Alter Ego #187 Preview

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SCIENCE-FICTION AND COMICBOOKS! THE ELECTRIFYING ENERGY OF

EDMOND HAMILTON

No. 187 May 2024

by Glen Cadigan Legion of Super-Heroes TM & © DC Comics.

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“WRITER OF TWO WORLDS!”

82658 00519

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WILL MERGE THEM BOTH INTO ONE FABULOUS FOUR-COLOR HIT SERIES!

Vol. 3, No. 187/May 2024 Editor

Roy Thomas

Associate Editor Jim Amash

Design & Layout

Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor

P.C. Hamerlinck J.T. Go (Associate 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

Proofreader

William J. Dowlding

Cover Artists

Curt Swan, George Klein, & John Forte

Cover Colorist Unknown

With Special Thanks to:

Ron Greilich Heidi Amash George Hagenauer Pedro Angosto Rob Hansen Bob Bailey Heritage Art Alberto Becattini Auctions [website] John Benson John Joshua Mark Bowen Sharon Karibian Bernie Bubnis Jim Kealy Glen Cadigan Calisphere [website] Jay Kay Klein Richard Kolkman Chris Calloway Jean-Marc Lofficier Nick Caputo Art Lortie Mike Catron Jim Ludwig John Cimino Bruce Mason Comic Book Plus Leslie Mason [website] Kevin McDougal Comic Connect Richard Mrozek [website] Comic Vine [website] Mark Muller Bud Plant Chet Cox pulpartists.com Dwight Decker [website] John Fahey Charlie Roberts Shane Foley Randy Sargent Joe Frank David Saunders Stephan A. Friedt Jim Sikela Nancy Gershwin Dann Thomas Janet Gilbert Dave Truesdale Grand Comics Database [website] Bradford Verter Eddy Zeno

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Edmond Hamilton —and of

Carlos Pacheco, John Floyd, Jose Luis Ruiz Pérez, Bill Mason, & Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr.

Contents Writer/Editorial: One Issue—Two Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Writer Of Two Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Glen Cadigan on the science-fiction and comicbook careers of the great Edmond Hamilton.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! We All Have To Start Somewhere! . . . 45 Michael T. Gilbert spotlights the early work of cartoonists Gray Morrow & Leonard Starr—with a postscript on a lost “Giant-Man” splash page by Dick Rockwell.

Tributes to Carlos Pacheco, John Floyd, José Luis Ruiz Pérez, Bill Mason, & Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 64 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #246 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 P.C. Hamerlinck showcases the Beck & Costanza Studio of the 1940s.

On Our Cover: The Legion of Super-Heroes cover of Adventure Comics #312 (Sept. 1963) celebrates the “two worlds” that were the double domain of our featured writer Edmond Hamilton, who had one very skilled foot in each camp, one after the other: science-fiction and comicbooks. The main artwork was done by Curt Swan & George Klein, but for some reason editor Mort Weisinger decreed that interior “Legion” artist John Forte redraw all the heads. To compare this art with the interior splash from #312 that depicted the same scene, see p. 41. [Art TM & © DC Comics.]

Above: While Hamilton wrote far fewer “Batman” yarns than “Superman” ones, the former counted among them such classics as the story from Detective Comics #158 (April 1950), the most memorable visit to the Batcave during the latter years of the Golden Age of Comics. Hamilton came up with a reasonably good name for the one-time villain, too: Dr. Doom. Of course, there’d been Dr. Dooms in comics before—and there would be at least one more in 1962. Pencils by Bob Kane (apparently on his own this time around, and a good job he did of it, too); inks by Charles Paris. Thanks to Jim Kealy. [TM & © DC Comics.]

Alter EgoTM issue 187, May 2024 (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: $73 US, $111 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.

Writer Of Two Worlds

The Science-Fiction & Comicbook Careers Of EDMOND HAMILTON

“I

by Glen Cadigan

began writing science-fiction when I was twenty years old, back in the first months of 1925. In fact, there weren’t any science-fiction magazines yet published when I wrote my first SF stories, and I sold them to the old Weird Tales.”1 So began the career of Edmond Moore Hamilton. When it ended, over fifty years later, he was the author of dozens of novels, hundreds of short stories, and numerous comicbooks. From the Interstellar Patrol through Captain Future into the worlds of Superman, Batman, and The Legion of Super-Heroes (and out the other side with the Star Kings and Starwolf), Hamilton was a professional writer for his entire adult life.

He influenced young readers like Isaac Asimov, who wrote in Before the Golden Age: A Science Fiction Anthology of the 1930s, “The earliest serial I remember reading and slavering over was ‘Cities in the Air,’ by Edmond Hamilton.... I still remember the dramatic [Frank R.] Paul cover illustration for that serial, with skyscraper cities shown on huge circular slabs in mid-air.

Edmond Hamilton holds the First Fandom Award with which he was presented at the 1967 NYCon, science-fiction fandom’s big event of that year. He’s flanked by specimens of noteworthy work from the “two worlds” in which he excelled: Malcolm Smith’s cover for Amazing Stories (Sept. 1947) showcases The Star Kings, one of Hamilton’s best-remembered science-fiction pulp novels, which would later be published in book form and spawn several sequels— —and, from the world of comicbooks, a splash page for Superman #76 (May-June 1952), the first-ever full-fledged teaming of DC Comics’ (and, at that time, the planet’s) best-known super-heroes, Superman and Batman. Pencils by Curt Swan; inks by John Fishetti.

