Alter Ego #177

DON PERLIN

Roy Thomas' Mo on-Struck Comics Fanzine

BY NIGHT— AND BY KNIGHT!

70 YEARS

$10.95 In the USA

No. 177

September 2022

BEFORE THE MASTHEAD—

at DC, HILLMAN, ZIFF-DAVIS, FOX, HARVEY, ST. JOHN, CHARLTON— and, oh yeah, MARVEL!

82658

00470

5

Moon Knight, Werewolf By Night TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

1

Vol. 3, No. 177 September 2022 Editor

Roy Thomas

Associate Editor Jim Amash

Design & Layout

Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor

P.C. Hamerlinck J.T. Go (Assoc. Editor) Mark Lewis (Cover Coordinator)

Comic Crypt Editor

Michael T. Gilbert

Editorial Honor Roll

Jerry G. Bails (founder) Ronn Foss, Biljo White Mike Friedrich, Bill Schelly

Proofreaders

William J. Dowlding David Baldy

Cover Artist

Writer/Editorial: Make Mine Marvel—Again! . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 “Drawing Comics Was In My Heart” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Artist Don Perlin talks to Richard Arndt about his more than 70 years in comics.

Those Mysterious Early Marvel Cover Variants . . . . . . . . . . 23

Don Perlin

Seeing double (occasionally triple) in the Silver Age, through Will Murray’s glasses.

Cover Colorist

Marcia Snyder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Phil Rachelson

With Special Thanks to: Bob Almond Heidi Amash Richard J. Arndt Bob Bailey Jon Berk Christopher Boyko Ricky Terry Brisacque Bernie Bubnis Aaron Caplan Nick Caputo Mike Catron John Cimino Shaun Clancy Comic Book Plus (website) Comic Vine (website) Chet Cox Noel Daniels Scott Edelman Donald Ensign Mark Evanier Justin Fairfax Shane Foley Janet Gilbert Grand Comics Database (website) JayJay Jackson Alex Jay Peter Jones

Contents

William B. Jones, Jr. Sharon Karibian Jack Katz Jim Kealy Richard Kelsey Alan Light Jim Ludwig Doug Martin Bruce Mason Kim D’Angelo Merrifield Brian K. Morris Mark Muller Will Murray Martin O’Hearn Barry Pearl Don Perlin Roboplastic Apocalypse (website) Al Rodriguez Randy Sargent David Saunders Jim Shooter Amber Stanton Jeff Taylor Dann Thomas Anthony Tollin Dr. Michael J. Vassallo

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Steve Sherman, David Anthony Kraft, Gene D’Angelo, Gérald Forton, & Marcia Snyder

A brief profile of the Golden Age artist of “Camilla,” et al., by Alex Jay.

Marvelmania International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Richard Kelsey on the early-1970s Marvel fan club that couldn’t shoot straight.

John Broome – A Fantasy Finale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 The ultimate installment of the honored scripter’s 1998 memoir.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! It’s A Cracked [Etc.] World–Part 3 . . 55 Michael T. Gilbert salutes some of the artists who labored for both Cracked—and Mad!

Tributes to Steve Sherman, David Anthony Kraft, Gene D’Angelo, & Gérald Forton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 69 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #236 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 P.C. Hamerlinck presents the late Don Ensign’s look at—Freddy Freeman.

On Our Cover: Dapper Don Perlin got it right with Moon Knight, first time at bat—on the splash page of Werewolf by Night #32 (Aug. 1975). And since Jack Russell’s furry alter ego was his first (and, as he half-complains on p. 11, most-remembered) gig at Marvel, while his and Doug Moench’s co-creation Moon Knight is now exploding heads on Disney+, that seemed the perfect cover image for this issue. All those credit boxes gave us a nice opportunity to plug the issue’s other contents, to boot!

Thanks to John Morrow for the scan—and to Roboplastic Apocalypse for the con photo. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] Above: Another long-running stint for Don Perlin was as the successor to originating artist Mike Ploog on Ghost Rider—as per this comin’-right-atcha splash from issue #29 (April 1978), as inked by the “New York Tribe” (consisting of a number of Filipino-born artists then dwelling in and around Manhattan) and written by Roger McKenzie. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Alter Ego TM issue 177, September 2022 (ISSN 1932-6890) is published bi-monthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Periodicals postage paid at Raleigh, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Alter Ego, c/o TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614.

Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: 32 Bluebird Trail, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Six-issue subscriptions: $68 US, $103 Elsewhere, $29 Digital Only. All characters are © their respective companies. All material ©their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

2

writer/editorial

Make Mine Marvel—Again!

O giants.

nce in a while, we just have to do a Marvel-heavy issue—or a DC-heavy issue—to spotlight several different aspects of one of the two surviving super-hero/adventure comics

This time, it’s Marvel’s turn.

Our usual awe-inspiring interview is front and foremost, of course—this time, showcasing Don Perlin, who drew for Timely Comics (as well as a zillion other companies) back in the late Golden Age and returned to what was now Marvel Comics in 1974, to become a heavy hitter on such titles as Werewolf by Night, The Defenders, and Ghost Rider in particular.

In fact, far as Don and I can recall, phoning him out of the blue was one of my last major hires, a few months before I stepped down from being Marvel’s editor-in-chief. Evidently, I saw one of the stories he’d recently drawn for one of DC’s mystery or war titles—if the latter, then probably Weird War Tales, since I rarely cracked open the others. I was only vaguely aware of Don’s already lengthy tenure in the field up to that point, but I saw something in his art that I thought might be a good fit for Marvel, so I got hold of his number. I suspect it may have been from Neal Adams, since Don had been doing a bit of work at Neal’s Continuity Studios… but it could have been from Marv Wolfman or someone else. Still, I made the phone call myself, rather than delegating it to anyone else. And I feel good about that.

Less good do I feel about apparently being too busy, the day Don showed up at the office to figure out what his first Marvel assignment would be, to go out and talk with him myself. But at least he walked away with some paying work that afternoon, and was soon ensconced as the regular penciler of Werewolf by Night,

which led both to his having a hand in co-creating Moon Knight with writer Doug Moench and to being around for stints on various other Marvel mags.

Jim Shooter, who became Marvel’s head editor 3½ years after I resigned, admired Don’s work, too, and has said so on his blog on several occasions… so I invited him to write a few words about the artist as well, and I’m glad he took me up on my offer.

But Richard Arndt’s confab with Don Perlin is only the tip of the mighty Marvel iceberg this time around.

There’s also the beginning of a multi-part study by the ever-researching Will Murray on Marvel’s early “variant covers,” starting out with variations on that of Fantastic Four #1 in 1961… …and a brief just-the-facts-ma’am look at Golden Age artist Marcia Snyder, who spent some time in the 1940s Timely bullpen, even if nobody today seems quite certain what she drew there (though happily she did sign some of her Fiction House work)… …and an overview by Richard Kelsey of Marvelmania, the second attempt at a Marvel fan club in the very early 1970s. It’s been way too long since we printed Richard’s look at the Merry Marvel Marching Society... and if Marvelmania comes, can F.O.O.M. be far behind?

All that—plus the FCA and John Broome and Mr. Monster’s very own “Comic Crypt”— You got a better way to while away a hot late-August afternoon in front of a whirring air-conditioner?

Bestest,

COMING IN OCTOBER

178

#

A GERSHWIN Rhapsody In Four Colors!

&© [Starman & Spy Smasher TM

DC Comics.]

• MICHAEL T. GILBERT shines a quadruple-length Comic Crypt spotlight on Golden Age artist extraordinaire EMIL GERSHWIN, illustrator of DC’s Starman, Fawcett’s Spy Smasher, & ACG mystery tales! Even Emil’s song-scribing relations GEORGE & IRA get beamed up to share in the fun—and P.C. HAMERLINCK’s FCA and PETER NORMANTON’s From the Tomb take their own look at Emil’s Spy Smasher and horror output, respectively! Now that’s what we call a theme issue!

• Plus—more faux All-Star Squadron covers from JOHN JOSHUA & pals—more early Marvel variant covers from WILL MURRAY—& anything else we can squeeze in!

TwoMorrows.

The Future of Comics History.

Subscribe! Six 80-page issues: $68 Economy US, $91 Premium US, $103 International, $29 Digital Only

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA

Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: twomorrows.com

3

“Drawing Comics Was In My Heart” A Conversation with DON PERLIN Conducted & Transcribed by Richard J. Arndt

I

NTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: Don Perlin started his comics career in 1949 and has, over the years, worked for many comicbook companies, including Timely/Atlas/ Marvel, Fox, Ace, Hillman, Youthful, Stanley Morse, St. John, Harvey, Comic Media, Charlton, Gilberton, DC, Fitzgerald, National Lampoon, and Valiant, drawing stories in nearly every genre that comics has produced. He’s worked on such famous

characters as Will Eisner’s Spirit, Thor, Werewolf by Night, Tigra, Sons of the Tiger, Iron Fist, Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, Captain America, The Defenders, Man-Thing, G.I. Joe, Iron Man, Transformers, Conan, Solar: Man of the Atom, Shadowman, Bloodshot, Timewalker, The Bad Eggs, and Scooby Doo. He co-created Moon Knight in the pages of Werewolf by Night. This interview was conducted on April 8, 2018.

Don Perlin flanked by splash pages from two Marvel (nee Timely) comics, from the company with which he’s come to be most identified. (Left:) A reasonably terrifying horror tale from Astonishing #28 (Dec. 1953); scripter unknown… and (right:) his full art for his first work on Werewolf by Night: #17 (May 1974), written by Mike Friedrich. Photo by JayJay Jackson, courtesy of Jim Shooter’s blog. [Pages TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

4

A Conversation With Don Perlin

RICHARD ARNDT: We’re speaking today with Don Perlin. Thanks for agreeing to this interview, Don. DON PERLIN: No problem.

RA: What would you like to tell us about your early life? I know you’re a native New Yorker, raised in the Canarsie neighborhood. I’m not sure if that neighborhood’s in Queens or Brooklyn.

PERLIN: It’s in Brooklyn. The southern part of Brooklyn. My dad was a mechanic but he also painted. He was what they would call a Sunday painter. He was very good. I got a little bit of his talent.

Paintings of my father’s are hanging on the wall of my house in Florida. Dad used to copy the masters. I only have a couple left.

RA: What can you tell us about how you got started in comics?

PERLIN: I started in the late 1940s, doing pieces for Marvel—well, it was Timely then—Ace, Hillman—those guys. My first piece was for Fox. I’d just gotten out of high school and was trying to learn the trade. I was spending more on shoe leather than on art equipment.

I was walking up and down the streets and just getting big “No’s” from everybody.

kinds of books, I think.

Marvin Stein and Mort Meskin were both working for Jack Kirby and Joe Simon at that time for Crestwood. This was at a time when advertising companies were hiring storyboard guys to draw the artwork for advertisement pitches and for television commercials. The storyboard guys got a tremendous salary. Marvin went into the storyboard business for advertising and that was the end of his comicbook days. Al Williamson was also in the Hogarth class when I was there. There’re weren’t many of us, only a half dozen or so. Later, when the class became affiliated with a school, I couldn’t afford it and had to drop out.

Like I said, I started getting little jobs in comics in the late 1940s. It was tough going for a while. I made samples. There were a lot of companies at the time putting out comics and they were almost all in New York. I knew a lot of them, some of

RA: Didn’t you study with Burne Hogarth, the Tarzan artist?

PERLIN: Yeah. I was 14 and just starting high school when a friend of mine, who was going to a different high school, came over and showed me an ad in the newspaper that said that Hogarth was going to hold classes on Saturday mornings. I brought the ad home, showed it to my Dad. He called Hogarth up and then we went to Hogarth’s apartment, at Central Park West. We brought some of the stuff that I was drawing. Hogarth must have liked it a bit, because he entered me into the class.

RA: The artwork you showed him, would that have been comicbook art or general illustration work?

PERLIN: It was drawings in general. People, landscapes, buildings.

I didn’t really know anything, basically, about the comic format at that time. I did some paintings. Pretty girls, mostly. I drew all kinds of things, but I didn’t really know much about comicbooks at the time.

It was at Hogarth’s place, and his classes, where I learned about comics—the fundamentals—and that’s when I realized that I’d found my niche. I don’t know if you know of Marvin Stein. He was a comicbook artist. I was 14 and he was 19. This was 1943. He was drawing a book called Don Winslow of the Navy. Later on he wound up working with Jack Kirby and Joe Simon when they were doing comics for Crestwood. Black Magic, Young Romance, those

Marvin Stein Though often noted for his work in the Simon & Kirby studio, Stein was capable of turning out some fine solo covers—such as this one for the Prize group’s Justice Traps the Guilty #27 (June 1951). Thanks to the Comic Vine website & Grand Comics Database, respectively. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Burne Hogarth delineated the popular Tarzan Sunday comic strip from 1937 to 1950, and also became one of the most famous educators of a new generation of comic strip and comicbook artists. For one reason why, see the color Tarzan panel from the 1940s, directly above.

(Right:) Don Perlin drew this black-&-white sketch of Tarzan in honor of his former teacher.

[Tarzan TM & © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.]

“Drawing Comics Was In My Heart”

them quite small. You walked from one place to another with your samples, go up and ask to see the art director, who would look at your samples. If they liked it, they’d give you some work. I got a lot of fillers, one-pagers, to start with. I remember Hillman doing that.

The fillers were often funny things. All kinds of different subjects.

Those gave me enough money to keep walking around, looking for more work. Get on the bus, buy a liverwurst sandwich, somethin’.

I finally started to get full stories to do around 1951.

RA: You’ve got credits for working on Will Eisner’s The Spirit in 1951-1952—shortly after Eisner left the strip himself. Do you remember how that came about?

PERLIN: I did work on The Spirit for a bit. It was a weekly insert in the Sunday newspapers. A little eight-page comicbook. Like you said, Eisner had left the strip and a whole lot of guys were doing it.

Lou Fine had worked on it during the war years. Jerry Grandenetti had been working on it, doing the backgrounds and whatnot.

He’d left to do regular comics. I was looking for work, and Eisner looked at my samples and comics work. They hired me to do some penciling for the weekly. Eisner himself was doing some kind of magazine for the government.

5

RA: That would have been PS Magazine, an Army publication.

PERLIN: Yeah. It was about mechanics—equipment maintenance. I sat in a corner at the Eisner Studio, and Jules Feiffer was the writer.

He lived somewhere—out on Governor’s Island?—and he’d come in on Saturday or Sunday and write and lay-out the pages. I’d come in on Mondays and pencil them. A fella named Hollingsworth inked my pages. I don’t remember his first name. He also inked Jerry Grandenetti. [INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: This may have been Alvin/A. C. Hollingsworth, although he’s not known to have worked on The Spirit.]

I did three jobs—three weeks worth of stuff, and I don’t think they were too happy with me. They laid me off. I thought I was gonna be learning from Eisner himself. After the first day I interviewed with him, I never saw him again. That was the Eisner story.

RA: You also worked on a lot of horror stories…

PERLIN: They had a big thing in the early ‘50s with the horror comics. Everybody was trying to imitate EC. I was working out of the house in Brooklyn, and found out that was inconvenient, so I rented a room in an office building. The building had been a hotel during the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln had stayed in it. He stayed there when he was making a speech at the Cooper Union Hall. I rented a room there for $35 a month. It was my studio, but

“Marvel Tales”? It Probably Should’ve Been “Timely Tales”!

Two splash pages drawn for Timely/Marvel before Perlin was drafted in 1953, during the latter stages of the Korean War. (Left:) This yarn, penciled by Perlin and inked by Abe Simon, appeared in Marvel Tales #110 (Dec. 1952). (Right:) Perlin did full-art chores for this one from Marvel Tales #117 (May 1953). Scripters unknown. Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo and Jim Ludwig. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

6

A Conversation With Don Perlin

I couldn’t afford it on my own, so I got three other guys to rent a corner of the room for nine bucks apiece. With that I was able to have a studio.

The guys were all comicbook artists, too. One was Pete Morisi, who signed his work “PAM.” Pete inked my first comic story for Fox. Another was Sy Barry. Sy was busy enough that he had an assistant. The fourth guy was a fella named Al Gordon. He might not have been there as long. There was another Al Gordon who worked for Marvel, but that wasn’t the same guy.

RA: There’s also a current Al Gordon, but he’s clearly a different Al Gordon as well.

PERLIN: I got somebody to ink for me by the name of Abe Simon.

Up to then, he’d been a letterer for the comics. We teamed up for about a year—year and a half—and we were doing OK. I was doing horror stuff for St. John and Harvey and war stuff for Comic Media.

Then the Kefauver Committee came to New York and this guy Wertham, the psychiatrist, blamed all the problems with young people on comics. He brought a lot of comics in as evidence to show the committee, and one of the books he brought had one of my

stories in it. After that, things started to dry up. Abe and I split up.

After that happened, whatever little bit of comicbook work I could get, I did the inking myself. I had less work but I was doing the inking, so the page rate was probably better.

I got a call from my Uncle Sam and was drafted into the Army in the spring of 1953. It was a two-year hitch. The Korean War was still going on. I was working for Timely Comics at the time. I think it was Timely or Timely/Atlas, whatever name they were using.

My last job after being drafted was given to Stan Lee, who was the editor-in-chief at the time. I told him I’d been drafted and he said, “Do you know of Governor’s Island? There’s a section there where the Army does the artwork for the recruitment posters.” Stan told me that he’d give me a letter of recommendation. I figured, “What could that hurt?” I took the letter that Stan wrote and reported for duty. They put the letter into my 201 file—your military personal file—and then they sent me to the reception center. The next thing I know, I’m in the heavy weapons infantry! [laughs] RA: Not exactly as good as painting posters!

PERLIN: No! They wanted me to volunteer when I was in basic, so

Guess Who’s Not Coming To “Dinner” Any More!

(Left:) This story, penciled by Perlin and inked by Abe Simon, appeared in Timely’s Uncanny Tales #3 (Oct. 1952), at the height of the horror-comics boom in the U.S. Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo.

(Right:) This story printed in Astonishing #35 (Oct. 1954), on the other hand, may well have been one of the last ones Don drew before editor Stan Lee had to give all the work available to guys who didn’t have that big U.S. Army paycheck coming in every month. Thanks to Jim Ludwig. Both scripters are unidentified. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“Drawing Comics Was In My Heart”

I did, and I wound up painting a toilet! That’s another story, though.

While I was in basic, Joe Stalin found out I was in the Army, so he dropped dead. [chuckles] Then, after I got out of basic, in the late summer of 1953—the Korean War ended and they had a prisoner exchange. Our sergeant called us out into the compound and told us the war was over and we were going to have a moment of silence. Then he informed us that just because we weren’t at war anymore didn’t mean he was going to let up on us guys. Then he told us we were all being shipped to French Indo-China… nowadays Vietnam.

I didn’t go to Indo-China, however. I was all set to go as a heavy weapons infantry squad leader when all of a sudden I found myself on a bus going to Massachusetts, where I became the chief draftsman in the Signal Battalion.

7

day to work and I couldn’t take that. At night I began to go to the Pratt Institute. It’s a big art school here in New York. It’s actually an art school and a college. If you go at night you don’t have to matriculate [i.e., to be officially enrolled]. I took art courses there at night, working in the mill by day. I used the G.I. Bill for the classes.

Gag Me With A Spoon!

One Timely mag for which Perlin worked at least sporadically in the mid-1950s was Joker, a gag magazine. This cartoon is from Vol. 6, #45 (Feb. 1956). Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo. [© the respective copyright holders.]

RA: Did you work on comics in your off-hours when you were in the Army, because your credits go on quite some time after you were drafted?

PERLIN: Yeah, after basic training I was doing comics on my own time, after service hours. I was sending off a few stories to Stan Lee, but after a while he told me that he was sorry, but that things were drying up at Atlas. He had guys he had to give work to, guys who didn’t have another paycheck, and I had a job, you know. So that stopped.

After the Army, I got married. There was a thing called the 52-20 Club. After you left the service, left active duty, the government gave you $20 a week for 52 weeks, while you were looking for work. That wasn’t as terrible as it sounds, in 1955. I thought that animation was going to be really big, so I was going to all the animation studios in New York and I got the same story from all of them. I was considered too good to hire as a beginner and not good enough to hire as a regular animator. So I never cracked the animation field.

Eventually I got back with Stan Lee, who gave me a job. I did the job, brought it in, and the secretary came out and told me that they’d be in touch. I went home and got a phone call a little later and Stan tells me, “That’s the best job you’ve ever done for us.”

I asked, “How about another one?” He said, “We’ll be in touch.”

Didn’t hear from him again for eleven years. [laughs] That was the time after the horror stuff was forced out and Stan had tried to go big by bringing back super-heroes and it hadn’t worked. [INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: This would be the mid-1950s revivals of Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, and Captain America.] He tried it again a few years after that, that time teamed up with Jack Kirby.

RA: So what were you working on? Between 1955-1957, you have very few credits. Comics in general were certainly in a slump at that time.

PERLIN: At first I went to work in a knitting mill. They had big machines that knitted goods. My father was the foreman and designer for the knitting mill and he got me a job there. I was tired of staying home, living off the 52-20 thing. My wife was going every

While I was at Pratt, I became friends with a guy who was doing the same thing as me. One day he called me up and told me he’d gotten a job at Gilberton, who were publishing Classics Illustrated. He wanted to know if I wanted to do a book for them. So I did a book for them called Robur the Conqueror or something like that.

RA: Yeah, that’s a Jules Verne title.

PERLIN: I did the book and I made some changes that Gilberton didn’t like. When I brought my pages in, I met somebody going out and it was Jack Kirby. He was working for them, too.

RA: He did a book for them on Pompeii and a book I really liked called The Illustrated History of the Civil War. The Grand Comics Database says you did another book for Gilberton—a story called ‘The Oregon Trail’ for a book called Crossing the Rockies.

PERLIN: I don’t remember that one at all. I don’t think I did that one.

While I was working there at the mill, all the guys who worked the night shift at the knitting mill complained to the union there that I was the last hired so I should be on the night shift, too, not the day shift. So I had to go on the night shift and quit going to Pratt, because I had to enroll, matriculate, to attend the day classes. The day classes had a lot of 18-year-old kids there and I was about 26. I didn’t want to do that.

While I was on the night shift, I tried to get work at Charlton but I couldn’t get that, either. Not for a couple of years, anyways.

I was looking in the newspapers for work and discovered a lot of ads for technical illustrators. These were guys who would take blueprints and make them into three-dimensional drawings.

I answered one of the ads for that. There was a Cartoonists and Illustrators School, on Manhattan, that was some kind of continuation of Burne Hogarth’s art class from the 1940s. Hogarth was the lead instructor. I went there and they had a course in technical illustration. I took it and finished the first half of the course. One day I walked in there and the instructor called me over and told me there was a company that just got a big contract and they were looking to hire a guy. He thought that I could get the job.

I went there, got the job, and went into the technical illustrating business. I worked in it for about eight years. When that started to fade out, I got a job as a package designer for boxes. I worked for this place called Service Folding Box Company. They made paper boxes and sold them to different kinds of companies. I would get a blank box, design a dummy illustration, and paste that on the box so that the client could see what their logo or illustration on the box would look like.

8

A Conversation With Don Perlin

horror, not like the stuff before Wertham. They were calling it “mystery stories” by then. Weird stuff that appeared in Dr. Graves and other books.

RA: Did you have to travel to the Derby, Connecticut, offices to deliver your work, or were you taking it to the New York office?

PERLIN: I was dropping it off to somebody in New York. So I was doing that for quite a few years. Sal Gentile, who was the editor there at Charlton, asked me at one point if I wanted to become an assistant editor for them… work up in Connecticut. I went up there and toured the company. But they wouldn’t move me from Brooklyn to Connecticut. I would have had to do it all on my own. The pay wouldn’t have been any better than what I’d been getting at Service Folding Box Co. So I would have actually lost money by working for them. I was already getting my Service salary and the Charlton work on the side, so I refused the offer.

Sal Gentile left and George Wildman took over at Charlton. He and I got to be very friendly. I did a lot of work for Charlton over the years. George and I stayed good friends, even after I left Charlton and went to work for Marvel. We both belonged to the National Cartoonist Society.

They had a fella at Charlton named Joe Gill. He probably wrote 95% of everything they did.

RA: True! Gill wrote thousands of pages of comics. He was a good friend of Mickey Spillane’s.

PERLIN: Yeah? That must have been nice. He was a good writer, too. Now, one day I got a call from George Wildman and he tells me that Joe Gill has had a heart attack. He’s trying to get some guys to fill in writing stories until Joe can come back to work.

So I wrote a number of romance stories at that time.

That sort of made me wonder, though. Charlton was run by a bunch of cheap guys. Never paid anybody a lot of money for anything.

RA: You also have a credit for a Dell comic—Hogan’s Heroes #4, with inks by Sal Trapani.

PERLIN: I don’t remember doing anything for Dell or Western. I went up to Dell but they never gave me any work. [INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: I checked For Classics Illustrated #162 (June 1961), Don Perlin illustrated the adaptation of Jules Verne’s with comics-writing sleuth Martin O’Hearn, who tells 1886 novel Robur the Conqueror, which was basically an airborne clone of the French author’s own Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, with Robur standing in for Captain Nemo and the me the real ghost penciler beneath Sal Trapani’s inks flying Albatross for the submarine Nautilus. Scripter unknown. Thanks to William B. Jones, Jr. on that Hogan’s Heroes issue was likely Bill Ely. The [Classics Illustrated trademarks & associated copyrights are the property of First Classics, Inc.; Grand Comics Database’s notation as of Nov. 5, 2018, all rights reserved.] was incorrect.] I did do Solar, Man of the Atom for Jim Shooter and Valiant in the 1980s or 1990s. That title, While I was doing those kinds of jobs, I managed to get some like Turok, was picked up by Valiant from Western/Gold Key. You comics work from Charlton, starting around 1957 or so. know they were looking for a name artist to do Solar. They were having a hard time. Nobody really wanted to work on the book, How that happened was, they didn’t have full-time work for because they also wanted to work for Marvel, and Marvel wasn’t a me at the box company. It would be full-time sometimes, part-time great lover of Jim Shooter at the time. sometimes. They made a deal with me that I could draw comics while I worked there, whenever I had downtime from them. But RA: Probably not, since he was launching a company in direct competition they would pay me my salary for the week. with them.

