Roy Thomas' Subaqueous Comics Fanzine
PAUL NORRIS
AND HIS AQUATIC CO-CREATION IN WORLD
WAR II!
$9.95
In the USA
No. 168 March 2021
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WILLIE ITO’s WAR—and REMEMBRANCE!
82658 00424
Art TM & © DC Comics.
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Plus:
Vol. 3, No. 168 / March 2021 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
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Cover Artist
Contents
Cover Colorist
Writer/Editorial: “Two Billion Stories…” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Paul Norris & The Secret World War II Comics For Military Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Paul Norris Paul Norris, et al.
With Special Thanks to: Heidi Amash Richard J. Arndt Bob Bailey Mike W. Barr Ricky Terry Brisacque Ben Bryan Michael Bryan John Cimino Comic Book Plus (website) Chet Cox Brian Cremins Craig Delich Patrick Dilley Shane Foley Joe Frank Stephan Friedt Janet Gilbert Eric Gimlin Grand Comics Database (website) George Hagenauer
Heritage Auctions (website) Tony Isabella Willie Ito Sharon Karibian Jim Kealy Todd Klein Mark Lewis Art Lortie Jim Ludwig Doug Martin Bruce Mason Will Murray Michael Norris Paul (“Reed”) Norris, Jr. Rich Pileggi David Saunders David Siegel Russ Sprout Stripper’s Guide (website) Dann Thomas Qiana Whitted
This issue is dedicated to the memory of
Paul Norris, Cal Massey, & Mort Drucker
Richard Arndt talks with the justifiably proud sons of the co-creator of Aquaman.
“What I Wanted To Become Was An Animated Cartoonist” . . 28 An interview with Willie Ito about comics, animation, and World War II injustices.
Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! Raiders Of The Lost Art . . . . . . 49 Michael T. Gilbert stripmines some gems from the 100-year-old Cartoons Magazine.
Feel The Vern! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Part XV of our serialization of John Broome’s memoirs, starring writer David V. Reed.
Tributes to Mort Drucker & Cal Massey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 66 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #227 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 P.C. Hamerlinck presents Brian Cremins on Fawcett’s Jackie Robinson Comics.
On Our Cover: A marvelous montage of two vintage “Aquaman” splash pages—a special illustration of DC’s Sea King done in 1993 for hand-outs at comics conventions—and a Jan. 8, 1945, photo of original Aquaman artist Paul Norris with his wife Ann and young son Michael, during his time with the armed services during the Second World War. The two splashes are those of the very first “Aquaman” story, from More Fun Comics #73 (Nov. 1941), and the one from More Fun #79 (May 1942), both drawn by Norris. The first was scripted by Mort Weisinger; the writer of the latter is unidentified. Thanks to Jim Kealy & Michael T. Gilbert for the splash scans, and to siblings Paul Norris, Jr., and Michael Norris for the 1993 art and the photo. [Aquaman TM & © DC Comics.]] Above: Cartoonist/animator Willie Ito never drew super-heroes, horror, or even six-gun Westerns—but a comicbook artist he definitely was, at least when he had the time! Here’s his spirited cover for Dell/Western’s Beany and Cecil #3 (Jan.-March 1963), featuring Bob Clampett’s engaging TV creations. Inks by Beverly Ware. Thanks to the Grand Comics Database. [TM & © the respective trademark & 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: $68 US, $103 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.
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PAUL NORRIS & The Secret World War II Comics For Military Intelligence How The Co-Creator Of “Aquaman” Helped Win The Battle Of Okinawa Conducted & Transcribed by Richard J. Arndt
Part I: PAUL NORRIS, JR. (a.k.a. REED NORRIS)
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NTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: Paul Norris (1914-2007) is best known as the co-creator/original artist of “Aquaman.” But he also illustrated the original “Sandman” in Adventure Comics and, working with writer Mort Weisinger, transformed that character from a gasmask-wearing pulp-style mystery-man into a fully costumed comicbook super-hero… complete with a sidekick, Sandy the Golden Boy. Paul also drew the adventures of “Johnny Quick” and “Captain Compass” for DC. In the late 1940s he finally achieved his early ambition to draw a newspaper comic strip, starting with Jungle Jim. In 1952 he began his 35-year run on the science-fiction strip Brick Bradford. He kept his hand in comicbooks, however, drawing issues of Western’s Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, the comicbook version of Jungle Jim, and work on such comics as Tarzan and Magnus, Robot Fighter. He co-created, with writer Gaylord DuBois, the comicbook The Jungle Twins, which ran from 1972-1975. These two interviews were conducted on June 9, 2016.
RICHARD ARNDT: We’re talking to Paul Norris, Jr., who goes by the name Reed, and Michael Norris, the sons of artist Paul Norris. Welcome! We’re here today primarily to discuss a little-known part of your father’s career during World War II. I know your father served in the 10th Army during the war, drawing propaganda leaflets. Oh, and thanks, Reed, for sending me all the photos and artwork. That will be a huge help here.
Paul Norris is seen on right in the above 1945 photo, taken on the Pacific island of Okinawa, after its capture… with an unidentified American lieutenant on our left, and an unidentified Japanese prisoner of war between them. Japanese troops had been told that any who surrendered would be executed by the Americans. Thanks to the Norris brothers (Paul, Jr., a.k.a. Reed, and Michael), via Richard Arndt. (Above:) Perhaps the only Norris-drawn “Aquaman” story with a true World War II theme is this one from More Fun Comics #79 (Oct. 1942); scripter unknown. The bad guys in this one were Nazis who operated a U-boat disguised as an iceberg. Thanks to Jim Kealy & Michael T. Gilbert. [TM & © DC Comics.] (Above right:) The final panel from the World War II propaganda comic page drawn by Paul Norris. See the entire page on p. 12.
