Alter Ego #177 Preview by TwoMorrows Publishing

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

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

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.

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

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.]

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.

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.]

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”

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

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

Those Mysterious Early Marvel Cover Variants

Seeing Double In The Silver Age Of The House Of Ideas by Will Murray

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.]

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.]

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.

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.”

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

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….

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.)

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.]

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.

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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.]

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.]

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,

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

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

It’s A Cracked, Cracked, Cracked, Cracked World (Part 3) by Michael T. Gilbert

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

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.]

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?

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. 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.

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

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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!

ALTER EGO #177

Celebration of veteran artist DON PERLIN—artist of WEREWOLF BY NIGHT, THE DEFENDERS, GHOST RIDER, The MOON WriteKNIGHT, Stuff1950s horror, and just about every other adventure genre under sun!avocation Plus Golden Age Freddy was a boy with many varied interests, butthe hisfour-color foremost artist MARCIA SNYDER—Marvel’s early variant covers— was writing in his diary to document hisclub many exciting adventures. Marvelmania and fanzine—FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), MICHAEL T. GILBERT on Cracked Splash page from “The Case of the Face in the Dark,” fromMazagine, & more! FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 Master Comics #25 (April 1942). Art by(84-page Mac Raboy; scripter unknown. (Digital Edition) $4.99 [Freddy Freeman TM & © DC Comics.]

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