So, during box work downtimes, I was drawing comics PERLIN: So they went to a whole bunch of guys and nobody would for Charlton—war stories, mostly, but also hot-rod cars comics, do the book, so they finally found the one guy who would do it— romance, some Westerns, and horror stories. Well, not really

The Robur Baron

“Drawing Comics Was In My Heart”

9

few blocks down and that I had a special machine there that could print headline type if they ever needed it. I saw this comicbook that he had there on black history. It was called Golden Legacy. He told me that he did it. He thought that he and Bertram Fitzgerald were going to partner up on the title. Fitzgerald was an IRS agent.

He wanted to run the company, and so this artist split up with him.

Didn’t want anything to do with Fitzgerald.

I asked him if he minded if I talked to Fitzgerald. He said, “Do whatever you want.” So I called Fitzgerald and he asked me if I had any problem with there being black people in the comic. I didn’t.

See, he’d teamed up with Coca-Cola and they were selling the title in black neighborhoods. Apparently those neighborhoods drank a lot of Coca-Cola. So Coca-Cola financed or co-financed the comic and took the entire back cover of the title as an ad for Coke.

Then they’d give the magazine out in the stores.

The book cost 25¢ and the interior story or stories ran 30 pages or so. So Fitzgerald was up against it. He needed the time and the artists to get this title out on a regular basis. The first one I did was about Robert Smalls [Golden Legacy #9 (1969 or 1970)]. Smalls was a slave who worked on a steamship. He managed to take

Yuh Better Believe It, Pilgrim!

One of Perlin’s earliest signed credits is this 20-page story (in four 5-page chapters) done for Charlton’s Fightin’ Army #24 (March 1958). Thanks to Jim Kealy. [© the respective copyright holders.]

and I loved that guy. His name was Don Perlin. [laughs] I did the first issue and Barry Windsor-Smith did the cover and an insert. But I guess anything about Valiant should be appearing in Back Issue.

RA: Yeah, that’s probably right. We’ll have to see if we can work something out there. Back to 1970 or thereabouts: You wrote a number of stories around that time, mostly for Charlton. I have a copy of the 1968 comic with your “Focus: Danger!” story in it, which you both wrote and drew. It’s pretty good. It seems like a set-up for a series, but there weren’t any more stories, to my knowledge.

PERLIN: Charlton was looking for new characters. I submitted that.

Dick Giordano was the editor at that time. He left right after that and nobody who replaced him wanted any more “Focus: Danger!,” especially as it was written by a genius. [chuckles] RA: I also see you worked for Fitzgerald Publications, which if I remember right was pretty much a one-man operation. They published a series of biography comics about notable African-American people in American history.

PERLIN: I was still working for Service Folding Box Co. I walked down the street from there and there was a black artist who had a street store/studio. I went in there and introduced myself. Told him I was an artist and that I was working at Service Folding Box a

Don Perlin’s First Kiss!

Don did his fair share of “as-told-to” romance for Charlton, too, as per this splash page from First Kiss #32 (June 1963). Thanks to the Comic Book Plus website—where public domain comics pages abound. Check ’em out! [© the respective copyright holders.]

10

A Conversation With Don Perlin

over the ship somehow and steered it to the Northern blockade around Charleston, I think. The North armed the ship, made him a captain, and he raided Southern ports during the Civil War. He later became a member of the House of Representatives during the Reconstruction years, before the Jim Crow laws.

Then I did a story about Thurgood Marshall [Golden Legacy #11 (Oct. 1970)]. I followed that up with an issue featuring Martin Luther King [Golden Legacy #13 (1972)].

Betram and I got to be friendly. We went out picnicking together and like that. We were talking one day and he told me that, after the Civil War, a lot of the former slaves didn’t know how to read or write but they could become cowboys. Cowboys didn’t need to know how to read or write, just how to ride and herd cattle.

He mentioned that when you went to the movies, at least at that time, you never saw any black cowboys. I asked him if he wanted me to do a comicbook on black cowboys. He said yes and asked me if I wanted to write it. I said yes and researched it. I wrote about three different black cowboys [Golden Legacy #12 (late 1970 or early 1971)]. One was named Jim Pickett. I’ve forgotten the other two cowboys. So I wrote it and he started finding other guys to draw it.

Black artists. I was getting too much work from Marvel at the time, so we eventually parted company. I did do the cover for the black cowboy book. Instead of using all brush, I used crayon. I also did the coloring.

So I was working for DC, Charlton, Lampoon, whatever I could get, and still working for the Service Folding Box at the same time.

RA: Wow, busy guy!

PERLIN: Well, but at that time, I’d work on comics in the downtime at the box place, and then work on comics at home as well. I worked at the box company for around six to eight years. I walked in one morning and everyone was running around. It was complete chaos.

I found out that the chief salesman there was embezzling! The company was going to fold. This would have been 1972-1973.

They called me into the office and told me they weren’t going to need me anymore. I was told that any equipment or things in the art studio I wanted I could have, to take it home with me. So I did.

I was looking for a job and there was this company called Aurora.

RA: Yeah! They did the monster models box kits.

PERLIN: All kinds of models. They did boats, cars, airplanes, all kinds of things. They wanted to hire me to do the instruction sheets for the kits. Those weren’t done comicbook style but in standard technical-art style. I was supposed to go in on a Monday to start the job—and on Sunday morning I got a call from Roy Thomas.

Then, sometime around then, Stan Lee, Dick Giordano, Neal Adams, and, was it Carmine Infantino?—Infantino was the editor-in-chief or something for DC Comics then—they were trying to start this group for comicbook illustrators and writers, called the Academy of Comic Book Arts [ACBA]. One of the guys involved told me about it and I went up to a meeting. I saw all these full-time working cartoonists. I kind of felt that I didn’t belong there and started to walk out the door. John Romita was sitting there and he stopped me. We started to talk, and while we were talking, Neal Adams got up and made a speech and said, “Anybody who needs work— come see me.”

So I called and went to see Adams. He took me over to DC Comics where I met Joe Orlando. I don’t think Orlando liked me too much. He didn’t have any work for me but he told me that the National Lampoon had called him and were looking for a guy who could draw like Al Feldstein from EC Comics. He suggested that I go over to National Lampoon and get a job from them. So I did. I started getting some work from DC Comics, too, working for Murray Boltinoff, doing the mystery stuff.

He said he was reading over DC’s books and saw some of my jobs for them. Marvel had a couple of horror books and he wanted to know if I wanted to do one. I said I’d go down and talk to him. The Aurora job had all kinds of things, vacations, sick leave, attached to it. I had three kids at the time, so I said just that I’d talk to him.

I went down there and I waited a while, and after a while somebody came down and told me they had two books available.

One was Werewolf by Night and the other was Morbius, the Living Vampire. Morbius was bi-monthly and I didn’t like the character anyways. Werewolf was monthly so that’s the one I took. You know, drawing comics was in my heart, so I took the Marvel offer and got Werewolf by Night.

I was worried when I got home and knew I would have to explain to the wife why I didn’t take the Aurora job, but she told me that she knew I would take the Marvel job. She knew me well.

Focus: Perlin!

The splash page of the (unintended) one-shot “Focus: Danger!,” written and drawn by Don Perlin, from Charlton’s Strange Suspense Stories #3 (Sept. 1968), was seen back in A/E #173. Here’s the sixth page of that same debut of the series-that-wasn’t. Thanks to Bruce Mason & Jim Ludwig. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Even after Roy left, I was given work by Len Wein, Archie Goodwin, and Jim Shooter. They must have liked my work. I didn’t really see the editors too often.

“Drawing Comics Was In My Heart”

11

Golden Legacy Perlin’s covers depicting scientist Robert Smalls and Civil Rights champion Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., for Fitzgerald’s Golden Legacy #9 (1969 or ’70) and #13 (1972)… and his “black cowboys” cover for #12 (’72). [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

RA: When did your association with the Thor comic start? You did three or four issues of that title, also.

me they read my Werewolf by Night stories, but they don’t remember anything else! I remember working for Valiant Comics and we were hiring this kid to work up there—well, he wasn’t a real kid; to me, everybody’s a kid—but he was in his twenties. I was talking to him and he said, “You’re Don Perlin, who did the Werewolf book?” I said yeah. He said, “You used to give me nightmares!”

PERLIN: The Thor books were a different story. John Buscema was doing the book but he wasn’t doing full pencils. He was doing breakdowns. They had Vinnie Colletta inking it. Vinnie complained that he was having trouble inking the breakdowns because they were too loose. They sent me the breakdowns, the layouts, and I would tighten up the layouts. After a while they made different arrangements and I got busy doing a whole lot of things at Marvel.

RA: Well, that’s effective storytelling! [laughs]

RA: I see you did a few horror stories for them as well. You worked on a werewolf story, I think, for Monsters Unleashed, one of Marvel’s black-&-white titles [#4 (Feb. 1974)].

PERLIN: Oh, that was about a woman detective looking for a werewolf. The werewolf turned out to be her husband. Yeah, that was me.

RA: Then you settled into drawing Werewolf by Night. Did you know or suspect that it would be as big as it ended up being?

PERLIN: That’s the thing about Werewolf by Night. Everything I did before it, everything I did after it, makes no difference. Everybody tells

Or Maybe The Title Should’ve Been: “Hold That Tiger!”

This art by Perlin for a Michael Fleisher story from The Witching Hour #44 (July 1974) was likely the result of super-star artist Neal Adams championing him at DC Comics.

Thanks to Jim Kealy & Jim Ludwig. [TM & © DC Comics.]

PERLIN: Another time, after I retired, I was at a comic con down in Orlando.

I was sitting there with my wife in artists’ alley at a table with my name on it. I see a guy coming down the aisle looking at the artists. He has no shirt on but he’s wearing a leather vest, studded with those spikes and metal inserts. He’s got a Mohawk hairstyle, with the hair split into big spikes, and each spike is a different color. I was thinking to myself, “I hope he just walks past.” He’s talking to the artists on the other side of the aisle when he catches my name out of the corner of his eye. He turns around and runs over to me, grabs my hand, and starts shaking it. He tells me, “Mr. Perlin, I want to thank you for introducing me to violent comics!” [both laugh] RA: What did you say to him?

12

A Conversation With Don Perlin

Perlin By Night!

Don’s debut on Marvel’s long-running Werewolf by Night comic was #17 (May 1974), where he succeeded originating artist Mike Ploog. You saw his full-art splash page at the start of this interview; now here’s his two-page lycanthropic transformation from that selfsame issue. Script by Mike Friedrich. Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

PERLIN: “You’re welcome!” [laughs] Another time I was at a con and there was a long line at my table, of people with books to sign.

I see this kid, thirteen, fourteen years old, and he went over to a dealer and bought a copy of a comicbook. He got into my line and when he gets up to the front he doesn’t say anything, just puts the book in front of me. I sign it and he picks up and asks, “How much is it worth now?”

I look at him and the other people in line had heard him and they’re eyeing the kid. I said, “Let’s figure this out. You went over there and bought a brand new book. You got in line, put the book on the table, and some old man scrawled on the cover of your brand-new book. How much do you think it’s worth?” His jaw hit the ground. [laughs] RA: You also co-created Moon Knight with Doug Moench in the pages of Werewolf by Night.

PERLIN: We were told we needed a costumed character in the book. So Doug and I created Moon Knight. I wanted the costume to be just black and white. Since he’d be on a color page, that would make him a little bit different. He had a silver baton that he could

use when he battled werewolves. See, he was hired to track down and kill the Werewolf.

RA: I suspect that the fact that he was created to fight werewolves was forgotten as time went on.

PERLIN: After he appeared, the Marvel powers-that-be came along and changed everything that we did about the character. When they gave him his own book, they had somebody else do it. That artist changed the costume and everything else. They took out everything that made him work in the first place. Nearly all of the changes were contrary to what the character was to begin with. I think he’s just a real nothing character nowadays. He’s just not unique, as far as I’m concerned.

RA: You worked at Marvel for a long time. Nearly twenty years. Were you signed to an exclusive contract or were you simply a long-term freelance artist?

PERLIN: After a while, Marvel gave me a contract. Marvel used to get calls from a lot of companies that wanted someone who could draw super-heroes for them. For advertising, all kinds of different things. Marvel didn’t want to give that kind of work to their big artists, because they wanted their big guys to do as many pages as they could. So they called me and I started working on that kind of thing.

RA: So you’d have been working with Sol Brodsky, in the Special Products division.

“Drawing Comics Was In My Heart”

13

PERLIN: Yeah, I worked with Sol. I didn’t know him all that well, but he gave me a lot of work. I also worked with John Romita a lot.

I was the managing art director and he was executive art director.

John was and is a great guy.

I remember Big John [Verpoorten], who was the head of production. His death [at the end of 1977] was a damn shame. He was a hell of a nice guy. John was the guy who gave the artists the work. He assigned the artwork and set the schedules. Nowadays you can go on television and see any movie you ever wanted to see. It wasn’t that way back then. John loved movies. He found a place where you could get 16-millimeter film copies of all kinds of famous movies. He’d run them on a projector. John was a big guy, maybe 6’5’’ or 6’7” and weighed a lot. I think he had a problem with his heart. He was the guy who’d come into the office at 8 or 9 o’clock every day. When he didn’t show up one day, somebody went down to his apartment and found his body. It was a big shock to everybody. He was the keel to Marvel’s ship at that time. The guy that artists went to see.

RA: He was a really good inker, too. One of the things I liked about his inking was that he followed the penciler’s art quite closely. Not all inkers do that.

Werewolf Warm-Up The splash page of Don’s black-&-white debut at Marvel, on a werewolf story scripted by Chris Claremont. From Monsters Unleashed #4 (Feb. 1974). Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

PERLIN: Yeah, that helps. You know, there’s another story during those Marvel years. I did a coloring book of some kind—Captain Midnight, I think. So I go up to this company. I’d already done a cover for one of their grocery books or magazines. So they came to me with an idea for a magazine to be called Country Gospel. A magazine for rural people about Gospel singers and stuff like that.

They had a character they wanted to put in the magazine called “Gospel Man.” So I designed this character, a singing cowboy, that couldn’t get a lot of work. So he got a job on a cruise ship that went to Israel.

He’s on a tour, visiting the catacombs in Israel and there’s a cave-in.

You know how when something happens, some people say things like “Holy Cow!’ When things happened to this guy, he’d say, “Great Speckled Bird!”

RA: Like the old song.

They Gave Him A Hammer…

For four issues, beginning with Thor #210 (April 1973), Perlin did finished pencils over John Buscema’s layouts, which were then inked by longtime thunder god inker Vince Colletta. Script by Gerry Conway. Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

PERLIN: Yeah! So he’s trapped with these tourists. He’s digging out and he finds this coin—a medallion—and he says, “Great Speckled Bird!” Then he turned into Gospel Man, with big muscles.

That got him out of the cave-in. The change only lasted an hour though. There was this preacher, Robert Schuller, who did the Hour of Power TV show. So these guys and the publisher did something like four issues of this magazine. The publisher knew this woman

14

A Conversation With Don Perlin

A Moon… A Knight… MAYHEM! Co-creators Doug Moench (writer) and Don Perlin (artist) started Moon Knight’s career out with a bang—showing him clobbering Jack Russell’s furry alter ego on the very first story page of Werewolf by Night #32 (Aug. 1975). If you liked that scene—which of course was also the cover of this A/E—you’ll love seeing, clockwise from above left: (a) Don’s pencils for the original artwork; (b) the printed splash; and (c) a 2020 commission drawing he did of same. Thanks to Barry Pearl for the published page, and to Noel Daniels for the pencil scan. Oh, and it should be noted that Don’s young son Howie assisted his dad with the inking of this iconic issue.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

who was an agent for comic strips. She’d sell a comic strip to the syndicates, like King Features. So she tells the publisher of Country Gospel that this could be a great comic strip. The guy writing “Gospel Man” was a vice-president in the company. We wrote up one or two Sunday pages and three weeks of dailies, which I drew. She took them to one of the big syndicates and they liked it.

They made up copies and gave them to all of their salesmen. Those salesmen approached every newspaper from Maine to Florida and they couldn’t sell one newspaper on running the strip, because of the religious angle. I’ve still got the originals, somewhere.

RA: Do you still do any artwork today?

PERLIN: I still work from time to time. I get some commissions

“Drawing Comics Was In My Heart”

15

The Midnight Special (Left:) We couldn’t manage to score a shot of “Gospel Man” from something called Country Gospel magazine—but here’s the cover of the 1977 Captain Midnight Action Book that apparently helped land Perlin that job. According to Jim Harmon’s article on CM back in A/E #22, it was produced by a combination of Marvel Comics and Dorison House Publishers for Ovaltine, the breakfast-drink company that then owned CM. Marvel scribe Scott Edelman wrote the publication, which Don describes as a “coloring book.” Nice of ’em to let him sign the cover, though! But—bright yellow for a character called “Captain Midnight”? [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

and things. I use the Internet a lot nowadays. There’s all kinds of Internet stuff about Charlton. But, at the time, there was nothing. There’s a lot of attention paid to Werewolf by Night, even Moon Knight, but I’ve always felt my best work was at Acclaim/Valiant, after the Marvel days. I did Solar, Man of the Atom and other books like Time Spirits, Shadowman, and Bloodshot there.

I also did a raunchy comicbook for them called The Bad Eggs. It was way ahead of its time. I think it would be a great book now, if they’d reprint it. Bob Layton wrote it and Gonzalo Mayo inked my pencils. They only printed four issues. It’s about two dinosaurs. One of them wore a [Continued on p. 18]

The Knight Time Is The Right Time!

(Left:) Our hirsute hero shared the splash in Werewolf by Night #37 (March 1976) with his two greatest recurring foes: Moon Knight and The Hangman. Script by Doug Moench. Thanks to Barry Pearl for this and the following image.

(Above:) Perlin did full art on the “Moon Knight” feature in Marvel Spotlight #28 (June 1976). Script, natch, by Doug Moench.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

16

A Conversation With Don Perlin

If I Only Had A Series…

Perlin and writer/Marvel staffer Steve Edelman (standing) had worked together to do a “Scarecrow” series, which didn’t quite come off. Seen at left are Don’s pencils for what would’ve been the splash page of issue #2—and a pic of Don and Steve enjoying themselves at the 1975 Mighty Marvel Con. Thanks to Steve Edelman for both. [Scarecrow TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Fantasia Two of Perlin’s more unusual forays at Marvel: a phantasmagorical page from War Is Hell #11 (Feb. 1975), inked by Sal Trapani and scripted by Chris Claremont… and his cover for Conan the Barbarian #222 (Sept.

1989). Thanks to Mark Muller & the GCD. [TM & © respectively Marvel Characters, Inc., & Conan Properties, LLC or successors in interest.]

“Drawing Comics Was In My Heart”

A Ghost In The Cellar Don drew the above re-creation of his cover for St. John’s Strange Terrors #1 (June 1952) for collector Shaun Clancy. For comparison purposes, we’ve also reproduced the published cover of the latter. By the way, though the cover advertised “Zoombies,” the Grand Comics Database says the spelling in the title inside was “Zombies”—a heckuva spelling mistake by one or the other! Thanks to Comic Link website. [Werewolf by Night TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The Most Unexpected Cover Artist Of All! Almost as “unexpected” as (spoiler alert!) Brother Voodoo dropping by in Werewolf by Night #38 (May 1976) was the fact that Don Perlin drew the cover! The only other WBN cover he did was for #36. Thanks to the Grand Comics Database. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

17

18

A Conversation With Don Perlin

A Knight To Remember (Left:) Don posted this new drawing of Moon Knight on the Internet on his 91st birthday, on Sept. 1, 2020. The guy’s still got it!

(Below:) And, a few years back, he drew and colored this 80th birthday greeting for Marvel inker extraordinaire Joe Sinnott!

[Moon Knight, Ghost Rider, Hulk, Werewolf by Night, Thor, Captain America, & SpiderMan TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Actually, They Don’t Look That “Giant” To Us! Perlin’s version of Werewolf by Night (or is that The Beast?), as inked by Vince Colletta, would star in Giant-Size Creatures #1 (July 1974)—where he’d face off with another “creature,” Tigra the Werewoman. Script by Tony Isabella. By its second issue, the mag would be renamed Giant-Size Werewolf by Night. Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

[Continued from p. 15]

Three Artists In Harmony?

Three cartoonists—and are two of them trying to harmonize? (Left to right:) Don Dixon (well-known for his Australian strip Air Hawk), Don Perlin, and Stan Drake (of comicbook and The Heart of Juliet Jones fame). Photo by JayJay Jackson, with special thanks to Jim Shooter.

baseball hat that was always on backwards, and a T-shirt that usually said “Bite Me!” The other dinosaur wore glasses.

One of the stories was about how the biggest dinosaur, the brontosaurus, might have the smallest Johnson! [laughs] It wasn’t the comicbook you’d give your kid! This story was good because it allowed me to put all the detail that I wanted in it and be funny as well. At least, we thought it was funny. If you get a chance, you should look for it. My work at Valiant never gets mentioned, and it’s my best stuff!

RA: Maybe this interview will change some of that. Thanks for taking the time with this, Don. PERLIN: You’re welcome.

“Drawing Comics Was In My Heart”

19

Addendum:

“Unca’ Donald” – a.k.a. Don Perlin

By Jim Shooter Jim Shooter in 1982, during his heyday as editor-inchief of Marvel. However, he went on to a great “act two” (or maybe “act three”) by co-founding VALIANT and other comics companies later. Thanks to Alan Light.

I

used to call him Unca’ Donald. He used to say we were twins, but he was the good-looking one. Then I’d say I was the smart one.

With his beauty and my brains, we managed to do some pretty good work together, I think. That’s for other people to judge, but for sure we had great fun doing it.

The first real conversation I ever had with Don was in 1978, when I was brand-new editor-in-chief of Marvel. Whatever he’d been drawing had been canceled and he needed a new assignment, so he came to see me.

I offered him Ghost Rider, which I was writing. He acted pleased. Key word: “acted.” Months later he admitted that coming in on the train from Brooklyn he kept saying to himself, “Anything but Ghost Rider….”

Nobody likes to draw that darn motorcycle.

But Brahma Bill actually turned out to be terrific character. A little comic relief from the Spirit of Vengeance.

He was a godsend. He made thousands of small creative contributions and bunches of big ones. For instance, he helped develop Rai, who evolved into Bloodshot. All on his own, he created Slagger, a key supporting character for the Magnus series.

He designed the Geomancer, Archer, Armstrong, and many other characters. He fielded art submissions and discovered, among many others, David Lapham and Joe St. Pierre. He taught many of our young artists their craft.

Don did outstanding work drawing Solar, Man of the Atom for me. He’s a master storyteller.

Spectacular action, no problem.

Subtle gestures and expressions, sure. Human people doing human things or super-people doing the impossible, piece of cake. He draws with insight as well as skill.

He gives you everything you ask for and wonderful extra touches besides.

Don liked to contribute to the stories. I welcomed that. I think some of the writers he worked with previously didn’t. Silly them. Don was a tremendous help and had tons of ideas, which was great. Usually.

He was a major factor in the success of VALIANT.

Being a freelancer, Don worked odd hours, and sometimes he couldn’t wait to tell me something he’d cooked up. One time he called me at 2:00 AM with an idea for a new supporting character. The conversation went like this:

Unca’ Donald, my twin brother, you’re not only good-looking, you’re brilliant. But I’m the one who caved in and hired you! How smart was that?

“Whut?’

Things that might have been words spilled out of the phone, then, “…new character called Brahma Bill!

Get it? He’ll be a….”

“Huh?”

In his later years, the artist has sported a beard… but he still wields the same mean pencil (and occasionally a brush).

Years later, I founded Voyager Communications Inc., which published comics under the VALIANT imprint. Don was managing art director of Marvel by then, but wasn’t happy there. He wanted to come and work for me. I said, “Don, what are you, 60-something? You’ve got benefits, retirement, but you want to come and work for a fragile start-up that may not make it?” He badgered me into it.

Ah, but I bought a Harley chopper model kit and got our staff colorist, Andy Yanchus, who happened to be an expert model builder, to put it together for Don. It made drawing the bike easier.

More un-understood word-noises came, then, “…gonna work him into this issue, okay?”

Don Perlin

“Great!” Click.

Ghost Riders On Madison Av Jim Shooter and Don Perlin first teamed up on the story in Ghost Rider #26 (Oct. 1977). Inks by Sam Grainger. Thanks to Barry Pearl.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Jim Shooter entered the comicbook field as a teenage writer for DC Comics in 1966, was editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics from 1977-86, and later co-founded VALIANT (which he insists should be an all-caps word, so I’ve left it so—at least in his sidebar) and a couple of other comics companies.

20

A Conversation With Don Perlin

DON PERLIN Checklist This checklist is adapted primarily from materials contained in the online Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999, established by Dr. Jerry G. Bails. Names of features with that title that also appeared in other publications are generally not italicized. Key: (w) = writer; (p) = pencils; (i) = inker.

Name & Vital Stats: Don David Perlin (b. 1929) – artist, writer, art director, editor Education: Cartoonists and Illustrators School; Cooper Union High School (fine arts); Famous Artists School; Pratt Institute Family in Art: Howard Perlin (son) – assisted father in inks at 11 years of age Influences: Burne Hogarth Member: National Cartoonists Society Print Media (non-comics): artist – National Lampoon (magazine); technical publications 1959-65 Commercial Art & Design: Toy packaging c. 1962-69 Syndication: The Spirit (Sunday) (asst. ink) 1951 – three weeks for Register and Tribune Syndicate

The Eggs And I

Comics in Other Media: Gag cartoons (w)(p)(i) 1955; satire (p)(i) National Lampoon 1974

(Left:) Since Don considers Valiant’s comics to contain some of his best artwork, we felt we just had to include an image of his cover for The Bad Eggs #1 (June 1996), as inked by Gonzalo Mayo.