PAUL NORRIS, JR.: Well, that was the intent. We hope it’s helpful. RA: Now, at the time we’ll be discussing here, the World War II years, was your dad drafted or did he enlist? NORRIS: I believe he was drafted, towards the middle years of the war. RA: His work in comics was interrupted in 1943-1945, which would indicate he was drafted sometime in 1943.
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How The Co-Creator Of “Aquaman” Helped Win The Battle Of Okinawa
Back in those days, Dad and Mom were living in Bergen, New Jersey, right across the river from New York City. I believe they crossed the river on ferries. They had a little apartment, the three of them—my father, my mother, and my brother Michael. Dad always worked at home. He never could work in a bullpen or shop environment. He liked to be at home with Mom and Michael. His family meant everything to him. Everything in the world. RA: I can tell that just by looking at those cards you sent me. NORRIS: Absolutely! When I found those old cards, I thought they were remarkable, because there’s so much in them. You could see from them the kind of father that he was. RA: I think it’s because he’s not just writing to his son, your brother, but also your mother, letting her know he’s all right. There are layers to the messages. I thought that was a cool way of doing the cards.
The Norris Siblings—Then & Now (Above:) Paul (“Reed”) Norris, Jr. (on left), Joyce Weisinger Kaffel, & Mike Norris at the world premiere of the blockbuster hit film Aquaman. The sons of the original “Aquaman” artist and the daughter of the first “Aquaman” scripter, Mort Weisinger, met at this event on December 12, 2018. According to Paul Norris, in 1941 DC editor Whitney Ellsworth handed him a copy of a guy smoking a cigar underwater, presumably with the name “Aquaman,” and told him to draw up the character—after which Weisinger was assigned to write the origin tale, and Norris to illustrate it, for More Fun Comics #73 (Nov. 1941). (Right:) A 1945 photo of Paul and Ann Norris and young son Mike. Both pics courtesy of the Norris brothers.
NORRIS: That date sounds familiar. [NOTE: From statements in Phil Norris’ self-penned bio “Born in Greenville,” he went into the service sometime in September of 1943. —RA.] RA: I’ve got a note here that says he was starting up a comic strip named Vic Jordan at the time. And that his work was intended to be exclusive to the strip, which meant that he couldn’t draw comics for DC/National. That 1943 date may or may not be accurate, since his work on the comic strip was interrupted by being drafted. NORRIS: Yeah, Dad admitted that he kind of got himself into a jam there. I believe that the strip was intended for PM [newspaper] or some offshoot of PM Management.
NORRIS: And he always
“For We Were Soldiers Then, And Young…” (Right:) Or at least, Paul Norris soon would be serving in uniform for America, by the time this photo was taken— while the unglimpsed publicist/ underground hero of the newspaper strip Vic Jordan, in this first 1943 daily (below) that Norris drew for the Marshall Field Syndicate feature that appeared in the famous liberal newspaper PM, was already clearly working undercover for Uncle Sam! (The strip had been launched by other hands in 1941. According to the Stripper’s Guide website, Norris’ tenure lasted only until July 10 of that year—when he was drafted.) Thanks to the Norris brothers for both scans. [Daily © the respective copyright holders.]
Paul Norris & The Secret World War II Comics For Military Intelligence
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“Yank And Doodle”—Dandy! (Above:) The splash pages of the first and last “Yank and Doodle” stories Norris drew for Prize Comics—respectively, #13 (Aug. 1941) and #33 (Aug. 1943). Under his artistic hand, they had long since become the comic’s cover stars. Scripters unknown. Thanks to Comic Book Plus website. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]
“Mr. Sandman, Bring Me A Dream…” It seems to have been penciler Paul Norris, inked by Chad Grothkopf, who illustrated the tale at far left in Adventure Comics #69 (Dec. 1941), the one that first put the hero in full purpleand-yellow costume and introduced Sandy the Golden Boy. Script probably by Mort Weisinger. (Please pardon the mediocre reproduction from microfiche.) The same team probably also produced the “Sandman” yarn in #70 (Jan. ’42). Both underscore the attempt to turn the “Sandman” feature into the next “Batman and Robin.” When Joe Simon & Jack Kirby took over the series with #72, it returned to cover status. Thanks to Bruce Mason for the scan; and to Craig Delich for the art IDs. [TM & © DC Comics.]
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How The Co-Creator Of “Aquaman” Helped Win The Battle Of Okinawa
strip. It was a beautiful strip. Well thought-out. Made Looney Tunes look like child’s play—which is what Looney Tunes actually is, I suppose. Dad wanted to do things like that. He would have been great at something like that. But Dad was a company man. That may be due to his experiences in the Army. But I think that it was part of his character to be a part of the team. If required, he would lead the team, but he wasn’t going to go out and try to take things over. He would fill a vacuum. If something needed to be done, he made sure it got done. I think, in many ways, those wartime letters reflect that. As you mentioned, the letters are to my Mom, although they’re addressed to me. But he’s trying to explain things, what he’s doing, not only to my Mom but to me ten years, twenty years down the line, when I’d be old enough to understand them.
The Once And Future [Sea] King Paul Norris, pictured in 2004 with various artifacts representing Aquaman, the comics work for which he is most remembered today, despite his long, successful runs on strips like Brick Bradford and Jungle Jim. Seen below is one of several color drawings of the Sea King that he executed in 1993. [Aquaman TM & © DC Comics; other art elements © Estate of Paul Norris.]