With thanks to Glen Cadigan (photo taken by Jay Kay Klein; from the University of California Riverside Libraries Eaton Collection, hereafter referred to as “Calisphere”), and to Bob Bailey for the comics page. [Superman #76 page TM & © DC Comics; SF art © the respective copyright holders.]

“The next serial I remember is ‘The Universe Wreckers’....

This one was also by Edmond Hamilton. Considering that, and the fact that Ed is the best-represented in this anthology (three stories) of any of the authors included, I can only deduce that Ed was my favorite author in those very early days.” 2 Hamilton also had the respect of his peers. Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, wrote, “In more than a half century of varied and prolific output he has been acclaimed as a brilliant new discovery, derided as a one-plot ‘world-saver,’ hailed anew as an innovator, dismissed as a hack, rediscovered for mature literacy—and now enthroned as science fiction’s Grand Master.

“Let us hope that this enthronement is permanent. Certainly it is deserved—not just by reason of longevity and volume of published

A/E EDITOR'S NOTE: We prefer the spellings "comicbook" and "science-fiction." However, we have left those terms as two words where rendered thus in quoted material.

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The Science-Fiction & Comicbook Careers Of Edmond Hamilton

reached my typewriter.”63 In reference to the name change, he told Patrick Nielsen Hayden, “Oh, well, they all did [it]. Gernsback was the worst.”64

The Time Traveller “I hear from a good many science-fiction fans now and again and am genuinely glad to get their letters.”65 It was in 1931 that two young fans met and formed a friendship which led to relationships with the author that lasted until his death. “[T]here was a reader’s department in [Amazing Stories] that had names and addresses on the letters, an idea I copied much later on in the comicbooks, giving full names and addresses,” remembered longtime DC Comics editor Julie Schwartz in a 1989 interview with Paul Kupperberg. “It led to people corresponding with one another, and I found out there was a club in the Bronx, where I lived, called the Scienceers. I was 16 years old and was allowed to become a member and it was there that I attended my first meeting and met my lifelong friend named Mort Weisinger.

“An interesting sideline... when I got to the meeting, the meeting broke up because Mort informed them, being the treasurer of the Scienceers, that there was no money left in the treasury because he’d gone out and bought all the science fiction magazines he could find. Therefore, the treasury was empty.”66

“Forgotten World” We’re not sure which of the three stories is artistically spotlighted on this cover for the Winter 1946 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories, but Hamilton’s name clearly brought in paying customers. Art by Earle Bergey; ID by David Saunders. Thanks to Glen Cadigan. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

In his memoir, Man of Two Worlds, Schwartz elaborated, “We became fast friends and would often meet halfway at a public library and talk and talk about the science fiction stories we read and who our favorite writers were... we considered ourselves two of the foremost experts on science fiction in 1931, and to the best of our knowledge, no one disputed our assertion.”67 In 1974, he told Guy H. Lillian III, “We began to write to the sci-fi authors whose work appeared in the magazines... asking them, ‘What stories of yours are going to appear next?’ and so on.

They’d write back and tell us a little bit about themselves.

library card, I had read the first science fiction short story (as opposed to novel) that impressed me so much it stayed in my mind permanently. I never read it again after that first reading, never, until... the preparation of this anthology. And then, when I read it again, after forty-two years, I found I remembered it all in complete detail.”59 About the latter, Hamilton recalled in 1975, “I’m proud to say that that story was remembered thirty-five years later by Arthur C. Clarke. He told me, ‘Ed, you know, I read that story when I was a fan. I’ve been a long time in the business, and that’s one story that I never forgot.’ That’s the greatest compliment I ever received on that story.”60 Originally entitled “Renegade” (“They thought the title wasn’t science-fictional enough.”61), “Conquest” was an anti-colonial tale about an Earthman who sides with the Jovians during Earth’s settlement of Jupiter. Two years after its publication, Hamilton said in Fantasy Magazine, “I wrote [it] because I was sick of the usual science-fiction assumption that in interplanetary struggles the Earthmen would always be in the right.”62 In The Best of Edmond Hamilton, he added, “In those days, and for many years, I did a five-mile walk every morning to get some exercise and fresh air, and I still recall how, smitten with that idea as I tramped along in the Pennsylvania hills and woods, I hurried home at such high speed that I was practically breathless when I

History In The Making (Left to right:) Julius Schwartz, Edmond Hamilton, & Jack Williamson in the late 1930s. From James Gunn’s 1975 tome Alternate Worlds: The Illustrated History of Science Fiction. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Writer Of Two Worlds

In 1945, the year the war ended, the number of short stories published by Hamilton in the pulps increased to ten. Throughout the remainder of the decade, that number decreased to six (1946), four (1947), six again (1948), and one (1949) as he essentially left the field to enter a new one: comicbooks.

Superman, Batman, & The Legion of Super-Heroes “Well, of course, the main attraction with comic books was that they paid so much more than science-fiction.”131 In 1976, Hamilton wrote, “About this time, in 1946, I heard again from Mort Weisinger. He had returned from his war service to take up his job again at National Comics Publications, as DC Comics were known at the time. He and Jack Schiff had left Standard Magazines in 1941 to work in the comics field, and later on Julie Schwartz had joined them at DC.”132 [NOTE: Schiff actually became a comicbook editor in 1942, when he replaced Mort Weisinger, who had been drafted.]

It was in 1945 that All-American Publications merged with Detective Comics, Inc., and the stage was set for a Schwartz and Weisinger reunion. Weisinger, however, did not return from the military until 1946. In 1976, Hamilton told Dave Truesdale, “After the war, actually it was VJ Day, [Mort] wrote and said, ‘Ed, have you thought better about it?’”