Co-Creator: Moon Knight (artist) Promotional Comics: various comics (w)(p)(i) on black history for Alarce Soft Drink Comics Studio/Shops: Iger Studio (p)(i) 1949-50; Will Eisner Studio (i) 1951 COMICBOOKS (U.S. Mainstream Publishers): Acclaim Comics (including imprint Valiant): covers (p) 1991-92; Dr. Tomorrow (p) date uncertain; The Legend of Zelda (i) 1990; Magnus (plot) 1992; Shadowman (plot)(p) 1992; Solar, Man of the

“Gaze On My Works, Ye Mighty, And Despair…”

An early gag cartoon

by Perlin done for Timely’s Gaze magazine, coverdated Feb. 1953.

Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo. [© the respective copyright holders.]

(Right:) A recent commission Don Perlin did for regular A/E contributor Jim Ludwig. “He threw in the battered robots for free,” says Jim. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Atom (plot)(p)(i) 1992-92; support (art director) 1988-92; support (veep/creative director/editor, special projects) 1992-94 Better Publications (Nedor/Standard): horror (p)(i) 1950-53 Charlton Comics: Army War Heroes (p)(i) 1964; Attack (p)(i) 1970-71, 1973; Battlefield Action (p)(i) 1964; cars (p)(i) 1966-73; cartoon/funny animals (p)(i) 1972; covers (p)(i) 1971, 1973; crime (p)(i) c. 1957-75; Doomsday + 1 (p)(i) 1976; Drag ’n’ Wheels (p)(i) 1969-73; Dragstrip Hot-Rodders (p)(i) 1966; Fightin’ Army (p)(i) 1956, 1967, 1970-73, 1976; Fightin’ Marines (p)(i) 1965-66, 1973; filler (p) 1969, 1975; Flash Gordon (p)(i) 1969; Focus: Danger (p)(i) 1968; Ghost Manor (p)(i) 1969-70, 1976; Ghostly Haunts (p)(i) 1973; Ghostly Tales (p)(i) 1969, 1972, 1976; Grand Prix (p)(i) 1969-70; Haunted (p)(i) 1972, 1976, 1983; Hollywood Romances (p)(i) 1970; Hot Rods and Racing Cars (p)(i) 1969-71; jungle (p)(i) 1969; Just Married (p)(i) 1971; Magilla Gorilla (p)(i) 1971; The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves (p)(i) 1969-70, 1972; Marine War Heroes (p)(i) 1965; Monster Hunters (p)(i) 1976; monsters (p)(i) c. 1957-75; Outlaws of the West (p)(i) 1969; The Phantom (p) 1969; romance (p) (i) c. 1957-75; science-fantasy (p)(i) c. 1957-75; Space Adventures (p) (i) 1969; Strange Suspense Stories (p)(i) 1968-69, (w) 1968; support (lettering) 1969-76; Teen-Age Love (p)(i) 1972; Texas Rangers (p)(i) 1963-64; Time for Love (p)(i) 1973; war (p)(i) c. 1956-75; War Heroes (p)(i) 1964; War (p)(i) 1975; Western (p)(i) c. 1957-75 DC Comics: Ghosts (p)(i) 1974-76; House of Mystery (p)(i) 1977; Secrets of Sinister House (p)(i) 1974; Weird War Tales (p)(i) 1973; The Witching Hour (p)(i) 1974-75, 1977 Eastern Color Printing: adventures (p)(i) 1954-55; New Heroic Comics (p)(i) 1954-55 Feature Comics: Sick (p)(a) 1961 Fiction House Comics: adventure (p)(i) c. 1949-50; Kaänga (p)(i) date uncertain

“Drawing Comics Was In My Heart”

Charlton Blasts Off! When Charlton became the publisher of The Phantom, Don drew several “filler” features for it—such as this sciencefictional one for #35 (Dec. 1969). Thanks to Mark Muller. [TM & © King Features Syndicate, Inc.]

21

Hillman Periodicals: filler (p)(i) 1951-52 Image Comics: Deathmate (p) 1993 Major Magazines: Cracked (w)(p)(i) 1962

Marvel Comics (incl. Timely): Andromeda (p)(i) 1989; Arabian Knight (p)(i) 1990; Astonishing (p) 1954, 1957; backup feature (p)(i) 1958 in Two-Gun Kid; Beast and Dazzler (p) 1984-85; Black Goliath (i) 1977, 1979; Captain America (i) 1979; covers (p)(i) 1979-86; Daredevil (i) 1973; The Defenders (p) 1980-86, (p)(i) 1978; (w) 1982; Dr. Doom and Magneto (i) 1977; Dr. Strange (i) 1972; Ghost Rider (p) 1982-83, (i) 1976-81; horror (p)(i) 1952-57, 1974-75; Human Fly (i) 1977-79; illustration (p) 1987; The Inhumans (i) 1976; Iron Man (p) 1984, (i) 1977; Journey into Unknown Worlds (p)(i) 1954; Man-Thing (p)(i) 1980-81; Marvel Universe (p) 1984-84, 1986; Moon Knight (p) (i) 1976; Moondragon (p) 1989; mystery/occult (p)(i) 1957; Sons of the Tiger (p)(i) 1974; Speedball (p) 1993; Spider-Man (p) 1977, 1987; Spider-Man & Daredevil (i) 1978; Spider-Man & Ghost Rider (i) 1973; Spider-Man and Werewolf by Night (i) 1973; Spidey Super Stories (p) 1978-79; Strange Tales (p)(i) 1954, 1958; Sub-Mariner (i) 1973; Sub-Mariner & Dr. Doom (p)(i) 1976-77; support (art director) 1987-88; Thor(p) 1983; Transformers (p) 1986-87; war (p)(i) 1950-53, 1956-57; War Is Hell! (p) 1975; Werewolf by Night (p) 1974; Werewolf & Tigra (p) 1974; Western (p)(i) 1950-53, 1956-58; What If? (p) 1982; World of Fantasy (p)(i) 1958 St. John Publishing: horror (p) 1952; romance (p) 1952 Stanmor: Mr. Mystery (p) 1952 Youthful Magazines: Captain Science (p)(i) 1951; mystery/occult (p) (i) 1951; science-fantasy (p)(i) 1951 Fitzgerald Periodicals: Golden Legacy (w)(p)(i) 1970, 1972 Fox Comics: crime (p)(i) c. 1948-49; Western (p)(i) c. 1948-49 Gilberton Publishing: Robur the Conqueror (Classics Illustrated) (p)(i) 1961 Harvey Comics: horror (p)(i) c.

1950-53; war (p)(i) c. 1950-53 Harwell Publications: adventure (p) (i) c. 1950-51; crime (p)(i) c. 1952-53; Dynamite (p)(i) c. 1952-53; Horrific (p) 1953; horror (p) 1952-53; war (p)(i) c. 1950-51; War Fury (p)(i) c. 1952-53; Weird Terror (p) 1953

Cover Me! (Near right:) The one and only Ghost Rider cover drawn by Don Perlin: issue #34 (Feb. 1979). Guess Jim Shooter and company felt they were keeping him busy enough between the mags’ covers, since certainly Don’s covers don’t suffer by comparison with those of most others.

(Far right:) Perlin’s cover for The Defenders #118 (Nov. 1982), as inked by Steve Mitchell. Don drew a considerable run of this then-popular super-group comic. Thanks to the GCD. [TM & © Marvel Characters , Inc.]

Ziff-Davis Comics: filler (p)(i) 1951

[Varney the Vampire TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders; art ©Frank Brunner.]

Previously Unpublished Brunner Artwork!

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: $500) Visit my website at: http://www.frankbrunner.net

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

Art by John Romita.

Captain America TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Jack Russell tries to get out for a night on the town in this splash panel penciled by Don Perlin for Werewolf by Night #21 (Sept. 1974). Inks by Vince Colletta; script by Doug Moench. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

23

Those Mysterious Early Marvel Cover Variants

Seeing Double In The Silver Age Of The House Of Ideas

by Will Murray

V

ariant covers are a big collecting phenomenon these days. But actually, they go back decades, except that they originally weren’t a marketing gimmick, merely a side effect of last-minute production changes.

I wrote about some examples of variant covers in Comic Book Marketplace #99 (Feb. 2003). Many Silver Age Marvel variants were discovered by comparing contemporary house ads to the final published covers. Others came to light later, when certain covers were reprinted and the original uncorrected versions resurfaced through production errors. In those days, comicbook cover corrections were made through paste-downs or on Photostats [“stats” for short], so the original unmodified art often continued to exist in a pristine state.

Variant Covers Are The Spice Of Life!

The published cover of 1963’s Strange Tales Annual #2, penciled by Jack Kirby and (probably) inked by Sol Brodsky. So why does this artwork appear up front in an article about “Early Marvel Cover Variants”? Read on and see! Courtesy of the Grand Comics Database. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

In CBM #44 (Feb. 1997), for instance, I had told the startling story of the never-published 16th issue of Amazing Fantasy, which would have showcased Spider-Man’s second published appearance, if Marvel Comics publisher Martin Goodman hadn’t canceled the

book before press time.

I had made my case primarily based on the job numbers attached to the lead story in Amazing Spider-Man #1 and to two Lee-Ditko back-up features, “Prophet of Doom!” (Tales of Suspense #40, April 1963) and “My Fatal Mistake” (Tales to Astonish #43, May 1963), the latter pair published shortly after ASM #1 but clearly also part of the unpublished Sept. 1962 Amazing Fantasy #16. The stories were consecutively numbered and all sported the trademark Amazing Adult Fantasy-style Art Simek story-title lettering.

One question lingered: Through literary detective work, I had reassembled AF #16’s contents. But where was the cover? Certainly,

Smilin’ Stan Lee

Sturdy Steve Ditko

from the two pages of photos in Marvel Tales Annual #1 (1964), quite possibly all snapped by artist Vince Colletta.

Besides the above appellation, The Man was also listed as “Writer/Editor” and “Bullpen Boss.”

wouldn’t sit still for an official Marvel photo in ’64 or any other time, so it’s a good thing we have these pics taken in the mid-1960s by Amber Stanton, daughter of his studio-mate, artist Eric Stanton, via the Internet.

Yet Another Amazing Fantasy No, we haven’t quite got to the cover variants yet—but Will Murray’s detective work for Comic Book Marketplace magazine back in 1997 strongly suggested that these three stories, all written by Stan Lee and drawn by Steve Ditko, would most likely have made up the contents of Amazing Fantasy #16 (Oct. 1962)—if there had been such an animal, which of course there wasn’t. Thanks to Bob Bailey, Aaron Caplan, & Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

24

Seeing Double In The Silver Age Of The House Of Ideas

the cover to Amazing Spider-Man #1 wasn’t it; that one went with the back-up story that had co-starred The Fantastic Four. And no other subsequent Amazing Spider-Man cover seemed to fit the bill.

Since the cover was usually executed last at Marvel, I reasoned that it might never have been commissioned in the first place. Or that it could have been lost, or written off, never intended to be published, as were so many discarded covers, like Steve Ditko’s unused cover to AF #15.

But I couldn’t shake the possibility that the lost #16 cover might have crept into print. After all, it wasn’t rejected for quality or story reasons… merely orphaned. It should have been a perfectly good and potentially usable piece of artwork. I began to widen my search when I realized that the covers to both AF #15 and ASM #1 were the work of Jack Kirby, with Ditko relegated to inker because Stan Lee evidently felt the new, untried hero needed a Kirby cover to sell him.

Torch, cannot escape from the web of Spider-Man!” To which the Torch replies: “Don’t get callouses from patting yourself on the back, chum! I’m just gettin’ started!” But both characters are silent on the final edition.

There are other differences. In the house ad, the orb web does not extend up into the masthead. In the printed version, it does. The fiery halo that surrounds the trapped Torch in the ad is banked to stray flamelets in the second version. As published, a classic Kirby cityscape is traced into the background, while it’s absent on the ad mockup. And, although difficult to see, Spider-Man’s maimed fingers are whole in the ad version.

Obviously, this was a cover that went through several alterations as late as the point the ads where were being printed.

What has this to do with Amazing Fantasy #16? Well, this: Suppose one of the reasons this cover was so abused is that it was

Should I be looking for a Kirby Spider-Man cover, I wondered?

Which led me to a possible candidate. Mind you, the following is purely speculation. Around the time ASM #2 was published, Stan Lee went into production with Strange Tales Annual #2 (1963), which showcased a Spider-Man/Human Torch team-up. An obscure, rarely reprinted tale, it was penciled by Kirby and inked by Ditko, because it was, after all, a Human Torch exploit. The title on its splash page tells it all: “On the Trail of The Amazing Spider-Man!” If one were to examine just the cover, one would think it was a “Spider-Man” story. For Spider-Man occupies the central part of the cover. Balanced on an orb web, he’s menacing the struggling Human Torch. The logo says: “The Amazing Spider-Man Face-to-Face with The Human Torch!”

But, given that Johnny Storm was then the cover star of Strange Tales, shouldn’t that be instead: “The Human Torch Face-to-Face with the Amazing Spider-Man”?

The cover is by Kirby, the inker probably production man Sol Brodsky, though the latter ID is not certain. It’s not Ditko, that’s for sure. Spider-Man’s uniform weblines lack the distinctive Ditko touch. And I’m sure that, if Ditko had inked this cover, he would have remembered to add Spider-Man’s chest arachnid. Kirby almost always left it off, front and back, when he drew the character. This inker overlooked that critical detail—as did editor Stan Lee. Now, this cover obviously could not have been the missing AF #16 cover as it stood printed on Strange Tales Annual #2. The Human Torch had no part in the contents of AF #16. But while examining the published cover, I noticed something odd: The fingers of Spider-Man’s outstretched left hand were chopped off, as if the cover had been doctored at some stage—and not carefully, either. An old memory tickled me. I recalled that this cover had been tinkered with prior to publication. I remembered seeing a house ad that included word balloons absent from the printed version.

Running to my Marvels, I pulled out Journey into Mystery #96 (Sept. 1963). A house ad depicted the covers to both FF Annual #1 and Strange Tales Annual #2. Sure enough, the later cover was different! In the house ad, we find typical wiseacre Stan Lee dialogue coming out of Spider-Man’s masked mouth: “Even you,

Jack Kirby Photo from Marvel Tales Annual #1 (1964). Thanks to Bob Bailey & Justin Fairfax.

Ad Hock This full-page house ad from the Thor-starring Journey into Mystery #96 (Sept. 1963) contains a somewhat variant earlier version of the cover of Strange Tales Annual #2, complete with later-dropped word balloons—while the inset closeup above left from the published cover of STA #2 suggests that some cut-and-paste work was done at some stage, since the tips of two fingers on Spidey’s left hand (plus a bit of webbing) are missing in this version. (Incidentally, the Kirby/Ayers cover of FF Annual #1 seen in this ad would be very slightly altered, as well, before it hit the stands: namely, the burst around the main story title would be deleted.) And see p. 34 for a variant version of it! Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Those Mysterious Early Marvel Cover Variants

a salvage job. Pretend this was the cover of AF #16. Imagine if the original cover had depicted Spider-Man menacing two ordinary characters, or looming over a pair of panel excerpts from the orphaned backup stories, “My Fatal Mistake” and “Prophet of Doom.” It’s certainly a possible, even plausible scenario.

But is there evidence for it? Yes and no.

The Spider-Man shown on the Strange Tales Annual cover is a Kirby version of the character, and necessarily shows variations from the more authentic Ditko take on the costume, not the least of which is the missing chest spider. One of the other variations is Spider-Man’s underarm webbing. It followed the original Ditko uniform, which is ribbed like Batman’s cloak hem.

Although Ditko experimented with the scalloped and straightedged webbing designs in the early months of Spider-Man’s career, by the time of ASM #2, it had been standardized to the rulerstraight webbing. In fact, this is the look Spider-Man sports in the annual’s lead story.

None of this constitutes proof, and much is speculative. But if there was a surviving cover to Amazing Fantasy #16, my bet would be that it turned up as the cover to Strange Tales Annual #2—with modifications, including the addition of The Human Torch.

25

Variant covers like that of Strange Tales Annual #2 were not rare during the early days of Marvel Comics. In fact, they were more common than collectors might suspect. I’ve catalogued over 40 examples of early Marvel cover variants, most subtle, but some quite startling. As I said above, many of these variants were discovered by comparing contemporary house ads to the published covers. Others came to light years later, when certain covers were to be reprinted and instead the original uncorrected versions resurfaced due to production mistakes. Since comicbook cover corrections back in the day were often made by means of paste-downs, or on stats, the original unmodified art frequently continued to exist in pristine state… somewhere.

This kind of “variant cover” is generally not to be confused with the well-known replacements to rejected covers that include some of the most famous early Marvel covers ever, including two different versions of Amazing Fantasy #15, Amazing Spider-Man #10, Fantastic Four #3 & #20, FF Annual #1, X-Men #10, and others often reprinted by Marvel since 1961. However, in the interest of completeness, I’ve tried to include both types of “variant covers.”

Here is a rundown of examples that I and other Marvel researchers have discovered over the years. All changes are assumed to have been made at the behest of publisher Martin Goodman and/or editor & art director Stan Lee. FANTASTIC FOUR #1: Yes, the artwork for the cover of FF #1, perhaps the most reprinted and emulated cover in the history of Marvel, exists in at least 3 variants!

Originally, the awe-struck pedestrians on the sidewalk included four civilians and a police officer. In different reprintings, the cast keeps changing. Sometimes the cop simply disappears, as does the pedestrian behind the recoiling man with the hat. The hatless man at the page’s edge is crouching in the original printing, but he’s on his knees in subsequent versions. The only other element modified on this busy cover was the inking on the giant monster, with the original inking visible on a surviving Photostat that lacks the historic caption and dialogue balloons.

And Then There Were Three…

(Above:) The original published Jack Kirby/George Klein cover for Fantastic Four #1 (Nov. 1961) featured five eyewitnesses (counting the cop) to the FF’s battle with the street-emerging behemoth… while the version fronting a Golden Records-related reprint in 1966 (center image) had reduced the number of spectators to four… and when the second volume of the hardcover Marvel Masterworks came out in 1987 (right), only three onlookers remained.

No sane reason has ever been suggested for this winnowing-down. Even the mid-1980s Official Marvel Index to The Fantastic Four sported the four-civilians take! Thanks to the Grand Comics Database, et al.

Will Murray also sent us the scan at right of a 1961 Photostat of the black-&-white cover before captions and dialogue were added—and on which the Kong-sized monster is inked somewhat differently. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

26

Seeing Double In The Silver Age Of The House Of Ideas

FANTASTIC FOUR #2: This is an eye-popping variant. It wasn’t until the first version of this cover was reprinted in the 1977 Pocket Book paperback edition of The Fantastic Four and again in The Official Marvel Index to The Fantastic Four #1 in 1985 that the truth came out.

Word balloons never before seen are revealed. Sue Storm cries out, “We’re too late!! TOO LATE!!” while brother Johnny Storm laments, “My flame is out!! I’M HELPLESS!” In the undoctored cover, Johnny’s flames are completely out. But in the correction stage, a nimbus of flame was added to suggest ebbing fires, not extinguished ones. Also, explosive bursts containing the names of the individual members of the FF are removed. Finally, the date and issue number have been repositioned.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

(Left:) The Kirby/Klein cover of FF #2 (Jan. 1962) as published. (Right:) This earlier version, with characteridentifying blurbs and a pair of dialogue balloons, didn’t see print till 1977—and maybe by accident, at that.

We should be thankful that, at Marvel, nobody ever threw anything away—or, if they did, they were just as likely to have thrown away the finished version and kept an earlier one! Thanks to the GCD and the Internet.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

FANTASTIC FOUR #3: This ionic cover revealing the FF’s costumes and Fantasticar replaced a much more generic rejected cover spotlighting one of the Miracle Man’s monsters, with the individual heroes each showcased in separate boxes. A major improvement. Marvel eventually printed the original cover in Fantastic Four #224 nearly twenty years later, in 1980; it was also reproduced as the back cover to The Official Marvel Index to The Fantastic Four #1.

Monsters, Shmonsters!

(Far left:) The published FF #3 cover, Kirby inked by Sol Brodsky, which showcased the new costumes and Fantasticar, won out over the “giantmonster” layout that echoed the first issue. The reprinting of the earlier rendition (at near left) is from the back cover of The Official Marvel Index to The Fantastic Four #1 (Dec. 1985). [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Those Mysterious Early Marvel Cover Variants

27

FANTASTIC FOUR #5: Dr. Doom’s first cover appearance was not significantly altered. But on the first printed cover, Sue Storm’s bust was reshaped and her left foot inexplicably repositioned from an earlier version. Most foreign and domestic reprints unwittingly use the original version.

Now That’s Invisible, Girl!

Frankly, we’re not sure where to find that very slightly different version of the Kirby & Joe Sinnott cover of FF #5 (July ’62) with its very slight alterations to the Invisible Girl’s bust and legs— but at near right is a 1986-87 foreign edition (maybe Greek?) of that issue in which Sue has disappeared almost entirely! Hey, you can’t get much more “Invisible Girl” than that! Thanks to the GCD. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

FANTASTIC FOUR #11: The brooding Impossible Man cover which masks a light-hearted classic shows unmistakable signs of last-minute alterations. Sue Storm’s hairstyle was redone and one leg repositioned. The Thing is also subtly altered.

See The Official Marvel Index to The Fantastic Four #1.

You Put Your Right Leg Out… (Right:) The Kirby/George Roussos cover as originally printed for FF #11 (Feb. 1963)— and (far right) what looks to us like a foreign (German?) edition, complete with Sue’s revamped hairdo and leg.

Thanks to the GCD and Will Murray, respectively. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

28

Seeing Double In The Silver Age Of The House Of Ideas

FANTASTIC FOUR #13: The equally classic Red Ghost cover was evidently altered prior to going to press. In the original, The Human Torch seems to be alighting on the surface of the moon. But, when reprinted in The Official Marvel Index to The Fantastic Four #1, a flame contrail whited out in production back in 1963 is restored, clearly showing Jack Kirby’s true intent—the Torch is in actuality rising from the lunar surface.

What Goes Up… This one almost slipped by! The Torch’s flame trail is extended down to the moon’s surface on this early version (above right) that first got printed in The Official Index to The Fantastic Four #1—showing that penciler Kirby meant him to be rising rather than descending, as he appears to be in the printed cover. A bit tricky to see, however, since Marvel colored flames and surface even though (accidentally?) reproducing the initial art. Inks by Roussos. Thanks to the GCD for the former image. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

FANTASTIC FOUR #20: This cover of the FF attacking The Molecule Man for the first time is emblazoned in my nostalgic memory. I wouldn’t swap it for anything. But when The Jack Kirby Collector printed the King’s rejected version showing The Molecule Man turning the FF into stone statues, I couldn’t understand why Lee or Goodman would reject it. Perhaps it was too static?

More Than A Molecule Of Difference The published Kirby/Roussos cover for FF #20 (Nov. 1963)— and the rejected original version, in pencil form, as reprinted in TwoMorrows’ own Jack Kirby Collector #9, among other places since. Thanks to the GCD and Sharon Karibian, respectively. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Those Mysterious Early Marvel Cover Variants

29

FANTASTIC FOUR #27/MARVEL COLLECTORS’ ITEM CLASSICS #19: When Lee reprinted old FFs in MCIC, he usually recycled the original cover as well. At times, he commissioned Kirby or another artist to do a fresh cover. For MCIC #19, reprinting FF #27, for some strange reason Kirby redrew the original layout, giving fans a rare look at a 1964 scene reinterpreted by Jack in his more bravura 1969 style.

Ink-a-Dinka-Doo! Chic Stone inked the Kirby cover for FF #27 (June 1964)—while John Verpoorten embellished the new and not dissimilar one Jack penciled for Marvel Collectors’ Item Classics #19 (Feb. 1969). Why a new cover for a reprint title? You tell us! Thanks to the GCD. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

FANTASTIC FOUR #30: The Human Torch’s flame trail was again redrawn. See it as Kirby intended it in The Official Marvel Index to The Fantastic Four.

My Old Flame Here are three different “flame trails” for The Human Torch on the Kirby/ Stone cover used first for FF #30 (Sept. 1964)… then for Marvel Collectors’ Item Classics #22 (Aug. 1969)… and later in a foreign (Italian?) reprint in a 1980s series. Thanks to the GCD. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

30

Seeing Double In The Silver Age Of The House Of Ideas

FANTASTIC FOUR #38: “Defeated

by The Frightful Four!” Another example of careful tinkering to achieve a more dramatic effect. The Torch has been repositioned, and his flame trail changed. A weak-looking Thing is redrawn into a more dynamic pose, but I’m not sure Kirby did the re-do. Sol Brodsky is more likely. The Frightful Four have been reoriented as seen through their spherical ship’s viewport, which slightly alters the craft’s look, which is not black in some reproductions. Finally, Medusa’s hair has been trimmed back. The first version was seen in various Marvel house ads prior to publication and later replicated on the covers of various foreign editions.

Torch Song The original FF #38 (May 1965) cover by Kirby & Stone—and a Mexican variant published a year or two later.

Thanks to the GCD. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

FANTASTIC FOUR #49: On this, the middle cover of the Galactus trilogy, the nimbus of energy around Galactus’ head was blacked out and re-inked for a darker, moodier look. Various reprints have reverted to the original.

Jack Be Nimbus…

Surprisingly, the Kirby/Sinnott cover for the classic FF #49 (April 1966) got the oopswrong-version treatment in the reprinting in what was then labeled Marvel Masterworks, Vol. 25 (a.k.a.

MM: Fantastic Four, Vol. 5).

Apparently, the version with the nimbus around Galactus’ head was the original image.

Thanks to the GCD and RT’s trusty scanner. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Those Mysterious Early Marvel Cover Variants

31

FANTASTIC FOUR #51: The classic “This Man… This Monster!” cover is dominated by the Thing. Some of the dark plates on his hide were lightened here and there for reasons that remain unknown.

The unaltered version ran in contemporary house ads and resurfaced in multiple foreign editions.

