Alter Ego #16 by TwoMorrows Publishing

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No. 16 July 2002

COVER ARTIST

Alex Ross FAWCETT FANTASIES TAKE FLIGHT!

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MARVEL BULLPEN REUNION!

John Buscema Gene Colan John Romita Marie Severin

OTTO & JACK BINDER C.C. BECK •MARC SWAYZE HARVEY KURTZMAN •JOE SIMON JIM MOONEY •MICHAEL T. GILBERT STAN LEE •RAMONA FRADON MARK EVANIER • BILL SCHELLY And More!!

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(NOW WITH 16 COLOR PAGES!) “AllInterview Issue”! Part 2 of an exclusive STEVE ENGLEHART interview (continued from ALTER EGO #103)! “Pro2Pro” interviews between SIMONSON & LARSEN, MOENCH & WEIN, and comics letterers KLEIN & CHIANG. Plus JOHN OSTRANDER, MICHAEL USLAN, and longtime DC color artist ADRIENNE ROY! Cover by Englehart collaborator MARSHALL ROGERS!

“Gods!” Takes an in-depth look at WALTER SIMONSON’s Thor, the Thunder God in the Bronze Age, “Pro2Pro” interview with TOM DeFALCO and RON FRENZ, Hercules: Prince of Power, Moondragon, Three Ways to End the New Gods Saga, exclusive interview with fantasy writer MICHAEL MOORCOCK, art and commentary by GERRY CONWAY, JACK KIRBY, BOB LAYTON, and more, with a swingin’ Thor cover by SIMONSON!

“Liberated Ladies” eyeing female characters that broke barriers in the Bronze Age: Big Barda, Valkyrie, Ms. Marvel, Phoenix, Savage She-Hulk, and the sword-wielding Starfire. Plus a “Pro2Pro” interview with JILL THOMPSON, GAIL SIMONE, and BARBARA KESEL, art and commentary by JOHN BYRNE, GEORGE PEREZ, JACK KIRBY, MIKE VOSBURG, and more, with a new cover by BRUCE TIMM!

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THE BEST IN COMICS AND LEGO MAGAZINES!

ALTER EGO #105

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ALTER EGO #107

ALTER EGO #108

DRAW! #22

See comic art and script BEFORE and AFTER the Comics Code changes, with art by SIMON & KIRBY, DITKO, BUSCEMA, SINNOTT, GOULD, COLE, STERANKO, KRIGSTEIN, O’NEIL, GLANZMAN, ORLANDO, WILLIAMSON, HEATH, and others! Plus: FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY, JIM AMASH interviews Timely/Atlas artist CAL MASSEY, and a new cover by JOSH MEDORS!

DICK GIORDANO through the 1960s—from freelance years and Charlton “Action-Heroes” to his first stint at DC! Art by DITKO, APARO, BOYETTE, MORISI, McLAUGHLIN, GIL KANE, and others, Dick’s final convention panel with STEVE SKEATES and ROY THOMAS, JIM AMASH interviews Charlton artist TONY TALLARICO, FCA with MARC SWAYZE and ROY ALD, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, BILL SCHELLY, GIORDANO cover, and more!

Big BATMAN issue, with an unused Golden Age cover by DICK SPRANG! SHEL DORF interviews SPRANG and JIM MOONEY, with rare and unseen Batman art by BOB KANE, JERRY ROBINSON, WIN MORTIMER, SHELLY MOLDOFF, CHARLES PARIS, and others! Part II of the TONY TALLARICO interview by JIM AMASH! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

1970s Bullpenner WARREN REECE talks about Marvel Comics and working with EVERETT, BURGOS, ROMITA, STAN LEE, MARIE SEVERIN, ADAMS, FRIEDRICH, ROY THOMAS, and others, with rare art! DEWEY CASSELL spotlights Golden Age artist MIKE PEPPE, with art by TOTH, ANDRU, TUSKA, CELARDO, & LUBBERS, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, cover by EVERETT & BURGOS, and more!

Interview with inker SCOTT WILLIAMS from his days at Marvel and Image to his work with JIM LEE, and PATRICK OLIFFE demos how he produces Spider-Girl, Mighty Samson, and digital comics. Also, MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ “Comic Art Bootcamp”, a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work by BOB McLEOD, art supply reviews by “Crusty Critic” JAMAR NICHOLAS, and more!

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LEE & KIRBY: THE WONDER YEARS (KIRBY COLLECTOR #58)

Special double-size book examines the first decade of the FANTASTIC FOUR, and the events that put into motion the Marvel Age of Comics! New interviews with STAN LEE, FLO STEINBERG, MARK EVANIER, JOE SINNOTT, and others, with a wealth of historical information and Kirby artwork!

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #59

BRICKJOURNAL #17

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“Kirby Vault!” Rarities from the “King” of comics: Personal correspondence, private photos, collages, rare Marvelmania art, bootleg album covers, sketches, transcript of a 1969 VISIT TO THE KIRBY HOME (where Jack answers the questions YOU’D ask in ‘69), MARK EVANIER, pencil art from the FOURTH WORLD, CAPTAIN AMERICA, MACHINE MAN, SILVER SURFER GRAPHIC NOVEL, and more!

LEGO SPACE WAR issue! A STARFIGHTER BUILDING LESSON by Peter Reid, WHY SPACE MARINES ARE SO POPULAR by Mark Stafford, a trip behind the scenes of LEGO’S NEW ALIEN CONQUEST SETS that hit store shelves earlier this year, plus JARED K. BURKS’ column on MINIFIGURE CUSTOMIZATION, building tips, event reports, our step-by-step “YOU CAN BUILD IT” INSTRUCTIONS, and more!

Go to Japan with articles on two JAPANESE LEGO FAN EVENTS, plus take a look at JAPAN’S SACRED LEGO LAND, Nasu Highland Park—the site of the BrickFan events and a pilgrimage site for many Japanese LEGO fans. Also, a feature on JAPAN’S TV CHAMPIONSHIP OF LEGO, a look at the CLICKBRICK LEGO SHOPS in Japan, plus how to get into TECHNIC BUILDING, LEGO EDUCATION, and more!

LEGO EVENTS ISSUE covering our own BRICKMAGIC FESTIVAL, BRICKWORLD, BRICKFAIR, BRICKCON, plus other events outside the US. There’s full event details, plus interviews with the winners of the BRICKMAGIC CHALLENGE competition, complete with instructions to build award winning models. Also JARED K. BURKS’ regular column on minifigure customizing, building tips, and more!

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Vol. 3, No. 16 / July 2002

™

Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout Christopher Day

Consulting Editors John Morrow Jon B. Cooke

FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck

Comics Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

Editors Emeritus Jerry Bails (founder) Ronn Foss, Biljo White, Mike Friedrich

Production Assistant Eric Nolen-Weathington

Cover Artists Marie Severin & Ramona Fradon Alex Ross

Cover Colorists Alex Ross Marie Severin & Tom Ziuko

Mailing Crew Russ Garwood, Glen Musial, Ed Stelli, Pat Varker, Loston Wallace

And Special Thanks to:

Sam Abbinanti Blake Bell Albert Becattini Al Bigley Bira Bill Black Jerry K. Boyd Lee Boyette Al Bradford Glenn Brays Jeff Brenna Tom Brevoort Mike Burkey Mrs. Dolores Buscema John Buscema, Jr. Gene & Adrienne Colan Dick Cole Bob Cosgrove Rob Daniels Tom DeFalco Shel Dorf Mark Evanier Shane Foley Ramona Fradon Paul Gambaccini Dave Gantz Jennifer T. Go Bob Greenberger Martin L. Greim Walt Grogan David G. Hamilton Bill Harper Richard Harpster Ron Harris Irwin Hasen Joe Heffernan Michael Hranek Dan Johnson Denis Kitchen Robert Knuist

Anthony Kowalik Adele Kurtzman Mort Leav Stan Lee Mathias Lorenz Larry Mahlstedt Joe & Nadia Mannarino Jim Mooney Brian K. Morris Michelle Nolan Owen & Susan O'Leary Jerry Ordway Mark Pacella Bruce Patterson Don Perlin Joe Phillips Virginia Provisiero Dan Raspler Mrs. Elmée B. Reit Ethan Roberts John Romita Alex Ross Clark Ross Fred Schneider David Sell Marie Severin Joe Simon Dave Simons Marc Svensson Marc Swayze Joel Thingvall Dann Thomas Bob Thoms Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Michael J. Vassallo Mike Vosburg Kevin Weremeychik Ed Zeno Mike Zeno

––in memoriam ––

Robert Kanigher & Tom Sutton

Contents Writer/Editorial: The Big Red Cheese–– and an Infinite Number of Mice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Journey to the Rock of Eternity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 The bountiful Binder brothers—Otto & Jack—a vintage interview re The Marvel Family.

Not Your Father’s Captain Marvel: Another View . . . . . . . . . 12 DC editor Bob Greenberger and A/E’s editor agree to disagree about the 1980s Shazam!

Word of Power. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Didja know there was nearly a 1990s Shazam! series before Jerry Ordway’s? Neither did we!

Comic Crypt: Harvey’s Heroes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Michael T. Gilbert begins “EC Confidential” with a look at Kurtzman’s super-doers! re: (letters & corrections) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Stan Lee, Joe Simon, and others weigh in.

P.C. Hamerlinck’s FCA (FawcettCollectorsofAmerica) #75 . 33 Alex Ross, Sam Abbinanti, & Marc Swayze have their say. C.C. Beck art, too!

Marvel Bullpen Reunion Section. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: We’re particularly grateful to Alex Ross for generously allowing us to use this never-before-printed Mary Marvel painting, done for his Shazam! project a decade ago, as one of our covers. Mary never looked sexier than when Alex partly re-designed her. For more, see p. 40. [Art ©2002 Alex Ross; Mary Marvel TM & ©2002 DC Comics.] Above: This previously-unprinted Alex Ross sketch of Mary Marvel didn’t quite make it into our coverage of his early-’90s Shazam! project back in Alter Ego V3#3, but we weren’t gonna pass up a second chance! With thanks to the artist. [Art ©2002 Alex Ross; Mary Marvel TM & ©2002 DC Comics.] Alter EgoTM is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Phone: (919) 833-8092. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: Rt. 3, Box 468, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $8 ($10 Canada, $11 elsewhere). Eight-issue subscriptions: $40 US, $80 Canada, $88 elsewhere. 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 Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

Title writer/editorial

The Big Red Cheese-and an Infinite Number of Mice This is a fairly unusual issue of Alter Ego, whose like in some ways probably won’t be seen again for a while. If ever. We didn’t plan it that way, but... As a general rule, A/E deals mostly with comics’ Golden and Silver Ages—the period from the late 1930s through, say, the early ’70s. And we haven’t totally neglected those periods this time around. In this section, for instance, we’re pleased to re-present, after three decades, Bob Cosgrove’s informative interview with Otto and Jack Binder, two of the mainstays of Fawcett Comics in the 1940s (and in Otto’s case, right up through Captain Marvel’s forced retirement in 1953). We thank Marty Greim, who first published the interview, for permission to use it... and Al Bradford probably took some of the photos that accompany it. Just this once, however, material dealing with the late 1980s onward predominates, especially in this Fawcett side of the issue. The main reason is simple: Alex Ross.

We hardly need tell anyone who has even a nodding familiarity with what’s going on in the comics industry nowadays who Alex Ross is. His painted graphic novels, beginning with Marvels, have been among the most popular items in the field, and we were proud to be able to utilize one of his rarely-seen Captain Marvel paintings as a cover on A/E V3#3 a couple of years back. Recently, Alex finally got a chance to show the world his take on the Big Red Cheese in Shazam! Power of Hope, and we’re honored that he allowed us to print his early-’90s Mary Marvel painting as a cover. We have P.C. Hamerlinck and his FCA section primarily to thank for this. Some—including Ye Ed (I can’t speak for P.C.)—may be a bit surprised to find more negative assessments in Walt Grogan’s interview with Alex than might be expected from one whose paintings so obviously come from a love of the medium. Alex seems at various places to be not particularly overjoyed with DC Comics, FCA, Jerry Ordway’s Power of Shazam! series, my own 1980s Shazam! mini-series (in passing), and Mark Waid, writer of Kingdom Come. But that’s his right, and we’re prepared to take the negative with the positive. It was interesting to this editor, at least, to read Alex’s take on the Thomas and Ordway revivals of Shazam! a decade and more back. In his view, both Jerry and I, in our separate series, seemed “kind of unsure” how to handle the return of Captain Marvel and company. I disagree on both counts. Jerry, it seems to me, had a definite vision of what he wanted his Power of Shazam! series to be, and carried it through for nearly fifty issues... and while my wife Dann and I were only privileged to write four (good-selling) issues of our Shazam! A New Beginning mini-series and then were unable to get the promised monthly continuation off the ground, I know for a fact that we were quite sure where we were going; we just weren’t allowed to go there. I believe that Alex, for whose talent and integrity I have only the greatest respect, makes the error of thinking that, because he didn’t happen to agree with where Jerry and I, in our different ways, wanted to take the characters, we had a less sure grip on the Marvels’ world than he does. On the contrary, I think that each of us knew exactly what we wanted to do with the heroes. And frankly, it’s inconceivable to me that he, or much of anyone else, loves The Marvel Family more than I did when I read them from 1945-53.

This time around, instead of showing our super-hero mascot Alter Ego, whom Roy & Dann Thomas and artist Ron Harris developed for the 1986 comic of that name, we’re showing his “Billy Batson” persona, Rob Lindsay— the Golden Age heroes Rob loved—and a reference to the “real” Captain Marvel. [Alter Ego TM & ©2002 Roy & Dann Thomas; art ©2002 Ron Harris.]

Alex also seems to feel that FCA—and perhaps by implication Alter Ego—should have done more to publicize Shazam! Power of Hope. And perhaps he’s right, at least judged by the fact that he generously allowed us to print his art in our third issue.

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Drak Arnold uez and Doming 2 DC Comics 02 Luis 00 Art ©20 trol TM & ©2 a Doom P

• ARNOLD DRAKE (co-creator of Doom Patrol and Deadman) talks about BRUNO PREMIANI, CARMINE INFANTINO, MORT WEISINGER, BOB HANEY, and the 1960s at DC Comics!

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For my part, however, I hardly knew about the prestige-format book in advance, because I rarely see mags like Previews or Wizard and usually only skim the news in Comics Buyer’s Guide; besides, neither A/E proper nor FCA is really geared toward pushing or even dealing with current material. (If John Buscema had not passed away early this year, for instance, you wouldn’t have seen art from our partly-completed JLA: Barbarians series in this magazine. You haven’t read much about the forthcoming Elseworlds adaptation I wrote a year or so back of H.G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau, have you?) All the same, we found the interviews with Alex and with his model and agent Sam Abbinanti fascinating and worthwhile, and we hope you (and they) like their presentation in these pages. I was also pleased to hear from Bob Greenberger—late of DC Comics and even later of Marvel—about Dann’s and my projected late’80s Shazam! series, even if, as you’ll see, I couldn’t agree much less with his analysis. I even learned something myself when P.C. forwarded to me an article by Dan Johnson: that, besides Dann’s and my eventually deepsixed series, Jerry’s longer-running one, what Alex was planning, and even the one proposed by John Byrne (which I may have heard of at some point), there was yet another projected Shazam! revival circa 1990, which never got off the drawing board. You’ll read about it here, too... because “Word of Power” fit as a follow-up to Bob’s remarks and my own comments on same. All in all, this half of the issue demonstrates that quite a few people, of various ages and backgrounds, feel very strongly about Captain

Marvel and his illustrious relatives. In the 1970s the Binder brothers still retained fond memories of them from the ’40s, and three enthusiastic fanboys of that later era couldn’t hear enough about them... while P.C., Jerry, Alex, and I each, from the 1980s onward, has worked with those characters whenever we got a chance, pursuing our own muse with regard to the Marvels. And each of us, I suppose, has at one time or another felt that we alone had the ultimate, the proper, the correct take on The Marvel Family, and boy isn’t it lucky we came along to show those other guys how it should be done! But, like Superman, like Batman, like the Justice Society, like Captain America, and like a handful of other Golden Age icons, Captain Marvel and crew are bigger than any one person, any one generation, even any one company (after all, it’s taken two of the biggest to publish their adventures over the years). And the chances are that, when all of us are sitting around in retirement centers playing checkers or watching I Love Lucy re-runs, somebody, somewhere, will still be trying to convince a publisher or editor that he, and he alone, knows just how The Marvel Family should be handled. Unless that someone is a she. Bestest,

Otto and Jack Binder

Interview Conducted by Bob Cosgrove

Two Marvel-ous pairs of siblings! Otto Binder (seated) and his artist brother Jack, in 1973—flanked by Cap and Mary. The Cap panel is from original C.C. Beck art, courtesy of P.C. Hamerlinck, from America’s Greatest Comics #8 (Summer 1943); Jack’s Mary Marvel illo was first published in Comic Crusader #15. [Photo ©2002 Martin L. Greim. Mary Marvel art ©2002 estate of Jack Binder; Captain & Mary Marvel TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

Few comic creators have been the subject of as many articles and features as Jack and Otto Binder. And little wonder. First working with Harry Chesler, and then managing his own shop, Jack Binder oversaw the production of a massive amount of comic book art, as well as personally illustrating many features, most notably “Mary Marvel.” Most famous for his many “Captain Marvel” stories, Otto Binder also scripted for Timely, National, and just about every other company in the business, as well as maintaining a prodigious output as a sciencefiction writer.

wife Iona. Otto is a short, portly man, with greying hair and a pencilline mustache. Eager for news of the comic industry, he leans forward during conversations, anxious to capture each word, punctuating his comments with short, animated hand movements. As time was short, we went immediately to Jack Binder’s nearby home. On the way, I quizzed Otto concerning his reading habits, hoping to take his mind off Al’s driving. Otto said that he read mostly mystery and science-fiction, favoring Robert Heinlein as the top s-f writer. At that point, the van pulled into Jack’s.

You can’t imagine how delighted I was when Martin Greim suggested that he, Al Bradford, and I travel to upstate New York to visit the famous pair, who lived only minutes apart. My enthusiasm died a bit when I learned we were going in Al Bradford’s van. I was unable to decide whether the name “Dodge” emblazoned on the vehicle’s front was a trade name or advice to pedestrians. Playing on my indecision, my fellow fans seized me by the cape-side and hurled me into the van. We were off!

While we waited for the second Binder, Otto invited us to the barn out back to see the studio and workshop which Jack used to create the realistic figures and regalia used in the nearby historical museum, Fort William Henry. Otto led us up a narrow staircase to Jack’s studio loft, a small, well-lit room containing painting materials and sketchbooks. Nestling here and there throughout the studio were pieces from synthetic Binder models... a hand here, a soldier’s head there. At this point, Jack joined us and invited us into his home. After introducing us to his wife Olga, he bade us be seated in the living room. Pictures, large oil paintings, adorned the walls.

We left in the morning light of Massachusetts and arrived at Otto Binder’s home in the bright afternoon sunlight around 2:00. Suppressing our disappointment at not finding at least a yellow lightning insignia on the mailbox, we introduced ourselves to Mr. Binder and his gracious

Jack Binder, in snow-white hair and black, thick-framed glasses, is about the same height as his brother. He is an abrupt, dynamic man, who several times in the course of our conversation expressed his appreciation of Jim Steranko. This was not surprising. In attitude and

Journey to the Rock of Eternity demeanor, he might have been Jim Steranko forty years later, a Steranko of the Golden Age of Comics. Informed of a colleague’s departure from National, he said, “I don’t blame them a bit. They’re impossible to work for. I never worked for anyone on any terms but my own!” For a moment, Binder’s figure dissolved and I saw the figure of Jim Steranko, sitting on my hotel bed at a New York con, telling a jammed room that “If a publisher wants me, he’s got to meet my terms.”

The Interview BOB COSGROVE: Jack, as I understand it, one of your first jobs in the comic industry was as shop foreman for the Harry Chesler Studio. Could you tell us something of Chesler himself? He’s sort of an unknown figure to many fans. JACK BINDER: Well, my first impression of Harry Chesler, when I went down with Frank Gruber, who was then scripting western tales for him, to get the job, wasn’t a good one. I didn’t like the looks of the shop and turned him down. I went back a year later and Harry and I sat down for about an hour or so and talked. He said, “I don’t want you as an artist!” And I said, “Then what the hell do you want?” He then told me he wanted me to take charge, to take over the staff. I said, “OK, fine!” And that was all there was to it. The background of Harry Chesler is simply this: he was a man who was a visionary... a promoter... full of ideas... and still is to this day. He has a natural intuitive sense, to know when an artist has done his best. I’ve seen him have an artist do over a job fifteen times. He’d pay for it, but he’d know the artist was doing his best work. He knew what he wanted and he’d get it!

[A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: As published in Comic Crusader #15, Marty asks about the “Book” of Eternity, and Otto is recorded as mentioning first the Book, then the famous Rock of Eternity. Though I seem to recall that there may have been such a book, I reasoned, based on Otto’s response, that Marty actually asked about the Rock of Eternity, and that the word was twice transcribed incorrectly. — Roy.] OTTO BINDER: I’m fairly certain that the Rock of Eternity was my idea. I seem to remember coming up with the plot all enthused, and [editor] Wendell Crowley was, too, when he heard it. It actually ties in scientifically with astronomical theory. As you know, according to the “Big Bang” theory, there was once a “primal atom” of super-condensed matter which exploded some 15 billion years ago or so. These particles then scattered to form the nebulas, etc. Now, along with this “point in space,” there was a “point in time,” too, at that very spot, wherever it was. Using poetic (literary) license, I simply postulated a fixed point in the universe where this primal atom existed in a timeless state before it exploded. The Rock [of Eternity] angle was just to make it pictorial. But, conceivably, there is some temporal/spacial point from which any portion of the universe, throughout time, can be reached. If you understand all this, tell me how it works, will you! BC: Jack, would you describe what your typical work day was like when you were running your own shop? JACK BINDER: It was 24 hours a day. OTTO BINDER: It started with him going crazy, and how did it end up?

Sivana seeks out the Rock of Eternity in Marvel Family #10 (April 1947), one of that mag’s greatest issues. Roy owns his own copy—but thank the six immortals for DC’s 1977 collection Shazam! From the 40’S to the 70’s! Script by Otto Binder, art by C.C. Beck. [©2002 DC Comics.]

Harry was originally sponsored by Bernarr MacFadden, in our first studio on 5th Avenue. Then there was some confusion between Harry and MacFadden and the shop broke up. I went on my own for a while, then several months later Harry called me up and we started a new organization. I think there were three times we sort of went off the deep end, primarily because Harry could always envision something different, something new, and he’d spend his last cent on it. He always had confidence that we could make it, and we did. Harry loved human beings. He was like a father to everybody. OTTO BINDER: Harry was a showman; he often did bizarre things, simply for the effect. He had pet alligators, little ones, in his office, and would feed them raw hamburger. He also served them minnows, but he would chop their heads off first, so the minnows wouldn’t suffer when the alligators ate them. MARTY GREIM: Of the many things connected with Captain Marvel, one of the more interesting is Shazam’s Rock of Eternity. Can you tell us something about this, Otto?

JACK BINDER: Well, I wound up crazier! I hired in units of four. I’d get enough work to near work the men I had to death, and when I had enough work for four more men, I’d hire them. So those four were kept busy, and my original crew was kept busy, too. I always had enough work, because I got the business first.

BC: What about your workday, Otto? OTTO BINDER: Well, as you know, a writer works alone. I’m a morning writer. I’d get going at 9 o’clock and work until I was groggy, which usually came about 2:00 in the afternoon. The rest of the day I’d take off to recover. BC: What kind of things did you read, Otto, when you were working in comics? OTTO BINDER: Everything but comics! Science-fiction, detective, and science books, mostly. MG: Otto, over the years you’ve worked on many characters. Which would you say was your favorite? OTTO BINDER: Without a doubt, Captain Marvel or any of The Marvel Family! Other than them, I’d say Captain America was one. He

Otto and Jack Binder mechanical drawing, pattern of line development, and design. Then, from there on, if they have any artistic talent, let it express itself. You’ve got to have complete involvement in what you’re doing... just give yourself to it, or it won’t happen. BC: Do you remember how you felt when you got the word that Captain Marvel was dead and that the Fawcett line was no longer in the comic book business?

As “Eando Binder,” Otto was a science-fiction scribe before he was a comic scripter. He created (see top left) the first sympathetic robot for numerous issues of Amazing Stories, including late-entry “Adam Link Saves the World” in the April 1942 issue. Later he adapted three of these in EC’s Weird ScienceFantasy, beginning in #27 (Jan.-Feb. 1955), with Joe Orlando art, as seen at right. [Photo ©2002 Martin L. Greim; Amazing Stories art ©2002 the respective copyright holder; EC art ©2002 William Gaines Agent.]

was always a free and easy character. I did scripts directly for Stan Lee, in those days. I didn’t work with Joe Simon until years later, when he was working for Harvey Publications. BC: Marty’s been working on a “Captain Marvel Jr. vs. Captain Nazi” article. Do you know who created Captain Nazi? OTTO BINDER: Yes, it was Ed Herron. Herron was a very good writer, and I think he created Captain America, too. At the time he worked for Fawcett, he couldn’t admit to it, because he wasn’t supposed to work for any other company.

JACK BINDER: It didn’t bother me a bit! I knew the end was near and I’d made arrangements to go into another line of business. OTTO BINDER: Jack’s case was different, because he was branching out into other lines of business; but in my case, my whole living was practically Fawcett Comics. I had quit DC because of the Fawcett/National lawsuit, so when National finally won the suit, it came as a big blow to me and the other artists and writers concerned. The thing that made it even worse was that Beck and I had a syndicated Captain Marvel strip all worked out. He even did some artwork on it. I think we had about six or eight weeks of it done. BC: What about your brief venture with Milson Publications, Otto, and the character Fatman the Human Flying Saucer?

MG: Otto, which did you find it easier to write... a super-hero story, or science-fiction story, or a detective story? OTTO BINDER: I think, probably, the science-fiction stories. I liked doing things for the EC comics. BC: [to Jack] What did an artist have to be able to do for your shop? JACK BINDER: The most important thing for an artist in the comic book field to know is how to utilize the full page, with the number of breakdowns on that page, to consistently have a continuity and a flow of story. Knowing how to interpret a script is another important thing. There was a panel once that really had the boys puzzled. The script said, “Show the hero and the girl standing on the shore at the beach, with the waves thundering in, and in the background show 10,000 natives coming at them throwing spears.” They finally decided to see me about this problem of how to draw all that. I said, “Well, getting to this point is very simple. Just show a closeup of the hero, with his arm around the girl, pointing at the reader, saying, “Look at those 10,000 natives coming at us! This is the end!” MG: As an artist yourself, Jack, how many pages did you turn out a day? JACK BINDER: Two complete saleable pages a day. “Look, see, think, do” is my motto. My advice to anyone learning art is to learn

Otto believed writer and sometime editor Ed Herron created Captain Nazi— though another Fawcett writer, William Woolfolk, has claimed that feat. Either way, he was one of the greatest super-villains of the World War II era, as seen here in Whiz Comics #25 (Dec. 1941). But—Ed Herron as the creator of Captain America? [©2002 DC Comics.]

Journey to the Rock of Eternity

OTTO BINDER: That was a big fiasco, of course! Fatman—well, I don’t know. There, Beck and I couldn’t see eye to eye. His idea of the character and mine were just so different that I don’t even know how to describe it. I had to rewrite stories, and Wendell Crowley, who also worked at Milson, had to rewrite stories. We just never could get together on the character. [NOTES ON FATMAN: Fatman came into being in 1967. He was a Jack Binder in ’73—and his splash hero with three identities: (1) Van for a “Mary Marvel” story in Crawford, a wealthy hobbyist; (2) Marvel Family #21 (March 1948). Fatman, the green-and-yellow-clad [©2002 DC Comics.] heavyweight hero; and (3) Saucerman, the human machine. Due to an amazing bio-genetic serum given to him by a little green alien from outer space, Fatman possessed the power to change at will into a flying saucer. Fatman was no slouch in human form, either. He was tremendously strong and was a master of karate!] BC: Another Milson book, which never came out, was to be called Captain Shazam. Can you tell us a bit about it? OTTO BINDER: Captain Shazam? Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I really don’t remember much about him. He was completely different from Captain Marvel, of course; had to be, for obvious legal reasons. If I recall, I did some story outlines, which I no longer have, but that’s as far as it got. BC: What are your reactions to the newly-returned Captain Marvel [in DC’s Shazam! comic of the 1970s]? JACK BINDER: I’ll give you my reactions on what has already died once. We tried a revival with Little Nemo. I spent thousands of dollars on Bob McCay, Windsor McCay’s son, who had his father’s technique down to perfection, but lacked the imagination and vitality to get it across. I talked Street & Smith into publishing it, did a few layouts for Bob McCay, and Otto even did a few scripts for it; but when Windsor McCay died, Little Nemo died with him! It’s almost impossible to revive something and get the same life and dynamism into it that the original had. Now, Beck, on the revived Captain Marvel, retained his technique, but because he’s so far away from the original inspiration, the book just isn’t the same. In the old days, this was part of our life. With these characters, we put heart and soul into them. I put my staff through a regular training course on how to interpret a script. You had to For Comic Crusader #15, Bill Black approximated C.C. Beck’s art on Fatman the Human Flying Saucer, one of the most strangely conceived super-heroes of all time. [©2002 the respective copyright holder.]

believe you are this character. Although I had forty people working on one script, in every possible area, the whole thing had to tie together just as it does in the movies. OTTO BINDER: We had regular “bull sessions” in those days. We could talk for hours about comics. In fact, we met for weekends for six years, just talking shop. Even though the meetings were social, the conversations always centered around work. We lived it! JACK BINDER: Our instance in the so-called “Golden Age” of comics was a period of time similar to the early movies. No one knew what they were doing. We had to just take the bull by the horns and make this thing go! There were no guidelines set for us to go by. Fortunately, because of the thrill of just doing it and being involved in it, the comics worked. BC: Otto, do you think today’s Captain Marvel stands a chance of selling, or do you think he’s basically a “1940s” character? OTTO BINDER: I wonder. I just don’t know. It’s just as light and whimsical. It just doesn’t seem to be the real Captain Marvel. The artwork, yes, because it’s Beck, but the stories just don’t have the flavor I felt in the old days. As Steranko said in his History of the Comics... “The Magic Is Gone!” MG: Otto, when you sat down to write the Marvel Family stories, did you first plan out how much action would be given to each member? Did Captain Marvel get the best treatment? OTTO BINDER: The stories were tailored to give them all equal exposure. Sometimes one of the Marvels would get a bit more of the action, but the formula was to send each one of them out on a separate mission and bring them together for a big ending. BC: You are perhaps best remembered, Jack, for “Mary Marvel.” Will you tell us a bit about your work on her?

The splash page of the main feature in The Marvel Family #21 (March ’48). The 48-page issue also contained solo tales of Cap, Mary, and Junior. Printing from Roy’s bound volumes, a tiny bit of art was lost at right. [©2002 DC Comics.]

Otto and Jack Binder

This model sheet (above) of Uncle Marvel, drawn by Jack Binder and first published in Comic Crusader #15, was used in the 1940s as a guide to other artists drawing him—such as C.C. Beck, illustrating “Uncle Marvel’s Wedding” (below) from Captain Marvel Adventures #59 (April 26, 1946). The initial inspiration for the character was probably W.C. Fields. [©2002 DC Comics.]

JACK BINDER: I had nothing to do with creating Mary Marvel, except that after I got hold of the character, I made it my personality. Her character had already been set before I got to her. OTTO BINDER: I wrote the first story that she appeared in. That was Captain Marvel #18. She then had her own lead feature in Wow Comics, beginning with issue #9 [Nov. 1942]. JACK BINDER: I’ll have to take credit for Freckles Marvel and Uncle Marvel, not as creations, but as persons. When the script was given to me, I created the personality of Uncle Marvel. [NOTE: At this point, Jack showed us a model sheet he had done for Uncle Marvel, and this prompted Otto to ask a question that had been at the back of his mind for years.] OTTO BINDER: Jack, did you model Uncle Marvel after me? JACK BINDER: Not consciously, Otto. Actually, I modeled him after what I wanted to be—what we’d all like to be—the lovable old fraud who gets away with everything. [NOTES ON UNCLE MARVEL: He made his first appearance in a “Mary Marvel” story in Wow Comics #18, Oct. 1943. He had no Shazam powers, but found Mary’s lost diary, recounting her adventures, and tried to pull off a complicated swindle. He claimed to be Mary’s uncle, and as he and Mary said ‘Shazam!’ together, he doffed his suit of breakaway clothes with a pull of his zipper. He then stood revealed in a makeshift Captain Marvel suit. Uncle Dudley (as was his real name) planned to form Shazam, Inc., and sell the services of Mary and the other Marvels. Mary discovered that Dudley was a fraud, when he said “Shazam!” aloud and didn’t change. However, when Uncle Marvel risked his life to push a child out of the way of an oncoming truck, Mary decided to humor him. She talked Dudley into making Shazam, Inc., a non-profit organization, and as a result, Uncle Marvel was around, on and off, as a supporting character in the Marvel stories for a long time.]

Journey to the Rock of Eternity

OTTO BINDER: Yes, along with Mort Weisinger. He was really an idea man. Most editors aren’t, you know. MG: How did you feel about writing “Supergirl,” after having worked on “Mary Marvel”? OTTO BINDER: It was kind of weird, in a way. I had worked for DC for a while, but stopped when the National/Fawcett lawsuit took place. I was asked to come back, if and when “Captain Marvel” fell by the wayside. I did just that, when National won the suit. Mort kept poohpoohing “Captain Marvel,” saying it was a bunch of junk. “Mary Marvel was a crazy idea!” So a couple of years went by, and one day Mort says to me, “I’ve got a great idea!... Supergirl!” Of course, I didn’t say, “You don’t mean Mary Marvel, do you, Mort?” To me, it was like reliving the past. MG: Otto, what do you think about the trend toward relevancy in comics? OTTO BINDER: My thought is that comics are escape literature, and that they should be kept in that never-never land, disconnected with the problems of everyday life. BC: Jack, what do you think of the artwork in comics today? JACK BINDER: I think that they are over-embellished. They’re

Though he wasn’t the first artist to draw Supergirl, Jim Mooney soon became indelibly associated with Otto’s co-creation. This recent sketch is courtesy of the artist and Mike Zeno. [Art ©2002 Jim Mooney; Supergirl, Streaky the Super-Cat, and Super-Horse TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

[NOTES ON FRECKLES MARVEL: Freckles was Mary’s girl friend and, although she didn’t pretend to have any powers, like Uncle Dudley did, she still dressed up like Mary Marvel and participated in Mary’s adventures now and then.] MG: Will you tell us something about how Mary Marvel was used to sell girls’ dresses? JACK BINDER: Sterling Advertising and another company wanted to use Mary Marvel to sell dresses. They gave me the assignment of doing the first ad. Of course, I did it in my usual simple, direct way. The agency had a young art director there who wanted 99 changes made. I told him, “Look, I presented a sketch to you, you okay’d the sketch, and I have the layout. I have presented you with the final work. This is it! There will be no more changes from here on!” He gave me quite a talking to, but I told him he could take it or leave it. So they ran the ad, the way I did it, and they sold 30,000 dresses from $2.98 to $3.98 apiece. Of course, I did the ads after that. When they tried to analyze the success of that first ad, I told them that, to the kids, Mary Marvel was a real character. They related to her. They were a part of Mary Marvel, and Mary Marvel was a part of them. So when they saw her in those pretty dresses, they bought them to be like her. MG: In addition to creating Mary Marvel for Fawcett, didn’t you create Supergirl for National, too, Otto?

Supergirl stayed unknown to Earthmen, and thus cousin Superman’s “secret weapon,” for several years. Two decades earlier, at the end of Mary Marvel’s second appearance, in Captain Marvel Adventures #19 (Jan. 1943), Cap told her that she was “fully trained to go out on your own career now!” and she flew over into the lead spot in Wow Comics. Script by Otto Binder; art by Marc Swayze. Repro’d from the reprint in the tabloid-size Shazam! 1973 Summer Edition #C21. [© 2002 DC Comics.]

Otto and Jack Binder float through. MG: Many of Raboy’s shots were remarkably similar. I know stats were used, but how many? JACK BINDER: Just a minute. [He’s up from his chair, and runs upstairs.] I have some pages of Raboy’s. I’ll show you.

Jack soon returned, pages in hand. Interspersed with patches of Raboy’s precise brushwork were photostats of previous work. Indeed, almost every panel was a total or partial stat. Jack told us that Raboy did all the paste-ups himself, refusing to let anyone touch his page. After bidding a temporary farewell to Jack, who presented us with a beautiful set of landscape prints, drawn in a detailed pen-andink style very different from the simple line drawings of his comic book heyday, we returned to Otto’s. Al, Marty, and I then followed Otto downstairs to greet Jack and his wife. Over a leisurely dinner, we swapped horror stories. Every fan has one, but the Binders both had (Above:) A Mac Raboy model sheet, used to aid other artists in drawing Captain Marvel Jr.’s facial expressions, was first printed in Comic Crusader #15—and later in A/E V3#7. (Right:) Raboy did some marvelous art on Cap Jr. in the early 1940s, but many panels were composed largely of photostats. E.g., the final figure at right was used many times. Jack Binder says Raboy did all the paste-ups himself; but in Alter Ego V3#6-7 onetime Raboy assistant Bob Rogers (nee Rubin Zubofsky) revealed that he had done many of those paste-ups in Master Comics... and that the Captain Marvel Jr. title was put together by different artists entirely, using a multitude of Raboy swipes. [©2002 DC Comics.]

overdrawn. They seem to think that the fineness of the comic art carries the comic story. It doesn’t! The artwork on today’s strips is just too complex. There’s just too much there, for the simple thing you want to say. [NOTE: At this point, it was time for a break. As Jack served coffee and cookies, we talked about some of the artists of the ’40s.] OTTO BINDER: I always considered C.C. Beck a sort of minor genius. It’s a shame he never received more recognition. He sat down and worked out his own unique approach to comic art and storytelling. But he was a unique figure in many other ways, too. For example, he would create his own musical instruments and make up his own tonal scale, and play them. And you were telling me about his new thing, where he constructs realistic weapons out of paper scraps. [NOTE: Mac Raboy, who was poles apart from Beck’s easy simplicity, also evoked memories from the Binders.] OTTO BINDER: Mac Raboy. There was a prima donna! Impossible to work with! He always complained that there were too many action scenes. BC: Too many action scenes? Isn’t that a rather unusual complaint for an artist? OTTO BINDER: Well, maybe. Mac didn’t care about plot, about conflict. He wanted beautiful, fairyland scenes for Captain Marvel Jr. to

Journey to the Rock of Eternity gems. Otto one day decided to give all his “worthless” extra copies of Captain Marvel, et al., to the neighborhood kids; and Jack, tired of carting his magazines around, loaded them all in barrels and took them to the dump. About eight, as dusk settled, we thanked our hosts and headed for Vermont to see [fellow fan] Tom Fagan. It certainly had been a fascinating afternoon. One that we would all long remember. As we Left to right: Jack Binder, Marty Greim, and drove, a thunder and lightning Otto Binder in front of Jack’s barn studio. [Photo ©2002 Martin L. Greim.] storm overtook us, prompting Al to try a few unavailing “Shazams.” I told Al that I heard the ghostly voice of the old wizard muttering, “No way, Al!” However, cynic that he is, he refused to believe me. [SPECIAL THANKS TO: Jack Binder for allowing me to print the hitherto unpublished drawings of Mary Marvel, Uncle Marvel, and the Mac Raboy model sheet, from his personal scrapbook... and to C.C. Beck, Bill Black, and Anthony Kowalik for this article’s art.] [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: For another in-depth interview with Otto Binder, see P.C. Hamerlinck’s Fawcett Companion: The Best of FCA, published by TwoMorrows.]

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“Not Your Father’s Captain Marvel”

“Not Your Fathers Captain Marvel!” Another View by Bob Greenberger [EDITOR’S INTRO: In Alter Ego V3#9 I indulged myself by writing a lengthy examination of a handful of my “dream projects” that did not come to fruition in the late 1980s and 1990s. One of these was a monthly Shazam! series which was slated to follow the successful four-issue Shazam! The New Beginning series which Dann and I co-wrote, and which was drawn by Tom Mandrake, on the heels of the mid-’80s Legends mini-series. I detailed the process by which Mark Beachum, Frank Travellin, Mike Gustovich, and Tod Smith, in turn, were chosen by DC Comics as the artistsdesignate. [The final step in this debilitating process occurred when editor Mike Gold relinquished the project, against my wishes, to another editor whom I did not name, who insisted that I plot a new, stand-alone first issue (instead of the already-plotted #12 which had been penciled, in whole or in part, by at least three of the above artists). Eventually the whole thing fell apart, and, my six-year contractual priority on a Shazam! series having expired, I moved on to other projects, mostly at Marvel, while others—and eventually Jerry Ordway, who was not connected with the foregoing in any way, shape, or form—became the heirs to Shazam!

As you might imagine, I read your piece “Not Your Father’s Captain Marvel!” with great interest. Having both watched from the sidelines at the beginning and being actively involved at the end, I had my own notions of what happened and why. Captain Marvel was always a problem character for the DC Universe, even in the slightly more innocent 1980s. His world was of a simpler time, and it never seemed to fit as things got grimmer and grittier. His use in Legends showed that with the right creators it might work, and it certainly succeeded with the Shazam! The New Beginning mini-series. After that, the character, and you, suffered from a clear lack of editorial direction. While you were working out West, Dick Giordano tried to match you with the right artist. Mark Beachum, promising as he was, was among the first of a generation that seemed to lack the direction to draw on a regular basis. With the exception of his work in Penthouse Comix, Mark has never been a regular artist on much of anything. The work you reprinted shows his style owing more to Neal Adams than C.C. Beck, which would have made for an odd-looking Captain Marvel indeed. Frank Travellin was someone Dick was trying to groom for years and, again, his work never amounted to much and he soon disappeared from comics altogether. I remember his storytelling to be pedestrian, but the designs you showed reminded me why Dick stuck with him.

[Because I had not named most of the parties involved, Bob Greenberger—the editor to whom In the late 1980s three artists penciled the same scene for the first issue Mike handed over my Shazam! of Roy & Dann Thomas’ projected monthly Shazam! series: (above) series—is not mentioned in A/E Mark Beachum... (next page, top right) Frank Travellin... and (next page, V3#9. However, upon reading Mike Gustovich, who did some bottom left) Tod Smith. Bob Greenberger seems to feel that Mike Gustovich “Not Your Father’s Captain nice work for you back then, was a may have done some penciling for the series, as well! [©2002 DC Comics.] Marvel!” therein, Bob elected to better, more disciplined choice, submit his own thoughts on the and I have no idea why this subject, and I was more than willing to print them. Here’s what Bob, version didn’t take off. It was probably the strongest of the bunch. who since then has also spent some months as an executive at Marvel, By this time, when you stopped being the writer/editor, the character had to say via e-mail on in August 2001. —Roy.] fell under Mike Gold’s purview. Mike certainly matched your enthusiasm for the character, but he was so busy starting things up that he

Another View

didn’t give it the attention the project deserved. To Mike’s credit, he did get the short story approved for his Action Comics Weekly, keeping people hopeful of something. Rick Stasi was a crony choice and not really the right style for a straight super-hero. His style was harking back to the Fawcett days while the story demanded something stronger. In fact, looking through all this, it’s apparent that neither Paul Levitz, Dick, Mike, nor you had a strong enough vision to figure out the right direction and right creative personnel to put on this, because Captain Marvel was such an odd fit to the DC Universe. By this time, somehow Tod Smith got the gig (some things I never knew), and Mike showed me your outline for feedback. He was clearly at a loss. I wrote up a one-page memo, summarizing my thoughts and concerns about the serial structure, and the next thing I knew, Mike gave me the book. While I liked the character and respected your take on things, it was never my intention to get involved. Still, being the good soldier that I was, I used that memo as the roadmap for what needed to be done. One of those concerns was that Captain Marvel was too isolated from the rest of the DC Universe. If he were to be an active participant, we had to change that. What better way than to have our good Captain get into a brawl with someone clearly identified with that Universe? Mammoth [from The New Teen Titans] made the most sense. Then there was the fact that you had sub-plots and storylines running for large numbers of issues. To me, at the time, the idea to launch a new monthly was to bring the reader along. Rather than start at 60 m.p.h., I wanted to start with one- and two-part stories so that by the time we got to the end of the first year, we had a big three-parter, making an event out of things. You and I disagreed on this point, but you were a pro about it and work got underway.