“It” was writing comics. In “Fifty Years of Heroes,” Hamilton recalled, “Mort wanted me to... start with Batman. I had some doubts at first, as the format was quite different from fiction stories.

But in those days after the war, the pulp magazine market was very poor, and so I decided to try it.”133

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Hamilton had actually dabbled in comics earlier. He had written a story for Batman #11 in 1942, and “The Connoisseur of Crime” in Green Lantern #18 (Winter 1945) for Julie Schwartz.

In 1976, the author remembered, “I went up to New York [in 1946] and had long conferences with the boys. They were very helpful, realizing that this was a new form of writing for me, but even so, I had to write a few very poor scripts before I began to catch on to the ways of comic writing. But once I started, I found that it wasn’t really too different from fiction writing.

“For the first year or two, all my scripts for DC were Batman stories. As I learned the ropes, they became fun to do. But anyone who thinks comic scripts are just dashed off any old way is totally wrong. Mort and Jack Schiff were the nicest guys in the world to work for, but they took their work seriously, and if I made a stupid error or scuffed over anything, they told me so at once, and loudly.”

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Hamilton confessed to Truesdale that “To me, comics were a temporary thing,” but the author remained in the field for twenty years.

“It was fun to think up new wrinkles for [Batman],” the author recalled in 1976. “Most of them Mort thought up himself, but I did have some ideas which were used. If I remember rightly—and it’s hard to be sure after all this time—I thought up some things like Batwoman, the Batman of the future, and so on. But Batman was a valuable character and no quick, off-the-top-of-my-mind ideas were taken. I would say that, generally, Mort was more gag-minded on the stories and that Jack was more logical-minded. Together, they made a great editorial team.

“After a year or two I started to do Superman stories also.

Here I was, working on this immortal character dreamed up by my

Mart Nodell Original artist and co-creator of the Golden Age Green Lantern. Read more about and by Nodell in Alter Ego, Vol. 3, #5 & 102.

Connoisseur Of Comics?

Two pages from one of Hamilton’s earliest forays into the weird world of comicbooks: in 1944, he scripted this story for Green Lantern #18 (Winter 1945), with art by Mart Nodell, for AA editor Sheldon Mayer and his story editor, Julius Schwartz.

Thanks to Mark Muller. [TM & © DC Comics.]

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young fan-reader who had written me back in 1930! I think I did better on Superman than on Batman, simply because it was more science-fictional.

But, on the other hand, Superman could present some knotty problems in plotting.

The Science-Fiction & Comicbook Careers Of Edmond Hamilton

Jack Schiff edited the “Batman” titles during the 1940s and ’50s. This is a detail from a 1948 DC staff photo, courtesy of Todd Klein, which appeared in the Taschen/ Paul Levitz volume 75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Mythmaking.

“Recently, somebody—I think it was Julie Schwartz— said that kryptonite, the substance which makes Superman vulnerable, was just a crutch for the writer.

This is absolutely true. On the other hand, the writer needs such a crutch.

It’s difficult to make up a suspenseful story about Superman, who’s invulnerable to ordinary harm,

From Batman To Batwoman Edmond Hamilton scripted a number of “Batman” stories over the years—from early efforts like “Bandits in Toyland” in Batman #11 (July-July 1942) penciled by Bob Kane with inks by Jerry Robinson & George Roussos, to the introduction of Batwoman in Detective Comics #233 (July 1956), with art by Sheldon Moldoff & Stan Kaye. Thanks to Sharon Karibian, Bruce Mason, Mark Muller, & Mark Bowen. [TM & © DC Comics.]

unless he’s vulnerable to something. And green kryptonite is a great help, as is the fact that Superman loses his powers when he is under the rays of a red sun.

“In fact, my favorite of all the scripts I wrote was one entitled ‘Superman under the Red Sun’ (Action Comics #300, May ’63). In that story, Superman traveled into time by using his superspeed to ‘burst the time barrier.’ But unwittingly he went too far, into a time when Earth’s sun had become old and red. The result was that he had no super-powers—and couldn’t get back. Earth was dead, and he was condemned to wander alone upon it. Mort objected to the fact that, being alone on Earth, Superman wouldn’t have any companions to talk to, and the pictures, always an important element, would be dull. I got around this by having Superman, in his loneliness, constructing robots who were doubles of Lois Lane, Perry White, Jimmy Olsen, and his other pals.”135 Given his familiarity with both Batman and Superman, it made sense for Weisinger to select Hamilton to write the first story to feature the pair working together. Superman #76 (May-June,

Under The DC Sun Hamilton’s favorite among his “Superman” scripts was one of the fans’ favorite stories from the 1960s as well: “Superman under the Red Sun,” done for Action Comics #300 (May ’63), with art by Al Plastino and editing by his old pulp-mag boss Mort Weisinger. Thanks to Bob Bailey, who points that that Hamilton used elements from his 1952 novel City at World’s End in the story’s plot—so we’re showing you the cover of that one, too, courtesy of Glen Cadigan. [TM & © DC Comics.]

Mort Weisinger From the same 1948 DC staff photo as per Jack Schiff pic on previous page.

Al Plastino Longtime “Superman” artist.

Writer Of Two Worlds

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Man of Two Worlds, “I was quickly ordered to refrain from doing so by the top brass.”

On two occasions (Mystery in Space #2 and Strange Adventures #13, both published in 1951) Hamilton even revived his “Hugh Davidson” pseudonym, due to having two stories in each issue. He had last used it in Weird Tales in 1936, and had retired it when reader Charles H. Bert deduced that the two men were one and the same.141 Hamilton did not work exclusively in comics during this period. “During that time, I was still writing science fiction and produced a good many SF books and magazine stories. Working on both projects sometimes kept

My Name Is Legion!