Only Skin Deep (Left:) The sole difference (besides some vanished background machinery) in these two versions of the Kirby/Sinnott cover for FF #51 (June 1966) seems to be the blackeningin of a couple of the rock-like shards that make up the Thing’s epidermis, on this foreign (German?) edition. Maybe a production person somewhere with a bit too much time on his/ her hands? Thanks to the GCD. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

FANTASTIC FOUR #52: Lee rejected Kirby’s original cover to The Black Panther’s debut (above left), which clearly showed the Panther wearing a Batman-like cowl open at the lower face. The interior art may also have been doctored to completely conceal the Panther’s face, à la Spider-Man, rather than having been originally penciled that way by Kirby. Surviving stats prove that the published cover (above center) originally depicted a half-masked Panther (center).

Since he was Marvel’s first black super-hero, perhaps Lee and Goodman were understandably nervous about revealing that fact up front. The only time the original version saw print was in The Official Marvel Index to The Fantastic Four. Note that the Panther’s cape is also different.

Face-Off Although he was working on staff at the time FF #52 (July 1966) passed through, Roy Thomas doesn’t specifically remember seeing Kirby’s pencils for that story, but they definitely featured a mask that revealed the lower part of The Black Panther’s face... although RT does recall Stan forcing him to revert to that look (thankfully briefly) when T’Challa joined a different super-group in The Avengers #52 (May ’68)! Still, the extant early version of the FF cover (shown at far left) definitely has that look.

Oddly, The Official Marvel Index to The Fantastic Four #4 somehow managed to print another “wrong” rendition of that key cover—again with the Batman-style mask. Seems a strange error to let slip by in an “official index”—but we’re kinda glad it did! Also, is it just us, or is the coloring of the Index image considerably clearer than the published cover? The Panther’s costume stands out better from the background—and the slightly different coloring of his trunks helps! As Will notes, his cape got longer, too. Thanks to the GCD for the main Kirby/Sinnott cover, and to John Morrow and Will Murray for the earliest version. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

32

Seeing Double In The Silver Age Of The House Of Ideas

FANTASTIC FOUR #60: Apparently Stan Lee thought Dr. Doom needed to look like he could go head-to-head with the Thing. So an energy halo was added to his figure. In almost every reprint since, the halo is missing.

Halo, Everybody, Halo!

Already in the first Mexican edition of Fantastic Four, published only a year or so after the original March 1967 version of the Kirby/Sinnott cover of issue #60, the halo around Dr. Doom had vanished. Probably the company just sent the reprint house the wrong Photostats—not an unusual occurrence in those days, it seems. Thanks to the GCD. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

FANTASTIC FOUR #62: On the original published cover (far left), rays were erased around Blastarr’s body to clean up the area beneath the Fantastic Four logo. You can see these elements as originally inked on the covers of foreign editions of this issue, as per image at near left.

Having A Blastaar!

(Above left:) Although Joe Sinnott continued his regular stint inside, Frank Giacoia was tapped to ink Kirby’s cover for Fantastic Four #62 (May 1967).

(Above right:) On this foreign (German?) version, as Will Murray notes, several rays around Blastaar’s form were deleted near the FF logo. Thanks to the GCD & Will Murray, respectively. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Those Mysterious Early Marvel Cover Variants

FANTASTIC FOUR #64: On the original cover, the Torch was firing a blast that bounces off the Sentry’s shoulder. This was reduced before publication to a feeble fireball, and the story blurbs redesigned. I much prefer the original, seen in numerous reprints, such as Marvel’s Greatest Comics #47.

A strikingly different rejected version of this cover, depicting a much more involved battle scene, was finally seen in black-&-white in The Jack Kirby Collector #33 (right). No doubt either Lee or Goodman thought it busy.

A Sentry Of Progress (Above:) Either a bit of re-designing was done when the Kirby/Sinnott cover of Fantastic Four #64 (July 1967) was utilized as the cover of the reprint title Marvel’s Greatest Comics #47 (Jan. ’74)—or, more likely, to MGC #47 sported the original version. And dig that totally different look to the rejected cover—which Ye Editor has always kinda preferred to the one that was printed. It never got beyond the penciled stage back in ’67… but, inked by Joe Sinnott, it eventually became the cover of The Jack Kirby Collector #33 a decade back. Thanks to the GCD & the Internet. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

FANTASTIC FOUR #71: Another totally rejected cover was the one penciled

by Kirby for this issue, which spotlighted The Mad Thinker’s ever-awesome android. It was replaced by a multi-scene affair that many might consider too busy, even ill-focused…but it was good enough for Lee and Goodman, so who are we to judge? Joe Sinnott, of course, inked the published version.

The other, autographed by Jack and Stan and given to Harry Mendryk (who currently runs the Kirby Museum site https:// kirbymuseum.org/), appeared in the hardcover Marvel Masterworks: Fantastic Four, Vol. 7—while an unautographed version turned up in The Jack Kirby Collector #18.

Even An Android Can Be Rejected The Kirby/Sinnott cover of Fantastic Four #71 (Feb. 1968)—and the thumbsdown version originally penciled for same, which was first published some years later. Thanks to the GCD and Sharon Karibian. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

33

34

Seeing Double In The Silver Age Of The House Of Ideas

Down To The Sea In Shifts This un-used but fully prepared cover for 1963’s Fantastic Four Annual #1

by Jack Kirby (and Dick Ayers) finally saw print as the back cover of The Official Marvel Index to The Fantastic Four #2 (Jan. 1986). See p. 24 for a 99%-accurate version of the published rendition in a house ad. Lee and Goodman definitely made the right choice. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #1: Jack Kirby’s original cover depicting the Sub-Mariner leading his Atlantean legions on a beachhead assault against the FF was set aside for one showing an enthroned Prince Namor holding the quartet captive. The bottom strip of Kirby’s take on a menacing Spider-Man survived the re-do, although it was cropped more tightly, cutting off some of the original image, which was first seen in an issue of F.O.O.M. Magazine in black-&-white. Later, it ran in full color as the back cover of The Official Marvel Index to The Fantastic Four #2.

Will Murray’s study of the early Marvel variant covers will continue in a near-future issue of Alter Ego—maybe even the very next one!

A

MUST-HAVE

VOLUME FOR COLLECTORS AND FANS The complete, first-ever collection of Marvel Value Stamps 400 pages including source material and archival images

AVAILABLE WHEREVER

BOOKS ARE SOLD

With text by ROY THOMAS and cover art by ALEX ROSS

abramsbooks.com • @abramsbooks

© 2021 MARVEL

35

MARCIA SNYDER Profile Of A Golden Age Artist

by Alex Jay A/E EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: In issue #167, we featured Alex Jay’s profile on “Green Turtle” artist Chu Fook Hing, adapted from its appearance on Alex’s blog “Tenth Letter of the Alphabet.” While not writing a biographical essay as such, Alex records the results of his painstaking research from various public records. One “mystery woman artist” of the 1940s was Marcia Snyder, best known for her work for Fiction House and Timely Comics, much of it during the World War II years, and we’re pleased to be able to present the piece here.

M

arcia Louise Snyder was born on May 13, 1907, in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Her birth date is from the Social Security Death Index, and the birthplace is based on her parents’ residence in Kalamazoo. Snyder’s full name appeared in the Kalamazoo Gazette, June 13, 1921, and Florida death certificate.

Snyder’s parents were Charles R. Snyder and Louise P. Underwood, who married on January 20, 1898, in Kalamazoo, according to the Michigan Marriage Records at Ancestry.com.

According to the 1900 U.S. Federal Census, Snyder’s parents resided with her maternal grandparents, Theodore and Katherine Underwood, in Chicago, Illinois, at 6707 Wentworth Avenue.

Snyder’s father was a clerk at a shoe store. Shortly after the census enumeration, Snyder’s parents moved to Kalamazoo. Their first child, Channing, died shortly after birth in 1902. The couple lost their second child, Charles, in 1906.

The 1907 and 1909 Kalamazoo city directories listed Snyder’s father as a clerk who lived at 219 West Cedar Street.

The 1910 census recorded Snyder, her parents, her threemonth-old brother David, and an aunt, Pauline, in Kalamazoo at 1007 South West Street. Snyder’s father was a shoe store salesman.

In the 1917 city directory, Snyder’s father worked in the insurance industry.

The Gazette, May 11, 1919, reported the upcoming performance of the cantata “Childhood of Hiawatha.” Snyder was one of 150 children in the chorus that sang with the Chicago Symphony orchestra. Music News, May 30, 1919, published an article about the performance at the May Festival. The individual members of the children’s chorus, including Snyder, were named on page 15.

Snyder was a Girl Scout. An advertisement for three screenings of the Girl Scout film The Golden Eaglet appeared in the Gazette on December 4, 1919, and said Snyder was one of the Scouts appearing in a short exhibition of camp life and first-aid work. The March 28, 1920, Gazette said Snyder, of Troop 4, passed the invalid bed-making test.

The Snyder household and address remained the same in the 1920 census.

The Gazette for June 13, 1921, said Snyder would be one of 29 students graduating from the eighth grade of the Western Normal Training School on June 16. She continued her education at Western Normal High School. That school had a program for teaching art, which was examined in a March 22 article in The School Arts

Marcia Snyder in her 1925 high school yearbook photo (top left)—plus a specimen of her comicbook art, a “Camilla” splash from Fiction House’s Jungle Comics #61 (Jan. 1945). Incidentally, her high school extracurricular activities were listed as “Cercle Francais” (year 2) and “Masquers” (years 2-4), most likely a French club and drama group, respectively. Thanks to Jim Kealy, Mark Muller, & David Saunders. [“Camilla” art © the respective copyright holders.]

Magazine, titled “Art Supervision under the Kalamazoo Plan.” At the time, teachers were trained to teach all subjects, including art.

In Kalamazoo, teachers who specialized in art were hired to teach the subject. Each class of students would go for instruction to a room which had the art supplies and storage for artwork.

The 1924 Kalamazoo city directory lists student Snyder and her parents at 121 West Lovell Street.

Snyder graduated in 1925. Next to her senior photograph in the Highlander yearbook was this quote, “I love not man less, but art more.”

36

Profile Of A Golden Age

From The Women’s Pages (Clockwise from top left:) Illustrations by “Marcia L. Snyder,” with accompanying text, from the Chillicothe [Ohio] Gazette, Sept. 11, 1934… the Iowa City Press Citizen, Oct. 6, 1934… and the Star Press [city & state unknown], Oct. 25, 1935. Thanks to Alex Jay & Art Lortie. Clearly, by her late twenties, Snyder had achieved considerable proficiency at drawing in a photo-realistic way. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Snyder may have continued her art training at another institution such as the Kalamazoo School of Art, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, or Western Michigan University.

The Journal of Proceedings of the Fifty-fourth Annual Convention of the Diocese of Western Michigan (1928) listed receipts for various services. Snyder submitted an invoice of $6.25 for her signs.

Sometime in the late 1920s, Snyder moved to New York City.

The 1930 census recorded her as a self-employed artist who had two roommates, Lucile Cameron, a department store saleswoman, and Emma Rayhon, a bank file clerk. The trio lived at 315 West 4th Street in Manhattan.

Snyder’s brother David, a 1927 graduate, followed her to New York City. David’s marriage to Margaret Lusty was covered in the East Hampton Star (New York), June 9, 1933, which said, “A luncheon and reception was given by Miss Marion [sic] Snyder, sister of the groom, at her home in Greenwich Village immediately after the ceremony.”

King Features Syndicate produced a women’s page with columns about fashion, child- rearing, gossip, beauty advice, etc.

The page included illustrations and photographs. Marcia Snyder produced artwork for at least three of these pages. The Long Island Daily Press published her illustrations on October 6, 13, and 31, 1934.

Snyder contributed art to the pulp magazines Snappy Stories (1935) and All-Story Love (1936).

Her mother passed away February 8, 1936, in Manhattan, New York City. On August 22, 1936, Snyder’s father married Myrtle L

Russell in Kalamazoo.

Marcia Snyder has not yet been found in the 1940 census.

A 1942 Manhattan telephone directory had a listing for an “M L Snyder” at 141 East 45th Street.

The online Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928–1999 says that Snyder found work at a number of comicbook publishers and at a comics studio. Regarding the [Jack] Binder studio, Women and the Comics by Trina Robbins and Cat Yronwode (1985) reports: “Most of these women were inkers and most soon left comics, but two of them, Ann Brewster and Marcia Snyder, were pencilers as well. Both stayed in the industry long after the Binder shop closed

Marcia Snyder

in 1943, Brewster going on to spend almost two decades with the Iger-Roche shop….”

At the Sequential Tart site, Murphy Anderson was interviewed by Laurie J. Anderson. He recalled working at the publisher Fiction House: “When I started there they were all ladies, practically.

There were only two or three males in there.”

SEQUENTIAL TART: What were the ladies doing? Comicbooks?

All’s Fair In All-Story Love (Above:) One of Snyder’s pulp-mag illos, which appeared in the All-Story Love issue dated April 11, 1936. Thanks to David Saunders. [© the respective copyright holders.]

MURPHY ANDERSON: Oh yeah, oh yeah. There was Fran Hopper, she did a number of adventure stories for

37

Planet Comics and all over. Lilly Renée, who did their lead feature for Planet Comics. Oh, Ruth McCully was a letterer. Ruth Atkinson was an artist who worked there. Her brother happened to be a very prominent jockey; he was one of the top jockeys in the country at the time. And Marcia Snyder, she did a very heavy adventure-type of material.

In Alter Ego #11 (Nov. 2001), Jim Amash interviewed Vince Fago who was an artist, writer, and the third editor-in-chief of Timely Comics. In 1943, Timely moved from the McGraw-Hill Building to the Empire State Building. Asked about the move, Fago explained what happened and added: “Later, for $90 a week, I hired Marcia Snyder, an artist who had done newspaper strips. She dressed like a man and lived in Greenwich Village with a girlfriend named Mickey. I never thought about her being a lesbian; I didn’t care….”

Amash also interviewed artist Dave Gantz, who shared a bullpen photograph that included him, Snyder, Chris Rule, Barbara Clark Vogel, Mike Sekowsky, and Ed Winiarski. The photograph was taken at the Empire State Building and published in Alter Ego #13 (March 2002). [See p. 39.]

Snyder’s father passed away January 13, 1943, in Kalamazoo.

Gangsters Can’t Win (Below:) And neither could the relatively obscure D.S. Publishing, which produced this first issue for Feb.-March 1948, featuring a story drawn by Marcia Snyder; writer unknown. The company was soon gone, swept away by the winds of change. Thanks to Mark Muller. [© the respective copyright holders.]

38

Profile Of A Golden Age

Fiction House “Funnies” Snyder’s work seems to have improved even over the course of a year, between the “Tabu” feature in Jungle Comics #55 (July 1944) and “U.S. Rangers” in Rangers #24 (Aug. ’45). The bylines “Mack” and “R.W. Colt” are, of course, fictional house names typical of the aptly named Fiction House. Thanks to Mark Muller. [© the respective copyright holders.]

In the 1946 Manhattan telephone directory, on page 1150, Snyder was listed as a commercial artist who resided at 64 West 9th Street.

Women and the Comics says Snyder assisted Alfred Andriola on the comic strip Kerry Drake, which was distributed by Publishers Syndicate. The strip began October 4, 1943. It’s not known when Snyder started assisting Andriola or how long she worked with him.

The East Hampton Star for July 31, 1947, noted Snyder’s visit with her brother in Amagansett: “Miss Marcia Snyder of New York City was entertained last weekend by Mr. and Mrs. David Snyder. Miss Snyder is a commercial artist and works with syndicates in the metropolitan area.” A later visit of hers to Amagansett was noted in the Star on June 2, 1949: “Miss Marcia Snyder of New York, sister of David U. Snyder, with a party of friends, spent the weekend at the Windmill.”

The 1960 Manhattan directory said Snyder still resided at 64 West 9th Street. It’s not known when she moved to Florida.

Snyder passed away in February 1976, according to the Social Security Death Index, which said her last residence was Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Florida. At Ancestry.com, the Florida death index recorded Snyder as “Marsha Louise Snyder”, who was born “May 13, 1914” and died February 27, 1976 in Dade County.

It’s A Jungle Out There, Girl!

Fiction House’s Kaänga #10 (Winter 1952) featured a story of “Jungle Girl” (a series formerly titled “Fatomah, Mystery Woman of the Jungle”) that was reportedly drawn by Marcia Snyder (but probably nearly a decade earlier)— whose Sheena-style heroine bears a suspicious resemblance to her work on the same company’s “Camilla,” come to think of it. Thanks to Mark Muller. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Marcia Snyder

A Photo Finish (Above:) A rather shadowy photo of some of the Timely bullpen in the early 1940s, supplied by the late artist David Gantz and first published in Alter Ego #13. Gantz suspected it was taken when the crew were ensconced in the McGraw-Hill Building, before they moved to the Empire State Building in ’42— which would make it the really early ’40s. (Left to right:) Chris Rule, Barbara Clark Vogel, Gantz, Marcia Snyder, Mike Sekowsky, and Ed Winiarski. Thanks to Jim Amash. Sadly, not even the Timely/Atlas experts out there in fandom could point to a single page from the fledgling days of the company later known as Marvel that had positively (or even probably) been drawn by Marcia Snyder—but at least we know she was definitely there!

(Right:) She also drew, just as anonymously, for Fawcett Publications, through the Binder Studio. This “Mary Marvel” story from Wow Comics #12 (April 7, 1943), credited to the Jack Binder shop, may (or may not) contain any of her work, but at least it’s from the right period. Script attributed to Joe Millard.

Thanks to P.C. Hamerlinck. [Shazam hero & Mary Batson TM & © DC Comics.]

Alex Jay is a graphic designer and lettering artist. His entry into comics began with Byron Press Visual Publications, which featured his logos on Empire, The Illustrated Harlan Ellison, Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination, Harvey Kurtzman’s Strange Adventures, and many others. When Jay was at Continuity Associates, he did the Bucky O’Hare logo for Larry Hama, and the finished art for Cody Starbuck, Echo of Futurepast, and Toyboy logos which were designed by Neal Adams.

His Marvel Comics logos include The Mighty Thor (#338), The New Mutants (#26), X-Factor (#10), and X-Force (1991). Among Jay’s DC Comics logos are The Green Lantern Corps (#201), Wonder Woman (#63, June 1992), Batman (#500), New Gods (#1, Oct. 1995), Mr. Miracle (#1, April 1996), and The Spectre (#1, Dec. 1992). For Howard Chaykin, he designed the American Flagg! logo. The War Dancer logo was created for Alan Weiss. Jay has posted his research on many comics contributions on his blog “Tenth Letter of the Alphabet.”

39

40

Profile Of A Golden Age

MARCIA SNYDER Checklist This checklist is adapted primarily from materials contained in the online Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999, as established by Dr. Jerry G. Bails; some information from Alex Jay’s foregoing profile has been added. The names of features that appeared in magazines with that same title and also in other publications are generally not italicized. Key: (p) = penciler; (i) = inker.

Name: Marcia Louise Snyder (artist) – 1907-1976 Pen Name: Marcia Syndication: Kerry Drake (assistant p & i) – years uncertain (strip launched in 1943) Comics Studio/Shop Work: Binder Studio (p)(i) 1942-43 COMICBOOKS (U.S. Mainstream Publishers:) Better/Nedor Publications: Princess Pantha (p)(i) c. 1949; Real Life Comics (p)(i) c. 1947 Fawcett Comics: Captain Midnight (p)(i) 1943; Mary Marvel (p)(i) early 1940s; Minute Man (p)(i) 1942-43 Fiction House Comics: Camilla (p)(i) 1944-45; Jungle Girl (p)(i) 1952; Kaänga (p)(i) 1944; Tabu (p)(i) 1944; U.S. Rangers (p)(i) 1944-45 Marvel Comics (Timely): Captain America (p)(i) 1944; Miss

Two For The Road (Above:) The Grand Comics Database lists Snyder as having drawn the Street & Smith “Cap Fury” feature, which appeared only in a dozen comics in the early 1940s, as noted last issue. Thus, while we can’t swear to it, there’s at least a decent chance this splash page from Doc Savage Comics, Vol. 1, #3 (Feb. 1941), is her work. And if it isn’t—well, at least it’s Golden Age artwork you’ve probably never seen before, right? Scripter unknown.

Thanks to Jim Ludwig. [TM & © Advance Magazine Publishers, Inc./The Condê Nast Publications.]

(Left:) Another fine page by Snyder from the “U.S. Rangers” yarn in Rangers #24 (Aug. 1945). Writer unknown. Thanks to Mark Muller. [© the respective copyright holders.]

America (p)(i) 1946; Nellie the Nurse (p)(i) 1946; teen/family fun (p)(i) 1946 Parents Magazine Press: True Comics (p)(i) 1942, 1947 Street & Smith Comics: Blackstone (p)(i) 1942-43; Cap Fury (p)(i) 1942-43

STILL WINNING THE TRADE (PAPERBACK) WARS!

CONAN THE BARBARIAN

THE ORIGINAL MARVEL YEARS – EPIC COLLECTION

Vol. 6 – Vengeance In Asgalun

Collecting Conan the Barbarian #72-88

by ROY THOMAS, JOHN BUSCEMA, HOWARD CHAYKIN, et al.

328 Pages On Sale Sept. 28, 2022 $44.99 US/$56.25 Canada ISBN #978-1-302-93354-8

STILL ON SALE!

The ALTER EGO COMICBOOK 25th Anniversary Edition

BY ROY THOMAS & RON HARRIS!

Issue #1-4 followed by a BRAND NEW #5!

Order online, only at www.heroicpub.com/alterego

[Alter Ego is a trademark of Roy & Dann Thomas.]

42

Marvelmania International The Early-1970s Marvel Fan Club That Couldn’t Shoot Straight

by Richard Kelsey A/E EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: Marvel Comics inaugurated three fan clubs during its first dozen or so years of life.

Richard Kelsey wrote about the first of these— the legendary 1965 Merry Marvel Marching Society, Stan Lee’s own personal brainchild— way back in issue #120. The second, handled by an independent entrepreneur, was christened Marvelmania International….

E

n route to a Los Angeles Comic Book Club visit with artist Jack “King” Kirby for the first time in 1969, Mark Evanier stopped at a newsstand to pick up the latest comics.

Upon opening up Sub-Mariner, he spotted a half-page ad for Marvelmania International, the new official club for Marvel Comics.

“The address was in Culver City, which was not far from me. On a whim, I went into a phone booth, called information, and they gave me the number. My copy of Sub-Mariner that I bought that day still has the phone number written in the margins on the Marvelmania ad. It turned out just by coincidence that the physical office of Marvelmania was about three blocks from that phone booth,” said Evanier, author of the book-length study Kirby – King of the Comics and a writer for comics, books, and television.

“I’m the president of our local comicbook club,” Evanier told the man who answered the phone. Upon which Evanier received an invitation to visit Marvelmania. But he couldn’t do so at once because of an already scheduled trip to Kirby. So he arranged a meeting for the next day and went on to Kirby’s house.

“Exciting New Club!”

This half-page ad for the spanking-new Marvelmania International popped up in Marvel Comics issues dated October (or November) 1969, on the Bullpen Bulletins page, but minus any sort of textual mention by Stan Lee on the rest of that page (that plug had appeared in the preceding issue). The textual mention was first glimpsed by young Mark Evanier—along with a million or so other people—when it went on sale circa July of that year. Thanks to Richard Kelsey. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

And in visiting with Kirby, Evanier found out that the artist already had some contact with Marvelmania and had even done artwork for it. “That company could use you. The guy down there really doesn’t know the comics very well,” Evanier recalled Kirby saying.

“So the next day I went in to meet the people at Marvelmania.

I walked in and they said ‘Jack Kirby told us to hire you.’ I worked there on a very part-time basis, kind of as a consultant and editing the club magazine for a while. And a lot of my friends from the comicbook club went to work there,” he said.

They would indeed spend many hours working at Marvelmania International from 1969 to 1971, processing and organizing the mail orders, packing up orders for shipping, putting out a magazine, and performing other tasks for minimum wage and having a lot of fun. But they also discovered the truth about this club: that it was a badly managed operation led by a man with questionable talents and business practices.

How bad was it?

When interviewed, Steve Sherman, a member of the Los Angeles Comic Book

Mark Evanier Since we couldn’t locate a photo of Marvelmania entrepreneur Don Wallace, we’re doing the next best thing and spotlighting then-fan Mark E., in an early photo which was still taken a few years after 1969. From the Internet.

The Early 1970s Marvel Fan Club That Couldn’t Shoot Straight

Jack “King” Kirby back in the day, posing with one of the various pieces of artwork he was persuaded to do for Marvelmania (for a “deferred” payment).

His family, alas, is still waiting. From the Internet.

(A photo of Steve Sherman will be found with Mark Evanier’s tribute to him on p. 63.)

43

Club at the time who worked at Marvelmania, jokingly suggested chronicling the history of Marvelmania into a book and advertising it for sale in Marvel Comics.

poster of the Jack Kirby cover from Captain America #106; a one-foot square decal sheet with full figures of nine different Marvel characters; a “jumbo” 5½” decal of a full figure of the Hulk; and a 16-page color catalog of other items available. The ad also offered an extra bonus of 11 more decals if you joined now.

“And when people order it, don’t mail it to them. Then you could say that is what happened— there is the history of Marvelmania,” Sherman said while laughing.

From that first colorful ad to the ones that appeared in issues to follow, all did seem well and good with the idea of an outside company running the Marvel club. The wide variety of products and merchandise advertised by Marvelmania reinforced that perception. Products like the official magazine, “molded and unbreakable statues,” decals, artist and super-hero portfolios, a stationery kit, and, some “colossal full-color” two-foot-by-three-foot posters of Spider-Man, Dr. Doom, Captain America, Hulk, Galactus, and The Silver Surfer, Thor, The Fantastic Four, and The Black Knight filled half-page ads in the Marvel comics dated from November 1969 through October 1971.

Sadly, a lot of Marvel fans had bad experiences with Marvelmania International. At the beginning, this new club burst upon fandom with excitement and fanfare as the replacement for the Merry Marvel Marching Society, because, as the Bullpen Bulletins in the September (or in some cases October) 1969 Marvel issues explained, things at Marvel had gotten so busy that they couldn’t keep up with the original club:

It cost $2 for a membership—$1.75 plus 25¢ for postage and handling. How much did that mean to a comicbook fan in the late 1960s? Fifteen cents got you a regular-sized comic back then. So the price of a Marvelmania membership would have bought you 13 comicbooks.