Tod did some nice art, but it wasn’t working—through no fault of yours or Tod’s. It may have been the wrong people at the wrong time— you certainly had no enthusiasm for what I was asking for, and I was trying to make this commercial with no special “feel” for the material. Management wisely stopped this from proceeding and then the character disappeared. By this time I can only imagine how tired and frustrated you felt, followed then by the pain of losing Captain Marvel to Jerry Ordway. Still, I wanted your readers to understand some of the thinking that went on at the offices while you were working at home, full of hope. I’ll finish by pointing out that, although Jerry found a way to make the gentle action and humor of Captain Marvel work, it was never a commercial success. No matter how talented the people involved, there seems to be no way to make this character viable in today’s market. To which I say, thank goodness for the Archives.

Roy’s Response Amen to that... and I was glad to receive Bob’s comments. It’s never my intention as editor of Alter Ego to claim that anyone, myself included, has the “last word” on any given subject. All the same, I must respectfully disagree with what I feel is the cornerstone of Bob’s argument: namely that, after the four-issue Shazam! The New Beginning series Dann and I wrote with Tom Mandrake, “the character, and you [meaning me], suffered from a clear lack of editorial direction.” Actually, if by that last phrase Bob means a lack of direction from DC editors, I totally concur. If, however, since until shortly before I had been functioning as editor of my own material at DC, he means

“Not Your Father’s Captain Marvel”

that I had lost my own sense of direction, I don’t think he could be much further off the mark. Here’s why: New Beginning, whatever its lacks in the eyes of this or that reviewer or reader or editor, had been a definite success in 1986. As I reported seven issues ago, #1 had sold well, and after the usual two-issue downturn, orders for #4 had improved appreciably—which, as I was informed by the powers-that-were at DC at the time, indicated that #1

That’s why Mark Beachum’s concept drawing, printed in V3#9, includes Spike and several renditions of what Mary Marvel might have looked like. My contention in the latter 1980s—and I’ve never seen any reason since to change my mind—is that, with sales on the limited series finishing strong, and with the same writers still at the helm, the later editors—first Mike, then Bob—would have been better advised to concentrate on helping us realize what was clearly a vision we had for Shazam!, not concern themselves with second-guessing it. Yes, our Shazam! was quite different from the 1940s and ’70s visions of The Marvel Family—and from what has been done quite well since by Jerry Ordway and others. But, as I’ve said before, to me that’s totally beside the point. By the time Jerry began his own perfectly legitimate take on the heroes in The Power of Shazam!, a Thomas-scripted Shazam! series should instead have been a year or three old, obviating the need for such a launch. Or, if the readers had (contrary to what was suggested by New Beginning sales reports) quickly rejected our Shazam!, then it would have been time for John Byrne or Jerry Ordway or whoever to get a shot.

Though feeling no personal animosity toward (or from) Bob Greenberger, and with no malingering beef against DC, my belief is that the basic mistake was made when my esteemed colleague Mike Gold, busy with other matters, decided that, instead of giving me Tod Smith’s splash for Shazam! (Vol. 2) #2, with Spike blackmailing Captain Marvel my head on a series I’d be over his secret identity; later in the issue she achieved her goal of gaining Shazamic continuing from a successful mini-series, he should turn the powers herself! [©2002 DC Comics.] book over to an editor who, by his own admission, had no particular desire to helm it, especially along the lines I had already set in had sold well, because the fourth issue was the first one whose orders motion. could reflect actual sell-through in comics stores. From the outset, since I had originally controlled the editorial direction of New Beginning, I had known where (with Dann’s help) I wanted to take the series, in keeping with my prior agreement with editor-in-chief Dick Giordano and whomever he was talking to: mainly, into the DC mainstream, with a more realistic approach than C.C. Beck and my old friend Otto Binder would ever have approved of. This approach had, after all, been the point of the Legends series, or else why were Billy Batson and Captain Marvel made such an integral part of a storyline which involved the entire cast of the DC Universe? Dann and I had intended from the start that New Beginning #1-4 would acclimate the reader to Billy/Cap, the Sivanas, Uncle Dudley, and Black Adam. With Sivana and his kids on the run at mini-series’ end, and a more nitty-grisly Mr. Mind depicted in its final panel, we had obviously set the stage for at least part of what was to follow. We intended—and we had so informed those above us—that the follow-up monthly series would introduce first Spike, who would become the new Mary Marvel—and soon afterward an African-American Captain Marvel Jr., in a reversal of the order in which that pair had debuted in the 1940s.

It’s all lightning under the bridge now, and of course I can’t guarantee that the Shazam! I’d have co-written and guided would have lasted any longer than (or even as long as) Jerry’s nigh-50-issue run, which (apparently at DC’s direction) totally threw out our new origin of only two or three years earlier and gave Captain Marvel yet a third origin. There’s no way I can know whether or not “my” Shazam! would have been a success—but neither can anyone else. My considered opinion, for reasons I documented in A/E V3#9, was, and is, that DC owed it to me to let me try it my way—and they blew it. I respect the individuals involved, and they doubtless have their own opinions on the matter, provided they recall it at all after more than a decade—but I think what I think. And there I’m content to let the matter rest. Amazingly, however—and unknown to most comics fans, and even to me until recently—there were at least two other stillborn attempts at a new Shazam! revival in between my own and Jerry’s... as related on the very next page...

Word of Power

Word of Power The Shazam! Series That Might Have Been by Dan Johnson Few Captain Marvel followers are aware of writer Michael Eury’s proposed mini-series called Shazam! Word of Power, commissioned by DC Comics in 1990. Eury was an editor at DC from 1989 to 1992. Captain Marvel, not being used much at the time by DC, was a favorite character of his; and, being inspired by the “kid inside the man’s body” angle of Tom Hanks’ very successful movie Big, Eury concocted a very childlike Captain Marvel for his proposal. Editor Mike Gold and DC Editorial Director Dick Giordano liked Eury’s thoughts on the character, but then John Byrne said he wanted to do a Captain Marvel series, so Eury’s proposal was scrapped. However, Byrne soon backed away from doing Captain Marvel over creative differences which arose during the character’s use in DC’s War of the Gods series. Eury immediately enlisted artist Joe Phillips to draw up preliminary sketches for Word of Power, and Mike Gold was back on board as shepherding editor. The project was under consideration for a brief time, until Jerry Ordway voiced interest in Captain Marvel, the end result being his Power of Shazam! graphic novel, followed by the monthly series. “If you’ve got to lose out on a series, losing out to heavy-hitting talent like Byrne and Ordway eases the blow,” says Eury. At the time, only a handful of people were aware of the Word of Power proposal. “Chances are some of them have already forgotten about it by now!” Eury says. Eury’s goal was to have maintained the innocence of the original Captain Marvel series within a more realistic, modern environment. In his proposed series, Billy Batson was a reporter for WHIZ-TV, which was the DC Universe’s version of cable TV’s Nickelodeon Network; hence, he was a “kid’s beat” reporter. Mr. Tawky Tawny (somewhat resembling Vincent from TV’s Beauty and the Beast) was the star of his own Pee-Wee’s Playhouse-type of show; to everyone’s curiosity he was never seen not wearing his tiger “makeup.” It would be revealed that Tawny was actually Billy Batson’s father, turned into a Dr. Moreau-like tiger-man as the result of a sadistic genetic experiment by Dr. Sivana. Tawny took the job at WHIZ to be closer to the son who thought him dead. Eury states, “Sivana’s character In the final panel of Legends #5 (March 1987) would have been even Captain Marvel is shown fully integrated with more sinister with his DC’s other super-heroes. This is clearly the way DC wanted to go—that week. Art by John Byrne. [©2002 DC Comics.]

Joe Phillips’ 1990 character sketches for Michael Eury’s proposed Shazam! Word of Power series: Captain Marvel, Billy Batson, and Mr. Tawny. Like the Thomases’ concept before it, this series planned an AfricanAmerican Cap Jr. [Art ©2002 Joe Phillips; characters TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

genetic mutations—which would explain talking alligators, tigers, etc., in the series, albeit portrayed tragically rather than comically.” Eury had a foundation laid for a very different take on the World’s Mightiest Mortal, one that would surely have sent the Big Red Cheese off into a new and different direction. The first storyline featured Mr. Mind inhabiting (a now AfricanAmerican) Freddy Freeman’s body, stealing the Shazam powers from Billy and becoming an evil Marvel. Freddy, of course, would ultimately become a hero, Kid Marvel, instead of being called Captain Marvel Jr. Eury had not planned to use any of the secondary Fawcett characters, such as Bulletman. Mary would not have been introduced until ’way into the second year of the series, and initially only as a long-lost sister of Billy’s. The idea was to focus on Cap, then slowly build the Marvel Family so as not to dilute the main character. I know a few purists who would probably not have been taken with Michael Eury’s Captain Marvel. Some might have seen the series as too realistic, maybe even a little dark. But perhaps Shazam! Word of Power might not have been as different as loyalists are used to. Eury wanted to keep what was most right about Captain Marvel intact, mainly the sense of wonder and fun that the character inspired.

Missing a Back Issue? Got a hole in your Mr. Monster collection? We’ll gladly e-mail you a free Mr. Monster EEEK-Mail Catalog! Just Contact Michael T. Gilbert at:

MGILBERT@EFN.ORG

For a printed version, send one dollar to Michael T. Gilbert, P.O. Box 11421, Eugene OR 97440

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

EC Confidential by Michael T. Gilbert Some cartoonists are born geniuses—or at least that’s the way we like to imagine it. Truth to tell, it’s hard to picture guys like Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Davis, Wally Wood, and company ever being anything less than perfect. Still, even the greatest talents had to start somewhere, and the cartoonists who worked at EC were no exception.

fertile period in which he also wrote, edited, and sometimes drew grimly realistic war stories for EC’s Frontline Combat and Two-fisted Tales. Early issues of Weird Science and Weird Fantasy also featured a handful of superbly crafted Kurtzman sciencefiction stories.

From roughly 1950-56, the Entertaining Comics line produced some of the greatest comics in the field. In their day, the cartoonists whom publisher Bill Gaines and editors Al Feldstein and Harvey Kurtzman hired were a virtual “Who’s Who” of comics’ best and brightest—and the stories they crafted for Mad, Two-fisted Tales, Weird Science, Crime SuspenStories, Tales from the Crypt, and other EC titles became instant classics. So what better place to start our search?

After leaving EC, he started Trump, Humbug, and Help!—all brilliant but financially unsuccessful humor magazines. The former was published by Playboy magazine magnate Hugh Hefner in 1957, but died after a mere two-issue run. Five According to The Illustrated Harvey Kurtzman Index, Glenn years later, Kurtzman and Brays’ indispensable 1976 checklist, this very early Kurtzman fellow Mad cartoonist Will cartoon first appeared in The Overtone, the school paper of In this and future Crypts, we’ll sneak a peek at Elder finally hit paydirt when New York High School of Music and Art, and was reprinted in some rare pre-EC work by these comics legends— they began their long-running Guts #5 in 1969. [©2002 the estate of Harvey Kurtzman.] and to sweeten the deal, we’ll even showcase some “Little Annie Fanny” series in noteworthy examples of their later work. But let’s Playboy itself. But before all that, Harvey served his comic book keep it our little secret, OK? That way I have an excuse to call this apprenticeship drawing stories for a number of second-rate publishers. series... “EC Confidential”! Comics historian John Benson states that Kurtzman began his cartooning career in 1942, helping artist Louis Ferstadt ink a Classic Comics adaptation of Moby-Dick. From there, he moved on to draw straight super-hero features like “Black Venus,” “Magno and Davey,” and “Mr. Risk” for Ace and other publishers. Harvey seemed ill-suited to these humorless stories. Fortunately, his irrepressible humor couldn’t Let’s start with the mad genius behind Mad comics and Mad be contained for long! magazine, Harvey Kurtzman. Harvey created Mad in the early 1950s, a

Part I Harvey’s Heroes

A selection of HK’s straight super-hero comics fare: “Paul Revere Jr.” (Super-Mystery Comics, Vol. 3, #3), the cover of 4 Favorites #11, and “Mr. Risk” (Super-Mystery Comics, Vol. 3, #5) were all published in 1943 by Ace/Periodical House; “Black Venus” is from Contact Comics #11 (1946), from Aviation Press. These pages were reprinted in The Illustrated Harvey Kurtzman Index. [©2002 the respective copyright holders.]

EC Confidential

Harvey moved to EC, where he wrote and illustrated a series of humorous tales for editor Al Feldstein’s science-fiction titles. One of these, “Man and Superman” (Weird Science #6), was a clever 7-page look at the scientific underpinnings of the Man of Steel’s super-human abilities. It came out only a year and a half before the first issue of Mad, and in a sense was a (probably unintentional) trial balloon for his later super-hero satires. (See next page.) Oddly enough, though Harvey would later parody DC, Fawcett, and Quality super-heroes in Mad, his first and only Marvel-hero satire wouldn’t appear until 1990—when Marvel itself published Harvey Kurtzman’s Strange Adventures. Harvey wrote seven short stories for the book, including a rather disappointing Silver Surfer parody (see p. 22). Earlier, he had done a mid-’60s “Little Annie Fanny” episode in Playboy which had featured one of Annie’s comic-collector friends dressed as Captain America. (In the late ’60s Marvel published Not Brand Echh, a heavily Kurtzman-influenced humor title that made fun of their heroes; but to my knowledge the two stories mentioned above remain the only time Kurtzman himself played with the Marvel/Timely characters.) Also, for a 1963 issue of Help! he did the delightful “A Thousand Pictures Worth One Word,” as seen on page 21.

From 1946 to 1949 Kurtzman wrote and drew a series of hilarious “Hey Look!” one-pagers for Timely (later called Marvel). It was the first time he had complete artistic freedom on any of his projects, and his work showed it. Kurtzman’s strip grew funnier with each episode, and paved the way for his later Mad work. Stan Lee was his boss in those days, and must have enjoyed Harvey’s zany humor, as he eventually bought over 150 “Hey Look!” strips to use as fillers in various Timely titles. One of my favorites of the “Hey Look!” strips is the Captain Marvel-ish incident wherein a character turns into a super-hero by shouting “Hey Look!” This was drawn in the late ’40s for Timely, but Kitchen Sink’s invaluable Hey Look! collection states that it was first published in Kurtzman’s Portfolio 10 in 1966. This isn’t quite super-hero stuff, but around 1949 Kurtzman also submitted to editor Lee an amazing 12"x18" sample page that was very much a precursor of the Mad comic he would launch a couple of years later at EC. (See next page.) First printed in a 1993 Christie’s East Comic Collectibles catalog, it is described there: “Archie-like character is actually ‘speaking’ to Stan Lee and performs some very definite no-nos. Kurtzman was obviously demonstrating to Lee his range as an artist.” But that was the year of one of Timely’s periodic downsizings, and the end of even the “Hey Look!” fillers.

A later “Hey Look!” page with a super-hero theme. If you run across a copy of Kitchen Sink’s hardcover Hey Look! collection of a few years back, circle the date in your calendar. It was your lucky day! [©2002 estate of Harvey Kurtzman.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

EC Confidential

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

Next time: More rare art (by Jack Davis and George Evans this time!) in the second installment of... EC Confidential! Hoo-hah! —Michael.

Kurtzman and Elder’s early-’60s Archie-esque hero in a panel from “Goodman Beaver Meets S*perm*n,” as reprinted in Kitchen Sink’s 1984 book Goodman Beaver. Yeah, for some reason Harvey left the “e” in. [©2002 estate of Harvey Kurtzman, & Bill Elder.]

Still, I’d love to see what Harvey could’ve done with the Timely heroes back in his younger “Hey Look!” days. One can only imagine a Harvey Kurtzman Human Torch having an explosive romance with “Gasoline Gal,” or a humiliated Captain America demoted to “Private America” for dressing out of uniform. Alas, Fate had other ideas. Nonetheless, we can get a taste of what might have been from Harvey’s super-hero send-ups. “Superduperman” (with Captain Marbles), “Bat Boy and Rubin,” “Woman Wonder,” “Plastic Sam,” and the “Black and Blue Hawks”—all drawn for E.C.’s original Mad color comic book—remain some of the most popular of his numerous superhero parodies over the years; and indeed, the first four are included in a recent trade paperback, Mad about Super Heroes. Still, as you can see, Harvey Kurtzman did some excellent work before and after Mad. These comics may not be EC, but they’re sure super!! [Special thanks to Joe & Nadia Mannario; contact their All Star Auctions at <www.allstarauctions.net>. A tip of the hat, as well, to Dennis Kitchen—and to Blake Bell and Adele Kurtzman for their blessing for our use of Harvey’s 1949 ‘Archie parody’ sample page. Check out Blake’s unofficial web haven for serious Steve Ditko fans at <www.ditko.comics.org>—or his 1950s Atlas cover gallery at <www.timely-atlas.comics.org>—or the work of three Golden Age legends, Bill Everett, Alex Schomburg, and Syd Shores, at <www.ess.comics.org>.]

Monthly! Edited and published by Robin Snyder

Write to: Robin Snyder, 2284 Yew St. Rd. #B6, Bellingham, WA 98226-8899

re:

23 wouldn’t stop talking to people—I love talking to artists and writers— it’s more fun than working! He also said I was tough, but I couldn’t control him. Control him? I can’t remember ever meeting him! I wouldn’t know him if I saw him!

re:

And here’s the kicker—he said I was a businessman! Yeah, sure—me, the businessman! That’s too ludicrous to warrant a comment.

Also, he said I wasn’t a writer. If that’s true, I’ve sure wasted a lotta years at the typewriter and later the computer! He said it could be that one of the writers created Spider-Man and sent in a synopsis and it got picked up. Yeah, right! And that writer was so shy that he didn’t ever want to tell anyone that it was his idea! Finally, Keyes said I was a multi-millionaire. What did Will Murray give the guy to smoke? Hey, but I think I found the answer. I have a hunch Keyes thought Martin Goodman was me!!! Martin played golf and occasionally putted balls into a glass in his office. Martin was kinda shy and was definitely a businessman and definitely a multi-millionaire. It grieves me to say how wrong Keyes was, because I’d have loved to have been millionaire Martin, but alas, Fate willed otherwise. Y’know, considering how careless Keyes is with his conclusions, I hope he never writes as biography about anybody. If he does, I’d sure as hell feel sorry for the victim.

Here’s a subject you rarely see Jazzy Johnny drawing: the original X-Men, though in their late-’60s outfits. Anybody know where this art spot appeared? Mike Burkey probably told us when he sent it, but we forgot. [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

This may just be the longest letters column Alter Ego will ever have, as we do some catching-up—and are in receipt of a number of informative letters from both pros and knowledgeable collectors, some of them far too long ago for comfort. Most were received via e-mail, which is the reason for the lack of addresses. With this issue we’re also instituting a new policy of printing in bold lettering the name of each writer before his/her letter, unless it’s a very short one. This is because Roy has always found it frustrating to have to read an entire letter, especially a long one, before learning who wrote it. First: Stan Lee phoned Ye Editor to express confusion at parts of Will Murray’s interview with one-time Timely staffer Daniel Keyes (later the author of Flowers for Algernon). I invited Stan to put his thoughts in writing, and he somewhat reluctantly concurred, just “for the record”: Hi, Roy... Just a line to tell you that I was totally mystified when I read Will Murray’s interview with Dan Keyes in your always-fascinating Alter Ego. Some of the things Keyes said simply didn’t make sense. For example, he mentioned that I used to spend time hitting golf balls into a glass on the rug in my office. I never did—not once—not ever! I wasn’t a golfer! Also, he mentioned that I was the “shyest” person he had ever met. Hey, you know me, Roy. I don’t think you—or anyone—could ever be accused of calling me shy. He said I wouldn’t talk to anyone—I’d just hole up in my back office. Hell, one of my biggest faults was that I

Anyway, Roy, I know that you had nothing to do with that senseless gibberish—but Will Murray should’a taken the time to check out some of the patently ridiculous assertions that the oh-so-observant Mr. Keyes uttered. But no matter what, Alter Ego is still a literary treasure! Excelsior! Stan Glad you still think so, Stan. Actually, while I was happy to include Will Murray’s interview with any writer who had worked in comics years ago, let alone one who later made a name for himself in another field, I’ll admit to having had some doubts about the factuality of some of Daniel Keyes’ memories when I first read them. I even referred in #12’s editorial to the fact that Keyes must have been the first person in history to call Stan Lee “shy.” The golf references, the “businessman” line, the fact that he seemed unaware that you were doing a prodigious amount of writing all along from the ’40s right through the early ’70s—all made me suspect that, in some areas, at least, he had confused you with Timely/Marvel publisher Martin Goodman... though why that should have happened, I’m at a loss to explain. In other areas, of course, he was merely viewing Stan Lee through his own prism, just as all of us to everyone who isn’t ourselves. (And Dr. Michael J. Vassallo, a few letters down, has an ingenious and not illogical explanation as to why Keyes apparently didn’t think of you as a writer fifty years ago.) Stan’s letter brings up the dilemma of any editor or publisher, especially one whose magazine is composed in large part of interviews with professionals. It’s been my policy, and I’m sure it’s TwoMorrows’, that, unless a statement is libelous, the interviewee should have his say. And I for one am reluctant (though I do it on occasion) to interrupt the flow of an interview with an editorial note correcting even something that is a cut-and-dried error, let alone a statement that is more problematical. So Daniel Keyes was allowed to have his say... and now Stan Lee has had his, as well. Ideally, that’s how both journalism and history are

re: Dear Roy Thomas—

written—and Alter Ego is a magazine with a foot in each camp.

Before I gave away my copy of Alter Ego #12 to a grandchild, I noted that Al Bryant was credited with drawing “Sally O’Neil, Policewoman.” Although the drawing shown could well have been his, I don’t know when it could have been done. The feature was one of mine while I was with Quality, and Al Bryant’s was “Betty Bates—Attorney at Law.”

Moving on: Our next missive is from another true comics pioneer—in this case, the front half of the immortal Simon & Kirby team and a major talent in his own right. Joe Simon’s partly autobiographical The Comic Book Makers (soon due out in its second, revised edition, written with his son Jim) is an indispensable addition to any fan’s bookshelf. Joe was, of course, one of the “Timely Titans” spotlighted in issue #13:

Mort Leav We’ll look into it, Mort. Anybody out there have more positive information about that art spot? We took both it and its ID from material generously supplied by Jerry Bails, but since the art was unsigned, it’s not always easy to tell who did what.

Dear Roy: Many thanks for the copies of Alter Ego, “Titans of Timely.” You did a bang-up job on it and I enjoyed every word and picture. Great repro and layout on the cover. A couple of small thoughts: From page 5: “Stuntman ©Simon and Kirby.” Stuntman never had anything to do with DC Comics. The Sandman #1 cover you ran was sketched and inked by Joe Simon. Kirby tightened up the pencils. This version was not used. Complaint was “too much hay” (crosshatching). You may notice that the rough lettering is by Joe Simon. I scripted and laid out the entire issue.

On page 8 The Fly [should be] “©Joe Simon.” Archie restored the copyright to me. The Fly has been under option to Dreamworks for a while. No big deal. You did a wonderful job on story and content. Thank you and congratulations. Joe Simon Thank you for all your help, Joe. The “Stuntman” reference in that caption was a typo for “Sandman,” who was depicted; but it’s great to learn more about that slightly alternate version of the cover of 1974’s Sandman #1. Figuring out who did what on that cover was driving associate editor Jim Amash nuts. He thought he saw Jerry Grandenetti in there... maybe he still does. Next, a welcome letter from Dick Cole, the brother of Jack Cole, creator of Plastic Man, about a slightly earlier issue: Dear Roy, Thank you so much for Alter Ego #12. I am enjoying it very much, especially Jim Amash’s interview with Gill Fox. It was great to learn more about those people that Jack often mentioned: Busy, C.C. Beck, Will Eisner, and others. Yes, what a tragedy that he ended his life so young. He sure had a great future ahead of him. The truth still remains a mystery, although I kind of agree with Hefner, we were surprised to learn that [his widow] remarried so soon after his death. We never heard from her again after the funeral. Thanks again. Dick Cole Despite Art Spiegelman’s excellent book on your brother and his work, Dick, we don’t think the last word has been written on either. In fact, we’re honored that you’ve consented to an interview, which will appear in an early issue of Alter Ego. Mort Leav, whose letter follows, will be featured in the first issue of A/E we can squeeze him into. In the ’40s and ’50s Mort drew comics for Quality, Timely, Fiction House, Hillman, EC, and many another outfit. We appreciated his note about one of the illustrations that accompanied our interview with Gill Fox:

Mrs. Elmée B. Reit, wife of the late Seymour Reit, co-creator of Casper the Friendly Ghost, who had sent us the piece of her husband’s art that we ran in issue #13 in conjunction with his longtime friend William Woolfolk’s tribute to him, wrote in to express her appreciation of Bill’s words, and to make a slight correction: Dear Mr. Thomas,

For the record, I want to correct a misunderstanding by Bill of Seymour’s middle name—it is Victory, not Victor. He was born on Armistice Day, Nov. 11, 1918, and his parents commemorated the event. Seymour was not aware of this until he needed his birth certificate for his driver’s license (or passport, I’m not sure which). He was very fond of this middle name and used it with pride. We collected World War I commemorative cups and other memorabilia that had the word “Victory” displayed. A minor point, but an interesting one. Elmée B. Reit It certainly is, Mrs. Reit, and our thanks to you for your note. Our condolences once again on the loss of your husband, who gave much to the world of cartoon art. Next comes a letter from the aforementioned Jim Amash, who currently conducts many of A/E’s interviews, in between pro inking assignments: Dear Roy, A/E #13 may just be the best issue yet. I really loved reading the Don Heck piece; it reminded me how much I always admired his work. Heck never got the credit he deserved for being a good artist, and seeing that previously unpublished Iron Man drawing sure felt like seeing an old friend in a friendly, familiar style. I do have a few corrections to make. Dave Gantz refers to Robbie Solomon as Martin Goodman’s cousin. Wasn’t he actually Goodman’s brother-in-law (as Vince Fago said in #11)? Also, I think “Bonnie Arno” is “Bonnie Hano.” Doc V.’s and Jim V.’s articles were great, and added so much depth to my interviews. Thank God these guys are around, because I couldn’t do the research they do. Jim did have a couple of errors in his piece, though. Doc has it right in regards to Fago’s editorship (and Vince did do freelance work after Stan returned, by his own admission... staffer Bob Deschamps remembered that, too). Jim says that Fago’s years were

re: 1942-44, but Vince was editor through the first half or so of 1945. He also states Vince was hired in late 1942, but actually Vince was hired early that year and of course was editor by fall of ’42, as Doc stated. And I’m extremely dubious about Jim’s assertion that Goodman actually edited the first few issues of Joker and Timely. Everyone agrees that Goodman left those duties to Stan, and later Vince. When I asked Dave Gantz about these credit boxes, he said, “Don’t take them seriously. A lot of times, those credits were simply made up to keep us happy.” I believe that, and it explains things... like why Stan Lee is “Stanley Martin” and Mel Blum is “Mel Barry.”

Page 13: That All-Surprise #2 cover is a photocopy shot from the original artwork, not the comic book itself. Page 14: The signed Chris Rule Wendy Parker cover shown is issue #4 (Oct. 1953), not #1 (July 1953) as noted. As for Rule himself, Gantz’ reminiscences of him are fascinating. Let me add to the known Rule database by mentioning that, in addition to all his Timely/Atlas work from 1943-59, early in his career he illustrated children’s books in the 1920s and ’30s. I have eight different hardcover books hailing from that period sporting interior illustrations by him. A deeper look at this man and his work is in order.

Jim Amash

Page 15: Gantz’ mention that he drew “Skilly Boo and Bloop” should read “Skilly Boo and Floop.”

Jim A. and the guys he calls “Doc” and “Jim V.” are among the most avid celebrants and identifiers of Timely art and artists. Indeed, when that issue arrived in his mailbox, Jim V. sent these comments of his own:

Page 16: The bottom illo caption on the Kin Platt Rusty penciled page is almost certainly inked by Val Barclay. The Sekowsky-penciled Joker #19 cover inks by Barclay are only a guess on my part.

Roy, Once I saw the photograph of Gantz in issue #13, I knew that I was wrong in identifying a couple of the artists. I want to take mild exception to the statement on page 31 that “Vince Fago usually signed covers he drew on his own.” Nobody signed Timely humor covers! Ever! It’s been one of the most frustrating aspects of this whole project.

Admit it—you never thought you’d see a Marvel volume entitled The Essential Ant-Man, did you? But it’s out—and contains excellent artwork by Jack Kirby and Don Heck. Here’s Don’s splash for Tales to Astonish #43 (May 1963). [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Page 17: Mario Acquaviva was indeed a staff letterer, but I’ve found text illustrations “drawn” by him in 1947. Likewise, I’ve also found an Artie Simek illustration in one of Goodman’s crime magazines of the mid1940s. I can’t locate it at the moment but will send it for inclusion in a future issue of Alter Ego. Page 20: Let me clarify that “editor’s note” about Patsy Walker. Ruth Atkinson was Patsy’s debut artist. She drew the feature in the earliest issue of her own title and in Miss America, as well. Chris Rule was the next “major” Patsy Walker artist. Rule wasn’t Atkinson’s inker, as the caption seems to imply. Rule carried the “Patsy Walker” feature in Miss America with some others) right up through the 1940s.

And thanks for the ImageS mention. It is greatly appreciated. Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. 3809 Laguna Av., Palo Alto CA 94306-2629 We’re always glad to support something as superbly put together as your new quarterly magazine showcasing the great illustrators of years past, Jim. Interested parties should contact you, or sample it online at <images@bpib.com>.

Page 26: The revelation by David Gantz about writing the first Peanuts story for Dell is a great uncovered fact. Let me clarify that the first “new” Peanuts material published by Dell appeared as a backup in Nancy Comics #146 (Sept. 1957). It wasn’t until 1958 that

Three’s company—so here are a few corrections and additions to issue #13 from the third A/E contributor named a few paragraphs back, Doc Vassallo: Roy, What a great issue! Timely (and hopefully, soon, Atlas) is finally getting the coverage it deserves. To Jim Amash, thanks for giving Dave Gantz’ Timely career the great exposure it merits. When I tracked him down a couple of years ago, he completely downplayed his comic book work and actually seemed annoyed I was interested in it. I’m sure he realizes now that there are many people who find his work and his place in Timely history important. Let me expand upon some points and make a few corrections to #13 (in order):

We’re not certain whether it was Dave Gantz or some other 1940s bullpenner who drew this wartime “Super Rabbit” splash, but we’ve been waiting months for a chance to run it! On the right is a (Winiarski-drawn?) panel from a 1940s Timely humor mag which features Dave (probably—though he says he looked a lot like Al Jaffee in those days) asking the time of Mike Sekowsky, courtesy of Jim V. and Doc V. [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

re:

Hames Ware’s letter last issue gave us an excuse to print this photo of Straight Arrow artist Fred Meagher and his wife Ruthanne (who modeled for some of his female characters, such as Seena in the Buffalo Bill daily shown in issue A/E V3 #11)—and a page of Meagher’s S.A. art for Magazine Enterprises, repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, thanks to Ethan Roberts. [Straight Arrow art ©2002 the respective copyright holder. Photo courtesy of Bill Harper and Richard Harpster.]

that genre by then. Page 47: Let me correct a transcribing error that the author of Forever Amber was Katherine “Windsor” as I knew her. Dr. Michael J. Vassallo Thanks for all the added info, Doc. Incidentally, we took the spelling “Winsor” for the author’s last name from Russel B. Nye’s 1970 study The Unembarrassed Muse: The Popular Arts in America, but perhaps it was incorrect there. Dell released the first of four Four-Color “Peanuts” issues, with Peanuts then joining the revived Dell Fritzy Ritz (in #57, March-May 1958) and Tip Top (in #211, Nov.-Jan. 1958). The artwork in the debut Nancy Comics #146 was by Schultz himself. He then turned over the duties to others, primarily Dale Hale and Jim Sasserville. The Melvin the Monster incident is also very interesting, and I would love to get the full story on this. It probably dovetails with the Atlas Melvin the Monster (by Stan Lee and Joe Maneely) in some way, and there is more to the story than we presently know. Page 34: In the influx of new Timely/Atlas funny animal artists in 1944, “Harvey” Eisenberg appears with the others mentioned. Page 40: Daniel Keyes’ revelation that “Arthur Lane” didn’t exist is incredible news! I’ve indexed about 150 Goodman pulps, and Lane’s name is all over many of their contents pages. With so many of the pulp participants gone, without Keyes’ info Lane would have gone down in history as a real, albeit unknown, person. Great historical correction! Also, while Keyes mentions that he got into the comics side because the pulps were about to fold, in reality the sports and western pulps continued into the mid-1950s, and the westerns carried on until the Atlas implosion in early 1957. It’s also very important to hear that Dan Keyes had a much larger writing career on the comics side than was previously suspected. I only wish he still had the records so we could assign and credit the exact stories. Page 42: Keyes’ recollection that Stan Lee didn’t write much while he was there is both incorrect and correct at the same time. Stan, of course, wrote tons of scripts for Atlas, but his horror/fantasy stories were exclusive to 1952-53. He then wrote scores of teen books and western fillers right up through the Marvel Age (all bearing his signature). If Dan was scripting heavily for the horror/fantasy books before 1952, he wouldn’t have seen Stan’s work, as Stan had stopped in

Moving on: since we begrudge each and every page we can’t give over to articles and interviews, we probably haven’t printed enough letters in issues past. Here’s one from artist/writer Jerry Ordway concerning our talk with Jazzy Johnny Romita a few issues back: Roy, Great interview with John Romita [in V3#9]! I really learned a lot, and was especially touched by his candor in regard to his own work, such as the times when his confidence faltered, and he turned to Marvel in ’65 just wanting to ink, not pencil. I can certainly relate to that, as I’m sure many other cartoonists can. Anyhow, it was refreshing to read, and John sure came across like the nice guy I’ve always heard him to be. My own encounter with him was only through the mails, when I was working at an advertising art studio and was assigned the art on a series of Western Publishing coloring/activity books featuring Marvel characters. I penciled the covers for the series of four books, and Western sent them to Marvel for approval. John used tracing paper over them to correct and strengthen them, along with tons of notes on what I was doing wrong. After the initial disappointment of seeing my work corrected like that, I realized how good his points were, and that initial lesson on how to draw the Marvel way helped me do a better job on the interior art, as well. And it put me on notice that I didn’t know it all—a revelation, I’m sure, to any young artist starting out, used to praise from family and friends. Anyhow, just thought I’d share that with you. Great issue, as usual. Jerry Ordway Thanks, Jerry. Yeah, John’s one of the truly nice guys of our industry... which has its share of all kinds of people, depending on whom you ask. The following missive arrived some months back from Virginia

re: Provisiero, who was an editor of major Fawcett titles from 1943-1953, and who was profiled in A/E V3#3: Dear Roy: To answer your questions: Marc Swayze did some artwork for me on occasion. If my memory serves me right, it was “Captain Marvel Jr.” I was a full-fledged editor, not an aide for anyone. I did have to read all 32 magazines every month for any possible errors before Will Lieberson got them to check, since I had an “eagle eye.” I was editor of eight magazines—all of which had my name in them as editor. Elinore Mendelsohn was hired as a secretary when Edna Hagen, who was the secretary, took over the production work I was doing in addition to being editor of the eight magazines. Elinore didn’t last too long, and Will Lieberson hired Kay Woods. It was several years before Kay became an editor, but she was fired after a couple of years. I really don’t have too much else to say. I didn’t “hang out” with the boys. I was always busy. Many days I worked late, and many times I skipped lunch to meet a deadline, but that’s what editors do. When Fawcett sold the comics, they gave me a position on Woman’s Day; then they asked me to take a position as associate editor on True Confessions, which I did for ten years. They sold the magazines to McFadden, and I went with the magazines. I worked for McFadden for two years, then accepted a position as editor on several technical magazines for electrical and electronic engineers, and a medical electronic magazine for doctors. I was an editor for a total of 27 years. Then we moved to Florida, and after a few years I got into insurance and became a licensed agent until I retired. That’s it, Roy! I worked fifty years, and now my time belongs to me! Ginny Provisiero

27 his father’s career. As a Disney buff (I’ve been writing articles, essays, and books on the subject for over twenty years, and I regularly contribute to Disney’s Italian newsstand comics), I was surprised to read that Mac Raboy once worked for Disney. David does not give any details about Mac’s Disney tenure, but I can offer my guesses on it. Raboy obviously worked for Disney prior to his comic book work, so that should have happened in the late ’30s. It is unlikely that he worked in Hollywood or Burbank (the Studio moved to its current location in late 1939/early 1940), as Raboy was strictly an East Coast man. Thus, my guess is that he might have worked in New York City for Kay Kamen, Inc. Kamen was Disney’s merchandising agent, and in his Manhattan offices several artists produced art for merchandise, posters, and occasionally books. In 1949, when Kamen died prematurely, the outfit became Disney’s Character Merchandise Division. I suspect Raboy worked as an artist/designer on several characters in the Kamen offices. I have several photos of Kamen’s staff, but none of them portray Raboy. Yet, none of the photos is from the 1938-40 period. Perhaps Roger Hill might ask David Raboy about it. The name “Kay Kamen” might ring a bell. Anyway, it’s just a guess. Thank you for your continuing, excellent efforts in the comics field. Albert Becattini Italy Could be, Albert. Perhaps Roger Hill, the source of our interviews and information concerning Raboy, has a few additional thoughts on the subject? One comics group we haven’t given its due to date is Archie Publications—at least with regard to its original incarnation as MLJ, before a certain red-haired teenager hijacked the whole company. We hope to remedy that in the future. Meanwhile, from Fred Schneider, who went to work at Archie at almost exactly the same time as Ye Editor did for DC Comics, then Marvel, here’s an interesting communication, which winds up being about almost the last pro you’d associate with Archie Comics:

Soon after this letter was written, Ms. Provisiero dropped a line to Bill Everett was definitely one of the best. Here, courtesy of Doc Vassallo, TwoMorrows asking them to is his splash page from Sub-Mariner #30 (Feb. 1949), only two issues Dear Roy: temporarily stop sending magazines before the mag’s cancellation. [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.] to her, as she was going on an In the summer of 1965 I began extended trip abroad and didn’t work as an office boy for Archie Comics. They had just moved their want them to pile up. But as soon as she feels like settling down again, we editorial offices from the rough printing and shipping area of Church hope to ask her a few more questions about the glory days of Captain Avenue downtown, to the corner of First Avenue and 61st Street (the Marvel, et al. “Schnumacher Building”) because the president of Archie, Mr. John Next, a note from Albert Becattini, an Italian professional who has a piece of his own coming up one of these days in A/E, but who meanwhile offers this intriguing speculation about the career of the great “Captain Marvel Jr.”/Flash Gordon artist Mac Raboy: Dear Roy, In issue #7 of your fabulous magazine Alter Ego I was pleased to find an interview with David Raboy which certainly shed some light on

Goldwater, wanted to be able to walk to work from his apartment on Sutton Place. Louis Silberkleit and Maurice Coyne both lived in Manhattan and could walk to work, but instead were often driven in their matching Lincolns. The second generation, Mike Silberkleit, office manger, and Richard Goldwater, editor-in-chief, drove down in their matching Corvette convertibles from their suburban homes in Scarsdale. On the block on First Avenue was a new restaurant, Friday’s,

re:

whose motto was “T.G.I.F.—Thank God It’s Friday.” Years later, this restaurant would be almost as ubiquitous as McDonald’s. Also on the block was Rodney Dangerfield’s new club, where the TV comic hoped to imitate Toots Shor and make it as a restauranteur. In the office, artists would drop by to check their stuff with our in-house artist, Victor Gorelick, and Richard as editor. There was a man almost as young as I, named Neal Adams, but he just imitated the house style and was not considered great shakes by Vic or Dick. What interested me was the guy who drew “Steel Sterling,” “The Hangman,” The Mighty Crusaders, and other super-heroes recently revived from the Golden Age of MLJ—initials I knew stood for the names of the owners in reverse order of importance: Maurice, Louie, and John.

OOPS Dept. (our usual collection of corrections, concerning several back issues): Not too many—mainly ’cause so many were imbedded in the foregoing letters! Longtime comic book colorist Karl Gafford reminds us that, contrary to a missing digit in the late Rich Morrissey’s fine piece on legendary scripter John Broome, The Elongated Man did not debut one month before Fantastic Four #1, but eighteen months before, in The Flash #112 (April-May 1960). In addition, Ralph Dibny was not “a wealthy man” when he became E.M.; “he was living a threadbare existence” and went on to “well-paid celebrity status” only after he gained stretching powers.

Jim Amash e-mailed to say that 1940-50s Timely staffer Dave C.C. Beck, your challenge has been answered at last! But y’know—although Gantz, who was interviewed in Dilbert didn’t exist back when the co-creator of Captain Marvel wrote his piece A/E #13, wanted to add his own This guy was a little man in the 1980s, David Sell’s Shoe might also be a more realistic version of that corrections to the caricature IDs cubicled Everyman! [Art ©David Sell. Slightly different versions of Shoe, Snoopy, named Jerry Siegel. on page 17. “In the panel on the and Hagar are TM & ©2002 by their respective trademark & copyright holders.] lower right: Dave still insists that A few months before getting the fellow with the big nose is the summer job at Archie, with Vince Fago. I personally agree because they always made fun of Vince’s some of my friends from my home town, along with a slightly older kid nose size. The guy giving a hotfoot to George Klein is writer Jack from Queens named Marvin Wolfman, I had taken “The Tour” at Gorgan. The man at the easel is Dave himself. The bullpen used to tease Lexington Avenue of National Periodical Publications offices. There, Dave about his seriousness towards his fine art, which explains the ticartist Murphy Anderson had given all of us, along with other goodies tac-toe games on the canvas.” such as a “Supermen of America” button, a post-card-sized version of the framed Superman portrait that then graced the NPP waiting room. Mike Curtis of Shanda thanks us for the plug for his and wife Once I realized Siegel might turn up unannounced any day at Archie, I brought this treasure to work every day, hoping the original Superman artist would be in. Finally he was there and I got the nerve to present it to him and ask him to autograph it. To my dismay, he turned me down. He said Siegel and Shuster had a lawsuit going against NPP and they had been instructed by their lawyers not to autograph anything with Superman’s picture on it, for fear National would claim copyright infringement. So he autographed a “Steel Sterling” script to me. I never got over the experience. It had taken all my nerve to ask him, and even bringing my precious Superman postcard to the offices had been a risk. How disappointing!