(Above:) Two intriguing splash pages written by Edmond Hamilton—for Adventure Comics #312 (Sept. 1963) and #342 (March ’66) , left to right. The first was drawn by John Forte, the second by Curt Swan & George Klein. Thanks to Mark Bowen & Bob Bailey.

[TM & © DC Comics.]

John Giunta Courtesy of David Saunders’ pulpartists.com site.

Two For Mystery In Space #2 Julius Schwartz kept Hamilton busy in early issues of his two science-fiction comics—and Julie believed in crediting writers, if not artists, probably because so many of his writers had come over from the pulps where they got bylines. But when Ed scripted two stories for Mystery in Space #2 (June-July 1951), one of them had to appear under the pen name “Hugh Davidson.” Art by Murphy Anderson & John Giunta, respectively. Thanks to Bruce Mason & Michael T. Gilbert. [TM & © DC Comics.]

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The Science-Fiction & Comicbook Careers Of Edmond Hamilton

Cry Starwolf!

This paperback edition later reprinted Hamilton’s three late-’60s Starwolf novels together. [© the respective copyright holders.]

“The fact is, I was out of the running for a couple of years with a sickness. When I was recuperating in the hospital I wrote the first half of this story with a pencil and pad....

The story is called ‘Stark and the Star Kings,’ and if I may say what’s funny about it: the first half of it I wrote and it’s all about Stark.

[Leigh] wrote the part about the Star Kings.”

The story was finally published posthumously in 2005 by Haffner Press as part of an omnibus collection of the complete John Stark novels by Brackett and the Star Kings stories

by Hamilton.

have typed his scripts when he was too rushed to do the final copy himself. So I was pretty familiar with all the DC characters and their doings, and also with the high quality of Ed’s work. He put just as much of himself into each script as he did into his novels, and more than once I have seen him throw away a nearly-finished job and start over again because he didn’t like what he had done. He had indeed a remarkable imagination and a tremendous grasp of technique.

“I also came to know and appreciate that quality of friendship and mutual respect, the feeling of family that exists among the people who work in the field. This too was a very important part of Ed’s life, and of mine.”170 In a private letter to author E. Hoffman Price, another veteran of the science-fiction pulps, she wrote, “Ed did his ball-carrying in the comics, during the falling in time of the magazine markets. And it was a man-killing business, even though he was doing it for old friends for whom he had great affection, and they for him.”171 One of those old friends, Julie Schwartz, told Robert Greenberger in 1986, “I remained in constant contact with Ed and Leigh. My wife Jean and I visited them frequently in their Kinsman, Ohio home. On one occasion, in 1955, they had to cut our visit short to attend the World Science Fiction Convention in Cleveland. Jean and I decided to go along—a trip made memorable because it was

In 1975, he confessed to Hayden, “Well, I was working on another of these Starwolf novels. I had it almost finished, and I began to wonder whether I wanted to finish it, for this reason: I’m tired of series. You get into a bind, and pretty soon you’re caught and you can’t break out.... So I don’t think I’ll finish this last Starwolf novel—I think I’ll do something else for a change.”168 [NOTE: According to The Edmond Hamilton Papers, located at Eastern New Mexico University, there is an incomplete draft of Run Starwolf that contains a synopsis of chapters 11-16.]

That same year, he told Truesdale, “I’m picking away at the beginning of a very long novel, but it’s more of an excuse to say I’m working than anything else.”

On February 1st, 1977, Edmond Hamilton passed away due to complications following kidney surgery. He was seventy-two years old. A little over a year later, on March 17, 1978, Leigh Brackett died of cancer; she was sixty-two.

Remembered lifelong friend E. Hoffman Price, “[He] had outlived his parents, his brothers-in-law, and the youngest of his sisters…. After his almost terminal illness of 1972, in the few years which followed his slow recovery, he may well have sensed that he was running out of time and accordingly spoke his mind without unkindness and with the full awareness that one whose mission is so nearly accomplished can no longer be moved by anything as trivial as professional jealousy.”169

Going Out With A Bang

After her husband’s passing, Brackett replied to a letter of condolence from DC Comics’ Jenette Kahn and Sol Harrison with: “The comics were a very important part of Ed’s life, and mine as well, since he often used me as a sounding-board for his ideas and I

“The Execution of Matter-Eater Lad” was the final “Legion”—or comics— story written by Edmond Hamilton before he returned to prose sciencefiction for the remaining decade-plus of his life. Curt Swan penciled and George Klein inked this tale for Adventure Comics #345 (June 1966). Thanks to John Joshua. [TM & © DC Comics.]

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(Above:) A page from MTG’s “Mr. V.” story, and the scene from Simon & Kirby’s Fighting American #1 (Oct. 1966) that inspired it. (Right:) A 1965 Gilbert drawing. [© MTG, Joe Simon, & Harvey Publications.]

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

We All Have To Start Somewhere! (Part 1) Gray Morrow Dwight Graydon “Gray” Morrow (March 7, 1934 – November 6, 2001) was a remarkably talented (and to my mind, criminally underrated!) cartoonist. His work spanned from mainstream features like DC’s “Zatanna” and “El Diablo” to Marvel’s “Man-Thing.” He also illustrated numerous stories for Classics Illustrated and various other publishers.

