Alter Ego #23 by TwoMorrows Publishing

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

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

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

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THE BEST IN COMICS AND LEGO MAGAZINES!

ALTER EGO #105

ALTER EGO #106

ALTER EGO #107

ALTER EGO #108

DRAW! #22

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #59

BRICKJOURNAL #17

BRICKJOURNAL #18

BRICKJOURNAL #19

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

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

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

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

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Vol. 3, No. 23 / April 2003

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Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout Christopher Day

Consulting Editors John Morrow Jon B. Cooke

FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck

Comic Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

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

Production Assistant Eric Nolen-Weathington

Cover Artists Bob Fujitani H.G. Peter

Cover Colorist

& Friends Section

Contents Writer/Editorial: The Wonder Years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Queen Hepzibah, Genghis Khan, & the “Nuclear” Wars . . . . . 4 Three “lost” Wonder Woman adventures— with unseen art by H.G. Peter! Comic Crypt: Flying Discs and Floating Chairs. . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Michael T. Gilbert presents rare art by Simon & Kirby.

Tom Ziuko

And Special Thanks to: Bob Bailey Dennis Beaulieu Jack Bender Jon Berk Bill Black J.R. Cochran Bill Cooke Teresa R. Davidson Al Dellinges Roger Dicken & Wendy Hunt Rich Donnelly Stephen Donnelly Gill Fox Bob Fujitani Glen David Gold Stan Goldberg Victor Gorelick George Hagenauer Ron Harris Mark & Stephanie Heike Roger Hill Tom Horvitz

Bill Howard Richard Howell Ed Jaster Steve Korté Richard Kyle Sheldon Moldoff Scotty Moore James Plunkett Ethan Roberts Carole Seuling David Siegel Joe Simon Robin Snyder Marc Swayze Greg Theakston Joel Thingvall Dann Thomas Alex Toth Michael J. Vassallo Hames Ware Robert K. Wiener Marv Wolfman

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Jack Keller

Alex Toth on Noel Sickles & Fred Ray. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 From Scorchy Smith to Terry and the Pirates to Tomahawk! Claude Held, Pioneer Comic Book Dealer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Bill Schelly interviews one of the first comics dealers—and gets some great stories. Jack Keller (1922-2003) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Dr. Michael Vassallo on an artist who drew men on horseback—and in hot rods. re: [comments & corrections] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 FCA [Fawcett Collectors of America] #82 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 P.C. Hamerlinck presents Marc Swayze, Sheldon Moldoff, and Bill Parker. All the Way with MLJ Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: Merciful Minerva! Recently, Carole Seuling, the wife and partner of comics dealer/conventioneer Phil Seuling back in the ’60s and early ’70s, let slip that she owned a never-published piece of original 1940s Wonder Woman art by H.G. Peter. It’s beautiful as Aphrodite— and once we’d seen it, we were wise as Athena to use it, with Carole’s blessing, as a cover for Alter Ego! Thanks, old friend! [Wonder Woman TM & ©2003 DC Comics.] Above: By 1958, his last year as Wonder Woman artist, H.G. Peter’s quirky, individualistic art wasn’t all it had been. But he still had a couple of good moves left—one of which was this splash from Wonder Woman #97, the art for which was offered in a 1993 art catalog. Thanks to Glen David Gold for reminding us about it! Whether Diana’s barebacking a stallion or a carnosaur, she always comes out on top! [©2003 DC Comics.] Alter EgoTM is published monthly by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Phone: (919) 833-8092. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: Rt. 3, Box 468, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $8 ($10 Canada, $11 elsewhere). Twelve-issue subscriptions: $60 US, $120 Canada, $132 elsewhere. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

Title writer/editorial

The Wonder Years Well, wadda you know! An actual entire half of an issue of Alter Ego without a real “theme”! Who’da thunk it? Of course, thanks to the scripts and synopsis provided by Joel Thingvall, plus all the H.G. Peter art generously donated by other collectors, the “lost Wonder Woman” article which follows is long enough to be a theme all by itself. It isn’t officially counted as one of our “Written Off - 9/30/49” series because, so far as we can tell, neither of the two finished stories was written off for tax purposes on that date— indeed, not until several years later—though the end result was the same. Most of the art in the piece is reproduced from parts of pages that had been cut into thirds, and to date we haven’t learned of any time that was done except in the instance we’ve mentioned before in A/E—when then“intern” Marv Wolfman sliced them in that fashion in the latter 1960s, after production manager Sol Harrison told him he could take home some pieces of art (which otherwise Marv had to consign to the DC incinerator) as long as they had been cut so that they weren’t full pages. Even here, however, there are at least two full pages—both splashes!

you don’t count the one lone issue published by Mike Friedrich in ’78), and reawakened Roy’s commitment to recording the history of comics’ Golden Age and since. We wish Jon and Comic Book Artist good luck... and the two editors will stay in touch, cooperating as the occasion permits. We’ll miss ya, Jon. You helped it all happen. Bestest,

But, we’ll let the article speak for itself... since Ye Editor wrote it. Hopefully, the comparison of the scripts and the finished art will be instructive to aficionados of the medium. We’ll let Alex Toth and Michael T. Gilbert and Bill Schelly and Dr. Michael J. Vassallo and P.C. Hamerlinck’s FCA gang (not to mention our letter-writers) speak for themselves, too—for we think that each of them, in his own way, adds to the known history of the industry. Each issue of Alter Ego, like those produced by its fellow comics cartographers, fills in a bit more territory on the map of the comic book world, leaving just a bit less space marked “Terra Incognita.” But there’s still plenty to go... and we’ll be chipping away every month. Just room left to say a hearty but sad “hail and farewell” to Jon B. Cooke’s Comic Book Artist, whose final TwoMorrows issue should be hitting the mails ’round about now, if it hasn’t already, before it departs for the Top Shelf. Naturally, Ye Ed will always have a warm spot in his heart for CBA, and for Jon personally, in part because it was in the flipped back-pages of #1-5 of that mag that Alter Ego was revived, after a hiatus of two decades (nearly three, if

“Everything looks worse in black-&-white.” Actually, we couldn’t agree much less with songsmith Paul Simon, and we offer in evidence this gorgeous, previously-unprinted H.G. Peter Wonder Woman art, which is also used as our color cover. We wanted you to see it both ways... and besides, that gives us another opportunity to thank Carole Seuling for sending us a photocopy of it. Harry G., Dr. Marston, M.C. Gaines, or somebody sure liked the idea of the Amazon on horseback—since she’s depicted thus on the cover of Wonder Woman #1 in 1942, on a Comic Cavalcade cover, and elsewhere—including in the previously-unpublished illo owned by Marty Greim that was seen in A/E V3#1! But we’ll let the Freudians worry about that one...! [Wonder Woman TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

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SPOTLIGHT ON THE SILVER/BRONZE AGE X-MEN-AND ONE OF THE GOLDEN AGE’S GREATEST ARTISTS! • Never-before-seen color covers by DAVE COCKRUM & MORT MESKIN! • X-Men—the first dozen years! New interviews with STAN LEE, DAVE COCKRUM, CHRIS CLAREMONT, LEN WEIN, et al., on Marvel's merry mutants—conducted by JIM AMASH—plus classic and unseen art! • A previously-unpublished panel on the Silver & Bronze Age X-Men featuring COCKRUM, ARNOLD DRAKE, JIM SHOOTER, & ROY THOMAS! • The magnificent MORT MESKIN! The 1940s artist of Vigilante, Johnny Quick, Wildcat, Black Terror, and more—profiled by his sons and by fellow legend ALEX TOTH! Plus seldom-glimpsed art by JERRY ROBINSON & others! • FCA with C.C. BECK, MARC SWAYZE, & WILLIAM WOOLFOLK—MICHAEL T. GILBERT—BILL SCHELLY on the Golden Age of Comics Fandom—& MORE!! Edited by ROY THOMAS • 108 PAGES!

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

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Queen Hepzibah, Genghis Khan, & The “Nuclear” Wars!

Queen Hepzibah, Genghis Khan, & The “Nuclear” Wars! Three “Lost” WONDER WOMAN Adventures –––with Never-before-seen Art by H.G. PETER & Scripts by DR. WILLIAM MOULTON MARSTON

by Roy Thomas Cancelled Comics Cavalcade —1940s Style So near, and yet so far...! Naturally, most comic book stories which get as far as being scripted, penciled, inked, and even lettered wind up being published. After all, by that time, a reasonable amount of money has usually been paid to the writers, artists, and letterers of the material—and if it isn’t used, that expenditure is a dead loss... or at best becomes a tax writeoff, like DC Comics’ infamous one of Sept. 30, 1949, touched on in several issues of Alter Ego. Of course, if a comics title is cancelled with scant advance notice, there’s likely to be a bit of spare art and story lying around in some stage of completion; but the publisher has decided, rightly or wrongly, that he/she is better off swallowing the loss of a story (or even a whole issue) or more, and moving on. That’s probably what happened in the case of much of the “Written Off - 9-30-49” material we’ve seen over the past years, such as “Green Lantern,” “Flash,” “Dr. Mid-Nite,” “Ghost Patrol,” “Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys,” and other 1940s series. These partly-surviving but never-published stories were most likely produced not too long before either (a) a particular feature was dropped from an ongoing title, as per the latter two, or (b) entire mags were cancelled or altered in format, as in the case of the trio of Justice Society members mentioned above. In 1948 All-American Comics became All-American Western, leaving no berth for Doc’s exploits—and in ’49 both Green Lantern and Flash Comics were cancelled outright, leaving no place for unprinted tales of the titular heroes (not to mention Black Canary, The Atom, and

A vintage “Wonder Woman” splash page, with writer William M. Marston (top) and artist Harry G. Peter (middle). As mentioned below, the entire 13-page story that goes with this 1940s splash was finally printed in black-&-white in 1974’s The Amazing World of DC Comics #12. The photo of Dr. Marston is from the Oct. 25, 1940, issue of The Family Circle magazine, while the circa-1910 portrait of HGP by his friend, illustrator Louis Arata, was sent by Scotty Moore. [Wonder Woman art ©2003 DC Comics.]

Hawkman) to roost. Some of the “Flash” and “GL” stories orphaned by these cancellations seem to have been prepared even earlier, intended for All-Flash or Comic Cavalcade, two super-hero mags which had been deep-sixed in ’48 (the former discontinued, the latter transformed into a funny-animal

Three “Lost” Wonder Woman Adventures

This piece of art, recently acquired from the estate of H.G. Peter and offered for auction at an estimate of “$20,000 and up” via Heritage Comics’ Oct. 2002 catalog, is indeed just what it claims: “an incredible piece of comics history.” These would seem to be the artist’s very first sketches of Wonder Woman, doubtless done in 1941, with the figures roughly 8" tall. The catalog also says his real name was H.G. Roth. Special thanks to Ed Jaster. [Art ©2003 estate of H.G. Peter; Wonder Woman TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

comic). These tales would have sat on the shelf for a year, awaiting an open slot that never came. DC’s Sheldon Mayer, who edited all comics which starred Flash and/or Green Lantern, was by all accounts usually three issues ahead on every mag he handled, so it was inevitable there’d be a few leftover stories. DC had to simply swallow the loss. Okay—but how about when a comics title isn’t cancelled—and doesn’t change format or genre? Like Wonder Woman. From her debut in late 1941 through his own return to writing and drawing in 1948, Shelly Mayer was the editor of all comics in which the Amazon appeared, as well: Wonder Woman, Sensation Comics, Comic Cavalcade, and All-Star Comics. Even excluding the latter, in which the original Princess Diana had little to do prior to 1948, that’s six circa-12page stories every two months once wartime restrictions were lifted: three in her own bimonthly title, one each in two of the monthly Sensation, and one in the bimonthly CC. Those 72 pages came under the joint jurisdiction of editor Mayer and Dr. William Marston, the psychologist who had been Wonder Woman’s major creator (under the pseudonym “Charles Moulton,” utilizing the middle names of publisher M.C. Gaines and himself). Even the artwork, produced via a shop system with veteran artist Harry G. Peter as the primary artist, was done under Marston’s supervision, contrary to DC’s usual practice. Many details about the way Marston worked (and about his

unorthodox private life) were brought to light by Les Daniels in his deservedly award-winning 2000 volume Wonder Woman: The Complete History from Chronicle Books. And I’m glad they were, ’cause that frees us, for the most part, from having to surmise about the conditions under which the unpublished stories were produced. Instead, we can simply examine the stories and art themselves. There were several 1940s “Wonder Woman” stories which were completed but not published at the time, three of which were first printed in DC mags decades after they’d been prepared: The 13-page “The Cheetah’s Thought Prisoners,” belatedly saw the light of day in DC Special #3 (April-June 1969). An 11-pager, “The Stormy Menace of Goblin Head Rock!”—likewise featuring the villainous Cheetah—finally surfaced in Wonder Woman #196 (Sept.-Oct. 1971). A third left-over “Wonder Woman” exploit, “Racketeer’s Bait,” was first seen (in black-&-white) in DC’s own house-published fanzine, The Amazing World of DC Comics #12 (Sept.-Oct.1974) But there were others... A couple of years back, longtime collector and Wonder Woman enthusiast Joel Thingvall generously mailed me photocopies of several DC scripts that had come into his possession. Two of these were full scripts for never-printed “Wonder Woman” tales. Also in the package

Queen Hepzibah, Genghis Khan, & The “Nuclear” Wars!

was a lengthy “WW” synopsis titled “The Sword of Genghis Khan,” which, so far as I can ascertain, was never used for a published “episode,” as Marston referred to them. Both scripts and synopsis seem to have been photocopied years later from the good doctor’s carbon copies (remember carbon copies? hope so, ‘cause no room to explain ’em here!). This means that any changes made to the script by an editor are lost to us and can only be surmised. Let’s go over these three items one at a time, starting with....

“Queen Hepzibah’s Revenge!” This one was marked (see below) as “Extra Episode for Quarterly #2”—by which is probably meant Wonder Woman #2 (Fall 1942). I recognized the title at once, for Alter Ego had already printed the original splash-page art from this “lost” tale in Vol. 3, #2—and had displayed 1/3 of a climactic page in V3#5. It was now apparent that this story had been prepared no later than very early 1942, for a summer onsale. (Incidentally, the word partly scribbled over the word “Quarterly” looks like “Joy.” If so, it’s tempting to believe it refers to Joy Murchison, who wrote a number of “Wonder Woman” stories for and with Dr. Marston. However, she apparently did not come to work for him till 1945.) Now let’s look at the story itself, beginning with that splash page again—or rather, what Marston’s scripts refer to as the “display panel”:

being dragged through the air upside-down. Well, I guess that counts as “fighting.” The splash caption has been rewritten slightly in the finished version, so that it now begins with a question that rewords Marston’s original declarative sentence, to good effect. His second sentence, “Other terrifying bird-mammals snatch at you,” has been dropped as superfluous. Decent-enough editing. The single story-panel which Marston wrote in the early days for the bottom right corner of the splash page—and which he described on the second page of the script—shows Hepzibah, a ringer for the evil Queen in Snow White, sending her unshown “slaves” to “capture my granddaughter who left me to die years ago.” She wants revenge on the ingrate. Mayer or his script-editor altered no words in this panel, except to correct an error common among comics writers, then and now. The slaves address their mistress as “O’ Queen Hepzibah.” The apostrophe is incorrect (as is the common use of the word “Oh” in this context); the phrase appears correctly as “O Queen Hepzibah.” Hardly an earth-shattering change, but it’s interesting that someone noticed the minor mistake and corrected it. It’s always fascinating to go through a story and see how the script was changed (either by an editor, or by the writer at an editor’s direction—it isn’t always possible to tell which), or to observe how an artist may have interpreted aspects of a script differently from the precise way it was written. For example, the script for this splash calls for Wonder Woman to be “sitting on the back of vulture-woodpecker, squeezing its neck with one hand as she fights a flying rhinocerous [sic] with the other.” Artist H.G. Peter instead shows her gripping the winged rhino by its horn so that it’s

The story is a charming one—assuming you have a high tolerance for whimsy. Diana Prince is interrupted in her secretarial tasks at Military Intelligence HQ in Washington, D.C., by a creature described on p. 2 of the script as “a large wild tough looking rabbit. The rabbit is not an ordinary looking rabbit—use imagination in drawing him. Butch the rabbit has wings. It is sitting on hind legs, front paws leaning against the desk. It is behind Diana. The rabbit looks amazed at the rapidity with which Di is typing. Papers are flying in air.” Turns out that, being alone in her office, Di decided to type more than 400 words a minute, which she finds “much too slow.” When Butch

Three “Lost” Wonder Woman Adventures speaks, she’s momentarily afraid she’s blown her cover for her Amazon identity—till she finds a child-sized rabbit hiding under her desk! Naturally, she’s intrigued and asks if he’s “Harvey”—a reference to the then-famous “invisible rabbit” in a stage play and subsequent Jimmy Stewart movie. Butch shows her a photo of someone he’s seeking. When she identifies “Lacy Martin, Prof. Chemico’s laboratory assistant at Holliday College,” he flies off through the HQ halls, scattering office workers. Di gives chase, but bumps into Gen. Darnell. When she tells him she’s pursuing “a rabbit who talks and flies,” he insists she go on immediate leave: “Poor Diana—the strain has been too much for you. I forget you’re only a woman and can’t work as hard as a man.” She starts to object, then thinks: “Oh, what’s the use of trying to buck the masculine ego?” She hurries off to change into Wonder Woman. On p. 3, he joins his cohorts—Grasper, a fox, and an unnamed deer and wildcat, all of whom have wings and stand on their hind legs. When Butch says he’s located their quarry, the fox “rubs two fore paws together greedily in Uriah Heap style.” Marston knew his David Copperfield. (The deer seems to have been dropped before the story was drawn; only the rabbit, fox, and a spotted wildcat appear in any panels we have.) Meanwhile, the candy-munching supporting characters—Etta Candy and the Holliday Girls—are in a lab at the college. Etta is mixing chemicals when suddenly the aforementioned Lacy Martin, “an attractive gal of about 24” wearing a white labcoat, rushes up, grabs Etta’s beaker, and hurls it out a window—where it blows up a tree!

In her invisible (well, transparent) plane, the Amazon follows them to an “unknown island,” swimming the last distance “so I won’t advertise my arrival.” Apparently having an invisible plane isn’t that much help, when your enemies can see you sitting at the controls. Underwater, she fights “grotesque gigantic sea monsters” with humanlike hands instead of fins “which enable the creatures to crawl about on bottom of oceans.” She defeats them with “super-Herculean strength” and reaches shore— —at which point we come both to the next piece of art that is known to have survived from this unpublished story, and to an anomaly! Actually, two anomalies, which probably cancel each other out: First, though this full page is “page 7” in Marston’s script, it may have become “page 10” of the finished story—in art likewise sent by Jerry Bails.

Etta barely has time to appreciate her narrow escape before “claw-like paws” pull her and Lacy out a window. Winged animals fly off with them. Wonder Woman shows up: “Great Hera! I’ve been afraid of this ever since that talking rabbit asked about Lacy!”

Secondly, Steve Trevor is shown parachuting down toward Animal Island—though in the script he hasn’t appeared prior to this point. In the script Wonder Woman doesn’t call Steve via telepathy till page 9, but Marston and/or Mayer may have decided there should be an earlier setup. (They were right, as you’ll see.) If so, that change must have taken up the three pages of finished art and story not accounted for in the script. Of course, something must’ve been tossed out down the line, to make the page count come out right. The first four panels on this page as originally scripted are the same as in the finished art. But, in the script, the two remaining panels had the “woodpecker-vulture” crash down “on the back of Wonder Woman’s head, the most vulnerable spot in the human body,” rendering her unconscious. In the finished product, instead, we cut away to see the descending Steve facing two “winged rhinocerous.” (Marston apparently wasn’t sure how to spell “rhinoceros,” or how to turn the word into a plural; that would probably have been changed if the story had been printed.)

Queen Hepzibah, Genghis Khan, & The “Nuclear” Wars! Interestingly, four panels kindly provided by pro comics artist Richard Howell from the Howell/Kalish collection just happen to be the ones which pick up the story as per the very next page of the script:

[Last-minute Interpolation: At the eleventh hour, when I belatedly checked, Jerry told me that the two parts of that page had indeed been pasted together—though not by him—so he couldn’t be certain they belonged together as “page 10.” So it may well be that Marston’s original pacing wasn’t changed, after all. But it would still have been a good idea!]

For clarity, an editorial correction near panel 2 says to add the name “Lacy” after the word “granddaughter,” and to identify “the over-sized redhead” as “that Etta Candy.”

horrible grimace.” The Queen has the same done to Lacy, despite her plea: “Grandmother, you must be mad. If you’d only believe that I didn’t mean to desert you!”

Hepzibah now makes plans to “perform the greatest scientific miracle of the ages—reduce the human mind to that of an animal! Ha haha!” She’s brewing up something in a “huge metal kettle vat” that she calls a “superadrenal solution, which will decrease your cerebral cortex, shrink the grey matter in your brain and increase your adrenal cortex.” Yeah, that oughtta do it, all right. (But then, who am I to argue with the psychologist who invented the lie detector?)

Butch the rabbit, meanwhile, apologizes to Wonder Woman for having to harm her: “But if I don’t, the Queen won’t give us supercerebral medicine and without that I’ll be a dumb rabbit again.” “I understand, Butch,” says the Amazon. That’s what being wiser than Minerva will do for you.

At this point, we see why Steve should have been shoehorned into the story earlier than the script had it... because now Wonder Woman mentalradios Steve back at Intelligence Headquarters. She tells him, “Hurry!”— but it was probably still a good idea to get him started a bit earlier.

At this point in the script, Steve parachutes down from his plane, fights off the two winged rhinos, and sees the vulture about to “drown Wonder Woman,” as he thinks—so he cuts loose from his ’chute, lands on its back, and unties Wonder Woman with one hand while the other holds the bird’s neck.

Hepzibah first has Etta dropped into the vat by the vulture; she comes out snarling a fierce “Grrrrr” with “her face... all contorted into a

“Steve, you’re wonderful,” says the Amazon. “You got here just in the nick of time.”

Three “Lost” Wonder Woman Adventures

way around! In any event, she now shoves him off the back of the vulture to safety as the flying mammals swoop toward her, and she tosses them into the vat. The top of script page 12 describes the twopanel sequence below, as first printed in Alter Ego, Vol. 3, #5, courtesy of collector George Hagenauer.

Yeah, a pretty fast trip—from the District of Columbia to this Godforsaken island in what must be five minutes, tops! I find myself wondering if Steve’s actions survived in the story as drawn. Steve Trevor was generally heroic in the “Wonder Woman” stories, but he didn’t usually arrive like the Cavalry and rescue her. Usually, it was the other

It’s highly unusual, in the DC (or most other) comics of the early 1940s for a panel to contain no caption, dialogue, or even sound effect. But that’s precisely how it’s written in Marston’s script. Oddly, this story has at least three such panels.

been sandwiched into any one of the Amazon’s three comics at any time for several years. H.G. Peter’s art style hadn’t changed appreciably, either.

On the remaining 2/3 of this final page, Wonder Woman spots Etta and Lacy, now mentally reverted to wild animals, “galloping on four feet after the old hag of a queen,” while “growling viciously.” The Amazon lassos Hepzibah and yanks her to safety, while Steve grabs Etta and Lacy. She orders the Queen to give the two females her “hormones.” Lacy and Etta quickly return to normal, and—what follows is all in the final panel, mind!—Lacy tells her grandmother that she’s “worked for five years to hire an expedition to search for you,” Hepzibah begs Lacy’s forgiveness, Steve tells Wonder Woman, “Angel, as usual you’ve made everyone but me happy. How about making me happy? Marry me!” and she replies, “Someday I’m afraid your persistence will weaken me!”

Matter of fact, although I (like you, no doubt) was aware all along that “Queen Hepzibah’s Revenge!” owes something to the opening of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, and perhaps even more to the winged monkeys of The Wizard of Oz, at some point I abruptly realized another way in which the opening of the story seemed familiar to me:

I wonder if anybody cut down the dialogue in that final panel a bit. Dr. Marston may well have based “Queen Hepzibah’s Revenge!” on theories of his about human nature, but I’ll let Les Daniels or someone worry about that. I’m all out of breath. And I’m too busy wondering why this story wasn’t published. Was the bit about the flying funnyanimals just too cute and whimsical for Mayer and publisher M.C. Gaines? If so, then how’d it get written, drawn, and lettered? Did Mayer approve it, and then Gaines nix it at the last minute? We’ll probably never know. Clearly, there must have been a firm decision never to publish this story. For, since it has no connection to World War II, it hadn’t become “dated” by, say, 1945, and could have

Maybe it was just that damn talking rabbit.

Namely, it reminded me of the “Special Captain Carrot Preview” I did with artists Ross Andru and Scott Shaw! as a 16-page insert for the March 1982 issue of The New Teen Titans (#16)!

Although Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! was to be basically a funny-animal comic, the insert began with a five-page sequence, drawn by Andru in his usual super-hero style, in which Superman has a freakish occurrence in space and returns to Earth—only to find himself in the office of Roger Rabbit, on Earth-C, a world of funny-animals, with Roger drawn by Scott. (No, no, not that Roger Rabbit—in 1982 I’d never heard of the book Who Censored Roger Rabbit? and the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was still a few years in the future. Later we took to calling Captain Carrot’s alter ego by his middle name, Rodney, to avoid looking like we were trying to rip off a bunny who by then had become far better known than he’d been in ’82.) Naturally, the parallels between the “Wonder Woman” story and the “Captain Carrot” insert are far from exact—basically reversed, in fact, since Superman comes to the funnyReporter Clark Kent meets cartoonist Roger Rodney Rabbit in a free animal world—but the feeling is not insert/preview in The New Teen Titans #16. Script by Roy Thomas; pencils dissimilar. by Ross Andru and Scott Shaw!; inks by Dick Giordano. [©2003 DC Comics.]

Queen Hepzibah, Genghis Khan, & The “Nuclear” Wars! away.” She quickly apologizes and departs.

No wonder I kinda like “Queen Hepzibah’s Revenge!” Anyway, on to the second “lost” tale:

“The Sword of Genghis Khan” The copies Joel Thingvall sent of this typed, 7-page, double-spaced synopsis for a “Wonder Woman” story—probably photocopies of photocopies of a carbon copy—have so much black shadow around the right edges that the page we’ve repro’d may not show up well, but we’ve done it anyway, just for the sake of history. Its “Wonder Woman” heading may mean it was intended for the comic of that title rather than for Sensation or Comic Cavalcade. The synopsis was clearly prepared during World War II, as you’ll see. Dr. Marston must have written this synopsis for editor Shelly Mayer—why else do them in such detail?

But his manner, “so unlike an archaeologist,” has aroused her suspicions, so she returns that night as Wonder Woman to search his pad. When he walks in on her and pulls a gun, she plays along, asking, “What is the sword of G.K.?” (What? You think Dr. Marston was gonna write out “Genghis Khan” every time? He even uses “P.” for “Prince” and “WW” for the heroine.) He ties her up with a rope, saying: “I wish I had time to compliment you, madame, on a fetching outfit, and to find out more about you; but your remarks are too interesting, so I have to be sure you do not make them to anyone else—the U.S. Military Intelligence, for example!”

He begins with an introductory paragraph about what he calls “a new type He rigs things up so that the of villain. A man who has many qualities chair is kept from falling out that are admired by Wonder Woman, and French windows with her only who is very much attracted to her. The by the tension of a rope. When result is that they carry on a lengthy feud, the cleaning woman opens the exposing each other’s actions but not each door, the chair will tilt and other to people. Wonder Woman is From a flawed photocopy of the “Sword of Genghis Khan” synopsis. pitch our heroine down into convinced that, reformed, she can do [Wonder Woman TM & ©2003 DC Comics.] the street below. Acting things with him, so she sets out to defeat defeated, she asks again about his actions and thus to make him realize the sword, and he explains that “all Asiatics believe” that whoever holds that they are not effective. Then to get him on her side, using his intellithis long-lost sword will be “the lord of all Asia,” and will revolt at the gence and ability for other ends. He can thus be reintroduced in later command of whoever possesses it. An expedition led by a Prof. episodes.” Marston intended from the outset that he might be introCartwright has found the sword, but the Prince intends to get the sword ducing a recurring character. and return it to its “rightful owners of today—the Japs!” (Pardon my The synopsis begins with Diana Prince’s boss at Military Intelligence, quoting the synopsis in this instance. I just wanted to give its flavor— Colonel Darnell, talking with an official of the Chinese government, and indicate why it was clearly written during World War II.) With the who has brought written approval of a travel permit for “Prince Valentin sword, the Japanese can cause a revolt in Tarnaroff, wealthy archaeologist India: “Asia will once more be under Nip personally conducting the rescue control and will fight the British.” (The of the American Cartwright slightly less offensive period word for the expedition caught up in the Kuen Japanese, “Nip/Nips,” is used only this once Lun mountains of northwest in the synopsis.) The Prince leaves. China when the war with Japan However far-out the precise concept of breaks out.” Diana is handed the Genghis Khan’s sword, Japanese strategy is permit, and finds—outside the office—that she was also surreptitiously slipped a note that says: “Ask the Prince about the sword of Genghis Khan.” The Prince turns out to be a “smoothie” who tells her she “would be very attractive if she did not wear glasses.” (Where have we heard that one before?) When he “suavely tries to remove the glasses himself,” she forgets herself and “gives him a W.W. sock and sees immediately the danger of giving herself

The return of Genghis Khan and/or his sword must’ve been a big theme in the 1940s. The above Chuck Cuidera panels from Military Comics #7 (Feb. 1942) are part of a story reprinted in DC’s wonderful Blackhawk Archives, Vol. 1— while the Flash panel of the great Khan on his deathbed by writer Gardner Fox and artist Martin Naydel, from the never-published “Will of William Wilson” story done for All-Star Comics, was first (and only) seen Ye Editor’s out-of-print All-Star Companion in 2000. [©2003 DC Comics.]

Three “Lost” Wonder Woman Adventures

presented fairly accurately by Marston. Tokyo’s warlords wanted to unite all of Asia and the Pacific in their Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere— under their total control, of course—and, while other troops were trying to conquer China, it was also their desire to split India off from British colonial rule. At this point in the narrative, Marston, Mayer, or someone else has scribbled a handwritten note between the lines: “[Wonder Woman] tips chair out window & lands on feet.” The synopsis as typed doesn’t tell how she got away... just has her pop up later.

As noted in the article, “The Cheetah’s Thought Prisoners” wasn’t printed till 1969, roughly a quarter of a century after it was prepared. It was once earmarked to appear in Comic Cavalcade #24 in 1947. These panels repro’d from photocopies of the original art, courtesy of the Howell/Kalish Collection. [©2003 DC Comics.]

Meanwhile, Major Steve Trevor, her long-suffering boyfriend, has been sent “to investigate for the army the riots and race feeling which is reported to be going on in India and upper Asia near the base of the new supply route to China.” In the city of Golaghat he overhears “a fanatical orator” promising that a great leader will arise. “The mob cries, ‘Down with the British Raj! Swaraj, Swaraj!’ (Home Rule, Home Rule!)” In the village tavern, Wonder Woman joins him disguised as a demure Chinese girl. Turns out Steve, too, is looking for the sword of Genghis Khan. Small world, huh? When Prince Valentin enters, the disguised “WW” plays up to him and “lures him on coyly until he asks her for a date”—to which she

agrees. She sneaks off to save Steve (what else is new?) from that orator and his thugs in a dark alley—after which she rejoins the Prince, who flies with her over “the bare mountains at the western tip of China.” Reaching the Cartwright expedition in the ravines of the Kuen Lun Mountains, they are shown the sword. While the Prince sleeps, Wonder Woman reveals herself to the expedition, but Tomlins—“a rough young type”—persuades the others they can’t trust her. Wonder Woman ends up being tied up by Tomlins—with her own unbreakable lasso, this time—but Cartwright releases her. She “grabs Tomlin and the P. each by one foot and holds them head downwards till they agree to behave.” The whole group sets off in the plane. Steve, meanwhile, is surprised when an Indian train pulls in—and Etta Candy and four Holliday Girls get off, dressed as volunteer nurses. On the plane, Wonder Woman foolishly stands on the bomb bay doors. The Prince opens them beneath her feet, toppling her into “the yellow waters of the Mekong River below.” She fights off some alligators and winds up riding a pair of them, one foot on each, steering with her lasso: “Boy! This is better than aquaplaning any day!” Hurrying to join Steve and Etta after getting touch with them via mental radio, she leaps over a Japanese patrol which fires away at her. Marston doesn’t say, but I assume she plays “bullets and bracelets” with them— her favorite game in the old days. Meanwhile, Etta and the girls “man” the guns of Steve’s plane and shoot down the Prince’s. Wonder Woman arrives. Prof. Cartwright and others are okay. Tomlins is dead in the crash. The Prince escapes into the jungle with a submachine gun and the sword. As they pursue him, Steve tells Wonder Woman he is really “a notorious international adventurer.” Marching toward Valentin’s hiding-place, she says he may go if he gives her the sword. When he threatens to shoot her, she tells him to “come out in the open and look at me while you do it!” He can’t bring himself to do so—and meekly hands her the sword. To Steve’s chagrin, she gives him a five-minute head start “to get going for Burma.” Back in Golaghat, Wonder Woman halts the rampaging mob by holding up the sword; they are “stunned with reverent fear.” Steve tells them the British are their defenders—

K’un-Lun, “the mythical dwelling-place of the immortals in Chinese legends,” later also figured into the origin of the hero Iron Fist in Marvel Premiere #15 (May 1974), as realized by writer Roy Thomas and artist/co-plotter Gil Kane. Roy happened upon that spelling of the “Kuen Lun Mountains” in a book on “Chinese mythology,” and used it for his and Gil’s version of Shangri-La. See the whole story (as inked by Dick Giordano) in the recent trade paperback Marvel Visionaries: Gil Kane. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

—and suddenly, out of left field, Queen Desira is talking to Wonder Woman through her earrings. Now, as every true Golden Age Wonder Woman (and JSA) aficionado knows, Desira is the winged queen of the planet Venus,

Queen Hepzibah, Genghis Khan, & The “Nuclear” Wars! introduced in All-Star Comics #13 (Oct-Nov. 1942, “Shanghaied into Space!”). When she and Wonder Woman parted company there, Desira gave her the pair of red earrings she’s worn ever since, kissing them to enable them to be the means of communication between them. (As Dave Barry would say: “I am not making this up.”) Desira, who’d also pop up in the published Sensation #11 (Nov. ’42) and in Wonder Woman #12 (Spring 1945), now descends to Earth “in her astral body” and takes the sword back home to Venus; to Steve and other onlookers, the blade merely vanishes into thin air. You can’t get much more deus ex machina that that. Wonder Woman flies Steve back to the States; Etta joins them “because there is no candy in India.” Steve says ruefully to the Amazon: “So you let the Prince escape! I never thought you would fall for a scoundrel!”