But at the Marvelmania offices in California, Evanier and the other members of their comicbook club got a different perception of this operation run by Don Wallace, the man in charge of

“ITEM: Here’s big news for all members of the good ol’ Merry Marvel Marching Society, and for those of you who intend to join. Remember years ago, when we started the MMMS? We promised we wouldn’t just swear you in and forget about you. Then what happened? We forgot about you! Naw, we didn’t really—but what DID happen is—our mags became so much more popular than we ever dreamed they would, and we became so much busier than we ever expected to, that we just never had the time to do all the things we had hoped to do with our swingin’ little club. But, we’ve managed to change all that now! And the change is so important, that we’re gonna give it a paragraph all to itself—just like this— “ITEM! We had the greatest stroke of luck the other day.

We met a fanatical Marvelite who also happens to be a most talented California executive. He’s so impressed with our mags, and our club membership roster, that he made us a fantastic offer, which we’ve just accepted. From now on, the MMMS will be incorporated into a fabulous parent organization named Marvelmania International! Because of this great new development, there’ll be an entirely new company, independent of your Bullpen, working around the clock to make your club exactly what you want it to be. So watch for the exciting announcements about Marvelmania International in our mags, and remember—you won’t be watching alone. We’re as anxious to see what’s coming next as you are!”

A half-page ad in the October (or, in some cases, November) 1969 Marvel issues came next, which proclaimed: “Exciting New Club. Marvelmania International. Jumbo posters, decals.

Everything full color. Join now and receive all this!! with your membership.”

“All this!!,” according to the ad, meant a two-foot-by-three-foot

Have You Now Or Have You Ever Been…?

Signed membership cards for Marvelmania International, one from 1969 and one from ’70, from a sale on the Internet. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

44

Marvelmania International

Marvelmania, the “fanatical Marvelite” and “most talented California executive” as described in that Marvel Bullpens Bulletin.

Who was Don Wallace?

The “leader of the bunch” and a man of many amazing accomplishments and talents, according to a biography that appeared in Marvelmania Magazine #1, including: A three-year hitch as a Marine with assignments as a bodyguard to an admiral and teaching judo to other soldiers; Placing third out of more than 300 law school entrance exam applicants; Working in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office juvenile, vice squad, and recruiting divisions; And possessing extra-sensory perception abilities so great that the ESP research department at UCLA had been “after him for years to submit to tests, having heard remarkable accounts of how Don has gone up to total strangers and told them their birth dates, relatives’ names.”

A Full-Fledged Case Of Marvelmania (Left:) Jack Kirby’s cover for the 1969 Marvelmania Catalog. Thanks to Barry Pearl.

(Below:) The eight full-color posters advertised for sale therein. Several had been especially drawn for Wallace and Marvelmania by Kirby and others, while the Black Knight item had been taken from a drawing already prepared by artist Howard Purcell. Thanks to Richard Kelsey.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The Early 1970s Marvel Fan Club That Couldn’t Shoot Straight

But Wait—There’s More!

The ads in the ’69 catalog for Marvel decals, stationery, and buttons. One recent online ad was offering just the decal sheet for sale for $3499.99.

Thanks to Richard Kelsey. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

45

46

Marvelmania International

Marvelmania The Magazine—Part I While Richard Kelsey doesn’t deal in detail with them, half a dozen issues of a black-&-white Marvelmania Magazine (the indicia said “Marvel Monthly Magazine”) were advertised, sold, and (sometimes) distributed during the year or so of the Don Wallace regime, with Wallace listed as publisher, Evanier as editor, Sherman as associate editor, and Ethel Hurwicz, Mike Rotblatt, Bruce Simon, Robert Solomon, and Linda Walter as staff (in the second issue, at least). Subscriptions were $3 for six issues. It actually wasn’t a bad little mag, in Ye Editor’s humble opinion!

Issue #1 featured a front cover by Jack Kirby and a back cover by Jim Steranko, and highlighted features on Don Wallace himself and on the “Toys for Tots” charity that was a special interest of his—and for which he induced Kirby to draw the oft-reproduced drawing which later was utilized as the cover of A/E #90.)

Behind Barry Smith’s penciled cover of the new Conan the Barbarian #1, issue #2 showcased an interview with writer Roy Thomas, as well as a Kirby portfolio and a continuation of an Avengers history by newcomer Tony Isabella. The back cover, so far as we are aware, is the first time Steve Ditko’s unused cover done for Amazing Fantasy #15 was ever printed.

Issue #3, with its Dan Adkins cover, spotlighted the forthcoming “Starhawk” try-out in Marvel Super-Heroes—only that story would never actually see print. Also some early Spider-Man comic strip samples by Stan Lee & John Romita. [Covers of #1 & #3 TM & © Marvel Characters; Conan art TM & © Conan Properties International, LLC or successors in interest.]

Today, Evanier and others who worked at Marvelmania laugh at those descriptions of Wallace.

“Wallace wrote that biography,” Evanier said when asked about that article on the man in charge of Marvelmania. “He did claim to have ESP abilities, and he was really into astrology. I have no idea how much of the rest is true.”

Probably not much, others think.

The Early 1970s Marvel Fan Club That Couldn’t Shoot Straight

Marvelmania The Magazine (Part II) Issue #4 cover-featured some Sub-Mariner drawings done especially for the earlier Marvel Super-Heroes TV series… which, though resembling Gene Colan’s work, we’ve been told were actually done by Doug Wildey. Plus various articles, several of them continued from #3.

Issue #5 sported a Kirby pencil drawing of Spider-Man, on which (as he often did) the King neglected to draw the spider on the arachnid’s chest. There was a Silver Surfer back cover by Mike Royer, plus other contents.

Issue 6’s cover consisted of Neal Adams pencil art… except we’ve no idea which Marvel hero (most likely none) it’s supposed to spotlight. Some Thomas/Adkins “Starhawk” pages appeared therein, as well as other features.

[Covers #4 & 5 TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; cover of #6 © Neal Adams.]

“We always knew that Wallace was no kind of businessman.

People thought it was this business, but it was pretty much like an empty shell of a business. It was a penny-ante operation. That’s what I would really call it. It was run on a shoestring,” said Bruce Simon, one member of the Los Angeles Comic Book Club who worked there.

Barry Siegel, another member of the comicbook club who worked at Marvelmania, agreed, noting, “No one really had any respect for Wallace. We thought he was a shady guy and kind of an idiot. He didn’t seem to love the medium at all. We used to call him ‘Uncle Don, the kiddies’ con.’”

So how did someone like Wallace get in charge of Marvel’s club?

Simple, Evanier and others theorize: Wallace was in the right place at the right time.

“At that point the Merry Marvel Marching Society was pretty

47

48

Marvelmania International

much inactive, having been kind of shunted to the side by other projects. And merchandising was a thing that Marvel had just not capitalized on. There were tons of DC Comics merchandise out there, but Marvel’s characters were drastically undermerchandised, probably, from the corporation’s standpoint. I’m guessing that the Marvelmania guy just walked in the door at the right moment and Marvel went, ‘Here’s someone who will do something with it.’ I suspect that the bottom line here was that he just smooth-talked them into giving him the rights to this thing,” Evanier said.

And with Wallace, Marvelmania had slim chances of success for several reasons, Evanier noted.

“He had no capital. He was kind of existing on fumes. He would start a business and get orders for things, and hope that he got in enough orders to produce the merchandise. And he had also drastically overestimated the market. He thought there were a lot more Marvel fans out there than there turned out to be. He also thought they had more buying power,” Evanier believes.

As an example, Evanier describes what occurred with the Marvelmania decals, four sheets with at least a dozen color decals of Marvel’s characters of various sizes on each sheet. Wallace checks with a printer on the cost. The printer asks for a quantity saying that the larger the quantity, the less each individual decal sheet will cost.

Wallace, thinking that Marvel has millions of fans, asks for a price on printing 300,000, believing that with millions of fans, he can easily sell that many.

The printer quotes a price of 40¢ each for that quantity.

Then Wallace, not having yet officially ordered the decals from the printer, advertises the decals at $1.25 a sheet. But only several thousand decal orders come in from fans, not several hundred thousand. Wallace then asks the printer for a smaller press run of the decals, 3,000 instead of 300,000. The printer, with that smaller quantity, then quotes a price of $2.50 for each decal sheet—higher than the actual price Wallace charged fans for the decals.

“I don’t remember the exact numbers, but that was the principle,” Evanier said. He was actually filling the decal sheet orders at a loss because of his misestimating the marketplace. It was the equivalent of: I start a restaurant and I get you to pay in

advance for your hamburger and then I run down the street and use that money to buy the meat. It was that kind of thing.”

He and others think that situation existed with most, if not all, the merchandise sold by Marvelmania. And the workers confess to having caused some problems, such as packing up the posters for shipping. Basically, roll the posters up, put them in the mailing tube, put caps on both ends, attach a label, and then mail it.

“Nobody had done this before and they were all like 16-year-old kids,” Sherman said, “plus it was the comic club, so these guys were just goofing around and having a great time.

And there was nobody to show them what to do. So they were just putting white glue on the ends of these caps and it would still be wet and the glue would run down the inside of the tube and get on the posters and everything. It didn’t happen to all of them but [to] a lot of them. What they should have done, of course, was put the cap on one end, let the glue dry, and then put the thing in.”

Gary Sherman, Steve Sherman’s younger brother who also worked at Marvelmania, agreed, saying, “Some poor kid in Indiana

First & Foremost This montage showcases the letter that Mark Evanier hand-lettered to the sender of the first order received for Marvelmania International merchandise—one “Bill Harnoff” of Elkart, Indiana. But the Stan Lee-autographed cover of Marvelmania Magazine #1 depicted shows a Kirby image of Captain America rather than one of Black Bolt, as seen two pages back. (Perhaps some collector can explain this to us?) For some reason, the montage includes the “Scream along with Marvel” recording—with its Marie Severin-illustrated sleeve fronting for the vocal musical strains of “You Belong, You Belong, You Belong to the Merry Marvel Marching Society”— even though that disc had actually been issued in 1967 as part of a reboot of the MMMS and had no connection to Marvelmania. Maybe Don Wallace was peddling leftover copies? [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The Early 1970s Marvel Fan Club That Couldn’t Shoot Straight

49

Ars Gratia Artists Along with various Photostats of artwork from Marvel editions, the various issues of Marvelmania Magazine also included a fair amount of new artwork by pros. #2, for instance, featured this Kirby Hulk pencil, a Dave Cockrum illo of the then-new look for Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell), and a full-page drawing of The Silver Surfer by young Mike Royer, including a photo of the fledgling artist.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

would open up his tube and tear his poster in half. We’d get tons of letters from kids and parents.”

And as time went on, the situation only got worse as the financial losses increased. Ads continued to run in Marvel comics and would for almost two years. Orders came in, but less and less got shipped out.

Letters complaining about unfilled orders came in to Marvelmania. Evanier and Sherman said that they tried to alert Marvel about how bad the club had gotten but didn’t get much response. Both think that the distance between the two offices, Marvelmania in California and Marvel Comics on the other side of the continent in New York, contributed to Marvel not fully knowing about the situation.

“Then at some point when kids were not getting their posters they ordered, they started writing to Marvel in New York, and Marvel kept sending out letters saying, ‘Where’s the merchandise?’ Steve and I worked there for six, seven months, off and on, until we became fed up with the way the company was being run. We quit and got out of there,” Evanier said.

But before leaving, they wanted to help Kirby, who had drawn a lot of art for Marvelmania and had never gotten paid for it. The originals for that art, including the club posters, decorated the walls of the Marvelmania offices.

“So one afternoon when Don was gone, we called Jack and said ‘OK, come on down.’ He came down with his son, took his art off the wall, and split. So when Don came back, he was like ‘What happened?’ We said, ‘Oh, we don’t know. Jack showed up and he took his art back.’ Well, there was nothing Don could do, because he owed Jack money,” Steve Sherman said.

Unfilled orders, letters of complaints, printers and other vendors wanting to get paid, was the situation Barry Siegel walked into when he went to work at Marvelmania, and it

50

Marvelmania International

stayed that way. “I was the only one at Marvelmania to the bitter end. I was there until the day I came to work at the very, very end. I have the bounced paycheck to prove it,” Siegel said. He recalls Wallace opening up envelopes every day and shaking out money but shipping out nothing.

“Don’t worry, Barry, hey, don’t worry about it,” Wallace replied when Siegel pointed out that kids wanted the Marvelmania stuff that they ordered. Nothing changed until one Saturday in 1971 when Siegel came to work and found the Marvelmania doors locked and a note from Wallace on the door saying that he had gone on a trip and would return Monday.

“I didn’t believe that for one second. It all smelled funny. We went to his apartment and they said he moved out. Where he went, what happened to him, I have no idea,” he said.

Nor do any of the others who worked at Marvelmania back then. Officially, the club came to an end when Marvel printed the following announcement in the Bullpen Bulletins in the December 1971 issues: “Just as this issue went to press, we learned that Marvelmania International, the club which has been advertising in our pages for some months, has been officially disbanded. No more memberships or orders should be sent to Marvelmania. Please address all inquiries to: [an address for Marvel followed].”

I had subscribed to the Marvelmania Magazine earlier that year and never received an issue, any notice, acknowledgment, or a refund. When I saw Marvel’s announcement, I wrote them a letter relating my misfortune. Marvel sent me a nice letter of apology and a full refund.

Many weren’t so lucky, as Steve Sherman could relate. When he talked recently about his experiences at Marvelmania, he said he usually got the same reaction: “People say, ‘Oh, yeah, Marvelmania! You know I sent away for that and I never got my stuff.’”

In spite of disappointments like that from Marvelmania, the former Los Angeles Comic Book Club members who worked there have some great memories from those times.

“We had a lot of fun,” Simon said. “Across the street from the place was ‘The Piece of Pizza,’ where we’d get pizza and they’d sell spaghetti in Chinese take-out boxes. We’d sit out there and eat. A couple blocks north of there was another pizza place with a miniature golf course attached to it. We’d have pizza and play some miniature golf. We were all friends from the comicbook club. We were making money after school and hanging out. It’s a real shame that it didn’t turn into anything.”

But today, practically any Marvelmania merchandise brings in high dollars and attracts fans’ interest. When those former Los Angeles Comic Book Club members tell about working at Marvelmania, people frequently ask if they have any club items for sale.

“And I’ll tell you one thing,” Simon said. “I wish somebody would reprint those Marvelmania posters. Those were the nicest bits of artwork. They were terrific. I wish I had mine. They’re beauties,” Simon said.

Second Chance—Or Last Gasp?

The cover of Marvelmania Catalog #2 spotlighted The Avengers, as drawn

by Sal Buscema, then a recent arrival at Marvel. Thanks to Aaron Caplain.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Marvelmania International may have ended, but not Marvel Comics’ attempts to have a club. In 1973, Marvel would try again.

Richard Kelsey’s study of F.O.O.M. (Friend Of Ol’ Marvel)—the third Marvel fan club—will see print in a near-future issue of Alter Ego.

51

JOHN BROOME – A Fantasy Finale

The Last Installment Of The Honored Scripter’s 1998 Memoir [A/E EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: It has been our extreme honor, these past several years, to serialize the short book My Life in Little Pieces: “An Offbeat Autobio,” which major Golden/Silver Age comics writer Irving Bernard (John) Broome wrote and published roughly a year before he passed away on March 14, 1999, at the age of 85. Besides writing science-fiction tales for Planet Stories and other fiction magazines, he was especially noted as a writer of popular comics. Although his earliest work was for Centaur in 1936, most of his four-color scripting was done for DC Comics—from the post-WWII 1940s (on All-Star Comics, “Green Lantern,” “The Flash,” et al.) through the early 1950s (“Captain Comet,” Rex the Wonder Dog, Big Town, Phantom Stranger, science-fiction & mystery yarns, etc.), and on through the Silver Age of Comics, beginning with the second new “Flash” story in 1956’s Showcase #4 and the launching of 1959’s “Green Lantern” reimagining, plus more SF. He was the co-creator of such characters as The Atomic Knights, Kid Flash, The Elongated Man, Thomas (Pieface) Komalku, the Silver Age Star Sapphire, and numerous others. His final comics script appeared in Green Lantern #75 (March 1970). He spent most of his later life in Paris with his wife Peggy (and, in early years, their daughter Ricky Terry). His last years saw him teaching English in the public schools of Japan. He attended only one comics convention—the San Diego Comic-Con in summer of 1998—where he was fêted along with his longtime friend and editor Julius Schwartz.

Our gratitude to Ricky Terry Brisacque for her permission to reprint her father’s memoir, and for sending most of the photos and scans of his occasional artwork for use in Alter Ego. Even though it never so much as mentions comicbooks (or science-fiction, for that matter) by name, he did discuss his relationships with Schwartz and with his fellow comics scribe David Vern Reed. And our thanks to Brian K. Morris for C’mon citizen, DO THE RIGHT typing the entire book onto THING! A Mom a Word document for us.

Don’t STEAL our Digital Editions!

& Pop publisher like us needs every sale just to survive! DON’T DOWNLOAD OR READ ILLEGAL COPIES ONLINE!

Buy affordable, legal downloads only at

www.twomorrows.com or through our Apple and Google Apps!

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

And now, the final chapter of My Life in Little Pieces, which deals, appropriately enough, with John Broome’s view of life, death, humankind, and the Deity….

John Broome in a pair of photos taken half a century apart.

Above are John and Peggy Broome in the 1940s; at left is a snapshot taken at the 1998 San Diego Comic-Con, the only comics convention Broome ever attended, and at which he was deservedly celebrated. Below is the splash page of the Broomescripted, Carmine Infantino-drawn yarn from Detective Comics #352 (June 1966), near the end of John’s tenure at DC Comics—one of a pair of “Elongated Man” tales that he set in his and Peggy’s beloved France (they lived in Paris for years). 1940s photo courtesy of Ricky Terry Brisacque; art scan courtesy of Bob Bailey & Jim Ludwig. [Page TM & © DC Comics; 1998 photo © Estate of Don Ensign.]

52

The Last Installment Of The Honored Scripter’s 1998 Memoir

The Man Who Conquered Comics (Above:) A page drawn by Martin Nadle (a.k.a. Naydel) for All-Flash #22 (April-May 1946), reportedly the first story Broome scripted for DC. Courtesy of Jim Ludwig. The splash page of “The City of Shifting Sand!” was seen earlier in this book serialization.

(Right:) The splash page of what Ye Editor considers the best of John’s later “Justice Society of America” epics, from All-Star Comics #55 (Oct.Nov. 1950). It dealt with a godlike would-be ruler of the Solar System, and revealed the twin influences of Edgar Rice Burroughs and H.P. Lovecraft.

Art by Arthur Peddy & Bernard Sachs. From RT’s personal collection. [TM & © DC Comics.]

I

A Moment In Eternity (An Unworldly Pigment) t must have been a great moment in Eternity when God first conceived the notion of making an animal with a soul.

Of course, being Deity, the hazards of so startling an enterprise—mingling in creation-boggling fashion sparks of pure divinity with unalloyed matter-bound flesh already at birth on its way to decay—were totally and at once apparent.

Eon upon eon, the Great Above had been seeding multiple scattered worlds with animals of all numbers, of sizes, shapes, and degrees of prescience, and observing the antics and simple active lives of these multitudinous creatures cavorting, slithering, bounding, flying, swimming, or galumphing along had provided Deity with considerable artist-joy in what was Of His Doing, and indeed he had become fond of nearly all of them. And what was more, so Deity reflected now, He had never had the least trouble with any of them: no animal had ever blamed God for his misfortunes or—and Deity pondered this point foresightedly, rather thoughtfully, and not without a glimmer of what future mortals would call indignation—put other animals to death in His name!

To be sure, not a single one of these mono-dimensional offspring of His—in truth He had long felt the animals could, and should, lead to something more and had long pondered the strong fanciful ideation wondering what really might emerge from it when suddenly the answer, incredible and divine, had just popped into place—no, not a single one had ever dreamed of its Maker’s existence, a circumstance, it should be added, that pleased Deity no end since secretiveness, insistence on performing His grand works behind a Celestial Near-impenetrable Curtain, stood out as the Major Force’s major foible.

But an animal with a soul!

God saw at once that this half-this-and-half-that creature He was already conceiving in elaborate mental and physical detail—legs longer than arms but not excessively so, with the same due sense of proportion from rounded thigh tapering down into smaller but equally rounded calf (clear evidence early on, by the by, of the Sculptor of Sculptors at work since while thighs would house heavy muscular equipment, there would be no such apparent structural reason for rounded calves, no reason at all except aesthetic ones): and installation in the thing’s brain of startling new capacities such as a kind of sub-microscopic play station enabling it to receive the irregular, but continuous, discharges of His own creative energy which The Highest had every intention of sending out once the proper living receptors of His Godly Love and Attention were in place and at a level to benefit from it, just as they would benefit from all else in their Godmade world: and also something in between the mental and physical, a faculty to be called. God knew, the sixth sense, allied subtly to the olfactory,

John Broome—A Fantasy Finale

53

Off On A “Comet” (Left:) Under the pseudonym “Edgar Ray Merritt,” Broome scripted the very first (and every) original-series “Captain Comet” story—commencing with Strange Adventures #9 (June 1951), which introduced the first comicbook super-hero ever specifically identified as a “mutant,” doubtless brainstormed

by Broome and his editor/friend Julius Schwartz. Art by Carmine Infantino & Bernard Sachs. Thanks to Jim Ludwig & Bob Bailey. [TM & © DC Comics.]

(Right:) Though Infantino drew the first two “Captain Comet” tales by Broome, all the rest of that run were illustrated by Murphy Anderson (see an example in A/E #176). Here are writer and artist together at the 1998 San Diego Comic-Con, as fan Bill Howard holds up a piece of Strange Adventures original art from a story by the pair. Thanks to John Berk.

Future Applicants For Membership In The Legion Of Super-Pets (Left:) One of Broome’s longest runs on a comic was as scripter of Rex the Wonder Dog (who, clearly, was really the Golden Age Green Lantern’s German shepherd Streak with a dye job and a new master), as exemplified by this splash from issue #13 (Jan.-Feb. 1954). Pencils

by Gil Kane; inks by Sy Barry. Thanks to Doug Martin for this and the accompanying page.

(Right:) One of John’s best-remembered creations is Grodd the Gorilla, who first appeared in The Flash #106 (April-May 1959).

Pencils by Carmine Infantino; inks by Joe Giella. [TM & © DC Comics.]

54

The Last Installment Of The Honored Scripter’s 1998 Memoir

Green Grow The Lanterns (Above:) While he wrote the later Golden Age “JSA” tales and many classic adventures of the Silver Age “Flash,” beginning with the second story in 1956’s Showcase #4, John Broome is best-remembered as the co-developer (with artist Gil Kane and editor Julie Schwartz) of the Silver Age “Green Lantern” who debuted in 1959. Here, fresh from the ever-fervent Internet, is a mash-up of three of that hero’s early splashes and panels, scooped up from Showcase #24 (Jan.-Feb. 1960) and Green Lantern #3 (Nov.-Dec. ’60) and #4 (Jan.-Feb. ’61).

Inks by Joe Giella. [TM & © DC Comics.]

(Right:) Ye Olde Ed has been proud, these past few years, to serialize the memoirs of one of his (and many others’) favorite Silver Age scribes—as well as the second most prolific writer of the Golden Age “Justice Society”—and was even happier that he had a chance to meet and converse briefly with John Broome at the SDCC that summer of 1998.

Photo courtesy of Jon Berk.

which would give God’s chosen even more and rarer powers once fully explored—these creatures, He realized, would certainly get to know Him! So, let the Potentate of All Power conceal as masterfully as possible His ineffable role in creating Existence, in kick-starting the Universe in a nano-second or two and including in it the built-in capacity to foster Life. His top secret divinity-based Formulation (of which He was perhaps the most proud): let Him hide Himself, in a manner of speaking, behind that convenient imaginary agency yclept Nature for as long as possible: and in particular let Him cover His tracks as carefully as possible to prevent the New Entities, called Human, from becoming aware that all He did was for them—His true Sons and Daughters with a part of Him— invisible and never to be found—imbedded in them: let Him do all this to preserve his precious anonymity and still, The Highest knew, a portion at least, of these not-entirely-to-be-known-even-toHim-who-made-them-humans, perhaps some bedraggled desert tribe with few earthly possessions to keep their faces from turning

incessantly skyward in anguished, avid search for Him, would sooner or later tear asunder the veil to betray Him behind it.

But God saw also that such a packet of God-hungry mortals would not be satisfied merely to uncover and worship Him, but would boldly lay claim to a Family Relationship with Him and so willy-nilly invest His Ultimate Almightiness with an inescapable sense of responsibility, something He had not before experienced!

It is putting it mildly to say that the good Lord was rather jolted by this unexpected realization.

It was His first intimation that the powerful new breed, these coming humans in their millions and billions of individual souls.

Would not only rival “Nature” in changing their environment but—and is it so improbable?—would in the course of time wreak changes in Him, too!

55

(Left:) Cracked #10 (Jan. 1959. (Right:) Mad #258 (Dec. 1986). [TM & © Cracked Entertainment, Inc., or successors in interest; & EC Publications, Inc., respectively.]

56

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

It’s A Cracked, Cracked, Cracked, Cracked World (Part 3)

by Michael T. Gilbert

L

ast issue we focused on superstar Cracked artist John Severin.

However, other writers and artists also helped give Cracked its unique flavor. Artwise, first among them (after Severin, of course!) was Bill Ward.

Bill had started out drawing comicbooks in the 1940s, including Quality’s Blackhawk and their dumb-but-sexy-gal feature “Torchy.” Ward had a particular affinity for seductive gals, and when he transitioned out of four-color comicbooks in 1953, he began a successful career drawing sexy cartoons for a variety of men’s magazines.

Cracked took advantage of his talent, beginning with their second issue, assigning him to illustrate the adventures of extremely well-endowed roving newscastress, Nanny Dickerson.

Nanny (originally co-created by Severin in Cracked #99) always wore the tightest dresses, which didn’t seem to hurt sales.

She appealed to generations of teenage boys not quite old enough to buy Playboy. Ward continued to contribute to the magazine up until issue #257 for Oct. 1990, and Cracked was still reprinting his work as late as 2000.