Morrow grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, moving to New York City in winter of 1955. By the following spring, he’d met fellow comic artists Al Williamson, Angelo Torres, and Wally Wood. Gray soon sold his first comicbook story, a romance tale, to Toby Press.

Which promptly went out of business before it could be published!

Morrow next drew two stories for another company—a Western with original characters and an adaptation of pulp-fiction

Gray Morrow

writer Robert E. Howard’s “The Tower of the Elephant.” But this company, too, went defunct; later, Gray didn’t even recall its name. Likewise, samples sent to syndicated newspapers failed to make a sale. During this period Gray made a little cash providing backgrounds and layouts for Williamson and Wood. Then, with help from Williamson, Morrow began contributing to Atlas (Marvel), and his professional career took off.

Striking Art!

But, even as a teen, Gray Morrow was precocious, as demonstrated by this striking “Rex-Striker” sample page, drawn when he was just sixteen. This art, provided by Chris Overington, snagged the young lad an “Award in Cartooning” while he was in high school. Gray showed a real talent for syndicated cartoons in this picture. He would later illustrate many classic newspaper strips, including Tarzan, Flash Gordon, Rip Kirby, and Buck Rogers.

Sixteen-year-old Northside High School student Gray Morrow scored an art award with this handsome “Rex-Striker” page, after submitting it with the application form seen above top. Gray eventually illustrated many syndicated strips. [© Estate of Gray Morrow.]

Gray also drew brilliant comicbook stories for DC, Marvel, and many others, but is perhaps best remembered for his virtuoso art on Warren’s Creepy, Eerie, and Blazing Combat.

(above) at age 15, from the 1949 North Side High School, Fort Wayne, Indiana, yearbook. [© the respective copyright holders.]

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

A Special “Comic Crypt” Postscript:

DICK ROCKWELL Meets GIANT-MAN!

N

by Michael T. Gilbert

ow here ’s something you don’t see every day: an unpublished, “rejected” Marvel splash page from 1964.

The “Giant-Man” page penciled

by Dick Rockwell which is pictured on this page was found on the Comic Connect auction site. According to the descriptive notes: “Discovered underneath the published art by Steve Ditko and George Roussos was this unfinished version of the title splash by Golden Age artist (and nephew of the legendary illustrator Norman Rockwell) Dick Rockwell. Rockwell’s work is very rare, and this piece is also an interesting peek into the creative process of early Marvel Comics. The drawing is all original, as well as the Rockwell and Art Simek credit boxes in the lower right; all other text elements are modern reproductions.”

It was slated for Tales to Astonish #61 (Nov. 1964). I’m guessing either Stan Lee wasn’t happy with what Dick handed in, or (more likely) Rockwell ran into deadline problems and had to bail at the last minute. Luckily, Steve Ditko and George Bell (who were drawing the “Hulk” feature at the time) stepped in to save the day.

Nice page, but it lacks the Kirby/ Ditko energy that Stan was looking for.

Still, very well done, and a fascinating artifact of a time in comics long ago.

[Art on this & facing page TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Dick Rockwell

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In Memoriam

JIM VADEBONCOEUR, JR. (October 24, 1946 – July 7, 2023)

“Bud’s Farewell To Jim”

by Bud Plant

[A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. was a regular contributor to this volume of Alter Ego, especially during its early years (but as recently as #178, the Emil Gershwin issue), and that includes providing numerous tidbits of information and even loan of comicbooks that went unrecorded in the credits. For that reason, among others, we are honored to reprint in full his longtime friend Bud Plant’s reminiscence of him.]

M

y interest in comicbooks and their creators, and in magazine and book illustration, has brought me many amazing friends. Some of them date back more than 50 years, to my teenage years beginning in 1965 and 1966. Jim Vadeboncoeur was not only my friend for all of these years, but a mentor, a partner, a co-publisher. And we shared the passion of finding and appreciating the best in these worlds of art and artists, illustrators, and publishing history. And comics, absolutely comics.

Jim was raised on the San Francisco peninsula, not very far from my own roots in San Jose. Early on he became part of a web of comicbook buddies in the area, gathering at one another’s houses to share our finds and enthuse about the latest new books. By this point Jim had moved out of his parents’ house and was living in Palo Alto, already together with his life-long partner Karen Lane.

Jim, born in 1946, had five years on me. When we first met, I was about 14, not yet in high school. Jim was 19, already going to college with a part-time job. But what brought us together was a passionate interest in comics: in the art of Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, Wally Wood, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko. Before the Price Guide, before online data sources, we were digging through stacks of comics, flipping through pages looking for hidden gems by our favorite artists… as well as keeping up with the latest releases from Marvel, DC, Charlton, Dell, and a few other companies.

Jim’s first publishing project was a fanzine with an indecipherable name. I don’t know which of us came up with that idea, but it sure sounds typical of Jim. He was never one to go along with the crowd if he saw a better or more interesting way. We loved the “gobbledegook” lettering that Rick Griffin was doing at the time, so we said let’s make that our fanzine’s name.

And we published our first issue, calling ourselves Promethean Enterprises. We consisted of four editors. Promethean, as it came to be called, brought together what we thought was the best and most interesting in modern comics, in vintage comics, and in underground comics. Editor Al Davoren knew R. Crumb, Spain, Griffin and more of the underground artists. Jim and I loved the work of those guys as well as Frazetta, Williamson, and other contemporary artists. Our first and second issues boasted covers

by Rick Griffin, the third by R. Crumb, the 4th by Los Angeles air-brush master Bob Zoell, and the final issue was a fold-out cover

by Robert Williams. Robert was yet another good friend of Al’s.

