain Marvel from my series pitch Say My Name — Shazam! — The origin for this piece overall came from the plans I had with a series proposal I made fifteen years ago. Whereas my main outline was focused on a slightly aged up and electrified version of the Marvel Family, I had intended to eventually do a Multiverse-threatening storyline that would unite countless alternate [Shazam hero & Billy Batson TM & © DC Comics.] versions of Captain Marvel from across the multiple alternate realities. That would have looked a lot like this illustration, where I would have used the properties that DC owned, like its version of Captain Thunder or Captain Marbles from Mad #4, and I would have created thinly disguised alterations to the other Marvel-influenced characters, so that it was obvious what I was linking together. This also could have happened well before the many Multiverse crossovers that have come since, like the many Supermans seen in Grant Morrison’s Final Crisis or the film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. My pitch may not have been realized as it was intended, but the artwork and ideas for it have been previously published in Alter Ego magazine and in the art book Rough Justice. That public sharing emboldened me to feature the Billy/Marvel images here, and, after all, it is just my little piece of art to do with what I wish, right? 3. Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) and Rick Jones — If you look within Mar-Vell’s “cosmic awareness” spaceshadow void, you’ll see Rick Jones’ floating body in the Negative Zone. Roy Thomas revised the original Kree-warrior-gone-native character to have a component closer to the classic Captain Marvel, with him suddenly sharing his existence with another [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] person, changing dimensions to live in the other’s place when needed. It certainly provided a unique spin to see how these separate beings had an uneasy balance. While one of them was on Earth (generally), the unfortunate one was floating in an unpleasant, alternate space environment. When Roy and Gil Kane initiated this, it was more than reasonable to think that the original Captain Marvel and his myths were never going to return, so why not use more of his schtick beyond just taking his name? All of these creative efforts were done to try and make a success out of his book, which was difficult. The character’s

impact covered the beginning of the Bronze Age of comics, and his memory is mainly as a hero of the ’70s. That being said, his impression is one that gets great respect as he has spent more time in Marvel Comics history as a dearly departed hero who went out in a powerful way. Artist/writer Jim Starlin defined his highlight era with a run that incorporated the villain Thanos (whom he had created) and introduced many others that are popular characters to this day. Mar-Vell (his authentic alien name) gained a special gift of universal insight called “cosmic awareness,” and his book was used by Starlin to expand the possibilities of what a comic could be. By the mid-’80s, when the hero’s star had dimmed, Marvel Comics began their graphic novel format with a storyline that told of his death by cancer with great weight and impact. When most of the longtime comics readership think of Marvel’s Captain, we think of this guy. 4. Monica Rambeau, Captain Marvel — The next character to bear the name for Marvel Comics would break multiple barriers in gender and race. They didn’t initially attempt to preserve their copyright claim with a new comicbook title, but their new character was slowly worked into the Marvel mainstream by introducing her in Spider-Man’s book and having her take a lead role in The Avengers. Unfortunately, she fell victim to [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] the same issue that damns certain characters, where the pre-existing team book that a writer helms focuses on their personal creation as essential to the team’s dynamic, only to be discarded when the next writers eventually establish their own ideal lineup. It’s also really challenging to expect a readership to go along with whoever now bears a familiar name that they associate with someone who made a mark in their lives. Monica Rambeau would remain a powerful character to this day, but abdicated her code name once Marvel saw a new way to rebrand the famous name to another character they thought might have more success. This would happen again three more times. 5. Marvelman and Johnny Bates — What I’ve done here is break my rules a bit by showing this Captain Marvelinfluenced hero with a counterpart of how his story evolved in a creatively explosive way. In the UK, when Captain Marvel ceased publishing in 1953, the British licensee was left with a hole to fill, and so, artist/writer Mick Anglo created the “Marvelman Family” to replace the Marvel Family [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] of characters. I didn’t show Captain Marvel’s family members of Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., and others because I wanted to focus on a point of how his influence went beyond that main company (Fawcett). Marvelman and his companions, Young Marvelman and Kid Marvelman, had their counterparts just like the Fawcett characters, and they, too, would say a magic work to change — “Kimota!” (“Atomic” spelled backward, more or less.) These closely based variations were published in the ’50s through the early ’60s.