Ward & Peace Bill Ward’s sexy interviewer, Nanny Dickering, made young men’s hearts beat just a little faster back in the day. This is from Cracked #162 (Sept. 1979). Nanny was named after Nancy Dickerson, a popular investigative newscaster of that era.

Writer uncertain. [TM & © Cracked Entertainment, Inc., or successors in interest.]

Others were also responsible for Cracked’s continued success. As mentioned previously, Sol Brodsky was Cracked’s first editor, until issue #10 when Paul Laikin took over. Laikin was also a prolific writer, who sometimes scripted entire issues of the magazine. Under Laikin’s direction, the covers became more simplified, and Cracked’s mascot Sylvester more prominent.

Continuing features were instituted, such as “Cracked Shut-Ups!” and “A Cracked look at…”, as well as perennial staples like ad, movie, and TV show parodies. Most of these had been developed years earlier at rival Mad. John

Dump In Plenty Of “Starchie”!

(Top row:) Harvey Kurtzman and Bill (Will) Elder did their classic “Archie” parody for Mad #12 ((June 1954).

(Bottom row:) Cracked #11 (Oct. 1959) and Cracked #12 (Jan 1960) featured Elder doing a second satirical take on those rascally Riverdale rogues.

Writer uncertain. [TM & © EC Publications, Inc., & Cracked Entertainment, Inc., or successors in interest, respectively.]

Severin, a superb caricaturist, proved particularly adept at those parodies.

Early on, the staff included Jack Davis, Bill Elder, Joe Maneely, Bill Everett, Russ Heath, Don Orehek, and others.

Later contributors included Charles Rodrigues (whose sick cartoons later became a National Lampoon mainstay), former Mad writer Lou Silverstone, Howard Nostrand, Gene Colan, Gary Fields, Peter Bagge, Mort Todd, Rick Altergott, and Dan Clowes.

Many of the artists and writers did great work and showed great enthusiasm. But even some of Cracked’s contributors felt they were slumming. Clowes once talked about reading Cracked as a kid: ”No one was ever a fan of Cracked. We would buy Mad every month, but about two weeks later we would get anxious for new material. We would tell ourselves, ‘OK, we are not going to buy Cracked. Never again! ‘ And we’d hold out for a while, but then as the month dragged on it just became, ‘OK, I guess I’ll buy Cracked.’

Then you’d bring it home, and immediately you’d remember, ‘Oh yeah, I hate Cracked!’”

Ouch! It’s no wonder there was such a rivalry between Mad and Cracked, which often spilled over to the pages of the magazine itself.

Of course, Mad and Cracked weren’t alone in the humor field.

Joe Simon’s Sick Magazine, launched in 1960, hung on for 134 issues, under a variety of publishers, before finally ending in 1980. Harvey Kurtzman’s Help! struggled for 26 issues at Warren Publishing.

Other short-lived humor magazines came and went. Later ones

It’s A Cracked, Cracked, Cracked, Cracked World

Freas As a Bird (Above left) Kelly Freas was one of Mad’s greatest cover artists, his painting for Mad #46 (April 1959) being a prime example. The “End of Mad” turned out to be an April Fool’s gag (despite what Cracked publisher Sproul may have hoped!) [TM & © EC Publications, Inc.] (Above right:) Not to be outdone, Cracked snagged Freas for the cover of issue #365 (Nov. 2004), his only art for the company. And this time it really was the last issue! [TM & © Cracked Entertainment, Inc., or successors in interest.]

(Below:) Crazy Magazine’s mascot slays the competition in Freas’ cover to its first issue (Oct. 1973), Marvel’s long-running Mad imitation.

[TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

included Blast!, Up Your Nose (And Out Your Ear!), International Insanity, The National Harpoon, Apple Pie, and Cracked’s own shortlived (two issues!) companion title, Pow!, to name a few.

Marvel entered the humor mag biz in 1973, with Crazy Magazine, lasting an impressive 94 issues, before finally calling it a day in 1983.

More importantly, a new interloper, The National Lampoon, began publishing in 1970 and soon became a best-seller, rivaling Mad. They had a good run in the ‘70s, even leasing the name for movies and such, but ran out of steam in the ‘90s. Their final issue in November 1998 was more sad than funny.

The Big Steal!

Meanwhile, things got even nastier when Cracked tried to poach some of Mad’s best artists.

In 1985, twenty-three-year-old Mort Todd (a.k.a. Michael DelleFemine) became editor of Cracked. He immediately began shaking things up by stealing Don Martin, “Mad’s Maddest Artist,” from the magazine that had made him famous. Don, who had been working for Mad since 1956, wanted to retain copyrights on his work (and get hefty reprint fees). Mad publisher Bill Gaines was having none of that!

57

58

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Gaines insisted that Martin’s original page rate was for both publication in Mad and all future reprints in any format. Martin objected, claiming at one point that he had likely lost over $1 million in royalties because of this “flat rate” for this work. Martin sued, and then in 1987 walked away. A few months later, Cracked picked him up, allowing him to secure his copyrights.

Don spent the next six years at Cracked, with the magazine— gleefully thumbing their noses at Mad!—billing him as “Cracked’s Crackedest Artist”!

Dan Clowes, a somewhat reluctant Cracked contributor, commented on this: “As far as I could tell, he was happy. I don’t think he ever seemed to notice that Mad was respected, whereas Cracked was loathed.” Double ouch!

Adding insult to injury, Cracked tried to steal the brilliant caricaturist Mort Drucker, Mad’s dean of movie and TV parodies.

They were unsuccessful. However, Cracked did snag Mad contributor Lou Silverstone, who signed on as editor and writer.

Former Mad associate editor Jerry DeFuccio also worked at Cracked, briefly.

Around the same time, Mad went through some changes, too.

Comes The Don! (Right:) Cracked #235 (May 1988) heralded the arrival of recent Mad great Don Martin! [TM & © Cracked Entertainment, Inc., or successors in interest.]

Letterboxing Day Michael T.’s sole story for Cracked (script & layouts) was titled “Letterboxed Comics,” illustrated in fine form by Gary Fields. The idea was that the small screen often cuts off the edges of original movies when they’re shown on TV. However, the letterboxed version shows the missing parts. So why not do the same for comic strips? The feature appeared in Cracked #300 (Aug. 1995), decades before the similar but not-so-hilarious George Floyd incident. [© Major Publications].

It’s A Cracked, Cracked, Cracked, Cracked World

59

The Feud Continues!

(Above left:) John Severin’s “We Are Not Mad (at anyone)” cover for Cracked #99 (March 1972) seems to indicate that Mad itself was!

(Above right:) Severin drew this striking image for Cracked #107 (March 1973). [TM & © Cracked Entertainment, Inc., or successors in interest.]

Al Feldstein, who had been editor since 1956 (when he took over from founding editor Harvey Kurtzman), retired in 1985. Mad, like Cracked, would see a slow decline in sales. The magazine would eventually resort to mostly reprint material as they approached the 2020s.

After the National Lampoon died in the late ‘90s, Cracked picked up Andy Simmons (as an editor), as well as former Lampoon contributors as Ron Barrett, Randy Jones, and Ed Subitzky.

There were other reasons why Cracked survived to the turn of the 21st century, when so many others didn’t. As their Wiki entry explains: “Though sales of Cracked always lagged far behind those of Mad, Cracked endured for more than four decades through low pay rates and overhead, and by being part of large publishing groups that could bundle Cracked in with its other magazines as a package arrangement for distributors. Cracked also appeared monthly during the period when Mad was being published just eight times a year, thus picking up readership from Mad fans that couldn’t wait out the six weeks for their next ‘comedy fix.’ The magazine would sometimes include attention-grabbing giveaways inside its pages, such as iron-ons, stickers, or postcards.”

Do You Know This Man? This cover reject was eventually published in Cracked #21 (Sept. 1961). [TM & © Cracked Entertainment, Inc., or successors in interest.]

The article also gives insight into why Cracked began to fail: “At its height, Cracked’s circulation might have been a third of Mad’s, with the overall total generally rising or falling along with the bigger magazine’s fortunes. But at its nadir in the 2000s, this

60

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Timely Talents (Above:) The early issues of Cracked benefited from comicbook talents like Joe Maneely (left) and Russ Heath (right). From Cracked #2 (May 1958) and #1 (March 1958), respectively. [TM & © Cracked Entertainment, Inc., or successors in interest.]

sales figure plunged to around 25,000–35,000 per bi-monthly issue, or about one-eighth of Mad’s monthly circulation, which had also plummeted from its mid-1970s peak of over two million per issue.

“In late 1999, Cracked’s then-parent company, Globe Communications (publisher of the national tabloid The Globe), was sold to American Media, Inc., the company that publishes the tabloids The National Enquirer and the Weekly World News. American Media’s primary interest in the deal was in acquiring its rival, The Globe, but Cracked came along as part of the transaction. Writer/ editor Barry Dutter said, ‘One thing you have to realize is that AMI never wanted Cracked; it was just part of a package they bought from Globe Communications.’”

A Slow Death…

“In 2000, American Media sold Cracked to one of its former Weekly World News employees, Dick Kulpa, who became both Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Cracked. Under Kulpa, Cracked suffered from a lack of financing. Combined Ward & Peace, Part II with Cracked’s This page from Cracked #2 (May 1958) was Bill weakened distribution, Ward’s first for the magazine! Ward often went circulation continued by the pseudonym “McCartney.” [TM & © Cracked to drop precipitously, Publications, Inc., or successors in interest.] and Kulpa was forced

It’s A Cracked, Cracked, Cracked, Cracked World

61

Three more issues were published from Sept.

2006 to Jan. 2007. The magazine replaced most of the comics with glossy photos of sexy girls and celebrities—clearly trying to imitate the look of successful softcore men’s magazines like Maxim and FHM. It didn’t fool anyone.

The Cracked Wiki tells a sad tale: “Former editor Mort Todd was named a contributing editor. However, Todd quickly departed, complaining to The Comics Journal about low pay rates and work-for-hire issues of copyright. Todd said, ‘With each visit to the offices I got more dispirited as I saw the direction the magazine was taking. As has been well publicized, Cracked was, instead of ripping off Mad, going to rip off Maxim... A lot of ‘revolutionary’ humor ideas they’ve come up with are ones that have been overplayed for decades and ones I [as Cracked’s editor] rejected for good reason 20 years ago!’”

Publisher Monty Sarhan responded angrily, saying that Todd was “stuck in the Cracked of the past.” After further dismissing Todd’s role in his magazine, Sarhan went on to vigorously deny Todd’s assertion that Cracked was trying to be a Maxim clone. However, that point was somewhat undermined when he added “…since its launch over eight years ago, it [Maxim] has gone on to become one of the most successful magazine titles ever. Who wouldn’t want to emulate that success?”

Clearly not Cracked—at least according to you, Monty!

Cover-Up Severin designed the cover to Cracked #1 (March 1958), which was illustrated by Bill Everett.

[TM & © Cracked Publications, Inc., or successors in interest.]

to turn the magazine into a bi-monthly. Later, after being offered a substantial pay cut, signature artist John Severin parted company with the magazine.”

It was a slow death, made worse by a completely unexpected tragedy. According to the Cracked Wiki: “Cracked was near the center of the 2001 anthrax scare. An anonymous letter containing anthrax powder was sent to American Media, Inc., in September 2001, killing one employee. Cracked’s offices were still in the same building, and thus the magazine was among the publications that had to be evacuated. As a consequence, the company’s archives, containing the magazine’s original photographic prints of issues from 1958–2000, had to be destroyed due to contamination. The attack caused Kulpa to put out only four issues that year.”

The last issue, #365, had a cover date of Nov. 2004. However, that wasn’t quite the end of Cracked. In early 2005, Kulpa sold the magazine to Teshkeel Media Group, a federation of Arab, Asian, and American investors. And why does this sound like a Cracked parody?

The reviewers were not kind. After slamming the new Cracked, Michael Carlson of The Washington Post quoted Michael J. Nelson (a Cracked writer) as saying, “Bad comedies are worse than anything else in the whole of human history. Reading Cracked, you understand exactly what he means!”

Man, what’s with these former Cracked contributors anyway?

With the release of the third issue, the print magazine was canceled once and for all, though the owners kept a presence online at their cracked.com website. A website? How cutting edge!

And that’s the story of the great rivalry between America’s two most enduring humor magazines. Cracked’s arch rival, Mad, still soldiers on, but its humor seems increasingly irrelevant in a world where the Celebrity Apprentice guy accidentally winds up President.

We now seem to be beyond parody. As a result, diminishing sales recently caused Mad to resort to mostly reprint material. But give them credit.

At least they weren’t trying to copy Maxim!

Till next time…

A Message From

Michael T. Gilbert: In 1949, Charles Biro (of Daredevil and Crime Does Not Pay fame) produced the first comicbook exclusively aimed at adults. He called his magazine Tops, and it was decades ahead of its time.

Aided by stellar talents including Reed Crandall, George Tuska, Dan Barry, Bob Fujitani, and Fred Kida, publisher Lev Gleason produced a Life Magazinesize, 64 page comic selling for a quarter. It only lasted two issues, but has since become legendary... and extremely rare.

Fantagraphics has just reprinted both issues as a deluxe, 200-page oversized hardcover. I spent a year editing the book, scanning and meticulously restoring the art.

You’ll also find over 50 pages of information background material on Tops and its creators, by myself, Roger Hill, Bill Spicer, Ken Quattro, and George Hagenauer.

To celebrate the reprinting of this historic comic for the first time in over 70 years, we’re offering Alter Ego readers a signed and numbered limited edition. For pricing and availability, message me on Facebook, or contact me at mgilbert00@comcast.net (with zeroes).

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS’ GREATEST HEROES— NOW IN FABULOUS ONLINE COMIC STRIPS!

TM & © 2022 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.

NEW SEQUENCES CONSTANTLY BEING ADDED!

Official Website: http://edgarriceburroughs.com/comics/ Website now also features ongoing comic strips of John Carter of Mars, Carson of Venus, Pellucidar, Land That Time Forgot, and many others— only $1.99 per month!

by ROY THOMAS & BENITO GALLEGO

ALL-NEW FULL-COLOR ADVENTURES —NOW PLAYING ON AN INTERNET NEAR YOU!

63

In Memoriam

Steve Sherman (1949-2021)

“If It Was Creative, He Did It!”

by Mark Evanier

O

ne of the nicest, best people I ever met died on the morning of June 24, 2021, at a hospital here in Los Angeles. Steve Sherman had been in failing health for some time, spending way too many hours of his life hooked up to dialysis equipment.

The last few years, he had good days and bad… and I am so happy that, one of those good days in 2020, we spent some time recording a video chat. You can find it at https://www.newsfromme. com/2020/08/06/nfmtv-steve-sherman/ [and it’s also transcribed in Jack Kirby Collector #84], so that those of you who never had the joy of knowing Steve can spend a little time with him. You might understand why I feel blessed that I met this fellow back in 1968.

Steve was a writer, an artist, a photographer, a puppet-maker, a puppet-performer… if it was creative, he did it. He was my partner for several years, working first for a crooked mail-order firm and then for the most amazing man either of us ever met… Jack Kirby.

During our years with Kirby, we had amazing adventure after amazing adventure, moments of joy and anguish and the chance to bask in the enlightening aura of one of the few humans I heard called a “genius” who was actually deserving of the title.

I do not recall Evanier and Sherman ever having an argument, then or since. When we disagreed, we disagreed like gentlemen, and that was way more Steve’s influence than mine. As we were learning from Jack, I learned a lot from Steve.

We met in ’68 when he and his brother Gary showed up at a local comicbook club that I was the president of. All three of us got along great from the start. Steve and I worked together until we stopped working together, and then, as fate would have it, we continued occasionally working together.

When I left Jack’s employ, Steve stayed on and continued to be a great friend of the Kirby family.

But being Jack’s assistant didn’t pay all that well because… well, Jack didn’t really need an assistant. Steve wanted to get into the entertainment industry, so he got himself hired by the cartoon studio Filmation

Steve Sherman & Jack Kirby

for a few years, circa 1975—and, below left, Ernie Chan’s cover for then segued Kobra #1 (March-April 1976), featuring the character into the world of that Steve and Jack co-created for DC Comics right puppetry. That before Steve went out on his own. Steve, alas, was led to his working disappointed that DC had his script rewritten so he received reduced credit—in addition to much of for Sid and Marty Kirby’s art being redrawn and/or rearranged. Still, Krofft. But it had the character has had a perennial popularity. nothing to do [Cover TM & © DC Comics.] with the fact that I was working for Sid and Marty Krofft.

Steve and another fine puppet-maker/performer, Greg Williams, struck out on their own and formed Puppet Studio, building and operating puppets for TV, movies, commercials… everywhere. When ABC needed someone to build and operate a puppet named O.G. Readmore to host the ABC Weekend Special series, they hired Steve and Greg. And it had nothing to do with the fact that they’d hired me to write it.

Puppet Studio did puppets for Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. They did them for a show I liked called Riders in the Sky. They did puppeteering of all kinds, melding into new technology and animation. There are a lot of folks in the puppetry field who cling to the ways thing were done back in the days of Kukla, Fran, and Ollie. Not Sherman and Williams. Their creatures were very much Today—with a few rooted in Tomorrow—which is why they were so much in demand.

You can read all about this fine enterprise and see a longer bio of Steve on their website. The bio will tell you some of the things Steve did of a creative nature. There were a lot of them.

I guess the thing I want you to know most about Steve is how, in over fifty years, I never found even a teensy-tiny reason to be annoyed with him or to think he was being dishonest or foolish or anything of the sort. He was smart. He was industrious. One time when I was asked to write some “roast” jokes about him, I couldn’t think of a damned flaw to base them on. I think I settled for kidding him about not being very talkative when he had nothing to say… which of course is not an insult. It’s a compliment.

I could go on and on about this fellow, and I guess I have. So at this point I’ll just recommend you watch the video I mentioned above, of our conversation last August. It may give you some idea of what a terrific guy he was. It will give me a reminder of what it was like to know him, and I intend to watch it from time to time for that reason. Just as soon as I can do so without crying.

Mark Evanier has had a long career as a writer in TV and comics. His Newsfromme.com blog is an invaluable source of information on show business, comics, and many other things.

64

In Memoriam

Gérald Forton (1931-2021)

From French Comics To American—And Back Again

by Jean-Marc Lofficier

G

érald Forton, born April 10, 1931, in Brussels, Belgium, passed away on December 18, 2021. He was a FrenchAmerican artist, and the grandson of the famous Louis Forton, the creator of the classic Pieds nickels strip.

The younger Forton began his career in comics in the early 1950s illustrating stories for a variety of French magazines including Zorro Magazine, Bonnes Soirées, and Spirou, for which he co-created a number of popular series with writer Jean-Michel Charlier, such as “Kim Devil” (a jungle explorer) and “Alain Cardan” (science-fiction).

Gérald Forton juxtaposed with a panel from an American “He-Man” (“Masters of the Universe”) story—and a detective-story image from France.

[TM & © the respective trademark & copyright hold

In 1959 he began collaborating for Vaillant, with “Jacques Flash” (a journalist with the power of invisibility) and “Teddy Ted,” a popular Western written by Roger Lecureux. In 1962 he was the first artist to adapt the best-selling Young Adult series Bob Morane into comics.

In the 1970s Forton illustrated numerous comics based on TV series, such as Wild Wild West, Thierry La Fronde, and stories featuring Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, and Sub-Mariner, adapted from the Marvel Super-Heroes 1966 TV cartoon series.

He then left for the United States, where he drew stories for Arak – Son of Thunder, Jonah Hex, Black Lightning, John Sable, and Nexus, as well as inking All-Star Squadron and other comics. At the same time, he worked in film and animation, creating visual designs for He-Man, She-Ra, Brave Starr, G.I. Joe, C.O.P.S., Real Ghostbusters, Captain Planet, Skeleton Warriors, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and drawing storyboards for Prince Valiant, X-Men, Street Fighters, Extreme Ghostbusters, and Toy Story.

In the early 2000s, Forton reconnected with the French comics market, drawing new “Bob Morane” and “Teddy Ted” stories, as well as “Galton & Trumbo” for Hexagon Comics. Many of his older works began being reprinted in the late 2000s.

65

In Memoriam

Gene D’Angelo (1924-2021)

“Every Story Presents Me With A New Challenge”

by Anthony Tollin

T

hough most comics fans think of him solely as a Bronze Age DC Comics super-hero colorist, Gene D’Angelo is probably the most widely read colorist in comics history.

While the top selling comicbooks of the 1970s-80s rarely had sales above a few hundred thousand copies, Gene’s coloring probably reached a worldwide audience of 100 million or more each week, since he was the longtime colorist of the most popular syndicated Sunday newspaper strips in the world, including Blondie, Beetle Bailey, and Hagar the Horrible.

For 40 years, regardless of whether Blondie was drawn by creator Chic Young or his successors Jim Raymond or Stan Drake, readers were invited into the Bumsteads’ familiar living room or Dagwood’s office through Gene D’Angelo’s welcoming color palette. Gene’s color choices were an important part of why the Blondie Sunday strip always felt like Blondie, just as the familiar color tones of Camp Swampy’s barracks instantly drafted readers into the Army life of Beetle Bailey.

D’Angelo was born in Palisades Park, New Jersey, on July 7, 1924, and was a lifelong fan of comics. Stationed in South America during World War II, he trained Navy ensigns to fly the large PBY-5 seaplanes. Gene began his half-century comics career after the war, joining the King Features bullpen at the invitation of his brotherin-law, production supervisor Frank Chillino. He eventually became King Features’ top colorist, focusing his brush on their most popular humor strips including Blondie, Popeye, Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois, Mickey Mouse, The Katzenjammer Kids, Bringing Up Father,

and Barney Google… but also occasionally adventure strips such as Flash Gordon, Mandrake the Magician, and The Phantom.

D’Angelo added comicbooks to his workload when KFS launched its own shortlived comicbook line in 1966, coloring King Comics’ Blondie, Beetle Bailey, and Popeye series.

Gene D’Angelo in 1943, during the era in which he joined the staff of King Features Syndicate—with thanks to his daughter, Kim D’Angelo Merrifield.

Since readers can see printed versions of his coloring in more than a thousand DC comics, we’re instead reproducing one of D’Angelo’s original hand-painted color guides from The Phantom’s classic 1977 wedding storyline, in which he finally married his beloved Diana—after a 42-year courtship. [TM & © King Features Syndicate, Inc.]

In the fall of 1977, production manager Jack Adler and I recruited Gene to join our DC Comics freelance coloring team, where his bold use of primary colors made him popular with editors. He quickly became Julius Schwartz’s favorite colorist, brightening the pages of Action Comics, et al., along with numerous series for other DC editors including Booster Gold for Barbara Kesel, Secret Origins for Roy Thomas, various Justice League titles for Andy Helfer, and a long run on Supergirl.

“Coloring for DC Comics and for King Features is quite different,” he observed in 1980. “For one thing, there is a wider range of colors to use at DC. For another, DC wants the colorist to emphasize what he feels is important to telling the story… to focus the reader’s eye on the main character. King wants you to pick out and emphasize a lot of background details, such as furniture. It’s a difference in philosophy brought about by the difference between comicbooks and comic strips.”

Gene was a joy to work with during the years I was DC’s color coordinator; his work was immaculately clean and always delivered on time by a professional who truly loved his work. “It’s never boring,” he noted with a smile. “Every story presents me with a new challenge.”

After some 45 years, Gene retired from his staff job at King Features in 1990, but continued his freelance coloring for DC for another decade.

After beating cancer two decades earlier, Gene D’Angelo led an active life until the end, dying peacefully in his sleep on October 26, 2021, at age 97, in the Teaneck, NJ, home he’d lived in for more than 60 years.

Edited

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

EISNER AWARD Winner Best Comics-Related Periodical Go to www.twomorrows.com for an ULTIMATE BUNDLE, with all the issues at HALF-PRICE!

ALTER EGO #167

ALTER EGO #168

DIEDGITIIOTANSL BLE

AVAILA

ALTER EGO #164

ALTER EGO #165

ALTER EGO #166

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

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

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

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

ALTER EGO #169

ALTER EGO #171

ALTER EGO #172

Salute to Golden & Silver Age artist SYD SHORES as he’s remembered by daughter NANCY SHORES KARLEBACH, fellow artist ALLEN BELLMAN, DR. MICHAEL J. VASSALLO, and interviewer RICHARD ARNDT. Plus: mid-1940s “Green Turtle” artist/creator CHU HING profiled by ALEX JAY, JOHN BROOME, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and Mr. Monster on MORT WEISINGER Part Two, and more!

Two RICHARD ARNDT interviews revealing the wartime life of Aquaman artist/ co-creator PAUL NORRIS (with a Golden/ Silver Age art gallery)—plus the story of WILLIE ITO, who endured the WWII Japanese-American relocation centers to become a Disney & Warner Bros. animator and comics artist. Plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, JOHN BROOME, and more, behind a NORRIS cover!

Spotlight on Groovy GARY FRIEDRICH— co-creator of Marvel’s Ghost Rider! ROY THOMAS on their six-decade friendship, wife JEAN FRIEDRICH and nephew ROBERT HIGGERSON on his later years, PETER NORMANTON on GF’s horror/ mystery comics, art by PLOOG, TRIMPE, ROMITA, THE SEVERINS, AYERS, et al.! FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and Mr. Monster, and more! MIKE PLOOG cover!

PAUL GUSTAVSON—Golden Age artist of The Angel, Fantom of the Fair, Arrow, Human Bomb, Jester, Plastic Man, Alias the Spider, Quicksilver, Rusty Ryan, Midnight, and others—is remembered by son TERRY GUSTAFSON, who talks in-depth to RICHARD ARNDT. Also, ROY THOMAS reviews the new anti-STAN LEE bio!

Plus—FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, JOHN BROOME, and more!

ALFREDO ALCALA is celebrated for his dreamscape work on Savage Sword of Conan and other work for Marvel, DC, and Warren, as well as his own barbarian creation Voltar, as RICH ARNDT interviews his sons Alfred and Christian! Also: FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, PETER NORMANTON’s horror history From The Tomb, JOHN BROOME, and more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

TwoMorrows.