We published these from 1969 to 1974, capping things with the first interview with R. Crumb, another fold-out with Victor Moscoso’s artwork, articles on vintage crime comics, artwork by Roy Krenkel and more folks. Jim was the master of layout, and got us in the back door of a local printer, since we had no budget to pay

Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. both as a young man—and in a more recent photo, taken a few years ago.

Thanks to D.D. Degg.

others to do the zine. We paid a printer after hours and did the folding, binding, and boxing ourselves, until we splurged on the final issue and paid to have it all done professionally. And our enthusiasm overcame caution—we printed far too many copies, and that 5th issue remained in print for at least 20 years, just one of the many items I’d be handling in my business.

But Jim immediately went on to other personal projects. He published The Movie Cowboy by Doug Wildey all by himself in 1971.

This was possibly a first, an oversized format similar to today’s Artist’s Editions, showing every detail of the fine movie star portraits Wildey had done for his own personal satisfaction. Also in 1971 Jim put together Al Williamson: His Art, the earliest index of all (at least, all to that date) of Williamson’s comics and comic strip contributions that Jim and friends had tracked down.

With Bob Napier, Jim published The Fandom Lampoon, which was a spoof of the early fanzine called Infinity, published by two youngsters on the East Coast. Infinity wasn’t a bad zine, per se, but it did have some problems typical of fanzines at the time. One has to remember that there were almost no professional publications on comics up to this point. Beginning in the early 1960s, the only way to learn about comics history and artists, and to see art by fans or professionals outside of comics themselves, was in fan-produced amateur fanzines. Infinity was well known for publishing relatively lame, almost throw-away sketches by big-name comic artists, as well as typo-ridden, lame interviews. Jim and Bob called their spoof Inanity, complete with an interview with Berni Wright-On. The picture supposedly of Berni was actually a high-school-aged Jim standing in for the real Berni Wrightson. All the artwork was spoofs, too.

On a more serious note, Jim, Bob Napier again, and soon to be better-known writer Jan Strnad, published George. Another strangely named publication, George was a fanzine of reviews of other fanzines, another first in fandom. You can see a trend here.

Our boys didn’t think much of many of the so-named crudzines proliferating at the time, while they also wanted to praise the incredible efforts to be found in superb titles like Jerry Weist’s Squa Tront, Wally Wood’s witzend, and Bill Spicer’s Graphic Story Magazine. For 11 issues they slammed the bad and praised the good.

Jim also taught me layout. He’d gone to work for a printer

Jim Vadeboncouer, Jr. (1946-2023)

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in 1970, but it continued, and much of the information they put together was incorporated in the Guide.

Jim also contributed to an APA called APA-5. An APA was a closed group of fans who periodically contributed to an anthology publication distributed to only those contributors. One example of his work was a piece on Golden Age artist Munson Paddock.

This obscure artist was also one of the most interesting in the early Golden Age, contributing to DC’s earliest titles. He was often mixed up with a pseudonym of Celia Paddock and thought to be a woman. Jim found a library that had ended up with his archives.

Paddock had been a lifelong railroad enthusiast, and when he passed away, he had left a huge archive of original glass negatives and more modern pictures of trains. Thus Jim was able to finally dispel the incorrect information and give Paddock a place in comics history.

He did much the same for Matt Baker. For years, right up to today, a great many comics that Baker had nothing to do with have been attributed to him. The Iger shop, where Baker had once worked, liked his style so much, the artists went on to emulate it long after Baker had moved on (in this case, to his superlative romance comics for St. John). Jim once again studied the styles on each and every story and did his utmost to give Baker his due, but to stop the attribution of Iger Shop work as Baker’s.

Myth buster? You could say that!

The Movie Cowboy Artist Doug Wildey’s work was featured in the 1971 art portfolio published

by Jim V. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Through all this, Jim was also a hardcore collector. His first love was Atlas, and he amassed what could be one of the only known complete collections, all the way from Strange Tales #1 to the beginning of the Marvel super-heroes. Jim was also a true cheapskate. Or put another way, Jim wanted a lot of books but didn’t have unlimited funds. Fortunately, condition was totally unimportant to him. He wanted the book strictly for its contents, for what he could learn about the artist-contributors. So he happily bought low-grade books that he would promptly take out of their bags, throw out their boards, and put them in handy small boxes for quick access. At that point he had every Atlas comic except Strange Tales #1, since by then it was already beyond his famous $40

around this time. He discovered he hated his first job in business management. He’d gotten a business degree, but telling other people what to do gave him headaches and clearly turned out not to be his forte. So he decided “never again”… he would only work in jobs where he was his own boss and his work would speak for itself. So he started in the back room, doing production work for a local printer.

I started my own business in 1970/71 (Bud Plant, no fancy names back then). I was typing up ads and simple typed-out flyers I’d put in with orders. That led to my first elementary catalogs. Jim offered to help, and he taught me layout as I watched him come up with an entirely new way of doing 3 “real” catalogs circa 1971-72.

He also designed the 1973 Berkeley Con Program Books. This was the first underground comics convention, held at the UC-Berkeley campus. Meanwhile, he was researching comicbook artists like there was no tomorrow.

He worked with the late Hames Ware to identify inkers and pencilers on Golden Age and early Silver Age books, particularly on his first love, the Atlas (later Marvel) line from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. He and Hames contributed to Jerry Bails’ legendary Who’s Who volumes, which were the first time we began to see an overview of who worked on what throughout the 1930s to the 1960s.

Much of this started before the first Price Guide came out

Matt Baker juxtaposed with his classic cover for Fox Comics’ Phantom Lady #15 (Dec. 1947).