Mom and Dad would both make these crepes, using a lot of powdered sugar, and that was one of my favorite treats as a kid. It was the only way they could get eggs in me! [chuckles] I was actually allergic to eggs. But back then nobody knew allergic from anything. Mom would try giving me eggs in milkshakes, that’s an Eastern custom, but it never really worked. Then we moved out of Ohio, after Dad came back from overseas in 1946, to Bergen, New Jersey. From there Dad would go into New York to work. RA: One thing I noticed about your dad’s letters home was that they were often addressed to you. Addressed to you, but he was really talking to your mom. I think that’s a rather interesting and somewhat unique way of letting someone know you’re OK without going into great detail. NORRIS: Yes. Dad was quite a writer, not just an artist. He had a way of turning a phrase. He could have been an English teacher if he wanted to. He really knew the American language, in terms of using the right word at the right time. He was just really clever that way. RA: Did he ever do children’s books—because those letters he sent you would have made an interesting children’s book of the day? NORRIS: He wanted to. One of the things we found tucked away in Dad’s files was a series of Western comic strips that were comedic… I don’t want to call it Tumbleweeds, but it was something similar… but he had done eight weeks of strips, along with a letter addressed to King Features, saying he’d like to start this strip. It went to the King Features board, because all comic strips were syndicated back then, and we have the rejection letter from them saying they didn’t think it would sell, largely because it was Western and, at the time, Westerns weren’t popular. Then, two years later, Gunsmoke came out, TV-wise, in 1955. The strip would have been right on the money, because Westerns became hugely popular. He was sort of before his time with the
Of course, by that time, all of that stuff was put away, packaged up in storage, and I didn’t really see or read most of that stuff myself until after Dad had passed. RA: At least all that “stuff” was kept, which is important, and you can share it with your children and grandchildren. Thanks for taking the time for this. It’s much appreciated. NORRIS: You’re welcome.
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How The Co-Creator Of “Aquaman” Helped Win The Battle Of Okinawa
Back In A Flash (Left:) Norris writes that his first assignment for King Features Syndicate after mustering out of the service was a Flash Gordon comicbook. If so, it almost certainly is the one that became Dell/Western’s Four Color #173 (Nov. 1947), nearly two years after the Second World War ended. He drew the Alex Raymond-style cover as well. Courtesy of the Grand Comics Database. [TM & © King Features Syndicate, Inc.] (Right:) Another of his earliest postwar assignments, according to his own account, was to render this Erle Stanley Gardner/Perry Mason mystery in partly-illustrated form for Feature Book #50 (1970), for the David McKay Company. Thanks to Art Lortie. [© King Features Syndicate, Inc.]
to carry telephone communications. At the start of every recon adventure the Colonel would caution, “Let’s not get in front of the Infantry.” We did get in front of the Artillery on one occasion. We were on re-con. This was before Shuri Castle fell. The artillery unit was so well camouflaged we didn’t notice it or hear it until it fired a barrage. We knew it was there then. We got in a more proper location hurriedly. The Signal Corps had unmanned circuit breakers mounted on wood panels which were mounted on posts or trees somewhere between HQ and the front. The Japanese liked to sabotage these installations. Set up an ambush and wait for someone to come and repair the panels. Fortunately none of our men fell prey to the enemy’s trick. Happy to say that, because the Colonel and I had checked out many of those lonely little panels. On shipboard en route to Okinawa from the Philippines I met two officers from the Psychological Warfare division of JICOPA. They had seen some cartoons that I had drawn for the ship’s newspaper. They wanted me to draw psychological warfare leaflets to drop on the enemy on Okinawa. I gave them what they wanted. They wanted me to transfer to JICPOA. I really didn’t have much choice. During the early part of the battle of Okinawa I saw the officers a few times. They reported to me that the leaflets that I had drawn for them were very successful and that Japanese soldiers surrendered clutching the leaflets in their hands. General Buckner, Tenth Army Commander, believed in psychological warfare and he was impressed by the success of the leaflets. The battle of Okinawa was near the halfway mark, lo and behold the General ordered my transfer to Tenth Army G-2. Colonel Kerrigan was very unhappy about the turn of events, but he couldn’t do anything to stop it. He was outranked by a few grades. Ironically, the next day after the
order came down General Buckner was killed at the battle of Shuri Castle. I was out of the 82d Signal Battalion and in Tenth Army G-2. So, I had to leave all my friends with whom I had served since basic training. I had to say farewell to Colonel Kerrigan. He wished me well. I never saw him again. I do know that he returned to the States safely. After the battle of Okinawa I was transferred to the 24th Corps and shipped to Korea. Our mission was to get the surrender of the Japanese troops still stationed there. Also, to establish stability within the nation. I designed the cover for the instruments of surrender. I was Sergeant Major over two Nisei language teams and one Russian language team. Also did some cartoons for the Korea Graphic, the official Army newspaper. Jerry Siegel, the co-creator of SUPERMAN, was on the staff of the official Army newspaper in TOKYO... We had both worked for DC COMICS before the war. He saw my cartoons in Korea Graphic and followed up with a letter to me. He made plans for us to get together after the war and create the world’s greatest comic feature, but it never happened. We never met each other. We had never been in the office of DC before the war at the same time. It is strange how many artists and writers worked out of the DC office at the same time and never met each other. The reason for that was they all worked as stringers or free-lance operators. I came home to join Ann and Michael. They had lived in Fairborne, Ohio, with Ann’s folks during my sojourn in the Army. I was mustered out of the Army at Ft. Benjamin Harrison near Indianapolis, Indiana... Ann was there to meet me. What a happy occasion. I took off a week or so before heading to New York to pick up where I had left off before entering the Army. I had a war
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“What I Wanted To Become Was An Animated Cartoonist”
An Interview with WILLIE ITO by Richard J. Arndt
Willie Ito in a recent photo, flanked by his artwork for some of the most famous concepts he’s worked with over the decades. (Top left:) Film and TV animation characters Cecil the Seasick Serpent, Fred Flintstone, Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, and Lady from the Disney film Lady and the Tramp. That’s a self-caricature of Willie himself in the middle of them all, of course. Thanks to Thorsten Brümmel. [TM & © respectively Bob Clampett Co., Hanna-Barbera, Walt Disney Productions, & Warner Bros. or successors in interest.]