Second: I eventually learned the first Nuclear story had never been published and must be one of the “lost” DC stories of which pieces of art—often cut into 1/3-of-a-page pieces—would surface from time to time. Despairing of ever seeing it, in All-Star Squadron #16 (Dec. 1982) I wrote my own “prequel” to “Nuclear Returns!” which was illustrated by Adrian Gonzales and Rick Hoberg. I called it “The Magnetic Marauder!” after the epithet by which Nuclear was called in WW #43. Then, to my shock, not too long after All-Star Squadron #16 appeared, comics artist Richard Howell sent me photocopies of a pair of wide panels of original art from that unprinted first Nuclear outing! Not only that, but in them Nuclear’s 1950 outfit is merely pasted over a quite different costume, which sports more of a metal ski-mask than a helmet; even the armor on his chest and arms isn’t the same. In one of these two panels, Nuclear wears the WW #43 costume; in the other, the paste-over apparently fell off somewhere along the line, and the originally-drawn version is visible (see p. 15). Sometime in the ’90s, at a comics convention, I myself acquired a tier containing two panels of original art from that earlier story, which I still own (see p. 15). One of these likewise featured a pasted-up Nuclear figure, which I eventually peeled off to photocopy the older outfit below. When Alter Ego was re-launched, it was a foregone conclusion that I would print all four of those “lost” panels, plus the variant version of one. And I did, in A/E V3#5, along with some sample art from the 1950 story and the splash of All-Star Squadron #16.

She replies, “He is one now. When I am through with him, you’ll be glad to have him in the department!” But Prince Valentin Tarnaroff never reappeared—because his origin story was never printed in the first place! Personally, it doesn’t sound like a great loss. Why Diana thought he, as opposed to many other criminals she’d fought, was worth reforming, is a mystery whose answer was known only to Dr. Marston—but then, he managed to turn the evil Baroness Paula von Gunther into a benevolent scientist via rehabilitation on Transformation Island, so I suppose anything is possible. Queen Desira, as depicted in her final Golden Age appearance, in 1945. Her debut is on view in the All Star Archives, Vol. 3. [©2003 DC Comics.]

Now, on to...

“The Magnetic Prisoners” I was even happier to see the script for “The Magnetic Prisoners” than “Queen Hepzibah’s Revenge!” The reason? Two of them, really: First, at age nine, I had bought and read in Wonder Woman #43 (Sept.-Oct. 1950) a story called “Nuclear Returns!” For decades I hung onto that tattered copy with its relatively uncharacteristic super-villain (for the Golden Age Diana, anyway) whose armor gave him magnetic powers—as opposed to the “atomic” powers one might expect from a guy called Nuclear. But I was always puzzled by references and even a flashback therein to an earlier adventure in which Nuclear, whose real name was Percy Playboy (yes!), had first encountered the Amazon. By 1950 I’d been seeing virtually all of Wonder Woman’s adventures for five years (even if I didn’t always have the spare dime or 15¢ to buy every one), and I didn’t recall spotting Nuclear’s first appearance. Had it appeared even earlier?

Three “Lost” Wonder Woman Adventures

Then, another happy surprise: one of the scripts Joel Thingvall sent me was for a tale titled “The Magnetic Prisinors” (sic—nobody ever got around to correcting the spelling of “Prisoners”)—which turned out to be the first Nuclear story! In fact, there’s even a scribbled note thereon: “‘Nuclear Returns’ was published.” Centered near the top of the page was the information that “Prisoners” had been intended for Comic Cavalcade #26 (April-May 1948), only three issues before the last super-hero one; the “6” is over-written by a “5,” turning “#26” into “#25”—near a second handwritten notation: “Not Pub yet.” They got that right! (Just for the record: the actual “WW” lead in CC #25 was the unrelated “Hatred of Badra!”; #26’s was “Deception’s Daughter!” starring the offspring of Diana’s regular foe Duke Deception.) Interestingly, this is the only WW item Joel sent that was dated: “Aug. 23, 1946,” right above the typed “W.M. Marston.” This has led to some intriguing speculation by my friend Jerry Bails, who wondered in an e-mail if Marston’s assistant Joy Murchison (see above) might’ve had a hand in writing “The Magnetic Prisoners!” since Percy Playboy’s sister therein is named Joye. Or it may have been simply an in-joke, necessarily carried over into the 1950-published sequel that, since Marston died in 1947, was probably written by his successor, Robert Kanigher—unless the script for “Nuclear Returns!” sat on the shelf for several years. Happily, since A/E V3#5 appeared in the summer of 2000, several additional specimens of art from “The Magnetic Prisoners” have been sent to me by generous collectors. I felt that all of them—even those which saw print three years ago—should be used here to illustrate points in conjunction with Marston’s 1946 script. (I haven’t reprinted the alternate version of one panel showing Nuclear’s original costume before the paste-up. Gotta have some incentive for a new reader to order back issues, right?) Even more happily, one of the pages we’ve received— from Glen David Gold, long may his tribe increase—is the splash or “display panel,” which is reproduced here from a scan of the original art: [Wonder Woman TM & ©20

03 DC Comics.]

When he sent this art, Glen e-mailed that, “Under the ink, Nuclear is in his old costume (it’s just blacked out),” and that “WW’s boots have whiteout on them. Under the whiteout, there are shackles.” But here’s the kicker: Glen says the art “has a ‘write off’ date of 1952 on it.” So this story was not, after all, one of those that got axed in September 1949. Curiouser and curiouser. If the entire story and art of “The Magnetic Prisoners!” was still lying around the DC offices when “Nuclear Returns!” was published in 1950, why wasn’t it printed somewhere first? Only—if it had been, it wouldn’t have appeared as “The Magnetic Prisoners!” For the last two lines of the splash caption as originally scripted have been altered, along with the title, which is now “Nuclear, the Magnetic Menace!” And here you didn’t think comic book editors worked for a living! As the story proper begins on page 2, Steve Trevor and Diana Prince are returning from “a weekend trip on Giltman’s palatial yacht.” (Love those names: “Percy Playboy”... “Giltman”... Chester Gould, move over!) As that “millionaire yachtsman” breathes a sigh of relief to be back in port and starts to show them

Queen Hepzibah, Genghis Khan, & The “Nuclear” Wars!

a note he’s received, “Unseen from the yacht’s deck, a fantastic figure crouches beneath the pier,” as per caption. At this point—panel 3 of 5 scripted for p. 2—Marston wrote a lengthy panel and character description I’d like to share with you, word for word: “(Corner triple three panel space—Double Vert. with an extra horizontal panel at top) (Draw one side of yacht against pier. Beneath pier on pier’s foundation just above water is our new villain, Nuclear, on one knee, arms reaching up as though to embrace Giltman on yacht’s deck. Giltman is on yacht’s deck holding note which he has just taken from pocket. Steve comes into panel beside him. The idea is to show people on the yacht’s deck above Nuclear. Theory of Nuclear is that he wears Nuclear metal that exerts a terrific magnetic pull on people, on metal objects, etc. With Nuclear metal he sheathes his chest, arms, and hands. To protect his own body, he wears spun lead tights all over legs, middle, neck, head, and face—highly colored, of course—artists work out colors. His chest, shoulders, arms, and hands must be covered with black metal flexible armor from which shine lines of force like the lines of iron filings on paper above a magnet. He also wears a red spun lead cloak hanging from his shoulders which he can wrap around himself and cover the magnetic metal. The lines of iron filings should be drawn like ghostly little hooks with arrow points on lower ends. They hook and pull the victim toward Nuclear. On his head covering—on forehead—is atomic circle—nucleus with electrons whirling around it. Artists better work out sketch and submit to W.M.M. Show Nuclear’s hooks here reaching toward Giltman but not quite touching him.)” Whew! One thing about Marston—he wasn’t lazy! Incidentally, since it was standard at this time for pages to be divided into three rows/tiers of panels, Marston often describes a panel as “vertical” to mean that it takes up two tiers’ worth of space on one side of a page. Talk about micro-managing! Anyway, before Giltman can hand Steve the note, he’s suddenly pulled over the yacht’s railing by those “ghostly magnetic hooks.” He crashes on the pier (“Don’t show him quite hitting it because this fall kills him,” says the script). The note is carried off by an errant breeze, so Diana become Wonder Woman—so swiftly Steve doesn’t see the change—and climbs the mast, removes a boot, and grabs the note with her toes, as she thinks: “Lucky [Wonder Woman TM & ©2003 DC Comics.] that Amazon girls are taught to use their toes like fingers!” (Why she couldn’t have grabbed it with her hand in the time it took to remove a boot, I’ve no idea.) The note reads: “Three times I have invited you to contribute $100,000 to my magnetic researches. You have refused. Now I shall make an example of you so other wealthy men will become more generous. You will not return alive from your weekend yachting trip. Signed Nuclear.” There is a notation to “Put Nuclear’s symbol of an atomic nucleus around which electrons are whirling at end of note below signature.”

Giltman thought he’d survived the weekend—but he hadn’t, quite. “Who the cross-eyed hex is this ‘Nuclear’?” ponders Steve. At this point the monocle-wearing Percy Playboy arrives. The script naturally informs the artist that “Percy is Nuclear’s sappy alter ego—he is tall, well built fashionable society playboy of English imitator type— regular P.G. Wodehouse ‘Percy.’” Affecting a fake upper-class English accent, he comes on to Wonder Woman: “Won’t you throw me around your head at the Yacht Club dance tonight?” She accepts, in order to investigate Giltman’s murder. Etta Candy attends the dance, as well, dancing with “wealthy railroad tycoon Train.” Odd name that; wonder if his first name was Lionel. Rushing nervously for the men’s lounge, he drops a note that Etta finds. It demands that he “place 100 thousand-dollar bills in cigaret case on the North Balcony rail at midnight or you will die like Giltman.” (Of course, in 1946 $100,000 went roughly as far as a million buck does today, so it’s a lot more money than it may seem to today’s readers.) Etta, with a lasso in hand, hides on the balcony and watches as Nuclear picks up his blackmail money, using magnetism to pull the cigarette case to him. It pulls Etta off the balcony, as well! (Maybe Nuclear’s magnetic power acts on the iron in human bodies? Marston doesn’t really explain this.) “Thoughtful of you to bring this lariat, Miss Candy,” says Nuclear, after binding and gagging her. “I can use you for experiments in my laboratory.” “Ug-glub—ulp—” says Etta. Inside, Wonder Woman is dancing with one young man as Steve and several others try to cut in. Percy arrives, trembling with apparent fear (“I’m frightfully upset, don’tcha know!”), and shows her a note. At this point, we’re fortunate to have another tier of original art, courtesy once again of good ol’ Rich Howell and the Howell/Kalish Collection:

Along with a color note (“night”), Wonder Woman’s expression “Right-ho” in the second panel is marked to be changed. Her sarcastic words regarding his fake Britishisms may have been deemed too subtle by the editor. The girls’ line “Okay, chief!” is likewise marked for alteration, perhaps because they didn’t generally call the Amazon “chief.” Wonder Woman and several Holliday Girls take a limo to the top of the designated cliff. Again Marston describes the scene in detail “to give layout of stunt which follows.” When the Amazon races off to hide, Nuclear magnetically pulls the limo containing the girls over the edge of the cliff in two “double-vertical” panels, so-described. She catches it:

Three “Lost” Wonder Woman Adventures

At this point—page 9 of the script—come the pair of panels Rich Howell originally sent me from the Howell/Kalish Collection, which together amount to 2/3 of a page of what Marston calls “big 2” (doublewidth) panels:

“Great goddesses—Wonder Woman’s saved us!” The next moment, though, it’s pulled out of her hands and “jammed between boulders so the doors will not open,” and she “feels herself dragged by some invisible force”: “Pluto’s Hades—the same devil’s pulling me!”

You’ll notice that, contrary to Marston’s instructions, the magnetic pull issuing from Nuclear’s hands does not resemble “lines of force like the lines of iron filings on paper above a magnet,” or “ghostly little hooks,” but simply jagged lightning shapes. Perhaps what was described

was considered too hard to draw (or to understand). As I’d long suspected, the tier of original Nuclear/WW art I’d bought in the ’90s comprises the very next panels, which happen to be the remainder of page 9:

Queen Hepzibah, Genghis Khan, & The “Nuclear” Wars!

I’ll let cooler and wiser heads explain what “feminine brain magnetism” is. It’s all too scientifically subtle for me. But evidently Wonder Woman is impressed.

By whatever action or accident saved some of the art from this story,

we next have one entire, intact page—p. 10—which was cut into only two pieces, as seen by the horizontal black line above panels 4-5, and is now in the collection of Rich and Stephen Donnelly, who agreeably dug it out and sent us a copy:

Directly above: panel 5 with paste-up removed.

Notice anything unusual about this page—besides the fact that it is a page? That's right—Nuclear is shown in panels 4-5 wearing the metal helmet and adjusted armor which were done as paste-ups... while in panels 1-3 the paste-ups have either fallen off or were never put in place at all. Weird, isn't it: DC went to all the trouble to paste a virtually new costume on many panels in the first Nuclear story—and then never printed the story, but only its sequel! An unsolved mystery, for sure.

actual panels, there is a Peter drawing of the “fire pit,” for the colorist’s reference. Note also the various color notes about the “red firelite from pit” and the fact that WW is “carrying red boots in hand.”

Marston’s descriptions of these panels go into considerable detail about the precise way in which Wonder Woman is bound and blindfolded. This isn’t mere fetishism; it’s incumbent on one who is writing an intricate and precise scene to make certain the artist understands what the writer has in mind so he/she can depict it. In panel 3 Marston describes the procession of the bound Wonder Woman and Holliday Girls as “a lasso gang.”

The final pages of the art are currently still “M.I.A.,” and perhaps will ever remain so. Interestingly, when I finally saw the script, it was a 13pager; “WW” stories done for Comic Cavalcade at this time were generally that length, rather than the 12 pages they were in the threestory Wonder Woman. I already knew basically how the tale ended, since in WW #43 the Amazon says she “saw Nuclear fall into a flaming furnace.” On the next page, Joye Playboy adds more info in speaking to her: “You remember when Nuclear captured you and his magnetic machine was pulling you into a fiery pit? Steve Trevor arrived just in time to shoot Nuclear who fell into the furnace instead.”

The art, dialogue, and captions for this page, like the one preceding it, are just as per Marston’s script. At the bottom of the page, beneath the

Incidentally, Nuclear’s explanation of his power here explains the connection between his adopted name and his use of magnetism. Atomic physicists, please take note.

Three “Lost” Wonder Woman Adventures

a fiery pit near a “magnetic cannon which is tuned with wires, tubes, any gadget you like.” The weapon “draws objects irresistibly. I must see how long it takes to pull strong girls into my electric furnace pit!” Wonder Woman is to watch, since Nuclear is “saving [her] for something more interesting.” As the magnetic cannon pulls the struggling, hand-bound Holliday Girls toward the pit, he coldly times their progress: “Hm—47 seconds— that’s about 4 seconds per foot.” Etta, meanwhile, who’s been left bound in a lab closet, frees herself and unties Wonder Woman from her magic lasso—though she “can’t untie the magnetism in your bracelets an’ anklets.” Not that that minor detail stops the Amazon. Her hands and feet still held together magnetically, she leaps feetfirst to strike Nuclear in his “belly”—basically the splash page scene, minus boots. As he falls, she grabs his cape with her “bound” hands and drops the “magnet-proof cloak” over the mouth of the cannon, before the girls can be quite pulled into the furnace.

“Please don’t throw me in that briar patch!” Firebrand toys with Nuclear— then rescues her fellow heroes in All-Star Squadron #16’s version of the then-“lost” climax of the first Nuclear story. Script by Roy Thomas; art by Adrian Gonzales & Rick Hoberg. We wanted to print at least a few panels from that 1982 issue, since Ye Editor’s intended installment of the “All-Star Squadron Chronicles” got squeezed out of this issue. [©2003 DC Comics.]

Working from that information, I had constructed the climactic scene for All-Star Squadron #16. Understandably, my 1982 story was quite different from the original, about which I knew relatively little. Also, besides the Amazon and Steve Trevor (who had to be there because of Joye’s statement), several other All-Stars were necessarily involved in the Squadron epic: Liberty Belle, Johnny Quick, Robotman, Commander Steel (the Gerry Conway/Don Heck hero I’d drafted into the group mag, then promoted because I didn’t care much for the name “Steel” by itself), and Firebrand (the female version of the old Quality hero). In the tale’s climax, Nuclear is about to make several unconscious super-heroes topple into his “fiery pit.” Logically, however, the flames merely awaken the unconscious Firebrand, who turns the tables on him and leads her groggy fellow All-Stars in a final assault on him. Steve dutifully wings the archvillain, who fulfills his long-scripted destiny by toppling into the pit. At story’s end, Joye won’t accept now, any more than she has before, that her brother Percy was Nuclear; she thinks the two of them died together. Well, in a sense, they did.

At this point Nuclear turns his full magnetic force on Wonder Woman and is pulling her inexorably toward the fiery pit—when Steve Trevor, arriving at the Playboy mansion, finds a sliding panel in Percy’s room which leads to Nuclear’s laboratory. “A shot rings out—Steve Trevor never misses.” She falls into Steve’s arms, and he exclaims: “Right into my arms and bound tight—at last I’ve got you, Beautiful!” “Stop it, Steve!” she rebukes him—at the same time thinking, “If he does, I’ll never speak to him again!” Wonder Woman won’t tell anyone, not even the grieving Joye, that Percy was Nuclear. Reversing Nuclear’s machine, in the final panel she has freed herself and is sitting on the floor putting on her boots, while “Steve sits in chair on one side of WW, leaning forward and down, elbows on knees and talking to her.”

On pp. 11-13 of Marston’s script for the 1946 “Magnetic Prisoners,” however, he reveals to the bound Wonder Woman that his costume is made of “spun lead which cuts off the magnetic force... when I choose,” simply by drawing his cloak across his chest, shoulders, and arms. Nuclear shows them This 1940s Wonder Woman drawing has been circulating for years—sexy by the standards of the day, but fairly mild by ours. Still, since this is a family magazine (albeit for a very off-beat family), we’ve had to cover up a bit of the art. We’ve enclosed it mostly because Ye Ed has always been suspicious as to whether it was actually drawn by H.G. Peter, even in jest. Why? Mainly because of the Amazon’s bracelets, which seem to have been added as an afterthought and have no three-dimensionality or thickness to them as they always do in his published art. By the way, Carole Seuling tells us that when someone first gave her and her husband Phil a copy of this drawing several decades ago, they were told it had been done by one or more DC staff artists in the early 1940s, as a gag. If so, they did a good job of capturing HGP’s style, even his inking! Thanks to Joel Thingvall for e-mailing us a copy of this art when Roy misplaced his own. Printing it shouldn’t offend much of anybody— whether by HGP or others, it was all done in the spirit of fun. [Wonder Woman TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

Ah, they don’t make ’em like that anymore! All the same, I’m glad that these two scripts and a synopsis from 1940s “Wonder Woman” adventures were saved—whether by Dr. Marston’s widow or by someone else—for the light they shed on the creative processes of the Amazon’s co-creator and on the physical and formulaic aspects of Golden Age scriptwriting. And if anybody out there ever runs into more art of Queen Hepzibah’s beastly minions or Nuclear’s virgin encounter with Wonder Woman—or, Athena help us, maybe even a character sketch of Prince Valentin Tarnaroff holding high the sword of Genghis Khan—we hope they’ll let us print them in Alter Ego. From where I sit—as long as unpublished art and story remain unseen and unrecorded, the Golden Age of Comics is still an ongoing era.

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

MGILBERT@EFN.ORG

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

IN APRIL: ’70s NATIONAL LAMPOON COMICS!

tional Lampoon

han Wilson. Na

Art and charac ductions.

CBA #24, the next-to-last TwoMorrows issue, features “THE COMICS OF NATIONAL LAMPOON,” a look at the great adult humor mag’s funny-book material. Behind a new GAHAN WILSON cover (plus interview) and a VAUGHN BODÉ-inspired back cover (featuring Cheech Wizard!) by his son, MARK BODÉ, we talk to NatLamp legendary art director MICHAEL GROSS, and the magazine’s many contributors, including NEAL ADAMS, FRANK SPRINGER, SEAN KELLY, SHARY FLENNEKIN, ED SUBITSKY, M.K. BROWN, B.K. TAYLOR, BOBBY LONDON, MICHEL CHOQUETTE, ALAN KUPPERBERG, and many more! So be here as we takes a renewed look at Tarzan of the Cows, Frontline Dentists, Dragula, Son O’ God, Nuts, Trots ‘n’ Bonnie, The Appletons, One Year Affair, Norman the Barbarian, and more from the Me Decade, when satire was king and NatLamp was THE place to be! $9 postpaid in the US!

TwoMorrows. Bringing New Life To Comics Fandom. TwoMorrows • 1812 Park Drive • Raleigh, NC 27605 USA • 919-833-8092 • FAX: 919-833-8023 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

Simon & Kirby: Flying Discs and Floating Chairs! Simon & Kirby were arguably the greatest comic book combo of the Golden Age. Joe Simon focused primarily on writing and inking, while Jack Kirby concentrated on penciling. Together they produced comic book magic. Captain America, The Boy Commandos, Black Magic, and Young Romance were just a few of their top-selling creations. This issue, we’ve uncovered three previously unpublished pages from this “team supreme.” Two are from the very beginning of their partnership, and one is from near its end. Let’s start with...

The Black Cat Mystery! Or, if you prefer, the strange case of “The Comic That Never Was!” But before we tell you about Simon & Kirby’s connection to that caper, we need to talk about Black Cat Comics. Few comic book series ever had a more schizophrenic history than Harvey Comics’ Black Cat. Harvey’s sexy super-heroine of that name debuted in the first issue of Pocket Comics in 1941. She switched to Speed Comics in 1942 before winning her own title in 1946. By 1949 super-heroes were dying out, so Black Cat Comics became Black Cat Western with issue #16. Luckily, The Black Cat and Linda Turner (her movie star alter ego) looked as sexy on horseback as she had on a motorcycle, but the experiment lasted only four issues. By #20 the title reverted to Black Cat (minus the “Comics,” but with the unofficial title “The Darling of Comics”)—then changed to Black Cat Mystery Comics nine issues later. The masked super-heroine apparently vanished from the interiors after #29,

The first “Black Cat” splash—story credited to Alfred Harvey, art to Al Gabriele—from Pocket Comics #1 (Aug. 1941), as reprinted in The Original Black Cat #6 (Aug. ’91). [©2003 Lorne-Harvey Publications, Inc.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

Black Cat Comics #1 (June-July 1946).

Black Cat Western #16 (March 1949) —the new title.

Black Cat #20 (Nov. 1949)—the final cover with a western theme.

Black Cat Mystery Comics #30 (Aug. 1951)—the last cover featuring the heroine; apparently her final interior stories had appeared in #29.

Black Cat Mystery #33 (Feb. ’52). A typical cover from the horror period. By now, the word “Comics” has been dropped, and with #44 (June ’53) even the word “Mystery” is greatly reduced in size. Maybe the publisher thought someone would confuse his comics with Agatha Christie?

Black Cat Comics #12 (July 1948); our red-haired heroine took to horseback and cowboy-movie themes four issues before the title was officially changed.

Black Cat Mystic #58 (Sept. 1956). Yeah, we didn’t show the cover of Black Cat Mystery #57. So sue us! A typically well-drawn Lee Elias splash page from the Golden Age comic, as seen in the black-&-white reprint The Original Black Cat #4 (June ’91).

Black Cat #63 (Oct. ’62). A brief Silver Age revival—with reprints! Black Cat Western Mystery #54 (Feb. ’55). The Cat came back!

Simon & Kirby: Flying Discs and Floating Chars!

collection. The cover logo indicated it was originally intended for the 59th issue of Harvey’s Black Cat Mystery. But there was no such issue! As mentioned above, the titled changed to Black Cat Mystic with issue #58. Harvey did publish #59, but with a different cover—and with the latter name. It was a perplexing mystery, partly solved by Bill Howard, who was kind enough to share some background on the page, as related by the collector who sold it to him: “In the late ’50s Harvey needed to make the transition away from horror into more sci-fi, western, and adventure. They brought in Simon & Kirby. Black Cat had already been transformed into a ‘horror’ book and the name was changed to Black Cat Mystery. The cover you own was originally intended for issue #59, the final Black Cat Mystery. Alfred Harvey and Simon put their heads together and surmised that an entirely new title would be better. They launched Alarming Tales #1 and used the story of the man in the flying chair in this book. Joe Simon thought that Kirby’s man in the chair was too large and did not look like an ordinary person, so he redrew the cover himself. If you look at the cover of Alarming Tales #1, Kirby is credited with the cover, but it is all Joe Simon. “The Black Cat Mystery cover I own is ALL Kirby and infinitely better, IMHO, than the published cover to Alarming Tales #1. In fact, Joe Simon himself admitted that Kirby’s rendition, in the end,

though she still appeared on the cover of #30. From #30-53 Black Cat Mystery was a straight horror comic. By the end of that time, the crusade against horror comics was making Harvey a bit nervous, so in February 1955 they changed it into Black Cat Western Mystery, starring our horse-riding heroine again. Go figure! That lasted precisely one issue; then the comic reverted yet again to the more streamlined Black Cat Western for the next two. But wait! We’re not done yet! For some reason, the title changed back to Black Cat Mystery for one lone issue (#57), before morphing into Black Cat Mystic for #58-62. These six Comics Code-approved books featured G-rated science-fiction and supernatural stories by Simon & Kirby, and others. S&K also spearheaded a similar mystery title for Harvey, Alarming Tales. More on that later. Black Cat Comics/Mystery/Western/Mystic was finally cancelled in 1958, but returned in 1962 for three more issues. These were giant 25¢ comics containing reprints of Linda Turner, the original Black Cat. The title? Why, Black Cat Comics, of course! As I said at the beginning: schizophrenic! All of which leads to the mystery of...

The Comic That Never Was! Last year, I spotted a very exciting item while surfing the web. Bill Howard had posted an unpublished Simon & Kirby cover from his

Simon & Kirby’s cover for Black Cat Mystic #59 (Sept. 1956).

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

was better. The cover was not published, but everyone who sees it comments favorably, marvels at its history, and wonders how I was lucky enough to come by it.” That explains why Kirby’s original cover wasn’t published—but why the Black Cat Mystery logo? Happily, a little detective work solved that question, too. “Donnegan’s Daffy Chair” appeared in Alarming Tales #1 (coverdated Sept. 1957), along with Joe Simon’s reworked cover illustrating the story. Harvey’s companion title Black Cat Mystic #59 also appeared that same month. Both series featured Simon & Kirby art. Apparently, the “Donnegan” story was originally slated for Black Cat Mystery #59, but was pulled and featured instead as the cover story for Alarming Tales. When Simon redrew the cover, Kirby’s original art was scrapped. At the same time, the publishers changed Black Cat Mystery into

Black Cat Mystic, and the 59th issue of that title appeared with a different Kirby cover. But the original cover, the unpublished one printed above, includes the earlier logo before the last-minute title change. A little confusing, but at least it solves that little Black Cat... mystery! Both versions are quite striking—and provide us with a unique opportunity to compare Joe Simon’s and Jack Kirby’s separate takes on the same cover idea. We thank Bill Howard for sharing his art with us. And now you know the story behind the comic that never was!

The Daring Disc! We are also pleased to present two pages of “Daring Disc,” a rare Simon & Kirby story lost for over sixty years! These two pages were part of a feature commissioned in 1940 by Lloyd Jacquet for his comics shop Funnies, Inc. [see last issue], but never published.

Simon & Kirby: Flying Discs and Floating Chars!

The 1940 splash page of Simon & Kirby’s “Daring Disc.” It pulls you up short for a moment when you stop and suddenly remember—this is half a decade before the reported appearance of “flying saucers” which began soon after the end of World War II! [©2003 Joe Simon.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

Simon & Kirby: Flying Discs and Floating Chars!

Collector Robert K. Wiener bought the story 25 years ago, but only “went public” with his treasure about a year ago. When he did, he asked if any art-spotters could identify the artist. Kirby-expert Greg Theakston replied: “‘You just hit the jackpot, Tiger!’ This story is by Joe Simon and JACK KIRBY!!!!!! A previously unknown collaboration by the two of them. “This story appears to have been done in the second half of 1940, about the time S&K went to Timely. The opening panel is all Simon, but Kirby pencils most of the job. Logo by Simon, but the lettering is by the same hand that did the ‘Blue Bolt’ stories. “Also, the odd 5-page format suggests that there are/were supposed to be more pages to the story. I suspect that Kent ended up with the disc, and was supposed to have used it in continuing adventures. There was an Eando Binder story from the same period that uses this premise. Perhaps S&K used it as an inspiration. “Regards, GT” Perhaps, but it’s just as likely that the story was inspired by one of the many pulp covers that used the theme, such as Frank R. Paul’s classic 1930 Air Wonder Stories cover. One of DC’s sci-fi comics also sported a “Flying Buzzsaw” cover, but that was in the late ’50s. If you’d like to see the remaining “Daring Disc” pages, check out Vanguard Publishing’s limited-edition hardcover reissue of Joe Simon’s The Comic Book Masters. Joe and son Jim originally self-published this candid 1990 memoir under their Crestwood II imprint— and it’s chock-full of juicy comic book gossip!

And this cover is a full decade and a half before “flying saucer” reports started appearing in America’s newspapers! Frank R. Paul’s classic April 1930 cover for H. McKay’s story “The Flying Buzz-Saw.” The Air Wonder Stories pulp was started by science-fiction founding father Hugo Gernsback after he left Amazing. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

The first story shows the flying disc—acting almost like a flying buzzsaw—destroying planes, shattering fire trucks, and terrorizing the city. Handsome young scientist Kent Mervale spots the carnage from his window and tails the evil disc with his “super-speed plane on the roof of the building.” The disc leads Kent towards a foreboding mountain, then swoops around and attacks the plane. He parachutes down, but is captured by Professor Wilde, who plans to use the disc’s “Unicosmic Force” to demoralize America. “My legions, the Homeland Front, will overthrow your puny government!” he sneers. Well, Kent will have none of that. He slips his bonds and slugs the prof, before flying off into the sunset. Whew! A close call for America!

Joe Simon’s chatty history is one of the most entertaining first-hand accounts of the early days of comics I’ve ever read. Vanguard’s long-delayed revised edition should be out by the time you read this—with the entire five-page “Daring Disc” story printed for the first time! For now, though, we hope we’ve whetted your appetite with our little preview, and we thank Joe Simon for his permission to print two pages from the story.

Next issue: Are you ready for “The Marvel Comics That Never Were”? You won’t believe the “imaginary” covers we’ve uncovered—including one featuring an incredible 1962 Millie the Model/Fantastic Four team-up! ’Til next time...

Well, MIKE “Romita-Man”BURKEY wants to buy your Amazing Spider-Man #39-297 art, as well as “any” comic book art from the ’30s to present! Check out Mike’s Web site with over 700 pictured pieces of art for sale or trade at:

www.romitaman.com or write: P.O. Box 455, Ravenna, OH 44266 PH: 330-296-2415 • e-mail: MikeBurkey@aol.com

Alex Toth

ALEX TOTH on NOEL SICKLES & FRED RAY [ALTER EGO INTRODUCTION: In issue #19 we spotlighted considerable coverage of Fred Ray, artist of some of the most memorable Superman covers ever, as well as the major artist of the “Tomahawk” series. We’ll have commentary on that issue, for the most part, in A/E #24, but here are veteran artist Alex Toth’s hand-lettered remarks on Ray, and on his ‘Sickles Connection,’ received soon after publication of issue #19, precisely as they filled both sides of a postcard. —Roy.]