Tributes To BILL SCHELLY –Part 2

More Memories Of The Comics’ Foremost Biographer & Fandom Historian Assembled & Conducted by Jeff Gelb

A/E

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: For most of the twenty years to date of the life of Alter Ego, Volume 3, Bill Schelly was a vital part of a small coterie of regular contributors devoted to recording the history of comicbooks and the comics fandom movement from the earliest days through, mostly, the first half of the 1970s. Even before that, he had written and/or edited several seminal books on fandom, and in more recent years he had become (at the very least) one of the field’s preeminent biographers. He passed away on September 12, 2019, of multiple myeloma, at the too-young age of 67. We prevailed upon his good friend Jeff Gelb to put together a tribute to Bill, by inviting some of his friends and colleagues to write their reminiscences of Bill and their thoughts on his place in the history of the comics fandom movement he did so much to commemorate and to further. The first part of this tribute appeared in our previous issue. Here are the others of the commentaries collected by Jeff, whose own memories of Bill were printed in #165... and topped off by a poem which Jeff wrote about his longtime friend…

Bill Schelly holding a copy of his 2008 biography Joe Kubert: Man of Rock—and a letter that he treasured from the legendary artist, upon receiving copies of it hot off the presses. Thanks to Jeff Gelb.

Bart Bush Bill Schelly was one of the greatest gifts to comics fandom. Bill’s talents both as an artist and a writer made him a uniquely qualified person to track and preserve our history. I met Bill in the 1970s; first at the NYC Con in 1973, as he tried to make his name in professional comics world… Years later, he became a regular guest of honor at our Oklahoma (OAF) conventions, and always entertained us with his latest book, A/E article, or comics project. To listen and learn from Bill was always a rewarding experience.

Bart Bush was the interview subject of two of Bill’s “Comic Fandom Archives” segments, in A/E #159 & 160.

The biographies were his strong suit. We loved every one… Otto Binder, Kurtzman, Stanley, Kubert, Warren, etc. His masterful writing touch make every book a joy to read, and his amazing research always turned up fascinating new stories and behind-the-scenes details. Once you started one of Bill’s books, you weren’t going to put the page-turner down till finished! We are very fortunate to have his tomes of comics fandom

and comics history to serve as a basis for future biographers and researchers. A master at his game, a legend now gone, but never, ever forgotten. We will carry on in your memory and help keep fandom alive, Bill. That’s the least we can do. Bart Bush has been a comics fan since 1958, and is a former fanzine editor (OAF, Harvey Collector, Comic Detective, Meriwell Reader) and current Oklahoma comics convention promoter.

More Memories Of The Comics’ Foremost Biographer & Fandom Historian

J. Michael Catron Bill Schelly was one of the gang. You know, our gang—yours and mine. He was a comics fan through and through. Wherever life took him (and you should read Sense of Wonder: My Life in Comic Fandom — The Whole Story, the updated version of his autobiography), he remained true to his love of comics. It was a lifelong love, sparked by a silly Superman Annual (though certainly not silly to his 8-year-old self) and fanned by the flame of additional wonders to be found each consecutive week at the comics rack, then through fanzines, then through the worldwide community of comics fans, and, finally, to a professional (and all-too-short) career as a writer about comics and their creators. I only got to know Bill in his later Seattle days. After a long backstory of my own, I returned to work at Fantagraphics, a company I had co-founded, in 2012. Bill had already written his biography of Joe Kubert, and his biographies of Harvey Kurtzman and Jim Warren lay in the future. I was editing a book that called for a short-form biography of a comics creator, and Bill, because of the Kubert bio and because he lived just a few miles from the office, was my go-to guy. He accepted the assignment, but he privately expressed to me that he was only doing it for the money (which, considering how

little it paid, was a puzzling thing to say). He would knock it out quickly, I could edit the text any way I wanted, and he didn’t even need to see a pre-publication proof. It was all bluff and bluster. Of course he cared about what he’d written. In fact, when the piece was published, he came around to complain that he didn’t like the way I’d broken up his longer paragraphs into shorter ones. He wanted me to see him as a professional writer, and I think he thought that by feigning an emotional distance from the work, I wouldn’t think of him as a “fan” writer. If I had thought otherwise (I hadn’t), his Eisner Award–winning Kurtzman biography a short time later would have erased any doubt. Bill was also a big movie fan, and he was part of a small group of us who would gather at Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth’s house on occasion to watch a film noir. Our conversations were freewheeling before the movie, just friends chatting and joking about whatever happened to be on our minds. After the movie, we’d invariably have ice cream and dissect and debate what we’d just seen. I was always impressed with Bill’s insight about the way the story was told and his knack for relating themes and scenes to other, not necessarily noir, movies. Bill was also in on the biggest trick ever pulled on me. In 2015, Fantagraphics published Bill’s Harvey Kurtzman: The Man Who Created Mad and Revolutionized Humor in America (did I mention it won the Eisner Award?), and Bill was scheduled to speak on a panel about Kurtzman at the San Diego Comic-Con in July. Even though I wasn’t on the panel, Bill nevertheless asked me to introduce him to the audience. Usually, that’s the moderator’s job, and the moderator for that panel was Gary Groth, who was perfectly capable of introducing him. But Bill specifically asked that I do it. So, gamely, I prepared several pages of handwritten notes.