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NTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: Willie Ito was born July 17, 1934. He attended the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles before landing a job at Walt Disney Studios. His initial animation work for the studio was as an “in-betweener” (one who draws the in-between frames from major segment to major segment on an animated film). He soon joined Warner Bros.’ Looney Tunes unit for six years, largely working for Chuck Jones and, later, Fritz Freleng. While there he worked on such shorts as One Froggy Evening, What’s Opera, Doc?, and Prince Violent. He left Warner Bros. to join Hanna-Barbara as one of the developers of The Jetsons. He stayed there for fourteen years, working on such shows as The Jetsons, The Flintstones, The Atom Ant Show, Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles, The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, Josie and the Pussycats, and The Yogi Bear Show. He also designed characters for that company’s Hong Kong Phooey and Goober and the Ghost Chasers. Other shows he worked on included The Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner Hour and The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show. In the late 1970s he moved back to Disney, working in their character
(Bottom left:) Ito’s penciled cover for Marvel comicbook Fantastic World of Hanna-Barbera – Laff-A-Lympics #3 (June 1978), inked by Scott Shaw!, and spotlighting the Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Scooby-Doo, and several other H&B favorites. [TM & © Hanna-Barbera or successors in interest.]
merchandising department, designing toys and collectibles. He also worked with the original group that launched Disney Television Animation. During these years he has also produced comicbook work for CARtoons, Beany and Cecil, and Crazy Magazine, done layouts on many Dell covers, and drawn such comic strips as Winnie the Pooh, as well as ghosting the Pogo newspaper strip. This interview took place on June 22, 2018. RICHARD ARNDT: We’re talking today to cartoonist and comicbook artist Willie Ito. Why don’t we start with your early life and where you got your artistic education? WILLIE ITO: Basically, I was five years old when I realized, after watching Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on the big screen, that what I wanted to become was an animated cartoonist. I grew up in San Francisco, so every Sunday morning I’d get the San Francisco Examiner and open it to the comic strips. In those days the comic strip sections were huge! Practically every comic strip that a kid could enjoy would be in there, such as Prince Valiant, Terry and the Pirates, Blondie, along with Mickey and Donald and all the Disney characters. I was totally immersed in a world of cartooning from a very early age. Then the unfortunate situation came about, because World War II started. Being of Japanese ancestry, my family and many
“What I Wanted To Become Was An Animated Cartoonist”
Camp Topaz (Left to right:) The fence around the Japanese-American internment center known as Camp Topaz, Utah, where young Willie Ito and his family were forced to spend several years during World War II… and an actual postcard image of the camp, showing the inhabitants’ hastily erected living quarters. While the term “concentration camp” came, during this same era, to mean something far more dire and deadly in the hands of the Nazi Third Reich, and attempts to conflate the two types of camps are often overstated, the fact remains that the internment centers did fit the original definition of a “concentration camp.”
others were all shipped out to concentration camps. In Camp Topaz, where I was at, I no longer had access to the comic strip pages and the 10¢ comicbooks that I used to buy every weekend. Many of the cartoons that I used to see every weekend before the movies weren’t available any longer either because of the incarceration. Then a young Japanese-American who’d worked in animation before the war started to do a comic strip for the people in the camp. It was called Jankee. It was both a shock and a thrill to realize that this was a comic strip being done by a fellow Japanese-American. His weekly strip was really my only source of new comics during my years in the camp.
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ITO: Yes, we could order for our needs—clothing, shoes, whatever. There were no dry goods store in camp, of course. There was a little store that sold toothpaste and things of that nature, but clothing you had to order through the catalog. So every three months we’d get a new, up-dated catalog. I would then take the old catalogs and on the margins I would make little drawings in sequence. When you flipped the pages, the figures would become animated! That’s where I really took to my big interest in animation. In the meanwhile, the Jankee comic strip was a great inspiration to me. So I followed the strip every week. RA: Do you remember the name of the writer/artist? ITO: Yes, his name was Bennie Nobori. I recently visited the grand opening of the Topaz Museum in Delta. There’s a gal there named Jane Beckwith, who is the founder of the museum. She sent me clippings of the Jankee strips. I’m going to revise the character, with the blessings of the Nobori family, with the idea of doing some coloring books or what have you that has Jankee reliving some of
The camp I was in, the Topaz Camp, was right in the middle of the Utah desert. I think all of the camps were in the middle of nowhere! [laughs] The Topaz Camp was near a little town named Delta. We arrived there by train. From Delta we were transported by buses and trucks to the camp. Sixteen miles from Delta in the middle of nowhere. For a kid who’d been born and raised in San Francisco, it was excruciating to be there. From mild temperatures year-round to that unrelenting heat of the summers and the cold, cold winters—it was really a climate shock. The barracks there were, of course, brand new. They were wooden structures, covered with tar paper. There was no other insulation, so during the winter it was very cold and during the summers it was hot, hot, hot. What we had to warm ourselves during the winter were big, cast-iron, pop-bellied stoves that burnt coal. The whole family would gather around the stoves. Pretty much our whole winter family lifestyles were based around those stoves. I spent a lot of time drawing. We were issued Sears & Roebuck and Montgomery Ward catalogs every three months. RA: Could you order from them?