Carole’s alternate-comics company’s funny animal mags, including the revived Atomic Mouse, but says that, alas, we goofed yet again when giving the abbreviation for the state in which they live. Like, it’s Arkansas, not Arizona. Third time lucky, we hope: The mailing address for their fine publications is Shanda Fantasy Arts, P.O. Box 545, Greenbrier, AR 72058; or you can e-mail them at <shandafa@cyberback.com>. We’ll keep trying till we get it right! Roy Thomas/Alter Ego Rt. 3, Box 468 St. Matthews, SC 29135 Fax: (803) 826-6501 New e-mail address: <roydann@ntinet.com>

Fred Schneider But thanks for adding this vignette of information to our knowledge, Fred. (Incidentally, Fred was later featured in a 1970s issue of Amazing World of DC Comics for being one of the first and best customizers of plastic models into a wide variety of superheroes.) Hi, Just got and am enjoying current ish of A/E... especially the Don Newton material. There was an invite on one page from C.C. Beck to submit “realistic” versions of Shoe, Hagar the Horrible, and Snoopy... so find attached my version. Hope you like. David Sell 1806A Walnut St. Berkeley, CA 94709 We like, David—and who knows, maybe C.C. Beck would have, too.

P.S.: Orders continue to trickle in, so we guess we’ll say it again: Ye Editor still has a few spare personal copies of the out-of-print Alter Ego, Vol. 3, #1, with contributions from Ordway, Hasen, Lee, Gilbert, FCA, and others, for $15 per copy, post-paid—autographed by request—plus copies of Comic Book Artist #2-5 (but no more spares of #1) for the same price per issue. He even has a few sets left of the 1986 Alter Ego color comic book by Ron Harris and himself— only $20 for all four issues, again postpaid, and autographed by request. Send checks and money orders to the address above. Sorry, but $5 extra for all foreign orders; that postal increase is killin’ us!

Robert Kanigher

Robert Kanigher (1915-2002) he had written two (maybe three) of the best issues of the Golden Age All-Star Comics, creating the concept of the Injustice Society, as well as writing vintage adventures of Green Lantern (Harlequin), The Flash (Rose & Thorn), Hawkman (all the Ghost stories), and others. Over the years, he either created or co-created (let’s not quibble) Black Canary, the cowboy Johnny Thunder, Viking Prince, Sgt. Rock, the Silver Age Flash, The Metal Men, and Enemy Ace. If he had co-created no comics series except the latter, he’d be worth remembering... but in truth the foregoing were only a small fraction of his prodigious output.

RK and daughter Jan in a Paris restaurant, some years back. Photo sent to the editor by RK.

by Roy Thomas As this issue was going to press, we learned of the passing of Robert Kanigher. While a mountain of words might be written about “RK,” as he often signed himself, these few will have to suffice for the moment. Bob Kanigher was one of the most gifted writers ever to work in the comic book field. He certainly thought so... and he was right. From the tale he often told of brazenly getting his first comic book assignment from publisher Victor Fox in 1940 by making up a story on the spot (one which began with a skeleton driving a red convertible in Times Square), through his colorful memoirs which have run in fits and spurts in his friend Robin Snyder’s The Comics! over the past decade-plus, Kanigher was a visual storyteller, which is just what comic books need in a writer... and an editor from 19451967 at DC Comics. Back in the early 1960s, when comics fandom was just getting organized, Kanigher tended to be excoriated as both writer and editor because of his work on Wonder Woman, which at that time had veered off on a truly juvenile slant... worse, an unsuccessful juvenile slant. (Remember the issue with Mouse Man and Fireworks Man? Remember Egg Fu?) But RK had written a lot of good stories about the Amazon princess, as well, beginning in 1945 or so. While we wouldn’t know it until years later,

Just about everybody who ever came into contact with him has his “Robert Kanigher story”—often, more than one. I myself vividly recall being accosted by him one July day in 1965, roughly three seconds after he was introduced to this neo-pro who was fresh from a small town in Missouri. He castigated me for being a member of comics fandom, because, he said, one of them had interviewed him and then written that he wore a bowtie. He loudly offered $50 or $100 (I forget which) to anyone in the DC production room who had ever seen him wear a bowtie. There were no takers—whether out of memory or fear, I’ve never been certain. Our contacts were few, so I well recall the last time RK and I spoke (as opposed to exchanging letters). One night at 11:30, two or three years ago, the phone rang. It was Kanigher. I told him I was in bed and had been half asleep. “That doesn’t matter,” he said curtly, and he proceeded to regale me for an hour and a half with anecdotes—a few of them related to comics, but most dealing with alleged World War II exploits, including some sort of secret mission through the jungles of South America in search of Nazis. For all I know, the stories may have been true. I wish I’d been nimble enough to tape the conversation. Personal reactions to Kanigher, as could be expected, varied even more widely than they do with regards to most people. Some have spoken of him not only as a true talent, but as a sterling fellow. One eminent artist who labored under him referred to him as “a nasty piece of work.” As I hinted in an editorial a couple of years back, the patron of an oral-history type of mag like Alter Ego should be St. Rashomon. Yeah, everybody has his/her own stories about Bob Kanigher. Maybe they’re all true; maybe none of them are. One thing’s for certain, though: Kanigher had even more of ’em.

Rather than reprint a panel from one of his stories, here’s a cartoon about RK by Dondi co-creator/Golden Age DC artist Irwin Hasen, which first appeared in Robin Snyder’s The Comics! Kanigher and Hasen did every single 1940s GL/Harlequin tale together. [©2002 Irwin Hasen.]

Stories, I mean. And, sadly, he took a lot more of them with him.

Tom Sutton

Tom Sutton (1937-2002) by Jim Amash Tom Sutton was a fun guy to talk to. I never got far into any conversation with him without laughter coming from both of us. He was a salty, witty, amusing, insightful, bright man who told great stories. I always thought he sounded like a high-pitched, ribald Hans Conreid, with a little pixie thrown in for extra character... as if he really needed any more character. For many years, a telephone friend of mine, the late, great Pat Boyette, kept after me to give Tom Sutton a call. I did, and Tom and I became good friends for the last five years of his too-short life. The three of us had a real camaraderie with many common interests: old-time radio, old movies and character actors, UFOs, and of course comics. Tom was the only man I knew, besides Alex Toth, who remembered supporting actors like Allan Jenkins, Ed Brophy, and Sterling Holloway, as well as he knew John Wayne, Bogart, and others of that stripe. Tom would put on a tape of an old Jack Benny radio show, listening for hours as he made comic book magic on bristol board. A few months ago, Tom and I were discussing the movie True Grit. A few days later, he called me to inform me it was on AMC (American Movie Classics)—again. I turned it on, and we spent the next ten minutes doing our own versions of the dialogue over the phone. We devolved into doing an X-rated edition, and he kept me in stitches. I sure wish I’d taped that phone call. Tom loved the comic book business, but he had no illusions about it. Sometimes a little bitterness would come through in the conversation, but his observations were more wry than sullen. He loved working with Stan Lee and enjoyed the Not Brand Echh stories he inked over Jack Kirby. He certainly enjoyed working for Jim Warren. Tom didn’t place

much importance on the original art. He gave much of his own away, and sold more for super-cheap prices: “I gave my son some once and let him color in the drawings.” He was able to adjust his style to suit any genre, because he understood the importance of good draftsmanship. I remember his comments about a well-known comics artist he was inking at DC. She drew a box in the street, and in the middle of the box she wrote, “Draw car.” Tom called his editor and asked, “Why are you hiring this person if she can’t draw a car?” I don’t recall what the answer was, but Tom accepted it for what it was and kept quiet. He knew the score and was a real professional. Tom knew how to draw and he did it well. He told a good story and his layouts at times were quite inventive. He could stretch, bend, and mold panels in interesting ways, but it never detracted from following the story. Tom knew that telling the story was the important thing: the bells and whistles were only window-dressing. His inks, whether over his own pencils or others’, were solid and effective. He balanced his pages well, spotting blacks for effect. Tom had a fair number of fans, but never became a “fan favorite.” During the last phase of his comics career he was drawing “X-rated” comics, and while he would have preferred working for the big companies, he didn’t put down that work. I think what kept Tom’s spirits going was his wry outlook on fate. “My lot in life has downdescended into the gutter, but at least I have company here,” he told me. He liked the Fantagraphics people and appreciated their thinking enough of him to give him a long interview in The Comics Journal. Tom dealt with life through humor. Everything had a funny, albeit sometimes cynical side. It was his way of dealing with serious subjects. He and I were both deeply saddened by the passing of Pat Boyette. I told him, “At least we still have each other to talk to.” Tom said, “Yeah, we fill the void Pat created as best we can.”

Tom, my friend, your passing creates a void, too... though I know you’d have made fun of it in order to make it easier for me. I’ll miss you.

Fawcett-To-Go

FawcettTo-Go Jennifer T. Go BECK & SCHAFFENBERGER: SONS OF THUNDER Work has begun on the follow-up to last year’s book, Fawcett Companion—The Best of FCA. Beck & Schaffenberger: SONS OF THUNDER by P.C. Hamerlinck and Mark Voger (to be published by TwoMorrows) is a split-biography book showcasing the lives and careers of two of comics’ all-time mightiest artists, C.C. Beck and Kurt Schaffenberger! Watch this space for further news and updates. David Siegel reports that legendary Golden Age comics writer, renowned novelist, and FCA/Alter Ego contributor BILL WOOLFOLK is scheduled to appear at the 2002 San Diego Comic Convention August 1-4.

From our friends at AC COMICS comes the resurrection of that famous Fawcett title, America’s Greatest Comics! Issue #3’s allFawcett line-up features SPY SMASHER, IBIS THE INVINCIBLE, MONTE HALE, NYOKA THE JUNGLE GIRL, BULLETMAN & BULLETGIRL, EL CARIM—MASTER OF MAGIC, and something really rare: LEE GRANGER, JUNGLE KING, the scientist/explorer who leads a Pygmy tribe with the aid of Eric, his talking tiger! (Shades of Mr. Tawny!) Issue #35 of AC’s Golden Age reprint anthology comic Men of Mystery contains a very early C.C. Beck-drawn Spy Smasher story reprinted from Whiz Comics! Give AC Comics your support! View the entire AC catalog for these and other great books at <www.accomics.com> or contact them at Box 521216, Longwood, FL 32752. FCA is always looking for rare Fawcett comicsrelated art, photos, and other materials, especially rare artwork and cover recreation paintings by C.C. Beck. We welcome your contributions and comments. E-mail us at <fca2001@yahoo.com> or write to us c/o TwoMorrows or Alter Ego.

Beck & Schaffenberger: Sons of Thunder—coming soon from TwoMorrows!

COMICS ON CD-ROMS, featuring complete issues of Fawcett’s Bulletman and Spy Smasher in their full original color, are available from Graffix Multimedia, P.O. Box 46454, Las Vegas, NV 89114 <www.comicsoncdrom.com>. Highly recommended, cost-effective Golden Age comic book reading... and coming soon: Captain Midnight CD-R! JACKSON BOSTWICK, TV’s Captain Marvel, has his website up and running <www.jacksonbostwick.com>. Check it out for news on his upcoming autobiography Myth, Magic, and a Mortal, current film projects, autographed items for sale, and more! FCA extends an apology to COMIC BOOK RESOURCES’ Jonah Weiland, Scott Shaw!, and Bill Morrison. The edited review of Marvel Family #79 by Morrison inadvertently and unintentionally appeared in Alter Ego #9/FCA #68 without first securing proper consent of the parties. We’re sorry for our reckless goof, and we encourage you to visit CBR’s outstanding web site <www.comicbookresources.com>.

IN MEMORIAM: CHAD GROTHKOPF, who passed away in January 2002. Chad’s long career included creating Hoppy the Marvel Bunny, Fawcett’s Funny Animals, and many other comics. A short tribute to him was printed last issue in Alter Ego, and more about him is planned in the future. WILLIAM WITNEY, who passed away in March 2002. Mr. Witney was an influential director of dozens of westerns and classic movie serials, including Republic’s The Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941).

Jeff Brenna created these superbly-crafted custom Marvel Family action figures. For more information, go to <http://jeffwildstar.freeservers.com>.

Marc Swayze

33 Back in 1940 I took a long low-budget trip to show the big city syndicates my first try at a comic strip. One of my stops was to be the NEA Service. I learned from the security officer at the Cleveland bus station that the syndicate was within walking distance, and, from a uniformed patrolman on the street, more specific directions. I soon learned that the part of the NEA building to which I had been directed was the part that those officers knew... the syndicate’s loading dock!

[FCA EDITORS NOTE: From 1941-53, Marcus D. Swayze was a top artist for Fawcett Comics. The very first Mary Marvel character sketches came from Marc’s drawing table, and he illustrated her earliest adventures, including the classic Mary Marvel origin story; but he was primarily hired to illustrate Captain Marvel stories and covers for Whiz Comics and Captain Marvel Adventures. He also wrote many Captain Marvel scripts, and continued to do so while in the military. After World War II, he made an arrangement with Fawcett to produce art and stories for them on a freelance basis out of his Louisiana home. There he created both art and story for The Phantom Eagle in Wow Comics, in addition to drawing the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip for Bell Syndicate (created by his long-time friend and mentor Russell Keaton). After the cancellation of Wow, Swayze produced artwork for Fawcett’s romance comics, and eventually ended his comics career with Charlton Publications. Marc’s ongoing professional memoirs have been FCA’s most popular feature since his first column appeared in FCA #54, 1996. For the last few issues, Marc has focused on his several attempts to sell a syndicated comic strip. This time he relates how his dream to get his own strip syndicated was finally realized... only to be confronted with a crossroads decision. Read on to see what he decided, then join us again next issue when Marc returns to his reminiscences about the halcyon days he spent with Fawcett Publications. —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

Without looking for the front of the building I caught the attention of one of the workers long enough to explain to him why I was there... and after his consultation with a couple of others, he waved to me to wait, and disappeared. When he returned he was with another individual who looked as much out of place in the warehouse area as I did. It was Earnest L. Lynn... and there at the busy loading dock of NEA Service, I presented Judi the Jungle Girl. To this day I haven’t forgotten the courtesy and encouragement shown me there... nor that accorded me by Ernest Lynn during the ensuing years of my quest for a career. Now here it was, fourteen or fifteen years later... right in my hands... the long-sought syndicate contract... with details just about like I had wanted them from the beginning. The Great Pierre, my own creation, writing, art, title, and characters, was to be released to the newspapers by the Bell Syndicate, with time allowed for further preparation. After about a year of modifications to the strip, all by the way of correspondence with Andre F. L’Eveque, suddenly he was gone. A brief message from Joseph B. Agnelli announced that “Frank” had resigned from the organization.

I may have lost ground with his departure... not just the confidence he had expressed in my ability, but his understanding of the feature. The Great Pierre, in the way I saw it, was of a new breed in newspaper continuity comics, where emotion took emphasis over high action. The story of Pierre LeGrand... nee Louis LeNoir... was not an account of his deeds alone, but of his thoughts, his feelings.

We Didn’t Know...

I am convinced L’Eveque saw that. I’m not sure anyone else did. Pierre had been put together by the thought process. If he was to say this or that, I was determined that to the best of my ability he was drawn to look like a person saying it... with appropriate expressions and gestures. There was no particular individual in mind, although much, much later I was to recall that frequently while drawing the character I kept seeing the face and spirit portrayed in the long career of film actor Gilbert Roland. To some extent it was the way it had been when I joined the Fawcett offices. No one had offered me a “character chart” on Captain Marvel. I don’t know that such a thing existed in 1941. It was necessary that I work things out for myself... and my first thoughts were to “improve” the art style... more realism... less comic cartoon... more light and shadow... depth... The theorizing was all wrong, of course, but no one, not even comics editor Ed Herron, not art director Al Allard... certainly not C.C. Beck... told me so. The simple style was the way the feature was winning readers. It was up to me to see it was the way to go.

MILLION FOR BROWN HOLDINGS IN LA.” “OMCC” meant the Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation, with the main offices near where we stood. Headquarters and major manufacturing operations of the Brown properties were located in our community back home. Interesting to us, but no more than that... at the moment. Then, after the Connecticut flood in the Derby region, and our retreat southward, it came up again. For generations the major product of the manufacturing facilities in our part of the state had been industrial packaging. The plan of the new owners, Olin Mathieson, was to expand to include retail packaging. Retail packaging... the consumer market... shopper appeal... sophisticated graphic design. When the suggestion was raised that I consider the responsibility of assembling an art department in support of the program, I had a decision to make. The preparations for release of The Great Pierre to the newspapers were moving along at

Thinking about it, there was considerable similarity between the personalities of Pierre and the Captain Marvel I had known. The swampland adventurer had no super-powers, and no red outfit with cape... but he was another big, easy-going guy out to do the right thing. I did a lot of preliminary sketching in those days. I was a member of the local school board, and on the backs of old statements I find Pierre sketches... expressions... panel arrangements. All this was done on the sly... and I hasten to explain that I was able to do it and stay abreast of the business at hand. With Agnelli taking up the correspondence at the New York end, the alterations of The Great Pierre mounted, extending well into another year... and throughout my months with Charlton Publications. Most were helpful, but not all... the suggestion to curb the Cajun dialect, for example. I may have come on a bit heavy with it in the beginning, but a certain charm or color seemed to have been lost with the editing. I consider The Great Pierre to be my wave of farewell to the long list... and long years... of syndicate tries. As things turned out, it was my swan song to the comics as well. June, my wife, and I were in New Haven shopping when a newspaper headline blared: “OMCC PAYS 90

Marc Swayze

35 Sweet... and sincere... but no help with the problem. I turned to the small voice. Since I was a young fellow, and especially during my career years, I had help in making decisions. A small voice would tell me to go this way or that... to sort of steer me when I needed guidance. It aided me so many times I almost came to expect it.

It wasn’t really a voice. It wasn’t audible at all. More like a spreading out before me of the particulars of a problem so the solution could clearly be seen... as though it were my own. Usually it came during the early wake-up hours, maybe still in bed, maybe with the first coffee... but always alone. Sometimes the answer came slowly... calmly... after a long wait.

Bell Syndicate... but very slowly. I took the OMCC assignment with the feeling that both sides looked upon it as a temporary arrangement. After some months, however... after I had begun to piece together what was to become an outstanding packaging art department... I found myself confronted with another decision. This packaging business was fun! For ten years I had worked alone... now I was working with people. Without realizing it, I had missed that. I was impressed with this company, their aggressive plans for expansion... their respect for creative packaging graphics. I was pleased with the position I would occupy in that program. And I’d be working with people! On the other hand, The Great Pierre was what I had wanted. But was the syndicate field what it had been when my quest began? Despite a few notable exceptions, there seemed to have been a drastic increase in the odds against long-term success. It had taken fifteen years to realize the contract I held with Bell. If Pierre should fail, what then? Fifteen more years? Come on! The withdrawal of Fawcett Publications from the comic book field changed that picture. I didn’t relish the idea of knocking on the doors of publishers who had never heard of me. Another career decision! I took it to June: “The time has come for a choice to be made... industry or comics.” Her response came after we had discussed both sides of the questions at length. It was what I was afraid it would be, “Your decision is my decision.”

Bell Syndicate’s 1950s release containing a brief bio of Marc Swayze, complete with the original corrections. [© 2002 the respective copyright holder.] Bell Syndicate’s promotional folder for Swayze’s strip The Great Pierre. [©2002 Marc Swayze.]

We Didn’t Know...

Marc Swayze

Sometimes, though, it came immediately... in a burst of excitement... like when I first laid eyes on June. The small voice was jumping up and down: “There she is! There she is! There she is!” Once in a while the voice was very firm. That’s the way it was this time, with the question of Industry vs. Comics: “It’s time to move on. Go with it!” The small voice again? Or was it the Big Voice? As might be expected, my decision didn’t rest well with Bell Syndicate. There were no temperamental outbursts, but when the conversation got around to the possibility of legal entanglements, I suggested a closer look at the contract. The terms were clear that the feature was to have been released to the newspapers months before my decision was made.

To the complaint that the Pierre promotional folder was at hand, they were reminded that it was to have been completed a year previously, according to the agreement.

Most of us who write about the old days of comic books are dead serious about accuracy, I think. It is quite likely that we are equally miserable at seeing a boo-boo turn up in our own material. Not to criticize anyone, but in the cause of accurate comic book history, I hope to discuss in forthcoming issues some of the goofs I find in the far-fromcomplete collection of interviews on my shelves. We’ll talk about who was there and who did what... and about the “Fawcett Fun Bunch of the ’40s.” Stay Aboard! —Marc Swayze.

Ross of Eternity

Ross Of Eternity An Interview with Shazam! Power of Hope Artist ALEX ROSS Conducted by Walt Grogan Most Photos Courtesy of Walt Grogan, Alex Ross, and Sam Abbinanti

because he really didn’t know Captain Marvel from a hole in the ground. He didn’t know the character the way that I knew him from the Shazam! TV show in the ’70s and so many of his adventures.

[Since bursting on the comic book scene with Marvels in 1994 and continuing on with Kingdom Come in 1996, Alex Ross has become a fan favorite for his ultra-realistic paintings of both DC and Marvel super-heroes. For the last four years, Ross has focused his energy on DC’s icons: Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, and Wonder Woman. Alex was kind enough to participate in a phone interview on March 18, 2000, to talk about Captain Marvel, as well as reveal a bit about his upcoming project for DC Comics —PCH.]

FCA: Was working with him different from working with some of the other models you used for the other DC hero treasury-size series?

FCA: What was it like to work with Sam [Abbinanti, Ross’ model for Captain Marvel]?

FCA: What was your first exposure to Captain Marvel?

ROSS: Sam was willing to put himself through anything, ultimately. He took it as seriously as I did, when it came down to doing the actual work. Although all the comic people that knew him teased him relentlessly about it, as if it were something almost to be ashamed of. Since Kingdom Come, he sustained for years a number of different barbs from different people we know who would joke and make fun of the whole Captain Marvel connection. And, with Sam’s personality being what it is, it only invited more and more of that because he’s such a great ball-buster himself. But when it came to putting on the costume—because he went through like at least three different costumes during the course of what we did between Kingdom Come and Shazam! Power of Hope—he took it as seriously as he needed to. There was never a begrudging sense to it. He may not have actually cared anything initially about the material,

ROSS: I wouldn’t say that much different. Everybody is pretty amenable to the needs of the photo shoot. In reality, these people are a lot more forgiving than I am. I hate having to do photo shoots. It’s not a pleasant thing. And they pretty much made themselves available at my beck and call when I usually waited until the last possible second before I let them know when I needed to see them. They made time for me.

ROSS: Well, it’s hard for me to be sure because I know that my first Captain Marvel comic book was, of course, the Shazam! comics of the ’70s. It was the issue with a great cover by Ernie Chua where, I believe, Captain Marvel’s leg was caught in a huge mousetrap and three different mouse-creatures wearing capes or something are approaching him [Shazam! #21]. A wonderful piece of art. I can’t remember whether or not I had that comic before or after the TV show was already on the air. I would err on the side of thinking that my first exposure would clearly have to be the television icon, but very quickly I was seeing the comics. I mean, I first started seeing comic books when I was about three or four years old. And then around that 1975 or 1976 period would be when I started getting them more regularly and being exposed to more and more things.

Alex Ross

ROSS: Well, I guess it covers a lot of different lines. What I mean is, I try to describe it in ways that just don’t only relate purely to nostalgia. But, first, and to my young artistic mind, I loved the composition of the costume. I thought it was an excellent design. In fact, I liked it much more than Superman’s because blue and red are not necessarily complementary colors. They are almost opposites on the color spectrum— whereas red and yellow or red and gold go together so much better. The symbol was something much more graphic as opposed to a letter form. It was something that was understandable in any language—the lightning bolt. He has the cool gauntlets and the buccaneer-style boots that I always liked. I was always fascinated with the graphic design of his cape; that it wasn’t a normal cape in the way that we understand superhero costumes. It was almost like an ornamental piece. Much like something for ceremonial use and slung over one shoulder and not being long enough to serve much of a purpose. Again, graphically, I found that really fascinating. Jackson Bostwick flying high as Captain Marvel in the 1970s Shazam! CBS-TV series. [Photo courtesy of P.C. Hamerlinck.]

So my knowledge grew in that time period. So, yeah, the idea of the television actors portraying Captain Marvel and Billy Batson was probably that first exposure, but I immediately understood the difference in the comics. And as much as I loved that television show, I was asking questions like, “Well, why isn’t it like the comic? Why doesn’t the kid playing Billy Batson actually look like the kid and look like the same person as Captain Marvel, only younger?” For me, I identified that as an important facet of the character. FCA: So that leads into the appeal of Captain Marvel. What is that appeal for you?

And then, I think the face really got me. Because he had this very puckish expression—the eyes were always in a squint—the eyebrows were very angled, arched... it would have seemed that he was angry if it wasn’t for the fact that he was constantly smiling. And, of course, the very look of his hair was almost like Count Dracula. So there was something really kind of puckish or more mysterious about the look of this guy. I was really drawn to his face and the overall package graphically of everything there. And then, to get into things about the character, of course, there are so many interesting things in the world of Captain Marvel. The fact that Captain Marvel, at least by the time I was a kid, was still the chief archetypical character of someone being able to just sort of snap their fingers

Kingdom Come “Marvel Family” [and friends] tight-pencil character study sheets by Alex Ross, 1997, for DC Comics/Graphitti Designs. This chief Marvel Family piece includes the unused and unseen daughter of King Marvel/Captain Marvel Jr. and Lady Marvel/Mary Marvel in Kingdom Come. Courtesy of Keif Fromm. [Marvel Family, Spy Smasher, Bulletman, & Bulletgirl TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

Ross of Eternity

and become a super-hero. He was the first concept in super-hero comics to really employ that, and he’s been ripped off a million times since. When I was first introduced to Captain Marvel as a young kid, I understood he was the archetype for that kind of concept... and I just got so much enjoyment watching the Shazam! TV show. To this day, I get goose-bumps if I watch one of the old episodes, especially at that point where the music swells to the degree that the drama is so great that, finally, Billy Batson has to go off alone and look up to the sky and yell out this reverberating “Shazam!” And at that point the mixing they would do on the sound effect and lightning was just so powerful, and the music swell coming thereafter was just the most exciting thing in the world to me as a kid. Equally as exciting as any other super-hero influence that I’ve ever been exposed to. FCA: You obviously have a great love of the character, and Captain Marvel fans are certainly taken by your work. Has there ever been any negativity from Captain Marvel fans regarding your interpretation of the character? ROSS: Never... at least none to my knowledge. Generally, it was weird because, just as we were doing Kingdom Come, The Power of Shazam! series had been launched by Jerry Ordway... and as far as I could tell, it never really quite took off the way it was hoped to have. Ordway really wasn’t doing anything different graphically from what I was doing. But we made a very clear statement about the character, whereas Ordway didn’t specify it so obviously. With Kingdom Come we went out of our way to say, “Look, Billy Batson and Captain Marvel are physically the same person in two different times of life.” Ordway didn’t crystallize that point. He really didn’t address it. In fact, he brought in the whole issue about the father being the mysterious figure who would lead him down into the wizard’s home, and I think that sort of side-stepped having his father look like Captain Marvel and side-stepped the issue of the whole boy-to-man thing that was inherent in Captain Marvel. So, at the most, I think we got people charged up about it. I don’t know of any negative reaction. Shazam! Power of Hope is so pure in its approach to the way the character’s always been, that we didn’t go with any single detail that’s been added in the last 15-20 years. Everything was as classic as it was from the 1940s.

FCA: The reason that I ask that question is because Captain Marvel fans are so fanatical. They like to pick apart every portrayal. ROSS: What I had hoped for was that the year that Power of Hope came out, FCA would have written more about it... that they would have showed more interest at the time we had those books to sell. It’s not like I had P.C. Hamerlinck bothering me at that time. And it’s not like I had anybody else from any of the trade magazines there really pestering me for information or whatever. You’d think there’s got to be a lot more bickering over what Ordway did in the long run, because he covered so many things about the character and he began to redefine things. Intrinsically, what I was going to bring to it was nothing more than sort of a purification of the icon... like, OK, let’s dust off all the extra barnacles and bull**** that has been laid on top of it. And I always thought that everybody understood the approach that I was giving to all these icons in these over-sized books would be what they could expect from it. With Superman they didn’t get anything

further delving into the minutia of details surrounding his personal life, his soap opera existence. And the same with Batman. Batman was the extremely pure essence of what he was all about. In fact, we gave more to the personal life aspects of Billy Batson by showing him at his day job, showing his relationship with another fantastic character, the wizard. We went more into the area of the soap-opera fantasy and the miracles that are inherent in super-hero comics. But we still held off putting in the full Marvel Family because, at the core of it, Captain Marvel is a character who existed without them and doesn’t need them as a survival device. FCA: Well, it’s good to hear that it was well accepted; Shazam! fans are crazy! ROSS: Well that’s the thing, Shazam! fans are crazy... but they seem to be crazy about the old s***. So I’m not really getting much of an impression from things like FCA, who aren’t paying enough attention to wherever the character has been featured anytime recently. The thing is that you’ve got to really support Captain Marvel in how he’s being

Alex Ross utilized today. You’ve got to, at least, give reaction to it, give some exposure to it because, without support, Captain Marvel could dry up and blow away. DC doesn’t give a damn. He’s not one of their key icons as far as they’re concerned. By only focusing on the things that happened either fifty years ago or what happened just up until Don Newton died, it just sorta misses a lot. Hamerlinck should address where Captain Marvel has shown up in the last twenty years, how has he been used, and what kind of things could be happening with the character. I would love to see sort-of an exaggerated approach to what if Captain Marvel had existed throughout the ’60s—what would have become of him? If he had grown as a character throughout the ’60s, much in the same way as DC and Marvel’s characters had to kind-of grow up a bit more. Had Captain Marvel gone through that distorting mirror, what kind of maturation would have occurred, if any? We’ve seen a lot of attempts made through either Ordway’s series or by Roy Thomas, and all of it seems to be kind-of unsure of how to handle it. Nobody’s quite aware of where they ought to take this whole thing. FCA: Was DC reticent about using Captain Marvel as one of the icons in the series? Did you have to push for him? ROSS: They really didn’t give me any fight about it. Certainly, the Captain Marvel book didn’t sell as well as the others did. But we expected to take a bit of a step down from the Superman and Batman numbers. It was just one of those things that you’ve got to expect, despite his presence in Kingdom Come and my hopes that he was going to be a become a more visible icon for DC, because to most people growing up in the last twenty years he hasn’t had much of a presence. For somebody like myself, it hit me at just the right point as a young boy watching the Shazam! TV series in the ’70s and the way that DC had made such a strong attempt to bring this character up in their pantheon of heroes—to make him one of their lead guys.

kid comic book that we really didn’t have at that point. There wasn’t a Captain Marvel-type super-hero book in the mid-’70s with the exception of something of like Spidey Super Stories. So they thought, let’s recast the entire way the Golden Age guys had done it, the way that Beck did it. I mean, they got Beck to do the first issue or so. FCA: Beck did the first ten issues. ROSS: He did the first ten? Okay, well, then, right there, he just went back to the drawing board and started from what was originally working, and it didn’t consider all the time that had taken place. By the time DC had actually stuck Don Newton on it, they had already canceled the comic book and “Shazam!” became just a backup feature. Captain Marvel’s backup features in World’s Finest Comics—had they been in their own comic book, and had that been the way they had launched the character... and imagine if they had created storylines that were more of serialized story arcs that had a greater importance to them... it might have changed the entire way that people now look at this icon. But because he was only a backup in a book that generally most people didn’t read, he was relegated to a lesser appreciation. By the time the ’80s were in full swing, he had some great work being done by Don Newton, but who cared? When did Newton die? FCA: He was off the “Shazam!” strip by the time he died. His final work was on Infinity, Inc. ROSS: By the time Newton was done, the character had gone back into the dust bin for a while. FCA: I’ve only heard bits and pieces of the story behind DC’s use of Captain Marvel... that DC had licensed him from Fawcett and had to use him a certain amount and that there were licensing fees involved. ROSS: I can give you insight on this... the idea that DC literally starved the character to the point of uselessness, so that they could prove to Fawcett that he was a completely worthless character in terms of merchandising, so that Fawcett would sell them the character for next to nothing and that DC would have full ownership. I had met DC’s Neal Pozner, who is now deceased, and Bob Wayne, a DC vice-president, in 1992 at a gallery exhibition where they first saw my work, and at some point we had a conversation about Captain Marvel and my interest in the character, and one of them said that they just acquired full rights to him for pretty much a song. The impression I got is that, man, it sounds great and it also sounds kind of sad. Because, wait a minute, isn’t there something to this character—but then, you guys really haven’t done anything good

You know, if you think of the icons that DC had in the ’70s, Captain Marvel was in almost all of the merchandising. He was a key figure in the sticker books, the t-shirts, the calendars. If you saw any illustrations that were done by Neal Adams of the group of DC’s main heroes, Captain Marvel was always prominently featured. I always thought of that as a real peak point of interest on the character, that he was just as highly placed as “the big three,” if not a part of the whole DC pantheon. I would never forget that, but it would seem that, eventually, DC would. To some degree, it was like they really had a false start. This is where you’re damned if you do or you’re damned if you don’t. They thought, let’s just do it the way it worked the first time, but do it like the kind of

Ross of Eternity

Alter Ego V3#3 (Winter 2000) was pleased to sport both a color Captain Marvel cover by Alex Ross, and an article/interview concerning his original early-’90s plans for a Shazam! project, which would have included a re-design of Mary, Cap Jr., and various subsidiary characters. Most of the pencil images Alex sent us were utilized in that issue of A/E, but we’ve been saving the ones on this double-page spread for a second Ross piece. Enjoy! [All art courtesy of & ©2002 Alex Ross; Marvel Family TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

Captain Marvel with that famous Fred MacMurray face!

A trio of approaches to Mary Marvel. One figure is missing part of the right side, but that’s all we had, honest! Some of Alex’s studies were based in part on supermodel Kathy Ireland, as he mentioned thirteen issues ago.

Captain Marvel Jr. (his face based in some drawings on Michael Gray, who had played Billy Batson on the ’70s TV show) had an ancient Egyptian look, including mummy-wrappings, in some of the drawings used in A/E V3#1. Here are a couple of more standard shots. At least, we assume that’s Junior’s head—but who’s the guy in black whose figure protrudes behind/ above it? A proto-Black Adam, maybe?

character for next to nothing. There was some intent on DC to get the character, but the thing is that DC will many times acquire licenses and do only a half-hearted job on making them come to life. Like the last thing in the world DC should ever have is a license from any company they don’t own, because they’re not going to really nurture the project. with him. I mean, look at all the work that happened in the late ’80s. There are a lot of ways that stuff didn’t really get off on the right foot. I could critique the different artists who did work on the character in the late ’80s and everything just seemed like a false start. FCA: So is that off-the-record? ROSS: No, no—it doesn’t have to be. What I said about the quote from Neal Pozner and Bob Wayne is relatively inconsequential, because all they had said was that we got the rights to the character for next to nothing. The paranoid part of it is unproven. That’s just what I’ve heard—that, basically, by misusing the character for so long, they got the

FCA: With the exception of Power of Shazam!, Kingdom Come, and of course, Shazam! Power of Hope, DC really hasn’t done a lot with the character. ROSS: Well, essentially, there’s only going to be fans like myself and other writers and artists who want to make something happen with it, that are really going to bring it to bear, because the audience has not really ganged up out there demanding more Captain Marvel material. There aren’t enough fans. Look at the fan marketplace that you’re dealing with in FCA. They’re not petitioning DC; they are more or less, “Hey, I just want my back issues of fifty-year-old comics.” They’re not

Alex Ross

43 and when I first heard from Hamerlinck and other fans of the character and figured like, well, there’s certainly a good audience existing out there to justify a new Shazam! graphic novel. FCA: You’ve mentioned your fondness for the Shazam! TV series from the ’70s. Which of the two actors who portrayed Captain Marvel was your favorite? ROSS: [laughs] I feel it’s a sad thing whenever I have to read about how much those actors Michael Gray [who played Billy Batson] and Les Tremayne [Mentor] really liked the second guy who played Captain Marvel [John Davey] more because he was so much fun to hang out with. I mean, there was pure magic that happened when Jackson Bostwick was in the role. And I could care less whether or not he was a troublesome actor or if he wasn’t much fun on the set or whatever. This guy truly brought that character to life. I thought he was absolutely amazing. Even as a kid, I thought this guy had the right look. I mean he didn’t have the right hair, but he had the right look. You know his face really was that Captain Marvel face. It was a bummer for me as a kid not knowing the reasons why they suddenly had a different guy, a guy who looked more like William Shatner, in the role.

A revamped Bulletman was also part of that early-’90s concept, and Alex experimented with various alterations of his trademark headgear. One pair of designs, with accompanying personal note, was drawn on the back of an envelope. Shades of Abe Lincoln! [Art ©2002 Alex Ross; Bulletman TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

FCA: Now don’t dis William Shatner! really trying to participate with anything new or that might be done with him. I mean, everything about the Shazam! book I did should have been tailor-made for the kind of fan base that Hamerlinck’s a part of. Well, I barely saw a mention of information about Power of Hope in the pages of FCA. A fat lot of good FCA did me. They could have really helped a new Captain Marvel product along by giving it more press and trying to point their collectors at it. Who knows, maybe all their collectors would have been buying it anyway. I definitely didn’t get a sense of any kind of awareness or support from FCA. I know that there were blurbs written like, “Oh, it’s coming.” But come on—we had a new Captain Marvel product and we did absolutely nothing to mess with the legend.

ROSS: [laughs] Well, I’m not dissing William Shatner, but William Shatner ain’t Captain Marvel! Captain Marvel is one of those physical roles. I hate to say it, but when you’re going to cast somebody as Superman, you damn well better get somebody who looks like Superman, not some Asian guy. It showed some insight on Filmation, the studio that produced the Shazam! TV series, that they got Bostwick for the role in the first place. It was a really rotten situation when he was no longer on Shazam! because that show really benefited from his presence.

You know, I can understand if they’re saying Ordway’s version is taking it in a direction that they don’t like. Fine. That’s what Ordway did. All I know is that all these Captain Marvel fans really crawled up my behind after Kingdom Come because they were so pleased with scenes of Captain Marvel turning out to be such a big part of the story, plus all the little tidbits that I threw in.

FCA: I hear that you’re doing a JLA book for DC. Is that on? ROSS: I got confirmation from a VP at DC last week who called to tell me that everything should be a go. FCA: It’s a JLA book. We shouldn’t expect to see Captain Marvel in there?

FCA: Those tidbits were great. Captain Marvel fans were looking for those. The scene with the Fawcett characters and the new take on the Fawcett characters were very enjoyable. ROSS: That’s when I first found out about the people who follow this stuff “Shazam!” It’s one of the last plates commissioned from the Warner Bros. stores. [©2002 DC Comics.]

ROSS: Well, you may, because our plan is that we are going to focus on the key seven original members of the Justice League. The big vanity of the story is that it’s going to be the version that I grew up with as opposed to the version that they are currently selling. So you’ll get Hal Jordan and Barry Allen, and it’s obviously in a new form of continuity that is all Alex Ross’ because Wonder Woman in current DC continuity can’t have co-existed with a Barry Allen in the Justice League. Since Crisis, they wrecked it so badly, they redefined the entire Justice League history

Ross of Eternity

with Black Canary instead of Wonder Woman. Back when I still talked to him, Mark Waid had done Justice League: Year One and he had asked me if I would do the covers for it and I told him specifically because of that reason, I will not be involved in rewriting history. I think that’s absolute bull****. That history should exist as it actually was, not as continuity rewritten. It’s not like I’m against adding something more to history. It’s more of a matter of telling someone, “Remember that comic book that you read? Well, it never really happened. This person wasn’t there, another person was. Instead of Batgirl, now it’s Flamebird.” What the f*** is that? I can’t stand that kind of business. A big part of it for me is that DC’s history is compromised in total because Superman is not the first super-hero in that mythical world. To take the DC Universe history as it is, you’ve got fifty years of history, practically, of super-heroes before Clark Kent suddenly decides to be Superman. By that point, isn’t it a little underwhelming that this one guy is somehow so different from everything that has gone before? No matter what happens in Marvel continuity, at least they are kind of secure in the fact that Captain America and his cohorts from the ’40s still have their positions fixed and nothing can screw that up, not that anyone cares about that stuff in

there. Those things sat in a lot of cases. You’re dealing with a mass market there when we’re talking about those collector plates. It was sort of like a learning curve. The collector base understood Superman and Batman, but they didn’t know the others. Even the Legion of SuperHeroes was one of my lesser-selling lithographs. For me, personally, it was my absolute favorite. It was the greatest achievement that I had done while I was working for them. But, for most people, because they didn’t know those characters, they didn’t understand the context or why they should care. FCA: Back to the JLA book, is the format going to be the same as the other books? ROSS: Yes, the treasury-size format is going to be the same, but it’ll be longer in length, like a 90-page story. The justification of why Captain

Even good friends have disagreements once in a while. A series of sketches of Superman vs. Captain Marvel (or is it the other way around) in the manner of recent TV animation. [Art ©2002 Alex Ross and/or DC Comics; Superman & Captain Marvel TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

the way that I do. I enjoy the fact that The Human Torch, The SubMariner, and Captain America are the key first heroes, back in the ’40s. And nothing can be updated; it’s all, like, fixed. They are not going to change it to the Viet Nam War or anything else. It is that war, it is that time period, and they are the first heroes. But with DC, it’s all in turmoil because of that. And for a period of time, they weren’t sure whether or not to make Plastic Man a modern age character or a Golden Age character. FCA: It’s apparent you like Plastic Man, as well. How did your Plastic Man collector plate for Warner Bros. Stores work out? ROSS: I have no idea. It’s not like they told me if it sold out entirely. I don’t think that it did. I can tell you that when it comes to collector plates, the stuff that was really gangbusters were the things like the Justice League images. But when I introduced them to characters that were far less familiar—even the Teen Titans—they did not fly out of

Marvel could be in there is that at some point in the story we could introduce that the Justice League, those initial seven guys, could use more help and they call on the reserves. So we are going to do our best within the story to explain to the audience, who’s never been reading comics, just who these key seven guys are... with the exception of the fact that we kind-of have to assume that you’ve gotten or seen the previous graphic novels. You more or less know the history of Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman. But even so, the characters that we are going to focus on the most are the ones that never had graphic novels before. So we’re going to provide the origins of Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman; and Martian Manhunter will be the key narrator. But we’ll eventually get everybody up to speed with the group as a unit. So, by the time we introduce later characters, it’s just with the understanding that we’re not going to give you the origins here, but suffice it to say there are other super-heroes existing in the world of these guys here, and if you can take

Alex Ross

45 FCA: So are we going to see more Captain Marvel from you beyond the JLA book? ROSS: What I would like to see is the reemergence of the ability I had to do lithographs and poster prints of DC characters again... where I could do the ultimate Marvel Family portrait and, who knows, maybe something I could do with characters and all their classic villains, which I’ve never fully illustrated. I don’t think I’ve ever done a real painting of Black Adam before... well, his head was in the Crisis piece, if that counts.

(Left:) The Ross animated take on the classic Captain Marvel pose—and (right) the oft-seen Marvel Family animated piece, this time including the villains. [Art © 2002 Alex Ross; Marvel Family TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

that leap of faith with us, there are other people they can call in to help out when times are bad. That’s the context that could supply a cameo for Captain Marvel. FCA: You’re doing this with Paul Dini again?

FCA: So this is going to take you a while? ROSS: Yes. Once I’ve started it, I’m going to try to take my time with it to make sure that it is the best one I can possibly do because this is kindof like, not just a dream-come-true type of assignment... I want it to be the greatest thing I could possibly make. This is as close as fans are going to get from me to the kind of character composition of Kingdom Come, where you have so many key guys that are in one big storyline together. And for me, I would think that this would be more worthwhile to people than Kingdom Come, because they’re not being reinterpreted by me. They are being shown for what they classically were. Ultimately, Kingdom Come is all fine and dandy, but is it the redesigns that people like, or the fact that they are old, or because it was a shot in the ass to the way that DC characters had fallen so far off course? To see them in this fashion would be more of a throwback than what they were currently getting in the comics.