Alex Toth

A fine Fred Ray "Tomahawk" splash page from Star Spangled Comics #86 (Nov. 1948). Thanks to Bob Bailey—we think! The name of the donor of the color scan got dis-attached from the image. (That's why Ye Oldfashioned Editor likes photocopies—but hey, we take ’em as we can get ’em, and happy to have ’em!) [©2003 DC Comics.]

Ever since the fact was revealed by the two of them at a San Diego Comic-Con in the late 1970s, Noel Sickles has been well-known to fans as having been a sometime helper and “ghost”—and powerful early influence—on his friend Milton Caniff’s popular Terry and the Pirates newspaper strip during its early years. Here are two 1936 dailies from Sickles’ Scorchy Smith; he quit that strip after a couple of years in favor of other artistic pursuits. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

Alex Toth

(Left:) One of Fred Ray's straight western stories, from Detective Comics #155 (Jan. 1950). This one we know came to us courtesy of Bob Bailey. To quote a taxi driver named Travis Bickle—"Next week, we gotta get organizized!" [©2003 DC Comics.]

(Left:) Alex Toth’s done a western or two himself—such as this masterfullycomposed splash page from his (and writer Bob Kanigher’s) third tale of the secret-identity cowboy hero version of Johnny Thunder. It’s from All-American Comics #102 (Oct. 1948), the final issue before J.T. and his boots-and-saddles buddies kicked out Green Lantern and Dr. Mid-Nite, took over the whole mag, and changed the title to All-American Western. [©2003 DC Comics.]

Title Comic Fandom Archive

Claude Held, Pioneer Comic Book Dealer

by Bill Schelly

Claude Held (at left) with an unknown fan, 1964— flanked by the covers of vintage issues of two pulp magazines he mentions: Weird Tales (May 1934) cover-featuring Conan, and Amazing Stories (Feb. 1940) spotlighting an Eando (Otto) Binder tale of Adam Link, Robot. Both Conan and Adam Link —as well as Binder—would make their mark in comic books between the early 1940s and the 1970s. [©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

[Introduction: Although comic fandom emerged as a recognizable entity in the early 1960s, there were people who collected comic books from the very beginning of the medium. And where there were collectors, eventually there would be comic book dealers to supply the demand for back issues. As far as I know, the earliest known comic book dealer was Claude Held of Buffalo, New York, who began amassing comics for re-sale in the mid-1940s. While researching fandom’s “pre-history” for the second edition of my Hamster Press book The Golden Age of Comic Fandom, I had the opportunity to chat with Claude about those early days. In the relatively brief time we talked, he related some wonderful stories about some of the early deals he made, and I had the feeling we had only scratched the surface. But, as I was unable to fit most of the information in my book, for space considerations, I’m pleased to be able to print the full transcript of our talk now. Our conversation took place by telephone on February 19, 1998; the tape was transcribed by Brian K. Morris.] BILL SCHELLY: Let’s start with finding out a little about you. You were a science-fiction fan as a kid, weren’t you? CLAUDE HELD: Right. I lived upstairs and Kenny Krueger lived downstairs. We lived on Fountain Street in Buffalo, New York. Around 1937 and 1938, we both became interested in the science-fiction pulp magazines. I think the first one we ever had was a Thrilling Wonder Stories. A few months after we got interested in that, a used-book store was opening in the next block on Carlton Street, and Kenny’s father had contracted to do the interior painting. Ken and I got in there the day before they opened, and found they had racks and racks of used pulps— Weird Tales, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Amazing, many others—all selling for three cents apiece. But none of us had any money in those days. I managed to scrounge up fifteen cents. I even knew which ones I was going to pick out—nice big early Wonder Stories. I went in the next day after school and they were all cleaned out already. Somebody beat

me to them. [laughs] That was my first real disappointment. Anyway, from then on, both of us collected science-fiction, bought and sold, and I think right away I got the idea that maybe I could pick up magazines and sell them through the mail. This was around 1939, 1940. SCHELLY: You were about what grade in school at the time? HELD: Eighth grade. But I didn’t come out with my first real list until around ’42 or ’43. I’d like to buy some of that stuff back today. [laughs]

SCHELLY: At those prices. HELD: You’re not kidding. Well, anyway, after high school, I was in the Navy a couple of years. I was discharged in ’46. I went to the University of Buffalo. All my classes were in the morning between eight and eleven or twelve o’clock. That gave me plenty of time for a part-time job, and I got the idea of opening up a bookstore. So I went to school in the morning, opened up the bookstore from noon until about nine. SCHELLY: A storefront. HELD: Right, and the comics started from that. The store was on a busy corner, on Utica near Jefferson in Buffalo. One day this guy who’d just gotten out of the Army pulled up his car outside my store. I happened to be standing in the doorway at the time. He jumped out of the car and he said to me, “Do you buy comics?” I said, “Yeah.” At the time, I was selling old comics for three cents apiece, just like those pulps I mentioned before. Well, he said, “Okay, I’ve got some. What do you pay?” And I said, “A dollar a hundred.” He says, “Okay,” and he went and parked the car a block or so down the street. When he came back, he had these two stacks. He had tied them up in stacks of a hundred. He brought them in the store, and then he turned around and started out. I asked him, “Where are you going?” He said, “To get some more.” By the time he was done, he’d brought in some 1700 comics. [laughs] Remember, I had just started this store, and I didn’t have a hell of a lot

Comic Fandom Archive of dough. I said to him, “Jeez, I didn’t think you had that many!” I wound up getting the 1700 comics for $15. SCHELLY: Wow. HELD: Now, just stop and think. This was 1946. How would you like to have those today? SCHELLY: I’m sure that it’s just an incredible bunch of comics. How could it not be?

HELD: It was fantastic because all of the early DCs, the More Funs, all that type of stuff was in there. So I put them in “All of the early DCs, the More Funs, all that the back room. The stuff type of stuff” was in boxes in a car that from the last few years, pulled up in front of Claude’s first store in 1946. like 1943 to 1946, I put Like maybe a copy of More Fun Comics #62 out at three cents apiece. (Dec. 1940), with Spectre cover probably by The older ones I liked, so Bernard Baily? Today’s Overstreet Guide price in I kept them for myself. near mint: $3200. Sigh.... [©2003 DC Comics.] Now, going forward a couple of years, say to ’49 or ’50. Are you familiar with Bill Thailing? SCHELLY: Yes, I’ve spoken to him a couple of times. He was also an early dealer, who was very important in the early 1960s, getting back issues to the folks like Raymond Miller who were writing articles for Alter Ego and other early fanzines. HELD: Okay. Did you also talk to Mickey Sullivan? SCHELLY: That name doesn’t ring a bell. HELD: Here’s the story on those two people. I don’t know which one came in first. I think it was Bill. There was another book dealer down on Genesee Street named Keel Book Store. When people would ask for old magazines, he would send them up to my place. So one day Bill Thailing, who lived in Cleveland, Ohio, was referred to me. Bill came in my store and asked if I had any old comic books.

SCHELLY: What about Mickey Sullivan? HELD: Mickey lived down in Erie, Pennsylvania. He was just a kid then. He used to come up with his mother. This was when I was at the quarter-apiece stage. He thought I was a highway robber for asking that much. I didn’t even want to sell them at that price… but he would almost cry, and his mother would break down and say, “We came all this way, so we’ll get these, this, or that….” Or whatever. And I had now come to the point where I really wanted to save what old comics I still had from that original deal. SCHELLY: You must have had other sources for comics, besides that original bunch. HELD: Yes! Sometime around 1953 or 1954, there were big police raids on the book stores in Buffalo. Some of them were selling what they called “striptease pictures.” Well, Old Man Keel of Keel’s Bookstore on Genesee Street, by this time, had sold out to a fellow who was arrested for that very reason, and he needed money for a lawyer. And this fellow had been putting comic books aside back in the ’40s. After talking on the phone, I realized he had a lot of really good ones. He asked me if I wanted to buy them. We finally agreed on a price of a nickel apiece. There were a thousand or 1200 comics in this deal. When I went home that night, he had stacked up the side porch of my house with cartons of comics. That was one of the best sights of my life. I remember specifically that he had at least ten, twelve of Superman #2 and Superman #3 in Near Mint condition. Another big one that he had was Planet #1. He had a handful of those. Now, I’m not kidding you. This happened. SCHELLY: Was this when you started putting out a list of comic books for sale? HELD: Not yet. I was still at the point of putting them aside. But I had been putting out a list of fantasy books and magazines for sale all through the ’40s and ’50s. It wasn’t until sometime in the late 1950s that I started to put some comic books on those lists. Again I was treated like a highway robber. A lot of people were infuriated that I was charging 50¢ or a dollar for a 1930-something comic book. They grumbled… but they bought them anyway. Then gradually I started putting out lists of mostly comic books, in the early 1960s. Phil Seuling and Howard Rogofsky didn’t come in until a couple of years later. SCHELLY: Right, ’62, ’63. What about Bill Thailing? HELD: He had been selling comics to other collectors through the mail, but not putting out lists until about this same time. Also, Malcolm

SCHELLY: He came all the way up to Buffalo, huh? HELD: Yeah. This is around 1950 or ’51. Well, I was thinking of the ones I had in the back that I had been reluctant to sell—so I pulled out some and sold them to him for, I think, a dime apiece. He bought some, and then he came back a few months later and bought some more. But I didn’t feel too happy about selling these things, because I actually wanted to keep them longer. So the price went up to a quarter, and I think he squawked. [laughs] But he bought a bunch more.

“I remember specifically that [Old Man Keel] had at least ten, twelve of Superman #2 and Superman #3 in Near Mint condition. Another big one that he had was Planet #1. He had a handful of those.” Now you’re making us cry, Claude! [Superman covers ©2003 DC Comics; Planet #1 cover ©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

Claude Held Willits was in on that very early stuff, too. One night down in New York in his hotel room, Phil Seuling had a bunch of us up there. I think it was around ’64. It might have been at the very first comic convention. SCHELLY: That would have been 1964. I know you were there, and also Malcolm Willits and Phil Seuling. So this would have been in July 1964…. HELD: So Malcolm invites us to his hotel room. His bed was just loaded with reprint Golden Age comics—the ones that reprinted newspaper strips. He had all the Comics on Parade and all that stuff, early Tip Tops with the Tarzan covers, and all that. Oh boy, I’d like to be back there, I’ll tell you. [chuckles] SCHELLY: Getting back to your comics lists…. I remember getting on your mailing list around late 1964. HELD: I took a lot of flak. In one of Phil Seuling’s early convention program bulletins, I was referred to as “Claudius”… because I was charging the unheard-of price of a dollar for a ten-cent comic book. SCHELLY: Your prices weren’t as high as Howard Rogofsky’s. HELD: True. I remember through the years, I had almost every scarce comic there was at one time or another, but there were certain series that we didn’t get in Buffalo. MLJs weren’t that common. One big collection I missed out on, though; this is around ’65, ’66, maybe a year or two later. I had another store that was out on Kensington Avenue, and it’s a May or June day, and this man and woman come in. They were from down in New Jersey. They brought in a couple of shopping-bags full, and they were nothing exciting... comics from the late ’40s, I think. Well, I bought them, and they asked me if I really wanted to buy a lot of old comics. I said, “Yeah. The older, the better.” So they told me where they were from—I don’t remember now, they lived quite a ways away—but they had a large collection of stuff. So we exchanged addresses. They were going to bring them up to Buffalo. About six months later, I got a phone call from Seuling down in New York and he said, “I just bought the best comic collection I ever had.” And I said, “Yeah, what was it?” He starts to rattle out all these names: Daredevil Battles Hitler, and so forth, and the particular comics he named sounded familiar. Because in the meantime, these people had written to me and told me what they had. So I said to Phil, “You know, that didn’t come out of Jersey?” “Yeah,” he said. Then he told me the name of the sellers— just who I thought it was. Boy, I really sunk on that one. Seuling claimed that was the best collection he ever picked up.

book was graded Mint, and then it went Near Mint, and then Very Fine, then Fine. It was a graduated scale, just like coins were. That’s the way I tried to grade things. Things were a lot looser then than they are today. Today, when they say Mint for an old comic book, they really mean absolutely perfect... but that’s because the prices are so high. SCHELLY: That’s one of the reasons Howard Rogofsky got out of the comics field. He said the grading was too finicky. HELD: It might be today, but I didn’t think it was a problem back then. People could always return stuff if they didn’t like it. SCHELLY: Postage was a lot cheaper then. So let’s see: you were dealing comic books out of your store in Buffalo…. HELD: Right. And I made all kinds of trades to get comics. Like with a guy named Joey Kuehnert, who had built up a fantastic collection, then became a coin dealer, which I was, too. And around the early 1960s, I was able to buy his collection, but not with money because he wouldn’t have sold me the stuff. But I had some coins that he really wanted. So that’s how I was able to get his comics from him. In fact, I’ve still got his inventory list around someplace. He had all the early Batman and Detective issues, and lots of other early, fantastic stuff. SCHELLY: I didn’t realize you were into other fields, like coins. For the record, could you tell me all the different areas you were into, in terms of collectibles? Were you into stamps? HELD: Oh, yeah. In fact, stamp collecting was the very first thing I was into. Captain Tim Healey and His Stamp Club of the Air, 1933. When I opened my store, I was mainly books, stamps, and magazines. The coins I added later. Then I dropped the coins in the early 1970s. SCHELLY: So when did you stop dealing comics? Or are you still doing it? HELD: Ah, no, no. I sold out my comic stock—what was left of it— back around 1982—to Gary Dolgoff. I didn’t have much left at the end, maybe 20- to 25,000 comics.

SCHELLY: Let’s talk for a minute about the 1950s, before there were official grading standards established for comic books. How did you label them on your lists, in terms of condition, back then? HELD: I had been dealing in science-fiction magazines, and for those it was Good, Average, and Fine. But I was also into coins, so I never went with the idea like a book dealer today uses, where that Fine is Mint. To me, a Mint comic

Phil Seuling, not Claude Held, wound up with a New Jersey couple’s cache, including Daredevil Battles Hitler. “Seuling claimed that was the best collection he ever picked up.” Here are the cover and splash. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

Comic Fandom Archive

SCHELLY: How about relating some more stories about “finds” of old comics, back then? HELD: Okay, here’s a good one. There’s a picture of me in the first Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide with my advertisement, and it shows me going through a really fabulous collection. We’re in the early ’60s, and… I don’t know if I got a letter or a phone call, or whatever. But this guy from Philadelphia said he had a line on a fantastic comic collection. We talked about it, and he said, “It’s down in Alabama.” He told me what was there, and I roughly figured I’d make him an offer of 1500 dollars. So he said, “Okay, but you’ve got to give me a down payment.” I’m very leery of that, but I did it. I sent him 300 bucks. A couple weeks later, it’s a Sunday morning, and it’s in March because I remember it was cold, and this big truck pulls in our driveway. I go out there and it’s a double-door truck. He opens up the door of that truck and oh, man! The mildew smell almost knocked me over. I was sick, no kidding—not so much from the smell, but I was looking in there and seeing box after box of great comic books, and they’re all mildewed. Not all of them, but anyway, there’s the story. They were stored in a shed down in Alabama, and the ones on the bottom were completely worthless from mildew. They were no good. But as you worked your way up, the smell didn’t get as bad. SCHELLY: You were able to maybe get three hundred bucks worth? HELD: We fenced back and forth, and I said, “No, this is terrible.” I think I offered him $600 for the whole thing. He said no, but I was able to pick out 600 or 900 comics out for the $300 I gave him, and he took the rest away. So I got some good stuff out of it, in the end.

HELD: Here’s a story of one of those sad cases. I’m not going to name names because some of the people involved are still in business today. One day, a fellow called me up from Jersey: “Claude, there’s a fantastic comic collection and the guy wants to sell. Blah, blah, blah.” So we did a lot of talking, and he was telling me this was a really big collection. So I got in touch with a friend of mine here in Buffalo who runs a trucking service, and arranged to send a truck down with a driver, etc. Okay, so the wife and I went down to New Jersey, and we met this guy that told me about this collection. So he took me over to this old man’s bookstore. This guy was about eighty or ninety years old, and he kept flexing his muscles for us. We had to keep on telling him how good he looked for his age. [laughs] Anyway, I said, “Let’s see the comics.” So he pointed to the top of the shelves in the store. I looked up there and—this was the early 1960s—and the oldest comic I saw up there was from the late 1950s! So I said, “These are all recent comics. I’m not going to pay a half a buck or a buck apiece for comics I can buy for three or five cents.” Oh, Lord. “Oh no, no, no, no. These are all old comics.” So we kept that up for a while. Finally, he showed me the old comics. He took me to the back room there and he’s got a couple of stacks of old comics back there, but those aren’t for sale. Oh, was I mad! I said, “You mean you got me all the way down here, with a truck and everything, to show me these damn three-, four-, five-year-old comic books?” Well, that was the end of the story. We drove back to Buffalo empty-handed. So it’s really true, you didn’t always make out. There were bad experiences in between good ones, and you just kind of hoped the good ones outnumbered the bad ones. But it’s been a lot of fun, I’ll tell you. SCHELLY: I can’t think of anybody by name who has been documented as a comics dealer before you. So it looks like you have that distinction.

But there’s a funny follow-up to that story. A few months later, I was down in Cleveland visiting Bill Thailing—he and I used to visit back HELD: Most of my life, I’ve and forth quite a bit in those days— followed the principle of being in a and his house just reeked of mildew! lot of different sales areas, because [laughs] He hadn’t told me anything all collectibles go through dormant about it, but when I questioned him, periods. Or like in the 1950s, when I found out he had gotten the comics “The oldest comic [the guy had] up there was from the late 1950s!” there was no business in the from that same batch that I’d ’Course, if one of those had been The Flash #105 (Feb.-March 1959) in mint, science-fiction field, maybe because rejected. He told me that he went to and he’d held onto it till today, Claude could’ve netted a cool $85,000... it was too crowded. Therefore, I the Pennsylvania-Ohio line with a but who knew, back then? Still, we can at least read it in The Flash tried to be diversified, rather than truck and got the rest of the stuff. I Archives, Vol. 1... and here’s a repro of the original Carmine Infantino/ have all my eggs in one basket, so to don’t know what he paid, not much, Joe Giella art, from a 1994 Sotheby’s comic art catalog. [©2003 DC Comics.] speak. maybe $500—but whatever it was, it was too much. His house stunk for years from those mildewed comics. I SCHELLY: Were you able to stick with that theory all the way don’t think he ever threw the bad ones out. through? SCHELLY: They’d be like mush. HELD: Well, yeah. Those were no good at all. But at least I made out all right. SCHELLY: I bet there were also plenty of “wild goose chases” for comics.

HELD: Unfortunately, no. [laughs] I sold my stamp stocks sometime in the 1960s, and I went more over to coins. Then I got out of coins and I went back into stamps, but I was always on the fence about comics because, through the years, I made a lot of money out of comics. But I figured that I was into too many things, and I couldn’t give enough attention to my stamps. So I sold out my comic stock and I stuck a lot

Claude Held of money into stamps again. Then this is late 1970s, early 1980s. And as it turned out, I would have been much better off staying in the comics and forgetting about stamps! Stamps have gone down, comics have gone up.

three, four shootings every night in Buffalo. SCHELLY: So you have your entire operation in your home?

SCHELLY: But if you’d stayed diversified, you would have come out better.

HELD: We have a big ranch house on the corner here, and I have a three- or four-car garage. And above the garage I have offices and storage space. Right now, I’m sitting in an upstairs room with a typewriter, with bookshelves all around me.

HELD: Exactly! But I didn’t follow my own principle. Now, I’m into Sunday comics real big. I have, probably, one of the larger stocks of that in the country.

SCHELLY: And you’re doing your list—using a typewriter, not a computer?

SCHELLY: You’re actively dealing still? Some people give it up at some point, and just retire. HELD: Well, when I retire, that’s when they’ll close the box. [laughs] But no, that’s the fun of living, I think. In fact, right now, I’m working on a fantasy list. SCHELLY: Do you have your own comic book collection? HELD: Yeah, a big collection. I’ve always liked Golden Age reprint comics. I have a complete collection of Famous Funnies and I have 90, 95% of all the Kings, Aces, Tip Tops, Supers, Populars. They were just reprints of the comic strips. SCHELLY: What are your favorite comic strips? HELD: Actually, I liked all the comic strips. SCHELLY: Now, what about the New York conventions? Did you attend all those early New York conventions?

HELD: No, no. I’m not at that stage yet. SCHELLY: I have to tell you that it’s really great to talk to you, because I bought from you in the 1960s. HELD: It’s been fun going back over some of that stuff in my mind, too. Hey, listen. Next time you talk to Bill Thailing—if you do—tell him Claude remembers him coming up to his store in the early 1950s. SCHELLY: Okay, I will. [Note: Those who wish to find a copy of Bill Schelly’s book on our collective history, The Golden Age of Comic Fandom, can no longer buy a copy from the publisher, as Bill informs us that it, along with The Comic Fandom Reader, is sold out from Hamster Press. However, he still has a handful of Alter-Ego: The Best of the Legendary Comics Fanzine, which can be had by sending $17.95 to Hamster Press, PO Box 27471, Seattle, WA 98125.]

HELD: No, no, just a couple of them. SCHELLY: I know you were at the first one in ’64, in that Union Circle Building that was so hot and sweaty and low-attendance. Your name is listed on the roster. Why didn’t you become a regular at cons? HELD: I’m mainly a dealer, not a fan, really. SCHELLY: You could have set up a dealer table there. A lot of your dealer “colleagues” did. HELD: I never did, no. The only kind of conventions or shows I used to go to regularly were stamp and coin conventions. We used to go to Chicago a lot, and New York, too, but that was years ago. SCHELLY: Now, you mentioned your bookstore moved. Could you give me the history of your book store? Did it move or did you have more than one store? HELD: I just had one. Actually, the store was always a sort of a part-time deal with me because most of my business would be mail order. The store was for storage and to buy stuff. I had my first store from around ’46 to ’56 or seven. And then I had my second store from then until ’67, and that was the end of stores and the public. Since then, it’s always been mail order. Both of my former store locations are in inner city areas now, and that’s terrible. Back in the 1960s, those were pretty good neighborhoods. That’s the way all northern cities have gone. SCHELLY: Well, most downtown areas—even out here in Seattle, the downtown area can get kind of dicey. HELD: Not “kinda,” quite a bit. [laughs] We have two,

“I have a complete collection of Famous Funnies....” That’s nice—but here’s something even rarer—a photocopy of Frank Frazetta’s original Buck Rogers artwork to the cover of Famous Funnies #209 (Dec. 1953), which in 1996 was depicted in Sotheby’s comic art catalog for a suggested auction range of $40,000 to $60,000! Thar’s still gold in them thar hills—nearly sixty years after Claude Held and his former used-comics pioneers first set up shop! [Art ©2003 the respective copyright holder; Buck Rogers TM & ©2003 The Dille Trust.]

Jack Keller

Jack Keller (1922-2003) by Dr. Michael J. Vassallo The comic book world lost one of its most durable mainstays of the 1950s and 1960s when Atlas/Marvel and Charlton artist Jack Keller passed away on January 2nd at the age of 80, after a short illness. Keller had a long and distinguished career spanning the years 19411973 on a score of features for numerous comics companies, but is best known for long runs on two in particular: Kid Colt Outlaw at Atlas/Marvel, and the entire genre of hot rod and racing cars titles at Charlton. Jack Keller was born on June 16, 1922, in Reading, Pennsylvania. Except for a short period early in his career, he would spend his entire life there. As was the case of almost every comic book artist from his generation, his earliest artistic idols were Milton Caniff, Alex Raymond, and Hal Foster, and as a child he devoured their newspaper strips, especially Terry and the Pirates. In 1941, fresh out of high school and with no formal art education, Keller created, wrote, and drew a comic book feature called “The Whistler,” which was accepted for publication by Dell Comics and appeared in the title War Stories, issue #5. By his own admission it was extremely crude, but it somehow opened the door to a job in 1942-43 with Busy Arnold at Quality Comics. Among a handful of different features, including inking “Blackhawk” and doing artwork for features like “Manhunter” and “Spin Shaw,” Keller also did backgrounds for Lou Fine on The Spirit while Will Eisner was in the service during World War II. Keller was now living in New York City fulltime at the 34th Street YMCA, and his quarters were cramped and tiny. Making the rounds over the next few years, he had stops at Fawcett drawing “Johnny Blair,” at Fiction House drawing series such as marine pilot “Clipper Kirk,” “Flint Baker,” and “Suicide Smith,” and at Hillman on “The Boy King,” “The Rosebud Sisters,” and various crime features. As the decade closed, Keller did work for Charles Biro and Bob Wood at Lev Gleason on Crime Does Not Pay, Crime and Punishment, and various western features in roughly 1949-50. Jack Keller’s last two major accounts in his comic book career would be the ones on which he would leave his lasting mark. In 1950 Keller showed up on editor Stan Lee’s Timely Comics doorstep and would begin an association that would last the entire decade and beyond. At this point, publisher Martin Goodman had just dissolved the longstanding Timely bullpen. Known as the “cataclysmic closet catastrophe” (a phrase coined by Stan Lee in his recent “bio-autobiography”), the story goes that Goodman opened a closet to find a six-foot stack of bought but never-printed artwork. Going ballistic, he instructed Lee to fire the staff, and everyone suddenly went freelance. Jack Keller shows up right at this moment and is immediately given work on stories for western titles, early pre-Code horror, and even the rare romance story. His most prolific “early” Marvel work, though, was in the dizzying array of redundant Timely crime titles. This work is severely overlooked and under-appreciated by many who consider Keller’s career. Never a spectacular or flashy artist, Keller’s crime stories nevertheless had an urban grittiness perfectly suited to the subject matter, with a style similar to that of crime-comic colleague Vern Henkel, and two steps above the Timely crime-comic bullpen fare of

Sorry we don’t have a photo of Jack Keller, but here’s a splash page featuring the continuing hero with which he’s most associated, from Kid Colt Outlaw #80 (Sept. 1958). Thanks to Doc Vassallo. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

1948-49. At least 75% of Keller’s crime stories were scripted by Carl Wessler, who wrote more crime stories than any other Timely scribe during this period. Often entire issues in 1950-51 were Wessler-scripted. Look for these stories in titles like Amazing Detective Cases, Kent Blake, All-True Crime, Justice Comics, Crime Exposed, Crime Can’t Win, and Crime Must Lose. As 1953 rolled in, Keller added more horror and war stories to his credits, but a western feature he had drawn since 1951, Kid Colt Outlaw, began to take prominence. When Stan Lee gave Keller Kid Colt in 1951, it was nothing more than another assignment, but while other artists came and went on various features (Joe Maneely on Black Rider, Wyatt Earp, Ringo Kid, Whip Wilson, The Gunhawk... Syd Shores on Two-Gun Kid... John Romita on Western Kid... Werner Roth on Apache Kid... Doug Wildey on Outlaw Kid, etc.), Keller never really left Kid Colt and drew his adventures, both in his own long-running title and also in the anthology title Gunsmoke Western, right up to 1957. Throughout this long run, he would continue to do western fillers, but his non-western work practically vanished by 1955 as his entire output was dedicated to the western genre. In the spring of 1957 the infamous “Atlas Implosion” left Keller and scores of artists without their main source of freelance income. Goodman and Lee pared down the bloated line from a high of about seventy titles to a paltry sixteen, frantically securing distribution for the books from National/DC’s distributor, Independent News, and Stan Lee began to use backlogged inventory for the remaining eight books per month.

Jack Keller

Keller, always a tremendous car buff, frantically secured employment at a car dealership in his home town of Reading, but almost immediately the western inventory ran out and Stan called back his western mainstay artists Maneely, Keller, and Dick Ayers. Keller would return to Kid Colt, but time constraints limited his work to a certain degree. Within a short time, Keller also secured western and war scripts from Charlton on titles like Billy the Kid, Cheyenne Kid, Battlefield Action, Fightin’ Marines, Fightin’ Air Force, Fightin’ Army, Submarine Attack, and others. A long friendship and association with later Charlton editor Dick Giordano ensued, and by 1959 Keller parlayed his love of cars and racing into a long writer/artist tenure on the title Hot Rods and Racing Cars, which lasted, with a short hiatus, until 1973. Keller would also add other hot rod titles over the years, such as Hot Rod Racers, Drag ’n’ Wheels, and World of Wheels. By 1967 Keller had finally left Stan Lee and Marvel for good and would work nearly exclusively for Charlton until 1973. A handful of concurrent stories for DC in the years 1968-71, including fillers for their Hot Wheels title, would cap his career. In ’73 Keller retired from comics and went back to selling cars and indulging his hobby of model cars and die-cast car models. I want to close with some personal recollections about the art of Jack Keller. His work was the very first Timely/Atlas art that made an impression on me as a kid. I can honestly say that the very first Atlas book I ever owned was a copy of the March 1953 issues of Adventures into Weird Worlds #16, bought at a Phil Seuling convention for about $1. My favorite story in that issue was a great 5-page pre-Code stunner titled “Surprise!” In a nutshell, the plot consisted of a miserable old landowner who pined after a beautiful young gypsy woman, Lola, who lived on his estate; he was extremely jealous of her handsome young gypsy lover, Stephen. After his advances were repeatedly spurned, he murdered her lover, hoping to have a clear path to her affections. The young gypsy mourns for weeks and continues to spurn him, wanting

[Counterclockwise from top:] A trio of 1950s Keller splashes for Timely/Atlas. (L. to r.:) A crime-comics caper from Amazing Detective Cases #8 (Sept. 1951); his only known love-comics tale for the company, from My Own Romance #18 (Sept. ’51); and a “Surprise!” story he drew for Adventures into Weird Worlds #16 (March 1953). Thanks to Doc V. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Jack Keller only to see the handsome face of Stephen again. An old gypsy woman promises the old man she can give him the same handsome face, and after a seance ceremony commands Stephen’s ghost to switch faces with his murderer. His face now changed, the old man runs to Lola. The kicker is in the last panel, as she shrieks in horror at his face—the face of Stephen dead in his grave for two months! As a child, I never forgot that last panel with the EC-like rotting face; it haunted me for weeks! For this reason, I’ve always held a soft spot for Jack Keller. Over the years, as he dropped under the radar of the comic book world, I always assumed Keller had long passed away. Then, about two years ago, someone passed along his phone number to me, and I was shocked to learn he was still alive. I planned to call him, to let him know how much I had enjoyed his early work, express my admiration for his long run on Kid Colt, and hopefully get his take on fellow Atlas western artist Joe Maneely and whether he was inspired or influenced by Maneely’s dynamics. The number remained on a Post-it note attached to my computer as two years passed, and I never seemed to find the time to call him. Keller then gave a wonderful interview to Jon B. Cooke in Comic Book Artist, and word that his health was failing got around. I thought this was now the time to call... but more time passed. Then the sad news came that Keller had died, and that phone number is still staring me in the face as I type this. Jack Keller’s career was one of long-standing durability. Never as skilled as a Bill Everett, a Joe Maneely, or a Russ Heath, he nevertheless was a dedicated professional who will be remembered by fans for his wonderful body of work.

In Robin Snyder’s monthly publication The Comics! Vol. 13, #3 (March 2002), Jack Keller wrote: “My all-time favorite comics work has to be the last ten years of the auto racing stories I produced. I had great freedom with Charlton. I wrote the scripts, edited, penciled and inked (and my son, Rick, did my lettering from 1969 to 1973). Yes, I mailed a complete package to Charlton. They had only to add color and print it. I really enjoyed it this way. Before I started writing my own scripts, the stories I received were very limited in scope and repetitious (i.e., teenager has a piece of junk, builds a beautiful rod, and it runs great). “I wanted something more. I wrote and illustrated stories about the many different classes of auto racing, from formula one, their problems, etc. It was more dramatic, both the stories and the illustration. ‘The Old Red Car,’ the story of Tazio Nuvolari, is the greatest true story I ever wrote and illustrated. My favorite fiction story is ‘Desperate Duel,’ a Rick Roberts feature about three desperate men, each having his own reason for trying to win the race.” That several-page story is repro’d from the original art in the aforementioned issue of The Comics! See ad below; don’t deprive yourself of this writtendown oral history of comic books and their creators. [Art ©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

Monthly! Edited and published by Robin Snyder

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re:

year. “Deadman” ushered in a whole new way of doing super-hero comics, similar in its desire to move into something new as Stan did at Marvel, but in a completely different way. It influenced almost every writer I know who came into the field in the late ’60s to early ’70s. Because of “Deadman,” we all wanted to write more realistic stories. Stan (and Jack & Steve) brought grandeur and mythos into comics, while Arnold, on “Deadman,” brought in a darkness that really took hold in the ’80s and ’90s. I always wondered why Arnold didn’t write more “Deadmans.” It would have been fascinating to see how he would have continued handling the character. Marv Wolfman

What? Never heard of the 1986 Alter Ego comics mini-series? Then here’s a look at its star, one of our super-hero mascots, drawn by Ron Harris—leaping out of the pages of a comic book, just as he did therein. That “A/E” will be back in action, first chance we get! We’ve had requests... including from one film producer...! [Art ©2003 Ron Harris; Alter Ego TM & ©2003 Roy & Dann Thomas.]