The Future of Comics History.

ALTER EGO #173

ALTER EGO #174

ALTER EGO #175

ALTER EGO #176

BLACK HEROES IN U.S. COMICS! Awesome overview by BARRY PEARL, from Voodah to Black Panther and beyond!

Interview with DR. WILLIAM FOSTER III (author of Looking for a Face Like Mine!), art/artifacts by BAKER, GRAHAM, McDUFFIE, COWAN, GREENE, HERRIMAN, JONES, ORMES, STELFREEZE, BARREAUX, STONER—plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and more! Edited by ROY THOMAS.

FCA [FAWCETT COLLECTORS OF AMERICA] issue—spearheaded by feisty and informative articles by Captain Marvel co-creator C.C. BECK—plus a fabulous feature on vintage cards created in Spain and starring The Marvel Family! In addition: DR. WILLIAM FOSTER III interview (conclusion)—MICHAEL T. GILBERT on the lost art of comicbook greats—the haunting of JOHN BROOME—and more! BECK cover!

Spotlighting the artists of ROY THOMAS’ 1980s DC series ALL-STAR SQUADRON! Interviews with artists ARVELL JONES, RICHARD HOWELL, and JERRY ORDWAY, conducted by RICHARD ARNDT! Plus, the Squadron’s FINAL SECRETS, including previously unpublished art, & covers for issues that never existed! With FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and a wraparound cover by ARVELL JONES!

The Golden Age comics of major pulp magazine publisher STREET & SMITH (THE SHADOW, DOC SAVAGE, RED DRAGON, SUPERSNIPE) examined in loving detail by MARK CARLSON-GHOST! Art by BOB POWELL, HOWARD NOSTRAND, and others, ANTHONY TOLLIN on “The Shadow/Batman Connection”, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, JOHN BROOME, PETER NORMANTON, and more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, NC 27614 USA 919-449-0344 E-mail:

store@twomorrows.com

Order at twomorrows.com

67

In Memoriam

David Anthony Kraft (1952-2021)

“A Shared Love Of Science-Fiction & Comics” A Personal Remembrance by Dwight Jon Zimmerman

W

hen I told Roy Thomas about David Anthony Kraft’s—DAK’s— death, he asked if I’d write his obituary. I said, “Yes.” But, packing into a few hundred words more than fifty years of a personal and professional relationship... well, it’s tough. For Dave’s achievements as a comicbook writer, editor, packager, rock music critic, and publisher, I recommend his Wikipedia biography.

Dave and I became high school friends in a small town in North Dakota over a shared love of science-fiction and comics. In fact, it was a Lancer paperback edition of a “Daredevil” story he was reading that brought us together.

We created and published not one but two fanzines together: science-fiction-themed Omnifan and OAK Leaves, about pulp-era fiction writer and literary agent Otis Adelbert Kline. Post-high school, Dave knocked around, eventually moving to Rabun County, Georgia, to edit a spiritual magazine.

In the mid-1970s Roy, then Marvel’s editor-in-chief and an OAK Leaves subscriber, offered him an assistant-editor job. We had stayed in touch. During my vacations I’d visit and accompany Dave, now a freelancer, on his trips to the Marvel office, where I kept my eyes open and mouth shut as he schmoozed with people I knew as names on a page.

In 1977, I quit my printing job for an uncertain future in comics. My timing proved serendipitous. Dave was in a writing slump. My dream was to be a professional writer. We worked out a mentor/acolyte system. The result? We became a writing factory.

Seriously. It was great!

No biography of Dave is complete without mentioning industry veteran Jim Salicrup. Dave so respected Jim’s friendship and advice that when he decided to go in a new career direction, Dave sought Jim’s input. Jim suggested a trade magazine based on Andy Warhol’s Interview. Significantly, Jim told Dave to incorporate his name into the title. Back in the 1980s such branding was not typical, and Dave resisted. But Jim persisted. The rest is David Anthony Kraft’s Comics Interview history. Dave later added a line

David Anthony Kraft on a motorcycle—probably the one he drove to NYC when he got a mid-’70s staff-job offer at Marvel Comics. (From F.O.O.M. Magazine #22, Autumn 1978—a mag he edited for the company.) Also pictured is the splash page of The Defenders #49 (July 1977), with art by Keith Giffen & Mike Royer, one of a number of Marvel titles on which he had a significant run; others included Captain America, Hulk, The Savage She-Hulk, and The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. A near-future issue of Alter Ego will feature an interview done with DAK just a couple of years ago. [Splash TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

of creator-owned comics which he asked me to edit. Though it was most notable for publishing the first comicbook work of artist Brian Stelfreeze (Cyclops), Comics Interview became Dave’s benchmark legacy.

Comics Interview’s strength was the scope of its interviews. From company presidents to production staffers, creators, retailers, fans, Hollywood—everyone was fair game. The list includes original Marvel bullpen staffer Flo Steinberg, DC founder Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson’s sons, porn star Desirée Cousteau (a comicbook fan), and... as the cliché goes, much more!

I last met with Dave two years ago, reconnecting at his home on Screamer Mountain in Rabun County. We spent a couple of hours renewing a friendship that began in 1968.

Dave died a few days before his 69th birthday from COVID-19 complications. As you may have noticed, except for the beginning, I have referred to DAK as “Dave.” That’s because to me that’s who he is and who he will always be: my friend, David Anthony Kraft.

Dave.

Dwight Jon Zimmerman is an award-winning #1 New York Times best-selling author. During his comicbook career he worked and wrote for Marvel and DC, was the editor of the Comics Interview line of comics, and was the executive editor of Topps Comics. In addition to his comicbook work, he has written more than a dozen books and hundreds of articles on military history. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

BRITMANIA

by MARK VOGER

Remember when long-haired British rock ’n’ rollers made teenage girls swoon — and their parents go crazy? BRITMANIA plunges into the period when suddenly, America went wild for All Things British. This profusely illustrated full-color hardback, subtitled “The British Invasion of the Sixties in Pop Culture,” explores the movies (A HARD DAY’S NIGHT, HAVING A WILD WEEKEND), TV (THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW, MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR), collectibles (TOYS, GAMES, TRADING CARDS, LUNCH BOXES), comics (real-life Brits in the DC and MARVEL UNIVERSES) and, of course, the music!

Written and designed by MARK VOGER (MONSTER MASH, GROOVY, HOLLY JOLLY), BRITMANIA features interviews with members of THE BEATLES, THE ROLLING STONES, THE WHO, THE KINKS, HERMAN’S HERMITS, THE YARDBIRDS, THE ANIMALS, THE HOLLIES & more. It’s a gas, gas, gas!

(192-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $43.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-115-8 • SHIPS OCTOBER 2022!

Get Mark Voger’s three other books for $99.95!

Monster Mash • Groovy • Holly Jolly Normally 120, get this specially-priced trio for only $ 99.95! $

Save $24!

TwoMorrows.

The Future of Pop History.

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA

Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: www.twomorrows.com Don’t miss exclusive sales, limited editions, and new releases! Sign up for our mailing list:

https://groups.io/g/twomorrows

STILL ON SALE!

FIRST ALL-NEW ISSUE OF THE ALTER EGO COMICBOOK IN 25 YEARS—

BY ROY THOMAS & RON HARRIS! In #1-4, Alter Ego fought World War II alongside comicbook super-heroes! Now, he’s trapped in the world of LATE-1940s CRIME COMICS— and this might just be his FINAL STAND! #1-4 previously released in special 25th-anniversary edition—still available.

Order it online, only at www.heroicpub.com/alterego [Alter Ego is a trademark of Roy & Dann Thomas.]

69

that the lightning bolt was replaced by a long-tailed, six-pointed star. His secret identity was Jerry Gunn, a humble schoolteacher complete with pipe and Clark Kent glasses, who could summon a flash of energy from the sun and transform into a super-human hero with the strength of Hercules and the speed of Mercury (!).

The resemblance to the Big Red Cheese was so great that, in one of the final issues of his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Alan Moore had Captain Marvel’s lawyers show up with a “cease and desist” order for him.

I should probably end it here, but I want to say what a godsend you and Alter Ego and the other TwoMorrows magazines have been to us comicbook fans stuck in isolation during these trying times.

Jeff Taylor Yeah, Dann and I are humbly aware of how much easier we had it than many during the first year in particular of the pandemic, with not that many reasons to leave our little country mini-estate for more than the occasional foray for groceries and the like. Admittedly, though, I did venture out more than most, perhaps more than I should have… even flying to the Dallas area in May of ’20 for a (properly masked, of course) comics-store signing. But sanity is slowly returning—and please don’t get me started on the whole idea of the lockdowns in the first place.

No “re:” segment is complete, far as we’re concerned, without comments from Bernie Bubnis, who, as one of the hosts of the very first comics convention ever back in 1964, has a special place in the history of fandom: Hi, Roy—

G

uess our Australian art-homage guy Shane Foley couldn’t figure a good way to turn either Don Perlin’s version of Marvel’s Werewolf by Night or the skull-headed Ghost Rider into a quasi-doppelgänger for this issue’s “maskot” Captain Ego—or maybe he didn’t want to try—so he settled for a friendly pose based on a panel in a Perlin-penciled issue of The Defenders—and it turned out just as well!

Thanks to Shane, as per usual, and to Randy Sargent for coloring it!

[Captain Ego TM & © Roy Thomas & Estate of Bill Schelly; created by Biljo White.]

Meanwhile, I (Roy) still haven’t run across hardcopies of letters from several issues of A/E due for handling in the “re:” section, so I ran off the few I ran across in my PC’s trash files… but we’re just running truncated versions of same, since this issue is so chock-full of Marvel-related material. Here are a few squibs about Alter Ego #166, commencing with comments by Jeff Taylor sent on Oct. 19, 2020, that show how devoted some of our readers are: Hi, Roy— Sorry I haven’t written sooner. I do not have home Internet and, because of the pandemic, the local libraries have gotten rid of their computers. Right now I’m dictating this letter to my long-suffering girlfriend Billie, who lives on another island.

I especially enjoyed the “Echoes of Shazam” article and artwork. However, I cannot believe that Alex Ross missed the most blatant British rip-off of Captain Marvel of all time.

Appearing in Dynamic Thrills (1952), Mr. Apollo wore a costume identical to that of the World’s Mightiest Mortal except

Wow! That is how to run a panel! Kurt Schaffenberger sits down, says hello, and the audience knows exactly how to conduct the interview. This group of fans deserves a byline on this piece.

Those clean KS lines and his artistic flow always made me enjoy anything he drew. Even Lois Lane. The cover of A/E #166 has that feeling.

Certainly complex, but easy on the eyes.

Texture lines added only where necessary.

He was the master of that type of comic art.

The “memory” piece

by Mark Voger was the perfect after-thought.

Side story on Curt Swan: After I begged Julius Schwartz to attend the ’64 Comicon and then insulted him

Live At “Mr. Apollo”!

Jeff Taylor sure knows whereof he speaks! Here’s the cover of a publication that collected a couple of vintage “Mr. Apollo” adventures—and he definitely resembles the original Captain Marvel even more than did a host of other 1950s British super-doers! You can read more about Mr. Apollo in Chris Murray’s 2017 book The British Superhero, which even reproduces a page from one of his stories. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

70

[correspondence, comments, & corrections]

when he said “No!,” he physically pushed me out of his office. And into the arms of Curt Swan. I was so angry I told Curt just how I felt (at that moment) about Julie. When I finally shut up, I realized I might be able to turn this incident into something I needed: more pro art for the planned after-con fanzine. He agreed to contribute and I got his home address. Channeling Jim Shooter, I drew up a full-page illo of Superman smashing a wall in case he was unable to think of what to draw. I’m sure Curt thought twice about any participation in this project, and he sent the attached condensed version.

The beauty of Alex Ross’ paintings is undeniable. And this time overwhelming! Then to read how each character gained representation is impossible not to read. Great job with art and text.

A lot of folks loved Bill [Schelly]. Never a doubt about that. He became a part of a lot of our lives. Gosh, to see a tribute from Paul Gambaccini is bittersweet. Love to read anything from Paul, but sad to realize the subject is a lost friend. It was tough to read the whole piece.

“From the Tomb”—the perfect mash of graphic and text. How can this feature miss?

Bernie Bubnis It can’t, Bernie—which is the reason we’re sorry it’s been a couple of issues since we were last able to squeeze it in. But now, with serialization of John Broome’s odd little auto-bio completed, we’ll have those extra

couple of pages to play around, and we’ll slip in a “From the Tomb” offering anytime we can, with or without advance notice—starting next issue!

Next up, Al Rodriguez had an observation about the Schaffenberger section: Roy: All of the Super-Content in the Kurt Schaffenberger Lois Lane material reprinted (i.e., “Super-Courtship” from Lois Lane #4, 1958, as reprinted in A/E #166), all of those Super-Permutations echo the examples of items beginning with “Super-“ mentioned in Harvey Kurtzman and Wallace Wood’s “Superduperman!” in Mad #4.

My point being, that goes to show how well-realized Kurtzman & Wood’s satire of that character and comic was. That’s another aspect of the narrative not focused on enough.

And—I don’t mean to step on toes, but Kurt S. arrived in the United States at the age of seven (p. 7). He could not have been 70 in 2000 (as stated on p. 19).

Al Rodriguez You’re right, Al. He was seventy in 1990, not 2000. And of course we’ve raised our voices more than once to join the chorus of cognoscenti who feel that “Superduperman!” in the fourth issue of the color Mad was one of the best comicbook stories ever written, drawn, and/or published.

Following that, a correction from Mike Catron, whose contributions are more often seen in publications from Fantagraphics but which are always welcome here: Hi Roy, Congratulations on another terrific issue of Alter Ego. I have one small correction that might be useful to A/E readers. On page 45, the URL for the video featuring Bill Schelly talking to Jeff Gelb about Bill’s life and career is close but not quite correct. It should be: http://archive.org/details/spotlightonbillschlly Thanks to Jeff Gelb for organizing that tribute.

It’s been more than a year now, and I still miss Bill.

Mike Catron If you truly love or care for someone, Mike, the sadness never quite goes away. Fortunately, as time passes, the good memories often tend to come into the foreground more readily than that sadness. So may it be with Bill. And thanks for correcting our URL typo. Those things are too damn long!

And lastly, this letter from Peter Jones—about a letter in #166’s letters pages!

Hi Roy,

“Who Are You Mad At, Bernie?”

So that’s the meaning of Curt Swan’s enigmatic Superman drawing (and word balloon!) in the post-1964 comics-convention fanzine that Bernie Bubnis put out! We’ve always wondered. Well, presumably Bernie and DC editor Julius Schwartz managed to co-exist peaceably on this planet for several decades afterward. [Superman TM & © DC Comics.]

I read the letter in Alter Ego #166 regarding the mystery of H.G. Peter’s art assistants. I attended the SDCC spotlight panel on Joye Murchison Kelly in 2018, and I remember her mentioning that H.G. had two female assistants. After the panel she gave me her autograph and I asked her if she remembered the name of the assistants. She said the senior assistant was named “Arlene,” and the other was “a little blonde girl” whose name she couldn’t remember. She thought they mostly inked H.G.’s pencils. This is a mere scrap of a morsel of information and may have already been noted elsewhere, but I wrote it down at the time so I wouldn’t forget it.

re:

71

“…And Who, Disguised As Mild-Mannered Clark Bent…”

The Harvey Kurtzman/Wally Wood splash panel for “Superduperman!” from EC’s Mad #4 (April-May 1953)— repro’d from the hardcover Mad Archives, Vol. 1, published by DC Comics. We’d have preferred to scan it from Roy’s personal copy of the original comic, but we’d have lost a bit of the art on the left because it’s bound with the other 22 color issues.

[TM & © EC Publications.]

I wish Joye had remembered Arlene’s last name, but that’s all she recalled. Joye is very classy and gracious, and I’m so glad she was a special guest of SDCC. Peter Jones Sadly, Joye Kelly has passed away since your letter was written, Peter—you probably read Richard Arndt’s tribute to her in A/E #173— but we feel fortunate to have made her acquaintance. And we thank you for at least preserving the first name of one of H.G. Peter’s inkers. Who knows? One of these days someone may come along to give “Arlene” a last name.

Any bouquets or brickbats re this issue’s contents should be sent to: Roy Thomas e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com 32 Bluebird Trail St. Matthews, SC 29135 Miss the old online chat groups? Well, the Alter-Ego-Fans one is still going strong at https://groups.io/g/Alter-Ego-Fans. If you have trouble getting in to join, just contact moderator Chet Cox at mormonyoyoman@gmail.com and he’ll help you board. This discussion group deals with various Golden and Silver Age subjects, and (speaking selfishly) gives Ye Editor a place where he can request help with scans or info from time to time... like basically every two months!

In addition, Roy’s manager John Cimino runs the Roy Thomas Appreciation Board (hey, he named it, not me!) on Facebook, covering all things RT, including convention and comics-store appearances, comicbook scribing, informational tidbits, and all sorts of stuff you could actually do without if you had the good taste to read Marcel Proust instead of comics.

BOOKS FROM TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING

REED CRANDALL

Illustrator of the Comics

MAC RABOY

Master of the Comics

MIKE GRELL

HERO-A-GO-GO!

KIRBY & LEE: STUF’ SAID

History of Crandall’s life and career, from Golden Age Quality Comics, to Warren war and horror, Flash Gordon, and beyond!

Documents the life and career of the master Golden Age artist of Captain Marvel Jr. and other classic characters!

LIFE IS DRAWING WITHOUT AN ERASER

Career-spanning tribute to the Legion of Super-Heroes & Warlord comics art legend!

Looks at comics' 1960s CAMP AGE, when spies liked their wars cold and their women warm, and TV's Batman shook a mean cape!

Presents JACK KIRBY and STAN LEE’s own words to examine the complicated relationship of the creators of the Marvel Universe!

(256-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $13.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-102-8

(160-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-090-8

(160-page FULL-COLOR TPB) $27.95 (Digital Edition) $12.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-088-5

(272-page COLOR paperback) $36.95 (Digital Edition) $13.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-073-1

(176-page COLOR paperback) $26.95 (Digital Edition) $12.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-094-6

OLD GODS & NEW

JACK KIRBY’S DINGBAT LOVE

IT CREPT FROM THE TOMB

THE WORLD OF TWOMORROWS

MLJ COMPANION

The complete history of ARCHIE COMICS’ super-heroes known as the “Mighty Crusaders”, with in-depth examinations of each era of the characters’ history!

(288-page COLOR paperback) $34.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-067-0

COMIC BOOK ARTIST BULLPEN

Collects all seven issues of JON B. COOKE’s little-seen self-published zine, produced just after the original COMIC BOOK ARTIST ended its TwoMorrows run in 2003!

(176-page paperback with COLOR) $24.95 (Digital Edition) $8.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-105-9

AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES

FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER SERIES

documents each decade of comics history!

8 Volumes covering the 1940s-1990s

Documents the genesis of JACK KIRBY'S FOURTH WORLD series, his gods in THOR and other strips, how those influenced his DC epic, and affected later series like ETERNALS and CAPTAIN VICTORY!

The final complete, unpublished Jack Kirby stories in existence: Two unused 1970s DC DINGBATS OF DANGER STREET tales, plus TRUE-LIFE DIVORCE & SOUL LOVE mags!

Digs up the best of FROM THE TOMB (the UK’s preeminent horror comics history magazine), with early RICHARD CORBEN art, HP LOVECRAFT, and more!

An anniversary behind-the-scenes retrospective with publisher JOHN MORROW, JON B. COOKE, MICHAEL EURY, ROY THOMAS, GEORGE KHOURY, and others!

(160-page COLOR paperback) $26.95 (Digital Edition) $12.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-098-4

(176-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $43.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-091-5

(192-page paperback with COLOR) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $10.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-081-6

(224-page FULL-COLOR TPB) $37.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-092-2

GROOVY

A psychedelic look at when Flower Power bloomed in Pop Culture. Revisits ‘60s era’s ROCK FESTIVALS, TV, MOVIES, ART, COMICS & CARTOONS! (192-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $15.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-080-9

OUR ARTISTS AT WAR AMERICAN TV COMICS (1940s-1980s)

JOHN SEVERIN

TWO-FISTED COMIC ARTIST

Examines US War comics from EC, DC COMICS, WARREN PUBLISHING, CHARLTON, and more! Featuring KURTZMAN, SEVERIN, DAVIS, WOOD, KUBERT, GLANZMAN, KIRBY, and others!

History of over 300 TV shows and 2000+ comic book adaptations, from well-known series (STAR TREK, PARTRIDGE FAMILY, THE MUNSTERS) to lesser-known shows.

A spirited biography of the EC COMICS and MAD mainstay, co-creator of Western strip American Eagle, 40+ year CRACKED magazine contributor, and Marvel Comics artist.

(160-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $27.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-108-0

(192-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-107-3

(160-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-106-6

TwoMorrows.

The Future of Comics History.

Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: www.twomorrows.com

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614

courtesy of the Michael Finn collection.

Captain Marvel Jr., Bulletman, & Bulletgirl TM & © DC Comics

Art by Jack Katz and Bob Almond, from 2011,

74

Who Was FREDDY FREEMAN?

A Study Of The World’s Mightiest Boy’s Alter Ego

by Donald Ensign with P.C. Hamerlinck Forged in War (Left:) Mac Raboy’s cover for Captain Marvel Jr. #2 (Dec. 1942).

(Below:) While details of Freddy Freeman’s family history were few and far between during the Golden Age of Comics, we did get to see the boy’s grandfather, briefly—before Captain Nazi murdered the elderly man and crippled the youngster for life. This page is from the recap of the World’s Mightiest Boy’s origin that appeared in Captain Marvel Jr. #1 (Nov. 1942). Artwork by Al Carreno; scripter unknown. [Shazam hero & Freddy Freeman TM & © DC Comics.]

T

Family History

he Fawcett editors and writers revealed very little about Freddy Freeman’s family background. In the first appearance of Captain Marvel Jr. (in Whiz Comics #25), we see Freddy fishing with his grandfather—who kindly hauls a battered Captain Nazi aboard his small craft. As a thank-you for his generosity, the super-powered Aryan strikes the old man, sending him into the water and killing him. The Nazi similarly slams young Freddy into the briny, where he is rescued by Captain Marvel and taken first to a hospital and later before the spirit of the ancient wizard Shazam.

From this point on, the now-crippled Freddy shares a twice-over orphan status with Billy Batson. Later we learn that Freddy’s old hometown is a small fishing village in Maine (Master Comics #37).

Were any other members of Freddy’s family ever mentioned?

Transported back in time to New London, Connecticut, during the War for Independence, Freddy met one of his ancestors, Nathaniel Freeman (Captain Marvel Jr. #10). Additionally, toward the end of Fawcett’s comics line, Freddy was transferred much further back in the time of King Richard I (CMJr #118), and met Robin Hood and an even more distant ancestor. This progenitor changes his name from John, the “bonds boy,” to John “free man,” thus originating Freddy’s surname.

Character Freddy was a mature, responsible, and hard-working teenager.

He would go out of his way to help other people. While in most stories Freddy had his own newsstand, he did take on occasional temporary jobs, such as being a farm laborer, fisherman, sports manager, construction recruiter, and cabin boy. Yet he also wasn’t

Who Was Freddy Freeman?

75

Mac Raboy From a 1949 publication from King Features Syndicate, Inc., for whom the artist was then illustrating the Flash Gordon comic strip. Thanks to Shaun Clancy & Christopher Boyko.

A Magic Word Is Not A Crutch One of Freddy’s character traits was having great courage, occasionally defending himself with his crutch and not always calling upon his Shazam-powered self straightaway. Scenes from “The Blackout Terror” in Master Comics #27 (June 1942).

Artwork by Mac Raboy; scripter unknown. [Freddy Freeman TM & © DC Comics.]

afraid to take time off for himself to relax or travel. Freddy’s personality was easygoing; his alter ego, however, sometimes had a tendency to be a moralizing preacher.

Freddy from time to time fearlessly defended himself using his crutch as a weapon rather than simply changing to his other form. He was an intelligent boy but, like any other naive teenager, made his fair share of mistakes. His most frequent slip-up was changing from Marvel Junior to his vulnerable self and, generally within a few panels, he’d be accosted by someone—which was usually accompanied with a hit to the boy’s head—before he could summon his super-hero persona. Of course, Billy Batson and Mary Bromfield repeated the same indiscretion numerous times, serving as a formulaic yet reliable plot device that allowed more suspense to enter the stories.

How Old Was Freddy?

The official 1942 “Fawcett Writing Guidelines” [see Fawcett Companion, p. 25] states that “Freddy Freeman is a crippled boy about 14 years of age.”

Operating on the premise that Freddy was roughly 12 years old in 1942—meaning he was born in 1930—he attended junior high and senior high schools and graduated in 1948. It is possible for him to have stayed in a post-graduate trade school/college to 1950.

Assuming he aged at the rate his comics stories were

Unlike Billy and Mary, however, Freddy/Cap Jr. had the sole disadvantage of not being able to say the words “Captain Marvel” without a physical transformation occurring—which Fawcett writers used to their storytelling benefit. Nonetheless, a frequent faux pas that often slipped past the editors had Junior saying his own name without any consequences at all.

Other than his friendships with Billy and Mary—and fleeting associations with Bulletman (whom he had first met in Master Comics #22), Bulletgirl, and Minute-Man in the short-lived Crime Crusaders Club (Master #41)—Freddy was essentially a loner for his first five Fawcett years. He made only plot-related acquaintances that were woven in and out of the stories. In 1947, Freddy became a renter at Mrs. Wagner’s Boarding House, which gave the lad more consistent friendships with his fellow boarders.

Freddy’s Interests The Fawcett writers portrayed Freddy with an inordinately broad variety of interests. The newsboy’s main leisure activity was writing about his latest adventures in his diary. He also attended museums, spent time on farms, and went deep-sea fishing and fishing on country vacations. He was a blood donor, a community activist, an oil company investor, and attended auctions. At different times he had pets such as cats, dogs, monkeys, parrots, and ant bears!

The Write Stuff Freddy was a boy with many varied interests, but his foremost avocation was writing in his diary to document his many exciting adventures.