ROSS: I guess it was more or less dismissed, because they allegedly had some kind of deal in place. There was only one meeting that took place between Paul Dini and his masters a couple of years ago, and they had this one drawing by me of the Shazam Family in a composition treated somewhat like Bruce Timm meets the PowerPuff Girls. P.C. Hamerlinck re-drew and colored it for the back cover of the Fawcett Companion. It was something that was done for that reason, but we had no reason to really believe that I could sell that. I thought it was a long shot to sell it again as another cartoon series. As it turned out, the Justice League animated show that’s on now, they apparently got carté blanche to use all the DC characters. So they are going to be able to do a Shazam! show. In fact, I could say that, as of recently, Bruce Timm has asked Paul Dini to write the Shazam! show. I don’t know if he’ll do it, but it’s something they definitely have the opportunity to do.

ROSS: There’s so many other ideas I’ve had connected to the Marvel Family franchise that, if I had taken it to the full level of following it through, mine would have been as guilty of redirecting the stuff as much as Ordway’s... or even worse.

FCA: You do a lot of promotion pieces, particularly for your Wonder Woman book and a poster for the Academy Awards.

ROSS: Yes.

FCA: The proposed Shazam! animated series: whatever happened with that?

FCA: Well, you did do the updated version of Black Adam in Kingdom Come.

ROSS: As much as it seems like I’m everywhere, the biggest part of the reason why I’m everywhere is because I’m desperately looking for whatever I’m working on to sell... and I need to make money! I need to make sure my business survives. If I could have my druthers, it would just be selling itself like in the heyday of when people were making a ****load of money off comics. I wouldn’t have to do all this promotion. I wouldn’t have to have a publicist. But my work sells as poorly as anybody else’s. I’ve got to make sure that I have a future. FCA: I never expected to hear that. ROSS: Yeah, I have as much to worry about as anybody else. You know, the Wonder Woman book didn’t sell much better than the “Captain Marvel” one, and it starts to go down in price so much that there’s almost no royalties attached to it. I gave away all the money to charity from the original artwork sales to hopefully drum up more awareness and interest in the books and to get more people to buy them. Well, that doesn’t work, either. You know, Wizard magazine couldn’t even give me a blurb about the fact that my auction was going on this month. When Wizard needs something, they come to me immediately... and I’ve come through for them time and time again. But they have not come through for me. FCA: I was surprised that I didn’t see more about your recent auction on the news websites as well. ROSS: Nobody wants to drum up any of that. People are generally unhelpful.

The Power of Sam!

The Power Of An Interview with Shazam! Power of Hope’s Captain Marvel, SAM ABBINANTI Conducted by Walt Grogan Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck Photos Supplied by Walt Grorgan, Alex Ross, & Sam Abbinanti [Sal Abbinanti is Alex Ross’ art agent and friend, as well as being Ross’ model for Captain Marvel. “Sam” is an Italian nickname that Sal goes by. Sam’s likeness has been used for the Kingdom Come mini-series, the Shazam! Power of Hope tabloid, a Kingdom Come Captain Marvel statue sculpted by Ross, as well as posters and a Shazam! plate released through the now defunct Warner Bros. stores. This interview was conducted in mid-summer of 2001 over coffee at the famous Lou Mitchell’s restaurant in Chicago. Sam is a jovial, gregarious fellow who isn’t afraid of stepping on toes and speaking his mind. He can be reached through Alex Ross’ website: AlexRossArt <www.alexrossart.com> or through ComicBookPros <www.comicbookpros.com>, where he also represents several other leading artists.] FCA: How did you and Alex Ross meet? SAM: We met at a Chicago comic book store. We started talking and found out we knew some of the same people at Leo Burnett—he worked at Leo Burnett as a storyboard artist and I worked at a studio owned by Leo Burnett, so we knew a lot of the same people. So we started talking... this was before he was ALEX ROSS. FCA: You’re an artist, too. SAM: I was... I mean I still am, but I haven’t had the time. Before I became Alex’s art agent, I pounded the pavement for ten years trying to get into the business. I picked up some freelance gigs here and there, but nothing to scream about. My art style was just too gritty, and editors used to call it “too disturbing.” FCA: Do you represent any other artists? SAM: I handle Angel Medina, Ron Garney... and I just recently started taking on some of Jill Thompson’s stuff. FCA: How did Alex pick you as his model for Captain Marvel?

SAM: Marvels came out, it went through the roof, and then he started working on Kingdom Come. We were at a bar, and he was starting to sketch out Kingdom Come. We were laughing and joking around and he said, “You’d make a good Captain Marvel.” I had remembered Captain

Marvel from Saturday morning TV with Isis. I thought he was kidding, and then a couple of days later he called me and asked me about it again, and I said, “Yeah, let’s see what happens.” Then one day he handed me the costume and I told him there was no way I could fit my fat ass in that costume. But I wore the top—that’s all that would fit! FCA: How does Alex approach his art? His critics claim he paints from photographs. SAM: Alex starts with thumbnails. Amazingly tight. I mean the thumbnails are almost miniature pages. They’re not just sorta-kinda indications of where things are going to go. He gets it down to where everything is exactly going to be, and the facial expressions are exact and they’re so tiny... I don’t know how the heck he gets them that small. His philosophy is that he works out all the problems Sam Abbinanti has been Alex Ross’ model for on the thumbnails so that Captain Marvel ever since DC’s Kingdom Come series. [©2002 DC Comics.] when he is painting all the problem-solving is out of the way. He doesn’t have to figure out what’s not working or what he has to fix. It’s amazing to see, ’cause some guys just make the miniversions and then they just blow them up. They light-box ’em. Alex doesn’t do that; he does the pencils, then he does a black-&-white version; then he adds the color. On some of ’em, if you see the black-&white version, it’s almost a crime that he goes ahead and colors them. Because the black-&-white versions are so cool-looking... there’s a ’60s black-&-white television show kind of look to it. He also does a lot of the big shots, which are the ones that are seen first. We call them the hero shots, so they can be used in promotional and solicitation material. He does those before he gets into the guts of the book. He’ll do pages out of sequence. The harder ones he’ll hand in later, so that gives him more time to finish them—pages like the big crowd shots. FCA: So he does tight thumbnail sketches. Does he then take the photos and then do the paintings? SAM: With Shazam! Power of Hope he came to me with thumbnails. Super-hyper, hyper-tight thumbnails. They’re an inch by an inch. He shows them to me and he says, “I need you to do this, I need you to do that.” He shows them to me and there might be some action pages where he’s not sure—like the pages with the alligators or the page where he’s pulling the rods out of the nuclear reactor—he’s wasn’t sure— sometimes he’s not sure—and asks me for suggestions, like if I can think of another action or maybe another pose, and then we’ll think about it. FCA: It sounds very collaborative. SAM: Sometimes. Most of the time he knows exactly what he wants.

Sam Abbinanti Ninety-nine out of a hundred he knows exactly what he wants. And we can get into arguments about it; he’ll think I’m not doing this right or I’m not doing that right. For example, the first page in Power of Hope—the origin sequence when Billy is yelling “Shazam!” and turning into Captain Marvel... we shot that in front of his house with end-ofthe-day sun. So he literally had me looking right into the sun and saying “Shazam!” Then, after five times, he says “Don’t squint” and “Don’t blink.” You try looking at the sun and keeping your eyes completely open! For other shots, he uses these photography lights—they’re more like those things that keep the fries warm at McDonald’s than photography lights. I’ve burned my ass on those things I don’t know how many times! These things get like 500 degrees because... I don’t know what he uses... cheap bulbs or something. And then we just go page by page. I was done in half an hour for Kingdom Come. Power of Hope was maybe four different sessions of two and a half hours each. He has to take some shots in pieces. With the flying shots, he has me lie down on a weight bench and I’ll put my arms out, but I can’t put my

how shadowing is, but it’s so unpredictable. If you take a photo it saves him a lot of time when he gets to the painting. Sometimes my reaction is, why don’t you just make it up? But this guy is amazing... that’s why I’m giving the interview and he is at home painting. FCA: So were you in full costume for the photo sessions? SAM: I was fitted for a costume that he had made. Now that he’s getting further along, he’s having costumes made. With Kingdom Come we faked it. We faked a top and we faked a cape and I wore army boots. But with Power of Hope he’s got this gal—she’s a seamstress. So she made the costume and he didn’t like the way it looked or fit or the seams were showing or something—he had some problems with it. So finally he had another one made—so we had to use pieces from three different costumes to make the final one. The seamstress made three different sashes and two or three different capes. He liked different elements of different costumes. She made a sash out of spandex and he didn’t like the way that looked, and then with one costume he liked the metallic look of the bolt—the other one she made had just a plain yellow bolt and he

Progress(ion) in the arts! Alex Ross’ thumbnail of Billy changing into Captain Marvel for the origin sequence of Shazam! Power of Hope—next, a tighter version of same—then the photo of Sam as Cap in front of one of Alex’s infamous “fry” lamps—and finally the finished, painted art. [Art ©2002 DC Comics.]

legs and my arms out at the same time. Then I’ll do one where I hold on and I’ll put my legs out. Then what he does is, he just connects them, so the ones where I’m flying—I’m usually just standing on my tip-toes, pointing to the ceiling. This guy is so meticulous that he even takes five different variations of the hand. You know, “Would you fly with your thumb out or would you fly with your thumb in?” Finally he let me decide, and I said, “Hey, I would fly with my thumb in,” because it’s more aerodynamic. You’d pull your thumb off. And he says, “I dunno,” and then finally we agree. Man, he takes pictures of every imaginable detail. I slicked my hair a little more because that’s what he wanted. FCA: Does he take photos for the lighting? SAM: A lot of it is the lighting. A lot of it is that he wants to get the folds in the materials. He likes to get the textures of how certain fabrics would look. We don’t do a lot with Captain Marvel’s cape, like blowing it with fans or anything. He just makes that up. For the most part everything is done in the thumbnails. The pictures are done to have references for lighting and things like that. When he’s on a deadline, he can make up anything. People are under the misconception because he takes pictures that he can’t draw. The reality is that, he can do all of this from his head. All the thumbnails are done first, and the photos come in to aid him when he’s painting: the lighting, how textures look, how to get certain things right without guessing. He can guess it. You can guess

didn’t like it. And then the other costume had the little details—the details in the cape, they were sewed in‚ he didn’t want those sewed in, he wanted them loose. We went with that cape. The gauntlets were spandex built in. The boots worked out great—she made boots—those were real boots. FCA: It must get expensive. SAM: He’s gotten to the point now where it’s worth it for him to have all these outfits. He’s going to use them again for something. Shazam! is pretty much just squint and smile... more or less. He tells you to squint... he tells you to smile and keep your teeth together, and then that’s Captain Marvel. FCA: Did you have to take any shots outside? SAM: Yeah, for the scene where Billy is out playing catch. Most of the Billy shots were shot in front of his house because he liked the lighting. He took some shots for references of buildings and different things at other places. Most of the shots were taken in his suburb. He did a lot of work at Children’s Memorial Hospital. He met someone over there who was very nice to him and let him come into the hospital and showed him around and that’s where he got some pictures of what the hospital looked like. He didn’t want to take any pictures of any of the kids because he didn’t think it was cool to take pictures of sick kids.

The Power of Sam!

Back to the future! A de-aged Sam as Billy Batson, seen between Alex’s sketch and the painted Power of Hope art—and a 1981 C.C. Beck drawing of Billy, courtesy of Jerry K. Boyd. [Beck art ©2002 estate of C.C. Beck; Power of Hope art & Billy Batson TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

FCA: How was it to be in the costume outside? SAM: Ah, no, I was only outside dressed as Billy. I’ll tell you one thing that happened while I was in costume. We would stand around, in Alex’ house, because it was so hot, and we would have to take breaks. There were some phone guys fixing the line across the street—Alex has this house with all these big windows—so I’m standing there, you know, with this costume on and the two guys are looking over like we’re making stag flicks or something. But the costume is pretty good. And most of the time, the cool thing about it is that there’s no yuks. When you’re taking pictures it’s very serious. He knows exactly what he wants. There’s no fooling around. There’s no third party people hanging out, making jokes, making cracks. I know why I’m there, I know what he wants. It’s very serious stuff. Since he takes it seriously, you don’t feel embarrassed or anything. FCA: For the Billy shots, did Alex de-age you? How accurate was he? SAM: Not at all. I didn’t look anything like that as a kid. We were originally going to use my nephew, but he didn’t look enough like Billy Batson. FCA: So has anyone ever recognized you from Power of Hope? SAM: Once in a while, at shows, but not to the point of walking down the street and being recognized. More or less people in the industry tease me. They’ll page me at conventions as Billy Batson. It’s usually just people we know making cracks. He offered me a lot of money to dress up as Captain Marvel for his Halloween party and I wouldn’t do it. FCA: So who did you go as? SAM: I went as a pimp, actually. I figured it’s close to my job. But, getting back to being recognized, my sister saw a poster for Power of Hope in a comic store window and she freaked out. She didn’t know anything about it. She knew I was doing something but she didn’t know how it fit into comics. My family is not aware of anything at all in comics. And then when she saw the big promo poster she was all amazed. But it’s mostly the people in the industry. After Kingdom Come, it started a little bit. They ask you to sign stuff. But sometimes it’s people who think if they have both Alex’s signature and my signature and Paul’s [Paul Dini, writer of Power of Hope] signature—maybe it’s worth more money.

FCA: How did the auction for Power of Hope go? SAM: We raised $136,000 for Make A Wish Foundation. It turned out really well. You have to remember that “Shazam!” doesn’t even have its own regularly published book. People forget that. Everybody wonders why we don’t see more of Cap. Alex was not expecting any response to Power of Hope at all because it’s an older character. He loves the character, so he wanted to do it. FCA: So he really pushed for this book. SAM: He pushed for it. He loves Captain Marvel. [Jerry] Ordway had his book out, it got cancelled, and I think some of the stuff, some of the directions that Ordway was going with the character Alex wasn’t too crazy about. He felt some of the stuff DC had done with him lately, like Ordway’s version, were a little too removed. He wanted to strip Captain Marvel down to the bare bones of what he was and how he saw him. There was some criticism with Power of Hope that it was too “kiddie”—that the story wasn’t gritty enough. What are you going to do with that character? He’s not going to fight crack dealers. FCA: I heard that Alex had to twist DC’s arm a bit to do Power of Hope. SAM: The only thing they gave him a hard time with was the treasury edition-sized format. FCA: Does Alex put in long days? SAM: Can’t call him before noon because he doesn’t get up before noon. He’s usually up till 6 or 9 a.m. There have been times when he’s stayed up till 9 a.m. He gets most of his stuff done between 5 p.m. and early morning because his phone never stops ringing between editors and other artists. He’s also doing a lot of sculptures now.

Sam Abbinanti

FCA: Any more Captain Marvel stuff coming out by Alex?

SAM: The mini-statue came out. Knowing him, he’ll find any excuse to use Captain Marvel or any other obscure Golden Age character he can. He really loves those characters.

characters and has a lot of lithographs he still wants to do, and, you know, given enough time he’ll get to every character in either universe. He wants to do a lot of stuff for Marvel and DC. It just depends on the logistics... are they going to let him do it? Who own the rights to it? He’s got a lot more of that stuff he wants to do.

FCA: Do you think there might be a set of “Shazam!” lithographs like those done with Batman: War on Crime?

FCA: Can you talk at all about the scrubbed Shazam! animated series that Alex was involved in?

SAM: There was supposed to have been two “Shazam!” lithographs produced for the Warner Bros. Stores, but they cancelled them when they decided to close the stores... but they were in the works. Alex surpassed Chuck Jones as the highest-grossing artist they’ve ever had at the Warner Stores.

SAM: We’ve got a lot of sketches of it. My understanding of it was that it was almost a go. And then like anything else, they pulled the plug on it at the last minute. He developed some things and they wanted something different.

FCA: Alex must love what he does.

FCA: Were you pleased with the outcome of the “Shazam!” Kingdom Come statue?

SAM: He’s got a lot of stuff that he still wants to get out of his system. There are a lot of characters that he still wants to do. He loves the old

SAM: There’s a funny story about the Kingdom Come statue. I had to sign a release just in case because he was using my likeness. So I made a

50 joke and told him that the only way I’ll sign a release is if Captain Marvel has a bigger package than Superman’s. So if you look at the poses, Superman has his hands over his crotch and Captain Marvel has his hands at his side. And, as a joke, Alex padded up the crotch on the Captain Marvel statue and he sent it to Graffiti like that as a joke to get the OK. He thought for sure they’d go, “Come on, what are you doing? You’re going to have to take a little off.” And they sent it back and they said, “It’s fine,” and they sent it into production that way. That’s why if you look at the statue, Captain Marvel’s got this big, big package. That was not meant to be like that. It was meant to be scaled down a little bit. He said they didn’t notice it, they didn’t care, so he was okay with it. If you look at the final statue, that’s why Cap looks like that.

The Power of Sam! bizarre thing happened to me at the Power of Hope gallery showing. I’m looking around the room and there were so many familiar-looking people. Where do I know that person from? And where do I know that person from? And Bob Riley [former Alex Ross webmaster who passed away last year] finally said to me, “You know all these people because they’re in the books.”

FCA: So are you having fun? SAM: Yeah, it’s a good time, it doesn’t bother me. Kingdom Come bothered me a little bit because we had friends who would relentlessly tease the sh*t out of me about it. They really beat it to death. They would not stop. FCA: Do you get a lot of people requesting to be painted into Alex’s books? Do they offer money? SAM: No, people just usually want to fly in at their own expense. We get a lot of guys who say they would be perfect. But their egos give them away at the end of the letter. They can’t just be a regular character or a regular pedestrian; they have to be the guy that saves the world. And the reality is that it’s not going to change your life. People think that, when you do something like that, it’s going to change your life. FCA: When you travel overseas for conventions, what’s the perception of comics outside of the United States? SAM: I went overseas to Paris for a show. This show’s been going on for forty years. The most promising thing I saw there that I don’t see here is that when you go to the shows, you see school buses of kids... hundreds of kids. They use these cons as field trips... taking kids to comic conventions. We don’t have that here. Here it’s mostly guys 18-35. It’s not kids. It’s cool now, but what are we going to do in ten years? Where is the new audience coming from? I’m going to a show in Tokyo and there’s like 3,000,000 people coming to this show. In San Diego, it’s a much smaller number. FCA: If you look at the way things are going, with the shrinking audience, in ten years comics will be $20 apiece rather than two-fifty. SAM: I think part of the problem is that it’s become a niche product. You have to go to a specific store to buy it. It’s become a peep show, like pornography. Instead of being able to get comics at the drug store or at a Jewel or Dominck’s [Chicago-area grocery stores], or wherever, like we could as kids, now you’ve got to go to the comics store. In Chicago I can think of only two or three good shops in the city. My God, when you go to Paris, you’re tripping over them. Comics are also huge in Italy... enormous in Germany... Japan. FCA: Regarding some of the other models that Alex uses, the most

SAM: Alex’ dad is probably the one that scares people the most at shows, because his dad is one of the most unassuming, amazingly nice guys... I mean, he’s a minister. So, obviously, he’s a sweetheart of a guy. And he goes to these conventions, unassuming, to see his son and it freaks him out when people mob him because he’s Norman McCay... there’s no mistaking him. He’s the guy from Kingdom Come. It just spooks

the sh*t out of people. FCA: How would you characterize your relationship with Alex while doing Power of Hope? SAM: We got into a lot of arguments; we got into a lot of disagreements. We didn’t always get along taking those pictures. Because he wants it just a certain way and I thought I was doing it a certain way and he didn’t think so. It’s not always great, but we’re friends so we can call each other an ***hole. He would yell and holler. There would be a few little times when I wasn’t doing something right, like some of the shots where the little girl dies and I’m supposed to look surprised. He wouldn’t like the way I looked or say, “C’mon, you’re not trying,” or “What are you doing!” or this or that. Some of the shots where I’m flying and I’m on my tiptoes were very tiring. Taking hand shots fourteen different ways: “Come on, man, I want to get out of here!” He’s so exact that everything’s down to costume adjustments, you know, like adjust that, fix that, the sash doesn’t look right. Gel your hair more. Every imaginable thing you can think of. The costume has to be perfect. The feel of what you’re doing. The lighting. We’ll light things three or four different ways and sometimes when it is developed and it doesn’t look right, we’ll have to take it all over again. This picture didn’t turn out right, that picture didn’t turn out right. It’s a lot of stuff. With Power of Hope there were times when he’d called me up on literally a whim and say, “Hey, I need a picture right now” and I’d have to go and put that damn costume on. It would take me a half hour to put that thing on! I mean it’s like a cat suit with this and that and the boots and the sash. I feel sorry for the next guy who’s got to wear it, because I didn’t wear anything underneath it, because he didn’t want any kind of lines showing or anything. So, hopefully, there’s no Captain Marvel Jr. anytime soon, because he’s not going to like it. Hopefully he got it washed. [Walt Grogan lives in the Chicago area with his wife and twin daughters, as well as his two cats. In his spare time (Ha!), he is the webmaster of the Marvel Family Web <www.marvelfamily.com> and The Jerry Ordway Web <www.jerryordway.com>.

Now—FLIP US for our Marvel Bullpen Reunion Section!

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Special 50th Anniversary FULL-COLOR issue ($8.95 price) on “Batman in the Bronze Age!” O’NEIL, ADAMS, and LEVITZ roundtable, praise for “unsung” Batman creators JIM APARO, DAVID V. REED, BOB BROWN, ERNIE CHAN, and JOHN CALNAN, Joker’s Daughter, Batman Family, Nocturna, Dark Knight, art and commentary from BYRNE, COLAN, CONWAY, MOENCH, MILLER, NEWTON, WEIN, and more. APARO cover!

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Vol. 3, No. 16 / July 2002

™

Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout Christopher Day

Consulting Editors John Morrow Jon B. Cooke

FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck

Comics Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

Editors Emeritus Jerry Bails (founder) Ronn Foss, Biljo White, Mike Friedrich

Production Assistant Eric Nolen-Weathington

Cover Artists Marie Severin & Ramona Fradon Alex Ross

Contents

Cover Colorists Marie Severin & Tom Ziuko Alex Ross

Mailing Crew Russ Garwood, Glen Musial, Ed Stelli, Pat Varker, Loston Wallace

And Special Thanks to:

––in memoriam ––

Robert Kanigher & Tom Sutton

Writer/Editorial: The Man Who Hated Comics–– but Loved Comic Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 (Big John Buscema, who else?)

The Mighty Marvel Bullpen Reunion 2001 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 John Buscema, Gene Colan, John Romita, & Marie Severin interviewed by Mark Evanier.

Johnny B. & Me . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Owen O’Leary, Buscema’s artist-rep, writes about a fabulous artist... and a great guy.

The John Buscema Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Two of Big John's 1970s students talk about studying under a Silver Age great.

“Paul Gambi––Tailor to the (DC Super-villain) Stars!” . . . . . . . . 39 Bill Schelly talks to Paul Gambaccini about 1960s comics fandom and beyond. Marvel Family Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: At a comics convention a couple of years ago, Roy Thomas spotted Marie Severin and Ramona Fradon having brunch together—so naturally he couldn't resist (and not for the first time) trying to persuade them to do a tandem illustration of the underwater heroes each lady had drawn during the Silver Age: Sub-Mariner and Aquaman. Ye Editor was after nothing more than a battle between the sunken super-stars, but Marie and Ramona had something a bit more mischievous on their minds. Serves Roy right for interrupting their meal! [Art ©2002 Marie Severin & Ramona Fradon; Sub-Mariner TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Aquaman TM & ©2002 DC Comics.] Above: You saw “Kal-El the Barbarian” in A/E #13 & #15. Here are two more of John Buscema's character designs for JLA: Barbarians, the series he and Roy T. were working on when the artist passed away. The heroes’ names in the series would have been Fledor (from fledermaus, German for “bat”) and Velos (from “velocity”) for The Flash's counterpart in a gleaming age of swords and sorcery. [©2002 DC Comics.] Alter EgoTM is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Phone: (919) 833-8092. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: Rt. 3, Box 468, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $8 ($10 Canada, $11 elsewhere). Eight-issue subscriptions: $40 US, $80 Canada, $88 elsewhere. 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 Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

Title writer/editorial

The Man Who Hated Comics-But Loved Comic Art wrong if we also liked, far more than John did, his work inked by Sinnott, Klein, Chan, Alcala, DeZuniga, and others? John himself, I’m convinced, understood his editors’ point of view far better than he let on in his public persona. His gruff exterior was, to a certain extent, a role he played and, I suspect, came to relish. For whatever combination of reasons, he liked to shock people with his blunt assessments... and while the opinions he expressed were honest ones, it does seem as if on occasion he emphasized them in order to throw people a curve. Owen O’Leary provided us with this fine caricature of John Buscema drawn (and submitted) by commercial artist Mathias Lorenz, based on a photo. It looks even better in color! [Art ©2002 Mathias Lorenz.]

As these words are being written, of course, the preceding issue of Alter Ego is still several weeks away from going on sale, so it’s impossible to gauge whether its sixty pages dealing with John Buscema, added to coverage by other publications, will sate comic fans’ desire to learn more about John and to see more of his art. ’Twould be a (most unlikely) pity if it did, however, since John is deserving of more, not less, attention than he is getting—and not at all because of his untimely death from cancer this past January. Because John was one of the field’s finest draftsmen and storytellers— two qualities which most definitely are not always found in the same artist. He was an enigma, though, to me as much as to others... perhaps even, sometimes, to himself. He often talked of preferring the illustrations he drew on the backs of his comics pages to what he drew on the front; yet he knew, as well as anyone, that it was what he did on the fronts that really counted, that secured his reputation, that paid the bills. Most fans now ooh-ing and ahh-ing over those warm-up sketches would have paid them scant attention if he hadn’t been doing The Silver Surfer and Conan on the other side of the paper.

One can see that half-serious, half-amused posing in both interviews we’ve printed these past two issues from the 2001 San Diego ComicCon, whether John was going one-on-one with moderator Mark Evanier about how much he hated this or that feature he’d worked on (Tarzan, Weirdworld, Merlin, Roy Rogers, you name it), or when he all but pretended to have dozed off from boredom on the panel he shared with John Romita, Gene Colan, and Marie Severin. Mark and the others understood the partial play-acting... and so do I, I guess. I’ll freely admit that I shook my head when Tom DeFalco, comics writer and fellow former Marvel editor-in-chief, recently sent me an e-mail informing me that, in a column for a web magazine called Grayhavenmagazine.com, he had interviewed Sal Buscema about his late brother. Tom wrote me: “You are mentioned in one place, and I thought I’d give you a heads-up so you’d take the mention in the right spirit.” He went on to quote the exchange with Sal about John: TOM: The only writer I ever heard him compliment was Roy Thomas. He really enjoyed working with Roy, and always said nice things about Roy’s work behind his back. I once asked John if he ever told Roy how he felt. “Why should I bother?” John said. “The guy’s an idiot.” SAL: John thought everybody was an idiot. We were once having a political discussion and he’s lambasting everybody, including whoever was the President at the time. He thought he should be the one running the country. I told him that he’d get my vote. That was John!

I recall hearing from Spanish acquaintances how upset fans were at a convention in Gijon, Spain, which had flown him over in 1997—only to be subjected to his standard “I hate comics!” speech. Several attendees, I was told, had vowed to dispose of their Buscema collections and never again to buy a comic drawn by him.

Tom’s e-mail to me continued: “I’ve included a copy of the whole column so that you can read the above quote in context if you’re interested. In the course of it, John called us all idiots at one time or another... which was just his way. I don’t know if John ever told you how he really felt about you and your work. I hope he did.”

Understandable, perhaps; but I hope these souls relented, as the work was separate from the man. No matter what John thought of his published comic art, it is not necessary that we as readers share his view, not even about whether this or that inker was sympathetic to what he was trying to do. Yes, we loved Giacoia, Palmer, Sal Buscema, Adkins, and John himself embellishing his pencils... but who is to say we are

He didn’t—but then, although I complimented John on this or that drawing or story from time to time, I’m positive I didn’t spend a lot of time gushing about how great something he had done was. A fanboy I may have been, and in certain ways shall always remain, but we were also a pair of pros doing a job, and it was taken for granted that each of us would do his best.

writer/editorial

If John didn’t always do his best— which of us does?—he was always in there trying to do a professional job and earn his keep. He may have loved Conan and the Asgardian aspects of Thor and may have loathed doing straight super-hero comics like The Avengers and Fantastic Four and most especially The Amazing Spider-Man— but I’ll be damned if I could always have been certain of that just by looking at the comics themselves, no matter who wrote or inked them!

And that, I think, is about as much introduction as anyone should need to the John Buscema section that follows, which includes a few personal memoirs (by his former workshop students and his art-rep Owen O’Leary) and an enjoyable panel featuring Buscema, Romita, Colan, and Severin. These items, added to Bill Schelly’s detailed and Conan striding through the marketplace in Shadizar the Wicked? Nope, it’s Kal-El the Barbarian stalking through the bazaar in Shadraq the Sinister, in a penciled panel from the first issue of JLA: Barbarians, discursive discussion with 1960s fan Paul John Buscema’s last comic book project. [©2002 DC Comics.] Gambaccini, should keep your attention until it’s time to turn the mag upside For me, though, it definitely runs a poor second. down and read the Fawcett-heavy other half (assuming you haven’t already). But then, what do I know? I’m an idiot. But if, when you finish, you’re still hungry for John Buscema art, Bestest, don’t despair. Both in Alter Ego, Comic Book Artist, and elsewhere, I’m sure there’s lots more in store for you, over the months and years to come! If we can’t have the man himself among us, that’s the next best thing.

Submit Something To Alter Ego! Alter Ego is on the lookout for items that can be utilized in upcoming issues: • Convention Sketches and Program Books • Unpublished Artwork • Original Scripts (the older the better!) • Photos • Unpublished Interviews • Little-seen Fanzine Material We’re also interested in articles, article ideas, or any other suggestions... and we pay off in FREE COPIES of A/E. (If you’re already an A/E subscriber, we’ll extend your subscription.) Contact: Roy Thomas, Editor Rt. 3, Box 468 St. Matthews, SC 29135 Fax: (803)826-6501 • E-mail: roydann@ntinet.com (NEW E-mail)

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Marvel Bullpen Reunion 2001

The Mighty Marvel Bullpen Reunion JOHN BUSCEMA, GENE COLAN, JOHN ROMITA, and MARIE SEVERIN Talk About “The Marvel Age of Comics” Panel Conducted & Edited by Mark Evanier All Photos Courtesy of Ralph Rawson Werner Transcribed by Brian K. Morris from a Videotape by Marc Svensson [Panel Moderator’s Intro: Okay, imagine the scene. It’s Saturday, July 21, and we’re upstairs at the 2001 Comic-Con International in San Diego. Longtime fans of Marvel Comics of the ’60s, ’70s, maybe even the ’80s are crammed into Room 8 to see and hear a panel featuring four of the keystone artists of that period: Marie Severin, Gene Colan, John Romita, and John Buscema. [And me? I’m the lucky guy that gets to interview and moderate.

artists Marvel ever had, whose main function in comics, good as the work on the pages was, was drawing insulting caricatures of the staff. [applause] Marie is in the dealer’s room during the day doing sketches and accepting commissions and I think they are woefully underpriced. If I were you I would go and throw a lot of money at her to buy a commissioned sketch before she wises up and triples the price... Marie Severin.

MARIE SEVERIN: I’m selling kisses, too. [applause, with a few [But the main thing you need to know I mention at the risk of audience members shouting “I’ve got a dollar! I’ve got ten!” etc.] sounding like Jerry Lewis on a telethon. ME: This next It’s that there was a lot gentleman drew about of love in that room. every Marvel book at We love what Marie, one time or another. I Gene, and the two don’t have to tell you Johns did... oh, maybe a list of them. I will not each and every mention, however, story, but certainly the that if you love his body of work. It meant work you might want a lot to all of us, and it to pick up The John was, by and large, darn Buscema Sketchbook good comic art. We which looks like this love their work, we [displays a copy of love them... and the book] and was especially we love the published by David camaraderie between Spurlock. David them, the almost Spurlock has put out a tangible mutual wonderful series of respect. They’re each as sketchbooks of not just big a fan of the other John, but also he’s [Photo, left to right:] Mark Evanier, Marie Severin, John Buscema, Gene Colan, John Romita. [Art, on opposite page: clockwise, from top left:]: Original commission pieces by John B., three as we are of all come out with The John R., Gene, & Marie. Gene Colan piece courtesy of Michael Hranek; Marie's watercolor courtesy four. I think that comes John Romita of Robert Knuist, via Jerry K. Boyd; re-creation of cover of Silver Surfer #16 (May 1970) courtesy across in what follows. Sketchbook—he did of Owen O'Leary; Spidey meets R2-D2 courtesy of Mike Burkey. But why a place-card for So does the devotion of The Wally Wood John Romita, Jr? [Art ©2002 the respective artists; Dr. Strange, Silver Surfer, Mephisto, Captain the audience. But I Sketchbook, he did America, Spider-Man TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Artoo Detoo TM & ©2002 Lucasfilm.] had to mention it here. The Al Williamson —Mark Evanier] Sketchbook, he did The Amazing World of Carmine Infantino book. If I were you, I’d MARK EVANIER: I assume, if you’re here, you share my love for run down and buy the John Buscema one and I’d throw him money the period of Marvel Comics from the time F.F. #1 came out until to get John Romita. And now, would you please welcome Mr. John about the time they hired certain people who shall remain nameless. Buscema. [applause] [Cries of “Name them! Name them!” from audience.] Now, obviously, we’re going to talk about other people like Stan Lee and JOHN BUSCEMA: Thank you. By the way, you don’t get a kiss with Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko and Don Heck. But the four people here a book. produced an immense amount of wonderful comics. Let me introduce ME: I’ll take three. Those of you who were here the other afternoon them quickly to you. First, we have the latest inductee into the Will will probably not forget the wonderful surprise party for this next Eisner Hall of Fame—and that’s an impressive thing—one of the best

Buscema, Colan, Romita, & Severin

Marvel Bullpen Reunion 2001 until you’re dead and several other people in it are, too. Tell me everything you can about Marvel history.” He said that as far as he was concerned, there were several different eras of Marvel. There was a period where the staff was Jack, Steve Ditko, Don Heck, and Dick Ayers. He said that during that Gene Colan. period Stan was frantic to try and find another Kirby or Ditko. He felt he tried out a lot of pencilers during that time, guys like Carl Burgos, Bob Powell, and others, who just didn’t quite work out for him. They were very good artists but they didn’t give him the Marvel look. So then there came the second wave. And with the second wave he finally found some artists who could draw Marvel comics the way he wanted them, and co-plot the stuff— take a suggestion and build on it. One who could was Wally Wood, until Mr. Wood and Mr. Lee started quarreling over money and how much he’d be paid for penciling and Wally went elsewhere and started the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. When Wally left, he was about to start doing a “Sub-Mariner” strip in Tales to Astonish. They gave that to Gene. Wally was inking The Avengers and Stan gave that to Mr. Romita and other people. Wally was drawing Daredevil, and they gave that, also, to Johnny Romita. And I know you’ve told these stories before, but I want to go back to that moment when you came back to Marvel and, having not done super-heroes for them recently, worked with Stan. Gene, do you want to tell us about the day they handed you a “Sub-Mariner” story to draw?

(Above:) Gene Colan & Vinnie Colletta kick off Tales to Astonish #70 (Aug. 1965)—plus (below right) Gene's pencils for a Namor panel in Captain Marvel #4 (Aug. 1968), courtesy of David G. Hamilton. We repro'd the inked version of the latter in A/E V3#6, in conjunction with our Gene Colan interview. If you missed it, you missed some great, rare Colan art! Besides, we just love selling back issues! [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

gentleman. You have certain artists—we have four examples here— you don’t know these people when you start reading the comics, but somehow, even though the stories aren’t always the most wonderful, there’s something about the warmth that always connects. You know, if you buy a comic that they drew, you’re not going to waste your time, because for twenty pages or so you will be transported into a wonderful world of very human people and very interesting villains and sexy women. People are gushing about the various ways [certain artists] drew sexy women, and I understand that... Will you welcome Mr. Gene Colan? [applause] And this gentleman—in my opinion, the worst thing this gentleman ever did was become art director at Marvel and not draw as many pages as he could have, because I always loved the way he drew Daredevil, the way he drew Spider-Man, the way he drew Captain America, the way he drew those wonderful love comics Marvel did. There’s really no talent I’d rather have than be able to draw like Mr. John Romita. [applause] I want to go back here, time-wise, to 1976. I went to a gentleman named Sol Brodsky, whom you may know was instrumental in Marvel’s history for years, and said, “I want you to give me an interview. Off the record. I won’t print this

GENE COLAN: Up to that point, I was doing crime stories, romance stories [for DC]—anytime they needed stories with a different character. I wanted to get on something that was permanent, where I could live with a character and deal with it all the time. I don’t really fully remember that was the first one, but if you say so, that’s okay with me. ME: How many people remember that Gene started off on “SubMariner”? [applause] COLAN: And then I didn’t like the character—impossible to draw, that flat head. I couldn’t make him look good, really. And I kept trying to round it off, but I knew that if I didn’t have it, it wouldn’t be SubMariner, so I stayed with it for a while.

Buscema, Colan, Romita, & Severin

white-out on it, all over the head. [to Marie] Did you do that? SEVERIN: No. ME: It was probably Sol Brodsky, then—redid the whole hairline. [to Colan] This is, of course, drawn by “Marvel’s newest Prince of Pageantry”—Adam Austin! Tell us about Adam Austin. Why were you Adam Austin? COLAN: I was working for DC at the time as well, and I didn’t want them to know I was at Marvel. [laughs] ROMITA: Can you imagine him hiding that style? They had no idea who did that page! COLAN: Stan said, “We’ll give you a new name, ‘Adam Austin.’” But I want to tell you something about fingers. Even today when I’m drawing a hand, I have to count the fingers. I have to do it. ROMITA: So there’s too many fingers on there. That’s why Disney only used three. COLAN: That’s right. (Above:) Colan & Abel's splash for Tales of Suspense #73 (Jan. 1966) plus (at right) a few panels from the story. Contrary to the way Mark heard the tale, though, Stan didn't rewrite "all" of Roy Thomas' copy—only about 50% of it! E.g., the non-splash panels are pretty much the way Roy had originally written them—working on tissue overlays, after-hours, at his corrugated-top desk in the Marvel offices—only to learn he wasn't gonna get paid freelance for it, 'cause it was considered part of his "staff writer" job! Stan took back the scripting with Gene's second "Iron Man" outing; Roy prefers to think he just couldn't resist writing dialogue for that beautiful artwork! [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

ME: Now, Gene, your first “Sub-Mariner” story, did it look anything like this? [Mark pulls out the original art to the splash of the “Sub-Mariner” story from Tales to Astonish #70.] COLAN: Yeah, that’s it. ME: The first page you drew—and the amazing thing is that Vince Colletta inked this page, and The Sub-Mariner’s left hand is backwards. [laughs] Show it.

SEVERIN: Well, if you move down to Florida, they only have three. [laughs] ME: Now, Stan had you do a couple of “Sub-Mariners” and then he gave you another strip to do. What was that? Tell us about the next strip he stuck you on. COLAN: After “SubMariner”? ME: Yes. He gave you an “Iron Man” to do, correct? COLAN: Yeah, I didn’t want that one.

BUSCEMA: I’m going to argue with you, buddy.

ME: Did it look like this? [Mark pulls out the splash page of Gene’s first “Iron Man” from Tales of Suspense #73] Yes, the logo is cut off there, but you can read it.

ME: You don’t think it’s backwards?

ROMITA: Who inked it?

BUSCEMA: [studies the page] It looks okay to me. [laughs; passes the page to John Romita, who studies the page, then his own arm] No, it’s backwards. Okay. [laughs, applause]

ME: Jack Abel.

COLAN: I never noticed that. [Gene turns the page to the audience] He used to have a lot of two right hands.

ME: This is Gene’s first super-hero job for Marvel. It’s got a lot of

ROMITA: Oh yeah. That was a beautiful thing.

Marvel Bullpen Reunion 2001 that story. ME: And we were all very impressed with it. Also, throughout the entire story, Iron Man’s little belt pods, on the side, are either whited out or redrawn. At this point, Gene, was this like, “Oh, boy. I hope I get steady work,” or did you see this as something that you really enjoyed, doing super-heroes? COLAN: I did at that time. I liked to draw his face because it was a little bit of a challenge. He was under a metal mask and I had to get him some expression. Nevertheless, it was kind-of like metal that moves, so I enjoyed it. I just loved it. ME: Mr. Romita, now tell us, you were drawing romance comics for DC... ROMITA: Yeah, Gene and I were both doing it at the same time at DC. ME: Why did you leave DC and what happened when you went to Marvel? ROMITA: Well, I left DC because they told me they were not going to hand out any more original assignments. I gathered they had a closet full of inventory and I don’t know if it was Mr. [Irwin] Donenfeld [copublisher], who’s around here, who noticed it, or [production manager] Sol Harrison who said, “What the hell are you buying this stuff for if you’ve got a closet full of art?” BUSCEMA: Same thing happened at Marvel years ago.

1999 commission art, as it appeared in The Gene Colan Annual: Painting with Pencil. To learn how to get a copy of that great trade paperback, and for a peek at other mouth-watering art, some of which is for sale, go online at <www.GeneColan.com>. Tell Gene and Adrienne that Alter Ego sent you, okay? [Art ©2002 Gene Colan; Iron Man TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

ME: By the way, to my knowledge—this is the kind of trivia that only I care about—this is the only Marvel story ever lettered by Ben Oda.

ROMITA: Yeah, it happened at all of the companies. Ask the production managers. Whenever somebody found inventory, all the editors went to hide because they knew they weren’t going to be able to hand out any assignments for months. Companies did that constantly. So they told me, “You’re a free man,” after eight years of devotion, and I mean devotion. I used to spend hours on the phone with the editor, I did all their covers at the last moment, I plotted stories with the editor. They suddenly said, “Well, you’re a freelancer. Go get work.” I thought, “Don’t you guys owe me something? I’ve been here eight years.” Stan Lee would call every year and say, “Please come back.” I’d say, “I’m making too much money over here, Stan. I can’t help it.” And then it just stopped and I went out and got a job, because I didn’t have any hope that I was going to get any work, and I thought it would work out. A week later, I go over to Stan’s and I’m suddenly doing The Avengers. ME: He had you inking The Avengers, right? Did it look anything like this? [Mark pulls out a page from Avengers #23; audience laughs

ROMITA: Is that right? ME: And I don’t know why. ROMITA: I mean, he was always too busy. ME: He was lettering 800 books for DC. He couldn’t letter one for Marvel? COLAN: And he was doing all the syndicated stuff, too. ME: There is also a story that they gave Roy Thomas this story to dialogue because Stan was busy, or had the flu, or something like that, and Roy dialogued it. Stan hated it and rewrote all the dialogue. And, of course, Roy later became their best writer. It was his first crack at doing a super-hero. Gene, does that stir any other memories to you? [L. to r.:] John B., Gene, and John R.