Thanks, Marv. Maybe Arnold will see your comments and fill us in about why he stopped writing “Deadman” after only two issues. We’ve always kinda wondered about that ourselves. And we should mention that, next issue, we’ll be talking with Arnold and most of the other folks who scripted The X-Men during the 1960s and mid-’70s... not to mention major artist Dave Cockrum!

Now, down to the serious business of correspondence and corrections: This time we’re playing catch-up by printing missives that deal with both A/E #17 and its coverage of Lou Fine, Arnold Drake, and related matters (not that Fine and Arnold are related, mind!)—and #18, which featured that long interview with Marvel Silver Age artist/colorist Stan Goldberg and even longer coverage of Dick & Pat Lupoff’s early-1960s sf/comics fanzine Xero. First, here’s a several-issue comment that arrived recently from Marv Wolfman, who’s been too busy of late with endeavors in film and other fields to heed our request to write about his years at DC and Marvel, where he scripted everything from Teen Titans (two different tours of duty, on two quite different teams) to the fondly-recalled Tomb of Dracula: Roy: I’ve been remiss in writing you re Alter Ego. I think sometimes “pros” tend to write only to correct mistakes, but I wanted you to know how much I’ve enjoyed all your issues. If I have any complaint at all, I could do with less of Captain Marvel. Yeah, I started reading comics long after Cap’s demise, but that’s not the reason. Hell, I love Superman, and his books have gone on, uninterrupted, for over sixty years, but if each Alter Ego issue had 10-20 pages on him, I’d get bored reading that, too. Perhaps less Cap and more on other Fawcett books.... The retrospectives on John Buscema in #15-16 were great. Especially enjoyed reading the pieces on his school. I’m also enjoying Michael T. Gilbert’s “before they were famous” series. But I hope he never finds any copies of my early fanzines to parade in front of people! I also enjoyed the Arnold Drake interview in #17. I loved his “Doom Patrol” (and helped spur its revival by featuring them in a threepart New Teen Titans story back in ’81). Somehow I was given the This powerful 1975 Deadman sketch by art to the last issue of DP when it was canceled, though I don’t Neal Adams, the hero’s major (if not first) quite remember how. Also loved his “Deadman.” Fans and pros often argue about when the Silver Age ended, and I’ve long insisted that, whatever you want to call it, the new age of comics began with Arnold’s first “Deadman” story. To me, the Silver Age (or any “age,” for that matter) is more a matter of style and approach than of any specific

artist, is courtesy of Neal and Stuart Ng. For rare and out-of-print books on illustration, animation, and comic art, contact <stuartng@socal.rr.com> or phone (310) 539-4648, or visit his website at <http://home.socal.rr.com/stuartngbooks>. Tell ’im Alter Ego sent you, okay?

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Meanwhile, just to balance Marv’s letter a bit, here’s a note forwarded by FCA editor P.C. Hamerlinck from a more typically FCA-satisfied reader, James Plunkett: Dear P.C.: I wondered if I was the only one left who cared about the history of comics and had an appreciation of how important C.C. Beck was to comics. I buy Alter Ego regularly at my local comics shop and particularly enjoy the FCA section. The Marc Swayze column is a particular favorite. I read my first comic books in 1967 at the age of five and have never been much of a letter-writer to the comics letters pages, but I wanted to take the chance to express my appreciation for the great job you and Roy Thomas and everyone does in Alter Ego! For every reader who writes a letter of comment, there are countless others who don’t write but enjoy the magazine very much. I’m one of those, so I wanted to say thanks and keep up the fine work because it is appreciated. James Plunkett (via e-mail) P.C. says that the coverage in FCA will continue to be slanted strongly toward Captain Marvel and the other members of his superpowered family, James, but that other Fawcett figures will be dealt with, as well—such as Tom Mix last issue, and a bit of Captain Midnight and Dr. Death this time around. Next we hear from Jack Bender, who currently draws and (with his wife) writes the long-running Alley Oop newspaper strip. A fan and collector himself, he spotted a minor glitch in A/E #17 and graciously decided to help us out: Hi Roy, Just got Alter Ego #17 through the comics shop I patronize. Congratulations on a really terrific issue. The best coverage of Lou Fine ever printed. My compliments to Dennis Beaulieu, with whom I did some trading many years ago. The reproduction on the lower tier of the Count of Monte Cristo [on p. 9] was rather smudged in the copy I got. In case all copies were like that, I’m sending you a full-sized Xerox of it. (I have the original art.) The woman’s face with her flowing hair and scarf deserve to be printed full-size and clearly in an early issue.

here and there from the mid-’50s on; however, he was very busy with Sgt. Bilko, Pvt. Dobermann, and the Dobie Gillis books until about 1964. From 1965 on until the Hope book ended, he was the regular artist, with the exception of the few final issues by Neal Adams (and one very strange fill-in issue by none other than Carmine Infantino). Bob Bailey (via e-mail) Our thanks for the info, Bob. And, we were talking about Hames Ware a moment ago—and speak of the devil—! Dear Roy, The Lou Fine issue is a very nice tribute! Do you recall decades ago when all the world was Kirby and I was trying to make a case for Fine??! I was so glad Alex Toth stepped in and added one of the great mystery men of comics, Don Komisarow (sic)! I first spotted Komisarow’s name sneaked on a window-front in an early MLJ comic. What in the world it was doing there I do not know. Nor, when I spoke with Mr. Komisarow, could he clear up his work on “Superman” (circa 1942). But he was adamant that, by the time he and Lou Fine worked together, the “painfully slow” attribution so often said of Fine in his earlier comic book days was “absolutely not the case!” Hames Ware Always great, Hames, to learn something straight (or at least semistraight) from the horse’s mouth. We know you corresponded with and/or talked to dozens of longtime pros when you and Jerry Bails were putting together the four-part 1970s edition of the Who’s Who of American Comic Books. In addition, Jim Amash tells us that Golden Age artist/editor Gill Fox phoned him recently about issue #17 to say that’s definitely Alex Kotzky in the photo on page 27, pretending to hit Lou Fine on the head with a hammer. (Gill also added the info that his own original name for his feature “Poison Ivy” had been “Diaper Dann,” but that Quality publisher Busy Arnold had changed it, just as he had Jack Cole’s “Rubber Man” to “Plastic Man.”)

Hi Roy—

Jack Bender

I think the interview went well. Jim Amash asks lots of questions, and I hope my answers will satisfy the readers. But, on my wedding picture, where Stan and Joan Lee are sitting at the table with my cousins, that is not Pauline and myself standing to the left—just some more cousins. I liked the introduction: “Two Stans Are Better Than One!” And I thank you for the kind words about my work.

Muchas gracias, Jack. The blotch you spotted on that Lou Fine page was indeed in the art as repro’d from the original art in Jerry Bails & Hames Ware’s 1970s Who’s Who of American Comic Books—so it’s great to see a corrected version! And, speaking of corrections: Hi Roy, The Adventures of Bob Hope cover illo used in #17 was misidentified as being by Bob Oksner. It’s actually by Mort Drucker. Mort drew the Hope book largely by himself from about 1958 to 1964. This is not meant to take anything from the great Bob Oksner (who was one of the best instructors I had at the Kubert School). Bob did draw intermittent issues of Bob Hope

Now on to issue #18, starting with a note from major interviewee Stan Goldberg himself:

By the way, my new web address is <www.stangoldberg.com>. That is not the one listed at the end of the interview. Stan Goldberg A much better repro of that Lou Fine panel from his Count of Monte Cristo adaptation, as seen on p. 9 of A/E #17. Jack Bender, who owns the original art, remarks on the “great woman’s face, hair, and scarf.” [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

Thanks, Stan. As you’ll see from longtime fan/publisher/collector Richard Kyle’s letter, which

re:

41 doubtful about “The Education of Victor Fox.” According to Don Thompson, who said he was one of the recipients, Dick shipped the manuscript around to a number of friends, asking whether the piece was in fact publishable. It’s nice to know one’s work improves with time. I’d like to correct something that Pat [Lupoff] says in “I Had Tons of Fun!” She writes: “Sometimes debates erupted between letterwriters. One such involved James Blish and Richard Kyle, and would probably have gone on for years if we hadn’t called a halt.” She’s in error here. There was no debate between Blish and myself. Blish had clearly not read a book he’d flagrantly praised in a Xero review. When I criticized the review, he tried to bluster his way out in a letter filled with factual inaccuracies. Instead of sending the letter back to Blish for corrections, the editor’s solution was to print Blish’s letter whole—and then not to print my reply until I made an issue of it. However, I know Dick and Pat too little to assess their motivations. Dick and I corresponded for only a short time, while he was publishing Xero, and in the following forty years we’ve met briefly just three times, each time at the popular fiction bookstore I operated under my own name, fully exposed to the public, an enigma to no one, for 24 years. On his final visit Dick was accompanied by Pat, so I met her at last. They were both affable. Good luck with the monthly Alter Ego! Richard Kyle 3644 Lewis Avenue Long Beach, CA 90807

Here’s another nicely-drawn (Eric Schroeder?) page from the “Heap” story whose splash was printed in A/E #18’s section on “The All in Color for a Dime Style Sheet.” Repro’d from a black-&-white English reprint circa 1950; thanks to Roger Dicken & Wendy Hunt in North Wales. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

follows, your interview was a real highlight for many readers: Dear Roy, I’m having trouble keeping up: now #18 and #19 of Alter Ego are upon me—and these are still dated as bimonthlies. What’s it going to be like when the monthly issues start pouring in? #18: Great Stan Goldberg interview. It is one of the best and most significant you’ve published. I really learned a lot I hadn’t known. Naturally, I enjoyed the coverage of Xero. Dick Lupoff was perfectly in touch with the times when he published Xero. And Xero’s truly great art director, Bhob Stewart, was indispensable. The two of them, with this very small circulation magazine, both created and were a part of a revolution in popular publishing. It’s amazing when you look back at it. The only thing comparable is Whit and Hallie Burnett’s quite literary Story magazine, which also started out as a mimeographed magazine with a minuscule circulation—but Story was around for many years and Xero for just a few months. A wonderful achievement. I’m delighted, of course, that Dick has changed his mind about my work. Now, he writes, “[Kyle] is the ideal essayist, thorough in his scholarship, incisive—even profound—in his insights, scintillating in his prose... a perfectionist.... His essay on Victor Fox was nothing less than brilliant.” A contributor to the Library of America could ask for no more. Then, however, Dick was far less enthusiastic and far more

We’ll need it, Richard! Oddly, we never received much in the way of comments on the Xero coverage from the main people covered in it— Dick & Pat Lupoff, Steve Stiles, Bhob Stewart—except that Bhob, while admiring (as many did) Bill Schelly’s overview of the fanzine’s comics-related material, deplored our layouts because we crammed so much into the pages. He would have preferred something akin to a variorum reprint of the original Xero pages, which was of course never an option for Alter Ego, since there was so relatively little art in that zine compared to the amount of text. Oh, well... Ye Editor/Roy devoted those forty pages of A/E #18 to Xero simply because he wanted to and felt he should; he did it the way he wanted to, and if someone else didn’t like it... that, as they say, is what makes horse racing. One of the various (we think) useful additions to the art in the Xero section was a “Heap” splash page from circa 1950, by an unidentified artist, about whom collector George Hagenauer has this to say: Hi Roy— The “Heap” art looks like it’s by Ernie Schroeder. When I have time, I’ll dig out the issue to make sure, as it’s a strange layout. Schroeder’s Heap always had a Moe Howard “Three Stooges” haircut, and that Heap has one. The distinguishing thing about Schroeder is his faces, and there aren’t enough humans on the splash to be 100% certain, but he still did most “Heaps” and “Airboys” from at least 1950 on (except covers, which were often done by others), so it’s likely him. George Hagenauer Thanks, George. We have photocopies of art from a couple of “Heap” stories by this artist, taken from black-&-white reprints in Britain some years back, so you’ll be seeing more of his work. Please address any A/E-related comments to: Roy Thomas/Alter Ego Rt. 3, Box 468 St. Matthews, SC 29135 Fax: (803) 826-6501 E-mail: roydann@ntinet.com

Frank is now accepting art commissions for covers, splash panels, or pin-up re-creations! Also, your ideas for NEW art are welcome! Art can be pencils only, inked or full-color (painted) creation! Contact Frank directly for details and prices. (Minimum order: $150) Write now (be sure to include a self-addressed stamped envelope!) and receive FREE with my reply an autographed Brunner “Star Wars Galaxy” trading card! Contact the artist at his NEW address:

FRANK BRUNNER 312 Kildare Court Myrtle Beach, SC 29588 Visit my NEW website at: http://www.frankbunner.net

Everyone deserves a

Golden Age!

GiVE BACK TO THE CREATORS WHO GAVE YOU YOUR DREAMS.

Marc Swayze

[FCA EDITORS NOTE: From 1941-53, Marcus D. Swayze was a top artist for Fawcett Comics. The very first Mary Marvel character sketches came from Marc’s drawing table, and he illustrated her earliest adventures, including the classic Mary Marvel origin story in Captain Marvel Adventures #18 (Dec. ’42); but he was primarily hired by Fawcett Publications to illustrate Captain Marvel stories and covers for Whiz Comics and CMA. He also wrote many Captain Marvel scripts, and continued to do so while in the military. After World War II he made an arrangement with Fawcett to produce art and stories on a freelance basis out of his Louisiana home. There he created both art and story for The Phantom Eagle in Wow Comics, in addition to drawing the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip for Bell Syndicate (created by his friend and mentor Russell Keaton). After the cancellation of Wow, Swayze drew for Fawcett’s top-selling line of romance comics, including Sweethearts and Life Story. After that company ceased publishing comics, Marc moved over to Charlton Publications, where he ended his comics career in the mid-’50s. Marc’s ongoing professional memoirs have been FCA’s most popular feature since his first column appeared in FCA #54, 1996. Last issue and in this installment, Marc shifts into reverse, reflecting upon his preFawcett Publications period. —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

IT WAS FUN. A bit bewildering at first, but very pleasant, the way things were turning out. One week a milk deliveryman, the next, the assistant to a real professional artist, creator of a real syndicated comic strip. It was fun… my first job as a salaried artist, but in no time at all I was bugged by the urge to reach out for higher things… to move on up. My employer knew it. It was he who said after a week or so, “You’re a natural.” I took that to mean I was slated for the big time, whatever and whenever the “big time” was. We were in a small community of about 12,000. I had arranged to take my meals at a boarding-house where many of the high school teachers dined… and they became my friends. Russell Keaton was a sincere, personable, experienced professional whose comic strip had made its debut only a few months before my arrival. It was 1939. My first shot at the world ahead was to submit samples to Walt Disney in 1940. I’m not sure what I had in mind. A better job? A move up? I should have known that finished art, in full color, was not the way to show a prospective employer what you could do. Better to have sent the discarded sketches of the work in progress. However, the animated films were not hiring at the time, they said, so it didn’t matter. An action sequence from “Captain Marvel Introduces Mary Marvel” in CMA #19, 1942. Art by Marc Swayze. [©2003 DC Comics.]

I took a stab at the gag cartoon game. Gags were the going thing as the ’30s came to a close. Major publishers were

We Didn’t Know...

Marc Swayze

paying what sounded to me like fabulous rates. They were not, I soon learned, wasting time on beginners. I did hit it off pretty well with the music magazines… and discovered that the gag cartoon business, on down the line, was not all that lucrative. The news rack at the local drug store included an occasional comic book with original stories and art, rather than the more familiar reprinted newspaper comics. They interested me as a means of improving my work on Flyin’ Jenny… a good way to practice penciling, inking and lettering. I dreamed up and drew up several samples, the first comic book art and writing I ever attempted. I admired Russell Keaton. At the drawing board he was a whiz… fast, sure, and clever. When it came time for a new plot, however, he seemed to be in agony. I couldn’t help but notice, and I wanted to help, but the nearest I ever came to it was the suggestion of a character. The little hypnotist, “Raghead,” first appeared in the Flyin’ Jenny Sunday page, April 28, 1940, and didn’t remain with us long. It was 1940 when we relocated to a larger community where flying lessons were available to Keaton. My wild shots at the future had discontinued; my sights narrowed to a single goal… syndication… my own creation… characters… writing and art.

I am thankful that, although a trip to the syndicates with a jungle girl idea came to little more than experience and a few more contacts, it resulted in an extreme rekindling of confidence and determination. Toward the end of my employment with Keaton, the importance of getting out where the action took place intensified. I was reviewing correspondence with syndicates, comic strip creators, and publishing companies when one letter, especially, held my attention. It was probably due to the address: New York City… home of most of the big syndicates… home of the big publishers who dealt with important illustrators… the place I wanted to be. It was signed by a France E. Herron. I looked again at the letterhead:

“FAWCETT PUBLICATIONS!” [Marc’s memories of the Golden Age of Comics continue next issue.]

WANTED: C.C. BECK FAWCETT COVER RE-CREATION PAINTINGS contact: fca2001@yahoo.com

The Life of Bill Parker

Major Parker The Life of BILL PARKER... and His Mightiest Creation by P.C. Hamerlinck He came up with a little six-letter word that has become a part of the English language. While the genesis of the World’s Mightiest Mortal has been told in various versions in a variety of places, what do we really know about Bill Parker, the often-overlooked writer/editor who combined elements of old literature, the Bible, mythology… and that little six-letter word... to produce a truly classics-derived modern-day folk tale all of its own— a tale which captivated readers in the 1940s and has withstood the test of time all the way to slick 2003. Parker far exceeded his job duties when he was asked by his publisher to “come up with a character like Superman.” Parker was the catalyst of the world known as Captain Marvel, whose occupants included, amongst many wonderful inhabitants, his alter ego Billy Batson, a mysterious stranger in an old abandoned subway, an ancient Egyptian wizard who gave Billy his powers, a scheming proverbial “mad scientist” named Dr. Sivana, and his stunning daughter Beautia.

The World’s Mightiest Collaboration Bill Parker’s artistic collaborator, Charles Clarence Beck, was always adamantly clear to point out to the present author—and to the entire world—that he had very little, if anything, to do with the success of Captain Marvel, one of the top selling characters during the Golden Age of Comics. While Beck modestly felt that any and all credit regarding the creation and popularity of the Big Red Cheese should go to Parker, the other writers, and Fawcett’s editorial staff—and that the stories, not the artwork, were always first and foremost of greatest importance—it is quite clear that Beck contributed more to the success and readerpopularity of Captain Marvel than any other of the individuals at Fawcett Publications who participated in the birth and development of

the character over its 13-year lifespan. In 1939, at the age of 29, Beck’s professional experience and skill as a cartoonist was a vital factor as he fleshed out the first Captain [Thunder] Marvel drawings. Beck’s visual delineation of the hero and his continuous enthusiasm for the character, plus his supervision of many Fawcett artists who eventually contributed to the expanding Marvel Family of titles, made Fawcett comic books superior in quality to most of the field. Beck’s contribution did not stop with the artwork. He also made very valuable contributions to the storylines, the stories themselves, and the shaping of the personalities of characters such as Mr. Mind, Sterling Morris, Ibac, Mr. Tawny, and the rest of the cast that really distinguished the stories in the Captain Marvel canon. It was Beck—along with prolific Captain Marvel writer Otto Binder—who over the course of time developed the unique, whimsical, tongue-planted-firmly-in-cheek, kid-and-adult-pleasing humor that was lightly inserted into the stories, setting Cap apart from the other super-characters that were appearing virtually overnight. According to Fawcett’s long-time editorial director Ralph Daigh, Beck had complete authority to change, edit, and adapt any of the purchased scripts. It was these additional skills that helped develop the consistency of the storylines and characterizations, as Beck transferred the typewritten scripts to drawings. Obviously, without Beck’s talent, skill, and countless contributions to Captain Marvel, something far different would have developed from the early suggestions and concepts—or, as Daigh himself once concluded, perhaps nothing at all. That said, there still seems to be a general consensus agreeing with Beck’s assertion that Bill Parker should be the one given top billing for creating the world accepted as Captain Marvel. Parker produced the first typed manuscript that marked the birth of the character, including a summary description and the very first script. He also created and wrote all of Fawcett’s first comic features in Whiz Comics, including Spy Smasher, Ibis The Invincible, Golden Arrow, Lance O’Casey, Dan Dare, and Scoop Smith. Shortly thereafter, he created Bulletman, the cover star of Nickel Comics.

A Hero Is Born Captain Billy Fawcett and his company Fawcett Publications had already established themselves as a leading force in the publishing field, beginning first with their saucy humor magazines (such as Captain Billy’s WhizBang) and, upon relocating from Minnesota to offices in New York City and Greenwhich, Connecticut, various movie magazines. The decision to develop and produce a new super-hero type of character in the stillCharacters co-created by Bill Parker for the first issue of Whiz Comics (Feb. 1940) included Captain Marvel, Ibis the Invincible, infant comic book field was Dan Dare, Lance O’Casey, Golden Arrow, Scoop Smith, and the still-shadowy Spy Smasher. Cap, Ibis, & Spy Smasher were made at one of Fawcett’s drawn by C.C. Beck, Golden Arrow by future CM artist Pete Costanza, Lance by Bob Kingett; artists of Dan Dare and Scoop monthly meetings of Smith unknown. [©2003 DC Comics.]

Major Parker concept, and that to do so would be a story plus. A single hero, as strong as Hercules, fast and agile as the flying Mercury, and also possessing additional individual super-traits from other ancient Greek heroes that were to be selected, could be just the ticket Fawcett was looking for.

Parker & Beck’s Captain Thunder first appeared in “ashcan editions” with the names Flash Comics (lost out on that one to DC/AA!)—then Thrill Comics (ran into a snag with the Thrilling line of pulps?)—and finally emerged as Captain Marvel in the first issue of Whiz Comics, taking part of the name of Fawcett’s flagship joke-book Captain Billy’s Whiz-Bang. But, since the cover of Action Comics #1 a year or so earlier had shown Superman holding a car over his head as he smashed it into a rock, did Fawcett have to show CM throwing a car into a wall? Like the song says: “You don’t tug on Superman’s cape!” Art by C.C. Beck. [©2003 DC Comics.]

department supervisors. The idea was suggested to Ralph Daigh by Roscoe Fawcett, the company’s circulation director, that, based on sales figures and data he and his department had gathered, the field of superhero comics was selling well, and Fawcett Publications needed to enter the new market as soon as possible. After the meeting, Daigh carried the message to Fawcett magazine editor Bill Parker—a Princeton graduate and fan of literary classics and Greek mythology—and asked him to supply a written description of a new, unique super-hero to be featured in Fawcett’s first comic book. A few days later, Parker came into Daigh’s office with a one-page written suggestion that the new comic book feature a team of four super-heroes, under the command of one hero Parker identified as “Captain Thunder.” The Captain was to have a squad of lieutenants/specialists, each member to possess a special attribute or superability traceable to individual heroes of Greek mythology. As Daigh recalled in correspondence with Mad associate editor Jerry de Fuccio in August 1984, the original Greek heroes concerned were Hercules, Atlas, Mercury and Zeus. Captain Thunder would select and assign the properly equipped lieutenant to deal with the specific problem in the story at hand—i.e., Hercules for an assignment requiring super-strength, Mercury for one requiring flight and speed, and so on.

At the next meeting, and after a couple of title changes of the soon-to-be-published comic book (Flash Comics to Thrill Comics to Whiz Comics), the name Captain Thunder was discarded, as well, and Captain Marvel was adopted as a name more fitting for a hero of such marvelous abilities. It has been said that artist Pete Costanza sat in on the meeting and suggested the name “Captain Marvelous,” and that the group unanimously went for it, after shortening it to “Marvelous” to “Marvel.” As the discussions ensued as to what convincing device might be invented for turning Batson into Marvel, an “Abracadabra” magic word was sought. This led to Parker’s scrambling the first letters of the names of the mythological characters, with the addition of a real flesh-and-blood man of wisdom from Biblical times: Solomon. With the letter “S” thus obtained, there evolved the powerful and memorable word “SHAZAM!” When Billy spoke that magical word, he became Captain Marvel… and, more importantly to Fawcett Publications, so did the boy-reader with the comic in his hand. It was a most poignant factor in the worldwide popularity of Captain Marvel… and certainly one of the reasons why Fawcett’s Captain Marvel Club numbered more than a million readers in the ’40s.

Streamlined Mythology & Lawsuits During the infamous National (DC)/Fawcett court trials, there was mention of an alleged memo that Bill Parker had written to Ralph Daigh during the creation process of the World’s Mightiest Mortal, in which he said that Captain Marvel “would be like Superman.” The memo became a big subject at the trial. Fawcett questioned its relevance and denied its actual existence.

While the multiple-hero approach seemed like a winning concept, Parker immediately felt the set-up would often prove a little awkward and lack the opportunity for a young reader’s selfidentification with a single, identified hero. Daigh agreed with Parker that the heroes of Greek mythology should definitely be worked into the final

Parker left his meeting with Daigh with ideas swirling in his head, and soon proposed that Captain Thunder’s alter ego be that of a small young newsboy, subsequently named ‘Billy Batson,’ with the so-enviable accomplishment no other young boy had: the ability to turn himself into an adult… an adult with the super-qualities of the greatest of all heroes.

According to this house ad from a March 1946 comic, even the mighty Marvel Family read Mechanix Illustrated. Maybe that was because their co-creator Bill Parker now edited that mag—which would’ve been considered a promotion. [©2003 DC Comics.]

Bill Parker gave Captain Marvel no pseudo-scientific basis, but rather, endowed him with vast powers received

The Life of Bill Parker

49 books and you’ll find a striking analogy: a cloaked and costumed hero who can fly through the air and has great powers.

from the gods of the ancients, and from a wise king of Israel from the Bible. Superman, on the other hand, was created with an entirely science-fictional basis. Parker derived Captain Marvel directly from an ancestry that is completely “noncopyrighted.” Upon his creation by Parker, Captain Marvel became a leading example of a new, twentiethcentury, streamlined mythology.

Major Parker William Lee Parker came of good family, with connections to the South. The “Lee” was from that Lee, and their sympathies were with the Confederacy during the Civil War.

Parker was Ivy League and went to good schools, Here’s a rarity! A 1950s Mechanix Illustrated article by Captain Marvel “chief artist” C.C. Parker created Captain including Lawrenceville and Beck, written after the demise of Fawcett Comics, and edited by Bill Parker... perhaps the Marvel as a classical hero. Princeton. He worked at the duo’s final “collaboration.” [©2003 the respective copyright holder.] Beyond the magic word and New York Herald Tribune the flash of lightning—the before landing at Fawcett Publications. His colleagues have described synthesis of mythological methods of transforming ordinary mortals him as a very bright man, but terribly shy his entire life. Prior to the into demigods, which is in fact a mythological device—there was never creation of Captain Marvel, both Parker and Dick Hanser were editorial any further explanation as to how Billy Batson becomes Captain Marvel. assistants to Ralph Daigh. Hanser, who wrote a brief Parker tribute in It’s entirely taken for granted, as it is taken for granted in the ancient the FCA/SOB newsletter (which is reprinted in the TwoMorrows book legends that a magic word, a magic sword, shield, or cloak, will impart Fawcett Companion), said: “I had nothing to do with the birth of great power. Captain Marvel, other than I was sitting at the desk next to Bill when he On page 4 of Parker’s script of Captain Marvel’s origin, the old created the World’s Mightiest Mortal.” Hanser describes Parker as wizard Shazam says: “For three “easy-going and completely thousand years I have used the agreeable.” wisdom, strength, stamina, power, Parker later became good friends courage and speed the gods have with Robert Beason, whom Ralph given me.” He continues on the next Daigh hired in 1955 to work with page: “You shall be my successor Parker on Mechanix Illustrated merely by speaking my name.” magazine. Beason claims that at first Parker’s approach to the story was Parker didn’t even want him on the entirely new in super-hero comics, staff, “but he was—and always—too and perhaps had no precedent in any much of a gentleman to complain.” contemporary fiction at the time Beason reminisced about his old when he wrote the tale. One basically boss and friend in a July 1984 correhas to go all the way back to the spondence with Jerry de Fuccio: myths to find a precedent, where, just “You could always hear Bill Parker as in the beginning of the Captain coming down the hall. He did this Marvel saga, mere mortals were made tuneless whistling between his teeth into heroes by powers which gods all the time. Drove some people bats. gave them. I never understood whether it was a It’s accepted by many as a warning that he was coming or a foregone conclusion that National way of plucking up his own sued Fawcett simply because the courage.” World’s Mightiest Mortal was After returning to Fawcett from outselling the Man of Steel. It is and the Army as a Major, Parker became was quite evident, even in the early the diligent editor of Mechanix Captain Marvel stories, that Parker’s Illustrated, taking over Robert creation was quite unique and Hertzberg’s position as that different from Superman or any other magazine’s editor-in-chief. super-hero, and far from plagiarism. Hertzberg, who had edited the A simple study of the ancient legends magazine for ten years (1938-1948), shows that no one can really claim declared it was too much work and their particular super-hero is resigned. Parker took the driver’s completely original. For, whether or seat. Hertzberg and Parker had not Superman was the first in the And to think it all started with a Whiz! A Fawcett Publications ad from already worked together, not just in field of twentieth-century heroes in Newsdealer magazine, July 1948, describing the soaring circulation of the Fawcett offices but also in the tights, look at the depiction of Perseus from general mythology

[continued on p. 52]

Sheldon Moldoff

“Fawcett Was The Best!” Golden Age of Comics Great SHELDON “SHELLY” MOLDOFF on His Years with Fawcett Publications

Recent Captain Marvel commission art by Moldoff—and a 1999 photo of Shelly and his late wife Shirley (the pair on the left) at WonderCon, with two other of the earliest artists to work for DC Comics: cover illustrator Creig Flessel (standing) and Zatara creator Fred Guardineer. Photo courtesy of David Siegel. [Art ©2003 Sheldon Moldoff; Captain Marvel & logos TM & c DC Comics.]

by J.R. Cochran Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck Looking back on his Golden Age comics career, a career that included everything from Hawkman to Captain Midnight to This Magazine Is Haunted, Sheldon Moldoff says that Fawcett was his favorite shop: “Of all the companies I worked for, Fawcett was the best.” Moldoff began working for Fawcett Publications in 1945. If the pay rates were pretty much the same across the board, Fawcett’s editorial staff was a lot more outgoing than other shops, he says. “The editors were much friendlier at Fawcett. Stan Lee ran Marvel with an iron fist, and DC had a flock of editors driven by rivalry of each other.” Will Lieberson, who was executive editor at Fawcett, was also Moldoff’s favorite comics editor. “He was the only editor I ever became friends with. We hit it off right from the beginning. We socialized and remained friends until he passed away five or six years ago. I believe he had a heart attack.” Moldoff, who makes his home in Florida, also has fond memories of Lieberson’s editorial team, including Wendell Crowley, Dick Kraus, Roy Ald, and Virginia (Ginny) Provisiero.

Shelly worked on the licensed aviator/super-hero Captain Midnight for several years. This art is from Captain Midnight #54 (Aug. 1947). Hope you caught Alter Ego’s extended coverage of this radio-born super-star, last issue. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

“Fawcett Was The Best!”