Cover image courtesy of the Grand Comics Database. Photo courtesy of Fred Robinson & Matt D. Baker. [Phantom Lady TM DC Comics.]

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The Beck And Costanza Studio

C.C. Beck 1944

The Non-Fawcett Work Of Two Of Fawcett’s Top Artists

Pete Costanza 1940

by P.C. Hamerlinck

A

s paper restrictions were eased after World War II, both established and anxious new publishers aspired to flood the field with comicbooks of any and all genres. And, as if they weren’t busy enough producing pages every month for Fawcett Publications’ flourishing Captain Marvel Adventures, Whiz Comics, The Marvel Family, and others, the Beck and Costanza Studios also contributed to the postwar comicbook influx, producing two new non-Fawcett titles for already over-crowded newsstands.

A Studio Is Born As Captain Marvel Adventures soared in the sales charts, his co-creator Charles Clarence Beck was pulling in $35 a week as a staff artist for Fawcett. When Beck calculated his weekly salary with his actual weekly comicbook page output, he realized he was only making a few dollars per page illustrating stories of comics’ top-selling super-hero. Beck asked Art Director Al Allard for a raise; what he got was a “Chief Artist” credit prominently placed on the table of contents pages, along with Allard’s suggestion that Beck launch his own art studio and produce work for Fawcett on a freelance basis. It was late 1941.

Thus, Beck opened his small studio on Broadway and 40th Street in New York City, taking a few artists along with him, including Pete Costanza; more were hired and eventually the staff grew to 15 artists.

By 1944, to keep up with Fawcett’s growing demand for artwork, as well as taking on commercial accounts (including “Captain Tootsie” advertisements for the popular candy Tootsie Rolls, and training Canadian comic artists at Anglo-American Publishing Co. in Toronto), Beck opened up a second studio in Englewood, New Jersey, partnering with Costanza as the Beck and Costanza Studios. Costanza was in charge of the Englewood studio, while Beck continued to operate out of the New York City studio—conveniently located just minutes away from Fawcett’s offices at 67 West 44th Street whenever he needed to go over and meet with comics editors Will Lieberson and Wendell Crowley, or come in to take care of a last-minute page touch-up.

Vic Verity Magazine In late 1945, now maintaining a staff of 20 artists, the Beck and Costanza Studios were contracted by Clifford Yewdall of YewdallKander Enterprises to package a new comicbook series featuring “High School Hero” Vic Verity, wherein the first-time publisher undoubtedly aspired to capitalize on the popularity of “Archie” and the increasing legion of comedic teen knock-offs.

The inside front cover of Vic Verity Magazine #1 enthusiastically

“SHAZAM” On The March!

Captain Marvel Adventures #8 (cover-dated March 6, 1942) went on sale around the turn of that year and was prepared at least three months earlier, at the time when artist/co-creator C.C. Beck was invited to launch his own art studio—which included Pete Costanza from the start. Ye FCA Editor believes this to have been the earliest CMA cover whereon Costanza inked Beck’s pencils, only the fifth of the title’s regular series, following three stand-alone specials. Courtesy of the Grand Comics Database.

[Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics.]

introduced readers to the latest teen sensation and the book’s colorful co-stars: Vic Verity Magazine is something new in comics. The stories are fiction, but they are based on realities, and told

The Beck And Costanza Studio

in a dynamic, entertaining way. Vic Verity, himself, is a typical high school boy whom you might find in your own homes and schools. In order to keep these stories true to actual high school events and characters, the editors of Vic Verity Magazine have selected an actual high school teacher, Mr. Ellis D. Brown, to write them.

73

Verity, I Say Unto You… (Clockwise from right:) All from Vic Verity Magazine #1 (1945), whose cover art by Beck & Costanza has been re-purposed as the FCA interior cover on page 71: the opening page of the first fun-filled adventure of the art team’s “High School Hero” Vic Verity (script by Ellis D. Brown)… the debut of the short half-life of their “Hot Shot Galvan” (script by Colin H. McIntosh)… and “Tom Travis and the Tiny People,” written and drawn by C.C. Beck, which was the high point in the premier issue. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Hot-Shot Galvan, the mighty electronic mite, is a live-wire character taken from the world of science. He is a cartoon characterization of the electron—one of the fundamental parts of the universe. In charming little adventure stories, this amusing character interprets the basic laws of electricity simply, humorously, and accurately. These stories are supplied us by a recognized author of technical books which have been used by the U.S. Army and Navy in their training programs, Mr. Colin H. McIntosh, Assistant Superintendent of Flying School Operations, American Airlines, Inc.

Perhaps the most fantastic-appearing characters in Vic Verity Magazine are ‘Tom Travis and the Tiny People,’ but they are not merely a wild flight of the writer’s or artist’s imagination.

The characters and stories all have their setting in that world of smallness in nature that exists right in your own, or in anybody’s, backyard. The huge plants, the giant insects, the strange-looking backgrounds which you will discover in these stories are all drawn from actual objects as seen under a microscope. Much research, field trips to collect specimens, and several volumes of technical reference books are used in the preparation of each ‘Tiny People’ story.

Beck’s Take A few months before he passed away, C.C. Beck recalled working on Vic Verity Magazine in FCA & ME, Too! #8/FCA #44 (1989): “The comic book featuring High School Hero Vic Verity, Mighty Electronic Mite Hot-Shot Galvan, and Tom Travis and the Tiny People was put together in 1945, the peak year of the Golden Age….