ROMITA: I remember that as a rewrite. I loved

Buscema, Colan, Romita, & Severin

and applauds] ROMITA: That was one of the most fun jobs I ever did, because I didn’t have to pick up a pencil. It was so relaxing to me and I told Stan, “This is what I want to do. I want to be an inker.” If I’d had my druthers, I’d never have penciled another job. He was like a con man. [laughs] SEVERIN: [mock disbelief] No! [laughs] ROMITA: He placated me. He told me, “You’re right, John. I understand,” and condescendingly told me I wouldn’t have to worry about penciling any more. A week later, he stuck me on Daredevil. ME: Talk a little bit about Don Heck, because I always felt Don was very underrated as an artist, especially during this period. ROMITA: He was. Let me tell you, Don Heck was probably the biggest stylist that I noticed in comics. When Gene and Don Heck were doing war stories, when I was doing the romance stuff, I was angry. Don Heck was doing that series, the naval series, “Commando Kelly,” or “Combat Kelly,” or something like that. I envied him. He had a great style for a young guy. I thought only old-timers had styles like that. And he was as capable. When I could not come up with a drawing, he penciled a sevenpage romance story for me at DC, like in a half day. He’d do romance. The next day, he’d do war, he could do westerns, there wasn’t a thing he couldn’t do. And you know the story about somebody using his name inaccurately or by mistake in an article, saying that Don Heck’s artwork was not too good? He never meant to say Don Heck. He meant somebody else’s name, right? Well, for ten years, he [Heck] was haunted by that reputation. People would say, “Oh, Don Heck is a bad artist. I read all about it in a magazine.” And he suffered through that.

(Left:) John Romita inks over a page of Don Heck pencils (and a Stan Lee script) in Avengers #23 (Dec. 1965); plus (above) a rare instance of the Jazzy One penciling over Jack Kirby layouts, in Tales to Astonish #77 (March 1966), repro'd from a photocopy of the original, courtesy of John R. [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

ME: But he also suffered from the fact that—you know, when your work’s put next to Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, it’s a little tough to stand out. ROMITA: Oh, yeah. ME: Did anybody here feel intimidated just drawing super-hero comics at the same company that had guys like that? ROMITA: He has to. ME: Okay. Mr. Buscema, you came back to Marvel a little after this, ’66. And Stan called you one day. You were doing a lot of advertising work, and what did they give you as the very first thing to do? ROMITA: It was “The Hulk.” No, Strange Tales. BUSCEMA: It was some guy with a patch over his eye. [laughs] ME: You don’t remember “Nick Fury”? SEVERIN: Here it comes. ME: Did it look anything like this? [Mark pulls out the splash page from the “Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.” story from Strange Tales #150]

Marvel Bullpen Reunion 2001 BUSCEMA: I don’t remember. ME: You have no idea whatsoever? BUSCEMA: My mind doesn’t go back so far. ME: Then let’s talk about a gentleman who’s not here: Frank Giacoia, who was one of the most terrific inkers and had a few deadline problems but was worth waiting for. BUSCEMA: Frank was absolutely fabulous. One of the reasons he was such a great inker was because he was a great penciler, too. He could draw and that helps a bit. COLAN: Yeah, great inker. ROMITA: Did he ink a lot of your stuff, Gene? COLAN: Yes. ROMITA: He was able to ink almost anybody, and reflect their pencils, which was difficult. He was a penciler. The only thing is that he wanted to be a penciler full-time. He was a master inker, and he hated to ink because he thought it was less prestigious than being a penciler. But every time he got an assignment as a penciler, he missed the deadline. So everybody said, “Listen, you want to ink, okay. But I can’t give you penciled stuff, not on deadlines.” It broke his heart.

Buscema over Kirby—and Giacoia over both of 'em—on the splash from Strange Tales #150 (Nov. 1966). Roy has this theory that actually John drew the first of his three "Hulk" stories in Tales to Astonish #85-87 (Nov. 1966Jan. 1967) before he penciled the "S.H.I.E.L.D." tale, since Big John elsewhere related how he drew a story Stan didn't like, so then Smiley immersed him in Kirby—but Roy admits he could be wrong. [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

BUSCEMA: That was “Nick Fury,” over Jack. ME: Now, this is just for me, folks. I’d like to clear up a mystery. Don’t listen for a minute. This is so trivial. This reads, “Script: Stan Lee, Layouts: Jack Kirby, Pencils: John Buscema, Inks: Frank Giacoia, Lettering: Sam Rosen.” Where it says “Pencils: John Buscema,” the “Buscema” part is whited over, and underneath it says “Romita.” SEVERIN: I didn’t do it. [laughter] ROMITA: I cannot believe it. But I might have been asked to do it and then John became available later on. BUSCEMA: I’ll tell you, when Mr. Stan Lee called me back, he had so much confidence in me, he had Jack Kirby lay the whole thing out. ROMITA: He did that to me. too. BUSCEMA: But I went along with it for one story. And the second job I did, I fell on my face and looked real bad. That was “The Hulk.” ME: Now, when you were given this to pencil—I don’t know if you’ll remember this or not—was the dialogue already in place, based on the layouts?

Buscema, Colan, Romita, & Severin

ME: What Frank told me one time when I interviewed him at length was, “Every time I sit down to pencil, I think to myself, how would Kirby have drawn this? How would Gene Colan or John Buscema or John Romita?” And I think the artist he really loved was Mike Sekowsky. He felt intimidated, like, “What’s the point? I can’t draw as well as those people.” Have any of you ever felt—? BUSCEMA: I spoke to him one time and I asked him why he was late on a job. Frank had a lousy habit. He would sit in front of the TV set while he was working, and he loved soap operas. So he’d sacrifice his work just to watch a soap. That’s why he was always late. ROMITA: Not only soap operas; he had another penchant for the damndest thing you ever saw. The Charge of the Light Brigade and Marie Antoinette, two very long, classic movies. If they were on at 2:00 in the morning, he would sit and watch the movie, eager for every word in both those films, and he would never miss them, any time they were shown on the television. It used to frighten me. I used to work with a television set, too, but I kept my back to it. I was listening to the movie because I knew almost all of the films I was watching. I never looked at TV. But Frank wanted to look at it; he could not resist it. He was a TV freak, that’s all there was to it. Just like Gene Colan at his board. I mean, you had your TV on. COLAN: Oh, man! [laughs]

The splash of Marie's story from Not Brand Echh #1 (Aug. 1967)—'The Too-Gone Kid." Marie stuck in many of the background gags when she penciled it—Roy added more when he scripted it—and they both had a ball! But, contrary to Marie's guess that NBE was Roy's idea, he remembers it as growing out of a casual conversation he, Stan, and Gary Friedrich had, and it was mostly Stan's idea. [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]\

ME: Marie, you worked for Marvel first in a production capacity. What did you do? Tell the people what a production artist does.

Marie both penciled and inked her first "Dr. Strange" ten-pager, from Strange Tales #153 (Feb. 1967). For every single "Doc" story published before the Sorcerer Supreme got his own mag in '68, see Marvel's The Essential Dr. Strange. Ditko—Everett—Severin— Adkins—they're all there! [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

SEVERIN: Windows. [laughs] Well, you take orders from the powersthat-be, like you erase stuff, you clean up a face here—I could touch up a lot of stuff. I learned a lot at EC on production because I was about the only one there. And they didn’t have many productions, but I learned from [editor Al] Feldstein, basically, how to copy a few styles, and I could lay out stuff and I could fix things. I could paste up—well, I’ve been doing that all my life. But anyway, Stan never even looked at my portfolio. I was thinking of getting a job... anyplace. I worked at the Federal Reserve Bank, I was doing film strips, and that was a dopey job. And now they were modernizing everything, and I was known pretty well as a colorist. Well, anyway, I had all this art stuff for greeting cards and all kinds of stuff. And I’m thinking, “Hey, I’m near Stan’s old

Marvel Bullpen Reunion 2001 Here are a few of Mirthful Marie's legendary office cartoons which were kept (and graciously shared with us) by Jazzy Johnny—whose comments about them are recorded below. [Art ©2002 Marie Severin.]

(Above:) "Early '70s. (Marie was as cruel to herself as to anyone else.) Here's her welcoming Larry Lieber back to the office after convalescing from a bad back condition."

(Above and right:) "A pair of birthday cards. Note Bill Everett’s trademark signature, and Morrie Kuramoto signed in Japanese."

"Marie's image of me & Larry Lieber in a heated political discussion—[with] Carl Wershba (regular visitor) & Tony Mortellaro, production man & background artist. Mid-’70s."

"Marie's 'get-well' card to me during a period out of the office for recovery. (That's Marie on the left.) Larry L. & Spidey supposedly missing me."

"Early '70s - Bullpen Memories. Herb Trimpe and I discussed politics and current events as we turned out pages. Marie's take on Herb as a 'hawk' and myself as a 'dove' (?). Note a younger Herb used high-tech weapons, while she had 'old' John R. slinging food and hot water bottles, etc."

Buscema, Colan, Romita, & Severin office.” He’s always moving, so I go to this other place, and he says, “Oh, Marie, I’m so glad to see you. Go in to see Sol,” and I’m in production. And he never looked at it. So I did that until Ditko left and they were desperate. They were really desperate. They had me and I’m scared stiff.

Marie Severin

ME: And you started doing “Dr. Strange.” Remember your first story for that? [audience laughs as Mark pulls out original art for Marie’s “Dr. Strange”; Marie holds her nose] And I believe the first page you drew for Not Brand Echh. [audience applauds as Mark pulls out the original splash page of “Too-Gone Kid” from Not Brand Echh #1.] Tell us about this book. I always had the feeling that you were one of the inspirations for even doing this title.

SEVERIN: I bet it was Roy. What do you think, John? ROMITA: No, no. What he means by “inspiration” is, you did so many gags on us, eternally.

One great thing about Marie was that she could draw the "straight" version of a story—then turn around and lampoon it! Here's the splash from her and Stan's full-length slug-fest in Tales to Astonish #100 (Feb. 1968)—and the splash from her and Roy's parody of it in Not Brand Echh #9 (Aug. '68). The former can be found in The Essential Hulk, Vol. 2; sadly, there's never been an NBE collection. [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

SEVERIN: Oh, you mean my nasty streak. [laughs] ROMITA: You would outright insult anybody. Remember that hilarious satire of The Wizard of Oz cover? You made yourself a monkey in a tree. She destroyed every one of us. George Roussos was the Cowardly Lion. SEVERIN: Well, he was. [laughs] ROMITA: And Marv Wolfman—he was one of the characters with the big, wide eyes. SEVERIN: He was Mr. Goo-Goo Eyes. ROMITA: And his wife [Michelle] was Dorothy. But she destroyed everybody. She made fun—Larry Lieber was out with a bad back. When he came back, she had five cartoons pasted on the board where he worked, each one of them making fun of him. In one of them she put him on a skateboard, stood him up against the wall. Another one, she’s walking down the hall, herself, crudely drawn. She destroyed herself. She’s slapping Larry, saying, “Glad to see ya [you’re] back.” [laughs; Marie imitates a person flailing their arms and screaming] She destroyed him. And Ed Hannigan, when he got a haircut. Remember that? Everybody know Ed Hannigan? A talented artist, a very good man, but he had this thick bush of red hair down his back. But he got his hair cut, thought that he was a big shot. Next thing we know, there’s a drawing by Marie Severin, and there’s Ed Hannigan, screaming, running down the corridor and a clump of hair is chasing him. “Here, Daddy! Daddy!” [laughter]

Marvel Bullpen Reunion 2001 Not Brand Echh. ROMITA: That’s known as tying your hands behind your back and then challenging you to a fight. [laughs] That was Liebowitz’s trick. ME: This page is lettered by a man named Sam Rosen. Tell us a little about Sam Rosen. ROMITA: He was the most unobtrusive guy in the world, and modest, and quiet, and an almost matchless letterer. Fantastic, really. SEVERIN: [Artie] Simek used to love to talk about baseball, and talk about baseball, and talk about baseball... ROMITA: He had been a sports cartoonist. SEVERIN: Well, he knew his stuff, but, gee whiz, after a while I was throwing things at him. [laughs] COLAN: I understand he also played the spoons. He would hold the spoons in his hand. ROMITA: He was a spoon player for many an hour. He used to tap them on his fingers and his lap. SEVERIN: These people are so versatile. All these great hidden talents. ROMITA: Well, I remember Artie for another reason. First of all, he kept his wife awake all night because he worked in his It was partly house ads like the above one from Marvel mags coverdated March 1966 that led to Marie Severin being tapped to draw stories. As hinted at by Stan's line at top, Marie conceived, drew, and even wrote the ad, though Stan had Kirby-Esposito photostats pasted over her Hulk figures. Ironically, ere long, she'd be penciling "The Incredible Hulk." And at right, courtesy of Mike Burkey, is one of the many, many, many cover roughs Marie did over the years at Marvel—though this one doesn't seem to have been used. [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

SEVERIN: Stan told me to keep him laughing and we didn’t give him any choice. ROMITA: That’s right. That’s why he was inspired for Brand Echh, because he figured, let’s borrow some of that humor power. Stu Schwartzberg was our stat man and ended up writing some of that stuff. SEVERIN: Yeah, well, that [the stat-room job] was a waste. He shouldn’t have been working there. ROMITA: He still should be writing humor stuff, but I think he’s still doing some stat work. ME: Nobody’s doing stat work these days. Stat work does not exist any more. Do you remember about this thing at all? [panel shake heads] The story that I was told was that Martin Goodman, who was the publisher at Marvel, was distributed by DC. He was limited. DC—Independent News, that is—would not distribute more than “X” number of [Marvel] books. It started with eight a month and it went up a little more after that. And he wanted to publish more comics. He kept going to [co-publisher] Jack Liebowitz at DC and saying, “Let me put out more books,” because he wanted to split Tales of Suspense and get “Iron Man” and “Captain America” into separate books, and split Tales to Astonish. And Liebowitz finally said, “Okay, you can add two more books, one western and one humor comic.” He said, “I want a super-hero.” “No, one’s a western and one’s a humor comic.” So Goodman called Stan and said, “Add two more books, one a western and one is a humor comic—and make them appeal to our super-hero readers.” So they did Ghost Rider and

Buscema, Colan, Romita, & Severin

Marvel? [laughs] I don’t know anything that’s going on. I don’t know all these people they’re talking about. I worked at home. I don’t know what was going on. COLAN: One question, does anybody remember Freddie Eng? BUSCEMA: Yeah, I do. [laughter] We worked with him. He was back at the Empire State Building.

Letterer Artie Simek (above) as per the 1969 F.F. Annual (thanks to Jon B. Cooke)—and artist/production manager Sol Brodsky (right), from the 1976 Marvel Convention program book.

bedroom. And he used to have the pages on the bed next to his poor wife, and every time he would rattle a page, she woke up. Always at night, he was working. His wife was in the bedroom, trying to sleep. The other thing I remember about Art Simek: he insisted that the moon walk [in 1969] was staged, tabletop. Before the movie came out that used that theory. In other words, it was all tabletop photography and faked. He was convinced that there was never a moon walk. He told me once, “Can’t you see how herky-jerky the motions are in there?” I said, “That’s because they’re using film. They’re stretching out the film and doing every other frame.” He didn’t believe me. He thought it was a phony, the first time. [laughs]

COLAN: I remember a job he did, a five- or six-page job, it was done the same day. He was an artist in the Bullpen but he’d only ink. [NOTE: Jim Amash tells me that other Timely staffers he’s talked to recall Fred Eng primarily as a letterer, but it would seem that he also inked. —Roy.] ME: There was another person on the staff who was indispensable for a time, and that’s John Verpoorten. John was six-foot-five and very wide and, although a very sweet man, his face was in a perpetual scowl. ROMITA: That was his act, yeah. SEVERIN: John was a riot. He and I got along pretty good. And he went out to Disneyland out in California and I drew a picture of a plane with a big bulge. [laughs] ROMITA: And he was sagging in the chair. SEVERIN: So he came back and he said, “I have a present for you, but I

ME: Alfredo Alcala believed that same theory. Let me mention another name and that’s Sol Brodsky. Talk about what he did, what his contribution to the company was. SEVERIN: Well, he’d been in the industry, in Stan’s early Bullpen before I was there, many years before. But anyway, he knew production and he was very businesslike, very businesslike. And as I’ve always said, if you want a good comic book outfit, you’ve got to have a lot of Jews at the top. You need more Jews up there, they know what they’re doing. [laughs] They love you if you work hard and they really—it’s great. We need more Jews in the business. Anyway, Sol was great and I miss him. He was a really nice man. ROMITA: [to audience] You remember Mrs. Archie Bunker? [laughs] Actually, Sol Brodsky was the glue in that place. It was hysterical. Stan was a dynamo. He used to jump around us, inspiring us, and conning us all the time, and promoting everything. Sol Brodsky stood by the Bullpen entrance there as Stan was leaving every day with two stories under his arm: “There’s John Buscema’s Avengers, John Romita’s Spider-Man, you’ve gotta write them by tomorrow, or else.” If it wasn’t for Brodsky standing there, we never would have gotten anything out, because he told him, “This is it. I don’t care. I don’t care if you don’t sleep for a week. We’re getting these books in.” And Stan would go home and stand there at his typewriter on his double-decker desk and turn them out. He used to do ten pages in an afternoon. He was amazing. It was tremendous. And Brodsky was the motivation. He was the administrator and the whip. He was the hatchet man. BUSCEMA: Can I ask a question? [at Mark’s okay] Was I working at (Above left:) John Verpoorten, from the 1976 Marvel Con book—and a nursery rhyme parody he and Roy T. did for Not Brand Echh #11 (Dec. 1968). [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Marvel Bullpen Reunion 2001

couldn’t bring it in today.” And I said, “Ooh, what is it?” He said, “Well, it reminded me of you,” and it was a miniature pot-bellied stove. Great. ROMITA: He also had the most wonderful voice. He was good enough to do voiceovers, and he always said he was going to do it. He could have made more money doing voiceovers. His voice was tremendously deep and mellow. And he was a talented artist. He was our production manager and he was the whip and the chair to keep us producing the pages and threatening people’s lives. And he more than once chased people out of his office. I remember him chasing the editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics, “Get out of my office,” and the guy walked out. He was too big to argue with. But he was a talented inker. He inked me, my newspaper strip, the dailies, for quite a while. He also inked Jack Kirby on the Bicentennial Captain America Treasury. If you look at that book, you’ll see some damn good inking by John Verpoorten. He was a very talented guy and he introduced me to pirated movie films. Which had me trembling in my boots, because I thought I was going to be arrested at any minute. [laughs] COLAN: I met John up there at Marvel, and he was a big film collector. He had a massive amount of 16mm prints of just about all the major features. At that time, I wanted to start collecting myself. He was just a wonderful guy. Massive fellow, and he died very young, very, very young. ROMITA: Did you ever meet him in the office, John? BUSCEMA: Once or twice. [laughs] ME: See, if you were late, you would have met him more. BUSCEMA: I was never late with a job. I was always ready for that check to come in.

MIKEis searching BURKEY for

Gene Colan could make just sitting around in a hotel room look interesting—as in this second “Captain Marvel” story, from Marvel Super-heroes #13 (March 1968). Thanks to David G. Hamilton. [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

ANY AND ALL ORIGINAL COMIC ART— especially AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #39-297. Also, for SALE or TRADE:

ME: Okay, here’s a question for all four of you. I would like to discuss what it was like to be locked in a room with Stan Lee, batting out a plot.

Over 700 Pictured Pieces of Comic Art! Contact: http://www.theartboard.com/RomitaMan

BUSCEMA: That was fun.

Spider-Man TM & ©Marvel Characters, Inc.

ME: I witnessed this a few times. I worked with Stan last year. I’m still waiting for my stock options from Stan Lee Media to mature. Tell us about Stan in a creative meeting. SEVERIN: You had to be fast to duck because he would be gesticulating. This was many years ago. He would go into describing something and he wouldn’t hesitate, jumping on a desk, rolling on the floor, acting out like it was a Frankenstein or a Hulk pose. And you had to absorb this. You know, there was Gene in there. In fact, one time, he had been in a story conference with Stan and he came out and, “Oh, wait a minute. Does he want him in—?” He had a question, does he use the new costume or the old costume on, and is this night or day in the first scene, what did he want? And he turned back to ask Stan, and Stan says, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” because he was on the next thing. Well, it wasn’t five minutes. From that time on, Gene brought his tape recorder. [laughs] ROMITA: He was high-tech. SEVERIN: [to Colan] You were high tech. We were just forgetful. And

Buscema, Colan, Romita, & Severin

a good idea, but it’s probably better without Aunt May because she can’t keep up with him.” He would only remember that he said it was supposed to be with Aunt May, no matter what I thought. Same thing happened with Jack Kirby, out in the back seat of a car, once when they were plotting. It was the birth of Franklin Richards... SEVERIN: In the back seat of a car? [laughter, applause] ROMITA: Stan had a convertible Cadillac. Whenever Jack was in, Stan would drive Jack home and I would hitch a ride because I lived along the way. So I would be in the back seat of Stan’s convertible while he was cutting in and out of Queens Boulevard traffic. And Jack and he were plotting stories. Now I think about four or five times I heard them plot stories. This one sticks in my mind because it’s almost like I was watching Laurel and Hardy. These two guys are in the front, two giants, and Jack is saying, “Well, Stanley, what are we going to make the kid like? Is he going to be a wizard? Is he going to be a genius? Is he going to be super-powered, or is he going to be a normal kid in the midst of a crazy family?” Stan would say, “Well, let’s try this,” and “Let’s try that.” So Stan would go off on a tangent and Jack would be talking about what he thought should happen. Jack would go home and do what he thought Stan was expecting. And when Stan got the script, I could hear him saying, [frantic] “Jack forgot everything we were talking about!” [laughs] And that’s what led to making slight changes in Jack’s stories, because Stan was under the impression that Jack had forgotten what he said. And Jack was under another impression. So they were hysterical to watch. ME: Mr. Buscema, did you ever know Stan Lee? [laughs] BUSCEMA: Did I work at Marvel? I mean, I’m hearing stories I never heard. I don’t recall Stan jumping or dancing because we worked over the phone.

Everyone deserves a

Golden Age!

John Romita’s layouts for a page from Amazing Spider-Man #70 (March 1969), courtesy of Mike Burkey, John’s amiable art representative. See Mike’s ad on the opposite page—the guy’s got over 300 pieces of art by JR alone, and that’s just for starters! [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

then Stan would take the story and say, “I didn’t think of that. What is this? I didn’t write that.” “Yes, you did.” “No, I didn’t.” COLAN: I used to tape my phone conversations with Stan. He would plot with me over the phone. And we would talk about a scene he wanted and it would take ten minutes, five minutes—it was over. No 22page story took over five minutes. And he said, “You fill in the rest.” [laughs] ROMITA: That was the secret. COLAN: He could write all those books because of that. ROMITA: I’ll tell you the other problem that we had. When he and I plotted, I was in the office and he took more time. And he could always get me anytime he wanted; whenever he had nothing else, he would get me. And we would plot, and he would come up with ideas or probe and try to get me to come up with an idea. And then he would remember his thoughts, and I would remember my thoughts. Stan would say, “Why don’t we do this with Spider-Man and Aunt May?” And I’d say, “That’s

GiVE BACK TO THE CREATORS WHO GAVE YOU YOUR DREAMS.

Marvel Bullpen Reunion 2001 lady in the story? Why do there have to be so many kids in the goddam book? Let him have only two friends. What does he need nine for? I’m sick and tired of drawing that goddam stuff. Can’t you change his mind? Can’t you put him in a desert once?” And I’d say, “You figure out a story with Spider-Man on a desert. All he can climb is a damn rubbery cactus.” Steep cliffs, that might be good. But really, John wanted to be rustic, and we were stuck in New York City. He’d complain. He was screaming like a stuck pig every step of the way. BUSCEMA: Now, that’s a lie. [laughs] What John is saying is that I hate drawing buildings and I hate drawing cars and I hate drawing airplanes. I wanted to draw him in the desert. ROMITA: But the end of the story is, here’s a guy that gave you all sorts of fits on the phone, “Don’t give me this plot, I hate that SpiderMan, I hate that whole—” And he would turn in the damnedest, sensitive, beautiful stuff you ever saw in your life. [applause] Everyone who has seen Spider-Man #72-78 and 79 and 81, they know the stuff that was in there. I had to deal with him first-hand. This is the guy complaining about the personal life and all the intricacies that he had to remember. He did subtle stuff, beautiful girls, tender moments with his aunt, all the wonderful private stuff.. BUSCEMA: Thank you. You’re bringing tears to my eyes. [laughs] You’re being too generous, John. ROMITA: When he tells you “this old crap,” don’t worry about it. He’s

Since John Buscema hated drawing Amazing Spider-Man, we’ve printed something he probably enjoyed a bit more: the splash from the more recent Thor #9, in pencil form, courtesy of Owen O’Leary. Don’t miss Owen’s ad in this ish—he was John’s art rep during 2000-2001, and has many primo pieces of Buscema art. [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

ROMITA: And you used to love the plots, right? BUSCEMA: I hated it. I... what are we talking about? [laughs] ME: I asked a very simple question, which was, what was it like to plot a story with Stan? What kind of things did you bring to it? Did it excite you at all? BUSCEMA: Yeah, I was so excited, I fell asleep up here. Anyway, Stan would call me and say that he had an idea. And I’d say, “Yeah, that’s great, Stan. Let’s go with it,” and that was it. I tell you, I never argued with Stan or with anybody. I’m a very easygoing guy. [laughs] ROMITA: Wait a second, let me tell you about plotting with John Buscema, when John was spelling me on Spider-Man for about a year. It seemed like a year or maybe— BUSCEMA: Ten years. [laughs] ROMITA: Stan and I would work out the plot, because we had to do it whenever we got a half hour. I would work out the plot and I was supposed to call up John Buscema and tell him here’s the plot for Spider-Man #72. And he’d say, “Oh, don’t tell me it’s time for that crap again. I don’t want to do Spider-Man again. Do I have to do that old

Last issue we showed you the inked version of the above sketch, wondering whether it had been printed in Marvel's short-lived Conan the Savage black-&-white mag or elsewhere. By sheer coincidence, whilst A/E #15 was being printed, collector Rob Daniels e-mailed us (through publisher John Morrow) a scan of the rough pencils for that illo, which he had recently purchased on eBay, and which he kindly offered to share with us. But we still don't know where (or if) the inked version was printed! [Art ©2002 the respective copyright holder; Conan TM & ©2002 Conan Properties, Inc.]

Buscema, Colan, Romita, & Severin

lying because he did beautiful stuff all the time. Complaining, but he did beautiful stuff. BUSCEMA: I’d had to do it ’cause Stan threatened me. It was either that or I’d lose my job. COLAN: I remember John as being a very confident, easygoing guy. And I told him the other day—I haven’t seen John in a long time—I said, “John, you always reminded me of Robert Mitchum,” when he was in his heyday, when he was young. He’d swagger in the walk, he was terrific, and I love this man. If I had to have a hero in this business it was John because he’s a great artist. His anatomy is to perfection. He was one of the models that I tried to live up to in my career. I never could draw like John. John was always at ease with what he did. He could smoke a cigarette, carry on a conversation, and finish a page, all at the same time. A great guy. BUSCEMA: What is this, John Buscema Day? I hate kids, I hate drawings... ROMITA: Marie can tell you, when his Avengers pages came in— because I think when he hit The Avengers, he was doing the most staggeringly beautiful stuff. Alex Raymond in his prime wasn’t doing stuff like that. That Avengers butler was like a work of art. Here’s a side character—he would slip him in there and you would eat your heart out to see what he did to those characters. Do you remember the Avengers stuff? When they came in, the pencils, there was a flock towards the Thermofax machine to make copies. We went crazy. We all made copies of those Avengers and we used them, almost like a guide. You know, A Buscema re-creation of the cover of Avengers #57 (Oct. 1968), with his own inking, this time. Courtesy of Owen O'Leary. [Art ©2002 estate of John Buscema; Avengers TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Marvel Bullpen Reunion 2001 Catholic relic, you know? I had to do the same thing and I did it very quietly. I didn’t scream. I didn’t want anyone to know that I didn’t know what I was doing. ROMITA: Remember the time you took one of my covers and made a photostat and left it underneath my drawing table and put footprints on it? [laughs] Or you’d pour red ink over it? When I come in from lunch and I see my cover on the floor, destroyed, and my heart was in my mouth, I’m trying to catch my breath at that same time. And then they started laughing and then I realized I’d been had. It scared the hell out of me. ME: Let’s go to the audience for questions. A gentleman will be coming to you with a microphone so that you can share with us— right over here. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yeah, how many of you guys are responsible for the death of Gwen Stacy? BUSCEMA: Who is Gwen Stacy? What is it? A candy? [laughs] ME: Gwen Stacy was a character in Spider-Man, Spider-Man’s girlfriend; you didn’t care about her. Gil Kane drew that issue. Mr. Romita, I believe, was heavily involved in the crime.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Doing Great Art. SEVERIN: I didn’t have time to make copies. Talking about the Thermofax, one of the funniest stories—Larry Lieber, who is Stan Lee’s brother—Larry changed his name because he didn’t want to sound like a Chinese laundry. (That’s an old one.) Anyway, Larry was always a nervous wreck. Larry was always saying, “Whose stuff is in? Whose stuff is in?” And he would be the first one on line, saying [nervously] “We have to Thermofax everything. Put it in.” Beautiful. But it was like a salmon-colored, thin paper, and he put the page in the Thermofax and they’d pass each other in the machine, it was heated, and you’d pull out the original page. It was like on a roll, a pain in the neck. Photostats are so much better, but this was at least as speedy and sometimes you had to wait half a day for Xeroxes. Boy, don’t you wish you had stock in that one? Anyway, so Larry, who’s always so nervous about something, puts the Kirby page in—and it caught on fire. [laugh and moans] It comes out and there was this shriek. And the Thermofax came out. It was all right, bluish print on salmon. And this page was smoking because it was burning. [shrieks] “Oh, no! It’s gone! I can’t believe I’m doing this! What’ll I do?” And he says, “I’m gonna copy the page.” He said, “I don’t know. How can we copy the page? Oh, my God, I’ve got to get it to Stan.” He was going to copy the whole thing. We said, “No, dear boy. Take the Thermofax and put it on the lightbox.” And all his tears ran down. [to Romita] Well, you don’t know, once, what happened. Once, I did almost the same thing too, smoking. And I had an ashtray. I’ve since stopped; it’s a stupid thing to do. Anyway, one of your Spider-Man dailies, when you first started out—you were out, and I think they wanted me to make room for some things. Peter was on a motorcycle, whatever it was. I had just changed a portion and I had a whole other bunch of things to do. I was talking to another gal and I put the page down, right over the ashtray. And turned right around and I sniffed. I look down and there’s a hole, about that big. You know that feeling you get? “Oh, no! Not the Spider-Man daily!” That was like stepping on a

Buscema, Colan, Romita, & Severin SEVERIN: He wanted to kill Aunt May! ROMITA: Oh, yeah. That’s what the whole plot was, just to kill Aunt May. That issue, Gil was drawing it, but I had plotted with Gerry Conway before Gil took it on. And Gerry Conway was told they wanted to kill a major character, and the assumption was it was going to be Aunt May. And Gerry Conway, we’re in his apartment, we’re batting it back and forth—I said, “You know, if you kill Aunt May, first of all, Peter Parker’s not going to have any reason to be paranoid and worried about his identity and An unused Romita rough for a Nick Fury, taking care of himself. Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. cover, courtesy of Mike Burkey. And I don’t think [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.] anybody will care. They may even be rooting for Aunt May to die.” [laughter] I said, “What we need is to kill a major character that will matter to the strip. If we do Mary Jane, she’s an airhead and maybe the Mary Jane fans will get mad for a while but then they’d forget about it.” I said, “We should kill Gwen because that’s Spider-Man’s girlfriend, Peter Parker’s girlfriend.” And Gerry said, “You’re right.”

AUDIENCE MEMBER: What’s the story behind the Spectacular Spider-Man magazine from the late ’60s? ROMITA: That was an attempt to go adult, but Martin Goodman and Stan always talked big in policy and said, “We’re going to do an adult magazine. We’ll do it black-&-white and it’s going to be oversized and it’s going to be a real magazine, quality cover, slick cover, and a painting.” And then they were always chickening out because they found out they couldn’t advertise an adult magazine in the regular comics. Martin Goodman said, “Oh, forget about it and make it.” Well, we did this Spectacular Spider-Man in black-&-white with tones. I did it with charcoal and wash and I did an inking job and then I did tones over the panels to make it look photographic in black-&-white. Martin Goodman—I think some of his cronies told him, “Martin, what do you want to do with an oversized magazine? It don’t fit on the racks, you know, all that stuff. Cut it out.” The distributor says, “It’s too hard to pack it, it won’t fit in the trucks,” all the dumbest ideas in the world. Before he found out that book sold, he chickened out and turned Spectacular #2 into a full-color comic that wasn’t an adult magazine. So it had been on the drawing board and we were making it the second half of the first story and it was a disaster. Three months later, the figures came in. Martin Goodman found out that it was the best-selling thing we’d ever done, selling for 35c, and he

And we passed it with Roy. Roy said he remembers passing it; and he said he cleared it with Stan. Stan, to this day, claims he was on a trip. [laughs] Because when he came back, he said, “Bring her back.” He saw all the messages and all the complaints and all the mail coming in. “How did you do that?” he said. “Bring her back.” He wanted her back the next month and we talked him out of this. We said, “We can’t do this.” But Roy tells me he definitely cleared it with Stan. And so I’m not the villain. I did not override anybody. It was supposed to be—we were trying to shake up the readership and show them that nothing was safe, nobody was secure, that people could die, and we did it, and let me tell you, I haven’t been right on a lot of my judgments, but this one— 35 to 40 years later, you’re still talking about the death of Gwen Stacy, who never mattered in the book anyway. So it was a good idea. If it wasn’t important, it wasn’t worth doing. I swear to you. SEVERIN: Stan always liked blondes better. ROMITA: Stan wanted her to be the girlfriend, so he made her the girlfriend. Then I killed her. [applause]

John Romita

For many years, Jazzy Johnny Romita was kept busy doing layouts, corrections, cover sketches—you name it. Here’s his penciled rough for Marvel Team-up #48 (Aug. 1976), courtesy of Al Bigley. [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Marvel Bullpen Reunion 2001

had missed the boat. He screwed up. We had a head start on everybody else in black-&-white magazines and Martin Goodman messed it up. If he wasn’t passed away, I wouldn’t tell you that story. I tell you now, but that’s the story of Spectacular Spider-Man.

whenever you’re assigned to do anything like that, you just do the best you can, you try to do it as delicately as you can, but if it comes out comprehensible, you’re just blessed. But he probably doesn’t remember it because he hates the inking on it, that’s all.

ME: Martin Goodman, remember, was the man who looked at Amazing Fantasy #15 and said, “This will never sell. Let’s cancel this Spider-Man character.” He did six issues of The Hulk and said, “That’s never gonna go. Let’s cancel that.” They replaced Amazing Fantasy with Linda Carter, Student Nurse, and they replaced The Hulk with Sgt. Fury. Another question over here...

COLAN: John is not only an excellent penciler, but an excellent inker. ROMITA: You did Dr. Strange for quite a while, didn’t you? And I only inked one because I was too busy. I inked something in Savage Tales, too, I think. Did I ink that “Brother Voodoo”?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: There was an issue of Dr. Strange in the 1970s that was penciled by Mr. Colan and inked by Mr. Romita and I think it’s the only time I saw that combination. It was beautiful.

ROMITA: Oh, it wasn’t by me?

ME: They did one romance story for Marvel’s love comics. AUDIENCE MEMBER: I’d like them to elaborate on that collaboration a little bit, about how each felt about the other’s contribution.

ME: No, the one in Savage Tales was... Brother something-or-other. “Black Brother.” It was inked by Tom Palmer.

ME: No, you were doing “Femizons.” When you inked Colan, I felt like it was, “Gee, this is really good Gene Colan here and it’s really good Johnny Romita here. And it was wonderful artwork, but I felt it was like when Murphy Anderson was inking Joe Kubert. It kind-of wanted to be one or the other. COLAN: Yeah, definitely so. I always had trouble with them. I’m glad you liked that Dr. Strange, though. AUDIENCE MEMBER: What was the mood in the Bullpen when Stan Lee said, basically, you were going to have those giantsized 25¢ books in 1971? ROMITA: They are all going to say they don’t remember that. [laughs] ME: The books had been 32 pages for 15¢. DC went to 48 pages for a quarter; and briefly, for two months, Marvel did, as well, with 48 pages. But where DC put reprints in the back of their books, Marvel tried to do all-new stories for two months and all of a sudden, the whole work of the company is 50% greater. ROMITA: Boy, it was murder.

A Buscema-penciled panel that was omitted from an issue of Silver Surfer—plus John's pencil-and-ink re-creation of the cover of Surfer #8 (Sept. 1969). Courtesy of Owen O'Leary and pro artist Mark Pacella. See John's border notes to scripter Stan Lee, and Stan's note to "omit" the panel. Mark P. told Owen that John Romita once had a manila envelope full of panels of original Buscema art "omitted" from this story or that; John B. told John R. he didn't want them back, so Mark, bless his heart, made photocopies of all of them. [Commission art ©2002 estate of John Buscema; Silver Surfer TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

ROMITA: Be kind, be kind. COLAN: I don’t remember. [laughs] I’m sorry. ROMITA: I’ll tell you something, he’s the hardest guy in the world to ink because his stuff really should be reproduced from pencil; his stuff is so subtle. [applause] I was trying not to take away all the subtleties in his work and try to make it reproducible; it’s almost like sacrilege. So

ME: And after two months of having that, they went back to 20¢ for 32 pages and wiped DC off the face of the Earth. ROMITA: They didn’t want to back off their decision, I guess. Is that when I did a couple issues of Captain America? That was fun. I enjoyed that one. ME: It always looked to me like Marvel was always at capacity. If you guys had the ideal crew to do twenty books, you were doing 24, or 28. ROMITA: Yeah. Always, always. ME: Was there ever a time you felt you had enough time to do the work you wanted? ROMITA: Never. Never. We begged for it. AUDIENCE MEMBER: I had a question for Mr. Colan. When you

Buscema, Colan, Romita, & Severin

KEVIN HALL: I was curious—since this is a Bullpen reunion and even notwithstanding Mr. Buscema’s comments that he always worked at home, there were times where you guys worked in the office together or with other colleagues rather than work at home. Were there any points that you came in there? BUSCEMA: You’re asking me? You were working at all times and you came in four times a year to collect a check. [laughs] That’s the extent of my involvement. COLAN: You did before. You worked for the Bullpen once in the ’40s. ’47, wasn’t it? BUSCEMA: No, ’48. We’re talking about the Bullpen at Timely? Hey, what’s the question? KH: What were the good and bad points about working there at an office or working at home? BUSCEMA: Well, working in a room with a bunch of talented guys like Syd Shores or Carl Burgos and Gene Colan and Danny DeCarlo—I could go on—Mike Sekowsky— COLAN: John Severin, was he there, too? BUSCEMA: No, I never met John Severin. Well, anyway, it was a great experience for me. I walked in there in ’48. Gene keeps saying ’46, I keep

were working on Dr. Strange, I think around 1968, you altered his appearance and created a new head, and everything. I was just wondering whose idea was that? And if it was yours and you designed it, where did you get the inspiration for that? COLAN: Dr. Strange, as I remember it, had a totally different costume, and when I got it, I wasn’t aware of any other costume until later on. So I just simply took it on as an original thing and I made him sort of look like—and it was his face, actually, just his face. Yeah, I changed the face. I don’t know, I just did my thing. ROMITA: Was it a mask? COLAN: Well, it was a mustache, and that’s it. But the costume was already formed. I just changed the face. I was allowed to do it that way. I mean I just didn’t take it on myself to do that. I would imagine that Stan said yeah, go ahead, it didn’t matter. ME: Gene, you’ve said that you would draw Dracula like Jack Palance in the back of your mind. When you took over something like Dr. Strange or Iron Man, would you ever cast an actor in the person you were drawing? COLAN: No, just a general good-looking guy, like Clark Gable. Strong chin, chiseled features. A strong, silent hero, heroic look. ME: Let’s ask Kevin here. Kevin brought us cookies and crackers. That was nice of him. [Kevin Hall had supplied water, etc., during the panel.]

Though Gene has apparently forgotten it, the San Diego con-goer who asks about Dr. Strange once wearing "a totally different costume" is referring to the one Doc wore when he sported a blue face (which wasn't a mask), which writer/associate editor Roy Thomas had Gene design in 1968. That costume, a super-hero version of his original one, ran in Dr. Strange #177-183 (1969), but failed to save the mag from being cancelled despite beautiful Colan-Palmer artwork... so Doc resumed his old look when Roy brought him back to found The Defenders a year or so later. This selfportrait of Gene with some of the heroes with whom he is most associated was probably drawn circa 1969; that's how come no Howard the Duck! [Art ©2002 Gene Colan; Captain America, Daredevil, Dr. Strange, Iron Man, and Sub-Mariner TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Marvel Bullpen Reunion 2001

We've left it till kinda late in the interview, but here are samples of the boys' work from the Timely/Atlas days: (a) "Two Lives Had I!"—very early John Buscema (pencils, at least) from Suspense #4 (Aug. 1950)... (b) John Romita's "great white hunter" splash from a backup in Lorna the Jungle Girl #17 (Jan. 1956)... and (c) Gene Colan's "The Hands" from a 1950s horror tale, as reprinted from photostats in Marvel's black-&-white Monsters Unleashed! #4 (Feb. '74). Copies of the Buscema & Romita pages were sent by Dr. Michael J. Vassallo. [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

saying ’48. Anyway, I went in there in ’48 and these were the guys I grew up with. My God, I read their books and suddenly I’m working with them. You know how intimidating that was? But I learned so much from these guys. It was really a great experience. The thing that annoyed me was, Stan Lee would walk into the room with a whip and he’d beat the hell out of us. I just couldn’t take that. He’d walk around with a beanie on his head with a propeller. I kid you not. I mean Stan could be a real idiot sometimes. I love him, I love the guy. It’s just that he’s playacting. Stan is an actor and he’s always on stage and I love the guy, I really do. ME: Harvey Kurtzman used to say that, when he was up there, Stan was playing the flute sometimes and he might serenade the artists. ROMITA: We could do an hour on Stan Lee. BUSCEMA: Oh, please. Not again. ROMITA: I’ll tell you what we used to do. He had binoculars by his window, overlooking Madison Avenue, and if he had a moment between phone calls, if you came in on him to ask him a question, he’d look and say, “I’m in love. There’s a girl across the street. I’m in love.”