“Will Lieberson was with Captain Marvel for a long time,” Moldoff recalls, adding that he felt the Big Red Cheese “was a real comic book hero.” Years later, Moldoff’s Fawcett comics connections would lead to several freelance jobs. He illustrated a comic book giveaway for The Apple Institute (Johnny Appleseed), for which Lieberson wrote the script. Lieberson later recommended Moldoff to The American Jewish Committee, where for several years he drew a comic strip called Joe Worker. In addition, he remembers that the two of them did a special supplement for “an outfit named Bradbury.” The supplement was called Fighting Heroes, and it was distributed to the Armed Forces. When Dick Kraus left Fawcett and went to Parents Institute, Moldoff soon got a job with that company, illustrating a feature called “Dig Baily” for Calling All Boys magazine. While having good recollections of Fawcett’s editorial team, Moldoff doesn’t recall any of his fellow artists who drew for Fawcett comics. However, he remembers once meeting C.C. Beck at his and Pete Costanza’s Englewood, New Jersey, studio. The Hawkman artist has no truck with DC’s current takes of the World’s Mightiest Mortal and the others. “The Alex Ross version of Captain Marvel looks like an ad for Van Heusen shirts,” he grumbles. “Alex Ross and others are terrific illustrators… but they’re not cartoonists! I think realism is destroying the feeling of cartooning. The original Superman, Batman and Captain Marvel were the best.” By 1948 Moldoff began illustrating love stories for Fawcett’s expanding line of romance comics. His Fawcett comics credits include Captain Midnight, Captain Marvel Jr., Don Winslow of the Navy, Tex Ritter Western, and several of Fawcett’s movie adaptation comics. He feels that Fawcett’s page rates were “pretty standard throughout the field. If you got $5 more than somebody else, you weren’t getting a hell of a lot more. The main thing was how many pages a week you could count on, since that was how you made your living.” “A couple of years ago I did a few pages for DC for a special edition of Batman. It was $300 a page. In my days back in the ’40s and ’50s, you got that much for doing a whole book! “Bill Gaines paid the best of anybody [in the old days]. He lavished money on people,” Moldoff recalls, adding that he had a falling-out with Alfred E. Neuman’s dad. “I gave him the idea of a horror comic book, Tales of the Supernatural.” Gaines failed to honor the terms of the contract, which granted him a percentage of the sales, Moldoff says. Moldoff had showed the title to Will Lieberson, but the executive editor stated that Fawcett would never do horror. However, after

Gaines’ success with EC’s horror line, Fawcett had a change of heart and wanted to get into the field. Lieberson immediately bought This Magazine Is Haunted (October, 1951) from Moldoff, who created Doctor Death, host of TMIH, and did all of the covers and lead stories of the comic. Moldoff contributed greatly to Fawcett’s entry into the horror comics genre by also selling them Worlds Beyond (Nov. 1951— the title changed to Worlds of Fear with #2) and Strange Suspense Stories (June 1952). According to Moldoff, Fawcett kept all the horror titles going until the near-legendary Kefauver Committee put the whole industry into a chill in the mid-’50s. “They blamed everything on the comics, which was a lot of hooey,” he says. After the Kefauver Committee brought on the ice age and DC kept trying to drive Fawcett into the wall with its plagiarism suit, the company folded its comics department tents, and Will Lieberson and his Fawcett co-workers lost their jobs.

“After the demise of Fawcett comics,” Moldoff recalls, “Will tried to put out a couple of books with Bernard Baily, but he couldn’t get the distribution. Distribution was allimportant. All the magazines were returned… still in bundles.”

Sheldon Moldoff bore too much resemblance to a Superman story.” Moldoff thinks today’s comics don’t match up with those of the past. “My profession was escapism. I gave people a little fun. That’s gone now. That’s how I look at it. It isn’t like years ago, when you picked up a comic book to get away from the world. You’d let your imagination run. Now there’s no escape from the world in comic books, which now have sex, drugs, every damn thing,” he says. “The pure

A pair of fairly recent commission pieces by Moldoff, featuring The Marvel Family and Dr. Death. While Doc was the narrator of This Magazine Is Haunted, in the full-moon scene he takes on a more active role. [Art ©2003 Sheldon Moldoff; Marvel Family TM & ©2003 DC Comics; Dr. Death TM & © the respective TM & © holder.]

Lieberson’s post-Fawcett work drifted into off-Broadway shows, which was his first love. Moldoff was still working for Fawcett when the company decided to fold its line of comic books in 1953: “It was a sad day. Fawcett had a great, talented crew.” As for DC’s suit against Fawcett Publications, Lieberson felt it was unjustified, according to Moldoff. Fawcett’s executive comics editor believed DC didn’t have much of a case… but the tide turned on a technicality with, as Moldoff recalls, “a story that [Major Parker, continued from p. 49] military; both men were Army reserve officers in an elite military outfit known as “Squadron A.” Parker got called up before the war and spent long years in the service, where he was stationed in the Philippines. Prior to the war and after originating Captain Marvel, Spy Smasher, and the other characters, he became the editor of Fawcett’s up-andcoming comics line, which included Whiz Comics, Master Comics, Nickel Comics, and Slam-Bang Comics. (When Bill left for the Army, Rod Reed took over as Fawcett’s comics editor.) During his Mechanix Illustrated editorship, the hard-working Parker put a substantial amount of creative input into the magazine, rather than simply presiding over people and making occasional suggestions. Throughout his tenure, the magazine often published a variety of futuristic and outer-space articles. Many of the ideas came from Parker himself and from an artist named Frank Tinsley. The terribly shy Bill Parker even made an appearance once on television, discussing some of the topics of the future that had been featured in MI that he and Tinsley originated.

Romance Parker met his own “Beautia,” a blonde named “Bets” (most likely a nickname for Elizabeth). Bill fell in love with her, but she married another man from Burma and left the country and lived there several years, or at least long enough to produce two daughters. However, Parker never gave up and continued to dream that one day she would be his wife. Sure enough, in time she divorced the Burma man and came back to the States. Bill was waiting on the dock to meet her when she

joy of comic books is gone.” [For a lengthy interview with Sheldon Moldoff which covers his entire career, including his Hawkman and Batman work for DC and the Bill Gaines/EC episode, see Alter Ego, Vol. 3, #4, available from TwoMorrows Publishing. See its ad section in this issue.] returned. He later married her, and they became an instant family of four. A new addition to the family, a son, died at birth and devastated the couple. Parker’s stepdaughters always called him “Bill,” never “Daddy.” During one Monday lunch break with his pal Robert Beason at the Fawcett offices, Parker described the traumatic weekend he’d just had involving one of the daughters having had a “runaway groom” experience at her wedding, where she was left standing alone at the altar.

Lightning’s Last Strike Bill Parker died in early February 1963 of what was said to be abscesses in the abdomen leading to blood clot; there were people who said they believed he had cancer. A few years before his death, he had his stomach re-sectioned for ulcers. His funeral was February 5th. His longtime friend and co-worker Robert Beason took over as the new editor of Mechanix Illustrated, where he remained at the helm until September, 1979, when he was fired by new owners CBS, who had purchased Fawcett Publications a couple of years earlier. After all his years at Fawcett Publications, where he served as editor and writer, and created one of the top-selling heroes of the Golden Age of Comics, Bill Parker was making a meager $22,000 a year when he died. The dollar was worth more back then, yes, but Fawcett, like many other publishers, was also cheap. Bill Parker was a Major when he returned to Fawcett after the Army. He would joke about not returning to his creation, Captain Marvel: “Now that I’m a Major, I outrank him!”

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Vol. 3, No. 23 / April 2003

™

Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout Christopher Day

Consulting Editors John Morrow Jon B. Cooke

FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck

Comic Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

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

Production Assistant Eric Nolen-Weathington

All The Way With MLJ! Section

Cover Artists Bob Fujitani H.G. Peter

Cover Colorist Tom Ziuko

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Jack Keller

Contents Writer/Editorial: All the Way with MLJ!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Call it MLJ—Archie—the Mighty Comics Group—it’s definitely had its moments! “Fuje” for Thought! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Golden Age artist Bob Fujitani talks with Jim Amash about The Hangman, Crime Does Not Pay, Flash Gordon, and lots of other neat stuff!

John Rosenberger... the Jaguar of the Comics!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Roger Hill’s fly-on-the-wall look at the artist of The Fly, The Jaguar—and Lois Lane! “The Hangman” Cometh! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Archie editor Victor Gorelick on his four decades with Riverdale and super-heroes. For Wonder Woman, Mr. Monster, & FCA . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover : What can we say? Though it’s been years—pushing sixty, in fact—since he last did a Hangman comic, master artist Bob Fujitani drew this powerful, moody illustration for interviewer Jim Amash, and allowed us to use it as our cover. But Roy can’t complain—’cause Fuje gifted him with the layout! Black-&-white versions of both can be viewed on page 3—so what’re you waitin’ for? [Art ©2003 Bob Fujitani; Hangman TM & © Archie Comic Publications, Inc.] Above: Here’s another Hangman-and-noose shot drawn by Bob Fujitani, as restored (with grey tones added) for Bill Black’s Golden-Age Men of Mystery #9 (1998). Thanks to Mark and Stephanie Heike, as well. See ads for Bill’s AC Comics elsewhere in this issue—and do yourself a favor by ordering a few. [Hangman TM & ©2003 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.; restored art ©2003 Bill Black.] Alter EgoTM is published monthly by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Phone: (919) 833-8092. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: Rt. 3, Box 468, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $8 ($10 Canada, $11 elsewhere). Twelve-issue subscriptions: $60 US, $120 Canada, $132 elsewhere. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

Title writer/editorial

All The Way With MLJ (Plus a Few Others)! Before Archie, there was The Shield. Before Jughead, there was The Hangman. And before Betty and Veronica, there were—Dusty the Boy Detective and Roy the Super-Boy (honest!). It’s no secret that Archie Comic Publications started off in 1939 as MLJ Magazines. The “MLJ” came from the initials of the first names of its founders: Morris Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John Goldwater. The company’s earliest titles were Blue Ribbon Comics, Top-Notch Comics, Pep Comics, Zip Comics, and Shield-Wizard. Its first successful super-hero was The Shield, who beat Captain America in the patriotically-garbed-super-hero sweepstakes by a good year... but The Hangman and Black Hood also gained faithful followings. Steel Sterling... The Web... The Comet... The Fox... they may not all have been memorable, but there sure were a lot of ‘em.

Pep Comics #47 (March 1944) was the last time The Shield appeared on a Golden Age cover except in a small circular inset—and it’s only on the cover of a comic held by a snoozing Archie! In his dreams, Archie has usurped the super-hero’s costume, just as he had hijacked his mag—indeed, the entire company! [©2003 Archie Comic Publications.]

Then, of course, Archie Andrews made the scene, soon flanked by Betty and Veronica, with Jughead munching on the sidelines and Reggie sneering from behind a tree... and, ere long, the Riverdale kids had pretty much eclipsed all those guys with masks and capes and tight pants. Up till now, we haven’t had much chance to cover MLJ in Alter Ego. But recently Jim Amash did an extensive interview with Golden Age great Bob Fujitani, the preeminent (if not the first) Hangman artist... and a shorter one with current Archie editor Victor Gorelick, who could talk about his company’s Silver Age offshoot, the Mighty Comics Group—that fleeting mid-’60s thorn-in-the-side to Martin Goodman and Stan Lee’s Marvel Comics Group. Soon afterward, we encountered collector Roger Hill’s long, wellresearched piece about John Rosenberger, artist of such Silver Age Archie adventure comics as The Fly, The Jaguar—even one issue of The Shadow. We felt Roger’s article, originally seen by only a handful of people, deserved a larger audience—as did Rosenberger. And that was it: one full side of an issue of A/E, filled to the brim by two interviews and one artistic biography—all three accompanied by beaucoup art, natch.

Actually, we confess up front: a lot more than MLJ/Archie is dealt with in these pages, even just in terms of comic art. Bob Fujitani also illustrated features for Hillman, Harvey, and other companies, and worked for several years with Dan Barry on the Flash Gordon newspaper strip... while Rosenberger also drew for Toby Press and eventually for DC. Jim and Roger haven’t slighted those aspects of their careers—far from it. But they, and Victor, did some of their most celebrated work for MLJ/Archie, and that gave us all the excuse we needed to celebrate that trio in A/E... with the help, as usual, of some of the most generous comics fans and collectors this side of the legendary Supersnipe and Comics McCormick! Bob’s wonderful new Hangman cover was just the icing on the cake! Bestest,

Bob Fujitani

“Fuje” For Thought! A Candid Conversation with Golden Age and Flash Gordon Artist BOB FUJITANI

JA: What led you to become an artist?

by Jim Amash [INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: Bob Fujitani, who often signed his name “Fuje,” has lived the freelancer’s life as much as anyone has. He spent many years as an assistant/ghost artist for legendary artist Dan Barry on the Flash Gordon newspaper comic strip. Bob’s adaptability served him well for every task demanded of him, from Quality Comics to Flash Gordon to Prince Valiant, and with many other companies in between. His career serves as a witness to the trials of a comics artist, and of the people he worked with. And he sounds just like Bill Goodwin, old-time radio announcer for Burns and Allen. —Jim.] JIM AMASH: I usually start off with this basic question. Where and when were you born?

FUJITANI: I was always artistically inclined. When I was in grade school, I became fascinated with drawing. I read the Journal-American and they had great Sunday strips. I remember at the age of twelve being fascinated with Flash Gordon, and Jungle Jim, which was the strip above Flash. I copied that strip for the school newspaper, in Alex Raymond’s style. I loved the jungle stuff: lions, tigers, foliage. It’s funny that, years later, I’d be connected with Alex Raymond because of the Flash Gordon strip. A lot of guys made a living off Alex Raymond. JA: Those who didn’t make a living off Milton Caniff. FUJITANI: Exactly! Newspaper strips got me interested in drawing. Prince Valiant came out later and I loved it, too. That strip took up an entire page and it was gorgeous. Foster also got special coloring because the strip was so important to the paper. But I always thought Alex Raymond, in some respects, was a better artist than Foster. Raymond drew better figures, but they were both the best.

A recent photo of Bob, his wife Ruth, and their dog Fred—flanking his BOB FUJITANI: I was born layout and finished artwork of the splendid Hangman illo he did for Oct. 15, 1921 in Kripple Creek, Jim Amash—and incidentally for our cover. [Art ©2003 Bob Fujitani; N.Y., which is a suburb of Hangman TM & ©2003 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.] Kingston. We moved to Greenwich, Connecticut, when I Al Williamson was almost a clone of Raymond. He really should was two years old and I’ve lived here ever since. I have two brothers, but have been the successor to Raymond on Flash [NOTE: Williamson did they weren’t artists.

“Fuje” For Thought

do several Flash Gordon comic books in the 1960s and in the early ‘90s. —Jim], because he had that style nailed down. I’m sure people must have told him that. The syndicate [King Features] used to get letters from readers, and they’d pass them on to Dan Barry. Every once in a while, someone would ask, “Whatever happened to the old Flash Gordon I remember?” JA: As good as Dan Barry was, I know some people hate to see a stylistic change in their newspaper strips. People don’t like change. FUJITANI: Very true. When you take over a strip, you should do it your way. But I finally realized, after all these years, if you take over a strip and want it to succeed, you have to make it look like the original artist did it. That’s what people expect.

FUJITANI: That’s possible. Gill Fox, the editor at Quality, was in Stamford. All the artists thought the world of Lou Fine. He was the greatest. When I first saw his work—Tex introduced me to him—I was astounded. I remember talking to my art teacher and I told him what a great artist Lou was. My teacher said, “You shouldn’t be doing that kind of stuff.” He thought I should be painting. JA: What do you remember about Tex Blaisdell? FUJITANI: He was a big jokester. He was a big, tall man, about six foot six. He towered over everybody and had curly blond hair and huge blue

JA: I agree. I see you went to the American School of Design. FUJITANI: Which no longer exists. This was after high school, and I was there about a year and a half, from 1939 until 1940. That’s where I met Tex Blaisdell and how I got into comics. It was a two-year course that I didn’t finish because I got into comics. Fred Kida went to the school, too. He was a great artist and a good friend. He wasn’t so great in art school, but he really developed into a top talent. Tex had been there a year ahead of me, and one day he called me, saying, “Hey. You want a job?” Jobs were scarce then because we were still coming out of the Depression. It was a dream come true. Tex told me to get some samples and rush down to Tudor City on 42nd Street, where Bill Eisner had his studio. I didn’t even take the subway. I think I ran down there from 58th Street. I showed Eisner my samples and he hired me at $5 a day, 25 bucks a week. JA: Eisner had separated from Jerry Iger by this point, right? FUJITANI: Right. Eisner had a deal with Quality Comics and publisher Busy Arnold; he was doing “Uncle Sam” and “Blackhawk.” Chuck Cuidera was there, sitting by Tex Blaisdell’s right, doing “Blackhawk” [in Military Comics]. Tex was like the boss of the shop for Eisner. Nick Viscardi [Cardy] was doing “Lady Luck” and Bob Powell was doing a feature, but I forget the name of it; it ran in the back of the Spirit section for newspapers. I sat next to Viscardi, and Tex and Chuck sat behind me. JA: Chuck Mazoujian was out of the shop by that time? FUJITANI: Yes. They used to talk about him, but I never met him. Lou Fine was upstairs in his own office. I heard Busy Arnold paid the rent on Lou’s offices. JA: This must have been before Lou Fine moved to Stamford, Conn.

“All the artists thought the world of Lou Fine.” We printed much of Fine’s stunningly-drawn “Black Condor” art from Crack Comics #17 (Oct. 1941) in Alter Ego #17, but here’s a page we couldn’t squeeze in there. Repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, courtesy of Dennis Beaulieu. [©2003 DC Comics.]

Bob Fujitani

FUJITANI: Yes, he was. JA: I know Chuck Cuidera was unhappy with Eisner over that. FUJITANI: I know. Chuck was a slow worker, but very thorough. I can remember him drawing a “Blackhawk” scene with the characters marching towards the reader. Chuck was a stickler for detail and getting those boots right. Boots have a certain way of making folds at the ankle. And there’s Chuck, with an Alex Raymond swipe in one hand, and drawing those boots with the other. He was sweating it out just on those boots. Eisner didn’t like that because he didn’t think it was important. But to an illustrator, it was important. Eisner wasn’t an illustrator, he was a storyteller. JA: Chuck admitted to me that he was a slow penciler. That’s why he only inked, later on. And Chuck was a tough guy. Did he have a chip on his shoulder? FUJITANI: I thought so. He had a rough vocabulary. JA: Cuidera and Eisner both claim they created “Blackhawk.” Do you have an opinion on this? FUJITANI: I don’t know for sure, though I wouldn’t be surprised if Eisner was the creator. I know Chuck was the original artist, and he probably created the visuals, but I imagine Eisner created the idea. I can’t say it for a fact, though. JA: Well, Eisner created “Doll Man,” The Spirit, and many other features for Quality Comics, so it makes sense to me.

Could this splash from Military Comics #3 (Oct. ‘41) be the page Bob Fujitani mentions wherein the Blackhawks were marching toward the reader and artist Chuck Cuidera insisted on getting the boots “right,” to boss Will Eisner’s chagrin? A/E editor Roy Thomas was surprised to discover, when poring over The Blackhawk Archives, Vol. 1, that he actually preferred Cuidera’s art on the team to that of the great Reed Crandall, who took over the drawing chores with Military #12. Do yourself a favor—pick up this astounding Archives volume! [©2003 DC Comics.]

eyes. His real name was Philip, but we called him Tex. I think he was from Texas. Bill Eisner liked him. Eisner was a stickler for storytelling. He didn’t care how fancy the artwork was. He stressed the fact that he didn’t like any design in the panel. “Don’t worry about design or whether it’s balanced or not. The important thing is to tell the story.” He was probably right. When Bill wasn’t there, Tex was in charge. You know, when I first got there, I didn’t know anything about comics. Tex did breakdowns for the shop artists. He was a good artist. JA: What were you doing when you started there? FUJITANI: I was penciling. I had to pencil three pages a day. JA: Three pages a day? For five bucks? FUJITANI: [laughs] Yeah. I may be wrong... it may have been two pages a day. I remember Bill Eisner came in one day; he was always fighting deadlines and he had his own office, adjoining ours. He was doing The Spirit and trying to oversee us, too. He said, “Things are getting out of hand here. I’m going to start making work sheets so I’ll know what’s going on.” He said we had to start doing three pages a day. JA: For $5? He was making good money off of you.

In the weekly Spirit comic supplement, Powell drew the “Mr. Mystic” feature; this 1944 page (from a 4-pager) is repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, thanks to Al Dellinges. [©2003 Will Eisner.]

“Fuje” For Thought bucks a week. When he found out I was making 25 bucks a week, he hit the ceiling. He was writing his own stuff, and I was just a half-assed penciler. He got a raise. JA: What were you drawing for Eisner? FUJITANI: Uncle Sam, “Doll Man,” and “Hack O’Hara.” I did some penciling for Lou Fine, but he didn’t like what I did, so he redrew it. JA: Did you supply him with tight pencils?

Later, Lou Fine drew the “Space Conquerors!” feature in Boy’s Life, the Boy Scout magazine... but it was always signed by entrepreneur Al Stenzel, Thanks to George Hagenauer. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

FUJITANI: And Eisner was a brilliant writer for comics. Chuck was an illustrator who graduated from Pratt Institute. JA: With Bob Powell. FUJITANI: I didn’t get along with Bob Powell very well. He didn’t treat me very well. JA: Was he prejudiced? FUJITANI: I don’t think it was that. Let me give you an example. One day, Tex wasn’t there, and Eisner had to go out, so he put Powell in charge. Powell said, “Okay, you guys. Let’s get going now. Quit goofing off and turn the work out.” He became a slave-driver. “I want to hear those pencils sing. C’mon... let’s move it!” Here’s a guy who was just one of the workers, and now he’s a boss. That turned me against him. One day, a messenger came in with a package, and laid it by the door. I told Bob it was there and he said, “Get out of your chair, Bob, and bring it over here.” That sort of stuck in my mind. Powell thought he was much better than he was.

FUJITANI: No. My pencils weren’t too tight. You know, Eisner didn’t get along with Lou Fine that well. He always thought that Lou was humorless and, in a sense, he was. The idea of humor to Lou was: Mickey Mouse had an Uncle Sam. It just didn’t go anywhere. Lou was humorless, and I remember Bill saying that. There was a discussion about that in the office one day, and it got back to Busy Arnold.

Incidentally, I knew Busy Arnold very well. He lived in Greenwich, Connecticut, and Arnold was impressed by the fact that I went to art school because most of the artists he employed never went to art school. The word got back to Arnold that Lou was humorless, and didn’t tell a story properly. He couldn’t break down a story very well. I went to see Arnold after I left Eisner because he knew my older brother, who was an outstanding football player. JA: For Brown University. FUJITANI: Right! Arnold was an alumnus of Brown University and he scouted football players for the school. It was a pet hobby of his, and he arranged for a scholarship for my brother. That’s how I got to know Arnold. I don’t think Lou Fine went to art school. [NOTE: Fine attended Pratt Institute for a short time. —Jim] Arnold said, “You went to art school and Lou didn’t. Lou’s a terrific artist, but Eisner says he can’t break down a story.” Arnold wanted me to break down stories for Lou, which Fine didn’t agree with.

JA: I’m not surprised. Powell had his own shop later and treated people the same way then, too. He ended up doing well for himself.

JA: Maybe you can clear up a credit I have for you. I have you listed as doing inks on “The Black Condor,” but that was actually your pencils for Fine, wasn’t it?

FUJITANI: He was an aggressive guy. I didn’t say two words to him after that.

FUJITANI: Yes.

JA: What did you think of Nick Viscardi, whom I know better as Nick Cardy? FUJITANI: I thought he was a great guy and a terrific artist. He used to do “Lady Luck” and sat next to me. I used to watch him. He sketched everything in loosely, then picked up the brush, and inked. It was marvelous to see him do that. He was a very sweet, helpful guy. We used to go out to eat together. He probably doesn’t even remember me, because I only worked for Eisner for four months. But I have a pretty good memory. JA: And I’m so glad you do. [laughs] FUJITANI: A lot of people worked there, including Dave Berg. He was a pretty good artist, but became disgruntled with Bill Eisner. Dave started a new feature, a crazy cartoon feature, and he only got twenty

JA: The same for “The Ray”? FUJITANI: Probably, yes, but just on a few stories. I never inked Lou Fine’s work. In fact, people used to tell me that I’d never be a good inker because I didn’t know how to ink. JA: But you did know how to ink! FUJITANI: Oh, yeah. That’s silly. It’s like telling a painter that you can paint but you can’t draw. JA: That explains the art inconsistencies in some of Lou Fine’s stories. If you look at some of those stories, you’ll see great panels next to weak ones. Or a terrific splash panel, and underneath it two panels that look like another artist had a strong hand in there. Did you get to know Lou Fine very well?

Bob Fujitani

FUJITANI: Yes, I did. I thought I learned a lot there. When I left him, I went to work for Harry Lucey. He was doing The Hangman for MLJ, and offered me $5 a page to pencil the feature for him. So I went to Eisner, and told him I got a better offer. Eisner gave me a little lecture on this being a crazy business, and that there were a lot of chiselers out there, but that he had a good company. Stuff like that; but I had already made up my mind to leave. Eisner wasn’t mad at me. I think he just wanted to get his production done. JA: Before you went to work for Harry Lucey, you worked directly for Busy Arnold, didn’t you? FUJITANI: That’s right. I went up to his office in Stamford, at the Gurley Building. That’s where I met Gill Fox, who was working for Arnold. Ed Cronin was still the editor there, though. JA: That’s because Gill was Cronin’s assistant. Fox took over as editor when Cronin moved on to Hillman publications. FUJITANI: Right. Arnold hired me. Cronin’s office was in the room next to him. I’d go up to the offices, see Arnold first, then he’d call in Ed Cronin, saying, “Give Bob four pages of ‘The Ray’”—which Lou was still working on—”because I want Bob to pencil it. Lou can’t break down. You were trained by Will Eisner, and he’s a master storyteller.” JA: Even with Arnold’s reservations about Fine’s storytelling abilities, didn’t he consider Fine and Reed Crandall his “fair-haired boys”?

The Hangman was introduced in Pep Comics #17 (July 1941) in the feature which had belonged since #1 to The Comet, a Jack Cole-created super-hero who shot rays from his eyes behind a visor, à la Marvel’s later Cyclops. When The Comet (John Dickering) is shot by criminals, his brother Bob becomes the costumed but non-super-powered Hangman to avenge John’s death and pick up where he left off. The new hero’s first artist was Harry Lucey. [©2003 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

FUJITANI: Not really. I didn’t get to know him until we worked at Al Stenzel’s studio in the 1960s. Stenzel had been the art director at Johnstone and Cushing, and he bought them out when they folded, keeping the Boy’s Life account. He called it “Al Stenzel and Company,” or something like that. As an aside, that’s where I met Neal Adams. Irv Novick worked there at the same time he was working at DC. Adams had been doing the Ben Casey newspaper strip, and worshiped Stan Drake. JA: You said Eisner didn’t think Fine had a sense of humor, but Eisner wasn’t a big joke-teller. He didn’t hang out with his employees. FUJITANI: He didn’t, but Eisner had a lot of humor in The Spirit. He had the Ebony character, which was a stereotype you couldn’t get away with today. JA: Well, Eisner certainly was the superior storyteller. FUJITANI: That’s right. And in a way, Eisner was a superior artist. He didn’t get into drawing crazy angles, distortions, and details like Lou did. Eisner was a top writer and artist, and very few people could touch him. JA: Did you like working for Eisner?

Before MLJ launched a Hangman comic, it floated a trial balloon with a noose: Special Comics #1 (Winter 1941), with Harry Lucey art. The inside front cover retold the story of that ominous super-hero’s origin, surely a “first” in comics history! The mag became The Hangman with the second issue; Bob Fujitani came along some issues later. [©2003 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

“Fuje” For Thought

FUJITANI: Yes. In a sense, they were. From what I understand, that’s why Arnold set Lou up in his own studio. By the way, Arnold used to smoke Dunhill cigarettes. He’d take a big drag, then let the smoke drift out his mouth, and suck it up through his nose. [laughs] I used to smoke cigarettes, but I couldn’t smoke up through my nose.

Ed Cronin?

Arnold also was a bit of a neat freak. People would bring him pages, and if they were a little dirty outside of the panels, Arnold would take white paint, and clean the pages up. [laughs] He’d say, “This is sloppy work.” He prided himself on the fact that he thought his pages were the cleanest-looking magazines.

JA: Do you think Cronin was unhappy with Arnold, or did he just see a better opportunity for himself?

JA: They were. FUJITANI: Yeah. It was important to him. And Arnold liked a lot of colors. If the sky was blue in one panel, he wanted it red in the next panel. Then, the next panel would have a yellow sky. “Kids like color,” he used to say. JA: You know what’s so funny about that? Arnold was color-blind. FUJITANI: [laughs] I didn’t know that. Really? JA: Gill Fox told me Arnold was red-green color-blind. But he still knew what kids liked. FUJITANI: Absolutely. You know, even before I went into comics, I colored them for Arnold. That’s how I met Tony DiPreta. We worked up at McCall’s Photo Engraving in Stamford, where McCall’s Magazine was published. We colored a lot of Arnold’s comic books. I did that in between my first and second years at the American School of Design. JA: Then maybe this was how DiPreta made connections with Busy Arnold. Both you and Gill Fox told me that DiPreta started out in production at Arnold’s as a letterer. Fox and Arnold thought DiPreta had talent, and they got him into inking, and then penciling.

FUJITANI: He was a funny guy, strange in a way. I say strange because he was already planning to work at Hillman, even though he was doing good at Arnold’s. He was very secretive about leaving.

FUJITANI: I think he saw a better opportunity for himself. I know Arnold wasn’t too happy with Ed Cronin. They were both Irishmen, and Arnold was a crude guy in a sense. Cronin was a stiff, straitlaced kind of a guy, not the kind of person you’d expect to get along with Arnold. Fred Kida hooked up with Cronin somehow, and they were secretive about what was going on. Ed Cronin loved Kida’s stuff, and was paying him more than he was other artists. Tony DiPreta knew Cronin from Arnold’s, and they were quite friendly. Tony was still lettering but had started inking. DiPreta and I called up Cronin and got some work from him. Then, we found out he was paying Fred Kida $5 more a page. We were kind of sore at Kida because we were all friends, and he didn’t tell us about it. In those days, we always told each other what we were getting paid. Tony and I started working steady with Ed, who was also a good letterer. Cronin wanted to do the lettering, so he’d get paid for it. So we drew the pages, and brought them to Cronin’s house. He told us not to bring them to the office. No one was supposed to know anything about this. When we brought the pages to Cronin, he’d count them four times. One, one, one... two, two, two... three, three, three... and so on. Then he’d count them all over again. JA: Why? FUJITANI: He wanted to make sure they were all there. He not only double-checked, but triplechecked, and quadruple-checked, too.

FUJITANI: Right. I remember Arnold used to say the same thing about Tony that he said about Lou Fine: “Tony’s good, but he didn’t go to art school.”

JA: [laughs] That’s incredible. Maybe someone cheated him on pages once and he got paranoid after that?

JA: I can see why Arnold favored educated artists, because he was an educated man.

FUJITANI: That’s right. Incidentally, Cronin also wrote some of the stories. He created “The Heap.”

FUJITANI: Yeah, but Arnold was a printing-press man before he got into comics. You know, he lived a couple of houses down from where I live now. [laughs] Old Busy Arnold!

JA: Oh, yeah? Did he create “Airboy,” too? FUJITANI: Charlie Biro created that, or at least he claimed he did. Ed Cronin called Biro, and asked him to help him. Cronin probably gave him the initial idea from which Biro created “Airboy.”

JA: You really liked him, didn’t you? FUJITANI: Yes, I did. He drank a lot, too. He looked like he was just coming off a bender every time I saw him. And smoking those Dunhills! [laughs] My brother and I used to talk about that all the time. JA: What do you remember about

JA: So Cronin left Quality, and Gill Fox became editor. What was Gill like to work for? Yep, Busy Arnold knew what he was doing when he named his company “Quality”! This wartime “Blackhawk” story drawn by Reed Crandall more than illustrates the point. Love those Grumman Skyrockets! [©2003 DC Comics.]

FUJITANI: He was good. Gill always made me think that he liked what I did.

Bob Fujitani

[Left to right:] (a) Though the first “Airboy” script, in Air Fighters Comics #2 (Nov. 1942), is attributed to Charlie Biro, Bob Fujitani feels Hillman editor Ed Cronin may have furnished the initial idea; the artist is unknown, alas. (b) In that same issue, Fujitani drew the first appearance of “The Flying Dutchman.” (c) In #7, as in #6, Bob handled “Sky Wolf.” All art repro’d from the excellent 1980s reprints by Eclipse Comics. [©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

JA: I know he did because he told me so.

anything.

FUJITANI: Yeah. Gill was always enthusiastic. I can see his face now, saying, “This is really good stuff. How’d you do this?” [laughs]

JA: You served in the Navy?