Mike Catron Pictured with him is the cover of the book Black Light: The World of L.B. Cole, which was primarily a collection of that artist’s comics covers, but was enhanced by a long biographical essay by Bill Schelly. We displayed the covers of most of Bill’s books for Fantagraphics last issue. [Art © the respective copyright holders.]

One of my projects is recording videos of writers and artists at comics conventions, and, with the help of my son Matthew, I was set up to record that panel. Shortly before the event began, I noticed then-Program Director Gary Sassaman (now Curatorial Director of the Comic-Con Museum) standing inconspicuously off to the side of the room. As a longtime convention panel attendee, I knew what that meant — Bill was about to be a surprise recipient of the convention’s Inkpot Award! I was thrilled for him and alerted Matthew, who would be operating the camera while I was speaking, to be sure to capture the moment when Gary handed the statue to Bill.

(Left:) Art by Curt Swan and George Klein from Superman #173 (Nov. 1964). (Above:) The articleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s title page from Amazing Stories V38, #8 (Aug. 1964.) Photo by Fabian Bachrach. [Superman art TM & ÂŠ 2020 DC Comics.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Mort Weisinger: The Superman Behind Superman (Part 1) by Michael T. Gilbert

hile downloading a run of Amazing Stories recently, I stumbled across a fascinating article I thought worth sharing. Respected sci-fi writer, historian, and editor Sam Moskowitz had written a number of profiles on science-fiction luminaries for that magazine. The one featured in Amazing Stories, Vol. 38, #8 (Aug. 1964), put the spotlight on legendary Superman editor Mort Weisinger. This article is especially fascinating, appearing little more than a year before the TV show brought increased attention to comicbooks. In 1964, Mort, a longtime sci-fi fan, was near the peak of his influence as editor of DC’s most iconic hero. By the end of the decade, Mort’s influence would fade as tastes changed. When he retired in 1970, it was another signpost marking the end of comics’ Silver Age. Eight years later, on May 7th (this writer’s 27th birthday, oddly enough), Mort Weisinger suffered a fatal heart attack. We’d like to thank Sam Moskowitz’s nephew, Dennis Haycock, for permitting us to reprint this article (edited slightly, and with art and photos added). In an e-mail dated July 10, 2018, Dennis briefly commented on Sam and his wife, Dr. Christine Haycock: “Michael, you have my permission to use his article. I know that a lot of his [Sam’s} work was sometimes opinionated and controversial but always well researched. It’s cool to hear from people that they enjoyed his many years of work. Sad to say, my Aunt passed away in 2008. A copy of the magazine would be great. Thanks and good luck with your article.“

Amazing… But True!

And now…

Sci-Fi Profile: Is It a Bird? Is It A Plane? No, It’s The Superman Behind Superman—Mort Weisinger by Sam Moskowitz

hat would American Culture be today without the existence of the fabulous comic strip character, Superman? Who does not know the chant, as famous as that of the tobacco auctioneer, that goes: “It’s a bird… it’s a plane… it’s—Superman!!!”

Who can reckon the impact of this indestructible creature, capable of flight, X-ray vision, time travel, accelerated motion? How can you estimate the influence of a folk-hero which is sustained and reinforced each year by seven comic books, daily and Sunday newspaper comic strips, a daily television program, motion pictures, and an almost endless array of Superman-franchised toys, games, costumes, novelties? Superman’s influence on millions of

Sam Moskowitz’s article ran in the August 1964 issue of Amazing Stories (Vol. 38, #8). It sported this handsome cover by Richard McKenna. [© Ziff-Davis or successors in interest.]

Americans is enormous. Now, other influential comic strips—such as Pogo and Li’l Abner—have made their creators — Walt Kelly and Al Capp — well-known names. They are asked to contribute their ideas on the social scene to thoughtful journals. But the truth is their comics are read more by adults than by youngsters, and it is debatable if they have captured anywhere near as large a segment of the youthful American audience. Isn’t it logical to assume that we ought to know something about the ideas, ethics, prejudices, and preferences of the man who guides the story-line for Superman? Yet the man behind Superman is virtually unknown. What is even more unknown is that he is also one of the founding fans, writers, and editors of science-fiction. His name is Mortimer Weisinger, and he does not wear a cape. Weisinger was born in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan on April 25, 1915.