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I was curious about the first fan convention, memories from that. ME: That’s 1964. There was actually a panel at this convention about that. Track down Bill Schelly. He knows all about that. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Anyway, I was really curious about Steve Ditko and the reason maybe why he’s really not coming around, or if you guys work with Steve Ditko any more. ROMITA: I think he went to that first convention, right? SEVERIN: I don’t remember that. I remember him at a party at Roy’s house, but I don’t remember him— ROMITA: I think he went to the first one and never went to another convention after that. And it’s our loss, because it would have

SEVERIN: Even in the Bullpen in those days, he had binoculars in the back of the Bullpen. COLAN: More Bullpen stories. It’s about Freddie Eng. [laughs] On Monday morning, there were about seven desks facing the door as you walked into the Bullpen, on the left side. Syd Shores, I believe, was the last one, and his back was sort-of to a window. We were way up on the Empire State Building. On the right side were other desks. Okay, Freddie Eng was the first one by the door, and all the desks were evenly distributed. And gradually, as Freddy Eng would get up to go to the washroom or to see Stan, he would get up. And what you had to do to get up, you get up and push your chair back. And each time he’d come back to his desk, he’d get up again and he’d keep pushing his chair back so the fellow behind him would have to push his chair back, and so on. And that’s how a little chain reaction—by Friday, Syd Shores was out the window. All the desks would be piled up and he would be out the window. [laughs] John Romita drew everybody! This drawing was doubtless done for a kids’ activity book. Courtesy of Mike Burkey. [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Buscema, Colan, Romita, & Severin

been great. I always regret that I never had the chance to talk to him at length. ME: The story he told me, to answer quickly, was that he just didn’t like the atmosphere. He felt people were asking him to analyze work he felt should speak for itself. He didn’t want his picture taken. That was the other thing. He went to a convention and, obviously, people would have cameras, and he just didn’t want to be part of that. He’s turned down repeated requests to be interviewed or to appear at conventions and he chooses not to. Although lately, he’s been a little more open than he was in the past about that. ROMITA: Hopefully, we can get him here someday, Mark. AUDIENCE MEMBER: You guys started talking about your letterers, talking about Sam Rosen and Art Simek. I didn’t get into Rosen, but I was curious because I’ve read so many Marvel Comics with Simek’s name in them and I really don’t know much about that one person. I was curious if you guys could get into him at all. SEVERIN: I met Artie when I worked with Stan in the ’50s. I left Mad magazine because I knew it would never last. Anyway, he was a tall, skinny guy. Where was he from? He always looked like sort-of a country guy and real laid-back and [drawls] “I don’t know,” a great letterer and a family man, you know. And he died too young. I didn’t socialize with him at all. He was one of those rare ones like myself—he took the subway home. He had an hour’s ride so he didn’t socialize. ROMITA: I dealt with him a little bit because I used to drive by his house on my way home and I used to drop pages off that were penciled (Left:) A Colan page from the '90s, inked by EC legend Al Williamson, for a "Wolverine" story in Marvel Comics Presents, repro’d from a photocopy of the original art. Courtesy of Dann Thomas. [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

www.GeneColan.com The place to go to keep in touch with what Gene’s up to, what his fans are saying, and all sorts of other good stuff! • New original comic strips • Gene Colan bibliography • Correspondence courses • Original columns on life, the universe, and comics • Art galleries • E-mail Gene or leave a note in his guest book • Original pages for sale • Converse with other comics afficionados Howard the Duck ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc. Art ©2000 Gene Colan

Here’s a lovely drawing Gene graciously did for Roy Thomas to give his wife Dann as an anniversary present, depicting Dann and a certain romantic talking fowl. Gene is her favorite comic book artist.

Marvel Bullpen Reunion 2001 To me, it was like hell, because I almost went nuts trying to draw those small panels. BUSCEMA: I think it turned out okay. ROMITA: You see, to me, it was traumatic. To these guys, they made more money at it. That’s the secret of our existence. BUSCEMA: And then Shooter reduced it even more. ROMITA: You can’t please everybody. AUDIENCE MEMBER: This is for John Buscema. Thanks for coming out. I also read something about one of the issues of Silver Surfer that Stan did not like the way it was drawn.

BUSCEMA: Silver Surfer #4. Oh, you heard that story? You want to hear about that? If I tell you, it doesn’t go outside this room. [laughs, applause] Anyway, we’d started on The Silver Surfer. Stan had great hopes for it, and we did issue #1. It was 25¢ for, I don’t know how many, 40 pages. This was a real big thing in those days. And each issue was going downhill in sales until we hit Marie Severin & Ramona Fradon—together again, but for the first time! Before they teamed up to #4. Now, #4, I really enjoyed it. I thought it was one of do this issue’s cover, these Silver Age artists of Sub-Mariner and “Aquaman” drew this sketch for the best things I’d done up to that point. Well, I went collector Ed Zeno, who graciously shared it with us. [Art ©2002 Marie Severin & Ramona Fradon; into Stan’s office. He called me in and he tore the book Namor TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Aquaman TM & ©2002 DC Comics.] apart. I mean, it was an absolute disaster as far as he was concerned. He tore [into] page after page after page and and needed to be lettered. And I could never get out of his house said, “Look, you shouldn’t have done this,” and, “You shouldn’t have without a half hour of conversation that I didn’t need. You know, he done that.” Okay, that’s the end of it. I walked out of there, I was crosswould walk you to your car, one of those guys that takes too long to say eyed, I didn’t know where I was going. I walked into John Romita’s goodbye. He would drive us nuts. He’d get in the car and: “Where are we going?” He’s still talking while I’m starting up the car. He would follow me down the street if I let him. Anyone who works at home knows you don’t talk to anybody for hours and hours and hours. You get a chance to talk to somebody, you jump at it and I think he was one of those guys. He was a very, very entertaining guy, only he never shut up, he never stopped talking. ME: John, there was a period of a few months in the ’70s, when they tried to save money and have one page in each comic drawn sideways. In other words, you draw two pages on one piece of paper. ROMITA: You could cut the page in half and it would serve as two pages. ME: Yeah, and they would pay the artist for one page. ROMITA: And just ads on the bottom half of the page. ME: No, no. I’m talking about later on, when they actually had you draw a double-spread and it would cover two pages of a printed comic but they would pay for one page. The lettering was done on a normal piece of paper and statted down and pasted up, but Artie Simek didn’t have to do that. He just sat down, pulled out different pens and lettered exactly the same as the reduced photostat. After lettering thousands and thousands of pages at the 10-by-15 size, he had no trouble changing to another size. COLAN: Yeah, that’s another interesting thing. When you’re working 12-by-18, going to 10-by-15 is traumatic. I don’t think I ever recovered from that. The 12-by-18 was the right size. The 10-by-15 was definitely not. I don’t know about you, John. Did you had trouble switching? It was 1967, I think. BUSCEMA: Switched from what to what? [laughs] ROMITA: When we switched from 12-by-18 size to 10-by-15 size. And when we went to 10-by-15, remember? I felt like I was being yanked on.

Buscema, Colan, Romita, & Severin

office at the time and I said, “John, how do you do comics?” [laughs] I didn’t know what the hell happened. On that particular job, by the way, I tried to get away from Jack Kirby. I was trying other things. And I went home and I said to hell with it. I’ll go back to Jack Kirby. I took all of Jack Kirby’s books and I swiped all of his stuff.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: All of you worked for Marvel, or Timely, or whatever it was called, and you all returned in the ’60s. Now, as artists, what were the biggest improvements that helped you upon your return? What improvements about the comic book business that helped you, as artists, to survive?

Well, years went by, about seven or eight years, maybe more, and I get a call from Stan: “Hi, John.” No, he doesn’t call me that. “You old S.O.B.” That’s if Stan’s in a good mood. [laughs] But anyway, he says, “Do you remember Silver Surfer #4?” I said, “Stan, I’ll never forget it.” He said, “That’s one of the greatest things we’ve ever done together.” I couldn’t tell if he was pulling my leg. I didn’t say anything. He says, “Are you still there?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “It was beautiful. We’ve never done anything—” Stan is very outlandish—so I said, “Stan, are you kidding?” He said, “No, what do you mean?” I said, “You don’t remember what you told me?” He said, “What did I tell you?” And I repeated it. “I never said that.”

SEVERIN: The rates were up. [laughs] ROMITA: That’s true. ME: What was better about working for Marvel in the ’60s and ’70s than working for them in the ’50s, aside from the fact that they didn’t go out of business? SEVERIN: Well, I didn’t work for Marvel in the ’50s. I worked for Timely in the late ’50s, but it was a very short time. Comics went down under and they came back in ’64.

ROMITA: She was from the EC crew; she was not used to failure. The rest of us had ups and downs in comics. The reason we all remember the ’50s A rare humorous drawing by John Buscema—done for the 1978 San Diego Comic-Con program without fondness is book—which seems to be a parody of a Frazetta John Carter of Mars drawing. Why John Carter? because we would have You tell us! Thanks to Shel Dorf. [©2002 estate of John Buscema.] one good year and a bad year, and then we’d have But I’m gonna tell you something. A situation like that killed Don one good year and two bad years, and it was terrible... a roller-coaster. I Heck’s career. He was demoralized because there were [later] editors remember going from $20 a page, pencil and ink, to $40 a page, pencil that were on that guy’s back, and he was a fabulous artist. He’d come to and ink. And then, the next two years, every time I took a job in, I got a me—we lived close by—practically in tears and ask me, “John, help me cut and I ended up at $20 a page again. Until I went to DC and suddenly out. What the hell can I do to satisfy these guys?” And he’s a talented I was making $38 a page. We were flying without any parachute. I used guy who’s so great, and it destroyed some people. It didn’t destroy me. I to be afraid of getting a mortgage. I drove Virginia crazy, because I said, said if I can’t work with Stan, I’ll go somewhere else. To hell with Stan. “I have no security. Every time I take in a job, it could be the last Now, don’t tell Stan I said that. [laughs] assignment I get.” And if you didn’t have money in the bank, you were dead. And it was terrifying. ME: The way Don told me the story is that John had been starting his school up and he went to John and said, “Can I take your class? SEVERIN: I used to feel so bad for the guys, because most of you Everyone is telling me I can’t hack it any more and I just don’t get it artists that I knew were veterans. And I know it was a couple of years, and that you’re the guy I should be drawing like. I’ll pay you money and they came back and here they were scrounging around and they got to teach me.” And John refused to take his money and said, “I’m not married and they were really tight. A lot of the young guys today don’t going to take money from another professional.” And he gave Don know how lucky they are, that some people didn’t want to get married, pointers, helped him out a bit, and Don later credited that with the and stuff. I mean, the responsibilities that most of them had growing up fact that he worked until his death. in that era, it was a heavy burden. BUSCEMA: A sad story for Don. The poor guy died—seriously now, I don’t want to get melodramatic but the man died from a broken heart. If a book didn’t sell, it was never the writer’s fault; it was always the artist’s fault. The writer is always right; the artist’s the one who fell on his face. Am I right?

ROMITA: It was scary. I was constantly terrified because every time I used to save money, they used to raise the Social Security tax, and whatever money I had saved, $200, $300, went to Social Security taxes in March, when we used to pay taxes. I used to pay taxes and I never could

Marvel Bullpen Reunion 2001 catch up. And every time an editor hesitated or coughed while we were talking, I’d go, “That’s it. I’m out of the business and I’m going to have to go out and dig ditches.” John was in advertising for several years and he had the ups and downs then. And I think you came back because you didn’t want to deal with these account executives and their wives, right? You came back to comics because it was somewhat more secure. BUSCEMA: Part of the reason I came back to comics was that it took me six hours a day, round trip, to go into the city. I lived quite a distance and I never saw my family. The first year of my son’s life I don’t remember. And Stan called me. He said, “Things are different, John.” “Are you sure?” “I guarantee. How much do you want?” I told him. He said, “I’ll match it.” So I talked it over with my wife and we decided we’re not going to move away from there. We loved the area. In fact, we’re still there after 42 years. But it was a tough era, John’s right. ROMITA: It was terrible. And I know Gene had terrible ups and downs. I know it was a roller-coaster for Gene. COLAN: One time, I went over to Stan’s house. This had been in the ’60s, and he wanted me to work exclusively for Marvel. At that time, I was working for Marvel and DC. So I said to him, “Well, if you want me to come over and work for you, what’s the inducement?” And he said, “Nothing.” I said, “What do you mean ‘nothing’? How about an increase?” He said, “I don’t have to give it to you.” I said, “Why not?” And he says, “Because what will happen is that DC is going to fire you, and when they do, you’ll come back at the same rate you were working for.” So I shook his hand and said, “Thanks a lot,” and I left. The following morning, he called me up and he says, “Okay, come on over. I’ll give you a raise.” He gave me a decent raise. Usually I would ask for a raise over the telephone. I was afraid to face him. And I’d ask him for a raise and he would give me 50¢ a page more than what I was getting. BUSCEMA: That much more? [laughs] ROMITA: We had tough times. ME: In 1970, when Jack Kirby was trying to get a continuation of his contract with Marvel and they offered him a dollar a page raise for three years, and he said, “I think I’m worth more than that.” And they said, “No, you’re not,” and he went to DC. It was sad. We are out of time for this. I would like to thank these four for not only for just sitting here and talking to us this hour, but for all of the hard work they’ve done. Would you join me in thanking Marie Severin, Gene Colan, John Romita and John Buscema? [applause]

Roy here: No way could we end this piece with an illo by just one of this Fabulous Foursome! So here's a montage of a somewhat personal and nostalgic nature to Ye Editor—in which they drew DC heroes! Clockwise from upper left: (a) Gene's pencils of Superman, Batman, and Robin welcoming The Mole back to jail in one of the first stories Roy plotted for DC in 1980-81 (with thanks to David G. Hamilton). (b) John B.'s "Kal-El the Barbarian" leaps tall thatched huts in a single bound in a panel from JLA: Barbarians, the project on which he and Roy were working when Big John passed away; (c) John R.'s jazzy version of a certain Amazon princess (wearing Mary Jane's head?), courtesy of Joel Thingvall; and (d) Marie's splash for "Stuporman!" in Not Brand Echh #7 (April '68). [Top two panels of art ©2002 DC Comics; NBE #7 art ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc; Romita art ©2002 John Romita; Superman/Kal-El, Batman, Robin, & Wonder Woman TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

Owen O’Leary

Johnny B. And Me by Owen O’Leary When I was a kid growing up in the late 1960s, I loved reading and collecting Marvel Comics, and I really enjoyed the work of Jack Kirby, John Romita, and Gene Colan. But my favorite comic book artist was always John Buscema. Always. I was fortunate to meet John five times at various comics conventions over the years. The first time was in 1979 at a con in New York City. A few months later, in September of that same year, John was the special guest at a con in my hometown of Montreal, Canada. I didn’t see John again until 1993, when he came to a show in Toronto. I had brought along a book for him to sign that was written entirely in French; it contained interviews with artists from the worlds of animation, comic books, and newspaper strips. John had been one of the people interviewed, but when I handed him the book, he seemed really surprised to see it. He said that the guys from France who published the book were supposed to send him a copy but never did. Upon hearing that story, I told John that I would trade him the book for a pencil sketch. He agreed, and we spent the rest of the con having a great time talking about the comic book biz and drawing. Two weeks later, a large package from John arrived in the mail. It contained a full pencil drawing of The Punisher, plus twelve pencil-and-ink drawings that he thought I might like. After the Toronto con we started corresponding. Mostly we exchanged Christmas cards every year, and whenever I found a nice quote from another artist talking about John and his art I would send it to him, and he would usually reply. Seven years went by before I saw him again—this time at a show in White Plains, New York, in the summer of 2000. John didn’t recognize me right away, but when I introduced myself, he said, “Owen, how are you doing?” And then he turned to his wife Dolores and said, “Babe, this is the guy from Canada!” In November 2000 I put together an unofficial website on John and his artwork. A short time later, I received a letter from Johnny B., asking me if I wanted to work with him, obtaining commissions requests through the site. After thinking about it for all of two seconds, I called him up the next day and, just like that, we became The Official John Buscema Website! The last time I spoke to John in person was at last summer’s San Diego Comic-Con.

This, Owen says, is “the drawing that John sent me after I traded him that French book at the Toronto comic con in 1993.” [Art ©2002 estate of John Buscema; Punisher TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

It was great to see him, and to be there at the biggest con in the world as Big John Buscema’s representative. It was a real honor and a lot of fun working with John on the commission stuff. Apart from the birth of my son James T., it was one of the most amazing things to ever happen to me. (The “T.” in my son’s name stands for Thor, because Thor was always my favorite Marvel character, and Johnny B. drew the comic for so many years.) Being a huge fan of John’s art ever since I can remember, it was like a dream come true to be actually working with him. I was always a little nervous calling him up, but he was a great guy and he always put me at ease, even when I momentarily confused him by trying to describe to him some old Marvel cover that he had long forgotten about. We only worked together for a little over a year, but I’ll never forget the experience. I used to speak to John at least once or twice a week about commissions. I’ll always remember anxiously picking up the phone to call him to ask him the price for a re-creation of what is arguably one of his most popular Marvel covers ever, only to be alarmed when he groaned loudly over the phone and I heard that familiar voice of his with that great Brooklyn accent practically spit out the words, “Aw, crap! Not that G$@*% Silver Surfer # 4 again! I’ve done that @#$% cover so often, I can do it in my sleep!” I think the quintessential Big John Buscema moment for me, and the one that best captures and illustrates his arm’s-length relationship with comic books, is the time I asked him about the price for a commission

About Me & Johnny B John liked to let on that he didn’t care about his artwork once it left his drawing table, but the truth of the matter was that he hated seeing his pencils inked by other people. But, apart from his brother Sal, Tom Palmer, and a few other inkers, John never liked the way his work looked after it was inked. Unfortunately, the demands of meeting a monthly deadline and of earning a good living for his growing family did not allow him the luxury of the time he needed to ink his own artwork. Nonetheless, John has left behind a tremendous body of work for his fans to remember him by, and for future comic book fans to discover. But John’s legacy doesn’t stop at just the untold amount of comic books he drew. It includes the hundreds and perhaps thousands of people who were influenced by him and his beautiful drawings to become artists themselves. At the e-mail address we set up to receive condolence messages for John’s family (<johnbuscema2002@yahoo.com>), many fans talked about how much they loved his art and especially the book How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way that he and Stan Lee wrote in 1978. From graphic artists to comic book pencilers, animators, and designers, people mentioned what a huge influence that book was in their lives. It seems that hundreds of John’s fans decided to follow his example and make their living in the art field. For a poor kid from South Brooklyn, and the proud son of a humble Italian barber, that’s not a bad legacy. It was a privilege to work with him, and I will always be grateful to him for giving me the opportunity. John Buscema was a special person, and, like a lot of people who knew and loved John, I will miss him.

of a rather famous comics character, and John nonchalantly asked me: “Who’s The Spirit?” I remember thinking afterwards that only John Buscema, one of the most legendary artists in the history of the comics industry and a man who spent almost fifty years of his life drawing comics, could tell me that he never heard of The Spirit and not really care if he had or not. John would usually just brush off my attempts at complimenting him for doing another terrific job on a fan’s commission. But one time he said to me, “What d’you expect? I’m the best man in the business.” We both laughed after he said it, and I felt good knowing that John had such great pride in his drawing ability and knew that he was good and was proud of the high esteem that the industry and fellow pros held for him and his work. Unlike many of his contemporaries, John’s drawing style never went out of fashion; so even after his retirement from Marvel in 1996, editors were continually calling him up and offering him work. John told me that he knew of a lot of “top guys” his age who had trouble finding jobs, so he said he felt very lucky that he was still in such high demand. Growing up poor had a profound effect on John. He took his responsibilities as a family man and provider very seriously, and was a hard worker all his life.

“This is a poster-size charcoal drawing that John was selling at the first con where I ever met him in person,” Owen informs us. It was in 1979 in New York City, and I paid him $25 US for it.” [Art ©2002 estate of John Buscema; Conan TM & ©2002 Conan Properties, Inc.]

The John Buscema Workshop

The John Buscema Workshop [INTRODUCTION: For a couple of years beginning in 1975, John disproved that old adage “Those who can’t, teach” by holding an ongoing workshop for aspiring comics artists. He never intended it to be a full-fledged institution like Joe Kubert’s School of Cartoon and Graphic Art; yet it did produce, in that relatively short time, several comics professionals. During its first year John played a more handson part in the workshop; in the second year, by most accounts, others played a larger role. John had many guest speakers during this period, including Stan Lee and even Alter Ego’s editor. A/E is grateful to two of John’s first-year “students,” Joe Heffernan and Kevin Weremeychik, for the following pair of anecdote-filled reminiscences of that time, and what it meant to them. —Roy.]

PART I

The Gospel According to John Buscema

entertaining, and sometimes about the comic business. If only we had a dime for every time John uttered “JEEEE-ZUS CHRIST!” and then laced into something! I don’t think he ever laughed harder. And John could draw anything... I mean ANYTHING, in any setting, in any position! We were so blessed and lucky to be there for that first year. And he didn’t just teach us art; he taught us about the art business. And, more importantly, Buscema artist-rep Owen O’Leary sent us this about life in general. drawing by “a fan from Brazil”—and no, he wasn’t one of John’s students—but we thought this fine

by Joe Heffernan Well, where to start... John taught the school for two years. The first year, the one in which I attended, he taught himself, though he always had guest speakers come in. That class ran for 42 weeks, two nights a week, from fall of 1975 to almost June of ’76. The first part of the session we met at the Hotel Commodore; and when they closed that to build Donald Trump’s hotel, the class moved to the Biltmore Hotel, right around the corner. The second year, the class was taught for (I believe) twelve weeks, with John teaching the first three weeks, then having other artists teach the remaining weeks. I know that Gil Kane was supposed to do a few of the classes, but I believe he backed out either right before or after the first class. I also believe that Marie Severin, Don Heck, and John Romita were supposed to be involved, but of course time has made these memories a little fuzzy, since I was not involved in that second year.

Anything John said to caricature made a perfect lead-in to this piece. us became gospel. If he “Bira’s” real name is Ubiratan Libanio Dantas de mentioned a comic artist Araujo, by the way. [Art ©2002 Bira.] he thought was good, we would run out the next day to this comic store in New York City (Supersnipe, to be exact), wait in line for the store to open, and buy whatever we could. John always mentioned that Jack Kirby was in a class by himself and that nothing could compare to Kirby. But the big surprise was when he mentioned that Joe Kubert was, in his opinion, the best comic book artist in the field. I felt bad for that comic store owner when about eight of us were in line the next day waiting for him to open. He figured he’d hit a gold mine. When we asked for every Kubert war comic he had, he was pretty disappointed. In those days Kubert war comics went for about 25¢ to a buck-fifty each. Ten bucks and we were in heaven.

We would come in with books drawn by what we thought was the hot artist of the week, and John would look at the stuff and either This simple, art-less ad ran in all Marvel comics show us how the artist “fooled” you or how it cover-dated September and October 1975, and thus “didn’t work.” With John, everything would be on sale by late spring/early summer. broken down into basic shapes. John must have As a student of John’s during the first year said the words “sphere,” “tapered cylinder,” and “tapered cube” a of his workshop, the first thing I found out is that no one ever wanted to million times. He took a copy of a painting that Frank Frazetta did and miss a class. We’d get there as early as we could and would stay as late as showed us that if you broke it down into those basic shapes, it didn’t possible. work—but the presentation and finishes “fooled” the reader into thinking that the figure was dynamic, and that made it a successful illusHis first class started right off when he said in that great growl of his, tration. “I HATE COMICS... but it pays the bills”—and the last class ended when my friend and fellow student Rob Doorack brought in a gallon of wine that was, as we called it, “aged on the truck.” John took us all out to dinner afterwards, but I was so loaded I ran out of the old Brew and Burger and threw up the wine. John commented, “Hey... that reminds me of me of VE-Day !” We had a big laugh about that for years. John would come in and start off with some story; it was always

And, boy, did he hate “noodlers”! John loved the solid, honest type of illustration. He felt that the more lines an artist put into the illustration, the more it either weakened the original drawing or the artist was trying to hide his poor craftsmanship (which, most of the time, was the case!).

The Gospel According to John Buscema

John surely told his students to expect a bit of rejection. Owen O’Leary says these are “John’s rejected pencils for the cover of Silver Surfer #5 (April 1969). A fan had a copy of them and paid John to ink them.” Both penciled and inked versions are probably being seen here for the first time. [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

John also said that each additional line that you drew on a person’s face could age him ten years. He drew this face of a young teenager and then, demonstrating his point right in front of us, he drew about eight or nine lines and the guy looked like Aunt May from Spider-Man. It was sort of like watching Houdini perform magic. We couldn’t believe it. And the illustrators—J.C. Lyendecker, Maxfield Parrish, N.C. Wyeth, Dean Cornwell, George Bridgman, and so many others. Hours were spent talking about these guys. We didn’t know much about them then, but we sure do now! John introduced us to commercial illustration that totally changed the way we thought about art forever. I have to mention the guests who visited John’s class, and some of his reactions. The best was Don Heck. Don was a shy guy but had come to visit as a favor to John. And we’re all thinking, “Why Don Heck? Is he here for lessons?” I mean, we thought we were going to change the comic book world. John gets up to the board and presents a problem to us. We’re drawing on our pads when John bellows out, “Don, c’mon up here and show these guys how you would handle this.” Don didn’t want to come up, but John could be very persuasive. So, Don gets up and we’re all snickering, saying to ourselves, “What can he show us?” Well, Don Heck said, in a very quiet voice, “Here’s how I’d do it,” and it was like a Honeymooners episode—Zip, Zip—it’s done. Our mouths dropped to the floor. You never saw a room full of artists start

copying everything Don Heck said and did! Don Heck was a genius! And we surrounded Don after class for anything he could tell us about storytelling. And John knew... he knew we would be blown away by this guy. He stood there with that smirk on his face and taught us another lesson of life. Boy, talk about humble humility. And, of course, the next day a bunch of us met at the comics store and we grabbed every Don Heck book we could find, again, much to the dismay of that comics store owner. Now, Vinnie Colletta... that’s another story. It’s right before the second Marvel Convention in New York City and John announces that we’re actually going to do a class as a demonstration for fans at that show. Plus, we’re going to have a few tables where we can sit and draw for people. John says that Colletta is going to come in with the details. About a half hour later, in strolls Colletta... with two of the most gorgeous girls we ever saw on each arm, wearing these slinky outfits. Colletta ignores us as if we’re lower than dirt... and rightfully so. Oh my God... those girls! We’re thinking to ourselves, if we become comic artists, we’ll get girls like this. Colletta gives John the information and then John walks Colletta and the girls to the elevator. When John walked back in, the first words out of his mouth were, “JEEE-ZUS CHRIST!” We must have laughed about that for a half hour. Needless to say, John set us straight about those girls.

The John Buscema Workshop

My good friend and fellow student Kevin Weremeychik brought in two very prominent, well-known comic book artists, who inked John on the Conan books, to meet him. John didn’t know they were coming, but he was very gracious and, honestly, these guys looked as if they were meeting God. They stayed for a while, writing down everything that John said and did. So John calls us over at the next class and said, “JEEEE-ZUS CHRIST! Guys... please, if you’re gonna invite someone, let me know first. I hate the way they ink my stuff ! I mean, they’re nice guys but...” And then he started laughing and starts going on about inkers. (Just so you know, his favorite inker on his pencils was his brother Sal.) John starts telling us this story about this artist overseas who he loves on his work. His name escapes me—though I think it might have been Steve Gan in the Philippines—but two weeks later John comes in and says, naturally, “JEEZ-SUS CHRIST, every time I get an inker I like, something happens!” It turned out that this inker was sending back inked pages that were done on a light box, not directly on John’s pencils. The inker Actually, John laid out four issues of Marvel’s Tarzan after Roy’s departure—all of them edited by kept the penciled pages, and when he was confronted his former student Bob Hall (as per #15, Aug. 1978)! Later, when his brother Sal had become the penciler, Bob inked several issues, such as #25 (June ‘79). One of Bob’s student drawings ran in about it, he said that he loved John’s penciled pages so our last issue. [©2002 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.] much, he couldn’t bear to destroy that beauty. Of course, I don’t think he ever worked again. But John’s himself about four feet off the ground on the wall and nearly throwing pencils were incredible and we felt totally understandable about the himself out a window. And John’s face is like, well, you guessed it— guy’s dilemma. “JEEEE-ZUS CHRIST!” and of course he rolls his eyes up! When Stan left, we went on for about an hour of stories about Stan and how he Then there was Stan! would do stuff like that all the time. John comes in, teaches the class, and towards the end tells us that the There are so many stories, but I’ll tell this last one about a guest who guest next week will be Stan Lee. Man, the blood went to our feet. John really wasn’t there. got a big kick out of our reaction. One of the guys in the class—Fred Greenberg, I believe—actually videotaped Stan’s visit. Anyway, Stan At this point, I think, we were at the Biltmore Hotel. This room had comes in and literally big, billowing red velvet curtains, and we always had a window open. explodes, explaining So, about a half hour before John comes in, another fellow student, the Marvel way of Bruce Patterson, who was working at the time over at Neal Adams’ comic book illusContinuity Studios, strolls in whistling away, “I know a secret... I know tration. John’s best a secret...” We’re all ears at this point, and, after much prodding and reaction to Stan’s visit groveling, he tells us that Carmine Infantino has been fired as editor-incame when Stan was chief at DC Comics. The reasons behind it have been subject to gossip explaining the and rumors and I won’t go into them; but, needless to say, for young difference between DC comic book artists, it was fodder for fun. John came in, and as soon as Comics and Marvel he started teaching the class, the wind blew in the window and rustled Comics fight scenes. the curtain. Now we’re screaming, “It’s Carmine... he’s behind the He said that when a curtain... he’s brushing up and taking lessons... he’s gonna become a guy got hit in a DC penciler again!” John put this funny, puzzled look on his face. We Comic, although explained to him the situation and he said, “JEEZ-SUS CHRIST... nicely drawn, he how’d you find out about that?” And we talked for a good hour about looked “like this”— the business of comics. and he slightly bent his body backwards and John invited us to dinner at his house a couple of times (his wife put a grimace on his makes the best Italian food you ever tasted!). We were there when John face. “Now,” said Stan, showed us this “new take” he was going to do on Tarzan, and he was “when a guy gets hit in really excited about it. About an hour later, while we were there, he got a Marvel Comic, this is a call from Roy Thomas in California saying he’s quitting the book what it looks like.“ because ERB, Inc., accused him of plagiarism (that’s an interesting story And then he in itself). John, of course, refused to work on the book unless Roy wrote proceeded to fling it. And he was in agony about that, saying, in that “JEEEZ-SUS himself from one side CHRIST” growl again—this is what he gets for getting all worked up on of the room to the a job, and something like this always happens. We joked about it all John was happiest with Conan the Barbarian covers other side, slamming night. (and interiors) when he inked them himself, as per this cover for issue #91. Courtesy of Owen O’Leary. [©2002 Conan Properties, Inc.]

“Paying Your Rent by Drawing Is Heaven!” happens. But John was the guy we all wanted to be if we ever got into the comic business. He was a great teacher, an incredible illustrator and storyteller, and a tremendous guy! Man, will I miss him! [Joe Heffernan currently works for the Board of Education of Perth Amboy, NJ; his job includes doing graphic art for them, as he previously has for various municipalities and businesses.]

PART II

“Paying Your Rent by Drawing Is Heaven!” by Kevin Weremeychik I was a student in the first of John Buscema’s workshops. I was seventeen and had fallen in love with drawing. I took whatever classes my high school could offer, and then I won two scholarships to the Brooklyn Museum Art School (the same school where Frank Frazetta went, amongst other great Brooklyn draftsmen). I had the smallest and most pathetic of portfolios, but I was learning. I was a comics junkie and saw the ad for the Buscema class in Tomb of Dracula or some other Marvel comic, and talked my father into letting me apply for the thing, since he would have to pay for it.

Joe says that John handed out numerous copies of his page layouts as examples. This rough for the final page of Conan the Barbarian #66 (Sept. 1975). [Conan & Bêlit TM & ©2002 Conan Properties, Inc.; Red Sonja TM & ©2002 Red Sonja Properties, Inc.]

Once, earlier, we actually got to stay over at John’s. Again, Kevin, Rob, and I had gone there for dinner and it had started to snow... bad. John’s daughter called and said she couldn’t get home and was going to stay at her friend’s house. The car we were in had tires that were balder than Mr. Clean. John made the proclamation, “Well, you’re stayin’!” At that point, John brought out some—if memory serves me right— chocolate liqueur. We had never drunk chocolate liqueur. We didn’t even know it existed. Beer, wine, or vodka (normally in exotic drinks) was about our only experience with booze. Let me tell you, it was the best drink we ever had! I’m sure he got a kick out of our inexperience with aperitifs. We’re gabbing away when one of the guys mentions that I can dance. John’s wife wants to learn how to do the Hustle. (This was 1975-76, so don’t laugh.) So, I’m showing John’s wife how to do the Hustle in his basement, and John’s laughing and he had the biggest smile on his face saying, “JEEZ-SUS CHRIST, this guy’s dancin’ with my wife!” John had cable, too, when almost nobody had it. At the end of the night, John and his wife retired to bed, and we were still up, watching the movie Across 110th Street, not because it was a good movie, but just because it was on cable, and we’re saying to ourselves, “We’re actually sleeping over at John Buscema’s house... did ya ever think?” And then we wake up the next morning and John’s wife makes the greatest breakfast we ever had. I’ll tell you, it was a hoot. You know, when you spent two nights a week, three hours a night, for about 42 weeks, with someone, the stories just keep on coming. Of course, many of us lost touch over the years... that stuff generally

The John Buscema Workshop

35 He could be gruff, but he was always honest. And, more than anything, he wanted us to understand that we had to make a living. That family and responsibility come first. If you got paid to draw every day, well, damn, life is good. No fantasy about it. We get paid to make pictures of other people’s mental images. If you want to be a fine artist, good, but he wanted us to make a living. He told us about the s**tiness of the comics world. Art is a commodity in those worlds, and we should never forget that. What you create will be changed by another’s hand—get used to it, that’s the biz. We had lots of interesting debates in the class about what made art “art” and what was commercial and what was personal. And why comics were or weren’t “art.” He thought they weren’t. He was right. He was a hardworking guy and a good guy with a great “Brooklyn, NY” sensibility to him.

Joe Heffernan writes that this is an “illo that John did [for the workshop class] of Thor & Hercules... to show us how to do a dynamic fight scene without having the characters actually touch each other!” [Art ©2002 estate of John Buscema; Thor & Hercules TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

We went to “portfolio day” together. I stood in line with a lot of other guys and I was pretty damned nervous. And, if I remember correctly, I was the youngest one there. The guy in line ahead of me was older and confident and really cocky. I showed him a drawing, and he made me feel small. He showed me a drawing of his and I felt smaller. He was good. I was awful. Our part of the line got up to the table where John was sitting and evaluating work. John is looking at the guy’s work and telling him he’s good. And I’m thinking that I’m never going to be able to get into this; I’m not good enough.

He gave me quite a lot, but more than anything else he gave me my drawing style. Which is something I can never lose and wouldn’t want to. I’ll bet that’s something he never planned on but I think he’d be damned proud of.

And my father, bless him, paid the $600 for the workshop. He knew nothing about the comics world, but when he met John and talked with him on portfolio day, they hit it off. My father trusted him and gave him a check. A lot of money for him to spend, back then. He then took me uptown to Lee’s Art Supply and bought me some paper and a mechanical pencil. A good one, too. I’ve still got it. Still use it, too.

And then John says the thing that I remember most from that day. He closes the guy’s book and says, “I don’t think I can teach you anything. You ought to go out and get a job.” The guy is shocked. He’s floored. And suddenly my spirit is soaring. Then John looks at my stuff and says, “I can teach you a lot.” I got in. I was one of about 26 or 27 guys in the class. John was about business. He wanted us to be able to make a living as artists. There is almost nothing better than getting paid to draw. Paying your rent by drawing is heaven. John tried to give us a work ethic along with the visualization skills he was teaching. And the work ethic was something that not one other teacher ever tried to drum into my head over the following years. The blue-collar, nuts-’n’-bolts work ethic was unique to John in all of my years of schooling. He was the first and the best of a lot of art teachers. The class was supposed to run twice a week or forty weeks, but for some reason that I cannot remember, we went for 42. I was still in high school (in Queens), and I’d grab the subway in to Grand Central and go upstairs to the old Commodore Hotel. This was 1975. When the Commodore went out of business, we moved a few blocks over to the Biltmore. John’s class was the real beginning of my training as an artist in the realistic sense of the word. And he never knew it (because I didn’t tell him), but he gave me the defining force of my life. Rough of a Wolverine figure. Courtesy of Owen O’Leary. [Art ©2002 estate of John Buscema; Wolverine TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, inc.]

“Paying Your Rent by Drawing Is Heaven!”

Here, courtesy of Joe H., are drawings by several students which appeared in the class’ “artist showcase” publication. All art is copyright 2002 by the respective artist; the heroes and villains are ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Bruce Patterson inked various titles for Marvel and DC during the ’70s & ’80s.

Dave Simons also inked (and did a bit of penciling) for both DC and Marvel in the ’70s & ’80s.

“Wherever faces must dominate—note these panels show variety in position and emotion.” Note, too, that John used heads by Gil Kane as well as his own to make his point.” [Conan TM & ©2002 Conan Properties, Inc.; Warlock & Fantastic Four TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Larry Mahlstedt inked for DC and Marvel from the ’80s through the late ’90s, including the Mark Bagley-penciled cover (below) for The New Warriors #10 (April 1991). [New Warriors cover ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The John Buscema Workshop [NOTE: Soon after sending us the preceding reminiscences, Kevin also ran across a copy of the workshop’s student showcase book from 1976, which sported the same Conan cover as did the previous issue of A/E, and provided us with “a list of the students’ names as best I can read it.” He mentioned that he “knew for certain that a few of the guys had gone on to do some work in the field... actually, a pretty good percentage, considering the attrition rate for art schools.” Here is the list, with Kevin’s comments:] Bruce Patterson (he was already working at Continuity [Studios, run by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano] while in the workshop) Bob Hall (worked for Charlton while in the class, then on to Marvel and DC)

Bill Harvey Rob Doorack Andrew Ice Joshua Zissman Juan Ortiz (did some pro work) Fred Greenberg (ran all those conventions in the ’80s and ’90s!) John Collier Rick Rangel John Fluker Chuck Nanco Jon Cornell Art Raveson

Sam Rosario

Dave Simons (I know Dave did some pro work)

Joe Heffernan

Walt Romanski (sp?)

Jon Wrenn

Nick Ugolith (sp?)

Bob Downs

Kevin Weremeychik

Larry Mahlstedt (I saw his name on a couple of Marvel books at one point)

[NOTE: After his own name, Kevin added: “I never went into the comics field, but I stayed in the arts as a muralist, an illustrator, did some teaching, and even managed a gallery specializing in Renaissance sculpture for five years. I’ve currently got a website running with a cartoon and a daily illustrated essay. I hope [the above list] helps a bit. —Kwer.” It did. Thanks, Kwer, a.k.a. Kevin, and Joe. John would be proud of you.]

Barry Shalen Joe Heffernan’s drawing from the workshop showcase book.

Mike McCann Dave Bamford

Kevin Weremeychik’s illo for the showcase book.

ATTENTION: FRANK BRUNNER ART FANS! Frank is now accepting art commissions for covers, splash panels, or pin-up re-creations! Also, your ideas for NEW art are welcome! Art can be pencils only, inked or full-color (painted) creation! Contact Frank directly for details and prices. (Minimum order: $150)

Contact the artist at his NEW address:

FRANK BRUNNER 312 Kildare Court Myrtle Beach, SC 29588 Visit my website at: http://www.geocities.com/sberry52000/frankbrunner.html

Clea © & TM 2002 Marvel Comics, Inc.

Write now (be sure to include a self-addressed stamped envelope!) and receive FREE with my reply an autographed Brunner “Star Wars Galaxy” trading card!

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COMIC FANDOM READER Edited & Annotated by Bill Schelly Fandom historian Bill Schelly’s “ultimate” book presents never-before-reprinted text and art from classic 1960s fanzines Alter Ego, Comic Art, Batmania, Xero, Odd and more, written by such top writers as ROY THOMAS, RICHARD KYLE, DICK LUPOFF, TOM FAGAN, JOHN RYAN, RAYMOND MILLER and MALCOLM WILLITS!! Includes a fantastic FANZINE INDEX from 1947 to 1975, a special section reprinting the best of Schelly’s own fanzine Sense of Wonder, and the complete text of the long out-of-print Ronn Foss Retrospective. Also featured are transcripts of the best interviews Bill conducted while researching The Golden Age of Comic Fandom. Contains lots of rare art by WILL EISNER, AL WILLIAMSON, DON NEWTON, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, ROY G. KRENKEL, DAVE STEVENS and fan favorites LANDON CHESNEY, ALAN HANLEY, DAVE HERRING and BILJO WHITE. Plus a spectacular back cover reprinting STEVE DITKO’S jaw-dropping cover to the fanzine All-Stars shot from the original art—fully colored for the first time! It’s stunning!! Softcover trade paperback book 224 BIG PAGES -- $19.95 EA.

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Title Comic Fandom Archive

“Paul Gambi---Tailor To The DC Super-Villain Stars!” An Interview With PAUL GAMBACCINI Conducted by Bill Schelly Transcribed by Brian K. Morris Introduction: Even though Paul Gambaccini’s name appears on numerous pages in my 1995 book The Golden Age of Comic Fandom, his role in those halcyon days was probably given short shrift therein. This may have been partly due to the fact that he dropped out of fandom halfway through the 1960s; certainly it’s partly because I simply didn’t look hard enough for him and thus hadn’t talked with him when I was working on the book. For starters, Paul was one of the most frequent names to show up in the letter columns in DC comics edited by Julius Schwartz. He also succeeded founder Jerry Bails as Executive Secretary of the Academy of Comic Book Arts and Sciences. He was a founding member of comics apa Capa-alpha, and he wrote a popular series of columns for The Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector. All this before 1965!

show religiously, I had my “road to Damascus” experience at the house of a school classmate called Jon Haskett. Jon’s sister had a pile of Mad magazines! I asked him if I could look through them and he said yes. In the middle of the stack, for some unknown reason, was a copy of Giant Superman Annual #1. I remember it was the summer of 1960 because I was just so thrilled by this comic that I had to go out and buy it... and it was still on sale. I found it at a store called the Westfair Smoke Shop. In addition to the Annual, I remember buying Flash #114 with a Captain Cold cover. Also, I think Green Lantern #1 was out at that time. I bought all the DC superhero comics except Wonder Woman. I read these comics and loved them so much that I even went back and bought the Wonder Woman!

If you’re asking what happened to Paul Gambaccini, then you probably didn’t read Rolling Stone in the 1970s, when he was a contributing editor of that magazine. Later he went into radio, moved to England, and has worked there for the BBC ever since. I was happy to be able, on January 6, to conduct a long-overdue interview with this accomplished fellow, with special emphasis (of course) on the comics and fannish activities of the early ’60s—that exciting time when fans were coming out of the woodwork to form a grassroots movement to celebrate their hobby.

The Westfair Smoke Shop BILL SCHELLY: Paul, let’s start with your earliest awareness of comic books. PAUL GAMBACCINI: I was born the second of April, 1949, in the Bronx, New York. And it was in the Bronx—before my family moved to Connecticut in 1955—that I remember seeing my first comics. My grandmother used to read me the Donald Duck stories from Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories. In the 1950s Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories and Little Lulu were ubiquitous in barbershops and doctors offices. BILL: At what point did you feel yourself becoming aware of the Silver Age super-heroes? PAUL: Although I recall watching the George Reeves Superman TV

(Above left:) Paul Gambaccini at 15, in a blow-up of a fuzzy photo that appeared in Fantasy Illustrated #3 (1964)... and the cover of Giant Superman Annual #1, the comic that started it all rolling for Paul in the summer of 1960. [Art ©2002 DC Comics.]

I was eleven. That’s when I decided I would buy every DC comic, except for the war comics. I was too young for war, I think. But I was already a great science-fiction fan. I read books by Isaac Asimov. I must have been one of the youngest subscribers to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I read sciencefiction novels, which is probably one of the reasons why I gravitated to Julius Schwartz immediately with Mystery in Space and Strange Adventures.

BILL: You were awfully young to be reading Asimov, weren’t you? PAUL: I read a lot as a boy. What can I say? When you’re young, you don’t think of yourself as being young. BILL: True. But precociousness at an early age is sort of a central theme in how I see your fannish involvement, because all your dealings with comics fandom took place before you were sixteen. You got into fandom at the very beginning, and yet you were much younger than most of the other active fans. PAUL: Maybe it can be explained because we never met in person. We corresponded... and I was always a good typist. I think a lot of people thought I was older than I was because I could type.

“Paul Gambi”

Editor Julius Schwartz (on left) and one of the writers Paul mentions—Gardner Fox—starred, along with some Sid Greene-drawn aliens, in “The Strange Adventure That Really Happened!” in Strange Adventures #140 (May 1962). [©2002 DC Comics.]