JA: When you brought work in, you showed it to Arnold first? FUJITANI: Yes. I don’t think I dealt much with Gill. And Miss McKenzie was Arnold’s secretary. I remember Arnold saying, “Miss McKenzie, get a check for Bob and four more pages for him.” Arnold paid right on the spot. Five bucks a page for pencils. Eisner paid five bucks for three pages. JA: Did you work for Arnold until you went into the service? FUJITANI: That’s right. Right after Pearl Harbor. JA: I’m curious as to why you occasionally signed your name “Fuje,” instead of Fujitani. FUJITANI: When I was in school, I was always known as “Fuje” or “Fuji,” never Fujitani. Even the teachers did that. So I just used that signature. During the Second World War, I used the name Bob Wells for the Judge Wright strip. This was discussed with the syndicate because my real name wouldn’t have gone over well during those times. The Japanese were really hated, so I used my mother’s maiden name. And they didn’t want Bob Bernstein, the writer, to use his name because he was Jewish. JA: So your father was Japanese... FUJITANI: ...and my mother was Irish/English. JA: Did you suffer a lot of racism when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor? FUJITANI: Not really. A little bit. A friend of mine and I talked about going into the service. We agreed that we should volunteer instead of waiting to be drafted, so we’d have our pick of where we’d serve. The last thing we wanted to do was serve in the Army. I knew a lot about what happened in the First World War... you know, gas warfare, and going over the top of the hill into the face of machine-gun fire. It’d be dumb luck if you survived it. It didn’t have anything to do with skill or

FUJITANI: Yes. I was in there for a very short time... about four months. A notice came when I was drawing a portrait of a personnel officer while stationed at Floyd Bennett Field in New York. I was the station artist, and was fast at drawing portraits. All the officers wanted me to do their portrait. Anyway, I was doing the portrait of this personnel officer, when a yeoman came in with an order to put me under arrest. They classified me as an enemy alien because I was half-Japanese. How could they do that, because I was an American citizen? But that’s what happened, and I was put under armed guard. I had to get a release from all the different officers at the station. They gave me fifteen bucks when I was discharged. I took a train to Grand Central Station, and from there I went home to Coscob, which was part of Greenwich, Connecticut. This was about the extent of the prejudice I suffered, and it certainly was the most traumatic event. Most every other mother’s son was in the service, and here I was, rattling around town. People were pretty angry, saying stuff like, “What the hell is he doing here? He should be in a concentration camp.” They had classified me as a Dishonorable... well, not quite that. It was a yellow discharge that classified me as “unfit and undesirable.” Some years after the war, they changed my discharge to an Honorable one. The Red Cross called me, and someone there told me they had been looking into my case. So I got an Honorable Discharge, and a Veteran’s pin, and my “muster-out pay,” which I hadn’t gotten before. JA: Getting back to your prewar days, you mentioned that you worked for Harry Lucey at MLJ. This was freelance work you did on the side, wasn’t it? FUJITANI: Yes. JA: Tell me about Harry Lucey. FUJITANI: Harry Lucey was a pretty good artist who did pulp covers before he did comics. He did nice dry brush illustrations for the insides, too. He drew “The Hangman,” and was always behind in his deadlines. I

“Fuje” For Thought

remember that he had some physical problems. JA: Was he an older man? FUJITANI: Yes. JA: Did he do any editorial work at MLJ? FUJITANI: No. JA: Then how did he know about you? FUJITANI: I don’t know.

saying that. And this guy was a fairly successful magazine illustrator, but he frowned on us. JA: He obviously didn’t know that art is art. Do you remember who wrote the “Hangman” stories? FUJITANI: Harry Shorten. He’d write stories right on the spot. I remember going into his office, and he’d say, “Okay, let’s get you a story.” Then he’d start pacing back and forth. “Let’s see... maybe an amusement park would be a good place....” He had all these cliched ideas in his head. “We could have The Hangman chasing the bad guys on the roller coaster or maybe the ferris wheel.” He’d just dictate the ideas right

JA: Somebody there must have known of you. Was Harry Shorten the editor? FUJITANI: Yes, he was. He looked like the missing link. [laughs] Every time I saw him, I thought that. He was a heavy-set guy, with long arms and a short, bull-like neck. He looked like the stereotypical Neanderthal that you see in those human ancestry charts. A heavy, low brow, but he was a very bright guy. He wasn’t difficult to work for, but he was a rough guy. Harry Lucey called me up, and we got a cheap apartment somewhere on 14th Street. He had a bunch of Alex Raymond swipes. JA: You penciled for him. Did he pay you or did MLJ? FUJITANI: He paid me. Five bucks a page. JA: Five bucks again? [laughs] That sure must have been the standard. FUJITANI: I think it was. I remember one very hot day, we had a whole bunch of pages on the window sill. The window was open, and the pages flew out the window. We watched them fly all over the street. We did manage to find most of the pages. [laughs] JA: And I’ll bet you never left them on the window sill again! FUJITANI: Never! Now that I’m mentioning this, I remember we had a big quart jar full of water that we threw our cigarette butts into. One day, some guy came in, and saw our place. We had the wastebaskets overfilled with trash, paper all over the place, and this water jar of cigarette butts. He said, “Jesus! How can you guys stand this place?” And he was right. It was awful! I haven’t thought about this in many years, but that jar always sticks out in my mind. The guy who made that remark was an illustrator, and I said to him, “You can take all your illustrators, but give me Alex Raymond.” I felt good about

A great Fujitani page from The Hangman #6 (Spring 1943), repro’d from a photocopy of the original art. Jon Berk, who supplied it, says, “Don’t you love the shadow of the gallows!” [©2003 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

Bob Fujitani

took over “The Hangman” from Harry Lucey, didn’t you? FUJITANI: I did. Harry was drafted into the service. JA: So Harry Shorten knew you were penciling for Lucey? FUJITANI: Yes, he did. I used to go to the offices with Harry Lucey. JA: You were working directly for Lucey, and now you’re working directly for MLJ. Did you get a raise? FUJITANI: I think I did. I was making ten bucks a page, or something like that. JA: So Lucey was making money off of you. FUJITANI: Yeah, maybe a couple of bucks a page. But it seems petty to talk about it. JA: Maybe so, but I’m not really making a moral judgment. To me, I just look at it as history. FUJITANI: When you put it in those terms, it’s okay. I understand it. JA: Did you draw “The Black Hood”?

Bob did some work for Charles Biro’s fantastically popular (and notorious) Crime Does Not Pay. This page is from issue #64 (June 1948). Scan by Jim Amash. Thanks to Teresa R. Davidson. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

there. He’d give me the plot and say, “We’ll fill in the word balloons later.” JA: That’s interesting, because it wasn’t the the way most people worked back then. Stan Lee said he started this method of working, but apparently Harry Shorten beat him to it. FUJITANI: [laughs] Stan Lee always got his ideas from someone else. He used to call up Charlie Biro all the time for ideas. I know, because I was there a couple of times when he called Charlie. Biro’d hang up the phone and say, “Gee, this guy wants me to do everything for him. Give him ideas for this, give him ideas for that.” This was when Crime Does Not Pay was really riding high. JA: But Stan was at Timely! And he’s calling the competition for ideas? FUJITANI: Oh, yeah. He was very friendly with Charlie Biro. JA: Would Biro help Stan? FUJITANI: Oh, yeah. Charlie was full of ideas. He really believed he had the pulse of the readers and knew what the kids liked. JA: He probably did, because his books sold very well. You can’t argue with his success. FUJITANI: That’s right. Is Stan Lee still at it? JA: Yes, he is. He’s like the Energizer Bunny. [laughs] Now, you

Another Fujitani Hangman page. Bob must’ve liked this one—he signed panel 5! Hmm... wonder if that dog Thor is any relation to Manhunter’s pooch of the same name over in Quality’s Police Comics!? Repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, courtesy of Ethan Roberts. [©2003 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

“Fuje” For Thought

“B. Fuje” also drew “Shock Gibson” in Harvey’s Speed Comics during World War II. The irony inherent in some of the scripts Bob illustrated—especially in light of the earlier problems he relates because of his half-Japanese ancestry—may well have escaped the notice of his erstwhile employers. Repro’d from photocopies of the original art from Speed #38 (May 1945), courtesy of Ethan Roberts. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

FUJITANI: I don’t remember. I doubt it.

FUJITANI: I never saw him.

JA: What do you remember about the layout of the MLJ offices?

JA: Did you like the Hangman character?

FUJITANI: They were in downtown New York. Shorten had a small, glassed-in office. They did have a couple of artists working there.

FUJITANI: Yes, he was pretty good.

JA: Did Shorten have an assistant? FUJITANI: No. JA: Did you ever see the owners? FUJITANI: Yes. John Goldwater was there, and I remember him asking me to draw a couple of covers. I also remember Louis Silberkleit. He used to come to work with a chauffeur. He used to wear a big polo coat... you know, the camel-hair coats with belts. I remember him walking briskly through the offices, with papers blowing off tables as he passed them. He’d go in his office, and slam the door. John was more like the assistant, and he’d go in Louis’ office, and they’d talk very loudly. Louis would complain about things, and John would calm him down. I was in the office one day, and they were telling me the kind of cover they wanted. Louis was sitting back in his chair with his feet up, trying to describe what he wanted. He was very pompous. JA: Was Morris Coyne around much? He was the “M” in MLJ.

JA: Once Lucey was gone, did you ink the feature, too? FUJITANI: Yes. By the way, I remember Irv Novick working in the offices. He was drawing “The Shield.” He was the big star there, and a pretty good artist. He wasn’t just a comics hack. I saw Bob Montana there a few times. Harry Lucey introduced me to him and said, “Bob’s a terrific artist and writer.” I worked there for a while, and then drifted on to other places. I remember Bob Bernstein calling me up. He was the editor at Harvey Comics. He was also writing comics, and turning out stories like mad. JA: I didn’t know he was the editor at Harvey. FUJITANI: That’s where he started. He had been a teacher before that. I forgot who hired me; it might have been Mr. Harvey himself. I remember Bob telling me how unique my work was, and we got to be good friends. Bob always had ideas. He was a terrific idea man, very enthusiastic. I was always sort of laid-back. He got us doing magazine work for some Communist outfit. JA: Was Bernstein politically-minded in that vein?

Bob Fujitani

13 Bob walked me down to Grand Central Station, and we were going to go to a Horn and Hardart [an automat] to celebrate. But before we got there, Bob suddenly got very quiet. I asked Bob what the matter was. He said, “There’s something bothering me. I’ve been doing an awful lot of legwork and thinking and planning....” I could feel something coming. We had a 50-50 partnership and I said, “Well, Bob... spit it out. Tell me what’s wrong.”

Fujitani drew more than just the cover of Avon’s Eerie #1 (Jan. 1947), generally considered the first true “horror comic.” He also illustrated the lead tale, wherein an eccentric man’s pet tiger, which sleeps in his bedroom, licks the sole of his bare foot while he sleeps—draws blood—and quickly develops a taste for the stuff. Despite a mock-spectral ending, not exactly the kind of fare that EC would become infamous for a few years later, it was a start. With thanks to Bill Cooke. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

Bob said, “In view of the fact that I’m really the one who got this thing going, it should be a 60-40 deal.” When he said that, I said, “Listen, I got a better idea, Bob. You can have a hundred percent because I’m out of it. We had a deal and you see you have a chance to make money, and right away you get greedy. You may have the ideas, but it only takes you fifteen minutes to give me the idea, and it takes me four days to draw it.” “Yeah, but it all starts with the idea,” he said. I said, “As far as I’m concerned, it’s all finished.” That was it for me. I left, and never looked back. We never talked after that.

FUJITANI: Oh, yes. He had a distant relative who was the publisher of Avon Books, and he wanted to get into comic books. So Bob and I formed a partnership. Bob took care of everything. I was just doing the artwork. JA: So Bernstein got Avon into the comic publishing? FUJITANI: Yes. The company was at Lexington Avenue, around 58th Street. The offices were very dark, with wood-paneled walls. They were reprinting Shakespeare and things like that. They reprinted old books, not new ones. Bob got them to publish Eerie Comics, and I drew the cover. There was a lot of haggling with that distant relative about giving us a percentage of the sales. Bob and I left, and were in the elevator, and he was overjoyed. “We’re in,” he said. We started shaking hands and he said, “We’re in the big money now.” Because we knew that Biro and Bob Wood were getting a percentage, and they were living like kings. We envisioned something like that.

JA: I would have done the same thing, only I’d have probably punched him in the face. FUJITANI: It almost came to that. Same thing happened when I quit working with Dan Barry on Flash Gordon, only it was over the phone. Money became an issue, and I told Dan, “I want to make things fair. If you feel like you’re doing 75% of the work, then you should get 75% of the money.” Dan said, “No, no. It’s 50-50. I can’t do this strip without you.” He always said that to me.

“Fuje” For Thought

Ming the Merciless and Dr. Zarkov, both created in 1934 by Alex Raymond when he initiated the Flash Gordon strip, were still around in 1980, and continued by Dan Barry, whose 1991 photo appears at right (thanks to Jim Amash and Teresa R. Davidson). During these happier days, Barry generously shared credit with Fujitani—a rare thing in the comic strip world. [©2003 King Features Syndicate.]

Remember when they were making the Flash Gordon movie? Dan saw big bucks, and told me we’re going to do the poster and open a studio together. I said, “Dan, it’s your baby.” He said, “No, it’s 50-50.” I didn’t hear from him for about a week while we were working on the poster. I finally called him, and asked what was happening.

JA: I’m amazed, because most people wouldn’t have turned down the money. FUJITANI: Up until that point, Dan and I always got along fine. But when he pulled that 60-40 stuff, I quit. We got good money for the rough on the poster, and I told Dan to take the lion’s share of the money. I thought that was only fair. Some time later, after we calmed down, Dan asked me about working on the strip. I did work on it for a little while longer, but then I quit. Then I lost track of him.

Dan said, “I don’t know. I’ve been in a funk. I’ve got a lot of things on my mind. I’ve been running around town, doing legwork, and talking with Dino [De Laurentiis]”... it’s Dino now... “I have to call him in Italy, and things like that.” I said, “Dan, it’s only one poster.” But he said we were going to do more.

JA: Dan quit doing the strip around 1990. He was tired of the grind, and the lack of money. That’s when he went back to doing comic books. And he did great work.

It came down to the fact that Dan wanted to change our 50-50 split, and I saw history repeating itself, so I quit. After all those years of working together, it came down to that. Sometime later, I felt like I overreacted by getting so angry at him.

FUJITANI: Dan was always a terrific artist, but he was always slow. He worked here with me for months, when he came back from Europe. We had two desks, and I sat right behind him. I’d hear him—pick, pick, pick. On one panel he’d be doing the outer space scene like it was scratchboard. He’d make a black sky, and pick the stars out with a special cutting instrument. He’d be on it all day.

There had been other things over the years, too. He lived with us for a couple of months, and I never asked him for a dollar raise. Once, he wanted us to go to King Features, and ask for a raise. I said, “We? It’s your strip.” He said, “Well, no... that’s why I put your name on the strip, because I want everyone to know it’s you and me.” It wasn’t my idea, because I didn’t want my name on the strip. I always felt the strip was Dan’s. I was just his ghost. I only dealt with King Features once, and that was when they were looking for Dan. Dan negotiated a raise, and wanted me to share in it. I told him that he deserved the raise, and that he should keep it: “It’s yours. You just pay me whatever you think you can pay me. I think what you’re paying me is a hardship as it is.” I really didn’t want a raise, because Dan was always needing money.

JA: That’s a ton of work! FUJITANI: I’d do three dailies while he did that. He’d draw every rivet on a spaceship, giving them a cast shadow. Doing the strip was a struggle for Dan, and he always had writer’s block. He’d call me and give me the story for two dailies, then say, “I’ll get back to you with the rest later.” JA: He had writers helping him, didn’t he? FUJITANI: Dan used writers to give him a synopsis. He didn’t want a whole story; at least that’s what I understood. There were a couple of guys giving him story outlines.

Bob Fujitani

You don’t do that to somebody.

I really felt terrible when he died. I always thought he was a survivor. He’d call me when he lived in Europe, from wherever he’d be living, and give me the story to draw. Dan knew how to take care of himself. You knew he went to jail once?

FUJITANI: Yeah. I guess Biro was jealous of Dan’s talent.

JA: For not paying his taxes?

JA: Well, Biro wasn’t a great artist and Dan was.

FUJITANI: Income tax evasion. He didn’t pay his income tax for years.

FUJITANI: Dan really was. He worked hard.

JA: Is that why he moved to Europe?

JA: How did you hook up with Charlie Biro?

FUJITANI: Yes, to avoid paying income tax. It was legal then. He moved to Austria after he got the Flash Gordon strip. When he came back to this country, he moved back to Kent, Connecticut, but never paid his income tax. He got a call from the IRS and claimed he had forgotten to pay it. Dan claimed he was having a hard time with his marriage or something.

FUJITANI: Through Bob Bernstein. He called me up, and said, “Why don’t you come up and meet Charlie Biro?” Work was kind of scarce then, and magazines weren’t doing too well, so I went up and got work.

He went to jail for a year. It was in the New York Times, May 13, 1982. He remarried right before he went to jail, and he’d call his [third] wife, give her the script, and then she’d call me. He did that for a year. Dan was tough. He said he met some of the nicest guys in jail. He was at Egland Air Force Base, which was like a country club. JA: The nicest guys? Did he mean that comparatively? [laughs] I shouldn’t say that, because Dan did some nice things for me. FUJITANI: I guess so. Lawyers, bankers, and embezzlers were there. They were educated people. Dan was the greenskeeper, and he loved to get a tan. He said, “I got the greatest tan I ever had in my life.” When he came back from Europe, he had developed all these continental manners.

JA: Especially to your top artist.

JA: What did you think of him? FUJITANI: As I said, he was a very big man. He was a take-charge type of guy... a blustering, boastful kind of man who thought he had the magic formula. And he did. He wanted things done his way. He treated me all right. I liked working for Biro and Wood. He paid on the spot, and there was always more work. JA: Several artists have told me that Biro didn’t want much solid blacks in the artwork, because he wanted it open for color. Did you have this restriction? FUJITANI: No, but I don’t doubt he felt that way. Biro thought he was a top-notch artist, and I guess he was, in a way. Daredevil and those Crime Does Not Pay covers he did—they sold the magazine.

JA: I know what you mean. Dan and I were at a New York comic convention in 1993, and Dan took me out to eat. He was showing me his topcoat and said, “I bought this coat in Saville Row back in the 1950s and look at it. It still looks brand new. It’s still in style.” He really took good care of that coat; not a stitch out of place or a nick on it. And it was still in style. FUJITANI: When he returned, he felt he had learned real manners, and thought that Americans were so coarse. JA: But Dan could be coarse, because he had a quick temper. FUJITANI: Right. And he could be real funny. But the government likes to pick on guys like Dan. JA: Yeah, though he should have paid his income tax. But it sounds like the Dan Barry I knew. FUJITANI: That’s right. He was a good guy just the same, and we really had a good relationship for all those years, until the end. Dan made it easy for me, because I worked at home, and really liked doing the strip. JA: How did you meet Dan? FUJITANI: I guess I met him at Charlie Biro’s office. Dan was quite stout in those days. He wore a mustache, too. JA: He was a boxer, wasn’t he? FUJITANI: That’s what he claimed. Charlie Biro claimed he was a boxer, too. They had a Christmas party one year, and Dan Barry was talking about being a boxer. Biro said, “You’re a boxer? Let’s go see who the boxer is.” Charlie was a real macho guy, and he slapped Dan silly. I felt sorry for Dan. JA: Biro was a big man. Much bigger than Dan. FUJITANI: He was. He said, “Let’s spar a little bit, just open hands.” And before he knew it, Dan was on his knees. They were both half drunk, but there was a certain meanness there. It was a mean thing to do.

Bob Fujitani doesn’t say much about it in the interview, but he also drew for Holyoke. Here, with a bit of art-retouching and grey tones by Mark Heike, is the splash of his first work in Cat-Man Comics (No. 27, April 1945). Fuje drew “The Reckoner” feature in that issue, as well, for a grand total of 17 pages. Thanks to Bill Black. [Restored art ©2003 AC Comics.]

“Fuje” For Thought

A cornucopia of Crime Does Not Pay! [Clockwise:] A balloon-strewn cover by Charlie Biro himself, from #50 (March ‘47)... a beautifully-rendered Dan Barry splash from the selfsame ish... a Fred Kida splash (featuring narrator “Mr. Crime”) from that period... Tony DiPreta art from #75 (May ‘49)... CDNP mainstay George Tuska, also from #75... and Rudy Palais from #50. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

Bob Fujitani

Bob Wood was just the opposite. He didn’t have much to say. He was very quiet, and Charlie completely dominated the scene.

FUJITANI: Biro took credit for everything. He might have given a synopsis to Bernstein, but Bob actually wrote the stories.

JA: What did Bob Wood do there?

JA: There’s an awful lot of copy in those books.

FUJITANI: As you know, they were partners... legal partners. I’d bring a job in to Bob, he’d look it over and say, “Good job. You want another ten-pager?” That sort of thing. Sometimes he took the work in to Charlie, and sometimes he didn’t. They had their own offices; Charlie had the bigger office.

FUJITANI: Well, Bob Bernstein fancied himself as a writer, and he kept writing and writing, with no concern for the artists. That was the big rap against him. I never liked to draw the stuff, because he was too windy. That was the thing most editors had against Bob Bernstein: too windy. It was too much dialogue.

JA: Were they demanding about things like asking for art corrections?

JA: Did you ever complain?

FUJITANI: No. There wasn’t much of that.

FUJITANI: Oh, all the time. A lot of those huge balloons could have been cut down into a few sentences. It was very important to them to get the flavor of writing in the stories, but if you want to do that, then write a novel. Biro liked a lot of writing. He thought kids liked to read.

JA: Did you ever meet Lev Gleason? FUJITANI: I saw him around, but I never met him. He looked like an average guy. JA: John Belfi told me they were heavy gamblers and drinkers. FUJITANI: Drinkers, yeah. I don’t know about the gambling. JA: Of course, you know what happened to Bob Wood? He killed his girl friend. Did you ever meet his brothers, Dick and Dave? FUJITANI: Oh, yeah. Bob’s drinking caused that. I did meet one of Bob’s brothers, but I don’t know which one it was. I know Bob told me that he and Biro were always spending next month’s royalties. When the big crunch finally came and there weren’t any royalties, they were in debt to Gleason. He’d been advancing them money, and they lived on that.

JA: You did several different books for Biro: Crime Does Not Pay, Boy Comics, Black Diamond, Uncle Charlie’s Fables. Did you favor one genre over another? FUJITANI: No. JA: What do you remember about working for Fawcett? FUJITANI: Not much. I didn’t work there long. The only thing I remember is that they once paid me twice for the same story. I tried to

When they started Tops magazine, Charlie thought it was going to be a big seller. They went into hock for it, and it didn’t last long. I did a little work for it, but I don’t recall what it was. JA: Why do you think it folded? FUJITANI: He tried to get sophisticated with it... tried to write more sophisticated types of stories. It just didn’t work out. The magazine was big, almost the size of Life magazine. They had lots of color pages, but they printed it on cheap paper. I don’t remember what they charged for it, but it was expensive for the time. JA: Was Biro trying to compete with the slick magazines, but on a smaller budget? FUJITANI: Yeah. He had all kinds of grandiose ideas. They lost a lot of money on it. JA: So Biro and Wood were in debt to Gleason, and then Tops loses money. That means Gleason must have had money problems, too. FUJITANI: That’s right. And I think Gleason was a gambler, too. I think he was in debt to his distributors. You know, distributors had tremendous control over comic book companies. JA: Do you remember what your page rate was there? FUJITANI: On Tops magazine, I got about $60 a page. That was big money. Up until that time, it was about 35 bucks a page. JA: You drew a lot of stories that Biro himself actually wrote. FUJITANI: I’m not so sure. JA: Well, the splash pages usually had the “Story by Charles Biro” legend plastered on it. FUJITANI: Well... Bob Bernstein wrote most of those stories. JA: Biro wasn’t writing them? He sure took the credit.

Dan Barry drew covers for Hillman’s Real Clue Crime Stories, which competed with Crime Does Not Pay. This one’s from “Vol. 2, No. 8” (Oct. 1947); Barry did the lead story inside, as well. Thanks to Jim Vadeboncouer, Jr. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

“Fuje” For Thought FUJITANI: It did. I only thought he was an editor, but I guess he was making extra money as an artist.

tell them that, but they insisted they hadn’t paid me, so I eventually took the money.

JA: In the 1950s you started working for Dell Comics. Was Matt Murphy your editor?

JA: I’d like to get back to Hillman Comics for a moment. You did a lot of work for them: “Black Angel,” “Airboy,” “Sky Wolf,” and Real Clue Crime Comics. You told me off-tape that they did Real Clue in order to compete with Biro. Did that book sell well for Hillman?

FUJITANI: Yes. Matt was a nice guy, a real sweetheart. He had a big fancy office at Western Publishing. They produced the books for Dell. Matt was a well-dressed, good-looking guy. He looked like the perfect stereotype of a business man... very proper. He never cursed or anything like that. JA: That company always struck me as a nice, clean, conservative place. I guess it was partially because they licensed a lot of other companies’ characters for their books, like the Disney stuff. They were going to keep things looking clean. I’ll bet their offices looked that way, too.

FUJITANI: Yes, I think it did. It had the same type of cover like Crime Does Not Pay. JA: Were you ever curious about how books sold? FUJITANI: Never. I was never curious at all. JA: And you never wanted your original art back?

At one point in the newspaper strip Rip Kirby, John Prentice drew a likeness of his good friend Gill Fox as a villain. This panel was printed in the book The Art of Gill Fox, loaned to us by Gill himself. [©2003 King Features Syndicate.]

FUJITANI: Right. Exactly. And it was reflected in the type of artwork they used. Nothing nasty or too shocking, just clean and neat. And you’re right. The offices were exactly like that. They were in a new

FUJITANI: No. Now, I understand that they have to give it back. JA: Right. They don’t own the artwork. They just own the right to print it. FUJITANI: Then you must have a lot of originals. JA: I do. FUJITANI: I really wanted to be a painter. Comics was just a living for me. I was just getting the work out, and then, went on to the next story. JA: You turned out a lot of work. Did you use assistants? FUJITANI: Just once. There was a kid down the street who did backgrounds, but he wasn’t much help. He did a couple of things with Leonard Starr, too, but that didn’t last long. I didn’t meet Len until just recently. I was working with John Prentice, who was very friendly with Lenny Starr. They only lived a couple of miles from each other. When John Prentice was dying from cancer, Starr was writing his stuff for him. So I started bringing the art to Lenny. JA: How’d you come to meet John Prentice? FUJITANI: I met him at a National Cartoonists Society dinner. Tony DiPreta had a couple of extra tickets, so my wife Ruth and I went with him. We were eating, and John Prentice came over and started talking. He said to me, “If I ever get in a jam, can I call you?” I said, “Sure.” And he called me the next day to help out on Rip Kirby. John was slow, and always had someone helping him. Al Williamson, Al McWilliams, and many others worked for him. JA: Did you ever work for L.B. Cole? FUJITANI: Yes. He was an editor for Holyoke Publications. He called me up one day. He was a pretty smooth guy. He was always well dressed with slicked-back hair. I found out he was an artist. One day, I came up to the office, and he quickly put something away. He was copying my artwork. [laughs] Almost line for line. He was very measured in how he did this. I drew the stuff pretty quickly, but he was measuring the length of my lines, so he could copy my work. It was very funny. JA: You influenced him, I guess. [laughs] FUJITANI: Yeah. JA: That must have made you feel odd.

1954 saw a wide-screen movie adaptation of Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant, starring Robert Wagner, Janet Leigh, and James Mason (as the evil Black Knight)—and Dell’s Four-Color #567, with the Fujitani-drawn comics version thereof. Thanks to Teresa R. Davidson for the scan from Jim Amash’s collection. [©2003 the respective copyright holders; Prince Valiant TM & © King Features Syndicate.]

Bob Fujitani

Bob writes that, though he thinks of himself primarily as a painter, his Flash Gordon work with Dan Barry in the 1980s “represents some of the most fun and satisfying art that I’ve done in comics,” so here’s a montage of “Barry & Fujitani” dailies, repro’d from the original art. [©2003 King Features Syndicate.]

“Fuje” For Thought

building, and everything was squeaky clean. JA: You did Prince Valiant for them. What was that like for you? FUJITANI: I always tried to do my own thing, even on Prince Valiant. You have to do things your way. JA: How much Hal Foster reference were you using? FUJITANI: Very little. I knew what Prince Valiant looked like, and I made sure I got his costume right. Matt Murphy didn’t care how I did it, as long as I told the story and did a good job. There was no point in trying to do what Foster did. There was no comparison in the money or the time that he could take to do that strip.

Bob Fujitani illustrated the first five issues of Western/Gold Key’s Doctor Solar - Man of the Atom. The panel in which he uses his new powers is from issue #1 (Oct. 1962), with thanks to Teresa R. Davidson for the scan from Jim’s collection; the full page from 1963 (below) is repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, courtesy of Jerry Bails & Hames Ware. For some reason, Western opted for a time for color-held art with no panel borders. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

JA: Was Paul Newman the writer on that comic? FUJITANI: Yes. And he used to grind his stories out. He wasn’t a very good writer. JA: What do you remember about Doctor Solar? You were the first artist on that book. FUJITANI: I remember Matt Murphy calling me, and wanting to talk about starting a new magazine. I think Doctor Solar was his idea. JA: I believe Paul Newman wrote it, though. FUJITANI: He might have, but it was Matt Murphy’s idea. JA: You did a lot of work for Dell, but then you stopped. I take it that was because Flash Gordon started taking up so much of your time, along with Al Stenzel. FUJITANI: Yes. I always liked Flash. I liked the stories that Dan did, and I thought I’d stumbled upon new techniques. I always tried to do something different, which gave me a lot of satisfaction. Even today, I’ll look at some of my originals, and I can’t believe some of the stuff I did. JA: What did you think of Mac Raboy’s Flash, since he did the Sunday strips? FUJITANI: I never cared for it. Everybody seemed to suffer from a lack of height. The characters always seemed to be bent over or squashed down, with the weight of the word balloons hanging over them. The inking was very careful, but it had no life to it. It was stiff and labored. I felt he was really regressing. JA: Looking back at your long career, what part means the most to you now? FUJITANI: Flash Gordon. That was the most fun and I thought it was my best work. I had a free hand in the art, and designed everything the way I wanted to. And Dan was always happy with what I did. He never had a complaint, which was amazing now that I think about it. We worked well together, and I have good memories of him. You know, I’m 81 years old. I don’t know how I got here so fast. It seems like all this just happened yesterday.

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21 around the collecting of original comic art), I noticed several of our contributing members making enthusiastic comments about the work of John Rosenberger. They were excited about his art, and I understood that excitement, since even then I already had one of that artist’s outstanding Fly originals in my collection. As other Rosenberger originals began to show up reproduced in black-&-white in the pages of the APA, I began to take an even closer look at this man’s work. Sometimes an artist’s fine-line detail disappears during the transition from original art to printed pulp paper, especially when four colors are added. Rosenberger’s work had always suffered from the mediocre reproduction methods prevalent during the early years of the comics industry. Thank goodness those days are far behind us. These APA members—Scotty Moore, Joe Latino, and Wally Harrington— continued discussing Rosenberger’s art, but never put forth much personal information about the artist. Apparently there just wasn’t much ever written about the man. I probably would never have decided to track down information on this unique artist if not for these three rattling on about his work, and always wanting to know more about him.

A Collector’s Quest For Information About The Archie Adventure Artist by Roger Hill [NOTE: This piece has been slightly edited and abridged from its initial appearance in Roger’s fanzine CFA-APA #57-58, 2002. Most of the art has been shot from photocopies of the original art provided by Peggy Rosenberger.]

The Road to Rosenberger I certainly remember the work of John Rosenberger from when I was buying comics at the local drugstore during the early to mid-1960s. Along with my ever-growing Marvel and DC comics collection, I managed to add a few Jaguar and Fly comics, as well. I was also collecting various issues of Adventures into the Unknown and Forbidden Worlds, which contained Rosenberger’s fine-line work. Somehow, over the ensuing years, a lot of those comics got away from me. To my enjoyment, I have since been able to re-acquire most of them. Several years ago, in the pages of CFA-APA (a fanzine centered

I could sense the frustration in their comments printed in the APA, and on several occasions, when we met in person, some discussion about the artist would come up. “What ever happened to John Rosenberger?” There’s always a recognizable frustration apparent in the eyes of those who seek more information about the many talented writers or artists who have been lost to history. Such artists as Matt Baker, Bernard Baily, Matt Fox, John Giunta, Gespano Ricca, Ogden Whitney, and a host of others who left us many years ago, before we really had a chance to learn more about who they were. Rosenberger was just one of many. It was this frustration that kept eating at me until finally, in 1998, I began searching for John Rosenberger’s family. I knew it was the only way to find the information that had eluded us far too long on this fine artist. I learned from Jerry Bails and Hames Ware’s Who’s Who of American Comic Books that Rosenberger had been born in 1918 and died in 1977. The Who’s Who supplied a short list of where and when he had worked in the comics field. Beyond that, there wasn’t much. I felt it was time to dig up some facts. So I went searching for them. I eventually found the artist’s wife Marguerite living on the East Coast, and got in touch with her by phone. She was shocked that anyone would call and want to talk to her about her late husband’s art. No one had ever done that before. She was 79 years old and, unfortunately, in failing health. Peggy, which was the preferred name she went by, was having problems breathing and kept a bottle of oxygen close by for use whenever the need arose. My first contact with her was in July 1998. After several phone calls, and then passing letters back and forth, I scheduled a trip to visit her in October of that year. During my two-day

John Rosenberger

As I soon learned, Peggy was John’s “gal Friday” when he worked in the comics game. She assisted her husband in many different ways, especially during the 1950s and 1960s, when their output reached a record peak. During my visit, she was now on oxygen most of the time, but seemed to be in high spirits. She spoke very enthusiastically about her husband, as if he’d only been gone a few months. Her mind was still very clear about events that had taken place over sixty years ago, and she loved reminiscing about them. Now and then she’d have a difficult time remembering a name of a publisher or editor, and usually I’d try to fill in those blanks for her.

stay, I found Peggy to be a very sweet lady, and a wonderful person to know. She took great pride in discussing John’s career, and her own when they’d worked together as freelance comic artists.