Other Skies, Other Memories In later years, Ito illustrated the story of another young Japanese-American, Shigera Yabu, who was likewise a denizen of an internment camp during World War II. Shigera Yabu himself wrote Hi Maggie, a collection of letters published in 2007… while Barbara Bazaldua wrote and Ito illustrated that tale more fully in 2010’s A Boy of Heart Mountain. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]
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An Interview With Willie Ito
my being hired. I mentored under him. It turned out that “the Lady unit” meant the Lady and the Tramp unit, and the first scene I was assigned to was the iconic spaghetti kissing scene in that movie. RA: That’s pretty impressive! ITO: I think so, too! Iwao was such a perfectionist. All of Disney’s “Nine Old Men” wanted Iwao to follow up their work because he could really give their work a beautiful cleanup, keep it on model and give it a real attractiveness. [NOTE: Disney’s “Nine Old Men” were the core animators at the Disney Studios, during Disney’s lifetime: Les Clark, Marc Davis, Ollie Johnston, Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball, Eric Larson, John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman, and Frank Thomas. Disney began referring to them as his “Nine Old Men” while they were all still in their twenties. —RA.] Iwao was known as the “ladies’ man.” Not as a Don Juan but because he could make either Cinderella or Princess Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty, look very much a lady, with all that cute, subtle feminine beauty that was sexy, too. The beautiful eyelashes on those ladies were his cup of tea. I worked under Iwao. It was wonderful training, but
The Rabbit And The “Ribbit!” Two classic mid-’50s theatrical cartoons to which Ito contributed during his time at Warner Bros. are One Froggy Evening (1955) and the Bugs Bunny starrer What’s Opera, Doc? (1957). The former is represented by a pencil drawing Willie did some time later. [TM & © Warner Bros. or successor in interest.]
eventually good things come to an end. Lady and the Tramp was completed and they had to lay off all the lower-level newer employees, including myself. Now, before the Disney work, I’d also gone to see Johnny Burton at the Looney Tunes division at Warner Bros. Johnny told me, “I liked your portfolio very much but we don’t train people here. If you ever get trained, give me a call and you’re hired.” So the minute on that Friday that I learned that I’d be laid off for three months before Sleeping Beauty began production, I got on the phone to Johnny Burton and by that Monday I was working for Warner Bros. at the infamous “Termite Terrace”—which was a building. My career was rolling along. I did get a call back from Disney three months later, but I told them I was now working as an assistant animator in Chuck Jones’ unit. I was assisting a fellow there named Ken Harris. He was also a premier animator in Chuck’s unit. I asked Disney if they would be able to match the salary that I was earning at Warner Bros. Disney’s response was that they were the major leagues while I was working in the minors. [laughs] Majors or minors, it’s who pays you the most that counts. So I worked for the next six years for Warners.
Follow That CARtoon! The first page of an Ito-drawn comics story from CARtoons magazine #21 (Feb. 1965). Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]
“What I Wanted To Become Was An Animated Cartoonist”
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I continued to submit cover layouts to Western Publishing during all those years. I was never assigned to do any finished work there, though. No interior pages, or anything of that nature. Just the rough layouts. RA: During that time period, you also worked for CARtoons Magazine, didn’t you? ITO: Yes, I was doing artwork for CARtoons. While I was there I created “Unk Kohler and the Varmints.” They were published by Peterson Publications. I only freelanced there for about a year, when the magazine was just starting out, but it was fun.
Foot-Prince In The Sands Of Time The 1961 Warner Bros. Bugs Bunny animated short Prince Violent was a spoof of the famous Sunday comic strip by Harold R. Foster—and sported Ito’s first onscreen credit. Later, for TV, the name of the cartoon was changed to the more socially acceptable Prince Varmint. [TM & © Warner Bros. or successors in interest.]
Towards the end of my six years at Warner Bros., Fritz Freleng was looking for a new layout man. He wanted to promote his current layout man, Hawley Pratt, to a directorship. Fritz knew I wanted to do layouts and asked Chuck if he could borrow me for one picture, to see how I would do. I went over to Fritz’s unit and laid out my first Bugs Bunny-Yosemite Sam short, which was called Prince Violent. RA: I assume that was a take-off on Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant.