BILL: You knew Jerry Bails was a grown man.

because every Tuesday and Thursday, which were the new-comic days, she would set aside one copy of each new comic for me to have dibs on. PAUL: Yes, I knew he was old because it was well known that he was a I would come in after school, every Tuesday and every Thursday, and college professor. I was in awe of Jerry Bails. I’d go through them—and the ones I didn’t want, BILL: But we’re getting Paul Gambaccini’s recipe for getting his first fan-letter published, in The Flash #122 (June 1961). she’d put back on the ahead of ourselves. Can He finally won some original Infantino art for his letter to #137. [©2002 DC Comics.] racks. That way, I did you tell me more about manage to get every issue your comic book reading of the DC books and habits in the year or so then, ultimately, the before you got into Marvel books when fandom? Fantastic Four kicked in. PAUL: I was in love with BILL: How was it that these DC books, particuyou felt moved to write larly the Schwartz books. I letters to comic book had two brothers. Peter was letter columns? one year younger than I, and Phillip was three years younger. We PAUL: In The Flash Julius Schwartz had divided up the comic book buying. Our little started to give away artwork to some of brother bought Justice League of America the letter-writers. I thought, “Gee, I’m because he didn’t have much money, so he going to win some of that.” That was my wanted as many super-heroes as possible for initial incentive. I wrote a letter that was his 10¢. Phillip still has his JLA #1. Peter got printed in Flash #122. It was actually a the Batman titles—Batman, Detective, and postcard. It’s unlike any of the letters I World’s Finest—because I just thought they subsequently wrote because it’s clearly a were dross. novelty letter, designed to catch BILL: The titles edited by Jack Schiff were obviously geared toward the youngest comic book readers. PAUL: I’m afraid to say that, for all of the friends that he had at DC, I thought that his books were just the worst, and that includes Tales of the Unexpected and My Greatest Adventure. BILL: Whereas the comics edited by Julie Schwartz— PAUL: There would be aliens in Schwartz’s titles, but they would be credible science-fiction-type aliens. I loved the fact that Schwartz and Fox and Broome took the story so seriously that they would always have these footnotes about how these incredible happenings were scientifically possible. I had a paper route, so I had the money to buy all the Schwartz and Weisinger books. I never got over to the romance side. For a long time, I didn’t even know they were publishing romance books, because the Westfair Smoke Shop didn’t keep them in the same section. I am deeply indebted to the woman of this mom-and-pop shop

somebody’s attention. Well, it caught Julie’s attention enough to print it but not to get me the art.

Discovering Comic Fandom BILL: That meant your full mailing address appeared in the book... PAUL: Yes, and Jerry Bails sent me a copy of Alter-Ego #1. Until then, I had not known that comic fandom existed. It arrived on a Saturday morning. I remember that because I was extremely excited and I put it on the ledge of the playroom, we used to call it. That’s where my father used to watch TV. When my father saw it, he said, “How can you read this trash?” [laughs] Well, I’ve got to make a decision. Do I value this or do I value my father’s opinion? And I thought, “Frankly, I love this.” So I knew I was deeply in. I just devoured it. But I can imagine that anyone looking at Roy’s BLA cover [laughs] had to wonder what was going on at the time: “What is this?” But to me, it was just the essence of excitement.

Comics Fandom Archive BILL: As far as your writing ability and your interest in becoming a writer, was that there at all at that point? PAUL: Obviously, I did not know that I was going to eventually become one of the contributing editors of Rolling Stone. But I enjoyed doing these letters. I mean, I loved the comics so much that it made sense to me to want to tell the editor how it could be better, and also to say how much I loved it. BILL: The writing in them is very good. Most of them show a lot of maturity in the writing, especially for someone who is twelve or thirteen.

41 of Alter Ego came out of the blue because it was never on schedule. [laughs] Who knew when the next one was coming out? That’s why The Comic Reader was important, because it came out monthly, or thereabouts. That was one of the two ways of having some regularity in the hobby, the other being The Rocket’s Blast because Gordon Love put it out monthly, too. BILL: G.B. Love’s contribution to comic fandom was enormous. PAUL: He was such a fascinating personality. He was out of the loop of Midwestern fandom, as it were... but he was so important. Love had tremendous self-discipline, and I admire that. And he didn’t just do the monthly Rocket’s Blast. He expanded his range to do a whole series of Rocket’s Blast Specials and then he put out his strip-zine Fighting Hero Comics. He was this little powerhouse down there in Florida.

PAUL: The father of my best friend in school in Westport was Jay Emmett, who was the nephew of Jack Liebowitz. He would subsequently become famous as the guy who did the deal with Siegel and Shuster in the 1970s. But when I knew him, he had a gig as head of the Licensing Corporation of America and he was licensing Batman and James Bond and BILL: I don’t know if fans realize how some sports products. I had been up to many early, seminal articles he DC Comics in the early 1960s, but when published in his Specials, most of them “Anyone looking at Roy’s BLA cover had to wonder what was he took me up again in 1970, I finally met by Raymond Miller. going on...” Since the cover of the 1961 Alter-Ego #1 has often Mort Weisinger. I told him I was going to been reprinted (including last year in A/E V3#10), here’s Roy’s PAUL: I wrote the Rocket’s Blast Special Oxford. He said, “I always wondered splash page for that “BLA” tale, shot (and perhaps he should on All-American Comics. what a smart person like you was doing, have been) directly from the original spirit-duplicator fanzine. reading comics.” I’ve always remembered An earlier, slightly different pen-and-ink rendition appears in BILL: I didn’t know that. It’s one of the that remark because I thought, “Don’t Hamster Press’ trade paperback Fandom’s Finest Comics—but scarcer issues. I am aware that you knock ’em.” [laughs] I wanted to say, “I this first printed version has never been reprinted before. And wrote a bunch of things for G.B. For like your comics better than you do.” He now everyone can see why! [©2002 Roy Thomas.] one thing, you did a review of obviously thought that comics were for Seduction of the Innocent that kids and that the Superman books he had done were done for kids. I appeared in the Rocket’s Blast/Comic Collector Annual. wanted to cite my favorite stories, like “Superman’s Return to Krypton” in #141, or Superboy #68 with the first Bizarro story, which, to me, is PAUL: I did a lot of writing for him. I took over the “Rocketeer still a thing of beauty. Gossip” column in RB-CC when Rick Weingroff left, and there were other things here and there. Julie [Schwartz] was the guy who obviously took the books the most seriously. So I, as much as Jerry or Roy, was excited about the revival BILL: You were not, apparently, seized with the urge to publish your sequence that Julie presided over in Showcase and The Brave and the own fanzine, like so many others. Why? Bold. I hadn’t grown up with the Golden Age heroes, so it wasn’t out of PAUL: Probably two reasons: one, I was pretty young, and the other nostalgia or memories of the Justice Society of America. But I was being that my lowest aptitude is mechanical. Everyone who published a excited by the idea of a team of super-characters with different personalfanzine had to do it manually, and this was something that I didn’t want ities and abilities. I wanted Hawkman to get his own book. I wanted to go near. As a matter of fact, another example of the greatness of Jerry The Spectre to come back. What nobody who did not go through it Bails, to me, is that he was kind enough to accept ditto masters from me could ever understand is how exciting it was for readers of Julie’s books for CAPA-Alpha, and he would run off my contributions. in ’60 and ’61 and ’62. BILL: Of course, Julie was involved in helping Jerry Bails conceptualize Alter-Ego. PAUL: Uh-huh. And if you look at the early issues of The Comic Reader, which were more important than people nowadays think for a reason I’ll mention in a minute, the news flashes come faithfully from Julie. You don’t read about “Coming next month in Batman.” Julie really gave fandom the big push, probably because of memories of his own days as a science-fiction fan and fanzine publisher. Weisinger, on the other hand, had been a fan but he didn’t encourage comic fandom— so even more credit to Julie. The reason I said The Comic Reader was so important was because just as Alter-Ego #1 came out of the blue to me, every subsequent issue

BILL: ...which allowed you to be one of the founding members of that venerable comics apa [amateur press alliance]. You obviously have a high opinion of Jerry Bails.

Jerry Bails PAUL: Yeah. Jerry, to me, was this godlike figure. I mean, Roy was human, and he may or may not recall that I’ve met him a couple of times when he was at Marvel. We’d go into New York because it was only an hour on the train. But Jerry, whom I still have never met, was this godlike figure because he started everything. I mean, God bless the Thompsons for their scholarly approach to the subject, which set a real standard for taking the books seriously. But Jerry started so many of the projects. I mean, wham, Alter-Ego; wham, The Comicollector; wham,

“Paul Gambi” the Who’s Who in Comic Fandom. Okay, that didn’t fly as well as the other two, but The Comic Reader—I mean, he would just come up with these great ideas, and set them into motion. BILL: There’s no doubt fandom’s beginnings would have been very different if Jerry had not been around.

Buddy Saunders’ cover to Rocket’s Blast Special #3 (Summer 1964), which featured Paul Gambaccini’s lengthy article on All-American Comics. [Art ©2002 Buddy Saunders; Dr. Mid-Nite TM & ©2002 DC Comics.]

PAUL: I’ve had a career in which, curiously, I’ve interviewed many of the famous persons of my time. Richard Nixon... Ted Kennedy. And lots of luminaries in the music field. But if you were to say to me, “Who were the three people who would terrify you the most to interview?”... Jerry would be among them. Meeting Jerry

Bails would reduce me to jelly. BILL: When I finally met him at the Fandom Reunion in 1997, it was a wonderful relief to find that he was very down-to-earth and enjoyable and fun and relaxed; although I do understand that in his younger years, he was a little more professorial and perhaps a bit more remote. PAUL: Jerry hit me at the right time, along with Willie Mays. I’d think, “How can they be human?” I know it’s ridiculous, because we now know that being a professor is a human job. But nonetheless, to be able to produce so much on something I cared about was just fantastic.

an article on fanzines. I sent to him what I thought was the best of the form, or the most important of the form. So I made him a little package of Alter-Ego #1 and a couple of early Comic Arts, and so forth. And then, as you know, his daughter was fatally run over and I never got them back. [NOTE: After teenager Mary Binder—who had been named after Mary Marvel, a character Otto had created—was killed in that tragic accident, Otto withdrew from any comics-related activities; the association became too painful for him in the last years of his life. —RT.] BILL: At least you saved Jerry’s letters. PAUL: You know, when we were corresponding, never at any point did he say, “Say, are you a kid?” Obviously, I was sensitive about this issue. So much so that when I had my picture in Fantasy Illustrated #3, I was wearing an adult hat... because I was trying to look older. BILL: I’ve got my copy of FI in front of me. You look kind of like a young Frank Sinatra. Where was this photo taken? PAUL: That was in the driveway of our house at 8 Elizabeth Drive, Westport, Connecticut. BILL: Didn’t your age become generally known when you became Executive Secretary of the Academy? PAUL: Well, by that point, I was sixteen... which was a respectable age.

Comic-Collecting Memories BILL: What kind of memories do you have about comic collecting or comic book buying in those days? PAUL: I can remember, at Westfair Smoke Shop, being presented with Fantastic Four #1 and thinking, “Hmm, don’t want to buy this.” It actually was a struggle, because I hated their monster books and there was this monster on the cover. It didn’t look that different.

BILL: He was probably one of the key influences in your life. PAUL: Yes, he would have to be, because if he had not sent me that AlterEgo #1, I would not have gotten into fandom in the early ’60s, and I would not have started collecting because I would not have seen the ads for the old comics. And I would certainly not have the collection I have now.

The best deal, the cheapest acquisition of a major book, was when I bought a copy of All-American #16 in really good condition. I don’t remember how it was graded, but it was a very nice copy. I got it for $15 from Raymond Miller. You probably recognize the name.

BILL: Plus, you must have had a correspondence with him prior to running for Executive Secretary of the Academy [The Academy of ComicBook Fans and Collectors].

BILL: Yes, Raymond is still around, and still has a nice collection of 1940s comic books.

PAUL: Yes, and I still have a lot of his letters. I never threw out any of his letters, because I had so much respect for him.

PAUL: Today’s collectors would probably die to hear that the AllAmerican #16 was sent through the mail in a manila envelope.

BILL: Do you still have that copy of Alter-Ego #1 that he sent you? PAUL: No. This is the fandom equivalent of your mother throwing out your comics: one day I got a letter from Otto Binder, saying that he wanted to write

In the early days of fandom, it seemed like you could buy almost any backissue comic book just by looking through the ads in the fanzines. There was something called The Fantasy Collector that I subscribed to, and I’d occasionally send away for something that caught my eye.

BILL: Probably with no backing board of any kind. Then-fledgling pro Mike Vosburg drew this cover in 1974 for the second volume of Jerry Bails and Hames Ware’s Who’s Who of American Comic Books. Courtesy of Lee Boyette and Hames Ware. [Art ©2002 Mike Vosburg; Pogo TM & ©2002 Selby Kelly.]

PAUL: Right. All this was pre-Mylar, too. Who knows what the CGC rating would be? [laughs] Because in those

Comics Fandom Archive

Make Mine Marvel BILL: The thing about Marvel at the time, though, was their comics would noticeably improve with every issue.

(Ab0ve) Paul’s infamous “I hate your mags” letter from Fantastic Four #9 (Dec. 1962), and (right) his “conversion” letter from Amazing Spider-Man #7 (Nov. 1963), with Stan Lee’s responses. Whether or not the title Not Brand Echh came from the latter missive or not, Smiley even used Paul’s spelling! [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

days, as you know, people just tended to call things “good” or “mint.” Later, I believe I traded it to Howard Rogofsky for a whole load of ECs because I went through an EC phase. And ECs were cheaper than the super-hero comics, so I could get a lot of comics in trade for just that one. In those days, all the ECs on Howard Rogofsky’s list were either 75¢ or a dollar-fifty. And considering that he was the highest-priced merchant of those years, the Guide price of ECs—if there had been a Guide at that time—would have been lower. So even a kid with a paper route, like me, could afford old comics. BILL: My comic-collecting buddy had a paper route, and he always had the extra money to buy back issues, whereas I could barely keep up with the new stuff.

PAUL: You’ll find another letter from me in Amazing Spider-Man #7, and it’s my “conversion” letter. It was in there that I said, and this was a very big thing for me to say, that the Marvel mags were starting to make the competitors look like “echh.” And I’ve always felt Not Brand Echh came from that. I interviewed Stan Lee on BBC Radio Four, which is the national arts channel, a few years ago and he remembered me but he couldn’t recall whether I had been for or against him. [laughs] BILL: You were both. PAUL: Yeah. I started out being anti- and by the time FF got up to about #10 and Spidey got up to about #5, I was on their side. To me, that whole Stan and Jack thing is a miracle. For it all to happen in 21 ⁄ 2 years is incredible. No wonder people look back at the Silver Age with awe. There have been so few periods when so much happened. For fans like me, it was a great, great ride. BILL: The rise of Marvel in the 1960s was truly exhilarating. PAUL: Exhilarating is the right word. I just have to say The Fantastic Four, from #40 to #60, is the pinnacle of super-hero comics. I don’t know how Stan and Jack did it, but they did it.

PAUL: As someone wisely pointed out in a recent CBG, if you had bought all the super-hero comics, every month, it still wouldn’t have been more $3.

Paul Gambi

BILL: [laughs] That will just get you one comic book nowadays!

BILL: Let’s talk about a comic book character named “Paul Gambi.”

PAUL: That’s right. The economics were on a completely different level. And of course, I, like so many people, remember the shock, complete shock, when I picked up the issue of Superboy that was the first DC comic to go to 12¢. It was a stomach-churning experience! I’m sure an entire generation felt, “Oh my God, this kills my budget.”

PAUL: [laughs] Part of the luck of my life, regarding comics, was living so close to New York City. Westport was about fifty miles away. In the early 1960s you could visit the DC office, which I did a couple of times. When Jay Emmett took me up there in 1970, Julius Schwartz happened to walk by, and Jay said, “Hey, Julie. I’d like you to meet Paul Gambaccini. Do you know him?” And Julie said, “Know him? I named a character after him!”

Another memory I have is buying Amazing Adult Fantasy #15. Like FF, it was once again, “Do I buy this or not?” because it’s a Marvel comic. But there was this new character and I thought, “Well, okay, it’s a super-hero, even though it’s this... company.” So I bought it. You know, at first I thought The Fantastic Four were terrible. First of all, they were clearly a Challengers of the Unknown rip-off, and secondly, they had the big, black borders that I hated on the cover. I was a DC boy. As a matter of fact, one of my ill-considered hate letters was published in FF #9, which drew a response from someone called Marsha Cox, I think, in FF #12. The thing I remember saying is, “I hate your mags.” [laughs] Of course, I was referring, and could only refer, to what are now called the “pre-hero” books, what we used to call the “monster” books and the earliest FF. Because there was a time lag, if you remember, between publication of letters. They would come out about three months after you’d written them.

BILL: Where did “Paul Gambi” appear? PAUL: That was in Flash #141, and I had not been warned. So I’m reading the comic, and I come to this panel where The Flash asks this young boy who his boss is. And the guy goes, “Gambi, Paul Gambi.” And I just thought, “What?” [laughs] And this was the first time that a character name had been named after one fan. There had been “Jerry Thomas” in the JLA [derived from Jerry Bails and Roy Thomas]. What made it even more incredible is that my grandfather, Guido Gambaccini, who died before I was born, was a tailor. And of course, in the comic book, Paul Gambi was the tailor who made the costumes for the villains. Talk about The Twilight Zone...! And he has appeared every few years to this day. A couple of years ago, DC had this series of Files—I can’t remember the title, but it’s the

“Paul Gambi”

equivalent of Secret Origins. And in the Flash one, there was a story of Paul Gambi. Probably the person writing it and the person drawing it didn’t have a clue he was named after a real person. But what’s even weirder was that when Tony Isabella was doing Black Lightning, he gave Paul Gambi a brother named Peter. [laughs] My brother’s name is Peter. BILL: Now that’s really “Twilight Zone.” Although Peter and Paul go together. PAUL: Nonetheless, I’m glad that Peter Gambi died heroically, but I haven’t told my brother yet that he died, even though it was twenty-five years ago. [laughs] I think it might be too hard for him to take. BILL: It was just eight months after Amazing Spider-Man #7 appeared that you were elected to lead the Academy of Comic Book Arts and Sciences. You must have been moving, and growing in your knowledge and appreciation of comics, at something like light speed at the time. PAUL: Oh, certainly. This was one of the great rushes of my life. I couldn’t digest enough of it fast enough. The wonderful thing was, there was always more to take in because not only were there more old books to be discovered, there were more fans to meet via letter. BILL: Comicdom was growing by leaps and bounds... PAUL: ...just as the comics on the stands were growing in number and quality. On every level, it was pure excitement. It’s funny, my perceptions of the early fans, inevitably, were based on the letters—because that’s what I felt their personality was like. Until 1964, I never met any of them. BILL: The occasion you are alluding to, I assume, is the 1964 New York Comicon, which is generally considered the first true comic book convention.

The 1964 New York Comicon PAUL: I was there... and [chuckles]... the article you wrote about it [in A/E V3#7] was accurate. The single word anyone who attended that convention used to describe it was “hot.” I cannot conceive of an event where I voluntarily remained, in my entire life, that was as hot as that. People were removing items of clothing. It was bizarre. When the ice to cool the soda was brought it, it melted within minutes. [laughs] BILL: I’ve been in New York City in the summer, and the heat and humidity can be just awful. And with the air-conditioning turned off... Oh boy.

The introduction of tailor Paul Gambi in The Flash #141 (1963). He also appeared in #222 and #239, among other places. Art by Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella. Thanks to Michelle Nolan. [©2002 DC Comics.]

PAUL: I remember Tom Gill, the Lone Ranger artist, doing a presentation. And in the way that you sometimes sense everybody in an audience feeling the same thing, you’re thinking, “Why is he doing this?” [laughs] I mean, everybody was glad he was there, but they’d have preferred that Steve Ditko was doing it. Ditko was there, but he was the wallflower that he is famed to be. BILL: As far as I know, it’s the only comicon Ditko attended. PAUL: I also remember Len Wein, who was maybe thirteen at the time, crying because he had a falling out with Bernie Bubnis and was barred from the con. That was really sad. And, you see, that was the last time I ever met him. [laughs] So, I hope you’re feeling better, Len! BILL: I think it was about a month later when you officially became the Academy’s Executive Secretary. What moved you to take that job? Was it because Jerry needed someone?

Executive Secretary PAUL: Jerry asked me. I must assume, although he never said so, that someone close to him or older than I had turned it down. Be that as it may, he’d asked me and, of course, I was honored beyond words because this was The—capital “T”—Jerry Bails. BILL: How did you feel about the Academy itself, as an organization? PAUL: I believed in it because, so far, everything had gone right. Everything had worked. Everything that Jerry tried had come to fruition, even relatively minor things like his photos of famous first issues and key books, so people who didn’t have them could buy the covers. The Alley Awards... the Who’s Who in Comic Fandom... BILL: His plans for a microfilm library of Golden Age comics...

PAUL: Yes, that’s right. It all had worked, and I thought, “This group is so great that it’s going to take off.” So I launched a newsletter for the members called Forum [first issue dated Oct. 1964]. Jim Rossow was the

Comics Fandom Archive fellow who printed it up from my masters. So there I am, typing it in Connecticut, mailing it to him in Indiana, God bless him. That reminds me of a point I wanted to make. One of the things I loved about this period of my life is that there was so much decency. I know that may sound strange at first, but I’ll explain. Everyone acted out of love. With perhaps the rare exception like Howard Rogofsky, people didn’t think of profit. They wanted to share what they loved with their fellows and we felt as close, I’m sure, as all friends except, perhaps, best friends. Two other letterhacks I became friends through correspondence with were Paul Seydor and Dick West. When I saw that drawing that Mike Vosburg had done for The Golden Age of Comic Fandom that was just called “Getting Mail,” that moved me so tremendously because, truly, getting mail was the highlight of the day. It’s very utilitarian to have e-mail and Internet and FedEx, but I don’t think they could match the thrill of getting something you didn’t know was coming. BILL: How would you describe your volume of mail before and after the Academy thing came along? PAUL: I have to credit my parents—well, I mean my mother, because my father wouldn’t have arrived home by the time we’d gotten the mail. My mother never questioned why, suddenly, the mailbox was full. BILL: What kind of mailbox did you have? This is getting very ridiculous, maybe, but... [laughs] PAUL: It was a rural, semi-circular mailbox with the red flag, out by the street on a post. Which brings up an interesting point. Nowadays, people in cities wouldn’t trust others to honor the privacy of their mail, which might contain checks and such. I bring this up because fans were sending me cash all the time. And nothing was ever stolen. I’m not one of these people who go on and on about how different it was in those days. But it was different in those days. [laughs]

was probably the first time when things went a bit sour. BILL: In looking over the eight issues of Forum published over the next year, I notice a lot of back-and-forth dialogue with very little happening. It just seemed like there were so many opinions, and even though there was a charter, it was difficult to make decisions and there was quite a bit of disagreement about what the Academy should, and should not, do. PAUL: Yes, I think your assessment is accurate. Of course, it’s not an assessment that many fans would have been able to make since the circulation was limited to the Executive Board, which consisted of maybe twenty people. It began to occur to me that if the heavy-hitters weren’t able to agree, there never could be a general consensus, and that the heady days of Jerry’s nova had to melt and resolve itself into a sense of reality. BILL: Maybe the organization had accomplished its initial goals. PAUL: Yeah, the initial goal was to get fandom rolling. And it was now rolling. We had our first convention, and the other things we’ve already mentioned. It did things that got people moving. As it turns out, they would move more as individuals than as a group, but at least it got them moving. I mean, if you look at the great contributions to the hobby, they’re made by individuals rather than by collectives. You have Overstreet, you have Gerber. I mean, no fifty people sat down in a room and said, “Let’s have a Price Guide.” No fifty people got down in a room and said, “Let’s have a Photo-Journal.” It’s just the quixotic individual. BILL: Right, and Bails was that sort of person. PAUL: No doubt about it. And thus, my respect through the years increased, rather than decreased, for him because he was a doer, and he got things done.

BILL: You probably got very few checks. PAUL: Hardly any. I think I probably got two checks. So much so that I thought they were real novelties when they arrived. But people would tape quarters with Scotch tape to letters, or send dollar bills. BILL: Coins would get sticky from the tape.

Send Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Comics... PAUL: I remember one of the things that happened while I was publishing Forum was the concept of a comic book lending library. We all said, “What a good idea.” A fellow named Ross Kight, from Chicago, was really hot to get it set up with the Academy’s auspices. He really believed, like Johnny Appleseed, you should let people be exposed to the things they don’t have, and this is what I think of as fandom’s first flop. Everybody used their own comics and I remember getting some from him, and reading them, and sending them back. [laughs] Now, try that today.

After Fandom BILL: I have the impression that you more or less dropped out of fandom around 1966. PAUL: Yes. There was a gap because I was busy with other things. I became president of my school as a senior, and that took quite a bit of time. I graduated in 1966 and went to Dartmouth, where I finished up in 1970. Then I went to Oxford, which is how I got to England. I didn’t completely lose track with comics. I know that because, years later, I found in my parents’ attic a bunch of Spideys and 1968 Marvel #1s. Even when I was at Dartmouth, I’d kept up with what was going on. I remember feeling almost sorry for Julie that things were going wrong at DC. I mourned when he completed his tenure on Strange Adventures with #163 and Mystery In Space with #91. BILL: What’s the story behind your involvement with Rolling Stone magazine? PAUL: It started at Dartmouth in the spring of 1970 when I got a phone call in the middle of the night. In those days, if someone woke me like that, I couldn’t go back to sleep for an hour or two. So I thought, “What am I going to do now? My courses are cancelled because of the student strike over Kent State and Cambodia.” I finished my thesis. I thought, “Well, you always thought you could write a better singles record review than Ed Ward,”

BILL: Yeah, at that time it didn’t seem so high-risk. PAUL: Unfortunately, more people wanted to read than to lend then, and it never took off. I bless Ross for his sense of generosity, but that “Getting Mail” by Mike Vosburg, from Bill Schelly’s The Golden Age of Comic Fandom. [©2002 Mike Vosburg.]

“Paul Gambi”

who was their Record Review BILL: So you’ve kept abreast of Section Editor. I didn’t think he did at least some comics in the singles very well. His heart wasn’t in ensuing years. it. And so I wrote a review of “Band PAUL: Well, yes. And I must of Gold” by Freda Payne, and then I mention that I got to interview went to sleep. Later, I realized I Carl Barks, who was my first hero couldn’t send in just one review, so I with his work in the Disney wrote another piece which was a comics I read as a child. When he sort of satirical criticism of three came to Europe in the 1990s for a British pop songs of the time: tour, when he was in his nineties, I “United We Stand” by The managed to get him on the Good Brotherhood of Man, “My Baby Morning, Britain show, which is, Loves Lovin’” by White Plains, and as you might suspect, the equiv“That Same Old Feeling” by alent of Good Morning, America. Pickettywitch. [laughs] I sent it off, I interviewed him in my house—in and a week later I had a return letter my house!—on TV. What a thrill. from Ed Ward, saying, “Anything that makes me laugh as much as BILL: What was he like when your White Plains, etc., review has Paul in the early 1980s, displaying some “Barks books” for an article you met him? in what he says was “a house-and-garden type mag.” Photo courtesy got to go in. Enclosed please find of Paul Gambaccini. your Rolling Stone due date PAUL: He was like Uncle Carl. I calendar,” which was one of those wanted him to know that I had Elvis pocket jobs with dates circled. That’s how I started writing for collected his work, and I showed him the Porky Pig Four-Color. He Rolling Stone. held it and said, “I’ve never seen this. I did it and forgot about it.” BILL: So you were reviewing singles and then albums? PAUL: Yes. That started in 1970. Then, while I was at Oxford, I would go into London three or four times a week for Rolling Stone purposes. And that’s how I met people from the BBC, and in 1973 I was given my own regular BBC slot, and things grew from there.

On the Air with Comics Legends BILL: What kinds of things have you done on your BBC show? PAUL: I’m sort of proud that I’ve managed to get my favorite creators onto British radio and television, including Julie and Stan and Carl Barks, Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore. I was the presenter of a long-running BBC arts radio show called Kaleidoscope. It was on from 1974 to 1999, but I wasn’t the host for the entire period. I had two bursts of being a host, once in the 1970s and one in the 1990s. And whenever it was appropriate, or I thought I could get away with it, to have comics people on the BBC. The one with Julie was done when I was visiting New York, doing a program about my return to my roots in the Bronx, and how I was shaped by the personalities from New York. One of the half-dozen personalities I chose was Julie Schwartz. The one with Stan Lee was done live in the studio. We had a very interesting chat beforehand. I asked him about Jack Kirby, and he said they had parted on good terms, and that the last thing Kirby had said to him was something he thought very strange, to the effect of “You have nothing to hold against yourself.” Meaning, you have nothing to apologize for. It was words to that effect. Stan said it was tremendously sad to him that so many of the artists had met sad ends. And he referred to Bill Everett and Wally Wood. He had the deepest affection and sympathy for the artists. He obviously felt their lot in life was more difficult, as human beings, to keep it together. BILL: Other interview memories...? PAUL: I was a great devotee of Sandman. When I interviewed Neil Gaiman, we did two little radio playlets of scenes from Sandman. I also did a TV show, a documentary about comics, that featured Alan Moore during the Swamp Thing period.

Salman Rushdie... and Beyond BILL: When Roy and I talked about my interviewing you, he said, “Ask him to tell you the story about Salman Rushdie.” Do you know what he was talking about? PAUL: Yeah, I was in L.A. one day, to do a TV interview with Lisa Stansfield. This was 1989, 1990... something like that. I went to my favorite bookstore on Sunset Boulevard, which is called Book Soup, and there by the register was this literary journal. I opened it up and there was an article by Salman Rushdie about his love for the Justice League of America! [chuckles] So, subsequently, when I met him in London— when he was in hiding due to the death threat he’d received after the publication of The Satanic Verses—I was thinking, “This is incredible. Here’s this guy who’s the world’s most famous symbol of freedom of speech, and he’d been writing about the JLA.” When I asked him about it, he said that, as a boy in Bombay, he could identify with the two JLA members who were not from America. One was Superman, who was from Krypton, and the other was the Manhunter From Mars. I had sent a letter to his publisher and he said, “Yes, of course I got your letter and I loved the JLA. I especially loved Juh-onn Juh-onzz. I figured with that apostrophe, there had to be some kind of Arabic gap, Arabic aspiration in the pronunciation.” So he called him Juh-onn Juh-onzz. Of course, if he considered it further, Wonder Woman wasn’t from America, either. The point is that made him feel that even though he was an alien—in other words, he was living in India—he could fit into England. Now, in fact, he lives in New York. BILL: What’s your current BBC assignment? PAUL: At the moment, I have two important programs a week. One is The American Hits on BBC Radio 2. The other, The Classic Countdown, is the one that sends Roy into paroxysms of laughter every time he thinks about it, that there could be a chart show of classical records. But it’s based on the week’s classical records sales. And as bizarre to me as it is to you, it is a huge national success. And I think... let’s see, I’ve got 2% of the population listening. BILL: It’s been great talking to you, Paul. PAUL: I enjoyed it too. Cheers!

Edited by ROY THOMAS

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The greatest ‘zine of the 1960s is back, ALL-NEW, and focusing on GOLDEN AND SILVER AGE comics and creators with NS EDITIO BLE ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS, A IL AVA NLY UNSEEN ART, P.C. Hamerlinck’s FOR O 5 FCA (Fawcett Collectors of $2.9 America, featuring the archives of C.C. BECK and recollections by Fawcett artist MARCUS SWAYZE), Michael T. Gilbert’s MR. MONSTER, and more!

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STAN LEE gets roasted by SCHWARTZ, CLAREMONT, DAVID, ROMITA, BUSCEMA, and SHOOTER, ORDWAY and THOMAS on INFINITY, INC., IRWIN HASEN interview, unseen H.G. PETER Wonder Woman pages, the original Captain Marvel and Human Torch teamup, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, “Mr. Monster”, plus plenty of rare and unpublished art!

Featuring a never-reprinted SPIRIT story by WILL EISNER, the genesis of the SILVER AGE ATOM (with GARDNER FOX, GIL KANE, and JULIE SCHWARTZ), interviews with LARRY LIEBER and Golden Age great JACK BURNLEY, BOB KANIGHER, a new Fawcett Collectors of America section with MARC SWAYZE, C.C. BECK, and more! GIL KANE and JACK BURNLEY flip-covers!

Unseen ALEX ROSS and JERRY ORDWAY Shazam! art, 1953 interview with OTTO BINDER, the SUPERMAN/CAPTAIN MARVEL LAWSUIT, GIL KANE on The Golden Age of TIMELY COMICS, FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, and SCHAFFENBERGER, rare art by AYERS, BERG, BURNLEY, DITKO, RICO, SCHOMBURG, MARIE SEVERIN and more! ALEX ROSS & BILL EVERETT covers!

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Interviews with KUBERT, SHELLY MOLDOFF, and HARRY LAMPERT, BOB KANIGHER, life and times of GARDNER FOX, ROY THOMAS remembers GIL KANE, a history of Flash Comics, MOEBIUS Silver Surfer sketches, MR. MONSTER, FCA section with SWAYZE, BECK, and SCHAFFENBERGER, and lots more! Dual color covers by JOE KUBERT!

Celebrating the JSA, with interviews with MART NODELL, SHELLY MAYER, GEORGE ROUSSOS, BILL BLACK, and GIL KANE, unpublished H.G. PETER Wonder Woman art, GARDNER FOX, an FCA section with MARC SWAYZE, C.C. BECK, WENDELL CROWLEY, and more! Wraparound cover by CARMINE INFANTINO and JERRY ORDWAY!

GENE COLAN interview, 1940s books on comics by STAN LEE and ROBERT KANIGHER, AYERS, SEVERIN, and ROY THOMAS on Sgt. Fury, ROY on All-Star Squadron’s Golden Age roots, FCA section with SWAYZE, BECK, and WILLIAM WOOLFOLK, JOE SIMON interview, a definitive look at MAC RABOY’S work, and more! Covers by COLAN and RABOY!

Companion to ALL-STAR COMPANION book, with a JULIE SCHWARTZ interview, guide to JLA-JSA TEAMUPS, origins of the ALL-STAR SQUADRON, FCA section with MARC SWAYZE, C.C. BECK (on his 1970s DC conflicts), DAVE BERG, BOB ROGERS, more on MAC RABOY from his son, MR. MONSTER, and more! RICH BUCKLER and C.C. BECK covers!

WALLY WOOD biography, DAN ADKINS & BILL PEARSON on Wood, TOR section with 1963 JOE KUBERT interview, ROY THOMAS on creating the ALL-STAR SQUADRON and its 1940s forebears, FCA section with SWAYZE & BECK, MR. MONSTER, JERRY ORDWAY on Shazam!, JERRY DeFUCCIO on the Golden Age, CHIC STONE remembered! ADKINS and KUBERT covers!

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JOHN ROMITA interview by ROY THOMAS (with unseen art), Roy’s PROPOSED DREAM PROJECTS that never got published (with a host of great artists), MR. MONSTER on WAYNE BORING’S life after Superman, The Golden Age of Comic Fandom Panel, FCA section with GEORGE TUSKA, C.C. BECK, MARC SWAYZE, BILL MORRISON, & more! ROMITA and GIORDANO covers!

Who Created the Silver Age Flash? (with KANIGHER, INFANTINO, KUBERT, and SCHWARTZ), DICK AYERS interview (with unseen art), JOHN BROOME remembered, never-seen Golden Age Flash pages, VIN SULLIVAN Magazine Enterprises interview, FCA, interview with FRED GUARDINEER, and MR. MONSTER on WAYNE BORING! INFANTINO and AYERS covers!

Focuses on TIMELY/MARVEL (interviews and features on SYD SHORES, MICKEY SPILLANE, and VINCE FAGO), and MAGAZINE ENTERPRISES (including JOE CERTA, JOHN BELFI, FRANK BOLLE, BOB POWELL, and FRED MEAGHER), MR. MONSTER on JERRY SIEGEL, DON and MAGGIE THOMPSON interview, FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, and DON NEWTON!

DC and QUALITY COMICS focus! Quality’s GILL FOX interview, never-seen ‘40s PAUL REINMAN Green Lantern story, ROY THOMAS talks to LEN WEIN and RICH BUCKLER about ALL-STAR SQUADRON, MR. MONSTER shows what made WALLY WOOD leave MAD, FCA section with BECK & SWAYZE, & ‘65 NEWSWEEK ARTICLE on comics! REINMAN and BILL WARD covers!

1974 panel with JOE SIMON, STAN LEE, FRANK ROBBINS, and ROY THOMAS, ROY and JOHN BUSCEMA on Avengers, 1964 STAN LEE interview, tributes to DON HECK, JOHNNY CRAIG, and GRAY MORROW, Timely alums DAVID GANTZ and DANIEL KEYES, and FCA with BECK, SWAYZE, and MIKE MANLEY! Covers by MURPHY ANDERSON and JOE SIMON!

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A look at the 1970s JSA revival with CONWAY, LEVITZ, ESTRADA, GIFFEN, MILGROM, and STATON, JERRY ORDWAY on All-Star Squadron, tributes to CRAIG CHASE and DAN DeCARLO, “lost” 1945 issue of All-Star, 1970 interview with LEE ELIAS, MR. MONSTER on GARDNER FOX, FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, & JAY DISBROW! MIKE NASSER & MICHAEL GILBERT covers!

JOHN BUSCEMA ISSUE! BUSCEMA interview (with UNSEEN ART), reminiscences by SAL BUSCEMA, STAN LEE, INFANTINO, KUBERT, ORDWAY, FLO STEINBERG, and HERB TRIMPE, ROY THOMAS on 35 years with BIG JOHN, FCA tribute to KURT SCHAFFENBERGER, plus C.C. BECK and MARC SWAYZE, and MR. MONSTER revisits WALLY WOOD! Two BUSCEMA covers!

MARVEL BULLPEN REUNION (BUSCEMA, COLAN, ROMITA, and SEVERIN), memories of the JOHN BUSCEMA SCHOOL, FCA with ALEX ROSS, C.C. BECK, and MARC SWAYZE, tribute to CHAD GROTHKOPF, MR. MONSTER on EC COMICS with art by KURTZMAN, DAVIS, and WOOD, and more! Covers by ALEX ROSS and MARIE SEVERIN & RAMONA FRADON!

Spotlighting LOU FINE (with an overview of his career, and interviews with family members), interview with MURPHY ANDERSON about Fine, ALEX TOTH on Fine, ARNOLD DRAKE interviewed about DEADMAN and DOOM PATROL, MR. MONSTER on the non-EC work of JACK DAVIS and GEORGE EVANS, FINE and LUIS DOMINGUEZ COVERS, FCA and more!

STAN GOLDBERG interview, secrets of ‘40s Timely, art by KIRBY, DITKO, ROMITA, BUSCEMA, MANEELY, EVERETT, BURGOS, and DeCARLO, spotlight on sci-fi fanzine XERO with the LUPOFFS, OTTO BINDER, DON THOMPSON, ROY THOMAS, BILL SCHELLY, and ROGER EBERT, FCA, and MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD ghosting Flash Gordon! KIRBY and SWAYZE covers!

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ALTER EGO #23

Spotlight on DICK SPRANG (profile and interview) with unseen art, rare Batman art by BOB KANE, CHARLES PARIS, SHELLY MOLDOFF, MAX ALLAN COLLINS, JIM MOONEY, CARMINE INFANTINO, and ALEX TOTH, JERRY ROBINSON interviewed about Tomahawk and 1940s cover artist FRED RAY, FCA, and MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD’s Flash Gordon, Part 2!

Timely/Marvel art by SEKOWSKY, SHORES, EVERETT, and BURGOS, secrets behind THE INVADERS with ROY THOMAS, KIRBY, GIL KANE, & ROBBINS, BOB DESCHAMPS interviewed, 1965 NY Comics Con review, panel with FINGER, BINDER, FOX and WEISINGER, MR. MONSTER, FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, RABOY, SCHAFFENBERGER, and more! MILGROM and SCHELLY covers!

The IGER “SHOP” examined, with art by EISNER, FINE, ANDERSON, CRANDALL, BAKER, MESKIN, CARDY, EVANS, BOB KANE, and TUSKA, “SHEENA” section with art by DAVE STEVENS & FRANK BRUNNER, ROY THOMAS on JSA & All-Star Squadron, MR. MONSTER on GARDNER FOX, UNSEEN 1946 ALL-STAR ART, FCA, and more! DAVE STEVENS and IRWIN HASEN covers!

BILL EVERETT and JOE KUBERT interviewed by NEAL ADAMS and GIL KANE in 1970, Timely art by BURGOS, SHORES, NODELL, and SEKOWSKY, RUDY LAPICK, ROY THOMAS on Sub-Mariner, with art by EVERETT, COLAN, ANDRU, BUSCEMAs, SEVERINs, and more, FCA, MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD at EC, ALEX TOTH, and CAPT. MIDNIGHT! EVERETT & BECK covers!

Unseen art from TWO “LOST” 1940s H.G. PETER WONDER WOMAN STORIES (and analysis of “CHARLES MOULTON” scripts), BOB FUJITANI and JOHN ROSENBERGER, VICTOR GORELICK discusses Archie and The Mighty Crusaders, with art by MORROW, BUCKLER, and REINMAN, FCA, and MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD! H.G. PETER and BOB FUJITANI covers!

(108-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #24

ALTER EGO #25

ALTER EGO #26

ALTER EGO #27

ALTER EGO #28

X-MEN interviews with STAN LEE, DAVE COCKRUM, CHRIS CLAREMONT, ARNOLD DRAKE, JIM SHOOTER, ROY THOMAS, and LEN WEIN, MORT MESKIN profiled by his sons and ALEX TOTH, rare art by JERRY ROBINSON, FCA with BECK, SWAYZE, and WILLIAM WOOLFOLK, MR. MONSTER, and BILL SCHELLY on Comics Fandom! MESKIN and COCKRUM covers!

JACK COLE remembered by ALEX TOTH, interview with brother DICK COLE and his PLAYBOY colleagues, CHRIS CLAREMONT on the X-Men (with more never-seen art by DAVE COCKRUM), ROY THOMAS on AllStar Squadron #1 and its ‘40s roots (with art by ORDWAY, BUCKLER, MESKIN and MOLDOFF), FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more! Covers by TOTH and SCHELLY!

JOE SINNOTT interview, IRWIN DONENFELD interview by EVANIER & SCHWARTZ, art by SHUSTER, INFANTINO, ANDERSON, and SWAN, MARK WAID analyzes the first Kryptonite story, JERRY SIEGEL and HARRY DONENFELD, JERRY IGER Shop update, ALEX TOTH, MR. MONSTER, and FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, and KEN BALD! Covers by SINNOTT and WAYNE BORING!

VIN SULLIVAN interview about the early DC days with art by SHUSTER, MOLDOFF, FLESSEL, GUARDINEER, and BURNLEY, MR. MONSTER’s “Lost” KIRBY HULK covers, 1948 NEW YORK COMIC CON with STAN LEE, SIMON & KIRBY, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, HARVEY KURTZMAN, and ROY THOMAS, ALEX TOTH, FCA, and more! Covers by JACK BURNLEY and JACK KIRBY!

Spotlight on JOE MANEELY, with a career overview, remembrance by his daughter and tons of art, Timely/Atlas/Marvel art by ROMITA, EVERETT, SEVERIN, SHORES, KIRBY, and DITKO, STAN LEE on Maneely, LEE AMES interview, FCA with SWAYZE, ISIS, and STEVE SKEATES, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more! Covers by JOE MANEELY and DON NEWTON!