Institute in New York City, majoring in pictorial illustration and aspiring to be another Normal Rockwell. One class in which he excelled was a life-drawing class, taught by a teacher named Bates. It was at Pratt that John met a beautiful young lady by the name of Marguerite Chapellier—”Peggy,” as she was known to her friends. A romance soon blossomed between the two artists as they continued their studies at the school from 1938 until 1941. An interesting side-note here is that Peggy’s father, George Chapellier, was at this time a respected art dealer in New York City. His Chapellier Galleries, located right next to the Whitney Museum on Madison Avenue, was one of the first outlets offering exclusively the works of American artists of all periods. Chapellier became a champion of neglected American talent, and his gallery presented memorable exhibitions of such great artists as William Merritt Chase, Robert Henri, Frank Duveneck, and others.

One of the most exciting discoveries of my visit was when she shared with me John’s John Rosenberger. Unfortunately, we have no photographs personal record books, wherein he made at present of Peggy Rosenberger, though she was often entries about most of the comics work they used as the model for women drawn by her husband. produced between 1960 and 1977. Being able to study these records afforded me the chance to piece together a more In 1939 John was painting houses again to earn money, and Peggy detailed picture of John’s work and routine of creating the comics. had a job working as a colorist and color separator in the Whitman/Western Publications offices in New York. She also helped Unfortunately, before all the details of my research could be design and lay out many of the hardcover Walt Disney books that assembled for publication, Peggy Rosenberger passed away. I hate to Whitman was publishing. In 1940 John broke into the comics business, think of what might have been lost forever if I hadn’t made the trip and penciling some crime pages for Dell Publishing Company. So far, this talked with her in person. She was a great lady, and I feel fortunate to work is unidentified. have known her, if only for a brief period. After learning so much about John Rosenberger, I realized that, like some of our APA members, I, John and Peg were married on May 27, 1942, right before John received his draft notice from Uncle Sam’s Army. The newlyweds moved too, had now become a full-fledged member of the John Rosenberger to Washington, D.C., where John worked as a teacher with the fan club! What a terrific and talented individual he was, and certainly a Engineers School at Fort Belvoir. He taught the use of the camera for man whom I take great pride in writing about for the first time. ground reconnaissance, offset printing, and map reproduction. He also This article is dedicated to the memory of Peggy and John... and, oh became art editor of the award-winning military magazine The yes, to the guys who brought this on in the first place: Scotty, Joe, and Specialist, where he provided illustrations as needed and oversaw the Wally. layout. John enjoyed doing art for the magazine, and since he was very good with human anatomy and portraits, he did a number of pin-up girls that were naturally well-received by the G.I.’s. He was already an excellent portrait artist, and during his stay in the service did numerous portraits of officers and enlisted men to help earn extra money. During John Francis Rosenberger was born on November 30, 1918, in this time at Fort Belvoir, Peggy got a job at National Airport as a Richmond Hill, New York. As a young boy he was bedridden for two draftsman, designing parts for airplanes. In 1943 John was shipped years with scarlet fever. It was during this time that he took to sketching overseas and spent the rest of World War II in the China-Burma-India and drawing, and confirmed his talent as an artist. Art remained his theatre working on the construction of an oil pipeline. Their first child, favorite subject in school until he graduated. John’s father owned a small John, was born in November of 1943, while John was overseas. printing company, and he encouraged his son to follow his desire to become a professional artist. He also brought John into the printing After the war, jobs were tough to find, and in early 1945 John took a business, where he eventually learned all there was to know about this position working at the Chapellier Galleries. His duties were retouching, field. Working there he was also able to apply his artistic talents relining, and general restoration of old masters, impressionist, and whenever the occasion arose. Unfortunately, not much else is known contemporary paintings in all media. He became a respected portrait about John’s early life except that he grew up in Richmond Hill and after artist and eventually painted the portraits of Senator William Benton, graduation worked for a while painting houses. Ambassador Chester Bowles, and Eleanor Roosevelt, among others. The Rosenberger family settled into a new house in Jackson Heights, No doubt many artists had an influence on his life, but there were two Queens. For a while, John returned to doing house-painting to make a in particular that he absolutely loved: Norman Rockwell and Alex living. He continued to work hard during the evening hours to prepare Raymond. From the very beginning John collected all the Flash Gordon samples for prospective publishers. When he had time during the day, he Sunday pages. He was also a big fan of Hal Foster (Prince Valiant) and pounded the pavements of New York, seeking out publishers to show Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates). When he wasn’t drawing or his samples. He began to build a reference file of clippings and excerpts looking at other artists’ work, John went bowling; it became a lifelong from newspapers, magazines, and books. hobby, and he excelled at it. In 1938 he enrolled in night classes at Pratt

Pounding the Pavements

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erger Historical Estate.]

The back cover of The Specialist Vol. 1, #5 (Aug. 8, 1942), and a photo taken of Rosenberger drawing the illustration.

John Rosenberger during his days at Fort Belvoir, and one of the portraits he drew while in the Army.

John Rosenberger

According to a handwritten resumé found in the artist’s files, he got back into comics drawing crime stories for D&S Publishing in 1946. In 1947 he began drawing crime and western stories for Hillman Publications. Because these are some of John’s earliest efforts and he was not allowed to sign his art, none of this early work has yet been identified. He continued working at Chapellier Galleries, and had become manager before leaving there in April 1948. John eventually found enough work that he decided to go totally freelance, and in 1949, according to his resumé, drew for three different comic book publishers: romance stories for Ray Hermann’s Toytown Publications and Busy Arnold’s Quality Comics Group, and some western jobs for Lev Gleason. John loved reading western and hard-boiled crime and detective stories... especially Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer writings.

Brevity and Bernstein The year 1950 wound up being a prolific one for John, as he produced adventure, crime, romance, and western stories for Timely, Avon, and Ace Publications. He also became friends with Louis P. Birk, who ran Brevity, Inc., a company which produced industrial, political, and educational booklets and pamphlets in comic book format. Birk catered to the corporations which, at that time, were discovering the potential use of comics to educate the masses and promote new products. Companies such as General Motors, Dupont, and AT&T were among Birk’s clients. It was at Brevity that John met a writer who had also worked in comic books since the mid-1940s... a gentleman who would play a role closely associated with John’s career for years to come. This man was Robert (Bob) Bernstein. With Bernstein churning out scripts and John supplying a lot of the ideas and all of the artwork, the pair of creators produced a ton of material for Brevity during the early 1950s. This type of educational comics format eventually became John’s favorite work in comics.

Bernstein and Rosenberger also produced together a week’s worth of daily sample newspaper strips for an idea they originally titled Sands of the South Seas. It told the adventures of Scott Sands, captain of a salvage vessel known as the Moresby Pride. Bernstein wrote the script using the

Inside cover illustration for Avon Publishing’s Parole Breakers #2 (Dec. 1951). An excellent example showing some of the influence Alex Raymond had on the young artist’s work. [©1951 Avon Periodicals, Inc.]

name of Robert Brent, either because it sounded more impressive, or due to other contractual writing restrictions. Rosenberger’s art was most impressive on the strip; he even penciled another six dailies before he and Bernstein realized the syndicates weren’t buying. In late 1952 they sold Toby Press the idea of handling Sands as a comic book. Except for a few minor changes, Bernstein followed his original storyline almost verbatim in converting to the comic book format. Rosenberger redrew all the art and incorporated some of the exact same scenes from the dailies into the new version, and worked up a finished cover for the comic with a logo that read: “Seductive, Macabre Adventures in the South Pacific! Sands of the South Seas.” The art depicted Captain Sands and his first mate walking along the beach eyeballing a beautiful brunette sitting on a dock nearby— with a knife concealed behind her back. The background is filled with a montage of underwater scenes showing a deep-sea diver amidst various threatening elements of the ocean, e.g., an octopus and different kinds of sharks.

Bob Bernstein and John Rosenberger produced numerous educational and promotional comic booklets and pamphlets like these for Brevity, Inc.

Apparently the editor at Toby didn’t like the cover or the title, and when the first issue finally came out it

The Jaguar of the Comics

On the left: the first version of the cover art Rosenberger turned in to Toby Press for the first issue of the Sands of the South Seas comic book. Above: the published cover, retitled Sands of the South Pacific and cover-dated January 1953. [©1953 Toby Press Publications.]

John’s preliminary concept for the cover of the proposed second issue of Sands of the South Pacific. That issue was never published.

The fifth and sixth of the sample daily strips for Sands of the South Seas produced by Bob Bernstein, writer, and John Rosenberger, artist, circa 1950.

John Rosenberger

Detailed pencil cover concept art for Cave Man and Wild Animal Comics, done for comic books that never got off the ground. One or both may have been projects done for the Louis P. Birk Company.

was titled “Two-fisted, Romantic Adventures! SANDS OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC.” The only part of Rosenberger’s original cover remaining was the girl on the dock. The background now depicted Captain Sands having a fist-fight with three thugs. John contributed two stories for the interior of this book: a 12-page story titled “Death Dive” and a 7-pager called “The Crocodile Killers.” The comic was dated January 1953 and was the only issue Toby published. John worked up a fantastic pencil prelim for the cover of a second issue, but that was as far as it got.

hungry. He loved to paint, so it was no surprise that during the early 1950s he made contact with several New York paperback publishers and began doing paperback cover paintings. This kind of work came easily to John, who by this time was well-versed in using oils and had become something of a highly-regarded portrait painter in the New York area.

Other comic book ideas were roughed out by Rosenberger during this time, but apparently never got off the ground. Whether or not they were even shown to prospective publishers is anyone’s guess. Two pencil cover prelims have survived and remain the only tangible evidence that the ideas ever existed. One is a cover rough for Wild Animal Comics, and the other was to be titled Cave Man. Being the diversified individual he was, John Rosenberger was constantly looking for different advertising or publishing outlets to expand his horizons. He was

Two very detailed Rosenberger pencil drawings for paperback cover ideas, circa early 1950s... both of which were posed for by the artist’s wife Peggy.

The Jaguar of the Comics At this time most paperback publishers were paying between $200 and $500 for a single cover, which was a lot less work for John than an 8page comic book story that paid only $15 a page. As was normally required in the paperback market, John would first work up a color preliminary to show the publisher. Once this was approved, he would proceed with the final cover.

The Years with Hughes Around 1951 John met a publisher who would become Digest cover by Rosenberger (signed). an employer and close friend [©1953 Toby Press Publications.] for the next twenty years. His name was Richard Hughes, owner and president of the American Comics Group (ACG). Dick Hughes liked John’s art very much and gave him a lot of work in the comics over the coming years. Eventually the stress of being a freelance artist became too much for John; he suffered a nervous breakdown sometime in 1952. The family decided to get away from the pressures of the comic book business and relocated to a small town up in Connecticut. John couldn’t work for a while, but after a few weeks he began doing covers for the paperback publishers again. Because of his love of painting, the paperback work gave him a more relaxed atmosphere in which to create art, as opposed to the constant deadline pressures of the comics field. Occasionally Dick Hughes and his wife Annabel were invited to come up for the weekend; during these visits he would sometimes try to talk John into coming back to work at ACG. As the following year went by, John and Peggy got deep into debt. They knew the only way to pull out of this predicament was to go back to the comics for work. The question was... could John’s nerves handle it now? It was an emotional crisis he had to work through. When the day finally arrived that John felt he was ready, he and Peggy made the drive down to New York City to see Dick Hughes at ACG and discuss John’s return to comics. They parked the car and walked across the street, but then John stopped. He just couldn’t do it. He couldn’t force himself to walk into the building where ACG’s office were located. He and Peg turned around, got back in the car, and drove home. A week or so later they made the trip again, and this time managed to walk into Hughes’ office. Dick made them feel welcome and was happy to have John back. The Rosenbergers soon moved back to the New York area, taking a home in Levittown, on Long Island, near Hughes and his wife, and continued to share a close friendship that lasted most of their lives. One of the first things Hughes gave John to do upon his return to ACG was a 7-page horror story titled “Death of a Doll,” published in ACG’s thennewest horror comic entry, The Clutching Hand (July-Aug. 1954). Rosenberger never cared much for drawing horror stories, but he always gave 100% to whatever type of story he drew. He simply knew of no other way to work. He didn’t like horror, and he never let his kids read horror comics, though he would let them get involved

slightly with the production end of things. Except for horror stories, he’d let them earn a penny a page for each page they would read to make sure the continuity was correct. This may have been just a way to get the kids involved with his work. John may have disliked the horror comics, but he certainly didn’t hesitate to defend comic books when they came under attack by Dr. Fredric Wertham and PTA organizations across the country. One of the things this author discovered in John’s files was a letter to John from the President of the East Broadway Parent Teacher Association of Seaford, New York, dated January 4, 1954. The letter expressed their “sincere appreciation for your time and talents so generously donated to the panel discussion at our December meeting. Your fine presentation of the case for the comics contributed in a notable way to a stimulating and interesting evening.” I would guess that at this presentation John was not defending

A variety of splash pages created by John Rosenberger for Richard Hughes’ ACG Comics between 1954 and 1958. His pages were always well composed and very detailed in execution. Clockwise, the splashes are from The Clutching Hand #1 (July-Aug. 1954)... Forbidden Worlds #52 (March 1957)... Forbidden Worlds #70 (Sept. 1958)... Adventures into the Unknown #95 (April 1958). [©1954, 1957, 1958 Best Syndicated Features, Inc.]

John Rosenberger horror or crime comics, but was demonstrating the many educational opportunities that comic books held, through the type of comics he and Bob Bernstein had produced for Brevity.

The artist kept busy during the early 1950s producing work for ACG, Brevity, Inc., Custom Comics (educational pamphlets, affiliated with Dell Publishing), and others. He covered all the genres at ACG, and his work can be found in all titles produced by that company, including Adventures into the Unknown, Forbidden Worlds, Romantic Adventures, etc.

Rosenberger and Bernstein had struck a verbal agreement with Louis P. Birk of Brevity, Inc., during the years they worked for him: they would work for a reduced rate, with the understanding that they would own 25% of the property produced. A lot of these advertising pamphlets and educational booklets were used and reprinted many times. When Birk unexpectedly died in 1953, Rosenberger and Bernstein asked his widow about it. She denied any knowledge of a special 25% arrangement. Shortly thereafter, a contract was drawn up whereby Rosenberger and Bernstein attempted to buy the company from Birk’s widow, but without financial backing the deal fell through. A few months later, their attempt to start their own company to fill the void Birk had left behind also bit the dust. You had to give these fellows an “E” for effort, as they continually kept trying to create a business or property they could own. They just never seemed to get a break. So it was back to the same old grind for both men, as they continued to plug away at the comics field, trying to carve out a decent living. John’s biggest account during the mid- to late-1950s was ACG. You could hardly open a comic produced by that company during this period without seeing one of John’s stories. He also produced a number of covers for ACG’s romance titles. On some he did full-color paintings instead of the usual linedrawn covers. In 1959 Bernstein and Rosenberger teamed up again with another daily newspaper strip idea, called Christopher Crown, Psychiatrist. Once again John penciled and inked a week’s worth of dailies, and penciled another week’s worth. Bernstein wrote under the name of Robert Brent; this time John went under the name Jon Diehl. A rejection letter from Sylvn Byck at King Features Syndicate, dated October 21, 1959,

was found in the files of John Rosenberger. A portion of the letter read: “It has some good things in it, but the consensus of opinion was that we would not be able to build a sufficiently large client list for a strip based on psychiatry.” Apparently nothing ever came of the strip. John and Peggy were a working team from the get-go. Peggy would maintain the reference files on all subjects, which were filed in over fifty different categories. She would also do the research and occasional layouts for John, as well as some of the background penciling. During inking she could fill in the larger areas of black space, where John indicated with an “X.” Rosenberger had something going for him that a lot of other artists didn’t. He was a tough ex-top sergeant who, during his Army career, had picked up a strict, regimental way of tackling projects and work. He awoke at 7:30 a.m. every morning and would be at the drawing board by 8:30. He’d take an hour for lunch, then back to the board for the afternoon. He and Peggy would usually have a drink right before dinner because of the tedious nature of the work. Then, right after dinner, it was back to the drawing board until around 11:00 p.m. They worked weekends, too. Occasionally they’d take a day off and go to Jones’ Beach on Long Island for the day, then have to work all night to make it up. John worked on a large drafting table. He also used to wrap tape around the nose of his brushes to help hold them better. He preferred the Winsor-Newton brush number “0” or a number “1” for inking; he used a number “2” for the heavier areas. By the late 1950s or early 1960s, he could pencil an average of three to four pages a day, and occasionally five. His inking was a little slower, three pages a day. By 1959 things were slowing down a little for ACG, as they were for other comics publishers. Richard Hughes drafted a letter on October 9 which served as an introduction for John to take to Johnstone and Cushing to help him secure a job. Johnstone and Cushing was one of the largest and most prestigious advertising art services in New York City during this time. John didn’t secure work at Johnstone and Cushing, but somewhere along the way he made a connection that looked promising for a time. In early 1960 he heard about a chance to get involved with one of the more lucrative advertising accounts in the market. Reportedly, the artist who was drawing the famous Breck Girl shampoo ads was beginning to balk

at the pay he was earning. The Breck Shampoo ads were phenomenally successful; all the top magazines ran full-page color ads depicting the beautiful “Breck Girl” profile portraits. The Breck Girl was always a perfect, Vargas-like portrait of a beautiful woman, and her hair, naturally, was pristine and flawless. John worked up a sample to submit to Johnstone and Cushing. The painting was well received, but in the end the original artist decided the money wasn’t so bad, after all, and opted to stay at the job.

Archie’s Silver Age John was pounding the pavement again looking to take on additional work. According to his job ledger for Tuesday, Sept. 6, 1960, he “went to town, got the Archie account.” On Sunday, Sept. 11, he penciled and inked his first work for Archie Publications, owned and operated by John Goldwater. The page was an advertisement for the Fly comic book. He started work on his first Adventures of The Fly story, a 6pager titled “The Drinker of Doom,” on Sept. 17, 1960. This story, along with two

The Breck Girl painting that Rosenberger did when applying for work with Johnstone and Cushing on the shampoo account. The date on the back of the photo is 1960.

29 others, was completed by November 4, 1960, for The Fly #11 (March 1961). On Wednesday, November 9, John penciled and inked his first Fly cover (Fly #11), and the following day delivered all the art to Archie Comics, where he met with Goldwater. His rate working at Archie Publications was $15 for pencils and $15 for inks. Covers and pages all paid the same. During the remainder of 1960 and into 1961 John worked on The Fly, and did some penciling and inking on The Man of Magic comic for Custom Comics. On Friday, Jan. 20, 1961, he worked up a cover rough for The Fly, and a presentation drawing of a new character that he and longtime collaborator Bob Bernstein had recently been talking about. This character would soon become the newest super-hero addition to the Archie family of comics entertainment... The Jaguar! The presentation drawing by Rosenberger featured two different costume ideas on one sheet of paper, side by side. One figure had Jaguar’s costume designed as tight-fitting, while the other indicated looserfitting pants. One version, with black boots and black belt, had the clearly defined head of a cat (presumably a jaguar) located in the center chest area. [See p. 31.] The other version had what appears to be spotted jaguar-skin boots and belt, with a more undefined cat’s face in the chest area. [See p. 31.] Both costumes featured a knife attached to his side, an idea which, probably due to Comics Code restrictions at this time, was dropped before production got underway. John had also created a separate drawing of a female super-hero Jaguar companion. This idea also got dropped early on during the discussions with Archie. The artist’s job ledger says “Conference at Archie” on Monday, Jan. 23, 9:00 a.m. Yet another conference is noted as being held on Wednesday, Jan. 25. This author assumes that those two meetings helped iron out the final decisions about the future of this new character. The selection of a costume was a combination of both conceptual drawings the artist had prepared: a full-length, skintight red body suit, with jaguar-spotted boots and a nucleon-energy belt which gave him the ability to fly. Since

John Rosenberger

John Rosenberger at the drawing board, circa 1960—and his first Fly cover, for issue #11 (March 1961), featuring “The Invasion of the Rock-men”; it was penciled and inked on Nov. 9, 1960. In addition, at left is the page from the artist’s ledger book which recounts the date (Sept. 6, 1960) when he “went to town, got the Archie account.” Note that Fly covers still sported a Simon and Kirby figure at top. [Fly art ©2003 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

on which hangs a belt and an inscription reading: “Only he who loves and is loved by the animal kingdom may wear this Jaguar Belt.” The lengthy inscription continues: “To be transformed into a human jaguar with supreme power over animals everywhere in the universe, the wearer of this magic belt need only say ‘The Jaguar.’ This human jaguar can communicate telepathically with any beast—even over great distances. But most marvelous of all his powers is that he himself can acquire any power associated with the animal world. Moreover, this power is multiplied thousands of times in him.” Hardy learns that the human jaguar can also fly, with the aid of this “Nucelon-energy Belt.” Within moments he has attached the belt, uttered the words “The Jaguar,” and transformed himself into The Jaguar—Master of the Animal Kingdom. This comes about just in time to battle a monstrous serpent that hibernates underground, then comes to the surface and goes on a rampage every 500 years. With the strength of a superman, The Jaguar lifts the serpent into the air, while communicating telepathically with every armadillo in the area. Under The Jaguar’s guidance, the armadillos dig a huge pit for the monster to be re-buried. After dropping the serpent into the freshly dug pit, The Jaguar pushes a mountain over it, sealing the pit forever. He then pronounces the name “Ralph Hardy” and returns to his other identity. Obviously the idea for the “Jaguar Belt” was discussed and added during later meetings with Goldwater. It had not been part of the concept drawings John had produced early on.

John Rosenberger’s ledger books for the years 1961 to 1963 do not reveal any special payments or percentages of sales revenues for The Jaguar, it is assumed that his Jaguar work had been requested, probably by Goldwater, under the usual agreement of “work for hire.” So it appears that Archie Publications came to Bernstein and Rosenberger asked them to create a new super-hero, instead of their creating the property first and then selling Archie on the idea. The Jaguar’s origin was an 8-page story titled “Menace of the Inca Serpent,” appearing in The Adventures of The Jaguar #1, dated September 1961. While on an archaeological expedition in the Peruvian jungles, famed zoologist Ralph Hardy follows a white jaguar into the ruins of an Incan temple. Inside, he discovers the white jaguar has mysteriously vanished, leaving only footprints which lead up to a wall

The “Jaguar” stories, for the most part, were typical of other Comics Code-approved material being dished up for readers in the early 1960s; they were pretty cornball sometimes. The one possible advantage that allowed The Jaguar to be noticed among the countless other super-hero fare on the newsstands at that time was John Rosenberger’s art. His style had a look of individuality; his characters looked like real people, and most likely they were. John used his own and Peggy’s likenesses, as well as Bernstein’s, in many of the stories. He was so good at drawing expressions and faces that his characters seem more believable than many other artists’ work. Now that John had both The Jaguar and The Fly to contend with, his work schedule became even more intense than before. John would create all the foreground characters, and Peggy would fill in the backgrounds, adding details such as the architecture of buildings, or in some cases even secondary characters or animals. If any special reference material needed looking up, she took care of that, too. The Jaguar ran its course and was cancelled two years later with issue #15, dated November 1963. John had finished his last “Jaguar” story on July 15, according to his ledger book. By July 23 he had started penciling a 15-page story for a new comic title to be published by Archie Comics, The Adventures of Young Dr. Masters. What is strange is that John finished inking the Dr. Masters comic on Sept. 18, 1963, yet the comic didn’t see print until almost a year later, in August 1964. It ran two issues and died in November of that year.

The Jaguar of the Comics

Both conceptual drawings above show the creative process that Rosenberger worked up for the Archie Comics Group in 1960—including the unused “Jaguar Girl” (if such she would have been called). Note the notation made by Rosenberger or an editor: “Temporarily - no knife.” [Jaguar TM & ©2003 Archie Publications, Inc.]

Rosenberger’s cover for Adventures of The Jaguar #1 (Sept. 1961). According to his records, John penciled and inked this cover on Friday, March 24, of that year, and was paid $30 for the work. It was his total output for that day. [©2003 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

John Rosenberger

Adventures of The Jaguar #2 (Oct. 1961).

Adventures of The Jaguar #3 (Nov. 1961). Adventures of The Fly #15 (Oct. 1961).

John’s cover for The Fly #27 (Sept. 1963) is considered one of his best efforts in this series. A lot of the detailed work in his covers was usually lost during the reproduction process.

Before Rosenberger drew this beautiful villainess for the cover of Jaguar #5 (March 1962), he worked up two cover sketches to show editors at Archie, and was paid $15 for the sketches. He penciled and inked the cover art on Sept. 28, 1961, for which he was paid $35.

The Jaguar of the Comics

Splash page for Fly #24 (Feb. 1963).

Rosenberger’s splash for Fly #21 (Sept. 1962).

Cover for Adventures of The Fly #22 (Oct. 1962), repro’d from a photocopy of the original art. Splash from Fly #24 (Feb. 1963).

John Rosenberger Archie editors. This title would serve as the Silver Age revival of one of the most popular pulp-fiction crimefighters ever created. “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?” was the familiar opening for this mysterious character, who had blasted his way into the hearts of radio fans all over the country during the 1930s and into the 1940s. His name, of course, was The Shadow, and with Jerry Siegel (yes, that Jerry Siegel) writing the stories, John Rosenberger tackled the art. Unfortunately, the editors at Archie had decided to give the revived character a facelift he didn’t need.

The Silver Age comeback of The Shadow was very disappointing to fans who had followed his daring exploits throughout the pulp and Golden Age comic years of the 1940s. The mysterious crime-fighter was now not so mysterious at all. While the original Shadow had worn an almost fulllength cape and slouch hat and kept his face largely hidden from view, the new version wore a kneelength cape and no hat, and his face was fully exposed. When he switched to his secret identity of Lamont Cranston, he simply removed his cape and put

Romance in the Shadows In addition, as early as January 1963, John had begun doing romance stories for National (DC) Comics. He probably knew the end was coming for both The Jaguar and The Fly accounts and had lined up the romance work to keep the money coming in. National’s rates were some of the best in the field, too. Where Archie paid $15 for pencils and $15 for inks, National paid $17.50 for each. From John’s record book it appears that working for National meant he had to have his penciled pages checked and approved by the editor before he could ink them. Pages were delivered to both National and Archie Comics by the Rosenbergers and a nearby friend of theirs who apparently worked at one of the companies and commuted into the city on a daily basis. The Rosenbergers paid $1 to $1.50 per delivery to have this done, which no doubt saved John the aggravation of having to do it himself. A lot of his early romance work for National he both penciled and inked. His women were always beautiful and the men were usually very handsome. Fashion, of course, was of utmost importance to the romance comics, and John always took extra care to put the characters in up-to-date, fashionable, and trendy clothing. Oddly enough, his record book shows that he completed a 12-page story called “I’ll Never Love Again!” in mid-May of 1964, yet the story didn’t appear until Girls’ Romances #106, dated January 1965. Either DC had a considerable lead time in front of their artists’ deadlines, or the romance books experienced a change in publishing schedules during this timeframe. When “I’ll Never Love Again!” came out, DC utilized Rosenberger’s splash page on the cover, as well. This was common practice by DC, which had used full splash page panels occasionally as covers since the early 1940s. No doubt that policy had saved the company a considerable amount of money over the years, since DC didn’t have to pay for a separate cover. You can be sure the artists didn’t care for this idea at all. There is no indication in Rosenberger’s record book that he ever received additional compensation when one of his splash pages pulled double-duty. In January 1964 John began penciling a new comic book for the

The Jaguar of the Comics

Christopher Crown, Psychiatrist hadn’t made it—and Chris Cross, sport commentator, fared no better. Three daily samples from the unsold newspaper strip.

on a pair of glasses. The scripts were very weak, and Archie let another artist ink Rosenberger’s pencils, which didn’t help matters. On top of this, for the second issue, the character was totally revised yet again. Trying to cash in on Marvel’s phenomenal success, the Archie folks converted The Shadow into a full-blown super-hero wearing an outrageous caped costume and Lone Ranger-type black mask. The end result was so bad that most followers felt it was a mockery of this oncefamous character and stopped buying the comic. The Shadow died a quick death after eight issues. Rosenberger had left the title after the first issue, with veteran artist Paul Reinman finishing it out. John stayed busy with DC romance work throughout 1964 and into early ‘65. He also continued to contribute covers and stories to Richard Hughes’ ACG comics line on a regular basis. Hughes was still publishing several fantasy and mystery comics that had managed to survive the Comics Code implementation in 1954. This included such stalwart titles as Adventures into the Unknown and Forbidden Worlds, plus Unknown Worlds, a new title introduced in August of 1960. Aside from the usual fantasy stories found in its first issue, Unknown Worlds also showcased self-portraits by each artist who contributed a story. This was the reader’s first glimpse at what some of these talented artists looked like. Rosenberger’s portrait was included on his story in this issue, then was later used on other stories, as well. [See p. 41.] Occasionally John would take a notion to do a painted cover on one of the romance comics or even the mystery titles. These were beautifully rendered in gouche or acrylics.

Hither and Yon It was in January of 1965 that Bob Bernstein and Rosenberger again collaborated on a new idea for a syndicated newspaper strip. The two creators worked under the pseudonyms of Robert Brent (Bernstein) and John Diehl (Rosenberger). The new strip, entitled Chris Cross, would offer both a daily and Sunday page storyline, totally separate from each other in story content. The strip dealt with the life, loves, and adventures of sports commentator Chris Cross, and offered the universalities of drama and comedy, within a sports-world framework. John drew up some impressive daily samples, and once again the two men made the rounds of several syndicates. Just when the PostHall Syndicate seemed ready to buy it, the whole deal fell through. It was three strikes and you’re out for Chris Cross and the men who created him! That’s probably why Rosenberger and Bernstein never again tried to create a newspaper strip. They had pretty much had it, what with three efforts down the tubes. In May of 1965 Rosenberger met with John Goldwater at Archie, and shortly afterward began penciling “Archie” stories. His first was titled “1-2-3 Kick.”

On June 28 he started penciling a 25-page “Supergirl and Wonder Woman” story for DC. It appeared that the largest comics publisher in America had finally noticed just how well Rosenberger could draw women, and had given him a crack at one of the big titles. DC must have allowed him plenty of leeway for getting the job finished, as he took from June 28 until August 9 to draw it. He was paid $20 a page for inking, a rate increase of $2.50 a page over what he had previously earned at DC. John delivered the entire job to DC editor George Kashdan on August 10. The book came out as The Brave and the Bold #63 (Dec. 1965-Jan. 1966), with the story titled “The Revolt of the Super Chicks!” The record book indicates that on September 8, 1966, Rosenberger met again with John Goldwater at Archie to get a new work schedule set-up and a new page rate. From then on, John received $24 a page for penciling Archie and his friends. As far as the record book indicates, he did no inking on the “Archie” work, just pencils. Even though he had just acquired the higher rate from Archie, he quit working for the company in late 1966. If not for the DC romance stories and covers, he’d have been out of comics entirely. With romance comics sales dipping even lower than previously recorded, John had to take on the unpleasant task of reworking old romance stories which DC had lined up for reprinting. For five bucks a page, John would do paste-overs and redraw the hairstyles, bringing

John Rosenberger

Marvel” artist, C.C. Beck, got the job. [See p. 38.] John continued to work on the romance books for DC. Occasionally the editors would let him ink his own work. Vince Colletta inked a lot of it, too. While Colletta always did a capable inking job, his style added a bit too much of a sharp edge to John’s soft pencil technique. It is this writer’s opinion that John Rosenberger’s best romance work was seen on the stories he penciled and inked entirely on his own. Being from the school of appreciation for the lush brushwork of Alex Raymond, Rosenberger displayed a much softer pencil line and more detailed ink brush technique than many of the artists working in comics at the time. In early 1972 DC asked John to work up some sample drawings of Superman, to see what he could do with the company’s most protected property. He must have passed the test, as shortly after this he was assigned to work on the Lois Lane comic title. Once again his pencils were inked by Vince Colletta, and although Rosenberger and Colletta’s efforts were very good, the powers at DC decided that Murphy Anderson would draw all faces and head shots of the Man of Steel, to safeguard the DC house style and look of the character that was being maintained during those years. Rosenberger’s tenure on the Lois Lane comic ran from issue #122 (May 1972) until #137 (Oct. 1974).