Splash page from “The Case of the Face in the Dark,” from Master Comics #25 (April 1942). Art by Mac Raboy; scripter unknown.

[Freddy Freeman TM & © DC Comics.]

76

Fawcett Collectors Of America

published, he would have been the age of 22 in 1952, a year before his Fawcett adventures ended. Cap Jr./Freddy seemingly lived in real time, and grew and aged as time passed. In the 1950s, he clearly was not the same young lad that he was in 1942.

Time in the Fawcett world proceeded at the same pace as real time. During World War II, events in the real world parallel those in the Fawcett world. Captain Marvel Jr. routs a Japanese attack (Master #25) on Alaska in the spring of 1942. The Japanese did occupy the Aleutian Islands of Attu and Kista in early June 1942. U.S. and Canadian troops recaptured the islands during the summer of 1943. As the U.S. mobilized and trained its armed forces, Freddy became a “camp newspaper boy” at Army Camp Urdell in mid-1942 (Master #30).

At the height of the 1942 German naval campaign in the Atlantic, the World’s Mightiest Boy destroyed an enemy battleship

“Wuxtry! Wuxtry! Read All About It!” – Clockwise, Of Course!

Freddy Freeman hawks his wartime wares on the cover of Master Comics #45 (Dec. 1943). Art by Mac Raboy.

During World War II, the timeline of real-world events roughly paralleled those within Fawcett’s fantasy world… as per Freddy’s diary entry on the splash page and first two panels from page 2 of “Captain Marvel Jr. Battles for Stalingrad” in Master Comics #43 (Oct. 1943). Art by Mac Raboy & assistants. [Shazam hero & Freddy Freeman TM & © DC Comics.]

Who Was Freddy Freeman?

77

(Master #26) and captured a Nazi U-boat (Master #31). The sinking of the battleship Bismarck a year before was still a recent Allied victory. In late 1942, Marvel Jr. halted a Captain Nazi-led North Africa-based bomber raid on South America (CMJr #14). The Axis was still a threat in North Africa at that time and remained so until May 1943.

In the spring of 1943, Junior stops a German sabotage plot near a small coastal Maine fishing village (Master #37). In reality, a year later, William Curtis Colepaugh and Eric Gimpel—two Nazi spies—arrived by U-boat off the Maine coast with instructions to create terror in the U.S. “Captain Marvel Jr. Battles for Stalingrad” (Master #43), published in the fall of 1943, tells the story of the German/Soviet struggle for the great Russian industrial city in late ’42/early ’43. This story was obviously done after the event, but the battle was still a fresh memory. In mid-1944, Junior helps a team of American POWs (CMJr #21) beat their Japanese captors in the occupied Philippines. Cap Jr. defended U.S. military bases in the Philippines (CMJr #31) from Japanese attacks in mid-1945. The battle for the Philippines took place from late 1944 and lasted into the spring of 1945.

Bernard Horace (“Bud”] Thompson His longtime career as a comics artist was covered by FCA in Alter Ego #64.

The postwar years gave way to various time-themed stories.

Freddy visited a mysterious colonial-age village (CMJr #60) where time proceeded at a different rate. Cap Jr. commented, “At this rate, it will take thousands of years to reach 1948!” Freddy is shown driving a car in 1949 (CMJr #80), so he is at least 16 years old by then—and 19 years old in real time. From his own time in 1951, Cap Jr. travelled via the Rock of Eternity (CMJr #97) to the year 783,951 to help the last man on Earth.

In a late 1952 tale (CMJr #116), we see Freddy visiting a Washington, DC, night club, and, later on, the beautiful villainess Vampira (“The Korean Queen of Terror”) tries to seduce Cap Jr. This would seem to indicate Freddy was at least 21 at the time. [NOTE: There were numerous Korean War-themed stories published by Fawcett during the real-time Far East Asian conflict. They will be examined in a future issue. —PCH.]

Freddy The Newsboy Freddy’s status as a newsboy was established early on when he asks a newsstand dealer for a job (Master #23). The older man consents, which leads to a confrontation with Captain Nazi. Freddy later gets his own newsstand as well as a newspaper delivery route. In the early stories, he seems to be an independent business operator who sells a variety of newspapers and magazines (yes, including comics!).

During the war years we see Freddy selling papers mostly in New York City, but also in Washington, DC, and on U.S. Army bases.

Freddy’s newsstand moved around during and especially toward the end of World War II, when he hawked papers near a bomber plant, near the waterfront, in front of the Evening Star newspaper building, and in front of a bank (just before an armed robbery, naturally). Freddy temporarily turned over his business to another boy (CMJr #38) and moved to Arizona, where he set up another newsstand in the ghost-infested town of Buzzardville. By late 1946 he had moved his newsstand in front of the Sub-Treasury Building.

Several “Captain Marvel Jr.” stories revolved around his relationships with other newsboys. Freddy was involved in a graveyard initiation rite in order to join the Newsboy’s Club (CMJr #40). In several issues, Freddy is president of the Newsboy Club.

Freddy also attends meetings in the circulation department of the

What? No DC Comics?

Freddy’s newsstand is seen on the cover of Captain Marvel Jr. #37 (April 1946). Art by Bud Thompson. [Shazam heroes & Freddy Freeman TM & © DC Comics; Captain Midnight & Don Winslow TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Evening Star with other newsboys (Marvel Family #41).

Later on, Freddy is working solely for the Daily Gazette and Evening Star newspapers (“his employer”). The boy visits his boss (CMJr #52), the circulation manager of the two papers, W. Crowberson (his name being an amalgam of Fawcett editors Wendell Crowley and Will Lieberson), who tells Freddy that he is being transferred to a new newsstand on the other side of town.

After this, Freddy sells the Daily Gazette and Evening Star almost exclusively. Even in Junior’s final issue (CMJr #119), Freddy is still selling both the Gazette and Star.

78

Fawcett Collectors Of America

In 1946 (Master #69), Freddy mentions that a Professor Greene is “an old biology teacher of mine.” In the fall of 1948, Freddy seems to have graduated (Master #97). However, by late ’48, Freddy is back in the classroom (CMJr #69), where he had tried (unsuccessfully) to help a crook get an education. Freddy is “to pretend he’s writing an article about the circus for his high school newspaper” (Master #112) in a tale marking the return of The Acrobat, a ruthless circus performer with psychological issues. Freddy helps his geeky high school classmate, Egbert Pinch (CMJr #85), in a decathlon sports event. We get to see Billy, Mary, and Freddy attending the same school class in “The Theft of Speech” (Marvel Family #50). While not clearly stated, this could be a college class, as the instructor was a professor of languages.

With the premise that time moves at the same rate on Fawcett’s world as it does our reality, and that Freddy graduated high school (this was never shown) in 1948, what do we make of these stories of him in school after he graduated? Several possibilities come to mind as solutions.

First, the Fawcett writers weren’t concerned about strict chronology/continuity, but more about what made a good story.

Second, there may have been reasons for Freddy’s involvement with school beyond high school. Freddy’s 1950 adventure with Egbert Pinch may have taken place while Freddy was a student of a trade/ technical school in the years 1949-50, directly after his graduation.

Technical schools often use high school facilities during off-hours

Stop The Presses!

“Captain Marvel Jr. Puts on the Pressure” (CMJr #40, July 1946) is just one slice from a sizable quantity of “Cap Jr.” story plots that centered around Freddy as a newsboy, newspaper offices, and newspaper corruption. Art: Bud Thompson. Shazam hero/Freddy Freeman TM & © DC Comics.

A good portion of “Cap Jr.” stories revolved around newspapers or newspaper production. Among these was a series of adventures with the notoriously lazy reporter “Lightning” Larry Davis, and two different tales where poisonous ink was applied to printing presses (CMJr #13 & #44). In this genre of stories, Freddy was often roughed up by thugs from rival newspapers. Once Freddy swapped jobs with Paxton T. Crumpet, publisher of the Evening Star, in “Headline Headaches” (CMJr #59). Crumpet was involved in over a half-dozen “Cap Jr.” stories.

Freddy’s newsstand was the hub where many of his adventures began, or where significant action occurred.

School Days Surprisingly, for a teen character, there were only a small handful of school-related stories produced out of the hundreds of “Captain Marvel Jr.” tales.

Freddy was temporarily adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Pierpoint Snodgrass (CMJr #13), who sent him to Oxbow Academy, a high-class private school, but the entire arrangement ended with the story. Freddy later attended General High School and helped a female teacher coach the school football team (CMJr #26). In the following issue, Freddy was now attending City High School and helped out one of their basketball players.

Peddling His Papers Master Comics #47 (Feb. 1944) cover art by Mac Raboy.

[Shazam hero & Freddy Freeman TM & © DC Comics.]

Who Was Freddy Freeman?

79

so …!” he responds. Later Freddy deliberates, “She really likes me … as Captain Marvel Jr.” Freddy was attracted to Mrs. Wagner’s niece Betty (CMJr #55), but Cap Jr. becomes a rival for the girl’s affections. However, Junior annoys Betty by feigning arrogance after rescuing her. Later, Freddy thinks, “Good old Captain Marvel Jr.! He deliberately acted conceited so that Betty would dislike him and turn to me!” Freddy later returns the favor by helping Cap Jr. evade an enamored princess who wants to marry the World’s Mightiest Boy (CMJr #64).

Freddy/Junior were capable of being infatuated with older women, as shown in the delightful 1946 story about Lona Twister, a ravishing movie star trying to revive her flagging career (CMJr #37).

In a mid-1949 story (CMJr #74), Freddy daydreams of himself surrounded by several pretty young women on a beach. Also, as mentioned previously, Cap Jr. was mature enough to merit the ardent attentions of the villainous Vampira (CMJr #116). There were also some stories where Freddy/Cap Jr. served as a matchmaker to facilitate romances for other couples.

Home Sweet Home “Good Old Golden Rule Days” Surprisingly, there were only a small number of stories that featured school settings, but Freddy and the Batson twins were seen in classrooms from time to time, such as in “The Theft of Speech” [The Marvel Family #50 (Aug. 1950). Script: Otto Binder; art: Kurt Schaffenberger.

[Billy Batson & Freddy Freeman TM & © DC Comics.]

for some of their courses. So Freddy, as a recent graduate and still being a post-graduate student using the same facilities, could have easily crossed paths with a student like Egbert. Third, the school stories that took place after 1948 may have been tales of Freddy’s school days published well after they occurred and not necessarily in real time, much like the “War Archive” stories of the Phantom Eagle and Commando Yank in postwar issues of Wow Comics. By the middle of 1950, any references to Freddy attending school came to an end.

During the first six years of “Captain Marvel Jr.” stories, Freddy is a loner with his own apartment or “shabby attic room,” as it was described in the 1942 Fawcett Writing Guidelines. His first abode in early ’42 was an “out-of-the-way shack” (Master #24); later that year Freddy lived in a “small room hidden somewhere in the midst of the vast metropolis …” (CMJr #1). In the following year, Freddy resided in “his lonely lodgings” near an airport (CMJr #5).

A postman had to ask for directions “in the poorest part of town” to find Freddy’s “miserable home” to deliver a letter to him (Master #37). Later on, Freddy dwells in an apartment by a bank building (CMJr #11). In a special Christmas story (CMJr #46) we see an impoverished Freddy Freeman living in a dilapidated attic, yet he’s still thankful for what he has. The boy was destined for better times.

Romantic Secrets With its young readership, plus the “Wholesome Entertainment” stamp of approval accompanied with the signed note of assurance from W.H. Fawcett that had been proudly displayed on their comics’ mastheads, it’s unsurprising how very few “Captain Marvel Jr.” stories there were that involved romantic entanglements with the opposite sex.

Freddy had a non-amorous friendship with Lucy Meyer, who lived in his old hometown in Maine (Master #37). Freddy’s first real brush with romance happened to him on a trip to Mexico (CMJr #24), where he helped a girl win money to pay for her brother’s much-needed surgery. At the end of the tale the girl asks Cap Jr. if she’ll ever see him again. “I hope

Joe Certa

In Spring, A Young Man’s Fancy…

Occasional “Captain Marvel Jr.” artist. (A 1940s photo of scripter Otto Binder was depicted in our previous issue.)

The humorous closing panel from “The Migration Madness” (Captain Marvel Jr. #74, June 1949; script: Otto Binder; art: Joe Certa.) While there wasn’t a whole lot of romance in Freddy’s life, the kid could still daydream about it … he was a teenager, after all! [Freddy Freeman TM & © DC Comics.]

80

Fawcett Collectors Of America

Boarding House Bots The final Fawcett “Marvel Family” story took place partly at Mrs. Wagner’s Boarding House, Freddy’s residence since 1947. Apparently, towards the end, Billy and Mary lived there, too!

What’s shown here, though, are only “robot duplicates” of Mrs. Wagner and company—and by the final panel, we’re beginning to worry about Freddy as well! Kurt Schaffenberger art from “Then There Were None” in The Marvel Family #89 (cover-dated January 1954, but released in late 1953). This was the last issue of The Marvel Family. [Billy Batson & Freddy Freeman TM & © DC Comics.]

Freddy gave up “the room I’m renting” in 1947 when he found “a real home” at Mrs. Wagner’s Boarding House (CMJr #52), where he resided until the end of the series. Writer Otto Binder furnished Freddy with more-stable surroundings, which opened the door to fresh new plot possibilities. The move also signaled that the Great Depression and World War II were now in the past, and that the best days for the American people were ahead of them. Years later, the very last “Marvel Family” story (“Then There Were None”) took place partly at Mrs. Wagner’s Boarding House. [NOTE: For more on Freddy’s various residences and their locales, read Donald Ensign’s “Home Is Where the Thunder Is” in Alter Ego #120 / FCA #179. —PCH.] Taking into account several facets of his life as portrayed during the stories published from 1941-1953, it’s evident that the Fawcett editors and writers were concerned about developing Freddy Freeman as a real, approachable, and decent person in his own right—and not just a non-powered counterpart of the World’s Mightiest Boy. Donald Ensign (1948-2014) was a genealogist, archeologist, and founder of Christian comics fandom. In his final years he closely examined the Golden Age stories of Bulletman and Captain Marvel Jr.

Kurt Schaffenberger is shown above in a later photo, colorized for a 1992 Eclipse Comics cartoonists card set. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation Publication Title: Alter Ego Publication Number: 1932-6890 Filing Date: May 16, 2022 Issue Frequency: Bi-monthly Number of Issues Published Annually: 6 Annual Subscription Price: $68 Address of Known Office of Publication and General Business Office of Publisher: TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Dr., Raleigh, NC 27614 Contact Person: John Morrow Telephone: 919-449-0344 Editor: Roy Thomas, 32 Bluebird Trail, St. Matthews SC 29135 Publisher and Managing Editor: John Morrow, TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Dr., Raleigh, NC 27614 Owner: Roy Thomas, 32 Bluebird Trail, St. Matthews SC 29135 Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other Security Holders: None Issue Date for Circulation Data: May 2022 Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months: 2817 No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date: 2700 Paid Circulation (By Mail and Outside the Mail) (1) Mailed Outside-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541 (Include paid distribution above nominal rate, advertiser’s proof copies, and exchange copies): 236 (2) Mailed In-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541 (Include paid distribution above nominal rate, advertiser’s proof copies, and exchange copies): 0 (3) Paid Distribution Outside the Mails Including Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other Paid Distribution Outside USPS®: 1752 (4) Paid Distribution by Other Classes of Mail Through the USPS (e.g., First-Class Mail®): 34 Total Paid Distribution: 2022 Free or Nominal Rate Distribution (By Mail and Outside the Mail) (1) Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies included on PS Form 3541: 207 (2) Free or Nominal Rate In-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541: 0 (3) Free or Nominal Rate Copies Mailed at Other Classes Through the USPS (e.g., First-Class Mail): 0 (4) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail (Carriers or other means): 2 Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution: 209 Total Distribution: 2231 Copies not Distributed: 469 Total: 2700 Percent Paid: 91% I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete. I understand that anyone who furnishes false or misleading information on this form or who omits material or information requested on the form may be subject to criminal sanctions (including fines and imprisonment) and/or civil sanctions (including civil penalties).

John Morrow, publisher

TwoMorrows 2022 www.twomorrows.com • store@twomorrows.com

THE

CHARLTON COMPANION

by JON B. COOKE

An ALL-NEW definitive history of Connecticut’s notorious all-in-one comic book company! Often disparaged as a second-rate funny-book outfit, Charlton produced a vast array of titles that span from the 1940s Golden Age to the Bronze Age of the ’70s in many genres, from Hot Rods to Haunted Love. The imprint experienced explosive bursts of creativity, most memorably the “Action Hero Line” edited by DICK GIORDANO in the 1960s, which featured the renowned talents of STEVE DITKO and a stellar team of creators, as well as the unforgettable ’70s “Bullseye” era that spawned E-Man and Doomsday +1, all helmed by veteran masters and talented newcomers—and serving as a training ground for an entire generation of comics creators thriving in an environment of complete creative freedom. From its beginnings with a handshake deal consummated in county jail, to the company’s accomplishments beyond comics, woven into this prose narrative are interviews with dozens of talented participants, including GIORDANO, DENNIS O’NEIL, ALEX TOTH, SANHO KIM, TOM SUTTON, PAT BOYETTE, NICK CUTI, JOHN BYRNE, MIKE ZECK, JOE STATON, SAM GLANZMAN, NEAL ADAMS, JOE GILL, and even some Derby residents who recall working in the sprawling company plant. Though it gave up the ghost over three decades ago, Charlton’s influence continues today with its Action Heroes serving as inspiration for ALAN MOORE’s cross-media graphic novel hit, WATCHMEN. By JON B. COOKE with MICHAEL AMBROSE & FRANK MOTLER. SHIPS NOVEMBER 2022!

(256-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-111-0

THE

TEAM-UP COMPANION

by MICHAEL EURY

THE TEAM-UP COMPANION examines team-up comic books of the Silver and Bronze Ages of Comics—DC’s THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD and DC COMICS PRESENTS, Marvel’s MARVEL TEAM-UP and MARVEL TWO-INONE, plus other team-up titles, treasuries, and treats—in a lushly illustrated selection of informative essays, special features, and trivia-loaded issue-by-issue indexes. Go behind the scenes of your favorite team-up comic books with specially curated and all-new creator recollections from NEAL ADAMS, JIM APARO, MIKE W. BARR, ELIOT R. BROWN, NICK CARDY, CHRIS CLAREMONT, GERRY CONWAY, STEVE ENGLEHART, STEVE GERBER, STEVEN GRANT, BOB HANEY, TONY ISABELLA, PAUL KUPPERBERG, PAUL LEVITZ, RALPH MACCHIO, DENNIS O’NEIL, MARTIN PASKO, JOE RUBINSTEIN, ROY THOMAS, LEN WEIN, MARV WOLFMAN, and other all-star writers and artists who produced the team-up tales that so captivated readers during the 1960s, ’70s, and early ’80s. By BACK ISSUE and RETROFAN editor MICHAEL EURY. (272-page SOFTCOVER) $36.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-112-7 • NOW SHIPPING!

THE LIFE & ART OF

DAVE COCKRUM

by GLEN CADIGAN

From the letters pages of Silver Age comics to his 2021 induction into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame, the career of DAVE COCKRUM started at the bottom and then rose to the top of the comic book industry. Beginning with his childhood obsession with comics and continuing through his years in the Navy, THE LIFE AND ART OF DAVE COCKRUM follows the rising star from fandom (where he was one of the “Big Three” fanzine artists) to pro-dom, where he helped revive two struggling comic book franchises: the LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES and the X-MEN. A prolific costume designer and character creator, his redesigns of the Legion and his introduction of X-Men characters Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Thunderbird (plus his design of Wolverine’s alter ego, Logan) laid the foundation for both titles to become best-sellers. His later work on his own property, THE FUTURIANS, as well as childhood favorite BLACKHAWK and T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS, plus his five years on SOULSEARCHERS AND COMPANY, cemented his position as an industry giant. Featuring artwork from fanzines, unused character designs, and other rare material, this is THE comprehensive biography of the legendary comic book artist, whose influence is still felt on the industry today! Written by GLEN CADIGAN (THE LEGION COMPANION, THE TITANS COMPANION Volumes 1 and 2, BEST OF THE LEGION OUTPOST) with an introduction by ALEX ROSS. (160-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $27.95 • (LIMITED EDITION HARDCOVER) $36.95 • (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-113-4 • NOW SHIPPING!

New from TwoMorrows!

BACK ISSUE #138

BACK ISSUE #139

BACK ISSUE #140

CLASSIC HEROES IN THE BRONZE AGE! The Lone Ranger and Tonto, Flash Gordon, Popeye, Zorro and Lady Rawhide, Son of Tomahawk, Jungle Twins, and more!

Featuring the work of DAN JURGENS, JOE R. LANSDALE, DON McGREGOR, FRANK THORNE, TIM TRUMAN, GEORGE WILDMAN, THOMAS YEATES, and other creators. With a classic 1979 fully painted Gold Key cover of Flash Gordon.

NOT-READY-FOR-PRIMETIME MARVEL HEROES! Mighty Marvel’s Bronze Age second bananas: Doc Samson, Jack of Hearts, Thundra, Nighthawk, Starfox, Modred the Mystic, Woodgod, the Shroud, Thunderbird and Warpath, Stingray, Wundaar, and others! Featuring the work of BUSIEK, DAVID, ENGLEHART, GERBER, GIFFEN, GRANT, MANTLO, MICHELINIE, STERN, THOMAS, and other A-list talent!

DINOSAUR COMICS! Interviews with Xenozoic®’s MARK SCHULTZ and dinoartist extraordinaire WILLIAM STOUT! Plus: Godzilla at Dark Horse, Sauron villain history, Dinosaurs Attack!, Dinosaurs for Hire, Dinosaur Rex, Dino Riders, Lord Dinosaur, and Jurassic Park! Featuring ARTHUR ADAMS, BISSETTE, CLAREMONT, COCKRUM, GERANI, STRADLEY, ROY THOMAS, and more. SCHULTZ cover.

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Fall 2022

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Sept. 2022

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Nov. 2022

RETROFAN #22

RETROFAN #23

ALTER EGO #179

BRICKJOURNAL #74

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #29

Surf’s up as SIXTIES BEACH MOVIES make a RetroFan splash! Plus: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, ZORRO’s Saturday morning cartoon, TV’s THE WILD, WILD WEST, CARtoons and other drag-mags, VALSPEAK, and more fun, fab features!

Like, totally! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Meet the stars behind the Black Lagoon: RICOU BROWNING, BEN CHAPMAN, JULIE ADAMS, and LORI NELSON! Plus SHADOW CHASERS, featuring show creator KENNETH JOHNSON. Also: THE BEATLES’ YELLOW SUBMARINE, FLASH GORDON cartoons, TV’s cult classic THE PRISONER and kid’s show ZOOM, COLORFORMS, M&Ms, and more fun, fab features! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Celebrating the 61st Anniversary of FANTASTIC FOUR #1—’cause we kinda blew right past its 60th—plus a sagacious salute to STAN LEE’s 100th birthday, with never-before-seen highlights—and to FF #1 and #2 inker GEORGE KLEIN! Spotlight on Sub-Mariner in the Bowery in FF #4—plus sensational secrets behind FF #1 and #3!

Also: FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, a JACK KIRBY cover, and more!

Amazing LEGO® STAR WARS builds, including Lando Calrissian’s Treadable

by JÜRGEN WITTNER, Starkiller Base by JHAELON EDWARDS, and more from STEVEN SMYTH and Bantha Bricks! Plus: Minifigure Customization by JARED K. BURKS, AFOLs by GREG HYLAND, stepby-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK (including a LEGO BB-8), and more! Edited by JOE MENO.

DON McGREGOR retrospective, from early ’70s Warren Publications scripter to his breakout work at Marvel Comics on BLACK PANTHER, KILLRAVEN, SABRE, DETECTIVES INC., RAGAMUFFINS, and others. Plus ROBERT MENZIES looks at HERB TRIMPE’s mid-’70s UK visit to work on Marvel’s British comics weeklies, MIKE GOLD Part Two, and CARtoons cartoonist SHAWN KERRIE! SANDY PLUNKETT cover!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Oct. 2022

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Dec. 2022

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Fall 2022

SUBSCRIPTION RATES

2022

Print subscribers get the digital edition free!

Alter Ego (Six print issues) Back Issue (Eight print issues) BrickJournal (Six print issues) Comic Book Creator (Four print issues) Jack Kirby Collector (Four print issues) RetroFan (Six print issues)

Poly mailer, backing board

ECONOMY US

Faster service, rigid mailer

PREMIUM US

Non-US orders, rigid mailer

INTERNATIONAL

DIGITAL ONLY

$68 $90 $68 $49 $49 $68

$91 $121 $91 $65 $65 $91

$103 $137 $103 $72 $72 $103

$29 $39 $29 $19 $19 $29

TwoMorrows.

The Future of Comics History.

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA

No print issue

Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: www.twomorrows.com Don’t miss exclusive sales, limited editions, and new releases! Sign up for our mailing list:

https://groups.io/g/twomorrows

Download our Free Catalog of all our available books and back issues! https://www.twomorrows.com/media/TwoMorrowsCatalog.pdf

All characters TM & © their respective owners.

KIRBY COLLECTOR #85

KIRBY: ANIMATED! How JACK KIRBY and his concepts leaped from celluloid, to paper, and back again! From his 1930s start on Popeye and Betty Boop and his work being used on the 1960s Marvel Super-Heroes show, to Fantastic Four (1967 and 1978), Super Friends/Super Powers, Scooby-Doo, Thundarr the Barbarian, and Ruby-Spears.

Plus EVAN DORKIN on his abandoned Kamandi cartoon series, and more!

PRINTED IN CHINA

KIRBY COLLECTOR #84

STEVE SHERMAN TRIBUTE! Kirby family members, friends, comics creators, and the entertainment industry salute Jack’s assistant (and puppeteer on Men in Black, Pee Wee’s Playhouse, and others). MARK EVANIER and Steve recall assisting Kirby, Steve discusses Jack’s Speak-Out Series, Kirby memorabilia from his collection, an interview with wife DIANA MERCER, and Steve’s unseen 1974 KIRBY/ROYER cover!