ITO: Yes. However, when it was released to TV, the title was softened to Prince Varmint. [chuckles] That was the first short for Warner Bros. that I received credit on. Before, I was always uncredited. During my stint at Warner Bros., I met a lot of the comicbook guys who were doing the Warner Bros. comics for Western. A lot of these guys were the ones I’d been reading when I was growing up. Many of them were doing assistant animation jobs for Warners, so I figured out that they were moonlighting for Western on their down time, in between animation jobs. Pete Alvarado was one of them. Many others. So, after I finished that first picture with Fritz, I got a call from Bob Clampett’s wife, Sody Clampett. I hadn’t met Bob Clampett during my time at Warner Bros. because he’d left that company years earlier. So Sody says, “We’ve heard of you and we’d like you to come on in and see us.” I took an early afternoon and visited the Clampett Studio, which was called Snowball Productions. I met Bob and Sody, and Bob says that Mattel had just bought his Time for Beany, which was a puppet show that had run on our local Los Angeles TV station. But Mattel wanted to change it to an animated series for ABC. Bob thought I was a good character designer. I certainly wanted to be a good character
Time For More Beany (Left:) The final Ito-drawn page of “In the Bag” from Beany and Cecil #2 (Nov. 1962) spotlights villain Dishonest John. Scripter uncertain. Thanks to Jim Ludwig. (Right:) A 2015 pencil sketch by Willie of Beany and Cecil. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [Art on this page TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]
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An Interview With Willie Ito
Eenie-Beany-Minie-Moe (Clockwise from above:) Former Warner Bros. animation director and then puppet-master Bob Clampett with Beany and Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent, a publicity photo for the TV series Time for Beany, circa 1954… the original format of Clampett’s fabulous characters. A page drawn by Jack Bradbury for Dell/Western’s “Beany and Cecil” Four Color #368, cover-dated Jan. 1952. Scripter unknown… but, in the 1980s, Clampett told Roy Thomas that those stories were adapted from the scripts written for the TV puppet show. The cover of Dell/Western’s Beany and Cecil #2 (Nov. 1962), penciled by Willie Ito, who also drew that issue’s interior stories. Inks attributed by Ito to Beverly Ware. Scripter unknown, but Ito says Clampett did “a lot of the writing” himself. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert for both comics pages. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]
designer in our business. So he made me an offer, which I, of course, couldn’t pass up. [chuckles] I went to Chuck and Fritz and told them I was going to be leaving because Bob Clampett had offered me this job. They shook their heads at me, because Bob was working in TV and that kind of work wouldn’t last. [chuckles] Warners was a major studio and would be there to stay. They’d had worked with Bob in the past. [chuckles] They thought he was kind of a kook. They tried to discourage me, but I told them he’d doubled my pay and my wife was pregnant, so it behooved me to take the job. So I started with Bob Clampett and redesigned all of his puppet characters into animation characters. Once the series started to roll, Western Publishing approached Bob and reminded him that they’d done a whole comicbook series, with Jack Bradbury doing the art, that was based on the puppet show. Now they wanted to adapt the animated version, which was called Beany and Cecil. Bob was a little reluctant, because he was afraid that Jack Bradbury’s style would reflect the puppet version more than the animated version. So he asked me if I’d do the pilot book—the covers and interior pages and all that—for Western. In that way, any of the assigned artists to Western Publishing could take over the book and follow my style.
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(Right:) Everett E. Lowry from Cartoons Magazine, Vol. 11, #3 (March 1917). [Š the copyright owners.]
50
Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!
Raiders Of The Lost Art!
C
by Michael T. Gilbert
artoons Magazine was a periodical devoted to (surprise! surprise!) cartoons, primarily editorial cartoons—and the cartoonists who created them. It provided a fascinating overview of illustrated opinions from around the world, back when editorial cartoons were still a force to be reckoned with. The magazine was created by Henry Haven Windsor in 1912; he had previously founded Popular Mechanics in 1901. Cartoons Magazine purported to present “What the World’s Nations Think of Each Other.” Reading the issues, it was particularly fascinating seeing viewpoints of cartoonists from Germany and the U.S. in the years leading up to World War I. Cartoons Magazine began as a 64-page mag, eventually growing more than twice that size, filled with editorial and gag cartoons. It also featured articles and contemporary news notes on cartoonists and their creations. These issues were later collected into a series of books. The title was merged with the illustrated adventure-story magazine Wayside Tales in 1921, under the title Wayside Tales and Cartoons Magazine—apparently a last desperate attempt to keep a failing magazine going. The Cartoons Magazine part of the title was dropped in January 1922, with the final issue of Wayside Tales appearing in May of that year. Now, I realize articles about century-old editorial cartoons aren’t strictly within the purview of Alter Ego. Not a single super-hero in the bunch, to be honest. But we’re pals, you and I, and frankly, this stuff is too good not to share! If it makes you feel more comfortable, think of these as very early Platinum Age comics. Or not. Let’s start with an article that especially tickled my funny-bone. The premise is simple: one month in the life of a cartoon character… told by the little guy himself! This piece is surprisingly sophisticated, deftly playing with the conventions of comic strips that were already clichés a hundred years ago—and firmly breaking the “fourth wall” in the process!
The Diary Of A Comic Strip Character! by William P. Langreich From Cartoons Magazine, Vol.10, #6 (Dec. 1916) Monday — I am four hours old. I have a funny mustache and extraordinarily large feet. In stature I am not in the Jess Willard class. I am, in fact, rather short and dumpy. My clothes are very loud; they have a foreign cut and run to checks. My hat is an ill-fitting affair which comes down over the ears. I can’t say that I like it. Two little “x”-marks represent my eyes. I am not beautiful, but if it were not for me, my boss would be out looking for a job. Tuesday — Here I am at the top of the last page, next to the joke column. In the strip with me is a long, lanky individual who, I believe, is to go through life with me. I do not fancy him particularly, and he looks as if he had designs on me. He seems to regard me as a sort of animated football. We are introduced formally to the readers.
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Feel The Vern!
Part XV Of JOHN BROOME’s My Life In Little Pieces
A/E
EDITOR’S NOTE: Most editions of Alter Ego beginning with Vol. 3, #149, have included at least a few pages of comics writer John Broome’s 1998 “Offbeat Autobio” as he subtitled the book named above. Our thanks to his and Peggy Broome’s daughter, Ricky Terry Brisacque, for her kind permission to serialize this memoir by one of the most important writers of comics’ Golden and Silver Ages. John himself passed away in 1999. Few and far between are the references to comicbooks, or to comics people, in My Life in Little Pieces. This time around, however, he focuses on his fellow comics writer “Dave Vern”—birth name apparently David V. Levine—who wrote for DC and pulp magazines under the name “David V. Reed” and seems to have had one or two other aliases as well. Vern, like Broome, contributed to DC editor Julius Schwartz’s “New Look” Batman of the mid-1960s… and to John, he was always “Dave” or “Vern”….