During this period John also did his first “Zatanna the Magician” story as a backup in DC’s new Supergirl comic, which hit the newsstands in November of 1972. This 7-page story, titled “Castle in the Clouds,” was inked by Dick Giordano, who followed Rosenberger’s style very closely, allowing the artist’s style to remain recognizable. Over the next two years, John worked on various features for other DC titles, including Strange Sports Stories, Superman Family, Wonder Woman,

them up to date with current trends. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, that generally meant putting long hair or Beatles-type haircuts on the men, and longer hair in general on the women, as well. John may have been doing this on the romance stories he had drawn during the early 1960s; even more likely, he had to rework other artists’ work, dating as far back as the 1950s, which DC had stored in their offices. Either way, Rosenberger disliked doing it but took the job to keep some money coming in. In 1967 he was assigned to handle some filler-page work for DC’s romance books, spotlighting some of the more popular rock-’n’-roll music stars of the times. He penciled and inked single-page art on The Supremes, The Lovin’ Spoonful, and Sonny and Cher. These were beautifully rendered, but for unknown reasons DC elected to cancel the yet-to-be-titled feature, and the originals were placed in inventory. The original artwork was finally stamped “Written Off 9-30-71” and returned to the artist sometime thereafter. John had also penciled six pages each of Debbie and Scooter for DC during this time. In addition, he turned in one last cover painting for Richard Hughes’ new fantasy title Gasp!, which debuted in March of 1967. Gasp! died with issue #4, along with the other ACG titles, when the company folded in late 1967. It was the end of an era for the comics, and the end of a long, happy working relationship between Rosenberger and Hughes. In 1972 DC decided to bring back the Golden Age character Captain Marvel, otherwise known as “The Big Red Cheese.” Four artists were asked to submit sample pages during the early development of this project, including Rosenberger. John did a top-notch job, turning in a tightly-penciled page of the once-popular super-hero featuring full body shots and differently-angled head portraits. But the original “Captain

Remember the popular 1960s rock group, The Lovin’ Spoonful? This is one of several filler pages created for the DC romance comics. For reasons unknown, this pop-music series got shelved after Rosenberger had drawn up several beautiful samples circa 1965. [©2003 DC Comics.]

The Jaguar of the Comics

This came at a time when Sy’s eyesight had begun to fail him. In January 1974 John also penciled a week’s worth of Flash Gordon dailies for Dan Barry, Sy’s brother. He continued to work on The Phantom off and on over the next year.

The Final Days According to his records, John suffered a heart attack on April 22, 1976. He was taken to a hospital, where he remained in the ICU unit for almost a week. He was released to go home on May 12 and took a month off work to recuperate. On June 14 he began penciling the Phantom strip again. Amazing as it is, Rosenberger continued keeping notes in his notebook. Eventually he made a calendar out of Strathmore paper, whereon he continued writing short entries about his work, daily events, and declining health. His notes reveal that on July 22 a call was placed to a Dr. Flynn. He continued to pencil the Phantom strip from July 26 through the 30th, when another call was put in to Dr. Flynn. On August 3 another note written by Rosenberger says, “Call Doctor Flynn if no improvement.” On August 5 Dr. Flynn was phoned again. An appointment was set up for August 13. On August 15 the entry reads “hospital - diagnosis - G.I. Series.” From August 23 through the 26th John ran a fever, yet continued to work part-time on the Phantom strip. August 27, “Doctor Fratello.” September 2, “Doctor Flynn.” September 6

A beautiful example of trendy clothing (remember Go-go boots?), fashionable hairstyles, and good-looking women hanging out at the local malt shop dreaming about the only man they could ever love. Rosenberger was a master at cover layout, with a delicate balance of lighting that appealed to the eye of young teenagers. This is the cover for Girls’ Romances #132 (April 1968). [©2003 DC Comics.]

and World’s Finest Comics. He also turned in a fantastic 7-page horror story for The Unexpected titled “Death Is the Prize,” which he both penciled and inked. Drawn in early 1975, according to his record book, it wasn’t published until January of 1977. Romance titles for DC included Falling in Love, Girls’ Love, Girls’ Romances, Secret Hearts, and Young Romance. Part of the reason John moved over to the super-hero side of DC was that romance titles had been continually dropping in sales for several years. Eventually John’s work on these books was halted after he had already penciled a couple of stories. One story, “My Heart Had Wings,” was almost totally inked by John but had had the lettering finished; it was placed in DC’s inventory in September of 1971 and finally written off in 1974. Another story, beautifully penciled by John, titled “Hey... Where’s Love,” was never inked or finished and is one of the best surviving examples of just how strong his pencils were. Whether or not John had gotten discouraged working for DC’s editors or received a better offer, we may never know. But, according to his record book, in November 1974 he began penciling the Phantom newspaper strip for Sy Barry.

John’s last painted cover for ACG Comics was this exquisite example done for Gasp! #3 (June-July 1967). No signature, but Rosenberger did put his initials on the Union soldier’s belt buckle: “J.R.” The artist enjoyed an occasional break from doing traditional pen-andink cover art, because he enjoyed painting more than just about anything else. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

John Rosenberger with the illness that was later to claim his life, he completed four pages of pencils for Wonder Woman #217. As his illness prevented him from finishing the book, the pages were never used. As a tribute to the talent of this fine artist, we present the original pencils done by the late Mr. Rosenberger, never before published anywhere.” It would appear from DC’s statement that these four penciled pages for a story titled “The Day Time Broke Loose” are most likely the last comic book work drawn by Rosenberger. The final story, redrawn and inked by artists Dick Dillin and Vince Colletta, appeared in Wonder Woman #217. Since that comic is dated January 1975 it would be assumed that Rosenberger penciled these four pages sometime during mid-to late 1974, around the same time he began penciling The Phantom for Sy Barry. Yet, the explanation from DC about how “his illness prevented him from finishing the book” doesn’t quite make sense to this writer. John Rosenberger didn’t have his heart attack or diagnosis of cancer until the spring of 1976. Could it be that he was just so disgruntled with the comics industry at that time that he quit working for DC, before finishing the story? We may never know the truth, and perhaps it doesn’t really matter in the overall scheme of things. One thing is certain: John and Peggy Rosenberger led interesting lives while toiling in the comics field. They were hardworking folks who sacrificed a great deal to keep their family sheltered and fed. John was the “top-sergeant” and workhorse of the family. Peggy was his “staff sergeant” and gal-Friday who took care of a lot of the backgrounds and other details as called for. John was a man who loved to just sit and draw, and from all

Rosenberger’s sample drawings of Captain Marvel and Superman done in 1972. He didn’t get the job on Shazam! #1 (some guy named Beck nosed him out!) —but he did wind up doing a couple of years’ worth of Lois Lane stories. [Art ©2003 Rosenberger Historical Estate; Captain Marvel & Superman TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

through 9, “Phantom work.” On September 12 the journal says, “Start one month - no work.” Oct. 8 - Doctor Whitlock Oct. 13 - entered Columbia Presbyterian Hospital Oct. 21 - Chemo - 6 days Oct. 27 - released from hospital Nov. 6 - hospital - bleeding, ICU Nov. 12 - discharged Nov. 15 - bleeding recurred again Nov. 17 - entered St. Charles Hospital Nov. 21 - transferred to Presbyterian Hospital Dec. 2 - chem - 5 days Dec. 14 - home from hospital On January 24, 1977, after a six-month battle with cancer, John Rosenberger died at the age of 58. Comics history lost a great talent that day. With John’s death, Peggy Rosenberger ended her involvement with the comics industry, too. She survived her husband by another twenty years and passed away on August 14, 1999. In issue #15 of The Amazing World of DC Comics, dated August 1977, there appear four pages of tight pencils to a never-completed Wonder Woman story by Rosenberger. The DC write-up that accompanies these images says: “Before the late John Rosenberger was stricken

The Jaguar of the Comics

A page from Rosenberger’s first Lois Lane story, “77 Coffins,” from issue #122 (May 1972)—and another from Lois Lane #124, featuring a “huntress Lois” (under the influence of “Junga Root”) apparently fed to her by a Tarzan-like character referred to as “the savage Jungleman,” with Superman on his knees being hauled off by jungle thugs. No doubt John R. had fun with this one. [©2003 DC Comics.]

Although Rosenberger disliked doing horror stories, he did a bang-up job on his last “mystery” story for DC. According to the job number, it was probably drawn in early 1975, but was published in The Unexpected #177 (Jan-Feb. 1977). [©2003 DC Comics.]

John Rosenberger

The Jaguar of the Comics

indications spent almost every waking hour sitting behind his art table doing just that. During his productive years, drawing comics was pretty much a thankless job. That was before the big comics conventions got strong. Eventually comics fandom made superstars out of many artists, some of who are still around to enjoy the adulation of their fans today. John Rosenberger rarely, if ever, got to meet any comics fans. Yet he kept banging away at it for nearly three decades. What a trooper he was.

Just how important was John Rosenberger to the history of comics and illustration art? Very much so, in this writer’s eyes. They say a man is measured, in many instances, by what he accomplishes during his lifetime. Rosenberger succeeded in carving out a niche of his own in the history of comics, which nobody can ever take away. Hopefully, this article has helped enlighten some of Rosenberger’s fans about a significant part of that niche, his life, and his many contributions to the fourcolor medium. It’s a history and legacy that any artist could be proud of. A legacy we can all enjoy for many years to come. This author would like to extend a posthumous “salute” and “well-done” to this “topsergeant” and talented artist— John Rosenberger—The Jaguar of the Comics!

The actual photo used by John Rosenberger to draw his self-portrait, which was printed in ACG Comics circa 1960.

Victor Gorelick

“The Hangman” Cometh! (But You’ll Have to Read This Whole Interview with Archie Editor VICTOR GORELICK to Find Out the Secret behind Our Title!)

VICTOR GORELICK: October 4, 1958. I was seventeen and a half. I started out working as an art assistant, doing art corrections. One of my first jobs was to take the cleavage off the Katy Keene drawings. Bill Woggon used to draw low necklines, and the Comic Code Authority didn’t want to show any cleavage. So I had to take out navels and cleavages. That’s how things were then.

GORELICK: Yes, I was. I remember seeing them come up to the office, but the only one I really remember speaking to was Joe Simon. I was only a mere art assistant, so I had no reason to have contact with them. Richard Goldwater was the managing editor at that time.

JA: So you were there when Simon and Kirby started doing Adventures of The Fly and The Double Life of Private Strong?

JA: Who was Goldwater’s assistant?

Conducted & Transcribed by Jim Amash JIM AMASH: When did you start working for Archie Comics?

You’ve gotta watch these kids today! Though Archie Andrews had been a featured character in Pep Comics since his debut in #22 (Dec. 1941), this cover for #35 (Jan. ‘43) is the first on which he appeared along with usual cover stars The Shield and The Hangman. Archie popped up again on Pep #41 and on every cover thereafter, and by #48 had taken over the covers completely, with The Shield reduced to a small inset picture in an upper corner. Pesky teenagers! [©2003 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

GORELICK: It was Sheldon Brodsky. He had graduated from the School of Industrial Art, which is now the School and Art and Design. I went to school there, too. Brodsky had started at Archie a year or so before I did. They were looking for someone to replace Dexter Taylor, who was leaving his art staff job to go freelance. Dexter was going to work on Little Archie, which was an 80-page book, and Bob Bolling, the regular artist, needed assistance. Dexter had done some Little Archie artwork and drew the Super Duck covers. JA: Why did Archie decide to go back into the super-hero market? GORELICK: I’m not sure, but I could venture to guess that Simon and Kirby approached the company with the idea. I’m sure that John Goldwater [one of the company founders] had a lot to do with bringing them on board at that time. I do remember Simon and Kirby coming up to Richard Goldwater’s office and having a meeting about it. After that, they started doing The Fly, and then Private Strong, which was an update of the original Shield. JA: Why did Private Strong only last two issues? Was it because DC threatened to sue Archie over the character? GORELICK: I’ve never heard that before. Why would they have tried to sue? JA: Joe Simon claimed that DC was unhappy because The Shield resembled Superman. GORELICK: Well, first of all, the original Shield didn’t fly and had been created back in the early 1940s. In fact, he predated Captain America. So if anyone would have had a gripe, it would have been Marvel because they had Captain America. Or maybe the other way around, because Captain America was a copy of The Shield. For some reason, when Archie and the Simon-&-Kirby team got together in 1959 to revive The Shield, that June 1959 first issue was titled The Double Life of Private Strong, and the hero’s everyday identity aped that of Private Steve Rogers in the WWII Captain America—a hero who had originally been partly inspired by The Shield! The Shield splash is repro’d from the 1984 reprint Blue Ribbon Comics, Vol. 2, #5. [©2003 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

JA: Do you know why Simon and Kirby left The Fly? After all, Joe Simon created the character. GORELICK: I couldn’t tell you for sure. Simon probably went on to other things that paid him more money. I don’t think Archie paid that much at the time. Plus the fact that the book wasn’t really doing all that well.

Victor Gorelick JA: They seemed to change the concept, because Tommy Troy was originally a kid who finds a magic ring and turns into the adult Fly. Without explanation, Troy becomes an adult. GORELICK: I’m sure that, in order to drive the sales up, the publishers made a lot of changes. But I didn’t have any input. My job was art production, tracking the artwork, preparing schedules, and working with the engraver and printer. JA: In 1961 they launched The Adventures of The Jaguar comic book, so the changes must have worked. GORELICK: Archie wanted to stay in the super-hero market and Marvel was starting to move up, so we needed more characters. JA: When did you go into the service? GORELICK: I was on active duty in Navy from 1960 to 1963. I was in boot camp the previous summer, so I was out of the office for eight weeks or so. I was supposed to go with the fleet for two years but ended up at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn because they were short-handed. I told Richard that if I was stationed in New York, I’d have to serve an extra year and would be able to do freelance work and fill in on vacations. Richard gave me the okay. For those three years, I was on active duty as a station-keeper. I was doing a lot of freelance coloring for Archie at that time and worked at the office on my days off. And all my days off were during the week. I handled production work in the office during that time. I had thirty days’ leave, so if anyone went on vacation, I’d fill in. JA: How involved was Richard Goldwater with those books? GORELICK: He worked with the writers and handed out the assignments. Jerry Siegel and Bob Bernstein were doing the writing, but Siegel was the only guy I met. Siegel worked directly with them but I only had contact with the guys doing the artwork, because that was part of my job. I think the Archie offices were still on Church Street in New York. Paul Reinman came on board and started doing super-hero work, too. John Goldwater came up with a lot of the ideas for the heroes. Marvel’s SpiderMan had gotten popular, and we changed the characters to compete with them. John Goldwater had a lot of input with how we did the covers and was particular about what he wanted to see. He wanted us to follow the Marvel style. Siegel and Bernstein were very good writers, but they came up with a lot of strange stuff. I remember one story that Jerry Siegel wrote for The Mighty Crusaders. They were trapped by the villains in a canyon or something, and there was no way out. They were about to meet their doom, and all of a sudden, the Rock People came out of the dirt and saved The Mighty Crusaders. The writers would write themselves into corners like that. A lot of

people look back very fondly at those books, but I thought they were very wacky. JA: How did Marvel react to all this? GORELICK: I don’t think Marvel reacted to us much because we were no competition for them. We didn’t have any big names working for us (except for Jerry Siegel) like Jack Kirby. They also had Stan Lee, who was such a great promoter that we couldn’t come close to what Marvel was doing. I’ll tell you this. If Marvel went back to the way Stan did those characters, they’d be better off today. While Archie might like to publish super-heroes, we could never compete with Stan Lee. He knew how to put out super-hero books, and we knew how to put out teenage books and still do. They tried to put out humor books and never were successful. Same goes for DC. JA: When the heroes were changed to resemble the Marvel books, did that increase sales? GORELICK: I don’t think so. Not to take anything away from Paul Reinman, but everybody looked the same in his work. I think he even inked some of his own work, too. I was doing most of the coloring on the books, covers included. I did have a cover idea or two, but even that was no big deal. It was mostly just photostatting interior art and using that for a cover. The artists submitted roughs for approval first and then they drew them. It still works the same way today. JA: It sounds like you were getting more involved in the editorial end. GORELICK: You have to understand that Archie operates a lot differently than other companies. At Marvel and DC they have bunches of editorial assistants. At Archie Comics a lot of people wear a lot of different hats. Mostly, my job was in production, but I did get involved in art direction. Occasionally, I put my two-cents in on a story, but Richard Goldwater really handled that. He bought all the stories and assigned all the artists to the stories. The only time I did any of that was when he’d be away.

In Pep Comics #1 (Jan. 1940), the Irv Novick-drawn Shield had indeed looked a lot like a walking (American-flag-derived) shield. To the right is Rich Buckler’s Kirby-derived (and duly credited) cover for Blue Ribbon Comics #5 (1984). Every Golden Age buff should pick up a copy of the 2002 trade paperback America’s 1st Patriotic Comic Book Hero—The Shield, which reprints, in full color, eight of the hero’s earliest exploits. [©2003 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

Victor Gorelick

JA: Archie didn’t really have a signature character, except for possibly The Fly—or Fly-Man, as he was later called. GORELICK: I don’t know if we really had a signature character. Back in the 1940s, we had other characters like The Shield, The Black Hood, and Hangman, though we did bring them back in Mighty Comics. A lot of people associate us with The Fly, but we turned the rights back over to Joe Simon, because he really created that character. We may still have publishing rights, but Simon would have to be involved in it. The Fly was the best character and the most memorable one we had. JA: You were one of the youngest guys working there, weren’t you? GORELICK: Yes, I was. JA: They must have had some faith in you if they consulted you on things. GORELICK: They didn’t consult me on anything. They told me what to do. Let me tell you something. I was working there for about six or seven years and we were still located on Church Street. The art department there was small. It had some counters and some shelves and art bins and flat files where we kept the artwork. The phone in the art department was in a direct visual line with John Goldwater’s office. He was the head of the company and he had the front office. If he looked from his chair down the hallway, he could look straight at that phone. I was on that phone a lot. Like talking to the color separator and the artists and various other people. I was trafficking the artwork to wherever it had to go next. So I was on the phone a lot.

paperbacks and that part of the company was called Belmont. We also did work with Bantam Books and they put out some Archie reprint paperbacks for us. In fact, there was one book I worked on for many weeks. It was called High Camp Super Heroes. It was a bunch of old super-hero stories we had previously published. I had to really work overtime to put that together. JA: I remember that Archie put some super-hero stories into Laugh Comics. GORELICK: Laugh and Pep Comics were used as vehicles to launch those characters. In fact, Archie started in Pep #22 [back in 1941] and it took off from there. JA: Did the super-hero books get much fan mail? GORELICK: I don’t really know, but I doubt it. We got tons of mail for the Archie books, though. JA: How would the company know if the super-hero features in Laugh and Pep got mail? GORELICK: We could tell from the mail and from the sales figures. Laugh and Pep were essentially the same book. I think Laugh always sold a little bit better. JA: Why was the line called Radio Comics?

One time, he said to Richard, “What does Victor do there, anyway? He’s always on the phone.” And I had been there for six years!

JA: Why did Archie try a Shadow comic book? The radio show had been dead for years.

Richard said to me, “My father wants to know what you do here because you’re always on the phone.” I was shaking in my boots, because John Goldwater was a very intimidating person. A very imposing man.

GORELICK: I don’t know how John Goldwater swung that one. Street & Smith owned the character and he struck up a deal with them. We tried doing The Shadow the way he should have been done, but it didn’t sell. So John Goldwater decided to make him a super-hero character with a cape.

JA: You mean personally or physically? GORELICK: I mean both ways. John Goldwater was a very tall and domineering person; very sure of himself. If he came in and asked you how to spell something, you’d better know how to do it, because you can bet that word was spelled wrong someplace.

JA: What do you remember about Jerry Siegel? GORELICK: I didn’t get to know him that well. He came up to the office and I couldn’t believe he was the creator of Superman. Siegel could hardly see and he looked like a poor soul.

JA: Was Louis Silberkleit involved at all? GORELICK: Oh, sure. They were equal partners. John Goldwater was more in charge of the creative end. At that time, we were putting out other books, too. We had put out pulps in the past. People like Isaac Asimov had written for us, and we did science-fiction books and westerns. Eventually, we started putting out

GORELICK: We wanted to keep the super-hero and mystery books under a separate banner. Later on, when we tried super-heroes again, we called them Red Circle Comics. Those characters were buried and dug up several times. Even DC Comics gave them a try.

JA: How do you mean that?

Paul Reinman’s cover art for a 1965 issue of Fly-Man, the title into which Adventures of the Fly had metamorphosed that year. A few lines may have dropped out of the photocopy of the original art from which this image is reproduced, but we thought it should still be seen without much of the background at top being obscured by a pasted-on logo. Thanks to Jerry Bails & Hames Ware. [©2003 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

GORELICK: By his appearance. He looked dishelved. I only met him once or twice. I doubt if I spoke to him more than ten minutes, if even that long. He worked mainly with Richard Goldwater. JA: Why weren’t the creators’ real names in the credits?

Victor Gorelick GORELICK: In those years, nobody signed their artwork at Archie. The only people who signed their artwork that I can recall were in the old books, like Bob Montana, Al Fagely, etc. Then, somewhere along the line, it changed and nobody signed their names.

45 pages and they looked like Burne Hogarth’s work. He drew men with big muscles and sometimes nude women. In later years, I saw some of his oil paintings and they had some very strange content. A psychiatrist would have had a field day with that work!

Stan Lee made a big deal about giving people credits. He did One time I sent it for promotional some Archie pages reasons and pushed the to the Comics Code. creative teams. I think There was this John Goldwater woman who worked wanted to do that, too, there and said, “I but he was holding don’t know what’s back. For some reason, going on in your he gave the creators artist’s mind, but the A pair of splashes from the monthly Mighty Comics #46 (May 1967), by “Dick, Vic, Bob, and Paul.” [©2003 funny names. I was artist who did this Archie Comic Publications, Inc.] “Vic Torr.” Jerry story drew Siegel was “Jerry something horrible Ess.” Later on, in the 1960s, we started giving people proper credits. on the back of this page. It should be taken out and erased.” And on the back on one of the pages, Bill Vigoda had drawn a nude woman impaled JA: What you do remember about Paul Reinman? on a bull’s horn. That was quite a piece of artwork, I can tell you. GORELICK: He lived in Brooklyn, as did I. I used to pick up and deliver artwork to his house. I did that for a few artists who lived near me. I saved them a trip. Reinman was a very nice man. He did a lot of oil painting and beautiful watercolors. He was a very good artist. He lived with his wife and they had one daughter.

He was married and had kids and couldn’t make a living as a fine artist. He told me he felt stuck doing comic books because he had to earn a living. He was a very creative person and loved opera. He smoked a pipe when he drew and was a funny man. He had a great sense of humor.

Reinman would even deliver artwork to my house. I remember in 1965 when New York City had a major blackout. I was on my way home in the subway and got stuck. I finally made my way home, and who was there waiting for me but Paul Reinman! There were candles lighting up the house, and he was just sitting there waiting for me to bring him some work.

I remember when his brother Abe did a commercial for American Motors. Bill said we had to see this commercial! Abe got his big break when he was cast in the Godfather movie, and of course he played the Fish character on Barney Miller on TV and eventually had his own show.

I don’t recall going out socially with him but we were very friendly. He even gave me a painting. He was clearing out some paintings in his house and invited me to take one. Unfortunately, I don’t have it anymore. His wife became very ill and died from cancer. I went to the funeral and paid a condolence call. A year and a half later, he met another woman and she took him for a real ride. She opened up an art gallery in Nyack, New York. She went through all the money he had. I remember he came up to the office once with some watercolors and offered to sell them to me because he needed some money. Last I heard, he went down to Florida. He’s gone now. JA: Since Reinman was so interested in fine art, did he look down on doing comics? GORELICK: I think he enjoyed comics. I’ll tell you the guy who didn’t enjoy it, and that was Bill Vigoda. Vigoda was also a fine artist and he was a sculptor. If you ever needed an example of a hippie, he’d fit the bill. He was the younger brother of Abe Vigoda. He had a medical condition that kept him from military service, so he was around in the 1940s when the other artists went to war. Between him and Bill Woggon, who did a lot of Katy Keene comics, they did a lot of work for Archie. Vigoda used to do sketches on the backs of his

JA: He’s gone now, isn’t he? GORELICK: Bill passed away many years ago. He became a diabetic and had a heart condition. He went to the hospital and they took a couple of his toes off because of the diabetes. He never came out of that hospital. I was really devastated by his passing. I didn’t really expect him to go. I was very close to many of the artists. He worked in the office, as did many other people. There was always a place for people to work there if they wished. JA: Did Reinman ever work in the office? GORELICK: Never. He always worked at home. So did John Guinta and John Rosenberger. John Guinta started drawing The Fly when John Rosenberger moved over to the Jaguar comic book. When doctor shows became popular on television, we did Young Dr. Masters, and Rosenberger was doing some of that, too. I liked John Guinta. He was a nice guy who lived by himself and was a big smoker. He was usually on time with his work, but he was a pretty nervous guy. Very insecure but a very nice man. I helped him out as much as I could in whatever capacity I was working in at that time. JA: Tell me about John Rosenberger. GORELICK: I did some work with him. I started lettering his books at

Victor Gorelick GORELICK: I don’t think so. We cut our losses and moved on.

one point. I remember when he was doing The Shadow. He used to send me blank pages and told me to letter the script onto the board. Then he drew around my lettering. I asked, “Where do you want me to place the lettering?” He said, “Wherever you want. I’ll figure it all out later.” It was a very strange situation.

JA: Who drew the “Pureheart the Powerful” stories? GORELICK: Bob White. He was an editor for a while, but he was mainly an artist. He did some editorial work in the 1950s and then again in the 1960s for a while. He was a great artist, and when he stepped down as editor, he still drew for the company.

JA: Do you remember Mike Sekowsky? GORELICK: Not at Archie. The only time I ever knew of Mike Sekowsky or Gil Kane was when Samm Schwartz left Archie to start up a comic book line with Harry Shorten for Tower Publications. I did some coloring on Undersea Agents. As a matter of fact, I did the lettering on the first T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents story for Wally Wood. I went up to see Wood at his apartment, and I remember he had a big bar on his door so nobody could break in. He used to sit in a canvas chair, writing the stories on the pages, handing them to me to letter. Eventually he took the pages back and inked the story. I was there until 2:00 a.m. doing that. I think it was a fourpage lead-in story. I might have lettered some other stuff for him, but I don’t remember it now.

Archie moved their offices from 241 Church Street on April 25, 1966, to 1116 First Avenue and 61st Street. It was at that point that Bob White came back on staff as an editor. We were turning out a lot of pages, and he set up a system similar to Marvel’s production line, where different people were penciling and inking stories. The pages were flying out fast and furious. Bill Vigoda drew “The Man From R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E.” stories. He was also doing some “Pureheart the Powerful” and “Evilheart” stories. Despite the stellar lineup of artistic talent, Archie’s early-1980s Red Circle Comics Group never really got off the ground. The Black Hood #1 cover and art spot at left are by Alex Toth; the art at top right is by Gray Morrow —we think. [©2003 Archie Publications, Inc.]

Samm Schwartz offered me a staff job. When I mentioned this at Archie, John Goldwater asked if I was out of my mind. He offered me a $50 raise to stay, and that was a lot of money then. So I said, “Whoooaaa! I’m your man!” And I stayed.

It would’ve been a big mistake if I had left Archie, because Tower didn’t stay in business too long. Harry Shorten sold the company and didn’t even tell Samm Schwartz about it. And they had been very good friends. I think Shorten just wanted to get back at Archie Comics because there was no love lost between him and John Goldwater. Shorten had been a very successful publisher; he did a lot of writing, too.

When we were on Church Street, we had a warehouse across the street and set up a studio there for Bob White and Samm Schwartz. It was important to have a couple of artists nearby, and there was no room in our regular offices. If we needed some artwork in a hurry, they were there. And Samm Schwartz used to work like crazy. He used to live in Oceanside and took the train in, playing gin to pass the time. Bob White didn’t have the work discipline that Samm had. Bob was involved in real estate and was always working with numbers. If he’d have just sat there and did what he did best, which was drawing, he’d have made a lot of money. And he could write, too. But he was always trying to do other things.

You know, there’ve been a lot of very talented artists at Archie over the years. And some of them could do adventure stuff. Harry Lucey used to draw some “Hangman” stories back in the 1940s, and Samm Schwartz drew “Blackjack.”

JA: Did you get more involved in the editorial end at this time?

JA: Why weren’t they offered any super-hero work at Archie?

As you know, we tried doing the super-heroes again in the 1980s, but it didn’t work out. Rich Buckler ended up editing those books, but I only got involved with them up to a point. I couldn’t edit everything, like I do now. Although I don’t edit the Sonic book.

GORELICK: Because they were busy doing “Archie.” And Harry Lucey wanted to earn a certain amount of money each week. For example, if he wanted to earn $500 a week, he drew six pages. If you paid him that much for one page, that’s all he’d have drawn. It’s not that he was lazy, but he had other interests. JA: At one point, the Archie characters became super-heroes. Was that a direct reaction to the Batman television show? GORELICK: That had a lot to do with it. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was very popular, and so was Get Smart. We weren’t successful with the super-hero books, and John Goldwater decided to make the Archie characters into super-heroes. Frank Doyle wrote the first “Pureheart the Powerful” story and many of the other stories, too. Doyle lived in Long Island and would have story conferences with Richard Goldwater. JA: Was there a sense of disappointment when the super-hero titles didn’t work out?

GORELICK: Yes, but I wasn’t an editor yet. I was basically the art director, and that probably started when we moved in 1966. I took over as managing editor from Richard Goldwater around 1980.

JA: Did you have a favorite Archie super-hero? GORELICK: I liked The Hangman, but not the ‘60s version. He was my favorite as a kid. In fact, when I had a CB radio, that was my handle. I was The Hangman. One day, I was driving to work and a guy asked who I was. I said, “This is the Hangman.” The guy said, “No. I’m the Hangman.” I said, “Oh, yeah?” He asked me how I got my handle and I said I got it from the comic book character. I asked him how he got his handle and he said, “I hang drapes for a living.” [mutual laughter] I nearly drove off the road. It was ridiculous! He hung drapes! At least mine was creative!

Edited by ROY THOMAS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #19

ALTER EGO #20

ALTER EGO #21

ALTER EGO #22

ALTER EGO #23

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #24

ALTER EGO #25

ALTER EGO #26

ALTER EGO #27

ALTER EGO #28

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #29

ALTER EGO #30

ALTER EGO #31

ALTER EGO #32

ALTER EGO #33

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #34

ALTER EGO #35

ALTER EGO #36

ALTER EGO #37

ALTER EGO #38

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #39

ALTER EGO #40

ALTER EGO #41

ALTER EGO #42

ALTER EGO #43

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #44

ALTER EGO #45

ALTER EGO #46

ALTER EGO #47

ALTER EGO #48

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #49

ALTER EGO #50

ALTER EGO #51

ALTER EGO #52

ALTER EGO #53

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #54

ALTER EGO #55

ALTER EGO #56

ALTER EGO #57

ALTER EGO #58

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #59

ALTER EGO #60

ALTER EGO #61

ALTER EGO #62

ALTER EGO #63

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #64

ALTER EGO #65

ALTER EGO #66

ALTER EGO #67

ALTER EGO #68

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #69

ALTER EGO #70

ALTER EGO #71

ALTER EGO #72

ALTER EGO #73

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #74

ALTER EGO #75

ALTER EGO #76

ALTER EGO #77

ALTER EGO #78

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #79

ALTER EGO #80

ALTER EGO #81

ALTER EGO #82

ALTER EGO #83

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #84

ALTER EGO #85

ALTER EGO #86

ALTER EGO #87

ALTER EGO #88

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #89

ALTER EGO #90

ALTER EGO #91

ALTER EGO #92

ALTER EGO #93

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #94

ALTER EGO #95

ALTER EGO #96

ALTER EGO #97

ALTER EGO #98

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO: CENTENNIAL (AE #100)

ALTER EGO #99

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

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

ALTER EGO #101

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

NEW!

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

ALTER EGO #102

ALTER EGO #103

ALTER EGO #104

ALTER EGO: THE CBA COLLECTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

HUMOR MAGAZINES (BUNDLE ALL THREE FOR JUST $14.95)

ALTER EGO:

BEST OF THE LEGENDARY COMICS FANZINE

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

COMIC BOOK NERD

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

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

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

DIEDGITIIOTANSL E

BL AVAILA

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

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

NEW!

MR. MONSTER, VOL. 0

TRUE BRIT

DICK GIORDANO: CHANGING COMICS, ONE DAY AT A TIME

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

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

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

(136-page Digital Edition with COLOR) $4.95

(204-page Digital Edition with COLOR) $6.95

(176-page Digital Edition with COLOR) $5.95

SECRETS IN THE SHADOWS: GENE COLAN

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

ART OF GEORGE TUSKA

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

OTHER BOOKS FROM TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING

PENCILER, PUBLISHER, PROVOCATEUR

COMICS’ FAST & FURIOUS ARTIST

THE ART OF GLAMOUR

MATT BAKER

EXTRAORDINARY WORKS OF ALAN MOORE

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

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

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

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

(224-page trade paperback) $26.95

(176-page trade paperback with COLOR) $26.95

(192-page hardcover with COLOR) $39.95

(240-page trade paperback) $29.95

QUALITY COMPANION

BATCAVE COMPANION

ALL- STAR COMPANION

AGE OF TV HEROES

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

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

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

(256-page trade paperback with COLOR) $31.95

(240-page trade paperback) $26.95

(224-page trade paperbacks) $24.95

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

CARMINE INFANTINO

SAL BUSCEMA

(192-page full-color hardcover) $39.95

MARVEL COMICS

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

IN THE 1960s

(224-page trade paperback) $27.95

MODERN MASTERS

HOW TO CREATE COMICS

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

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

(224-page trade paperback) $27.95

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

(128-page trade paperbacks) $14.95 each

(108-page trade paperback) $15.95

IN THE 1970s

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

FROM SCRIPT TO PRINT

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

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