[T]he comic book world started to collapse shortly after World War Two ended and has never since seen such halcyon days again.

“I was instrumental in creating these characters, but only started Vic Verity and Hot-Shot Galvan off, then turned the work over to other writers and artists.

I both wrote and [continued on p. 76]

The Beck And Costanza Studio

77

The “Vic Verity” stories are altogether mild, if not a bit dull, involving ordinary 1940s teenager activities and situations like dance recitals, championship baseball games, math contests, picnics, scavenger hunts, Vic and his pals helping out at his uncle’s hotel restaurant, and being late for school.

Some gentle slapstick humor makes its way into the plots. There’s no Betty or Veronica, but Otto Binder did write a blonde-haired student named “Betty Fable” into the fourth issue. He also named two students after Fawcett comics editors Wendell Crowley and Ginny Provisiero under the guises of “Tom Wendell” and “Ginny Scott.”

There’s one clever sequence in the “late-for-school” tale from issue #6 wherein Vic dreams of a hybrid dog-vacuum cleaner named Roover.

While he’s not officially attributed with that particular story, it has Otto written all over it.

After the initial Vic Verity issue, Beck and Costanza continued to handle some of the comic’s story layouts, redraw characters, and illustrate all of its seven front covers; Beck himself signed the covers for issues #1 and 2. Irv Steinberg assisted on “Hot-Shot Galvan” during the strip’s short life span; Dave Berg took over from Beck the layouts and penciling on “Tom Travis” with issue #2. Who else could have had a hand in Vic Verity Magazine? The other Beck-Costanza Studio artists during this period included Ken Bald, Ed Robbins, Charlie Tomsey, Jack Bowler, Vince Costello, Al Fagaly, Alex Kostuk, Gus Schrotter, Fran Taggart, Nick Zuraw, and Ernie Townsend, as well as others who had just returned from the war, such as former Jack Binder Shop artists Kurt Schaffenberger, Ray Harford, Victor Dowd, and Bob Boyajian. In a few cases, some artists spent only two or three weeks at the studio.

The cartoonish, inventive, and educational “Hot-Shot Galvan” feature was, of course, cut short thanks to Reddy Kilowatt’s lawyers, lasting only the first three issues. In the debut story, Beck and Costanza We Second That Motion! acknowledged their Captain Marvel C.C. Beck’s jovial cover for Vic Verity Magazine #2 (1946). affiliation by referencing radio station [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

‘WIZZ’ (note spelling). By issue #4, electron Hot-Shot and his pal Static As with many 1940s studios supplying comicbook artwork in had been replaced by a new strip: “Boomer Young,” an adventurer assembly-line fashion, the art pages in Vic Verity Magazine were an from America’s frontier days, set in St. Paul, Minnesota, 1870. The obvious team effort—often a conglomeration of mostly-nameless stories dealt mostly with riverboat piracy. It sounds more riveting art styles evident, even within individual stories. than it was, and the artwork was generally uninspired. Curiously, Hot-Shot’s disappearance from the book is mentioned, but not And, while his name did sometimes appear in comics, C.C. until the final issue, #7 (1946), via a note of explanation from the Beck asserted in FCA & ME, Too! #8/FCA #44 that he didn’t mind IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, editors placed within the Boomer Young opening splash panel of the accustomed artist anonymity of the 1940s: “We Golden Age CLICK THE LINK TO ORDER THIS his fourth installment: writers artists actually better off working without name ISSUE IN and PRINT OR were DIGITAL FORMAT! “The character, Hot-Shot credits. Some of us—Otto Binder, myself, and others—had worked Galvan, which appeared under pen names before we got into comics. Otto had written in our previous issues, under the name Eando Binder, and I had once done a feature which has been discontinued by was signed by one of the Fawcett brothers. We saw nothing wrong As for the writing, besides the aforementioned Ellis D. Brown on “Vic Verity,” Colin H. McIntosh on “Hot-Shot,” and Beck scripting the first “Tom Travis” tale, Otto Binder wrote the “Vic Verity” stories in issues #4, 5, and 7, and possibly a “Tom Travis” script or two for the later issues.

with this procedure; Otto worked under other names, too, and the feature that I handled was written by someone I never met, lettered by another staff artist, and researched by unknown people.

By working anonymously and in groups, we writers and artists managed to create characters and plots that were greater than any of us as individuals could have produced. Today’s writers and artists put too much of themselves into their work, and thus their stories and pictures are either loved madly or hated violently by readers.”

ALTER #187Days Of Vic Verity The EGO Latter

Focuses on great early science-fiction author EDMUND HAMILTON, who went on to an illustrious career at DC Comics, Kander/Yewdall Enterprises Vic Verity Magazine writing Superman, Batman, and especially The Legion ofpublished SuperHeroes!

Learnthe all about his encounters with RAY BRADBURY, under name Vic Verity Publications, Inc., located in WilkesMORT WEISINGER, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, et al—a panoply of Barre, Pennsylvania, with offices in New York City. By titans!

Plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr.editorial Monster’s Comic Crypt, and more! they had re-located their base of operations to Akron, mid-1946 FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 Ohio.(84-page Vic Verity Magazine was also released in Canada by Bell (Digital Edition) $4.99 Features and Publishing Company of Toronto, Ontario. https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_55&products_id=1770

Yeah, Right, Boomer!

“Boomer Young” is depicted on Beck’s cover for VVM #4 (March 1946). By a curious coincidence, the period following WWII’s end in 1945 is now considered “The Baby Boom,” and people born between then and 1960 were, later, often referred to as “Boomers.” Courtesy of the GCD. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]