(108-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #29

ALTER EGO #30

ALTER EGO #31

ALTER EGO #32

ALTER EGO #33

FRANK BRUNNER interview, BILL EVERETT’S Venus examined by TRINA ROBBINS, Classics Illustrated “What ifs”, LEE/KIRBY/DITKO Marvel prototypes, JOE MANEELY’s monsters, BILL FRACCIO interview, ALEX TOTH, MR. MONSTER, JOHN BENSON on EC, The Heap by ERNIE SCHROEDER, and FCA! Covers by FRANK BRUNNER and PETE VON SHOLLY!

ALEX ROSS on his love for the JLA, BLACKHAWK/JLA artist DICK DILLIN, the super-heroes of 1940s-1980s France (with art by STEVE RUDE, STEVE BISSETTE, LADRÖNN, and NEAL ADAMS), KIM AAMODT & WALTER GEIER on writing for SIMON & KIRBY, ALEX TOTH, MR. MONSTER, and FCA! Covers by ALEX ROSS and STEVE RUDE!

DICK AYERS on his 1950s and ‘60s work (with tons of Marvel Bullpen art), HARLAN ELLISON’s Marvel Age work examined (with art by BUCKLER, SAL BUSCEMA, and TRIMPE), STAN LEE’S Marvel Prototypes (with art by KIRBY and DITKO), Christmas cards from comics greats, MR. MONSTER, & FCA with SWAYZE and SCHAFFENBERGER! Covers by DICK AYERS and FRED RAY!

Timely artists ALLEN BELLMAN and SAM BURLOCKOFF interviewed, MART NODELL on his Timely years, rare art by BURGOS, EVERETT, and SHORES, MIKE GOLD on the Silver Age (with art by SIMON & KIRBY, SWAN, INFANTINO, KANE, and more), FCA, ALEX TOTH, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom, and more! Covers by DICK GIORDANO and GIL KANE!

Symposium on MIKE SEKOWSKY by MARK EVANIER, SCOTT SHAW!, et al., with art by ANDERSON, INFANTINO, and others, PAT (MRS. MIKE) SEKOWSKY and inker VALERIE BARCLAY interviewed, FCA, 1950s Captain Marvel parody by ANDRU and ESPOSITO, ALEX TOTH, BILL SCHELLY, MR. MONSTER, and more! Covers by FRENZ/SINNOTT and FRENZ/BUSCEMA!

(108-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

(108-page magazine) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $2.95

(108-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #34

ALTER EGO #35

ALTER EGO #36

ALTER EGO #37

ALTER EGO #38

Quality Comics interviews with ALEX KOTZKY, AL GRENET, CHUCK CUIDERA, & DICK ARNOLD (son of BUSY ARNOLD), art by COLE, EISNER, FINE, WARD, DILLIN, and KANE, MICHELLE NOLAN on Blackhawk’s jump to DC, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT on HARVEY KURTZMAN, & ALEX TOTH on REED CRANDALL! Covers by REED CRANDALL & CHARLES NICHOLAS!

Covers by JOHN ROMITA and AL JAFFEE! LEE, ROMITA, AYERS, HEATH, & THOMAS on the 1953-55 Timely super-hero revival, with rare art by ROMITA, AYERS, BURGOS, HEATH, EVERETT, LAWRENCE, & POWELL, AL JAFFEE on the 1940s Timely Bullpen (and MAD), FCA, ALEX TOTH on comic art, MR. MONSTER on unpublished 1950s covers, and more!

JOE SIMON on SIMON & KIRBY, CARL BURGOS, and LLOYD JACQUET, JOHN BELL on World War II Canadian heroes, MICHAEL T. GILBERT on Canadian origins of MR. MONSTER, tributes to BOB DESCHAMPS, DON LAWRENCE, & GEORGE WOODBRIDGE, FCA, ALEX TOTH, and ELMER WEXLER interview! Covers by SIMON and GILBERT & RONN SUTTON!

WILL MURRAY on the 1940 Superman “KMetal” story & PHILIP WYLIE’s GLADIATOR (with art by SHUSTER, SWAN, ADAMS, and BORING), FCA with BECK, SWAYZE, and DON NEWTON, SY BARRY interview, art by TOTH, MESKIN, INFANTINO, and ANDERSON, and MICHAEL T. GILBERT interviews AL FELDSTEIN on EC and RAY BRADBURY! Covers by C.C. BECK and WAYNE BORING!

JULIE SCHWARTZ TRIBUTE with HARLAN ELLISON, INFANTINO, ANDERSON, TOTH, KUBERT, GIELLA, GIORDANO, CARDY, LEVITZ, STAN LEE, WOLFMAN, EVANIER, & ROY THOMAS, never-seen interviews with Julie, FCA with BECK, SCHAFFENBERGER, NEWTON, COCKRUM, OKSNER, FRADON, SWAYZE, and JACKSON BOSTWICK! Covers by INFANTINO and IRWIN HASEN!

(108-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #39

ALTER EGO #40

ALTER EGO #41

ALTER EGO #42

ALTER EGO #43

Full-issue spotlight on JERRY ROBINSON, with an interview on being BOB KANE’s Batman “ghost”, creating the JOKER and ROBIN, working on VIGILANTE, GREEN HORNET, and ATOMAN, plus never-seen art by Jerry, MESKIN, ROUSSOS, RAY, KIRBY, SPRANG, DITKO, and PARIS! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER on AL FELDSTEIN Part 2, and more! Two JERRY ROBINSON covers!

RUSS HEATH and GIL KANE interviews (with tons of unseen art), the JULIE SCHWARTZ Memorial Service with ELLISON, MOORE, GAIMAN, HASEN, O’NEIL, and LEVITZ, art by INFANTINO, ANDERSON, TOTH, NOVICK, DILLIN, SEKOWSKY, KUBERT, GIELLA, ARAGONÉS, FCA, MR. MONSTER and AL FELDSTEIN Part 3, and more! Covers by GIL KANE & RUSS HEATH!

Halloween issue! BERNIE WRIGHTSON on his 1970s FRANKENSTEIN, DICK BRIEFER’S monster, the campy 1960s Frankie, art by KALUTA, BAILY, MANEELY, PLOOG, KUBERT, BRUNNER, BORING, OKSNER, TUSKA, CRANDALL, and SUTTON, FCA #100, EMILIO SQUEGLIO interview, ALEX TOTH, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and more! Covers by WRIGHTSON & MARC SWAYZE!

A celebration of DON HECK, WERNER ROTH, and PAUL REINMAN, rare art by KIRBY, DITKO, and AYERS, Hillman and Ziff-Davis remembered by Heap artist ERNIE SCHROEDER, HERB ROGOFF, and WALTER LITTMAN, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and ALEX TOTH! Covers by FASTNER & LARSON and ERNIE SCHROEDER!

Yuletide art by WOOD, SINNOTT, CARDY, BRUNNER, TOTH, NODELL, and others, interviews with Golden Age artists TOM GILL (Lone Ranger) and MORRIS WEISS, exploring 1960s Mexican comics, FCA with MARC SWAYZE and C.C. BECK, MR. MONSTER, ALEX TOTH, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom, and more! Flip covers by GEORGE TUSKA and DAVE STEVENS!

(108-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #44

ALTER EGO #45

ALTER EGO #46

ALTER EGO #47

ALTER EGO #48

JSA/All-Star Squadron/Infinity Inc. special! Interviews with KUBERT, HASEN, ANDERSON, ORDWAY, BUCKLER, THOMAS, 1940s Atom writer ARTHUR ADLER, art by TOTH, SEKOWSKY, HASEN, MACHLAN, OKSNER, and INFANTINO, FCA, and MR. MONSTER’S “I Like Ike!” cartoons by BOB KANE, INFANTINO, OKSNER, and BIRO! Wraparound ORDWAY cover!

Interviews with Sandman artist CREIG FLESSEL and ‘40s creator BERT CHRISTMAN, MICHAEL CHABON on researching his Pulitzer-winning novel Kavalier & Clay, art by EISNER, KANE, KIRBY, and AYERS, FCA with MARC SWAYZE and C.C. BECK, OTTO BINDER’s “lost” Jon Jarl story, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom, and ALEX TOTH! CREIG FLESSEL cover!

The VERY BEST of the 1960s-70s ALTER EGO! 1969 BILL EVERETT interview, art by BURGOS, GUSTAVSON, SIMON & KIRBY, and others, 1960s gems by DITKO, E. NELSON BRIDWELL, JERRY BAILS, and ROY THOMAS, LOU GLANZMAN interview, tributes to IRV NOVICK and CHRIS REEVE, MR. MONSTER, FCA, TOTH, and more! Cover by EVERETT and MARIE SEVERIN!

Spotlights MATT BAKER, Golden Age cheesecake artist of PHANTOM LADY! Career overview, interviews with BAKER’s half-brother and nephew, art from AL FELDSTEIN, VINCE COLLETTA, ARTHUR PEDDY, JACK KAMEN and others, FCA, BILL SCHELLY talks to comic-book-seller (and fan) BUD PLANT, MR. MONSTER on missing AL WILLIAMSON art, and ALEX TOTH!

WILL EISNER discusses Eisner & Iger’s Shop and BUSY ARNOLD’s ‘40s Quality Comics, art by FINE, CRANDALL, COLE, POWELL, and CARDY, EISNER tributes by STAN LEE, GENE COLAN, & others, interviews with ‘40s Quality artist VERN HENKEL and CHUCK MAZOUJIAN, FCA, MR. MONSTER on EISNER’s Wonder Man, ALEX TOTH, and more with BUD PLANT! EISNER cover!

(100-page magazine) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $2.95

(100-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #49

ALTER EGO #50

ALTER EGO #51

ALTER EGO #52

ALTER EGO #53

Spotlights CARL BURGOS! Interview with daughter SUE BURGOS, art by BURGOS, BILL EVERETT, MIKE SEKOWSKY, ED ASCHE, and DICK AYERS, unused 1941 Timely cover layouts, the 1957 Atlas Implosion examined, MANNY STALLMAN, FCA, MR. MONSTER and more! New cover by MARK SPARACIO, from an unused 1941 layout by CARL BURGOS!

ROY THOMAS covers his 40-YEAR career in comics (AVENGERS, X-MEN, CONAN, ALL-STAR SQUADRON, INFINITY INC.), with ADAMS, BUSCEMA, COLAN, DITKO, GIL KANE, KIRBY, STAN LEE, ORDWAY, PÉREZ, ROMITA, and many others! Also FCA, & MR. MONSTER on ROY’s letters to GARDNER FOX! Flip-covers by BUSCEMA/ KIRBY/ALCALA and JERRY ORDWAY!

Golden Age Batman artist/BOB KANE ghost LEW SAYRE SCHWARTZ interviewed, Batman art by JERRY ROBINSON, DICK SPRANG, SHELDON MOLDOFF, WIN MORTIMER, JIM MOONEY, and others, the Golden and Silver Ages of AUSTRALIAN SUPER-HEROES, Mad artist DAVE BERG interviewed, FCA, MR. MONSTER on WILL EISNER, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

JOE GIELLA on the Silver Age at DC, the Golden Age at Marvel, and JULIE SCHWARTZ, with rare art by INFANTINO, GIL KANE, SEKOWSKY, SWAN, DILLIN, MOLDOFF, GIACOIA, SCHAFFENBERGER, and others, JAY SCOTT PIKE on STAN LEE and CHARLES BIRO, MARTIN THALL interview, ALEX TOTH, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more! GIELLA cover!

GIORDANO and THOMAS on STOKER’S DRACULA, never-seen DICK BRIEFER Frankenstein strip, MIKE ESPOSITO on his work with ROSS ANDRU, art by COLAN, WRIGHTSON, MIGNOLA, BRUNNER, BISSETTE, KALUTA, HEATH, MANEELY, EVERETT, DITKO, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, BILL SCHELLY, ALEX TOTH, and MR. MONSTER! Cover by GIORDANO!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

(100-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #54

ALTER EGO #55

ALTER EGO #56

ALTER EGO #57

ALTER EGO #58

MIKE ESPOSITO on DC and Marvel, ROBERT KANIGHER on the creation of Metal Men and Sgt. Rock (with comments by JOE KUBERT and BOB HANEY), art by ANDRU, INFANTINO, KIRBY, SEVERIN, WINDSOR-SMITH, ROMITA, BUSCEMA, TRIMPE, GIL KANE, and others, plus FCA, ALEX TOTH, BILL SCHELLY, MR. MONSTER, and more! ESPOSITO cover!

JACK and OTTO BINDER, KEN BALD, VIC DOWD, and BOB BOYAJIAN interviewed, FCA with SWAYZE and EMILIO SQUEGLIO, rare art by BECK, WARD, & SCHAFFENBERGER, Christmas Cards from CRANDALL, SINNOTT, HEATH, MOONEY, and CARDY, 1943 Pin-Up Calendar (with ‘40s movie stars as superheroines), ALEX TOTH, more! ALEX ROSS and ALEX WRIGHT covers!

Interviews with Superman creators SIEGEL & SHUSTER, Golden/Silver Age DC production guru JACK ADLER interviewed, NEAL ADAMS and radio/TV iconoclast (and comics fan) HOWARD STERN on Adler and his amazing career, art by CURT SWAN, WAYNE BORING, and AL PLASTINO, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, ALEX TOTH, and more! NEAL ADAMS cover!

Issue-by-issue index of Timely/Atlas superhero stories by MICHELLE NOLAN, art by SIMON & KIRBY, EVERETT, BURGOS, ROMITA, AYERS, HEATH, SEKOWSKY, SHORES, SCHOMBURG, MANEELY, and SEVERIN, GENE COLAN and ALLEN BELLMAN on 1940s Timely super-heroes, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and BILL SCHELLY! Cover by JACK KIRBY and PETE VON SHOLLY!

GERRY CONWAY and ROY THOMAS on their ‘80s screenplay for “The X-Men Movie That Never Was!”with art by COCKRUM, ADAMS, BUSCEMA, BYRNE, GIL KANE, KIRBY, HECK, and LIEBER, Atlas artist VIC CARRABOTTA interview, ALLEN BELLMAN on 1940s Timely bullpen, FCA, 1966 panel on 1950s EC Comics, and MR. MONSTER! MARK SPARACIO/GIL KANE cover!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #59

ALTER EGO #60

ALTER EGO #61

ALTER EGO #62

ALTER EGO #63

Special issue on Batman and Superman in the Golden and Silver Ages, featuring a new ARTHUR SUYDAM interview, NEAL ADAMS on DC in the 1960s-1970s, SHELLY MOLDOFF, AL PLASTINO, Golden Age artist FRAN (Doll Man) MATERA interviewed, SIEGEL & SHUSTER, RUSS MANNING, FCA, MR. MONSTER, SUYDAM cover, and more!

Celebrates 50 years since SHOWCASE #4! FLASH interviews with SCHWARTZ, KANIGHER, INFANTINO, KUBERT, and BROOME, Golden Age artist TONY DiPRETA, 1966 panel with NORDLING, BINDER, and LARRY IVIE, FCA, MR. MONSTER, never-before-published color Flash cover by CARMINE INFANTINO, and more!

History of the AMERICAN COMICS GROUP (1946 to 1967)—including its roots in the Golden Age SANGOR ART SHOP and STANDARD/NEDOR comics! Art by MESKIN, ROBINSON, WILLIAMSON, FRAZETTA, SCHAFFENBERGER, & BUSCEMA, ACG writer/editor RICHARD HUGHES, plus AL HARTLEY interviewed, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more! GIORDANO cover!

HAPPY HAUNTED HALLOWEEN ISSUE, featuring: MIKE PLOOG and RUDY PALAIS on their horror-comics work! AL WILLIAMSON on his work for the American Comics Group—plus more on ACG horror comics! Rare DICK BRIEFER Frankenstein strips! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY on the 1966 KalerCon, a new PLOOG cover—and more!

Tribute to ALEX TOTH! Never-before-seen interview with tons of TOTH art, including sketches he sent to friends! Articles about Toth by TERRY AUSTIN, JIM AMASH, SY BARRY, JOE KUBERT, LOU SAYRE SCHWARTZ, IRWIN HASEN, JOHN WORKMAN, and others! Plus illustrated Christmas cards by comics pros, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #64

ALTER EGO #65

ALTER EGO #66

ALTER EGO #67

ALTER EGO #68

Fawcett Favorites! Issue-by-issue analysis of BINDER & BECK’s 1943-45 “The Monster Society of Evil!” serial, double-size FCA section with MARC SWAYZE, EMILIO SQUEGLIO, C.C. BECK, MAC RABOY, and others! Interview with MARTIN FILCHOCK, Golden Age artist for Centaur Comics! Plus MR. MONSTER, DON NEWTON cover, plus a FREE 1943 MARVEL CALENDAR!

NICK CARDY interviewed on his Golden & Silver Age work (with CARDY art), plus art by WILL EISNER, NEAL ADAMS, CARMINE INFANTINO, JIM APARO, RAMONA FRADON, CURT SWAN, MIKE SEKOWSKY, and others, tributes to ERNIE SCHROEDER and DAVE COCKRUM, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, new CARDY COVER, and more!

Spotlight on BOB POWELL, the artist who drew Daredevil, Sub-Mariner, Sheena, The Avenger, The Hulk, Giant-Man, and others, plus art by WALLY WOOD, HOWARD NOSTRAND, DICK AYERS, SIMON & KIRBY, MARTIN GOODMAN’s Magazine Management, and others! FCA with MARC SWAYZE and C.C. BECK, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, and more!

Interview with BOB OKSNER, artist of Supergirl, Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, Angel and the Ape, Leave It to Binky, Shazam!, and more, plus art and artifacts by SHELLY MAYER, IRWIN HASEN, LEE ELIAS, C.C. BECK, CARMINE INFANTINO, GIL KANE, JULIE SCHWARTZ, etc., FCA with MARC SWAYZE & C.C. BECK, MICHAEL T. GILBERT on BOB POWELL Part II, and more!

Tribute to JERRY BAILS—Father of Comics Fandom and founder of Alter Ego! Cover by GEORGE PÉREZ, plus art by JOE KUBERT, CARMINE INFANTINO, GIL KANE, DICK DILLIN, MIKE SEKOWSKY, JERRY ORDWAY, JOE STATON, JACK KIRBY, and others! Plus STEVE DITKO’s notes to STAN LEE for a 1965 Dr. Strange story! And ROY reveals secrets behind Marvel’s STAR WARS comic!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #69

ALTER EGO #70

ALTER EGO #71

ALTER EGO #72

ALTER EGO #73

PAUL NORRIS drew AQUAMAN first, in 1941—and RAMONA FRADON was the hero’s ultimate Golden Age artist. But both drew other things as well, and both are interviewed in this landmark issue—along with a pocket history of Aquaman! Plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and more! Cover painted by JOHN WATSON, from a breathtaking illo by RAMONA FRADON!

Spotlight on ROY THOMAS’ 1970s stint as Marvel’s editor-in-chief and major writer, plus art and reminiscences of GIL KANE, BOTH BUSCEMAS, ADAMS, ROMITA, CHAYKIN, BRUNNER, PLOOG, EVERETT, WRIGHTSON, PÉREZ, ROBBINS, BARRY SMITH, STAN LEE and others, FCA, MR. MONSTER, a new GENE COLAN cover, plus an homage to artist LILY RENÉE!

Represents THE GREAT CANADIAN COMIC BOOKS, the long out-of-print 1970s book by MICHAEL HIRSH and PATRICK LOUBERT, with rare art of such heroes as Mr. Monster, Nelvana, Thunderfist, and others, plus new INVADERS art by JOHN BYRNE, MIKE GRELL, RON LIM, and more, plus a new cover by GEORGE FREEMAN, from a layout by JACK KIRBY!

SCOTT SHAW! and ROY THOMAS on the creation of Captain Carrot, art & artifacts by RICK HOBERG, STAN GOLDBERG, MIKE SEKOWSKY, JOHN COSTANZA, E. NELSON BRIDWELL, CAROL LAY, and others, interview with DICK ROCKWELL, Golden Age artist and 36-year ghost artist on MILTON CANIFF’s Steve Canyon! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

FRANK BRUNNER on drawing Dr. Strange, interviews with CHARLES BIRO and his daughters, interview with publisher ROBERT GERSON about his 1970s horror comic Reality, art by BERNIE WRIGHTSON, GRAHAM INGELS, HOWARD CHAYKIN, MICHAEL W. KALUTA, JEFF JONES, and others FCA, MR. MONSTER, a FREE DRAW! #15! PREVIEW, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #74

ALTER EGO #75

ALTER EGO #76

ALTER EGO #77

ALTER EGO #78

STAN LEE SPECIAL in honor of his 85th birthday, with a cover by JACK KIRBY, classic (and virtually unseen) interviews with Stan, tributes, and tons of rare and unseen art by KIRBY, ROMITA, the brothers BUSCEMA, DITKO, COLAN, HECK, AYERS, MANEELY, SHORES, EVERETT, BURGOS, KANE, the SEVERIN siblings—plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

FAWCETT FESTIVAL—with an ALEX ROSS cover! Double-size FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) with P.C. HAMERLINCK on the many “Captains Marvel” over the years, unseen Shazam! proposal by ALEX ROSS, C.C. BECK on “The Death of a Legend!”, MARC SWAYZE, interview with Golden Age artist MARV LEVY, MR. MONSTER, and more!

JOE SIMON SPECIAL! In-depth SIMON interview by JIM AMASH, with neverbefore-revealed secrets behind the creation of Captain America, Fighting American, Stuntman, Adventures of The Fly, Sick magazine and more, art by JACK KIRBY, BOB POWELL, AL WILLIAMSON, JERRY GRANDENETTI, GEORGE TUSKA, and others, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

ST. JOHN ISSUE! Golden Age Tor cover by JOE KUBERT, KEN QUATTRO relates the full legend of St. John Publishing, art by KUBERT, NORMAN MAURER, MATT BAKER, LILY RENEE, BOB LUBBERS, RUBEN MOREIRA, RALPH MAYO, AL FAGO, special reminiscences of ARNOLD DRAKE, Golden Age artist TOM SAWYER interviewed, and more!

DAVE COCKRUM TRIBUTE! Great rare XMen cover, Cockrum tributes from contemporaries and colleagues, and an interview with PATY COCKRUM on Dave’s life and legacy on The Legion of Super-Heroes, The X-Men, Star-Jammers, & more! Plus an interview with 1950s Timely/Marvel artist MARION SITTON on his own incredible career and his Golden Age contemporaries!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #79

ALTER EGO #80

ALTER EGO #81

ALTER EGO #82

ALTER EGO #83

SUPERMAN & HIS CREATORS! New cover by MICHAEL GOLDEN, exclusive and revealing interview with JOE SHUSTER’s sister, JEAN SHUSTER PEAVEY—LOU CAMERON interview—STEVE GERBER tribute—DWIGHT DECKER on the Man of Steel & Hitler’s Third Reich—plus art by WAYNE BORING, CURT SWAN, NEAL ADAMS, GIL KANE, and others!

SWORD-AND-SORCERY COMICS! Learn about Crom the Barbarian, Viking Prince, Nightmaster, Kull, Red Sonja, Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, Fafhrd and Gray Mouser, Beowulf, Warlord, Dagar the Invincible, and more, with art by FRAZETTA, SMITH, BUSCEMA, KANE, WRIGHTSON, PLOOG, THORNE, BRUNNER, LOU CAMERON Part II, and more! Cover by RAFAEL KAYANAN!

New FRANK BRUNNER Man-Thing cover, a look at the late-’60s horror comic WEB OF HORROR with early work by BRUNNER, WRIGHTSON, WINDSOR-SMITH, SIMONSON, & CHAYKIN, interview with comics & fine artist EVERETT RAYMOND KINTSLER, ROY THOMAS’ 1971 origin synopsis for the FIRST MAN-THING STORY, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

MLJ ISSUE! Golden Age MLJ index illustrated with vintage images of The Shield, Hangman, Mr. Justice, Black Hood, by IRV NOVICK, JACK COLE, CHARLES BIRO, MORT MESKIN, GIL KANE, & others—behind a marvelous MLJ-heroes cover by BOB McLEOD! Plus interviews with IRV NOVICK and JOE EDWARDS, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

SWORD & SORCERY PART 2! Cover by ARTHUR SUYDAM, with a focus on Conan the Barbarian by ROY THOMAS and WILL MURRAY, a look at WALLY WOOD’s Marvel sword-&-sorcery work, the Black Knight examined, plus JOE EDWARDS interview Part 2, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #84

ALTER EGO #85

ALTER EGO #86

ALTER EGO #87

ALTER EGO #88

Unseen JIM APARO cover, STEVE SKEATES discusses his early comics work, art & artifacts by ADKINS, APARO, ARAGONÉS, BOYETTE, DITKO, GIORDANO, KANE, KELLER, MORISI, ORLANDO, SEKOWSKY, STONE, THOMAS, WOOD, and the great WARREN SAVIN! Plus writer CHARLES SINCLAIR on his partnership with Batman co-creator BILL FINGER, FCA, and more!

Captain Marvel and Superman’s battles explored (in cosmic space, candy stores, and in court), RICH BUCKLER on Captain Marvel, plus an in-depth interview with Golden Age great LILY RENÉE, overview of CENTAUR COMICS (home of BILL EVERETT’s Amazing-Man and others), FCA, MR. MONSTER, new RICH BUCKLER cover, and more!

Spotlighting the Frantic Four-Color MAD WANNABES of 1953-55 that copied HARVEY KURTZMAN’S EC smash (see Captain Marble, Mighty Moose, Drag-ula, Prince Scallion, and more) with art by SIMON & KIRBY, KUBERT & MAURER, ANDRU & ESPOSITO, EVERETT, COLAN, and many others, plus Part 1 of a talk with Golden/ Silver Age artist FRANK BOLLE, and more!

The sensational 1954-1963 saga of Great Britain’s MARVELMAN (decades before he metamorphosed into Miracleman), plus an interview with writer/artist/co-creator MICK ANGLO, and rare Marvelman/ Miracleman work by ALAN DAVIS, ALAN MOORE, a new RICK VEITCH cover, plus FRANK BOLLE, Part 2, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

First-ever in-depth look at National/DC’s founder MAJOR MALCOLM WHEELERNICHOLSON, and pioneers WHITNEY ELLSWORTH and CREIG FLESSEL, with rare art and artifacts by SIEGEL & SHUSTER, BOB KANE, CURT SWAN, GARDNER FOX, SHELDON MOLDOFF, and others, focus on DC advisor DR. LAURETTA BENDER, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #89

ALTER EGO #90

ALTER EGO #91

ALTER EGO #92

ALTER EGO #93

HARVEY COMICS’ PRE-CODE HORROR MAGS OF THE 1950s! Interviews with SID JACOBSON, WARREN KREMER, and HOWARD NOSTRAND, plus Harvey artist KEN SELIG talks to JIM AMASH! MR. MONSTER presents the wit and wisdom (and worse) of DR. FREDRIC WERTHAM, plus FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) with C.C. BECK & MARC SWAYZE, & more! SIMON & KIRBY and NOSTRAND cover!

BIG MARVEL ISSUE! Salutes to legends SINNOTT and AYERS—plus STAN LEE, TUSKA, EVERETT, MARTIN GOODMAN, and others! A look at the “Marvel SuperHeroes” TV animation of 1966! 1940s Timely writer and editor LEON LAZARUS interviewed by JIM AMASH! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, the 1960s fandom creations of STEVE GERBER, and more! JACK KIRBY holiday cover!

FAWCETT FESTIVAL! Big FCA section with Golden Age artists MARC SWAYZE & EMILIO SQUEGLIO! Plus JERRY ORDWAY on researching The Power of Shazam, Part II of “The MAD Four-Color Wannabes of the 1950s,” more on DR. LAURETTA BENDER and the teenage creations of STEVE GERBER, artist JACK KATZ spills Golden Age secrets to JIM AMASH, and more! New cover by ORDWAY and SQUEGLIO!

SWORD-AND-SORCERY, PART 3! DC’s Sword of Sorcery by O’NEIL, CHAYKIN, & SIMONSON and Claw by MICHELINIE & CHAN, Hercules by GLANZMAN, Dagar by GLUT & SANTOS, Marvel S&S art by BUSCEMA, CHAN, KAYANAN, WRIGHTSON, et al., and JACK KATZ on his classic First Kingdom! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, STEVE GERBER’s fan-creations (part 3), and more! Cover by RAFAEL KAYANAN!

(NOW WITH 16 COLOR PAGES!) “EarthTwo—1961 to 1985!” with rare art by INFANTINO, GIL KANE, ANDERSON, DELBO, ANDRU, BUCKLER, APARO, GRANDENETTI, and DILLIN, interview with Golden/Silver Age DC editor GEORGE KASHDAN, plus MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, STEVE GERBER, FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), and a new cover by INFANTINO and AMASH!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #94

ALTER EGO #95

ALTER EGO #96

ALTER EGO #97

ALTER EGO #98

“Earth-Two Companion, Part II!” More on the 1963-1985 series that changed comics forever! The Huntress, Power Girl, Dr. Fate, Freedom Fighters, and more, with art by ADAMS, APARO, AYERS, BUCKLER, GIFFEN, INFANTINO, KANE, NOVICK, SCHAFFENBERGER, SIMONSON, STATON, SWAN, TUSKA, our GEORGE KASHDAN interview Part 2, FCA, and more! STATON & GIORDANO cover!

Marvel’s NOT BRAND ECHH madcap parody mag from 1967-69, examined with rare art & artifacts by ANDRU, COLAN, BUSCEMA, DRAKE, EVERETT, FRIEDRICH, KIRBY, LEE, the SEVERIN siblings, SPRINGER, SUTTON, THOMAS, TRIMPE, and more, GEORGE KASHDAN interview conclusion, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, and more! Cover by MARIE SEVERIN!

Focus on Archie’s 1960s MIGHTY CRUSADERS, with vintage art and artifacts by JERRY SIEGEL, PAUL REINMAN, SIMON & KIRBY, JOHN ROSENBERGER, tributes to the Mighty Crusaders by BOB FUJITANE, GEORGE TUSKA, BOB LAYTON, and others! Interview with MELL LAZARUS, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and more! Cover by MIKE MACHLAN!

The NON-EC HORROR COMICS OF THE 1950s! From Menace and House of Mystery to The Thing!, we present vintage art and artifacts by EVERETT, BRIEFER, DITKO, MANEELY, COLAN , MESKIN, MOLDOFF, HEATH, POWELL, COLE, SIMON & KIRBY, FUJITANI, and others, plus FCA , MR. MONSTER and more, behind a creepy, eerie cover by BILL EVERETT!

Spotlight on Superman’s first editor WHITNEY ELLSWORTH, longtime Kryptoeditor MORT WEISINGER remembered by his daughter, an interview with Superman writer ALVIN SCHWARTZ, tributes to FRANK FRAZETTA and AL WILLIAMSON, art by JOE SHUSTER, WAYNE BORING, CURT SWAN, and NEAL ADAMS, plus MR. MONSTER, FCA, and a new cover by JERRY ORDWAY!

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO: CENTENNIAL (AE #100)

ALTER EGO #99

GEORGE TUSKA showcase issue on his career at Lev Gleason, Marvel, and in comics strips through the early 1970s—CRIME DOES NOT PAY, BUCK ROGERS, IRON MAN, AVENGERS, HERO FOR HIRE, & more! Plus interviews with Golden Age artist BILL BOSSERT and fan-artist RUDY FRANKE, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), and more! (84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO: CENTENNIAL is a celebration of 100 issues, and 50 years, of ALTER EGO, Roy Thomas’ legendary super-hero fanzine. It’s a double-size triple-threat BOOK, with twice as many pages as the regular magazine, plus special features just for this anniversary edition! Behind a RICH BUCKLER/JERRY ORDWAY JSA cover, ALTER EGO celebrates its 100th issue and the 50th anniversary of A/E (Vol. 1) #1 in 1961—as ROY THOMAS is interviewed by JIM AMASH about the 1980s at DC! Learn secrets behind ALL-STAR SQUADRON—INFINITY, INC.—ARAK, SON OF THUNDER—CAPTAIN CARROT—JONNI THUNDER, a.k.a. THUNDERBOLT— YOUNG ALL-STARS—SHAZAM!—RING OF THE NIBELUNG—and more! With rare art and artifacts by GEORGE PÉREZ, TODD McFARLANE, RICH BUCKLER, JERRY ORDWAY, MIKE MACHLAN, GIL KANE, GENE COLAN, DICK GIORDANO, ALFREDO ALCALA, TONY DEZUNIGA, ERNIE COLÓN, STAN GOLDBERG, SCOTT SHAW!, ROSS ANDRU, and many more! Plus special anniversary editions of Alter Ego staples MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, FAWCETT COLLECTORS OF AMERICA (FCA)—and ALEX WRIGHT’s amazing color collection of 1940s DC pinup babes! Edited by ROY THOMAS. (NOTE: This book takes the place of ALTER EGO #100, and counts as TWO issues toward your subscription.) (160-page trade paperback with COLOR) $19.95 (Digital Edition) $5.95 • ISBN: 9781605490311 Diamond Order Code: JAN111351

ALTER EGO #101

Fox Comics of the 1940s with art by FINE, BAKER, SIMON, KIRBY, TUSKA, FLETCHER HANKS, ALEX BLUM, and others! “Superman vs. Wonder Man” starring EISNER, IGER, SIEGEL, LIEBERSON, MAYER, DONENFELD, and VICTOR FOX! Plus, Part I of an interview with JACK MENDELSOHN, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, and new cover by Marvel artist DAVE WILLIAMS!

NEW!

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

ALTER EGO #102

ALTER EGO #103

ALTER EGO #104

ALTER EGO: THE CBA COLLECTION

Spotlight on Green Lantern creators MART NODELL and BILL FINGER in the 1940s, and JOHN BROOME, GIL KANE, and JULIUS SCHWARTZ in 1959! Rare GL artwork by INFANTINO, REINMAN, HASEN, NEAL ADAMS, and others! Plus JACK MENDELSOHN Part II, FCA, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, and new cover by GIL KANE & TERRY AUSTIN, and MART NODELL!

The early career of comics writer STEVE ENGLEHART: Defenders, Captain America, Master of Kung Fu, The Beast, Mantis, and more, with rare art and artifacts by SAL BUSCEMA, STARLIN, SUTTON, HECK, BROWN, and others. Plus, JIM AMASH interviews early artist GEORGE MANDEL (Captain Midnight, The Woman in Red, Blue Bolt, Black Marvel, etc.), FCA, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, and more!

Celebrates the 50th anniversary of FANTASTIC FOUR #1 and the birth of Marvel Comics! New, never-before-published STAN LEE interview, art and artifacts by KIRBY, DITKO, SINNOTT, AYERS, THOMAS, and secrets behind the Marvel Mythos! Also: JIM AMASH interviews 1940s Timely editor AL SULMAN, FCA, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, and a new cover by FRENZ and SINNOTT!

Compiles the ALTER EGO flip-sides from COMIC BOOK ARTIST #1-5, plus 30 NEW PAGES of features & art! All-new rare and previously-unpublished art by JACK KIRBY, GIL KANE, JOE KUBERT, WALLY WOOD, FRANK ROBBINS, NEAL ADAMS, & others, ROY THOMAS on X-MEN, AVENGERS/ KREE-SKRULL WAR, INVADERS, and more! Cover by JOE KUBERT!

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

(160-page trade paperback) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $4.95

HUMOR MAGAZINES (BUNDLE ALL THREE FOR JUST $14.95)

ALTER EGO:

BEST OF THE LEGENDARY COMICS FANZINE

Collects the original 11 issues of JERRY BAILS and ROY THOMAS’ ALTER EGO fanzine (from 1961-78), with contributions from JACK KIRBY, STEVE DITKO, WALLY WOOD, JOHN BUSCEMA, MARIE SEVERIN, BILL EVERETT, RUSS MANNING, CURT SWAN, and others—and illustrated interviews with GIL KANE, BILL EVERETT, & JOE KUBERT! Plus major articles on the JUSTICE SOCIETY, the MARVEL FAMILY, the MLJ HEROES, and more! Edited by ROY THOMAS and BILL SCHELLY with an introduction by JULIE SCHWARTZ. (192-page trade paperback) $21.95 ISBN: 9781893905887 Diamond Order Code: DEC073946

COMIC BOOK NERD

PETE VON SHOLLY’s side-splitting parody of the fan press, including our own mags! Experience the magic(?) of such publications as WHIZZER, the COMICS URINAL, ULTRA EGO, COMICS BUYER’S GUISE, BAGGED ISSUE!, SCRAWL!, COMIC BOOK ARTISTE, and more, as we unabashedly poke fun at ourselves, our competitors, and you, our loyal readers! It’s a first issue, collector’s item, double-bag, slab-worthy, speculator’s special sure to rub even the thickest-skinned fanboy the wrong way! (64-page COLOR magazine) $8.95 • (Digital Edition) $2.95

CRAZY HIP GROOVY GO-GO WAY OUT MONSTERS #29 & #32

PETE VON SHOLLY’s spoofs of monster mags will have you laughing your pants off— right after you soil them from sheer terror! This RETRO MONSTER MOVIE MAGAZINE is a laugh riot lampoon of those GREAT (and absolutely abominable) mags of the 1950s and ‘60s, replete with fake letters-to-the-editor, phony ads for worthless, wacky stuff, stills from imaginary films as bad as any that were really made, interviews with their “creators,” and much more! Relive your misspent youth (and misspent allowance) as you dig the hilarious photos, ads, and articles skewering OUR FAVORITE THINGS of the past! Get our first issue (#29!), the sequel (#32!), or both!

DIEDGITIIOTANSL E

BL AVAILA

(48-page magazines) $5.95 EACH • (Digital Editions) $1.95 EACH

These sold-out books are now available again in DIGITAL EDITIONS:

NEW!

MR. MONSTER, VOL. 0

TRUE BRIT

DICK GIORDANO: CHANGING COMICS, ONE DAY AT A TIME

Collects hard-to-find Mr. Monster stories from A-1, CRACK-A-BOOM! and DARK HORSE PRESENTS (many in COLOR for the first time) plus over 30 pages of ALLNEW MR. MONSTER art and stories! Can your sanity survive our Lee/Kirby monster spoof by MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MARK MARTIN, or the long-lost 1933 Mr. Monster newspaper strip? Or the terrifying TRENCHER/MR. MONSTER slug-fest, drawn by KEITH GIFFEN and MICHAEL T. GILBERT?! Read at your own risk!

GEORGE KHOURY’s definitive book on the rich history of British Comics Artists, their influence on the US, and how they have revolutionized the way comics are seen and perceived! It features breathtaking art, intimate photographs, and in-depth interviews with BRIAN BOLLAND, ALAN DAVIS, DAVE GIBBONS, KEVIN O’NEILL, DAVID LLOYD, DAVE McKEAN, BRYAN HITCH, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH and other fine gents! Sporting a new JUDGE DREDD cover by BRIAN BOLLAND!

MICHAEL EURY’s biography of comics’ most prominent and affable personality! It covers his career as illustrator, inker, and editor—peppered with DICK’S PERSONAL REFLECTIONS—and is illustrated with RARE AND UNSEEN comics, merchandising, and advertising art! Plus: an extensive index of his published work, comments and tributes by NEAL ADAMS, DENNIS O’NEIL, TERRY AUSTIN, PAUL LEVITZ, MARV WOLFMAN, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, JIM APARO and others, a Foreword by NEAL ADAMS, and an Afterword by PAUL LEVITZ!

(136-page Digital Edition with COLOR) $4.95

(204-page Digital Edition with COLOR) $6.95

(176-page Digital Edition with COLOR) $5.95

SECRETS IN THE SHADOWS: GENE COLAN

TOM FIELD’s amazing COLAN retrospective, with rare drawings, photos, and art from his 60-year career, and a comprehensive overview of Gene’s glory days at Marvel Comics! MARV WOLFMAN, DON McGREGOR and other writers share script samples and anecdotes of their Colan collaborations, while TOM PALMER, STEVE LEIALOHA and others show how they approached inking Colan’s famously nuanced penciled pages! Plus: a NEW PORTFOLIO of never-seen collaborations between Gene and masters such as BYRNE, KALUTA and PÉREZ, and all-new artwork created just for this book! (192-page Digital Edition with COLOR) $6.95

ART OF GEORGE TUSKA

A comprehensive look at GEORGE TUSKA’S personal and professional life, including early work at the Eisner-Iger shop, producing controversial crime comics of the 1950s, and his tenure with Marvel and DC Comics, as well as independent publishers. Includes extensive coverage of his work on IRON MAN, X-MEN, HULK, JUSTICE LEAGUE, TEEN TITANS, BATMAN, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS, and others, a gallery of commission art and a thorough index of his work, original art, photos, sketches, unpublished art, interviews and anecdotes from his peers and fans, plus the very personal and reflective words of George himself! Written by DEWEY CASSELL. (128-page Digital Edition) $4.95

OTHER BOOKS FROM TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING

PENCILER, PUBLISHER, PROVOCATEUR

COMICS’ FAST & FURIOUS ARTIST

THE ART OF GLAMOUR

MATT BAKER

EXTRAORDINARY WORKS OF ALAN MOORE

Shines a light on the life and career of the artistic and publishing visionary of DC Comics!

Explores the life and career of one of Marvel Comics’ most recognizable and dependable artists!

Biography of the talented master of 1940s “Good Girl” art, complete with color story reprints!

Definitive biography of the Watchmen writer, in a new, expanded edition!

(224-page trade paperback) $26.95

(176-page trade paperback with COLOR) $26.95

(192-page hardcover with COLOR) $39.95

(240-page trade paperback) $29.95

QUALITY COMPANION

BATCAVE COMPANION

ALL- STAR COMPANION

AGE OF TV HEROES

The first dedicated book about the Golden Age publisher that spawned the modern-day “Freedom Fighters”, Plastic Man, and the Blackhawks!

Unlocks the secrets of Batman’s Silver and Bronze Ages, following the Dark Knight’s progression from 1960s camp to 1970s creature of the night!

Roy Thomas has four volumes documenting the history of ALL-STAR COMICS, the JUSTICE SOCIETY, INFINITY, INC., and more!

(256-page trade paperback with COLOR) $31.95

(240-page trade paperback) $26.95

(224-page trade paperbacks) $24.95

Examining the history of the live-action television adventures of everyone’s favorite comic book heroes, featuring the in-depth stories of the shows’ actors and behind-the-scenes players!

CARMINE INFANTINO

SAL BUSCEMA

(192-page full-color hardcover) $39.95

MARVEL COMICS

An issue-by-issue field guide to the pop culture phenomenon of LEE, KIRBY, DITKO, and others, from the company’s fumbling beginnings to the full maturity of its wild, colorful, offbeat grandiosity!

IN THE 1960s

(224-page trade paperback) $27.95

MODERN MASTERS

HOW TO CREATE COMICS

Covers how Stan Lee went from writer to publisher, Jack Kirby left (and returned), Roy Thomas rose as editor, and a new wave of writers and artists came in!

20+ volumes with in-depth interviews, plus extensive galleries of rare and unseen art from the artist’s files!

(224-page trade paperback) $27.95

Shows step-by-step how to develop a new comic, from script and art, to printing and distribution!

(128-page trade paperbacks) $14.95 each

(108-page trade paperback) $15.95

IN THE 1970s

A BOOK SERIES DEVOTED TO THE BEST OF TODAY’S ARTISTS

FROM SCRIPT TO PRINT

FOR A FREE COLOR CATALOG, CALL, WRITE, E-MAIL, OR LOG ONTO www.twomorrows.com

TwoMorrows—A New Day For Comics Fandom! TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • Visit us on the Web at www.twomorrows.com