While Mortimer early showed a predilection for the imaginative works of Jules Verne and Edgar Allan Poe, he balanced this tendency with a

Ping-Pong & Peggy

Continuing JOHN BROOME’s “Offbeat Autobio”–Part XIII

A/E

EDITOR’S INTRO: We continue our serialization of the 1998 memoir of Irving Bernard (“John”) Broome, important writer of Golden and Silver Age comicbooks—primarily but not exclusively for DC Comics—undertaken with the kind permission of his daughter Ricky Terry Brisacque and appearing in most issues of Alter Ego since #149. As we’ve noted before, there are no direct references to Broome’s comics and pulp-magazine writing in the small, idiosyncratic, self-published volume My Life in Little Pieces, though there are several mentions of certain of his colleagues and friends from that field. This time, he turns to the serious matter of ping-pong… before noting some curious linguistic quirks of his charming wife….

Constantine

ing-pong is not an important sport. I suppose some would say it’s all pretty silly, knocking a little ball around, sort of a mini-tennis, on the order of miniature golf (perhaps the poorest excuse for a sport ever invented). But a list of such detractors would not include my friend Constantine Dimitropoulos. At age certainly over fifty, Constantine, a Greek-born longtime resident of France, was still the best ping-pong player at the American Center Boulevard Raspail, Paris, when I played there too back in the mid-sixties. He had a curious style, or you might say no style at all. He seemed each time to just barely reach the ball, bending toward it, the creases in his brow furrowed in his distress, then swinging abruptly, as if by a sudden afterthought, to dump it ungracefully back over the net. It took a while to perceive that in reality M. Dimitropoulos possessed a set of finely honed instantaneous reflexes, and furthermore that his apparently clumsy returns were always placed exactly where they would do his opponents a maximum of harm. He beat us all, me easily, and even strong tennis style players like the young painter John Levy, standing twelve feet back from the table and stroking from either side with might and main. Constantine groaning and grimacing in anguish, yet somehow returning shot after shot. However, the question is: was his lack of grace, his seeming awkward helplessness. entirely a put-on? Perhaps so. After all, he was in origin not of the West but of the East (for Attica is myriads of leagues distant from that emerald islet where fair play was invented, patented and put into practice) and it could be that deception and subterfuge were bred in his bones to help him triumph over the unwary. Once when I’d got to know him and praised his game, he told me with a sad smile that ping-pong had become just about his “seule raison d’etre.” This pathetic confession seemed almost unbelievable. I knew he had a good position, he was head of a

John & Peggy Broome This photo, taken on a picnic in 1946, shows the young couple in a festive mood; from the Julius Schwartz Collection. Surprisingly, we couldn’t locate any Broome-scripted tales that involved the royal sport of ping pong, so we had to settle for one from another game that included a tiny white ball—namely golf. This page from “Dangers on the Martian Links,” one of the “Strange Sports Stories” in The Brave and the Bold #46 (Feb.-March 1963), was penciled by Carmine Infantino and inked by Joe Giella. Thanks to Jim Kealy. The story’s splash page was seen in A/E #159. [TM & © DC Comics.]

PRESENTS

Pre-Code Horror GIRLS IN PERIL A LURID PORTRAYAL! by Peter Normanton

he pulp fiction and four-colour comicbooks which thrived during the 1930s and 1940s were never anything more than a throwaway culture, one that was as equally disparaging of the fairer sex. If those poor girls weren’t screaming their heads off, sometimes quite literally, their bosoms pouring forth from torn blouses, they were trussed up awaiting a fate worse than death. The pulp publishers had learned very quickly that a cover adorned with a scantily clad damsel would assure them a highly lucrative return. As beautifully embellished as these covers often were, their lurid portrayal has since raised many an eyebrow. In their defence, while the tales within kept their readers on the edge of their seats, they were rarely as suggestive as the blatant excess used to juice up the covers of these publications. Nonetheless, they had an undeniable allure, one instantly recognised by the new breed of comicbook publishers. As the Golden Age of Comics gathered momentum, they duly seized on this licentious display. It was the imaginative Alex Schomburg who truly mastered the chicanery of the girl in peril, forcing an endless stream of hapless victims into the most diabolical situations; but, as we shall see, worse was yet to come. As far back as 1948, a rather forthright Gerson Legman referenced the inclination of comicbooks to denigrate their female protagonists in Vol. 2, #3, of The American Journal of Psychotherapy. That same year, Collier’s magazine drew upon the writings of Dr. Fredric Wertham, expressing similar concerns in the ever-popular crime comics. The validity of

The More Things Change… Four years after the one-off Eerie Comics, Avon returned with Eerie #1, cover-dated May-June 1951. For the girls, nothing had changed (except the necklines); they were still in serious trouble, just as they had been on Alex Schomburg’s cover for Timely’s Human Torch #12 in the summer of 1943. The female figure at left, by Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, is from the cover of Stanley Morse’s Mister Mystery #4 (March 1952). [Human Torch cover TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; Eerie cover © the respective copyright holders.]