Friend Vern Jack Rollins, producer of Woody Allen’s movies and longtime friend of Dave Vern, once swore in my hearing that if Dave were put in a room, say, with George Bernard Shaw and H.G. Wells, it would be Dave who would monopolize the conversation, and quite easily I could be persuaded to agree.
Whereupon I cannot refrain from whispering to Dave, seated beside me in the darkened auditorium, “What could he say?” Without noticeable hesitation, Dave whispers back, “Well, he might say, ‘I seem to have gotten stuck!’” And unable to control myself, I have to abandon my seat and flee to the rear. Dave and I first met in shorts in the kadooey of a children’s summer camp in the Catskills where we’d been hired as counselors—he as dramatic counselor. He stuck out his hand and with a sort of a smile said as we shook, “Yipsel or Yickel?” This initial greeting I was able to realize afterward was in a number of ways pure Vern. To begin with, those actually were his first words to me before he even knew my name or l his. Second was the word Yickel. Of course I knew that Yipsel meant the YPSL or Young Peoples Socialist League, but not before (or even afterward for that matter) did I ever hear the Young Communist League referred to in similar acronymical fashion. Was it possible that Dave coined the word on the spot as we shook hands there in the camp’s john? Yes, it is entirely possible. Yickel, as Dave delivered it with zesty relish lighting up his broad, rather dark-skinned face, apparently borrowed some of its built-in charge of risibility from euphonic siblings tickle and pickle, but also, and mainly, owed its subtly hilarious effect to a ludicrous contrast with the somber, heavily-bearded Marxist thought couched in quasi-religious awe that as a rule reigned over all mention of communism in that strangely bedazzled day and age.
The melodrama on that screen long ago was Drums along the Mohawk with Henry Fonda. In it, some settlers under attack by Indians had planted sharpened stakes around their camp as a defense and one Mohawk hurling himself at his hated foes with savage abandon had the ill luck to land flush on a stake which passed clean through him. In the movie, one character is describing this shocking spectacle even as we are looking at the impaled Indian.
And also quite Vernatre was Dave’s assuming—or seeming to assume—that I had to be a member of one or the other of the two Leagues; but actually, he was right, as he so often was: l was a communist. But not, l think, a good one. (I remember refusing to peddle the Daily Worker on the streets Sunday on the grounds that the assignment just didn’t appeal to me,
“And he hung there,” says the narrator, “not saying anything.”
John Broome & David V. Reed (left to right), flanking a page of the “Batman” story from Detective Comics #185 (June 1952), which some sources feel was written by one, some by the other, of the above talented twosome. We do know the tale was penciled by Dick Sprang and inked by Charles Paris. The tale’s splash was seen in A/E #159. Thanks to Bob Bailey for the art scan, and to Mike W. Barr, Todd Klein, & Will Murray for the photos. [Page TM & © DC Comics.]
Part XV Of John Broome’s My Life In Little Pieces
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Here’s Looking At You, “Kid Poison”! As “David V. Reed,” Vern/Levine had also authored numerous science-fiction stories for pulp magazines, such as this one for the Aug. 1941 issue of Amazing Stories. Art by R. Fuqua (the pen name of Joseph Wirt Tillotson); thanks to Eric Gimlin for the scans, and to David Saunders for the ID. [© the respective copyright holders.]
which to be sure, earned me coolly appraising looks from the two big lrishmen, both hard cases, who controlled our cell and whose judgment of me was soon confirmed: as a communist, I didn’t last out the year.) * Nor did Dave last long at camp. He seemed infected with an odd phobia—an absolute horror of respectability, of doing anything in the way that anyone had ever done before. He was seen running around the grounds in his jockstrap; when he couldn’t sleep, he beat his easy-going cabinmate Harvey with a broom to get him up, too. (Later, when he was writing for the Jimmy Gleason show, Gleason would schedule a writing conference for Tuesday and Dave would show up on Wednesday. Another job he lost was SF editor for Ziff-Davis, the Chicago publishing house. He got the job on the basis of a story he wrote in which the hero is carried on a throne of sugar, a substance scarce on that planet like gold on earth. No doubt he had it in him to be a ranking science-fictioneer except that that might have made him too respectable in his own eyes. However, he took the risk at least once and penned the first SF story that Argosy, the quality pulp, ever published. Just how he lost his post at Ziff-Davis eludes me now, but I know he would have found a way.)
* During that first summer, Dave lost no time in alerting the owners of fair Camp Mayfair to the considerable booboo they’d made in hiring him as dramatic counselor with the responsibility— horrid word—of putting on a show each weekend. These shows, usually based on published one-act plays, or the like, were designed to employ talents among the counselors, but also and basically to provide entertainment for the kiddies, instructive if possible. Dave, however, was never one with much of a rapport with children and so understandably, perhaps, chose instead to put on plays for his own delectation. His first show was studded with outrageously adult scenes that Dave had inserted into the original material along with pornographic innuendo and some hilariously ribald dialogue that sent the staff around the hall into gales, but only puzzled their wide-eyed charges. The next two shows were more of the same, but that was all the owners, mindful of the wraith in a jockstrap, said to haunt the grounds by night, would put up with and Dave was paid off. I think, after his three short weeks in camp, my future friend
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“You’ve Got To Be Yourself!”
Why You Should Read Fawcett’s Jackie Robinson Comics by Brian Cremins Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck
“Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?” While all their other baseball comics were one-shots, Fawcett published six issues of Jackie Robinson from 1949 to 1952. All stories were written by Charles Dexter and illustrated by Clem Weisbecker (with an assist from John Jordan in issue #1). Editors for the series included Captain Marvel/Whiz Comics/Marvel Family editor Wendell Crowley and, later, Harvey B. Janes; an interview with the latter appeared last issue. Scans courtesy of the Comic Book Database website. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.] P.S.: The heading above is the title and opening line of a popular song written in 1949 by Buddy Johnson and recorded at various times by Count Basie, Natalie Cole, and many others.
“You’ve Got To Be Yourself!”
S
ometimes it’s good to meet your heroes.
In his 1992 autobiography Just Let Me Play, golfer Charlie Sifford remembers a conversation he had with Jackie Robinson in the late 1940s. Only a year earlier, Robinson, the first African-American recruited for a Major League Baseball team, began playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Two fellow AfricanAmericans, catcher Roy Campanella and pitcher Don Newcombe, soon joined Robinson as his teammates. While Robinson remains a legendary ballplayer and one of the great athletes of the last century, few remember that he was also an avid golfer, along with his good friend Joe Louis, long the heavyweight boxing champion of the world. During a tournament in Los Angeles in 1948, Robinson offered Sifford advice that would change the history of golf in the U.S. Sifford, after all, paved the way for Tiger Woods, whose son Charlie is named for the man that Tiger once called the “grandpa that I never had” (Lavner). For almost five decades after it got its start in 1916, the PGA (Professional Golfers’ Association of America) allowed only white players to join. Like other black golfers of the day—including Ted Rhodes, who landed a spot in the 1948 U. S. Open—Sifford wanted the opportunity to compete
73 IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, CLICK THE LINK TO ORDER THIS PRINT ORJackie,” DIGITAL FORMAT! at PGA Tour events (Denney,ISSUE Rose).IN “Look here, he asked
Robinson, “what do you think of this proposition of me becoming a professional golfer?” (Sifford 113). Robinson warned Sifford of the violence and hatred he would experience not only from fans but also from other players, managers, and journalists. Nonetheless, Robinson encouraged Sifford to push against ignorance, fear, and bigotry. “It’s going to be awfully tough to do, Charlie, but can’t nobody do it but you,” Robinson assured him. Also, he added, “You’ve got to be yourself” (Sifford 113). As Sifford reminds his readers, he finally received his PGA Tour card in 1961 (Denney). After telling this story in his autobiography, Sifford adds a note of thanks to his old friend, who’d passed away in the fall of 1972:
I’m pleased to report, Jackie, that I still haven’t gone after anyone with a golf club. And I’m still out here plugging away ALTER EGO #168 at my game. I haven’t done because I particularly wanted TwoitRICHARD ARNDT interviews revealing the wartime life of Aquaman artist/co-creator (with a Golden/Silver to force my way into a white man’s world. IPAUL didNORRIS it because art gallery)—plus the story of WILLIE ITO, who endured playing golf is all I’ve everAge wanted to do, as farrelocation back centers as I can the WWII Japanese-American to become a Disney & Warner Bros. animator and comics artist. Plus FCA, remember. (Sifford 113–114) MICHAEL T. GILBERT, JOHN BROOME, and more, behind a
NORRIS cover! Given his talent and his determination, it’s likely that Sifford (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 would have found his way to the PGA Tour(Digital even without Edition) $4.99 the example Robinson had set for him, but it’s impossible to deny the https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=133&products_id=1558 impact that a real-life hero can have on those who admire and respect them. Think, for example, of Congressman John Lewis who, as I was writing this essay, passed away on July 17, 2020. Or just ask Tiger Woods. After learning of Charlie’s death in 2015, Woods— on his Twitter account—called his mentor “a brave, decent and honorable man. I’ll miss u Charlie” (Lavner).
At this point, you may be thinking that you’ve picked up a copy of Golf Digest or Sports Illustrated by mistake. Isn’t this a magazine about comicbooks? My reference to John Lewis should assure you that you’re in the right place. Robinson and Lewis are both towering cultural heroes who’ve starred in their own comicbooks. You’ve no doubt seen the photos of Congressman Lewis with his tan raincoat and his backpack, marching with a line of kids at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con. Lewis’ comics autobiography March, created in collaboration with Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell, has captivated a new generation of young readers (and, for the other teachers who are reading this, I can’t recommend it strongly enough; my students have loved it). Fawcett fans and scholars who’ve read March will recognize in it elements of Jackie Robinson, the series that company began publishing in 1949. Faithful readers will recall P.C. Hamerlinck’s article in FCA #204 [A/E #145, March 2017] in which he highlighted the more forwardthinking comics Fawcett published in the years following the 1945 removal of Steamboat from Captain Marvel Adventures. FCA #204 also includes Jay Piscopo’s fabulous cover drawing of Captain Marvel with none other than Jackie Robinson.
The Golf Stream The cover of Charlie Sifford’s 1992 autobiography “Just Let Me Play”: The Story of Charlie Sifford, the First Black PGA Golfer, written in collaboration with James Gullo. Sifford is pictured here with his trademark cigar! [© the respective copyright holders.]
As Hamerlinck points out in that article, by the late 1940s and early 1950s, Fawcett was producing some of the most racially progressive comics of the period, including Negro Romance (1950) and numerous sports titles featuring athletes such as Campanella, Newcombe, Larry Doby (the first African-American player in the American League), Joe Louis, and—of course—Robinson. (For a checklist of all of Fawcett’s sports titles, including the ones about Phil Rizzuto, Yogi Berra, and Eddie Stanky, check out the index on p. 158 of Fawcett Companion: The Best of FCA.) In his just-published study The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson, historian Michael Lee Lanning points out that Fawcett’s six-issue Jackie Robinson series, published between 1949 and 1952, was just one example of how Robinson had captured the public’s imagination at the dawn of a new decade. Shortly after making his debut on the silver screen with actress