From The Tomb Presents:

YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, their hypothesis has long been debated, but who can deny IF that or saw them hauled away in chains ready for the slaughter, CLICK THE LINK TOcavort ORDER THIS the young ladies lined up to appear in these bloody-minded or had them in the darkened guise of the femme ISSUE IN PRINT comicbooks were destined for an unholy baptism? If they fatale.OR ThisDIGITAL came at FORMAT! the dawn of Cold War détente, and with weren’t cowering at the mercy of a gun-toting gangster, they it the notion of the nuclear family. In this seemingly new themselves were orchestrating the criminal mayhem. Their idea of family, mother was to play a vital, if subservient, provocative nature was so far removed from the role post-war part in keeping this unit strong, savouring the bounties convention had in mind for this generation of young women, of Western capitalism, embodied in an endless range of in what was a somewhat conservative period in American products intended to make her home life so much more social history. comfortable. Here, there was no place for the scolding wife or the independent woman. Such traits were a challenge The World War II years had been rather different. As to this new world order, one the comicbook writers would early as 1940, necessity demanded that the female population come to exploit every bit as much as they did the good step into the occupations traditionally assigned to their male girl in peril. The crime comics of the 1940s had taken their counterparts, with another 350,000 soon enlisting in the lead from the pulps that came before them, parading a military. Their toil did much to ensure the sustainability of pageant of young women as cheesecake, and in the process the war effort; but once the war was over, these able women throwing an unseemly emphasis on their nubile forms, most were very quickly discarded. Many were handed their notably their breasts in a display of “headlight” covers. The ALTER EGO #166 notices, while others, buoyed by a series of media campaigns, horrorOFcomic nothing FAWCETT COLLECTORS AMERICAdid (FCA) Special, withto change this; if anything, their eventually returned to their life of domesticity. The vast spotlights on KURT SCHAFFENBERGER (Captain Marvel, Ibis, all the more extreme. indelicate posturing became Marvel Family, Lois Lane), and ALEX ROSS on his awesome majority did go back to minding the home, but there were painting of the super-heroes influenced by the original Capthose who had come to enjoy their newfound independence, In T.January of 1947, Bob Fujitani had made powerful tain Marvel! Plus MICHAEL GILBERT’s “Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt” onuse Superman editorarchetypal MORT WEISINGER, openly defying their gender role in this increasingly of the girlJOHN in bondage motif for the cover of BROOME, and more! Cover by SCHAFFENBERGER! conformist world. The more conservative deemed these strongAvon’s one-off title Eerie Comics. His interpretation of the (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 willed women a threat to the social structure of this post-war imperilled innocent set the tone for what would follow. (Digital Edition) $4.99 epoch, a figure borne out in the comicbook as the desiroushttps://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_55&products_id=1539 The horror-comic publishers of the early 1950s would femme fatale. very soon formulate their varied means of menacing the girls who came their way. Although the American Comics By the time the horror comic was Group may have laid claim to having published the first advancing on the newsstands, the of these ongoing four-colour horror anthologies, they were province of femalekind had been appreciatively more reserved in their conduct, endangering reduced to the dithering scream their girls with entities of supernatural origin, while offering queen, all too dependent on her the occasional display of protruding breasts, as evidenced resourceful male companion, on the covers to issues #14 and #16 of the company’s flagship

Four Damsels In Four Colours Of Distress (Across bottom of this page and the next:) A screaming lady drawn by Bill Everett for the cover of Timely/Atlas’ Strange Tales #9 (July 1952)... two young women in immediate peril—the first rendered by ACG favourite Ogden Whitney for Adventures into the Unknown #14 (Dec. 1950-Jan. 1951)… then Bill Everett’s for “The Hands of Death!” in Timely/Atlas’ Adventures into Terror #13 (Dec. 1952). There was an undeniable allure to “The Bewitched Beauty” in DC’s House of Mystery #24 (March 1954; cover by Ruben Moreira), while the poor girl on Ken Bald’s cover for ACG’s Out of the Night #8 (April-May 1953) wishes she could resist “The Frozen Ghost.” [Covers TM & © the trademark & copyright holders, Marvel Characters, Inc., DC Comics, and trademark & copyright holders, respectively.]